WordPress 2.7 Released, What Is Your Action Plan?
WordPress 2.7 was released last night, quietly as always and I was going to write this post but was simply too tired after been up for nearly 20 hours. This is a much awaited version and as someone who played with it since its early alpha I can also tell you that it was well worth the wait. WordPress 2.7 brings not only visual enhancement to Admin interface but also functionality improvements that excite me personally the most! But there is one thing you should know:
WordPress 2.7 Is Not A Security Update!
And while I recommend you bring your blog to this version, you have some time to do the proper planning to ensure smooth migration to new design and functionality. This post is here to help you!
- This post assumes that your blog is currently at latest SECURE version of 2.6 trunk – 2.6.5, which was released few days ago. If not – UPGRADE NOW!
- Web 2.0 Wealth and Expert WordPress customers advised NOT TO UPGRADE just yet. I’m in process of testing the process and as always customers will be presented with a video to how get it done with least pain.
But if you are feeling confident and would like to play with new functionality – Why Not, right? And here is a great Video Presentation of New WordPress 2.7 features, provided by Dev. team
That’s The Spirit I Love!
While this post is not designed to teach you how to do an upgrade (there is plenty written about it already) I do want to outline some best practices. I have previously wrote a post that outlines some of the exact steps I use for upgrade approach and you can find them in my post WordPress 2.4 Skipped, What Should You Do?. Don’t be put off by version number in the headline – it is still very much relevant as it deals with Best Practices!
Your WordPress 2.7 Action Plan
As I have already mentioned – new version brings big changes. Changes that require you to check both your theme and currently used plugins for compatibility with this version. There is an excellent guide for those of you who know how to do some coding and want to get your hands dirty - right here.
And for the rest of us…
Theme Compatibility
Good news is – even if your theme is NOT compatible with WordPress 2.7 – it will continue to work. Bad news is – it will not be able to take full advantage of the new functionality offered by WordPress 2.7. You can check if your theme is on compatible list or not here.
What are the most important features brought by 2.7:
- Enhanced comment display. Now you get comment threading, paging etc built into core assuming your theme supports it.
- Post classes allows you to display different classes of post in different format – style them differently
- Sticky posts feature introduced in 2.7 can also be integrated into theme and sticky posts can be excluded from custom queries on your pages.
All of the above simply means – better visual for your blog, as long as your theme is ready.
Plugins Compatibility
WordPress 2.7 comes with a lot of enhancements and I’m not even planning to list them here. But what it means to you in practice – it will allow you to shed some of the plugins you currently use because functionality is already integrated into the core. This blog during the upgrade will loose 5 plugins that I havely rely on right now!
That will help with page load speed (or give me room to install some more plugins 
) I do recommend that You Always check if plugins you use and view as MUST HAVE on your blog as compatible with latest version. You can get a community contributed list of plugins compatible with 2.7 here.
Before You Start Upgrade – Backup!
I decided to finsh this post with a reminder that should be ingrained into your brain – ALWAYS do a backup before any upgrade. That includes backing up your database and more important files. This will simply ensure that you have a way out if things do go wrong during upgrade.
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38 Responses to “WordPress 2.7 Released, What Is Your Action Plan?”
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Great post, thank you for your insight. I really learned a great from coming to this site.
Alex, you say that this blog during the upgrade will lose 5 important plugins. Which ones are these?It would be great for us your readers if you can list them because we also have similar plugins.
Clements last blog post..Wordpress database problems force me out of Unique-links
Sure:
Better Comments Manager, WP-Sticky, WordPress Automatic Upgrade, One Click Plugin Updater. Those will be definitely gone – I have 2 more rather unique that will be evaluated, such as SezWho – I would love to keep it but will look into validity of that.
Of the four plugins that are being retired, I only had the Wordpress Automatic Upgrade which I have now deactivated. SezWho is still up and very compatible to WP 2.7 at least in my view.
