WordPress 3.0 is released with lots of breathtaking improvements and exciting new features which will surely bring this platform one step ahead. So, what actually we can expect to bundle up with this release? Here is a walk through!
1. WordPress.org and WordPress MU Wedding
Yeah WordPress MU and WordPress.org are all set to tie up with each other. Almost over a year of hard work the floks at Automattic are all set to merge their standalone blogging platform WordPress.org with multi user platform WordPress MU. This feature will come handy specially for large blog networks.
It is an add-on for the existing users which means it won’t hurt them if they don’t want to use it. The upgrade process will be smooth and won’t cause any difficulties to existing users. Most importantly it will be a win win situation for WordPress MU users as they can now easily use WordPress.org plugins out of the box needless to modify.
2. Choose Username and Password while Installing
Earlier when you do new installation WordPress automatically choose ‘admin‘ as default username and generate a random password, however in 3.0 it allows you to choose custom username and password while installing WordPress.
3. New Default Theme
It’s time to bid adieu to Kubrik theme which comes up default with WordPress. WordPress 3 has been packaged with a new theme called “Twenty Ten”. This new theme is really outstanding and minimalist at the same time. Twenty Ten has some outstanding features such as Custom Background, Custom Header, Simple and Clean Look, Multi Widget Areas Supported, Two-Columns and Drop Down Menu.
4. Custom Background
Wordpress 3.0 now adds support for custom background for themes. To enable custom background functionality to your theme you just have to add following code in your theme’s functions.php file:
add_custom_background();
And it will enable “Background” option in WordPress admin “Appearance” tab.
5. Custom Post Types
This is another feature which will boost up WordPress as a CMS. This feature is due since WordPress 2.9 it allows you create different post types such as Portfolio, Products, Reviews etc. all you have to do is to just add following code in your functions.php file:
function post_type_portfolio() { register_post_type( 'Portfolio', array( 'label' => __('Portfolio'), 'public' => true, 'show_ui' => true ) ); register_taxonomy_for_object_type('post_tag', 'Portfolio'); }
6. Navigation Menu
This feature is inspired by WooTheme’s WooNav which allows you to create different menu items containing Categories, Pages, External or Internal Link. It also support a widget so that you can place these menus in your sidebar as widget.
7. Author Templates
Earlier we had category specific templates which we use to develop category based templates using category-slug.php now WordPress 3 brings the same functionality for author based templates now you can create author based template files such as ‘author-chef.php‘.
Other Features Worth Mentioning
1. Now every WordPress installation will have a Welcome Guide for which helps newbies to understand WordPress better.
2. Plugins will now developed by community rather than sole developer, so you can now expect updated plugins every time.
3. In WordPress 3 plugins can not be edited until they are active so you must first deactivate them to be able to edit.
