The Word
The recent Wordpress 2.5 press release from Matt on the state of WordPress 2.5 reads like a Christmas list of epic proportions. My own long wish-list for mojoBlog pales in comparision with what the wordpress developer community has achieved over the last six months.
A couple of my favorite new Editor features are; concurrent document editing *(what wordpress calls - concurrent editing protection) which, in a nutshell locks the document and notifies an editor that someone else has that particular post/page open and is editing or revising it. Similar to “items checked out” in joomla, this is a feature I’d love to eventually incorporate into mojoBlog.
Another much needed improvement is the overhaul of the file/assests upload framework. Tedious at best, earlier versions offered a minimalist way to get illustrations/photos uploaded to your blog, one at a time. The new support for multiple uploads, optional EXIF includes (for photos) and the ability to upload mp3 and video files easily should render the half-dozen or so duplicit plugins needed to achieve the same tasks, obsolete.
From a wordpress developers perspective there’s a slew of new tools and APIs to wrap your head around: Shortcode API is a new framework which will allow developers and theme designers the ability to add short, bracket delineated function calls (much in the same way as we add calls to joomla plugins which, when rendered, will parse the function reference and load the entire function for use with the theme.
Salted Passwords and the inclusion of the phppass library are now utilized to increase user security and make the current barrage of tweenies trying to “brute-force” your wp-admin login impractical and ineffective.
All in all, the 2.5 release is a huge shift from earlier versions of WordPress and one (in my mind) that signals a solid commitment towards a more user/developer enhanced core framework, improved content and assets management and a forward thinking approach to website security and stability.
