This Week in WordPress #159

Welcome

Issue #159

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

Full Site Editing Go / No Go = Go!
Google wants to advertise to your FLoC
HeroPress adopts Hallway Chats
Zerodium will pay you $300K if you can hack WordPress Core

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 #159 - "XML files are fun"

Recorded on Monday 19th April 2021. With Nathan Wrigley, Michelle Frechette and Tim Nash.

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 – WordPress 5.7.1 Security and Maintenance Release

"WordPress 5.7.1 is now available! This security and maintenance release features 26 bug fixes in addition to two security fixes. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. All versions since WordPress 4.7 have also been updated..."

Full Site Editing Go/No Go - GO

"The Gutenberg plugin shipped v10.4 yesterday, April 14th, and Matías hosted the go/no go demo to review the current state of Full Site Editing and determine what, if anything, should be included in WordPress 5.8 (July 2021), as described in my earlier post. The demo lasted close to 1.5 hours; it’s impressive to see how far Gutenberg has come. It was evident in the demo how powerful Full Site Editing can be. There is plenty to iterate upon and refine, but from a high level perspective all participants felt this was a “go” for WP5.8..."

Full Site Editing Is Partly a ‘Go’ for WordPress 5.8

"Today, Josepha Haden Chomphosy announced the results of yesterday’s “go/no-go” demo and decision on whether Full Site Editing (FSE) would land in WordPress 5.8. The site editor and global styles are not landing in the next release. However, several other features should launch and allow users to build their sites with blocks in new ways..."

Community

FSE Outreach Round #5: Venturing out a Query Quest

"The Full Site Editing (FSE) outreach program is chugging along. Since December, it has called for and completed four rounds of testing. The latest round asks volunteers to provide feedback on the Query block, arguably one of the most crucial pieces of the FSE-puzzle..."

Are you ready for Google's algorithm update?

"In May 2021, Google will add Core Web Vitals as ranking factors in its algorithm. This means your site’s page speed and page loading time will impact your rankings. In this webinar, Yoast’s digital strategist and marketing technologist Jono Alderson talks you through why and how you can adapt your SEO strategy to this change..."

Core Web Vitals and WordPress SEO

"In May 2020, Google announced that page experience measurements called “Core Web Vitals” would become a ranking factor in Google Search. Later last year, they announced that this would happen in May 2021 – a year after the initial announcement. As we write, a lot of website owners are working to improve their Core Web Vitals scores in the hope of improving ranking in the world’s most popular search engine when this change is introduced. Many others are working in fear of losing the ranks they currently enjoy..."

WordCamp Europe 2021 Opens Call for Speakers and Workshops

"WordCamp Europe 2021 will be taking place online, June 7-10. This will be the second year in a row that the event has not been held in person due to the pandemic, but organizers are incorporating feedback from the first edition to improve upon it..."

HeroPress Adopts Hallway Chats

"This isn’t an acquisition per se but it is news for the WordPress community, from HeroPress, Hallway Chats Joins The HeroPress Family: 'We were considering a podcast, but had moved it down the build list. Tara Claeys and Liam Dempsey, while loving the work they’ve done with Hallway Chats, found life was moving then in different directions, as it does for us all. And as Hallway Chats approached its 150th episode, the decision was made to pass the torch, or microphone as it were.'..."

Michelle Frechette on Diversity and Inclusion of Underrepresented Groups in Tech

"Underrepresented in Tech aims to “demystify diversity” and dispel the fears that get between employers and underrepresented groups in tech..."

Plugins / Themes / Blocks

Bricks update with breaking changes

"This minor release brings a lot of control fixes and improved controls to Bricks. There are two breaking changes. Please follow the instructions below to ensure that your site is working properly under this version..."

Gravity Forms 2.5 - Coming Tuesday, 27th April!

"Announcing the news everyone has been waiting for - Gravity Forms 2.5 will go live on Tuesday, 27th April, 2021! This is one of our most important releases (ever!) and we can’t wait for the Gravity Forms community to experience building forms with 2.5..."

Toolset Blocks 1.5 - Build Custom WooCommerce Product and Shop Pages

"Toolset Blocks 1.5 allows you to assign templates and archives to product categories. Or even assign them conditionally. It also brings Price and On-Sale search fields, a new Stock Management block, full Kadence blocks compatibility, and more..."

What's new in Ultimate Dashboard 3.3?

"We are excited to let you know that Ultimate Dashboard 3.3 is now available. In this major release, we've focused on a new feature to allow you to change the WordPress Toolbar. Introducing: The Admin Bar Editor..."

Yet Another WordPress Block Library Plugin

"You are the team manager at a WordPress development company. You just spent the last couple of months directing the group of highly skilled developers that you oversee to create the latest and greatest block library for WordPress. Your developers just spent those two months recreating what has already been done at least a couple of dozen times..."

Set Up a Gutenberg Test Site in 2 Minutes with the Gutenberg Nightly Plugin

"WordPress contributors are working towards landing full site editing (FSE) sometime this year, an ambitious plan that will require all hands on deck for testing. A meeting of a small group of core leads on April 14 will start the process of deciding whether FSE will land in version 5.8. In the meantime, the FSE outreach program has extended the deadline for the fourth round of testing until April 12..."

Security

Zerodium Temporarily Triples Payout to $300K for WordPress Exploits

Zerodium, one of the most well-known security vulnerability brokers, announced that it is tripling payouts for remote code execution exploits on default WordPress installations. Payouts are typically $100K but have been temporarily increased to $300K.

WordPress Vulnerability News, April 2021

"In April we have listed 11 vulnerable plugins and themes that affected more than 1.7 million sites..."

Recent Patches Rock the Elementor Ecosystem

"Over the last few weeks, the Wordfence Threat Intelligence team has responsibly disclosed vulnerabilities in more than 15 of the most popular addon plugins for Elementor, which are collectively installed on over 3.5 million sites. All together, our team found over 100 vulnerable endpoints..."

WordPress Continues to Fall Victim to Carding Attacks

"Unsurprisingly, as WordPress continues to increase in popularity as an e-commerce platform, attackers continue to attempt to steal credit card information from unsuspecting clients. Currently, the WordPress plugin WooCommerce accounts for roughly a quarter of all online stores..."

WP Builds

Send amazing curated newsletters with Curated - WP Builds Weekly WordPress Podcast #225

"Having a newsletter is one of the best ways that you can communicate with an audience. In fact, I’d go as far as to say, that it’s the best. There’s no third-party platform involved. You are communicating with people who have signed up, and therefore really want to get your content. They can opt out when they like, they can ignore it if they like just be clicking delete in their email client. Plus, they can share it with their friends outside of any wall that Facebook, Twitter (et al.) might create as barriers..."

WP Builds Social - A New thing to try!

Tired of Facebook for your WordPress fun? Try this! It's an instance of Mastodon and it's just for you, from WP Builds!!!

Not WordPress, but useful anyway…

MEPs call for European AI rules to ban biometric surveillance in public

"A cross-party group of 40 MEPs in the European parliament has called on the Commission to strengthen an incoming legislative proposal on artificial intelligence to include an outright ban on the use of facial recognition and other forms of biometric surveillance in public places..."

Bezos says Amazon workers aren’t treated like robots, unveils robotic plan to keep them working

"Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in his final letter to shareholders as CEO that the e-commerce giant has to “do a better job for our employees.” The letter comes amid ongoing reports of untenable conditions for Amazon workers. And it outlines a strategy that seems odd for a company that has been accused of treating workers like robots: a robotic scheme that will develop new staffing schedules using an algorithm..."