WordPress 3.7 has just been released! The release is named “Basie” in honor of Count Basie, an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. This new release focuses more on backend than frontend and rightly proves that WordPress is going in the right direction. According to Matt Mullenweg, “This release features some of the most important architectural updates we’ve made to date.” Let’s take a closer look at what WordPress 3.7 offers.
WordPress 3.7 Features:
Automatic updates: Most important of all, WordPress 3.7 comes with automatic updates features, which means you won’t need to manually click on the “Update” button on your WordPress install. Most sites are now able to automatically apply these updates in the background. The update process is made secure with dozens of security checks and safeguards. Note that this automatic updates are only for minor updates for example, from WordPress 3.7 to 3.7.1 and not from 3.7.1 to 3.8. These minor updates are mostly for security, bug fixes and some new features. Major updates will still require your attention.
Stronger password recommendations: As we all know, your password is the first line of defense. Therefore it’s best to create long and complex passwords that aren’t easy to guess. The new version comes with improved password meter to recognize common mistakes that can weaken your password: such as names, dates, keyboard patterns (like 123456789), and even pop culture references.
Better global support: Localized versions of WordPress will receive faster and more complete translations. WordPress 3.7 adds support for automatically installing the right language files and keeping them up to date. This feature is a boon for those users who’re using WordPress in a language other than English.
Improved search results: WordPress 3.7 has finally overcome a big problem. WordPress now ranks search results by relevancy, instead of being ordered by date. This means that if a search query matches the post’s title, then that result will be displayed at the top.
Apart from that, there are many more features of WordPress 3.7, which you can learn about from here. This is the first release using the new plugin-first development process, with a much shorter time frame than in the past.
WordPress 3.8 is due in December, and it will continue with this plugin-led development cycle that gives much more autonomy to plugin leads and allows developers to decouple feature development from a release.
So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and download WordPress 3.7 right now, or update from the WordPress dashboard. Even though this is a minor update, you shouldn’t ignore it.
If you’ve already updated your WordPress installation to 3.7, then how’s your experience so far? Let us know in the comments below.