You have just upgraded from version 4.0, and want to know what’s new? Here we lay it out for you.

The most important changes are in the fields of stability, performance and reliability. However, VM Affiliate 4.5 does also deliver new and tangible changes.

Without further ado, these are, basically, the changes:

• Completely re-written and re-thought, from scratch;
• Dozens of bugs were fixed, or better put, not "implemented" again;
• MVC architecture for the frontend – Affiliate Panel – allowing for easy layout modification and template overrides;
• Installation package is compatible with Joomla!™'s standard installer, and automatically upgrades 4.0 installations, with no data loss;
• Following Joomla!™’s standards, language files are now INI files, placed in Joomla!™’s standard language folder;
• The frontend now validates against the W3C XHTML Strict standards, including the generated advertising material;
• Absolutely no VirtueMart core "hacking". VM Affiliate 4.5 uses smart techniques for all the tracking and integration needs without modifying a single VirtueMart file;
• Completely reliable tracking using a smart tracking plugin. No more custom code is required in payments' configuration;
• New layout, using new icons, for both the frontend, and backend;
• Offline tracking support – one of the most important new features is offline tracking, which enables your users to either type the affiliate's username, or select him from a list of names;
• Coupon-based tracking – additionally, a long time requested feature, which is another type of offline tracking, allows your affiliates to hand out coupons, which provide a discount for the customer, and a commission for the affiliate;
• Product Ads now display prices including taxes, if VirtueMart also does;
• Product Ads now display the discounted prices, the way VirtueMart does;
• Commissions are now calculated after any discounts have been deducted from the order subtotal;
• The E-mail Campaign feature, in the frontend, now supports HTML content, so affiliates can place actual banners in the message;
• The E-mail Affiliates feature, in the backend, now supports HTML content;
• The Text Ads now support HTML content;
• Support for GIF, animated GIF, and SWF (Flash) banners;
• Banners have been moved to a frontend folder, thus not interfering anymore with password-protected administrator folders;
• On new installations, a standard Terms & Conditions text is provided, automatically customized with your website's name and address;
• When multiple product ads exist, specifically more than 100, the product ads page will group products by category;
• Product and Category Ads can be published/unpublished in bulk;
• The Traffic, Sales, and Payments pages, in both the frontend and the backend, contain multiple filters which can be used to narrow down specific information;
• All advertising material is now previewed in modal boxes;
• A new button is added to VirtueMart's administration control panel, which links to the affiliate program management;
• A comprehensive User Manual is now provided with VM Affiliate 4.5, explaining all of its features;