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WordPress 2.9 “Carmen”: What’s New & Problems You Could Face

By Typhoon On Under Web and Global News

WordPress Users can now enjoy better wordpress experience by upgrading to the newer version 2.9 named “Carmen”. The new name has been kept in honor of magical jazz vocalist Carmen McRae.

WordPress 2.9 comes Up with many new features as always. The main new features I’ve actually seen so far are the addition of the “Post Thumbnail” box in the writing screen, the new “Trash” status for posts, pages, and comments, and the image editor in the Media Library.

Here is a list of major features which can be seen in Worpdress 2.9 (source: wordpress.org):

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.

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.

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.

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).

You can see these Major Changes in a Video provided by wordpress:

Some other changes which looked interesting to me:

  1. WordPress now have rel=canonical support for better SEO.
  2. There is automatic database optimization support, which you can enable in your wp-config.php file by adding: define('WP_ALLOW_REPAIR', true);
  3. Themes can register “post thumbnails” which allow them to attach an image to the post, especially useful for magazine-style themes.
  4. A new commentmeta table that allows arbitrary key/value pairs to be attached to comments, just like posts, so you can now expand greatly what you can do in the comment framework.
  5. WordPress 2.9 now have upgraded TinyMCE WYSIWYG editing and Simplepie.
  6. Sidebars can now have descriptions so it’s more obvious what and where they do what they do.
  7. Specify category templates not just by ID, like before, but by slug, which will make it easier for theme developers to do custom things with categories — like post types!
  8. Registration and profiles are now extensible to allow you to collect things more easily, like a user’s Twitter account or any other fields you can imagine.
  9. When you’re editing files in the theme and plugin editors it remembers your location and takes you back to that line after you save.
  10. The Press This bookmarklet has been improved and is faster than ever; give it a try for on-the-fly blogging from wherever you are on the internet.

Moreover, WordPress 2.9 have come up with over 500 bugs fix and enhancement.

Beware While Upgrading – You May Face Some Problems

While upgrading, I faced some problems which weren’t that too big but it may scare some newbie wordpress user. The automatic upgrade feature which was brought in v2.7 still didn’t prove to work good like many have been complaining.

[Remember To Take Backup Of Your WordPress Before Upgrading]

In my case, while using AutoUpgrading feature of WordPress, the installation got hanged and it was showing “Installing WordPress”. The blog homepage showed the message “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Check back in a minute” to the people. If you face this problem, this means that upgrading wordpress was uncessucceful.

To Solve it:

  1. Access your site files through a FTP program or Cpanel.
  2. Locate a file named “.maintenance”(this file may be hidden).
  3. And then, Delete it. And your readers will be able to read your blog properly.

But since upgrading failed, I was unable to log into my wordpress dashboard and it showed an error – “Call to undefined function get_file_data() in /home/xxxx/public_html/wp-admin/includes/plugin.php on line 81″

Now to quickly fix it:

  1. Access your site files again through Cpanel or a FTP program and go to the plugin folder of your wordpress blog.
  2. Rename that folder so that it will appear “_plugin”
  3. Now you will able to log into your wordpress dashboard

Once done; Try again to upgrade your wordpress version using autoupgrade and it could be successful. Now all you have to do is Delete the newly created “plugin” folder and then rename that folder back to “plugin” which we renamed “_plugin” in above Step 2.

Then you can experience the full functions of WordPress 2.9 properly.

I will stongly suggest you to get upgraded your wordpress to version 2.9 and experience better wordpress experience. Let me know what do you think about new wordpress? Have you upgraded to it? Did you face any kind of problem?


Article Written By Typhoon

Yo! I am Typhoon a.k.a Sushant, a 17 yrs. old blogger from India and the owner of SmartBloggerz. Here I try to share useful Blogging related articles which would help a blogger to succeed. You can connect to me on Twitter.

Typhoon has written 333 superb article(s) on this blog



Don't be shy ;) Share your thoughts on this article by commenting below. Remember that this is a do follow blog with many more exciting features!

116 Comments Add yours

  1. Deepika
    December 19, 2009
    7:58 pm

    Today afternoon only i downloaded “Carmen” One of my friend also reminded me about backup upgrading… You have also mentioned about it…Both Global undo/trash feature and image editor attracted me much… Definitely i will check it out. Thanks for explaining about carmen in detail
    Deepika´s last blog ..How To Comment On Other Blogs My ComLuv Profile

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  2. MostlyBlog
    December 19, 2009
    9:57 pm

    today i upgraded to latest version 2.9 without facing any problem, and yes backup is most important and one more thing deactivate all plugin because some time some of plugin not supporting latest version and it giving some problem so deactivate plugin and the upgrade, now i am playing with latest cool features of 2.9,

    Reply to this comment
    • Jenn
      December 20, 2009
      3:00 pm

      Ooh. I didn’t know I need to deactivate plugins before upgrading but anyway, I had no problems when I automatically upgrade it early this morning.
      Jenn´s last blog ..MOVED! My ComLuv Profile

      Reply to this comment
      • akira07
        December 20, 2009
        3:43 pm

        What is your problem? Have a backup already?
        Deactive plugin? How about deleting plugin and installing it again? What is the difference?
        akira07´s last blog ..Quick report – My Smartbloggerz Commenting Idol 2 Participation My ComLuv Profile

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        • Typhoon
          December 20, 2009
          6:55 pm

          Obviously it will consume more of your time to install new plugin everytime rather than simply deactivating it.

