Sunshine 1.9.6 - The 2.0 you've been waiting for!
We have finally addressed some of the biggest requests from Sunshine users... and then added more. Many of you have been anticipating this release which was tentatively going to be 2.0, but instead we are releasing it as 1.9.6. The reason for not quite yet going to 2.0 should (hopefully) be clear soon. Enough with that, on to the awesomeness that is included in this release!
Please note this new version is now available via automatic update in your WordPress administration.
New lightbox
The original lightbox feature didn't get much love - it was thrown together to satisfy the request of a few early adopters then left to rust. A feature often recommended simply be turned off because it often acted funny is now a huge highlight of Sunshine. The way your users will interact with Sunshine using the new lightbox feature we think is a monumental move forward.
Available for Pro users.
Product Options
By far the most requested feature, many of you have wanted to create products with options allowing it to be further customized. Now you can create a single 8x10 product and have an option for paper type. Or let clients choose image editing option (at additional cost). Even let them add a frame to hold that beautiful print. Anything you want can be made an option.
Available for Pro users.
Automated Email Marketing
Sunshine aims to be a tool to help you grow your business. We want you making as much money as possible so you can do what you love. With automated email marketing, you can create effective, targeted, customized email marketing campaigns to your clients and other site visitors...automatically.
Want to have an email sent to a client 3 days before their gallery expires... and include a custom coupon code for 15% off their order to squeeze some additional prints out of them? Sure, it does that. Want to send an email 2 days after a user views the gallery, added an item to cart but didn't finish their order? Yep, that to. To a user that added images to their favorites but nothing in cart? Sure, send them an email to turn those favorites into purchased products. Or, like the above screenshot, send an email to a client 3 days after they have added images to their favorites but haven't yet purchased... along with that coupon code to sweeten the deal for them.
Automated email marketing is all about maximizing product sales from those clients who likely wouldn't buy or wouldn't buy as much without a little extra love.
Available for Pro users.
Access gallery with email address
While creating the automated email marketing feature it became apparent we wanted more ways to get email addresses. So, we added this new option of requiring users to enter their email address before they can view a gallery. Get those friend and family email addresses and turn them into sales!
Available to all users.
Search Widget
Accidentally included in a previous version was an incomplete version. Now it is done. Add a search box to your Sunshine gallery or anywhere on your site.
Available to all users.
Better Checkout
Sunshine requires users create an account. When a user went to the checkout page, they were redirected to the default WordPress registration page if they were not yet logged in. Many of you did not like this and rightfully so. Now, instead of that redirect, users go directly to the checkout page where a single additional field - password - has been added. They are registered and automatically logged as part of the checkout process. One less page means an easier, better experience.
So many more features...
- Track number of free image downloads
- Option to choose specific users who can download free images/galleries per gallery
- Customizable email subjects for various generated emails like order receipts
- Option to show image name under thumbnail on gallery view
- Admin order details - Lightroom file list: Quickly provides file names for you to search in Lightroom to quickly find images to make a new collection for easier fulfillment
- Admin order details - Sort order items by type (image, package, download) and indicate what each item is for easier fulfillment
- After adding to cart, link to return to gallery along with link to view cart is now available
- Improved email templates
- Downloading single image with no print release just downloads image, doesn't generate zip with single image
- Private gallery redirects to login screen when not logged in instead of ugly message page
- Portuguese translation
And then some additional bug fixes...
- Gallery URL now includes sub-galleries so no more sub-gallery name conflicts
- Gallery digital download recheck minor adjustment
- Download All link for individual order detail page
- Conflict with other Campaign Monitor subscription plugins
- Lightbox enabled, products for gallery disabled - add to cart link still showed
- Newsletter was prompting to sign up for newsletter with invalid API keys
- Image thumbnail size wrong in some cases on invoice in admin
- Package with only digital negatives shows shipping options
