Radio Station 2.3.0 Bug Squashing & Development
Here at Netmix, we had a great holiday season. And we hope you did too! While we’ve been celebrating the New Year, we’ve also been quite busy with our heads down in our laptops tracking and squashing bugs in the next release, 2.3.0. It’s been a while since our last newsletter, so we thought now is as good a time as any to get out an email blast to keep you updated with our progress. We also want to connect with the 50+ new email subscribers who signed up for the newsletter since our last blast!
Because we completely rewrote the code for the master schedule and added an awesome Show Conflict Catcher, which will help you when you’re scheduling Shows and can’t seem to track down a conflicting time slot that may throw off your schedule, it’s taking some time to really nail down how the nuts and bolts and how it all works in tandem to help ensure your Show Schedule is in sync. When you rip apart old code and bring in new code to replace, these actions are bound to create new issues that need to be thoroughly checked before we can release a new version.
When we took over the plugin last June, we weren’t 100% in the know about how to release updates through the WordPress codex, so there were a few glitches that were quickly resolved. This time, we’ve got a much better handle on things and we are confident in the upgrade process. When version 2.3.0 is ready, we think it will be a smooth transition. But some users may have to update their styles to align with the new features and changes introduced. So, please do back up before you upgrade! Or, once it’s released, download the plugin on a test site and make sure you understand how it functions.
Additionally, now that the plugin is on a roll, we have outside interest from developers using the plugin who are now contributing to the codebase. From adding new features to working on a future API, Radio Station is being supported by developers beyond our core team. If you’re interested in working with the team, please do reach out and let us know how you can contribute.
Seeking Beta Testers
We would love to find a few beta testers this week to install 2.3.0-beta and test the functions, then submit any bugs to our bug tracker on Github. If you’re interested in beta testing the next version of Radio Station, first check the demo site here for a live preview, then contact us.
Translations
We’re excited to report a new Portuguese translation is coming to Radio Station. Translated by Gabriel Lima Barrow down in Florianopolis, the Portuguese translation will certainly serve our Brazil-based users. In our research, we found a number of Brazillian stations using Radio Station.
We are always looking for translations! Let us know if you would like to translate Radio Station into your language.
Let’s Talk New Features
We’ve added a bunch of new features and are reorganizing the layout and display of Show Info. We’re also adding a time zone feature, so your listeners can discern the timezone of your terrestrial or Internet broadcast station.
We’ve added an audio player instead of a link to listen to the audio you insert on your show page to avoid unnecessary pop-ups. And, we’ve now got a settings panel, where you can change the Show Page template or the orientation of Show Info data.
In the first PRO release, your listeners will have the ability to switch your schedule to their preferred timezone, which will help them plan to listen to your Shows based on their local time.
There’s much more coming in FREE, but we’re going to save any screenshots and more information for our 2.3.0 release announcement coming soon.
Support Radio Station Development
We know there are many plugins out there seeking your support by donating to support development. There’s a lot of competition for your dollar, each of which goes a long way to helping us fuel development of the Radio Station plugin – until we release the PRO version. But we’ll still need your help because it takes many hours to work on these features so you can effectively run your radio station master schedule and publish Show pages, Playlists, and do all of the other things this plugin does.
That being said, we’d love your support by contributing monthly – even just a dollar or two a month – through our Become A Patron program. You would think that a lot of people donate to plugins, but the reality is – they don’t. We love to think there’s a lot of altruism that goes on in the world. But it’s not as prevalent as you would think when there are so many competing for your time and money. That means as plugin developers, we simply have to ask for it. So, we’re asking!
Lastly, in the future, we are launching a Radio Station directory on Netmix.com, which will give you an opportunity to both donate monthly and receive a high-quality backlink to your stations with a business listing in the Netmix station directory. More on that in the next newsletter!
Thanks for reading!
The Netmix Team
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