In March we worked on:

  • Deals API and Deal Interface:  – Improvements have been made to group discounts
  • Website – Now upgraded to ES 8.0 (Elastic Search); this app is responsible for the quick search box and reports pages. Main benefits include speed, reduced memory usage) and security
  • Self Onboarding – More improvements to to improve user experience to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of the onboarding process
  • Housekeeping – Bug Fixes, Github CI, Vue, Site Settings, Rails, Ruby, Codecheck, Gem Deprecation, Vue 3 Cypress Integration, Webhooks,
  • Upgrades – We have now completed the R6 upgrade rollout! This has been an enormous task that delivers improved security and performance. The rollout has been gradual so we do not expect too many issue but email support if you strike any. (Now we start on R7 🙂

New Features

  • General Ledger
    • We progressed in our new feature in development by translating Basic Layby Sales to the ledger, ensuring accurate financial records and facilitating better financial analysis and reporting. #187041249
    • We progressed in our new feature in development fixing the Layby Sales to only be invoiced at the end, ensuring accurate financial transactions. #187026012
  • Xero
    • Xero Integration
      • We progressed in our new feature in development adding a custom flow in the Xero connect callback to create its resource if the origin is an inquiry form, enhancing integration functionality and automating resource creation. #18692493

Improvements

  • Xero
    • We successfully managed site connections by implementing the ability to disconnect with Xero and revoke site connections as needed. #187072865
  • Accented Characters
    • We enhanced the search functionality to recognise accented characters even if the user types all letters without accent or lower-case, improving search results and user experience for diverse titles and authors. #186553906
  • Backoffice
    • Sale Order
      • We enhanced user experience by disabling ‘Notes’ and ‘Next follow-up date’ inputs on the ‘Follow-up’ modal for orders that are not overdue, improving workflow efficiency. #186893122
  • Self-onboarding
    • We implemented a feature allowing the deletion of single or multiple onboarding sessions, streamlining the self-onboarding process only for admin users. #187171810
    • We improved our self-onboarding dashboard feature streamlining the process for admin users to delete the onboardings, enhancing user control and privacy. #186957035
    • We improved the self-onboarding process by creating an interface for filter dropdown menus and rendering all onboardings with the selected filter option, enhancing user experience and usability. #186987493
    • We updated scope params in the index endpoint to manage onboard filtering, enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of the onboarding process. #186949274
  • Settings
    • Bin
      • We improved the user interface by adjusting the color of the edit icon and Bin name, ensuring better visibility and usability. #187068373
  • Deals API
    • We solved an issue where an exception occurred while trying to delete a deal with associated import data through the Deals API, ensuring smooth operation. #187234254
    • We updated the search spreadsheet deal endpoint to accept sorting of the list of deals by upload date, deal title, and expiry date by updating the search endpoint to support sorting deals based on various criteria. #187122870
    • We enabled the association member sites to manage deal statuses, improving collaboration and coordination among stakeholders. #187159407
    • We successfully updated our API to set a deal as Done or In progress for each site, facilitating smoother management of deals across various platforms. #187086410
    • We added a new ‘Done’ deals type for spreadsheet deals, enhancing the categorization and organization of deals. #187043823
    • We added a new release attribute for spreadsheet deals, enhancing the information available for deal analysis and tracking. #187043816
  • Deals Interface
    • We successfully created the initial spreadsheet deal interface in Vue 3, enhancing the Deals Interface and improving user interaction. #187043794
    • We added a feature flag related to the new Deals interface ensuring flexibility in transitioning between Rails and Vue interfaces, with the flag enabled, the user can use the new Vue interface (under construction). #187170864
    • We implemented the CSV upload functionality for new deal forms, allowing users to efficiently import deals from external sources, improving productivity and data management. #187160144
    • We created a feature to create and import CSV deals within the Vue 3 interface, enhancing data management capabilities and streamlining deal import processes. #187043796
  • Website
    • Category
      • Pre Order
        • We adjusted the placement of “Pre Order Now” logos on category pages, ensuring better visual presentation and user experience. #187102567
    • SEO
      • We improved metadata description for Category pages, enhancing search engine visibility and discoverability. #186831503
  • Layby
    • We are preventing negative items, vouchers, gift cards, and Vii loads from being mistakenly sold in layby sales, improving transaction accuracy and preventing potential errors. #187128292
  • Customer List
    • We implemented an improvement to automatically tick the “Store only?” checkbox in the customer list by default, streamlining the customer management process. #187084094
  • Otp_Secrets
    • Code_check
      • We enhanced security by changing the API route of the otp_secret code check to use the new commands structure, ensuring a more robust authentication process on 2FA processes. #186745383

