GD Press Tools Pro 5.0 is finally here. This is a first major rewrite for first Dev4Press premium plugin that celebrated the 7th birthday last month. New plugin uses addons based architecture, brings new interface and great new features.
GD Press Tools Pro 5.0: same name, different plugin
Last year I have decided to split GD Press Tools Pro into 3 separate plugins. A number of features in the old plugin made it very hard to maintain and keep up with changes in WordPress and everything in the plugin. Also, old interface was beyond salvation, and it had to be replaced. Old GD Press Tools Pro is now split into 3 plugins: main one remains GD Press Tools Pro. All security related features are now new plugin called GD Security Toolbox Pro (to be released on March 15, 2016). And all SEO related features are in the plugin called GD SEO Toolbox Pro (released last year).
Some of the features from old plugin are completely gone: posts and users views tracking, the old way of user registration tracking, auto tagger, some outdated security features. But, all 3 plugins have many more new features. Compared to old GD Press Tools Pro, 3 new plugins have almost twice as many features and more is yet to come.
Old plugin licenses
If you purchased GD Press Tools Pro before March 1, 2016 (and your license is still active), you will get both GD Security Toolbox Pro and GD SEO Toolbox Pro licenses for free. They will be linked to the GD Press Tools Pro license, and for as long as that license is active, linked licenses will be active too. If GD Press Tools Pro license expires, you will lose licenses for security and SEO plugins too. If you decide to purchase a new license after your old one expired (you missed the renewal period), you will get only GD Press Tools Pro license, and you would need to buy other two plugins separately.
Plugin Overview
New plugin requires WordPress 4.0 or newer. On the server side, PHP 5.3 is required (several libraries used depend on using PHP 5.3, including backup), and for backup and remote upload cURL and ZLIB extensions for PHP are required too. The plugin is tested with upcoming WordPress 4.5 (still in Beta).
To get a quick overview of the new plugin, check out the video below.
Core and Addons Features
The plugin has 4 core features that are always enabled: events log, notifications system, system information and remote storages control. Everything else is made in a form of addons. If you don’t use some of the features, you can disable some of the addons, and the plugin will not load them. In turn, the plugin will use less memory and resources because it is not loading part of the plugin. Currently, there are 12 addons built inside the plugin:
- Backup – files and database, use remote storage and scheduler
- Debugger – advanced debug panel with support for events log
- Cleanup Tools – database cleanup to remove unused or unneeded data
- Tweaks – over 60 tweaks to configure and control WP hidden features
- CRON Control – show scheduled job, remove them, run or ban
- Maintenance Mode – put website in maintenance with configurable templates
- Post Duplicator – create exact copy of any post or page
- Short URL – simple short URL service using custom link structure
- SMTP Control – setup mailer to use SMTP servers for sending emails
- Dashboard Widgets – new dashboard widgets for posts overview
- Heartbeat API Control – full control over WP heartbeat API
- WP Toolbar Integration – plugin related menu in WP Toolbar
Plugin current supports 3 types of remote storage (for backups upload): FTP, Amazon S3 and Dropbox.
WordPress Multisite
Special care is taken to make sure plugin works with WordPress multisite. And not only that, plugin has many features specially made for use in multisite environment and to allow for better control of the whole network. Many of the plugin features are developed as multisite first. Some addons are features are made for individual blogs in the network, and each one need to set them up individually. But, plugin brings Overload mode where you can control all blogs in the network from one place.
What now?
Plugin is available for download, and if you have the licenses, you can jump right in and test it. Plugin is stable and teseted, but it is still possible that there are some bugs left, and I would be greatful if you can report any problems you find. As with any new plugin, especially when such a major changes is made, it is recommended to test it on staging server or localhost before moving to live website.
I am updating plugin documentation and new videos will be uploaded in the next few days. If you need some specific help, not currently covered, please let me know or stop by the support forums.
