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5.17.0 (October 2025)

This version focuses on stats alignment and accuracy, timezone handling fixes, email report improvements, and performance optimizations.

Read more about it in the release post.

Added

• Add icon to sticky events label.
• Add help text to sidebar stats box about refresh interval and what data is used for the statistics (for admin the stats are based on all events, for other users is based on the events they have permission to view).
• Email reports: Add tooltips to email “Activity by day” showing full date (e.g., “Thursday 2 October 2025”) on hover for each day.
• Email reports: Each day is now a link to the full log for that day.

Fixed

• Sidebar stats was not always using the correct cached data.
• Fix timezone and date handling across all stats features (sidebar, Insights page, REST API, charts) and all filter dropdowns (Today, Last N days, custom date ranges, month filters) to use WordPress timezone instead of server/UTC timezone.
• “Today” now correctly shows events from 00:00 until current time (previously showed events from now minus 24 hours).
• Email reports: Fix timezone and date handling issues (now consistently use WordPress timezone), improved daily stats accuracy, date range, and updated email copy.
• Occasions count in main GUI was displaying incorrect number (always one event to many!) – button now shows the actual number of similar events that will be loaded when expanded.

Changed

• Email preview now shows last 7 days including today (matching sidebar “7 days” stat) so users can verify preview numbers against sidebar.
• Email sent on Mondays now shows previous complete Monday-Sunday week (excludes current Monday).
• Email “Activity by day” now displays days in chronological order matching the date range instead of fixed calendar week order.
• Use “Today” instead of “Last day” in main GUI filters to make it more clear what range is being shown.

Performance

• Improved performance by loading logger messages only when needed, eliminating ~980 gettext filter calls on every page load. This reduces overhead to zero on pages that don’t use Simple History.
• Optimized context handling when logging events with many context items using batch inserts.
• Plugin Logger now only runs gettext filters and auto-update detection on the plugins.php page instead of globally.
• Simplified plugin action list hooks by only hooking into our plugin.
• Added autoloading of deprecated classes, so they are only loaded if needed.

Removed

• Removed legacy AJAX API endpoint (action=simple_history_api). The plugin now uses the WordPress REST API exclusively.

5.16.0 (August 2025)

Added

• Revision Post ID, if available, is stored in event context for post/page updates.
• Stats API responses now include human-readable, localized date formats.

Changed

• The Post Activity Panel feature is now part of the Simple History Premium add-on and available for all users of that plugin. It was previously an experimental feature in the main plugin.
• The number of days for a month in sidebar stats is now 30 days instead of the previous 28 days, to make it more standard and consistent with common business and reporting cycles.
• The scripts for the Admin Bar Quick View is now loaded using strategy: 'defer' to improve performance.

Fixed

• Correct query in get_successful_logins_details(), so it will correctly fetch successful logins.

5.15.0 (August 2025)

📧 This release enables Weekly Email Reports for all users.
It also adds a new Core Files Integrity Logger that detects modifications to WordPress core files through daily checksum verification.

Release post with details and screenshots.

Added

• 📨 Email reports are now available for all users, not just those with experimental features enabled. You can enable email reports in the settings page. Read more about email reports.
• New Core Files Integrity Logger that detects modifications to WordPress core files through daily checksum verification. Monitors for modified, missing, or unreadable files. Runs once every night. #538

Changed

• Change order of the menu items.
• Update description of WP CLI command description.

5.14.0 (July 2025)

Added

• Add filter options to the WP-CLI events list command #570
• Add ungrouped events support for the Log Query API and the REST API. This will get you a list of events without grouping them by occasion. This is useful for getting a simple list of events without the overhead of grouping.
• Add support for filtering/querying by context in the log query and REST API.
• Add search filter for initiators. This allows you to filter events by the initiator, e.g. “Web user”, “WordPress user”, “WP-CLI”, “Other”. Support is added the search GUI and to the REST API.
• Add footer to dashboard widget with links to the blog, support and premium features.
• Add filters to customize plugin update details. Plugin authors can now add custom information about new features and improvements when their plugins are updated. This is done using the filter simple_history/pluginlogger/plugin_updated_details/{plugin-slug}/{version}. For example, to add custom details for Simple History version 5.14.0, use the filter simple_history/pluginlogger/plugin_updated_details/simple-history/5.14.0 :).

