Many sites use the “dummy” text, although it takes quite some time to add the text, assuming some of it has to be rewritten and copied over and over again.  All you need to do to use these sample collections is by uploading the XML files to WordPress.

To Install .XML Files Using WordPress

{Instructions provided through release sites.}

1. Unzip the XML file after downloading the file to your desktop.
2. Login to the WP admin area at your site’s address.
3. Select Manage from the main menu.
4. Then, select Import.
5. Select WordPress from the bottom of the list, indicating that you want to import from that type of file source.
6. Now, select browse and locate the file that you have downloaded.
7. Confirm that you want to do this, then select Upload and Import.
8. The posts and related content should now be included on your “demo” server/website.

Self Conclusion - WordPress .XML Test Data Import

[Post Link]

File contains the following items:

• 5 Pages, with full content
• 10 Posts, with content, including tags, categories, and excerpts
• 21 Unique Tags
• 11 Unique Categories
• 10 Unique Comments, including several from the “Tester” (Administrator) account
• 7 Default Links
• 1 Post (under category “Bullet List”) containing a Bullet List
• 1 Post (under category “Numbered List”) containing a Numbered List
• Various Lengths on each post’s content and title

WP Candy - Easier Theme Development with the Sample Post Collection

[Post Link]

File contains the following items:

• Multiple posts with different elements in each.
• Blockquotes, lists (ordered and unordered) and floating images.
• Parent, child, and grandchild categories and pages.
• Tags
• Multiple months for the archives.

Conclusion

The designer of each collection requests that you send in any bugs, requests/recommendations, and comments on the files that they have created.  While Self Conclusion’s file appears more complete, they both offer several time saving files for use on your demo/test server for clients or when you are working on a new theme.

Check them out and let me (and the original compilers) know what you think of the collections.

Note: These files may not be just for WordPress users — you could open the raw XML file to copy/paste the contents into any platform or upload them if your blog system permits.

The main culprit was that when open registration was enabled, attackers could craft a username to allow resetting another user’s password to a randomly generated password, which isn’t a security problem in itself.  If the attacker uses this with a weakneess in the random number seeding in mt_rand(), he or she could predict the randomly generated password, granting access to your blog (potentially under your members’ user names).

There are several other security updates/changes/additions to the code, so it may be necessary to perform backups of your current installation, database, and other files associated with your blog before performing the update.

Again, this is mandatory as long as you are running a blog with user accounts enabled and are not using the Suhosin plugin/work around for the vulnerability.

Further developments can be followed on the main WordPress blog.

Additional, Useful Links

• Bug Fixes
• Full Changeset and List of Changed Files
• Security Vulnerabilities: SQL Column Truncation | Weakness of mt_rand()

Update: After completing several updates/installs of WordPress 2.6.2, everything went well.  No new problems as far as I can see.  I strongly recommend the WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin, it alleviates any hassle of replacing files or doing a manual update.

Theme Hybrid Main Page

A lot of work was put into the launch of this club, but you can expect a lot from it.  This will likely be the fifth or so WordPress-dedicated themes clubs, with some of them being free, while others are paid/premium-only.  There are different motivations of this theme club than others - to help build a community for theme support and provide both free and premium themes.  Members have the choice of signing up as a free member, unlike the other theme clubs currently available.

Most of the themes will be released as child themes - add-ons to themes that add to their functionality or change their layout/design, largely promoted by Ian Stewart.

Excerpts from the site:

Theme Hybrid is all about giving quality themes back to the WordPress community in a way that doesn’t break the bank.

You shouldn’t have to pay to join a theme club on a three-month or six-month basis, only to find out that you’ll lose the help and support team behind the themes if you don’t renew your subscription.

Theme Hybrid is a community of bloggers that share ideas.

The theme is designed to counter the prices that Adii and the WooThemes team have set for their themes club - “It costs a bit less than $150..” and “you shouldn’t have to pay to join a theme club on a three-month or six-month basis.”

Prices are as follow - Free for a lifetime, limited membership and $25.00 for a 1 year, exclusive membership.  Members who pay for the club will receive two child themes each month.

