There’s typically a ton of hype surrounding new WordPress releases, and WordPress 3.0 certainly won’t be short of people singing its praises. This upcoming release might even have more hype than usual because the sheer number of new features will be overwhelming.
When WordPress 3.0 is released, it’ll mark the release of several things I’ve been waiting for in the last couple of years. It’ll be at a point where it can be molded to create any type of website.
If I were to dub this release anything it’d be WordPress: Custom.
What makes this release special
I consider myself an ideas person. I can sit for hours just playing around with WordPress and trying to make it do different things for fun. There are some things I’ve wished I could do for a long time just with my blog here, but the system hadn’t quite reached that point.
Not that some of those things were impossible. They simply weren’t worth the time and effort.
WordPress 3.0 removes a barrier that’s been in place for a long time: the ability to create our sites on our own terms. No longer will you be bound to terms like “post” and “page” or “tag” and “category.” You’ll be able to simply create a site and call things what you want.
Custom post types and extra functionality added to custom taxonomies will see to that. I only hope that this puts an end to that dreadful phrase — “WordPress as a CMS.”
WordPress 3.0 features
Custom post types and taxonomies aren’t the only thing to be excited about. WordPress 3.0 will offer a slew of new features for both developers and end users.
As usual, I’m lining up some tutorials for the next release. But, I’m going to let you pick which tutorials you’re most interested in this time around (you can probably tell what I’m most excited about). Below is a list of features that I’m interested in and would be willing to write about.
- Custom post types
These allow you to create any post/content type you like, set with permalinks, admin pages, and all the works. You can go as simple as what I’m planning for my home page or as complex as something like a bug and issue tracker. - Custom taxonomies
I’ve previously written on custom taxonomies, but there’s a ton of new features coming along like hierarchical taxonomies and taxonomies for any post type. - Custom post statuses
By default, we have a few different statuses we can set our posts to. In 3.0, we can create new post statuses to use within our projects. Right now, this probably still needs some more work. - Navigation menus
The day will finally come when you no longer have to climb mountains to get the navigation you want. You’ll have a simple click, drag, and drop interface to create custom menus. - Editor stylesheets
Themes will be able to package a stylesheet for the post editor that matches the look and feel of their theme content areas. - Shortlinks
Don’t like posting long URLs on site’s like Twitter? A new shortlink function (that can be enhanced by plugins) will be packaged in. - Custom headers and backgrounds
Custom headers have been around for a while, but the feature is getting an upgrade. And, the ability for theme devs to allow users to have a custom background will be included. - Standardized comment form
One of the things that’s always bugged me is that it has been hard for plugin authors to add extra functionality to a theme’s comment form. This feature will open several doors for cool plugins. - Login form
You won’t have to use a hacked up login form of your own anymore. WordPress will have a function for outputting this and allow your users to log in easily. And, I can think of a few things that could make this valuable for plugin authors. - User meta functions
Like our post meta functions, we’ll be getting a equal set of easy-to-use user meta functions that allow us to update user metadata. get_generic_template()function
This will allow you to properly load special templates outside of the WordPress templating system.home_url()andsite_url()
Two new, much-needed functions for appropriately displaying the URL of pages.
No, I haven’t listed all the features coming, just the ones I’m most interested in. I’ll leave things like the WordPress and WPMU merge for people more knowledgeable about MU.
So, take your pick. What are you the most interested in learning about?
I also hope this provides some of you a chance to get some of your questions in, so I’ll know to cover them in the tutorials.
Where can I find out more about this “bug and issue tracker” you talke about?
Hi Justin and Jason,
I’ll just add my question: The “bug and issue tracker” really looks like an overwhelming awesome example for using the new features!
)
Basically you can have everything of the new features combined in there: Post Types for issues, post statuses for “closed”, “invalid”, etc. Taxonomies for “has-patch”, etc. (with finer control than just with tags), Categories for Components.
That would really be an awesome example of all those features combined, so I have the same question: Where can we find more on this? (Or if we can’t: Please use this for your tutorial!
Thanks!
Best wishes,
Tobias
Hi Justin,
I’ve been using today’s nightly build all day (Aussie time) and I’ve made two themes compatible with the new Menus feature.
I didn’t have much luck finding out the finer points (or even the not-so-fine points) of how the new Menus work via Google.
For instance, I got this error message:
“The current theme does not support menus.”
Googling that message turned up pretty much zilch.
But I worked out how to make a theme actually support menus, on my lonesome (quite a feat since I’m not a fantastic coder, but I’m learning).
