This Week in WordPress #151

Welcome

Issue #151

Another week, and we're bringing you the latest WordPress news from the last seven days, including (but not limited to)...

Gutenberg marks it's 100th release with version 10.0
Google launches Material Design plugin for WordPress website building
Elementor has some updates including a custom code option & performance improvements
New Prestoplayer launches to skin your videos
and +1m sites affected by a Ninja Forms hack

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

This Week in WordPress #151 - "We need more plumbers"

Recorded on Monday 22nd February 2021. With Nathan Wrigley, Paul Lacey, Sabrina Zeidan and Kyle Van Deusen.

Each week we discuss some of the the stories (from below) which captured our attention. It's like this newsletter but with real people!

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

News – Reflecting on Gutenberg’s 100th Release

"Gutenberg 10.0 released this week, February 17, 2021, marking the 100th release of the Gutenberg plugin; the 100th release of a journey that started more than four years ago when Matt announced the project at WordCamp US 2016..."

WordPress 5.7 Beta 3

"Since Beta 2, 27 bugs have been fixed. Here is a summary of some of the included changes..."

Gutenberg Plugin Marks 100th Release with 10.0

"Gutenberg 10.0 was released today as the 100th iteration of the block editor since the project began four years ago. Although 10.0 may seem like a big number, it’s just another incremental step forward in terms of new features, improvements, and bug fixes..."

WordPress Contributors Discuss Scaling Back Releases: “4 Major Releases Is Not a Viable Plan in 2021”

Community

How to speed up WordPress site: 5 popular recommendations that don’t work

"If you ever googled anything related to “how to speed up a website” you probably noticed that there are few recommendations that are repeated almost in every article over and over again. I’ve picked 5 of the most popular tips to speed up your website that don’t work. How do I know? I’ve been speeding up websites full time for the last 2 years and was able to observe the impact of different efforts on a daily basis..."

Google launches Material Design for WordPress plugin

"Most people primarily experience Material Design in Android apps, while web adoption is mostly limited to Google’s first-party sites. A new Material Design for WordPress plugin, which Google currently calls an experiment, possibly opens up the look to many more pages and blogs..."

WP Engine Now Available in AWS Marketplace

"WP Engine, the world’s most trusted WordPress technology company, today announced availability in AWS Marketplace..."

Plugins / Themes / Blocks

Prestoplayer launches - Andre Gagnon and Adam Preiser team up

"A complete video player with private video, chapters, multiple sources, integrations and more..."

Newsletter Glue

"Build and publish newsletters inside WordPress. For serious online writers: Publish newsletters like you would a blog post in WordPress. Save hours and get more readers..."

Introducing Elementor Pro 3.1: Custom Code, Performance Improvements, and More!

"In our latest version of Elementor Pro 3.1, we’ve added new features, made performance improvements, and added additional functionality to one of our most popular widgets..."

SmartDocs: WordPress Documentation & Knowledge Base Plugin

"Building and managing an effective knowledge base is quite a challenging & tedious process. But not anymore! SmartDocs plugin is super user friendly and completely flexible to customize; you can create a fully functional knowledge base website at rocket speed..."

Demo the New Form Builder Today

"Gravity Forms is super excited about the upcoming launch of 2.5. At the moment it’s still in beta, but because we can’t wait to share it with you we’ve created a 2.5 demo so you can experience Gravity Forms 2.5 right now..!"

Create membership websites for free with Brizy

"We’ve just added free Membership functionality in the Brizy WordPress plugin. The membership options let you lock content on your website and display blocks based on user roles, and thus enable you to create membership websites. Excellent for a course website or limit access to certain parts of your content if the user paid or not..."

WordPress.org Removes Fake Reviews for AccessiBe Plugin

"After noticing suspicious review activity for the AccessiBe plugin, accessibility consultant Joe Dolson reported the fake reviews to WordPress.org’s plugin team. The reviews were removed in under 48 hours, thanks to Dolson’s detailed research..."

GermanThemes Releases Block-Ready GT Basic WordPress Theme With Custom Patterns

Today, GT Basic became the second theme from GermanThemes to go live in the WordPress theme directory. Like the company’s previous theme, GT Ambition, it is built around the block editor. It also introduces several custom block patterns.

Phoenix, a Block-Based WordPress Theme With a Sidebar

"Earlier today, the Phoenix theme was merged into the WordPress Theme Experiments repository on GitHub. Like all themes in the repo, it is not meant for use on a live site. It is a project to test new ideas for the upcoming Full Site Editing (FSE) system..."

Easy Digital Downloads 3.0 Now in Public Beta

"Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is coming up on a major milestone with version 3.0 in active development, a huge undertaking spanning nearly three years. The first beta was released today with one of the most extensive and technically detailed beta testing guides I’ve seen for a major plugin update..."

Security

One Million Sites Affected: Four Severe Vulnerabilities Patched in Ninja Forms

"On January 20, 2021, our Threat Intelligence team responsibly disclosed four vulnerabilities in Ninja Forms, a WordPress plugin used by over one million sites. One of these flaws made it possible for attackers to redirect site administrators to arbitrary locations. The second flaw made it possible for attackers with subscriber level access or above to install a plugin that could be used to intercept all mail traffic..."

WordPress Vulnerability News, February 2021

"This month we have listed 26 vulnerabilities that affect more than 2.5 million sites..."

WP Builds

Get your WordPress tasks in order with DocketWP - WP Builds Weekly WordPress Podcast #217

Today we’re talking about the DocketWP WordPress plugin with Andre Gagnon and Kyle Van Deusen, the project founders. So, what does it do and why might you want it? It’s a plugin that provides you with an easy to access to-do list right inside of your WordPress dashboard.

Not WordPress, but useful anyway…

Australia v Facebook: PM claims tech giant 'back at the table' after executive's apology

"Australia’s prime minister says Facebook is back at the negotiating table after the tech giant this week blocked news on its site in the country. However, despite Scott Morrison saying Facebook has “tentatively friended us again”, the company has publicly indicated no change in its opposition to the proposed law requiring social media platforms to pay for links to news content..."

Chromebooks had a banner 2020

"According to IDC’s PC Tracker, the models comprised 10.8% of the PC market for 2020; that’s up from 6.4% a year prior. The number also pushed past MacOS’s 7.5% for the year..."