What to expect with GD Star Rating 2.0

This was a very busy year for me, and because of that, one plugin development suffered. New GD Star Rating 2.0 is in development for some 7-8 months, and almost no development has been done on it. But, now that’s no longer the case, and GDSR2 is getting new code.

Still, I will not be able to work full time on the plugin, so it will be a while until is ready, but I expect that beta testing can start in the next 2 months.

Plugin will remain free. Support on the other hand will remain only Premium. Existing premium users will get premium support for new GDSR2

Here are some quick facts about the new plugin:

Requirements:

• It will require PHP5. Plugin will use new object model that is not even compatible with PHP4. The fact that WordPress is also switching to PHP5 only is a good sign.
• It will require mySQL5. Previous version had a lot of redundand code made so that plugin can work on mySQL 3/4, but that prove to be hard to maintain. So, only new mySQL from now on.
• It will require WordPress3. Maintaining any plugin to work with old WP versions is hard, and with plugin as complex as GDSR2 it will be extremely hard.
• It will work with BuddyPress. Yes, GDSR2 will fully support WordPress multisite/network mode and all additional features from BuddyPress.

Compatibility:

• Plugin will not be compatible with current GD Star Rating 1.x versions. New plugin is now written from zero, and nothing (and I mean really nothing) from old plugin will be used in the new one.
• Database structure is different from GD Star Rating 1.x. But, there will be a convert tool in the GDSR2 to import old data into the new structures. You will not loose already existing data.
• Most of the old functions will be gone. But, there will be a legacy package with the code to add old functions that will work with new code that will require minimal changes to your own code.
• Templates from T2 system are gone. New gdT3 templates system will be used (already used in GD aZon FUSION), that will store templates on disc not in database. Old templates can’t be reused here.
• Star/thumb sets are not the same as old ones. To make everything work faster, only one image per set is used (6 with old sets). New sets will allow adding new sizes beyond default 8 sizes.

(Some) New Features:

• Base rating classes will implement all sorts of functionalities for all 4 types of ratings: single star block, multi star block, single thumbs block, multi thumbs block (new one!). Code will be modular and split into several files so that plugin can load only what’s needed.
• From base rating classes, plugin will add new specific rating classes for: posts, pages, custom post types, comments, users, links, images/videos/attachments… Base classes will be used to add new rating objects.
• Some rating classes (like users), in WP Network mode will be global and will be controlled by network administrators. Same goes for some BuddyPress specific rating classes.
• Very lightweight CSS and JavaScript for rating blocks. This is already done months ago, and new CSS is only 20% of the old one. JavaScript is 50% smaller than one used in current GD Star Rating 1.x.
• Users will be able to change their votes.

And much more. This is just a glimpse in what’s to come with new GDSR2. Development process will be followed closely on Dev4Press, and you can expect weekly reports on what’s going on with the new plugin.