Starting this morning, we have begun alpha testing our latest version of the Simple:Press plugin, version 5.8. Since its an alpha version there are likely to be some issues encountered with it. But, we need to get it off our test boxes and onto a live site with real users who may use it differently than we test. It’s a great way for us to get the release closer to reality. If you encounter any issues, please dont hesitate to let us know.
Version 5.8 is a significant departure in our codebase. We have completely restructured the code for better efficiency and maintainability. Its also a significant upgrade to the API – not our existing hooks, but how you interact with the core plugin itself. The core structure and attributes of the plugin were put in place back in 2005/2006. This restructure includes moving to classes, autoloading, js namespacing, removal of global variables, and so on. Its also interesting to see what you fix when you paw through old code! 😉 The restructure itself does not include significant new features (unless you include performance!). But we will, of course, slip in a few new things (more to come later). Every plugin and theme has been updated. If you have written any custom plugins or functions for interacting with Simple Press, they may need to be updated to work with 5.8 (also more on that later).
We have not yet decided if we will run a public beta, closed beta or just beta on our support site. The logistics of the first two are big. We will discuss more on that when the time gets closer.
In the meantime, please do let us know if you encounter any issues on our support site while the alpha testing is under way.