          Reply to this comment
          • Deepika
            December 31, 2009
            6:04 pm

            Yeah while installing plugin for the second time there will be waste of time. Instead we can deacitvate it before upgrading. This is not very difficult and it is also very safe.

        • Jenn
          December 21, 2009
          4:48 am

          All you have to do it to back up your site to ensure that you won’t lost any of your files if ever you had a problem upgrading and it is advised that you deactivate plugins incase it is not compatible to the new version of wordpress.
          Jenn´s last blog ..MOVED! My ComLuv Profile

          Reply to this comment
    • Benjamin Huebner from Free marketing downloads
      December 27, 2009
      4:34 pm

      This is really good to know!

      And it makes a lot of sense too!

      Did you use the automatic upgrade?
      Benjamin Huebner@Free marketing downloads´s last blog ..Article Submission Software – Free Downloadable Full Version! My ComLuv Profile

      Reply to this comment
  3. Alison Moore Smith
    December 19, 2009
    10:33 pm

    Good info. I tend to jump right into upgrades (after backing up, of course) without researching any incompatibilities. Best to look before leaping. Thanks for the help.
    Alison Moore Smith´s last blog ..Best Gifts: College Finals Survival Kits My ComLuv Profile

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  4. Keith Davis from Public speaking and Presentation Skills
    December 20, 2009
    1:34 am

    I’m new to wordpress but could see straight away the power of using it as a CMS… so I began.
    Lots of things to learn, even how to set it up by creating a database etc, but I persevered.
    Cpanel made life much easier and there are so many wordpress sites out there, it’s easy to get lots of help and build up a working knowledge.

    Then it began… security problems with version 2.8 must upgrade to 2.8.1 then 2.8.2… finally ended at 2.8.6!

    It’s been OK for a while but now it’s back, 2.9 is out.

    Do I need a trash feature or an image editor? Who knows but all this upgrading is time consuming and annoying.

    I’ve written this, not just to have a moan but to let you see things from the perspective of a newcomer to wordpress.

    If these were major security upgrades I could understand it, but for a trash can and an image editor!
    Keith Davis@Public speaking and Presentation Skills´s last blog ..The eyes have it! My ComLuv Profile

    Reply to this comment
  5. Jenn
    December 20, 2009
    6:34 am

    I didn’t know that there is already new version of wordpress so the moment I read this post I upgraded my wordpress blog to 2.9 and I’m glad that I encounter no problem. I’m happy with it’s new features and all!
    Jenn´s last blog ..MOVED! My ComLuv Profile

    Reply to this comment
  6. Anil Gupta
    December 20, 2009
    7:02 am

    I just upgraded to the latest vesion of wordpress (2.9) on my blog successfully. New version looks more promising and has lots of useful features which we were missing in the earlier versions of wordpress like image editing and thrash folder for coments

    Reply to this comment
  7. Senthil Ramesh
    December 20, 2009
    11:54 am

    Well I just upgraded to wordpress 2.9. I got no errors while upgradin, thank god. Also I ve not noticed these changes. The best thing I like is batch upgrade of plugins. I often wished it should be like that since I dont like having clicking each time the plugin upgrade.
    Senthil Ramesh´s last blog ..25 Google Wave Invites for Grabs My ComLuv Profile

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  8. Michael Aulia from CravingTech
    December 20, 2009
    2:01 pm

    I’ve been using it since Beta 2 and I love the image thumbnail feature the most. It’s been long overdue and so many blogs now go for magazine-style, just like mine
    Michael Aulia @CravingTech´s last blog ..Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.0 Release My ComLuv Profile

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  9. Walter
    December 20, 2009
    6:59 pm

    These new features a great. I’m going to upgrade mine. By the way, more often than not, the autoupgrade doe not seem to work because of the activated plugins. What I do is deactivate all my plugins before upgrading. Works all the time. :-)

    Reply to this comment
  10. Vishal Sanjay
    December 20, 2009
    7:31 pm

    Hey you’ve got my pic out there, thanx for that one, well the wordpress 2.9 roxx to the core. I haven’t used WordPress much i will be as i’ve planning to transfer my blog within the end of december. And there is one more good news, my exams are over, yesterday was home rule, today is poorna swaraj.

