Our latest version of Checkfront v2.5 has been released across our network. This includes several important updates, including our new customer facing booking plugins for Joomla, WordPress, Drupal and Facebook. These plugins provide integration with our v2 interface.
Interface Update
We’ve spent a lot of time over the past several months tweaking the customer facing user interface. The new interface provides a more intuitive customer experience, additional configuration, improved session support and layout options. The goal of the customer booking interface and plugins is to allow customers to review your availability, check pricing, and make a booking with as few steps as possible. Ultimately this leads to less phone calls and e-mails to you, and more bookings. To see how the booking interface integrates into our website, have a look at our demo.
The new plugins make available the following:
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Configurable up-sells
You can now specify a quantity in packages. This is a great option for items that are not date based, for example a add-on services, up-sells or static items (such as a t-shirt).
This is configured via a regular inventory item with “simple pricing enabled”. -
SSL Support
If the booking page is hosted with your own SSL certificate customers will stay on your site for the duration of the booking (with the exception of external Payment processors such as Paypal). Although completely optional, this provides a more streamlined checkout experience.
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Tabbed Categories
Tabbed categories were removed from our v2 admin interface due to their inability to display more than a handful of categories well. But this works well with a smaller set of categories, so we’ve added it back as an option by request. If you wish to enable them internally, see your booking page settings on Manage / Layout.
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Support for multiple payment gateways
If you are using one of our integrated payment gateways such Authorize.net or SagePay, you can now add additional payment options to your payment page. Currently, you can add Paypal, Google Checkout.
We recommend that you upgrade your current customer facing implementation of Checkfront to the latest version:
- WordPress Plugin (2.5+)
- Joomla Plugin (1.6 – 2.5)
- Drupal Module (1.7+)
- Facebook Plugin
- Hosted Booking Page
For a full list of updates, including new rules, dashboard widgets, and add-ons see the update center.
- Q: How long can I continue to use the v1 plugins?
A: We have no immediate plans to discontinue support for the v1 interface, but it will no longer be activity developed, and there will be new functionality added in the coming months that wont be available to it.
- Q: I don’t use WordPress or Joomla, can I still use the new interface?
A: Yes, see the Droplet widget in your account or the hosted booking page.
- Q: I see that I can change the colors and fonts. Can I also change the css?
A: Currently you can only use the default theme, but we will be adding support for custom themes in the near future.
- Q: What are the design requirements for the new interface?
A: A minimum of size of 650px, with 800 or greater recommended. The plugin should take care of the rest.
