WordPress Picks for the week [12/20]

WordPress 2.9 "Carmen" is out

You can upload from within your WordPress admin itself. New features include:

1. Global undo/”trash” feature, which means that if you accidentally delete a post or comment you can bring it back from the grave (i.e., the Trash). This also eliminates those annoying “are you sure” messages we used to have on every delete.
2. Built-in image editor allows you to crop, edit, rotate, flip, and scale your images to show them who’s boss. This is the first wave of our many planned media-handling improvements.
3. Batch plugin update and compatibility checking, which means you can update 10 plugins at once, versus having to do multiple clicks for each one, and we’re using the new compatibility data from the plugins directory to give you a better idea of whether your plugins are compatible with new releases of WordPress. This should take the fear and hassle out of upgrading.
4. Easier video embeds that allow you to just paste a URL on its own line and have it magically turn it into the proper embed code, with Oembed support for YouTube, Daily Motion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy, and WordPress.tv (and more in the next release).

Optimizing WordPress Post Navigation

Almost every theme comes with navigation links that let your visitors jump from one page to another. Jeff gives you a detailed overview of the three most important navigation functions.

• Index and archive navigation: posts_nav_link()
• Index and archive navigation: previous_posts_link() and next_posts_link()
• Single-view posts navigation: previous_post_link() and next_post_link()

WordPress tip : Better page navigation

Provide a link to the blog archive (instead of nothing) when the visitors reaches the last page

Excluding your plugin or theme from update checks

This one is targeted at plugin authors who deliver private plugins that are not hosted on the WordPress repository. If you're worried about what data is being sent across, you can disable your plugin from being added to the update checking list when WordPress "dials into" the repository.

Extend the User Contact Info in WordPress 2.9

WP2.9 allows you to add new fields like a twitter id or link to a Facebook or Orkut profile with simple pieces of code

How To Merge 2 WordPress Blogs

If you're ever attempting to this and you got two huge blogs, then here's one way to go about the merger. Not for the faint at heart!

WordPress 2.9 Enhancements Every Developer Must Know

This article highlights important enhancements in WordPress 2.9 and provide resources that will help you quickly upgrade your themes or plugins to accommodate latest features.

The Ultimative Guide For the_post_thumbnail In WordPress 2.9

If you're keen to display post images in your theme, this guide explains the various parameters the function takes.