Matt Mullenweg, the overall product lead for core releases in 2017, has published an overview for what users can expect in WordPress versions 4.9 and 5.0. After the success of 4.8 and the initial release of Gutenberg last week, Mullenweg is aiming to see the plugin installed on 100K+ sites during the next few months…
One of the featured sessions at WordCamp Europe 2017 was Om Malik’s interview with Matt Mullenweg, followed by a 20-minute Q&A from the audience. After showing a preview of the new Gutenberg editor with dynamic blocks replacing widgets, Mullenweg announced that it is now available as a plugin on WordPress.org. Gutenberg has been in development…
WordPress’ Marketing Team has launched a set of surveys to gather case studies and usage data from agencies, clients, and enterprises, with the goal of providing more resources for adoption. The Usage Survey was created to capture feedback on the factors that influenced an organization to select WordPress as well as any barriers to using…
Last week WordPress core contributors narrowed their considerations for a new JavaScript framework to React and Vue. As the core team has more collective knowledge of working with React, they have reached out to developers with different experiences of using other frameworks in a WordPress context. One of the chief concerns contributors have regarding Vue…
WordPress core contributors met this morning to continue the discussion on selecting a new JavaScript framework for use with new core features. The discussion on the Make/Core post intensified over the weekend with more Vue.js proponents commenting to add their thoughts. Adam Silverstein and Andrew Duthie facilitated this morning’s meeting and began by opening up…
Before the release of PHP 7 in 2015, many WordPress managed hosting companies looked to Facebook’s HHVM to provide better performance. Pagely, WP Engine, and SiteGround added HHVM hosting options in 2014 and early 2015. However, PHP 7 performance gains have been enough to preclude wider HHVM adoption. WordPress core developer John Blackbourn announced yesterday…
WordPress core contributors have started collaborating more around their JavaScript efforts this year with regular core-js meetings. One item on the most recent meeting’s agenda was discussion on choosing a new JavaScript framework for use in core as an alternative to Backbone. Contributors began by summarizing the criteria for evaluating framework options, includes factors like…
In WordPress 4.3, the Accessibility Team restored H1 headings to the admin screens. This paved the way for the team to change the headings hierarchy in WordPress 4.4. In WordPress 4.8, admin screens are more accessible thanks to organizing the header text on pages. The headers on admin screens typically contain more than text. For example, the Add New button…
WordPress 3.4 introduced the WordPress Customizer API and over time it has evolved from being a theme customizer to a framework for live-previewing changes to WordPress. Since its inclusion, one of the most common complaints about the Customizer is its narrow sidebar. Even on widescreen monitors, the Customizer sidebar is only 300px wide. This limitation was one of…
WordPress 4.7.5 was released today with fixes for six security issues. If you manage multiple sites, you may have seen automatic update notices landing in your inbox this evening. The security release is for all previous versions and WordPress is recommending an immediate update. Sites running versions older than 3.7 will require a manual update.…
WordPress 4.8 Beta 1 is available for testing and has a couple of features that will likely have a big impact. New Image, Video, and Audio Widgets WordPress 4.8 has three new core widgets and adds a visual editor to the Text widget. Adding video, audio, or images to text widgets typically involves using custom…
WordPress now has its own official HackerOne account where security researchers can responsibly disclose vulnerabilities to the security team. The project’s page was previously listed under Automattic’s profile before HackerOne launched its free community edition for open source projects. WordPress has now transitioned to its own account, which also includes sister projects BuddyPress, bbPress, GlotPress,…
WordPress 4.8 kicked off in this week’s core developer meeting and the schedule for the upcoming release is now published. Beta 1 is scheduled for May 12 and the official release is targeted for June 8. This will be the first major release in 2017 and is focused on laying the foundation for the new…
Over the weekend, Matt Mullenweg announced that the upcoming WordPress 4.8 release will drop support for IE versions 8, 9, and 10. Core contributors have been discussing browser support for the past two months in relationship to setting technical requirements for the new editor. Microsoft discontinued support for IE 8, 9, and 10 in January…
If you work with WordPress every day you may have learned to tune out the recommended plugins in the admin by now, but the “Add Plugins” screen is an important part of the new user experience. WordPress developers Joey Kudish and Nick Hamze have released a plugin that brings better recommendations to the admin. Hamze…