In the past few days, number of small bugs were discovered and fixed. But, plugin is not yet ready for final release, so here is the second Beta version. Most likely, Release Candidate will be out on Sunday, and Final version most likely next Thursday. So, here is more on this Beta 2.
Very important: Before you install this version, check the system requirements. GD Press Tools 4.0 Pro requires WordPress 3.0 or newer to work. Do not attempt installation on older WordPress versions, it will not work. Also, do not install this Beta version on your production websites, it’s still not ready for live use due to some still unfinished features and potential bugs. Plugin is tested with WP 3.0.4, WP 3.0.5 and WP 3.1 RC4, with both multisite and normal installations.
Plugin can be downloaded through Dev4Press Updater, but you must set it to get Beta versions also, not only stable. For his check out the settings in Dev4Press Updater plugin.
Testing on GD Star Rating website
Few minor bugs were discovered after installing plugin on www.gdstarrating.com, including problem with capabilities and missing options of plugin tools panel. First, XML sitemap is tested, and was successfully built, and immediately submited to Google, and was 100% correct and verified by Google Webmaster Tools.
One of the major concerns was use of new backup tools and backing up the whole website. GD Star Rating website is over 110MB in size (all files, download archives, images, full WP…) with 35MB database. Process lasted about 25 minutes to create 87MB archive. But, during that time, website was unresponsive, because backup process was eating too much of server CPU with no breaks between processing files. Because of that, a new setting is added to control pause between processing each file that will not cause any significant slowdown of the backup process, but will potentially improve the process and site usability while the backup is working.
More changes in Beta 2
Plugin is updated with gdr2 shared library version 2.2.1 that improves cache and widget classes and several core functions. Debugger panels are improved with more useful info displayed. Number of bugs involving sitemaps, post editor and backup are fixed. RC will get several imporvements to sitemaps including specifying location to store generated files.
Dashboard widget now gives easier control over maintenance mode and debugger activation, along with several other improvements. Few more changes there will be added before final release.
Release plans
If nothing goes wrong in the meantime, RC1 will be out on Sunday, final plugin version will be released on February 24 2011.
Currently known issues
There are no known issues at this moment. Please, report any problems or bugs you find.
Promo coupon
To get 40% discount for this plugin (for yearly recurring payments standard and developer licenses, coupon is applied to initial payment only): GDPRESSTOOLS4. Coupon is active now, and can be used until March 1 2011.
More about GD Press Tools Pro:
http://dv4p.com/gdpt
