New version has a long changelog. Bugs fixed from previous alpha include: problems with panels (saving, rendering), problems with auto insertion, various rendering issues, problems with templates and bunch of PHP notices and warnings. Plugin now uses latest gdr2 and gdT3 libraries. Also, jQueryUI is updated to 1.9.1. Many plugin areas are improved, with focus on stability of the plugin admin side interface and auto insertion of the rating code.

Different Rating Blocks

From the rating standpoint, standard single stars rating is improved, loader displayed when vote is saved, and now you don’t need to use stars at all. Plugin supports switching stars display to: plain text links, radio items or dropdown list. This way you can style the block anyway you want, and you can use it for different things that don’t necessarily need you to show graphics. Also, stnadard thumbs rating is also working, and it also features display using text links, radio items or dropdown list.

There are some known issues with some of the admin panels that will be fixed soon. I am not going to give any definitive dates about next releases, but development is now back on track, and it shouldn’t be too long for next alpha. Plan for next alpha is to expand on rating methods and improvements to rating objects, templates and rendering. I hope to finish all core elements with 2 more alpha releases, followed by Beta.

bbPress module (internal) will be completed for next Alpha #4. BuddyPress module is planned for Beta #1. Previously announced modules and graphic packs will be available from Beta #1.

GD Star Rating 2.0 is 100% new plugin, and it the only thing it shares with old plugin is name. Plugin development is right now further along that Alpha #2 shows, but this version includes features that are usable at this point, and more features will be included once the code is stabilized. Over the next month, you can expect one new Alpha version each week. When plugin reaches Beta stage, most of the planned features for 2.0 will be included. Right now, modules for bbPress and BuddyPress (they will be included with the plugin), are not done yet. bbPress module will be added in Alpha #4 in about 2 weeks, BuddyPress module should be done by the time plugin reaches Beta stage.

Rating object rendering settings

Focus on this Alpha is not to test features. Right now plugin is some 80% done, but in this version, about 50% of code is included. Rest needs more testing and will be included more and more in next versions. First thing to test is database schema. There are 6 tables created by the plugin. Plugin Tools and multi sets panels are also functional. Panels Modules and Settings are used to set up the plugin. Right now modules are not completed, but whole modules engine is fully functional.

Rating object auto insertion

Main thing in this version is Ratings panel. From here you can setup each rating object. By default, plugin includes objects: post, user, comment and free. And page and attachments as inherited objects. Two images here are parts of this editor.

Rating objects can be set through several blocks of options and rules for: display, voting, limitations and insertion. Each rule allows control of the user logged in status, roles and conditions. Handling for all this can be expanded.

GD Custom Posts and Taxonomies Tools Pro plugin supports registering custom post types as rating objects. Each post type registered through this plugin will appear on the GD Star Rating 2.0 Ratings panel.

From now on, you can expect new alpha version each Monday.

So, here is enlarged image of the rating block:

GDSR 2.0 Rating Block

It looks quite like the old rating block, and that is on purpose, all new templates are based on the old ones. But, you see that stars have more colors that usual. White ones are the maximal rating value (5 in this case). Yellow is the current average rating (4.2 here). But, now we have orange value. It is in fact red with 40% opacity, and that represents rating cast by the current user. Normal red is the active rating selection. So, depending on the rating rules, user can change his vote.

This rating block is 100% Google rich snippets compatible, and i have been working with experts from Google to bring the best possible implementation for this snippet type, supporting both average and review snippets, and in microdata format and in Scheme.org format (you can select which one you prefer).

So, this is it for now, new plugin will begin its public journey in 5 days. I hope you are excited about the new version, and that you will test it once it is released.

Yes, June 21 2012 will be a release date for first public version. If everything goes well, there will be Alpha #3 soon after (2 weeks). After that it all depends on the bugs in Alpha. I can’t announce anything else beyond that at this point. Back to June 20. Alpha version will be released on the new GD Star Rating website to launch same day (old website will go into archive sub-domain) and here on Dev4Press. This version will not be available on WordPress.org. GD Star Rating 2.0 will replace current version in WordPress.org plugins directory once the final 2.0 is ready.

