nBill version 1.2.1 is now available. This is a security and stability release - as such there are no major new features, but there are some minor feature enhancements. In order to improve stability across different platforms, there have been some architectural changes, which means that when you upgrade from 1.2.0 SP1, most extensions and other supporting scripts will also need upgrading.
In most cases, upgrading is simply a case of clicking on the link that will appear on the home page of the component in the back end next time you login. Using the one-click upgrade process will not lose any changes you may have made to the language files, but other files may be overwritten. If the one-click upgrade does not work for you, you can uninstall and re-install the
component to upgrade without losing any data. Alternatively, if you have customised any of the files, you can download the appropriate
patch and overwrite the files individually yourself.
Important Notes:- If you have any custom code in any form events or event folders, make sure you declare any global variables that you use (eg. if you use the $database object, make sure there is a global $database declaration first). This might not have been necessary before, but is now.
- Get the latest version of the HTML2PS/PDF script - or at least the nbill_to_pdf.php file (PDF file size is now considerably reduced as fonts are no longer embedded by default). Edit: Due to a problem on some Joomla 1.5 installations, I had to swap 2 functions around, which meant this feature was lost. However, you can still reduce the file size by editing the config.inc.php file that comes with the HTML2PS/PDF script - on line 58, where it says: define('FONT_EMBEDDING_MODE', 'config'); change it to: define('FONT_EMBEDDING_MODE', 'none');
- Get the latest version of the reminder sender and auto invoice generator scripts if applicable (the old ones will not work any more).
- Get the latest version of any payment gateway extensions (further security enhancements and better support for SEF URL components have been added to most of them).
- If you have any user subscription products, get the latest version of the User Subscription mambot (plugin).
- The facility to use tax/shipping rates defined in your Paypal profile has been removed from the Paypal gateway because a) it did not work properly anyway, b) this paypal feature is very limited, c) you would still need to set up your tax/carriage rates in nBill as well anyway so requires duplication of work, d) fixing and testing it was causing more problems that it was worth, and e) evidently nobody was using it anyway as nobody complained that it did not work!
What has changed?Mostly bug fixes related to discounts, some new settings on discounts and display options, some security hardening, some extra links to quickly switch between lists in the back end (eg. to see all the orders relating to a particular invoice), and various other bug fixes. The full change log is pasted below (also available in changelog.php):
- Abstraction layer added for database connectivity to shield against bugs and differences in behaviour seen in Joomla on different platforms
- CMS version info added to error reports
- Removed stylesheet warning message as it is generally not applicable any more and was causing some confusion
- Adjusted js prompt blackout to render properly on J1.5
- Removed mosGetParam from entries that allow HTML in back end due to buggy _MOS_ALLOW_HTML behaviour on some configurations
- Added check for translated text on payment instructions and small print in back end (Joom!Fish does not work on back end)
- Fixed handling of tax rates and amounts applied to income record when paying an invoice
- Replaced Joomla constants with custom constants for error messages when creating a user record (J1.5 does not support the old constants)
- Fixed bug in calendar control which adds quote marks to year on occasion
- Added check for multiple IPs in nbGetUserIP function when accessed via proxy
- Added error suppression where static calls are made to avoid PHP bug that reports strict notices even when you ask it not to
- Fixed bug calculating next due date on 4-weekly payment intervals
- Fixed various bugs when determining whether or not to apply a discount
- Added a setting to allow you to determine whether or not to apply new discounts to order renewals
- Added facility to multiply product discounts by quantity of product ordered with optional offset
- Added facility to specify disqualifying products for a discount
- Added optional switch to https on login (may require hacks to Mambo/Joomla)
- Added check to nb_redirect to see if headers already sent and if so, use alternative javascript redirect
- Fixed display/suppression of payment link on invoices and invoice list, according to rules defined in back end
- Fixed cron entry script to work on all CMSs
- Fixed short tags in dunzip2
- Added a new order value to allow specification of number of billing cycles - expiry date for order is calculated accordingly
