What's New in SureDash

We’re excited to bring you a powerful update focused on improving user experience, enhancing customization, and helping your community connect better than ever.

Member Directory: Connect Faster (Pro)

One of the biggest additions in this release is the Member Directory a centralised space where users can discover, search, and connect with other members in your community.

Why this matters:

• Perfect for cohort-based courses where learners want to connect with peers
• Great for membership communities to increase engagement and networking
• Helps build a stronger sense of community and belonging
• Instead of isolated users, you now enable real connections inside your portal

Better Design & Smoother UX

We’ve enhanced the overall design experience with new typography controls for the Portal Navigation block, a refreshed settings UI, and improved email template handling for consistent branding. User profiles now include a Gravatar fallback, ensuring avatars are always displayed. We’ve also improved usability with a smoother Login & Registration experience (including “already signed in” messaging and auto-redirects), better content handling with course thumbnail fallbacks, and direct file downloads.

Core Changelog

• New: Added typography options for the Portal Navigation block to control font family, size, and weight.
• New: Added a WP-CLI command to enable SureDash AI abilities from the terminal — wp suredash abilities enable with optional --with-edit and --with-delete flags.
• Improvement: Login & Registration blocks now show a friendly “already signed in” message with a “Go to Portal” action and support auto-redirect when a custom URL is set.
• Improvement: Refreshed the settings page UI for a cleaner and more intuitive experience.
• Improvement: Email templates have been improved. Overriding the wrapper email template now applies to all email designs sent from SureDash.
• Improvement: User avatars now fall back to Gravatar when no profile photo is uploaded.
• Fix: Portal names containing commas, accented characters, or other special characters no longer produce malformed email “From” headers.
• Fix: This update addressed a security bug. Props to Patchstack for reporting it responsibly to our team. Please make sure you are using the latest version on your website.
• Fix: AI ability settings can now be turned on without first installing the MCP Adapter plugin. Only the “Enable MCP Server” option still requires the adapter.

Premium Changelog

• New: Introduced a Member Directory page that lets users browse, search, and connect with community members from a single place.
• New: Added “Use Course Thumbnail as Default” option for lessons – when enabled and no featured image is set, the course thumbnail will be used as the lesson image.
• New: External resource URLs pointing to downloadable file types (PDFs, images, documents, archives, media) now trigger a download instead of opening in a new tab when the remote host sends CORS headers (e.g. Bunny CDN with “Add CORS Headers” enabled). URLs without CORS support continue to open in a new tab.

Managing a community or course platform should feel effortless. This update takes a solid step in that direction.

We’ve focused on making SureDash more predictable, secure, and enjoyable in everyday use. From browsing posts and searching content to checking activity in spaces, your members now see only what they’re meant to see, across the entire portal. This reduces confusion, protects private content, and builds more trust in your community.

We’ve also refined the experience on mobile, so navigating between posts, events, and resources feels smoother and more natural. Behind the scenes, we’ve laid important groundwork for smarter permissions, better analytics, and future AI-powered workflows.

What’s New & Improved

This update introduces support for the WordPress Abilities API and MCP integration, laying the foundation for more flexible permissions, better analytics, and future-ready AI-powered workflows. Alongside this, we’ve significantly improved mobile responsiveness, strengthened content security, and refined how users navigate and interact with posts. Visibility controls are now more accurate across feeds, search, and widgets, ensuring a cleaner and more relevant experience for every user.

Core Changelog

• New: Added support for the WordPress Abilities API for portal creation and analytics.
• New: Added MCP integration to support AI-powered portal management.
• Improvement: Better mobile responsiveness for a smoother experience on phones and tablets.
• Improvement: Improved translations for a more consistent experience across languages.
• Improvement: Improved content sanitization for posts and comments.
• Improvement: Posts opened from popups now load in the same tab to avoid multiple tabs.
• Improvement: Email address on the profile page is now private by default and only shown if the user chooses to add it.
• Fix: Fixed duplicate YouTube thumbnails in discussion posts.
• Fix: Assigning a portal layout template from Quick Edit was not working.
• Fix: Corrected back button behavior to return users to the original feed after viewing a post.
• Fix: Discussion unread counter no longer counts posts the user has no permission to view (visibility_scope and SureMembers access groups).
• Fix: Frontend search results no longer include restricted content that the user cannot access.
• Fix: Space sidebar widgets (Post, Recent Activities) no longer show posts, comments & content the current user does not have access to.

