WordPress has announced it is making the next release of its popular content management system, version 3.9, available for beta testing, with the update set to include a host of new features.
Among the new features, WordPress is promising an upgrade to the Tiny MCE editor, making it possible to copy and paste text directly from Word with clean markup code. Meanwhile, the “Paste from Word” button will be removed.
The new version will also allow users to upload images by dragging and dropping them directly on to the editor, although WordPress warns this feature can still be “a bit finicky”.
Image galleries will now also receive a live preview in the editor, image editing within WordPress has been improved, and the new version adds audio or video playlist functionality.
For plugin developers, WordPress says a number of core pieces of functionality have been upgraded and should be tested against any plugins.
These changes include the load process in multisite, use of the MySQL Improved database extension, a major update to TinyMCE, a refactoring of autosave and several key libraries.
In a statement, WordPress lead developer Andrew Nacin encourages users to set up staging sites or test servers to test the latest software, but does not recommend using it on production sites.
“If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on the WordPress Trac. There, you can also find a list of known bugs and everything we’ve fixed so far.
“This software is still in development, so we don’t recommend you run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site just to play with the new version. To test WordPress 3.9, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”).”
Any users who discover any errors during the beta testing program are being advised to report them in the alpha/beta section of the WordPress support forums.
Meanwhile, Twitter has announced improved integration between WordPress and Twitter through a feature called OAuth integration.
“WordPress.com and WordPress self-hosted sites running the Jetpack plugin make it easy to share blog content on Twitter.
“With the OAuth integration, the user’s blog and Twitter account are now connected. Moreover, as each new post is published, a corresponding Tweet is automatically posted, making sharing content on Twitter a seamless part of a blogger’s everyday workflow.”
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