Version 1.18.0 – Product Cache & UX Improvements

🚀 Features & Enhancements

• Complete Product Data Caching
• On extension startup or manual refetch, fetches all products from Airtable and enriches each with WooCommerce data.
• Stores enriched product data in browser.storage.local for instant search and display.
• Manual Refetch Button
• Added a "Refetch Products" button below the Products title.
• Button is disabled during fetch and shows a loading state.
• Cache age info now clearly states "Products cached X ago".
• Progress Bar Improvements
• Progress bar updates in real-time for each product fetched.
• Status text shows "Processing X of Y products..." for transparency.
• Progress bar and refetch button are disabled during fetch for better UX.
• Search Optimization
• Search now uses only the enriched cache, resulting in instant results with complete product details.
• No background API calls during search.
• Cache Versioning & Migration
• Automatic cache invalidation and migration on extension update.
• Old cache is cleared and refetched if the data structure changes.
• UI Consistency
• Refetch and refresh buttons now use the same icon (↻) and matching styles, with distinct color themes.
• Refresh-messages button uses a soft green color; refetch-products uses soft blue.
• Cache Age Display
• Cache age info now explicitly refers to "Products" for clarity.

🐞 Bug Fixes

• Fixed race conditions and duplicate event listeners in sidebar and background scripts.
• Improved error handling for product fetch and cache operations.
• Ensured coupon generation is blocked for products already on sale.

📝 Other Changes

• Added documentation for cache migration, enrichment strategy, and search optimization.
• Improved logging for debugging and transparency.

Summary

This release introduces a robust local product caching system and a race-free, priority-aware background fetch mechanism to reduce Airtable/WooCommerce API calls and improve user responsiveness when searching products.

Key Highlights

• Product cache stored in browser.storage.local under the keys:
• cachedProducts — the cached product records
• cachedProductsTimestamp — the epoch timestamp when the cache was written
• Cache expiry default: 24 hours. If the cache is valid, no remote fetch will be performed.
• getProducts message handler now favors cached data and only fetches when cache is missing or expired.
• Shared fetch promise: concurrent callers now share the same in-flight fetch (no duplicate fetches).
• Pause / Resume mechanism:
• Background cache population runs with low priority and is pausable.
• User operations (product searches or manual refresh) have high priority and will pause, abort, or preempt background fetches.
• Background fetches resume automatically when there are no active user operations.
• New message handlers:
• getCachedProducts — returns only cached records (no remote fetch)
• refreshProductCache — forces cache refresh (runs as a user-priority operation)

Behavioral Notes

• On startup the background script will attempt to initialize the product cache only if there is no valid cache present. It will use a background priority fetch that can be paused or preempted by user activity.
• When multiple concurrent requests for products occur while the cache is empty or expired, they will share one network request to Airtable/WooCommerce instead of issuing duplicate parallel requests.
• During active user searches, background fetch operations will be paused or aborted to ensure user-facing operations have network priority.

Summary
- Reliability and race-condition fixes for message scraping and sidebar synchronization. This release addresses an intermittent issue where the "Generate a response" button could remain disabled after opening the extension or navigating between Zendesk tickets.

Bug Fixes & Improvements
- content_script.js
- Added a processing lock (isProcessingTicket) to prevent concurrent runs of the proactive scraping function (processAndCacheTicket()).
- Added a short delay (200ms) before forwarding messagesCached to the background script to give the sidebar time to initialize and subscribe to runtime messages.
- Added a fallback processing timeout (5s) that forcibly clears the processing lock if scraping stalls.
- Enhanced logging for easier tracing of proactive scrape attempts, re-evaluation flows, timeouts, and sends to background.
- Fixed missing declaration and propagation of customerName so cached data contains complete customer info.

• background.js
• Now forwards messagesCached messages received from content scripts to the sidebar (ensures the sidebar sees cached data notifications).
• sidebar.js
• Improved guards (isLoadingMessages) to prevent loadAndRender() from running concurrently.
• Only enable the "Generate a response" button when the sidebar is definitely on a ticket page and messages are present.
• Added verbose logging to show why the button remains disabled (if it does), and to trace the message flow.

Why this was necessary
- Multiple triggers (DOMContentLoaded, URL-change observer, DOM-mutation observer) could cause the content script to run the same scraping flow concurrently. That, combined with the sidebar and background message timing, led to race conditions where the sidebar didn't receive the cached messages or re-enabled the UI correctly. The changes make the scraping flow single-threaded (per-tab), introduce conservative delays to reduce message races, and add timeouts to avoid permanent lockups.