I wrote a post on how I got it working here:
http://webdesignwatchdog.com/making-themes-ready-wordpress-30-menus/
I documented it in case it can help other people who want to get their themes ready for WordPress 3.0, whether it’s site owners who just want to fix their own themes or for Theme Developers who need to update their themes.
Hi Justin,
Regular reader of your blog and always look forward to you posting.
I would like even more information on Custom taxonomies. Have read all of your previous posts but still would like even more.
Love your work.
Ray
I didn’t know about the new login forms. I will have a deeper look into that, that could be interesting!
Not that the rest is not interesting of course!
I’ve been messing with Custom posttypes but I just can’t seem to get it right which is annoying given how simple it looks. I ended up doing it manually.
Please write about the Custom Taxonomies and Custom Status Types combined with a workflow notification component. Explain how it all comes together as in the case of the Issue Tracker.
Also, roles + capabilities (permissions) will be a critical element of such a system. A status of “new” is for a particular role where a status of “in work” allows multiple roles to get access.
Another way to think about these new capabilities is in the sense of a “catalog system”. Now we can finally build our own iTunes, keep track of our playing cards, maintain a ‘database’ of parts and equipment, etc. You did this with movie part of PopCritics — it is very nice! What improvements can you make now that WP 3.0 is almost here?
The developers are writing fantastic plugins to handle taxonomies on the admin side of the screen. There are at least 3-4 promising plugins that helps us to create taxonomies and post-types. Another tutorial would show how to use those plugins to ease the admin chore of managing taxonomies. I can help on this topic.
In summary, we need tutorials on building custom catalogs that allow multiple roles to manage their parts within a workflow process.
You have a marvelous teaching style, I enjoy learning from you. Let me know how I can help — seriously!
I’m also excited about these changes. Lots of plugins and hacks will become obsolete, but it will be easier for developers to cater for the clients needs, in terms of custom post types for example.
the new menus are awesome for users, it will take a lot of work of the dev’s hands.
Also great is the multi-site feature, and I think there will be an increase in requests for multi site installations with separate domains which will make managing multiple sites easier.
Justin, please write as much as possible about ALL those subjects
Wordpress 3.0 is really something that is worth looking forward to. And I agree that with these new wordpress release, tutorials are really needed! So, I will be one of those who will also be looking forward to your tutorials.
I’ll add my “ditto” on the bug and issue tracker thingie… if I could handle that task from within WP, it’d make life much easier. So, details, please!
Custom post types, Navigation menus and of course the bug tracker.
I’m really interested in custom post types and how to get those working and displaying correctly. It would also be great to know how custom fields could be used in the custom post type sections. Taxonomies for any post type also sounds interesting.
Some interesting additions, cant wait for the release
The Custom post types and shortlinks sounds the most intriguing to me..
Hi Justin,
How much of an effect will it have on the Hybrid theme – will it require a major update?
Custom Post Types gets my vote, the menu system is extremely welcome, but this is the real game changer for me. Playing with the nightly but not getting it quite right – having a tutorial to look forward to would ease some of the frustration!
Overnight 3.0 is going to take WP up a level, it’s like we asked, they listened, and we’re about to get all the things to kill off that ‘WordPress as a CMS’ thing
The custom post type is the most interesting part for me. In the past i worked a lot with Drupal and CCK fields (Content Construction Kit), which allowed you to add custom fields to custom content types using a web interface.
Definitely looking forward to these features.
As most commenters, I’m also interested in the custom post types, taxonomies and all other features that allow for a more creative and feature rich site.
I’d like to see an implementation of a custom post type such as “Events” with fields like event date, duration, venue location etc. and also how one would use the event date to sort the taxonomy-category-events page by event date instead of post date. Essentially, how would one implement a custom sort filter by additional custom post fields?
Custom taxonomies and Custom post types are the things i am interested in and excited too
@Robert :
You already can sort by custom fields using the template tag “query_posts”.
query_posts(‘&orderby=meta_value&meta_key=MYCUSTOMFIELD’);
This function gets all posts, pages, attachments that have the custom field MYCUSTOMFIELD and order by this field.
More details : http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/query_posts#Orderby_Parameters
Thanks Nico. I was just looking through the wp_query options around this so it’s not a biggie really as you pointed out. Still, it would be cool for everyone’s benefit to have a tutorial around all this.
