In late 2014, we went behind the scenes with Anas Sulaiman who goes by the WordPress.org username of JP Bot. Sulaiman is responsible for creating six WordPress plugins that are alternatives to popular Jetpack modules. We received a tip from a reader that the plugins will soon be retired. When browsing to any of the six…
There are a variety of WordPress events that take place around the world where users learn WordPress in person. Some are WordCamps, meetups, and others are WordPress specific but don’t use the WordCamp branding. Until now, there has not been an easy way to see all WordPress events on one page. ManageWP.org has launched a…
As the debate on whether or not WordPress.org hosted themes should have changelogs continues, one line of thought is that regular users don’t read them. As a long time user of WordPress, I always read a plugin’s changelog before updating. A good changelog tells me what bugs have been fixed, new features that have been…
If you’re thinking about applying to work for Automattic, you might want to read this article first. Dave Martin, Creative Director at Automattic, published an in-depth look behind the scenes of the remote hiring process for the design and growth portion of the company. He explains the five step process in detail which gives future…
Last week, I met Bianca Welds who lives in Jamaica. She’s used WordPress for more than 10 years and has knowledge of the developing tech scene in Jamaica. In this interview, we learn how she discovered WordPress, the Jamaican WordPress community, and if the country will ever host a WordCamp. How long have you used…
On this episode of WordPress Weekly, Marcus Couch and I were joined by Drew Jaynes, web engineer for 10up, and release lead for WordPress 4.2. Jaynes explains how a release lead is chosen, their responsibilities, and what their role is. Release leads are shepherds who work with multiple teams to keep development on track. Jaynes…
Since WordPress 4.2 was released, some users are questioning why their sites have automatically updated to WordPress 4.1.3. There’s no information about the release on the Make WordPress Core site or the official WordPress news blog. However, this Codex article explains what’s in 4.1.3 and the reason it was released. Fix database writes for esoteric…
Earlier this week, one of the largest coordinated efforts between WordPress plugin authors, Sucuri, and the WordPress security team resulted in a number of popular plugins receiving security updates. Due to inaccurate information within the WordPress codex, a number of developers improperly assumed the add_query_arg() and remove_query_arg() functions would properly escape user input. When combined,…
WordPress 4.1.2 is available and is a critical security update for all previous versions of WordPress. The release has eight security fixes, one of which is high risk, three are medium-low risk, and the last four added to harden WordPress. This is the first major security update to WordPress core since WordPress 4.0.1 released in…
For the past week, security firm Sucuri has worked with the WordPress core security team to address a cross site scripting vulnerability discovered in more than a dozen popular WordPress plugins. The vulnerability stems from the improper use of the add_query_arg() and remove_query_arg() functions. Inaccurate information within the WordPress Codex lead many developers to assume…
This post was contributed by Robert Dall. Studying web design in college, he stumbled upon WordPress.com early in his career. Dall made the natural progression from WordPress.com to the self-hosted version of WordPress. Since then, he’s worked almost exclusively with WordPress using it as a blog, CMS, portfolio, and e-commerce. He’s also an avid photographer. Coming…
In mid 2014, Borek Bernard and Jan Voráček from the Czech Republic, launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund the development of VersionPress. VersionPress is a version control plugin for WordPress. It keeps the whole site in a Git repository enabling things like site-wide reverts, safe updates, and easy staging. Despite not reaching their funding goal,…
Cloudup, the file storage and sharing service acquired by Automattic in 2013, has refreshed its web interface. Many of the changes are subtle and place more emphasis on your content. Stats and FAQ links have been moved under the account menu. On the desktop and mobile versions of the site, the add new file button…
Marcus Couch and I didn’t have a guest on this week’s episode, so we used the time to get you caught up on the week’s headlines. We discussed the release of WordPress 4.2 RC1 and if all goes well, expect to see the release of 4.2 next Wednesday. If you use iThemes Security, you’ll want…
Pippin Williamson, founder of Easy Digital Downloads, looks back on three years of building an e-Commerce product for WordPress. Williamson describes the last three years as containing some of the highest and lowest points of his life. Williamson acknowledged that without his dedicated team, the product wouldn’t be anywhere close to what it is today.…