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WordPress 3.0 RC2 is now available for download; this means that final version could be released any day now. This release will mark a new milestone in WordPress history, with several exciting new features including: multiple sites, custom menus, custom post types and a new default theme.

Like our coverage of WordPress 2.8 and WordPress 2.9; this article highlights important enhancements in WordPress 3.0 and provide links to some really useful resources.

Multiple Sites With Single WordPress Install

Although merger of standalone version with MU may not affect every one, this is very important development. You will now be able to create multiple sites using single installation of WordPress, where each site may have its own set of themes and plugins. Your multisite setup can work with sub-domains or sub-directories:

• Subdomains work by using wildcard subdomains. You must have this enabled in Apache, and you must also add a wildcard subdomain to your DNS records. Some hosts will not support this, so you may need to ask your webhost before enabling this feature.
• Subdirectories work based on mod_rewrite. If you are using pretty permalinks in your blog already, then subdirectory sites will work as well.

Multisite feature in WordPress is disabled by default, you will need following steps to enable it:

• Go to Tools > Network under WordPress admin menu and specify Network settings
• Create “blogs.dir” in wp-content folder
• Add following line in your wp-config.php file: define(‘WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE’, true);
• You may also need to modify your .htaccess file

Once the above steps are completed, you will see a new menu section called Super Admin. This section will allow adding and managing additional sites in your network. Your base WordPress install is now the main site in your network.

Learn More:

• WordPress 3.0 Multisite Features
• Working With MultiSite In WordPress 3.0
• Getting Started with Multisite
• WordPress 3.0 Multisite Tutorial
• Multisite Domain Mapping Tutorial
• How to enable BuddyPress in WordPress 3.0
• Create a Network
• Super Admin Options SubPanel

New Default Theme

Believe it or not “Kubrick” is gone, and replaced with new default theme: Twenty Ten.  Twenty Ten is an elegant theme with features like: two column layout, support for custom background and header images, provides built-in support for microformats, widgetized sidebar, and horizontal drop down menu.

Twenty Ten has been developed keeping in mind that a large number of theme developers use default WordPress theme as base for learning and designing their own themes. It therefore illustrates several new features like:Custom Background Images, Editor Styles, Improved Child Theme Support, etc.

Learn More:

• Twenty Ten (Features)
• 7 Code Practices From Twenty Ten Theme For Developers
• WordPress 3.0 Custom Background Support
• Change Editor Style In WordPress 3.0
• Guide to Creating a Twenty Ten Child Theme

Custom Menus

This is probably the most useful new feature for theme developers. WordPress 3.0 allows you to register any number of menus and display them in your themes template files using a simple function call. Most importantly it provides an easy to use menu section in the admin area – from where users can easily add, edit and remove menu items. Users will be able to add, edit and remove: pages, custom post types, categories, taxonomies, and custom links to these menus.

Learn More:

• Goodbye, Headaches. Hello, Menus!
• Everything You Wanted to Know About WordPress 3.0 Menu Management
• Customizing the new WordPress 3.0 Custom Menus Adding Different Icons to Each Link

Custom Post Types & Taxonomies

Custom taxonomies were added in WordPress 2.8, enabling developers to create new ways to classify content. WordPress 3.0 improves this feature significantly by including support for hierarchical (category-style) taxonomies, and providing end users with custom taxonomy UI for pages as well as for posts.

Learn More:

• A Refresher on Custom Taxonomies
• Introducing WordPress 3.0 Custom Taxonomies
• What Are Custom Taxonomies?
• Function Reference: Register Taxonomy

WordPress introduced custom post types in version 2.9, but a lot of work was left for plugin and theme developers. However, WordPress 3.0 provides full support for custom post types, simplifying the whole process. This is a big deal – theme developers can now build easy to use CMS solutions for wide range of sites, meeting needs for specific type of content (portfolios, projects, video libraries, podcasts, quotes, chats, etc).

Implementation is pretty straight forward. All you need to do is register post type in your functions.php file. WordPress 3.0 will automatically add admin section for your new custom post type, enabling content managers to add, edit and update content. To add a template for your custom post type, you will create a new template file named “single-{post_type}.php” (you can use any standard WordPress template tags in this file).

Learn More:

• Custom Post Types in WordPress
• Rock Solid WordPress 3.0 Themes using Custom Post Types
• How To Create a Better Meta Box In WordPress Post Editing Page
• Custom Post Types in WordPress 3.0
• Extending Custom Post Types in WordPress 3.0
• Why Custom Post Types are Great
• Editor Styles for Custom Post Types in WordPress 3.0
• Function Reference: Register Post Type

Related Plugins:

• Custom Post Type UI
• GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools

New Template Files

In addition to other enhancements, WordPress 3.0 has also added several new template files in its template hierarchy. Here is list of new template files for quick reference:

Template For Front Page of Site
Will be used for both your latest posts or a static page as set by the admin (File: front-page.php).

Template For Custom Post Types
If custom post type is books, WordPress will look for single-books.php (File: single-{post_type}.php).

Author Specific Templates
If the author’s name is “admin”, WordPress would look for author-admin.php. If the author’s ID is 1, WordPress would look for author-1.php (Files: author-{nicename}.php, author-{id}.php).

Templates For Custom Taxonomies
If the taxonomy is “sometaxtonomy”, and taxonomy’s slug is “someterm”, WordPress would look for taxonomy-sometaxtonomy-someterm.php (Files: taxonomy.php, taxonomy-{taxonomy}.php, taxonomy-{taxonomy}-{term}.php).

Additional Resources

Checkout Codex to see more comprehensive list of enhancements and changes in WordPress 3.0. Here is a list of some additional resources that you may find useful:

• Backwards Compatible WordPress 3.0 Functions
• WordPress 3.0 and Twenty Ten Customization Techniques
• Excerpts for Pages in WordPress 3.0
• WordPress 3.0 Theme Tip: The Comment Form
• WordPress 3.0 Theme Tip: Feed Links
• Dealing with Long Taxonomy Descriptions in the WordPress Administration Panels
• Adding Post Thumbnails To WordPress 3.0
• 15 Snippets To Prepare Your Theme For WordPress 3.0
• Theming Custom Post Types in WordPress 3.0
• Upgrading WordPress MU 2.9.2 to WordPress 3.0 with MultiSite
• WordPress 3.0 Security Design That Need to Be Addressed

We hope you found this post useful and timely, and remember to share any additional WordPress 3.0 resources for developers that we may have missed.