Core 1.3.24: switch the app between your live site and its copies

WP Admin · Config › Staging Site

Set your copies once, on your own site.

Until now, testing on your staging site meant a separate app build pointed at it. The copies now live on your WordPress site: enter the staging site’s address and choose who sees it. Admins only suits day-to-day testing. Admins + roles brings in your moderators or a tester role. Everyone turns a demo app into a place where anyone can try your setup.

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• Change, re-point or remove the staging site at any time, with no new build.
• Every address must be a full https address, and a site snapshot carries none of it, since it names this site’s own copies.

Sandbox access · one person, one copy

Give a client a sandbox of their own.

Sandbox access gives one person a copy of their own, such as a client trying their setup before it goes live. Pick the member and enter the sandbox’s address (ones you have given before are suggested). A person can have more than one, to compare setups. They see only the sites you give them; admins see the staging site and every sandbox.

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In the app · Diagnostics › Tools › Site

Switch, look around, come back.

Hold the logo for 2 seconds (or open Settings › About › Diagnostics), open Tools › Site and tap Switch to. The app checks that the copy runs the companion plugin at this version or newer, then restarts there with a red STAGING badge in the header. From one copy you can go straight to another.

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• Each site keeps its own sign-in and saved data, so coming back to the live site finds you still signed in there.
• The sign-in screens and every blocking screen (offline, maintenance, an outdated site) carry a Back to live site button, so a copy that is down never leaves anyone stuck.
• Diagnostics opens for anyone who has a switch, even when you have it turned off for members.
• While the app is on a copy, a link to your live site opens on that copy, whether it comes from an email or a web page, and so does a tapped notification from the live site.
• The phone keeps getting the live site’s notifications while it is on a copy, and a copy it was opened on can still send it notifications.

Also in 1.3.24 · improvements and fixes

The smaller things.

• The Community Menu widget shows the groups you pick from your Fluent Community sidebar (all of them, only some, or all but some) as menu rows, a carousel, browse tiles, a hero card, buttons or chips. Set it on the widget in Customize. A Community Menu saved before this update looks the same.
• The Spaces widget’s “Spaces in a group” shows only that group’s spaces. For its courses and links as well, use the Community Menu with that group ticked.
• On Android, tapping a notification opens the right post, chat or screen, even after the phone closed the app in the background.
• Editing a post keeps its voice notes. As on the website, a post holds one kind of media, so adding photos, a GIF or a video replaces its voice notes.
• Tapping a blog author or a commenter opens the right profile.
• Pages stay clear of the clock when the header hides as you scroll, a post’s header stays readable with large text, and short chat messages on Android keep their last word.
• Startup crashes on Android 12 and newer reach your Sentry, from the phone’s own crash record.
• Pushes leave right away again after a plugin is switched off (sites on 1.3.21 to 1.3.23 waited for the queue: late, never lost).
• The Managed tab walks each client through their part with a short “Your steps” list, Submit works as soon as the licence is active, and every add-on’s save bar says Saved only when the save went through.

Since our last post · 1.3.21 to 1.3.23

What came out in between.

Our last post was about 1.3.20. Three updates went out after it without a write-up, so here they are in short.

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• Menus, sheets and pickers are now drawn by iOS and Android (1.3.22). A post’s “…” opens the system menu, a sheet slides up on a phone and opens as a centred card on an iPad, and screen readers read them like any other screen.
• Holding a chat message opens one pop-up, with the reactions above the message and Reply, Copy and Delete under it. With Multi Reactions on, holding a post’s react button opens the same pop-up.
• A new Comment box setting in Customize › App Screens › Feed picks how members start a comment: a floating bar, a round button or a box above the comments. You can let each member pick their own.
• Tapping a link to a post opens that post instead of its space, from a message, an email or the website (1.3.23).
• A post with a document attached in the app goes up, and the file keeps the name it had on the phone. Fluent Community Pro used to turn those posts down.
• Notifications for comments, replies, mentions and messages leave your site within seconds instead of waiting for its job queue (1.3.21). New chat messages also show up while a chat is open, verification codes fill six boxes, buttons use your site’s button colour, and YouTube videos play again.