← Cases Plugins 15–16 Oct 2026 · PageBrick 1.6.0, 1.7.0 and 1.7.1
From a client’s request to a release
Staff at a client’s site opened the same screen every day, and it was hidden behind the Plugins icon. Asked on 15 October, out on 16 October, in a form that changed nothing for any other site.
- 27 / 27checks updating 1.6.0 → 1.7.0 in a real browser, with rollback
- 2optional arguments added to one function; every plugin written before works as it did
- 0things removed or changed in the public API
- 6releases on 16 October that came out of it: three PageBrick versions and three plugin releases
The problem
A client’s website ran a plugin an agency had made for its daily announcements. The staff used it every day, but it lived behind the Plugins icon, in a list with settings and updates. They also wanted to know when someone sent a message through the contact form, without opening the panel to find out.
The decision
The request belonged to one client, and nothing specific to one client goes into PageBrick. The general form was this: a plugin screen may ask to sit in the Content list of the menu, with an icon of its own (pb_add_admin_page() gained two optional arguments at the end), and plugins may put a number beside their menu item and a line in the bell (two new filters).
The compatibility promise decided the shape. A function may gain optional arguments but never lose or change one, so every plugin written before keeps its place; and a plugin that passes the new arguments to an older PageBrick is simply listed where it always was, because PHP ignores extra arguments. It shipped as a minor version, announced in the panel and never installed by itself. The Blog and the contact form, the official plugins, were updated to use it, and they reach sites through the catalog, not through the core update.
The proof
The update from 1.6.0 to 1.7.0 was run in a real browser on a site made from the published 1.6.0: the announcement, no automatic install, the update with its live steps, every public page and panel screen, the rollback and the update again, 27 of 27 checks. A frozen copy of the public API is compared on every test run, so the promise is kept by a test and not by good intentions.
The result
The client’s staff now find the screens they use every day in the Content list; a number appears beside Messages when something arrives, and the bell says so. Sites that use none of this changed nothing. On 16 October the same work came out as PageBrick 1.6.0, 1.7.0 and 1.7.1, Blog 1.1.0 and 1.2.0, and Contact form 1.2.0.
What stayed
Say yes to the client by turning the request into a general feature, and let the promise to every other site decide its shape.