Housekeeping & Upgrades

  • Housekeeping
    • Github CI
      • We removed Ruby 2.7 from our Continuous Integration (CI) tests, ensuring that our code is tested against the most relevant and up-to-date versions, enhancing the reliability and stability of our software development process. #187181548
    • Vue
      • We removed Vue 2 from our codebase, from now on we’ve an updated Vue version (version 3) building and running our Vue interfaces, ensuring optimal performance and a better user experience. #187179169
    • Site Settings
      • We added an option in system admin site settings to mark demo sites as test websites, ensuring accurate community-related data in reports and comparisons. #185783805
    • Rails
      • Rails 6.1
        • We addressed feature test issues within “a”, “b”, and “c” groups in Rails 6.1, ensuring smoother testing processes and better code reliability. #187173930 #187174138 #187174164
        • We improved our system by adding Rails 6.1 to GitHub tests, enhancing our development environment and ensuring compatibility with the latest technologies. #187210411
        • We solved minitests and controller tests compatibility issues with Rails 6.1, the resource is related to creating a new supplier and the Cash Up Report features, ensuring comprehensive test coverage and code reliability. #187090168
        • We improved the minitest reports_controller_test.rb, ensuring smoother testing processes in the future. #187139811
        • We fixed occurrences of fill_in concatenating with present value on feature specs, enhancing the reliability of our feature testing procedures. #187127211
        • We successfully added Rails 6.1 code, incorporating the latest updates and features into our application for improved performance and compatibility. #187080760
        • We addressed issues in controller tests for Rails 6.1, ensuring robustness and reliability in our application. #187063855
        • We fixed models tests for Rails 6.1, ensuring accurate and reliable testing of our application’s models. #187063178
        • We fixed services tests for Rails 6.1, ensuring accurate and reliable testing of our application’s services. #187055259
      • Rails 6
        • We investigated occurrences of error 500, related to the concurrent connection limit in Rails 6 server, ensuring stability and reliability of our application. #187025722
    • Rails Deprecation
      • We fixed rendering issues related to deprecated naming conventions in Rails, ensuring compatibility with newer versions and maintaining code quality standards. The fixing is directly related to api/v1/circle_gift_cards API endpoint. #187096137
    • Ruby
      • 3.0.6
        • We switched our production environment to Ruby 3.0.6, ensuring compatibility with the latest Ruby version and potentially benefiting from performance enhancements and security fixes. #187172183
        • We’ve successfully switched beta6 to Ruby 3.0.6, ensuring smoother performance and compatibility with the latest features and security patches. #187103906
        • The issue causing Errno::ECONNREFUSED in feature tests has been fixed, ensuring uninterrupted testing processes without manual intervention, enhancing development efficiency. #187011692
      • 3.0
        • We added Ruby 3.0 tests to GitHub CI, ensuring comprehensive test coverage for our Ruby environment. #187012282
    • Codecheck
      • We fixed the codecheck process on our Continuous Integration (CI) pipeline, ensuring that code quality checks are properly executed, enhancing the reliability and maintainability of our codebase. #187166631
    • Website
      • Robots.txt
        • We updated the robots.txt file to block specific bot crawlers, enhancing website security and controlling access to web content. #187127152
    • Gem Deprecation
      • We solved issues related to job argument serialization in Sidekiq, this resource is directly related to the API requests and responses, ensuring the server can receive, process and return the data in JSON format. #187096484
      • We addressed deprecations in the money gem, ensuring compatibility and stability with future updates. That improvement ensured the user receives a Wishlist e-mail with the same value as on the Wishlist page, without any discrepancies. #187096500
    • Vue 3 Cypress Integration
      • We fixed E2E tests related to Vue 3 Cypress Integration, enhancing the reliability of end-to-end testing for improved product quality. #187110853
    • Webhooks – Part II
      • Vue
        •  We created a CRUD interface for Webhooks and updated Webhook Triggers, improving the management and functionality of webhooks within the application. #187042982
    • Deployment Script
      • We updated the deployment script to address deployment failures, ensuring smooth and successful deployment processes. #187068729
  • Upgrades
    • Rails 6
      • We have now completed the R6 upgrade rollout! This has been an enormous task that delivers improved security and performance. The rollout has been gradual so we do not expect too many issue but email support if you strike any. (Now we start on R7 🙂
    • Vue 3 Upgrade
      • We cleaned up the Gift Card Settings layout, ensuring a smoother and more user-friendly experience for managing gift card settings, enhancing usability and clarity. #187180308
      • We refined the layout and schemas related to selling gift cards, improving the visual presentation and backend structure, enhancing overall performance and maintainability. #187169980
      • We improved the batch gift card validation processes during the Vue 3 upgrade, ensuring data accuracy and integrity. #187140021
      • We cleaned up and refactoring Bin Settings interface elements, improving usability and maintaining code quality during the Vue 3 upgrade. #187135855
      • We refactored the Activate Card store during the Vue 3 upgrade, enhancing the performance and maintainability of the codebase. #186981344
        We completed the final cleanup tasks and enabled all tests related to webhooks during the Vue 3 upgrade, ensuring smooth operation and reliability of webhook functionalities. #187101133
    • Vue 3 & Ruby 3.0
      • Continuing work on updating to the next version of our software framework. #186990811

        See www.twitter.com/circlesupport for all changes including bug fixes.

        Some of the things we are currently working on:

        • Rails 7
        • Vue 3 Upgrade
        • Deals
        • General Ledger
        • Bug Fixes