CaptainCore 
Looking back, I’m really happy with what’s been happening with CaptainCore this past year. I maybe should have split up the releases a bit, because most of the development work is getting crammed into the final releases as we close out 2021. See below. You can read previous project updates for this year here: #29, #30, #31, and #32.
Quicksave architectural changes have been implemented
I recently rolled out architectural changes for quicksaves, which I wrote about back here, to my CaptainCore production server. Surprisingly it was a very smooth upgrade process even though there were many breaking changes happening under the hood. Now, all of the quicksaves are fetched from generated JSON files. I’m finally able to drop the wp_captaincore_quicksaves table. That’s an incredible 1258 MB of database savings on my WordPress site. 😲
It’s hard to put in words just how fantastic it feels to use the improved quicksave interface. It’s really fast. Performance wasn’t the only thing improved. There are a few new quicksave features. When looking at a quicksave you can now see the previous version or status of the theme or plugin.
When rolling back a theme or plugin you can now select which version you’d like restored. This version or the previous version.
Revamped stats tab powered by Fathom Analytics API
Back in June I abruptly switched my stats collection from Fathom Lite over to Fathom Analytics. That meant the stats tab was somewhat broken, only showing useful data prior to June 2021. That is until I spent time integrating with the official Fathom Analytics API.
The new integration with Fathom Analytics includes two features, viewing stats and managing sharing options. I decided to keep things pretty minimal for a few reasons. First, I have no interest in building a Fathom Analytics clone within CaptainCore. Second, I’d prefer if customers are able to view Fathom Analytics data directly. Building out the share management feature and removing most of what was previously shown on this tab fulfills those desires. Now customers can toggle their stats with either private or public sharing then explore the full stats with Fathom Analytics.
Other feature highlights
- 🔒 Magic logins – A new one-click option to magically login to WordPress. You can still click on the “Users” tab and login as an individually user. With the new “Login to WordPress” option it will automatically pick a WordPress administrator and sign you in. If it finds one that matches your email, it will use that. Otherwise it will just pick another WordPress administrator.
- 💬 Intercom integration – In November I played around with Intercom for Anchor Hosting. As such I’ve added basic Intercom integrations to CaptainCore. When active, regular logged in users will see a live chat icon. So far it’s working great. Ironically it’s the first time I’m able to see who is actually signing into the Anchor Hosting panel.
- 🔔 Failed customer renewal email – Billing features within CaptainCore are tied to WooCommerce not WooCommerce Subscriptions. With the disconnect from WooCommerce Subscriptions the one thing I was lacking was a failed customer renewal email notification, so I built one one.
What’s coming next?
I have no lack of ideas for what I want to see in CaptainCore. If I’m honest, having new ideas is probably the biggest thing holding back CaptainCore as a project. To move CaptainCore forward I need to take some creative steps backward and get more folks invited and using it. Starting with everyone on the early access list. There are still so many unknowns around what a hosted version of CaptainCore will look like. Fun stuff like pricing, features, hosting, and scaling. Just a few good problems to figure out over the holidays. 😄