v4.7.0 Latest
October 8, 2026
New 3 Improve 7 Fix 22 Security 4 Dev 9 Compat 1
New
- Four checkout section blocks (Progress, Trust Badges, Social Proof and Recommendations) that sit inside EDD's own Checkout block and can be edited, reordered or removed.
- Product Catalog renders its first page of products in the page HTML, so search engines and visitors without JavaScript see real products.
- Customers can update the payment card on a subscription from My Account, on gateways that support it.
Improve
- Every visible string is now translatable, including Elementor widget options, block editor labels, carousel and catalog messages, block patterns and the admin dashboard.
- Every trust badge can be switched off and reworded, and the support badge is off by default.
- The money-back guarantee badge defaults to 30 days with generic wording you can edit to match your refund policy.
- The trust badge no longer claims "powered by Stripe", and payment method icons start switched off until you choose the cards you accept.
- Trustpilot reviews, rating and count start empty, and the section stays hidden until you add your own reviews.
- Product Catalog no longer requests its first page again after loading, saving one request on every visit.
- The account sidebar now reads "Submit Ticket" and opens the ticket form directly.
Fix
- Checkout offers login, registration and guest checkout as separate choices instead of stacking the login prompt on the account fields, and existing checkout pages are converted automatically.
- Personal Info fields on checkout render at one consistent width, so the Email field no longer truncates the address.
- License Upgrade and Manage License open inside the account dashboard instead of replacing the page with an unstyled table.
- Upgrade Plan on a subscription now opens the prorated upgrade view, keeping credit for what the customer already paid.
- Changing a payment card keeps the customer on the Subscriptions tab and confirms the change.
- A payment card can be changed more than once in the same browser session.
- The checkout trust badges fill the row without a gap when a badge is switched off.
- The checkout progress indicator no longer tells screen readers a step is upcoming while it is on screen.
- Product Catalog reports a failed load with a Retry button instead of saying no products matched your filters.
- Restored the payment icon checkboxes in the Trust Badges block.
- The "Account Dashboard" option on the EDD discount screen lines up with the other settings.
- The Forums and Forums Activity widgets no longer print a PHP warning for topics with no replies.
- The hover Border control on the WooCommerce Product Tab and Universal Product widgets styles the hovered tab, not the active one.
- Pagination bullet size on the Post Carousel and Team Carousel widgets now follows the size setting.
- The avatar size control on the Forums widget sets the avatar size, not only a maximum width.
- The Site Logo widget keeps its default link value.
- Team Carousel animations set to "none" no longer raise a deprecation notice on PHP 8.1 and later.
- Translations in the plugin's own languages folder now load; they were bundled but never loaded.
- Animation options on the Posts Carousel, Posts Ticker and Posts Revolution widgets showed fade-out, bounce-out and zoom-out as "In" effects.
- Updates now download on sites that installed Wbcom Essential from the store zip or a manual upload, with no license key to enter.
- The license screen's script and styles load on hosts where the plugin folder is a symlink or sits outside the document root.
- Deleting the plugin with its data also removes the stored license status, usage-tracking choice and activation state.
Security
- Password-protected downloads are no longer listed by the Product Catalog block, its public products endpoint, or the account dashboard's What's New, Free Plugins and Recommended sections.
- A password-protected free download can no longer be claimed into a customer's library without its password.
- The Login Form widget only redirects within your site after login, so a crafted link can no longer send members to another website.
- The Product Catalog's embedded product data escapes HTML characters, so a product title cannot break the rest of the page.
Dev
- New wbcom_essential_edd_free_plugins_top action fires above the grid on the account dashboard's Free Plugins tab.
- New wbcom_essential_upgraded action and a version-gated upgrade runner, so migrations run on plugin update and not only on activation.
- New wbcom_essential_wp_cron_disabled filter for sites that set DISABLE_WP_CRON but run a real system cron.
- Updated the bundled licensing library to 1.0.3, matching BuddyNext, including a fix for a PHP 8 fatal on the plugin details screen.
- The legacy EDD Enhanced Checkout block is hidden from the inserter and kept only so pages the migration has not reached still render.
- Removed 17 unused Elementor files and the static analysis configuration from the package.
- The Header Notification Area widget is documented as requiring the Reign theme.
