Wordpress 2.5 - Hooray! (well… maybe, maybe not)

I realize this is like the 100th post on the new release of Wordpress 2.5 you’ve probably read, but I wanted my say in things.

The upgrade - Easy as 1, 2, 3! (or do it automatically!)

I’m going start out with the actual upgrading process itself. You can do the upgrade following the instructions on the wordpress.org site and should be fine (it’s only a three step process). I however didn’t want to take the time, nor did I want to install the new WP folder over my old WP folder and risk loosing anything. My FTP access is terribly slow, and after backing up all the files on my server I was done FTPing stuff.

What I opted to do instead was use a plugin I came across sometime ago. It makes the upgrading process a million times easier and is aptly called the “Wordpress Automatic Upgrade” plugin. This plugin makes the process of upgrading easier, faster, and automated. I love it.

The only issues I had upgrading is that the option to edit my posts using the built in WYSIWYG editor (the visual editor) wouldn’t work after the upgrade. I could only edit using the HTML option. After 5 minutes in the WP forum I realized many other people had the same problem and it seemed to be a compatibility issue with a plugin. To fix the problem I just disabled all my plugins and re-activated them one-by-one. After I re-activated all the plugins the editor still worked! Who knows what plugin was causing the issue, but I guess it doesn’t really matter…

Wordpress 2.5 - the good - the bad

Now that my Wordpress is all shiny and brand spankin’ new I took her for a little spin to see what she could do. I found some things I really liked and, some things I’m not to fond of. Let’s start with the good

I have to say I like dashboard’s main page layout. Particularly the fact that all the info you may want to know is presented right there. You get total number of posts, pages, drafts, categories, and tags. It also give you the total number of widgets used and how many SPAM comments were prevented using Akismet. The one piece of information that is absent that I would like to see on the main page is your stats, even just a summary would be nice.

The dashboard also displays your most recent comments and incoming links. In addition displaying that info there’s a callout feature to let you know how many comments are awaiting moderation. This is a nice little feature.

Now one BIG improvement I was very happy to see is support for inserting sound and video into your posts without the need of a third party plugin. There’s is a drawback, you’ll need to upload your media via an ad media icon (images, video, audio, or misc), copy the URL, click save (don’t actually send it to the page, all you’ll get is a link to the media, no embedded player).  Then, go to the advanced editor menu (aka, “the kitchen sink”), this is the part of the editor that allows you to change fonts, insert quotes, etc. Here you’ll find a film strip icon, click it, paste the URL you copied when you uploaded your media, and you’re set.

Alternatively, for audio you can use an audio player plugin. I use the “Audio Player Wordpress Plugin” (gotta love these straight forward names). It provides a great little built in flash audio player (only plays MP3’s though). Their site says the plugin is only compatible up to WP 2.3.3, but I’ve found it works just fine with WP 2.5.

While I like the new layout overall, for some reason the “view page” button just floats in front of the write and manage tabs (see the image to the right). I little inconvenient, but not that big a deal.

Conclusion?

There are a few things I like better about WP 2.5, but to be honest I don’t think upgrading is really necessary. My advice - wait till version 3 come out!

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