The monumental task of overhauling WordPress’ aging admin design is coming into focus, as contributors kicked off explorations of some initial mockups this week. Gutenberg’s Phase 3 is focused on Collaboration and this admin revamp is part of that road map. As a starting point, Automattic-sponsored product designer Saxon Fletcher published some images and videos…
WordPress 6.3 “Lionel” was released earlier this week with an overview video that offers a beautiful, dizzying demo of the many new features packed into this update. It’s a two-minute guided tour of WordPress’ greatly expanded customization features, streamlined Site Editor interface, pattern creation and management, and the new Command Palette in action. For the…
Gutenberg 16.4 has been released with a new auto-inserting blocks experimental feature. It allows developers to specify a location in which the block will be automatically inserted, such as before or after a template. The block can then be repositioned after insertion using the editor tools. “This applies both to the frontend and to the…
WordPress’ Plugin Review team is wading through a backlog that was over 900 plugins awaiting approval earlier this week. The current count has 870 plugins sitting in the review queue, with an average wait time of 61 days before initial review. WordPress developer Marcus Burnette drew attention to the matter on Twitter after submitting a…
The Kadence Blocks plugin, which is used on more than 300,000 WordPress sites, has patched a critical vulnerability in its Advanced Form Block file upload capability. Version 3.1.11, released on August 8, 2023, patches the security issue with the form uploads. The plugin’s development team is getting out ahead of the situation by posting an…
WordPress 6.3 “Lionel” was released today, named for Lionel Hampton, an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, and bandleader. As the last release in Phase 2 of the Gutenberg project, many updates in WordPress 6.3 are targeted at polishing up customization features and the UI that supports them. Content, templates, and patterns can now be edited…
ConvertKit has updated its official WordPress plugin and WooCommerce add-on to support a range of new features. More than 40,000 sites use ConvertKit’s plugin to integrate their newsletters, email campaigns, and digital products with WordPress. The service is free for the user’s first 1,000 subscribers but offers more automated features and third party integration on…
WordPress’ Training Team is launching its first Learn WordPress Course Cohort, which is a social learning method where a group of people go through the learning process together with some synchronous group activities. One of the benefits of cohorts is the sense of community and connection that can develop between the participants, fostering more support…
WordCamp Asia 2024 is happening in Taipei, Taiwan, next year from March 7-9, at the Taipei International Convention Center (TICC). With the dates locked in and venue secured, organizers have now opened the call for speakers. The event will feature three days of talks, workshops, and networking events, and organizers expect more than 2,000 attendees. Talks will…
WordPress is honoring contributors the community has lost over the years through a new memorial page called WordPress Remembers: WordPress dedicates this page to the memory of those we’ve lost. They’ve shaped our project and enriched our community. As we remember their passion and commitment to WordPress and open source software, we celebrate their spirit.…
BuddyPress 12.0 is set to introduce a new Community Visibility feature that gives site administrators the option to restrict access to the community sections of the site. Sites set to “members only” will show an access error message and a login form when a non-logged-in user tries to view a page generated by BuddyPress. The…
WordPress.com is making a strong bid for Google Domains customers after the the product was sold to Squarespace in a deal reportedly worthy $180 million. Shortly after the sale was announced, WordPress.com pitched Google Domains customers, reminding the public that the company is also a domain registrar, but the call to action didn’t include much…
Jetpack 12.4 was released today, launching the plugin’s Newsletter product. It allows users to send blog posts as newsletters, without the hassle of having to copy and paste from the WordPress editor into another newsletter service’s campaign editor and reformat it for email. This launch comes seven months after WordPress.com launched its newsletter offering, which…
Earlier this year, WordPress contributors announced that they are working on a new Interactivity API that will allow developers to build interactive blocks. This API will support the kinds of frontend experiences that let visitors interact with content and get feedback without having to refresh the page. Automattic-sponsored contributor Luis Herranz, who has been working on…
After a recent in-depth performance analysis earlier this year showed that translations can have an impact on server response times, WordPress contributors are proposing half a dozen technical solutions for consideration to improve performance for the ~56% of WordPress sites that use translations. “Initial benchmarks showed that the median loading time for a localized site…