Tag Archives: wordpress

WordPress 6.7 Roadmap Includes New Default Theme, APIs, and Media Enhancements – WP Tavern

[ad_1] Anne McCarthy has unveiled the roadmap for WordPress 6.7, slated for release on November 12, 2024. This will be the final major update of the year. She has emphasized that “More than anything though, this release brings refinement to how everything connects together to create a more seamless WordPress experience, whether you’re trying to upload a HEIC image to your site or display a selection of posts with the Query Loop block.” WordPress 6.7 will ship with a new default theme, Twenty Twenty-Five, that “embodies ultimate flexibility and adaptability”. Fully compatible with the Site Editor, the theme features high-quality fonts supporting multiple languages, a variety of color palettes, and an extensive collection of patterns. This release will also include two new APIs designed to simplify developers’ workflows: Template Registration API to allow templates and template parts to be registered directly within plugins without filters. Preview Options API to expand the Preview dropdown menu in the post/page editor and add greater flexibility in preview functionality. Several existing APIs, such as the Interactivity API, Block Bindings API, and HTML API, will also see enhancements. New features offering more flexibility and functionality will improve the data view experience. Users can expect options to hide or show filters in the interface, adjust the density of information in the grid layout, and configure the grid layout’s aspect ratio to their preferences. The Query Loop block will be updated to ease customization. Improvements include refining settings copy and context detection for a more intuitive user experience. For a better editing experience, WordPress 6.7 will introduce an option to zoom out and work at the pattern level.  Significant updates to media handling are also on the way, including HEIC support, auto sizes for lazy loaded images, and more background image support at individual and global levels.  Other highlights of WordPress 6.7 include: Updates to design tools, including shadow support for Group blocks. Improved support for PHP 8.x and removing code specific for unsupported versions.  A new split view for the iframe post editor to ensure a consistent WYSIWYG experience. Removing the experimental status of typography blocks A new feature in the Styles interface allowing users to customize theme presets. Anne has cautioned that the new features mentioned in the post “ is being actively pursued, but doesn’t necessarily mean each will make it into the final release of WordPress 6.7.” Interested users can look into the demos shared during a recent hallway hangout to get a glimpse into what’s being developed for this release and future updates. Category: News, WordPress [ad_2] Source link

Continue reading

Defeating silence and stigma with WordPress – Sconfiggere silenzio e stigma con WordPress

