We have just released a major update to Webasyst framework, apps, and common Webasyst infrastructure — Webasyst 3.5, Shop-Script 11.2, Team, Mailer, Webasyst Email message packages, and other related apps and plugins.

Webasyst 3.5

The transition to the Webasyst 2 interface has been finalized, and many useful features have been added:

• Comments and reactions to dashboard announcements (ever thought of your company’s own social media?).
• Publication of delayed (scheduled) dashboard announcements.
• Seamless integration with Webasyst Email and Webasyst SMS services.
• Improved connection to Webasyst ID.
• Polished the Settings app’s interface.
• Updated the framework installation wizard install.php and all other system screens.
• Improved the new user invitation interface in Team.
• Better linking between Installer and Webasyst services.
• Fixed found bugs and defects (view the full changelog).

Webasyst Email message packages

We have made changes to the billing system of Webasyst Email, the built-in email sending service, by adding email packages from $0.0006/message. You are billed only for actually sent messages, no subscription is required nor are any limits applied to the number of recipients or the sending time. The email packages are available to all Webasyst users, whether your account is hosted on the Cloud or on your own server.

Webasyst Email can be easily enabled both in the Mailer app, for sending bulk email campaigns, and in the built-in Settings app, for any other email notifications, which Webasyst apps may need to send. The descriptions of all packages, including their prices, are available on our website at https://www.webasyst.com/pricing/#services ›

Shop-Script 11.2

• Optimized the new Products interface by fixing found bugs and improving the app’s performance with a large number of product feature values.
• In the mobile Shop-Script POS (iOS/Android app), we have added full support for product code scanners to enable you to quickly add items to an order by scanning GTIN bar codes. You can use either the built-in camera of your mobile device or an external Bluetooth scanner. Be sure to update your mobile Shop-Script app and to switch to the premium license to use this feature.
• Added new functionality to the API and improved support for PHP 8.2.
• Many other improvements and optimizations (view the full changelog).

We are happy to have released for you the next major version of our online store software — Shop-Script 11!

Free mobile POS

The main new feature of this update is the built-in support for mobile POS terminals allowing you to accept payments for offline orders placed by customers directly on your premises rather than online via a website.

While Shop-Script has always been known for its online store management functionality, its version 11 adds a new perspective for sellers who can now more easily include a new, offline, sales channel in their businesses.

No special hardware is required for this — as a start, you can simply use Shop-Script’s mobile app (for Android 10+ or iOS 15+) with its new Cash register section, where you can quickly add items to the shopping cart and offer a customer to pay for their order in cash. The mobile app will mark the order as paid, and Shop-Script 11 will show you all such offline orders in a dedicated list both on your smartphone or tablet and in your Webasyst backend.

How to install the update?

As usual — click Install all updates in your Installer.

New free Cloud plan

Together with the Shop-Script 11 version publication, we have also added a new plan lineup, called Free, for Webasyst Cloud users. It is indeed completely free and allows you to use only one Webasyst app (and any of its plugins) from a fixed list: Shop-Script, CRM, Teamwork, or Cash Flow. Compare the new Free plan with the others.

The installation or use of any other apps except for the selected single one is not available. Installer is not there either, but you still can install plugins for your selected app within its built-in Plugins section.

This means that you can create a Shop-Script-based online store with a catalog of maximum 250 products absolutely free of charge! It is now possible to keep running a store on Webasyst Cloud as long as you want without spending a single dollar for web hosting.

And you always have the option to switch to any other plan whenever you feel necessary to help your business grow with Shop-Script. It also works the other way around: you can switch from your current Cloud plan to the free one, and the remaining prepaid amount will always be available on your personal balance for you to pay for any Webasyst services or the software on Webasyst Store.

Select the desired plan as usual in the Customer Center’s Cloud section.

We have updated our popular free app — Webasyst Blog. By the way, the post you are reading now has been published with that app! It has at last received the new Webasyst 2 interface and is now much more convenient on mobile devices.

The new Blog version is available for free in your Webasyst Installer and on GitHub.

Webasyst 2.0.0 was released in 2021, and the framework’s subsequent updates until version 2.9.9 were mainly dedicated to infrastructural changes such as the user interface, Webasyst ID authorization, mobile apps, various APIs, app bundles, and the common development in the not-only-online-store direction. Even though we still have a couple of apps left to be re-designed for the Webasyst 2 interface, the general goal of the 2.0 generation to change the form has been achieved.

