SecondVersion

Wordpress recently released version 2.6 of their great open source blogging CMS. It was actually released ahead of schedule, and within a few months of the 2.5 release. I must say, great progress! All in all, it looks like they added several great features, fixed ~200 bugs, and improved existing features quite a bit. It’s worth the upgrade!

Excerpt of Official Announcement (full announcement):

’m happy to announce that version 2.6 of WordPress.org is now available, almost a month ahead schedule. Version 2.6 “Tyner,” named for jazz pianist McCoy Tyner, contains a number of new features that make WordPress a more powerful CMS: you can now track changes to every post and page and easily post from wherever you are on the web, plus there are dozens of incremental improvements to the features introduced in version 2.5.

We’ve prepared a brief video tour of 2.6, if you have 3 minutes and 29 seconds to spare, it’s worth a watch:

[...]

Hey all! Been a while.

I come to you today because WordPress has released a “sneak peek” of the new WordPress 2.5 (it’s at Release Candidate stage). I just upgrade my blog to 2.5, and I must say, I love it! Not only for the new admin interface, but it’s fast as hell!

More information, and WordPress’ official announcement:

A customizable dashboard, multi-file upload, built-in galleries, one-click plugin upgrades, tag management, built-in Gravatars, full text feeds, and faster load times sound interesting? Then WordPress 2.5 might be the release for you. It’s been in the oven for a while, and we’re finally ready to open the doors a bit to give you a taste.

For the past few months, we’ve been working with our friends at Happy Cog — Jeffrey Zeldman, Jason Santa Maria, and Liz Danzico — to redesign WordPress from the ground-up. The result is a new way of interacting with WordPress that will remain familiar to seasoned users while improving the experience for everyone. This isn’t just a fresh coat of paint — we’ve re-thought the look of WordPress, as well as how it’s organized so that you can forget about the software and focus on your own creative pursuits… More info

WordPress 2.3.3 was released a couple days ago (kind of a belated post), and it’s advised to upgrade.

Official Announcement:

WordPress 2.3.3 is an urgent security release. If you have registration enabled a flaw was found in the XML-RPC implementation such that a specially crafted request would allow a user to edit posts of other users on that blog. In addition to fixing this security flaw, 2.3.3 fixes a few minor bugs. If you are interested only in the security fix, download the fixed version of xmlrpc.php and copy it over your existing xmlrpc.php. Otherwise, you can get the entire release here.

Also, there is a vulnerability in the WP-Forum plugin that is being actively exploited right now. If you are using this plugin, please remove it until an update is available from its author.

Since we are talking security, remember to use strong passwords and change them regularly. While you’re updating WP and your plugins, consider refreshing your passwords.

Here’s an interesting article/document on setting up a “secure” WordPress installation. It has some nice tips & tricks. I’ve not yet implemented any of them into my own, but I may soon. Try them out and maybe let me know how it goes?

Article, Securing WordPress

WordPress 2.3.1 Release Candidate 1 has been released, time to upgrade!

WordPress 2.3.1 is almost ready to go. Before we send it out the door, we’re making a release candidate available so everyone can give it a last look.

2.3.1 fixes over twenty bugs. Some of the notable fixes are:

• Tagging support for Windows Live Writer
• A login bug that affected those with a Blog Address different than
  their WordPress Address is fixed
• Faster taxonomy database queries, especially tag intersection queries
• Link importer fixes

More details will be provided in the final release announcement. Until then, download RC1 and let us know if it fixes a particular bug in 2.3 that was annoying you. If you find that something has broken since 2.3, please open a ticket so we can address the problem before the final 2.3.1 release.

Been a while since I last posted anything on here… figured I’d make a post about WordPress’ latest Beta - 2.3.1 Beta 1.

Over twenty bugs are fixed in 2.3.1. Get the full list here. Here are some highlights.

• Tagging support for Windows Live Writer
• A login bug that affected those with a Blog Address different than
  their WordPress Address is fixed
• Faster taxonomy database queries, especially tag intersection queries
• Link importer fixes

Just upgraded my blog, no problems so far.

Just upgraded today, things seem Ok - except I can no longer use the Permalink Redirect plugin.

Official Announcement:

I’m thrilled to announce that Version 2.3 “Dexter” of WordPress is now ready for the world. This release includes native tagging support, plugin update notification, URL handling improvements, and much more. This release is named for the great tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon.