    Reply to this comment
  11. Rennell Garrett
    December 20, 2009
    11:42 pm

    I am new to wordpress with close to no coding knowledge. But using it has been great experience for me. I am thinking of upgrading but not until full version is released.
    Rennell Garrett´s last blog ..Atlanta Marketing Agencies: Secrets to Business Success! My ComLuv Profile

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  12. iWoodpecker
    December 21, 2009
    2:30 am

    Well, today I’ve read lots of posts about “Carmen”. It seems, that yours is the biggest one :)

    My advice on upgrading to 2.9 is not to do that at all without backup. It’s crucial, because there is always some chance, that something could go wrong.
    iWoodpecker´s last blog ..Insane List of 140 Do Follow & Nofollow Blogs with CommentLuv 2010 My ComLuv Profile

    Reply to this comment
  13. Gordon
    December 21, 2009
    4:09 am

    I was really thrilled when I saw it was up for updating. The image editing feature is the golden feature that was missing, among other things. Now you don’t have to own any kind of image editing software, you can blog off any computer in any Internet caffe or library. I love it! Nice post as well, have a nice Xmas!
    Gordon´s last blog ..Blogging On Autopilot During The Holidays My ComLuv Profile

    Reply to this comment
  14. Felix from Earn Money At Home
    December 21, 2009
    6:50 am

    Nice to be back on blogging. It’s my vacation and I will try read what’s new in the blogosphere. Good to know about the new version my friend.

    Reply to this comment
  15. Rohan
    December 21, 2009
    4:22 pm

    The only issue I ran into so far was feedwordpress, most notably, MagpieRSS, is not compatible with WordPress 2.9. I found no newer version available yet so I had to disable for now.

    Reply to this comment
  16. George Serradinho
    December 21, 2009
    5:40 pm

    I upgraded on the weekend and had no problems at all. All went smooth and I’m happy. I have seen some users complain about some scheduled posts not been published, that sounds weird hey?
    George Serradinho´s last blog ..Serious Monday Roundup #22 My ComLuv Profile

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  17. iWoodpecker
    December 21, 2009
    7:02 pm

    Some plugin crashes appeared recently after about 7 or 8 hours of normal working after update to 2.9

    These plugins are : http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/most-commented/ and several more, but I don’t rememder their names :(
    iWoodpecker´s last blog ..Insane List of 140 Do Follow & Nofollow Blogs with CommentLuv 2010 My ComLuv Profile

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  18. Keith from Business3.0
    December 21, 2009
    7:26 pm

    I am building a new site and it immediately asked me to upgrade, after I had uploaded my theme and downloaded several plugins I upgraded and it locked up my site, I hadn’t backed up yet, so I had to start from scratch, first time this has ever happened to me when upgrading, so I will wait a bit to do it again….
    Keith@Business3.0´s last blog ..Do-Follow Comments and Comment Luv My ComLuv Profile

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  19. Denis
    December 22, 2009
    4:10 am

    You might also want to highlight the newly introduced bugs:

    http://www.semiologic.com/2009/12/21/wp-2-9-three-bugs-and-how-to-fix-them/
    Denis´s last blog ..WP 2.9: three bugs, and how to fix them My ComLuv Profile

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  20. Jayce
    December 22, 2009
    9:26 am

    Updated one of my blogs. So far so good. ;)
    Jayce´s last blog ..How to hack Facebook account profile My ComLuv Profile

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  21. Holly Jahangiri
    December 28, 2009
    7:14 am

    It’s funny; the automatic upgrade to 2.9 worked just fine for me. It failed twice on 2.8.6, and I decided just to skip that version. Programmers take note: Buggy upgrade script = more bugs somewhere else = more headaches I don’t need. It may not be true, but try convincing me to try that 2.8.6 upgrade again. Fortunately, with 2.9 installed, I don’t have to.
    Holly Jahangiri´s last blog ..It’s the Dopamine, You Dope! My ComLuv Profile

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  22. remirando
    January 22, 2010
    10:41 pm

    “Call to undefined function get_file_data() in /home/xxxx/public_html/wp-admin/includes/plugin.php on line 81″

    i had this problem while updating, and your solution worked fine:)

    Reply to this comment
  23. Richard from Low Cost Dental Implants
    March 28, 2010
    4:27 pm

    The upgrade all plugins option has sved me so much time. You can definitely a jump in the smoothness of how things work with this upgrade. I love their style aswell, with the name ‘Carmen’, the guys behind WordPress have a lot of fun :-)
    Richard@Low Cost Dental Implants´s last blog ..Affordable Dental Implants My ComLuv Profile

    Reply to this comment
  24. ann from glass nyc
    May 6, 2010
    4:09 am

    2.9 is great. Love every aspect of it. I do wonder what will developers treat us to in the next release.

    Reply to this comment
  25. Angela from Webdevelopment
    May 30, 2010
    3:30 pm

    Hey Typhoon, have you checked out WordPress 3.0 yet? I was wondering what your opinion is about the multi-user and the custom content options? Personally, I think it’s a huge step towards positioning WordPress as a CMS, instead of a blogging tool. Things like these really make your website more powerful.

    Well written article, by the way.

    Reply to this comment

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