With the imminent release of WordPress 2.2.1 just around the corner in a few days time, I think I should post a writeup of the current issues revolving around WordPress 2.2. It would be good to draw a comparison between the main version and the soon-to-be-released subversion, and see if it has any significant changes.
Although the “mandatory upgrade” of WordPress 2.2 has been out for some time now, it seems many people are still quite unhappy with it. To list a just a few issues with WordPress 2.2 that I know of:
- No more post preview. I miss that.
- Some favorite plugins like Ultimate Tag Warrior don’t seem to work anymore.
- Inbuilt SideBar Widgets ability has a downside to it. Some themes do not work well with this new feature.
- Much more resource intensive than prior versions. Careful with those plugins…
- Same buggy wysiwyg editor as before.
If you used Fantastico to install a fresh blog, [Edit] – [Not limited to Fantastico installations only] I have tested again, and found that on installations of WordPress 2.1.3 upwards, you may encounter some problems immediately upon installation:
- The user may find himself/herself not being able to access the dashboard area. Upon logging in, the user will be instead be presented with the front end of the blog, rather than the dashboard area.
- Not being able to edit or delete any posts.
These “bugs” can be corrected by going to the Options page in the Dashboard (Options > General Options) and adding a www prefix to the blog and site URL. The problems are due to added security enhancements in WordPress 2.1.3 upwards; which of course includes WordPress 2.2. They recognize different URLs and are supposed to hamper unauthorized usage, but in reality, are pretty confusing to the newbie.
[Added] – Should you still encounter these problems and cannot find your admin area at all (many themes don’t have the WordPress admin dashboard link), don’t panic. It is likely your htaccess file havent been “mod-rewrote” yet. Try adding this code before the “# BEGIN WordPress” line on your htaccess file.
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.your-domain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.your-domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
Adding this code into your htaccess file and changing Blog URL and Site URL in your WordPress Admin Options will streamline your entire blog to a prefixed www format. What about a non www format? Use this code instead then:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.your-domain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://your-domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]
Those aside, hopefully with WordPress 2.2.1, we’ll all have some of the nagging issues addressed. Although updates are by themselves good, I personally don’t think it’s a bright idea to keep releasing so many WordPress versions every few months. A lot of plugins and some themes just cannot keep up with the rapid changes. Why release a new version when prior and existing issues are not fully addressed?
I personally do not upgrade at first light, for every new version that comes out. It’s better to wait for the subversions. A useful page to refer to, for plugin compatibility checking, is this page at the WordPress site.
I think Lorelle has written a thorough write up for those who were updating their current WordPress installations to version 2.2. And for those who waited, I’m hoping the wait is worth it.