Premium Changelog

• New: Added support for the WordPress Abilities API to power SureDash Pro features.
• Improvement: Enhanced mobile responsiveness for Events, Resources, and Collection spaces.
• Improvement: Improved content protection for restricted lessons and posts within course integrations and community templates.

This update brings more control and a smoother experience across your portal. You can now customize widget titles to better match your space, while sorting and view preferences are saved individually making navigation more intuitive for every space.

We’ve also improved login and registration reliability with better validation and error handling, along with enhanced localization support through fully translatable strings.

On top of that, several important fixes ensure a cleaner experience email notifications now use your configured settings, duplicate WordPress emails are prevented, and restricted content is no longer visible to unauthorized users.

Core Changelog

• New: Added customizable title options for the About Space and Recent Activities widgets.
• Improvement: Sorting and view preferences are now saved per space instead of globally.
• Improvement: Made plugin strings fully translatable for better localization support.
• Improvement: Improved error handling and client-side validation for Login and Registration blocks.
• Fix: Disabled default WordPress comment notification emails for SureDash post types to prevent duplicate or unwanted emails.
• Fix: Notification emails now use the “From Email” configured in SureDash Settings instead of the WordPress admin email.
• Fix: Posts with restricted visibility are no longer shown to unauthorized users in the feeds list view.

Premium Changelog

• Improvement: Made plugin strings fully translatable for better localization support.
• Improvement: Added customizable singular text label for Course.
• Fix: User notification emails now use the “From Email” configured in SureDash Settings instead of the WordPress admin email.

This update focuses on improving the comment experience and resolving key stability issues. We’ve enhanced how comments handle formatting and fixed issues affecting layout and login functionality to ensure a smoother and more reliable experience.

Core Changelog

• Fix: Resolved issue where multi-paragraph comments displayed incorrectly in a horizontal layout.
• Fix: Addressed ‘headers already sent’ warning impacting portal login page.

We’re excited to roll out a new update focused on improving how you interact with Discussions, Feeds, and overall site experience. This release introduces enhanced content organisation, a more flexible browsing experience, and modernised comment UI tweaks for a cleaner and more engaging look.

Alongside new capabilities, we’ve made significant UI and performance improvements to ensure a smoother, more intuitive experience across devices. We’ve also strengthened compatibility to support upcoming integrations, setting the foundation for future enhancements.

This update also includes several important fixes and stability improvements to make everything more reliable and consistent for your users.

Core Changelog

• New: Introduced sorting options for Discussions and Feeds to help users organise content more efficiently.
• New: Added a List view layout for Discussions and Feeds, providing an alternative and more structured browsing experience.
• New: Added customisation options for Login and Registration block titles.
• New: Introduced new action hooks ‘suredash_before_file_delete’ and ‘suredash_after_file_upload’, allowing developers to execute custom logic before file deletion and after file upload.
• Improvement: Enhanced UI for post comments, along with overall UI enhancements.
• Improvement: Repositioned Bookmark and Post action menu to the top with UI/UX enhancements.
• Improvement: Responsive CSS improvements.
• Improvement: Re-generate fonts on Site URL or Home URL change.
• Improvement: The “Copy URL” option is now hidden from the post action menu if the Share Button is disabled.
• Improvement: Space groups will no longer be displayed if they are empty or if all spaces inside them are hidden.
• Improvement: Added pre-compatibility support for the SureMembers Core plugin.
• Improvement: Added WebP support for profile photo uploads.
• Fix: Feed and user profile posts were not being restricted when the Portal was restricted via SureMembers.
• Fix: Fixed sidebar height CSS issue in the Modern layout to ensure proper alignment and full-height rendering.
• Fix: Fixed an issue in Safari where the cursor position was lost when opening the emoji picker popup.

