Month: January 2021

  • First Round of the FSE Outreach Program Concludes, Identifies Template-Editing Mode Problems

    First Round of the FSE Outreach Program Concludes, Identifies Template-Editing Mode Problems

    The Full Site Editing (FSE) Outreach Program has now concluded its first round of testing. Its first focus area was centered on the template-editing mode introduced in Gutenberg 9.6. The volunteers involved with the project identified several pain points. Gutenberg 9.6 added a new button that allows end-users, provided they are using a block-based theme,…

  • Custom Layouts Plugin Creates a Posts Display System for Both the Classic and Block Editors

    Custom Layouts Plugin Creates a Posts Display System for Both the Classic and Block Editors

    Ross Morsali, via his brand Code Amp, released the Custom Layouts plugin last week. The plugin’s goal is to provide a visual post layout builder for users of both the block and classic editors. For end-users, this is yet another choice between the multitude of plugins for displaying posts. After years of new plugins launching…

  • WordPress for Android Previews New Story Posts Feature, Now in Public Beta

    WordPress for Android Previews New Story Posts Feature, Now in Public Beta

    WordPress users on Android may have noticed a new prompt in the mobile app for publishing Story posts. This feature is now in public beta in the Android app, ahead of an upcoming launch on the WordPress iOS app. Stories will also coming to the Block editor on WordPress.com in early 2021. Early access to…

  • Kinsta Launches Free Local WordPress Development Tool

    Kinsta Launches Free Local WordPress Development Tool

    Kinsta, a managed WordPress hosting company, announced its local development tool named DevKinsta earlier today. The tool allows developers to spin up new WordPress sites, including multisite support, in moments. Each site is automatically configured with Nginx, PHP, and MySQL. DevKinsta packages Adminer, an open-source database manager. The system also includes an SMTP server and…

  • MapLibre Launches as Official Open Source Successor to Mapbox GL JS

    MapLibre Launches as Official Open Source Successor to Mapbox GL JS

    In December, Mapbox shocked its open source contributor community with the news that Mapbox GL JS version 2.0 would be released under a proprietary license. The JavaScript library powers interactive, customizable vector maps on many high profile websites like CNN, The New York Times, Ancestry, Strava, Shopify, Facebook, and more. Older versions remain open source…

  • A Multi-Theme System, the Decade-Long Wait for Grandchild Themes, and Themeless Templates

    A Multi-Theme System, the Decade-Long Wait for Grandchild Themes, and Themeless Templates

    Around 2010, child theming had finally caught its stride. Bigger theme shops were starting to take note, and some were implementing advanced parent themes that were meant to serve as a “framework” for creating child themes. The theme development community hit a bit of a brick wall amid this explosion of child theming. Grandchild themes…

  • New Local Blueprint Enables One-Click Setup for Testing Full Site Editing

    New Local Blueprint Enables One-Click Setup for Testing Full Site Editing

    If you haven’t yet tested the Gutenberg team’s progress on the full site editing (FSE) project, WordPress developer Carrie Dils has created a blueprint for Local that makes it easy to jump right in. Full site editing is phase 2 on the Gutenberg roadmap and is one of the main focuses for WordPress core development…

  • Show and Hide Content via the Block Visibility WordPress Plugin

    Show and Hide Content via the Block Visibility WordPress Plugin

    Nick Diego’s Block Visibility is not the only plugin to take on the challenge of controlling when blocks are visible on the front end. Other plugins like EditorsKit do a fine job of it. However, Block Visibility is a solution users should not overlook, even if they have already begun testing other options. Diego first…

  • WordPress Proposal To Align Release Cycle With Industry Standard

    WordPress Proposal To Align Release Cycle With Industry Standard

    Yesterday, Francesca Marano opened a proposal for changing the phases of the core WordPress release cycle. It was a recap of a discussion the began in October 2020. The goal is to align the platform’s phases with the larger development industry standard. Aside from naming, WordPress has mostly followed the software industry in how it…

  • WPScan Can Now Assign CVE Numbers for WordPress Core, Plugin, and Theme Vulnerabilities

    WPScan Can Now Assign CVE Numbers for WordPress Core, Plugin, and Theme Vulnerabilities

    WPScan, a security company that maintains a database of WordPress vulnerabilities, has been officially designated as a CVE (Common Vulnerability and Exposures) Numbering Authority (CNA). The company joins 151 organizations from 25 countries that participate in the CVE Program as CNAs. These organizations are authorized to assign CVE Identifiers (CVE IDs) to vulnerabilities within their own distinct scopes of work,…

  • Google Introduces Performance Report for Google News Publishers

    Google Introduces Performance Report for Google News Publishers

    Google has launched a new Search Console performance report for sites that appear in Google News. Publishers can now track clicks, impressions, and CTR for traffic coming from news.google.com and the Google News apps for Android and iOS. The report helps publishers see how often their articles appear to users in Google News and which…

  • Ask the Bartender: How to Build WordPress Themes from Scratch?

    Ask the Bartender: How to Build WordPress Themes from Scratch?

    I would like to ask, what is the best way to learn to create WordPress themes from scratch? I would like to learn, but there seems to be no comprehensive resource for this. Thanks for any help. Mark I have been around the WordPress community long enough to remember the days when there were sparse…

  • Gutenberg’s Faster Performance Is Eroding Page Builders’ Dominance

    Gutenberg’s Faster Performance Is Eroding Page Builders’ Dominance

    WordPress’ block editor, colloquially still widely known as Gutenberg, is making inroads into the segment of users who have heavily relied on page builders for years. For the most part, page builder plugins have either declined in growth or stagnated in 2020, with the exception of Elementor. In contrast, block collections with page builder features…

  • EatsWP Brings Virtual Restaurant Menus to the WordPress Block Editor

    EatsWP Brings Virtual Restaurant Menus to the WordPress Block Editor

    Yesterday, Jack Kitterhing launched EatsWP, his new restaurant-related WordPress plugin. It is a menu creation system that works in the block editor. It also has a built-in QR code feature to work with customers’ phones. Kitterhing is the Product Manager at LearnDash. He is also the founder of Immerseus, a shop that builds plugins for…

  • WordPress Community Team Proposes Using a Decision Checklist to Restart Local Events

    WordPress Community Team Proposes Using a Decision Checklist to Restart Local Events

    WordPress’ Community Team has been discussing the return to in-person events since early December 2020, and has landed on an idea that would allow local meetup organizers to determine readiness using a COVID-19 risk-assessment checklist. This would enable organizers to restart meetups when it is safe for their communities, instead of applying a blanket global…

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