Blog Tipz

The first beta version of WordPress 2.8 was released, and although I haven’t installed it yet on any sites, I think it deserves an overview, as there are many features that will be installed, although it was noted that future versions would focus more on core updates.

At this time, it appears that it will likely be released sometime in late May, possibly into June, depending on the number of open/closed tickets. Usually, at least three betas are distributed.

While I use plugins for some of the features, I have bolded some of the features that I am looking forward to most.

New User Features

• New theme installer.
• CodePress syntax highlighting for theme and plugin editors, making it easy to differentiate between different codes formats.
• Documentation (function) lookup added to theme and plugin editors.
• “Custom Header” added for menu text and revised Default theme to reflect change.
• Separate comments into a separate postbox, from the Discussion postbox on the Edit Post screen.
• Tags accessible without JavaScript on the edit screen.
• No confirmation message will be displayed when marking a comment as spam.
• No notification for post author of own comments.
• Allow the dashboard widgets to be arranged in up to four columns as set through the Screen Options tab.
• Make titles into links in the Dashboard Right Now module.
• Improved Admin icons.
• Update to the Blue Admin Color scheme.
• Press This improvements in UI, quoting fixes, plus ability for contributors to use this feature.
• Add column “Rating” in the links administration area.
• Improvements to the installer for people who may have entered the wrong email address.
• Improved widget interface.
• Editing of all plugin files added.
• Improved plugin search within the back-end.
• Per page option for plugins.
• “Add New” plugin page will have the “Install a plugin in .zip format” link.
• Absolute date instead of relative date will be displayed for scheduled posts.
• Tags suggest for post quick edit and bulk edit will be fixed.
• Permalink editor changes and fix for pages.
• Autosave post/page when pressing Control/Command+S.
• Add toggle  all button to the Gallery tab in the uploader.
• Support more than one gallery on a single page.
• Add per page option added to Screen Options for comments, posts, pages, media, categories, and tags.
• Overhaul of LiveJournal importer.
• Ability to import category descriptions.
• Show Tools menu for all users so they can access the Turbo feature.
• Check for new version when visiting the Upgrade page.
• Fix most popular link category list.
• Description field for tags.
• Landmark roles to be added to the WordPress Default theme.
• “Choose a city in the same timezone as you” for the time zone/date editor.
• Remove My Hacks option from the Miscellaneous area.
• Hide email addresses from low privilege users in the Comments Administration area.
• Better explanation for the database upgrade message.
• Enforce unique email addresses in the Add/Edit users area.
• Make user_nicenames unique during registration.
• Add “Send this password to the new user by email” option in the Add New Users page.
• Don’t set the user’s website to http:// in the Add New User area.
• Hide things that need to be available to scree readers via offscreen positioning.
• Invisible class will be used for hiding labels and legends.
• Semantic class names will be used for text targeted toward screen readers.

Within Development, Theme, and Plugin categories, a number of features will be added, including hooks, filters, database performance, as well as other enhancements.

Other Features/Enhancements – A new widgets API will be integrated, taking away much of the complexity that is involved in writing a widget. Menu reordering will be available for people developing plugins, and JavaScript loader improvements will be made.

There are a number of features that didn’t make it into this version, which I would have liked to see – mainly a menu editor, template tags, default sitemaps, and versioning of template edits.

Conclusion

Will you be waiting for the final version of WordPress 2.8 to be released, or will you be taking part in the “testing” process?