New Features?
I’ve been contacted about adding translations to the Simpler CSS plugin, and creating functions for network installations of WordPress. If I have some free time on my hands, I may revive this plugin.
Retirement of Simpler CSS
While the Simpler CSS plugin has likely served your needs over the past few months, I will no longer be developing the plugin. That’s because there’s a far better option out there for anyone who’s interested.
Yesterday, the WordPress folks released a plugin derived from the code they use for WordPress.com: it’s called WordPress.com Custom CSS. There’s a lot more functionality in that plugin, including advanced filtering of CSS with CSS Tidy and KSES. Custom stylesheet rules are saved in the wp_posts table, which means you can have revisions.
Most importantly, this is tested code that has been deployed on WordPress.com.
I highly encourage any users on WordPress 2.9 or higher to switch to the WordPress.com Custom CSS plugin. That being said, there is no easy route for migration from Simpler CSS to that plugin, because the storage methods are completely different. WordPress ยต hosts should consult with users before switching, or enable both plugins for a period of time so that users can manually copy their code over. Since Simpler CSS continues to function for version 3.0-alpha, you may continue to use it without side effects.
Simpler CSS will not be developed after the current version, 0.4. However, users of WordPress versions between 2.7 and 2.9 are still welcome to download it from the plugin repository.
Note: I have made a decision to continue maintenance releases only for the purpose of ensuring that it continues to work.
Simpler CSS 0.4
In this release of Simpler CSS, I’ve fixed a problem in the regular expression that would strip out all external references, breaking background-image: url(http://example.com/image.jpg) declarations. Another issue that was fixed was a <td> tag that wasn’t properly closed.
Simpler iPaper 1.3
In this version, I’ve resolved the issue on some installs of WordPress where a correctly formatted shortcode (using [ scribd ] on its own, as opposed to [ scribd ]...[/ scribd ]) results in a warning message. The behaviour is unnecessary and has been removed.
Now, [ scribd ]...[/ scribd ] too should work properly.
Note: references to the ‘scribd’ shortcode in this post were modified with added spaces in order to prevent WordPress from changing them into embeds.
Simpler CSS 0.3
In Version 0.3, no significant code changes were made, but the plugin’s metadata has been edited to reflect its compatibility with up to WordPress 2.9-rare (trunk version).
Changelogs on the Plugin Directory
I got word that the WordPress plugin directory now supports changelogs. This is great news for users, since they can now know what’s different in the new releases, right on the plugin directory site or even in their WordPress admin areas.
Changelog tab on the directory, via westi on wordpress
When I release the upcoming updates of Simpler CSS and Simpler iPaper, I will be sure to incorporate a changelog into the readme, but I will not be adding the changes from releases earlier than Simpler iPaper 1.1 and Simpler CSS 0.2b.
Updates for WordPress 2.8
Not too long ago, WordPress 2.8 was released.
Although the Simpler CSS and Simpler iPaper plugins have not been updated for WordPress 2.8, there are no changes in WordPress that would likely affect the proper functioning of the plugins.
In any case, updated versions will be released within the week. However, I am debating whether to update it to Tested up to: 2.8 or Tested up to: 2.9-rare, which is the version string used in the Subversion trunk as of June 18. We’ll see.
Addendum: Simpler iPaper will still be compatible with older versions as it moves forward. Simpler CSS will still be compatible with only 2.7 and up.