- The plugin passes Plugin Check with no errors, and the translation template includes the block editor and front-end script strings.
- Coding standards and static analysis now block the build, and dependency audits run on every push.
Compat
- Tested with Easy Digital Downloads 3.7.1.1, Recurring 2.13.13, Software Licensing 3.9.7, Stripe 3.0.2 and Elementor 4.2.3.
New 1 Improve 1 Fix 3
New
- Extend License button on active, non-lifetime license cards, so customers can renew early from the account dashboard.
Improve
- Upgrade License is hidden on expired licenses, which EDD Software Licensing declines to upgrade until they are renewed.
Fix
- Renew License now loads checkout with the renewal already in the cart, so the customer's existing key is extended at the renewal price. It previously linked to the product page and sold a second license at full price.
- Upgrade License now opens the prorated upgrade view inside the account dashboard instead of an unrelated order history page, and no longer falls back to the site home page when the store's purchase history page setting is empty.
- Guard the bundled EDD Software Licensing SDK so an incomplete package (missing its src classes) turns automatic updates off with an admin notice instead of fataling the whole plugin. Every other feature keeps working.
Fix 5
Fix
- Elementor testimonial and slider carousels now initialize correctly, with proper slide layout, arrow positioning, and pagination dots.
- The Team carousel no longer shows blank slides, and its pagination dots stay clickable and unclipped.
- The WooCommerce Testimonial Slider and Universal Product Slider now work again.
- Corrected the BuddyBuilder template hook name used by the BuddyPress grid widgets.
- Refreshed the EDD account dashboard block styles so a stale cached stylesheet no longer affects the layout.
New 3 Improve 1 Fix 4 Dev 2
New
- Search, filter, and sort toolbar on the account Downloads tab so customers with large libraries can find a product by name, narrow to available or expired items, and order by purchase date or name.
- Search, filter, and sort toolbar on the account License Keys tab with name search, active or expired filtering, and sorting by date added, expiry, or status.
- Result count and pagination on both tabs, with instant in-page filtering that falls back to a normal page load when JavaScript is unavailable.
Improve
- Downloads tab resolves file links only for the items shown on the current page instead of every owned product, keeping the dashboard fast for customers who own 100 or more products.
Fix
- Account Downloads tab served an HTML error page instead of the file when a product or bundle license was expired; expired items now show a Renew prompt with no broken link.
- Customers who own a product through more than one order now get the download link built from an order whose license is still valid, instead of a disabled or expired order that returned "Error 102".
- Account Downloads tab builds each file link from the order that actually delivered the product, using EDD's get_items_with_bundles() and is_deliverable() handling, so a renewal or refunded order no longer generates a dead link.
- Bundled products are expanded through EDD's native bundle method and honor license expiration per item, matching the EDD download history.
Dev
- Added wbcom_essential_edd_can_download() to gate download links by per-order license status, independent of subscription cancellation.
- Hardened the Downloads tab against fatals when Easy Digital Downloads is deactivated.
New 4 Dev 1
New
- Free Plugins tab on the EDD account dashboard with one-click claims for logged-in users.
- Special offers banner on the account dashboard driven by flagged EDD discounts.
- What's New and Recommended for You sections with pro-upgrade prioritization.
- Pro Counterpart field on Download Settings powering upsell recommendations.
Dev
- wbcom_essential_free_claim action and wbcom/v1/edd-account/claim-free REST route.
