Since our last progress report regarding 3.8.8.1 release, we were able to identify and fix several additional issues that were affecting a number of WPEC users. We’re glad to announce that 3.8.8.1 is stable and ready for you to use on your production site.

This release fixes the following issues:

* Fixed: CSV import not working in 3.8.8.
* Fixed: Category page display setting does not override default Presentation
  settings.
* Fixed: Clicking All/None in Category target market settings doesn't work.
* Fixed: Non-SSL stylesheet is loaded even when force SSL for checkout page is on.
* Fixed: PHP Warning and Notice in sales log page.
* Fixed: PayPal currency converter is wrong.
* Fixed: Sales logs are not displayed for some installations.
* Fixed: Sales logs page sometimes display empty customers' names.
* Fixed: Saving payment gateway settings erase Shipping settings.
* Fixed: Sometimes clicking Save doesn't save tracking ID on sales log page.

If you’re already using the test package provided in the previous progress report, please upgrade it to this official release as soon as possible. As always before upgrading it is advised to make a full backup of your site (wp-content directory and a Database backup). If you’re unsure of how to make a backup then we would recommend you use Backup Buddy.

Once backed up you can upgrade your WP e-Commerce plugin from within your plugins menu or you can download the latest version from WordPress and upload it via FTP.

If you’re having any problems or questions about this release or how to upgrade, please don’t hesitate to let us know via this blog post.

We have been working hard to fix issues related to 3.8.8. The good news is, it’s almost there. We just need to do some more tests before officially release 3.8.8.1, which will contain fixes for the following major issues:

* Sales logs are not displayed for some installations.
* Currency conversion is not accurate for PayPal gateways.
* Can't import products from CSV file.
* PHP Notices and Warnings when viewing the Sales Logs page.

We prepared a package containing all of these fixes so that you can conveniently test it. Please note that this is *not* the official 3.8.8.1 release yet, but rather only a test package for you to use in your test environment rather than on your live site.

How to use the patch

Download the patched file, extract its content and upload it to your test server.

When is 3.8.8.1 ready?

We’re working hard to make this happen within this week.

Any additional issues?

If you discover any new issues with the test package above or 3.8.8, please don’t hesitate to let us know by commenting on this blog post.

Since our 3.8.8 announcement posts, many current users of WPEC have reported issue with some sales logs not being displayed properly in the admin area. Please scroll down to the bottom of the post to quickly find the fix for this issue.

We have tried to attend to this issue on a case by case basis, because this issue only affects sites under certain configurations and we couldn’t consistently reproduce this on our test environment. As a result, we were overwhelmed with support requests from users who were having this issue. We would like to apologize for not being able to respond to these requests in a timely manner.

We have sent emails to all the users who were requesting the fix on our previous announcement blog post. If you requested the fix and haven’t received a reply yet, please scroll down to the bottom of this blog post to find the patch for this issue.

Thanks to several users who were willing to let us debug on their servers, we were able to narrow down the cause of the issues. If your site meets one of the following conditions, it’s likely that your site is having this issue as well:

- Sites that have deleted core checkout fields, and later added them back (fields like billing first name, billing last name and email address).

- Sites that have duplicated core checkout fields (billing first name, billing last name, email address)

- Sites that don’t require users to enter billing first name, billing last name and email address.

It is unfortunate that during our 2-month beta and release candidate testing, none of these issues were discovered, although we had dozens of users reporting that those releases worked perfectly for them. This really proves how important it is to have an extensive user base who are willing to test our plugin before official major releases. If you have any suggestions on how to encourage other users to test, report and prevent pre-release issues like this, we would love to hear them!

How to fix issue with sales log in 3.8.8

First you need to download the patched php file from this address:
http://wp-e-commerce.googlecode.com/files/purchase-log-list-table-class.php

Then, upload that file to your wp-content/plugins/wp-e-commerce/wpsc-admin/includes folder, overwriting the existing file with the same name.

After that, check your Sales log and confirm that the sales logs are now showing. If they are still not displayed, please post a comment to this blog post and we will set you up with 1 on 1 premium support.

Any other issues?
If you have any other issues with 3.8.8 that were not present in 3.8.7, please post a comment to this blog post. We’re happy to help you track down the issue and release the fix for the upcoming hotfix release. Please be as specific as possible with detailed instructions for us to reproduce the issue.

When will there be an updated release to fix all these issues?
We’re working on confirming and testing fixes for issues discovered in 3.8.8. Most of these issues are specific to certain server configurations. As a result, this takes some time for us to reproduce, test and fix. The next hotfix release (3.8.8.1) is expected to be released next Wednesday, May 2nd.

Again, we would like to apologize for not being able to respond promptly to support requests for this sales log issue. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any further issues with 3.8.8. We’re always happy to help.

We’re happy to announce the official release of WP e-Commerce 3.8.8 (read: OMG, its finally done and safe to install). This release is a rather significant release for a number of reasons.

User Interface Enhancements

We’ve made some noteworthy UI improvements in this release. We’ve been studying competing Plugins in the WordPress space and we are using more WordPress UI elements then ever before. WPEC 3.8.8 is much easier to use with the following enhancements:

Variation drag & drop ordering

You can now customize the sort order of your variations by dragging and dropping in Products->Variations admin page.

