Sports Bench 1.4 released to public

It’s been about a year since I released Sports Bench into the world. In that time, it’s exceeded my expectations, not that I really had any to begin with, and has grown quite nicely. I’ve seen it help others out tremendously, and it’s helped me grow as a developer and as a customer service person. Now, a year later, it’s time for the next update to Sports Bench, version 1.4. This update will help with a lot of functionality that users will need with their sports leagues. So let’s get to the cool new features.

New sports

For the first time since it was released, Sports Bench will now support two new sports: rugby and volleyball. Both sports were chosen on their popularity, both at the professional level and the youth level. Users that run leagues with those sports will have the same high-level functionality that the other sports enjoy, and have all of their stats ready to go. If you have a sport that you would like included in Sports Bench at some time, please fill out the form at the bottom of the page.

Add, delete, view and update items with the WP REST API

It’s been a year since the WP REST API was rolled into WordPress core, and it remains the “hot thing” in the WordPress sphere. And now Sports Bench users will get to many of the same features with the plugin. With Sports Bench 1.4, you’ll now be able to add, delete, view and update brackets, games, players, playoff series, divisions and teams the same way you would be able to with posts in the REST API. So you can use with the latest in JavaScript frameworks or even incorporate the plugin into a cool app for your league. So go crazy with all the cool things you can now do with Sports Bench and the REST API.

Neutral site games and Google Maps

Do some games in your league take place at a neutral site? Well, now you can designate games where there’s no home or away team. To make a game a neutral site, simply click “Neutral Site” on the edit game page, and the word “at” will be replaced with “vs.” on the front end to show that it’s a neutral site game. Also included in this update is the option to include an embedded Google Map for the game inside of game previews. You’ll first need to get a Google Map API key and enter it on the Sports Bench Options page. Then, make sure your game or home team has an address entered for it. The map will appear automatically. So now your players, parents and other interested viewers will know where all of your games are taking place and how to get there.

Other updates and enhancements

These updates are just the tip of the iceberg for version 1.4. There are a lot of other cool things that have gone into this update, like new shortcodes and a new widget. To see all of the new updates and features, please checkout the changelog on the homepage.

Website showcase

Do you have a website that’s running Sports Bench? Have you done something really cool with it? Do you want to show it off? Now you can. I mentioned this a while back, but I would love to show off the work of people who have taken Sports Bench and molded it into something awesome that works for them. So if that’s you, please feel free to use the form below or email me with your website URL and a description about your website and how you came to make it the way it is today. I’ll then put it up here on the website for the world to see.

On to version 1.5

Well, that’s it for version 1.4, but work for version 1.5 begins right around the corner. The next version of Sports Bench is currently shaping up to be more design-oriented, both for the plugin and the theme. But if you have a feature you want added or a bug fixed, please fill out the form below, and I’ll see what I can do to get it into the next version. [sports-bench-other-posts category_slug=”updates”]