Screenshot of the new homepage design. If you are viewing WP Tavern from your browser today, you might be a bit shocked. Things are different — much different. If you are reading this post via email or a feed reader, hop on over to the live site to take a look. Welcome to the new design! When I accepted the …
Optimizing Code in a World That Doesn’t Want to Optimize
Premature optimization is the root of all evil. It is a common saying among developers. It makes sense. Optimizing prematurely can mean redoing work down the line, and time is the developer’s most finite resource. It can mean spending that precious time optimizing for scenarios that do not yet exist for a product’s users. It can mean writing code that …
WP Agency Summit Kicks Off December 6
WP Agency Summit, a virtual event for WordPress agencies, will kick off December 6, 2019, and last through December 16. The event will feature daily sessions by over 30 WordPress professionals that are designed to help agencies grow their business. Each session will be free to view, but there will be a price tag attached after the event closes. Jan …
10up Releases GitHub Actions for Simplifying WordPress Plugin Deployment
10up announced the public availability of two GitHub Actions geared toward WordPress plugin developers yesterday. The first Action allows developers to deploy plugin updates directly to the WordPress.org plugin directory by tagging a release on GitHub. The second Action handles readme file and asset updates. On November 14, GitHub announced the public launch of their GitHub Actions feature. GitHub Actions …
Gutenberg 6.9 Introduces Image Titles, Block Patterns, and New Theme Features
On November 13, the Gutenberg team launched version 6.9 with several features, most of which were aimed at developers. Users can now add custom image title attributes. Plugin developers can start diving into the new Block Patterns API. Plus, theme authors can begin tinkering with the experimental gradient presets and block templates features. Gutenberg 6.9 fixed numerous bugs, including an …
24 WordPress Snippets ’til Christmas, Submissions Open for 2019
After a multi-year hiatus, Elliott Richmond has relaunched his WordPress advent calendar and is looking for volunteers. The WP Snippets ’til Christmas site will host 24 days of WordPress code snippets starting on December 1 and lasting until December 24. With each passing day, a new code snippet will be revealed. Advent calendars are special types of calendars used to …
bbPress 2.6 Released After 6 Years, Includes Per-Forum Moderation and Engagements API
On Tuesday, John James Jacoby announced that bbPress 2.6 was available to the public after a six-year wait in a post titled bbPress 2.6 — Better Great Than Never. The announcement landed with a whimper as it was overshadowed by the release of WordPress 5.3 on the same day. bbPress is an official WordPress project for powering forums. It was …
WordPress 5.3 “Kirk” Released, Brings New Default Theme, Editor Improvements, and UI Tweaks
Rahsaan Roland KirkCredit: Heinrich Klaffs CC BY-SA 2.0 WordPress 5.3 “Kirk,” named in honor American jazz musician Rahsaan Roland Kirk, is now available for download. The update includes a new default theme named Twenty Twenty, user interface improvements aimed at accessibility, and new block editor features. This release saw contributions from 645 volunteers, which is the largest contributor group ever …
Beyond Prefixing: A WordPress Developer’s Guide to PHP Namespaces
Prefix everything. It is an adage that is old as the WordPress software itself. Prefixing has been a standard for WordPress developers for so long that it’s hard to imagine doing anything different. But, the time has come for something new. Well, it is long past due, but WordPress lags a bit behind in standard practices in the larger PHP …
Themes of the Future: A Design Framework and a Master Theme
WordPress theming has a rich history. Over the years, theme authors have brought a plethora of features to the platform. In part, it is because they have often had to solve foundational issues with WordPress to create the features that end users want. The post and body classes all theme authors use today? Those were originally in a theme called …