Where Did My Brain Go?

Quick Mail 1.2.3 Update for WordPress 4.3

Discover the latest version of Quick Mail.

Quick Mail sends text or HTML email with an attachment from the WordPress Dashboard to a member of your site, or anyone.

I wrote the Quick Mail WordPress plugin, because I wanted to send an email with an attachment from the WordPress Dashboard.

I test Quick Mail with new WordPress releases, and invariably edit something.

Quick Mail needed a minor upgrade for WordPress 4.3. I also raised the minimum WordPress version requirement.

Quick Mail Prefers WordPress 4.2

I raised Quick Mail’s minimum WordPress requirement to version 4.2. Previous versions of Quick Mail required WordPress 2.9, released in 2009.

Quick Mail 1.2.2 added dismissible notices for status messages. Messages remain visible until the “Close” button is clicked.

Quick Mail’s dismissible notices require WordPress 4.2 to display a “Close” button. Dismissible notices are confusing in older versions of WordPress, because they remain on the screen.

I considered detecting the WordPress version and using the previous Quick Mail Javascript routine to make the messages disappear. It is better to require a newer version of WordPress.

How to Use Quick Mail on Old WordPress Versions

Sorry! This feature was removed in Quick Mail 1.3.0.

I enjoy programming. I added this feature on a whim, but I hope you do not need it.

I maintain WordPress sites on my day job as Lead Developer for Quality Futures United in Tampa, Florida.

It is important for me to use the current version of WordPress, for the latest features and security fixes.

I stopped editing core files, so it is easy for me update WordPress. Please keep your WordPress site updated. New WordPress versions might add annoying features, but they also improve security and performance.

The Fix

I added a WordPress filter to use Quick Mail on WordPress 2.9 or later. The dismissible messages remain on the screen, but it works.

You can use this feature by adding the following line of code to functions.php in your theme.

add_filter( 'quick_mail_version', function($v) { return '2.9'; } );

WordPress requires PHP 5.24, but this example requires PHP 5.3, because it uses an anonymous function. PHP 5.3 was released in 2009.

WordPress 4.3 Changes

WordPress advised me to change my plugin’s Dashboard headings. WordPress 4.3 uses level 1 headings on Dashboard pages to help screen readers process text.

Quick Mail was not affected by other plugin changes in WordPress 4.3.

Skip this Javascript

WordPress loads Quick Mail Javascript on each admin page load.

I added a unique ID to an element on the data entry forms for mail and settings. Quick Mail checks for the element before loading Javascript routines to process its form elements.

Learn More About Quick Mail

The best way to learn about Quick Mail is install it and try it. Quick Mail is helpful. I use it almost every day.

You can also learn more about Quick Mail from my articles. They are listed below in the order they were published, with the article’s excerpt.

Get Quick Mail 1.2.3 from GitHub and WordPress

Download Quick Mail 1.2.3 from the WordPress Plugin Repository.

Fork Quick Mail on GitHub to add new features.

Support is available, but no problems have been reported :)

I hope you enjoy using Quick Mail. Please leave a review to help others find it.

The image at the beginning of this article, is a screenshot of the sample included with the plugin. Paste the file into a message, to introduce a colleague to Quick Mail.