In early September, WP Engine announced the launch of Genesis Custom Blocks, a block-creation plugin made possible by its StudioPress team. The concept should feel familiar to developers who have made use of Advanced Custom Fields and similar plugins. However, the focus of this new plugin is entirely on blocks. The plugin is more of a framework than a plug-and-play …
WordPress To Combine Its Long-Neglected Theme Previewer With Starter Content
Six weeks ago, WordPress 5.6 release lead Helen Hou-Sandí breathed new life into two almost-forgotten features around the WordPress website and platform. The idea was to take the starter content feature, which themes can optionally add for new installs, and apply it to the WordPress.org theme preview system. It was not a new idea. However, it finally had some teeth …
Should WordPress Notify Users of Plugin Ownership Changes?
Potential idea for showing plugin ownership change. That is the question posed by Ian Atkins in a recent ticket for WordPress. “I’ve experienced a few plugins change ownership, and it’s really not clear as a user, developer, and maintainer of sites when that has happened,” he wrote in the ticket. “Whilst having a plugin continue to be developed is admirable …
Proposal to Create an Expanded View or Overlay for the Block Patterns Inserter
The “version 1.0” launch of block patterns in WordPress 5.5 was overall successful. However, it was easy to overlook the problems while waiting for this feature to land after months of anticipation. Now that we have had a couple of months of seeing the block pattern system baked into core WordPress, it is time to address issues that are becoming …
WPGraphQL 1.0 Released, Now Available in WordPress.org Plugins Directory
Version 1.0 of the WPGraphQL plugin is now available in the official plugins directory on WordPress.org. This is the first stable version recommended for use in production, landing nearly four years from when the project started in November 2016. In an effort to keep WPGraphQL in line with WordPress’ commitment to preserving backwards compatibility, Jason Bahl, the creator and maintainer, …
Google Webmasters Central Rebrands to Google Search Central
Twenty years ago, every aspect of developing a website and putting it online was more complex than it is today – an enchantment of Merlin’s wand to most common folks. The term “webmaster” hasn’t aged well, but it was commonly used in a different era when tech wizards were the only people creating and managing websites. The term has become …
Do Not Build Theme-Specific Block Plugins for WordPress, Please
A few days ago, I came across a small library of blocks. As always, I was interested in seeing what this new plugin brought to the table. Would it surprise me with a block that has not been done before? Would it present a new take on some old ideas? Or, would it be the same old set of blocks …
Themes Team Removes Outdated CSS Guidelines, Adds Stricter Requirement for Links in Content
In yesterday’s twice-monthly meeting, the WordPress Themes Team made a couple of important changes to the official theme directory guidelines. They removed a requirement of some CSS classes that have long been sitting on the chopping block. They also implemented the third stage in their long-term plan to make all WordPress themes accessibility-ready. For years, theme authors have needed to …
WordPress 5.6 Beta 4 Delayed, Auto-Updates Implementation Changed
Earlier today, release lead Josepha Haden announced the team was pushing back the release of WordPress 5.6 Beta 4 to Thursday, November 12. The beta release was slated to go live today. Questions around the readiness of the auto-updates feature held the beta update back. However, those questions are now resolved. Haden followed up the Beta 4 announcement with a …
WordPress 5.6 Will Ship With Another Major jQuery Change
WordPress 5.6 will ship with the latest jQuery library next month. This is a major update that all plugin and theme developers should begin testing against. Last week, Marius Jensen announced the change on the Make Core blog. The following jQuery-related libraries are expected to ship in the update (WordPress Trac ticket): jQuery 3.5.1 jQuery Migrate 3.3.2 jQuery UI 1.12.1 …







