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 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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WP-Print And WP-EMail On WP 2.3

Someone reported to me that WP-Email is not working on this site, and after some checking, I also found out that WP-Print is also not working due to the extra / that WordPress generates for wp-print and wp-email permalink structure in WP 2.3.

WP-EMail has another problem which took me 4 hours just go pin-point it. Apparently when it includes wp-email.php and in wp-email.php there is a add_filter(‘the_title’) which hooks onto the title filter. For some reasons, the core WordPress function get_the_title() is casing the server to throw an error. In order to bypass it I have to create a new function to emulate something like the get_the_title() function.

I have since fixed all the bugs that I mentioned above and now WP-Print and WP-EMail will only work for WP2.3 and nothing below it. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

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