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4.0-alpha1 Release Notes

VersionPress 4.0 introduces support for WordPress plugins via plugin definitions. It also includes Slack-like search, staging visualization and initial support for Composer workflows.

Released on 10 October 2016. Release blog post.

This is an Early Access Release

Early Access is a period during which VersionPress is reasonably stable but still young, limited in scope and an external backup is recommended at all times. Learn more.

New in 4.0-alpha1

Plugin support

👋 We're looking for feedback on this, please chat with us on Gitter.

Plugins can now be described to VersionPress using a set of plugin definitions in a .versionpress folder. These include:

  • actions.yml defining plugin actions
  • schema.yml describing how the plugin stores data in the database
  • shortcodes.yml defining any new shortcodes the plugin introduces
  • hooks.php containing any filters and actions further customizing the functionality

See plugin-support.md for more details. Issue: #1036 (PR #1075).

New features

  • Significant search improvements – #805
  • Branching and merging visualization – #1043
  • Composer workflows – #1037

Other significant changes

  • MobX introduced as a state management library for the React frontend – #1091
  • Frontend generally reviewed and cleaned up (React component structure, code style, etc.) – #1083

Upgrade notes

To upgrade from 3.0 and earlier, please do a full re-activation. The recommended procedure is:

  1. Put the site in a maintenance mode.
  2. Deactivate VersionPress (just deactivate, do not uninstall).
  3. Delete the contents of wp-content/plugins/versionpress and extract the current version there.
  4. Activate & initialize the plugin again.
  5. Disable maintenance mode.

System requirements

General system requirements:

  • PHP 5.6.0 or later
  • WordPress 4.4 or later
  • Git 1.9 or later
  • proc_open() enabled

System requirements for sync / multi-environment workflows:

  • Custom server or VPS is recommended.