What feature do you want in WordPress 2.8

[conorp]

What feature do you want in WordPress 2.8

I know it's not really important, but it would be nice to test a theme without having to download it then re-upload it etc

What about you?

[Jeffro]

I would very much like the ability to work on a theme live on a site but not have it be viewable by the public. Even though I still find working on a theme on a local server much quicker to work with.

With regards to your original question. I would like to see something like Kaspars Widget Context plugin integrated into the core of WordPress. I think many people who use widgets on their blog will simply love this type of functionality where they can define when and where a widget appears. Talk about versatile!

[davecoveney]

How brilliant is that widget plugin? Already solved one problem I was having with a site.

Another thing I'd like to see is, finally, the page order problem sorted out. I know it's a harder problem to solve than it first appears, but for WP to be taken seriously as a CMS it'll need it.

I'd also like to see some native support for sections with different designs and structures - we've built it into one of our themes, and are applying it to a client site at the moment, but a consistent approach to dealing with sections would be cool. I fear it may be too hard a problem to solve now, however, and will be left to theme designers to sort out. Problem is that that doesn't make for a consistent platform. I know WP MU addresses some of that, but it's too hard to implement and manage for most end-users.

[Jeffro]

How brilliant is that widget plugin? Already solved one problem I was having with a site.

Another thing I'd like to see is, finally, the page order problem sorted out. I know it's a harder problem to solve than it first appears, but for WP to be taken seriously as a CMS it'll need it.

I'd also like to see some native support for sections with different designs and structures - we've built it into one of our themes, and are applying it to a client site at the moment, but a consistent approach to dealing with sections would be cool. I fear it may be too hard a problem to solve now, however, and will be left to theme designers to sort out. Problem is that that doesn't make for a consistent platform. I know WP MU addresses some of that, but it's too hard to implement and manage for most end-users.

This sounds a little bit like defining blocks in Drupal. Do you think something like what you described could be accomplished by the Pods plugin? http://pods.uproot.us/

[davecoveney]

That's an interesting plugin too. Must test it soon.

I'm always a little shy of plugins, especially complex ones. In the early days I was bitten by a complex plugin that ultimately broke WordPress during an upgrade and for which support ceased. I didn't have time nor inclination to fix it and it was better to simply sort out the database and move on.

Anyway, other features to suggest:

1. If a shortcode isn't supported, it shouldn't be visible - handy for disabled or migrated blogs.
2. For gawds sakes stop storing data in the database in the form of serialised PHP strings. You should never store data on a database in a language related form - it's bad form and causes data migration issues. Yes, I know it's only a blog platform, but it's an increasingly important. Consider properly relational database structures instead - but not sure how well that'll work on cheapo shared hosting. I suspect this wish will never happen :-)
3. Stop storing paths - again makes migrations troublesome.

[Ryan]

I would very much like the ability to work on a theme live on a site but not have it be viewable by the public. Even though I still find working on a theme on a local server much quicker to work with.

That would be fairly simple for them to implement I spose. But there are plenty of plugins out there for it already and I'm not sure how many people would actually use it. I assume most people work on their themes in a local environment anyway.

With regards to your original question. I would like to see something like Kaspars Widget Context plugin integrated into the core of WordPress. I think many people who use widgets on their blog will simply love this type of functionality where they can define when and where a widget appears. Talk about versatile!

They are talking about a big overhaul of the widget system for WP 2.8, I'm not sure how far they intend to take that though.

Stop storing paths - again makes migrations troublesome.

Yeah, that's a pain in the neck. Or at least provide a way to convert all URL's from one path to another path automatically without having to do manual database queries.

I often launch sites for clients with one sub-domain, they add all their content on it, then I have to go manually convert all of those URL's for them to the new URL when I transfer the regular domain over to it.

[Len]

What feature do you want in WordPress 2.8

Good question. I'd like to see an improved search function. I know this can be achieved through various plugins and I also understand WordPress strives to be lean and mean with enhancements being left up to those same plugins but I think certain things should be part of core.

[jdh]

I agree, Len.

Looking forward to the widget overhaul, too. I have never been much of a widget man as I like to completely control my code, but on a blog or two I do use widgets. Can't wait to see what they come out with.

I would also like to see the Gears functionality expanded. Maybe offline browsing? Perhaps that is too much for 2.8, but I would love to see it!

[brandingdavid]

Faster is my key concern. Find ways to make the user side of WordPress faster. Search, db queries, theme display, etc.. Speed it up any way you can. Making WordPress lighter on servers should be the priority, as well as making it as fast as possible. I know with plugins it can be sped up, but I think more can be done in WP core to speed up WP rather than just placating people with new features. :P

[LarryMonte]

My biggest beef is having to FTP themes and plugins manually. An upload/install function in the backend would be nice.

I get the feeling I've read that this will indeed happen for 2.8... not sure though.