Version 5.8 is mostly about notifications and comments. A few new things, an overhaul of the settings page, and the usual round of smaller fixes underneath.
1) New: Notification for comments on content pages
Back in version 5.5, we shipped the ability for clients to leave comments on content pages. Up until now, that's been running on WordPress's native comments system — which works, but is fairly limited for the kind of back-and-forth that actually happens in client work.
So we built our own: you can now get email notifications when a client leaves a comment on a content page, including replies. Previously, you had to log into the portal to know if anyone had said anything — which rather defeated the point.
2) Updated: An overhaul of the notification settings
The notifications themselves have been around for a while now. They work, they're useful, and most people are happy with them. But there have been a handful of small UX issues tripping people up — individually they were just annoying, but together they added up to a settings page that wasn't enjoyable to use.
So we took some time to properly think through how to make these easier to set up, easier to maintain, and easier to manage day to day.
Here's what's changed:
- New pill-style sub-tabs, so it's easier to see where you are
- Clearer copy throughout (the old labels assumed you knew what we meant)
- Per-notification enable/disable toggles are easier to find and use
- The "Email appearance" tab is now "Email settings" and actually explains what it does
- "Module available" is now "Module activated", which is what it's always meant
- Custom notification fields pre-fill with your global defaults, so you're not starting from a blank box
If you've previously customised your default email subject lines or body content, your customisations are preserved — only the out-of-the-box defaults have been rewritten.
A feature you might not know exists: Customize notifications per-portal
While we're on the subject of notifications — this is a feature a lot of people don't realise is in Client Portal: you can customise notifications portal-by-portal.
You've got your global notifications (what gets sent for every portal by default), and then you can override those defaults for individual portals when you want different behaviour. Say one client wants to be notified about absolutely everything and another would rather be left alone — you can set that up portal-by-portal.
The redesign hasn't changed how this works under the hood, but it has made it noticeably easier to find and use.
📚 Check out our help doc on how to set up portal-by-portal notifications →
3) New: Send admin notifications to more than just the site admin
Up until now, admin notifications went to whoever was set as the WordPress site admin and that was that. Fine if you're a one-person operation. Less fine if you've got a project manager, a VA, or an accounts person who actually needs to see this stuff and isn't the WordPress admin.
You can now add additional email addresses to receive admin notifications, alongside (or instead of) the site admin.
It's been on the request list for a long time. A small thing, but if you've ever forwarded the same notification email three times in a row to the right person, you'll be glad to have it.
To set this up: go to your Client Portal Settings → Notifications → Email Settings. You'll see an input where you can add additional email addresses.
4) Updated: A few image slider tweaks
The image slider modal is still relatively new. As we've been using it ourselves, we spotted a few small things worth tidying up:
- Full-width images
- Proper navigation arrows on the images
- The download dropdown now opens upward, so it doesn't get clipped by the bottom of the modal
Nothing dramatic, but the kind of small improvements that add up.
Other fixes and improvements
- Pasting formatted content from Google Docs or Word no longer breaks list styling in the module popup view
- Inactive modules in the content page sidebar are now properly greyed out and non-clickable, matching the behaviour elsewhere in the portal
- Digest emails now correctly respect notification settings on individual portals
- Multi-recipient admin emails report delivery status correctly (a previous quirk could occasionally lead to duplicate sends)
- A handful of smaller notification reliability fixes
- Hardened security on notification emails containing user-generated content
What's next for Client Portal: 1-click Template Library
The migration tool I mentioned in the 5.7 post is still in the works. Bigger job than it looks, but we're getting there.
Beyond that, we're going to be overhauling the way you add new portals — specifically by introducing a proper template library inside Client Portal.
Right now, if you want to use one of our pre-built templates, you have to download it from our templates page and import it manually. We're going to be building a full template library directly into Client Portal, so you'll be able to browse what's on offer and add a template in a single click.
The goal is to make getting started easier — especially when you just want to spin up a new portal without spending an hour thinking about structure.
You can keep an eye on what's coming (and add your own feature requests) via the roadmap.
Not using Client Portal yet? Check out Client Portal and see what it's all about.
Current Client Portal user? Head over to your WordPress dashboard and update.
