WordPress.org

Another year is coming to a close, and it’s time to look back and reflect on what we’ve accomplished in the past twelve months. The WordPress community is stronger than ever, and some of the accomplishments of the past year are definitely worth remembering.

Software Releases

We had two major releases of the WordPress web application with versions 3.4 and 3.5, as well as 5 security releases during 2012. 3.4 included the theme customizer, while 3.5 became the long awaited “media release” featuring a new uploader and gallery management tool. 3.5 contained code contributions from more people than ever, and we hope to continue growing the contributor ranks in the year ahead. We currently have native apps on 6 mobile platforms — iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Nokia, and WebOS — and saw several updates there as well.

Plugin Directory

A number of improvements were made to the Plugin Directory in 2012. More cosmetic  updates, like the introduction of branded plugin page headers, make it a nicer browsing experience, while functional changes like better-integrated support forums, plugin reviews, and a favorites system made the plugin directory even more useful as a resource.

The “Make” Network and Team Reps

2012 was the year that saw the creation of Make.wordpress.org, a network of sites for the teams of contributors responsible for the different areas of the WordPress project. Now anyone can follow along and get involved with the teams that work on core, theme review, forum support, documentation, and more. In 2013 we’ll work to improve these sites to make it easier to become a contributor. Each team also now has elected Team Reps, a new role that has already led to more cross-team communication. Team reps post each week to the Updates blog so that the other reps can keep up with what’s going on in other teams.

WordPress Community Summit

At the end of October, about 100 of the most influential and respected members of the WordPress community attended an inaugural summit to discuss where we all stand, and to figure out where we go next with WordPress. A “conference of conversations,” this unconference made everyone an active participant, and while not every issue brought to the table was solved by the end of the event, the right questions were being asked.

Meetup.com

The WordPress Foundation now has a central account with Meetup.com. We’ve brought in a couple dozen existing meetup groups as a pilot to test the system, and are in the process of working with more existing meetups (as well as new ones) to join us so that local organizers won’t have to pay organizer dues and can get more support from the WordPress project.

Internet Blackout Day

We participated in the protest against SOPA/PIPA, Internet Blackout Day, on January 18. Though we usually stay out of politics, this campaign was important, and we not only participated in the blackout on WordPress.org, we encouraged our users to do so as well, and recommended plugins to provide blackout functionality. It was deemed the largest online protest in history.

WordCamps

And finally, it wouldn’t be a recap without counting up the WordCamps! There were 67 WordCamps around the world in 2012, bringing together WordPress users, developers, and fans. If you didn’t make it to a WordCamp this year, maybe it can be one of your new year resolutions: check the schedule to find one near you!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year: a new WordPress release is available and chock-full of goodies to delight bloggers and developers alike. We’re calling this one “Elvin” in honor of drummer Elvin Jones, who played with John Coltrane in addition to many others.

If you’ve been around WordPress a while, the most dramatic new change you’ll notice is a completely re-imagined flow for uploading photos and creating galleries. Media has long been a friction point and we’ve listened hard and given a lot of thought into crafting this new system. 3.5 includes a new default theme, Twenty Twelve, which has a very clean mobile-first responsive design and works fantastic as a base for a CMS site. Finally we’ve spent a lot of time refreshing the styles of the dashboard, updating everything to be Retina-ready with beautiful high resolution graphics, a new color picker, and streamlining a couple of fewer-used sections of the admin.

Here’s a quick video overview of everything you can share with your friends:

Introducing WordPress 3.5

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For Developers

You can now put your (or anyone’s) WordPress.org username on the plugins page and see your favorite tagged ones, to make it easy to install them again when setting up a new site. There’s a new Tumblr importer. New installs no longer show the links manager. Finally for multisite developers switch_to_blog() is way faster and you can now install MS in a sub-directory. The Underscore and Backbone JavaScript libraries are now available. The Codex has a pretty good summary of the developer features above and beyond this, and you can always grab a warm beverage and explore Trac directly.

