Wordpress 2.8 Release

Its very exciting to see the latest and greatest version of WordPress 2.8 released. The first notice is that, visually V.2.8 feels a lot like V.2.7, just with some minor tweaks at some places. However once you’ll dig in you’ll begin to appreciate the changes. Herte is an video presentaion by VideoPress that showcase some major features of the new Wordpress v.2.8

Major New Improvements

First and foremost, 2.8 is way faster to use. We’ve changed the way WordPress does style and scripting.

The core and plugin updaters in previous versions of WordPress have been such a success we decided to bring the same to themes. You can now browse the entire theme directory and install a theme with one click from the comfort of your WordPress dashboard.

If you make edits or tweaks to themes or plugins from your dashboard, you’ll appreciate the new CodePress editor which gives syntax highlighting to the previously-plain editor. Also there is now contextual documentation for the functions in the file you’re editing linked right below the editor.

If you were ever frustrated with widgets before, this release should be your savior. We’ve completely redesigned the widgets interface (which we didn’t have time to in 2.7) to allow you to do things like edit widgets on the fly, have multiple copies of the same widget, drag and drop widgets between sidebars, and save inactive widgets so you don’t lose all their settings. Developers now have access to a much cleaner and robust API for creating widgets as well.

Finally you should explore the new Screen Options on every page. It’s the tab in the top right. Now, for example, if you have a wide monitor you could set up your dashboard to have four columns of widgets instead of the two it has by default. On other pages you can change how many items show per page.

Highlights

New drag-and-drop widgets admin interface and new widgets API
Syntax highlighting and function lookup built into plugin and theme editors
Browse the theme directory and install themes from the admin
Allow the dashboard widgets to be arranged in up to four columns
Allow configuring the number of items to show on management pages with an option in Screen Options
Support timezones and automatic daylight savings time adjustment
Support IIS 7.0 URL Rewrite Module
Faster loading of admin pages via script compression and concatenation

New Features

User Features

New Theme Installer routines
Add CodePress syntax highlighting to Theme and Plugin editors
Add Documentation(function) lookup to Theme and Plugin editors
Use “Custom Header” for menu text and revise Default theme to reflect change
Separate Comments into a separate postbox, from Discussion postbox, on the Edit Post screen
Make tags accessible without Javascript on the edit screen
Don’t ask for confirmation when marking a comment as spam
Don’t notify post author of own comments
Fix comment paging for static front page
Allow the dashboard widgets to be arranged in up to four columns as set via the Screen Options tab
Make titles into links in Dashboard Right Now module (this was in 2.7.1)
Improved Admin icons (grey-to-transparent shadows)
Update Blue Admin Color Scheme

You can read the full list of over 180 new features, changes, upgrades, and improvements on the Codex. The list is exciting!

June 11th, 2009| WordPress|

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21 Comments so far »

Steve Grindley said

June 11 2009 @ 11:55 pm

We just downloaded the latest version of wordpress for our blog… http://ceo.distrabit.com/ it is alot easier to change the sidebar now which is nice. maybe some nice new themes are needed

John den Haan said

June 12 2009 @ 12:20 am

Personally, I use textpattern for my site http://www.solarpower2day.net. However, if wordpress improves its speed and reduces its footprint I just might reconsider. Good to see they’re working on these aspects.

Jamedy said

June 12 2009 @ 12:30 am

Wow, WP comes out with a ton of new features this time around. Convenient to be able to browse/switch themes from within the admin without having to download/FTP.

And hey, faster is always better. http://www.academyx.com

Amelia said

June 23 2009 @ 3:42 pm

This is excellent! WP has made this so much easier, and quicker.

Tom Gurney@ Affiliate Art said

June 25 2009 @ 3:53 am

The one-click theme installer is a great time saver at the start for newbies who probably try out atleast 2 or 3 before settling on one.

alexa rank said

June 25 2009 @ 8:39 pm

I really liked your blog!

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July 1 2009 @ 10:09 am

WP comes out with a ton of new features this time around

Jahangir said

July 2 2009 @ 5:54 am

I actually like the upgrade. It is now looking more professional and easy to use.

Zack said

July 2 2009 @ 6:01 am

I really liked your blog!

Hic said

July 2 2009 @ 10:51 pm

I just installed wordpress ,it’s the version 2.71 in here http://blog.youtips.net/

Do you think I must update ? and as I’m new using wordpress, is the upgrade compatible with plugins ? should I verify that before Upgrading ?

thanks for info first, and thanks for answering.

Nathan said

July 2 2009 @ 10:53 pm

Yes, I just installed 2.8, doesn’t look much different but I guess it was bug fixes and such.
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admin said

July 2 2009 @ 11:05 pm

@Hic,

Idealy you stick for now with version 2.71 and wait a little untill most used plugins get updated and compitable with the new WP version

Hic said

July 3 2009 @ 2:41 am

Ok, thanks a lot ! I have about 8 plugins installed .. I’ll check for updates..
Thank you for answering.

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July 3 2009 @ 4:07 am

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Neel said

July 11 2009 @ 4:52 pm

I will definately want my wordpress blog upgraded to 2.8.1 i will check all the plugins for compatibility and I will upgrade it to 2.8.1

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July 13 2009 @ 7:34 am

WP comes out with a ton of new features this time around.

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