WordPress 3.1 released

The WordPress developers have announced the release of version 3.1 of the content management system but not without some last minute renaming. The release was originally named "Django" in honour of the jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, but after it was pointed out that this was the name of a popular Python web framework, the developers renamed it "Reinhardt".

The WordPress creator, Matt Mullenweg, picked out the highlights for users of the release which include a redesigned linking workflow for easier linking between posts and pages, an admin bar for logged-in users which gives them faster navigation around their site, and a writing interface that has been streamlined by hiding occasionally used panels.

WordPress developers will find a number of new features; these include the capability to style articles based on their meta-data, a new network admin menu, an overhauled exporter/importer which can, for example, handle author information, and improved handling of custom content types for archive pages.

Calling WordPress "more of a CMS than ever before", Mullenweg thanked the 180 contributors to WordPress 3.1 and promised a shorter development cycle for WordPress 3.2 because "3.1 took too long". More details of the changes in version 3.1 are in the WordPress Codex. In all, there were over two thousand commits to WordPress 3.1 and the Trac issue tracker lists the 820 issues that were closed in 3.1's development.

WordPress 3.1 is available to download, or, existing WordPress users can upgrade by using the admin dashboard's update panel. WordPress is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

(djwm)