Percussion Section

Behind every great release is great contributors. 3.5 had more people involved than any release before it:

Aaron D. Campbell, aaronholbrook, Aaron Jorbin, Adam Harley, akbortoli, alecrust, Alex Concha, Alex King, Alex Mills (Viper007Bond), alexvorn2, ampt, Amy Hendrix (sabreuse), andrea.r, Andrew Nacin, Andrew Ozz, Andrew Ryno, Andrew Spittle, Andy Skelton, apokalyptik, Bainternet, Barry Kooij, bazza, bbrooks, Ben Casey, Ben Huson, Ben Kulbertis, bergius, Bernhard Riedl, betzster, Billy (bananastalktome), bolo1988, bradparbs, bradthomas127, Brady Vercher, Brandon Dove, Brian Layman, Brian Richards, Bronson Quick, Bryan Petty, cannona, Caroline Moore, Caspie, cdog, Charles Frees-Melvin, chellycat, Chelsea Otakan, Chouby, Chris Olbekson, Christopher Finke, Chris Wallace, Cor van Noorloos, Cristi Burcă, Dan, Dan Rivera, Daryl Koopersmith, Dave Martin, deltafactory, Dion Hulse, DjZoNe, dllh, Dominik Schilling, doublesharp, Drew Jaynes (DrewAPicture), Drew Strojny, Eddie Moya, elyobo, Emil Uzelac, Empireoflight, Eric Andrew Lewis, Erick Hitter, Eric Mann, ericwahlforss, Evan Solomon, fadingdust, F J Kaiser, foxinni, Gary Cao, Gary Jones, Gary Pendergast, GeertDD, George Mamadashvili, George Stephanis, GhostToast, gnarf, goldenapples, Gustavo Bordoni, hakre, hanni, hardy101, hebbet, Helen Hou-Sandi, Hugo Baeta, iamfriendly, Ian Stewart, ikailo, Ipstenu (Mika Epstein), itworx, j-idris, Jake Goldman, jakub.tyrcha, James Collins, jammitch, Jane Wells, Japh, JarretC, Jason Lemahieu (MadtownLems), javert03, jbrinley, jcakec, Jeff Bowen, Jeff Sebring, Jeremy Felt, Jeremy Herve, Jerry Bates (JerrySarcastic), Jesper Johansen (Jayjdk), jndetlefsen, Joe Hoyle, joelhardi, Joey Kudish, John Blackbourn (johnbillion), John James Jacoby, John P. Bloch, Jonas Bolinder, Jonathan D. Johnson, Jon Cave, joostdekeijzer, Jorge Bernal, Joseph Scott, Juan, Justin Sainton, Justin Sternberg, Justin Tadlock, Kailey Lampert (trepmal), Kelly Dwan, Keruspe, kitchin, Knut Sparhell, Konstantin Kovshenin, Konstantin Obenland, Kopepasah, Kristopher Lagraff, Kurt Payne, Kyrylo, Lance Willett, Larysa Mykhas, leogermani, lesteph, linuxologos, Luc De Brouwer, Luke Gedeon, Lutz Schroer, mailnew2ster, Manuel Schmalstieg, Maor Chasen, Marco, MarcusPope, Mark Jaquith, Marko Heijnen, MartyThornley, mattdanner, Matthew Richmond, Matt Martz, Matt Thomas, Matt Wiebe, mattyrob, Max Cutler, Mel Choyce, Mert Yazicioglu, Michael Adams (mdawaffe), Michael Fields, Mike Bijon, Mike Glendinning, Mike Hansen, Mike Little, Mike Schinkel, Mike Schroder, Mike Toppa, Milan Dinic, mitcho (Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine), Mohammad Jangda, mohanjith, mpvanwinkle77, Mr Papa, murky, Naoko Takano, Nashwan Doaqan, Niall Kennedy, Nikolay Bachiyski, ntm, nvartolomei, pavelevap, pdclark, Pete Mall, Peter Westwood, Pete Schuster, Philip Arthur Moore, Phill Brown, picklepete, Picklewagon, Prasath Nadarajah, r-a-y, Rami Yushuvaev, Ricardo Moraleida, Robert Chapin (miqrogroove), Robert Wetzlmayr, Ron Rennick, rstern, Ryan Boren, Ryan Imel, Ryan Koehler, Ryan Markel, Ryan McCue, Safirul Alredha, Samir Shah, Sam Margulies, Samuel Wood (Otto), sara cannon, Satish Gandham, scott.gonzalez, Scott Kingsley Clark, Scott Reilly, Scott Taylor, ScreenfeedFr, sergey.s.betke, Sergey Biryukov, Simon Prosser, Simon Wheatley, sirzooro, ssamture, sterlo, sumindmitriy, sushkov, swekitsune, Takashi Irie, Taylor Dewey, Taylor Lovett, Terry Sutton, Thomas Griffin, Thorsten Ott, timbeks, timfs, Tim Moore, TobiasBg, TomasM, Tom Auger, tommcfarlin, Tom Willmot, toscho, Travis Smith, Vasken Hauri, Vinicius Massuchetto, Vitor Carvalho, Waclaw, WaldoJaquith, Wojtek Szkutnik, Xavier Borderie, Yoav Farhi, Yogi T, Zack Tollman, and ZaMoose.

