Web Directory Free – AI powered

Changelog

2.3.3 – 2026-10-01

• New: a Sort options table for the Listings element: choose which orders the visitor’s Sort control offers, in what order and direction, under what name, whether sticky listings go first, and which one the grid opens with.
• New: switching a directory’s Listing template rebuilds the settings that list its fields (card fields, sort options, Listing body, default filter, search form). Switching back brings the old template’s settings back.
• New: a Default image for listings that have none, shown on their card, in the map popup and in the map sidebar. A neutral built-in image by default; choose your own or switch it off. Sites moved over from the old Web 2.0 Directory keep their default logo.
• Improvement: sorting by title no longer puts sticky listings first by default. Turn it on for Title in Sort options if you want it.
• Improvement: more space between the fields of the listing form.
• Improvement: the demo maps import with “Save and follow map center” off, so moving one no longer rewrites the page address.
• Improvement: a field added to the listing form after the Listing body’s field list was saved now shows on the listing page too.
• Improvement: the Rating row of the Listing body starts switched off, so the listing page no longer shows the rating twice.
• Improvement: the map’s cookie-consent notice can be translated, names the consent plugin holding the map back (Borlabs Cookie, Complianz, Cookiebot or Avada Privacy) and, with Borlabs Cookie or Cookiebot, has an Open cookie settings button.
• Improvement: buttons and links in the Edit Directory boxes use the primary colour set in Customization instead of the WordPress admin blue.
• Improvement: a word limit for every text field on the listing cards: 10 words for the title and 20 for the others by default (0 shows the whole text).
• Improvement: categories, tags and list fields on the cards show 5 items by default (0 shows all) and end with …; hover it to see how many more there are.
• Improvement: in the field lists of Edit Directory and Edit Map the options line up in one column, and the Popups list’s “fill” switch matches the on/off one.
• Improvement: category markers, listing markers and image markers each have their own size in Edit Map (30-70 px, 40 by default). Existing maps keep their old size.
• Improvement: map popups and the map sidebar cut long content like the cards do: 20 words for text fields (10 for the title) and 5 items for categories, tags and lists, set per row in Edit Map (0 shows everything).
• Improvement: the translation template (.pot) now lists every string of the plugin, the new screens included, so the whole interface can be translated.
• Fix: a directory on any form template but the first showed the first template’s fields in the builder, on its cards and Sort control, and on its listing pages.
• Fix: a Mapbox or MapLibre map held back by a cookie-consent plugin says it is waiting for consent instead of “API key is not configured”, and appears as soon as the visitor accepts.
• Fix: on a site that finished migrating, the migration screen no longer offers the Plans step again (running it overwrote the plans set up since).
• Fix: a new listing form starts with the standard fields (title, description, excerpt, categories, tags, address, map, images). On sites moved over from the old Web 2.0 Directory it started with every old field.
• Fix: on Google Maps, markers and clusters no longer disappear while the map pans.
• Fix: the open/close tab of the map sidebar keeps its shape on themes that round every button.
• Fix: the number fields in the Edit Map and Edit Directory field lists show two-digit values in full.
• Fix: directory pages with an element stretched over several rows, like the demo listing pages, stack into one column on tablets and phones.
• Fix: the Price field on the listing page lines up with the other fields on phones and on wide screens.
• Fix: on phones the map’s “Number of locations” counter no longer hides under the sidebar tab or the attribution button.
• Fix: on phones the “AI-assisted search” label of a search form on the map is no longer cut off.

