Newspack Plugin Update Checker Lets Users Update from GitHub

Adam Schweigert, an independent media and technology consultant, has released a plugin called Newspack Plugin Update Checker that enables self-hosted Newspack users to keep their plugins up-to-date. The Newspack project was launched in 2019 by WordPress.com, with support from the Google News Initiative, the Knight Foundation, and The Lenfest Institute. It provides local news organizations a powerful, yet cost effective …

Add Icons to WordPress’ Core Button Block

Nick Diego, a developer advocate at Automattic and core contributor, is the author of the popular Icon Block plugin that enables users to add custom SVG icons and graphics to the WordPress block editor. He is often asked if the plugin can add icons to the core Button block, but that is outside the scope of what it does. Last …

Wordfence CLI 2.0.1 Update Adds Free Vulnerability Scanning

Wordfence CLI 2.0.1 introduced free vulnerability scanning this week. The new CLI product was launched at WordCamp US two months ago with malware detection capabilities, but the latest update brings in the most highly requested feature – vulnerability scanning at scale. Wordfence is most well-known for its Web Application Firewall, malware scanner, and login security product, which is packaged as …

WooCommerce Rebrands as Woo

WooCommerce is rebranding to “Woo,” a shorter, more playful version of the company name that many customers are already using. Automattic acquired WooCommerce in 2015, along with WooThemes. The open source commerce platform now powers more than 4.4 million live websites, including 33% of the top 1 million online stores. The rebranding extends to the Woo Marketplace, WooExperts program, and all other …

WP Data Dashboard Tracks WordPress.org Themes Ecosystem

Munich-based digital agency owner Hendrik Luehrsen has been tracking the usage of themes with the FSE tag (block themes) using a spreadsheet that pulls in data from the WordPress.org API. Wrangling the data in a spreadsheet became too cumbersome, so Luehrsen launched WP Data Dashboard over the weekend as a “centralized hub for exploring, analyzing, and visualizing data across the …

TaxoPress Adds New AI Integrations for Generating Taxonomy Terms

TaxoPress, a plugin that allows users to create and manage Tags, Categories, and taxonomy terms, has joined a growing number of WordPress products using AI to innovate and enhance user experience. The latest release adds support for OpenAI and IBM Watson to auto-detect the best taxonomy terms for content. “Honestly, I’m amazed how good these services are,” TaxoPress founder Steve Burge said. “For …

WordPress 6.4. RC2 Released and Ready for Testing

WordPress 6.4 RC2 was released this week with more than 25 issues resolved since RC1. These include a few cherry-picked commits from the Gutenberg repository, additional closed Trac tickets since RC 1, and more than a dozen housekeeping commits for Twenty Twenty-Four. The 6.4 Field Guide is now published with technical notes. It’s a lengthy document that collates all the …

Automattic Acquires Texts, An All-in-One Messaging App

Automattic has acquired Texts, an all-in-one messaging platform, for $50 million. Texts is a newer company founded in 2020 that creates a centralized inbox for all major messaging platforms, including iMessage, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, Signal, Twitter, LinkedIn, Slack, and Discord. The proliferation of messaging apps and inboxes has made responding to communication more complicated than it was in previous years. …

The 2024 State of Open Source Survey Is Now Open

The Open Source Initiative (OSI), a non-profit organization that plays an important role in the open source ecosystem as stewards of the Open Source Definition (OSD), has opened its 2024 State of Open Source survey. This is the third year OSI has published the survey in collaboration with OpenLogic by Perforce, who has sponsored it in previous years. The organizations will be …