New experimental features

These features are experimental and may change in future releases.
You need to have experimental features enabled in the settings to use them.

• Sidebar panel on the Gutenberg block editor showing Simple History events for the current post.
• Core Files Integrity Logger to detect and monitor modifications to WordPress core files through automated checksum verification.

Fixed

• Fix export functionality not working when accessed from the settings page. #574
• Fix collapse of search filters not working. #569

5.13.1 (July 2025)

Fixed

• Fix cache issue when sticking or unsticking events. #566
• Fix issue when Divi frontend builder is active. #565
• Fix issue when no menu page is found. #564

Improved

• Improve email summary report (still only available for users with experimental features enabled).
• Improve license key settings page text to make it more clear that you need to install and activate the add-on first, before you can enter the license key.
• Auto expand search options when filters are applied via URL parameters. #567
• Add more checks in Admin Bar Quick Stats before initing the JS code.
• Misc internal code improvements and spelling fixes.

5.13.0 (June 2025)

📧 This release introduces weekly email reports for site activity monitoring and adds REST API endpoints for event statistics.
Read the release post for more details.

Added

• Weekly email reports. Enabled for users with experimental features enabled, this new feature let you get an weekly email with a brief summary of what’s been happening on your site. The emails are opt-in so you need to add your email address to the settings to start receiving them.
• REST API Endpoints for Event Statistics.

Changed

• Improvements to the layout of the quick stats box.
• Misc internal code improvements.

Fixed

• Fix PHP notice due to wpdb::prepare() not using placeholders correctly.

5.12.0 (May 2025)

📊 This release enhances the quick stats visualization with improved readability and additional metrics, while also addressing several minor issues.
Read the release post for more details.

Improved

• Redesign the “quick stats” box (to the right of the main events listing):
  • Improve readability of statistics.
  • Add metrics for today and last 7 days (in addition to existing stats for last 28 days and total events).
  • Add graphical list of most active users in the last 28 days (visible only to administrators).
  • Improve chart interaction – hover anywhere on the box to view daily values.
  • Change chart visualization from bar chart to line chart.

Fixed

• Fix deprecated function warning when searching for events.
• Fix undefined chart label on Stats and Summaries page.
• Enhance translation support.

5.11.0 (May 2025)

📌 This release introduces Sticky Events support for sticking important events to the top of your log, adds visual dividers for better log overview, and includes several UX improvements.
Read the release post for more details and screenshots.

Added

• Visual day divider labels to the event log, e.g., “Sticky”, “Today”, “Yesterday”, “May 14, 2025”, for improved scannability and better log overview.
• Sticky Events: pin important events to the top of your log.
• WP-CLI commands to manage sticky events (stick, unstick, list):
  • wp simple-history event stick
  • wp simple-history event unstick
  • wp simple-history event is_sticky
  • wp simple-history event list_sticky [–format=]
• Date and ID of the oldest event is now shown on the debug page.

Fixed

• URL is no longer changed when using filters on the dashboard.
• Hide link to stats and summaries page in quick stats box if user doesn’t have permission to view it.

5.10.0 (May 2025)

🎯 This release improves performance, enhances the user interface, and adds several quality-of-life improvements to make Simple History more efficient and user-friendly.
Read the release post for more details.

Added

• Add option to include header row in CSV exports.
• Add URL-based search filters for easy bookmarking and sharing of search selections.
• Add option to view more events from the same user or for the same type of event.

