WordPress 2.5 RC1 Testing Stage

Wordpress 2.5 Release Candidate 1 (WP2.5 RC1) finally out couple of days ago and i also got a chance to give it a local testrun on how the new system (core) will reflect on my current themes and old themes.

So far i passed the first stage on the testing specially the custom theme option that usually imprinted in custom themes still survive from the changes from wordpress 2.3.3 to wordpress 2.5 RC1. I do had my doubt early on since the last time core changes (taxonomy) in wp 2.3 lead to making a drastic changes in theme coding for me and also other developers in that time. Of course without doubt many high powered blogs still carefully using a early version of wordpress 2.1 since making an upgrade to an stable version of wordpress 2.3 will take much consideration into changes in database within the 2.3 core.

What I Like About The New Wordpress 2.5 RC1 Changes?

First of course will be the new interface inside the dashboard are pretty neat..well its some what a step forward look on dashboard. Also i do notice some improvement of caching or information retrieve from within the dashboard. Not sure if the core had something to do with it but i find this articles about Object Caching Improvement may playing the big roll on the new wordpress core.

Addition to the faster object cache, the built-in gravatar in comment page also come in handy if you don’t want to bother to install any plugin or touch the code into implementing the avatar alike plugins. The current default Kubrick already impose on that function so you can try it out yourself.

Also the new interface in write panel also been ajaxed (not sure if that’s the right word for it )

Adding media and video become more flexible..well if you’re into the ajax stuff..you will love this new stuff.

Presentation were change to Design in wordpress 2.5 and it also added a theme tags that can be found below of the theme in your design panel, kind of neat dont’t ye think..Now you can tagged your theme so its easy for user to found their desired theme, come to think of it, the theme tagging function maybe usefull if by any change WordPress Themes Repository come alive soon after the stable of wordpress 2.5 released….hopefully its been unactivate since 2007

So far second stage on testing the new core on theme option had been successful and it seems the new version did not had any deadly effect on it, below are the screenshot for the theme option backend:

Also did i mention that uploading new media or images become more easy and eye candy than before, now you can automatically align the media/image since the panel provide an option for alignments.

The new upload media interface do seems to complicated for beginner in wordpress but still a few trip to wrtiting your own post with images will let you learn and adapt on the new interface….ok now my gallery almost full :spoiler:

What I Did Not Like On The New Wordpress 2.5 RC1 Changes?

Ok there’s always a pro and cons on everything so here are couple of thing i did not like not in the motion of throwing it through the wall

1. The dashboard write a new page and write a new post order..haha..some might find this minor problems but there’s couple of time i want to write a new dummy post, i just accidentally or drowed to click the first button and that will be the write page…I would personally think its better to put the write post first before the write page…

2. Widget is kind of confusing..i do prefer the old school widget area…I had to think twice where should i click and input the widgets.

3. Ajax or jquery effect bug in write panel - sometime when i finished writing a post or uploading a media, the ajax or jquery function just stop and unrespond (do note i’m using firefox at that time) although the post was short and rewrting it was not a problem (also draft not save at that time)..it tend to give you the WTF feel…

well other than the above mentions, all the new interface and changes still make me wanna hug the wordpress creator (in none gayish way)

Couple Of Idea That I Would Love To See In The Future Build

1. Built-in Theme Switcher widget

2. Design or the presentation can be categorized or page separate - something like if my free theme and client work theme can be separate but still using the same wordpress installations. Similiar to design with submenu or something like that..:)

3. smaller screenshot in design/presentation page or pagination in design/presentations - one of the pain in the butt is when you have more 70 themes inside the design/presention. it took like 20 minutes for it to finished loading the screenshot of the themes..ok it wasn’t that looong..maybe 10 minutes:)

4. please can we have activate all plugins button ..my hand hurt when activate it one by one..hehehe

5. More cover and advance option on user roles

6. Built in podcast or built-in voice blog or even voice comments would be nice..although it may seems putting in some extra weight into already complicated wordpress core..but who knows:)