By the end of this month I will release first commercial graphics pack that will include 8 stars graphics sets. In July two more sets will be released, one for thumbs and another one with stars. Expect 1 or 2 more sets during the year. Owners of GD Star Rating Premium Support license have free access to all graphics sets while their license is active. By default plugin will include only one stars set and one thumbs set. Each graphics set will cost $29.00. First commercial module will be released later in the plugin development cycle, I can’t confirm anything right now. There are 2 modules that are in works to be ready for the final release of the plugin. Two planned free modules (for bbPress and BuddyPress) will not be functional in Alpha #2. GD Products Center and GD CPT Tools Pro will add own modules for support soon.

GD Star Rating 2.0 Alpha #2 will contain fully functional rating module and interface to control the rating process, API hooks to expand it with new rating objects and methods, shortcodes and functions for adding rating/review blocks into the code. I am also preparing API tutorials for the plugin (premium support access only), and videos on plugin setup (free for all).

Creating multi sets is similar to the old plugin. But, now we have popup dialog for convenience with drag’n'drop for the multi set elements.

Mutli Set Editor Popup

As for the plugin Tools, right now Import/Export is completed, and the Maintenance for cleanup and reset.

Maintenance Tools

Most important part is setting rating object, here is fully functional auto insert rules editor.

Rating Object Auto Insert

That’s it for now, stay tuned for more.

Each rating object has 3 rating types and 4 rating methods. Basic panel bellow shows settings for each rating type (mind some typos).

GDSR 2.0: Rating, Basic Settings

Second tab shows rules for the voting and revoting for rating type/method combinations.

GDSR 2.0: Rating, Voting Rules

That’s it for now, one more preview is coming soon, and once the admin panels are usable, public alpha will follow. Current testing is going well, and I can’t wait to share the plugin with all users soon.

So far, plugin core is ready, and the goal now is to work on the user interface for next Alpha #2 that will be released to public during this month. Once the Alpha stage is done, plugin will go to final release soon after with maybe one Beta and 2-3 release candidate versions. I can’t talk dates now, but once the Alpha #2 is released I will have precise release date for the plugin.

Current tests show that plugin needs only about 1.0 to 1.5 MB of memory (current 1.9.16 needs up to 5 MB), and it is very fast. CSS and JS files are very clean and simplified allowing great flexibility and CDN compatibility (current 1.9 branch wasn’t CDN ready due to complex CSS file). Code is modular and will allow for great expanding possibilities starting with modules that will be built in (bbPress and BuddyPress), or commercial modules later.

During this month, I plan also to build new website and to retire old one under a subdomain installation for archive purposes. New website will be dedicated to 2.0 version only. So, stay tuned for more news and soon several screenshots. Great thing now is that plugin is nearing the release and this internal testing period will provide me with valuable information to make next Alpha a public release.

During April 2012, plugin official website will go through changes. Current website will be moved to a sub-domain for archive purposes. New website will be created during the plugin development, after Alpha phase is done. As it was announced before, new plugin will not be compatible with old one. New plugin will feature conversion tools to copy data to new format. Old functions will have equivalents in the new plugin.

Main plugin features

This is the list of the features that will be part of the plugin. This is not definitive list, things can change quickly during development and new things can be added to this list.

