Where did they go from here v2.0.0

On Monday, I pushed through a major version a.k.a v2.0.0 of Where did they go from here. If you’ve not come across this before, Where did they go from here is a unique plugin because it actually tracks which links a visitor clicks in the current post and then allows you to display a list of followed posts. Sounds familiar? This is exactly what Amazon does on their product pages.

Since it has always been one of my smaller plugins, I hadn’t updated this for a very long time. However, it is being used on over 1,000 sites and I thought it was high time for an update. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working on refreshing the plugin to be fully compatible with the latest WordPress version and more importantly to include many features available in my other plugins.

Below are some of the main changes and a full list is available at the end of this post. As usual, if you’re looking for support, please use the support forums. If you’re an existing user, do consider writing a review of the plugin on WordPress.org.

New shortcode and widget

You can now use the shortcode [[wherego]] to display the followed posts anywhere within the post content. The shortcode takes all the settings from the function wherego_default_options.

In addition to the new shortcode, you will also find a widget under your Appearances tab or in the Customizer. It’s still a very simple one that lets you quickly add the followed posts to your sidebar on any other widgetized area of your theme. A word of caution though is that you should enable the option to display custom text in the global settings page if you choose to use this widget.

Multisite support

Where did they go from here v2.0.0 allows you to network activate the plugin. This means you don’t need to worry about activating it on a site by site basis if you’re running WordPress multi-site. Of course, you can always choose to activate this on only those sites that you feel the need for. e.g. I’ll soon be using it on the WebberZone support site which uses WordPress multisite.

If you’re uninstalling the plugin, it will also clean up after itself across the multisite.

New tracker

The tracker is core to this plugin and Where did they go from here v2.0.0 incorporates a major change in the way the tracking works. In previous versions, it tried to use WordPress query variables and then tracked these by loading a specific URL of the home page with the query vars appended to this. This works great in most installs but fails whenever it didn’t have jQuery. The current version uses admin-ajax.php which is the ideal way of using Ajax in Plugins.

This also ensures that jQuery is loaded before the actual plugin script. Additionally the plugin uses an external JavaScript file which can be easily cached by the browser or CDN. If you’re using a plugin like Scripts to Footer to stop scripts from running in the header, then you’ll notice that Where did they go from here will continue to track your posts successfully. This failed in all versions before v2.0.0.

Say hello to Freemius Insights

In this version I’ve decided to give Freemius Insights a shot. Freemius Insights provides an easy to use method of gathering information about users. Users of Where did they go from here will be given the option to opt-in to providing simple data about their install including the WordPress version, PHP version and email address. The idea is for me to be able to better understand what systems your running. One really cool feature I like is the popup you get on deactivation. Now, I don’t need to guess what prompted users to deactivate the plugin. As Vova says, use data and stop guessing. A potential next step is to monetise some addons for my plugin using Freemius to power this. Would you buy a pro version of Where did they go from here?

Detailed list of changes in Where did they go from here v2.0.0

• Features:
  • Multisite activation and uninstall
  • Shortcode: Use [wherego] to display the followed posts. For a range of options check out the function wherego_default_options
  • Widget: Find it in your theme customizer or under Appearances » Widgets
  • Integrated Freemius Insights
• Modifications:
  • Enhancements to the metabox where the list of followed posts are cleaned for incorrect post IDs or published posts when saving the post
  • Replace wick with jQuery suggest which is bundled with WordPress. This is used to power the category exclusion setting in the Admin
  • Tracker is modified to use admin-ajax.php and is more compatible if jQuery is loaded in the footer instead of header
  • Removed all non en_US language files to allow for the WordPress.org repository translation
• Deprecated:
  • Modified: timthumb has been deprecated. The script is no longer included
  • ald_wherego and echo_ald_wherego have been deprecated. Use get_wherego and echo_wherego respectively
  • wherego_related id for the div has been deprecated. Use .wherego_related to style

As usual, current users should be able to upgrade to v2.0.0 from within their WordPress admin itself. New users will be able to easily add this by searching for Where did they go from here in the Plugins > Add new page.

Go ahead try it and watch the visitor retention increase.