Changelog
What has shipped
Every release, and what changed in it. The current version is 1.2.0.
1.2.0
Current- Chapters can be organised into volumes. A volume is a name and the chapter it starts at, so creating one is a single line and nothing has to be assigned: new chapters join the current volume on their own, and a novel with no volumes looks exactly as it did. Volumes can carry their own number, and the contents list groups, collapses and reverses correctly with them.
- Cover images are noticeably sharper. WordPress downscales with a filter chosen for speed, which was giving away about a fifth of the edge detail on every cover; the theme now resizes properly and sharpens where the host cannot.
- Covers are lighter at the same time. Measured over a whole library, the theme's images now come out about 8% smaller than stock WordPress produces while looking better.
- A cover uploaded as a lossless WebP no longer produces enormous files. One real example went from 1,083 KB of thumbnails to 75 KB with no visible difference.
- Text no longer jumps as the page loads. Fonts were replacing themselves after the first paint, which was moving everything under them.
- Pages fetch the cover size they actually display rather than a promised one, so the search results page alone is 64 KB lighter.
- The 404 and empty search pages reserve room for their artwork instead of shifting when it arrives, and both illustrations are around a third of their previous weight.
- Cached styles are rebuilt when the theme updates. They were kept for a week regardless, so a site could keep the previous version's CSS after updating.
- A chapter that frees itself now tells your cache about it. Advance chapters that become free on a schedule were still showing the paywall to readers until the cache expired, which on common hosting is a week. LiteSpeed Cache, WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache and Cache Enabler are all handled, and there is nothing to set up.
- Pages carry less script. Each feature loads its code only where that feature appears, so a policy page or a 404 no longer downloads the comment system and a chapter list. Most pages are around 21 KB lighter and make five fewer requests.
- WordPress's emoji converter is no longer loaded. It put a small script on every page and pulled a 22 KB replacement set on browsers that failed its test. Emoji still work, drawn with the reader's own font. There is a switch under Theme Options if you want it back.
- Remove from Favorites works. The button on the reader's dashboard did nothing at all when clicked, so a reader could add a novel to their library and had no way to take it out again.
- The reading history count matches the list beside it. Chapters deleted from the site were still being counted.
- The feed for each novel names the chapter number in every title, which is what NovelUpdates reads, and the novel screen shows you the address to give them.
1.1.0
- Novel statuses are now three with a clear job each: Ongoing, Completed and Hiatus. There were seven, several meaning the same thing. All three can be renamed to suit your site, and they can no longer be deleted by accident, because too much depends on them.
- A new novel is given a status automatically, so it is never left blank.
- Chapter access is described the same way on every screen that sets it, instead of each one using its own words.
- Chapter release scheduling moved into the core plugin, so it behaves the same whether a chapter was written by hand or imported.
- Test mode now closes the shop to readers rather than only changing the sign. Non-admins can no longer transact while it is on.
- Commerce has its own menu and settings screen. A gateway you are not using folds away and says where it stands, and your newest chapters can stay paid without editing a number every week.
- Verification and welcome emails are proper HTML rather than plain text with a bare link in them.
- Reader reports have their own queue you can work through.
- The mobile header no longer wraps or crushes the logo, and the homepage sliders fill their slots, hide arrows they cannot use and drag properly on touch.
- Continue Reading skips a broken entry instead of disappearing.
- The theme's admin screens share one banner, one menu and one set of tiles, and each ends with a line pointing at the documentation and support.
- Licence expiry is enforced rather than merely reported, with a fourteen-day grace period. An expired licence stops updates and downloads; the installed theme keeps working.
1.0.5
- Password reset happens on your own site now. Both the request form and the new-password form live on the Login page, and reset emails link there, so readers never land on the stock WordPress screen.
- Theme Options can tell you whether the site can actually send email, with a test button, and the setup checklist asks for it. Receipts, password resets and verification links all depend on it.
- Sign-up and email changes no longer claim to have sent a message that failed.
- Licensing: the theme talks to a bridge that issues and validates keys, binds a licence to one domain, and serves updates. Unlicensed sites keep working; only automatic updates stop.
- Packaging refuses to build a release whose version has not moved, or one still carrying placeholder licence settings.
1.0.4
- Payment correctness: atomic coin ledger, exactly-once crediting across Stripe, PayPal and Ko-fi, and chapter unlocks that cannot double-charge.
- Security: Patreon OAuth flows are bound to the browser and login session that started them.
- Transactions are recorded in their own table rather than a capped user-meta array, which also fixes incomplete admin revenue exports.
- Homepage slider rebuilt: slides move sideways instead of cross-fading, readable layout and spacing on phones, and off-screen slides are no longer reachable by keyboard.
- Customizer: live preview restored, a Header Settings section, and novel list background artwork with previews and custom uploads.
Updates arrive in the WordPress dashboard while a licence is active. See the licence terms for what happens when one expires.