GD Rating System

= 3.7 – 2026.04.27
* New: tested and compatible with WordPress up to 7.0
* New: tested and compatible with PHP 8.5
* Edit: improvements to the SQL query building and validation
* Edit: improvements to the input data processing and sanitization
* Edit: various changes to the PHP code style and structure
* Edit: d4pLib 2.8.20
* Fix: security issue related to the stored script vulnerability
* Fix: security issue related to improper sanitization of input data
* Fix: loading order causing issue with translations
* Fix: small issue with the About page layout

= 3.6.2 – 2024.11.15
* Edit: proper sanitization of the HTML classes
* Edit: d4pLib 2.8.19
* Fix: authenticated stored cross-site scripting vulnerability
* Fix: import from YASR plugin doesn’t import decimal places

= 3.6.1 – 2024.06.28
* Edit: validate the template in render functions prior to inclusion
* Fix: underlying functions not loaded on the blocks widgets panel
* Fix: widgets not loading interface when used via blocks
* Fix: local file inclusion vulnerability with the rating block templates

= 3.6 – 2024.06.07
* New: fully tested and compatible with WordPress up to 6.6
* Edit: updates to code formatting and readability
* Edit: updates to the translation strings
* Edit: many improvements to the PHP core code and syntax
* Edit: d4pLib 2.8.18
* Fix: minor issue with state capture class on taxonomy archives with no results
* Fix: several typos and other text and information issues
* Fix: several small issues with the boolean functions and methods

3.5.1 – 2023.12.19

• New: fully tested and compatible with WordPress up to 6.4
• New: plugin is tested and compatible with the PHP 8.0, 8.1, 8.2 and 8.3
• Edit: escaping IP for display in a votes list and dashboard widget
• Edit: rewritten functions for getting and validating IP
• Edit: d4pLib 2.8.16
• Fix: stored script vulnerability related to IP field

3.5 – 2022.05.15

• New: tested with WordPress 6.0
• New: rich snippets: added missing microdata code for Software Application
• Edit: rich snippets: some minor optimization in the snippets code
• Edit: d4pLib 2.8.14
• Fix: rich snippets: minor issue with the snippet engine loading

3.4 – 2021.01.31

• New: system requirements: PHP 7.0 or newer
• New: system requirements: WordPress 5.0 or newer
• New: shortcodes builder: option to change the displayed rating value
• New: all shortcodes expanded with the ‘rating’ attribute
• New: all widgets expanded with the ‘rating’ attribute
• New: additional class to handle admin grids loading
• Removed: addon with support for Shortcake UI plugin
• Removed: few more unused/obsolete functions or methods
• Fix: items per page not saving for the admin grids
• Fix: problem with the admin database grid listing
• Fix: issue with the function used to get quick items stats
• Fix: minor issue in the dashboard votes widget listing

3.3.1 – 2020.11.23

• New: font icons class has conversion of the char formats
• New: call to action rendering added to many default templates
• Fix: in some cases single rating block max value not valid
• Fix: distribution not properly initialized for new items
• Fix: distribution division by zero when item has no votes
• Fix: distribution for stars rating not properly saved
• Fix: quick database query for counts calculation issue
• Fix: stars badge rendering fails for the default font icons

3.3 – 2020.11.19

• New: rebuilt the default font icons with the woff2 support
• New: generate the embedded version of the default font
• New: default font now has font-display property set to auto
• New: full code refactoring for the WordPress coding style
• New: all methods include item type based args/calc filters
• Edit: improvements to some of the admin side interface elements
• Edit: few improvements to the votes handling for all methods
• Edit: various updates to the code organization and structure
• Edit: d4pLib 2.8.13
• Fix: rich snippets: minor issue with the application based snippets
• Fix: votes log: missing meta data for log items breaking some addons
• Fix: maintenance: problem with saving stars rating distribution
• Fix: new install shows the upgrade notice with maintenance mode

