The Chrome Dev Summit concluded earlier this week. Announcements and discussions on hot topics impacting the greater web community at the event included Google’s Privacy Sandbox initiative, improvements to Core Web Vitals and performance tools, and new APIs for Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). Paul Kinlan, Lead for Chrome Developer Relations, highlighted the latest product updates on…
In September, Patchstack released its six-month report on the vulnerabilities found with WordPress and its extensions. At the time, it listed over 1,000 issues — the company has shared the updated numbers with WP Tavern. It soon followed that up with a free vulnerability-reporting plugin. Under the banner of WebARX, the company launched the first…
At what point are FSE theme developers going to start integrating and considering WooCommerce for their themes? WooCommerce has almost always seemed to lag behind all other considerations. It’s a bit like it’s an afterthought to simply scramble in the elements of a solid WooCommerce store. Where is a persistent cart header? Where are the…
Automattic has acquired WPScan, a ten-year-old service that provides a database for WordPress core, plugin, and theme vulnerabilities. The company has sponsored WPScan for a number of years and has already been white labeling its use in Jetpack Scan. Pricing for WPScan is based on API requests per day, with a free version limited to…
WordCamp Birmingham is the first in-person WordCamp on the schedule for 2022. The event will be held at the Sidewalk Film Center and Cinema in downtown Birmingham on February 4-5. It is one of the first cracks in WordPress’ iced over event landscape after the pandemic brought in-person gatherings to a halt. “WordCamp Birmingham was…
It needed to be said. I know some of you loved writing in the classic editor. I know some of you enjoy the current block editor. Some of you may have even been thrilled with the platform’s earlier attempt at a distraction-free writing mode. But, for actual writing, WordPress has always been kind of, sort…
No sooner than I said the floodgates of block theme development would be open, a couple of more FSE-capable themes landed in the WordPress.org directory. I checked the review system, and three more were queued up. It took mere days for me to find another favorite: Ona by DeoThemes. When the author mentioned it, I…
The official Gutenberg demo page on WordPress.org may soon be getting an update that better reflects the editor’s capabilities and showcases the design creativity available through patterns. Automattic-sponsored designers Beatriz Fialho and Kelly Hoffman have submitted a prototype for consideration with explorations of both light and dark modes and three different variations for typography. “Now…
It is November, and that only means one thing. It is National Novel Writing Month — NaNoWriMo for short. Autumn is my favorite time of year. Football is in full swing. Warm mugs of coffee replace the cold brew. Eggnog cartons line supermarket fridges. There are weekend hayrides, face paintings, corn mazes, ring-toss games, and…
It is only a matter of time before the floodgates are flung open. Many of the block themes released in the past year have been little different than your typical starter theme. However, there is a quiet momentum building that might just surprise some folks in a few months. Automattic has put out several block…
Jetpack is finally formalizing its approach to agency licensing with a new portal launched this week. The program is aimed at streamlining product setup and account billing records for agencies and professionals who use Jetpack on client projects. The dashboard shows partners their total licenses and costs at a glance. It also allows agencies to…
The search for a host city for WordCamp US 2022 is now underway with what WordPress community organizer Angela Jin calls “big changes” to the selection process. Unlike previous years where WordPress communities applied after researching venues and demonstrating activity and interest, community leadership plans to conduct its own city search. “We all felt that…
David Gwyer released his Flexible FAQs plugin a year ago via his WPGO Plugins site. However, after a month of updates, the project seemed to fall off the radar, at least until earlier this week when he released a massive overhaul that integrates more with the block editor. The plugin creates a custom post type…
In late September, Chloe Chamberland, a researcher at Wordfence, discovered multiple security vulnerabilities in the OptinMonster plugin, which could allow unauthenticated attackers to export sensitive information and inject malicious JavaScript into vulnerable sites. The OptinMonster team promptly patched the plugin and updated the plugin again after more feedback from the Wordfence team. Version 2.6.5 was…
Gutenberg 11.8 was released at about 12 pm (CDT) today. However, it hit a bump in the road toward its destination, the WordPress plugin directory. A mix-up with getting the release tagged was the culprit, so it sat in limbo for around eight hours. Technically, it was available via its GitHub and SVN repositories. However,…