Blog Tipz

Earlier today, WordPress 2.5 was released, a few weeks late, yet a version that appears mostly complete. The install process didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped, however. I, like most other people wondered why the bottom of the pages still showed that it is in a development version, so perhaps it is, but it is stable enough for all users to be testing it.

Before reading the problems and criticisms I have, please note that I still love WordPress and extremely like the new interface, except for the minor problems that I faced during install (on my side) and some issues (my personal preferences). I support the hard work that all the coders and developers put into WordPress 2.5 over the past six months or so and hope that they continue to do a great job.

At first glance, I liked the new theme, and the old theme is still available, but doesn’t look quite like the old one with the fonts adjusted. It’ll definitely take some time getting to know where everything tis in the new theme, but for the most part I like it. In the future I may switch to a dark theme, but for now I like the appearance of the white, minimalist theme.

Errors and Problems

When I go to upload an image from the “Media Library”, I get the following error:

Catchable fatal error: Object of class stdClass could not be converted to string in /home-directory/site-directory/public_html/wp-includes/classes.php on line 157.

The only area I get this message on is under the “add an image” area, and previously uploaded files are available when I go to upload video, audio, or media. I’ll probably have to re-upload the files to solve the problem.

Once again, I am finding myself debating whether to continue using the WYSIWYG editor. According to the release post, it is “a WYSIWYG that doesn’t mess with your code”. However, like my past experience, and still today, it does. I want to be able to use a WYSIWYG editor, switch to HTML view and be able to see exactly the same thing as I get. I will probably have to reformat my previous posts to CSS tags for things such as the center tag, in which I was using the old HMTL tag. In the new version, I can’t insert code without it taking it out (unless I use a plugin).

On one of my other blogs, I must have made some careless upgrading mistakes, all I received was php errors until I re-uploaded all the upgrade files again. In addition, some of the plugins I used are no longer compatible, so that added to the install woes. However, I was able to uninstall a few of them with the new features.

Great Features

I have yet to try out the new features, but I will surely use them. Full-screen editor, multiple file uploader, and the saving/editing of areas in the main dashboard and below posts are some of my favorites. I like the reorganization of the media/image area, but wish that there was an option for changing the number of files/posts displayed.

A list of other features via the WordPress blog:

• A cleaner, faster, less cluttered dashboard
• Dashbaord widgets – you are now able to show new and popular plugins, WordPress news, customizable RSS feeds, latest comments, people linking to you, and more.
• Multi-file upload with progress bar – when uploading, you are now able to tell how long it will take to upload a file, and now your able to upload whole files of photos, videos, and music.
• EXIF Extraction – for photographers, JPEG files with EXIF metadata like camera model and settings used which can be used in your template.
• Search posts and pages – the search can be used for both posts and pages now (better as a CMS) and new themes can style or sort pages differently in results.
• Tag Management – no plugins required to add, rename, delete, and organize tags.
• Password Strength Meter – helps with security when adding or changing a password.
• Concurrent Editing Protection – if you open a post that someone else is editing on a multi-author blog, the post will be locked and will prevent you from saving until the other person is done, saving a lot of time when it comes to editing.
• Plugin upgrading – (errors generated for some plugins I was using), makes it easier to update plugins that have been upgraded since WP 2.3.
• Galleries – simply add [ gallery ] without the spaces to display all your thumbnails and captions, and using the multi-uploader can dramatically speed up posting large collections of images.
• Developer Features - to keep the post shorter, I will outline the features: salted passwords, secure cookies, easy taxonomy and URL creation, inline documentation, database optimization, $wpdb->prepare() (SQL in WP is prepared first), media buttons, and shortcode API.

Nonetheless, there are hundreds of changes that I am sure you’ll enjoy (or have no opinion on). Free WordPress.com users should see an update sometime next week.

Download WordPress 2.5 – Follow this guide for fresh installs and this one for upgrading an existing install.

WordPress.org Theme Change

In addition, the main WordPress.org site received a whole new revamping. It appears more professional, although the Hosting page needs an update with more, better alternatives and an update of disk space/bandwidth – totals have increased five to ten plus times what is shown on the page, unless Automattic would have to work out new deals with the companies.

I believe that the new theme will attract new bloggers and professional companies as an area is included with larger companies using WordPress. Docs pages do not yet redirect to the new theme, unless they must be kept there for certain reasons.

The Next Versions

WordPress 2.5.1 is due in one month, on May 06, 2008, which will address some bugs found in the current version and 2.6 will be released on August 07, 2008.

Your Feedback

What are your initial thoughts on WordPress 2.5 now that you are using it on your blog? Is it everything you expected and wanted it to be?