Correct and it works great with 2.7 – I love the SezWho and will continue to use it.
By the way this is a nice writeup such that I have submitted it to stumbleupon.
Clements last blog post..Wordpress database problems force me out of Unique-links
I’ve been looking forward to WP 2.7 myself, but I will hold off for a bit before I upgrade. As you mentioned, it’s not a security upgrade so there is no urgency to upgrade.
By waiting a bit, I’ll be able to read some of the reviews of WP 2.7 and see if there are any issues that arise.
Clement, you are right, this is a great article, I’ve stumbled it myself
Mike
Mikes last blog post..Intelligent Speed Bumps | Auto Gadgets
Thanks for the info, Alex.
Unfortunately I didn’t read it but after I upgraded my WP install to 2.7.
Now, half my sidebar is gone, probably because of a plugin that isn’t compatible.
I do like the WP 2.7 admin area, though. It’s much easier to use than in the previous versions.
Greetz!
Mieke
Mieke Janssenss last blog post..I’m No Guru – Lol
Excellent info Alex…
As always, I won’t do anything till I hear from you definitively. No sense in doing something stupid if I can just wait a few days and get your guidance once again.
Thanks for your hard work.
David Perdew
http://www.nichesimple.com
I saw this earlier today but didn’t have time to stop and read it. I’ve been waiting since 2.6 since every week or so another minor one came out.
That’s good to see the extra stuff that’s integrated into it, because it will probably take a while for all the plugins to catch up. I just downloaded the 1-click upgrade plugin. One less thing to do… Cool!
Back to work, 4hrs til sunrise. B)>
Brian Stones last blog post..Skyrocket Your Affiliate Sales With Affiliate Power Videos
Hey guys, thanks fro comments. My partner and I are in process of testing the process and will be providing the upgrade details to custoemrs soon, as such – this blog might not get as much attention from me for next few days.
Alex
As always, great insight and helpful info when it comes to WP! The WPAU plugin is\was a great tool, especially when you run multiple installations of WP. I have a few other plugins that I am a bit concerned about, but I will tackle those once I finish upgrading my test site! I also am a bit concerned over a great new theme I just picked up too! It uses AJAX and I think it is pretty cool. But we shall see if it breaks during the upgrade I guess.
I wonder how google is going to handle the pagination of comments – I can see a meta description / duplicate content problem arising. Something for the allinoneseo pack boys to work on…
malcolm coless last blog post..Intempo idab review: an ipod digital radio
I just upgraded one of my blog to WP 2.7 from WP 2.6.5 using WP Automated Upgrade plugin, everythign went fine… but WP Upgrade plugin put my blog into maintanence mode and I cannot turned it off
Any suggestions?
Maxs last blog post..100+ Blog Ping Services for Your Blog
One more thing – latest version of Sociable plugin is not compatible with WP 2.7
Maxs last blog post..100+ Blog Ping Services for Your Blog
Max, my partner already contacted the author with a fix, there was an extra code in it and I believe the fix is already integrated into the plugin.
Further to my comment above, I investigated some more, and it seems there definitely will be an issue with duplicate content and comment pagination – pages with the same title, meta description, top part of the page (ie the post) but different URL and different bottom half (the comments).
malcolm coless last blog post..Wordpress comment pagination & duplicate content
Thanks for the tip Malcolm!
I’m sure the all-in-one-seo will integrate a fix soon for this one
You can increase the number of comments per page to more then default 50. Just visit Settings-Discussion and change the default to largest number of comments you currently have .
I know it will remove the benefit of pagination but in my opinion it is better then Duplicate Content Penalties
I recently discovered an SEO Wordpress plugin that fixes the duplicate content and comment pagination among one of the things. It is called “Planet SEO Pack”. I have installed it on my blog. It is giving me an excellent service. If you google “Planet SEO Pack”, you will find it.
