In this episode, John James Jacoby and I are joined by Sandy Edwards. Sandy gave us a behind the scenes look at what it takes to organize a WordPress event for children and teens. She also provides background information on a new group that’s been formed called the Kids Events Working Group. This group is responsible for setting the foundation …
WordPress Ends Support for PHP 5.2 – 5.5, Bumps Minimum Required PHP Version to 5.6
WordPress has officially ended support for PHP 5.2 – 5.5 and bumped its minimum required PHP version to 5.6. The plan announced last December was to bump the minimum required version in early 2019 and, depending on the results, bump it again to PHP 7 in December 2019. Sites on PHP 5.5 or earlier can still get security updates but …
Gutenberg 5.3 Introduces Block Management, Adds Nesting to the Cover Block
Gutenberg 5.3 was released today with basic block management, a feature that will be included in WordPress 5.2. It is a new modal that can be launched from the vertical ellipses menu, inspired by Rich Tabor’s CoBlocks implementation. Users can turn individual blocks on/off or even entire sections, such as Common Blocks, Formatting, and Embeds. Block management should help users …
New Tools for Theme Developers: Theme Sniffer Plugin and Automated Accessibility Testing
WordPress contributor teams have shipped several new tools for theme developers in the past couple weeks, which have the potential to raise the quality of new themes coming into the ecosystem. The Theme Sniffer plugin is a new effort from the Theme Review team that uses custom sniffs for PHP_CodeSniffer to test a theme against WordPress coding standards and check …
WordPress 4.9.6 Beta 1 Adds Tools for GDPR Compliance
WordPress 4.9.6 Beta 1 is available for testing. It’s the first step in bringing GDPR (Global Data Protection Regulation) tools to WordPress. In addition to 10 bugs being fixed, this release heavily focuses on privacy enhancements. One of the first changes is the addition of a Privacy tab on the successful update screen. The message informs users that their sites …
Jetpack 6.1, Now With Even More Privacy Information
Jetpack 6.1 is available and is considered a general maintenance release. This version adds two improvements to the WordAds module. Users can now use the [wordads] shortcode to place an inline ad on any post or page. Support for the ads.txt file has also been added. A new filter is available that honors the Do Not Track feature. This filter …
WPWeekly Episode 314 – Getting Squeebly With It
In this episode, John James Jacoby recaps his trip to WordCamp Chicago and explains the thought process behind his presentation, The Fourth Wall of WordPress. We highlight a new project that gives developers a guided path to migrate functionality from the Classic editor to Gutenberg. We discuss the pros and cons of the trusted authors program launched by the WordPress …
WordSesh 5 Scheduled for July 25th
After not having an event in 2017, WordSesh, a virtual WordPress conference, is returning July 25th. The event is being organized by Brian Richards, Founder of WPSessions and a collection of partners. The schedule is online and like previous events, there is a mixture of sessions and live podcasts. Based on the sessions, this year’s event leans towards consultants and developers. …
A Gutenberg Migration Guide for Developers
In order to help developers learn how to migrate from the classic editor to Gutenberg, Daniel Bachhuber has launched a Gutenberg Migration Guide. Bachhuber is seeking the community’s help in identifying and filling a database to document all of the ways the classic editor can be customized. Take a look through the Gutenberg Migration Guide. For each action, filter, and …
AMP for WordPress 0.7 RC 1 Released
XWP, Automattic, and Google’s AMP team, has released 0.7 Release Candidate 1 of the AMP for WordPress plugin. Hinted at during AMP Conf 2018 earlier this year, 0.7 is a major release that contains significant new features. This release adds Native AMP support for all of the default widgets, embeds, and commenting. Notifications will be triggered for posts that contain …