Monthly Archives: June 2009

WordPress 2.8.1 Beta 2

Posted on by
Reply

Looks like there’s been another public drop of WordPress 2.8.1 labelled Beta 2, as more issues with the 2.8 release are quashed. Here are some of the things that have been fixed in this release:

  • Translation of role names fixed
  • wp_page_menu() defaults to sorting by the user specified menu order rather than the page title
  • Upload error messages are now correctly reported
  • Autosave error experienced by some IE users is fixed
  • Styling glitch in the plugin editor fixed
  • SSH2 filesystem requirements updated
  • Switched back to curl as the default transport
  • Updated the translation library to avoid a problem with mbstring.func_overload

There’s a warning on the release post for plugin authors to make sure they test their plugins with this release, so there may be some bits that have changed or been refined in some of the hooks or API that WordPress exposes. So, if you have a plugin that lets you reply to comments, or send out Halloween invitations, then make sure you test it well just to make sure it works fine.

Having problems with 2.8? Check out the 2.8.1

Posted on by
Reply
mr. bing
Image by faeryboots via Flickr

I was looking into an issue with the dashboard loading up on Army Mom: New Jersey when I noticed there’s a new beta for WordPress which fixes this issue and some other ones. Specifically, 2.8.1 fixes a number of issues, notably:

  • Certain themes were calling get_categories() in such a way that it would fail in 2.8. 2.8.1 works around this so these themes won’t have to change.
  • Dashboard memory usage is reduced. Some people were running out of memory when loading the dashboard, resulting in an incomplete page.
  • The automatic upgrade no longer accidentally deletes files when cleaning up from a failed upgrade.
  • A problem where the rich text editor wasn’t being loaded due to compression issues has been worked around.
  • Extra security has been put in place to better protect you from plugins that do not do explicit permission checks.

If you’re affected by any of these, you might want to move onto the beta, otherwise wait for the official release to come out. Just make sure you take backups before upgrading to a beta version. If you think it’s hot in a Sahara hotel, you haven’t felt the hot water you’d be in if you break someone’s blog and find yourself in a position where you can’t fix it!

WordPress 2.8: Baker

Posted on by
1

I woke up this morning to find that WordPress 2.8 has finally be released. It was promised for the 10th June, but as I’m based in Europe, I didn’t get to see it till today. I’ve been running the RC on this blog and haven’t really had any major problems. So, what’s new in this release? It’s all outlined in this video:

Word of the new release has already started spreading, but most people will find out about it when they log into WordPress and it tells them there’s a new version. I’ve uploaded two blogs using the in-built upgrade mechanism and everything was smooth, thought I had to restart the process a couple of times till it completed. Presumably users on faster servers won’t have the same issue.

Most of the changes are a step in the right direction I think, faster admin UI and better handling of widgets are among those. It’s leaner and meaner, like an athlete on Fenphedra. I’m a bit unsure about the theme uploader/upgrader as I think some people may lose theme customisations this way and I don’t think I like the new plugin interface, but all in all I’ve been looking forward to this drop.

One interesting thing to report. The WordPress admin interface was broken with Firefox 3.5b99, but this new drop of WordPress has resolved that issue because of an upgrade in the Javascript components used by the admin interface. So go ahead and upgrade to the latest versions of stuff, things seem to be working nicely!

(P.S. I’ve noticed that the upgrade has disabled one of my plugins that provided paged comments, but seeing that this is now a built-in feature of WordPress, I was quite happy for it to deactivate it)

WordPress 2.8 RC 1

Posted on by
Reply

We’re so close to WordPress 2.8 I can almost taste it. Release Candidate 1 was released a few days ago and if all goes well, it will finally get released tomorrow (Wednesday). Software goes through a number of cycles before it gets released and a release candidate is the final step before the final version is released. It all depends if anyone finds any problems with the release. If none are find, this will be the final version. If any show stoppers are found, there may be another Release Candidate before the version is finalised.

At least software has the advantage that it can be replaces quite easily. If we were talking about a piece of hardware like one of those PS3 players, once people buy those pieces of kit, it’s pretty hard to upgrade the software to a new version. It gets easier as technology improves, but software is still loads easier to manage and WordPress has the technique down to a T. Now that WordPress lets you upgrade its core files, it’s plugins and now even its themes with just one click, it’s so much easier to handle upgrades.

Custom Taxonomies in WordPress 2.8

Posted on by
Reply

Traditionally, WordPress has used to methods to help people create a taxonomy around their posts. Categories offer a rigid structure and tags offer a more flexible, albeit unstructured option. It was possible to use the Custom Taxonomy Plugin to extend this concept further but with WordPress 2.8, it becomes very easy to add these custom taxonomies to your standard build using just a couple of lines of code.

So, let’s have an example how these custom taxonomies can be used. Let’s say you’re creating a blog for a Fort Myers photographer who would like to talk about the various photo shoots she’s taking part in. She may want to group her posts around a structure that helps people identify what the theme of the photo shoot was, what sort of equipment was used and what sort of subjects were in her photos. You can create 3 separate taxonomies, one for each of those categories and WordPress will support the tagging and displaying of those taxonomies natively.

It’s a great move forward for increasing the flexibility of your blog. Read all about it in Justin Tadlock’s post.

WordCamp UK

Posted on by
Reply

Are you based in the UK? If so, you might be interested in WordCamp UK which is taking place on the 18th and 19th of July. It looks like it’s shaping up to be a great event with a great programme of events with speakers like Matt Mullenweg and Dave Briggs.

I was planning to go myself, but travelling from the Isle of Man is just too expensive; so I’ve had to drop out. It’s a shame really, as I really had my heart set on it; but travel and acommodation will cost at least £400 and I need to save up. No, it’s not for Mesothelioma treatment or anything like that; but we have twins on the way and well, every penny counts.

Anyway, if you get the opportunity, you should head down there. Lots to learn and some great people to meet.