WordPress 2.6 may not be due until August 2008, but already I’ve managed to compile a list of features and enhancements that we’ll likely be seeing in this next major WordPress release. (I’ll continue to update this post as we approach the release date.)

• NEW (June 20): Admin SSL support — The WordPress 2.6 admin should be able to be visited via either HTTP (normal connection) or HTTPS (encrypted connection), with the option to make admin HTTPS mandatory. [via]

• NEW (June 20): Remote publishing disabled by default — Having the main avenue of attack for WordPress blogs be disabled by default will be great for WordPress security. [via]

• NEW (June 16): Theme preview — Theme preview functionality would allow you to see what a new theme would look like on your blog before you activate it.

• NEW (June 16): Theme paging — For those of you with a ton of WordPress themes (more than 15), you’ll be able to page through them in the administration. This should be especially useful for WordPress MU blogs that have large theme collections.

• NEW (May 22): Ability to move wp-config.php — In WordPress 2.6, you’ll be able to move wp-config.php one directory level below the public root. Perhaps this could also allow multiple WordPress installations to share the same config file?

• NEW (May 20): Google Gears support — Now integrated into the WordPress trunk (current working version), this feature will allow Google Gears users to experience a faster admin interface, and possibly manage their WordPress blogs while offline (how cool would that be?).

• NEW (May 5): Identicons — In WordPress 2.6 you’ll have the ability to select a default Gravatar for those who don’t have one.

• Post Revisions — Wiki-style revisions management for blog posts: a cool new power-feature, just announced on the WordPress Development Updates blog.

• Shift-Click Checkbox Selection — In WordPress 2.6, you should be able to select a range of checkboxes in the category, comment, tag, post, page, and media administration sections by checking the “start” checkbox, holding the Shift key, and then checking the “end” checkbox… Gmail style.

• Post Word Count — A WordPress.com feature that might be making its way into WordPress 2.6.

• “Press This” Bookmarklet — The bookmarklet (which existed in WordPress 2.3 and prior but was removed in WordPress 2.5) has returned, new and improved.

Thoughts? Ideas? Add a comment below!

1. Drag-and-drop write pages customization — This is one of the biggies that many people are complaining about. Hopefully you like WordPress 2.5′s new Write page layout, because if you don’t, you won’t be able to change it!

2. Drag-and-drop sidebar assembly — WordPress 2.5′s new widget manger has its benefits, but you can no longer add widgets to sidebars via drag-and-drop.

3. Bookmarklets — Gone are the Press It and Add Link bookmarklets that you could drag to your Links/Bookmarks toolbar. (Perhaps there will be a better-than-ever bookmarklet making an appearance in WordPress 2.6?)

4. File Editor — The “Manage > Files” section that let you edit core WordPress files from within the administration has been removed. If htaccess editing is what you miss, check out the Meta Robots plugin.

5. ID display — WordPress 2.5 no longer shows ID numbers (for posts/pages/categories/etc.) in the administration; instead you need to infer the ID numbers based on various administration URLs.

   While this might be annoying for power users, I think this “feature” removal is a good move with regards to simplicity, since most users don’t need to know the IDs anyway.

Thoughts? Leave a comment!

Although WordPress and WordPress MU share somewhere around 95% of the same code, there are many more differences between the two than just multi-blog support. Here’s a thorough analysis:

