Version 3.0 Released

Tournamatch version 3.0 is now available. This is a major update for existing users. Please reach out to us via email or by opening a support ticket if you want to migrate an existing Tournamatch 2.x website and all of its data to 3.x. This update relocates all of the source files into the native /wp-content/plugins directory. The relocation doesn’t add any features to ladders or tournaments, but it drastically improves the management of the plugin and lays the foundation for more rapid improvements in the future. Specifically, relocating the plugin immediately improves installation, administration, and updates; and, future updates will improve internationalization and user roles/permissions.

Installing Tournamatch now works exactly like installing other plugins. Upload the download to the plugins directory and click “Activate” inside of your admin. The plugin isn’t yet available on the WordPress plugin repository. We are trending towards that goal. Unfortunately, the file size of this plugin makes it unlikely you will be able to upload the plugin directly within the WordPress Admin. We are also working to reduce the dependencies and overall file size.

Updates are now automatic! When there is a new version of Tournamatch available, you will see a notification within your WordPress dashboard. Simply click the update link and Tournamatch will update itself. You may also find the patch notes here. We’re working to improve the updates further by providing an option to switch to the latest developmental build for trail blazers.

Administrating Tournamatch is now more native. Instead of a separate location to manage ladders, tournaments, games, etc, you can find those links directly in your WordPress admin menu. We’ll soon add custom roles so that you can leverage the WordPress role editor to assign capabilities to users.

Version 3.0 also no longer requires support for ionCube. We’re really excited about this – it was as much of a headache for us as it was for some of you. Several of the source code files we used depended on it, so after rewriting those source files, we were able to remove this requirement.

In future releases, we anticipate focusing on user roles/permissions first followed by fully adopting the native WordPress internationalization & localization system. Until then, Tournamatch is only available in English.

This update officially ends our support of Tournamatch for PHP-Nuke, phpBB, and Tournamatch version 2.x. If you wish to continue using 2.x, feel free to do so. We will no longer be patching, improving, or supporting version 2.x. We’re offering a free upgrade to version 3 for anyone who currently owns version 2, so we encourage everyone to take advantage of that offer.

We’re really excited about the future of this product. More than 90% of our customer support inquiries could be grouped into these topics: installation help, ionCube, are there updates available, installing updates, and how to find the administration section. This release knocks all of those barriers down. We should be able to focus more on product development and distribute those updates rapidly and seamlessly. It’s still a long way before we get to where we want to be. We truly appreciate you joining us for the journey.