1. Four built in rating methods: standard stars and thumbs, multi stars and thumbs. Multi thumbs is new rating method, similar to multi stars. All four methods can be used for rating posts, comments, users and any other rating object. Plugin will allow for adding of new rating methods.
2. Rating objects are main part of the plugin. Built in main objects are: post, comment, user and free. Secondary expanded objects are page and attachment. Plugins and themes can register additional rating objects for all kinds of purposes. Each object can be based on one of the main objects, or you can write a whole new objects to use. Modules will be available to add rating objects for bbPress and BuddyPress plugins.
3. Each rating object has following properties: vote, revote, insert, limit, restrict, moderate. Each of these can contain multiple set of rules for each rating method. This will allow for very fine tuned ratings display and control.
4. There are three rating classes: rating, author review and user review. Rating is open to everyone, author review can be set only by the post author (this rating class is available only for rating objects that have author) and user reviews can be used with comments system to provide user comments with rating for a review based websites. User reviews are not class of ratings, and in previous 1.x versions this was handled by normal ratings.
5. Changing saved votes/ratings. This will be available only to logged in users (no way to make certain determination of non logged visitors).
6. Improved Google Rich Snippets integration with snippet code added into rendering templates. Tis integration method will be much closer to what Google recommends.
7. New templates gdT3 system. This system is already in use for GD Products Center Pro plugin and is allowing a lot more flexibility including use of PHP inside the templates. Templates will be stored in files and will allow overriding and adding new templates.
8. GD Custom Posts and Taxonomies Tools Pro integration. Easy to use option to include registration of custom post types as independent rating objects.
9. GD Products Center Pro integration. Each product will get own rating object, and plugin will add what is needed into templates for ratings for products and reviews.

Database Structure

Plugin will use completely new database structure with only 6 tables (current 1.x plugin needed 12 tables). Plugin data structure will not be compatible with the old plugin.

1. One table is used to log all rating activities, regardless of the rating method or object.
2. Standard stars and thumbs ratings will be stored in two tables. One of these tables will be main table for individual rating elements, and the other one is for meta data about ratings.
3. Multi stars and thumbs will need 3 tables. One is main, one is for elements values and one is for meta data about ratings.

Modules

Modules will be available as part of the plugin that can be enabled if you need it, or as external plugin that GDSR 2.0 can use. External modules that will be published by Dev4Press will be commercial. If you have Premium Support license, some of these modules will be available as a part of that Premium package. If you don’t have premium package, purchase of a module includes support for that module, and access to module updates.

Internal Free Modules

1. bbPress. Simple module that will register rating objects for forums, topics and replies with some options about placing the rating elements and allowed types of ratings. This module will be free and part of the main plugin package.
2. BuddyPress. Another simple module to add rating objects for the different BuddyPressfeatures. This module will be free and part of the main plugin package.

External Commercial Modules

1. Badge. First module will be developed in the same time as the plugin will be for rating image badge. This will allow you to create image with rating that can be embedded on third party websites. Module will support customized base images, caching of images, rewrite rules for badge paths… This module will be available to users with premium support license.
2. Trends. Additional functionality to calculate rating trends and include them with different rating results, will be part of this modules. This module will be released at a later date and it will be available to users with premium support license.
3. Rating API. This module will be released later (hopefully by the end of this year), and it will not be available as a part of the Premium Support License. With this module you can publish ratings through API using XML or JSON formats. API can be configured to use authentication, what data to make available…

Graphics packs

Main plugin will contain one stars and one thumbs graphics set. Anyone can create additional sets. But, to make things easier, sets can be purchased. If you have Premium Support license, all graphics packs will be available as a part of that Premium package. With the help of few designers we will try to offer high quality graphics packs, and first such pack will be available by the time plugin gets stable release.

One of the main objections with old plugin, was a large memory footprint. Old plugin structure was written and updated over the period of two years, with many elements added on top of other elements, and that was causing higher memory usage. Old plugin started very simple and it grew from there. This time, GDSR 2.0 is starting very differently, and it has powerful core that can be expanded for any rating purpose.

New Multiset Editor

Base of the plugin is created using gdr2 shared library that handles main plugin classes, settings and settings forms rendering. This is already proven concept from GD Products Center Pro, and all future Dev4Press plugins will use similar approach. To render on frontend, gdT3 library is used (same as for GD Products Center Pro). On top of the plugin base code, there is rating core. Core is very modular, with base classes containing most of the code. Individual rating types are extending base classes to add additional features they might require. On admin side, plugin will use between 1.0MB up to 1.5MB. On front end, this should be about the same, depending on how many rating elements are displayed on the page. That is about 4 times less than with old plugin. Plugin needs only 6 database tables to store all the data. Plugin will use meta approach to store data, and that will help to accommodate different needs for different rating types.

