WordPress versions 3.7 and 3.8 have been under simultaneous development. This is the first time the project has undergone a tandem release cycle and the results so far have been very positive. The project’s momentum is at an all time high with a successful 3.7 release and some exciting core updates right around the corner…
Most WordPress maintenance releases are nothing to write home about, but WordPress 3.7.1 is one for the history books. This is the first maintenance release where users don’t have to lift a finger to get their sites upgraded. Sites already running WordPress 3.7 will soon be automatically upgraded to the latest and greatest. The release…
Now that WordPress 3.7 is out in the wild and has already accumulated over 1.5 million downloads, the complaints are starting to roll in concerning the automatic update feature. On the Make.WordPress.core website where Andrew Nacin published a great guide on the different ways of configuring auto updates, users started questioning why there wasn’t an…
One of the security tips you’ll come across often is immediately deleting the admin user after installation and creating a new user, then assigning that user the administrator role. This is something I wish the core team would address so that during the installation of WordPress, users would be able to choose their own username…
Over the weekend, WordPress developers Andrew Nacin and Dion Hulse released an official WordPress.org plugin that enables users to test their sites’ compatibility with the background updates feature, introduced in WordPress 3.7. Background Update Tester is an official plugin, released under the WordPress.org account. It was created to help users diagnose problems that prevent WordPress…
Today following the release of WordPress 3.7 many users are wondering where the settings page is to configure these options. The answer is that there is no settings page in the WordPress admin. If you upgrade to WordPress 3.7, the default behavior is that you’ll be automatically upgraded for security and minor releases. The fact…
WordPress 3.7 has been released and the big news is that WordPress now has the ability to update itself. This begins a new era of automatic background updates for security and minor releases. Web hosts around the world have been eagerly awaiting this release and are cheering its arrival. The upgrade process has been greatly…
The WordPress ecosystem is made up of thousands of websites, code repositories, blogs, forums, etc. To a new WordPress user, it can be intimidating or downright frustrating figuring out where to go. My goal with this post is to provide a map for those who are brand new to the world of WordPress to be…
Kevin Muldoon has published a great post that may change the mindset of both WordPress end users and developers. In his post, he talks about WordPress, GPL, and ethics but further into the post, he mentions that perhaps we should not be thinking about what sites like GPL Avengers or GPL Club are doing as…
One of the most anticipated features of WordPress 3.6 was the new Post Formats UI which would have exposed the feature to users who may not have known of its existence. Unfortunately, near the tail end of development for 3.6, Mark Jaquith made the announcement that the feature would be exiting core and that the…
When the dashboard redesign is officially added to WordPress core, it looks like it will be missing a widget that’s been with the software since 2005 when the Dashboard feature was introduced with WordPress 1.5 “Strayhorn”. In its early days, the incoming links widget used Technorati but due to the service not being able to…
Coming home from a WordCamp is like falling back to earth after floating on a cloud for a weekend. You’ve probably noticed that WordCamp Europe attendees are now blogging about their experiences at the WordPress party of the year. Their posts are packed full of speaker notes, shoutouts to new friends and pictures of the…
Amidst the different projects currently ongoing around WordPress, there is one that will potentially change the way in which we edit published content. It’s called Front-end Editor and is being developed as part of the features as plugins program. While the initial concept and mockups look good, there is another perspective by Mark Root-Wiley that…
While many WordPress GSoC projects have focused on improving the core, Mert Yazicioglu submitted a proposal for enhancing profiles on WordPress.org. Although other aspects of WordPress.org have received design and feature updates, the profiles haven’t quite kept pace. As a plugin developer and core contributor, Mert wanted developers to be able to fully represent themselves…
WordPress 3.7 is right around the corner with the beta out this weekend and the official release coming in mid-October. This release has a strong focus on improving WordPress security and includes automatic updates to help installs stay up to date with maintenance and security releases. If you install the beta and have a play,…