Kevin Batdorf released the Image Filters plugin for WordPress yesterday. It is a block that allows users to select from curated list of filters and apply it to their images. Batdorf is the creator of one of my favorite “fun” plugins for WordPress: Wavy Divider. It allows users to create wavy and jagged divider sections…
James Kemp, a WooCommerce developer and founder of Iconic, has acquired ReplyBox, a privacy-focused comment system. Originally built by Ashley Rich and Lewis Warren and launched in 2018, ReplyBox has struggled to gain a strong foothold in the WordPress ecosystem as a commercial product with no free version, but it has continued growing at a slow rate. “It’s…
Gutenberg 13.1 landed in the WordPress plugin directory earlier today. Not quite as heavy on the feature list as its predecessor, the update focuses more on improvements and bug fixes. The highlight of the release is the overhauled border design component. One notable bug that theme authors should watch out for is missing styles in…
The WordPress subreddit lit up this week with reports of MemberPress locking users out of the plugin’s admin if they do not renew their subscriptions. MemberPress is a popular membership plugin for WordPress. It is a commercial-only plugin starting at $179/year for one site, and there is no free version. Reddit user @hamsternose opened the…
A couple of weeks ago, Munir Kamal updated his Block Slider plugin for WordPress. While not as popular as some of the other projects he has spearheaded, such as Editor Plus, he wanted to breathe some fresh life into it. The original plugin allowed users to insert a slider block and create the slides directly…
I built four block plugins last week. It was not something I had set out to do. I did not wake up one day and declare, “I think I will build a suite of custom block types over the next few days.” It just happened. The first plugin I built was to address an old…
Less than a week after launching Block Enhancements, Phi Phan has released another project: Icon Separator. It is a block plugin for creating custom dividers with an SVG icon. “I’ve tried to support icons in the core/separator,” Phan said when we last spoke about adding icons to core blocks. “But it requires changing the markup.…
WooCommerce is moving closer to closing the gap on its full-site editing support with the latest features announced on the Q1/Q2 roadmap. While the e-commerce platform already has support for nearly two-dozen core blocks, it’s not yet possible to use full-site editing for customizing every aspect of a store. The concept of “Store Editing” is…
Plugin review team representative Mika Epstein announced changes for officially-recognized featured and beta plugins last Friday. Under the new rule, plugin owners will no longer be able to directly change ownership to someone else or add/remove commit access. The purpose is to prevent bad actors from pushing malicious code or premium upsells. Plugin owners can…
Gutenberg 13.0 landed earlier today in the WordPress plugin directory. It is one of the heftier releases lately, containing the final features that should ship with WordPress 6.0. The more prominent features include multi-block partial text selection, Cover blocks with featured images, a Stack variation for Groups, and pattern-based page creation. And there is much…
Elementor has patched a critical Remote Code Execution vulnerability that was discovered by threat analyst Ramuel Gall from Wordfence on March 29, 2022. Wordfence disclosed the vulnerability to Elementor via its official security contact email address but did not receive a timely reply. On April 11, 2022, Wordfence disclosed the vulnerability to the WordPress Plugins…
WordPress developer Phi Phan has been making small splashes lately, but in a sea of 1,000s of plugins, it is increasingly tough to make a wave. Over the weekend, he released the Block Enhancements plugin, the first pass on a project that he plans to iterate on with new ideas. However, this is not his…
Up next in our Building with Blocks series is a quick tutorial on how to build a timeline page. Timelines give brands and organizations a visual way to introduce themselves and feature highlights from their histories. The block editor makes creating a timeline easier than it ever was with legacy plugins. For this example, I…
Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) recently patched a missing authorization vulnerability in version 5.12.1 that potentially affects more than a million users. The security issue was discovered by Keitaro Yamazaki of Ierae Security, Inc, who reported it to the Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA). According to the CVE record information, the vulnerability affects all free versions of ACF…
A couple of weeks ago, Rich Tabor announced a GitHub repository that listed all of his block plugins. These were already publicly available. However, some had yet to land in the WordPress plugin directory. As a fan of his simple approach to block design, I was quick to start tinkering with them. One of those…