3.2 – 2020.08.19

• New: fully tested and compatible with WordPress 5.5
• New: class for handling of preloading for rating data
• New: huge performance improvements for plugin dashboard
• New: huge performance improvements with loop based rating integrations
• New: preload: support for comments loop
• New: preload: preload posts from the supplied or global WP_Query
• New: preload: preload posts from the list of post ids
• New: preload: preload items from the list of item ids
• New: preload: preload items for item types and real ids
• New: comments addon: option to control preload
• New: dashboard widget: show item title and link if available
• Edit: plugin dashboard: optimized loading of the votes widget
• Edit: rewritten several of the database class methods
• Edit: few minor changes to the database tables schema
• Edit: various small quality of code improvements
• Edit: d4pLib 2.8.12
• Fix: rating items retrieval doesn’t check if rating method is loaded
• Fix: transfer panel script was not loading due to bad URL used

3.1.3 – 2020.06.20

• Fix: rich snippets: product offer not saved properly if price is 0
• Fix: rich snippets: product offer with price 0 not properly displayed

3.1.2 – 2020.06.12

• Fix: rich snippets: metabox JavaScript not loaded
• Fix: rich snippets: metabox selections not working
• Fix: few issues with metabox elements styling

3.1.1 – 2020.06.10

• Edit: d4pLib 2.8.10
• Fix: problem with using cookie validation values for anonymous visitors

3.1 – 2020.06.01

• New: shortcodes builder
• New: rich snippets: custom snippet type (JSON-LD format)
• New: rich snippets: expanded default settings for post types
• New: rich snippets: option to use GMT based dates if available
• New: rich snippets: tools to remove and reset default settings for posts
• New: posts: rewritten detection method for use of the_content filter
• New: posts: includes excerpt detection logic to avoid excerpt related issues
• New: function to properly handle mysql date conversion with or without GMT
• Edit: rich snippets: updated context help and removed some outdated information
• Edit: shortcodes: improvements to the attributes values cleanup
• Edit: few minor changes to the frontend styling and rendering
• Edit: various small styling improvements and changes
• Edit: d4pLib 2.8.9
• Fix: posts: in some cases output rendered inside the head area
• Fix: posts: conflicts related to some SEO plugins
• Fix: shortcodes: few issues with conditional shortcodes
• Fix: widgets: showing options for the features that are not available in Lite edition
• Fix: small issues with cleaning up the shortcode object attributes
• Fix: in some cases results for comments based queries can be empty
• Fix: various small styling issues with the rating lists results
• Fix: like this balloon theme styling in the results list
• Fix: few instances of using wrong method call signature

3.0.3 – 2020.05.26

• Edit: rich snippets: product snippet not rendered if rating is missing
• Fix: rich snippets: rendering empty snippet in some cases
• Fix: stars rating: display of rating blocks with RTL orientation
• Fix: import tool not showing proper failed import message
• Fix: broken tool for exporting plugin settings
• Fix: few potential PHP warnings related to some of the tools

3.0.2 – 2020.05.23

• Fix: rich snippets: not showing rating for some snippet types
• Fix: rich snippets: setting the review option value in meta table

3.0.1 – 2020.05.22

• Edit: db columns for method, series and ip set to 64 characters
• Edit: db columns for action and status set to 32 characters
• Edit: db columns for module set to 16 characters

3.0 – 2020.05.20

• New: various new features transferred from the Pro version
• New: like this rating method transferred from the Pro version
• New: rich snippets addon: transferred from the Pro version
• New: database table: for storing item basic rating data
• New: database queries: largely rewritten for the new database schema
• New: performance: improvements due to the new database schema
• New: performance: more in memory temporary cache for various operations
• New: rating item object: mostly rewritten and expanded
• New: rating methods: additional registration features arguments
• New: rating templates: show only own rating for stars rating
• New: js and css files: enqueue expanded with the registration of files
• New: js and css files: additional improvements to registration and queue use
• New: js and css files: big improvements in the way files are loaded on request
• New: voting security: throttle voting requests protection method
• New: ajax request handler: unified and expanded error processing
• New: shortcodes: has_voted to, has_voted_auto, has_not_voted, has_not_voted_auto
• New: shortcake addon: support for new shortcodes
• New: rich snippets addon: tool to mass update some snippets settings
• New: rich snippets addon: tool to remove legacy snippets data
• Edit: posts and comments addons: expanded with features from Pro version
• Edit: d4pLib 2.8.8
• Fix: various fixes transferred and applied from the Pro version

