WordPress 4.2 is a week old and has been downloaded more than six million times. One of the first things I noticed after updating is the change to the Insert/edit link modal box. Instead of having to apply a title to the URL, the title is replaced with Link Text. The text that is highlighted…
On this episode of WordPress Weekly, Marcus Couch and I were joined by Drew Jaynes, web engineer for 10up, and release lead for WordPress 4.2. Jaynes explains how a release lead is chosen, their responsibilities, and what their role is. Release leads are shepherds who work with multiple teams to keep development on track. Jaynes…
WordPress 4.2 “Powell” has arrived and is now ready for download. It is named for Earl Rudolph “Bud” Powell, an American jazz pianist. This release, led by 10up engineer Drew Jaynes, offers a balanced mix of front-facing features that users will enjoy, as well as improvements for developers. Here is a tour of the highlights.…
Marcus Couch and I didn’t have a guest on this week’s episode, so we used the time to get you caught up on the week’s headlines. We discussed the release of WordPress 4.2 RC1 and if all goes well, expect to see the release of 4.2 next Wednesday. If you use iThemes Security, you’ll want…
A few days ago, we highlighted how WordPress 4.2 radically improves the installation and update process for plugins. Several readers commented on the article expressing that automatically activating plugins after installation is a bad idea. A decision was made during the March 25th, WordPress core developer chat to remove enhanced plugin installs from WordPress 4.2…
One of the features I’m looking forward to in WordPress 4.2 is the improved plugin install and update process. Gary Pendergast and a team of volunteers have spent the last six months collaborating on shiny updates. When you update or install a plugin in WordPress 4.1, you’re taken to a screen that shows its progress.…
WordPress 4.2 beta 1 is now available for early testers to download. It’s “pencils down” time for core contributors as far as new feature requests are concerned. This is the point in the release cycle where contributors are focusing their efforts on bug fixes and inline documentation. Drew Jaynes, the 4.2 release lead, posted the…
Taxonomy term splitting in WordPress 4.2 addresses a seven-year-old bug that occasionally posed a nuisance to developers. In the past, WordPress allowed terms to be shared between multiple taxonomies. This caused a problem where updating a shared term would change the others unintentionally. Boone Gorges’ progress on this ticket marks a major milestone on the…
Drew Jaynes, who is leading the release cycle for WordPress 4.2 announced on the Make.WordPress.core blog, that a new community initiative has been launched called NUX or New User Experience. The group is made up of more than 15 members of the WordPress community who have experience in onboarding clients, training clients, and work with…
Earlier this month, I described how the features as plugins first model is a mess. Drew Jaynes, who is leading the development cycle for WordPress 4.2, is already making headway into improving the model. Unlike previous release cycles, feature plugins that are likely to be merged into WordPress have been assigned a core mentor at…
WordPress 4.2 development officially kicked off today at the regularly scheduled core development meeting. Andrew Nacin announced that 10up engineer Drew Jaynes will be leading the release. Jaynes, who has contributed to every major release since 3.3, recently led the initiative to create inline documentation for every hook in WordPress. He will be accompanied by…