Vantage 1.2 Released
Vantage 1.2 has been released! This release, Vantage’s most Event-ful release ever, really puts Vantage on the map big time. Vantage has navigated and sorted through many new features and excels across multiple categories of greatness.
Check out this list of the highlighted features for version 1.2:
Events
Introducing Events, a new post type that works right along side of Vantage’s Listings. Events are like Listings but are date based items used to show upcoming events.
Single Event View:
Event Date Filtered List:
Event Form:
Threaded Comments:
Just like listings, you can charge for events and allow featured events. Pricing for events is completely up to you – provide events for free or charge a fee. Events also comes with a whole new batch of widgets: create event button, popular events, recently added events, similar events and upcoming events.
One more special, custom widget worth noting is the event attendees widget. This widget let’s users RSVP for event or see who else is attending an event. You can read more about this widget and how to use it in our Setting Up and Using the Event Attendees Widget tutorial.
Multiple Categories Support and Category Surcharges
Multiple categories are now supported and are available for both Listings and Events. We also added category surcharges. Surcharges allow you to charge a little more for posting events in specific categories.
List Page Sorting
Vantage adds a ton of convenient sorting options for both events and listings.
New AppMaps
In Vantage 1.2, we have moved map settings to a new location: Admin > Vantage > Geo Settings. This is done in anticipation of the soon-to-be-released AppMaps plugin which will allow alternatives to the Google Maps API that comes standard with Vantage. As before, the Geo Settings will control how Vantage works with map APIs to determine locations and distances.
Big Maps
There is now a widgetized sidebar and new widget that will display a big map at the top of the list pages. This new map widget will display different colored markers for Listings and Events. Each marker links directly to the Listing or Event.
Driving Directions
The map widget now also includes Google driving directions. Driving directions are optional and can be enabled within the widget settings. With a simple button push, users can print the directions in an easily readable format.
Contact Listing / Event Owner
Your visitors can now contact the Listing owners or Event organizers directly, through a popup contact form available on each Listing and Event page.
How Do I get This Update?
That’s a huge list and there is an even longer list of resolved issues and code improvements that’s too long to list here. By now, you must be wondering how to get your hands on the new release. You can download a copy from your customer dashboard. Or better yet, download and install the AppThemes Updater Plugin to make updating a snap!
New Tutorials
To help you along with all these new improvements, we created new tutorials and updated some of our exiting tutorials. As always, our helpful support team is ready to assist you with any needs.
- Setting Up Events in Vantage
- Setting Up and Using the Event Attendees Widget in Vantage
- Setting up maps and using map widgets
Comments (34)
Great job, long awaited update here and looks good indeed. Really does require recurring payment option of some sorts for both listings and events. Really crucial – but of course there will always be some feature missing 🙂 but definitely recurring payments is a key one in my humble opinion. Once more nice job on this.
Thanks James! Recurring is in the works.
Payment features are the only updates I wanted (and we all need). A better notification system for renewal of listings, plus recurring payment options are ESSENTIAL (far more essential than events).
Yes, I bought this theme awhile ago but can’t use it without recurring billing. This should be a PRIORITY.
Seriously, this would be one bad-ass theme with recurring billing. It would be the best out there but until that, it just a tease.
You are so close to being the VERY BEST.
Good to know, recurring should be the buzz word in the next release, recurring payments and recurring events 😉
I just updated to 1.2 and now have a drop down for filtering my listings at the top before my listings with text links under the drop down. It looks bad. Is this a bug?
@justinkase, You can see how the filter is supposed to look on the Vantage demo site. If yours is not like that, our support team will be more than happy to have a look at your site if you could please start a thread in the relevant section of the support forums. Thanks.
any updates in translation files?
@seolution, our Vantage languages page has now been updated, so we’re happy to receive updated translation files. Translator arrangements can be made by emailing us here. Thanks.
Woohoo! Thanks guys for releasing it – I’ve been really excited to see the final product!
Any ideas how to merge old translation with a new one?
@seolution, you may like to check here for some info on doing this. Thanks.
Please add e-mail id and contact person name option in listing.csv.
@Aditya, this information is connected to the “Author”, which is found on the example .csv file. Thanks.
I like the update. Can’t complain much right now but I would like to see stronger review features and ultimately a more social experience. I’m really impressed by all the sorting functionality on the home page but it leaves me wondering why the same thing wasn’t implemented on the individual listings themselves. I hope this can be implemented on the next release since it doesn’t seem like too difficult a task given that it’s already been done elsewhere. I also hope more sorting and review features will be implemented in the near future. There was a lot of focus on geo-related upgrades this time around and personally they don’t apply to my site nor do I think they should be prioritized over more imperative upgrades.
I’m not sure how the ideas exchange methodology works but it looks like many of the most popular ideas aren’t being implemented while some ideas that are brand new are being thrust into implementation. It doesn’t follow the process outlined, so I’m just wondering if there is a better way to vocalize our preferences. There should also be a way to edit or group ideas so that minor adjustments/additions can be made or seemingly related ideas could be grouped together instead of taking on a completely separate ballot and having to gain votes from scratch.
