WordPress 3.6 Beta: Discover the latest updates

Work on WordPress 3.6 started in January of this year, with Beta 3 released on May 11, 2013, and we can look forward to release candidates and, hopefully, a final stable release in June. This release is an exciting development for a number of reasons.

First, the focus is on post formatting - a feature introduced since WordPress 3.1 but not widely used. Secondly, the editing process has also been improved and a new default theme has been introduced, which is a significant change compared to the previous default theme.

Unlike the past few releases, WordPress 3.6 feels more important - there's a lot to look forward to. Let's see what we can expect.

IMPORTANT NOTE - As of the publication of this article, the new post format UI has been removed from version 3.6 and will be available as a plugin until it can be rolled into a future version.

---

What’s new in WordPress 3.6?

1. Post format

Post formatting has been a feature highlighted in premium themes, but is not widely used by general WordPress users. This is a feature that Tumblr users love, but WordPress users still don’t use.

Advanced theme developers without structure use their own custom implementation.

Thanks to the efforts of Helen Hou-Sandi and many others, Post Formats got a makeover. The new user interface makes post formats more visible and easier to use. Additional custom meta fields provide more structure to each post format and give theme developers more control to customize the appearance.

With so many different custom implementations available, including using plugins like Alex King’s Post Format UI plugin, we can now expect a standard implementation from all theme developers.

The different post formats available are the same as before, but for better structure they now have their own custom meta fields, for example:

Picture publishing format:

1. Picture URL
2. Link URL

Link post format:

1. Link URL

Video and Audio Post Format

1. Video embed code or URL/Audio embed code or URL

Quote:

1. Quote source
2. Link URL

2. Audio and video support

So far, self-hosted audio and video support has not been one of WordPress’ strong points. Users must rely on plugins or custom implementations, which vary from theme to theme.

As post formats improve, audio and video display becomes simpler. You no longer need any external libraries or plugins. Since the MediaElement.js library is included in WordPress, theme developers can now easily take advantage of it.

When uploading video/audio or adding a media URL or embed code, you can now preview it directly in the post edit screen.

3. Auto save

Posts are now automatically saved locally. You won't lose your posts if your browser crashes, your computer freezes, or the server goes offline while you're saving.

WordPress 3.6 also periodically checks for your active sessions. If you log out or your session expires, you will no longer be redirected to the login screen when saving a post. The login screen now appears in a modal window at the top of the page you are currently on.

4. After lockdown

It's now easier to see if someone else is editing a post. The "Takeover" option allows us to take control of the post and lock other users from the post edit screen.

This is a very useful feature, especially for multi-author blogs.

5. Post revision

Post revision has received a much needed overhaul with sliders that can be moved within history and two slider range comparisons.

6. Navigation menu

The navigation menu also has a new look. The menu page under Appearance is further streamlined with an accordion-based UI and a separate tab for bulk assigning menus to locations.

The drop-down list is now used to select the menu to edit, in previous versions this was done by clicking on the tab specific to each menu.

Small details like the "Add New Menu" link on the "Manage Locations" tab further save clicks when you want to create a new menu.

7. New default theme - Twenty Thirteen

WordPress 3.6 will come with a new default theme “Twenty Thirteen”. A radical departure from its predecessor, Twenty Thirteen is a bold and colorful theme that takes full advantage of the new post format structure.

Not only is it a perfect theme for bloggers, it can also be a reference for new theme developers to learn correct theme development standards.

The theme also comes with new headers that are just as stunning as the rest of the theme.

---

Preparing for WordPress 3.6

If you are a theme developer or a user of a theme that uses Alex King’s Post Format UI plugin or uses custom meta boxes to create additional fields for each post format, now is a great time:

• Add functionality to disable custom meta fields related to post formatting when using WordPress 3.6
• Add some functionality to avoid users having to re-enter content in these fields

Finally remember that WordPress 3.6 is still in beta. Features will be more or less similar in the final version, but changes are still possible.

If you like and use WordPress, I recommend you test the 3.6 beta and report bugs.

The above is the detailed content of WordPress 3.6 Beta: Discover the latest updates. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!