2.7.1 – 2019.09.06

• Edit: d4pLib 2.7.7
• Fix: problem with rendering of the user vote in rating block
• Fix: issue with language initialization on plugin load
• Fix: few minor issues with undefined variables
• Fix: votes log potential error when the post type is not registered
• Fix: small problem with the method to find and load template

2.7 – 2019.03.30

• New: all items operations now check for entity/name validity
• New: all metaboxes handling now check for entity/name validity
• New: database: adding items now check for entity/name validity
• New: database: prevent outside code from adding new rating items
• Edit: database: method for adding new item set changed to private
• Edit: database: additional sanitation of the input numeric arrays
• Edit: database: additional absint() conversion for ID based queries
• Edit: d4pLib 2.6.1
• Fix: potential vector for injecting bogus rating items in database
• Fix: missing sanitation for some input data expected as arrays
• Fix: database object internal calls not use $this in every case

2.6 – 2019.01.30

• New: stars rating method: quick revote option
• New: stars rating method: option to disable rating
• New: shortcodes: option to disable rating for stars rating method
• New: shortcodes: rating value for method and any item
• New: shortcodes: rating value for method and current item
• New: shortcake addon: option to disable rating for stars rating method
• New: shortcake addon: support for rating value shortcodes
• Edit: rating javascript: replaced jQuery .bind with .on
• Edit: improved minification of all CSS stylesheets
• Edit: d4pLib 2.5.4
• Fix: template path debug information not using debug on/off check

2.5 – 2018.07.16

• New: widget: special unique Developer ID option
• New: feeds addon: skip ratings for the XMLRPC requests
• New: rating item data objects now have method to get author ID
• Edit: minor updates to the metabox handler functions
• Edit: few updates to widget settings organization
• Edit: various improvements to the plugin core classes
• Edit: d4pLib 2.3.4
• Fix: posts sorting: problem with negative ratings order
• Fix: comments sorting: problem with negative ratings order
• Fix: problem with the rating labels translations
• Fix: several strings missing from the POT translations file

2.4 – 2018.03.20

• New: dynamic load: visitor and user loading settings
• New: tools: convert all votes log IP’s into MD5 hashed strings
• New: stars rating: filter inside the calculation methods before save
• New: stars rating: args/calc filters for each item in the list loop
• New: stars rating: completely rewritten single default templates
• New: stars rating: new list loop default templates – list and table
• New: stars rating: new render classes methods and filters
• New: stars rating: more settings for the rendering methods
• New: stars rating: new list loop default templates – list and table
• New: list templates now display item thumbnails if available
• New: posts addon: filter for the priority for the_content
• New: comments addon: filter for the priority for comment_text
• New: centralized method for setting user agent for votes
• New: store IP’s in votes log as MD5 hashed strings
• New: dedicated function to get user agent if it is set
• New: all item objects now have thumbnails functions
• New: all item objects use filters to modify returned data
• New: all widgets are logging currently used widget
• New: all shortcodes are logging currently used shortcodes
• New: render process is logging currently used template
• New: completely rewritten template loading process
• New: render process is logging currently used template
• New: completely rewritten default templates for all methods
• New: function to get current rendering template
• New: function to get current plugin widget
• New: function to get current plugin shortcode
• Edit: dynamic load: various improvements and optimizations
• Edit: various improvements to single and list engines
• Edit: few improvements to the rating item objects
• Edit: old Default templates are now Classic templates
• Edit: YASR data transfer: support for YASR 1.5 or newer only
• Edit: metabox support for the Gutenberg editor 2.3 or newer
• Edit: d4pLib 2.2.7
• Fix: YASR data transfer: invalid conversion of the max rating data
• Fix: YASR data transfer: detection of the database tables
• Fix: WP PostRatings data transfer: few issues with ratings only transfer
• Fix: WP_Query sorting not working inside the AJAX calls processing
• Fix: problem with missing the please wait when the rating is saved
• Fix: check for loaded methods and addon not working correctly
• Fix: loading from library for icons on the Entity editor page

