Top 10 New Features in WordPress 3.1

WordPress 3.1 is in release candidate versions and is expected for public consumption anytime.

If you are running WordPress, you might be wondering about the new features. The WordPress team won’t disappoint you as there are many nice features coming in 3.1. Here is a brief overview of

WordPress 3.1 New Features

1. Post Formats
   This has been implemented in WordPress in roundabout ways. However, 9 different post formats are supported out of the box now in 3.1 They are aside, chat, gallery, link, image, quote, status, video, or audio.
   Codex: Post Formats Article: Lisa Sabin Wilson
2. Internal Linking
   I now use Windows Live Writers ability to auto-attach certain words with links for internal linking. WordPress now will let you search your content in the ‘Insert link’ menu and link to your articles easily. Incredibly useful to revive/discover your old content.
3. Network Admin
   A brand new menu and link for WordPress Multi-Site users. Separates managing individual blogs and the whole network of blogs.
4. Faster Imports
   If your hosting already supports PHP5 (requirement with upcoming WordPress 3.2), then the WordPress imports can run much more efficiently.
5. Theme Filters
   Just like we were able to filter themes in WordPress.com, you get the filter option right inside Themes page in admin.
6. Admin Bar
   Another WordPress.com feature to access your profile and common account functions easily. It is much more useful in Multisite mode with access to other users and blogs.
7. Nicer Custom Post Types
   Introduced in 3.0, this feature has gotten a lot of improvement to reduce clutter in the edit interface. Also hooks into the new admin menu if needed. Read more
8. Advanced Taxonomy & Postmeta Queries (dev)
   This is a developer feature that lets you drill down on taxaonomy and post meta than ever before with the WP_Query function. Read more.
9. Simpler User Queries (dev)
   A new function called get_users() simplifies a lot of the user related queries. Useful for plugin developers.
10. Filterable Template Hierarchy (dev)
    Template files can now follow a hierarchy and you can even modify this hierarchy yourself. For eg.
    

    Take the author template hierarchy: author-{nicename}.php > author-{id}.php > author.php

    Say I want to add author-{role}.php before author.php.

    With an ‘author_template_candidates’ hook, I could manipulate the actual hierarchy.

I am certainly looking forward to the changes in WordPress 3.1 and will post on my upgrade experiences if I face any hiccups.

I gleaned the list of features from the excellent article by Aaron at Technosailor.com – author of WordPress Bible. I highly recommend reading his post if you are inclined to learn more details on this.

{ credit to Technosailor }