Premium Changelog

• Improvement: Responsive CSS improvements.
• Improvement: Added pre-compatibility support for the SureMembers Core plugin.
• Fix: Resolved an issue where event time zones were not displaying correctly in some cases.
• Fix: Fixed console errors occurring with SureMembers integration.

This update focuses on security improvements along with a fix for the email notification.

Core Changelog

• Improvement: Hardened the security of the plugin.
• Fix: Fixed an issue where email notifications were not being saved correctly.

Premium Changelog

• Improvement: Hardened the security of the plugin.

This update improves layout flexibility and consistency across SureDash Core and Pro, including enhanced sidebar behavior, refined container spacing, and better feed context visibility. It also includes important fixes related to layout styling, event date display, Google OAuth permissions, and password validation to improve stability and user experience.

Core Changelog

• Improvement: Sidebar can now be used with all container width options. Previously, enabling the sidebar forced the layout to full width.
• Improvement: Feeds now display the discussion space from which each post originates for better context and clarity.
• Fix: Resolved an issue where the unboxed container style was being applied incorrectly to discussion spaces.
• Fix: Reduced Google OAuth scopes to only request necessary permissions (openid, email, profile).
• Fix: Prevent false password mismatch error from browser autofill.

Premium Changelog

• Improvement: Enhanced container width spacing for Courses, Events, and Collections for better layout consistency.
• Fix: Resolved an issue where the event end date and time were displayed incorrectly in certain cases.

Continued improvements to deliver a smoother and more dependable experience.

Core Changelog

• New: Added ‘suredash_identity_block_url’ filter to customize the identity block redirect URL.
• Fix: Kadence theme styles incorrectly loading on auth pages, leading to layout issues.
• Fix: Reverted the default template assignment to the portal layout for newly created pages.

Your community portal just got a major upgrade. With SureDash 1.6.0, we’re bringing you powerful new tools to create cohesive experiences, boost member engagement, and deliver content with precision, whether you’re running a small mastermind or a thriving membership empire.

A Unified Portal Experience

The new Portal Layout Template extends your branded portal experience beyond community spaces to every page on your site. Posts, custom post types, and standard WordPress content now inherit the same consistent styling, no more jarring transitions between your portal and the rest of your site. This means when members navigate from a discussion thread to a blog post or landing page, they stay immersed in your brand. For site owners, this eliminates hours of custom CSS work trying to make everything match.

Smarter Space Navigation

Navigating complex communities just got easier. The Space Sidebar provides quick access to relevant sections within any space, helping members find what they need without endless clicking. Discussion spaces now display unread post counts, so users never miss important conversations. These seemingly small touches add up to a dramatically improved user experience, especially for active communities where staying on top of discussions matters.

Premium Features

Leaderboards & Gamification
Turn engagement into a game. The new Leaderboard system lets you showcase top contributors and incentivize participation through user levels, a proven way to keep communities active and thriving. Whether you want to reward course completion, discussion participation, or resource downloads, leaderboards tap into intrinsic motivation that keeps members coming back.

Targeted Post Visibility
Not every message needs to reach everyone. With Targeted Post Visibility, you can restrict posts to specific users or SureMembers Access Groups. Perfect for coaching calls, VIP announcements, cohort-specific updates, or tiered content delivery. This feature alone transforms how you think about community segmentation, no more creating separate spaces for every subgroup.

Custom SVG Uploads
Your brand, your icons. Premium users can now upload custom SVGs to the Icon Library, extending beyond the default set to match your unique visual identity. Whether it’s custom category icons, branded navigation elements, or unique space identifiers, you have complete creative control.

Deeper SureMembers Integration
We’ve strengthened our SureMembers integration with two powerful additions:

• Configure Access Groups to send targeted notifications to specific member segments
• Automatically assign new registrations to selected Access Groups, zero manual work required

This creates a seamless onboarding flow where new members land in exactly the right spaces from day one.