2.3.2 – 2018.01.26

• Fix: missing proper sanitation for some grid filters variables

2.3.1 – 2018.01.11

• New Translation: German (de_DE) language
• New: ajax handler actions for various processing errors
• New: ajax handler uses improved validation for request data
• Edit: d4pLib 2.2.4
• Fix: xss vulnerability: query string panel was not sanitized
• Fix: xss vulnerability: panel variable for some pages was not verified

2.3 – 2017.12.06

• New: core loop object for easier templates control
• New: additional abstract classes for some plugin objects
• New: dynamic load addon: performance optimizations
• New: dynamic load addon: render multiple blocks at once
• New: transfer: option to control records to process per call
• New: transfer: various improvements to the transfer script
• New: stars rating: accessibility for the rating block
• New: additional abstract classes for some plugin objects
• New: all templates modified to use new loop object
• New: base widget class with improved code sharing
• New: database table: for storing cached data
• New: database cache handling object
• New: posts sorting: added parameter for minimal rating
• New: comments sorting: added parameter for minimal rating
• Edit: stars rating: various rendering improvements
• Edit: stars rating: various JavaScript improvements
• Edit: changed order of the plugin initialization on admin side
• Edit: posts sorting: various minor updates
• Edit: comments sorting: various minor updates
• Edit: improvements to the rating method load classes
• Edit: various improvements to the votes and rating logs
• Edit: d4pLib 2.2.1
• Fix: dynamic load addon: problems with addon initialization
• Fix: posts sorting: problem with the ASC sort order
• Fix: lists rendering: missing default query elements
• Fix: lists rendering: shows ratings for deleted posts
• Fix: user rating object: init problem for non-logged visitors
• Fix: query object: problem with limit and offset arguments
• Fix: query object: problem with filtering the taxonomy entities

2.2 – 2017.05.17

• New: dynamic load: filter to control loading
• New: admin interface is now fully accessible
• New: widgets tabbed interface using ARIA markup
• Edit: widgets interface using proper HTML input types
• Edit: main rating query object perfromance improvements
• Edit: improvements with the font handling widget settings
• Edit: various improvements to the plugin core
• Edit: d4pLib 1.9.6
• Fix: stars rating: division by zero error when removing votes
• Fix: widgets font settings problems with some rating methods
• Fix: problem with custom settings rule loading
• Fix: small issue with the global post set to null

2.1.1 – 2017.03.04

• Edit: d4pLib 1.9.0.1
• Fix: custom settings rules get deleted on plugin update
• Fix: minor issue in the function to load templates

2.1 – 2017.02.24

• New: stars rating: hidden input field and passive mode
• New: rating item: method to get all data for a method
• New: filter to register additional widgets
• New: filter to provide extra templates storage locations
• New: filters for getting external methods templates
• New: font base class updated to support new rating methods
• New: more actions and filters in the main JavaScript file
• Edit: posts: improved inserting of the rating block
• Edit: all main form files preventing direct loading
• Edit: improved rating item data validation
• Edit: improved validation for the post rating rendering function
• Edit: minor improvements to data validation for all methods
• Edit: additional optimization for main JavaScript file
• Edit: code optimization for several core classes
• Edit: many improvements to the main CSS stylesheet
• Edit: various small improvements to admin side panels
• Edit: d4pLib 1.9
• Fix: XSS security issue with the log.php form file
• Fix: posts addon: triggered by home page queries in some cases
• Fix: main log item meta database method missing unserialization
• Fix: few problems with badge/symbol rendering
• Fix: php warning in the rich snippet addon

2.0.2 – 2017.01.27

• Edit: d4pLib 1.8.9
• Fix: multisite issue with the blog switching functions
• Fix: multisite issue with deletion of the blog tables

