This bi-weekly serves to inform and enlighten our minds on latest happenings in the sprawling countryside we call WordPress Land. The President of WordPressLand has once again been blocked in the courts from preventing travel into WPL from Drupalville and JoomlaTown.
Release News
- WordPress 4.8 released last week. Some of the features include new widgets and extended functionality of existing widgets, changes to the Editor API, better admin accessibility, and a bunch more.
- In a previous Digest I mentioned that the debate of which JavaScript framework will be used for new features in WP was narrowed to React and Vue, but that React would likely win out. I still believe that React will win this debate, but it’s becoming more competitive and the debate rages on!
- WP-CLI 1.2.0 was released recently and the team seems more excited about their new logo than anything else.
Extending WordPress
- WP Super Cache is going to be seeing some major improvements, including a REST API for managing cache settings and functions remotely.
- Holler Box is a new plugin that inserts a “non-intrusive” pop-up notification box for customer conversion. I’ll let the cognitive dissonance of “non-intrusive” and “pop-up” speak for itself.
- Keyy is a new two-factor authentication plugin for WordPress that allows users to login by waving their phone in front of their screen like a damn magician with a magic wand.
- Give is a free WordPress plugin that adds the ability to receive donations through a WP site. The base plugin alone looks great, and there are a ton of add-ons (not free) for adding features like recurring donations, payment gateways, and more.
- We all know that wp-cron is more of a pseudo, fake cron. Cavalcade is a drop-in replacement that is scalable and works as a real job manager.
Grab Bag
- WordCamp for Publishers is the first WordCamp to cater to a specific industry. Tickets went onsale a few days ago and sold 50% in less than two hours.
- WordCamp Europe is now “selling” (they’re free) livestream tickets for people who want all the excitement and wonder of attending a WordCamp with none of the bore and tedium of traveling to Paris.
“There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st.” -William Shakespeare