WordPress 5.3 “Kirk,” named in honor American jazz musician Rahsaan Roland Kirk, is now available for download. The update includes a new default theme named Twenty Twenty, user interface improvements aimed at accessibility, and new block editor features. This release saw contributions from 645 volunteers, which is the largest contributor (more…)
WordPress 5.3 Beta 3 was released this week and RC 1 is right around the corner, expected October 15. Core contributors have been publishing developer notes on new features landing in this release. One exciting enhancement that hasn’t received much attention yet is WordPress’ updated handling of large images. Many (more…)
WordPress 5.3 is set to introduce an admin email verification screen that will be shown every six months after an admin has logged in. The feature was proposed seven months ago in a ticket that contributor Andrei Draganescu opened as part of the Site Health component improvements. Draganescu said the (more…)
WordPress core contributors worked together today to package up 5.3 Beta 1 for release on schedule. The Core slack channel was abuzz this afternoon as developers pushed through last-minute commits and fixed issues ahead of shipping the beta. Iterations on the block editor are a major part of of this (more…)
Gutenberg 6.5 was released today with a rough prototype that adds one-click search and installation of blocks from the block directory to the inserter. Selected blocks are automatically installed as a plugin in the background and inserted into the editor with one click. The pull request for the experiment indicates (more…)
From its inception, the block editor was always intended to be more than just an editor for the main content area. Gutenberg phase 2 brings the block editor to other parts of the site, including widgets, menus, and other aspects of site customization. Matias Ventura, one of the lead engineers (more…)
WordPress 5.3 release dates were confirmed this week. The timeline has the official release arriving November 12, 2019, with a decent margin of time to avoid WordCamp US (early November) and the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday week at the end of November. Beta 1 is expected September 23 and a Release (more…)
WordPress contributors from around the world joined in a lively meeting yesterday to continue the discussion regarding the proposal to auto-update old sites to version 4.7 in a controlled rollout. The idea is that sites would gradually update from one major version to the next (not all at once). The (more…)
WordPress contributors, developers, and community members are currently debating a proposal to would implement a new policy regarding security support for older versions. The discussion began last week when security team lead Jake Spurlock asked for feedback on different approaches to backporting security fixes to older versions. Following up on (more…)
WordPress contributors are weighing in on a proposal for the formation of a nomination-based advisory board with set term limits for its members. Josepha Haden, the project’s Executive Director, published a first draft two weeks ago with ideas for how the board might operate and feedback is rolling in. WordPress (more…)
Gutenberg 6.2 has two new user-facing features that were added based on community feedback. The Cover and Media & Text blocks now allow for nesting any type of block inside. Previously, the Cover block only allowed users to add a heading, button, or paragraph block. Users had resorted to employing (more…)
Back in September of 2016, GoDaddy acquired ManageWP. What was odd about the acquisition was the amount of backlash that was generated by ManageWP customers. While most were happy for Vladimir Prelovac, founder of ManageWP, many customers worried about GoDaddy’s reputation, unsatisfactory service, and how such a great service would (more…)