I’m most interested in the theme builders and advance media handeling. Will just have to wait and see till the features gets realeased. More on who and what here.

This renewed energy for WordPress has only been strengthened by the announcement of the great looking WordPress version 2.7. They team have been busy and i think we’ll be able to start using that sparkling and intuitive in backed in no time. Just to prove my point I’ve added some images for you to have a sneak peak at the yet to be finished designs. Well done guys.

Wordpress 2.7 New Post

Wordpress 2.7 Dashboard

Have a look at the following list to just get a scope of what the new features are:

• Word count! Never guess how many words are in your post anymore.
• Image captions, so you can add sweet captions like Political Ticker does under your images.
• Bulk management of plugins.
• A completely revamped image control to allow for easier inserting, floating, and resizing. It’s now fully integrated with the WYSIWYG.
• Drag-and-drop reordering of Galleries.
• Plugin update notification bubble.
• Customizable default avatars.
• You can now upload media when in full-screen mode.
• Remote publishing via XML-RPC and APP is now secure (off) by default, but you can turn it on easily through the options screen.
• Full SSL support in the core, and the ability to force SSL for security.
• You can now have many thousands of pages or categories with no interface issues.
• Ability to move your wp-config file and wp-content directories to a custom location, for “clean” SVN checkouts.
• Select a range of checkboxes with “shift-click.”
• You can toggle between the Flash uploader and the classic one.
• A number of proactive security enhancements, including cookies and database interactions.
• Stronger better faster versions of TinyMCE, jQuery, and jQuery UI.
• Version 2.6 fixes approximately 194 bugs.

Wordpress continues to be awesome. This update came a month ahead of time so the dudes really are making sure their product stays on top… rightly so.

So what does it do? It’s basically a menu that inserts built in Wordpress functions. Ones that we sometimes forgets even exist. Here are some of the features:

• Wizards for tags with parameters
• Support for 90% of the tags
• Insert basic loops (wizard)
• Insert headers (wizard)
• Help button redirects to codex

Screen Shot

Since this valuable find I’ve also come across two more valuable resources for Wordpress Development. Those I’ll share at a later stage. But make sure to add this one to your arsenal.

I should really make you pay for this theme, but since I’m in a generous mood I’m giving this one away free of charge! This “Videos theme” will cater for all you Vlogging needs. A theme dedicated to displaying video posts and an orderly and most importantly, easy manner.

So if you ever wanted to run you own “No sweat” Vlog (Video Log/Blog), you can do so now with my Video Theme. Making use of the most simplest of wordpress functionalities, you can embed your own Videos, YouTube, Meta Cafe, MySpace, Veoh and many more.

Download

Features

• Multiple Color Schemes
• Dark or Light Layouts
• Built-in ‘Recent Videos’ Widget
• Embed personally hosted videos (.flv)
• UPDATE: Embed from any site
  
• Embed from supported videos sites:
  • YouTube
  • Meta Cafe
  • Daily Motion
  • Vimeo
  • Veoh
  • Break.com
  • Blip
  • MySpace
  • Live Leak
  • Hulu
  • More to come, on request…
• Video RSS Support
• Add multiple Videos form different sources to a post.

Update

Users are now able to embed from any site that grants embed code for their video material. Also note that you can add a image still (poster frame) to the front of your custom FLV videos. When adding a custom FLV video add the key “start_image” to the custom fields. This image gets automatically re-sized to fit the player.

Information

Name: Video Theme
Version: 1.1
Compatibility: WP 2.5+

Live Demo

Videos.Foxinni.com

Installation

Download theme, unzip and upload to wp-content/themes/. Activate and enjoy!

Usage

Adding a video to a post works by adding “Custom Fields“. Enter the following Keys for the respective videos types: any, custom, youtube, metacafe, dailymotion, blip, veoh, vimeo, myspace, break, liveleak.

Then in the Value field add only the code of the video. Usually very easy to find in the address bar of the video you want to add.