First Alpha version will include following rating methods: Free (you can rate anything as long as you provide unique ID), comments, users, posts and pages. But, before Alpha is released, GD Custom Posts and Taxonomies Tools Pro will have support to register rating objects for each custom post type added by the plugin. Similar support will be added to GD Products Center Pro for registered product types.

That is all at this moment, I will have more information soon. Current target date for GDSR 2.0 Alpha is March 29 2012.

My other projects are gaining in popularity, and I need to spend more time working on other plugins, so GDSR 2.0 got much less development time than I hopped for. I am very, very busy and you can see from latest releases on Dev4Press that my time has gone into different plugins, putting GDSR 2.0 on the back burner. Good thing is that development is progressing, even if it slower than it should be.

I have outlined my time for the first 6 months in the next year, and plans for GDSR 2.0 is to be ready in the first quarter of 2012. In the next 2 weeks I will have plans published on the website, and they include xScape Theme Framework development, work on all current plugins, completion of current Beta plugins, at least one more major versions for GD Press Tools Pro and GD Custom Posts and Taxonomies Tools, major rewrite of GD Simple Widgets Pro and of course, GDSR 2.0.

My current development time is mainly occupied by new Pro plugin called GD Products Center. This plugin should be completed in about 10-15 days (well, stable 1.0.0, more features will be added later). As soon as that is done, I am resuming work on GD Star Rating 2.0. In the same time, I will work on a new theme, that will be rating oriented and that theme will be used to develop GD Star Rating 2.0 front end integration and testing. So, from October 24 2011, most of my development time will be dedicated to GD Star Rating 2.0.

If everything goes OK, first public Alpha version will be ready in about 3 weeks, and that is second half of November. Another 2-3 weeks after I will need to finish all planned features, and go into Beta versions release. My current plan is to have GD Star Rating 2.0 Stable out before the end of this year.

As announced before, plugin will remain free, but I will not provide any support for free (with exception of several show/intro videos nd basic documentation). Premium support available right now, will continue to function for new plugin also. Also, as announced before, there are several expansion packages planned: icons sets and other useful extras. And premium support users will get that for free. But, down the road, I plan to offer rating packages that will include premium support, one or more xScape themes and training. Pricing for all that is not yet available.

With all this said, this is not set in stone. I will do my best to keep with the schedule this time, and to release next generation of the best rating plugin for WordPress. Thanks for all the patience and support from plugin users, I hope you will like the new plugin.

Free Plugin

As I have said many times before, GD Star Rating 2.0 will remain free plugin and it will be available for download from WordPress.org plugins repository. Plugin uses new image sets for stars and thumbs for improved styling, and plugin will include 2 stars and 2 thumbs sets. As before, you can create new sets and use them. Templates for new plugin will be handled by new gdT3 library. This time, for more flexibility, templates will be in files (not in database as before). Templates will allow mixing of HTML/CSS and PHP this time. For each rendering element or type, one default template will be provided.

Plugin includes base code for ratings with specific rating types to support post types (post, page and custom post types), comments and users. Users rating types can be used for single or multi site ratings. Plugin support expanding rating types, adding new code for more rating types. This will allow directly adding rating support to bbPress 2.0 (because new bbPress uses post types). Base classes can be extended to support almost anything when the rating is concerned. All rating methods will be available with free version and that include: single and multi stars rating, single and multi thumbs ratings and each one of these for ratings, author reviews and user reviews.

To stop the further questions (and I getting them still): GD Star Rating 2.0 will be available for free, and that is not going to change.

Expansion Packages

But, I plan to provide more resources that will not be available with free version. Some users will want to have extra graphics to use, or extra templates. New stars and thumbs sets, some created exclusively for the plugin will be packaged for purchase. First such pack will be available as soon as GDSR 2.0 is officially released, and it will contain 8 stars sets and 4 thumbs sets. Pricing is not set yet. Also, additional packs with more templates, or templates made for specific purposes will be also on sale. This is not yet final, and I will keep you informed on this as the plugin release gets near.