Today we have uploaded to GitHub a preview update to version Webasyst 3.0.0.

• New dashboard design. General navigation and the display of announcements have been improved. Quick setting of the user status for a current day and a news stream filter by user groups have been added.
• Corporate news & team-wide announcements. We have added new functionality for you to post various messages (news) on the dashboard, to be viewed by all or only by selected users. For instance, “Next Tuesday will be a day off for everyone” or “New employee in the main office! A pizza party today at 16:00”, with optional email and SMS notifications to be sent to the selected recipients.
• Improved design of announcements accessible via a bell icon in the main menu when a user is not on the dashboard.
• Single-app mode. We have added the option of limiting the Webasyst backend user interface to only one app. In this mode, all other apps, except for a selected single one, as well as the dashboard and the main navigation menu are completely disabled and hidden, and only one app remains available to a user. This mode can be enabled either in the Team app in a certain user’s access settings, or for the entire backend.
• Numerous improvements and optimizations have been made throughout the framework.

This update will be available in your Installer in a few days UPD: The update is here and is free for all Webasyst users!

In the Webasyst 3.0 release, we have concentrated on applied functionality, and most upcoming updates to Shop-Script and other apps will follow this trend. We are now working on adding useful content including, for instance, such Shop-Script app features as product stock control, multi-user order management and auto-assignment of orders, simplified creation of new online stores, and more.

In Webasyst Installer, we have added the option to try out paid plugins during 7 days prior to purchase.

This new option is available on Webasyst Cloud virtually for all paid plugins, while some plugins can even be tried out for free on your own server. The availability of the free 7-day trial depends on the individual setup performed by each plugin developer.

Trying out paid plugins is very easy:

1. Open Installer in your Webasyst backend.
2. Select a plugin with the “7 days free” badge.
3. Click on “Try free” on the plugin-viewing page.

Each plugin can be tried out only once. After the trial period has expired, you can either purchase a subscription or a lifetime license, or delete the plugin if you didn’t like it.

For Webasyst apps included in the main bundles, the free trial option was added last year. The trial period for apps is not 7 but 30 days long, and you can install all missing bundle apps with only one click.

With the recent release of Shop-Script X we have added the option to create an online store on your own server by subscription at $29.99 a month instead of purchasing a lifetime license. This change has resulted in the update of Webasyst Cloud pricing plans, which become effective today.

There are two main pricing plan groups: All Webasyst apps and Shop-Script only. The former includes all important Webasyst apps and offers users the main advantages of the platform. In the latter, plan parameters are optimized for the creation of an online store and the use of Shop-Script.

All Webasyst apps

A new plan Essentials has been added, which includes the most demanded business apps: Shop-Script, CRM, Mailer, Teamwork, and Cash Flow. If purchased separately, their subscriptions would cost $84.95 a month. On the Essentials plan, you can get all of these apps at only $35.99 a month, including web-hosting, if you pay for one year in advance. If you already worked with Shop-Script before then Essentials might be the best upgrade option allowing you to use Webasyst as an app platform for solving a wide range of business problems.

Prices of “All Webasyst apps” main plans applicable for one-year payment.

The Big business plan with maximal available Cloud resources has become more affordable with its price cut. We have added a new plan Custom, in which you can build for yourself any desired apps package, with a low web-hosting cost included.

Apps from the Essentials plan are also available as a new separate license offer for your own server with a 35% discount.

Shop-Script only

In the Shop-Script only group, the main plans’ prices correspond to those of Shop-Script’s basic and premium licenses’ subscriptions, i.e. $29.99 and $44.99 a month accordingly. The cost of using Shop-Script in the Cloud and on your own server is now actually the same.

Prices of “Shop-Script only” main plans applicable for one-year payment.

All these new plans are already applied to new Cloud accounts. Previously created accounts have remained with their previous plans, which are now marked as archived. Their owners can switch to new plans at any time in the Cloud app or in the Customer Center.

The prices of several archived plans will also change on July 1, 2023 to match the updated Shop-Script subscription cost and the new plans’ prices.

You can get a more detailed overview of the new Webasyst 2023 pricing plans at https://www.webasyst.com/pricing/.

