WordPress core contributor Alex Shiels has published a proposal for a WordPress.org block directory that would host JavaScript-based, single block plugins. The directory would make blocks searchable and installable from within the Gutenberg editor. Building a directory for discovering blocks and seamlessly installing them is one of the nine projects that Matt Mullenweg identified as…
The inaugural WordCamp Nordic will be live streamed for free on March 8, from the Paasitorni Congress Center in Helsinki. The conference starts at 9 AM. Those watching remotely can tune into both tracks via the following links: Track 1 https://2019.nordic.wordcamp.org/live-congress-hall/ Track 2 https://2019.nordic.wordcamp.org/live-sirkus/ The WordCamp’s organizers published the direct links, so there is no…
One of the the most important factors in WordPress’ growth is the software’s availability in 186 languages. Its vibrant community of translation volunteers, known as the Polyglots team, continually update the translations to ensure access for millions of non-English speakers around the world. In 2016, the team began hosting their own events dedicated to educational…
Freemius, a monetization, analytics, and marketing library for WordPress plugin and theme developers, patched an authenticated option update vulnerability in its wordpress-sdk four days ago. The library is included with many popular plugins, such as NextGEN Gallery (1,000,000+ installs), 404 – 301 (100,000+ installs), WP Security Audit Log (80,000+ installs), and FooGallery (100,000 installs+). Freemius…
Creating a block for navigation menus is one of the nine projects Matt Mullenweg identified as a priority for 2019, and the future of WordPress menus is starting to take shape. Designers working on the new Navigation Menu block have published a prototype this week with detailed notes on how users will interact with the…
WordPress release cycles may soon take a more predictable cadence, as contributors are considering moving to a time-based approach. The discussion began during a recent core dev chat in mid-February when Gutenberg phase 2 lead Riad Benguella proposed the project move to shorter, automated release cycles. The Gutenberg team has successfully been releasing a new…
Gatsby WordPress Themes is a new collaborative project led by Zac Gordon with help from Jason Bahl, Rich Tabor, Muhammad Muhsin, and Alexandra Spalato. The group is working together to port popular themes for use with Gatsby, the React-based static site generator that uses GraphQL for its data layer. Known for its performance and ease…
The new Gutenberg block editor that arrived in WordPress 5.0 is now in beta testing on the mobile apps. The editor will be available in version 11.9, which is planned to be released to the public on March 11. “For this first version, our main focus was to build a pleasant writing experience with support…
Gumroad has updated its WordPress plugin to include a Gutenberg block for embedding a product in any page or post. The online platform enables creators, artists, educators, writers, and anyone else to sell their products without having to manage their own e-commerce setup. Gumroad’s WordPress plugin has been available for several years and is now…
WordPress 5.1 has been downloaded more than 3.6 million times since its release last week and work on 5.2 is now underway. The upcoming release will be led by Matt Mullenweg with Josepha Haden acting as Release Coordinator. Gary Pendergast posted a proposed scope and schedule that would have 5.2 arriving April 23, 2019. One…
Ecwid’s e-commerce plugin for WordPress is now fully integrated with the Gutenberg editor. The cloud-based store builder, pronounced “eck-wid,” is short for e-commerce widgets, but the service has fully embraced blocks in its latest releases. The new default Storefront block comes pre-installed and embeds the entire Ecwid store on a page, including product listing, filters,…
WordPress 5.1 “Betty” was released today, honoring American jazz singer Betty Carter. This is the first major release since Gutenberg came into core. As part of WordPress’ 2019 “tighten up” theme, this release was focused on improving performance in the editor and helping users update outdated versions of PHP. WordPress 5.0 had been downloaded more…
Gutenberg development continues ploughing ahead with new blocks and steady improvements to performance and accessibility. Version 5.1 was released this week with new Search, Calendar, and Tag Cloud blocks. All widgets have now been ported over to blocks, a major Phase 2 milestone. The next phase of that project will explore how the widgets screen…
The makers of the annual State of JavaScript survey have launched a new survey for developers who work with CSS. In September 2018, Sacha Greif and his collaborators sent out the State of JS survey for the third year running but dropped the CSS libraries category in favor of keeping it from getting too long.…
Wapuu Dashboard Pet is a new plugin from Kayleigh Thorpe and the team at WordPress hosting company 34SP.com. It is essentially a WordPress Tamagotchi, or digital pet, that resides in your dashboard and monitors the health of the site. The plugin checks to make sure WordPress has been updated (plugins, themes, and core) and backups…