JavaScript In My Plugins

Only 5 of my plugins (WP-Polls, WP-PostRatings, WP-Email, WP-ServerInfo and WP-UserOnline) use JavaScript. The JavaScripts are packed using Dean Edward’s Packer and the only framework use just for AJAX is TW-Sack or Simple AJAX Code-Kit (SACK). TW-Sack is extremely lightweight and easy to use but unfortunately, it can be used only for AJAX purposes. The reason I used TW-Sack instead of jQuery is simple, at the time I created my plugin, jQuery does not exists yet and when jQuery becomes popular the reason why I didn’t upgrade it was because I was lazy. As the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Recently there is some buzz within the WordPress Development Team regarding WordPress’s JavaScript Usage. Andrew Ozz has written two articles on it in the WordPress Development Updates blog entitled Optimizing script loading, Optimizing script loading part 2 and Optimizing script loading, implementation. With the upcoming WordPress 2.8 will feature some heavy JavaScript changes, I told myself to make use of this chance to totally revamped the JavaScripts in my plugins. Here are the changes that will be made:

  • Minified JavaScript instead of packing them
  • Replaced TW-Sack with jQuery
  • Move JavaScript to the footer
  • Use wp_localize_script() for JavaScript text translation
  • javascript-js.js will now contain the minified code for normal usage
  • javascript-js.dev.js will now contain the unminified code for development purposes

I have already done it for WP-PostRatings and it is now running live on this site. Next, I will be doing WP-UserOnline, followed by WP-Email and lastly WP-Polls as it is more complex.

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WordPress 4.7 Released!

WordPress 4.7 has been released.


What’s New

  • Twenty Seventeen – A brand new default theme brings your site to life with immersive featured images and video headers.
  • New Features to Customizer – Theme Starter Content, Edit Shortcuts, Video Headers, Smoother Menu Building, Custom CSS
  • PDF Thumbnail Previews – Managing your document collection is easier with WordPress 4.7. Uploading PDFs will generate thumbnail images so you can more easily distinguish between all your documents.
  • Dashboard in your language – Just because your site is in one language doesn’t mean that everybody helping manage it prefers that language for their admin. Add more languages to your site and a user language option will show up in your user’s profiles.
  • REST API Content Endpoints – WordPress 4.7 comes with REST API endpoints for posts, comments, terms, users, meta, and settings.
  • Post Type Templates
  • More Theme API Goodies
  • Custom Bulk Actions
  • WP_Hook
  • Settings Registration API
  • Customize Changesets

Download: WordPress 4.7

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WordPress 3.1 RC1

WordPress 3.1 RC1 has been released.

An RC comes after the beta period and before final release. That means we think we’re done. We currently have no known issues or bugs to squash. But with tens of millions of users, a variety of configurations, and thousands of plugins, it’s possible we’ve missed something. So if you haven’t tested WordPress 3.1 yet, now is the time! Please though, not on your live site unless you’re extra adventurous.

Things to keep in mind:

  • With nearly 700 tickets closed, there are tons of changes. Plugin and theme authors, please test your plugins and themes now, so that if there is a compatibility issue, we can figure it out before the final release.
  • Users are also encouraged to test things out. If you find problems, let your plugin/theme authors know so they can figure out the cause.
  • If any known issues crop up, you’ll be able to find them here.

If you are testing the release candidate and think you’ve found a bug, there are a few ways to let us know:

To test WordPress 3.1, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the release candidate here (zip).

We released WordPress 3.1 Beta 1 on Thanksgiving, so it’s only fitting that the release candidate comes as a Christmas present. Happy holidays and happy testing!

If you’d like to know which levers to pull in your testing, check out a list of features in our Beta 1 post.

Download: WordPress 3.1 RC1

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WordPress 4.6 Released

WordPress 4.6 has been released.


What’s New

  • Streamlined Updates – Don’t lose your place: stay on the same page while you update, install, and delete your plugins and themes.
  • Native Fonts – The WordPress dashboard now takes advantage of the fonts you already have, making it load faster and letting you feel more at home on whatever device you use.
  • Inline Link Checker – Ever accidentally made a link to https://wordpress.org/example.org? Now WordPress automatically checks to make sure you didn’t.
  • Content Recovery – As you type, WordPress saves your content to the browser. Recovering saved content is even easier with WordPress 4.6.
  • Resource Hints- Resource hints help browsers decide which resources to fetch and preprocess. WordPress 4.6 adds them automatically for your styles and scripts making your site even faster
  • Robust Requests – The HTTP API now leverages the Requests library, improving HTTP standard support and adding case-insensitive headers, parallel HTTP requests, and support for Internationalized Domain Names.
  • WP_Term_Query and WP_Post_Type – A new WP_Term_Query class adds flexibility to query term information while a new WP_Post_Type object makes interacting with post types more predictable.
  • Meta Registration API – The Meta Registration API has been expanded to support types, descriptions, and REST API visibility.
  • Translations On Demand – WordPress will install and use the newest language packs for your plugins and themes as soon as they’re available from WordPress.org’s community of translators.
  • JavaScript Library Updates – Masonry 3.3.2, imagesLoaded 3.2.0, MediaElement.js 2.22.0, TinyMCE 4.4.1, and Backbone.js 1.3.3 are bundled.
  • Customizer APIs for Setting Validation and Notifications – Settings now have an API for enforcing validation constraints. Likewise, customizer controls now support notifications, which are used to display validation errors instead of failing silently.
  • Multisite, now faster than ever – Cached and comprehensive site queries improve your network admin experience. The addition of WP_Site_Query and WP_Network_Query help craft advanced queries with less effort.

Download: WordPress 4.6

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