Author: Lester Chan

WordPress 3.9 Beta 1

WordPress 3.9 Beta 1 has been released!

Changes

  • We updated TinyMCE, the software powering the visual editor, to the latest version. Be on the lookout for cleaner markup. Also try the new paste handling — if you paste in a block of text from Microsoft Word, for example, it will no longer come out terrible. (The “Paste from Word” button you probably never noticed has been removed.) It’s possible some plugins that added stuff to the visual editor (like a new toolbar button) no longer work, so we’d like to hear about them (#24067). (And be sure to open a support thread for the plugin author.)
  • We’ve added widget management to live previews (the customizer). Please test editing, adding, and rearranging widgets! (#27112) We’ve also added the ability to upload, crop, and manage header images, without needing to leave the preview. (#21785)
  • We brought 3.8?s beautiful new theme browsing experience to the theme installer. Check it out! (#27055)
  • Galleries now receive a live preview in the editor. Upload some photos and insert a gallery to see this in action. (#26959)
  • You can now drag-and-drop images directly onto the editor to upload them. It can be a bit finicky, so try it and help us work out the kinks. (#19845)
  • Some things got improved around editing images. It’s a lot easier to make changes to an image after you insert it into a post (#24409) and you no longer get kicked to a new window when you need to crop or rotate an image (#21811).
  • New audio/video playlists. Upload a few audio or video files to test these. (#26631)

Developer Related Changes

  • The load process in multisite got rewritten. If you notice any issues with your network, see #27003.
  • We now use the MySQL Improved (mysqli) database extension if you’re running a recent version of PHP (#21663). Please test your plugins and see that everything works well, and please make sure you’re not calling mysql_* functions directly.
  • Autosave was refactored, so if you see any issues related to autosaving, heartbeat, etc., let us know (#25272).
  • Library updates, in particular Backbone 1.1 and Underscore 1.6 (#26799). Also Masonry 3 (#25351), PHPMailer (#25560), Plupload (#25663), and TinyMCE (#24067).
  • TinyMCE 4.0 is a major update. Please see TinyMCE’s upgrade guide and our implementation ticket for more. If you have any questions or problems, please open a thread in the support forums.

Download: WordPress 3.9 Beta 1

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Introducing WP-DraftsForFriends

I would like to introduce you to a new WordPress plugin that I wrote (or rewrote), it is called WP-DraftsForFriends. The last time I wrote a plugin was almost 3 years ago which was the WP-ShowHide!

The plugin is on GitHub as well, github.com/lesterchan/wp-draftsforfriends.

This plugin will generate a unique link that you can send to your friends to allow them to preview your draft before they are published. You are able to set the expiry for the link as well. It is based off Drafts for Friends originally written by Neville Longbottom.

WP-DraftsForFriends Screenshot #1

WP-DraftsForFriends Screenshot #2

WP-DraftsForFriends Screenshot #3

Download: WP-DraftsForFriends

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WordPress 3.8.1

WordPress 3.8.1 has been released. This is a maintenance releases that fixes 31 bugs found in WordPress 3.8.

Various fixes and improvements for the new dashboard design and new themes admin screen. An issue with taxonomy queries in WP_Query was resolved. And if you’ve been frustrated by submit buttons that won’t do anything when you click on them (or thought you were going crazy, like some of us), we’ve found and fixed this “dead zone” on submit buttons.

It also contains a fix for embedding tweets (by placing the URL to the tweet on its own line), which was broken due to a recent Twitter API change.

Issues Fixed: WordPress 3.8.1
Download: WordPress 3.8.1

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WordPress 3.8 Beta 1

Wow that was quick, WordPress 3.8 Beta 1 has been released and the final release is targeted for Thursday, 12th December 2013!

I am looking forward to the new admin UI!

  • The new admin design, especially the responsive aspect of it. Try it out on different devices and browsers, see how it goes, especially the more complex pages like widgets or seldom-looked-at-places like Press This. Color schemes, which you can change on your profile, have also been spruced up.
  • The dashboard homepage has been refreshed, poke and prod it.
  • Choosing themes under Appearance is completely different, try to break it however possible.
  • There’s a new default theme, Twenty Fourteen.
  • Over 250 issues closed already.

Download: WordPress 3.8 Beta 1

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