This is a beta version to precede the next major release, 1.6. This one has mostly all sorts of bug fixes. The new features will arrive in the next beta version. This version isn’t recommended for important sites. Here’s the changelog.

• Removed some unnecessary filter calls.
• the_content filters didn’t have any effect on excerpts, now they work as they should.
• Taxonomy term search didn’t work properly.
• I’ve moved the “strip invisibles” function after shortcode expansion in indexing and excerpt creation, so objects, embeds and styles created by shortcodes are stripped. Let me know if this causes any problems.
• Multibyte string functions are not required anymore, Relevanssi will work without, but will cause problems if you try to handle multibyte strings without multibyte functions. (Thanks to John Blackbourn.)
• Couple of functions Relevanssi uses weren’t namespaced properly. They are now. (Thanks to John Blackbourn.)
• When $post is being indexed, `$post->indexing_content` is set to `true`. This can be useful for plugin developers and all sorts of custom hacks. (Thanks to John Blackbourn.)
• User search log now displays the total number of searches. (Thanks to Simon Blackbourn.)
• Database now has an index on document ID, which should make indexing faster.
• If you upgrade from 1.5.8 or earlier, emptying the database manually is not necessary.
• The plugin can now be upgraded automatically. The required API key can be found on Relevanssi.com in the sidebar after you log in.

Quite a list, and I’ve saved the best one last. Next one will be the last version of Relevanssi Premium you need to install manually! I got a tip about a book called Professional WordPress Plugin Development. It’s an excellent book, and it has a nice tutorial on how to set up a private plugin repository. Turns out it’s much easier than I expected.

That’s part of why there needs to be at least two beta versions before 1.6 — I want to check and see if the automatic upgrade mechanism works like it should.

In order to keep non-subscribers from getting free updates, there’s an API key system, but you don’t have to worry about it yet, this version has a hard-coded API key for now (which will be disabled at some point, heh).