Version History
Version History
v2.23 - Updates - 13/5/20
UI Icons - We have updated the icons for OBA to be more modern and fits with the new styling we have been working on for the new user interface.
v2.22 - Updates - 5/4/20
Mailchimp - A while ago Mailchimp updated their API to v3 which was a big update. So much so that it broke our integration with it for quite a while. The code has been re-written using the new API calls to bring OBA up-to-date. All lists, campaigns, and syncing now works as expected.
Response Selection - You can now click anywhere on the row of the response that you want to select and the tickbox will be selected. Previously you had to click either on the tick box, or on the name of the response, both of which were at either end of the row and not always user friendly.
Security Certificate - We had a couple of calls to http urls which meant that the padlock showing the Server Security Certificate was active would complain that it wasn't 100% secure. These calls have now been updated to https and are completely secure.
v2.2 - Updates - 31/3/20
Restyling - The whole website has been restyled giving it a much more modern and flat look. This should make it easier to use from a customers point of view. The login and register pages have been given a makeover with a background image. There are still a few things to look at, so keep an eye on the site for further changes.
Hosting - The whole service has recently been moved to a more stable, and a much faster host. We now run on SSD's instead of hard drive storage. The advantage is near instant access to content. We also had a few issues with unexpected downtime for short periods as well as "glitches" where content wasn't being saved correctly. We believe this new hosting will solve those issues also.
v2.1.4 - Updates - 27/9/18
Recent Issues - We have recently spent a great deal of time upgrading OBA to the latest server software version. While we tested as much as possible before pushing the changes live, there were a few issues which I believe are now fixed. If you find anything strange happening, then please contact support in the usual way.
New Features - There is a new status that has been added which is "clicked" - this shows if a user has clicked on any of the links in your email. This information is useful if there is an action you wish a user to take which includes clicking on a link - now you will know.
You will also now receive an email if there is a temporary or permanent email delivery issue. This is an advisory email, the contents of which will let you know if you need to take any action (for example the email is formatted incorrectly). No longer will you receive calls or emails from a customer to let you know that your email didn't arrive, as you will already know.
v2.1.3 - Updates - 10/9/18
PHP has been upgraded from v5.6 to 7.3. Tweaks were made to the whole site to fix issues due to this change. The result is that the site is now running much faster.
The third party that we use to deliver emails from OBA has been changed. We are now using servers based in the EU, and as well as showing a status to indicate if emails have been delivered or have failed, you will also see if emails have been opened. This is not an exact science and sometimes an email will be opened, in the process of being deleted. Opened does not mean read, but it does give an indication that it may have been viewed.
DNS changes are required for all OBA customer domain names.
v2.1.2 - Updates - 19/9/16
Delay Status - somtimes when emails are sent, it is not possible to deliver them immediately, due to the incoming ISP's rules for example - in this instance the user will see the email status shown as "delay" and they will receive an email to inform them that an email has been delayed. OBA will attempt to redeliver it until it and the status will update once it has finished processing.
v2.1.1 - Updates - 17/9/16
Custom Bounce Domain added - to prevent some ISPs from rejecting emails a bounce domain has been added as per the third party's documentation. This has been tested using their system and has passed.
v2.1 - Updates - 4/12/14
Security Update: SSL Certificate - when you log into your control panel from now on, everything is encrypted using an SSL Certificate. Facebook updated their requirements for content to be sent from a secure site, which was breaking OBA forms in Facebook using an iFrame - this certificate fixes that issue also. All references in the codebase to http:// have been updated to https://
Bug Fix: Money Off Coupon - there was an error that prevented you from seeing the discount being applied to your account with a money off coupon. This error also prevented the amount being sent to Paypal. You previously had to click to visit Paypal, click the back link, and then go to Paypal again to see the discount.
Search Engines: Do not index - Search Engines have been informed not to index any of the control panel pages. Please note: none of our users information was indexable as the search engines would have needed your login information.
Tidy Up - We have deleted files that were no loger needed to clean up the codebase.
v2.02 - Minor Fixes - 16/10/14
New Feature: Selecting Responses - you can now click on the bar for a required response, and it will tick the box for you. This works when sending responses on the website, but not in emails.
Bug Investigation: RAD Submissions - We have had intermittant reports that a prospect has filled in the RAD form, but the OBA user isn't notified. We have put logging in place to allow us to find out what is causing this. The SMS / Pushover notifications have been moved up the action order so that OBA users are at least notified, even if the emails are not arriving.
Change: Default Follow Up Period - When a new account or sub account is created, the default follow up period has been changed from 75 days to 365 days. It can of course be changed anytime by the user in Settings > Emails
v2.01 - Minor Fixes - 4/9/13
Editing Form Fields - A bug was fixed that prevented you from editing an option in a drop down form field, or a radio button form field. When you make an edit and click save the change is remembered.
Layout Tweaks - We have tweaked the position of the OK / Cancel and Timestamp buttons for a customers notes field, along with renaming the OK button to Save.
jQuery Issues - When we added the "Send Status" feature we updated the version of jQuery used by the website. This update broke a few features that relied on the previous version - and have all been fixed now.
Javascript - There is a check made in the browser for javascript when a visitor is filling in a form. It if is not switched on, then it will show a message instead of the form asking for it to be turned on. This is required to send the form successfully.
