As I was perusing the WordPress plugin directory this morning, I noticed a new block plugin, which is always one of the highlights of my week. It was a simple pricing block. Of course, I installed it and began playing around with its features. It was a version-1.0 product, so I was not going to…
GitHub, in partnership with Tidelift, has set aside June 7-12, 2021, as Maintainer Week, a time for open source maintainers to share knowledge and experiences through a series of planned activities and events. Tidelift plans to kick off Maintainer Week on June 7 with a virtual event called Upstream, featuring 30+ sessions that attendees can…
The internet was set abuzz yesterday after Google officially confirmed that it has been testing a Follow button for websites in Chrome. In February, the publishers of Chrome Story spotted the button on Canary for Android, and speculated that it may be integrated with Google’s Discover feature. Chrome announced that it is building on RSS…
Tom de Visser, a developer from Amsterdam, released the Post Descriptions plugin last week. It was his first submission to the WordPress.org plugin repository. It allows users to write short descriptions on a per-post basis, which are then displayed on the post-management screen. For an initial outing, it already seems to be a hit with…
Almost since the dawn of the plugin and theme upgrade mechanisms inclusion in core over a decade ago, third-party developers have asked for an easy way to bypass the system. WordPress 5.8 will finally deliver on this feature request. While it has long been possible to filter the update system, methods for doing so were…
When Sergiu Radu and Andrei Glingeanu launched their free Blocksy theme nearly two years ago, they were surprised by how quickly their business grew during a global pandemic without any investment in marketing. Blocksy is now active on more than 20,000 WordPress sites and its commercial version, launched in October 2020, has grown to where…
Less than two weeks after publishing about the broken user experience of the former Dark Mode plugin being renamed and repurposed, another plugin development company decided to do the same. The consensus seems to be that this is a bad idea. However, the ProfilePress Team forged ahead and repurposed the WP User Avatar plugin. Instead…
Over the weekend, Anariel Design co-founder Ana Segota tweeted that she was nearly ready to submit the company’s first block theme into the WordPress directory. There are only five such experimental themes available for download in the repo right now, and I have been patiently awaiting more. The Naledi theme is in the review queue,…
WordSesh 2021, a free virtual event targeted at WordPress professionals, is less than one week away. Sessions will be broadcast May 24-28, followed by hands-on workshops May 27 – June 4. The event is hosted by Brian Richards, creator of the WordPress video training website WPSessions. It features an impressive lineup of curated speakers whose…
As has almost become ritual at this point, I am always looking forward to the next testing round for Full Site Editing (FSE). Spearheaded by core contributor Anne McCarthy, the FSE Outreach Program’s fortnightly user tests are usually fun and offer everyone a chance to get involved, regardless of their experience level. This latest testing…
The WordPress community is eager to return to in-person events and organizers are discussing a path to ensure the safety of resuming meetups as a first step before considering WordCamps. Previous discussions led to the creation of a checklist to assist local organizers in determining if their chapter is eligible to proceed. Noticeably absent from…
The Gutenberg development team has taken massive strides in the latest release. Version 10.6 of the plugin introduces several user-facing features and changes that upgrade the block-editing experience. The new duotone filter for images is just downright fun to play with. The UIs for the Query pattern selector and template-editing mode have been overhauled. Plus,…
AccessiBe and other similar tools are coming under fire after more than 400 accessibility advocates and developers signed an open letter calling on the industry to unite against the use of accessibility overlay products. These overlay “widgets” are technologies that apply third-party code to the front end in an attempt to automate repairs after sites…
Yesterday, StudioPress announced several changes to its themes and marketplace coming on or around June 8. For those outside its community, the company will be making its Genesis Framework available for free. The company is overhauling its marketplace, no longer selling individual themes. StudioPress’s selection of themes will soon be available only through a Genesis…
Core contributor Jeff Ong announced an upcoming virtual hangout around the concept of universal themes. The meeting could cover much ground for theme authors learning how new and upcoming tools will fit into their workflows, businesses, and more. For an invitation, attendees should leave a comment on the announcement post or message Ong directly. The…