The third release candidate for WordPress 3.5 is now available. We’ve made a number of changes over the last week since RC2 that we can’t wait to get into your hands. Hope you’re ready to do some testing!

• Final UI improvements for the new media manager, based on lots of great feedback.
• Show more information about uploading errors when they occur.
• When inserting an image into a post, don’t forget the alternative text.
• Fixes for the new admin button styles.
• Improvements for mobile devices, Internet Explorer, and right-to-left languages.
• Fix cookies for subdomain installs when multisite is installed in a subdirectory.
• Fix ms-files.php rewriting for very old multisite installs.

At this point, we only have a few minor issues left. If all goes well, you will see WordPress 3.5 very soon. If you run into any issues, please post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums.

If you’d like to know what to test, visit the About page ( → About in the toolbar) and check out the list of features. This is still development software, so your boss may get mad if you install this on a live site. To test WordPress 3.5, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the release candidate here (zip).

The second release candidate for WordPress 3.5 is now available for download and testing.

We’re still working on about a dozen remaining issues, but we hope to deliver WordPress 3.5 to your hands as early as next week. If you’d like to know what to test, visit the About page ( → About in the toolbar) and check out the list of features! As usual, this is still development software and we suggest you do not install this on a live site unless you are adventurous.

Think you’ve found a bug? Please post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums.

Developers, please continue to test your plugins and themes, so that if there is a compatibility issue, we can figure it out before the final release. You can find our list of known issues here.

To test WordPress 3.5, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the release candidate here (zip).

–
We are getting close
Should have asked for haiku help
Please test RC2

The first release candidate for WordPress 3.5 is now available.

We hope to ship WordPress 3.5 in two weeks. But to do that, we need your help! If you haven’t tested 3.5 yet, there’s no time like the present. (The oft-repeated warning: Please, not on a live site, unless you’re adventurous.)

Think you’ve found a bug? Please post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. If any known issues come up, you’ll be able to find them here. Developers, please test your plugins and themes, so that if there is a compatibility issue, we can figure it out before the final release.

To test WordPress 3.5, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the release candidate here (zip).

If you’d like to know what to break test, visit the About page ( → About in the toolbar) and check out the list of features! Trust me, you want to try out media.

Release candidate
Three point five in two weeks time
Please test all the things

The third beta release of WordPress 3.5 is now available for download and testing.

Hey, developers! We expect to WordPress 3.5 to be ready in just a few short weeks. Please, please test your plugins and themes against beta 3. Media management has been rewritten, and we’ve taken great pains to ensure most plugins will work the same as before, but we’re not perfect. We would like to hear about any incompatibilities we’ve caused so we can work with you to address them before release, rather than after. I think you’ll agree it’s much better that way.

