Monthly Archiv: October, 2009

Getting involved with the 2.9 beta testing

We have been hard at work now for a few months on the new features that will be coming in WordPress 2.9, and we are near the time when the first beta version will be available. We’ll need your help with beta testing the new features and ironing out any bugs.

There are a number of different ways in which you can get involved in the testing process, and each way is suited for each persons skill set and comfort level.  First of all, you can join the wp-testers mailing list to keep up to date with the testing progress and to discuss things with the other testers.  Secondly, you can head over to the Trac ticketing system and either create tickets for bugs you find or use some of the useful searches to look for patches that need testing or that need someone to try and reproduce the issue.

During the beta phase we are going to focus on stabilizing the new features and removing existing bugs which are well-understood and have easily testable solutions.  During this process we will not be adding any new enhancements so as to ensure that the focus is on making the 2.9 release as bug-free as possible.  We will also try and have a few special bug hunt days where one or more experienced WordPress developers will be available to help people track down issues and get patches committed to fix bugs.

To make is as easy as possible for you to get a beta testing install up and running we have put together a small WordPress plugin which makes it really easy to convert a test install of the latest release version of WordPress into a beta test install of the next up and coming release.  The plugin is called WordPress Beta Tester and is available to download from WordPress Extend or can be installed using the built-in plugin installer.  Please make sure you to only install this plugin on a test site. We do not recommend running beta versions on your normal, live sites in case anything goes wrong.  You can read more about the plugin in “Making it easy to be a WordPress Tester

We are aiming to release the first beta version of 2.9 around the end of October, after we have put the finishing touches on the new features. Then we switch to full on beta testing mode and your help and feedback will be very much appreciated.  During the beta test program will push out new builds for automated upgrades regularly. Once we feel that a suitable level of stability has been achieved we will move into the release candidate phase. We hope to be able to make the final release 2.9 build available in either late November or early December.

WhiteCrane

WhiteCrane not only allows you to update your sites pages but also allows you create and delete them with ease, and thanks to our custom built syntax parser any functions added are rendered in 100% valid xhtml. While the simplicity makes it ideal for personal websites it can also be used on a corporate or high risk level thanks to the use of simple yet effective authentication system.

Text to Timestamp

Package:
Text to Timestamp
Summary:
Convert English expressions into time values
Groups:
PHP 5, Text processing, Time and Date
Author:
Martin
Description:
This class can be used to convert English expressions into time values.

It can parse a given string with a relative time expression in English like "just a moment ago", "1 day ago" or "6 hours ago", into a time value.


dbclass_dre

Screen Shoot
Package:
dbclass_dre
Summary:
Backup and restore MySQL databases
Groups:
Compression, Databases, Systems administration
Author:
Hairul Azami
Description:
This class can be used to backup and restore MySQL databases.

It can connect to a given MySQL database server and generate SQL statements that can be used to recreate the database tables and its contents. The class can backup all tables or a given subset.

A separate auxiliary class can compress the backup data into a ZIP file.

The main class can also extract the ZIP archive and execute the SQL statements generated by a prior backup session.


UI Template

Package:
UI Template
Summary:
Compile HTML templates into PHP scripts
Groups:
PHP 5, Templates
Author:
deirathe
Description:
This package can be used to Compile HTML templates into PHP scripts.

It can parse an HTML template file to build a DOM like structure.

The code builder traverses the parsed template structure and generates a PHP script that is executed to process the template.

It supports custom tags that implement conditional sections, iterate over loops, include other template files, etc..

The compiled template scripts are stored in a cache directory to avoid recompilation overhead.


MySQL DB Connector

Package:
MySQL DB Connector
Summary:
Execute MySQL queries composed programmatically
Groups:
Databases, PHP 5
Author:
Tharange Priyankere
Description:
This class can be used to execute MySQL queries composed programmatically.

It can establish connections to a MySQL database server using the MySQLi extension.

The class can compose and execute SQL SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE queries from lists of parameters that define tables, fields, field values and condition clauses.


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