Say hello to Shop-Script X

Webasyst flagship ecommerce app just got a huge important update to version 10.0:

• All-new Webasyst 2 backend UI and the looks (live demo),
• All-new mobile apps available on the App Store and on Google Play for free,
• All-new storefront default design theme,
• Live kanban board view for orders,
• Order payment links with mobile QR code payments support,
• And more amazing new features — see the full update log for details.

Get the update in the Webasyst Installer today!

Source code is available free on GitHub.

It may seem that it’s been too quiet in Webasyst during last few years. A deepest dive in the development deflated our team’s best intentions on timely announcing the releases, but that was a very important period for cementing the vision of Webasyst as an all-in-one cloud app platform ready for new awesome projects, cloud apps, and releases — open to any developer worldwide.

Many important releases of the Webasyst platform and its apps took place lately.
Summarizing all the highlights our team and fellow partners have done in 2019—2022:

• Lots of amazing all-new cloud apps for teams: Teamwork, Remote, Mailer, Hub, Pocket Lists, Photos, Cash Flow, and more.
• 65+ updates of the Webasyst framework.
• 60+ updates of our flagship Shop-Script app.
• Shop-Script Premium version with a set of advanced pro-grade ecommerce features.
• Unified ‘All Webasyst’ app bundle uniting 15+ major Webasyst apps available both in the cloud and for your own custom server infrastructure.
• Webasyst 2 UI design system (private app).
• Webasyst ID authentication.
• Webasyst.com brand-new site.
• Webasyst Sender bulk email gateway seamlessly integrated with the Mailer app.
• Webasyst Teamwork mobile apps for iOS (App Store) and Android (Google Play).
• Webasyst X open source project for Swift (iOS), Kotlin (Android), and Electron (JS; Windows/macOS).
• New app distribution models for developers: subscriptions, freemium/premium-based.
• Deployment APIs for Webasyst app developers: cloud, Installer, Webasyst ID, and more.

As we are heading to deliver new Webasyst apps in the near future, we’ll be covering new updates in details from now on. Stay tuned!

Webasyst framework will require PHP 5.6 as the minimum version for software installation and updates. Current minimum PHP version is 5.2. The transition is planned for October 1, 2019.

What it means for you

When the transition is over, you will be able to install software products and their updates, as well as framework updates, only if you are using PHP version at least 5.6, i.e. 5.6, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, or higher.

If you decide to stay with older PHP versions 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, or 5.5, then you will still see new updates appearing in your Installer, but without an option to install them because of the unsatisfied PHP version requirement.

Will there be exceptions?

There will be some, but not for too long. This minimum PHP version requirement applies to the framework only. Other products—apps, plugins, widgets, and design themes, may not receive the same system requirement and may keep installing on servers with lower PHP versions. However, eventually most of them will be updated and may therefore require the latest framework version for their normal operation. And updating the framework will again require raising the PHP version for your web-hosting account.

Not sure whether I need to raise my PHP version... Try to convince me!

This situation has one “con” and three “pros”:

• Con: never change a running system. Few people would want to change something in their smoothly functioning procedures. Almost anyone would prefer to keep well-tested PHP 5.2–5.5 enable on their servers just like it has been for years.
• Pro: hosting companies refuse to support old PHP versions. They need resources to support a variety of versions, which are not unlimited. New PHP versions are released every once in a while, and it is becomes unprofitable and even insecure to support old versions, some of them having security breaches which will never be fixed. If you do not want to leave an old PHP version now, you will most probably be forced to do so a little later. We recommend doing it while there is no big hurry.
• Pro: PHP 7 works faster. The developers of PHP 7 have notably boosted its performance as compared to previous versions. By simply switching to PHP 7.0 or higher you will make your website respond faster with no additional efforts from your part.
• Pro: less chances that some software update will break your website. When working on an update, developers need to check how it works with different PHP versions. When an error occurs, more often users with older PHP versions are affected, because most attention is naturally paid to latest versions used on most websites. It is rarely advantageous to stay with an ever-reducing minority. And it is often more advisable to stick to what the majority prefers.

Why not choose 7.0 as the minimum version, which is faster than 5.6?

Too many Webasyst users still have their websites running on PHP 5.6. We suspect that they have no option to conveniently switch to 7.0 or a higher version, and we do not want to cause these version-switching troubles to very many of you. But we do need to abandon old technologies as they lose popularity and still require resources. So, if you have an option to switch to PHP 7 in your web-hosting control panel, it is really worth doing to make your website work faster.

