BuddyPress 2.1 is right around the corner. After a fairly quiet beta period, 2.1 RC1 is now in the hands of testers and is your last chance to test before the official release. BuddyPress lead developer Boone Gorges also posted an important update to let those who maintain BP language packs know that the latest…
The folks at ThematoSoup are in the habit of naming their theme releases for delicious soup dishes. The team, comprised of WordPress plugin and theme developers Slobodan Manic and Dragan Nikolic, is dedicated to creating minimalist-inspired WordPress products. “We eat, sleep and breathe WordPress and digital clutter gives us nightmares,” the duo expressed on their…
Creating a custom banner for your plugin on WordPress.org will help your extension to stand out among the 33,000+ others in the plugin directory. A little bit of branding also gives the impression that the plugin isn’t just a one night stand but rather a work that you’re committed to continually update. If your plugin…
When you create profile fields in BuddyPress, they apply to every user in the same way. Each user responds to the same set of questions, but this could stand to be a little more flexible to account for differences in users. What if you could conditionally show profile fields, based on a user’s answers to…
The folks behind Graph Paper Press launched a new custom WordPress theme builder this week. Theme.Works was created to be a new brand, featuring a theme building platform that allows users to build a WordPress theme in under 60 seconds. “We wanted something crazy easy for users to understand and use,” founder Thad Allender said.…
Aesop Story Engine 1.1. beta is now in the hands of eager testers, as project leader Nick Haskins prepares to launch the first major update to the plugin since its release. Haskin’s open source storytelling plugin was fully funded via a Crowdhoster campaign earlier this year. Shortly thereafter he released it on WordPress.org and launched…
Since 2011, WPShout has conducted a comprehensive, non-biased, webhosting survey. Although the site has changed hands, Fred Meyer and David Hayes are continuing the tradition and the survey questions are ready to fill out. There are four required questions with no identifiable information required to submit your answers. The survey is aimed at figuring out…
If you operate a content heavy website and want an easy way to give readers an option to read content without distractions, now you can with the WP Couch Mode plugin. Developed by Ritesh Vatwani, WP Couch Mode adds a customizable link to content. When clicked, a lightbox appears displaying only the content of the…
Storyteller is an interesting concept by Katharina Brunner. It’s a WordPress theme that when combined with the AddQuickTags plugin, provides the ability to build multimedia stories. Once activated, you’ll need to import a special JSON file into AddQuickTags. This file automatically adds alignment code to the Storyteller specific quicktags making it easy to align the…
The open source NetBeans IDE has support for several different languages and frameworks and a worldwide community of developers who depend on it to code more efficiently. A recent survey conducted by SitePoint placed NetBeans as the third most favored IDE among PHP developers, capturing 15.6% of the votes, trailing not far behind Sublime Text…
Jeff Starr, a contributing author to DigWP.com, has put the finishing touches on his brand new book, WordPress Themes In Depth. It’s 450 pages of focused information on WordPress theme development. It’s in PDF format and has support for widescreen monitors and mobile devices. Some of the topics covered include: Setting up for theme development…
When creating a portfolio with WordPress, the most ideal way to store your work is in a separate plugin. Later down the road when you want to change your theme, you’ll be able to do so without losing your portfolio content. Many theme authors are now starting to build support for existing portfolio plugins into…
Marcus Couch and I are joined by the lead developer of iThemes Security, Chris Wiegman. After helping us dissect the news of the week, he tells the story of how he got involved with WordPress. We learn about the circumstances that lead to the creation of iThemes Security and how he almost sold the plugin…
A month ago, WordPress.com released a new business theme that features support for its new site logo feature. The Edin theme was an instant hit with its users and is now available for use on self-hosted WordPress sites. The theme was designed by Thomas Guillot to create a strong brand and online presence for any…
The WordPress 2014 survey is now available. Anyone who uses WordPress in any capacity is encouraged to take this short survey to help improve the project. The questions take approximately five minutes to complete and participation is anonymized. WordPress does not collect your email address or IP address, so feel free to offer your sincere…