Based on the feedback in past few weeks, next major version for GD Rating System is almost ready, and here is the first Beta release for version 1.1 with new addons, enhancements to all rating methods, improvements, and fixes.
The new version includes two new addons (both only for Pro version): bbPress Integration (it adds rating blocks for topics and replies), and Bayesian Ratings (calculates ratings according to weighted Bayesian formula). Bayesian ratings will be calculated once a day (it needs to take rating statistics for the whole rating type set, and you have different options to control calculation. It can be set globally or using custom rules for individual types. Many changes are made to plugin core to make it easy to switch to use Bayesian ratings with stars rating method. This also opens doors to have more calculation methods in the future. Thumbs rating can now display percentage rating instead of summary rating.
For stars rating and review methods you can now set custom colors for use with font based icons. From the interface, you can pick any colors you want, make sure you use font icons, and you are set. And, yes, you can set colors through custom rules panel too.
Other changes include some core improvements, including background maintenance job that will run once a day. This will be used for various things including calculation of statistics for each rating type, bayesian ratings… Posts addon now hides bbPress post types, since they can’t be used through this addon (bbPress addon is added). Main query object used for rating lists is much improved to include filter hooks, improved ordering and more.
And, several reported bugs are fixed: stars review metabox not using resolution settings, problems with rating lists ordering by votes and few more things. Know issues in this version include: lack of support for some new features in shortcodes and widgets, and that will be address in the next few days for the final 1.1 release.
GD Rating System pro 1.1 will be released on January 18, 2016. Please, let me know if you find any issues with this version.
If you want to test GD Rating System Pro, you can request demo website where you can check out all the plugin features and decide if the Pro version is what you need. If not, you can download the free version, and evaluate it and maybe later decide on an upgrade. The free version can be download from WordPress plugins repository: GD Rating System on WordPress.org.