[ad_1] Questo saggio è disponibile anche in italiano. ABOUT ME I am Elena, Italian, and I have been working in digital products’ accessibility since the early 2000s. I’ve been blind since birth and no matter how many obstacles brought by such condition, my solid network of friends and family allowed me to develop interests and curiosity from the very beginning, including a preference for detective stories, which I could practice in the first small “investigation” of my existence: HIV and AIDS. It was the end of 1980s and despite still being a child, I felt that AIDS-related advertisements on TV were projected more to scare than to give explanations about a disease, so continuing to ask uneasy questions to family members and teachers, by the time I was 13 I had already realized that dividing people into “right” and “wrong”, made no sense because the virus could affect anyone. So I made a promise in front of a poster of Freddie Mercury, and no matter if I couldn’t see it: I vowed that I would make any effort to allow other teens like me to avoid fear and get correct information. And so I did, because in high school I wrote some articles concerning HIV in the school journal, then continued to keep awareness of scientific advances, within my means, even after I finished my studies. My love for writing I always hated doing essays in school because they made me feel “scrutinized” and judged by my teachers; in fact, I always had very low grades in written expositions in which I was asked to talk about myself; it was different, however, if current events were discussed or, better yet, if I had to use my fantasy.  In my teens I wrote a lot of stories and unfortunately I was unable to preserve the material, paper Braille does not last long and gets ruined, and so do floppy disks – early magnetic media for computers; then came CDs but transferring the material to those media did not allow me to edit files in them and I instead wanted my most important fictional character, the sentient HIV virus that speaks to humans, to grow with me so editing and rewriting were essential. The advent of blogging Late 1990s. Mail, chat, forums, and newsgroups were already allowing me to be a world’s active participant more than I had ever done before: no barriers in discussing topics from the funniest to the most difficult, including politics, even without necessarily talking about my visual disability. A dream was coming true!  But how to open a personal space in which to expose myself without obeying rules written by others?  I had learned how to build my first websites in HTML but maintaining all that code, and asking sighted people for help with graphics, had become an unsustainable commitment. Until I read about some platforms where people wrote a personal journal. From splinder to blogspot, then live journal, there were quite a few but none gave me full satisfaction because the web was beginning to suffer from what later came to be called sensory barriers, resulting in the nullification of the “universal web” utopia; they were more concerned with having a pretty, colorful interface rather than an easy-to-use platform.  Welcome WordPress! It was the year 2004 and I had learned about a system that allowed me to create my own blog, in my website it was only necessary to buy space, it was even possible to choose the custom interface.  It was called WordPress and an Italian community composed of volunteers with passions equal to mine was beginning to develop. It was my chance, I would be able to discuss with a proper community and really collaborate to raise awareness and overcome accessibility obstacles; I got in touch with Paolo Valenti known as Wolly, the first to bring WordPress in Italy. An extraordinary person who died in 2022 because of cancer. He always struggled for life and so he did for WordPress so if I am where I am now, it’s thanks to him. Over time he’s always urged me to persevere, never completely abandon WordPress despite the obstacles I might have encountered; and there were many barriers then, because since 2004 when I started my first site about songs and audio editing, my relationship with WordPress has been quite conflicted because of a visual editor that was creating difficulties rather than helping me. Not to mention themes, where you had to work on code any time you had to modify a small detail. I accepted the compromise of building a site with questionable graphics, and I went on like this for a few years: having exhausted my interest in blogging about audio, I had started one in which I shared my experiences with the game of chess, use and abuse of technology, book reviews, joys and sorrows of my personal life including the possibility of starting again with HIV and AIDS activism because in the meantime my former boyfriend, less comfortable with technology than me, had expressed a desire to blog about his experiences as a person living with HIV. Too bad about the editor which still, in the years 2009-2018, was complicated for me and I had to write articles by hand with HTML view instead of GUI view, and if I found it uncomfortable let alone him who had no knowledge of web languages.  The blog concerning HIV was a failure, but together we had recorded a video talking about our experience on an Italian YouTube channel where they talk about sex education. Instead, on the personal blog I was posting more and more infrequently some articles about my technological frustrations, including the one due to pay TV services that do not pay enough attention to the needs of people with disabilities.  From zero to the atom In 2019 all hell broke loose: relationship ended after 10 years, other unpleasant events happened to me one after another, I was brain drained; until