To test WordPress 3.5, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the beta here (zip). For more on 3.5, check out the extensive Beta 1 blog post, which covers what’s new in version 3.5 and how you can help. We made more than 300 changes since beta 2. At this point, the Add Media dialog is complete, and we’re now just working on fixing up inserting images into the editor. We’ve also updated to jQuery UI 1.9.1, SimplePie 1.3.1, and TinyMCE 3.5.7.

The usual warnings apply: We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but this is software still in development, so we don’t recommend that you run it on a production site. Set up a test site to play with the new version.

As always, if you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. Or, 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.

Beta three is out
Soon, a release candidate
Three point five is near

Two weeks after the first beta, WordPress 3.5 Beta 2 is now available for download and testing.

This is software still in development, so we don’t recommend that you run it on a production site. Set up a test site to play with the new version. To test WordPress 3.5, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the beta here (zip).

For more, check out the extensive Beta 1 blog post, which covers what’s new in version 3.5 and how you can help. What’s new since beta 1? I’m glad you asked:

• New workflow for working with image galleries, including drag-and-drop reordering and quick caption editing.
• New image editing API. (#6821)
• New user interface for setting static front pages for the Reading Settings screen. (#16379)

As always, if you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. Or, 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. Happy testing!

I’m excited to announce the availability of WordPress 3.5 Beta 1.

This is software still in development and we really don’t recommend that you run it on a production site — set up a test site just to play with the new version. To test WordPress 3.5, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the beta here (zip).

In just three short months, we’ve already made a few hundred changes to improve your WordPress experience. The biggest thing we’ve been working on is overhauling the media experience from the ground up. We’ve made it all fair game: How you upload photos, arrange galleries, insert images into posts, and more. It’s still rough around the edges and some pieces are missing — which means now is the perfect time to test it out, report issues, and help shape our headline feature.

As always, if you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. Or, 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.

Here’s some more of what’s new:

• Appearance: A simplified welcome screen. A new color picker. And the all-HiDPI (retina) dashboard.
• Accessibility: Keyboard navigation and screen reader support have both been improved.
• Plugins: You can browse and install plugins you’ve marked as favorites on WordPress.org, directly from your dashboard.
• Mobile: It’ll be easier to link up your WordPress install with our mobile apps, as XML-RPC is now enabled by default.
• Links: We’ve hidden the Link Manager for new installs. (Don’t worry, there’s a plugin for that.)

Developers: We love you. We do. And one of the things we strive to do with every release is be compatible with all existing plugins and themes. To make sure we don’t break anything, we need your help. Please, please test your plugins and themes against 3.5. If something isn’t quite right, please let us know. (Chances are, it wasn’t intentional.) And despite all of the changes to media, we’re still aiming to be backwards compatible with plugins that make changes to the existing media library. It’s a tall task, and it means we need your help.

Here’s some more things we think developers will enjoy (and should test their plugins and themes against):

• External libraries updated: TinyMCE  3.5.6 3.5.7. SimplePie 1.3 1.3.1. jQuery 1.8.2 1.8.3. jQuery UI 1.9 (and it’s not even released yet) 1.9.2. We’ve also added Backbone 0.9.2 and Underscore 1.3.3 1.4.2, and you can use protocol-relative links when enqueueing scripts and styles. (#16560)
• WP Query: You can now ask to receive posts in the order specified by post__in. (#13729)
• XML-RPC: New user management, profile editing, and post revision methods. We’ve also removed AtomPub. (#18428, #21397, #21866)
• Multisite: switch_to_blog() is now used in more places, is faster, and more reliable. Also: You can now use multisite in a subdirectory, and uploaded files no longer go through ms-files (for new installs). (#21434, #19796, #19235)
• TinyMCE: We’ve added an experimental API for “views” which you can use to offer previews and interaction of elements from the visual editor. (#21812)
• Posts API: Major performance improvements when working with hierarchies of pages and post ancestors. Also, you can now “turn on” native custom columns for taxonomies on edit post screens. (#11399, #21309, #21240)
• Comments API: Search for comments of a particular status, or with a meta query (same as with WP_Query). (#21101, #21003)
• oEmbed: We’ve added support for a few oEmbed providers, and we now handle SSL links. (#15734, #21635, #16996, #20102)

We’re looking forward to your feedback. If you break it (find a bug), please report it, and if you’re a developer, try to help us fix it. We’ve already had more than 200 contributors to version 3.5 — come join us!