2.0.1 – 2017.01.03

• Edit: display error messages in the rating block
• Edit: improvements in the way AJAX response handles errors
• Edit: improvements to main AJAX error response handling
• Fix: rich snippets: problem with adding snippets in some cases

2.0 – 2016.12.30

• New: transfer: rewritten to use threaded AJAX based transfer
• New: debug: option to force loading of source JS and CSS files
• New: rich snippet: support for JSON-LD snippet format
• New: rating items log: filters and query expanding for the log
• New: multisite: remove tables for deleted blogs
• New: database: function to get list of users who votes for an item
• New: javascript: improved method for handling AJAX errors
• New: debug: log AJAX error to console, display alert or hide
• New: many small updates to improve plugin extensibility
• New: all rating methods render text: before and after wrapper
• New: theme overridable functions to render various elements
• New: several new functions for dealing with rating methods
• Edit: transfer: various speed optimizations and improvements
• Edit: shortcake addon: improved code organization
• Edit: shortcake addon: improvements to the editor elements display
• Edit: shortcake addon: display wrapper and block CSS class options
• Edit: metabox: updated interface for better usability
• Edit: dynamic load: check if the rendering is inside the feed
• Edit: many improvements to core methods objects
• Edit: many improvements to the addon architecture
• Edit: many updates to the core objects initialization
• Edit: few improvements to the administration panels
• Edit: few improvements organization of the plugin code
• Edit: d4pLib 1.8.7
• Edit: updated plugin system requirements
• Fix: shortcake addon: wrong options for the stars review shortcodes
• Fix: shortcake addon: showing unsupported shortcode attributes
• Fix: votes log: display of some rating items titles
• Fix: votes log: filter user ID set to zero (visitors)
• Fix: shortcodes: few issues with preprocessing of attributes
• Fix: stars rating: problem with formatting rating value
• Fix: stars rating: few issues with rendering of votes text
• Fix: stars rating: list widget template missing list item classes
• Fix: dynamic load: doesn’t take into account the feed
• Fix: transfer: few problems with YASR plugin data transfer
• Fix: transfer: many warnings happening during the transfer
• Fix: transfer: missing item preparation for saving transferred data
• Fix: translation missing for the word ‘ago’ for rating text
• Fix: issues with scanning for theme override templates
• Fix: rating query object: wrong sorting by rating

1.4 – 2016.10.23

• New: addon: Shortcake UI Plugin Support
• New: administration: panel for managing rating entities and types
• New: rules panel: buttons for delete and activation of rules
• New: rules panel: color coding for list of available rules
• New: rules panel: confirmation dialog for deleting the rule
• New: votes log: filters and query expanding for the log
• New: stars rating: translation templates for rendering blocks
• New: database: new column for ‘series’ to the items table
• New: database: indexing more columns in the items table
• New: debug: embed SQL query for the rating lists
• New: protect entities and types array from tampering
• New: update plugin panel rechecks for broken settings
• Edit: votes log: refactored SQL query to get log items
• Edit: plugin now uses d4pLib settings core class
• Edit: refactored access to entities array to use access functions
• Edit: refactored main rendering JavaScript file
• Edit: changes in the way JavaScript files are compressed
• Edit: improvements to rating method core classes
• Edit: improvements to generated inline CSS for font icons
• Edit: improvements to rating method core classes
• Edit: d4pLib 1.8.3
• Edit: removed some outdated code from rating methods
• Fix: anonymous verify option can cause broken SQL log queries
• Fix: some votes log URL’s were not working in every case
• Fix: missing sanitation of the settings for some operation
• Fix: few minor issues with the rendering objects

