Now available in the clients download area.

With this new release we have mainly fixed many previous bugs but we have also added a new RSS option to our Short Code Generator with a working default template for it – in fact we have added a few improvements to our default templates as well.

Check your downloads section for the download and read more about the changes in this version in our announcements area.

Update on our other enhancements coming soon:

1. We are currently working on our 3.0 as well as adding a few new upgrades to our current solutions such as a new and improved WP Realty Widget – will be like a Swiss army knife of new options.
2. Next we are bringing Google-Maps into our short code generator that will display the properties from the short code right into a map that will show all of the pins on the map.
3. Major overhaul for our lead router solution – this will be pretty darn sweet and once completed it will be nothing short of awesome.

Last of all a word about our WordPress Real Estate Themes – We are currently working on 2 more new themes to be released by the end of this month and I think everyone will be pleasantly surprised with the new designs and options and we hope that everyone will love them as much as our first theme

This is going to be a “Powerful” Real Estate CMS Platform to build your real estate sites with!

Just log in to your client area and you will find the new 2.0.9 RC-1 version is there for download.

**IMPORTANT**
*NOTE* – VERY IMPORTANT -
Our plugin updates will overwrite all core files/items inside the root of the plugin except for the following folder/directories:

1. /wp-realty/images/
2. /wp-realty/files/
3. /wp-realty/templates/
4. /wp-realty/formkit/

**Note – We always recommend doing complete backup prior to running new plugin install.
** If you need assistance or have questions on this then please open a trouble ticket and I will be glad to answer your questions.

== Important -2.0.9 CORE- Updates This Release ==
##################################################
What’s New In 2.0.9 -

This version is basically just an upgrade and includes some much needed improvements to the new form builder to allow for more customization that can now include individual html & css for each form.

1.    Unlimited Custom forms with custom html/css template options.
2.    New optional Thank You Message.
3.    New optional on [submit] redirect url.
4.    Custom html forms are stored in your site /wprealty/template/your-template/forms/

We have also tried to fix the install.php to prevent random re-writes to the mysql so we made this version automatically remove the file when activating the plugin – the only negative for this is going to be if the plugin does not install properly the first time then the install.php will need to need to be manually re-uploaded to try to retry the install.

#################################
We are now working on new for 2.1.0
#################################

1. We are going to make some more improvements to our short code builder to now include a new optional rss link per short code – great for even more seo =)
2. Also coming in the the next release is going to be many new improvements for our lead router / manager.

What is happening that makes email notifications ineffective?

People are hosting their WPRealty site on an endless inventory of different hosts and as such, some limitations are just not beneficial to a Realtor type website. What is happening is this; If you have a WPRealty website and someone saves a search for update notifications, servers are ending up black listed and emails are getting caught by anti spam tools before the notifications reach the in box.

Is this a problem exclusively with WPRealty? Absolutely not! The problem goes something like this.  Many web hosts limit the max emails per hour a site can send out and in some instances we are discovering that they can be set as low as 50 emails an hour. It gets worse. Many web hosts do not have properly configured PTR records among other optimal email settings. This can force emails sent out on bulk to get automatically filtered as spam in some instances.

What is the solution for auto update notifications of saved searches?

The solution from our perspective are four unique approaches which I’ll itemize below.

1. RSS Subscribe to Saved Searches based on your criteria.
   This is a new feature we are planning to follow our short code RSS generated feature that will allow members to save searches and then access those saved searches via RSS. How it works is simple. You save your search and you simply add the RSS feed to your MS Outlook or other RSS enabled email client and each time you press Send / Receive you get the updates.  You can also have your website clients add the feed to their iGoogle account.
2. Opt into update notifications twitter style
   Social media features are the next on the list of features we most want to complete and some of them will be specifically designed to provide update notifications to members of your WPRealty empowered website.
3. iPhone app.
   On of our favorite features we have planned is an iPhone application that will tie into your WPRealty site that you can distribute free of charge to your visiting clients. In fact, you could require the downloading of the application by your client in order to receive updates if you so desire.
4. iGoogle and Facebook is another avenue we are planning development for.
   With iGoogle and Facebook, your clients can opt into features within the website for a broader social networking integration.

These new features are planned for sometime in June or July and take a back stage at this point only for new client resource management features and short code enhancements now in development.

We belive that we've put together some really great new features that will make our real estate plugin even more powerful by using some of the benefits of new features in 3.0 – one of the new features will be that all subdomains can now use the option to pull the listings tables in from the main site allowing for real estate listings to be embedded into unlimited sub domains without having to install multiple copies of the same mls solution. This will save a ton of time AND money!

