PDF Rack – 3D Flipbook, PDF Viewer & Embed PDF

Changelog

1.5.3

• Fix: PDFs failed to load with “Setting up fake worker failed” on NGINX and other servers that don’t recognise .mjs files.

1.5.2

• New: An occasional, easy-to-dismiss review request in the PDF Rack dashboard. It only appears after you have used PDF Rack for a while with at least one PDF, can be snoozed for 14 days or turned off for good, and links to the support forum if something isn’t working.
• Improvement: No opt-in screen after activation. You go straight to the PDF Rack dashboard.

1.5.1

• Improvement: Clearer plugin name and description: “PDF Rack – 3D Flipbook, PDF Viewer & Embed PDF”.
• Improvement: Refreshed readme with flipbook use cases, new FAQs and new screenshots.

1.5.0

• New: Search inside the PDF. A Search tab in the viewer panel lists every match with its page and surrounding text, highlights matches on the page (in the flipbook, in the zoom view) and steps through them with Enter / Shift+Enter. Ctrl/Cmd+F opens it while the mouse is over the viewer. Hide the button with search="false".
• New: PDF shelf. [pdf-rack-shelf] and the new PDF Rack Shelf block show a category, tag or hand-picked PDFs as a cover gallery; each cover opens the PDF in the popup viewer. Build the shortcode with “Embed a shelf” in the Library.
• New: Elementor widgets. “PDF Viewer” (pick a PDF, choose the viewer, inline or popup, all Pro options) and “PDF Shelf” (categories, tags, order, styles), both with a live preview in the Elementor editor.
• New: Deep links and sharing. A Share button copies a link to the current page or shares it by email, X, LinkedIn, Facebook or WhatsApp. Links like #pdf=12&page=5 open that PDF at that page, even when it is a popup or a shelf cover. New page="N" and share="false" shortcode attributes.
• New: Resume where you left off. Returning readers are offered to continue from the last page they read (kept in their browser only). resume="auto" continues automatically, resume="off" always starts at page 1.
• New (Pro): Lead capture. Ask readers for their email before a PDF opens (the file address stays hidden until they sign up) or after a free preview of a few pages. Optional name and consent checkbox, and returning visitors are remembered.
• New (Pro): Leads tab with search, filter by PDF, CSV export and delete. Leads are included in WordPress’ personal data export and erase tools.
• New (Pro): Interactive hotspots. Draw areas on PDF pages that open a link, go to a page, show a note, play a YouTube, Vimeo or MP4 video, or add a WooCommerce product to the cart. Shown in the reader, slider, flipbook and zoom view, with click counts in the editor.
• New (Pro): WooCommerce product documents. Attach PDFs on the product edit screen; a “Documents” tab on the product page opens them in the viewer. Documents can be limited to customers who bought the product (served through a short-lived signed address).
• New (Pro): Expiring and limited share links. Create private links to a PDF from its details panel, with an expiry date and/or a viewer limit and download on or off. Links open the PDF on its own full-screen page without revealing the file address, count viewers, and can be turned off at any time.
• New (Pro): Watermarked downloads and prints. With a watermark on, Download and Print hand out a copy carrying the same watermark (prepared in the reader’s browser, files up to 150 MB). Can be turned off in Settings.
• New (Pro): Brand themes. Settings → Branding sets the accent colour, toolbar style (dark, light, glass), corners, font and a logo shown in the toolbar and on the loading screen, with a live preview. Password and sign-up screens use the brand too.
• New (Pro): Shelf styles: wooden bookshelf, carousel and list with descriptions, plus a search box and category filter above the shelf.
• New (Pro): Page attention. See the average time spent on each page and the share of readers who reach it, in the Analytics tab (click a PDF) and in a new Analytics tab in each PDF’s details.
• New (Pro): Export reading sessions as CSV, and a weekly email report (Settings → Analytics) with a “send now” button.
• New (Pro): Page-turn sound for the flipbook and slider (Settings → Sound, sound="false" per embed). It is synthesised in the browser, so there is no extra file to load.
• New (Pro): Background audio. Pick an audio file in a PDF’s details; the viewer shows a play/pause button and can start on the reader’s first click. Override per embed with audio="ID|URL|false".
• New: Toolbar modes. toolbar="autohide" fades the toolbar and side arrows out while reading and brings them back when the reader moves the mouse or taps; toolbar="minimize" shrinks the toolbar to a small page counter that expands on hover or tap. Also in the shortcode builder, block and Elementor widget; site default via the pdfrack_toolbar_mode filter.
• Improvement: Flipbook pages curl more as they turn, and clicking the right or left page turns forward or back.
• Improvement: Search and Share switches in the shortcode builder.
• Improvement: Custom popup triggers ([pdf-rack lightbox="true"]...[/pdf-rack]) can be opened with the keyboard.
• Improvement: Viewers replaced while editing in the block editor or Elementor are cleaned up.
• Fix: The Devices card in Analytics showed wrong percentages.
• Fix: The Top PDFs table in Analytics could be cut off on narrower screens.
• Developers: New filters pdfrack_shelf_atts, pdfrack_resume_mode, pdfrack_product_tab_title, pdfrack_link_viewer_config and pdfrack_settings_response; new actions pdfrack_lead_captured (PDF ID, email, name, consent) and pdfrack_hotspot_clicked (PDF ID, hotspot ID).

