WordPress 3.5 was released to the public on December 11, 2012.
They've named this one “Elvin” in honor of drummer Elvin Jones, who played with John Coltrane in addition to many others.
This major release is like an early Christmas present for bloggers and developers full of new features and improvements.
Check out this quick video to see some of the highlights of WordPress 3.5:
Although there are no noted security fixes in WordPress 3.5, there are several bug fixes and feature changes to improve the quality of WordPress.
Highlights include a new media manager, new default theme with responsive design (Twenty Twelve), Admin enhancements, changes to the Javascript Library, and more. Be sure to check out the list at Codex Version 3.5.
Upgrading to WordPress version 3.5
A word of caution before you update! This is a major WordPress upgrade. Certain plugins or themes could break your WordPress site. Before you push the "Please update now" link, be sure you have a full backup of all your site files and database.
One of my favorite tools for backing up WordPress is the *BackupBuddy plugin.
The link above is my affiliate link. Save 25% off your order with coupon code WPSECURITYLOCKS.
Some plugins are already being reported to us that have issues with WordPress 3.5, including the scan function of the Wordfence Security plugin. I am sure that plugin developers are working feverishly to get them ready for version 3.5.
People ask me all the time, "Is it safe to upgrade WordPress now?" The answer is simple. If you are not using a plugin or theme that will conflict with WordPress 3.5 then you should be fine. Check your plugins and theme to see if they are compatible. Copy your site over to a test environment and try the upgrade there first. You certainly don't want to break your "live" site. (If you need help, contact me.)
Very Helpful Links:
- WordPress News: WordPress 3.5 "Elvin" < Official Press Release
- WordPress Codex: Version 3.5 < Summary of highlights and features
- Troubleshooting WordPress 3.5 Master List < A MUST READ OF KNOWN 3.5 ISSUES!
- WordPress Codex: Using Your Browser to Diagnose JavaScript Errors
- WordPress Trac: Milestone 3.5 < Tickets active and closed
- WordPress Codex: Changelog/3.5 < This should be updated soon
- Download WordPress 3.5
- WordPress Codex: Upgrading WordPress Extended < Our preferred upgrade method
UPDATE 12/12/2012 at 12:50pm CST:
A big thank you goes out to Mark Maunder, the developer of Wordfence Security, for notifying us via email, in which he points out a new security enhancement in WordPress 3.5. Nice!!
If you're wondering why many of your plugins are emitting the warning:"PHP Warning: Missing argument 2 for wpdb::prepare()"WordPress changed a policy in their code. They started requiring a second parameter when plugin authors call the wpdb::prepare function. They made this change as a security feature to help prevent SQL injection attacks.WordPress plugin core developer Andrew Nacin has a nice writeup that gives some detail on why the change was made.
Please share your experience with upgrading to WordPress 3.5. Did everything go ok? If you find a plugin or theme with issues, let us know. What's your favorite new feature? Leave your comment below.
About Regina Smola
Thanks for the reminders and notes about the new update. I clicked the button out of habit before even thinking about looking at my plugins. Fortunately, nothing seems broken this morning. (thank goodness)
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WordPress is used by over 16.7% of Alexa Internet's "top 1 million" websites and as of August 2011 manages 22% of all new websites.WordPress is currently the most popular blogging system in use on the Internet.This may be a bit technical for some of you but bear with me as you need this information. Add a file called .htaccess file to the admin folder to block all IP addresses except the ones you use. Place this .htaccess file in the “WP-Admin” folder of your Thesis WP themes blog.
Oh, I updated today as well and it seems that everything is in its place. For the future I'll be cautious to google about the possible upgrade effects before proceeding. Thanks for the warning!
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I updated with no issues on my plugins or premium theme. The only issue I had was the new default theme TwentyTwelve is broken missing it's stylesheet. I've tried updating it as well as I like to have a backup theme ready incase my premium one breaks and the update does not fix the missing stylesheet either.
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Hi Alaina,
Thanks for your comment. I saw this same issue at Troubleshooting WordPress 3.5 Master List. It says:
I updated a couple client sites without issue but waited until I had a chance to check on a few of the security plugin incompatibilities before upgrading other sites. Good post!
Wish I had seen this yesterday before I upgraded. After upgrading, I had a few problems. When trying to create a new post, I couldn't see anything when in View. I had a friend help me, we deleted a plugin (don't know if that's what was causing the problem or not) but the issue corrected itself and I think everything is okay now. But I definitely had a panic moment!!
I bet you did! Yikes! Glad it's fixed now. Do you remember which plugin might have caused it?
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I deleted the Auto-Upgrade plugin (I had it deactivated) since my friend told me I really didn't need it. But honestly, I don't think that was the problem. I really think there was some glitch in upgrading and once I logged out and then logged back in a couple of times, the problem fixed itself. My friend, who is pretty WP savvy, thought it was weird. But everything appears okay now.
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blkcatgal, would be interested in hearing what plugin you deleted, did you actually delete it or jsut deactivate it.
Reason I asked just had a client called and had the same issue, on all PAGES in the Editor view content is missing, the page view is fine, just in the Editor that the content is missing.
My client did deactivate ALL plugins and that did not solve the issue. Any feedback there would be helpful. And anyone else have this issue?
Roy,
I want to check it out and see if I can help. Just sent you a request on Skype.
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Hi Regina, I approved the request.
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With Regina's help we got this issue figured out.
All is working fine now. As Regina mentions below in a post it was a BulletProof issue.
While I havent tried the upgrade yet either, I think I will install on a test site of WordPress 3.4 and then upgrade with the latest BulletProof and see what happens, I will report back here.
I also want to say what a pleasure it was working directly with Regina on this issue, if you have any WordPress issues, make sure you call on her, very professional and pleasant to work with.
blkcatgal, thanks for your feedback!
