This week, there were many new things for website care, like NextGen Solid Backups, Imunify360 on Cloudways, and FlyingPress at the top. Also, there were new plugins for static websites, an extended photo block and quick addon for Woo. Plus, Matt vs WP Engine coverage continues.
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What’s Buzzing in WordPress 💖
- NextGen Solid Backups… SolidWP has launched Solid Backups NextGen, promising a reimagined and reengineered backup solution powered by SolidWP’s cloud infrastructure. It features a centralized dashboard for management and one click restore features.
- Kinsta More Sites Addon… Kinsta now allows you to add more WordPress websites to your existing hosting plan for $30 USD per site a month. This does not change the permitted total resources of your existing hosting plan, like disk space.
- FlyingPress at Top… Chrome UX Report for Core Web Vitals has ranked FlyingPress at the top position with a 55% score. It is followed by NitroPack at 46%, WP Rocket at 42%, LightSpeed at 39%, and W3TC at 35%.
- New Firewall at Cloudways… the team at Cloudways has selected Imunify360 as the security vendor for providing built-in security. Moving forward they plan to integrate more Imunify360 features at no extra cost for Cloudways Flexible servers.
New Plugins: Static Site, Photo Block, Woo Options
Static Website Copy… Gareth Bult from Mad Penguin Consulting has released a free Make Me Static plugin. It is a static site generator that allows you to create and maintain a static copy of your WordPress website within a Git repository. It includes automatic access to page provider platform.
Photo Block Extended… Ronald Huereca from DLX Plugin has released a free Photo Block Plugin that goes beyond basics with features like advanced layout options, responsive design, eye-catching caption overlays, and global styles.
Woo Product Options… Quick addon now has added custom product options feature like toppings, sizes, or extra features for products in your WooCommerce powered online store.
Extended WordPress Buzz 🔥
- WooCommerce Accessibility Audit… James Kemp, Product Lead for WooCommerce, shared about (Links X) working with Amber Hinds and Chris Hinds from Equalize Digital for a full accessibility audit of the frontend of WooCommerce. Here is the issues list they will be working on.
- WP 6.7 HTML API Updates… after supporting only a subset of HTML, with the WordPress 6.7 release, the HTML Processor will support practically all HTML and all HTML tags1. Also, take note of changes to the existing code.
- Design Tools per Block… Birgit Pauli-Haack shared a table highlighting various design options / tools for blocks, updated information for WordPress 6.7 release.
- Salesforce 7M WP Contribution… Matt Mullenweg highlighted and thanked Salesforce for its $7 million USD support to WordPress org infrastructure. They provide free access of Slack Pro to 49,286 users, which would ideally cost at least $8.8M/yr. They are also prominently listed on sponsorships page of organizations supporting WordPress infrastructure.
- WordPress Foundation Meeting… was held on October 17, 2024, among the foundation directors: Mark Ghosh, Matt Mullenweg, and Chele Chiavacci Farley. Details were published, like WordPress Foundation currently holding $264,680 in cash, and discussions on bank strategy, tax returns, and events.
- WP Milestones… LifterLMS is celebrating 10 years in business with customers from 165 countries, and the free core LifterLMS plugin with 1,432,369+ downloads. FluentBooking is celebrating the first year with 3000+ active Installs and 15,000+ all time downloads.
New Features: FluentCRM, Elementor, CubeWP, Hyve
FluentCRM… 2.9.25v with new export / import Recurring Campaigns feature allowing you to share and replicate your campaigns across different websites. Also, send custom email action now with smart code support.
Elementor Enhancements… 3.25v update brings many performance enhancements like optimization of front end styles and global styles. Also, reducing module style size, optimized markup, and WooCommerce DB queries.
CubeWP Theme Builder… 1.1.17v has introduced Theme Builder for Elementor which allows you to customize headers, footers, single post templates, archive pages, mega menu and 404 page without the need of Elementor Pro plugin.
Hyve WP Chatbot… 1.3v allows you to choose between GPT-3.5 and GPT-4o-mini for tailored interactions. Also, rich text support in chat now with images, links, and code snippets.
Quick Bits 👍
- Liquid Web has launched GPU Hosting for data-hungry apps.
- Modula Gallery plugin now integrates with Instagram easily.
- JetSloth’s Image Choices adds images to Gravity Forms fields.
- AnyoneCanWP Hackathon Keynote video by Joost de Valk.
- Kevin Geary & Mark Szymanski, WP Townhall on X platform.
- Core: WordPress 6.7 Beta 3 is now available for your testing.
- New representatives for the test team and photos directory.
- WordPress Foundation donated $100,000 to Internet Archive.
WordPress Plugins switching from WordPress org
For PMP Free Updates… 3.3v brings change to the core free Paid Memberships Pro plugin, as updates will be served from their own license server instead of the wordpress org repository. They have released Update Manager addon for secure and timely updates, moving forward.
For NitroPack Users… since NitroPack has been blocked from deploying updates from WordPress org, existing users can check information on this support doc on how to install updates moving forward.
Brian Gardner’s Themes… Brian Gardner shared (Links X) about the decision to remove his WordPress Themes, Powder and Powder Zero, from the WordPress theme directory. He is a WordPress advocate at WP Engine.
Security implications… and risk of missing security updates for such WordPress plugins is profound. Patchstack has published a blog post updating the list of such plugins to keep everyone informed.
Matt vs WP Engine: Legal Movement
WPFusion filed… Cease and Desist letter to Automattic for the unauthorized use of the WP Fusion trademark on .com’s private mirror of the WordPress plugin repository. In response, Automattic has agreed to take down the listing from WordPress .com for the WPFusion Lite (Free Plugin).
Impact on WP Engine… WP Engine have filed an injunction, it contains data on the impact of recent events on WP Engine’s business. Check this post on the X platform for the link shared by Katie Keith.
Matt vs WP Engine: More Coverage
WordCamp Sydney & no WP Engine… the organizing team of WordCamp Sydney shared on X post, “Sad to announce we’ve been officially told WP Engine can’t sponsor WordCamp Sydney, and its employees are banned from organising and speaking…”.
Sharing Private Messages… “Publishing private messages without consent” has been added to the code of conduct guidelines. “Sharing private communications without permission is a clear violation of professional integrity”.
WordPress Must Win… it is a petition calling for the creation of strong WordPress Foundation v2. Over 185+ people have signed this petition.
Devin Walker shared his thoughts, “While I acknowledge the severity of the current situation, I remain a Bloomer rather than a Doomer when it comes to WordPress’s future”.
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