Premium Support

Premium support remains as it is now. If you have active premium support, it can be used for GDSR 2.0. Additionally all expansion packages will be available for free to all premium support users, they don’t need to buy them. Premium Support includes tutorials, access to support forum and email support tickets. To make things easier there will be a lot of improvements to support system in the next couple of months.

And more

But, it doesn’t end there. I have received requests for more involved type of support that includes full setups with theme, additional plugins and more. This type of product support will available later and more details will be announced when I finalize everything.

This list contains many more new features, but some features that were available in 1.x are gone. They are not gone forever, they will be added later if needed, but there were bunch of very rarely used features that will make implementing them in new version very complicated and will take a lot of time to implement and will further delay release of 2.0.

Currently existing features that will not make into 2.0:

1. Voting trends: with all new ratings structures and data, I am having tough time creating database structure to support that and to be fast to work with. In any case, this is first major feature that will get highest priority after the release of 2.0. Target version: 2.1.
2. Legacy functions: new plugin will have all new functions for public/integration use. Plan is to try and mimic old functions and improve the compatibility. But, I will not be able to do it right away, and certainly not for all functions in the same way. So, legacy function support will be added later. Target version: 2.1 / 2.2.
3. Category based rules: with custom taxonomies added in WP, limiting rules to categories only is not good idea. But, implementing rules based on categories from the interface was very difficult in current plugin, and will be even harder to do in the new one. Rules in 2.0 will be changeable using filters and actions in the beginning. At one point, I will add interface for controlling taxonomies/terms based rules and settings. Target version: 2.3.

Features that will go into 2.0:

Everything underlined represent new features.

1. Rating methods: standard stars, standard thumbs, multi stars and multi thumbs. New image sets were made to use only one image for set for all sizes. Also, thumbs will have 3 states (2 available now), where third state is for current value or values set for current user.
2. Rating types will be handled quite differently than before. Current plugin had ratings based on posts, pages and comments. This time, plugin has a base objects to handle rating types, and will have specific rating objects that will be used for all initially supported rating types. So, 2.0 will support: default post types, custom post types, comments and users.
3. Multisite installations of WordPress will be supported. This will allow for global ratings that will be for objects that are not strictly individual site related. So, users will be available for rating on individual sites, and also globally for the whole network.
4. Ratings and reviews are now improved. Reviews in 1.x are singular ratings given by the authors or admins. But, one of the most important things users needed were reviews submitted through comments. 1.x handles this through normal ratings, but now, with 2.0 that will change. Authors will still be able to give own, singular rating. But, plugin will allow for another set of ratings to be separated and saved as review ratings by users.
5. New templates system will be used. gdT3 templates library works differently from T2 used in current plugin. New templates will be stored in files and will allow using PHP code inside the template. Unfortunately there will be no way to convert existing custom templates from T2 to gdT3.
6. Changing own vote is most requested feature. This will work with all rating types, but with one limit: only registered and logged in users can change own vote. Tracking regular visitors with high degree of certainty is very hard and hardly worth the trouble, so it will not be implemented.
7. Administration interface is also 100% rewritten. New ratings and results panel will allow detailed navigation of all registered rating elements and all the votes for them. Main settings panels will be very basic with very few options to set. Majority of all settings will be dependent on the rating type and you will be able to have fine control over each rating type and it’s settings and features.
8. For each star or thumb in the rating block you can set title or description of the actual value. With this you can name each star and use that value when hovering over stars or use it in the templates. For multi sets you will be able to set different values for each set element.

New database structure in 2.0:

As I said many times before, current plugin is not compatible with upcoming 2.0. New structure is much smaller than current one, and there is a possibility to make it even smaller, but at expense of what the data can be used for. Also, new structure will allow for future expansion and flexibility.

1. New database layout contains 6 tables. Once the trends are implemented, 2 more tables will be added, if you decide to use trends, if not these 2 extra tables will not be created.
2. Multi sets definitions table is no longer used. All created multi sets will be stored as settings in WordPress options table. This will improve performance and make some coding aspects simpler.
3. Main (non multi) ratings will be stored in two tables. Main one will contain settings, and the other one will behave as meta table containing only actually set values.
4. Multi ratings will use 3 tables. Two were be used as normal non multi ratings (settings and data) and third one will store all individual set elements values data.