1.3.1 – 2016.09.29

• Edit: d4pLib 1.8.2
• Fix: removal of rating items not working in some cases

1.3 – 2016.08.05

• New: addon: Feeds – for RSS, AMP, FIP, ANF integration support
• New: font icons: support for adding custom icon fonts
• New: font icons: 10 more icons in default icons font
• New: rewriten handling for the font icons
• New: allow or prevent authors to vote for own rating items
• New: improved sanitation of plugins settings on save
• New: transfer data from KK Star Ratings plugin
• New: actions run when voting items data is saved to the database
• New: filter to modify votes meta data added to the database
• New: ratings and votes grids allow for adding of new columns
• New: support for IP detection when behind CloudFlare
• Edit: improved sanitation of plugins settings on save
• Edit: improved buttons on all dialogs on the admin side
• Edit: many improvements in handling shortcodes and widgets
• Edit: ratings grid proper use of the rating item objects
• Edit: many small improvements to the JavaScript code
• Edit: d4pLib 1.7.8
• Fix: few small issues when the user agent is not set
• Fix: saving option to disbale custom settings rule not working
• Fix: few minor styling issues related to rating lists
• Fix: warnings generated by the missing style type and/or name
• Fix: logs display warnings with post types are missing
• Fix: small issue with type option in the shortcodes processing
• Fix: duplicated classes added for star rating font icons styles
• Fix: minor problems in applying default styles for widgets
• Fix: few minor problems with the main JavaScript file
• Fix: warnings related to query object SQL query in some cases
• Fix: wrong attribute name for item ID for some shortcodes

1.2 – 2016.05.10

• New: posts addon: sort posts by rating
• New: posts addon: additional control filters
• New: comments addon: sort posts by rating
• New: comments addon: additional control filters
• New: query engine: posts filter by author, meta and terms
• New: query engine: comments filter by author and meta
• New: query engine: terms filter by meta
• New: query engine: users filter meta
• New: debug information added for shortcodes and widgets
• New: separate security and debug settings panels
• New: settings panel now uses dividers for settings groups
• Edit: posts addon: do not embed if inside the rss feed
• Edit: new settings and updates for rendering of rating blocks
• Edit: protect expanded rendering functions
• Edit: extra information for transfer data panels
• Edit: check if method is active for transfer data panels
• Edit: minor updates to some of the templates
• Edit: some minor improvements on the admin side interface
• Edit: d4pLib 1.6.9
• Fix: minor issue with the GD Star Rating transfer process
• Fix: comments addon: rating display when no comment is detected
• Fix: posts addon: rating display when no comment is detected
• Fix: small issue with the d4pLib shortcodes class

1.1.1 – 2016.01.23

• New: front page knowledge base and support links
• Edit: check for rating method validity before render
• Edit: few minor updates to the default styling
• Fix: templates in theme subfolder ‘gdrts’ not loaded

1.1 – 2016.01.18

• New: stars rating: set custom colors for font icons based stars
• New: daily maintenance background job
• New: background job: calculate rating type based statistics
• New: background job: recalculate ratings on stars number change
• Edit: rating query object allows filtering of query elements
• Edit: main posts metabox improves default filters and actions
• Edit: font icons: includes spinner icon and some extra classes
• Edit: font icons: font files included with plugin version parameter
• Edit: posts integration addon shows help for the addon
• Edit: posts integration addon hides bbPress post types
• Edit: d4pLib 1.5.8
• Fix: comment rating type missing title when display in lists
• Fix: using FontAwesome spinner icon for loading message
• Fix: method and addon issues with missing custom rule values
• Fix: several smaller issues with the admin interface
• Fix: problems with rating lists ordering by votes

1.0.3 – 2016.01.04

• Edit: some addons function moved into plugin core
• Edit: improvements to some rendering functions
• Edit: switched to new admin object base class from D4PLib
• Edit: d4pLib 1.5.6
• Fix: extensions panel allows for all methods to be disabled
• Fix: rich snippet addon: broken if selected method is disabled
• Fix: rating method dropdown lists show disabled methods

1.0.2.1 – 2015.12.29.

• Fix: abstract method class inheritance problem

1.0.2 – 2015.12.28.

• Edit: improvements to loading of the templates list
• Edit: d4pLib 1.5.5
• Fix: deleting custom rules not working
• Fix: showing disabled methods and addons on rules panel
• Fix: loading conflict with GD bbPress Toolbox Pro
• Fix: minor metabox initialization issue

1.0.1 – 2015.12.27.

• New: metabox for posts to override embed settings
• Edit: plugin initialization priority changed

1.0 – 2015.12.25.

• First official release