Any company that strives to create widely used, well-made software absolutely has to take care of it constantly and to work on it constantly in order to keep making it better and better. Software developing teams strive to work with the customers in order to improve their software, since no software is perfect when it first comes out. Since this is true for all software out there, it is logical that WordPress is not exempt of this.
Being one of the most widely used content management systems (CMS), with over 69 million users across the world, it is clear that this system absolutely has to be constantly up-to-date with the changes that are happening across the web. Many security vulnerabilities exist in software used over the Internet and these have to be dealt with by the developing team. There are also some updates, which are concerned with the quality of service and ease of use. So, every now and then, the WordPress developing team issues an update. It is very important that every update is regularly installed (you will be reminded of this when you log onto your WordPress account every time when there is an update available), because this will ensure that you get the best possible service. To explain things better, I will present you with four latest WordPress updates and explain what novelties and changes has each of them put forward.
WordPress 3.4.2
Of all the updates that I will list here, this one is the oldest. WordPress 3.4.2 has brought important security and maintenance updates, which helped improve the satisfaction of users of this content management system. The developers have noticed some vulnerabilities with the previous two versions, 3.4.1 and 3.4, and have decided that these should be dealt with. Following things have been changed with this update:
- The issues with some of the older browsers have been fixed.
- A problem with previewing a theme and with displaying screenshots has also been fixed.
- Plug-in compatibility with the visual editor has been improved.
- Pagination problems with some categories of permalink structures have been addressed.
- Errors with both oEmbed and trackbacks have been avoided.
- Prevention of uploading improperly sized header images has been included.
As I said, these additions have greatly improved the service that the users got when using WordPress. Moving on to the next one.
WordPress 3.5
With this update, WordPress has decided to go for some major changes in order to improve the quality of the software. This is why this update has been dubbed 3.5 and not 3.4.3. Anyway, here is the list of improvements:
- Media manager has been improved to allow easier access and better management of media in the posts;
- “Favorite plug-ins” has been included which allows the users to install their favorite plug-ins on a new WordPress site with one click;
- Admin area looks much smoother;
- oEmbeds have been dealt with – from this update on, you just need to paste the URL for any YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud or any other website and it will be shown completely in the post;
These are the most noticeable improvements of this update. You can find the complete list of changes on the Internet, if you search just a little bit.
WordPress 3.5.2
This update has been mostly concerned with the security side of WordPress, because the developers have noticed some security flaws with both the 3.5 update and WordPress in general. A large number of attacks and hijacks have been happening, so the developers have decided to solve the problems. These are the problems that have been dealt with:
- A server side request forgery vulnerability. This allowed the attacker to exploit a server-side flaw by exploiting URLs.
- Checking of user privileges has been improved, to prevent the attackers from posting.
- Cross-site scripting vulnerability with the SWFUpload. Now it can only be accessed from the same domain.
- A DoS vulnerability on password protected posts.
These are, once again, the most important improvements, as there is a few more that improved the overall security of the CMS.
WordPress 3.6
This is the latest update of WordPress and if you have recently started using WordPress, chances are that you are using this version. It has brought forward many changes, which, once again, improved the ease of use and has, also, addressed some of the security issues. Here’s what’s new with this one:
- Audio and video embeds have been improved even further
- Auto-saving is now much quicker and allows to save the site locally should a crash occur or the server goes offline.
- Posts have been locked to disable multiple users from editing a post at the same time. Instead, when one edits, the other has to wait, or to take over, if he has the privileges.
- Menu creation has been greatly simplified.
These improvements definitely deserve to be mentioned, even though there are more that improved the overall experience of WordPress.
These updates have been vital for receiving the overall WordPress experience and the developing team has been working hard in order to keep the users of WordPress happy and satisfied. This is something that is very important for developing good software.