Changelog

Every release of SocietyPress, what changed, and why. The [Unreleased] block at the top is what's landed in the development branch since the last tagged release.

All notable changes to SocietyPress are recorded here.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog, and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

Entries describe user-visible changes only. For the underlying commits, see the Git log.

Pre-1.0 development iterations are archived in CHANGELOG-pre1.md.

[1.0.0] — 2026-06-01

First public release.

SocietyPress is a free, GPL-licensed WordPress platform that gives a volunteer-run genealogical or historical society everything it needs to operate online — members, dues, events, library, newsletters, records, volunteers, donations, blast email, committees, documents, photos, voting, lineage programs, and research help — without third-party services.

What's in 1.0

Members (always on)

  • Full membership database with custom fields, household/joint members,

    • research surnames, research areas, and skills/interests

  • Renewal reminders, lapsed-member workflows, lifetime members
  • Pending-changes queue so member-initiated edits land in moderation
  • CSV import with field mapping; full data export
  • XChaCha20-Poly1305 encryption (via libsodium) on phone numbers and

    • street addresses at rest

Optional modules (toggle in Settings → Modules)

  • Events — calendar, registration with capacity + waitlist, speakers,

    • slot-based events, iCal subscribe, Stripe/PayPal payments, attendance check-in, recurring series, external iCal feed sync

  • Library — full OPAC-style catalog with faceted search, browse-by

    • sections, ISBN enrichment, donor tracking, condition + availability

  • Newsletters — archive with searchable cover gallery and inline PDF

    • viewer

  • Resource Links — categorized external links with maintenance tools
  • Governance — committees, meeting records, leadership roster
  • Store — online publication sales with per-item shipping, Stripe

    • and PayPal checkout, order management

  • Records — collection-based historical record sets with custom fields,

    • member submissions, search, .genrecord open-format import/export, and GEDCOM import (5.5/5.5.1/7.0) and export (5.5.1 or 7.0)

  • Donations — one-time and recurring donations, campaigns,

    • acknowledgments, year-end reports

  • Blast Email — newsletter blasts, segmented sends, plain-text or

    • templated HTML, delivery log

  • Photo Gallery — albums with member uploads, Picture Wall public view
  • Help Requests — public-facing research-question intake with member

    • responses and admin moderation

  • Documents — gated members-only document library with categories
  • Voting & Elections — multi-question ballots, eligibility rules,

    • anonymous secrecy, results with charts and CSV export

  • Lineage Programs — "First Families"-style heritage recognition with

    • application review and optional public roster

  • Research Services — paid research request workflow with assignment,

    • hours tracking, invoicing

Themes

  • Parent theme + five GPL child themes (Coastline, Heritage, Ledger,

    • Parlor, Prairie), each with palette-on-activation and per-section Customizer controls

Site building

  • 21+ page-builder widgets covering hero sliders, contact cards, event

    • lists, calendars, donation forms, member directories, library catalogs, research guides, and more

  • Page templates for members-only content, search, and login modal
  • PWA manifest with offline fallback page

Security

  • All AJAX endpoints nonce + capability gated
  • Stripe + PayPal webhook signature verification
  • Server-side outbound HTTP for iCal sync and color extraction is

    • DNS-rebinding pinned (CURLOPT_RESOLVE)

  • File uploads validated against an explicit MIME allowlist; .htaccess

    • drops PHP execution in upload paths

  • Email header CR/LF stripping in sp_get_email_headers() so a stray

    • newline in admin-edited From/Reply-To settings cannot inject Bcc/Cc

  • Legacy noenc: decryption fallback removed; on activation any surviving

    • rows are re-encrypted via sp_maybe_migrate_noenc_members()

  • Stripe Checkout redirect URLs validated via sp_safe_stripe_checkout_url()

    • at every checkout site (lineage applications, donations, research cases, invoice payments)

  • GDPR: five exporters and five erasers (donations pseudonymize for IRS

    • recordkeeping rather than delete)

Accessibility

  • Custom spConfirm/spAlert modals with focus management, focus traps,

    • inert siblings, and screen-reader-friendly labels

  • WCAG AA color contrast across status badges, links, and admin tables
  • Form labels, aria-live regions, and prefers-reduced-motion guards
  • Login acknowledgment modal that requires explicit dismissal
  • Filter-bar <select> controls in the Members, Events, and Email Log

    • list tables now expose visible-label-equivalent aria-label text

  • Page builder widget cards are keyboard-operable (Enter / Space toggles

    • open/closed; aria-expanded tracks the body's visible state)

  • 48 page-builder widget fields now have programmatically associated

    • labels (for=/id=) across flat and repeater field patterns

  • Hero slider per-line size/weight/color selects and per-slide Button

    • Text / Button URL inputs each have their own labels

  • Theme builder hex-color text inputs are labeled per color
  • Lineage application form fields are fully label-associated
  • Donations bulk-action "select all" checkbox has an associated label

Internationalization

  • 4,600+ translatable strings, generated .pot files for plugin and

    • parent theme

  • Page template names ("Library Catalog", "Genealogical Records Search",

    • "Store", "Shopping Cart", "Documents", "Interest Groups") now translatable in the WordPress page Template dropdown

  • Frontend event-count plural moved to _n() ("1 event" / "%s events")
  • Frontend event location labels for virtual events translated
  • Design Settings, Event Categories, Event price fields, Page Builder

    • "Standard Pages" description, and Events Import file-format helper strings wrapped with the societypress text domain

Operations

  • One-file installer (sp-installer.php) — drop into web root, browse to

    • it, follow the wizard, the installer self-deletes after success

  • Built-in dashboard update checker against GitHub releases
  • Daily maintenance cron, email-log cleanup, renewal reminder cron,

    • event reminder cron, iCal feed sync cron

License

  • GPL-2.0-or-later

See also: What's coming next · Documentation hub · GitHub Releases