On another topic, I just discovered a really cool feature in WordPress (not specific to WP3.0). It’s the add_image_size() function allowing you to add your own image sizes that the Media editor then uses to create thumbs. So you can add some extra image sizes for your post thumbs that may appear in different areas like a larger feature in a carousel ant then a post thumb. You can force a certain post-thumbnail size by calling set_post_thumbnail_size() – pass true in the 3rd parameter to get WP to crop your image to that size – fantastic! No need for Tim Thumb or third party image plugins…
I’m looking forward to 3.0 as well, as long as the wonderful team at WordPress get around to fixing the admin panel bugs introduced in the last upgrade
Scheduling a post used to be such a breeze, now I have to struggle to do it.
Looking forward to WP 3.0, Drupal 7 and Joomla 1.6 all at once – there’s a great deal happening in the world of Open Source CMS this year!
Thanks for the updates on WP 3.0. This sounds extremely exciting. Where can I find out more about the new features and the expected release date?
Great heads-up article, keeping us informed.
The topics listed that I’d most be interested in learning first are:
Editor stylesheets
Custom post types
`home_url()` and `site_url()`
I’m assuming ‘Navigation menus’ will be the mega hot topic on mega blogs, so I’d like to hear more about what’s getting less attention, (but no less important).
The CMS Press plugin: http://vocecommunications.com/services/web-development/wordpress/plugins/cms-press/ seems to be a great bridge between WP 2.9 and 3.0. In a nutshell, it does all the UI heavy lifting for custom post types.
I’ve had it installed on a few themes, but I don’t know enough about calling and querying new custom post types yet to really get it working well.
I recommend all the other impatient WordPress developers out there check it out and let us know if it performs as advertised. Thanks!
I’m also looking forward 3.0. I’d like to see more info about the following:
Editor stylesheets
Custom post types
Navigation Menu
However, I’m running the latest nightly build right now and I would say that I noticed a slight performance penalty. I don’t know if it has anything to do with my rig but I think it’s a bit slower. Will have to run additional checks.
BUT Ive just gotten used to using 2.0 D:. Oh well, if wordpress makes it even better, Ill be happy!
I’m just worried about the updates. I mean I have quiet a few plug-ins installed and it is hard to track them all. Even small version upgrades affect plugins, I wonder how would that work with 3.0…
This sounds extremely exciting. Some interesting additions, cant wait for the release.
I’d like to see more info about the following:
Custom post types
Custom taxonomies
Custom post statuses
Navigation menus
Editor stylesheets
Thanks
One thing I’m particularly curious about: if custom taxonomies will allow for more than just title/slug/description fields. For example, if you had a “Movies” taxonomy, and in addition to “description” you wanted to create “cast,” “release date” fields, etc. — could you? I love your previous tutorial on custom taxonomies; it really opened the door on some ideas for my own sites.
Beyond that, I’m particular interested in custom post types, as I’m assuming most people are. I’ve tried using the “More Fields” Plugin but I just don’t trust an occasionally-updated Plugin to handle such important functionality. Having this in the core will, if you’ll excuse the cliche, really take WordPress to the next level.
Also, I’d like to hear your thoughts on how all these new features affect theme developers specifically. Instead of themes just being labeled “blog” or “magazine-style”, I imagine we could now get entire subcultures building themes for gaming sites, themes for tech blogs, themes for literary sites, etc. A gaming theme could include built-in taxonomies for games, platforms, etc, and built-in post types for reviews, walkthroughs, etc.
Very exciting to consider the possibilities.
Hi,
May I know how to add_filter to the_posts in WordPress 3.0 Alpha?
currently I am using add_filter(‘the_posts’,array(&$this,’detectPost’));
in a plugin.
But it had stopped working due to the introduction of
$this->posts = apply_filters_ref_array(‘the_posts’, array( $this->posts, &$this ) );
in query.php
Please help.
Thanks.
Denzel
This new version is wonderful. No need more plugins:)
I would like to see a continuation of your tutorial on the movies project.
One part I could never figure out was how to assign an image and description to a taxonomy. So say I add an actor, I would like to assign a picture and description of the actor.
Then when I add a new movie, and choose the actor from the actors taxonomy, I would like the image and description of the actor to show up on the movie page instead of just the actors name.
To date, I have found no tutorial even vaguely related to this.
I’ve been looking for the same thing, and I keep seeing you everywhere! Please let me know if you figure anything out. I think its only a matter of updates before the thumbnails will be included in a custom post type.
I will waiting the NEXT BIG THING from WordPress team.. WP 3.0 hupla
I am looking forward to the WordPress 3.0 release and updated features! Look forward to learning more about the Editor stylesheets, Navigation Menus and Custom headers and backgrounds menus.
