Overlooked Additions to WordPress in Version 2.3
Nobody wants to seem like that guy. I mean, look at him. Sand is messy.
The buzz over the last few days has been somewhat predictable. The talk has been mostly about the new tagging features added to version 2.3 and the update notifications for WordPress and Plugins. Now these are all well and good additions (some of the best to date) but there are a few others which are really worthwhile and could be easily overlooked in the hype of the release. Let’s take a look at them and see how we could all benefit from them now being included in WordPress.
Multiple Category Widgets
I didn’t even notice this one until I was browsing the Codex page today just to see if I missed anything. I saw it on the list of changes for developers, but I’m not sure this one is limited to that group.
It is now possible to add multiple category widgets to sidebars, the same way it’s possible to add RSS and text widgets to sidebars. Just choose how many you want to put up and drop them where you want them. Something disappointing: these category listings don’t show anything but the full listing of categories; there’s no way to stick to only a limited number of categories. Minor, but worth mentioning.
Improved URLs for SEO and Posterity
I’m really excited about this one. This new URL management does three things.
- Corrects to either http://www. or http://. Now WordPress will correct for you when someone visits either one or the other (and you wanted them to use the other). Just be sure your Options page has the URLs you want displayed. See the image below this list.
- Fixes partially entered URLs. For example, if your post ends in /12345 and your visitor only types in /123 it will still take them to the right page. Awesome or what?
- Redirect old URLs to new URLs when post slugs are changed. This way you don’t have to worry about destroying links when you want to correct permalinks or make post URLs pretty.
Speed. Lots of Speed.
I can’t claim to be an expert like all the brilliant folks who work on WordPress, but I can understand numbers and emphases when I see them. The Upgrade to 800% times faster jQuery (1.1.4)
can’t be a bad thing, can it?
What’s Holding You Back from Upgrading?
WordPress 2.3 has been out for four days now. If you haven’t upgraded by now, I want to know why. What’s holding you back? Share in the comments.
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About the Author: Ryan Imel
8 comments so far
murphyz said:
I justify that I haven’t updated as I want to ensure there are no issues with it, so will leave it a few weeks whilst the masses upgrade and use.
In reality it’s laziness.
Also a little apprehensive in that I don’t know if it would screw up any modifications I’ve made to my site. A lack of knowledge of the upgrade adds to that.
Mxx
Walter Wimberly said:
I was one of those fools who stood in line for Windows 95, and installed it within hours. Having used new releases, no matter how good the company is or how much the test the new release, something almost inevitably sneaks in. Therefore I always try to wait 1 to 3 weeks to let other people the guinea pigs. This is especially true because I don’t want any of the plug-ins I use to break because of the new program either (why I don’t upgrade Firefox the day a new version comes out).
I will probably, time permitting, update sometime next week, assuming that nothing pops up.
Travis said:
I’ve already upgraded, and used the instant upgrade plugin to do so. That made it relatively easy, although I still had issues with some plugins afterwards. I referenced the compatibility list here: and just deactivated any plugins I had that were not listed as compatible. That took care of my problems, so now I’ll go back through and re-activate one by one to find the culprit(s).
Hope that helps some people.
60 in 3 said:
doh! I read the “add multiple category widgets” thing and got all excited until I saw that they’re basically all the same. I wish there was a way to add a limited category widget that would only show some categories.
Does anyone know if there’s a way to hide certain categories?
Gal
Mark said:
Greetings -
I have not upgraded yet because my very small, not making one penny yet Caribbean Bed & Breakfast relies soley on WP and if I upgrade and crash the site I am in big you know what…All of the new features look great and I want to upgrade, I am just hesitant.
All the best,
Mark
Matt Davies said:
I have the same question as Gal “Does anyone know if there’s a way to hide certain categories?”. I’ve seen a few plugins notably “category visibility” (http://ryowebsite.com/?p=46) but this doesn’t work with 2.3.
Any help would be much appreciated. This is a major thing which is holding me back a bit!
Matt
Assissotom said:
Keep up this great resource