Contributions - donations, translations, articles, thoughts/ideas, and stylesheets/child themes are greatly appreciated, as donations have helped create the site and power the free themes/tutorials.

Another unique feature that comes with the release of each theme is the support that you receive, available as community and designer support in the forums.

Membership Prices
Click for larger image.

With the release of the new club, a new theme, the Aura Theme has been made available, only to exclusive members of the theme club or purchased as an individual theme.  It is a child theme of the Structure Theme, meaning that it features all the functionality but adds a different style and layout to the parent theme.

Aura Theme - The Fist “Premium” Theme

Features *from site:

• Ability to upload a header image from your WordPress dashboard.
• Change the site’s title color from your dashboard.
• Beautiful typography, designed to let your content stand out.
• Exclusive stylesheet.

I hope that a lot of people take the opportunity to check out this new themes club.  Child themes are extremely powerful additions to parent themes, adding a ton of functionality without needing to recode an entire theme to suit your needs.  There is no obligation to join the paid club, as new, free themes will still be released.  However, if you want to access the exclusive child themes, you will need to purchase the exclusive $25/year license.

Quick links to details pages:

• Home
• About
• Contribute
• Members Page
• Theme Club Details
• Themes
• Support

If you are a WordPress theme developer, you can utilize the new directory by signing into your WordPress account and uploading your theme. There are several requirements and advantages to uploading the theme through this method rather than by hosting the themes solely on your site, listed on the Requirements/Limitations page.

You will not be able to sponsor the themes or place premium themes, and you must follow the guidelines for posting themes (stylesheets, all theme files, screenshot.png, and related files) must be included in a single zip file.

Advantages are that more people will be able to use your theme compared with hosting it on your blog, with ratings, stats, and comments in the directory.  

The new version will greatly benefit the community, which is pretty much used to the new version of the plugins directly, and it provides a more secure place for themes to be downloaded from.  

One of the only downsides is the lack of themes (3 with a total of 679 downloads), and a somewhat low-grade experience for browsing through dozens of themes at once.

Links:

• New WordPress Theme Directory
• Old Theme Viewer
• Announcement Post
• Upload Page
• Requirements/Advantages Page

The plugin allows you to edit properties of posts and pages directly from the Manage panel, making the fact that WordPress can be used as CMS a reality.  Icons are displayed beside each post - for editing tags, categories, visibility, publish date, post title, post slug, and comment status - open or closed.  

The plugin does exactly what I wanted it to, I am now able to save time and possibly bandwidth by not having to open each individual post or page and change tags, categories, publish status, etc.

Note: The main plugin release page is in German, you simply need to scroll half-way down the page to access the English version.  In addition, the screenshots that I have created show the fact that I am using the Fluency Admin Plugin. 

Installation and upgrading this plugin is a snap, you simply download, extract, upload, and activate for first use, then follow the standard steps to upgrade - deactivate, upload/overwrite the old version, then reactivate.

Compatibility: Requires WordPress Version 2.5+, up to 2.6-beta1
Latest Version: 1.5.0 (June 28, 2008)
Languages Supported/Translated: English, German, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Japanese, Persian, Turkish 

Features

• Ability to change post and page properties inline in the post or page management view.
• Toggling visibility with a single click
• Calendar using JavaScript displays to change post date
• Post and page titles changeable from their management pages
• Page order (only top-level pages currently) can be changed - either drag-and-drop or direct input
• Two choices of buttons
• Comment status - open/closed changeable
• Ability to change media description and order in Media Management panel

Additional Links

• Screencast
• Support Forums
• Release Page - WordPress Extend Page

The XML-RPC publishing protocol allows bloggers to use offline blog editors or APIs from other blog systems to publish posts directly to their blog.  By default, this feature is expected to be turned off in the next release of WordPress.  Users will be able to turn it on by entering the “Settings > Writing” area of WordPress and either turn on the XML-RPC or the Atom Publishing Protocol.

Where separation between the parties occurs is why the setting is turned off by default instead of as an option, and why the security isn’t fixed now instead of being ignored or covered up.  If the feature undermines the security of WordPress, allowing for attacks through this feature, shouldn’t it be improved to prevent any possible loopholes?  Previously, this feature was enabled by default and allowed anyone to immediately use a non-WordPress WYSIWYG editor.  

