WordPress 2.9 Released

WordPress version 2.9 has been released. This new version of WordPress is named “Carmen” in honor of Carmen McRae, a jazz vocalist.

Carmen McRae – The Very Thought of You

 

This new version of WordPress sports quite a few improvements, and some new features. As with every new version of WordPress, WordPress just keeps getting better and better. WordPress Works Wonderfully.

 

I’m using WordPress 2.9!

I have upgraded my three WordPress blogs.

 

I used the automatic upgrade link found on the Dashboards of my three WordPress blogs (this link appears to notify you of a new WordPress version and that it’s time to upgrade). I have been keeping all of these blogs up-to-date with the latest WordPress version. My upgrade to WordPress version 2.9 went very smoothly with all three blogs.

 

Here are listings from the WordPress Web site of the new features added to WordPress 2.9:

What you’ll notice new from a blogger’s point of view:

1. Global undo/”trash” feature, which means that if you accidentally delete a post or comment you can bring it back from the grave (i.e., the Trash). This also eliminates those annoying “are you sure” messages we used to have on every delete.
2. Built-in image editor allows you to crop, edit, rotate, flip, and scale your images to show them who’s boss. This is the first wave of our many planned media-handling improvements.
3. Batch plugin update and compatibility checking, which means you can update 10 plugins at once, versus having to do multiple clicks for each one, and we’re using the new compatibility data from the plugins directory to give you a better idea of whether your plugins are compatible with new releases of WordPress. This should take the fear and hassle out of upgrading.
4. Easier video embeds that allow you to just paste a URL on its own line and have it magically turn it into the proper embed code, with Oembed support for YouTube, Daily Motion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy, and WordPress.tv (and more in the next release).

 

WordPress 2.9 under the hood improvements:

• We now have rel=canonical support for better SEO.
• There is automatic database optimization support, which you can enable in your wp-config.php file by adding define('WP_ALLOW_REPAIR', true);.
• Themes can register “post thumbnails” which allow them to attach an image to the post, especially useful for magazine-style themes.
• A new commentmeta table that allows arbitrary key/value pairs to be attached to comments, just like posts, so you can now expand greatly what you can do in the comment framework.
• Custom post types have been upgraded with better API support so you can juggle more types than just post, page, and attachment. (More of this planned for 3.0.)
• You can set custom theme directories, so a plugin can register a theme to be bundled with it or you can have multiple shared theme directories on your server.
• We’ve upgraded TinyMCE WYSIWYG editing and Simplepie.
• Sidebars can now have descriptions so it’s more obvious what and where they do what they do.
• Specify category templates not just by ID, like before, but by slug, which will make it easier for theme developers to do custom things with categories — like post types!
• Registration and profiles are now extensible to allow you to collect things more easily, like a user’s Twitter account or any other fields you can imagine.
• The XML-RPC API has been extended to allow changing the user registration option. We fixed some Atom API attachment issues.
• Create custom galleries with the new include and exclude attributes that allow you to pull attachments from any post, not just the current one.
• When you’re editing files in the theme and plugin editors it remembers your location and takes you back to that line after you save. (Thank goodness!!!)
• The Press This bookmarklet has been improved and is faster than ever; give it a try for on-the-fly blogging from wherever you are on the internet.
• Custom taxonomies are now included in the WXR export file and imported correctly.
• Better hooks and filters for excerpts, smilies, HTTP requests, user profiles, author links, taxonomies, SSL support, tag clouds, query_posts and WP_Query

 

Most likely, this new WordPress version will see some incremental updates in the time to come as WordPress works on feedback from its users regarding this major upgrade.

Expect to see WordPress version 3.0 coming out sometime next spring.

 

I think WordPress version 2.9 looks and works pretty nice. I recommend this WordPress version upgrade. Keeping your WordPress blog and/or Web site current with the latest version is important, upgrading improves security and blogability.

You can bop on over to the WordPress Blog, to learn more about this new WordPress 2.9 version.

Suggested Posts to Learn More...

• WordPress Plugin Recent Upgrades
• WordPress Plugin Recent Upgrades
• WordPress Plugin Recent Upgrades
• WordPress 2.9.1 Released
• WordPress 2.9.2 Released

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