What to Expect When You're Expecting WordPress Upgrades?

lsw-x

I get this question a lot: How do you always know what’s coming with the next WordPress release??. I can tell you that I’m not a member of some secret society. I don’t have an exclusive inside track into WordPress Development. I don’t talk to the core WordPress developers on a regular basis (quite actually, our paths cross every so often..ever so briefly…every once in a great while). It’s not super secret information that only a few are privvy to.

Basically to answer the question: I make it my business to know.

Up and coming changes to the WordPress core is publicly available information. . . available to anyone and everyone who really wants to know. Although, not everyone is like me. I upgrade my WordPress installation with the latest and greatest and am already looking forward to the next. I’m a consumer of WordPress — well, gobbler, really, if you want to get technical. I gorge myself on WordPress – – which is why I have taken it upon myself to find out where to find out! Of course, it helps that I am the author of the WordPress For Dummies book project, as the author of that book, there is a lot of pressure to stay current and always keep myself constantly looking forward… but even without the book, I’d inquire and dig and find out. ‘Cause I’m nosy like that 😉

You can make it your business to know, too – if you really want to. That’s what this post is for .. to give you all those little nooks and cranny’s on the web that you can bookmark, subscribe to and pour over in order to get the latest scoop! If I’ve missed a resource (and I’m SURE I will) – feel free to add ’em in the comments!

**Disclaimer!!! The information found within these sites is NOT all-inclusive, exhaustive… NOR is it a guarantee that the features you read about on these sites are set in stone for future releases! (This disclaimer is so that you can’t come back to me at a later date and say “HEY LISA! That site you sent me to said WordPress version 10 would wash my dishes and mow my lawn…but it doesn’t!” — don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

Finding future WordPress Features
Finding future WordPress Features
Where to find information on future WordPress features

  • WordPress Roadmap – want to know the approximate schedule for future WordPress releases? Check this out.
  • WordPress Trac – a lot of people have a difficult time reading the Trac, and I don’t really blame them, if you’re not used to it, it can be somewhat confusing. But, if you spend some time to browse through it – you can find gems of information. For example:
  • WordPress Mailing Lists are a great place to stay up to date on what’s going on with current and future WordPress Development. Funny little anecdote on this – – back in 2006 when I accepted and signed the contract to write WordPress For Dummies – I was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of information I needed to compile. On top of that, knowing that by the time I was done compiling it – – it would change… not once, but TWICE during the course of writing the book. I (very naively) send an e-mail to Matt Mullenweg asking him what huge changes I could expect with the next version (at that time, it was 2.3). He must have read that and thought, “What a dork.” (or something like that). He wrote back and simply said “Subscribe to the WP Testers mailing list and follow it.” I’ll give him credit – – he could have written back and said something akin to “RTFM, dipshit” But, he didn’t – – he’s nice like that.
  • Did I mention WordPress Mailing Lists??? That’s probably where I get the bulk of info on future features.
  • The WordPress Codex has nice page on what to expect in 2.7
  • Here’s an obscure little resource – – every once in awhile I can garner some good information by subscribing to the feed for the WordPress Developers Blog on WordPress.com. This is a great use of the Prologue theme, by the way. Haven’t heard of it – – check it out! Anyways – this site is a running dialogue from the WordPress developers – updated with snippets of information about features, bug fixes, etc. I’ve subscribed to the full RSS feed for updates. (Note: this is not to be confused with the WordPress Development Blog – which is where you can nab information and news about WordPress, overall.)
  • There are a few bloggers that I subscribe to who I can usually count on to make informative posts on what to expect in future versions of WordPress. These folks are: Aaron Brazell @ Technosailor (he usually does a ‘What You Should Know About WordPress version X.X’ post a few weeks before it’s release date – like this one he did for WordPress 2.6.), Weblog Tools Collection (check out their most recent post: Features Planned for WordPress 2.7).
  • Want to download every single version of WordPress ever made???? Yea, me neither – but you can if you want to because WordPress.Org keeps a release archive – – this archive INCLUDES release candidates and beta releases, if you are brave enough to live on the edge

So

….don’t know what to expect in the upcoming version of WordPress 2.7?? I’m not going to tell you – – you have all you need to find out and keep yourself updated!

6 thoughts on “What to Expect When You're Expecting WordPress Upgrades?”

  1. One thing I’ve experienced is to make sure that if you’re using a third-party themes or plugins to make sure that things won’t get broken when you upgrade. We’ve used WooThemes.com and their forums are great to keep up with new releases and how they impact their themes.

  2. Lisa;
    I am an absolute newbie at this. I recently installed WP on Blue Host. Saw your theme at Rokdrop.com and like it. I know how to download it but can’t figure out how to get it installed.
    Go Packers!
    Thanks,
    Peter Ljubic

  3. :((

    This is becoming annoying. I can’t seem to post well anymore. If I write down my website it bugs out on me…

    Anyhow I really don’t like to upgrade a lot. I don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I usually wait until the upgrade is like a few + versions newer.

  4. Your information is great for plugin and theme developers of wordpress. Whenever a new wordrpress x.x version is release it is importand for every plugin and theme developer to make their projects compatible with the latest releases.

    Wordpres is excellent but one aspect of it is irritatin. One has to upgrade frequently and this is a little depressing for sites with high traffic.

  5. Great insider information. First time here, love the theme and your header, well layed out, did you create this wonder? I agree about the pink thing, or at least my daughter will. Thanks George

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