I’ve been through a lot of Wordpress upgrades to 2.5. Each time I notice something different. There are many promising little features.

Here are a few:

• a separate panel for managing tags and categories
• fancy media uploader
• auto plugin upgrades (my personal favorite)
• improved wp-config security
• a back button after editing a post
• drastic improvements in overall admin css by Happy Cog

We’ve been busy upgrading Wordpress versions. 2.5 has some terrific features and merges the style of Happy Cog with the meat and php of Wordpress.

Recently, I’ve had the pleasure of checking out Pictura Gallery and creating some slideshows for them. I’ll make sure to link to their site once it’s up and running.

I’m running Leopard on my laptop. I am very happy with it. I have experienced a few browser glitches, but have been very satisfied overall. The new downloads feature is very useful. I’m excited about Time Machine, but haven’t had the chance to use it yet.

After racking my brain for hours upon hours working for a solution to this:

WordPress database error: [Table ‘triajnamics.trinamicspost2cat’ doesn’t exist]SELECT p2c.category_id AS cat_id, COUNT(p2c.rel_id) AS numposts, UNIX_TIMESTAMP(max(p.post_date_gmt)) + '-4' AS last_post_date, UNIX_TIMESTAMP(max(p.post_date_gmt)) AS last_post_date_gmt FROM trinamicspost2cat p2c INNER JOIN trinamicsposts p ON p2c.post_id=p.id WHERE (p.post_status='publish' OR p.post_status='static') AND p.post_date_gmt<='2007-09-28 03:49:02' GROUP BY p2c.category_id ORDER BY numposts DESC

I realized that creating “dummy tables” was the best way to go. Adding in an old post2 table seems to satisfy Wordpress 2.3. In summary, I thought it was my theme or my webhost, but it was simply Wordpress choking on the table it hastily deletes. If you read the codex forums, they’ll likely drone on about your incompatible plug-ins. For me, and I suspect others, this was not the case.Upgrading? I’d of course back-up your files and database, disable all plug-ins, and upgrade. Check for errors. None? Celebrate. String of errors on index.php? Try adding in an old table from your back-up (whichever one your error messages are referencing).Good luck!

Wordpress 2.3 does many things differently. Some tables that plug-ins require have been removed completely. I recommend that designers stick with 2.2.3 for the time being until more backward compatibility patches are applied. This site is running on 2.3 for testing purposes, but is still having problems displaying the loop. The deletion of the post2cat table has wreaked havoc on many a blog this week.

Joomla Endeleo was recently released and boasts updated scripts, media manager changes, and improved core templates.We hope to experiment with this new release after Matt and the Wordpress team finalize the new Wordpress release. Many Conscious Design sites will need back-end upgrades in the near future to stay on the cutting edge. Hooray for progress. Onward!

Our greatest open source software option just got a little better. While 2.3 isn’t quite ready yet, 2.2.3 is a nice patch release that improves security. Go out and grab it right now!

WORDCHASM has been moved to 2.2 without any snags, which bodes well. The 2.2 series was long tested and well considered, so users and developers alike can sleep easily. Next up for upgrade, yours truly. The Conscious Design will be moving to 2.2 tomorrow morning.

The word is that Wordpress 2.2 will be out within the next few weeks, so we’ll keep our eyes peeled.