After posting our initial thoughts and impressions of Wordpress Version 2.6 earlier this week, we decided to do a LOT more testing and put it through the QA process across a number of the WP sites in our Network and report on our findings.

Well, our first concern was plugin compatibility, but after upgrading a number of sites this week from Wordpress Versions ranging from 2.3.2 to 2.3.3, 2.5 and 2.5.1 we have found no problems upgrading any of them to 2.6.

We tried upgrading sites with literally dozens of various plugins and encountered no real problems, so you are probably safe to upgrade your site (make sure you back up all your old files and database first just in case!)

Easy to Upgrade, Plenty of Great New Features!

Now, when performing an upgrade to your site you always want to know the cost-benefit ratio and in this case you will get a great return. Version 2.6 has again raised the bar, making Wordpress the only real choice for serious bloggers, company web sites, e-zines and other content-oriented web site publishing! Many of the changes from 2.5 to 2.6 are in the WP Admin interfaces and simplify your job as a Web publisher!

Post Revisions and Improved Post Management and Formatting

Perhaps the feature we most appreciate in version 2.6 of the Wordpress platform will be the post revisions feature! Why this feature wasn’t introduced earlier is the only real question we had. But its here now and works quite seamlessly. When managing posts now you see a “Post Revisions” tab that lists each revision you have made and the ability to revert back to any earlier version. Slick!

Speaking of posts, you also can see your word count when writing or editing a post, another nicety. And the WP dev team has made improvements also to the post editor tools, with better and faster versions of TinyMCE, jQuery, and jQuery UI.

Media and image management have also improved, with the ability to upload media using either the Flash or a regular Browser Uploader if you prefer or have problems on your PC using the Flash version.

Image Captions and Gallery Management

While we have long used the Easy Image Caption plugin, with Wordpress Version 2.6, captions are built in so you no longer need that plugin, but can optionally still use it if you wish.

Gallery management has also been greatly improved, with drag-and-drop reordering of gallery media and an enhanced image control that improves image inserting, floating, and resizing in WYSIWYG mode.

Theme Preview Feature

One of the most useful Wordpress plugins in the past has been Theme Switcher Reloaded, but with the new theme preview feature built into Version 2.6, that one is no longer needed! Thankfully, you can now view multiple themes without subjecting users on your live site to the problems that unavoidably occur when installing and configuring a custom or high-end commercial theme. Great and useful!

Wordpress 2.6 Security Enhancements

More proactive security enhancements have been introduced in 2.6, including cookies and database interactions, full SSL support in the core, and the ability to force SSL for security.

You can also now relocate the wp-config.php file and wp-content directories to a custom location of your choice, making SVN versioning simpler.

Miscellaneous Feature Enhancements in Version 2.6

• You can now remotely publish posts using XML-RPC and APP is now secure (off) by default, but can be easily enabled using the options screen
• Publish thousands of pages or categories more easily with the new WP Admin interface
• Select a range of checkboxes using shift-click for easier, quicker management
• A redesigned “Plugin Update” notification feature so that you can quickly upgrade plugins using the auto upgrade feature
• Default Avatars can now be customized depending on which Avatar service you prefer!
• New “Gears” feature will be interesting to watch as Wordpress introduces even more features moving forward, starting in version 2.6 with caching to optimize site performance; something that previously required a plugin and was never fully compatible with the core Wordpress code

Tags : wordpress upgrade |

924 Views -