And as promised, a bonus:

We’re planning a December 5 release for WordPress 3.5. But, we have a special offering for you, today. The newest default theme for WordPress, Twenty Twelve, is now available for download from the WordPress themes directory. It’s a gorgeous and fully responsive theme, and it works with WordPress 3.4.2. Take it for a spin!

WordPress 3.4.2, now available for download, is a maintenance and security release for all previous versions.

After nearly 15 million downloads since 3.4 was released not three months ago, we’ve identified and fixed a number of nagging bugs, including:

• Fix some issues with older browsers in the administration area.
• Fix an issue where a theme may not preview correctly, or its screenshot may not be displayed.
• Improve plugin compatibility with the visual editor.
• Address pagination problems with some category permalink structures.
• Avoid errors with both oEmbed providers and trackbacks.
• Prevent improperly sized header images from being uploaded.

Version 3.4.2 also fixes a few security issues and contains some security hardening. The vulnerabilities included potential privilege escalation and a bug that affects multisite installs with untrusted users. These issues were discovered and fixed by the WordPress security team.

Download 3.4.2 now or visit Dashboard → Updates in your site admin to update now.

Fixes for some bugs
Back to work on 3.5
It’s time to update

I’m happy to announce the formation of a new official contributor group within the WordPress project for the organizers of in-person events that promote WordPress. Though there are hundreds of people around the globe organizing WordCamps, WordPress meetups, hackathons, free classes and the like, since their “projects” were all happening locally there was never a central hub of activity for these folks. Despite the many informal connections between community organizers, we weren’t taking advantage of the huge existing knowledge base as new organizers stepped up to the plate.

With the creation of this new contributor group, we finally have a way to organize and recognize these kinds of contributions, a clear avenue for feedback and input when it comes to policies around official events, and the opportunity to create even more connections between community organizers through mentorship programs and group projects. I’m especially excited about the creation of this group because until now the role of community organizer, while one of the most important, has not gotten the same recognition as higher-profile contribution methods such as forum support or core code contribution. That is something I hope this group will change, and the local organizers can be recognized for the community leaders they are.*

If you are the organizer of a local WordCamp, WordPress meetup, etc., head over to http://make.wordpress.org/events/ and introduce yourself so we can include you in the fun!

Speaking of meetups, an update on my last post about meetups is long overdue. With around 500 meetup organizers (and/or potential organizers) responding to my last survey, it took much longer than anticipated to review all the responses. We’re working now with meetup.com to issue invitations to join a centralized WordPress Meetup account, so if you filled out the form earlier this year, you should be hearing from them soon. The first wave of existing meetup account transfers (for those who opted in) should happen in the next two weeks, with additional waves every 3 months thereafter (and new groups will be able to be created along the way).

The contributor summit that is being planned for the end of October also generated hundreds of responses/nominations, so that review process is still happening, but we should be announcing some basic plans and issuing invitations soon.

And finally, it would be impossible to talk about in-person WordPress events without mentioning the upcoming annual WordCamp in San Francisco. As the event that represents the worldwide project as a whole, it’s the perfect time to evaluate where we stand as a project and as a community, to help determine where we go next. If you’re a WordPress user, developer, or in any way a part of our vast and interconnected ecosystem, please take a moment to fill in the 2nd annual WordPress survey. It’s just a couple of questions, and your input would be greatly appreciated. The results of the survey will be announced at WSCF, and a report issued shortly thereafter.

Thanks!

* I am also of the firm belief that academic and arts activities should earn varsity letters just like sports teams do — go mathletes!