One year ago developers at Google and Yoast began collaborating with other contributors on a proposal to add XML sitemaps to WordPress core. The XML Sitemaps feature plugin went into testing in late January and the feature is now on deck for inclusion in WordPress 5.5. This week contributors merged a basic version of sitemaps that plugin developers can either build on or …
BuddyPress Contributors Begin Work on Block-based Activity Post Form
BuddyPress broke into the world of blocks last month with its 6.0 release. Group and Member blocks were the first blocks to make it into the core plugin and next up are block versions of the existing widgets. Contributors are also working on block requests based on community feedback. Today, BuddyPress core developer Mathieu Viet shared a prototype of his …
Review Signal Publishes WordPress Hosting Benchmarks for 2020, Introduces WooCommerce Testing
Review Signal founder Kevin Ohashi has published the site’s annual WordPress Hosting Performance Benchmarks for 2020, along with a smaller set of benchmarks for WooCommerce hosting. For the past seven years Ohashi has been using sentiment analysis to capture consumer reviews of hosting companies on Twitter. He also performs a set of tests to measure peak performance and consistency for WordPress …
Build Forms via the Block Editor With Gutenberg Forms
The quest for the perfect form plugin is nearly as old as WordPress. Projects have come and gone. There are some great form plugins out there, but far too often the choices are between massive builders that do things their own way and solutions so simple that they do not quite live up to expectations. Munir Kamal has put his …
OpenJS World 2020 Conference Goes Virtual, Tickets Are Free: June 23–24
Like many tech conferences, OpenJS World 2020 was forced to go virtual for its upcoming event scheduled for June 23-24, in Austin. The global conference was designed to be representative of all 32 projects hosted with the OpenJS Foundation. This includes Node.js, webpack, jQuery, Mocha, ESLint, Lodash, Grunt, and other popular projects. The Foundation is also in the process of initiating …
Fake Ransomware Bitcoin Scam Claims “Your Site Has Been Hacked”
A fake ransomware scam is going around that targets website contact forms. It sends an email to the site owner with the subject “Your Site Has Been Hacked.” The body of the email claims the hackers have exploited a vulnerability to gain access to the site’s database and “move the information to an offshore server.” The email threatens to ruin …
WP Café to Host Live Discussion on Gutenberg Theme Development
Highrise Digital is set to host the first of a new video series under the banner of WP Café. The first episode will begin at 11 am BST (10 am UTC) on June 11, which will be a discussion on building WordPress themes in the new era of the block editor. Highrise Digital is a UK-based agency that focuses on …
Begin Prepping for Full-Site Editing With New Course on Block-Based Themes
Full-site editing is a mere half a year away from becoming a reality. The feature is expected to land in WordPress 5.6, scheduled for release in December. To prepare theme authors for this upcoming change, Carolina Nymark has created a new website and training course, aptly titled Full Site Editing. Nymark has been a long-time theme author and contributor to …
Matt Mullenweg and Matías Ventura Demo New Image Editing Tools Coming to Gutenberg
One of the most exciting parts of Matt Mullenweg’s session at WordCamp Europe 2020 Online was the live demo of the new image editing tools that will land in the next release of the Gutenberg plugin. The video is already available on WordPress.tv (and embedded below). At the 8:30 mark, Mullenweg and Matías Ventura, lead architect of the Gutenberg project, …
On Politics and WordPress
I wish we lived in a world in which we could discuss code each day, not allowing political opinions to seep into the discourse. We could talk about the next exciting project around the corner. We could chat about a small startup getting its first big break or new investments into WordPress companies. However, I also wish we lived in …