WordPress 4.9.6 Beta 1 is available for testing. It’s the first step in bringing GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) tools to WordPress. In addition to 10 bugs being fixed, this release heavily focuses on privacy enhancements. One of the first changes is the addition of a Privacy tab on the successful update screen. The message…
The WordPress Accessibility team is seeking contributors for its handbook project. It’s a collection of tips, resources, tools, and best practices. The goal is to educate users through summaries, articles, and reference materials. The handbook was created after the accessibility team repeatedly noticed the same accessibility issues cropping up and not having a central place…
WordPress 4.9.5 is available for download and is a maintenance and security release. WordPress 4.9.4 and earlier versions are affected by three security issues. The following security hardening changes are in 4.9.5. Localhost is no longer treated as the same host by default. Safe redirects are used when redirecting the login page if SSL is…
At the end of last month, Matt Cromwell, Head of Support and Community Outreach for GiveWP and an administrator for the Advanced WordPress Facebook group, hosted a question and answer session about Gutenberg with Matt Mullenweg. Mullenweg was asked a few times if he could provide a concrete date on when Gutenberg and WordPress 5.0…
Hours after WordPress 4.9.3 was released, the WordPress development team followed it up with 4.9.4 to fix a critical bug with the auto update process. The bug generates a fatal PHP error when WordPress attempts to update itself. This error requires WordPress site owners and administrators to manually update to WordPress 4.9.4 by visiting your…
WordPress 4.9.3 is available and fixes 34 bugs. Customizer changesets, the visual editor, widgets, and compatibility for PHP 7.2 highlight this release. You can view all of the changes via the changelog or trac tickets. Most sites will update automatically. However, if you want to trigger the update ahead of time or manually update, visit…
WordPress 4.9.3 is a maintenance release and was originally scheduled to be available on January 30th. However, due to ongoing tickets and a short time frame to test the release candidate, it has been pushed back to February 5th. WordPress 4.9.3 RC 1 is available for testing. This release removes JSHint from the code editors…
WordPress, the free open source project, turns 15 years old today. Here is the comment that started it all. In addition to celebrating 15 years as a successful software project, it's also a good opportunity to reflect on the number of people across the world who are making a great living and turning dreams into…
WordPress 4.9.2 has been released and patches a cross-site scripting vulnerability in the Flash fallback files in the MediaElement library. According to Ian Dunn, the Flash files are rarely needed and have been removed from WordPress. If you need access to the Flash fallback files, they can be obtained using the MediaElement Flash Fallback plugin.…
Since the conclusion of WordCamp US in early December, there have been a number of Gutenberg related items published to the web. The following is a collection of items related to Gutenberg that I came across throughout December. Feel free to add to this list in the comments below. Resources Getting Ready for Gutenberg is…
WordPress 4.9.1 is available for download and is a maintenance and security release. This release addresses four security issues in WordPress 4.9 and below that could potentially be used as part of a multi-vector attack. According to the release notes, the following changes have been made to WordPress to protect against these vulnerabilities. Use a…
The Gutenberg Team will have a usability testing station set up at WordCamp US where attendees can participate in a round of pre-set tests that focus on the writing flow. Testers will answer a short survey that includes their prior WordPress experience level, age, and device used. Volunteers will get participants set up with a…
WordPress 4.9 “Tipton” was released last week and although it’s largely trouble-free, there is one particular issue users and developers are running into that’s causing frustration. In 4.9, custom page templates that are created fail to display in the Template drop-down menu. The issue is related to changes made to the file editor. Previous versions…
Last week XWP dropped an intriguing preview of a new project called Tide that aims to improve code quality across the WordPress plugin and theme ecosystems. The company has been working with the support of Google, Automattic, and WP Engine, on creating a new service that will help users make better plugin decisions and assist…
A business can’t survive without strong sales & customer service, two competencies that are arguably the lifeblood of a company. Many of you reading this fill that exact gap for the open source WordPress project. I don’t mean this as a slight to the thousands of wonderful people who build the software, document it, and…