Free Downloads 2.2.0 improved with better performance and email verification feature
A little over a year ago, we announced a Easy Digital Downloads extension called Free Downloads that improved the customer experience when ‘purchasing’ a free item. Today, I’m pleased to present to you, version 2.2.0. Over the last year we’ve received substantial feedback from users and improved many existing aspects of the extension, as well as added some key features that will make distributing free products even easier for store owners.
Refactored/Redesigned modal
In 2.2.0, we’ve completely refactored the modal presented to users from the ground up and removed the dependency on 3rd party JavaScript libraries. Don’t worry though, it should look nearly (if not exactly) the same as it previously did. We maintained as much backwards compatibility as possible. In doing this, we’ve reduced the overall complexity of Free Downloads, which makes it more reliable and easier for us to maintain, which will result in less unexpected behavior.
Email verification
Possibly one of the most requested features, was the ability to ‘verify’ email addresses, to help prevent using fake email addresses when requesting a free download. Now, Free Downloads includes a feature that requires customers to ‘confirm’ their email prior to being provided with access to your digital goods. When users enter their email address, they are informed they will get an email to confirm their download. Once received, the user just needs to click the provided link, and Free Downloads will handle the rest, either delivering the product immediately, or redirecting the user to the desired page. When combined with an email marketing extension, this feature can help improve the quality of your subscribers as it requires the user have a functioning email address to complete the process.
Improved ‘On Complete Handler’ features
One option included with Free Downloads is the ability to redirect a user to a specific page after completing their ‘purchase’. Free Downloads now appends the ‘purchase key’ (used to look up the customer and purchase data) to the query string of the redirect URL, allowing you to build a custom template and include personalized data about the customer or requested files on that redirect page.
Other fixes and improvements
While the above items are new features added, there were a slew of issues that were fixed alongside them.
Bug Fixes
- Possible file download errors when using Dropbox Filestore
- Registration fields now respect the ‘Disable Guest Purchase’ setting in Easy Digital Downloads
- Better reliability when adding multiple purchase links for free products on pages
- File download logs are now created for each download request
- The caching system around auto-downloading multiple files has been improved
- The form for the Free Downloads modal no longer loads on every page
- Improvements to the ‘Bypass if Logged In’ setting
- Fixed a bug with non-English sites and custom Download Now button text
Other improvements
- Add more actions into the purchase form, to allow customization without creating a custom template
- Minified JavaScript and CSS for improved performance
- Improved usability of modal by auto-focusing on the first input field
- Allow disabling of both purchase confirmation and admin sales notifications individually
- Better error messages for troubleshooting
Free Downloads 2.2.0 is currently available to all valid license key holders.
View the full change log and product information for Free Downloads.
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