Finally! WordPress 3.1 is here

We’ve been playing with it. As developers we’ve checked our themes, plugins and widgets. We’ve talked about it in the WP develoepr community. We’ve seen things we really liked and saluted. We’ve seen things we didn’t like and submitted them for changes … and finally, after months of hard effort – WordPress 3.1 is live!

What does this mean for you?

If you host on the free WordPress.com site it means you’ll see a few new features like I wrote about at WordPress 3.1 – Developers get ready. That’s really about it.

If you self host or host with a WP developer it is possible, certainly not probable, a few things may break along with all the joys of the new features:

• Internal Linking – click a button for an internal link and it allows you to search for a post or browse a list of existing content and select it for inclusion.
• Admin Bar – contains various links to useful admin screens. By default, the admin bar is displayed when a user is logged in and visiting the site and is not displayed in admin screens for single blog installs. For multisite installs, the admin bar is displayed both when visiting the site and in the admin screens.
• Streamlined Writing Interface – new users of WordPress will find the write screen much less cluttered than before, as more of the options are hidden by default. You can click on Screen Options in the top right to bring them back.
• Post Formats – meta information that can be used by themes to customize presentation of a post. Read more in the article Post Formats.
• Network Admin – move Super Admin menus and related pages out of the regular admin and into a new Network Admin screen.
• List-type Admin Screens – sortable columns for list-type screens and better pagination.
• Exporter/Importer Overhaul – many under the hood changes including adding author information, better handling for taxonomies and terms, and proper support for navigation menus.
• Custom Content Type Improvements – allows developers to generate archive pages, and have better menu and capability controls. Read more in the article Post Types.
• Advanced Queries – allows developers to query multiple taxonomies and custom fields.
• Refreshed Blue Admin Color Scheme – puts the focus more squarely on your content.

What happens if it breaks?

Before you call me at 877-7000-KEN (877-700-0536) or hit up free online support for WordPress, try the following depending on your error:

• Login as admin
• Backup your installation of WordPress
• Do one or all of the following then refresh your home page (or the page where the trouble is)
• Disable your plugins either all at once then turn them back on one at a time or
• Disable your plugins one at a time until the problem is gone
• Switch to the default WP theme

If you find a WP theme or plugin that does not work after the upgrade or breaks your site THEN you may call me.