Workarea 3.5.0 Release Notes

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Workarea 3.5 improves releases and introduces segmentation to the base platform. The accuracy of release previews has improved in several ways. Most notably, all releases scheduled to publish before the previewed release are reflected in the preview. Workarea 3.5 also introduces segments, segment-based metrics and insights, and per-segment activeness. To facilitate segmentation, sessions and cookies have been refactored.

This release also improves platform support for digital products, introducing the concepts of fulfillments SKUs and fulfillment policies. Payment can now be collected differently based on an order's contents (e.g. capture immediately for digital products), and an infrastructure for fraud analysis has been added.

Also new is access to some configuration values in the Admin and administration of tax rates.

The sections below provide details and these and other changes. For all changes, see the changelog.

Major Features / Changes

Releases

• Improves release previewing by including all releases scheduled to publish before the previewed release
• Removes release undo functionality in favor of using separate "undo" releases, and adds a workflow for creating them
• Restores the releases calendar feature in the Admin
• Allows data file importing in releases
• Allows rules changes in releases
• Allows accurate previewing of featured product changes in releases
• Adds a separate Sidekiq queue for releases
• Changes how releases are represented in Elasticsearch

3954, 3982, 3996, 4021, 4092, 4125, 4157, 44, 220

Segmentation

• Adds segmentation feature to the base platform
• Adds segment-based metrics and insights
• Adds per-segment activeness to allow segmented site experiences
• Adds "active by segment" as a filter on Admin index pages

4055, 4095, 135, 138, 150, 155, 159, 162, 166, 181, 183, 184, 189, 193, 205, 210, 214, 219

Sessions

• Refactors session and cookies
• Tracks sessions in metrics for segmentation

4129, 35

Digital Products

• Adds concept of fulfillment SKU (see Fulfillment SKUs)
• Deprecates digital field on products
• Allows capturing payment for digital items when the order is placed
• Applies tax to items that don't require shipping

4142, 4119, 4123, 111, 139, 149

Payment & Fraud

• Changes checkout to adjust tender amounts throughout
• Changes configuration of and logic for payment collection
• Adds infrastructure for fraud analysis (see Add a Fraud Analyzer)
• Allows restricting checkout to certain credit card brands

3951, 4119, 4103, 4123

Administrable Configuration

• Allows administration of some configuration values
• Includes encrypted fields
• See Configuration Fields

4017, 4053, 4064, 4079, 4090, 4109, 4124, 49

Tax Rates UI

• Allows defining separate values for country, region and postal code tax rates
• Allows editing tax rates in the Admin
• See Taxes

4101, 4124, 4112

Minor Features / Changes

• Admin Emails: Redesigns Admin emails. Allows unsubscribing from Admin email. 3994, 4165
• Reports: Adds "sales by tender" and "timeline" reports. Adds metrics for order cancellations. 3933, 4048 3975
• Featured Products Admin UI: Refactors inventory status, adding the concept of inventory collection status. Adds inventory status to featured products Admin UI. 3957, 3983
• Content Block Asset Alt Text: Allows the alt text of a content block asset to fall back to the alt text stored on the content asset. 3988, 4130, 120
• Admin Access to Password Resets and Locked Logins: Allows administrators to unlock logins and send password resets from the Admin. 3955, 3956
• Admin Impersonation UI: Adds indicator to Admin UI when impersonating another user. 3910
• Discount Redemptions Admin: Adds a "redemptions" card to the discounts admin. 3993
• Admin Order Permissions: Adds separate permission for management of orders. 3991, 163
• Search Autocomplete: Moves search autocomplete from the base platform into two plugins: Workarea Search Autocomplete and Workarea Classic Search Autocomplete. 18
• JSON-LD Schema.org Data: Replaces Schema.org microdata with Schema.org JSON-LD throughout the Storefront. Adds Schema.org data to emails. 3920
• Configuration in Test Environment: Resets the configuration after each test. 3892
• Headless Chrome Configuration: Changes default options for headless Chrome and allows passing additional arguments. 4080
• Content Block DSL: Deprecates Workarea::Content.define_block_types in favor of Workarea.define_content_block_types. 4082, 195, 201
• Sidekiq Query Cache Middleware: Adds additional Sidekiq option. Improves search indexing performance. 48
• Administrable Open Graph Image: Allows choosing a default open graph image from the Admin. Tag a content asset og-default to use it as the default open graph image in the Storefront. 208
• Admin Comment Notifications: Changes the UI for "subscribing" administrators to comment notifications. Uses @name syntax within the comment body instead of a separate form field. Also adds option to add/remove yourself from receiving notifications. 173, 203