Continue reading

7 Best Cheap WordPress Hosting Services (2024 Deals)

[ad_1] Final recommendations After reviewing all these options, here are my top recommendations, based on what I think each host is best suited for: Namecheap – my recommendation for long-term hosting (5-10 years) For anyone planning to keep their website running for several years, Namecheap is hands down the best choice. It’s the absolute cheapest option for long-term hosting, with the 5-year cost of ~$230 and the 10-year cost of ~$475. Despite the low cost, you still get solid features like 10 GB of storage and support for up to 50,000 visits per month. I’ve found that Namecheap offers reliable performance, and if you’re focused on keeping costs low over the long haul, it’s hard to beat. Bluehost – my pick for a 1-year test run If you’re looking to test the waters with a new website for a year, Bluehost is my go-to choice. At $1.99 per month, it’s the second cheapest host for a one-year plan, costing just $23.88 in total. Keep in mind, though, that it gets expensive over the long term. You’ll also get a free domain for the first year, along with easy WordPress installation and solid performance. From my experience and feedback from users, Bluehost has a good reputation for uptime and speed, making it perfect for those wanting to try out WordPress hosting without a long-term commitment. Common sins of cheap hosts This might sound a bit harsh, but these “sins” aren’t necessarily due to bad intentions. They’re just the reality of the hosting market, driven by the constant demand for cheaper and cheaper options. Hosts are more than willing to offer what seems like a great deal upfront, but as the saying goes: if something looks too good to be true, there’s usually a catch. Here are some of the most common caveats you’ll run into with cheap WordPress hosting: 1. The entry price is a marketing myth The low entry price you see advertised is often little more than a hook. Once that initial term ends, you’re looking at a price increase anywhere from 2x to 8x what you originally paid. For example, you might sign up for $3 a month, but when it’s time to renew, you could be paying $10, $20 (I’m looking at you, SiteGround), or more. Always be aware of what the long-term costs will be, not just the first-year promotional price. Here’s one insightful table I can share with you about the price thing that comes from our annual hosting survey. This is what these hosts advertise their entry price is vs what the average user actually pays (I’ve included only hosts with more than 15 votes in the survey): Host Entry price / mo Median price / mo Hostinger $2.69 $7.25 GoDaddy $6.14 $16.50 Bluehost $1.99 $20.00 SiteGround $2.99 $32.00 Namecheap $2.91 $7.00 Some of these prices are not even close to where they were advertised to be, right? 2. No email hosting included A professional email address that matches your domain (like you@yourwebsite.com) is key for any business or project. While some hosts will include this as part of the package, many cheap hosts will not. That means you’ll either need to pay extra for email hosting or set up a separate service for your domain email – an added hassle and cost you might not expect. For example, all high-end managed hosts for WordPress – such as Kinsta or WP Engine – are known for not offering email. It’s hard to blame them, don’t get me wrong, but there are still users surprised that they pay this much for hosting and still don’t get email. Even some budget hosts will give you email only “partially”…kind of. This is what Bluehost says for example: 3. Domain name not included I should have probably led with that. Well, you can’t have a website without a domain, and while many users already have a domain of their own when they search for hosting, many don’t. Having your host throw in a free domain (for the first year) is a nice perk, and especially if the project you’re working on is only a test and you’re not sure if it’s going to pick up or not. Don’t get me wrong, though, a host not offering free domains is not a dealbreaker at all, but still an important additional cost to factor in – roughly $15 a year. When you sign up for a cheap plan, expect to be bombarded with add-ons and upsells for things like premium SSL certificates, automated hourly or on-demand backups, enhanced security scanning, and more. While some of these are nice (like SSL for securing your site), they’re often offered at an additional cost when you thought you were getting everything in the base package. These “extras” can add up quickly, turning that cheap hosting plan into something far more expensive. 5. Low price means key features are missing The reason these hosts can offer such low prices is because they strip out key features or services that you’d typically expect to be included. For example, customer support might only be available via email (and response times can be slow), or advanced features like a web application firewall (WAF) or malware protection could be locked behind a paywall. In some cases, you might even need to pay extra for things like daily backups or a CDN, which are crucial for keeping your site safe and fast. Let’s zoom back out 🔭 Our methodology Choosing the right hosting provider can be challenging, so we’ve developed a thorough methodology to test and review web hosting companies. Since 2009, we’ve reviewed over 50 providers using a combination of expert analysis, real user feedback, and performance monitoring. Our team of experienced reviewers offers honest opinions, while our annual hosting survey provides additional insights from real users. We continuously update our reviews to ensure they reflect the latest information. Our review process starts by signing up for hosting plans and setting up test websites with demo data.

