This Week in WordPress #178

Issue #178  |  Tuesday, 14 Sept 2021  | Read online

This week’s WordPress news for the week commencing 6th September 2021

Another week, and we’re bringing you the latest WordPress news from the last seven days, including…

• WordPress 5.8.1 is just released and 5.9 is just around the corner
• Automattic acquires the Social Image Generator Plugin
• ResponsibleWP will plant trees from your WordPress website purchases
• There’s some major optimisations this week from the Bricks and Divi page builders
• Are cookie banners getting too much, some people think so and think that they can change things

There’s a whole lot more than this, as there is each and every week, and you can find all that by scrolling down and clicking on the links!

This Week in WordPress #178 – “No fish”

With Nathan Wrigley, Paul Lacey, Joe Casabona and Matt Cromwell.

Recorded on Monday 13th September 2021.
If you ever want to join us live you can do that every Monday at 2pm UK time on the WP Builds LIVE page.

WordPress Core

wordpress.org WordPress 5.8.1 Security and Maintenance Release WordPress 5.8.1 is now available! This security and maintenance release features 60 bug fixes in addition to 3 security fixes. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately… wordpress.org WordPress 5.8.1 Security and Maintenance Release WordPress 5.8.1 is now available! This security and maintenance release features 60 bug fixes in addition to 3 security fixes. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately… wptavern.com WordPress 5.9 Proposed Scope: Major Push Towards Full-Site Editing, Plus a New Default Theme WordPress 5.9 is starting to take shape as Josepha Haden Chomphosy published a planning roundup at the end of last week with a tentative schedule and scope. This will be the last major release of the year, which Haden Chomphosy said will require “a slightly larger release squad,” considering the proposed scope… wptavern.com WordPress 5.9 Proposed Scope: Major Push Towards Full-Site Editing, Plus a New Default Theme WordPress 5.9 is starting to take shape as Josepha Haden Chomphosy published a planning roundup at the end of last week with a tentative schedule and scope. This will be the last major release of the year, which Haden Chomphosy said will require “a slightly larger release squad,” considering the proposed scope…

Community

wptavern.com FSE Program: Insights Into Switching Between Block Themes Unlike routine testing rounds for the FSE Outreach Program, Anne McCarthy threw a bit of a twist on the Make WordPress Test blog earlier today. The announcement asks users to think about what they would like to see when switching between block themes. The test is open to anyone who wants to participate through September 29… wptavern.com FSE Program: Insights Into Switching Between Block Themes Unlike routine testing rounds for the FSE Outreach Program, Anne McCarthy threw a bit of a twist on the Make WordPress Test blog earlier today. The announcement asks users to think about what they would like to see when switching between block themes. The test is open to anyone who wants to participate through September 29… wptavern.com Automattic Acquires Social Image Generator Plugin, Plans to Integrate with Jetpack Automattic has acquired the Social Image Generator plugin, a commercial product that automatically creates social share images for WordPress content from a set of fully customizable templates… wptavern.com Automattic Acquires Social Image Generator Plugin, Plans to Integrate with Jetpack Automattic has acquired the Social Image Generator plugin, a commercial product that automatically creates social share images for WordPress content from a set of fully customizable templates… responsiblewp.com Plant trees with WordPress Global impact with every purchase your customers make. The trees of our planet Earth are one of the best ways we have to clean our air. By way of the Ecologi Impact API, you can let your EDD customers plant any number of trees every time they make a purchase or renew a subscription… responsiblewp.com Plant trees with WordPress Global impact with every purchase your customers make. The trees of our planet Earth are one of the best ways we have to clean our air. By way of the Ecologi Impact API, you can let your EDD customers plant any number of trees every time they make a purchase or renew a subscription… gutenbergtimes.com Changelog #51 Birgit Pauli-Haack and Grzegorz (Greg) Ziolkowski discuss Automattic becoming a sponsor of Gutenberg Times and Gutenberg Changelog, Classic Editor, Frontity, Theme.json, the Gutenberg 11.4 Release and more… gutenbergtimes.com Changelog #51 Birgit Pauli-Haack and Grzegorz (Greg) Ziolkowski discuss Automattic becoming a sponsor of Gutenberg Times and Gutenberg Changelog, Classic Editor, Frontity, Theme.json, the Gutenberg 11.4 Release and more…