Where can I find out more?

We have published a special page about the reasons why Webasyst is moving to a higher minimum PHP version and how to get prepared for it. Please ask your questions in the comments to this post if something needs clarification.

We have updated Shop-Script’s mobile app to help you better manage your online store anywhere and anytime, via a smartphone or tablet. Shop-Script itself has been updated, too, to support the mobile app’s new features.

Updated mobile app

The new version will work at its full potential only when connected to Shop-Script updated at least to version 7.3.0.

Order and customer editing

We have added the options of editing orders and customers’ contact information to the mobile app.

Users can edit:

• customer profile
• shipping address, except for fields “Country”, “ZIP”, “State”, and “City”
• shipping parameters: courier selection, and courier delivery date and time
• shipping cost
• order items: SKUs and services
• discount amount

Couriers can edit:

• customer profile
• orders: order items, discount amount, shipping cost, shipping address, except for fields “Country”, “ZIP”, “State”, and “City”, and shipping parameters: courier selection, and courier delivery date and time

Enable the permission to edit these data in each courier’s settings, if necessary.

Quick order actions

Item quantity change and deletion. Swipe an order item to make additional buttons appear to quickly increase or decrease item quantity in an order, or to delete an item.

Action execution. Tap on an order’s status name at the top to show the list of available actions. Click the name of an action to execute it.

Improved user experience

Some things in the app have been made better:

• Product search results cached on return from a product. In the previous version, when you ran a product search, then opened one of the found products, edited it, and returned back, the search results were lost and you had to search again to view them. Now search results are still there after you return, and your time and nerve cells no longer get wasted.
• Long product names fully visible. Before this update you sometimes had to guess whether it’s the right product you are dealing with if you saw only a part of its long name. Now product names are fully displayed above their photos so that you don’t have to guess any more.
• Stock names and products’ stock quantities visible on order-viewing screen. The previous mobile app version used to show only product names and SKU codes as well as ordered quantities and prices. With multiple stocks set up in Shop-Script, that was not enough for convenient work because you wanted to know how much of a product was left and on which stock. The app has become more useful in this case.

Bug fixes

Optimized product image upload, server HTTPS redirects taken into account for showing product images, improved verification of server SSL certificates, and other improvements. View the full list of changes in Shop-Script changelog.

New Shop-Script features

Availability of completed address fields on shipping method selection checkout step

Option “All address fields required by selected shipping option including hidden completed fields” has been added to prevent shipping plugins from hiding completed customer address fields if they did it. An example is Courier plugin. If a customer had specified the street address field in his shipping address, then Courier plugin did not allow to view or edit that field on shipping option selection step during checkout.

With the new settings option, a completed field remains visible and editable.

If you are using a shipping plugin, which still hides completed address fields, like Courier did, then ask the plugin developer to update his software. Courier plugin was updated shortly after Shop-Script’s update.

Viewing of product-adding date in backend

New column list option “Date added” has been added to the “Table” viewing mode setup dialog in “Products” section.

Before this update, you could only sort products by the date they were added to your catalog. But there was no way to view that date, except for directly accessing the database. This has become easier now.

Final transition to new WYSIWYG text editor

Users of Google Chrome browser can finally resume their normal work with Shop-Script, because text formatting functions have been restored in category and product description editing fields by this update. Applying of font bold, italics, underlining, and other styles to description text worked poorly in Chrome and similar browsers with the previous WYSIWYG editor version. We have updated the editor to a newer version in those backend sections, and it has fixed formatting functions there.

New API methods

They were added to Shop-Script for the new mobile app to use its new features. And they can be used by third-party developers of other software exchanging data with Shop-Script, too.

The new API methods are:

• shop.order.calculate
• shop.order.save
• shop.product.getServices

View full list of Shop-Script API methods.

Bug fixes

What’s been fixed:

• non-availability for ordering of available products with some stock settings, including the use of virtual stocks
• inconveniences in the order-adding process in backend
• CSV file import errors with some server configurations
• issues related to the development of design themes and plugins
• other minor issues.

Upcoming updates

What we shall be releasing next:

• update of CRM app
• another update of Shop-Script and its mobile app

Wait for the news in your Installer!