- Extracted installation SQL queries to a separate file to allow for manual installation where necessary
- Fixed problem with invoices not being emailed when several are generated at once
- Added feature to send PDF version of invoice by email (but not recommended due to slow processing)
- Fonts are no longer embedded in PDFs, resulting in much smaller file size
- Invoices generated for zero amounts are now automatically marked as paid so they don't show up at the top of the invoice list
- Added further error reporting for invoice attachments in case of problem (eg. temp directory not writable)
- Moved address formatting routine into non-encoded file so it can be customised if required
- Removed requirement for master database to be of same version as child when generating new numbers (still required for data update though)
- Added new token to reminders feature to show https version of payment link
- Fixed typo on constant name for reminder email subject
- Removed reliance on encoded files for uninstall
- Added CURL verification option to Paypal gateway
- Added success and failure URL settings to Paypal gateway
- Removed page navigation from categories page (not required, as all categories are shown on one page)
- Added link to client's orders from client list
- My Account heading in front end is now optional
- New option to suppress the appearance of a renewal link if an order has been cancelled
- Fixed tax amount calculation on income and expenditure editors
- New button to show all items on order and invoice lists in back end, and button to reset date range to default
- Added link to orders relating to each invoice from invoice list
- Added link to income relating to each invoice from invoice list
- Amended message for invoice email not sent where ad-hoc (to avoid confusion)
- Fixed SKU lookup on 2nd and subsequent invoice line items
- Added new SKU lookup popup window when SKU left blank (allows selection of product from a list)
- Payment link now shown on bottom of invoice editor
- Fixed PDF encoding issue for J1.5 and Mambo
- Fixed return URL on ledger report and transaction report to remember date range after viewing an item
- Added facility to specify a URL to redirect to on successful order instead of showing a thank you message (only applies if gateway does not redirect)
- When editing product prices, if non-auto-renewable orders exist for that product, it offers to update the prices held on the existing orders for you automatically (so that they will renew at the new price, if required)
- Fixed problem with week/month units on reminder editor
- Updated supplier editor to pick up constants from suppliers language file instead of clients where applicable
- Amended tax summary to show tax amounts even if rate is zero (in case user accidentally deletes default tax rate from invoice, but tax still applied)
- Added link to expenditure items relating to each credit note from credit note list
- Improved efficiency of queries when returning filtered invoice list
- Error reporting turned off before generating PDFs due to huge number of PHP strict notices generated
- Fixed problematic popup when manually emailing an invoice in J1.5
- Fixed client import routine to check for existing email addresses
- Invoice can no longer be paid if it is already marked as paid
- Default value of a field can now contain PHP code (surrounded by double dollars)
- Display of due date on order renewal is now optional
- Carriage discounts are now shown at the end of the payment summary (after the carriage total)
- Fixed problem that prevented the 'add contact name to invoices' setting from being saved in a user's profile
- Fixed problem of file uploads being made mandatory even if they are not marked as mandatory
- Added further (more detailed) error reporting in case of failure to upload a file
- Relating to value populated on order renewal (so it can be passed to payment gateway)
- Further information added to email to administrator when an order is cancelled
- Added facility to dynamically alter filename for downloadable products based on order number, order ID, or client ID
- Text and WMV file types added to mime type handler for file downloads
- If same discount is added twice for 2 different products on an order form, a qualifier is now added to the discount name to indicate which product it relates to
- Auto-renew can now be turned on when an order is renewed manually by adding &auto_renew=1 to the renewal URL (to facilitate free trials without capturing card details)
- Forms submit to index.php without any querystring parameters now (parameters are passed in hidden fields) for better SEF URL integration
- Ordering of Order Forms fixed
- Updated client import routine to take account of salted encrypted passwords
- New display option added to allow non-auto-renewing orders to be cancelled by client (has no real effect, but for client peace of mind)
- Fixed problem with User Subscription mambot not running in Joomla 1.5
