Release
Notes

Who doesn't like the simplicity and ease of automatic updates? Whether you're working on a single personal site, or managing a complex network of websites, automatic updates help make everything run a bit more smoothly. With v2.5.0 of X, we've built out a completely custom automatic update API for X and its associated products (e.g. X – Shortcodes, and more to come in the future)! Without further ado, let's jump right in and see how it works.

Please note, this feature is only available starting from v2.5.0 of. Upgrading to X v2.5.0 is required to make this available for your current site and for future updates. You may download your latest X theme form your ThemeForest download page and then all future updates can be done automatically if you have followed the necessary steps outlined below. You must still update to version v2.5.0 manually.

For a detailed run-through on how this new system works and how to setup your WordPress installation to start receiving automatic updates, definitely check out this article in the Knowledge Base as it goes into detail on this process. For the purpose of these release notes, here is a quick rundown of everything (again, make sure to check out the article referenced above for a more detailed description):

• Automatic updates will be made available to users after validating their ThemeForest purchases (i.e. “product validation”).
• Product validation not only unlocks automatic updates, but will also include a lot of additional goodies made available exclusively to installations that are validated.
• Product validation is not required to use X, it is simply a tool to verify legitimate theme purchases in accordance with ThemeForest's standard license and our terms, which states that a single license may only be used for a single domain.
• Should you decide that you do not want automatic updates, or do not want to setup product validation, X will continue to work like normal! You will simply need to continue updating your theme manually when an update becomes available.
• Even if you do not have product validation setup for your installation, customers using v2.5.0+ will still be notified when an update is available in the WordPress admin. This is simply used as a tool to inform you that a newer version is available and to prompt you to go update manually so that everything can stay as up to date as possible.

That's pretty much it! As mentioned before, the system built out here in our member center and the theme will start serving up even more exclusive goodness in the future for our members who take advantage of this feature, so don't delay.

All of this functionality is included under the new Addons section, which you'll find directly under the Dashboard link in the WordPress admin area. This Addons section is where we will include any functionality that is unique to X. In the future, the first time you activate X you will be redirected to the Addons Home page, which will provide you with information on how to register and setup product validation, along with quicklinks to helpful resources here in the member center. Once you have validated your product, the initial prompt to register will go away to clean things up a bit.

Next, we have the Custoimzer Manager section under Addons. This is the new home for the Customizer import, export, and reset functionality. These used to reside under the Tools menu in the WordPress admin area, but have now been moved here in an effort to better consolidate our X-specific functionality.

Finally, there is the Product Validation page, which is used to enter in your API key that is generated here in the member center. Again, check out this article to learn more about this entire process in full detail.

In addition to the new Themeco API that handles automatic updates and future exclusive products along with the Addons section, we've also updated the necessary templates to ensure that X is compatible with v2.2.0 of the WooCommerce plugin.

Regarding icons throughout the theme, we've made a dedicated switch to Font Awesome from Foundation Social everywhere in the theme, with the exception of the [social] shortcode for right now. We initially used these two different icon sets as Font Awesome did not used to support the breadth of social networks that it now does. With this increased pool of options to choose from, we can now easily make the switch over to one dedicated system, which also improves the overall look and consistency of things. Please note, Foundation Social and the [social] shortcode will be deprecated after two more release cycles and will no longer be functional at that point. We are leaving them in for the time being so that our users can switch out shortcodes if needed to a Font Awesome equivalent. All other areas of the theme such as the topbar and footer social links, the share links in the portfolio, et cetera, have all been swapped out automatically within the theme.

We have also completely removed the Google Authorship Markup from the theme as Google has put an end to this program. Your Google+ profile under your user account will still be pulled through in appropriate places such as the [author] shortcode, but it will no longer trigger the extra markup needed for Google Authorship.

Along with everything else listed above, we have also done various maintenance updates to the theme to ensure that everything is working in tip-top shape!