16 Must-Know Features in Wordpress 2.7

Whatever be the latest news in technology and development, Taragana has it. We have already reviewed all the upcoming OS releases with detailed features. So when something as popular and happening as Wordpress was keen to release its newest version, we couldn’t be far off. Wordpress 2.7 was due on 10th November, 2008. But due to some unavoidable circumstances it is delayed for two weeks. We tried and tested Wordpress 2.7 beta 1 and here are the treasures.

Quick Overview

This part is for those who want to know in a nutshell, what exactly are they going to see (yes literally see) in the new Wordpress.

• Integrated Quickpress in the main Dashboard where you can easily make a post.
• You can now insert Media (pictures, videos, files) without creating a post.
• Shortcuts are added to add and moderate comments, which I have talked upon in the detailed discussion segment.
• Main Dashboard Screen Option where you can turn-off or turn-on dashboard items like recent comments, wordpress RSS feed items, plugins, etc.
• Ability to reply to comments from the Dashboard (so no need to install a plugin for this one).
• Integrated comments threading/pagination settings (Alex King’s or Lezter Chan’s plugins are not needed anymore).
• Sticky Post - you can now create a post or announcement and stick it in the front page even if you have new posts - without the need for a plugin - cool!
• There’s the Automatic Upgrade Link at the bottom-right screen - yey!
• Improved Drag and Drop functionality in the Dashboard and Posts, but would you use it often?
• You can now Upload and Install Plugins from within your Wordpress Dashboard - yohoo! So no more downloading, extracting and uploading of plugins outside Wordpress.

Basically what we  derive from these is that, the concern is more on making Wordpress 2.7 as user-friendly and feature rich as possible while making it quicker and easier.

Detailed Discussion

Administrative Upgrades

Wordpress developers have given utmost attention to make administrators’ lives easier this time. The administration panel has gone through a host of changes.

1. Navigation

• Top navigation has gone through a major change to be placed as a side navigation. This will allow for virtually unlimited amount of plugins to add top level links to the administration. Which is bound to be popular with feature rich blogs.
• The side navigation will allow users to expand and collapse sections to reveal the submenus without loading a new screen.
• The entire navigation column is collapsible, with an advanced mode at sight.

2. Shortcuts

A shortcuts menu in the header near the blog title allows one-click access to frequently used screens such as Add New post and Comments.

To be more elaborative,

When you first visit the Comments page, no comments are selected, so, first press the letter j, or the letter k, to select the first comment

• Pressing j moves the current selection (light-blue background) down.
• Pressing k moves the current selection (light-blue background) up.

To perform actions through shortcut keys

• Pressing a approves the currently selected comment.
• Pressing s marks the current comment as spam.
• Pressing d deletes the current comment.
• Pressing u unapproves the currently selected comment, placing it back into moderation.
• Pressing r initiates an inline reply to the current comment (you can press Esc to cancel the reply).
• Pressing q activates Quick Edit which allows for rapid inline editing of the current comment.

p.s. - Though if you don’t know how to make short-cut keys work, Go to Profile panel in Administration > Users> Your Profile. Check the Keyboard Shortcuts checkbox to enable keyboard shortcuts for comment moderation.

3. Module Control

Drag and drop facility has been added on the Dashboard and the Add New Post screens, They can even be expanded or collapsed or even removed based on your preferences.

4. Sticky Posts

WordPress 2.7 will include Sticky Posts check box on the write screens. Those who know about sticky posts concept (that includes all, I hope) it is one of the most useful features. And I wonder why it took Wordpress to come this far to include that! Anyway, better late than never.

5. Column Control

You can customize the table format like say, posts, media library, etc. You can decide which one to choose and display.

6. Admin Comment Inline Reply

The Administration Comment Panel inline reply to comments opens a JavaScript HTML window that allows for replying to the comment. This enhancement is over having to visit the article and using the comment box. The dialog window can be resized and will save the resize state only while on that page. Going to a separate page will not save the resize state. The dialog also has buttons for adding HTML tags, but does not use TinyMCE.

This is exactly what Wordpress developers had to say and that they are working on that. So, we don’t know yet if it is gonna be included with the final version.

7. QuickPress

The new QuickPress module on the Dashboard provides a fast way to create drafts or posts. Drafts created with QuickPress will be listed immediately in the Recent Drafts module on the Dashboard.So we can expect a quicker posting experience from Wordpress and on my first look at it, I was pretty impressed by the help it can actually provide.

8. Recent Drafts

A module will now appear on the Dashboard displaying links to your most recent drafts, for quick access to posts in progress.

9. Dashboard Comment Moderation

In 2.7 you will be able to moderate new comments directly from the Dashboard which is another way to ease your blogging.

10. Plugin Installer

The plugin installer allows for installing plugins from the WordPress Administration panels. You can search for plugins by tag, plugin author, or by subject. When you click on the title of a plugin, you can see the details and choose to install it into your WordPress plugin list. Fairly easy no?

11. WordPress Upgrader

The WordPress Upgrader will give you the option of downloading, installing, and upgrading to the latest WordPress version from your Administration Panel.

You can also keep all of these updates automatically by clicking on stay updated, Wordpress developers have really given it a fair try to make it as EASY as possible.

Developer Features

Developers also have many things to be overjoyed with Wordpress 2.7. Though all of these features may be changed/omitted or upgraded from the beta 1 I tested. But saying that, there will not be a significant change.

12. HTTP API

The HTTP API is an attempt to standardize the HTTP requests and responses for WordPress. This is mainly The HTTP API handles the response as well, so that it standardizes how you handle the final response. You get an array form-ed response with the headers, body, and response as array keys

The main focus is the WP_Http class, which facilitates the HTTP requests and the transports. Transport is the term given to the classes, which handle the HTTP requests.

There are test cases available for the HTTP API and eventually they will probably be added to the Automatic WordPress Tests repository. The current coverage isn’t that great, but is currently being improved.

13. Plugin Uninstaller

There is a new plugin uninstall in WordPress 2.7 that allows a plugin to uninstall itself, when the user deletes the plugin. It can do that by making file named in the directory uninstall.php and storing the uninstall code there which is more conventional

The second method tells us of uninstall routine performed with a hook.

The main things is, that is yet another headache done away with.

14. Inline Documentation

The WordPress 2.7 has almost every file fully documented with phpdoc type inline documentation. This includes most of the files with file level phpdoc block.

This is done keeping in mind to improve the support and limit the questions that arises in WordPress library.

15. Administration Manage Section API

WordPress 2.7 is going to have an API for adding additional sections to the manage or settings administration panels. This means directly in those pages and not as a new page. The functions add_settings_section(), add_settings_field(), register_setting(), unregister_setting() implement this feature.

The functions are found in wp-admin/includes/template.php.

-say developers.

16. Page Menu API

The wp_page_menu() function can be found in wp-includes/post-template.php.The page menu will help in navigation control as well.

Conclusion

As we come into the conclusion of the massive features we discussed, we can easily make out that Worpress 2.7 is going to be a major release with a lot of new features added for the users and the developers. Though I would have loved to have a Menu editor, Prettier default themes, Integrated Polls etc. But let’s be logical. Everything can not be there in a release. I will leave you with the screenshots of the new look I worked on. Any feedback? Feel free to write to us.

Thanks to codex.wordpress.org.