WordPress’ Performance Team has published a feature proposal that would enable WebP images by default, expanding core support for the modern image format. In July, 2021, WordPress 5.8 introduced WebP support, allowing users to upload and use WebP images in their content. If the proposal is approved, version 6.0 will generate WebP images by default…
Yesterday, Ella van Durpe merged a long-awaited feature into the Gutenberg plugin that allows users to select and modify text across multiple Rich Text blocks. It should land in version 13.0 of the plugin and WordPress 6.0 in May. Users can currently select text across multiple blocks, but the editor automatically adjusts that selection to…
WordCamp Asia is tentatively back on the schedule of in-person WordPress events with new dates: February 17-19, 2023, in Bangkok, Thailand. It will begin with a Contributor day, followed by two conference days. Asia’s inaugural flagship WordCamp was originally scheduled for March 2020 but was the first international WordPress event to be cancelled due to…
The WordPress pattern directory finally opened its gates to the entire community today. Anyone with a WordPress.org account can log in, go to the pattern creator, and start designing. For some of us, this has felt like an unbearably long wait. In reality, it took the development team less than a year since the directory…
WooCommerce announced today that its new Store API is now stable after two years in development. It powers the plugin’s new block-based cart and checkout experience as well as all products blocks. The Store API is a public, unauthenticated API, that provides REST API endpoints for cart, checkout, and product functionality. WooCommerce core developer Mike…
Weglot, a popular WordPress multilingual plugin, has raised €45M from Partech Partners. This is the first time the Paris-based company has taken outside capital since it closed €450K in seed funding from SIDE Capital in 2017. Since that initial round Weglot has expanded its offerings to include more translations and integrations for other platforms. Weglot co-founder…
The day has finally arrived when a block theme does something interesting with the featured image on single post views. One of my biggest pet peeves is when themers simply dump it at the top of the content and call it a day. I nearly always bolt straight for the site editor to remove the…
After considerable pushback from the Plugin Review team, WordPress.org has removed a plugin called Zamir, which was created by a Russian developer to display the Z symbol in support of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The plugin gained attention after Gravity Forms founder and CEO Carl Hancock noticed that it was listed under the “New”…
WordPress managed hosting company WP Engine has joined Acquia, Fastly, Gatsby, Netlify, and Pantheon to begin booting Russian companies off their platforms. In addition to the joint protest, each organization has also pledged support to the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), a non-profit that documents internet censorship around the world. “As part of that…
Over the weekend, web developer Marie Comet released the Lock Reusable Blocks plugin. Since then, she has published a couple of more updates that polish that initial release. The extension blocks users from directly editing reusable blocks from the post-editing screen. Reusable blocks allow users to group one or more blocks in the post editor,…
In today’s edition of our Building with Blocks series, we’re going to explore one example of building a single-product sales page. There is by no means one approach for building something like this. This particular example aims to demonstrate a fast way to start selling a single product online, while using free plugins and themes…
Yesterday, DeoThemes’ latest block theme, Ona Creative, landed in the WordPress directory. It is the second child of Ona, a theme I initially showcased here on the Tavern in November 2021. When I first reviewed the Ona parent theme, WordPress 5.9 had yet to be released, and users were required to install the Gutenberg plugin…
The pandemic has dramatically slashed the number of in-person WordPress events that volunteers are organizing and events have been slow to start up again. This has caused the WordPress Community Team to reconsider the guidelines for hosting regional WordCamps. Historically, these guidelines have generated lengthy discussions, as many vocal opponents found them to be needlessly…
I have a new favorite WordPress development-related plugin: Theme YAML. Sascha Paukner released it a mere day ago, and it may find its place in many theme developers’ toolboxes before long. It allows themers to write theme JSON in YAML format. To use, theme authors only need to create a new theme.yaml file and begin…
Newfold Digital, the parent company of Bluehost, Yoast, and Web.com, has acquired YITH, a WordPress plugin company with more than 100 WooCommerce extensions. YITH’s has more than 2.3 million active installs across its suite of products. The company hosts 31 plugins on WordPress.org, many that are lite versions with commercial upgrades. YITH’s most popular product,…