2.3.2 – 2026-09-28

• New: three ways to choose categories on the listing form, set per form: a checkbox list, dropdowns level by level, or type-to-search where you can also add a category that does not exist yet, the way tags work. Existing forms keep what they had.
• New: the form builder places fields on the same grid as the directory builder. Every field and group carries its own width buttons – full, 2/3, 1/2, 1/3 – so a field can be made wide where it sits instead of only as the first slot of a two-thirds row, and arrow buttons stretch a field down over the empty space below it, which keeps the column beside it from sliding under. Templates saved before this open and save unchanged.
• New: the plan option “Enable map” is a real switch. Off, a listing of that plan gets no map on its page and no map field on the listing form; the address still places it. Existing plans keep their map: the option is stamped on as it was.
• Improvement: with no Map field on the listing form, no map is drawn anywhere – there is nothing behind it. A listing with no plan follows the form.
• Improvement: the price on a listing page can be styled the way it already could on cards – its own size, a badge, a rule above and below, an accent bar, a smaller currency sign. Set per element, in the Listing body element’s field list.
• Improvement: a field stretched down in the builder fills that space on the form too – a tall category list, map or text box instead of a gap under a short field.
• Improvement: the AI buttons all look alike and say why they are not ready yet: the “fill in the title and choose a category” note is now in one place, on the Write-all bar, instead of under every field.
• Improvement: field groups on the listing form open and close smoothly instead of blinking out.
• Improvement: the listing form is easier to read: field names are bold, fields side by side start at the same height, and the video link box is as tall as every other input.
• Improvement: renewing a listing adds the plan’s period to the time it still has, instead of starting from the day of renewal. Renewing early no longer costs the remaining days; a listing renewed after it expired still gets a full period from that day.
• Improvement: the price caption on a plan card follows the plan’s own active period when it is left empty, so a card cannot promise “per year” on a plan whose listings live a month. Your own wording still wins if you set it.
• Improvement: every number on a plan is a limit now, and the limit a listing gets. 0 means none – no images, no videos, no address, no categories, no tags – as it did in the earlier version and as the plan card already said, instead of quietly handing the listing form’s own limit back; a listing shows at most as many images and videos as its plan allows, the form’s own limits apply only to a listing with no plan, and plans that never carried a number keep exactly what they had.
• Improvement: the listing form in wp-admin is wider, up to 1100px instead of 768px, so the fields use the box rather than a narrow column down the middle of it. Most noticeable on a screen set to one column, where the box is the full width of the page.
• Improvement: ticking Closed or 24h in Opening hours no longer loses the day’s times while the form is open. Unticking puts them back, so a day switched on and off again does not have to be entered twice.
• Improvement: reloading a listing form, or saving one in wp-admin, no longer throws the page back to the top. The form remembers how tall it was and how far down the page stood, and puts both back as the fields arrive, instead of leaving the view to be restored against a page that is still empty.
• Fix: “N listings included” is shown only on plans that can actually grant the package, which needs the full version’s payments. In the free version the line is no longer printed; the setting itself is kept.
• Fix: a listing shows only the fields its plan includes – on its page, in map popups, the sidebar, cards and marker labels. A listing moved to a smaller plan, by hand or when a paid period ran out, went on showing the fields it no longer paid for; they come back if it returns to the plan.
• Fix: a listing can no longer be saved with a field its plan does not include. The form already hid such fields, but the server accepted them.
• Fix: the plan’s Logo enabled switch, now next to Images number, works. Turned off, that plan’s listings show no logo on cards, in map popups, the map sidebar or on image markers, and the listing form stops offering a logo choice; plans migrated from the earlier version get back the setting their level had.
• Fix: on Settings, Plans the “show as feature” checkboxes sit on the field’s label line again instead of on top of the input below.
• Fix: the plan option “Who can view listings” works. A visitor the plan shuts out opens the listing page and sees its title with a note instead of the content; the listing itself stays in the directory, the search and the map. Before, the setting was saved but never applied.
• Fix: a plan’s “Certain locations” is enforced when a listing is saved, not only in the form. A location outside the plan’s list is dropped from the address instead of being stored; the address itself is kept.
• Fix: the plan groups in the plans constructor are shaded again, so each group reads as a block.
• Fix: a plan’s limits on categories and tags now hold on every save, not only in the listing form: quick edit, bulk edit, a CSV import and a programmatic save are clamped too, and the “Certain categories” subset with them.
• Fix: a plan with “Logo enabled” off no longer shows the logo in the map’s info window or as the page’s share image; every other surface already honoured it.
• Fix: on WPML and Polylang sites a translated listing follows its plan’s limits. The plan is stored on the main version, so a translation read as having no plan at all.
• Fix: a plan with “Listings have own pages” off really leaves its listings without one: the listing URL answers 404 instead of opening the page, and the slider stops linking to it. Before, only the title on a card was unlinked while the page stayed open to anyone with the link.
• Fix: the plans box on Edit Directory fits a narrow column. Each plan keeps its whole name on the first line, next to Expand, and its summary moves to a line of its own, instead of the name shrinking to three letters and the summary standing in a column. On Settings, Plans the plan changes table scrolls inside the page instead of pushing the plans past its right edge.
• Fix: the “Use gradient on buttons” option works again: the main buttons fade from the button primary color to the button secondary color, reversed on hover, and keep their icons.
• Fix: importing the demo listing form no longer empties your listing form, which left listing cards showing only the image and imported listings without their custom fields. A form already emptied this way gets the default fields back.
• Fix: demo directories keep their card fields and other element settings after import.
• Fix: “Geocode addresses” in the CSV import now puts listings on the map from their address, with Google, Mapbox or MapTiler. Addresses it cannot place are listed in the import results.

