WordPress 3.0 Roundup

UPDATE 17 June 2010 : WordPress 3.0 has been released! Read more about it.

This all started when @AndyCrofford asked us the question:

So obviously, the first thing I did was a Google search. And this gave me some results, but I was not satisfied. So I started to dig deeper and this post was born. What I wanted to do was round up all the available (and good) info I could find on WordPress 3.0 and how to start using it, into 1 single place.

Firstly, What Does WordPress 3.0 Have To Offer?

There are many, many great posts on this subject, and I do not want to duplicate what is out there:

• http://codex.wordpress.org/Version_3.0#Highlights
  From the horses mouth of what to expect in version 3.0

• WordPress 3.0: Ultimate Guide to New Features – Saad Bassi (@ Six Revisions)
  A nice summary of features that can be expected

• 10 Features to Look Forward to in WordPress 3.0 – Rohan Mehta (@ Net Tuts)
  10 new features with excellent explanations and images

• Template Changes/Tags for WordPress 3.0 – Navjot Singh (@ NSpeaks)
  12 new features summarized

Try the latest Release Candidate

UPDATE 12 June 2010 : Release candidate 3 is now out! – http://wordpress.org/wordpress-3.0-RC3.zip

UPDATE 9 June 2010 : Release candidate 2 is available for download – http://wordpress.org/wordpress-3.0-RC2.zip – thanks ngassmann

Download and try the latest release candidate which was blogged about on 28th May 2010. You can also upgrade an existing blog to the new release candidate before the official release by using the WordPress Beta Tester plugin. But as it states on the plugin page : Don’t forget to backup before your start!

Make Your Themes 3.0 Compatible

These posts should help all theme developers out there in making their themes take advantage of the new features:

• How To Make Your Theme WordPress 3.0 Compatible – Arun Basil Lal (@ Million Clues).
  One of the best tutorials out there that covers menu management, custom header image management, feed links, post thumbnails (not new in wp 3.0), custom backgrounds and more

• 8 Useful Code Snippets To Get Started With WordPress 3.0 – Cats Who Code
  Linked from the article above but worth a mention here too.

• Backwards Compatible WordPress 3.0 Functions – WPShout
  When upgrading your themes to 3.0, remember to keep them compatible with version 2.9! This post shows you how to do just that.

• add_theme_support() – a Function to Change the Future of WordPress Theme Development – Aaron Keenan (@ Juno Web Design)
  “One relatively new function that could be making a big difference to the future of WordPress theme development”

• The WordPress 3.0 functions.php File – Gilbert Pellegrom
  What your functions.php file should look like with all the version 3.0 features enabled

• Rock-Solid WordPress 3.0 Themes using Custom Post Types – Joe Casabona (@ Net Tuts)
  A cool article running through creating a custom post type, its associated custom taxonomies and then the theme template that is used to display the custom post type.

• WordPress 3.0 Features Every Theme Developer Should Know
  An awesome collection of info and links from w3avenue

• Themes and WordPress 3.0 some important changes
  “Some of these changes are about making themes easier to develop and some of them are about making it easier to support the override of parts of themes.”

Power Features

There are a few “power features” that just cannot be left out of a post entitled “WordPress 3.0 Roundup”, so here is a list of the features that you cannot ignore:

Custom Post Types (My favourite!)

“Post type refers to the various structured data that is maintained in the WordPress posts table. Custom post types allow users to easily create and manage such things as portfolios, projects, video libraries, podcasts, quotes, chats, and whatever a user or developer can imagine.” – WordPress.org Codex

• Showing custom post types on your home/blog page - Justin Tadlock
  A good post that shows how to add custom post types to your home page or in your feeds
• Custom post types in WordPress - Justin Tadlock
  One of the best tuts online on the topic. A must read!

• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-post-type-ui/
  A plugin that provides an easy to use UI to create custom post types without needing to touch code.

• Custom Post Types in WordPress 3.0 – Kovshenin
• Extending Custom Post Types in WordPress 3.0 - Kovshenin
  2 Nice tutorials on post types. The first being quite simple and the 2nd digging into more detail including how to query your new post types and adding meta boxes

Custom Taxonomies (Taxo-whats?)

“Taxonomy is the practice and science of classification. … A taxonomy is a particular classification arranged in a hierarchical structure.” - Wikipedia

Custom taxonomies are not a new feature in version 3.0, as they were introduced in version 2.8. What version 3.0 brings to the table is hierarchical custom taxonomies.

• Custom taxonomies in WordPress 2.8 – Justin Tadlock
  Related to 2.8, but is a good read nonetheless, to get you up to scratch with custom taxonomies

• Introducing WordPress 3 Custom Taxonomies – Paul Kaiser (@ NetTuts)
  Read this if you are unsure of what a taxonomy is. Hell, read this if you know what it is too! An excellent article with valid examples. After reading this post you will get it!

Multisite (Create a network of sites)

• http://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network
• http://codex.wordpress.org/Version_3.0#Multisite

• WordPress 3.0 Walkthrough: Getting Started with Multisite – Klint Finley (@ Weblog Tools Collection)
  A nice walkthrough on getting started with the multisite feature

• WordPress 3.0: Multisite Domain Mapping Tutorial – Otto On WordPress
  A walkthrough on how to map different domains to the different sites within your network

• How to Enable Multisite in WordPress 3.0 – WordPress Theming
  A video screencast of how to setup a network of sites

• A terminology nightmare: blogs, sites, networks, and the super admin – Andrew Nacin
  (for a laugh)

Menu Management

• Goodbye, headaches. Hello, menus! – Justin Adlock
  Another awesome tut from Justin Adlock on the new menu system. Again, this is a must read!

• Everything you wanted to know about WordPress 3.0 Menu Management – Templatic
  A great step-by-step article.

• Customizing the new WordPress 3.0 Custom Menus Adding Different Icons to Each Link – Ivor Padilla
  Note the update that talks about the Screen Options that let you see hidden options (http://drp.ly/14iT6Q)

• Using the WordPress 3.0 Menus Feature Part 1 – Paul Reilly
• Using the WordPress 3.0 Menus Feature Part 2 – Styling and Animating – Paul Reilly
  2 great articles on using the menu system, then implementing the menu in your site with custom styling and animations

When Will WordPress 3.0 Be Released?

I wish I knew, and I am sure most people (especially theme developers) want to know. It was first scheduled for release in May 2010, and now according to the codex, sometime in June. But let us try and make an educated guess. As of the time of writing this post, there are only 14 tickets open. An astounding 584 tickets (version 3.0 specific) have been closed! So… I would say in a matter of days! Well, let’s hope so. I predict it will be Monday, June 21 2010. What’s your prediction?