Although I’ve already installed and tried WordPress 2.5 Release Candidate 2 in my sandbox last week, I’m still getting used to the way the content/options are displayed on this new version of WordPress. Fortunately for me, the upgrade went smoothly and I’m glad I didn’t encounter any issues or setbacks during the upgrade process. All of the plugins I previously used had were working and had no conflicts except for the Popularity Contest plugin by Alex King which required a minor fix.

Apparently, the WordPress dashboard is not the only one that got a facelift but the whole WordPress site itself which uses the same design/color scheme like WordPress 2.5.

The new design/layout is cool and looks much better and if you ask me, the timing couldn’t have been any better. Besides, a WorPress.org theme redesign or reboot was long overdue IMO.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. Right now, I’m not using any admin theme which is quite unusual coz I’ve always used either the Tiger Style Admin or Spotmilk admin themes the past few years. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Tiger Style Admin doesn’t work in WordPress 2.5 because of the admin changes so I had to drop it. There is however a new alternative, called the Fluency Admin theme by Dean J Robinson but I’m not using it because when I tried it out, the option to edit the permalink (option found under the post title) wasn’t showing up. Thinking that it could be an issue on Firefox, I tried using it on Internet Explorer only to find out that like the Tiger Style Admin, the Fluency Admin theme doesn’t work on IE. So I ended up deactivating the plugin and reverting to the default WP dashboard which isn’t such a bad thing.

Widgets aren’t new to WordPress but in 2.5, you can add widgets to the dashboard. In my case, I’ve installed the WP-Stats plugin even though I already have the Firestats plugin. Just wanted to try it out and see if it gathers stats that are different from the ones that I get from Firestats. If the data it collects are the redundant, then I’ll just uninstall it.

I like the Password strength meter which helps you create a strong password in case you need to change your current password or if you need a new one. I also like the built-in tag manager that lets me add, rename or delete tags from within the dashboard. I used to have the a tag manager plugin installed so this means one less plugin for me.

There is one thing however about upgrading to WordPress 2.5 that got me disappointed. After the upgrade, I found out that the Akismet Auntie Spam maintenance script doesn’t work. For those of you who are not familiar with it, it’s a Greasemonkey script for the Firefox browser and made for WordPress or WordPress MU installations, built to work alongside Akismet for a fast and easy way of managing spam comments. I’ve been using it for quite a while now and I can say that it’s a real time saver. I’m thinking about writing a review about it once a working version for WordPress 2.5 is released.

UPDATE: The author just informed me that Akismet Auntie Spam 2.20 is now available for download. This version has WP 2.5 support and is backwards compatible to 2.3.

Have you upgraded your WordPress installation to 2.5? If not, why haven’t you upgraded yet? For those of you who have upgraded to WordPress 2.5, did you encounter any issues or problems during the upgrade process? Were there any plugins that you had to get rid of?

Below is a screencast made by Matt Mullenweg, showing off the new dashboard and image uploader in WordPress 2.5.

I admit that the first time I saw photos of WordPress 2.5′s dashboard I wasn’t that impressed. I was expecting it to be more “pretty”. However, after installing RC1 on my sandbox and seeing this screencast, I’m actually starting to like it. I like the way the content are displayed in the dashboard’s main page because it looks cleaner, more organized and easier to access.

If you watched the screencast you would’ve seen that with WordPress 2.5, you can edit the Incoming Links and choose between Technorati or Google Blog Search. You can also make the WYSIWYG editor into full screen mode which is handy when you’re composing a long post and/or if your computer has a small screen (Asus Eee PC). The new image uploader is really cool! Although I don’t use it in my blog, I’m sure many WordPress users can’t wait to get their hands on it and would find it very useful.

The suspense is killing me. Can’t wait for the WordPress 2.5 to be released so I can install it here on my blog. While waiting for it to be released, make sure that your blog is ready for WordPress 2.5. Btw, you can get a copy of WordPress 2.5 Release Candidate 2 here.

Have you tried the RC versions of WordPress 2.5? What are the new features that you like or dislike? What other options/features do you think should be added/removed from WordPress 2.5? Please share your thoughs via comments. Thank you!

Another good thing about the delay is that it gives us WordPress users, theme and plugin authors more time to prepare. Here are the changes in WordPress 2.5 that could affect the performance and functionality of some plugins:

• Admin Menu Changes
• Admin Screens
• Activation Global Scope
• Hook Changed: restrict_manage_posts
• TinyMCE Upgrade to Version 3

For a more detailed description on these changes, check out this document on Migrating Plugins and Themes to WordPress 2.5. Also, if you want to check whether the plugins you’re currently using are compatible with WordPress 2.5 or not, go over and take a look at the Plugin Compatibility list.

So far, only one of the plugins I’m currently using has a conflict but unfortunately it’s one of my favorite plugins – the Tiger Style Admin. With too many admin changes in WordPress 2.5, this plugin won’t work any more. Too bad coz I really like this plugin and I know many of you guys do too. Also, the Tiger Style Admin fix I posted last month becomes useless. I do hope the author would update it or someone would create a new admin theme just like it for the new version of WordPress.

If you can’t wait to get your hands on WordPress 2.5 or can’t wait to see how the new interface looks like, you can try and see it for yourself on this demo blog provided by Chris Johnston. Btw, the version of WordPress used for this demo blog is a beta version so some of the stuff you see could be different in the final version.

Lastly, to help you prepare and make your blog ready for WordPress 2.5, make sure you go over and read this WordPress Upgrade Preparation Checklist by Lorelle VanFossen.

Is your blog ready for WordPress 2.5? Have you updated your themes and plugins? Do you have any plugins currently installed that have issues or conflicts with WordPress 2.5? I’d like to hear your thoughts and opinion.

UPDATE:
JaypeeOnline is back in business! The nameservers have already been resolved and everything seems to be working fine. Will be working on new posts and comment replies tomorrow coz it’s already late and I need to get some sleep. Btw, I forgot to mention that due to the delay in the release of WordPress 2.5, I’ve installed version 2.3.3 instead.

I’ve been planning and thinking about moving to a different web host in the past few months and I’ve finally done it. After opening an account with my new host, the first thing I did was to backup all my files – WordPress themes, plugins, images and other necessary files via FTP including my WordPress database which I backed up via PHPMyadmin. I just updated the nameservers for JaypeeOnline a few minutes ago and migrated everything to my new web host. It normally takes about 24 – 48 hours for the domain name change to propagate through everyone’s DNS server so that means some of you guys might get to the new site, others would get the old site. Hopefully everything will go smoothly and there won’t be any problems with migrating to my new web host.

Right now, I haven’t installed WordPress yet because I’m waiting for WordPress 2.5 to be released so I can install it and use it right away instead of installing 2.3.3 now then upgrade it when 2.5 comes out. It supposed to be released today, March 10th and I’m guessing it would be released any time tonight. If it doesn’t get released on or before midnight, then I have no choice but to install the 2.3.3 version.

Comments are still enabled in the old site so it’s still possible to leave comments. However, I ask that you wait until the site is under the new host before you post your comments. That way, your comments won’t get lost. Also, I’ll be skipping the weekly feature, Weekend Roundup this week and won’t be posting any new posts so that I can concentrate on setting up, checking and making sure that everything works with my new web host. Expect updates and new posts in the next couple of days including replies to your comments and emails.

If you’re wondering why I switched web hosts and would want to know who my new web host is, then you’ll have to wait for that. I’ll be talking more about that in detail in a different post. For now, I request your utmost patience and please bear with the lack of updates and the expected downtime. Thank you for your continued support and have a nice day!

image source: Nagios.sourceforge.net