Looks like many people blindly update their WordPress plugins. What is even worse is they do not notice changes in a plugins behavior, even messages that a function is being depreciated. Case in point, this Google query yields 62 relevant pages (out of over 4000 supposed results) that all updated to Breadcrumb NavXT 3.0, but have not updated their function calls. Come 3.1 their sites will break unexpectedly (If they are using the correct calling code their breadcrumb trail just won’t appear).

One cause of this blindness is the built in plugin updating functionality built into WordPress since 2.5. Don’t take this the wrong way, it makes updating easy and is a really useful feature. However, it has become too easy for a user to upgrade to a version of a plugin that may not work in their setup (they are still running PHP4–which they should not be doing, or using outdated function calls). There is no easy way for a developer of a plugin to make something jump out at the users telling them: “Hey this version no longer supports PHP4 and by the way make sure you are using this function instead of tHis old one.”. Thankfully, come WordPress 2.7 the situation will improve slightly, a “release notes” page link is available in the plugin management page.

When running a website it is important to really pay attention to what is going on. Those with this problem are not paying enough attention, and frankly are vulnerable to hacking and hijacking of their websites. Weblogs.us had another security breech back in late September–more on this at a later time. It was discovered through Google search. Even after only three days, the Google search results for this blog were poisoned with explicit content. Prevention through security is always the first route to take, but active monitoring for early detection of events is just as important.

As a side note, there is now a Frequently Asked Questions page for Breadcrumb NavXT. Users should read it before asking for help regarding errors and other things. It was compiled from actual questions asked by users, and search queries that were relevant to the plugin. By no means is it an exhaustive list, and will be added to as time goes on.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

Holy reduced queries Batman! Announcing the immediate availability of Breadcrumb NavXT 3.0. This is a major release, which does change the API from previous versions. Users of the administrative interface should not notice any problems, users who directly access the bcn_breadcrumb class need to update their code (as that class has been reassigned). The administrative interface has been completely reworked, as has the core completely rewritten. Anchors are completely customizable now, among other things. Administrative interface users will notice an improvement in performance thanks to the dramatically reduced number of database queries. Do note that this version has not been tested with PHP4, and support is not guaranteed.

Find out more about the changes on the project page for Breadcrumb NavXT.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

Due to some very drastic changes in the API and administrative interface, the next Breadcrumb NavXT version will be tagged 3.0 rather than 2.2. The newly rewritten administrative interface takes advantage of modern WordPress plugin methods. In this version the number of database queries have been reduced significantly. This significantly increases the speed of Breadcrumb NavXT for users of the administrative interface. A sidebar widget is built in to the plugin making it possible to add in a breadcrumb trail without modifying a single PHP file. When using the Tabular NavXT plugin, on the Breadcrumb NavXT admin page, as well as others, after clicking “Save Changes” to submit the form the user is returned to the tab they were on (rather than reload on the general tab).

Breadcrumb NavXT 3.0 is in a feature lock beginning immediately. All features that are not in Beta 2 will be pushed back to 3.1 for introduction. With the new heavily object based plug-in introduction of most features is much simpler than before. Additionally, when directly accessing the class, object oriented programming techniques can be used to easily extend it in a very clean manner. Two weeks will be allowed for translators to make new, up-to-date translations and for bugs to be reported and fixed. That means the release date will be around the 12th of September.

Download Breadcrumb NavXT 3.0 Beta 2.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]

After a few months of development, the first beta for Breadcrumb NavXT 2.2 is ready. Take note that not everything is done yet. Even though the administrative interface is updated to take advantage of the new options and such, it will be rewritten before the final version is out. This beta test round is primarily a test of the new core. Most bugs in it have already been worked out, but not all setups have been tested. Note that this may require PHP5, if you are having problems with PHP4, try to upgrade your PHP version first. Please report bugs in the comments section of this post.

Administrative interface wise, changes between Beta 1 and Beta 2 (will probably be out next weekend) are nearly all under the hood. The administrative interface is going to get rewritten so that it is aligned with the new way of doing things in WordPress verses the legacy 2.0 methods currently in use.

Edit: Seems that I made a commit to the wrong place last night, thus Beta 1 is currently broken. (8-29-2008)

Download Breadcrumb NavXT 2.2 Beta 1.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]