WordPress	WordPress MU
Supports one blog with multiple bloggers.	Supports multiple blogs and multiple bloggers. Bloggers can write for multiple blogs.
Famous for its “5 minute install.”	Setup is more involved.
No advanced hosting requirements.	Your host needs to support wildcard DNS to use the subdomains feature.
Instant installation (through Fantastico, etc.) supported by many webhosts.	FTP time!
Each user is assigned a role level (subscriber, contributor, author, editor, administrator).	In addition to the standard WordPress roles, you can also specify “site admins” who can add/edit/delete all blogs and users.
WordPress receives updates first.	MU users must wait for WordPress updates to be applied to WordPress MU.
Administrators can edit themes, plugins, and code files from within WordPress.	The Theme Editor, Plugin Editor, and Manage Files sections are all disabled for security reasons.
Plugins can be enabled/disabled by the blog administrator.	The site admin can opt to have plugins disabled altogether (the default setting), or allow blog administrators to enable/disable plugins that have been uploaded. Plugins can also be uploaded to a special “mu-plugins” folder, where they will be executed automatically on all blogs. (Some plugins won’t function property when run this way, however.)
If you have multiple blogs running standard WordPress, you’d need to upload plugin updates to each one.	Plugins for all WordPress MU blogs are stored in one place. Update once, and it takes effect on all the site’s blogs.
If you have multiple blogs running standard WordPress, you’d need to login to each one separately to access the administration.	You can switch between blog admins using a simple drop-down menu.
Allows you to use most HTML in your posts, but strips out PHP.	In addition to removing PHP, WordPress MU is more strict in regards to what post HTML it accepts. For example, it will strip out class/ID attributes, inline styles, <span> tags, etc.
WordPress allows posting via email.	WordPress MU lacks this feature.
WordPress lets you customize its list of update services.	WordPress MU doesn’t let you specify update services.

Are there any other differences between WordPress and MU that I missed? Let me know in the comments!

A major upgrade, WordPress 2.5 packs a boatload of new features. Here are many that were listed in the official announcement at the WordPress Development Blog:

• Customizable Dashboard widgets
• The ability to upload multiple files at once
• EXIF data extraction from image files
• Search functionality for pages in addition to posts
• Tag management functionality
• A password strength meter
• Concurrent post editing protection
• Automated plugin updating
• An improved visual editor
• Built-in gallery support

These security enhancements are also included:

• Salted passwords (to guard against brute-force password guessing)
• Encrypted cookies
• A new function for WordPress developers designed to avoid SQL injection attacks

The 2.5 update has developer features for WordPress programmers like myself, such as taxonomy creation, a new Shortcode API, and increased inline code documentation.

As if the above features mentioned in WordPress’s official announcement weren’t enough, 2.5 includes even more enhancements:

• An overhauled administration interface.

• Built-in avatar support using Gravatar.

• Full text feeds even when the <!–more–> tag is used.

• Two default color schemes for the admin interface; additional skins can be added via plugins.

• A “comment bubble” in the admin menu that tells you at-a-glance how many comments are awaiting moderation.

Looking at the above features list, it appears WordPress 2.5 will be obsoleting the following plugins:

• Full Text Feed
• Existing gallery plugins like the excellent NextGEN Gallery (of course, these plugins can still have a use if you don’t care for WordPress’s built-in gallery)

WordPress 2.5 also takes care of these fixes that I included in my WordPress Tweaks plugin:

• Changing the “Blogroll” admin section back to “Links”
• Adding the “current_page_item” CSS class on a static page used for posts [bug ticket]

If you’re curious, you can also check out 2.5′s entire list of 734 recorded changes and fixes, or check out some interesting WordPress 2.5 statistics.

WordPress 2.5 has a ton of new features, but also has some changes that some people consider feature regression:

• The categories section has been moved below the post editor on the “Write Post” page. (Although some are very annoyed by this, I personally don’t see it as much of an issue. Yes, it may necessitate a bit of extra scrolling, but how often do we need to set the categories when writing a post? Once, maybe twice?)

• No more drag-and-drop sidebar assembly. You need to click an “Add” link instead.

• The new color scheme will certainly not meet the approval of some. (Give them a break; it’s hard to find colors that please everyone. We’ll get used to it. And as mentioned above, 2.5 allows the admin interface to be customized with color schemes.)

There’s a lot of changes coming with WordPress’s latest version. What’s your take? What changes are you excited about, or disappointed with? Will you be upgrading right away, or will you wait a while?