Bootstrap, the most widely used open source front-end component library on the web, has adopted a new Long Term Support plan that will make the development cycle a little more predictable. From now on, each major version will receive at least six months of support after it is retired, followed by six months of critical…
Gatsby, the open source app and website framework based on React, celebrated the stable release of Gatsby themes by launching a Theme Jam contest. Participants were invited to create their own Gatsby Themes and submit them for an opportunity to win swag or the grand prize: an all-expenses-paid trip to the Gatsby Days event of…
Saturday Drive, makers of Ninja Forms, Ninja Shop, and SendWP, has acquired Caldera Forms, a React-based, drag-and-drop forms builder plugin. In addition to the free plugin on WordPress.org, which has more than 200,000 active installs, CalderaWP’s product line includes a Pro version and more than 30 free and commercial add-ons for things like payment processors…
In this episode, John James Jacoby and I are joined by Michelle Schulp, an independent freelancer and Director of Technology at AIGA Minnesota. We discussed the impacts speaking at multiple WordCamps had on her business early on, why she continues to be a freelance contractor as opposed to managing her own agency, and the role…
Gutenberg 6.2 has two new user-facing features that were added based on community feedback. The Cover and Media & Text blocks now allow for nesting any type of block inside. Previously, the Cover block only allowed users to add a heading, button, or paragraph block. Users had resorted to employing clunky solutions to get around…
Meta Box, one of the most popular WordPress custom fields frameworks, has released a new extension for creating custom Gutenberg blocks using only PHP. MB Blocks gives developers the ability to build blocks with various settings, using a similar syntax as creating a meta box, without having to know React, Webpack, or Babel. MB Blocks…
The WordPress Security Team is exploring different approaches to backporting security fixes to older versions of the software. The effort that goes into supporting versions back to 3.7 (the release that introduced automatic background updates) increases with each major version released. “For the Core Security team, that means when security updates need to be released,…
WordSesh is launching a new event aimed at WordPress enthusiasts living in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. The 12-hour virtual event is scheduled for September 25, 2019, from 7:00-19:00 UTC. While the event has always been open to participants across the world, WordSesh “EMEA” will be the first to offer a schedule that is…
WordPress’ accessibility team is evaluating the possibility of organizing a virtual Global Accessibility Day, similar to the Polyglots’ Global Translation Day. This marathon-style contributor event has proven to be valuable for the Polyglots in terms of recruiting, onboarding, and fueling progress on translation projects. Accessibility contributors proposed the idea at a meeting two weeks ago…
WordCamp US announced today that the event will be offering free on-site childcare for children aged 6 weeks to 12 years old. Organizers have contracted A Helping Hand, a licensed conference childcare service company based in Virginia Beach, VA, to provide childcare for all three days, with flexible drop off and pick up throughout the…
Back in September of 2016, GoDaddy acquired ManageWP. What was odd about the acquisition was the amount of backlash that was generated by ManageWP customers. While most were happy for Vladimir Prelovac, founder of ManageWP, many customers worried about GoDaddy’s reputation, unsatisfactory service, and how such a great service would fit into GoDaddy without changing…
WordCamp Europe’s continuing success has inspired other parts of the WordPress world to work towards getting their own regional camps off the ground. With a little help from WCEU mentors and inspiration from WordCamp Nordic’s proposal, WordCamp Asia is now officially on the schedule for February 21-23, 2020, in Bangkok, Thailand. WordCamp Central America is…
There’s a new release of WP Super Cache (1.6.9) available that patches a security issue discovered in the debug log. The vulnerability can only be exploited if users have debugging enabled. It’s highly recommended that all users upgrade to 1.6.9 to patch the security issue. Details of the vulnerability will be published after users have…
Alex Young, creator of the WPCasts video tutorials site, has published a free crash course that offers a brief introduction to using WordPress as a headless CMS. The 28-minute tutorial covers the basics of setting up a bare bones React application that uses WPGraphQL to query ACF data. Young begins by installing four plugins: WPGraphQL,…
In this episode, John James Jacoby and I are joined by David Shanske. David introduces us to a set of philosophies known as the IndieWeb, explains how it’s different from the Open Web, and how he’s been involved in the community. We discuss tools that help people own their data while still being able to…