Sofie Estolloso Hofmann Designs International

Finally, WordPress 2.5 Release Candidate 1 is out. It was supposed to be out on March 10, 2008, but was delayed as they still fixed a lot of things. I have patiently waited for this as I am already revising a lot of websites using WordPress as CMS (Content Management System).

By just reading what Matt posted a few hours ago, 2.5 Sneak Peek (a sneak peek at the WordPress 2.5 Release Candidate 1), it seems like a lot of changes have been made at the administration side, at the dashboard, navigation, write and manage screens. As I see it, I do not think that they are just minor changes.

Just to quote Matt, 2.5 Sneak Peek:

A customizable dashboard, multi-file upload, built-in galleries, one-click plugin upgrades, tag management, built-in Gravatars, full text feeds, and faster load times sound interesting? Then WordPress 2.5 might be the release for you. It’s been in the oven for a while, and we’re finally ready to open the doors a bit to give you a taste.

Let us see if it is to my liking. I have been waiting for the new built-in galleries. I did not want to use any image or photo plugins so I just used the pages for photo albums instead of the post as I use category and date features to archive the news articles and blog entries, and I do not want that with the photo galleries.

Let us tackle more about it later once I already tested it. I will especially pay attention to the database as I do not like the way files are being saved at the database at the past WordPress versions. In my opinion, if it could be done, pages and posts should not be on the same table. The images or photos as attachments should not be on the same table too with the pages and posts. Links, tags and categories should also be on separate tables.

Anyway, as I have said, let us discuss this further later. I will have to download it now and test it in my local computer.

Read 2.5 Sneak Peek at WordPress.org Blog for more information, and link to the zip file if you want to download it.

Today, as we just stayed at home, I upgraded all the sites using WordPress as CMS from WordPress 2.3.2 to WordPress 2.3.3. I started with Sehdi.com as a test. I had no problem at all, so I also upgraded SofieHofmann.com Blog, Pandan.ph, Tugbong.pandan.ph, Pandan.gov.ph News, Pagtatap.org, Weggis.net and LADiosoLibrary.org. But, is there really a need to upgrade from WordPress 2.3.2 to WordPress 2.3.3? My answer would be YES and NO!

YES, it is recommended to upgrade if you have your registration enabled and you have any other users aside from you. If not, you can leave it as it is, as it won’t really affect your site. If you still worry, you can just upload the fixed version of xmlrpc.php.

When I read about this security release, I just uploaded the fixed version of xmlrpc.php. But I kept on reading this text “A new version of WordPress is available! Please update now.” every time I logged in. So after 13 days I finally gave in. I upgraded all the 8 sites.

There’s a way, of course, if you don’t want to read that message anymore. All you have to do is upload the version.php file under the wp-includes folder. But I’m not comfortable doing it that way, so I upgraded the sites just like I normally do.

And NO, you don’t have to upgrade if your registration is disabled and you’re the only one who has access to your blog or site. Regarding the other minor bug fixes, if those few minor bugs do not also affect your site, then there’s really no need to upgrade. When I read what they fixed, the problems were at the version 2.2, 2.3 and 2.3.1. If you upgraded to WordPress 2.3.2 already, and you encountered no problem at all, then you have the option not to upgrade.

But if you haven’t upgraded to WordPress 2.3.2 yet, then you might be affected, so I suggest that you should upgrade to WordPress 2.3.3. That’s for your own security too. Remember before you upgrade, always backup your files and database.

Note from Sofie: This is just my opinion. It is always your decision whether to upgrade or not.