Roy, I deleted the Auto-upgrade plugin which I had had deactivated, but honestly, I don't think that was the problem. I think it was a glitch in the upgrading and once I logged in and out a couple of times, the problem fixed itself. Very weird. BTW, my problem was that I couldn't see the post in View but could see it in Editor.
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Did you have the BulletProof Security plugin installed? Just found a site that was broken because of the wp-admin/.htaccess file that it creates. There is an upgrade fix for it now, but haven't tried it yet.
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No, I did not have that plugin installed.
Awesome coverage of a major change that will help millions. Am rolling out some things and might as well start with square one with this. For once WP timed it well for me.
Regina,
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I really like the Favorite Plugins feature which will save me a lot of time when building a new site.
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Ok, I just want to say that I have tested the BulletProof 47.7 plugin version with WordPress 3.5 and here is what I have done.
Before upgrading to WP 3.5 I upgraded BulletProof 47.7 as you would any WP Plugin. Then I performed a "one button" push upgrade for testing purposes, (although I prefer to manually upgrade). After the upgrade the known issues of the WP-Visual Editor did not appear like before by upgrading to WordPress 3.5 and not upgrading BulletProof.
So I (and I am sure Regina would concur) is to upgrade BulletProof to version 47.7 BEFORE UPGRADING your WordPress install to 3.5.
Hope that saves someone a headache or two.
I've been a bit scared to try the update, due to others having a few problems - the problem I heard the most about had something to do with posts. So I've just been waiting a bit... I appreciate being able to read others' experiences so that it helps me make a better decision - thanks everyone!
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Hi Regina,
I was actually doing a security scan on my blog when I got the notice that WordPress needed an upgrade. So I logged in and upgraded to 3.5 without any worries. I haven't really played around with the new features yet but I am looking forward to it.
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I shared this with my team. One updated before reading it and she is having major issues. Thanks fr the information you provide!
Several plugins are broken, (paid pluigins). And I dread clients updating and calling me with work and fixes.
I really hope WP slows down on the updates after this. The last two years has been update after update.
I dread them now.
Folks,
Here's a thought for the medium term. I run 4 independent blogs, each with their own unique theme and plugin set. There's too much manual work in checking theme/version compatibility for the next 'greatest' WP upgrade. And as some posters have commented, it's too fast/easy to trigger an upgrade without knowing the consequences.
We need a more sophisticated way to 'do' upgrades. Here are two thoughts.
First. WP needs an Upgrade Wizard (not simply an upgrade link). The wizard should have two steps. The first would check each existing site plugin and theme against metadata in WP plugin / theme directories. As to any plugin/theme whose 'known compatible' version does not match, would get a yellow flag in the wizard. Atlassian Confluence (wiki) has done this for a number of years, and it helps tremendously.
Users can then survey their site before committing to an upgrade. And a twitchy finger would be less likely to result in a difficult day, a downed site, and panicky posts.
Second thought. It would be my advice that WP strive to eliminate the 'version and above' lingo from all WP plugin and theme listings. No developer can honestly make this statement in light of the uncertainties inherent in software development. Yes, we do this out of habit. But it's a bad habit: The ambiguity does a disservice to most users -- In effect the language makes each user into a 'test pilot' at upgrade time. The developer is in the best position to QA to the latest version and then tell the community. I believe this would lead to a more consider upgrade process by most site and help cut support postings and 'release induced pressure' for most theme/plugin developers.
Thoughts?
Jim
I am trying to re-build my site (it got hacked and my backup was insufficient) and installed 3.5. Right out of the gate I can not use 3.5 because there is a major widget problem. Apparently any commercial theme that bundles jquery will render the widget editor useless. I just want to turn off all the sidebars and can not do it. At this point in order to use my theme I will have to go to back to 3.4.2 to have a working site. Security wise I am not happy about it but see no alternative. If anyone has any ideas please let me know.
Steve -- not sure what error you are getting but if your sidebar is filled with warning messages, the fix in this article may solve your problem. It did the trick for me. http://make.wordpress.org/core/2012/12/12/php-warning-missing-argument-2-for-wpdb-prepare/
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Thanks for the reply,
I am not getting any error messages, the widget for rearranging and deleting sidebars does not function. I can't drag anything anywhere. As I couldn't wait for a solution, I finished re-building my site but am running on 3.4.2. I fear if I upgrade to 3.5 it will adversely affect my site as the template was developed 2 years ago and support has stopped. I realize that I am breaking every cardinal rule here but I really like the template and want to keep it. I just hope my backup will indeed be useable.
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I did an upgrade to wordpress v3.5 recently. Not sure if it is just me or a glitch with wp3.5. Everything seems to work great accept the h tags, every time I insert a link to it, it disappears after I do an update.
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I have recently upgraded to WP 3.5 and whenever i upload any new media to my posts, after uploading it shows me an error and then i need to Save draft and reload my webpage, then i am able to see those images in my gallery. Do you know why this is happening?
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Hi Gurwinder,
Have you tried re-uploading all the WordPress 3.5 files to the server? Maybe one got corrupted during your upgrade. Just overwrite them so that you have all current files and see if that works.
Another option would be to try and re-save your permalinks. Sometimes that helps.
Otherwise, it sounds like you have a theme and/or plugin conflict. Try deactivating all your plugins and uploading new media in a post. If it works, then slowly reactivate each plugin and test new media until you find the plugin causing the conflict. You can also try switching to the Twenty Eleven or Twenty Twelve theme and see if it will let you upload media.
I don't have a Auto upgrade plugin in my wordpress site because some upgrades are accompanied by viruses. I will try this major upgrade and thanks a lot for sharing this,