This bi-weekly serves to inform and enlighten our minds on latest happenings in the sprawling countryside we call WordPress Land. No clever follow up line today. I’ve been beguiled by the orb.
Release News
- The WordPress 4.8 release candidate is out and full release is still slated for June 8. As I’ve noted in previous issues, there is nothing super orb shattering in this release, but some nice changes are coming to the editor, we’ll see some updates to long neglected widgets, and a slew of multisite updates. The WP 4.8 Field Guide has an exhaustive rundown of the changes coming.
- The WordPress 4.7.5 security and maintenance release dropped a couple weeks ago and corrects 6 security issues. Worth updating if you don’t like living on the edge, but where’s the fun in that?
- Improvements to the Settings API are trucking along with two main goals: better accessibility and more flexibility and ease of use for developers.
Extending WordPress
- WooCommerce has released a new free extension called Facebook for WooCommerce, which adds functionality for product ads and an inventory-synced shop section on Facebook pages. Perfect for selling beautiful, bewitching glowing orbs.
- WordPress core contributors are gearing up to choose a new JavaScript framework to replace Backbone in core development. This will likely end up being React, which will certainly influence many plugin and theme developers to choose React for their own needs in the future.
- WordPress widgets can often be handy for managing content and the best practices on developing them are worth having tucked away in your brain bucket. There are lots of tutorials, but here’s a recent one that’s easy to follow and concise while also covering the basics of wrapping a custom widget in a custom plugin.
Grab Bag
- In sort-of weird news: WordCamp Europe attendees are being denied visas because the ticket price to the event is too low.
- WordPress turned 14 on May 27. Pretty soon it’ll be legally allowed to drive a car. They grow up so fast.
- It seems that PHP 7 has killed the HHVM star.
“There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st.” -William Shakespeare