1.4.0

• New (Pro): Password protection for individual PDFs. Visitors unlock the document with a password, and the file address is never shown on the page.
• New (Pro): Watermarks with your site name, the viewer’s name or email, or the date, tiled or centered across every page.
• New (Pro): Reading analytics with views, unique visitors, reading time, read-through rate, downloads, prints and devices, without storing IP addresses.
• New: Analytics and Settings tabs in the PDF Rack dashboard.
• New: Watermark switch in the shortcode builder and watermark="false" shortcode attribute.
• Fix: The viewer’s Download button opened the PDF in a popup instead of downloading it.

1.3.0

• New: Redesigned viewer toolbar with previous/next buttons, a type-to-jump page number and tooltips.
• New: Redesigned sidebar panel with Pages/Contents tabs, a two-column thumbnail grid and a highlighted current chapter.
• Improved: A simple, non-blocking loading spinner replaces the full-screen black loading screen.
• Fix: Clicking a page thumbnail could highlight a different page while the flipbook was turning.
• Fix: Clicking a thumbnail or contents entry in the Reader scrolled the whole web page instead of just the viewer.

1.2.0

• New: Redesigned PDF library with a shortcode builder — pick Reader, Slider or 3D Flipbook, inline or popup, size and options, then copy the shortcode or PHP snippet in one click.
• New: Live preview of any PDF in the real viewer, with instant switching between Reader, Slider and Flipbook.
• New: Quick “Copy shortcode” menu on every PDF with one-click copy per viewer mode.
• New: Library stats, one-click cover generation for PDFs without a cover, multi-select upload, bulk selection in grid view and keyboard search (press “/”).
• New: Illustrated placeholder covers for PDFs without a cover image.
• Improved: The mouse wheel scrolls the page over the flipbook instead of zooming, and the 3D book can no longer be rotated by dragging.
• Improved: Touch users can scroll the page while their finger is over the flipbook.
• Improved: Browser caching of plugin assets between releases.
• Fix: PDF link areas showed as large overlapping boxes on themes that style section elements.
• Fix: Pro viewer options were ignored on some sites and the 3D Flipbook fell back to the Reader.
• Fix: Clicking a row in list view did not open the PDF details.
• Fix: Pagination counted all PDFs instead of the filtered results.

1.1.0

• New: Brand-new viewer engine with Reader and Slider modes, thumbnails, outline, zoom overlay and clickable PDF links.
• New: 3D Flipbook viewer (free), including flipbook popups via the lightbox.
• New: PDF Rack Pro — hardcover flipbook, coverflow slider, RTL reading, custom background and download/print controls.
• New: mode="slider" / mode="flipbook" and lightbox="true" shortcode attributes; viewer mode selector in the block.
• Updated: PDF.js 5.4.
• Removed: Toolbar position/style options (the new viewer uses a single floating toolbar).

1.0.6

• New: Added Lightbox Viewer mode for shortcodes and custom trigger elements (data-pdfrack-lightbox or class="pdfrack-lightbox").
• New: Added automatic PDF link interception to open standard PDF links in the Lightbox viewer overlay.
• Updated: In-app documentation slideover with Lightbox usage guide and code examples.

1.0.5

• Tested compatibility with WordPress version 7.0.2.
• Minor updates.

1.0.4

• Minor updates.

1.0.3

• New: Added PDF Rack Viewer Gutenberg Block.
• New: Added Light/Dark Mode and Position, dock/float options for Toolbar.
• Fix: Fixed the issue of PDF thumbnail not displaying in the admin dashboard.

1.0.2

• New: Added in-app documentation slideover for easier usage.
• New: Added keyboard shortcuts for PDF viewer navigation and zoom.
• New: Added custom background color support for shortcode.

1.0.1

• Added Quick View lightbox feature in the admin dashboard.

1.0.0

• Initial release.
• Dedicated PDF dashboard with upload, categorization, and search.
• Responsive frontend PDF viewer powered by PDF.js.
• Gutenberg block, Elementor widget, and shortcode embedding.
• Category and tag taxonomy support for document organization.