On the Blog Herald blog, the creator of the Mac blog application MarsEdit discusses how this change will impact/affect everyday users of WordPress wanting to publish from their preferred client.  

In the end, if support for XML-RPC is kept as an opt-in feature, essentially stating that “if you enable this, you may compromise your blog’s security”, people may not enable the feature, leaving the blog editor’s software creators out of the scene, without a business.  However, if the security of WordPress is an issue, then it is best to disable the feature, but have one click enabling, rather than having to perform a manual install of the protocol.

Many people may discount this issue, saying that it doesn’t really affect them, but it has found to be a major security flaw and by disabling it, you may find yourself wondering how to enable the feature once WordPress 2.6 rolls out.

At least three judges and reader feedback will determine the winners.  At the end of the contest, readers will be able to vote and review the plugins for a period of two weeks.  By the beginning of August, a winner should be announced.  

More rules:

All code must be GPL (or compatible) and should be available for download through the Competition Blog and preferably through WordPress Extend. The plugins can be modified and tweaked till the last day of the competition or until the author sends us an email with the final version of the code. In essence, the Plugin Competition Blog is the preferred vehicle of communication for all contestants.

Some relevant details:

• Running time for competition = 2 months starting the 10th of May till the 10th of July.
• True Wordpress plugins only. No manual modifications can be required of users.
• You cannot submit plugins that have been released already. New code only please.
• Plugins can only be submitted via email. We will make that email address public later on in the competition.
• Plugins cannot have opt-out links back to the authors’ pages (from the main blog pages, admin pages are fine). If you have links or donation forms, please make them opt-in.
• All plugins require documentation as in the Wordpress Extend pages. Documentation will be one of the judging criteria.
• Preliminary support for the plugin has to be provided to the public.
• We are looking for innovation, documentation and elegant code.
• Any and all prizes/controversies/issues will be judged and decided at our sole discretion.

If you would like to enter the contest, you can submit your plugin or find additional details on the Plugin Competition Blog.

The main intent for including these links was to help drive a “5-10% increase in traffic overnight” on your blog, when links to your posts are shown on blogs that are in the same category. 

The “feature” can be found by going into Design > Extras of your blog, where it can be disabled.  If you remove it, your posts will not be shown on others’ blogs.  

Currently, WordPress has formed a partnership with Sphere to deliver the content on the blogs.

Sphere states:

This is really cool for Wordpress because it’s one of the first examples of a network of their size and scope leveraging the power of their community to circulate content between blogs. It’s also great for individual bloggers, because it gives them the opportunity to highlight and syndicate their content, both internally on their own sites and across the broader Wordpress platform. 

While the feature may benefit some bloggers who did not otherwise see much traffic, the function garners some problems in the sense that it is forced on bloggers, instead of an opt-in choice and creates added clutter in the already cluttered footer of many bloggers’ posts.  In most cases, the links shown are not completely relevant to the blog they are placed on and result in wasted space on the blog.

In addition, with the three million plus blogs that are using WordPress, a major search engine/backlinking problem may be created as it will be nearly impossible to track where all the links are going, on which blogs they are displayed on, and how “related” they are to the posts.

While at this point, it is an experimental feature, Matt Mullenweg has stated:

In the next few days we’ll have an update that allows you to block specific blogs from showing up, and eventually that setting will also apply to the tag surfer, blog surfer, and top blogs so when you block a blog you should never see it again.

and

Right now this is just for English blogs, but we’re working on the technology to roll this out for every language we support. We’ll also be adding some ways for you to tweak the results to your liking.

Obviously, it looks as though this may be a feature that stays and will be in continued development.  Right now, it needs many improvements to coexist with the honest bloggers and those that produce poor quality blogs - prevention of their content on the people that run an honest blog operation.

WordPress.org and Multiple User (MU) bloggers will soon have to decide whether the feature is best for them, or just to avoid it, as it is expected to roll out to their blogs, possibly in an upcoming update.  Once again, I feel as though the blogger should decide whether the feature should be adopted, not the option of Automattic/WordPress development team.  There are already dozens of plugins and widgets that allow you to show related posts from your own blog or your favorite blogs, and are often just as relevant as the feature recently released.

