WordPress 2.5 RC1 Excites The World
Well, the announcement that most of us have been waiting for has arrived today. That being the release of WordPress 2.5 Release Candidate 1. Now, despite the blunders of March 10th, it is A OK to be excited now as we are pretty close to seeing a stable release come out within the next week or two. Matt gives you a good rundown as to why you should be excited in that post I linked to at the beginning of this article.
Now that RC 1 has been released, it didn’t take long for someone to find a potentially troubling issue that involves the WordPress 2.5 Plugin Instant Upgrader. According to Darren Either who explains the situation:
- The automatic upgrade does not deactivate your plugin first and then reactivate it after upgrading. If the plugin requires activation to run any checks for WordPress version, or do any db fixes, or “activate” any new features then it won’t do this and the plugin won’t work as expected. In most cases this can be simply remedied by remembering to deactivate and then reactivate the plugin after the upgrade is complete.
- There’s no way for plugin authors to give you special upgrade instructions ahead of your upgrade. Sometimes these instructions might be important for keeping existing data or getting things to work properly. I know of at least one plugin that uses a file to store data rather than the database (bad design imho but still - a reality).
- If the plugin is in the plugins root directory instead of it’s own directory then the automatic upgrade will change it’s location. For example say you have a plugin named myfunplugin.php and it’s located at
../wp-content/plugins/myfunplugin.php- after automatic upgrade does it stuff the plugin will now be located at../wp-content/plugins/myfunplugin/myfunplugin.php. This could be a breaker for any plugin that has functions referencing the original location of the plugin. - There are other scenarios I haven’t tested yet like, what happens when a plugin changes directory structure from one version to the next?
Darren has filed a ticket on the WordPress Trac for this issue ( Ticket 6262 ). It appears as though this might not be fixed before the final release but I imagine it will be dealt with either in a service release or within 2.6. Until then, if you are worried about this issue, go the route of upgrading plugins manually until this issue is resolved.
Last but not least, if you really want to contribute to the stable release of 2.5, read the following as it was mentioned in the same post discussing the 2.5 sneak peak.
If you make frequent backups and you’re interested in helping us out with development by testing the new code, download and install Release Candidate 1 of WordPress 2.5, and join our testers mailing list to report any bugs you find in the code.
We’re also interested in feedback on the new interface and would love to hear your opinions, thoughts, rants, raves, and anything in between. We created a special email address just for the occasion: 2.5-feedback@wordpress.org.
Which one will happen first, WordCamp Dallas or the release of WordPress 2.5?
Subscribe To Posts
Subscribe Via Email
Stay Updated Via Twitter
If you’ve been involved in the bug hunt and keeping up with the wp-testers mailing list you’ve no doubt noticed the surfacing of annoying little bugs that seem to have inexplicably popped up now that we’re getting closer to a full release. Kind of frustrating.
@Len Hey Len, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. Now that some of the final code is in the hands of many, it’s interesting to see how many bugs are being discovered that would of otherwise gone unnoticed had it not been for the RC/beta cycle release. I only hope that the bugs that are discovered are not serious enough to warrant further delays.
It sounds like most of the bugs that are cropping up are to do with either the plugin updater, or the new media manager and Tiny MCE. The latter being specific to certain browsers.
Hopefully these can all be nipped in the bud ready for a release soon. I suspect we’re looking at the end of next week now. Still, we have a shiny RC1 to play with meanwhile…
Oh, and Jeff, I hate to do this, but as a fully paid up member of the Apostrophe Police I must bring to your attention the crimes you’ve committed in this post, specifically:
“If the plugin is in the plugins root directory instead of it’s own directory then the automatic upgrade will change it’s location. For example say you have a plugin named myfunplugin.php and it’s located at”
Which should read:
“If the plugin is in the plugin’s root directory instead of its own directory then the automatic upgrade will change its location. For example say you have a plugin named myfunplugin.php and it’s located at”
Again, sorry about that, but I just can’t help myself
@Dan Hey Dan, thanks for stopping by. As for the apostrophe police, am I liable for text that I quote from another source? Thanks for taking the time to comment. How did you happen to stumble across this blog?
I think there’s a get out clause along those lines, yes
Apologies, didn’t realise it had been quoted word for word.
Long time reader, first time caller, so to speak. Been reading via the mighty Wordpress Planet for a while now.
Keep up the good work!
Wow, thanks for reading Dan and leaving a comment or two. Comments are like gold to bloggers!