Polish & Stability

This release also brings thoughtful refinements: separated upload limits for profile and cover images give you finer control over asset management. Portal notifications now redirect directly to relevant comments instead of just the post. We’ve eliminated the dark mode flicker on page load, fixed social login button spacing, and resolved emoji selector issues on the frontend. ACSS compatibility improvements mean SureDash plays nicely with more WordPress setups out of the box.

Ready to level up your community?

Update to SureDash 1.6.0 today to unlock these powerful new features. Core users get the Portal Layout Template and Space Sidebar immediately. Ready for leaderboards, targeted visibility, and advanced integrations? Upgrade to SureDash Premium and transform your community into an engagement powerhouse.

Your members are waiting, give them the experience they deserve.

Core Changelog

• New: Introduced Portal Layout template for posts and custom post types to ensure a consistent portal experience across all pages. (https://suredash.com/docs/use-portal-layout-template-for-site-wide-pages/)
• New: Added a Space Sidebar feature that provides quick access to relevant sections within a space. (https://suredash.com/docs/space-sidebar-layout/)
• New: Unread post count is now displayed for Discussion Post spaces in the portal.
• New: SureMembers Compatibility – Configure Access Groups to send notifications to targeted users within selected Access Groups.
• New: SureMembers Compatibility – Added an Access Group selection option in Integration settings to automatically assign newly registered users to the selected group.
• New: Introduced an option to reset the cover image under Edit Profile settings.
• Improvement: Fixed ACSS-related CSS compatibility issues on Portal pages.
• Improvement: Separated Profile and Cover Image upload limits from the general Assets Upload Limit for better control.
• Improvement: UI tweaks and refinements for an improved user experience.
• Improvement: Portal notifications for post and comment replies now redirect directly to the relevant comment.
• Fix: Removed the visual flicker on the frontend where the site briefly appeared in dark mode before switching to light mode on page load.
• Fix: Resolved social login button spacing issues and fixed the social button position option in the login form.
• Fix: Fixed an issue where the emoji selector was not working on the portal frontend.

Premium Changelog

• New: Introduced the Leaderboard feature. (https://suredash.com/docs/introducing-leaderboard-and-user-levels/)
• New: Introduced Targeted Post Visibility, allowing administrators to show posts only to specific users or SureMembers Access Groups. (https://suredash.com/docs/introducing-targeted-discussions/)
• New: Added support for uploading custom SVGs to the Icon Library.
• Improvement: Accessed resources are now displayed in list view.
• Improvement: You can now create a new space directly from the Collection Space editor.
• Fix: Resolved an issue where the Like button was not visible in the grid view for resources.
• Fix: Resolved incorrect notification management URLs sent via email.

This update delivers multiple improvements along with important bug fixes across discussions, portals, localization, and integrations.

Core Changelog

• New: Added ‘suredash_post_content’ filter to modify post content before it’s returned.
• Improvement: Showing Post Edit and Delete options for Discussion posts only.
• Improvement: Clicking on a comment author now redirects to the author’s profile.
• Improvement: Disabled rendering of the SureCart floating cart icon on Portal pages.
• Fix: Resolved translation word order issue for relative time stamps (e.g., “5 days ago”) in non-English languages like French.
• Fix: Resolved a compatibility issue that prevented SureCart onboarding from completing successfully.
• Fix: Resolved WordPress import errors caused by a missing SureDash method.
• Fix: Resolved block editor console errors caused by the ‘Back to SureDash’ button.
• Fix: Fixed Notification & Profile menu drawer position for RTL languages.
• Fix: Resolved an issue where the Turnstile captcha was not refreshing after a failed login attempt.
• Fix: Fixed special characters (š, č, ž, etc.) appearing bold by including extended Latin subset in Google Fonts loading.
• Fix: Corrected the “Lost Password” link to redirect to the portal’s password reset screen instead of the default WordPress page.