Sneak Peak: WP 2.7 and list of important features planned

Well, you guys might be wondering what is wrong with you Balkhis, two wordpress posts in a week? Well, I wrote to inform my readers about wordpress 2.6.2 because I know a lot of you were using that version. Because that is the most stable release at this point in time. But that doesn’t mean wordpress is not updating to something bigger than the minor updates.

Yes this is WP 2.7 in the developmental stage. Beta versions are out for developers to try and test. This is another major version of Wordpress. Followed by the Wordpress 2.5. Just like wp 2.5, This release of wordpress will also see a backend design changes. Yup AGAIN, so you would have to acclimate to another new look. It is not that hard to deal with to tell you the truth. It is actually better in some cases.

**Note: All Pictures can be magnified. Simply click on the picture, and it will show you the full preview.

Do you see the little boxes in the admin panel. Yes those, you can edit those and put what you like. Ain’t that slick. I am loving it.

Next awesome thing about this new design is the post page. I have full control over to how long my page should extend now.

You get to choose which of the extra options you want available below your post text. Also, you can choose to click the button, stick this post to the front page. I didn’t try that feature yet. But sounds useful.

Do you see that now you can reply to comments through the admin panel. Yeah its a cool feature, sadly doesn’t work with Brian’s threaded. So when I reply, it shows up as a new comment rather than a threaded comment. As this blog is growing, I am facing spam and spam and more spam. Insane how akismet is not being able to handle it. I got 53 in past 7 hours. While I was sleeping. Then deleted all spam, saw 2 again. Insane……… Anyways that is the cool things you should know about wordpress 2.7

Wait a minute, did I tell you some of the new features that are planned? Well check them out.

Features to be introduced in WP 2.7

• Admin Panel Comment Replies – I have already mentioned that part in the post above that you can reply to comments via admin panel.
• Comment Threading – Lets see how this one will go. Well wordpress will include their own threaded version of comments in this release. Right now I am using Brian’s Threaded comment lets see how good will this be.
• Subscribe to Comments – Yup this feature also. Wordpress team is trying to get everything all in one, so you never have to go out and search for essential plugins like this one. So expect to see this in wordpress 2.7.
• Widgets for Dashboard and Write Box – Like I said above, it is one of the features that I love about wordpress 2.7. I get to play with the dashboard widgets and post page widgets. I can organize them how I want to.
• Comments API – This will allow developers to create offline integration of comments, where users could use desktop clients to manage comments (moderate, edit, reply, delete, spam, unspam).
• Keyboard shortcuts – Wohoo more of these. New shortcuts like Ctrl + S (to spam comments) and Ctrl + A (to approve comments) are included in this release. Lets go spammers, I am ready.
• Wordpress Core Updates – Now you will be able to update your wordpress automatically which people were doing through the plugin now will be in wordpress 2.7. One of the features that I await for in this release.
• Theme Update API – Remember that one click plugin install? Well, last time wordpress connected the plugin developers to the users. So users would know if they need to download the new version of that plugin. This time, they are connecting designers with users. So if a designer find major error in the theme, they can update the theme, and you will see it in your wordpress admin panel.
• Default Sitemap – Wordpress will have their own sitemap generating ability in the admin panel available in this release.

While this list above is the ones that we will have, here are some that are suggested and might be included.

Some FAQs about Wordpress 2.7

To avoid getting tons of emails and replying to them individually, I will save you some time and save myself some time. I know most of you are wondering when is this version coming to release. It is being planned for November 2008. Also you are probably wondering how you can download and try out WP 2.7. Simple guys just join the Testers Mailing List and try the software out. Contribute to the community, so this release is the best one