WordPress Digest #23

This bi-weekly serves to inform and enlighten our minds on latest happenings in the sprawling countryside we call WordPress-land. Rumor has it that “WordPress” was originally supposed to be a blog catering to well-read fitness buffs.

Release News

  • WordPress 4.5.3 security and maintenance update is slated for release TODAY! (6/21)
  • This development cycle has felt really slow. While new functionality is being worked on for WordPress 4.6, like Shiny Updates improvements, admin font improvements, etc, nothing very flashy is in the works. Don’t blame me…it’s not my fault, folks.

Extending WordPress

  • WordPress.tv is a site that catalogs video content for all things WordPress related, including videos of pretty much every talk and presentation at the various WordCamps, which is great for someone like me that just wants to further recede into my cave and never see another human being in person again.
  • Gravity Forms 2.0 has been released and has a lot of feature and developer enhancements, including reCAPTCHA 2.0 and a slew of security improvements.
  • WooCommerce 2.6 also released recently and includes a bunch of new stuff, including baked-in shipping zones, functionality that previously required a plugin. This is a major release, so before updating, consult the link above for things to check for. Seriously. I’m not sure you grasp the gravity of the situation.
  • The new Child Theme Check plugin checks your child theme for outdated template files and gives you a view of the changes between the parent template and child template when a new version of a parent template is released. I’m not even going to make a joke here, this is awesome. Would love to see it extended to customizable plugins too.

WP Drama

The dirty side of dev.

  • The Shiny Updates merge consideration was denied! For a week or so. It needed some more work. It’s not that dramatic. Sue me.
  • This slipped under my radar, but I guess there were some recent arguments about whether or not WordCamp social events should be alcohol-free, with feisty responses on both sides. Despite my surly nature and degenerate appearance, I don’t drink, but man I really, really don’t care about this argument. Most developers are socially awkward, I say give ‘em whatever they need to socialize.

Misc

I don’t know where to file this crap.

That’s all for now. Check back in two weeks for another rundown.