They have changed how contact methods in a user’s profile are handled. Now, thanks to Joost they are completely filterable. You can add and remove contact fields as you please, making your user info exactly what you want it to be. For example, if you don’t use Yahoo Messenger but you do use Twitter, you can simply do this:

function twitterNotYim( $contactmethods ) {
	// Add Twitter
	$contactmethods['twitter'] = 'Twitter';

	// Remove Yahoo IM
	unset($contactmethods['yim']);

	return $contactmethods;
}

add_filter('user_contactmethods','twitterNotYim');

They’ve also added PUT support to the WP_Http class. Ever since the class was added in 2.7, I’ve been enjoying the ease and reliability it offers for making HTTP requests. It’s finally fleshing out to be a full featured API, and I use it in everything from Twitter Widget Pro to my PayPal Framework.

Lastly, and the most exciting thing in my opinion, is the new JSON class. JSON, short for JavaScript Object Notation, is a lightweight computer data interchange format. It is a text-based, human-readable format for representing simple data structures and associative arrays (called objects). It has quickly become a standard for both AJAX calls as well as transferring data between sites. Popular sites like Twitter, Flickr, and del.icio.us all offer JSON versions of their APIs which allow for faster applications due to the reduced transfer. Twitter Widget Pro now uses this class (I packaged it with the plugin for those not using 2.9 yet).

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For WordPress 2.9, they’ve decided to raise the version of MySQL supported from 4.0 to 4.1.2! That may not seem like much to those of us out there using the latest versions of everything, since version 5.1 is out, 5.4 is in beta, and even 6.0 is under development (and because 4.1.2 was released in May of 2004). However, the big thing that sticks out to me is that 4.1 support subqueries and unicode. Unicode should help for people that are using WordPress in non-English languages, and subqueries should help to greatly simplify queries. Also in 4.1 MySQL added support for the ‘INSERT … ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE’ syntax which will insert a new row unless that would cause a duplicate primary or unique key, in which case it updates the existing row.

I’m looking forward to the next few versions of WordPress, which I predict will get considerably faster (and the codebase will probably lean out a little too) simply because of the additional MySQL functionality. Just remember that there’s a lot to do and not every query will be updated in 2.9 to take advantage of the new versions. Also, for those that are worried, they plan to add a check to the automatic upgrader to keep people from upgrading to 2.9 if they don’t have a new enough version of MySQL.

Which brings me to the next big decision. While WordPress is not going to require PHP 5, they are going to suggest it. If someone is still running PHP 4, the WordPress upgrader will suggest that they switch to PHP 5, and will even link to a Codex page describing how to do it for various hosts! As someone who’s been a huge proponent of moving the PHP requirements up to PHP 5, this is a big step in the right direction. According to Matt Mullenweg at WordCamp San Francisco 2009, over 80% of WordPress.org users are already on PHP 5+. If a notice like this could raise that percentage enough to make it reasonable to require PHP 5+, the codebase will see some huge improvements.

Overall, the meeting (which I unfortunately missed) took some great steps toward serious improvements of WordPress both in 2.9 and the versions to follow.

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A widget being added via the new drag & drop in WordPress 2.8

First, the ability to add widgets to a sidebar by simply dragging them to where you want is back! While I really am excited to see it, I’ll be the first to say that this should really have never left. As web-based applications become more and more common, people expect to see the same kind of functionality on the web that they find on their local system. I know that my mom would never be able to move things around on her computer if she were expected to open the proper window to the right, then click a link to move a file. She has grown so accustom to drag and drop (and rightfully so, it’s everywhere) that it’s what she has come to expect. If WordPress is really going to be the blogging platform for your average Joe, they can’t take steps backward like that. Thankfully it’s back now.

Additionally, like the rest of the admin section in WordPress 2.7+, the widgets page has been modified to take advantage of nearly any screen size. As you can see, in a browser that’s 1024 pixels wide, there is one column of available widgets and another column for active widgets.

WordPress Widgets Admin Page on a 1024px Wide Browser

However, on my screen, which is 1920 pixels wide, I get four columns of available widgets along with the column of active widgets. As a person that uses a high-resolution widescreen monitor almost everywhere, I really appreciate this new layout. I know it won’t benefit everyone, but as you can see it degrades nicely and should work well for pretty much everyone.

WordPress Widgets Admin Page on a 1920px Wide Browser

If you look at the screenshots above, you’ll notice a couple of other new features as well. First, you will see the inactive widgets box.

WordPress 2.8 Inactive Widgets

You can drop fully configured widgets here to store them, rather than lose them altogether, when you remove them from a sidebar. As you can see, the WordPress Twitter Widget Pro widget is fully configured and ready to be dropped back into any one of the widget-ready spots on the theme. This will be really handy for people who change their widgets on a regular basis. However, one of the reasons people wanted this so bad, to move widgets between sidebars, is no longer needed. Instead, you can now simply drag from one sidebar to the next. If the sidebar is currently empty, it will be closed by default. Simply click the name of the sidebar to open it first. You will see it expand vertically, giving you a place to drop a widget.

WordPress 2.8 Widget Settings

The widget settings still work in much the same way as they have for the last few versions. Each WordPress, when the mouse hovers over it, shows a little arrow on the right side. If you click the arrow the widget expands to show all the settings. As you can see, the settings for the WordPress Twitter Widget Pro widget are exactly what you expect, looking just like they have for a while. The settings will show if you click the arrow on any active or inactive widget. Each of the available widgets has the same arrow, but expands to show a description of the widget rather than settings. This actually makes for an extremely intuitive user interface, which is quite refreshing after what we’ve been working with for the last few versions.

So, does the new widgets admin page make up for lost time? I think it does! I was really afraid that the new updates would do nothing but restore what was lost in WordPress 2.5. Instead, the new features in 2.8 give us that and more. The refined user experience of the widgets admin page will go a long way toward truly making WordPress the blogging platform for everyone.

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