Great post – I love wordpress and love how they are constantly upgrading it. The last upgrade I had some problems with my theme and the plugins i was using
I am looking forward to Wordpress 3.0 too. I am currently running a b2evolution blog and I want to convert it over to Wordpress 3 once it is out. Wordpress offers so much more plugins and templates than B2evo that I need to switch over soon…
i like “Custom post types”, very much.
I’ve been waiting for 3 a long time….really curious what it is like.
I am not a developer and still learning the intricacies of Wordpress (not a newb, but not an expert either) and I just want to say that I really appreciate all of the people who create great themes and plug-ins for people like me, and there are a lot of us.
Custom taxonomies and Custom post types would be great
Same here bro. I have wordpress 3 would have some big change than previous versions….
we can hope so…
I would like to know how custom post types can be combined with custom taxonomies.
For example, in a movies database project, a movie can be a post type with actors and directors as taxonomies. But, at the same time, an actor can be a post type with all the bio and details. Even, an acator can have other taxonomies like country.
So, how can actors behave both as taxonomy and post type?
Hi Justin,
As we all know Wordpress 3.0 is all set release on May 1st 2010 with lots of breathtaking improvements and exciting new features which will surely bring this platform one step ahead. Wordpress 3.0 Features Walk Through from WPCookies can give you some ideas. What we can do over here:-
1.We Can choose Choose Username and Password while Installing.
2.Wordpress 3 has been packaged with a new theme called ‘Twenty Ten’. This new theme is really outstanding and minimalist at the same time.
3.Wordpress 3 allows you to create different menu items containing Categories, Pages, External or Internal Link.
There are many other new features like these. But these are i found most interesting.
Excellent features in WP 3.0.. I needed them…
Looking forward for the release..
Found your blog interesting.. Started Following..
Great work!
I really liked. I wish you good work
Wow, I didn’t even know it was on the way. I only recently launched my first WordPress blog and haven’t looked back. It is an incredible tool with some great features and 3.0 looks even better. Can’t wait to get my hands on it. Thanks for sharing!
I`d like to see some articles and tutorials on how to use custom post types, focusing on both the backend with custom write panels for a post type, and how to use templates to show the content in the custom content types on the front end.
John Myrstad
Something I’d like to see is simple. I want to be able to highlight something in the editor and have it stay highlighted or at least have the cursor be in that spot when I click on the html tab. Its annoying to have to search for my spot again when switching between the two views!
Great, i was using “wordpress as a CMS”, but things didng go so well as with normal CMS…i hope things will get only better (usualy they get
greetings, nagradne igre
Almost all websites have a ‘look’ that is in part determined by the underlying software. It is great that the wordpress team are trying ot break this link. The more flexibility there is in any system, however, the harder it is to use. Will this be the same with wordpress 3.0?
This IS exciting. It’s nice to see that Wordpress is really flexing it’s creative muscles by allowing users to have more creative control over their content and how it is displayed.
Very interesting to know. With Wordpress 3.0 I probably can improve the layout and design of the news blog.
I’m most interested about the revamping of plugins so that they don’t break anymore. That seems to have slightly diapered though.
My vote for your next great WordPress tutorial goes to 1) custom post type 2) more on custom taxonomies
me too, can’t wait for it..
Oh look, I could get really excited about the possibilities of wordpress being able to do even more than is humanly possible, however, they really need to make it easier to press the upgrade button in my opinion. I have seen so many do that and lose their data that I am too scared to even try to upgrade. Until then I am going to have to read one incredibly long journal to work out how to do it without crashing my site or remain unexcited about all these great new features that are just out of my reach…
i agree I can’t wait for 3.0 it looks like it will be awesome
wordpress 3.0 must be userfirendly than the existing one. hope wordpress also wont increase it’s price as it upgrades. looking forward to try the new one.
I’d like to know if it’s possible to use the same custom taxonomy in different custom post types.
Example :
Custom post types : News and Photos
Custom Taxonomy : Actors
I do not want to make 2 different taxonomies for 2 different custom post types. Is this possible to use the same ?
Custom taxonomies, User meta functions, get_generic_template() function
Very cool. I didn’t know there was a new version to be released. This is going to be great for WP lovers.
I stumbled upon your site while researching more on WP. Looks like I’ve someone who is very knowledgeable.
Mike.
What should I do to show blog custom post types from users on my network (MU)?
Whoa, I never quite realized what custom taxonomies were until now. That is awesome. Also really excited for post types and post statuses.