Plugins / Themes / Blocks

Bricks Bricks 1.3.4 – Asset Loading Optimization (CSS & JS) This release focuses on further optimizing the way assets are loaded on the frontend. With the “CSS Loading Method” set to “External Files” the default CSS & JS file size can be reduced by 88% (from 647kb down to 79kb). If you enable server-side compression (gzip, etc.) even down to around 17 kb… Bricks Bricks 1.3.4 – Asset Loading Optimization (CSS & JS) This release focuses on further optimizing the way assets are loaded on the frontend. With the “CSS Loading Method” set to “External Files” the default CSS & JS file size can be reduced by 88% (from 647kb down to 79kb). If you enable server-side compression (gzip, etc.) even down to around 17 kb… elegantthemes.com Speeding Up Divi From Every Angle Today we are excited to release a transformational Divi Performance update that speeds up Divi from every angle and lays down a foundation on which Divi can grow with more modules and more features without ever adding bloat to your website. We turned Divi into a super light-weight theme by modularizing its PHP framework and assets, loading and processing only what’s needed on-demand based on the modules and features you use… elegantthemes.com Speeding Up Divi From Every Angle Today we are excited to release a transformational Divi Performance update that speeds up Divi from every angle and lays down a foundation on which Divi can grow with more modules and more features without ever adding bloat to your website. We turned Divi into a super light-weight theme by modularizing its PHP framework and assets, loading and processing only what’s needed on-demand based on the modules and features you use… brizy.io Plans & Pricing Changes For Brizy PRO WordPress & Cloud Some changes are coming on the 18th of September 2021 for Brizy PRO plans & pricing for Brizy WordPress & Brizy Cloud. Read more for details… brizy.io Plans & Pricing Changes For Brizy PRO WordPress & Cloud Some changes are coming on the 18th of September 2021 for Brizy PRO plans & pricing for Brizy WordPress & Brizy Cloud. Read more for details… toolset.com 5 Advanced Uses of Toolset’s Conditional Block in WordPress The Toolset Conditional block allows you to control the visibility of any WordPress blocks you put inside it… toolset.com 5 Advanced Uses of Toolset’s Conditional Block in WordPress The Toolset Conditional block allows you to control the visibility of any WordPress blocks you put inside it…

Deals

WordPress Deals for WP Builds readers / listeners WordPress Deals for the WP Builds Community. It’s like Black Friday, but every day of the year… WordPress Deals for WP Builds readers / listeners WordPress Deals for the WP Builds Community. It’s like Black Friday, but every day of the year…

Security

Patchstack WordPress Vulnerability News, August 2021 WordPress vulnerability news is a weekly digest of highlighted WordPress plugin or theme vulnerabilities. Make sure to update these ASAP… Patchstack WordPress Vulnerability News, August 2021 WordPress vulnerability news is a weekly digest of highlighted WordPress plugin or theme vulnerabilities. Make sure to update these ASAP…

WP Builds

wptavern.com #7 – Ajit Bohra on Gutenberg, Full Site Editing and React On the Jukebox podcast today we have Ajit Bohra. Ajit is a keen advocate of WordPress, having used it and committed to it, for many years. He’s a full stack developer working at Lubus which is based in Mumbai, India. His team works with WordPress as well as offering solutions built with Laravel and React… wptavern.com #7 – Ajit Bohra on Gutenberg, Full Site Editing and React On the Jukebox podcast today we have Ajit Bohra. Ajit is a keen advocate of WordPress, having used it and committed to it, for many years. He’s a full stack developer working at Lubus which is based in Mumbai, India. His team works with WordPress as well as offering solutions built with Laravel and React… wpbuilds803.e.wpstage.net 246 – Building your own social network with the Friends plugin So you love Facebook and you hate Facebook, you love Twitter and you hate Twitter. You love… You get the idea! If you’re anything like me you have at times… wpbuilds803.e.wpstage.net 246 – Building your own social network with the Friends plugin So you love Facebook and you hate Facebook, you love Twitter and you hate Twitter. You love… You get the idea! If you’re anything like me you have at times…

Jobs

Not WordPress, but useful anyway…

Check out some recent podcast episodes…

246 – Building your own social network with the Friends plugin So you love Facebook and you hate Facebook, you love Twitter and you hate Twitter. You love… You get the idea! If you’re anything like me you have at times… 246 – Building your own social network with the Friends plugin So you love Facebook and you hate Facebook, you love Twitter and you hate Twitter. You love… You get the idea! If you’re anything like me you have at times… 245 – ‘S’ is for SEO So today on the podcast David and Nathan talk about SEO. David certainly knows more about this than Nathan does, but neither of us claim to be experts. It’s the usual nonsense…! 245 – ‘S’ is for SEO So today on the podcast David and Nathan talk about SEO. David certainly knows more about this than Nathan does, but neither of us claim to be experts. It’s the usual nonsense…!

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