Look for this to be coming out in our 2.0.9 release by the end of the month.

Wordpress Real Estate Plugin
WordPress Real Estate Themes

Those of you that are fine with 2.0.6 may want to wait for a more mature 2.0.8 which will have some new tweaks to 2.0.7.

2.0.8 is scheduled for release by no later than the middle of April and will mainly consist of some tweaks and some clean ups to our current code.

WordPress Real Estate Plugin
WordPress Real Estate Themes

WP Realty 2.0.7-RC version – RC = Release Candidate

We have added a New “Form Creator” with “Lead Manager”.
These (2) items are “Brand New” and we’re already “rapidly” making changes to this for the next 2.0.8 and we are just going to make some basic How-To written instructions until we get things developed a little more. Once we get the modifications done I will put together a video explaining this area in better detail.

Next New item is our “Short Code Builder”.
This is simply the coolest thing yet – you can now make your own custom templates and create your own custom short code – and – it will automatically insert the code straight into your page or post. With this new feature the embedding possibilities are only limited to what data you have within the MLS.

Next New item:
We added New Short Code Templates Editor in our Templates Editor section.

Next New item:
We added the Longitude / Latitude options to our Google maps.

Last of all – Bug Fixes.
There were a few bugs left from the last version that have been fixed in this release:
1). Next-Prev is now fixed.
2). Edit Listing “> orphans are gone now.
3) Several CSS fixes within the admin areas….sure I’m forgetting to include something here but everything that was on our list from the previous 2.0.6 was fixed =)

=== Installation ===
How to upgrade to 2.0.7

Whenever we make some “major upgrades” like this one there will be some additional steps required:
This upgrade will require the following steps:
1.    Make a complete backup of your site AND mysql database – don’t say that we didn’t tell you this in advance!
2.    Now that you have made your backups – Now “Deactivate” the WP Realty Plugin.
3.    Next ftp into your plugins directory and go to your plugins/wp-realty/include/ and delete the “common.php” file.
4.    Next – Go back to the wordpress plugins directory/folder and either drag and drop or copy and paste our new wp-realty folder into the plugins directory and overwrite the files when prompted.
5.    Next – ftp back into your plugins/wp-realty/include/ and make sure that both the ”includes” directory and the “common-dist.php” file are both writeable with either 755 or 777 depending on your servers chmod settings. (most of the time nothing needs to be changed)
6.    Last – reactivate the plugin and it should now say 2.0.7

If you have a white screen then that means that you have a permissions error with the /include/ and or the common-dist.php file.

Best Regards,
Chad

#################################
We are now working on new for 2.0.8 and – 2.0.9
#################################
List of the next features coming:
• We have several tweaks to our 2.0.7 Forms and Leads section coming in the next 2.0.8.
• We are going to have this working with MU 3.0 Beta within 2 weeks.
• Plus we are going to start on our NEW Google Map Search immediately after the MU project.

Still working on………….
Working on a IDX Importer.
Working on our 3.0 as well.

WordPress Real Estate Themes
WordPress Real Estate Plugin

These new WordPress Real Estate Themes are going to be released around the 17th and they will also include our basic quick search, theme options menu and of course all of our WP Realty templates that will include the matching design size and colors specifically made for each real estate theme.

Effective pricing as of March 1st
30 dollar license will go to 39.95
80 dollar license will go to 89.95
150 dev-license will go to 199.95

We will be rolling out our newest plugin within the next 3 to 6 days that will include some extra nice items for simple lead management, advanced contact manager and a new easy to use custom form maker that includes short code tags so that you can embed and style the forms anyway you like.

Once the above is completed and released we will begin working on a new custom interface for creating all of your short codes…it simply ties in all of the data fields into a simple interface that allows you to actually see the data fields from your current mls/idx  – just pick the fields you want and it will build the shortcode right there in the window with the option to insert the code straight into the wysiwyg editor.

All of this will be tested and completed within the next 10 days and once we are sure that we have sufficiently tested everything we will be making the new release available for download in your client area.

We have a few more surprises coming this week but I don't want to promise anything that may be still be delayed due to technical snags – but we will be hinting more about it later this week. =)

Best Regards,
WP Realty Team.

Now the time has come to announce to the public that we have started the new website design along with several new how-to videos – and we hope to have the new site up by the 17th – (as long as the videos are completed by then).

Other News:
The new 2.0.5 version has had a few more new tweaks added and is going to be released by this next Friday the 15th.

I cant wait for all of the feed back from everyone – check back  around the middle of the week for updates =)

WordPress Real Estate Plugins

Best Regards,
Chad