New 8 Improve 2 Fix 1 Note 1
New
- Quality standard derived from competitive audit (Kadence, Stackable, Spectra, Otter)
- Responsive 3-breakpoint controls on every block (Desktop/Tablet/Mobile)
- Per-side spacing, per-corner border-radius, box-shadow, device-visibility controls
- Scoped CSS isolation (`.wbe-block-{uniqueId}`), BEM naming (`.wbe-{block}__{element}`)
- Design tokens (`--wbe-*`), `prefers-reduced-motion` support, ARIA + keyboard navigation
- PHP infrastructure: `WBE_CSS` (per-instance CSS), `WBE_Schema` (JSON-LD), `WBE_Fonts` (Google Fonts)
- Auto block registration via `BlockRegistrar.php` scanning `build/blocks/`
- EDD-specific blocks (product-catalog, product-filter, edd-account-dashboard, edd-checkout-enhanced, edd-order-success)
Improve
- Gutenberg V2 rebuild: 32 production-grade blocks rebuilt from a shared infrastructure (7 shared components, 2 hooks, 3 utils, design tokens)
- 21 legacy blocks merged/replaced (heading, branding, site-logo, shape, slider, smart-menu, divider, social-icons, star-rating, icon-box, header-bar, mini-cart, dashboard-intro, forums, forums-activity, groups-lists, members-lists, dropdown-button, posts-revolution, post-slider, posts-carousel, counter, cta-box, accordion, advanced-tabs, countdown, post-timeline, testimonial, team-carousel, profile-completion)
Fix
- block styles, Swiper handle, EDD profile, product filter, BoxShadowControl
Note
- 94-issue audit, 23 fixes shipped (XSS, flip-box touch/keyboard, focus-visible, EDD empty states, BP notices, accessibility)
New 7 Improve 4 Fix 2
New
- Blog Index layouts - choose from Grid, List, Magazine, or Newspaper layouts for your blog and archive pages
- Magazine layout with multi-section content areas, each configurable with its own category and display style
- Newspaper layout featuring breaking news ticker, hero slider, and dual-column article sections
- Category Grid block to showcase your categories in a visual grid with post counts and images
- Ready-to-use magazine and blog patterns including News Dashboard, Magazine Homepage, Blog Editorial, and more
- Single post templates (Classic, Modern, Magazine, Minimal) with matching patterns for author bios, related posts, and share sections
- EDD (Easy Digital Downloads) blocks with enhanced checkout, trust badges, reviews, and product recommendations
Improve
- Posts Revolution block now includes an easy-to-use category picker with autocomplete search
- Posts Revolution automatically assigns categories across sections for quick setup
- Smarter post excerpts with proper word-boundary truncation
- WordPress version support headers added for better compatibility checks
Fix
- PHP deprecated warning for str_replace() in Elementor Forums widget
- PHPCS coding standards and internationalization improvements across blocks
Fix 6 Security 1
Fix
- Fatal TypeError in Elementor AJAX handler when source value is non-scalar (PHP 8+)
- Missing array validation after json_decode in register_ajax_actions
- Missing type checks in insert_inner_template for $_REQUEST values
- Null pointer errors in license activation, deactivation, and check APIs
- Null pointer in EDD updater cached version info
- Type safety in AJAX login handler for non-string POST values
Security
- Replaced esc_attr with sanitize_text_field for source/template validation
New 2 Improve 3 Fix 9
New
- AJAX handler for Mark as Read notifications in header bar
- Architecture documentation (docs/architecture/)
Improve
- All 45 Gutenberg blocks production-ready
- Complete block-to-widget mapping (98% coverage)
- Documentation with manifest files
Fix
- Header bar dark mode icon visibility
- Header bar cart and search UI improvements
- Header bar friend list action button UI
- CTA box hover secondary button UI
- Forum box border styling
- Post carousel adaptive height for Slick carousel
- Member carousel Slides to Scroll functionality
- Icon display after backend settings change
- Block build process (npm run build:blocks)
v4.0.2
New 3 Improve 1 Fix 2
New
- "Use Theme Colors" toggle to all 45 Gutenberg blocks
- 7 bonus blocks (counter, cta-box, divider, icon-box, mini-cart, social-icons, star-rating)
- Theme color CSS variables support
Improve
- Documentation with complete block mapping
Fix
- Swiper initialization for all carousel blocks
- Profile completion block compatibility
v4.0.1
Fix 3
Fix
- Memory optimization in carousel initialization
- Block category registration timing
- Console warnings for deprecated block APIs
New 3 Improve 2
New
- 45 Gutenberg blocks with Elementor widget parity
- Block editor integration with ServerSideRender
- Centralized build system for blocks
Improve
- Minimum PHP version to 8.0
- Minimum WordPress version to 6.0
New 1 Improve 1 Fix 1
New
- Member and group carousel arrows in logout mode
Improve
- Login widget user experience
Fix
- Plugin conflicts with Elementor Pro
Fix 1
Fix
- Elementor Schemes to Globals migration
Fix 1
Fix
- Fatal error with Elementor compatibility
