WordPress 3.0 promises to be another one of these major releases, but geared more toward developers. WP 2.9 introduced the first add_theme_support item: thumbnail selection. This allowed theme authors to declare that they supported something and automatically reveal another administrative back-end panel. WP 3.0 adds a few more of these items, and goes a few steps further toward supporting a full-featured CMS… and social network…and blog network.

• Theme support: Post-types. While technically WP 2.9 supports custom post-types (something other than the default post, page, and attachment), there is no easy way to implement these post-types. WP 3.0 provides the necessary code to easily add new write panels into the back-end for these custom post types. For example, on this site I might have a custom post type of “design-page” as well as the standard page and post. I first read about how easy it will be to implement these based on a tutorial on wpengineer.com. Granted, things could drastically change by the time 3.0 is released, but it would likely just become easier.
• Theme support: Custom Navigation. Theme authors will be able to add a spot for a menu bar that is then controlled from the back-end. Like a sidebar widget, all of the styling of the menu bar will be controlled by the theme’s stylesheet, while the basic structure for the menu will happen automatically by Wordpress. This, I feel, will prove to be very popular with end-users while saving some serious development time. WooThemes is taking care of the development of Custom Navigation.
• The biggest back-end development in WP 3.0 is the merge of WordPress and WordPress MU (multi-user). Now blog authors will be able to click a button and have the ability to create a blog network — that is, allow other people to sign up for and author blogs under the same domain name (think wordpress.com). A popular plugin for WPMU is BuddyPress  which transforms WPMU into a full-blown social network with friending, status messages, groups, etc. BuddyPress was recently re-written and now works in conjunction with WP 3.0 (as a blog network) but also on any stand-alone installation of WordPress. This reduces the technical barriers to creating a social network to almost nothing.
• Apparently WP 3.0 will allow the person installing WP for the first time to choose the username instead of defaulting to “admin.” Typically when I install WP, one of the things I do is create a new user with administrator rights, then go into the database and delete the “admin” user. This is a simple security tactic to foil hackers who rely on the username being admin.

Wordpress 3.0 is currently in feature-freeze (as of March 1) — which means no new features will be added. From here until its scheduled release in early April it’s all about testing and bug fixes. If you’re interested in participating, head on over to trac and get involved in WP development.

• Backup

  This may seem obvious, but seriously. Backup all the files to your local hard drive and verify that everything downloaded. FileZilla FTP client tells you — and maintains an easily viewable list — of files that didn’t transfer, so you can make sure you have absolutely everything. Also backup SQL files and then take a look to ensure that everything is there. MyPHPAdmin can only download a certain amount so ensure it didn’t truncate the file

  For WordPress, be sure to download absolutely everything. While it may be tempting to “start fresh” with a clean WP install, this has only caused problems for me. If it worked in location A, then just move it wholesale to location B.

• Find and Replace DB

  WordPress uses the full URL to store and retrieve uploaded content. This means that if you’ve changed your domain name, you’ll need to change all of those URL’s. Make a copy of the SQL backup file to do the find and replace. Basically all instances of the old domain name need to be replaced with the new domain.

• .Htaccess 301 Redirects

  The best way to do redirects is with .htaccess — google “301 redirect htaccess” for info. I like to have all of these either already included in my .htaccess file for upload with the rest of the site, or on immediate standby for inclusion once the site is uploaded. Either way, you want to ensure all the link juice from the old domain follows to the old site on the new domain.

• Upload

  The proper way to upload everything would be database first, then files.

• Test Everything

  Once it’s uploaded, test all your links, administration interfaces, news feeds, etc. Keep an eye on your 404 log for a while just to be sure. For the most part, you’ll be able to tell if something major didn’t work right. If all else fails, delete everything and go back to your backup.

Hopefully you’ll avoid a website-moving horror story with some of these tips. By far, the best thing I’ve done for myself when moving a website is plan and outline how it’s going to happen. Good luck, let us know how it goes.

Websites That Don't Suck, half naked.

Unfortunately CSS Naked Day doesn’t seem to have attracted as much a following as it should with only 190 websites registered for 2009 (although over 2000 are listed as having participated last year).

• For those with websites: Visit naked.dustindiaz.com to learn how to participate (hint: strip all CSS out on April 9th).
• For those without websites: On April 9, 2009 visit http://naked.dustindiaz.com/ to get a list of participating websites. Check them out and see what they look like naked.

The thing that I absolutely love is the three-dimensional look achieved by placing the slide box and slides into the design the way that they did. By having the initial site content load behind the slides, you’re kind of pulled into the design.

Critiques

• It fails on one big point. Even after staring at the site for a while, I really have no idea what it is about. Only when I clicked on “enter site” and waited for the flash to load did I start to gain an idea (I think they’re a design company of some type).
• The page behind “enter site” is entirely in Flash and it’s required to view any content

*Disclaimer: This example came from The Web Designer’s Idea Book by Patrick McNeil

The “new and improved” WordPress plugin search has been available for a little while now (a few hours anyway) and I just had the opportunity to try it out.

It’s glorious.

Before: Search for “Recent Posts.” Get “cForms II.” What? In fact, there were many plugins that would come up in the search results time and time again. Even when searching for an exact title you’d get these oddities.

Now: Search for “Recent Posts” and low and behold a popular Recent Posts plugin pops up in the #1 spot. TDD Recent Posts — my plugin — now comes up in the 9th spot. Not bad.

The search enhancement has been done on the WordPress.org side of things, so it’s an immediate change for everyone without any downloads or upgrades necessary. Props to Matt and the Automattic Team for getting this one ironed out.

If you want to try it out login to wp-admin, expand the “Plugins” menu, click on “Add New” and you’ll find your search box.

PS: WordPress 2.7.1 is available now. It fixes some security issues, so let’s get those backups (then updates) done.