Upgrading & Updates

TableCrafter updates like any WordPress.org plugin and stores nothing in your database, so upgrades are low-risk. This page covers how to update safely, what changes between minor and major releases, PHP/WordPress compatibility, and how the free plugin relates to the paid Pro product.

Current version & requirements

The version you are reading about is TableCrafter 3.5.6. The plugin advertises its supported environment in the header of tablecrafter.php and in readme.txt:

How to update the plugin

TableCrafter ships through the WordPress.org plugin directory, so it updates through the normal WordPress update channel. No license key is required for the free plugin and there is nothing to activate.

1. Dashboard one-click: Go to Plugins → Installed Plugins, or Dashboard → Updates, and click Update now when a new version is offered.
2. Auto-updates: On Plugins → Installed Plugins, use the Enable auto-updates link in the TableCrafter row to let WordPress apply minor and major releases automatically.
3. Manual / WP-CLI: Reinstall over the top of the existing folder, or run the command below.

# Update via WP-CLI
wp plugin update tablecrafter-wp-data-tables

# Or check what is available first
wp plugin status tablecrafter-wp-data-tables

What happens to your data on update

Upgrades are unusually safe because TableCrafter is a viewer, not a data store. It fetches rows live from your source (JSON API, Google Sheet, or CSV) and never copies them into custom database tables.

• No migrations run. The activation hook only sets a one-time welcome-redirect flag (tc_do_activation_redirect); it does not create or alter tables, so there is no schema step that can fail mid-upgrade.
• Your shortcodes are untouched. Pages keep their [tablecrafter ...] tags exactly as written; an update never rewrites post content.
• Caches are version-scoped. Rendered-table transients are keyed with the plugin version baked in (md5( source . include . ... . TABLECRAFTER_VERSION )), so every upgrade naturally invalidates old cached HTML. You usually do not need to manually clear anything after updating.

Reading the changelog: minor vs. major

TableCrafter follows semantic-versioning conventions in its changelog. Use the version number to gauge how much could change before you click update.

Two release lines are worth calling out because they changed behavior rather than just adding features:

• 3.5.2 — Minimum PHP raised to 8.0. This is the one release that can stop the plugin from loading if your server is too old.
• 3.5.3 and 3.5.6 — The export pipeline was rebuilt. Excel and PDF exports now produce genuine .xlsx (OOXML) and PDF 1.4 files via includes/class-tc-export-handler.php, replacing earlier output that was HTML mislabeled with those extensions. If you relied on the export button, prefer 3.5.6 or later.

Your shortcodes are forward-compatible

Because every release keeps the existing [tablecrafter] attributes intact, a table you build today keeps rendering after future updates. The attributes parsed by the render handler are stable:

A typical table written against any 3.x release looks like this and will keep working across updates:

[tablecrafter source="https://api.example.com/products.json"
             search="true" export="true"
             per_page=25 sort="price:desc"]

The same configuration is also available without code through the Gutenberg block (tablecrafter/data-table) and the Elementor "TableCrafter Data Table" widget, both of which read the identical attribute set.

Free vs. Pro: what "upgrade" actually means

There is a common point of confusion here. The free TableCrafter plugin does not have a premium license key that unlocks hidden features inside the same plugin. Instead, "Pro" refers to a separate companion product:

• TableCrafter (free): displays JSON / CSV / Google Sheet sources as accessible, exportable tables. Fully functional on its own — search, filters, sorting, pagination, auto-refresh, and real XLSX/PDF export are all included.
• Advanced Data Tables for Gravity Forms (Pro, formerly Gravity Tables): a paid Freemius product aimed at editing Gravity Forms entries. It adds frontend editing, role-based permissions, bulk actions, advanced/logic filters, and conditional formatting.

So moving "free to Pro" is installing a different, complementary plugin — not entering a key into TableCrafter. The Pro product is sold with a 7-day free trial (you can cancel before it ends; a reminder email goes out two days prior). You can run both side by side.

Recommended update workflow

1. Read the changelog for the target version (and any you are skipping) in Plugins → View details, watching for the major-version and PHP-floor notes above.
2. Confirm PHP 8.0+ on the server if you are crossing the 3.5.2 boundary.
3. Update on staging first for major versions; load a page that uses [tablecrafter] and verify the table, filters, and export still behave.
4. Apply to production via one-click update or auto-updates.
5. Spot-check a live table. Because caches are version-scoped, the first render after the update re-fetches the source; confirm rows appear and the export menu produces a real file.

Downgrading & clean removal

If a release introduces a regression, you can roll back by reinstalling the previous version's ZIP from the WordPress.org "Advanced View" / "Previous versions" section. Since no schema migration ran on the way up, there is nothing to reverse — your shortcodes and sources are unaffected.

Deleting the plugin (not just deactivating) triggers uninstall.php, which cleans up after itself: it removes TableCrafter options (tablecrafter_settings, tc_tracked_urls, the redirect flag, and the stored tablecrafter_version), deletes all tc_cache_* / tc_html_* / tc_export_* transients, unschedules the cron event, and purges temporary export files. Reinstalling later starts from a clean slate.

Next steps: If you are setting up TableCrafter for the first time after updating, see installation.html; to learn the full attribute reference for your tables, see shortcode-reference.html.