Backup Before Upgrading

There is a bug in Breadcrumb NavXT 3.5.0’s install script that will reset your settings on activation. If you do not want to lose your settings, please export them using the Import/Export/Reset tab, and then Import them after upgrading to 3.5.0. Next week 3.5.1 will be released to address this problem and a few others that were discovered today by myself and others (probably Monday night).

As for how these made it into the main release, there is no one to blame for it but myself. As I work directly out of my testbed, I don’t activate/deactivate my plugins except when to test the install script. The actual cause was back in 3.4.0 when I changed ‘tag_’ to ‘post_tag_’ in some of the option names to fit with the custom taxonomy support (and WordPress’ name for tags). However, 3.4.x had a bug where the install script did not actually run (in most cases). When that was fixed with the rewrite of much of the administrative interface code, this dormant bug appeared, but I didn’t notice it until today while trying to fix a bug with the “Archive by Date Suffix” setting.

Moving forward, if you are using Breadcrumb NavXT in a system that does not use the default settings, please do a settings export before upgrading. This will save everyone headaches in the future. Also, I try to fairly transparent about development progress, and almost always announce when the plugin is going to translators for translation updates. This is typically a week before I intend on releasing it. In this time, please feel free to test out the SVN trunk for bugs that may affect you. Since there are features in Breadcrumb NavXT that I do not routinely use, I may not catch bugs in these areas. The more people looking at the release candidate, the fewer number of bugs that will make it through (same goes for WordPress as well). As always, if something is broken let me know.

-John Havlik

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Breadcrumb NavXT 3.5.0

Holy customizable widgets Batman! With Breadcrumb NavXT 3.5.0 not only can you have multiple widgets (WordPress 2.8 Widget API), but you can also specify the options normally exposed to bcn_display();. Other changes to note are the addition of two filters, bcn_before_fill and bcn_after_fill, to bcn_breadcrumb_trail::fill(). These should allow for easier extension of Breadcrumb NavXT (though, with custom post type support coming in 3.6.0 this may be redundant). Finally, the settings page code has been rewritten and modularized, in the process, several outstanding bugs should have been squashed (no settings on first install).

Please note that this release requires WordPress 2.8 or newer.

Many thanks to Karin Sequen, Patrik Spathon, and Luca Camellini for submitting updated Spanish, Sweedish and Italian translations. Sadly, the French, German, Russian, and Dutch translations have fallen out of date. If you want to pick up translation of any of these, or want to submit a translation in your language, send me an email. For 3.6.0, I’d really like to get all of the translations up on the same page again.

You can grab the latest version of Breadcrumb NavXT from the Breadcrumb NavXT page.

-John Havlik

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Breadcrumb NavXT 2010 Roadmap

With the first beta of WordPress 3.0 being available, it’s time to think about Breadcrumb NavXT once again. Currently, the SVN version of Breadcrumb NavXT works in WP 3.0. All versions of Breadcrumb NavXT prior to 3.5 (not released yet), have known bugs in WP 3.0.

As Breadcrumb NavXT 3.5 is already upping the minimum WordPress version to 2.8, support for custom post types won’t make this release. Some modifications to the core will be done to enhance extensibility for those who don’t want to use OOP techniques (e.g. filter/action hooks will be added). The first “beta” of this will be available, without updated translations, in the next two weeks. After a month of beta status, translations should be updated and a release in early May (will be moved up to be within a few days of the WordPress 3.0 release, if not before).

Breadcrumb NavXT 3.6 will require WordPress 2.9 as custom post type support will be added. Depending on the time available this release may have enhanced multi blog support. Currently, it looks like this will show up sometime in July.

Breadcrumb NavXT 3.7 will wrap up any multi blog support not covered in 3.6. Depending on how WordPress 3.0 and 3.1 turn out, this version may require WordPress 3.0. This will be a fall release, probably sometime in October.

-John Havlik

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Breadcrumb NavXT 3.4.1

This is the first bug fix release for the 3.4 branch of Breadcrumb NavXT. Those with PHP short tags disabled should no longer get the unexpected $end on line 1567 in breadcrumb_navxt_admin.php error. Using the paged option will no longer cause a WP_Error to string conversion error. Finally, flat taxonomies leading up to a post will become linked again. Hopefully this covers all of the bugs in Breadcrumb NavXT 3.4.0, if you are still experiencing problems with 3.4.1, leave a comment below in the comments section.

You can grab the latest version of Breadcrumb NavXT from the Breadcrumb NavXT page.

-John Havlik

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An Unexpect End Error

Ok, so a few of you have reported a PHP error involving an unexpected $end in breadcrumb_navxt_admin.php on line 1567. After some searching and thinking, the cause was found. Line 1248 of breadcrumb_navxt_admin.php has an improper opening tag (<? instead of <?php). For some reason only Windows based PHP installations were catching this. None-the-less, this has been fixed in the SVN trunk and a bug fix release, 3.4.1, will be made next week.

As one has not been able to reproduce this error on either of one’s testbeds, feedback from those who had this error is essential to ensuring that it is fixed. If you experience the error with Breadcrumb NavXT 3.4.0, please try the SVN trunk and see if it is resolved and report back in the comments section of this post.

-John Havlik

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