Continue reading

#136 – Matthias Pupillo on Enhancing WordPress With AI Translations – WP Tavern

[ad_1] [00:00:00] Nathan Wrigley: Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley. Jukebox is a podcast which is dedicated to all things WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, enhanced WordPress with AI translations. If you’d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast, player of choice. Or by going to wptavern.com/feed/podcast. And you can copy that URL into most podcast players. If you have a topic that you’d like us to feature on the podcast, I’m keen to hear from you and hopefully get you, or your idea, featured on the show. Head to wptavern.com/contact/jukebox and use the form there. So on the podcast today, we have Matthias Pupillo. Matthias has extensive experience in the technology and creative sectors, and is currently working as the co-founder of FluentC AI, an AI powered language technology company. With a background in technology, he’s focusing on developing solutions to enhance communication across different languages and platforms. He’s been involved with WordPress since its early days, around version 1.2, and has a rich history of web design and consulting, having worked on hundreds of WordPress websites. But it’s only recently that he’s become more engaged in the WordPress community through events like WordCamp Buffalo. In the podcast today, we talk about AI driven language translations, particularly focusing on Matthias’s work with FluentC, which is his translation plugin for WordPress. It supports multithreaded simultaneous translations of up to 140 languages, enabling your pages and posts to be offered in other languages in just a few moments. We covered the differences between AI models designed for translation, such as ChatGPT, and Llama, which aren’t specialized for this task, and how his platform builds a contextual layer above those. He emphasizes the importance of context and diverse multi-lingual data in producing high quality translations. FluentC’s functionality involves local storage of translated content in an effort to maintain website speed. This is done using native WordPress hooks, and URL modifications. Matthias also offers his thoughts on the ongoing multi-lingual support phase of the Gutenberg project. And his hopes for FluentC to evolve from a standalone plugin to an API, which could be used by WordPress Core. We get into the broader implications of AI in translation, the need for open source models to compete in this rapidly evolving space, and the parallels between AI evolution and past trends like blockchain, and web 2.0. If you’re interested in the intersection of AI and WordPress, or looking to enhance your website’s multi-lingual capabilities, this episode is for you. If you’d like to find out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading to wptavern.com/podcast, where you’ll find all the other episodes as well. And so without further delay, I bring you Matthias Pupillo. I am joined on the podcast today by Matthias Pupillo. How you doing Matthias? [00:03:54] Matthias Pupillo: I’m doing fantastic, Nathan. [00:03:55] Nathan Wrigley: Very, very nice to have you with us. We had a little bit of a chat before we pressed record, and in that chat, Matthias revealed to me that he’s got a long history with WordPress, but not necessarily the WordPress community. Matthias, we’re going to be talking about AI, transcribing, transliteration, multilingual, all that kind of stuff today. Before we do, would you just give us a quick potted bio of your history with tech, WordPress, however far you want to go back. [00:04:19] Matthias Pupillo: Oh yeah, absolutely. So I’ve been a software, I have to say commercially, building software for 25 years. I’ve been recreationally building software for 35 years. So I started pretty much when I was eight building code. And I started in WordPress with 1.2. I was writing hand coded HTML in Microsoft notes, and so it was a dramatic shift back then in 2002, 2003. And I was running my own consulting firm, doing web design professionally, and found WordPress by, it was a divine intervention one day. Someone wanted to pay me for editing, and I didn’t know how to write software, besides HTML, CSS and Java. And Java back then was not building a website. It was a complicated journey and it was fun. The day WordPress 2.5.5, when we had tabs, that was great. And then we got 2.6 and it went horizontal menu, that was a fun day. It’s been a long road with WordPress. I think I’ve built two or three hundred websites with it, maybe more. Not to mention coaching, staffing, and like guidance from an architecture standpoint. [00:05:22] Nathan Wrigley: That’s a really long and storied, well, a really long story basically, so that’s lovely. But however, one of the things that you said a moment ago was that, although you’ve been using WordPress for a long time, the community side of it is more recent I think. Only in the fairly recent past that you’ve got yourself out to events, and started to interact with the community more. Is that right? [00:05:41] Matthias Pupillo: Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, so I built the translation company FluentC, we built for apps, and GraphQL, and other integrations. And I forgot WordPress, I really did. Our website was built in WordPress, our marketing flow, our CRM, everything was in WordPress, and I forgot to build the engine. So, out of my shame of forgetting that, I rapidly built the plugin. Then spent four months trying to get it approved, and then joined the community in person. And my first WordCamp was in Buffalo this last May. [00:06:09] Nathan Wrigley: You alluded to it earlier, but I might as well get the URL out there. So FluentC is the URL, but it’s not what you are thinking, I suspect. I imagine you are thinking it ends in a Y, but my records here show that it’s fluent, and then the letter C,