Examples:

If the video you wanted embed into your post was: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbgySMqRO1Y

• Key: youtube
• Value: vbgySMqRO1Y

If you wanted to embed anything into your post use the embed code the service provides:

• Key: any
• Value: <object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/3IN7yJWi … </embed></object>

Please note that the height and width will get replaced by a predefined amountsIf you wanted to embed your own hosted FLV video into your post use the direct url along with adding a image still before the video plays:

• Key: custom
• Value: http://<youraddress>/wp-content/videos/video.flv
• Key: start_image
• Value: http://<youraddress>/video-player.jpg

Please note that the video does not need to have any predefined directory, just a direct address.

Here is an example of what you must do with Meta Cafe videos:

Previews

Limitations

This theme was not made for blogging. If you do make a post and not add a video, there will just be a large gap where the video is suppose to go. Also, a posts content can’t be too much otherwise it might out grow the length of the video block. Sorry about that. Also .MOV file formats are maticulously difficult to embed onto the web. I still have to find a way of doing this.

This theme was sponsored by Videos.Blueworld.co.za.

I did and i could not be happier that i did. But in the same breath I’d just like to talk about the issues I had. Upgrading to Wordpress 2.3.3 was fairly easy… same version so no surprise. But with Wordpress 2.5 there was a snag or two.

Firstly:

The Wordpress Image Uploader Issue has been very troublesome for certain individuals. Mine did not work but a quick fix, all be it somewhat advance one, sorted that out. Others, were not so lucky.

Secondly:

My Theme Downloads seized to work. I have been using the WP-Download Manger and it forms a huge part of my blogs life line to the Wordpress Community. There was no “Upgrade Automatically” nor an Upgrade announcement. The sweat started forming.

Thank the lord Google came to my rescue and it tracked down all of Gamerz updated plugins for WP 2.5. Here you can find a list of Gamerz’s Wordpress Plugin Updates. There are a list of several popular plugins, so please have a look.

Upgrading is still the way to go… even in the face of uncertainty. Best of luck to you all. Please keep a lookout for Wordpress 2.5.1

So why would they change it? The new unloader boast with a uploader progress bar, more image resizing settings, multiple file upload (!) and it all comes together and forms a Gallery feature. I have not explored it in depth but it should be pretty cool if you have a need for it. It also supports audio and video. Now that a whole lot of eggs in one basket!

Unfortunately due to the early release of Wordpress 2.5 there is major issues with the uploader. I personally got a error “An error occurred in the upload. Please try again later” and for friends it just plain did not want to work with the all fixes installed. Here is a quick “How to Fix my Wordpress 2.5 Image uploader” list summerized.

• If you have no time to waist, this plugin will we be for you. No-Flash-Uploader

Now actually try solve the problem:

• Re-upload you files for WP 2.5 ( Very common issue)
• mod_security might be causing problems. Just add this to your .htaccess file in the root of your site and reupload it. This Fixed the uploader for me!
  

  <IfModule mod_security.c>
SecFilterEngine Off
SecFilterScanPOST Off
</IfModule>

  That will disable it for the entire wp-admin directory. It’s possible to be more specific about it, this is just a quick and easy test to see if mod_security is causing your issues.

• Exception to #1: Call to undefined function: ctype_digit(). Download and upload this file: link-template.php

• Clear your browser cache, restart your browser twice. Also clear /wp-content/uploads/js_cache directory on your site.

• Update your Flash version (Esp. Linux)

• IE has specific known issues. Download these two files, replace them in your WordPress installation: IE-Fix

• No buttons? Plugin with Javascript and/or jQuery can cause the issue. Disable your plugins and see if the buttons appear. Upgrade you plugins and try seek out the one causing the error.

• The highly popular Bad Behavior plugin breaks the uploader. Upgrade it to 2.0.14: http://www.bad-behavior.ioerror.us/2008/04/07/bad-behavior-2014/

If none of the above worked for you then there are some furthur reading:

• http://wordpress.org/tags/upload
• http://wordpress.org/support/topic/164999 (source of this post)

Matt: A customizable dashboard, multi-file upload, built-in galleries, one-click plugin upgrades, tag management, built-in Gravatars, full text feeds, and faster load times sound interesting to you? Continue Reading…