Changed

• Load icons from a separate CSS file for better cache busting.
• Make interface even clearer by hiding some promo boxes if Premium is active.
• Remove server_http_user_agent from user updates, user creation, user deletion. It is still available for user successful and failed logins. If support personal needs to know the user agent, the login event is the best place to find this. Note: if you need event more debug info, you can enable Detective Mode or get the Debug and Monitor add-on.
• Use priority 1 for wp_login action instead of default 10 for better compatibility with auth plugins like Two Factor.
• Improve performance of stats and summaries page.
• Refactor query date_from and date_to parsing so sending in format Y-m-d means start/end of day automatically.

Fixed

• Add log level notice to the GUI filters.
• Remove duplicate date_gmt column from event details table.
• Hide link to stats and summaries page from quick stats box if user doesn’t have permission to view it.
• Hide notification bar if user can’t visit link that is provided for the notification message.
• Misc internal improvements.
• Add option to copy event message (with or without details) to clipboard.

5.9.0 (April 2025)

📊 This release adds a new stats and summaries page that gives you a quick overview summary of your site’s activity.
Read more about the new stats and summaries page in the release post.

Added

• New stats and summaries page that gives you a lot of information about your site’s activity. For the last month (customizable in Premium) you can see things like:
  • Quick numbers like total events during this period, total number of users that performed actions, number of posts and pages created, etc.
  • A big chart with the number of events logged each day.
  • A visual overview of the most active users.

• Quick access link to stats and summaries in the quick stats box

• Hook simple_history/admin_page/after_header to allow plugins to add content after the header in Simple History admin pages.

• A discrete notification bar at top.

Fixed

• Remove upsell boxes in settings page when Premium is active

Changed

• Verified compatibility with WordPress 6.8

5.8.2 (April 2025)

🧩 This release improves compatibility with older WordPress versions and fixes some issues.

Added

• Add filter simple_history/post_logger/meta_keys_to_ignore to modify the array with custom field keys to ignore. #543

Changed

• Add compatibility with WordPress down to version 6.3 (from 6.6 previously). This makes it possible for users on older versions of WordPress to use the plugin. This was possible thanks to the great https://github.com/johnbillion/wp-compat library. #542
• Mask more password related fields when using Detective Mode. #546

5.8.1 (march 2025)

🔧 This release adds several UI improvements and internal enhancements to make Simple History more user-friendly and robust.

Added

• Add reload button when events fail to load (typically due to an expired nonce from admin inactivity).
• Add review notice for admins after many events has been logged to encourage leaving a review. (It keeps me motivated, you know.) It will only be shown on the admin pages that belong to Simple History.

Changed

• Rename debug page to “Help & Support” for better clarity.
• Improve dropin loading by automatically finding dropins in the dropins folder.

Fixed

• Remove unnecessary div element in diff output.
• Enhance footer text handling to properly manage boolean and non-string inputs.

5.8.0 (March 2025)

🔍 This release adds support for custom log entries and also adds logging when a user gets an access denied message when trying to view an admin page that they do not have access to.
Read the release post for more details and screenshots.

Added

• Add logging of admin page access denied events. When a user attempts to access an admin page they don’t have permission for, this is now logged in the User Logger.
• Add new Custom_Entry_Logger logger that adds support for custom entries to be added via WP-CLI and REST API.
  • Only administrators (users with manage_options capability) can add custom log entries using the REST API.
  • Users with access to WP-CLI can add custom log entries.
  • See the release post for examples and screenshots of how to use custom entries.
  • (There is also an option in the Premium add-on to add custom entries via the UI.).

Fixed

• Fix rare options key missing error when retrieving logger search options.

5.7.0 (February 2025)

🔄 This release adds more menu location options and some other smaller improvements to the interface and internal code.
Read the release post for more details and screenshots.

Added

• Add new menu location options “Inside dashboard menu item” and “Inside tools menu item” (in addition to the available “Top of main menu” and “Bottom of main menu”).
  • The “Inside dashboard menu item” option will add the main history log page to the Dashboard page, while the settings page for the plugin will be located under the Settings menu item. This is pretty much the same location as before the 5.5.0 update.
  • The location can be set using filter simple_history/admin_menu_location.
• Total number of events logged since install in now shown in the Stats & Insights box.

