WordPress 3.2 is now available.

The focus for this release was making WordPress faster and lighter. The first thing you’ll notice when you log in to 3.2 is a refreshed dashboard design that tightens the typography, design, and code behind the admin. (Rhapsody in Grey?) If you’re starting a new blog, you’ll also appreciate the fully HTML5 new Twenty Eleven theme, fulfilling our plan to replace the default theme every year. Start writing your first post in our redesigned post editor and venture to the full-screen button in the editing toolbar to enter the new distraction-free writing or zen mode, my personal favorite feature of the release. All of the widgets, menus, buttons, and interface elements fade away to allow you to compose and edit your thoughts in a completely clean environment conducive to writing, but when your mouse strays to the top of the screen your most-used shortcuts are right there where you need them. (I like to press F11 to take my browser full-screen, getting rid of even the OS chrome.)

Under the hood there have been a number of improvements, not the least of which is the streamlining enabled by our previously announced plan of retiring support for PHP4, older versions of MySQL, and legacy browsers like IE6, which allows us to take advantage of more features enabled by new technologies. The admin bar has a few more shortcuts to your most commonly-used actions. On the comment moderation screen, the new approve & reply feature speeds up your conversation management. You’ll notice in your first update after 3.2 that we’ll only be updating the files that have changed with each new release instead of every file in your WordPress installation, which makes updates significantly faster on all hosting platforms. There are also some fun new theme features shown off by Twenty Eleven, like the ability to have multiple rotating header images to highlight all of your favorite photos.

The official WordPress announcement

3.2 Codex Details

Change Details

Download 3.2 (entire installation)

This is part 2 of a series of posts providing details of some of the new functionality being added to my WordPress plugin YouTube Embed.

During this article any reference to YE is indicating YouTube Embed (and, more specifically, the currently unreleased version 2).

Part 2 : Profiles & Lists

Profiles Options Screen

Profiles

With previous versions of YE you had a default profile that you could modify. If when embedding a video you didn’t specify any of the parameters then the default would be taken from this profile.

With the new YE you can now create multiple profiles – each having their own set of specific values. When embedding a video you can then say which profile to use.

So, you may have a standard default profile but another for widescreen videos, which is just the same but has a different size ratio.

There are a good few options available for each profile – everything from video size to whether you want (and how deep you want) a drop shadow on the video. The screenshot to the right shows some of what is available, but this is a partial list (and may change before the plugin is released).

Lists Options Screen

Lists

YE already supports YouTube generated playlists. However, you have little or no control over them (especially if they’re not your own). With the new version of YE you can now create your own lists of videos.

You simply supply a name for your list and then a list of video URLs or IDs – you can’t save this list until all the videos are checked and validated. Once done, instead of embedding using a URL or video ID you simply use the list name. By default, each video will then play in turn. However, parameters exist to allow you to play them back in a random order OR play just one video, but a random one.

A screen shot is to the list but may change as the plugin is completed.

This is part 1 of a series of posts providing details of some of the new functionality being added to my WordPress plugin YouTube Embed.

During this article any reference to YE is indicating YouTube Embed (and, more specifically, the currently unleased version 2).

Embedding Options (may change!)

Part 1 : Embedding Options

YE has the same embedding methods as before – PHP function call, widgets or the shortcode [youtube]. However, there are now a number of extra methods that can be used, many of which are to allow easy migration from other plugins.

In a later article I’ll talk about the multiple profiles that you can set up. In the meantime, it’s worth noting that for each of the following methods, a default profile can be specified allowing each to display differently.

Embedding with a URL

WordPress, by default, allows you to embed YouTube URLs simply by specifying them on their own line in a post. This uses some built-in oAuth functionality but there is no ability to tailor the output.

With YE, you will be given an option (switched off by default) to override this functionality and allow YE to take over. Any YouTube URLs then added to posts will then be shown using YE and any defaults you’ve assigned.

Embed in Comments

If you’d like your users to be able to embed videos within comments, activating an option in YE (again, defaults to off) will allow specification of a URL (as per the previous method) to create a YouTube video. With its own default profile, you can assign a video size that fits neatly with your comment output.

Further Migration Options

This is the big one. The bad boy. It allows you to migrate to YE from other plugins – the aim is to be compatible with 25 of the most popular alternatives. For further details on which plugins are supported and how to go about it, I’ve set up a dedicated page.

There are 2 ways to allow this…

1. Alternative Shortcodes

Many plugins simply work by using a different shortcode than YE. Some have multiple shortcodes – often one for defining HD quality video. Therefore YE offers you the ability specify 1 or 2 additional shortcodes.

So, as an example, if you’re migrating from WP YouTube Player, you simply set up an alternative shortcode of tube and you’ll find that any posts that worked under your previous plugin will now work with YE.

Some plugins have alternatives names for parameters that YE uses – e.g. the ID may be specified as url or youtubeurl. YE will automatically use these alternatives.

2. Non-shortcode Embedding

I couldn’t think of a better name for this but, essentially, some plugins use embedding methods which isn’t a straight URL and it’s not a shortcode. An example is Smart Youtube which uses a modified URL format – essentially, adding an extra letter to the protocol name at the beginning of the URL.

Turning on this option will activate detection of these embedding methods.

As it adds a slight performance hit – searching each post for all these different embedding types – this is switched off by default and should only be used if you’re migrating from one of the plugins that this works with.