There is a lot of news flying around about the upcoming HOT release of WordPress 2.7, the version featuring the new Administration Panel interface, part of a long project to make WordPress more usable and accessible.
Originally scheduled for November 10, 2008, they’ve pushed back the release by at least two weeks in order to do more testing and development, as well as inclusion of the tremendous feedback they’ve gotten from the most recent beta testing versions.
WordPress 2.7 Beta 2 was just released, fixing a lot of the bugs found in Beta 1.
At the time of writing this, the WordPress Development Twitter had 149 changes and fixes reported over the past week. Improvements have been made to localization, the Write Post Panel, design problems for Internet Explorer, rewrite rules for various servers and hosts, and the WordPress Plugin update and install feature. More improvements, fixes, and design features are in process for the next beta release. Updates are coming so fast, I can barely keep up with all the work they are doing to make this one of the most exciting releases ever.
The new interface is being cheered and readily accepted by testers and many are loving the new Comments and Write Post Panels. The ease of blogging and information on the new Dashboard Panel makes that screen more valuable than ever. The new Dashboard panel includes customizable feeds, quick posting to your blog, checking and responding to comments, and a lot more, making it a one-stop access point to your WordPress blog.
So far, the reaction from most has been exceptionally positive and most are eager for the new version. Feedback and input continues with polls and surveys and feedback. Jane Wells asked “What’s your favorite thing about the 2.7 Beta?” to encourage your feedback on the latest beta version. You are also asked to report to the Alpha/Beta sections on the WordPress Support Forums and the mailing lists with feedback and input.
Articles are coming out with news and information on the new version all around the web and include:
- Nathan Rice – Is My Theme 2.7 Compatible?
- Getting Ready for WordPress 2.7: Sticky Post Styling
- WordPress 2.7 UI Configurability
- WPHacks – Keyboard Shortcuts in WordPress 2.7
- WordPress Codex – Keyboard Shortcusts
- Justin Tadlock – Making your theme’s comments compatible with WordPress 2.7 and earlier versions
- Ottodestruct – WordPress 2.7 Comments Enhancements
- OP111 – Ten New Features in WordPress 2.7
- WordPress 2.7 Feature List
- Mark Jaquith – WordPress 2.7 Feature Preview: Publish Module (UPDATED)
- Mark Jaquith – WordPress 2.7 Feature Preview: Customizable Post Editing Screen
- WordPress 2.7 Trac Milestone
- WordPress 2.7 Development Updates
- Ryan Boren – WordPress 2.7: Getting Ready for Public Beta
- WordPress Development Blog: The Visual Design of 2.7
- planetOzh: WordPress 2.7 Featuring Your Favorite Actions
- WordPress Child Themes and
functions.php - Child Themes in WordPress 2.7 – Part 1 and Part 2
- Jacob Santos on the hazardsof customizing Themes in WordPress 2.7
- Sivel – Separating Pings from Comments in WordPress 2.7
- Ottodestruct – WordPress 2.7 Comments Enhancements for Themes
- WordCamp NYC: Matt Mullenweg on the State of WordPress also gives a walk through of WordPress 2.7 (video)
What Will I Have to Worry About With WordPress 2.7?
In general, WordPress Themes will continue to work with few changes. However, if you want to take advantage of the new WordPress Theme Parent/Child system as part of the automatic Theme upgrade and download feature, they may need to be upgraded. Check with your WordPress Theme developer for updates and news.
WordPress Plugins will work, unless their hook into the Administration Panels has changed. WordPress Plugins that rely upon the Administration Panels will need tweaking or redesign work to meld with the new interface.
Many WordPress Plugin authors are reporting upgrades and updates to their Plugins in order to work with the new version of WordPress. Some of these include:
- WP-CommentNavi 1.00 Beta is an updated version of Lester Chan’s WP-PageNavi WordPress Plugin which adds pagination for comments which now works with the new WordPress Comments API.
- Lester Chan (Gamerz) reports that current versions of his Plugins work fine in WordPress 2.7 except for WP-Email and WP-Print due to the new canonical redirects, which he has offered a fix for download.
- Viper checks his WordPress Plugins for WordPress 2.7 and finds that Viper’s Video Quicktags will work fine but it and WordPress Admin Bar WordPress Plugin need to be updated for the new interface. The rest of his Plugins should work.
