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]

As stated before Breadcrumb NavXT 2.2 will be vastly different from 2.1, especially API wise. Work is underway on the core, which when stabilized, will allow work on the administrative interface to take place. This is the second major rewriting of the plug-in done in the last year. Previously, the modifications to the core were made to aid in adding features, and enhance modification to it. However, there where some shortcomings which should be overcome by the new more object oriented approach. So far this is the short list of what is changing:

• Anchor templates – akin to the WordPress’ custom permalink template, this allows more flexibility (i.e. allows users to set the rel element among other things).
• Streamlining of the options – options depreciated due to the use of anchor templates, ones that now are already set in WordPress (e.g. the static frontpage option), and ones that were depreciated due to structural changes. The current short list of depreciated options include:
  • URL Title Prefix – obsolete due to anchor templates
  • URL Title Suffix – obsolete due to anchor templates
  • Static Front Page – depreciated in 2.1.3 due to ability to automatically determine this thanks to the WordPress setting “Front page displays” under Settings > Reading.
  • Current Item URL Title – obsolete due to anchor templates
  • Archive by Date Format – reassigned, delimits between a hierarchical date archiving (multiple breadcrumbs in the trail), or the old method following the format specified in the WordPress setting “Date Format” under Settings > General.
• Deeper WordPress integration – not just with the removal of duplicated options, extensive use of filters should alleviate problems with plugins such as Polyglot and qTranslate (Previous support was via “hacks”.).
• Reorganization of the Administrative interface – Not only are the options streamlined, option names are more obvious, and grouped in a more appropriate manner. The interface is also tabbed into several virtual pages thanks to some JavaScript magic. This considerably shortens the apparent size of the options page.
• New Classes – A breadcrumb class and a breadcrumb trail class combine to make the plugin as a whole much more flexible. Unfortunately, this means directly accessing the class does change between 2.1 and 2.2 and thus will require attention from users who directly access the class.

Additionally, a WordPress sidebar widget plugin will be shipped with 2.2.0. This will remove the need for some users to ever touch a theme file, as long as their theme supports sidebar widgets. By this weekend the new core on SVN will be usable, as the bugs are worked out the administrative interface will receive the attention it needs. Around August 8th a Beta will be available, for this much change it is of the utmost importance that some serious testing is done before a formal release is made. If you would like to help test, stay tuned for a post announcing the beta, and report back on your experience.

-John Havlik

[end of transmission, stay tuned]