2.3.1 – 2026-09-22

• New: the price can stand out in map popups, the sidebar and cards: badge, divider, accent colour, smaller currency sign and font size. On cards, a price placed last sits on the bottom edge, so prices line up.
• New: “Hide from anonymous users” for field groups. Logged-out visitors see the group title and a login prompt instead. Migrated groups keep this setting.
• New: WPML and Polylang support. Maps, listings, search and counts show the page’s language. Each listing keeps one set of markers and one search-index entry for all its languages. Listing fields are copied to translations.
• New: settings per language on WPML and Polylang sites. Emails, AI prompts, the address format, the map language and a few more can differ per language. Emails go out in the listing’s language.
• New: form templates per language on WPML and Polylang sites. Field names, help texts and option labels can be translated.
• New: plans per language on WPML and Polylang sites. Plan names, descriptions, badges and feature lines can be translated.
• New: directories per language on WPML and Polylang sites. The directory name, URL segments and form labels can be translated. Each language gets its own URLs.
• New: map search forms per language on WPML and Polylang sites.
• New: CSV import and export on WPML and Polylang sites. Translations go in the same row, in columns like title:fr or categories_list:fr.
• New: image and video captions per language on WPML and Polylang sites.
• New: the Submit button reads “Submit new …” with the directory’s singular label, as in earlier versions.
• New: right-to-left languages (Arabic, Hebrew, Persian). Directory pages, cards, popups, the sidebar, forms and the lightbox read from the right.
• New: “No maps” map engine, first in the list and the default on new installs. The directory then shows nothing about maps. Saved maps are kept for later. Legacy sites without maps migrate to it.
• Improvement: the migration keeps how listing images looked: logo fit, ratio, list width and gallery crop.
• Improvement: the demo export works on WPML and Polylang sites.
• Improvement: CSV category, location and tag columns also accept term IDs.
• Improvement: on WPML and Polylang sites, a new listing is saved in the language of its form.
• Improvement: on a listing page built from elements, category and directory links open without a full reload.
• Improvement: form builder: a group’s categories are picked like a field’s, with “Show for all categories”.
• Improvement: the setup wizard now ends by creating the directory page (“My First Directory” with [webdirectory]), or opens it if it exists. No map step.
• Improvement: the plugin’s admin menu items stay together.
• Improvement: a new Buttons element has all buttons on.
• Improvement: the Reset page also deletes directories, plans, claims and terms, and trashes the directory pages. “Everything” also removes hidden and per-user data. Settings of the old version are kept until it is migrated.
• Improvement: sticky listings now come first in every sort except Random, Distance and Relevance.
• Performance: a directory page without a map runs one search instead of two.
• Fix: sorting by date is correct on sites not in UTC.
• Fix: the CSV import reads the image captions column.
• Fix: map popups no longer indent fields without an icon.
• Fix: a field with its icon turned off no longer leaves a gap.
• Fix: the “Get directions” button looks right again.
• Fix: fields line up with icons in the map sidebar and on cards.
• Fix: other plugins’ links on a listing page keep their own colours.
• Fix: Card image fit also works in list view.
• Fix: a site migrated from Web 2.0 Directory keeps its maps. Sites already migrated get them back once.
• Fix: a bold or italic directory shortcode no longer breaks the listing page.
• Fix: a field group shows only when one of its fields does. The listing page hides fields meant for other categories.
• Fix: the two handles of a price or number slider can no longer meet.
• Fix: the REST SQL profile (?w2dc_sql_debug=1) works after redirects and can be turned on from an admin page.
• Fix: sorting by title is fast on large directories.
• Fix: an untouched price or number slider no longer filters out listings without a price.
• Fix: no broken Purchase code row in the free edition’s settings.
• Fix: the free edition no longer offers front-end submission. Its settings are dimmed and marked as full-version features.
• Fix: the form template editor no longer shows a duplicate “Edit Template” heading.
• Fix: no grey gap under the wizard bar on the Form Builder step.
• Fix: the wizard bar stays visible above the block editor.
• Fix: the Submit button is hidden when the directory’s “Allow submission” is off.
• Developer: the sidebar and cards now use w2dc-listing-content__* classes instead of w2dc-popup__*. Update custom CSS that targets them.
• Developer: the popup field formatters are renamed to listing_content. The old names still work.

