WordPress Development Blog » Documentation

Improving your plugin – Changelogs

Peter Westwood — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:28:34 +0000

We’ve recently made some changes to help improve the communication between plugin authors and plugin users about the changes that are made between versions.

We feel that all software should have a changelog that details, at a high level, what changes have been made in each version so that the user can make an informed decision about when to upgrade and how much testing they should do with their site.

In order to make this an easy and open communication channel we have added support for a Changelog section in the plugins readme.txt file. This changelog information is then displayed as a separate tab in the plugin directory and also in the back end of your WordPress blog when you view the details on a new version of a plugin.

The new section is formatted as follows:


== Changelog ==

= 1.0 =
* A change since the previous version.
* Another change.

= 0.5 =
* List versions from most recent at top to oldest at bottom.

We would also like to recommend that you also provide meaningful log messages when you commit changes to the subversion repository for your plugin so that people who want to dig further into your changes can see why things are changing (At the moment is seems a large number of plugin authors leave this field blank which isn’t very helpful).

WordPress Backup Week

Matt — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 21:23:37 +0000

July 23-30 is WordPress Backup Week. The WordPress Forum and Codex are working together to remind you to backup your WordPress site and database and eat your veggies. Even if your host does it (or should be doing it) no one was ever hurt by too many backups. It should be done on a regular basis and we’re taking the time now to remind you to back it up (like a pickup truck). To help you out, we’ve put together articles on WordPress Backups and Backing Up Your Database. If something happens to your data, we’re still here with another article on Restoring Your Database From Backup. Of course if you have any problems, the WordPress Support Forum is there to help.

Get In The Loop

Matt — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 16:59:34 +0000

The WordPress Loop is the brains behind your WordPress site. A simple yet sophisticated bit of PHP coding, it generates the content and information displayed on your site, in fact, on each template page on your site. Understanding how the Loop works and how you can customize it to your needs is covered extensively in the article on The Loop in Action.

This is just one of the more than 450 articles on the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress users, available to help you.

By the way, this week we’re moving the Codex to a new and fully redundant hosting situation that will guarantee 100% availability of all documentation regardless of anything happening to wordpress.org.

Template Tags

Matt — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 23:01:44 +0000

WordPress Template Tags are the backbone of your WordPress site, giving you the power to generate content on your site. Template Tags allow you to change the way the categories and date and time are posted in your post meta data section. They control how categories, Pages, and posts are displayed on your site. Almost everything you see generated on your WordPress web page comes from the use of a Template Tag within a template file. If you are new to Templates and Template Tags, read Stepping Into Template Tags to get started understanding the power of WordPress Template Tags.

This is just an example of the information you will find in the WordPress Codex the official online manual for WordPress.

Weekly Roundup

Matt — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 06:01:40 +0000

At the last WordPress IRC meetup there was a consensus that this development blog isn’t used enough for spreading general news and information about WP, and one of the ways we’ve decided to address that is with weekly roundup posts summarizing some activity and highlighting some of the amazing resources in the Codex. The posts will be written by the community itself using the Codex, and posted every Thursday. We’ve got two bits to kick it off:

Upgrading WordPress

With this week’s announcement of a new security release for WordPress, 1.5.1.3, consider upgrading your WordPress site. You will find information and details on upgrading WordPress on the WordPress Codex at Upgrading WordPress.

If you are considering the bigger upgrade from a previous older version, like from WordPress v1.2 to the latest version, we have a step-by-step guide that will take you through the upgrade of your site and into the new WordPress Themes at Upgrading 1.2 to the Newest Version.

Volunteers Sought for Fundraising and Publicity for WordPress Activities

Exciting and fun events are coming up in the near future on the WordPress Forum and Codex and we are seeking volunteers to help with the publicity and promotion of these events and future fundraising campaigns. If you are interested in participating, visit the Fundraising and Promotions page on the WordPress Codex and sign up.