Version 1.9 released!

It is that time again! Today we’re happy to announce that AffiliateWP 1.9 is now available! This version includes numerous new features and major enhancements that make AffiliateWP so much better.

AffiliateWP 1.9 includes several significant enhancements, including better reporting, new integrations, and even a REST API.

Reporting

Keeping an eye on your affiliates’ performance is mandatory for running a top-notch affiliate program. In 1.9 we have made several substantial improvements to the Reports page.

First, the page has received a small face lift that makes the graphs and Quick Stats easier to read and understand. The graphs now show each point as a summed total for the day and month instead of every record being a separate point on the graph.

Second, the quick stat tiles now show numbers based on the date range selected, allowing site admins to quickly view summed totals and averages for the current year, month, quarter, and other date ranges. We have also introduced several new quick stat tiles with valuable pieces of information. The tiles can also be drag-and-dropped into whichever configuration you prefer.

Third, we have introduced a new Campaigns report that will show the top-performing campaigns and the associated visit stats.

Integrations

One of best feature sets of AffiliateWP is its strong integration with popular eCommerce, membership, invoice, and form plugins. In 1.9, we’ve taken integrations even further by introducing two brand new integrations and significantly improving three existing integrations.

OptimizeMember

AffiliateWP now offers a direct integration with the popular OptimizeMember plugin from OptimizePress. To enable the integration, simply navigate to Affiliates → Settings → Integrations and check the box for OptimizeMember.

See the setup documentation for more information.

PayPal

With PayPal being one of our most requested integrations, we’re excited to finally offer a direct integration for PayPal buttons. This means you can now award affiliate commissions for purchases made through PayPal buttons without requiring any kind of eCommerce, membership, invoice, or form plugin – AffiliateWP now supports the standard HTML buttons that have been offered by PayPal for years.

To enable PayPal button support, simply navigate to Affiliates → Settings → Integrations and check the box for PayPal.

See the setup documentation for more information.

WooCommerce

Our WooCommerce integration is one of the more robust integrations we offer and today it has been made even better! Per-product rates have been supported for a while but that wasn’t sufficient for many store owners who also needed per-variation control. With 1.9, referral rates can now be set on a per-product and per-variation level. This means that each variation on a product can have its own referral rate!

Each variation also now includes an option to disable referrals completely for that variation.

Easy Digital Downloads

The integration for our sister project, Easy Digital Downloads, has been updated with two new features. First, we have added support for disabling referral commissions on license upgrades through the Software Licensing extension. This compliments our existing option to prevent referral commissions on license renewal purchases.

Second, we have improved the referral amount calculation for sites using the Recurring Payments extension. Signup fees on subscription purchases are now properly included in the final commission amount calculation.

Gravity Forms

The Gravity Forms integration now includes full affiliate coupon tracking! This means that sites using the Gravity Forms Coupons add-on can now connect coupon codes to affiliate accounts. See the Gravity Forms integration documentation for more information.

Payout logs

One of the most important parts of running a successful affiliate program is paying your valuable affiliates. In AffiliateWP 1.9 we have added a new Payouts screen that displays a log of every payout sent to affiliates.

Each time a payout is processed for affiliates, a log entry will be created for each affiliate included in the payout. The payout log entries show the total amount paid, the affiliate paid, the referral commissions included in the payment, how the payment was made, and the date of the payment.

Payout logs are also made available in the Affiliate Area so affiliates can easily see a history of their payments. See the Payouts documentation for more information.

Emails

AffiliateWP helps keep site managers and affiliates informed by sending emails when certain events occur, such as new registrations or earned commissions. In 1.9 we have added several new template tags to emails, allowing site administrators to send better emails.

• {landing_page} – This tag is designed to be used in the New Referral alert email and will show the page of the site the customer first landed on before making a purchase.
• {referral_rate} – This tag can be used in both New Referral alert and Affiliate Welcome emails, and will show the referral rate the affiliate currently has for their account.
• {review_url} – This tag is designed to be used for the New Account Registration email sent to site administrators. It will show a direct URL to the affiliate’s review screen, letting site admins more rapidly moderate affiliate account registrations.

REST API

AffiliateWP 1.9 now includes a complete, read-only REST API that provides developers a way to easily interact with AffiliateWP through remote applications.

This API extends the REST API infrastructure included in WordPress core 4.4 and later.

The base API endpoint is located at /wp-json/affwp/v1 and includes the following routes:

• affiliates
• referrals
• visits
• payouts
• creatives

This REST API provides developers with a valuable tool that can be used to extend AffiliateWP far beyond its current capabilities. For example, this REST API could be used to build a mobile app that permits site managers to access affiliate data whilst on the go. It could be used to automatically send referral or affiliate data to external applications, such as Google Docs or Trello. The possibilities are really endless and limited only by developers’ imagination. In the next few months there will be some very exciting integrations built and released for AffiliateWP. Hint: Zapier is coming very, very soon. Sign up for our newsletter below to get notified when the Zapier add-on is available.

See the REST API documentation for usage information.

WP-CLI

WP-CLI is a tool that allows for WordPress to be managed from the command line. In AffiliateWP 1.9, we have included a full suite of WP-CLI commands for interacting with affiliate data. This includes options to create, update, delete, and view all information within AffiliateWP.

See the WP-CLI documentation for more information.

Additional enhancements

The new features highlighted above are awesome, but there are numerous other enhancements included! Check them out:

• Screen Options tab now includes options to show or hide columns on Affiliates, Referrals, Visits, Creatives, and Payouts screens
• New object models for each of the core data types. These provide developers with easy, reliable ways to interact with AffiliateWP data programmatically
• Significant performance improvements through new caching layers
• New base class for list tables to provide developers with an easy way to add new list tables for affiliate data
• New base class for meta boxes to provide developers with an easy way to register new meta boxes on AffiliateWP screens
• License keys can now be entered through a constant in wp-config.php
• Improved column names and layouts for Affiliates table
• Improved accessibility throughout
• Better license activation process that includes success and error messages
• Improved URL validation on affiliate registration form
• Improved URL validation on referral URL generator
• Affiliates’ first and last names now included in CSV export file
• [affiliate_referral_url] now defaults to showing the current page’s URL.

We’re excited to release AffiliateWP 1.9, and we hope you like it too! 1.9 is available now – grab it today!