2.3.0 – 2026-09-16

• New: the plugin is now Web Directory Free – AI powered. AI writes your listing text. Add a key for an AI service – Groq ships with the plugin and its free tier needs no payment card – and a Write button appears beside the description: it reads the entry name, its categories and its location, and drafts the text. Nothing leaves the site until a key is entered, and the fields a person has to state as fact – prices, phone numbers, dates, opening hours, web addresses – are never generated, because a plausible invented price is worse than an empty one. Settings, AI is where the keys, the per-field switches and the per-visitor limits live.
• New: the AI tab says whether the AI Assistant Add-on is installed, installs and activates it for you when it is not, and tells you when a newer one has been published. One button on that tab, with no trip to the Plugins screen; the zip is still there to download if your server will not let WordPress write to its own plugins folder. The add-on brings OpenAI, DeepSeek, Mistral, OpenRouter and Google Gemini, a Write button on every text field on the form rather than the description alone, one control that fills every empty field in a single request so the drafts agree with each other.
• New: assisted search. With the AI Assistant Add-on installed, a visitor can write what they are after as a sentence – “a cheap place open on Sunday that takes cards” – and it is read into the search form’s own filters: the category, the location and the distance, the sliders and the choice fields your form carries. Nothing is invented; only values the form actually offers are set, and every one of them appears above the results as a chip the visitor can drop. A filter they set or cleared themselves is left exactly as they left it, so the sentence fills in the rest rather than overruling them. A one-word search is answered the way it always was, without asking the model at all, and the form can mark the fields the AI filled in if you want it to.
• Improvement: a price is shown in bold and in the primary colour, so the number a visitor is looking for stands out from the rest of the card.
• Improvement: a position found with “Find my location” is kept to about a metre rather than to eleven centimetres, everywhere it is kept – in the browser, and in what the search sends on. The link you can share still blurs it to roughly a hundred metres.
• Fix: a field carries an icon only when you chose one for it. Several field types drew a built-in icon of their own on the listing card and in the map popups, so switching the icon off in the form builder changed nothing, and fields you had never given an icon to had one anyway.
• Fix: the icon you picked for a map marker is drawn again. A marker saved by name rather than by its full class came out as an empty pin, on the map and in the small preview beside it.
• Fix: fields line up down one edge whenever any field in the block has an icon, so a field without one no longer sits half a character to the left of its neighbours. Categories, tags and rating are laid out on their own and keep their full width.
• Fix: an icon is stored by its name rather than under the plugin’s own prefix, so a form template exported from one site carries its icons into another. Templates already saved are converted once, on an admin page load.
• Fix: the start position you pick for a map in the form builder is stored to about a metre, rather than with the fifteen digits the map engine hands over. An existing position is shown at that precision the moment the form builder opens.
• Fix: a new map starts at the zoom the form builder’s start position was framed at. The fraction was being dropped rather than rounded, so a preview framed at 7.66 handed the new map a 7, half a level wider than what you set up.

Earlier versions

• The full version history is in changelog.txt, included with the plugin.