More news will be coming out, along with a lot of reports and reviews on the new WordPress. Check in with me on the Blog Herald WordPress Wednesday News for more updated information.
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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, the author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging.
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17 Comments
I have a MAMP server running it, and it’s looking good. I hope they fix the post slug before shipping the full release though. In my opinion, they had got it right in prior versions, with the small dynamic line under the Title box. Having a meta box (that doesn’t even dynamically generate a default slug off the title) is a step backward.
I was thinking of switching from WordPress to Joomla because I needed some advanced features. But after seeing what 2.7 has to offer I am converting all my Joomla sites to WordPress. Hopefully it lives up to its name. 😀
@ redwall_hp:
I’m not sure I understand your issue and I hope you have reported your concerns properly. Are you talking about how the Theme displays the post slug or how the WordPress Write Post Panel displays the page slug under the title textarea and has the form area where the post slug can be manually changed (something few people do BTW) separated? Having the edit for the post slug closer is smarter, and less clutter, which is where they have it in the current beta version I’m running now.
@Lorelle, I’m talking about how it is in the Write panel. I quite frequently edit my post slug, and I liked it the way it was in 2.5/2.6. I liked how it would auto-fill based on what you entered into the title, and then allow you to easily change it before moving onto the post field.
Editing the slug is good practice, and should be encouraged. You can cut-out words such as “the”, “a”, etc, and make other tweaks to make for a shorter, more SEO-efficient, and more user-friendly URL. Suppose you use %category%/%post% permalinks, and you wrote a post called “Why You Should Upgrade to WordPress 2.7.” Wouldn’t domain.com/category/upgrade-wordpress-27 be better than domain.com/category/why-you-should-upgrade-to-wordpress-27?
Also, it’s my opinion that having a whole meta box, just for the post slug, is more clutter. More screen real estate for what had barely taken up any room before. Just my two cents.
It is just a wrong comment. But, I dream the WP 2.3.3. with latest usability only and no place for unnecessary extended the admin interface. Yes, it would be nice to have the 2.3.3.+++ one not the 2.7 series. The one that fix only the broken one.
I am hoping that 2.7 will return to the ease of preview an unpublished post. In the good ol’ days of 2.2.1, I could write a post and then immediately ‘preview’ it. Now in 2.6, I have to publish it before to do a preview — a simple ‘save’ doesn’t allow it. WP 2.6 has added several more steps to blogging that 2.2 didn’t require. Software is supposed to automate things, not make them more user intensive. Hopefully, WP 2.7 is going to fix this …. yes?
Nice summary of WordPress 2.7 news! I myself wrote an analysis about all WordPress news on my website:
All you wanted to know about WordPress 2.7
maybe i’ll upgrade my site to 2.7 when it will be on the full go..
I’ve started publishing some screencasts on WP 2.7 over at http://wpscreencasts.com
I’m very excited for the update. I haven’t really read too much about it. I always get nervous with updates, because I’m afraid I’ll lose content or comments. This does sound like a great update, however. Thanks for sharing, and be sure to let us know how it works out for you!
I have been saying it since mid October when I started testing 2.7 that it wouldn’t be ready. Of course I have been saying that too much effort was being put into a flashy front end rather than function, but no one listened to me there either. Maybe by Christmas I will be comfortable putting 2.7 on any of my important blogs.
Ron, the pre-publication preview feature you speak of has never been broken – not in my WP installs, at least. I write a post, save it (NOT publish it), and can preview it immediately…just as I’d expect. I just tested it in a blog that is running 2.6 and preview works just fine.
How can I upgrade to 2.7? I want to give it a go. Thanks!
@ miguelpineiro:
WordPress 2.7 will be released the end of the month, hopefully. You can then follow the instructions in the publicity and on the WordPress Codex, and the download page of WordPress.
I’ve been perusing your site, seeing lots of interesting/useful stuff, but am often not able to tell whether it relates to wordpress.com or wordpress.org….maybe you could tag the posts accordingly?
@ nosleepingdog:
I do inform the details of whether or not an article I’m writing pertains to one version or the other. Sorry if you miss that as you are reading the post. I also use tags that designate any post which pertains solely to WordPress.com.
Fantastic release, I’ve just started upgrading my blogs to use it. Nice clean and easy to use interface.
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