Boredworkers.com

Word is that Wordpress 2.0 will be released on 26th December 2005. There is a Wordpress 2.0 Release Candidate currently available for download from Wordpress.org. My fingers got itchy, so I downloaded and installed it on a test site which was originally running on the stable WP release 1.5.2.

To upgrade to release 2.0 is simple:

1. IMPORTANT: Backup your files!
2. Download Wordpress 2.0
3. Follow WP’s famous 5 minute install guide to upload and uncompress WP to the correct directory
4. Fire up your browser and point it to [domain]/wp-admin/upgrade.php (Where [domain] is your site’s url. If the page loads with some meta errors, just ignore it.)
5. Follow the upgrade link at the bottom of the page to initalise the upgrade process
6. You’re done!

On the outside, it doesn’t look any different from the current WP. Most of the old themes and plugins that I am currently using seem to work with the new release. I haven’t fully tested everything yet since my test site has only one post in it. But it seems to be working alright. What impressed me the most was the backend interface. Users of Wordpress.com should be familiar with the new interface. It is definitely much more streamlined compared with the older model.

Nicer backend theme
The colours are definitely nicer and the less edgy than the old backend theme. I am currently using the Tiger style admin plugin by Steve Smith but I think I can do away with that.

New post editor. Enter the WYSIWYG!
To me, this is probably the biggest improvement. Boredworkers.com has been having problems with this since its advent in mid-September. The reason being that we’re a multi-user blog and while some prefer to hack out their post in a text editor (me), there are those who like to work with a WYSIWYG editor (Using WYSIWYG for WP plugin by Moises Kirsch). Striking a balance between the two has been sort of a logistical nightmare. Usually when I start posting, I’ll switch off the WYSIWYG plugin and sometimes forget to switch it back on. As a result, I get odd SMSes from time to time asking me to turn it back on. And unfortunately, there is no real way to automate this task with 1.5.2.

The built in visual rich editor that comes with 2.0 might well be the proverbial silver bullet for this problem. I’ve seen some previews of it during its development phase, so I was very keen on trying out the finished product. The text area and controls are a lot more stable than I remember them to be (which is a very good thing). Among the features are a resizable text area, enhanced image selection for embedding images, and a HTML editor window for those who want to hack around the code.

The best part about the visual rich editor is that each user can select whether or not to enable/disable it from their user management screen (Users>Your Profile). I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered this. No more squabbling over whether it should be switched on or off. Its now all up to the user. By default, it is switched on (and you can change the default as well for new users under Options>Miscellaneous).

File upload
WP 2.0 now comes with an all new file upload feature. If I’m not mistaken, it is intended to be used for image uploading and is based on the Photopress plugin by Isaac Wedin. Although that may be the case, the feature can be used for uploading all file formats (don’t know whether that’s a good thing or not). In any case, after exploring all the menus and submenus, I couldn’t find any configurable options for the file upload feature. This is odd. WP 1.5.2 used to have this configured under the Options>Miscellaneous menu but its gone missing from release 2.0. I think the missing configurable options detracts from the value of the file upload function.

For one thing, if you’re uploading images, you can’t specify whether or not you want the image to be shrinked, or for a thumbnail to be created. Additionally, you can’t create new folders or select the folder you wish to upload to, which is a blow to the overall image management system. By default, the file upload function will attempt to upload to the ./wp-content/uploads folder. You’ll have to create that folder yourself and grant WP write access in order for the upload to work (Which is a pain considering that this is a built in function. Why not include the folder in the first place and be done with it?). Looking further into this feature, I found that WP will actually attempt to create subfolders for you. Interesting indeed…

New themes selection interface!
The theme selection (located under the Presentation menu) has also been upgraded. New themes should now come with a sample image which you can preview during your theme selection. On top of that, the colour of your theme has never been easier. You can now change some of the colours of your theme on the fly by changing the settings under the Presentation>Current Theme Options tab. Want your title bar to have a gradient? No problem, just change the upper and lower colours and let WP do the work for you. And if you’ve screwed up the settings, the default colours are just a click away.

I haven’t yet had the chance to discover how this dynamic colour scheme works but I’m sure I’ll discover it once I start building my own theme. An interesting feature indeed. Now changing colours does not require the tedious task of editing the CSS file. Users with multiple blogs will especially appreciate this feature as it will save them time and they need never be confused again.

Conclussion
These are just some of the new features in WP2.0. A full listing can be found along with known problems can be found in the WP Beta Forum. I think this is a wonderful update to the WP blog engine. I’m waiting for the official release date. Until then, I’ll keep experimenting with the release candidate and maybe work on a new theme for it. So once again, for all of you out there who are “eat too full nothing to do” like me, you can download the Wordpress 2.0 Release Candidate and familiarise yourself with the new features.