Improved variation UI in Product Edit page

You can now conveniently add new variation sets and variation terms with ease.

Sales Log UI revamp

The Sales Log page is completely rewritten. It now loads much faster, has pagination and definitely better looking!

Subtle UX tweaks for Store Settings page

The Checkout settings tab is heavily revamped, making it easier to add, remove and re-order fields.

Security Hardening – we fight for the user! 

We decided to do a thorough line-by-line audit of our SQL queries and made sure there are no holes left open. Of course, we’re only human so if you can find something we’ve missed then please let us know and we’ll get it patched up with immediate attention.

New API and developer hooks

In 3.8.8, we introduce a new API called “Settings Page API”. The purpose of this API is to make it easier for third-party developers to add their own setting tabs in our Store Settings page. Check out the documentation of Settings Page API to know what you can do with it.

We also added a bunch of new actions and hooks. See the changelog for more information about what’s new, changed and fixed.

If you want to know more details about what changed in this release, visit the changelog.

What are you waiting for?

Go ahead and download 3.8.8.

It also goes without saying that if you’re upgrading your existing test site, it’s probably wise to backup your database and files first, just in case you want to roll back. If you don’t know how to do that yet, we recommend that you use Backup Buddy.

• WordPress/PHP Developer
• Jr. WordPress/PHP Developer
• UI/UX Design Lead

Additionally, our sister company is looking to hire a Gaming Support Specialist.  These positions are all in house, located in either Beppu, Japan or Wellington, New Zealand.  If you’re interested in any of these positions or know someone who is, please send them over! We’re really excited about the future here at WP e-Commerce and hope you’ve noticed some changes we’ve made lately to things like premium support. Continue to expect improvements and changes over the next few months.

We work Monday to Friday 9am-5pm, New Zealand time (wonder what that means to you?) but with the upcoming holidays (Passover and Easter), we wanted to let you know what would be happening. New Zealanders take a four day weekend, Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon.  We’re convinced that many customers will be cranking on projects through Friday so they can have the weekend off, so for the first time, we’ve taken extra steps to ensure you’ll have support through Friday afternoon.

On Thursday, Friday and Sunday, we’ll offer limited support- this means that we’ll try to help as many people as possible.  If the issue is complicated, it may need to wait for Monday. By Monday, support will be back to regular hours.

Many thanks to our staff for their dedication and flexibility over the holiday.

To our customers, please enjoy your families and friends over this weekend- Happy Easter and Happy Passover.

In this release, we’ve fixed 3 issues introduced in RC1:

* Fixed - Cannot change sales log satatus via AJAX.
* Fixed - Variations won't inherit additional description information.
* Fixed - Mutliple form sets feature is not working properly in 3.8.8-RC1

For a full list of features in this new version check out the 3.8.8-beta 1  blog post!

At this stage, we feel comfortable saying that this release is pretty much ready to be run in production environment. That being the case feel free to play with it or develop new projects using it. However, do not use this on a production site unless you know what you’re doing and of course, ALWAYS back up your site. (We know people say this often without giving advice on HOW to do so, so we’re recommending that you use Backup Buddy).

Please let us know if you run into any issues with this release candidate. You can either post your issues directly in the comment section below, or on our support forum. Of course, we always welcome the community to participate in contributing to the WP e-Commerce Plugin, so if you’re interested in working on the biggest WordPress Open Source project outside of WordPress itself consider signing up for our developers newsletter and getting involved.

We hope this is the final release candidate and look forward to pushing out the official release in the coming weeks.

>> Click here to download 3.8.8-rc2

The Problem

When you use the qTranslate plugin, have two or more languages and select the non default language, your site translates to the appropriate language except on product or checkout pages.

The Cause

The parameter “lang” in the URL doesn’t get passed to the WP e-Commerce product or checkout

The solution

Store the language in the users session. To do so you will need to modify the following files in the qtranslate plugin directory:

• qtranslate_core.php
• qtranslate_widget.php.

There is a downside to this solution: by modifying qTranslate plugin files, these changes will be erased when you upgrade the qTranslate plugin. We’re working to solve the problem more permanently.

If you’re wondering how to make qTranslate work with WP e-Commerce for a multilanguage ecommerce shop, here’s a step by step. There are 2 ways to do it. We edited the files for the plugin and offer it here, modified already. You can upload it this way, or code it by hand.

1. BACKUP first. We’re not just saying it. We like Backup Buddy, but here are instructions on how to do it from WordPress.org too.

Download and Install the Modified qTranslate Plugin (to code by hand, skip to step 3)

2a (FTP). You can download these files and upload directly if you have ftp access to your site. Unzip and upload them into your wp-content>plugins>qtranslate folder. It will be overwriting some files in there, and you’ll get a warning, hit ok to overwrite. Then flush your cache on the frontend (if you have a caching plugin installed), and you should be good to go. If you were able to do so successfully, you’re done.

