News

  • Anders Norén Releases Abisko, a New Free WordPress Theme with 30+ Block Patterns

    Anders Norén Releases Abisko, a New Free WordPress Theme with 30+ Block Patterns

    Designer and developer Anders Norén has released a new free block theme called Abisko, created to fully support the new design features available in the latest WordPress 6.2 release. The theme was named for one of Norén’s favorite stomping grounds, Abisko national park, where he hikes every summer. Abisko places a strong emphasis on both…

  • WooCommerce to Host Virtual Contributor Day April 19, 2023

    WooCommerce to Host Virtual Contributor Day April 19, 2023

    WooCommerce has announced a 24-hour virtual contributor day that will happen on April 19, 2023. Contributors will be working on the WooCommerce Core and WooCommerce Blocks repositories. To give better coverage over time zones, organizers will have two kickoff times (0 UTC and 12 UTC). WooCommerce hasn’t had a WooConf in-person conference since 2017, opting instead for virtual events…

  • WordPress Contributors Propose New Interactivity API for Frontend Blocks

    WordPress Contributors Propose New Interactivity API for Frontend Blocks

    Over the past year a group of WordPress contributors have been working on making it easier for developers to build interactive blocks. These are the kinds of experiences that allow visitors to submit a form and get feedback without reloading the page, load paginated content without refreshing, and improve e-commerce stores with more dynamic responses…

  • Pattern Manager Plugin Now Available on WordPress.org

    Pattern Manager Plugin Now Available on WordPress.org

    WP Engine’s Pattern Manager is now available in the WordPress Plugins Directory. The plugin gives WordPress professionals a dedicated interface for browsing, designing, and organizing patterns with categories, keywords, descriptions, and more. It is still in beta and not recommended for use in production. Although it can be used on a lived website, the plugin’s…

  • WordPress 6.2 Delayed to March 29 Due to Bug With Date Formats

    WordPress 6.2 Delayed to March 29 Due to Bug With Date Formats

    WordPress 6.2 was scheduled for release today, but contributors discovered a bug with date formats during the 24-hour freeze that they believe could have a significant impact on functionality like bookings, date permalinks, and e-commerce stores. The decision was made this morning to delay with a consensus to apply a revert and release a silent…

  • Real-Time Collaboration Is Coming to WordPress

    Real-Time Collaboration Is Coming to WordPress

    Gutenberg Phase 3 is officially in the planning stage, as the Site Editor is set to exit the beta in 6.2 and the major tasks of Phase 2 are nearing completion. Gutenberg lead architect Matias Ventura published a preliminary outline of what is planned to be included in the next “Collaboration” phase of the project.…

  • WooCommerce Payments Plugin Patches Critical Vulnerability That Would Allow Site Takeover

    WooCommerce Payments Plugin Patches Critical Vulnerability That Would Allow Site Takeover

    WooCommerce Payments, a plugin that allows WooCommerce store owners to accept credit and debit card payments and manage transactions inside the WordPress dashboard, has patched an Authentication Bypass and Privilege Escalation vulnerability with a 9.8 (Critical) CVSS score. The plugin is active on more than 500,000 websites. Beau Lebens, WooCommerce’s Head of Engineering, published an…

  • Navigating the New Era of AI-Assisted Code Generation in WordPress

    Navigating the New Era of AI-Assisted Code Generation in WordPress

    The world is learning new ways of moving faster with the help of AI, as the increased availability of the technology is poised to transform the way humans work. Generitive AI is decades old but recent advances and new tools like DALL-E (launched in January 2021) have made AI more accessible to the public. When…

  • The Mercantile Reopens with Limited Edition 20th Anniversary WordPress Swag

    The Mercantile Reopens with Limited Edition 20th Anniversary WordPress Swag

    The Mercantile, WordPress’ official swag store, was closed for updates but has relaunched with the highly anticipated limited edition 20th anniversary swag. In celebration of the milestone, the store has added an array of keepsakes, including sweatshirts, pennants, a “Code is Poetry” t-shirt, stainless steel tumbler, pet bandana, commemorative sticker sheets, and more. What WordPress…

  • Admin Menu Tree Page View 2.8 Now Supports All Public Post Types 

    Admin Menu Tree Page View 2.8 Now Supports All Public Post Types 

    The Admin Menu Tree Page View plugin, which adds a tree-view layout of content in the WordPress admin, has been refactored to support more content types. The plugin is an admin utility similar to Hierarchy or the commercial OrganizeWP plugin that reworks the CMS to show content in one place, but it offers a simpler…

  • CloudFest Hackathon 2023 Kickstarts Innovative WordPress Projects: VS Code Extension for In-Browser Development, WapuuGotchi Gamification Plugin, and More

    CloudFest Hackathon 2023 Kickstarts Innovative WordPress Projects: VS Code Extension for In-Browser Development, WapuuGotchi Gamification Plugin, and More

    More than 6,000 people are attending CloudFest in Europa-Park, Germany, this week. A strong contingent of WordPress developers and contributors are among them. During the Hackathon portion of the event, web professionals gather for a friendly competition, tackling problems for existing not-for-profit, OSS projects, creating solutions with a concentrated effort at a quicker pace than…

  • WordPress Launches Wapuu Coloring Giveaway to Celebrate Upcoming 20th Anniversary

    WordPress Launches Wapuu Coloring Giveaway to Celebrate Upcoming 20th Anniversary

    Wapuu lovers who are looking for a relaxing weekend activity will want to check out WordPress’ recently launched Wapuu Coloring Giveaway. The challenge is to style your own 20th anniversary party Wapuu using crayons, markers, colored pencils, pastels, or even digital drawing tools. Three random entries will be selected (which is why it’s called a…

  • Equalize Digital Raises Pre-Seed Funding for Expanding Accessibility Checker Plugin Development

    Equalize Digital Raises Pre-Seed Funding for Expanding Accessibility Checker Plugin Development

    Equalize Digital, a WordPress accessibility products and consulting company, has received an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding from Emilia Capital, the investment company owned by Joost de Valk and Marieke van de Rakt. The investment will be used to accelerate the growth of Equalize Digital’s Accessibility Checker plugin, a tool for auditing websites for WCAG,…