The entire team is really proud of this release, and I’m happy that this is our second on-time release under our new development schedule. The grand experiment of a more agile WordPress with significant features in the hands of users more often is working. I could write a blog post about each new feature, but I’ll try to be brief:

1. Native tagging support allows you to use tags in addition to categories on your post, if you so choose. We’ve included importers for the Ultimate Tag Warrior, Jerome’s Keywords, Simple Tags, and Bunny’s Technorati Tag plugins so if you’ve already been using a tagging plugin you can bring your data into the new system. The tagging system is also wicked-fast, so your host won’t mind.
2. Our new update notification lets you know when there is a new release of WordPress or when any of the plugins you use has an update available. It works by sending your blog URL, plugins, and version information to our new api.wordpress.org service which then compares it to the plugin database and tells you what the latest and greatest is you can use.
3. We’ve cleaned up URLs a bunch in a feature we call canonical URLs which does things like enforce your no-www preference, redirect posts with changed slugs so a link never goes bad, redirect URLs that get cut off in emails on similar to the correct post, and much more. This helps your users, and it also helps your search engine optimization, as search engines like for each page to be available in one canonical location. More info here.
4. Our new pending review feature will be great for multi-author blogs. It allows authors to submit a post for review by an editor or administrator, where before they would just have to save a draft and hope someone noticed it.
5. There is new advanced WYSIWYG functionality (we call it the kitchen sink button) that allows you to access some features of TinyMCE that were previously hidden.

You’ll notice that two of those features are straight out of the most-voted for ideas list. That’s just the user facing stuff, if you’re a developer you’ll be interested in:

1. Full and complete Atom 1.0 support, including the publishing protocol.
2. We’re using the new jQuery whis is “800% faster.”
3. Behind the user-facing tags system is a really kickass taxonomy system which, which adds a ton of flexibility. It’s probably the biggest schema upgrade since version 1.5.
4. The importers have been revamped to be more memory efficient, and you can now add an importer through a plugin.
5. Through hooks and filters you can now override the update system, the dashboard RSS feeds, the feed parser, and tons more than you could in 2.2.
6. The new $wpdb->prepare() way of doing SQL queries.
7. Finally there were over 351 tickets in Trac closed for this release, with over a hundred people contributing. This is the polish, the hundreds of tiny bug fixes and features that make WordPress what it is.

You can view the Codex for more information about the release and some screenshots. And of course the place to download is always the same. Before you upgrade you may want to check out our Preparing for 2.3 post and the list of compatible plugins on the Codex.

A number of people are hosting upgrade parties around the world, including myself in San Francisco. If you are let me know and I’ll promote it on my blog.

Upgrade NOW!

WordPress 2.3 RC 1 is now available. I’m still running on 2.2.3, however, I may upgrade to this RC - we’ll see. I’ve been busy with the new job. Anyway..

Official Announcement:

The first release candidate for WordPress 2.3 is now available. We’ve spent the week since beta 3 fixing bugs and shaping RC1 into release candidate material. If you would like try RC1 and help us get 2.3 ready for its final release on Monday the 24th, download RC1 here and report any bugs you find. Although we consider this release candidate to be stable, keep in mind that this is still pre-release software. You may find some lingering bugs. Please back up your database before upgrading. If you have problems with RC1, you will not be able to revert back to your previous release without a database backup.

And a big thanks to those of you who have been testing the betas and now the RC. Your efforts make 2.3 better for everyone.

WordPress 2.3 Beta 3 is now available.

Official Announcement:

Beta 3, the third and final beta for WordPress 2.3, is now available. Many bugs have been fixed since the second beta, and we could use your help finding and fixing more bugs in preparation for the first Release Candidate due next Monday. The standard disclaimer for betas applies. Beta 3 is pre-release software that is still being tested. If you would like try out Beta 3 and help report bugs, join the wp-testers mailing list and download beta 3 here.

WordPress has released 2.2.3, I’ll be upgrading this blog soon. I’d advise anyone using the 2.2 series to upgrade.

Official Announcement:

2.2.3 is a security and bug-fix release for the 2.2 series. Since this is a security release, we suggest you upgrade immediately. Two of the fixes are high priority.

On our Trac you can see the bugs closed and the files changed for 2.2.3.

To get 2.2.3, please see our download page.

As always, upgrade instructions including an extended upgrade guide are available.

Thanks to Alexendar Concha, Aaron Newman, and xknown for identifying and helping us fix the security vulnerabilities.