Changed

• Enhancement: Format number of events in Stats & Insights.
• Update menu settings name from “Menu page location” to “History menu position”.
• Improve location of settings errors.
• Improve logic for determine if the current admin page belongs to Simple History or not. Improves compatibility with translation plugins. #531

Fixed

• Fix warning for deprecated bottom styles in SelectControl component.
• Show correct limit login attempts link for premium users.
• Remove setting “Show history: as a page under the dashboard menu”, since the history menu now can be set to multiple locations.

Other

• Deprecate functions register_settings_tab(), get_main_nav_html(), get_subnav_html(), get_settings_tabs().
• Misc internal improvements and changes.

5.6.1 (January 2025)

🚀 This release fixes incomplete exports due to an error in pagination logic.
It also improves the post Quick Diff view by preventing scrollbar jumping on hover states.
A small but very nice improvement! See the difference in the release post.

Fixed

• Incomplete exports due to error in pagination logic.
• PHP notice when exporting events with missing user email data.

Improved

• Enhance post Quick Diff view by preventing scrollbar jumping on hover states. #530

5.6.0 (January 2025)

🔝 This version adds an option to the settings page to control the location of the menu page (at top or bottom).
🫣 It also adds support for Stealth Mode: When enabled, Simple History will be hidden from places like the dashboard, the admin menu, the admin bar, and the plugin list.
👉 Read the release post for more details and examples how to use this feature.

Added

• Add support for Stealth Mode. When enabled (programmatically using a constant or filters) Simple History will be hidden from places like the dashboard, the admin menu, the admin bar, and the plugin list. #401
• Add option to set menu page location to settings page. #525
• Add WP-CLI command simple-history stealth-mode status to get status of Stealh Mode using WP-CLI.
• Add filter simple_history/show_admin_menu_page to
• Add filter simple_history/admin_menu_location.
• Add filters simple_history/show_in_admin_bar and simple_history/show_on_dashboard, that work the same way as simple_history_show_in_admin_bar and simple_history_show_dashboard_widget, but with correct naming convention.

Improved

• Decrease the icon size in the admin bar and main menu, to match the size of other icons. Props @hjalle.

Fixed

• Fix for simple_history/show_action_link when being used and returning false then the other action links was not shown.

5.5.1 (January 2025)

• Fix the redirect from old settings page to new settings page and from old event log page to new event log page not always working when there was for example a WordPress update notice.

5.5.0 (January 2025)

Simple History 5.5.0 contains an improved event log menu location, and more 💥.
Read the release post for more details.

Added

• Added Simple History to the top level of the admin bar for improved accessibility and visibility. Previously, the plugin was located in the dashboard menu, the settings menu, and contained tools like export and debug scattered across sub-tabs. This change centralizes these tools, making them easier to find and use.
• Introduced a link to the settings page for users with the Premium add-on, shown in the “events cleared” text. #486
• Added slotfill SimpleHistorySlotEventActionsMenu to enable future extensions and customizations. #499

Deprecated

• Deprecated the filter simple_history/admin_location since the event log page now includes sub-pages and cannot be moved.

Changed

• Updated icons next to menu titles to improve visual clarity and consistency. #517

Fixed

• Resolved an issue where premium info was displayed below the “clear log” button even when the Premium add-on was installed.
• Various internal code enhancements and optimizations.

5.4.4 (January 2025)

First release of 2025! 🎉

• Don’t output CSS and JS for Admin Bar Quick View if admin bar is not visible. #510
• Only load events from the last 7 days in the Admin Bar Quick View.
• Remove some unused CSS. #505
• 🎨 Fresh new logo for the plugin.
• Style some admin boxes to match new design.
• Misc other internal improvements.

Changelog for previous versions.