There was talk about appthemes releasing a theme for vantage is there any progress on that? Or if you could share your vision for the theme that would be great too. Good Job!
@danielh, thanks for your feedback! At this point the Ideas Exchange is still the best way to vocalize your suggestions, and our development team definitely do look at these. We will make efforts to review that part of the site asap, as this is admittedly in need of updating to clear out some of the features already implemented and give more feedback on existing ideas. Keeping in mind that although ideas are submitted, not all will definitely be implemented, and whilst some of the more popular suggestions are still there, this is often because the team are discussing how it could be done, particularly if it’s of a more complex nature. Sometimes also, ideas which seem newer and are added may simply be items already planned. Thanks.
I understand that not all ideas may be implemented, but at this point I’m failing to see it’s purpose and how to benefit from it after using it for a year now. If an idea is going to be declined, it should be declined quickly and before it becomes a popular one so we don’t waste votes. IMO, I think there’s been one? major update over the past year with only a few additions, and I would expect much more than that in that much time (especially with the renewal fee). If I don’t know what the vision for the site is and I’m getting a few upgrades that plugins could accomplish quickly, then I wouldn’t have to wait a year or pay a renewal fee for upgrades that don’t benefit me. Thanks.
@danielh, we don’t decline items immediately because we do like to allow time for community to give feedback on these, and as I mentioned, this does need to be updated as well. In terms of theme updates though, you can view the theme version history here, and there have been 2 major updates in the last year, with fairly consistent minor releases throughout the year as well. Thanks.
Buenas noches:
Tengo un problema al usar el vantage en español, cada vez que activo el idioma español en el archivo wp-config.php, el vantage comienza a fallar y me manda el siguiente error: Warning: sprintf() [function.sprintf]: Too few arguments in /home/htamayc/public_html/wp-content/themes/vantage/includes/payments/gateways/paypal/paypal.php on line 132
y lo vuelvo a dejar en ingles y todos los errores desaparecen.
@htamayc, Si usted pudiera por favor, inicie una sesión en los foros AppThemes y publicar un hilo aquà en relación con las cuestiones que usted ha descrito, nuestro equipo de apoyo será más que feliz de ayudar aún más. Gracias (Por favor, disculpe esta traducción con Google translate)
Hello,
I was wondering if it is possible to get my advertiser’s listings to show up organically with their star ratings. If this is not currently done, is there a way to make this happen? I use Yoast Local SEO plugin and I am hoping that this may help.
Thanks,
Patrick
@happyday, Sorry, I’m not sure what you mean by this exactly? If you could please describe this a little more by posting a thread in the AppThemes forums here, our team will be happy to advise further if this would require customization. Thanks.
Rich snippets https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/99170?hl=en
@seolution, microdata will be included in the next Vantage release.
Hi
We are considering a shift from Directory (by AIT) to Vantage. We have at lot of content already, in Directory saved as “Items”. What will we have to do so we can reuse data?
Best
Niels
@Niels, Vantage itself also uses custom post types, however the “Items” from the other theme are likely not to be automaticaly recognized as “Listings” in Vantage. In this case, you could either make use of the Vantage .csv import tool as shown here in the Vantage admin demo (meaning, exporting the data into this format first, then re-importing it), OR if you have knowledge of mysql admin you could potentially migrate the data over to the correct location. If you have a particularly large database you may like to read this documentation. Thanks.
I am trying to find out if I can search the Listings and Events with additional search box (not just NEAR) like (City,State, Country).
is there are a way I can customize this?
Thanks!
@George, Vantage is not encrypted so you are free to modify it as you wish. We recommend the use of a child theme if you are looking to make changes as this will prevent you from losing all of your modifications in the process of an update. Thanks.
O tema é um dos melhores, mas o mapa grande que fica na página principal é muito feio, se vocês arrumarem isso eu compro!!
@Thallyson, O grande mapa é opcional, então se você não quiser que ele apareça na página principal, então você não precisa adicionar o widget. Obrigado.(Por favor, desculpe a tradução, eu estou usando o Google Translate)
É que eu preciso desse mapa grande na página inicial, ele é muito útil para mim, o problema é que ele não tem nenhum estilo, e o plugin SUPREMAPS é muito caro para mim comprar, eu deixo aqui minha sugestão para deixar o tema mais perfeito ainda, arrumar esse mapa, colocar categorias, ter como trocar os marcadores, se isso muda-se eu compro. Muito Obrigado.
Na minha opinião, o melhor que seja feito era disponibilizar o plugin SUPERMAPS do tema Vantage de graça ou criarem um próprio de vocês para personalizar, pois o que está não serve para quem precisa dele.
@Thallyson, Obrigado pelo seu feedback. Para esclarecer, o plugin Mapsupreme não é um produto feito por AppThemes, ele foi criado por um de nossos desenvolvedores mercado e estava disponÃvel antes Vantage tinha a opção de adicionar o grande mapa da homepage. Este é apenas para explicar por que não oferecer o produto de graça;)
Como Vantage continua a ser desenvolvido, você pode ver as opções mais relacionadas com o mapa, por isso, continuar a seguir o nosso blog para atualizações sobre novos lançamentos. Obrigado.
Discussion is closed.