I am really excited for the WPMU integration.
Custom Post Types is the thing I’m most interested in although the multisite feature is getting my attation too and so do most other things in wp3.
Anyway, what I would want to accomplish is a list of custom posts with a detail page each for mobile phones. Of course the detail page should have an image which is automatically scaled (and maybe the lis view should have a thumbnail)
Also it should be possible to search through certain (or all) attributes to find all mobile phones (or whatever) with certain criteria.
And finally I would love to allow for a batch upload from an excel file….
So, if you or anyone else want’s to write on this (or work on it) that would be great…
Custom taxonomies and Custom post types tutorials would be great
Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Wordpress 3.0 looks pretty cool but it sounds like there will be a learning curve to it as well. Considering I have several sites on wordpress I hope the update goes well and isn’t a big hassle.
I see that a beta test for 3.0 has been released but don’t see when the finished product will be released?
this is great post on “Looking forward to WordPress 3.0″ wordpress 3.0 will be more advance with the php scripts and securities… thanks for sharing Justin Tadlock
Any news on the Custom Post Status mentioned above? I’m using wp3.0b2 and haven’t seen anything about it. I’ve been trying to use a plugin called Edit Flow, but it’s not quite there, and it looks like development may have stopped.
I hope this will be a major improvement. My site has been down quite often lately, and my hosting company assures me that it’s not a problem on their end. I know I’m not the only one this is happening to as I’ve seen other people expressing their frustration in several forums. I’m still trying to learn the basics of WordPress, and it can be a little frustrating at times!
Now we can finally build our own iTunes, keep track of our playing cards, maintain a ‘database’ of parts and equipment, etc. You did this with movie part of PopCritics it is very nice!
I am looking forward for the new release. However, my coder tells me that I need to wait for him to upgrade and make my custom theme compatible. There is a bunch of stuff that could break my theme, so I will have to wait a bit for this upgrade.
There should be absolutely nothing that would break your theme in the new release. You just might not be able to use some new features.
hello, justin
i cant wait till thi s is released but i have a similar problem like sponky johns
what are the possible features that may not apply to us?
i’m slightly concerned at the WYSIWYG/R editor for 3.0 RC3 release, i enter a shortcode like the following (removing spaces from bracket usage for illust. purposes only):
[ scode att1='abc' ] my scode content [ /scode ]
(again, the spaces after the ['s and ]‘s are for illustration emphasis…)
the shortcodes, work perfectly… HOWEVER -
for some reason after saving, and when i get back into the editor… (after the page reloads…) the ['s and ]‘s are ‘gone!’ and all that remains are the resultant…
my scode content
as per my scode function call… which is all great… but literally, the brackets are gone – period… and if I re-update the post at that point, i’m left with an even more scarey thing… since the brackets aren’t there in the visual/html portion of the editor for the post … it resaves/updates the post…
WITHOUT the [ scode.... ] stuff… and thus it’s just plain viewable content in the post when viewed, and thus (obviously) not even in the post…
i normally wouldn’t bug you WP brains … but trying to make sure our plugins will continue to work and this is giving me little confidence.
Please reassure me that I’m missing something… thanks.
Wordpress 3.0 works perfectly, but I am still missing the way to save different sets of plugins and only having to turn on or off the set, I am missing the ability to quick select the categories, just start typing the name of the category and this is filter for easier selection, I am missing a better image resizing or editing, anyway, I love wordpress.
First, I see that get_generic_template has been renamed for WP3 as get_template_part. Same function, different name.
Question: To create a overlay-with-pictures menu system — similar to the third tier of the demo at http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menus/vertical-list.html — would that be best done by get_template_part, tied into the new menu system? Is there a better way? Maybe as separate posts with their own template?
Image editing seems to be much better in Firefox than in IE.
Tony
Personally my favroute new features on WP 3.0 if the ease of organisation to help toward SEO purposes
I absolutely love Wordpress and use it on all of my sites. The freedom that 3.0 has provided has enabled me to make my sites even more user friendly and dynamic. However, with this new freedom, comes new difficulties. I have yet to wrap my head around all the changes and I find myself reading the help pages quite often.
So now its been around for a while, how have people found it? Are there any things that you would change in it? Personally I’ve found it to be pretty good but then I’m a bit of a newbie with it to be honest.
Do aspirin masks work? I have issues with acne, as well as lot of people have said aspirin masks are the way to go. The only factor is, I’m not sure I can get aspirin in Australia, so is any regular pain tablet (like Panadol) a good substitute? Or does it Must be aspirin?