We didn't publish a first quarter 2017 release article so we're publishing a first half 2017 release article instead.  Its been quite a busy year so far.  Over our entire suite of products we probably added 100+ new features or enhancements!  So if you own a license to an Awesome Support bundle or add-on - you know you're in good hands when you hear those kinds of numbers, right?

Here are all the things you might have missed...

Awesome Support Core (The free version of the plugin on WordPress.org)

Obviously we released version 4.0 which included dozens of new features, tweaks, fixes and updates.  But, since that release, we also released 3 minor updates  - mostly bug fixes but with a few new items thrown into the mix.  You can read the release notes directly on WordPress.org.

Here's the nutshell version of the releases:

• 4.0.2 - a bunch of fixes
• 4.0.3 - more fixes and a few internal improvements
• 4.0.4 - more fixes, internal improvements and new options for deleting unused products, managing cookies and viewing the close date of tickets.

New Add-on: Paid Support For WooCommerce

If you charge customers for support  you probably use a mixture of plugins that are loosely integrated to capture your sales and then manage the workflow.  This add-on makes that process a lot easier.  Customers can purchase tickets or a recurring subscription for your support services.  If a subscription expires or is used up (eg: they exceed their hours or number of tickets), no new tickets can be opened until a new package is purchased or the subscription renews.

Agents and managers see exactly how many hours or tickets are left in a customers subscription.  Attempts to open new tickets without a support token or subscription redirects automatically to a notice page, your store or any other URL you specify.

In other words, your entire paid support process just becomes a whole lot easier to manage.

Read more about the new Paid Support add-on

Email Support: Major New Version

If you're an Email Support customer, welcome to an update with THREE major new features:

• Multiple Mailboxes
• Email Rules
• New API foundation

We've also included new options for encoding flexibility, handling more types of emails, better logging and a couple of new experimental features that you can try out.

Here are some things you can do with the new version: 9 Cool Things You Can Do With The Email Support Addon

Upgrade to the new version directly in your WordPress PLUGINS database - but only if you're using Version 4.x of Awesome Support and PHP 5.6!

Report Widgets: Major New Version

We vastly improved your options in this add-on.  Your support operations dashboard never looked this good!

Here are the three major changes:

• New reports based on priority, channels and departments
• A lot more control over the types of charts and the way those charts are displayed
• Split configuration/settings tab into three separate tabs (needed because of the numerous new options available)

View the change log on this page

New Add-on: Public Tickets

Tickets are private - by default the public cannot view them.  But all or some of your tickets can probably be used as a knowledge base.  So why not allow them to be viewed publicly?  This add-on allows you to do just that - with controls implemented at the user, agent and admin levels to ensure that just the right tickets and replies are made public.  Get more information about public tickets here.

Rest API

We quietly released an early version of the REST API for WordPress.  You can get a copy of it as a pre-built add-on from our store.  Or, you can get it directly from Github.  If you're a developer we would love it if you could exercise it and offer feedback or even code improvements via GitHub!

Click here to read the documentation

New: Advanced Time Tracking and Invoicing

There is an early release of this add-on available in our store now.  While the free Awesome Support core permits your agents to record time on a ticket, this add-on takes time tracking to the next level.  We don't want to list all the features here - if you need this, you already know it so just jump here to see all cool things you can do with it!

Satisfaction Survey

The Satisfaction survey add-on has been upgraded to add 3 new options for processing surveys.  New email template tags allow you to get survey results without sending additional emails.  We wrote a separate educational article about the new options:  Create Effective Satisfaction Surveys.

You can purchase Satisfaction Survey here if you don't already own a license.

Power-pack (Productivity)

Over 15 new features were added to this add-on in the first half of 2016.  This includes:

• Ticket Merging
• Ticket Splitting
• Locking Tickets
• New Attachments Email Template Tags
• New Custom Fields Template Tags
• New Options to Change Labels
• Powerful Security Enhancements

And much much more.

A new version of this will be released within the next 30 days that will add even more Awesome features so keep an eye out!

Easy Digital Downloads Integration

We added the customer lifetime value to the metabox inside the ticket, made changes to ensure compatibility with the latest version of EDD and Software Licensing, tightened down how the ticket form operates by automatically limiting certain product/order selections based on the license key selected and a few other key changes.  You should definitely test this on your test site before upgrading!

View the change log on this page

Bundles

The following changes were made to bundles - if you're an existing bundle license holder you can log into your account to download any new extensions that were added.

Standard:  The new CUSTOM FAQ add-on was added

Professional: CUSTOM FAQ and PUBLIC TICKETS were added

Enterprise: CUSTOM FAQ, PUBLIC TICKETS, REPORT WIDGETS and POWER-PACK (Productivity) were added

Agency: CUSTOM FAQ, PUBLIC TICKETS, REPORT WIDGETS and POWER-PACK  (Productivity) were added

Other add-ons with minor updates

Custom Fields

Gravity Forms Bridge

WooCommerce Integration

Guest Tickets

Envato Validation

Other New Add-ons

Custom FAQ

Coming Soon

An advanced reporting add-on is slated for the 2nd half of this year along with one to help you integrate documentation with your tickets.  We also have a powerful rules engine planned.

All three new extensions will be included for free in the Agency Bundle and available for purchase individually for other license holders.

Finally, we're hoping to have an importer available - this will help to import tickets from the major SAAS providers (eg: Zendesk).  This will be a free extension and posted on git-hub.