UPDATE – Oct 2, 2018
- PHP 7.x Compatibility and Updated Backend Framework – We have finally upgraded the platform so that it is compatible with PHP 7.x! In doing so, we also upgraded the backend CakePHP framework that the platform is built on which takes advantage of much better caching, security, and performance. All under the hood stuff here and it may not be the most sexy, but one of the most important updates we have had. PHP 7, which was released back in 2015, is the biggest release and most important for PHP since the release of PHP 5 in back in 2004. PHP 7’s speed and security improvements alone make upgrading to PHP 7 worthwhile.
Technically speaking, PHP 7 speeds up applications more than the previous PHP versions. Thanks to the new PHPNG engine(Zend Engine 3.0), applications see up to 2x faster performance and 50% better memory consumption than PHP 5.6. This allows you to serve more concurrent users without needing to add more hardware such as more memory or more CPU. This means that your server returns pages to your users twice as fast. It also means that a single server can handle twice as many requests and serve a greater number of users while not compromising any speed!
- Updated HESK Helpdesk – We have updated the HESK helpdesk that comes packaged with the platform to the latest version, which is also PHP 7.x compatible.
- Optional Double Opt-In – We now have added an optional double opt-in feature to the groups module for anyone who texts in the keyword(associated to that group) to join your list or joins via the web widget sign-up form. If you have this checked for that group, anyone who texts in the keyword or enters their info on the web widget sign-up form will get an additional text message asking them to reply with Y to confirm their subscription. You will see them in your contact list as “PENDING” in this stage and their number will have the last 4 digits hidden. You will not be able to send any messages to them at this point. Once they confirm by texting back Y, they will be added to the list and you will be able to send them messages.
NOTE: Double opt-in is not mandatory, however it is highly recommended in certain situations depending on the content of the messages you will be sending.
- Assign Specific Features to Monthly Credit Packages – A frequent request we have received from our clients for quite some time is the ability to assign access to different features for the monthly credit packages, so you can charge your clients based on all the different features in the platform. You now have that ability! From the admin panel config section, you can set the default features each user account will have access to upon account registration. Then you can create your monthly credit packages with different features associated. So for example, you can create package 1 with only SMS capability and package 2 with SMS, autoresponders, and package 3 with SMS, autoresponders, polls, contests, etc…so whatever package they purchase from you will open up those specific features.
- Optional SMTP For All System Email – You now have the option to use your own SMTP email server for all system email that gets sent through the platform, whether it be new user registrations, low credit balance alerts, payment notifications, etc… This defaults to “Off” in the admin panel config since using the PHP built-in email function is sufficient in most cases, but for those that want to use their own SMTP email server, you can set this to “On”.
NOTE: If set to “On”, you will need to edit the email.php config file located at “/app/config/email.php” of your install with your server’s SMTP information.
- Hiding Last 4 Digits of Phone Number For Unsubscribers – To be more in line with GDPR compliance, we now hide the last 4 digits of the phone number when someone unsubscribes from your list. The last 4 digits will be displayed with **** in the contact list and also in the logs for any prior messages sent to this number or any incoming messages from this number.
- Make “Mandatory Appended Message” Editable – Another frequent request we receive is having the ability to edit or remove the mandatory appended message “STOP to end” that exists on the bulk SMS page and calendar/scheduler pages. This message isn’t needed after each SMS send, although it’s recommended to include it every once in a while. It’s also not required at all for any non-sales type of messages. You can now edit that message or remove it altogether before sending out your bulk SMS!
- Updating Name, Email, and Birthday – Previously if a contact existed in 1 group, and they were being added to a different group via the kiosk and/or web widget sign-up form, it was keeping their original information(name, email, birthday) they signed up with on the 1st group and wasn’t updating these fields if they were providing this data again. It now will update these fields for that contact if they are supplied again.
- Email User Account of Incoming Fax – In the last release on June 18 2018, we included programmable fax sending/receiving. Currently when you receive a fax to any fax-enabled number in your account you have set, you can only view that fax when logged into your account from the user panel. Now, we also email that fax as a PDF file attachment to the email address registered for that user account.
- Add “To Number” on Incoming SMS Inbox Logs – We have now added “To Number” on the SMS inbox logs so you can see which of your numbers received the incoming text. This is useful if you have multiple numbers assigned to your user account and you want to see which of those numbers are receiving any incoming SMS.
- Remain State on Left Menu – Previously when you clicked on the left menu to go to a certain feature in the platform, the menu wasn’t remaining ‘state’ or remembering what you selected. So for example, if you clicked on the “Messages” menu and clicked “Send Bulk SMS”, when it went to the Bulk SMS page, the “Messages” left menu wasn’t remaining open and highlighted. It now will remember what you selected and keep any sub-menus open.
- Default Phone Country Code on Add Contact Dialog – On the Add Contact dialog where you can manually add contacts, there is a phone country code prefix drop down that you need to scroll through to find the correct country code prefix to select. Now, it defaults to whatever country code prefix you have saved for the “Country” in the admin panel config.
- Display Voice Broadcast Message Column on List Page – On the voice broadcast list page, we now display the message column so you can view all message content from the list page instead of going into each one to view it. If the message is a recorded MP3 saved for that voice broadcast, you will see that audio component and be able to play that message back directly from the list.
IMPORTANT TECHNICAL NOTE: For Levels 1, 2, and 3 clients, you will need to make sure your server now has the ionCube version 10.2+ loader installed. This loader reads encoded files on servers running PHP 5.6 and PHP 7.x and since the script now combines PHP 5.6 and PHP 7.x encoded files into a single file set, ionCube version 10.2+ loader must be used. Any older loaders will throw corruption errors since they can’t translate PHP 7.x bytecode.
** This doesn’t apply to Level 4 since there is nothing encoded.
