GD bbPress Toolbox Pro plugin is currently under heavy development. New plugin is 90% rewrite of the current plugin, and it will get completely new administration interface, several new features, many improvements, much faster and using much less memory.
I was thinking on how to improve all Dev4Press plugins, how to make them easier for day to day use and how to make interface closer to WordPress native one, but still to make it a bit better. Current interface depends on jQueryUI and it can be hard to use at times. Other plugins are also planned for overhaul, and since GD bbPress Toolbox Pro is smallest one, I decided to start from it. As soon as this plugin gets released, same interface is coming to other plugins soon after.
New plugin will go through several important changes:
- Shared code library gdr2 will be removed, and replaced by new Dev4Press Library. New library is refined from the old one, and it has many obsolete elements removed, many things updated and improved.
- jQueryUI is also removed from the plugin. New interface is next step iteration from the interface I made for SMARTPlugins plugins sold through CodeCanyon.
- For better visual experience, plugin is loading (from CDN to minimize loading speed) FontAwesome to use font icons.
- Attachments and Error Logs panels are now using native WordPress Grid controls
- Plugin settings are reorganized and much easier to understand. Complex multi select controls are removed and replaced with simpler checkboxes blocks. There are no more tabs, hidden blocks and other things used now.
- There are several new features included in the new version. Plugin has tools to reset plugin, to import and export all plugin settings.
When installed, new plugin will run installation screen and will import settings from old plugin. Only than it can be used.
Current plan is to release Beta 1 version on Monday, April 7 2014. If all goes OK with the testing, Final 3.0 version should be released few days after that. If the testing requires, one or two more Beta versions will be released.
