This release features a lightning fast redesigned linking workflow which makes it easy to link to your existing posts and pages, an admin bar so you’re never more than a click away from your most-used dashboard pages, a streamlined writing interface that hides many of the seldom-used panels by default to create a simpler and less intimidating writing experience for new bloggers (visit Screen Options in the top right to get old panels back), and a refreshed blue admin scheme available for selection under your personal options.
There’s a bucket of candy for developers as well, including our new Post Formats support which makes it easy for themes to create portable tumblelogs with different styling for different types of posts, new CMS capabilities like archive pages for custom content types, a new Network Admin, an overhaul of the import and export system, and the ability to perform advanced taxonomy and custom fields queries.
With the 3.1 release, WordPress is more of a CMS than ever before. The only limit to what you can build is your imagination.
(No video yet for 3.1, we’re going to add it later.)
By the Numbers
There were over two thousand commits to the codebase in the 3.1 cycle! For a more comprehensive look at everything that has improved in 3.1, check out 3.1’s Codex page or the more than 820 closed issues in Trac.
Now is the time to drop by our development channels if you are interested in being involved with 3.2, as the agenda will be under discussion shortly. We’re hoping to get the 3.2 release out in a shorter development cycle (3.1 took too long) and include some fun improvements around plugins and the speed of the admin. (Don’t worry, we’re still planning on using PHP.)
We’re All in This Together
WordPress is the result of the combined effort of people from all over the world united with a common goal: to make the best darn web software for publishing your story on the web and sharing it with the world. Here is a list of the more than 180 people who helped out with development during the 3.1 cycle:
As JavaScript-HTML5 development is getting more popular and browsers supporting new features are being utilized by more users everyday, -as expected- many new games are being developed with JavaScript.
JavaScript-powered games are not only easier-to-develop for web developers but they are also the only cross-platform ones including desktop, web and mobile.
A 2D game library powered by HTML5 which supports canvas and ordinary DOM based sprites through the same API.
It has a satisfactory sprite constructor for a higher abstraction for the characters.
Jaws makes handling keystrokes easier, providing string-identifiers for each key and anywhere in the code, you can instantly check if a key is pressed down.
GMP is a JavaScript game engine that fits good to creating sprite-based, 2-D games and it can easily power most retro-style arcade game designs or puzzles like Sudoku.
It has a ready-to-go, self-booting game loop. Mouse and keyboard inputs can be used easily.
The engine is well-documented and the major fallback can be the lack of integrated sound support.
It is a set of libraries, tools and presets to create pixelated indie-style 8/16-bit era games in Javascript using HTML5 canvas tag and some standard hooks.
The modules provided include:
Gamebox: helps with collisions, rendering + moving objects, keyboard, double buffering and FSE.
Gamecycle: features like intro, menus, crossfading between stages/lifes, gameover and ending.
Toys: lots of common routines like jumping characters, bullets, etc.
This is a lightweight and modular JavaScript game engine which consists of many components like animation, event management, redraw regions, collision detection, sprites and more.
The official and full HTML specification, besides the information a web developer usually needs, has many other details that only browser vendors need to know.
WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) has a filtered HTML5 version which focuses on readability and ease of access.
It has find-as-you-type search, offline access, very nice typography, technical references pulled inline, and alternate styles for handheld devices or low resolution displays.
MooTools SlideShow is a flexible class for the popular JavaScript framework for managing transitions of elements that share the same space like slideshows, tabs or galleries.
It comes with 19 out-of-the box transitions and 12 CSS3-powered transitions which can be used for modern browsers.
The class can autoplay items, display them in the reverse order or can be triggered to load the previous, next and any specific item.
There are also multiple callbacks provided including onPlay, onPause, onShowComplete and onShow.
IconDemon, a website focused on creating and offering eye-catching + exclusive icons, is giving away 5 annual memberships (3*$19 memberships and 2*$99 memberships) to WRD readers.
Joining the giveaway is very easy and details can be found below. Before that:
What is IconDemon?
IconDemon is designing and presenting 5300+ high-quality stock icons where it is possible to find items for any taste.
The icons are presented with 20 categories (like business, system or line icons) and 10 design styles (like 3d, pixel or vista icons) that help finding the right ones quickly.
All these web Icons are available in .PNG format with multiple sizes (64×64px, 80×80px, 100×100px and 128×128px).
There are 2 membership types offered:
Unlimited – any number of icons can be downloaded (priced $99/year)
Limited – 500 items can be downloaded (priced $19/year)
where both can be a good fit/deal according how frequently you use icons.
How to join the giveaway?
It is so easy. Just leave a comment to this post mentioning "how you would like to apply the icons in your websites or applications".
Winners will be selected from commenters randomly with the query below (first 2 results gets the unlimited licenses and the other 3 is getting the limited licenses) and announced 1 week later (28 Feb 2011):
SELECT * FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_post_id=2100 AND comment_approved=1 AND comment_type='' GROUP BY comment_author_email ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 5
JsHint is a free, open source and community-driven tool for finding errors and potential problems in JavaScript code.
With the flexibility offered, it can be easily adjusted to fit your particular coding guidelines and the environment you expect your code to execute in.
It accepts several options like "allowing debugger statements", "tolerate eval" and more.
Also, you can let JSHint know when your code is running in a specific environment (including browser, ES5, Node.js, Rhino) which will help recognize specific pre-defined global variables.
P.S. The project is actually a fork of the popular JSLint developed by Douglas Crockford (JSON founder) but follows a different principle on controlling the code and developed/improve by the community.
It has a nice slide effect that works in all modern browsers -which also degrades gracefully when needed- using the CSS3 transition property and transform property's translateX function.
Every page gets its own URL using hashtags for direct links and history is not broken.
There is no tutorial provided, however, the source of the slideshow is very clean and has only few rules to follow.
Tip: Don't forget to check the meta tag with name="viewport" used for mobile browsers.
The application now has a very slick, Ajaxed interface where any number of projects>milestones>issues can be created + assigned to users.
Besides the team members, end users can report issues as well which is a very good way of improving an application (access control features lets you define who can see what parts of the project).
A complete project hierarchy is supported including editions, releases and components.
There is an integrated wiki where you can use to create a detailed-documentation on an issue or a how-to for end users.
The Bug Genie supports and integrates with several different version control systems including Subversion, Git (Gitorious and github) and Mercurial.
The application will automatically create updated file lists, issue commit comments, links to diffs and previous revisions and more from your commits.
It is also very flexible with customizable workflows, ability to extend easily with modules, multilanguage support and more.
Wink Toolkit is a JavaScript framework for creating mobile web applications with less-hassle.
It comes in multiple parts where the "core" (which includes HTTP requests utilities, event management system or DOM extensions) is a must to use and every other feature is optional.
Such a structure helps keeping the filesize minimum which is pretty important when it is mobile.
The UI widgets of the framework is very rich and consists of 3D wall, accordion, sliding panels, flip page, coverflow, progress bar and much more.
There are also libraries for a slick user experience with drag 'n' drop, gesture recognizer or browser history.
Wink Toolkit is a project of Dojo Foundation and also expected to be a part of the Dojo Mobile.