So, there you have it, this is definitive list of features that will end up in GD Star Rating 2.0. In the next 2-3 weeks I hope to have some info on the release date.

Previous GD Star Rating had standard star ratings, multi star ratings and thumbs ratings. Now, we will have one more: multi thumbs ratings. For all of them, a brand new CSS and jQuery code is written from scratch with new format for images. Now, each set will have all stars/thumbs sizes in one file instead of having separate files for each stars/thumbs size. By default, plugin will support these sizes: 8px, 12px, 16px, 20px, 24px, 32px, 40px and 48px. But, CSS for handling it is now very, very simple and will be easy to change to support bigger sizes and even non square dimensions. Combined CSS code for all sizes for thumbs and stars is under 10KB and it will be static, unlike in current versions.

New Settings panel in GD Star Rating 2.0

Image on the right shows new settings panel that borrows visual elements from xScape settings panel. It’s still a work in progress, but plugin will have same interface look as all the other Dev4Press premium plugins.

jQuery code is also 100% rewritten to support better dynamic code adding (if you add stars through ajax for instance, or use some cache or dynamic loading) using jQuery live methods. New code will also allow for vote changing feature and it will be faster and more reliable for cross browser compatibility. But, IE6 will not be supported. New code can’t be made to work with that browser, and tests for now show that it works fine with IE7 and newer versions, with Safari, Opera, Firefox and Chrome.

By default plugin will have 2 stars and 2 thumbs sets included. New sets for download will be available to premium support users on Dev4Press, but as before, anyone can make new set with own images. When plugin is done, I plan to offer unusual sets that are not star based, sets with non square object and with non symmetrical patterns.

As for rating types, plugin will by default support rating for posts (default post/page and custom post types), comments and users. Each rating type will support site based rating or network based for multisites, or combination (for users). BuddyPress specific data types are also planned, but new data and code organization will allow for adding of new rating types that may be images, links or anything else. Comment integration for review purposes will be also supported. Review by admin/editor also will be there as before. I also plan to support rating block integration for GravityForms plugin. Plugin will have modular loading structure to make easier for additional code to be added for new rating types.

I can’t give any schedule yet, but good thing is that many core components are done. Main task is to put all things together for first phase of beta testing, and I really hope that will happen soon.

Plugin will store settings for site and network (for website running in multisite/network mode). Settings will be using variation of model developed for xScape themes. In new GDSR there are much less settings that are general for the whole plugin. Most of the settings are now part of the new rating classes (more on that later). To ensure better integrability, GDSR will use different loading method for the plugin and it will be more based on actions and filters than before. I thing that GDSR 2.0 will have 10 times more internal filters/actions than current versions.

One major problem with GDSR 1.x is that it had post/page/comment ratings implemented. For post/page you could use single and multi stars ratings and thumbs ratings, for comments you could use singe stars and thumbs ratings. With GDSR 2.0 many things will be implemented in a base class, and that can be used to create new rating types. By default plugin will have rating classes for: post, page, user and comments. Each class can be on site level, on network level on or both levels. This will allow implementing BuddyPress specific ratings. Each rating code will be in 4 files: init (settings for a rating type), load (main class with control over the rating type), single (settings to override specific settings for each rating element) and admin (for interface control). Plugin will allow adding new rating classes. Base rating classes is defined as abstract, and use interface to layout functions needed for each class. Saying that, complete plugin code is using PHP5 class model (all with private/public/static/abstract/interface goodness) and there will be no way to run plugin on PHP4. Believe it or not I got more than 20 requests to make plugin PHP4 compatible.

As for the rating models, GDSR 2.0 will implement single and multi star ratings, single and multi (new one!) thumbs ratings. And for each one you can have review rating (author of the post ratings existing right now also).

That’s it for now, more info coming soon.

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.