WordPress 2.9 Released on 12/18/09: Highlights
If you haven’t already noticed the update notice in the WordPress admin, well, WordPress 2.9 was released on Friday, December 18th.
In my short video, I discussed some of the upcoming features in WordPress 2.9 and gave a quick demonstration of them.
There isn’t too much chatter on the WordPress forums about upgrade issues. This could be because the upgrade was released on a Friday evening during the pre-holiday snowstorm rush, but I believe that this is a solid release.
Some of the new features are:
- Global Undo/Trash – A deleted post or comment can be recovered. This will also remove all the annoying “are you sure” delete messages.
- Image Editor – There is a built in image edit with basic features, such as rotate and crop.
- Batch Plugin Update – All of the plugins with updates can be updated all at once.
- Video Embeds – Paste a url to a video in your post and have it magically turn into the video. Currently supported sites are YouTube, Daily Motion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy, and WordPress.tv with more coming in the next release.
- Theme and Plugin Edits – This is one my my favorite features that I wasn’t aware of when I made the video. When you use the theme or plugin editor you place within the file when you save will be retained. Previously, you were bounced back to the top of the file. This is going to make my life a lot easier and less tedious.
- Gallery Shortcode – The gallery shortcode now has include and exclude attributes which allow you to pull attachments from any post, not just the current one.
Take Note
- MySQL – WordPress 2.9 requires at least MySQL version 4.1.2. MySQL is the type of database that WordPress uses. Certain webhosts, such as GoDaddy are using mySQL 4.0.27. This means that if your host is running an older version you will not be able to upgrade. Ask your host to upgrade or switch hosts.
- Backup! – As I always recommend, please backup your database and WordPress files prior to upgrading. If interested in upgrading manually, you can use my guide.
wplover has compliled a list of tutorials that will assist you in preparing your theme for the new features in WordPress 2.9
I like this release and the new features. You may want to wait for the .1 security release but for once, I see no reason to not upgrade now.
Isn’t it nice to have a holiday gift from WordPress ;-)
photo credit: kcolwell
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December 21, 2009 at 11:56 am
Just updated to 2.9 and already had a scheduling problem. I start editing the post several times with no luck and finally after searching the web I found a fix (at least that worked for me). Here it is:
You have to run wp-cron.php again by simply opening a window in your browser and then type in: http://www.yourblog.com/wp-cron.php
After running it, the window stayed blank but my artcile was posted immediately. Although I kept up with the WP upgrades since 2.6 this is the first time this s happening.
Claudiu Geanta´s last blog ..Are Ads & Banners Going Away? Future Marketing
December 21, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Hi Claudiu – It seems a number of people have been having a similar problem and that a .1 patch will be released very soon. There is also a plugin that helps with missed scheduled posts.
http://www.kimwoodbridge.com/wordpress-missed-schedule-for-scheduled-posts-a-plugin-fix/
December 21, 2009 at 1:58 pm
I will need to forward this on to my IT…Thanks for the post
Patricia´s last blog ..Peaceful Service – Practices of Peace
December 21, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Hi Patricia – Thanks! Hope it helps.
December 21, 2009 at 4:21 pm
“You may want to wait for the .1 security release” – that was my first thought… that you always say to wait, so perhaps I should wait. It seems as though they always find some kind of security issue in each new major release.
vered | blogger for hire´s last blog ..Twitter: Where Do You Draw The Line of Privacy?
December 21, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Hi Vered – It looks like a .1 release is going to be released very soon due to some issues some users have been having. I’ve done a number of upgrades, though, and haven’t encountered a single problem.
December 22, 2009 at 10:04 am
Hi Kim,
Yup, I upgraded right away. It worked out great! The image editing was a big help with a little site redesign and a few of the other additions were nice to have as well!
George
George Angus´s last blog ..A Tale Of Three Magazines
December 22, 2009 at 11:09 am
Hi George – That’s great. I’ve read some grumbles in the forums about scheduled posts not working properly but so far I haven’t had any problems with the upgrades that I’ve done.
And that’s cool that you were able to utilize the image editor :-)
December 22, 2009 at 3:56 pm
I’m thinkin Hostgator has the mySQL in check, hopefully I have nothing to fear.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..The $10 Winner And More Good News…..
December 22, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Hi Dennis – I’ve done a couple of upgrades on sites hosted by hostgator and it’s been fine. No worries there :-)
December 22, 2009 at 8:20 pm
Quite true, and they do excell in customer service in case something does happen.
My last upgrade did crash me, and they were Johnny on the spot as usual…my fault though, I didn’t think to check my space availability before upgrading.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..The $10 Winner And More Good News…..
December 22, 2009 at 8:23 pm
I like the chat support. I didn’t have as much luck when I called.
December 23, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Their chat support is AWESOME indeed, as long as it’s not too too complicated an issue. Then they usually send me to email or phone anyway.
I’ve never really had phone problems, what were yours?
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..The $10 Winner And More Good News…..
December 22, 2009 at 10:26 pm
I was so excited about wordpress 2.9 but after its release when I updated it, I landed with 2-3 tech issues… I checked into the forum and realize its not only me
other users are facing similar issues…
Harsh Agrawal´s last blog ..Retweet And Win Premium Wordpress Webhosting
December 23, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Hi Harsh – It seems some problems have been cropping up – especially with scheduled posts. I think the .1 release is due out soon.
December 23, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Dennis – I just got someone on the phone who assumed I was an idiot. He kept telling me the account wasn’t activated when I had been logging in and building the site for a month …
December 24, 2009 at 2:57 am
LOL “luck of the draw” eh? It happens; I wouldn’t give up the phone altogether though.
They might work similar to Godaddy support. They have 3 tiers.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..The Final “Official” Post For DSWM!