Follow Up Period - The default number of days before a follow up is sent is now shown dynamically when editing the emails to give a true indication of the period entered in the settings page.
v2.0 - Send Status - 9/8/13
Send Status - A new column has been added to the activity logs in both the dashboard and the customers detail pages to show if an email has been delivered or not. If the email was not delivered then there will be an error message giving very brief details of the error. You will also be sent an email to inform you that there was an error in the delivery to ensure that you are alerted quickly and can then take a necessary action, such as check the email address or contact the prospect to inform them that the email failed.
Legacy data will show "No Info" to indicate that the email was sent out before this feature was added.
This is a very powerful new feature which will give you peace of mind that emails have been received by your prospects and customers.
v1.9.1 - Minor Fixes - 12/7/13
New Feature: Email Length Increased - Previously we were using a data storage of "Text" for email contents, which gave you a maximum of 65535 characters. We didn't expect our users to need this many, but we were wrong. This has now been re-coded to use "Longtext" which gives a maximum of 4294967295 characters for the content of any single email. I suspect this will be enough for most people.
Bug Fix: Message Banner - When you save a response the message banner now shows the correct name of the response as being saved, instead of the "type" of response.
Layout Change: Form Buttons - The form buttons are now displayed on the users website left aligned to the fields, instead of the field labels.
Service Change: Powered by OBA - This has been added in very small text at the bottom right hand side of all forms on the users website.
v1.9 - Email Deliverability Improved - 5/7/13
New Feature: Email Delivery - We are now using a third party to deliver emails from OBA to our users and their prospects and customers. The servers that we are using are purely used for sending emails, and as such are kept very clean, which will ensure that email deliverability will now be much higher, and trackable.
v1.8.7 - Minor Fixes - 16/4/13
Bug Fix: Database Error on Login - A few users were experiencing database errors when logging in. This was due to a function that was failing and has now had some conditionals added to validate against future issues.
Bug Fix: Double Spacing in FC Chasers - When sending out First Contact Chasers, OBA was adding double spacing between paragraphs which then rendered them incorrectly. This has now been fixed.
v1.8.6 - Pushover Integration - 1/03/13
New Feature: Pushover - We have integrated a third party service called Pushover - http://pushover.net
This service will send your mobile devices a push notification when a form is filled in, or when your account is nearing expiry. It works the same as the SMS service, but without the on-going text costs. The pushover app is a very low one time cost, and then a pushover account is free.
v1.8.5 - OBA Wordpress Plugin - 20/02/13
New Feature: Wordpress Plugin - We have now built a free wordpress plugin to help you integrate OBA into your Wordpress powered website. You simply install the plugin from the repository, or download it from: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/online-booking-assistant-helper/ and then paste in the code that OBA gives you and use the shortcodes to position the forms wherever you need them on your website.
v1.8.4 - Community Board Added - 14/11/11
New Feature: Community Menu - The "Community" menu item has been added to allow users and members of OBA to discuss the best way to use OBA, and leave suggestions about features to be considered for future developments of OBA
v1.8.3 - Bug Fixed - 2/10/11
Bug Fix: When a user input a telephone number into a text field without any spaces, OBA was taking off the first 0. This has now been fixed.
v1.8.2 - Change to Live Chat - 21/9/11
Service Change: Live Chat Service Change - We have changed our supplier of live chat services. This new version is shown in the bottom right of the control panel, and has several benefits over the previous service including being online more often due to the mobile abilities of the services, as well as allowing the user to have a transcript of the chat conversation emailed to them at the end of the chat. We believe these new features will be of benefit to all our users.
v1.8.1 - Small Bug Fixes - 18/7/11
Bug Fix: Form Views and Submissions - The table showing the number of form views and submissions was not increasing since the charts were added. This has now been fixed.
Bug Fix: User Reminder Email - If a user hasn't sent a response an email is sent to remind the user. 1) The "Click here to edit details" link was fixed. 2) The greeting at the top is now the users name, not their username. 3) The link at the bottom has now been fixed. 4) The email is no longer sent if the user manually entered the prospect.
v1.8 - Added charts to Dashboard
New Feature: Statistic Charts - Area Chart showing First Contact Form submissions against number of views per day for the last 30 days. Clickable buttons to show the same details for Reserve a Date Form, and Feedback Form.
v1.7 - Added MailChimp integration:
New Feature: Mail Chimp Settings - Added link to set up MailChimp Account (including the free account), Link to "Get API Key", Enable and Disable MailChimp on the account, and drop down menu to select the MailChimp list to use. Added link to Sync ALL prospects and customers to MailChimp
New MailChimp Menu:
Account Overview: Showing details of your account, Username, Registration Date, Current Plan, Emails left this month, and last login date.
Lists: Showing all your lists, Title, created date, number of members, unsubscribed members, and a link to Stats. The stats page shows a row for every day including, Emails Sent, Unique Opens, Recipient Clicks, Hard Bounces, Soft Bounces, Abuse Reports, Subscriptions, Unsubscriptions, Additions and any other removals.
Campaigns: A list of all your campaigns with this account, Title, creation date, subject, number of emails sent, status and a link to view stats, which shows: Number of errors, Hard Bounces, Soft Bounces, Unsubscribes, Abuse Reports, Forwards, Forwards Opened, Number of Opens, Unique Opens, Number of Clicks, Unique Clicks, Users Who Clicked and Emails Sent.
The follow are links to full detail pages: Hard Bounces, Soft Bounces, Unsubscribes, Emails Sent.
