I’ve been using WordPress 2.7 for a while now and have comprehensively tested my WordPress plugins on it. In this post, I release the results of my testing: Four plugins work fine (albeit with a non version specific bug found in one of them). One plugin seems to have problems with WordPress 2.7.
Plugins That Work With WordPress 2.7
The following WordPress plugins appear to work fine with WordPress 2.7:
However, during testing I discovered a bug with LocalCurrency, which I’ll explain in more detail below. This bug is not specific to WordPress 2.7 and has always existed in the plugin. If you haven’t noticed it yet, you’re unlikely to.
Plugin Which Has Problems With WordPress 2.7
Unfortunately, the IFrameWidgets plugin has a problem, which appears to be related to WordPress 2.7. In fact, I suspect that this problem has existed since WordPress 2.5, but only occurs on certain browsers.
The problem is that widgets running in the IFrame widget do not appear. This seems to be related to the JavaScript no longer being able to find the height of the IFrame (the plugin hides the IFrame until it’s fully loaded, then automatically resizes it based on it’s contents).
I’m not certain of all scenarios when it will occur, but I’ve managed to make it happen with the BlogCatalog widget using Firefox 2.0.0.20. For me, there’s no problem in Firefox 3, Google Chrome and IE6.
Kirk M from Just Thinkin’, who reported the problem, seems to be having a more serious problem with the Google Friend Connect Members widget: he gets the problem with Firefox 3.0.5, Shiretoko builds, Chrome and IE 7.0.
It may be that there are two problems: a general problem which only occurs with FireFox 2 and a more specific problem with the Google Friend Connect Members widget.
I suspect the general problem occurs because the way widgets work changed back in WordPress 2.5: IFrameWidgets uses the number of the widget in the plugin logic. Prior to WordPress 2.5, you were only allow a maximum of 9 widgets, so the plugin was using the numbers 1 to 9. In versions after 2.5, there is no maximum number of widgets and the plugin is using numbers such as 320138091. It may be that FireFox 2 can’t handle numbers this large?
I am continuing investigations and hope to identify a fix soon. You can follow this issue in the comments on the IFrameWidgets page and I’ll announce the fix in a post – so subscribe to my feed if you want to know when it’s released.
LocalCurrency Bug
As mentioned above, LocalCurrency has a bug which has always existed within the plugin. The plugin works fine within a single post or page, but doesn’t always work on pages with multiple posts (ie the home page or category pages).
The plugin has been designed to work on pages with multiple posts, but it doesn’t always load the JavaScript that allows it to make the call to Yahoo! Finance. To optimise performance, the JavaScript is only loaded when the plugin finds the <–LCSTART–> tag in the post.
This is fine for single posts / pages. It’s also fine for pages with multiple posts IF the tag is in the first post on the page. However, if the fist post doesn’t have any currency to be converted (ie no <–LCSTART–> tag), then the JavaScript isn’t loaded.
I’ll be fixing this problem sometime in the near future. I’ll probably add an option to allow the blog owner to decide whether they want to convert currency on multiple post pages. If chosen, the plugin will load the JavaScript without checking the posts for the tag, circumventing the problem.
Final Thoughts
Anytime there is a WordPress upgrade, there is a chance that one of my plugins will break. This means I have to do extensive testing with each WordPress release. This takes a lot of time, but fortunately, there are normally no problems to fix.
For the WordPress 2.7 release, I did find a couple of problems – but I’ll get them fixed as soon as I can.
All in all pretty good results that speak to your coding ability. The only plugin I currently use is KeywordLuv although I am curious about FeedEntryHeader. I already use FeedFooter plugin – is there a reason using the header is better?
Hi John,
The theory behind it, is that if someone is reading your article on a scraper’s site, they may click through to your site if they realise it’s not the original BEFORE they start reading. By the time they get to the bottow, it’s very unlikely they’ll visit your site.
Nice post, i love finding cool plugins for my wordpress. I really like keywordluv, it has increased my traffic quite a bit.
This the first I’ve heard of the FeedEntryHeader – I’ll need to check it out!
Great to see that keywordluv still works, it’s the only one which I use, but I have found it to be so useful!
I have actually neglected to upgrade to 2.7 on several of my blogs for fear of losing plugins or disrupting the custom coded themes. From what I understand, some themes will not work with 2.7 as well because in the 2.7 release they changed some of the tags within the wordpress loop.
I am not sure if that is at all true, but I would not want to risk it on my money makers if you know what I mean.
thanks for the heads-up on the plug-in errors 2.7 has. i still have the older version and finally have time to upgrade. now i know what to look out for. thanks.
After getting used to it, the 2.7 interface is so much quicker to use than 2.6 — and the ability to install new plugins just by searching and clicking on them is amazing.
There’s a pretty comprehensive compatibility list in the codex on the WordPress.org site, and the built-in installer will even give you a warning if a plug-in you try to use hasn’t been certified yet.
I think they did a great job with this upgrade.
i just installed wordpress and i didn’t know they had a new version til it was installed, i like the interface and layout of 2.7
Hi there is a big issue when updating to wordpress 2.7 if you forget to turn the plugin’s off before upgrading, it just wipes the blog out. There are also a number of compatibility issues when two similar plugn’s are installed which can be found on the wordpress site http :// codex.wordpress.org/Plugins/Plugin_Compatibility/2.7
I have to say the admin panel in 2.7 is much nicer than the previous design, but takes a bit of getting use to.
Hello Macey,
I agree, WordPress is a great program and the search engines love WP sites. Have you tried the premium WP templates? Another great source are the webmaster forums, where you can find someone to build a custom theme for you.
Your site is Cool and Awesome..Hope we can exchange links.I have already added you in my list.
Thank you.
I love the new interface of WordPress but also found it to be more complicated than the older version. I’m still struggling to locate certain aspects of the interface which can make it more time consuming.
Thank you for posting an update on the plugins that work with the new version though. Good to see some of them I use are still compatible too.
Walt
I like turbo function in WP 2.7 it make me work faster, my plugin did not use too much. Anyway wordpress is still number 1 in the world of blog platform.
I usually wait to update until the release at least another two bug fixes. I’ve been burned too many times in the past by upgrading to find out that now I have new problems.
This is why I prefer to not upgrade my blogs, you will always have some plugin causing problems after upgrading. I only upgrade if it’s extremely necesary. I’m lazy I think haha
Great blog!
I have upgraded all my blogs and all plugins are working very well except one. It is Google Analytics for the blog and I have to configure it again.
I find occasional conflicts with plugins when upgrading as well. One particular plugin simply needed to be deactivated and then reactivated. I found that my site was loading extremely slow and discovered that it was a plugin issue.
Although this may not be the case with all plugins, I recommend trying this before completely deleting a plugin.
Fortunately, I upgraded my blog easily. I don’t use plenty of widgets and I think that was the reason of clean upgrade.
Well the new version of WordPress is really impressive. You can even upgrade your system automatically whenever an update is available. I hope you could build more plug-ins that will help a lot of blogger / IM world wide.
I’m really glad you have Keywordluv. Best plugin ever!
The new WordPress is really awesome although the new dashboard need a little time to get used to.
Thanks for sharing that information. I think there are a lot of not so popular plug ins that do a lot of work. Would be great if someone can make a post about the “best wordpress plug ins” though best is relative because everybody downloads and uses wordpress plugins up to his needs.
I made a gaming site with WordPress, but I feel that it still just looks like a simple WordPress blog. I want it to look like most popular sites, like Engadget. I’d like to know if there are plugins I can use to change the basic WordPress look, so it won’t look like your basic blog.