I have just uploaded AZIndex v0.7.5 to the WordPress Plugin Directory, so it should be available for download shortly.  This is mostly a maintenance release, and I have been working out some of the smaller kinks and issues with the plugin.  There should be no issues with upgrading from 0.7.4.

Here is a list of the changes:

• Rewritten the upgrade process for when a database table change is required.  From now on, the old settings will not be deleted until the plugin has confirmed that the upgrade was successful.
• Started internationalizing the text in the plugin.  This is the text like “(more)” and “(continued)” that appear on the index page.  I will do the admin pages too once the plugin gets closer to being finished.  I will, of course, make the POT file available for people to translate into their languages.  Just email me the translated files and I will incorporate them into a later release.
• Added titles to the links in the alphabetical links and page links in the index (text is included in the POT file)
• The headings in the index now link back to the top of the index, not the top of the page.  This is more convenient for the user when you have a large heading or a lot of text above the index.
• Added a <div> around the whole index and given it the id of “azindex-<index-id>”.  This was to let me point the links back to the top of the index, though it’s also a good idea in the long run too.  I haven’t given it a class name yet, see below for the reason why.
• Fixed a couple of spelling mistakes and some validation issues (not all!)
• Fixed the stray </style> end tag (now closes the spans properly)
• Fixed a problem with the admin page’s custom field text box not appearing in some browers when selected.
• Fixed a bug in the sorting of non-alphanumeric characters.
• Fixed the “ignore characters” option which has been almost completely broken since 0.7.0.
• Completely rewrote the alphabetical index code so that it doesn’t stop displaying links when the contents of the index are not in the expected order.
• And last, but not least, tweaked the multi-column code to fix a problem where it would sometimes not work on IE6/IE7.

Phew!  That’s more than I thought.  No wonder it took me so long!

Finally a couple of words about upcoming releases.  First, I have already warned you about a change coming in AZIndex v0.8.0 which will likely break people who are using their own “custom comparison function” (i.e. just a few of you!).  I will be adding more filters to the code to give you a greater ability to tweak the sorting of your index, but I want to rename a couple of array key names so that everything is more consistent.  If you have written a custom comparison function, the change you will need to make is a very small one — just a quick rename.

The next big change,  probably not for a few weeks yet, will be a complete overhaul of the HTML and CSS stylesheet generated by the plugin.  When I first introduced the plugin, my HTML and CSS was a bit rusty and the plugin does some things that are not helpful to those who really want to go to town on modifying the appearance of their indexes.  But to do this I will have to break just about everyone who is not using the default stylesheet, which is why I am giving everyone lots of warning anout this. 

I will, of course, fully document the changes ahead of time, and it probably won’t be very difficult to tweak your customizations to get them working again, but I don’t want anyone to be surprised when it happens!