I think you mean “Platinum SEO Pack”? I have looked at it – it is same thing as “All In One SEO” – it claims to do a bit more but I will stick to AIOS, it is well supported, updated and I don’t have to guess on next major WordPress upgrade if this plugin will be ready to support it. SEO is important to my blog and I don’t want to rely on a plugin that might be not around when I need it.
Coolness factor is Not everything when it comes to your blog – stability and consistency is a MUST if your blog brings you income as mine does.
Alex
This article is a keeper for sure, thanks man!
My action plan? Even though I have been weaiting eagerly for a couple of the features I already knew about, not to mention all the others i want to try, experience tells me to wait just a wee bit more to be sure of stability before installing.
Dennis Edells last blog post..How To: Evaluating Competition For New Site Niches
still using version 2.6 and wait and see for all plugin integrated with this version
ianimarus last blog post..Test Plurk Post to Facebook
Alex,
I have a strange question. If you could e-mail me directly I would so appreciate it! I need some advice.
Thanks,
Michelle
cool… i love wordpress.. lemme see wats new in this version
Nicholas Franciss last blog post..How to send email Attachment upto 10 GB?
Thank you for the information on the upgrade. I have both a hosted WP blog and a wordpress.com blog. Is this applicable to the wordpress.com blog or do I use what they give me?
Thanks for the info
Andys last blog post..Sweeten The MLM Lead With A Gift Basket
u r right! do backup!
i now write a new blog. but a month back when i used to write old one, i was upgrading with automatic upgrade plugin. no backup was created. dialup connection betrayed when the page was refreshing. then i found that my setup crashed.
i hav had a backup about two months back from then. i was so annoyed with myself
it prompted my decision to sell the blog.
I was happy to see 2.7 but once I logged into the Backend it was quite a shock! Almost nothing on the place it used to be. It took me more than an hour to find the things I was looking for.
Alex, thanks so much for the link to Wordpress 2.7 compatible Plugins! Question for you, can too many plugins “break” your wordpress site?
Kevin Sandridges last blog post..The Ultimate Florida Real Estate and Mortgage “Yule” Blog Roll…
Great info, have updated a couple of new blogs but not my more established sites. Want to wait until I have tested it thoroughly before upgrading on all of them. Like you mentioned it is not a security update so we have time before having to upgrade.
Nicks last blog post..Making a No Win No Fee Claim
I just upgrade my blog to version 2.7 the process quite easy, just follow wordpress guidelines and i satisfied with the result. It took me 2 hours with backup and tweaking the theme after upgrade.
Yunars last blog post..Great Home Career In The Healthcare Industry
There are 5 houses in five different colors
In each house lives a different nationality.
These 5 owners drink a certain beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar and keep a certain pet.
No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar, or drink the same beverage.
The CLUES:
The Brit lives in the Red house.
The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
The Dane Drinks tea.
The Green House is on the left of the White House.
The Green House’s owner drinks coffee.
The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
The man in the center house drinks milk.
The Norwegian lives in the first house.
The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats
The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
The German smokes Prince.
The Norwegian lives next to the Blue House.
The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.
The QUESTION:
Who owns the fish?
My upgrade went smooth my biggest issue is my blog post formatting has been lost and I can’t figure out why. AND even with it upgraded and trying to format and do line breaks in the html tab all the text in my blog post continues to run together. I’ve deactivated all plugins/reactivated.. still at a loss
Kristens last blog post..Site Sell Review by SBI Drop Out
Yes I meant to say “Platinum SEO Pack”. The author claims that AIOS is the one which is not well supported and updated because the original author is no longer involved.
I agree with you stability and consistency are a MUST.
Clements last blog post..A dual carriageway from Chitipa to Nsanje is needed in Malawi
Original Author has passed on the development to one of the very well known and respected WordPress developers. I don’t try to talk you out of it – just providing my take on it. SEO of your blog is not something you want to be experimenting with too much and switching plugins responcible for it -is one of those “experiments”
Just know what you do, and make decision based on it.