October 31st, 2009
2.8.5 & 2.8.5.1 were released yesterday, unfortunately a bug crept in that prevented non site admins from publishing posts. However, Donncha quickly rectified the bug, and tagged the latest release version. 2.8.5 was dubbed a “hardening” release, and upgrading is recommended. Donncha outlines the details.
I’ll also be releasing soon a WPMU version of the WPlite plugin. WPlite allows you to hide admin menu items from non-admin users, the modified version will hide menu items from blog admins, but not site admins. It doesn’t lock down the page, the URL is still accessible, but for the unsuspecting user they’ll never know a setting is available to them. For potentially destructive pages for inexperienced users you can use the Toggle Admin Menus plugin to secure blog admins from doing something they would regret (like delete their blog).
Popularity: 22% [?]
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October 30th, 2009
Mark Jaquith posted on the WordPress blog about a new feature on wordpress.org, plugin compatibility a couple of days ago. The idea behind it is simple, let the community give feedback on whether or not the latest version of a plugin works with the latest stable release of WordPress. Mark points out that the number one reason people don’t upgrade is because of plugin compatibility. Considered one of WordPress’s greatest assests, it also can be it’s greatest drawback. Sure, you can extend your site to do all kinds of amazing things, but what happens when that awesome plugin lingers without updates, while WordPress releases a couple times a year? Eventually, something is going to break.
Since WordPress has made the decision that security means staying up to date with the latest release, that becomes a greater issue as time goes by. Potentially, this data will give developers insight into what is breaking popular plugins, so they can either address that in the code, or (purely speculation on my part) adopt the plugin and bring it up to date.
My only concern with the data is that I think most people will tend to find plugins that are broken, and then report that, rather than think, “hey, I should go through my three hundred plugins and go report that they are working fine with the latest release.” The article does mention that eventually they’d like users to be able to report directly from the plugin page, but then that opens the whole “phone home” can of worms.
From a site developer stand point, I think the whole thing should drive home the point of trying to use the core tools as much as possible, and not relying on as many plugins to develop a site. Certainly there are ones you can’t get away from for certain projects, but often times, people will employ a plugin for convenience, which will later bite them on the behind when that plugin breaks an upgrade.
Popularity: 28% [?]
zero comments.
