This month was slow. I mean, waaay slow. We only had one security release, too many tutorials about things that were already discussed in the WordPress blogosphere in the past few months, and no cool toys to play with.
Anyways, let’s start off with the news, as usual.
WordPress News
First things first: WordPress v4.5.2 has been released. This “security release” is about patching Plupload and MediaElement.js, two libraries used in the WordPress core.
The WooCommerce team just announced WooCommerce Connect for testing. It looks promising, as an easy e-commerce integration suite. Let’s just hope that it’s not going to be expensive.
In WordPress 4.6, the default Open Sans font will be dropped. Why? Because system fonts got better over time, as they explained. I agree: Why rely on Google fonts when native fonts are good enough for an admin interface?
What do you think about FuelThemes.blog? No promises here, but we can migrate to that domain, since Automattic announced the new .blog gTLD. Honestly, this is the only gTLD that got me excited.
Speaking of Automattic and domain names, they’re preparing to sue domains with “woo” in them. Not cool. Not cool at all. “Dot blog” domains are awesome, but applying the name “woo” as a trademark and threatening people with that feels like patent trolling to me.
The WordPress Plugin Directory is getting a software overhaul. Be sure to check out this article, because it explains the awesome new features that the WPPD will have in the future. Already excited.
WordPress is 13 years old! Have a look at its biggest milestones on Torque Mag.
Opinion Pieces
Marie Dodson on Torque talks about WooMattic and “e-commerce democratization”. A good, short read on WooCommerce, Automattic and the future of e-commerce with these two.
Running a WordPress business? Matt Medeiros on MattReport.com shares his experience and thoughts on it.
“Is the WordPress REST API ready?” This is the question Emily Schiola asks, and answers.
Marie Dodson again: This time, she talks about the new “Get WordPress” page. Lots of Torque posts this month, right?
WordPress Plugins, Themes & Tools
The WordPress “guru” Tom McFarlin shares his selection of Atom packages for WordPress development. I’m more of a Notepad++ guy but I’d love to try them out once I make the switch to Atom.
Not really a WordPress tool, but awesome nevertheless: Laravel releases “Valet”, an awesome dev environment. Only for Mac, though.
Hey, how about a listicle? WPExplorer has a huge list of “essential” (?) WordPress plugins.
WordPress Tutorials
How about I make this “tutorials” part quicker so you can skim through it more easily?
- Restricting access to WordPress login page
- Fixing the “Too Many Redirections” error in WordPress
- How to tweak
wp-config.phpto protect your WordPress site - WordPress developer’s intro to Docker
- 4 powerful ways to improve WordPress search so it doesn’t suck
- Shortcode attributes and filters
- A comprehensive guide to editing
.htaccessfor WordPress security - An introduction to PHP 7 for WordPress users
- How to Setup Facebook Instant Articles for WordPress
Conclusion
Even though it was a “slow” month for WordPress related news, opinions, tools and guides, we have enough to chat about. So, ahem, wanna chat about it? Talk to us in the Comments section below, we’d love to hear what you think about.
And as always, thanks for reading!