Beta testers wanted for Post Avatar

It’s nearly here! Post Avatar 2.0 is pretty much ready but before I release into the wild I’m looking for some beta testers to, well, test it out.

So what are the major changes?

WordPress 2.7 Baseline

When I first developed Post Avatar, WordPress 2.0 had just come out and all upgrades have been compatible with it. But lets face it, having to maintain support for that long a range of WordPress releases has been difficult. Plus I want to take advantage of newer features in WordPress that I’ve decided to benchmark development for the 2.7 release and up.

Filters and Actions

I’ve added a number of actions and filters that hook into Post Avatar to make development of add-ons (uploading capability, additional image selectors and so on) much easier.

Changes to the gkl_postavatar template tag

Yes, I have made changes here. For people who don’t feel comfortable editing their themes, the HTML/CSS options will still be available in the Post Avatar settings page. However, you will no longer be able to set HTML to display before and after an image within the template tag.

If you’re interested in beta testing, drop me a line: vix@garinungkadol.com and I’ll send you the zip file.

Beta Testing WordPress 2.5

I’ve been playing around with the beta version of WordPress 2.5 mainly to see if my plugins are going to break in this version. I’ve only tested Post Avatar but no problems so far. The main change will involve changing the display HTML since WP 2.5 is a complete overhaul of the admin panel.

Screenshot of WordPress 2.5 menu Aside from the initial reserve about the color scheme – it seemed a little washed out, I’m enjoying what I’m seeing. I like how the menu is set out with usual tasks of writing and managing posts and comments on one side and options for settings and plugins on the other.

The HTML has been simplified going from WordPress 2.3.3:
<div class="dbx-box-wrapper">
<div class="dbx-handle-wrapper">
<h3 class="dbx-handle"><?php _e('Post Avatar'); ?></h3>
</div>
<div class="dbx-content-wrapper">
<div class="dbx-content">
<!-- Content Here -->
</div>
</div>
</div>

to :
<div id="gkl_postavatar" class="postbox closed">
<h3><?php _e('Post Avatar'); ?></h3>
<div class="inside">
<!-- Content Here -->
</div>
</div>

Another thing that I like is the media uploader. I’ve only used the existing file uploader in WordPress sparingly – but the new uploader makes it easier to add files. There’s some kind of gallery tag which I need to check out. Hopefully this lets you display a group of uploaded images in your post.

WordPress 2.5 - Advanced Options

The one thing that I’m not happy about is the Advanced Options portion of the Write Post screen. It seems silly to have all this space for a single input box or a few checkboxes.
You have to click on the Comments and Pings header to view the two checkboxes and make the changes. It would be better if they were below the Save/Publish box.