WooCommerce 3.5 was released this week. It’s a minor update that has been in development since May and began testing in September. The release should be backwards compatible to version 3.0 of the plugin but users are always advised to test all of their themes and extensions before updating. Store owners can expect to see…
WP Engine has acquired Array Themes and Atomic Blocks from Mike McAlister for an undisclosed amount. McAlister has been developing WordPress themes since 2009. He initially sold his themes on ThemeForest. In 2011, he founded Array Themes. I reached out to McAlister to learn why he chose to be acquired, what excites him most about…
In this episode, John James Jacoby and I are joined by Topher DeRosia, a developer evangelist for BigCommerce. DeRosia introduces what BigCommerce is, why users and developers should take a look at it, and why they’re making a big push into the WordPress space. He also provides an update on HeroPress and why next year, you’ll…
WPCampus is looking to hire a company to perform an accessibility audit of the Gutenberg editor. The organization is a community of more than 800 web professionals, educators, and others who work with WordPress in higher education. WPCampus director Rachel Cherry published a request for proposals detailing the organization’s specific concerns: Our organization is sensitive…
WordPress 5.0 is marching forward with beta 1 released this evening. Major items that need testing include the Gutenberg editor, the new Twenty Nineteen default theme, and all previous default themes, which have been updated to be compatible with the new editor. You’ll want to make sure you are using Gutenberg version 4.1 before updating…
WordCamp Europe’s new PWA (Progressive Web App) was one of the highlights of the 2018 event in Belgrade. It allowed attendees to view the schedule, venue map, create bookmarks for sessions, and provided offline access in case of network failure. Attendees could add the app to their home screens and opt to receive push notifications…
One of the most pressing concerns for users in the Gutenberg era is how page builder plugins will respond. Speculation about the new editor “killing off page builders” has run rampant, but these plugins are slowly evolving ahead of Gutenberg’s imminent inclusion in WordPress 5.0. In February, Elementor, one of WordPress’ most popular page builders,…
Upcase, a subscription learning platform for developers, is now free and open to the public. The content, which includes workshops, videos, flash cards, and coding exercises, was built by thoughtbot, a design and development consultancy. “We’ve loved building Upcase, both as a business and as a way to share what we’ve learned with the community,”…
Polldaddy was founded in 2006 by David Lenehan in Sligo, Ireland and was acquired by Automattic in 2008. Polldaddy is a platform agnostic service providing users with the ability to create polls and surveys. Today, 12 years later, Automattic is retiring the Polldaddy name and replacing it with Crowdsignal. Outside of some minor color changes, and…
After WP Engine acquired StudioPress in June, the company began investing in expanding the Genesis team. WP Engine is hiring new people to work on the framework and expand support and community activities. On the latest episode of the newly revived StudioPress.fm podcast, StudioPress founder Brian Gardner said one of the reasons he sold the…
The Gutenberg team has officially responded to recent concerns about the new editor’s accessibility. Matias Ventura, the project’s technical lead, published a post with examples of the accessibility efforts the team has made, many which may not be easy to discover. These include features such as keyboard shortcuts, slash command and insertion, high-contrast mode, and…
WooSesh, the free virtual conference devoted to WooCommerce kicked off earlier today. Todd Wilkins, Head of eCommerce at Automattic, Kelly Hoffman, Head of Design for eCommerce at Automattic, and Aviva Pinchas, Product Lead of the WooCommerce Marketplace at Automattic got things started with the keynote presentation. Wilkins highlighted what the team has accomplished since last…
Product designer Dave Martin has published a free video course called JavaScript for Designers. The course is made up of 46 bite-sized videos that walk students through the basics via a hands-on tutorial for building an interactive HTML prototype. Martin said he created the course specifically for designers who have been putting off learning how…
In this episode, John James Jacoby and I have a lengthy discussion about the numerous Accessibility concerns being raised by members of the community. We also talk about the WordPress 5.0 release date, tempers flaring in the WordPress core Slack channel, dealing with political situations within the WordPress project, and more. We share our thoughts…
Discussion surrounding Gutenberg’s independent accessibility audit is heating up. Two weeks ago, Matthew MacPherson, who was named WordPress 5.0’s new accessibility lead, proposed the audit and agreed to it being performed by an independent third party. The audit had gained strong support among accessibility contributors and others following the ticket. After soliciting detailed proposals from…