WordPress 4.4 is released

Version 4.4 of WordPress, named “Clifford” in honor of jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown released 8th December 2015

WordPress continues with it’s promise of continued improvement of the Content Management System with a new enhancement and bug release fix – version 4.4.   This is the 4th major release update this year folloing in the footsteps of versions 4.1,4.2 and 4.3.

It is recommended that anyone who uses WordPress in a self-hosted environment upgrades to this version as soon as possible.  If in doubt on whether you should upgrade please see this article: Reasons why you should keep WordPress up to date

WordPress Twenty Sixteen Theme

Some of the enhancements include:

1. Responsive image insertion – WordPress should now be better with resizing images when viewed on different screen sizes
2. Comments – WordPress see commenting functionality as being very important in making WordPress an interactive platform so have released some improvements on the commenting section
3. Twenty Sixteen theme has been introduced.
4. WordPress content can now be embedded onto other sites. See this article for more information

Now you can embed your posts on other WordPress sites. Simply drop a post URL into the editor and see an instant embed preview,

Some Techie stuff

1. The Rest API has been integrated into the core.  The REST API gives developers an easy way to build and extend RESTful APIs on top of WordPress.  It’s becoming more important than ever that applications can talk to each other as simply and seamlessly as possible and the Rest API helps achieve that.
2. Multisite user improvements.  If you are a Multisite user then you should see an improvement on functionality – see full list here of Multisite updates
3. Terms now support metadata, just like posts. See add_term_meta(),get_term_meta(), and update_term_meta() for more information.  You will now be able to describe a term or category beyond its literal description.

Introducing WordPress 4.4 “Clifford”

The video above is a brief highlights show on what WordPress 4.4 “Clifford” offers.

Upgrading WordPress

You can download the new release now fromWordPress.org/Download (7.3MB). Or you can update your WordPress version in your Dashboard.  Here is a useful article on How to Update WordPress
Please remember to backup your WordPress database and files before attempting any updates on WordPress Core or WordPress Plugins

Anyone who is on my WordPress Care Plan will have WordPress updated for them