Notes about behavior changes
- No UI features were added or removed; all changes are internal and aim to improve reliability.
- The 200ms delay is conservative and should be imperceptible to users; it's a pragmatic step to ensure the sidebar has time to attach listeners after a tab/navigation event.
- The 5s processing timeout is a safety net in case of rare hang-ups; it should not affect normal flows.

Summary

This patch fixes intermittent UI hangs where the "Generate A Response" button remained disabled after the extension was opened or when navigating between Zendesk pages. The update targets race conditions in sidebar.js related to message loading and event handling, plus minor manifest adjustments. No new user-facing features were added; this release improves reliability and startup behavior.

Bug Fixes

• Prevented the "Generate A Response" button from being stuck disabled by:
• Introducing an execution guard to prevent simultaneous runs of loadAndRender() (avoids race conditions).
• Ensuring the button is only enabled when the sidebar is on a ticket page and messages are present.
• Adding protective checks in message listeners so loadAndRender() isn't invoked concurrently by both contextUpdate and messagesCached messages.
• Removed redundant/duplicated event executions that could override UI state.

Stability & Reliability

• Added console logging to make it clear why the button remains disabled when it does (useful for debugging).
• Strengthened guard clauses for refresh and runtime message handlers to avoid overlapping asynchronous operations.
• Verified JavaScript syntax for sidebar.js and overall extension scripts (no syntax errors).

Notes

• This is a stability release; functionality is unchanged from the user perspective except for improved reliability.
• Users should reload the extension or restart the sidebar to pick up changes after updating.
• Recommended to test across common Zendesk flows (open ticket, switch tickets, navigate Zendesk app) to validate that the UI state updates correctly.

Bug Fixes
Fixed button disable issue on Zendesk ticket pages: Resolved a critical bug where the "Generate me a response" button remained disabled due to duplicate event listeners in sidebar.js. This was caused by redundant browser.runtime.onMessage.addListener and refreshButton.addEventListener handlers that interfered with UI state management.
Improved code reliability: Removed all duplicate code blocks across sidebar.js and background.js to prevent race conditions and ensure consistent extension behavior.

Technical Improvements
Refactored event handling logic in sidebar.js to eliminate conflicts between multiple listeners.
Verified syntax integrity across all JavaScript files using Node.js validation.
Enhanced extension stability by ensuring single, authoritative event handlers for tab updates and message passing.

Notes
This release focuses on stability and bug resolution; no new features added.
Users should reload the extension in Firefox after update to ensure changes take effect.
Compatibility with existing Zendesk ticket workflows remains unchanged.

Bug Fixes
Fixed duplicate coupon generation: Resolved an issue where clicking the "Generate me a response" button would generate coupons twice due to duplicate event listeners in sidebar.js.
Improved coupon data clearing: Enhanced logic to properly clear WooCommerce coupon data when discount fields are empty, preventing outdated coupon references in AI prompts.

Technical Improvements
Refactored event handling in sidebar.js for better reliability and performance.
Added conditional checks to ensure coupon data is only generated and retained when appropriate conditions are met.

Notes
No new features added in this release; focus was on stability and bug resolution.
Tested on Firefox extension environment; compatibility with other browsers remains unchanged.

v1.13.4 - Product Integration & Response Enhancement

New Features:
- Added real-time date/time context to system prompts
- Enhanced sale price validation for better accuracy
- Improved product cache management system

Improvements:
- Optimized product data handling and caching mechanism
- Enhanced usage tracking for generate and copy actions
- Added automatic product selection clearing after response copy
- Improved response persistence during navigation

Bug Fixes:
- Fixed sale price validation logic to ensure accurate pricing display
- Resolved issues with usage count tracking
- Corrected product cache expiration handling

Version 1.13.3 brings minor improvements and stability updates to enhance your experience with BIGLOVE.AI Zendesk Assistant.

What's New:
- Performance optimizations
- General stability improvements

This update includes important backend configuration changes and code refinements to improve the stability and maintainability of the add-on.

What's New:
- Updated Airtable Integration:** The add-on has been updated to connect to the latest Airtable base and tables, ensuring seamless data synchronization for system prompts, macros, and other resources.