Wordpress 2.7 – All fluff or worth the fuss?

Wordpress 2.7 was released recently, and the developers seem to have made alot of major improvements. Everything from a sleek redesigned interface, to many new capabilities and features including one-click plugin installation, Sticky Posts, drag and drop Dashboard modules, and tons more.

The full features list from the official Wordpress website is as follows:

• XMLRPC Comments API (Ticket 7446)
• Keyboard shortcuts for comment moderation (Ticket 7643)
• Sticky Posts (Ticket 7457)
• Theme update api, like we do for plugins (Ticket 7519)
• Dashboard and write box rearranging (write box in trunk)
• One-click plugin installs (Ticket 6015)
• Reply to comments from admin (Ticket 7435)
• Core updating (Ticket 5560)
• Frame-like method for moderating ping/trackbacks
• Plugin browser embedded (Ticket 6015)
• PHPXref hosted on WordPress.org
• Separate Large and Full image sizes, related improvements (Ticket 7151)
• Comment threading (Ticket 7635)
• Comment paging
• Batch and inline editing (Ticket 6815)
• HTTPOnly cookies
• Column hiding for all management pages
• Post box hiding for all edit pages
• Upgrades and install over SFTP
• Template Tag wp_page_menu wrapper for wp_list_pages and support for Home page (Ticket 7698)

That may not look overly exciting as a list, however from the time you upgrade you will notice quite a few significant changes, starting with the redesigned admin interface and feature packed Dashboard panel.  To best get a feel for the new look and features, check out the video released by the Wordpress team below.

While the new interface has taken quite a bit of getting used to for myself – a non-left menu oriented person – after some usage, I have found it to be quite functional, and overall, quite convenient.

The redesign is itself is easy on the eyes, and the Dashboard modules have made quick comment approval and other tasks a breeze. Likewise, the quick edit features for Category and Post sections save time for smaller tasks, such as small text changes or category selections.

I have to say however, my favorite feature has to be the one click plugin installation. You can easily browse the Wordpress plugin database from within blog, and install and activate your plugins without ever having to launch an FTP program. No more downloading and uploading, just to leave old verions of plugins sitting on your system to collect cyber dust.

There are many new features to the upgrade, and as always you should keep your installation current – if for no other  reason to keep updated with security patches – but this upgrade is most definitely one to take some time and explore.  In my opinion, if you can adjust to the new side menu layout (which may be optional in a future release), you’ll likely find the other improvements well worth the shift.

One click installs. One click upgrades. One click love.

The official Wordpress 2.7 page and documentation can be found HERE.

Wordpress 2.5.1 released

I know a lot of you just got through upgrading to 2.5, but 2.5.1 is out already, and I definitely recommend the upgrade.

2.5.1 has over 70 bug fixes, as well as includes an important security fix and other performance enhancements. One of the things I was very pleased to see was addressing of the media upload bugs. Recently a large number of blogs (my own included) experienced a series of issues with the new media uploading that 2.5 implemented. Despite a number of adjustments, I never was able to workaround the HTTP upload errors that 2.5 seemed so fond of. In the end I elected to install a plugin that basically replaced the standard uploader and that has worked well so far.

The good news is, according to Wordpress.org, these issues have been addressed. The bad news is, on at least 1 of my blogs I have whole new upload errors. So in the meantime I am continuing to use the Flexible Upload plugin. So far I have been able to upload and insert media with no issues using the plugin and highly recommend it as at least a temporary fix for any of you still experiencing issues.

The Flexible Upload Plugin can be found here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/flexible-upload/

Also included in the 2.5.1 update according to Wordpress.org are:

Performance improvements for the Dashboard, Write Post, and Edit Comments pages.

Better performance for those who have many categories

Media Uploader fixes

An upgrade to TinyMCE 3.0.7

Widget Administration fixes

Various usability improvements

Layout fixes for IE

Another interesting thing to note on the upgrade is the implementation of SECRET_KEY in the wp-config file. Since 2.5 your wp-config.php file allows a new constant called SECRET_KEY which basically is meant to introduce a little permanent randomness into the cryptographic functions used for cookies in WordPress. You can visit this link we set up to get a unique secret key for your config file. (It’s unique and random on every page load.) Having this line in your config file helps secure your blog.

I haven’t had a chance to research that yet and what all it could mean for your blog, but it’s on my list of many many things to do lol.

So when you get a chance, you can download the most recent WP update at: http://wordpress.org/download/ or read more about the changes here: http://wordpress.org/development/2008/04/wordpress-251/

If you’re not comfortable updating your Wordpress yourself, I do offer services for that. Just hit me up through the Contact Me page and I will work you in.

Happy upgrading!