If you are on WordPress.com and want to remove the function, please see Lorelle’s blog.

Continuing the Discussion

Andy Beard - WordPress Possibly Related Posts with Sphere
Internet Duct Tape - Fixing the WordPress.com Possibly Related Feature

WordPress Forum Posts

- Possibly Related and Mature Blogs
- I Don’t Want Possibly Related Links on My Blogs
- Possibly Related Posts

Update WordPress Now

The update specifically addresses bug fixes, performance enhancements, and one important security fix.  Over seventy other fixes have been included, with the most significant fixes focused on:

• Performance improvements for the Dashboard, Write Post, and Edit Comments pages.
• Better performance for those who have many categories.
• Media Uploader fixes.
• TinyMCE updated to version 3.0.7
• Fixes in the Widget Administration.
• Usability improvements.
• Fixes for layout errors in IE.

Additional Security Features

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.

WordPress 2.5.2

It looks as though a new update will be coming out within the few weeks, along the lines of 1-5 weeks, which addresses password resetting issues with the release of 2.5.1.  No date has been officially set, although there are 91 active tickets, so if you haven’t upgraded to the version released on April 25, there won’t be a long period between updates.

WordPress 2.6

In a little more than three months, August 7th, (if on schedule) WordPress 2.6 will include several features that bloggers requested, which were not incorporated to their liking in the current version of WordPress.

John Lamansky has compiled a list of features that will be included in WordPress 2.6, and will continue updating the post until the release date is reached.

- Post Revisions — Wiki-style revisions management for blog posts: a cool new power-feature, just announced on the WordPress Development Updates blog.

- The Meta Bookmarklet — Okay, so that’s not the official name, but that’s what I’m calling it until there is one. Matt talked about this at WordCamp Dallas — the idea is to have a bookmarklet that would pre-fill information from sites like YouTube, etc. For example, imagine clicking the bookmarklet when you’re watching a YouTube video and then having a new blog post setup for you with the video already embedded. Cool, huh?

- Shift-Click Checkbox Selection — In WordPress 2.6, you should be able to select a range of checkboxes in the category, comment, tag, post, page, and media administration sections by checking the “start” checkbox, holding the Shift key, and then checking the “end” checkbox… Gmail style.

- Post Word Count — A WordPress.com feature that might be making its way into WordPress 2.6.

It is great to see new features, and while WordPress is built around its wide array of plugins available, it would be even better to see some more features/plugins that are built into the system.  WordPress 2.5/2.6 look to improve this with tag integration and stats shown in the Dashboard, as well as Post Word Count in version 2.6.  

In my opinion, however, WordPress should be kept fairly open and not restrict users to using a specific type of plugin for each feature that a user wants to have.  While a few should be included, a user should have the option of not including it in the install.

Finally, the Sandbox Theme may make its way into WordPress 2.6 as either the default theme, a revision of the current default theme, or as an additional default theme.  The Sandbox Theme will allow more people using WordPress to develop custom themes based off their default theme, instead of having to work around building their own theme.  

To submit articles, you must first join ShareWP, then you will be able to submit WordPress-related articles such as themes, plugins, or articles. Similar to Digg and other article rating-oriented sites, articles are shown by upcoming news and popular news. Navigation-wise, it will be easy to find what you are looking for once the site grows with the usage of the search box, categories, and tags shown within the sidebar.

Tools have been provided for integrating a button into your blog or for sharing the service with others (buttons and graphics). In the future, a WordPress plugin may be developed to better integrate the button for bloggers who blog primarily about WordPress.

Overall, I think that the site has a lot of potential to grow and become the main source of user-submitted news, tips, and resources concerning WordPress. Because ShareWP is extremely well laid out, and contains the whole “social networking” functionality, it is likely to grow as more of the WordPress community discover it.

Update: April 26 - The site has been taken down temporarily while the owner converts it over to WordPress from Pligg, which was too buggy.

[discovered via planetOzh]