OR

2b. (WordPress Dashboard ) Go to plugins,  ”add a plugin”, choose upload a zip, and upload the zip file you downloaded above. If you were able to do so successfully and your happy with the results you can now delete the old qTranslate plugin from your plugins menu, you’re done.

To Code the Changes by Hand

3. Edit qtranslate_core.php

Note: We would strongly recommend that you edit this code outside of the WordPress plugin editor and use your own code editing program, if your going to be using your own code editor you can skip step 3a and 4a.

3. Go to Plugins>Editor from the WordPress dashboard. In the pulldown menu in the upper right, pull down to qtranslate. Now select qtranslate_core.php from the right side menu.

Search for the function

 qtrans_init() 

(This is the first function in the  qtranslate_core.php file) Just below the global $q_config; you will need to add this code:

if(!isset($_SESSION)){
session_start();
}

The first few lines of that function will now look like this:

Search for the following code located in the qtrans_extractURL function (Its right near the very start of the function) :

 $result['language'] = $q_config['default_language']; 

Replace it with:

if(isset($_SESSION["qtranslate_current_language"])){
$result['language'] = $_SESSION["qtranslate_current_language"];
}else{
$result['language'] = $q_config['default_language'];
}

The Start of that function should now look like this:

At the very end of that same function (qtrans_extractURL) just before the code

 return $result; 

You want to add the following code (Note there are alot of instances of return $result; in this file so make sure you get the one that’s in the qtrans_extractURL function )

if(!isset($_SESSION["qtranslate_current_language"]) || $_SESSION["qtranslate_current_language"]!=$result['language']){
$_SESSION["qtranslate_current_language"] = $result['language'];
}

Your code changes will look similar to this:

Search for

 function qtrans_convertURL($url='', $lang='', $forceadmin = false) { 

and change it to:

 function qtrans_convertURL($url='', $lang='', $forceadmin = false, $is_change_language = false) { 

Within that function you want to find and replace the following code:

 if(!$q_config['hide_default_language']||$lang!=$q_config['default_language']) 

With:

 if(!$q_config['hide_default_language']||$lang!=$q_config['default_language']||$is_change_language) 

There are three instances of this so make sure you get them all! your updated code will look like this:

Save your changes.

4. Edit qtranslate_widget.php

Select qtranslate_widget.php from the right side menu.

Find each instance of

 qtrans_convertURL($url, $language) 

and replace it with

 qtrans_convertURL($url, $language, '', true) 

There are three instances, so make sure you get them all.  Save your changes.

Now test the site. If it worked, great! If not, leave us a comment below and we’ll try to help you out. Thanks to Ruben Sargsyan for his help with this solution!

So thats:
3pm-midnight New York Time
4am-1pm Tokyo Time
12pm-9pm Vancouver Time
7pm-4am London Time
3pm-midnight Armenia Time
12am-9am Delhi Time

You can be located wherever you like, so long as you can maintain those hours.

Job duties:
- On a daily basis, answer user’s questions about using the WP e-Commerce plugin
- Work with internal support ticket system, external bug tracking system (google code)
- Work with rest of the support team under direction of support manager
- Maintain data and report on personal performance
- Determine which questions need more resources and seek them out (internally and externally)
- Be able to travel internationally for company meetings
- Attend a once a week company wide meeting on skype
- Occasional work outside “office hours” to support new releases

Requirements:
- advanced working knowledge of WordPress at a user level (be able to USE WordPress)
- working knowledge of css and php (be able to use firebug to diagnose css issues, understand basic PHP).
- experience working independently
- excellent written English language skills, good communication skills with clients
- Great patience and amazing follow through
- consistent and reliable online connection

Payment and benefits:
Instinct will pays a competitive salary for talent, with consideration made for experience, geolocation and skillset.

If you’re interested in this position, please fill out the form here.

Since beta 2, several minor issues were fixed:

* Fixed - User profile cannot be saved, and PHP warning is displayed.
* Fixed - The USPS ID is not stored correctly, resulting in "Array" being
  displayed in the Settings text field.
* Fixed - Custom Meta copies values when adding new.
* Fixed - USPS settings not saving correctly.

We also added three new action hooks for developers who want to process PayPal IPN responses:

* New: 3 action hooks to process PayPal IPN responses: wpsc_paypal_pro_ipn,
  wpsc_paypal_standard_ipn and wpsc_paypal_express_ipn.

For a full list of features in this new version check out the 3.8.8-beta 1  blog post!

At this stage, we feel comfortable saying that this release is pretty much ready to be run in production environment. That being the case feel free to play with it or develop new projects using it. However, do not use this on a production site unless you know what you’re doing and of course, ALWAYS back up your site. (We know people say this often without giving advice on HOW to do so, so we’re recommending that you use Backup Buddy).

Please let us know if you run into any issues with this release candidate. You can either post your issues directly in the comment section below, or on our support forum. Of course, we always welcome the community to participate in contributing to the WP e-Commerce Plugin, so if you’re interested in working on the biggest WordPress Open Source project outside of WordPress itself consider signing up for our developers newsletter and getting involved.

We hope this is the final release candidate and look forward to pushing out the official release in the coming weeks.

>> Click here to download 3.8.8-rc1