Continue reading

How WordPress and My Work Help Me Stay on Board During the War – Як WordPress та робота допомагають мені залишатись на плаву під час війни? 

[ad_1] Here is Lana reading her own story aloud. Це есе також доступно українською. My name is Lana Miro, shortened for Svitlana. I’m a Partnerships Manager at Crocoblock. This article is my personal story about how WordPress and my work have been helping me stay on board during the war in Ukraine. Brief Introduction I’m 28 years old, born and raised in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. It’s a peaceful, small city (before the war, about 400,000 people lived here). I never thought about moving because travelling and exploring other cities for short periods was enough for me. Mykolaiv was always my comfort zone, where I felt safe. This city provides me with a sense of peace – the river, the parks… the river – yes, I’m a fan of water. 🌊 My Introduction to WordPress I began my journey with WordPress in 2017 when I started an internship at TemplateMonster. That’s when I discovered this incredible platform that captivated me with its scope and possibilities. At TemplateMonster, I worked as a Partnerships Manager. At that time, the company’s niche was templates for various CMS platforms. So, I’m well-acquainted with all of WordPress’s competitors. 😄 During my three years with the company, I realized that WordPress was the largest and most interesting CMS for me. Why? The community and the number of people creating content about WordPress is enormous! A variety of plugins and templates. An interesting and intuitive dashboard. In 2020, during the Covid pandemic, I started experiencing issues with my back and mental health, so I decided to take a one-year break. I left the project and rejoined another Holding project a year later – Crocoblock. Crocoblock was a breath of fresh air for me because of its amazing community and cool plugins that I wanted to work with. ⚡My main tasks involved finding partners for collaboration, organizing events, and more. I’ve described partnerships in more detail in my free guide – WordPress Partnerships Basics. Invasion: How to Work? The war with Russia has been ongoing since 2014, so the Russian invasion in 2022 wasn’t a surprise to us. However, what was surprising – that bombs, missiles, and artillery could be used with such intensity in the 21st century. For the first two weeks, we were paralyzed. 😔 The beginning The first two weeks of the war were a real shock. We were all paralyzed, but the Crocoblock team quickly came together, creating an operational chat to support each other. This was a time when words, actions, and even just being present in the chat meant so much.💙 For example, one of our employees immediately went to the army, so we collected money, and our developers bought everything he needed to start. I checked my work email on the second day of the escalation. Lying in the basement, with the internet barely reaching, I decided, “I’m relatively safe, so I can respond to partners.” I reviewed critical messages, and let them know that we were okay and would respond as soon as we adapted. A few days later, we decided to write a blog post to let the Community know we were okay and to explain what was happening. 😥 After two weeks of lying in the basement (yes, my family of nine spent two weeks in the basement, occasionally sleeping in the corridor or bathroom for safety), a bomb was dropped near our street, and that became a critical moment for our family.  By a majority vote, we decided to move to the western part of our country. Adaptation period Once we were safe, I was able to start working at 100% (okay, maybe 80%, as 20% of me was still in shock 😣). Of course, the news, conditions, and stress affected me, but work helped me get back into a routine and begin to adapt. Work became my lifeline.  It brought me back to life, giving me a sense of stability when everything around me was falling apart. We recorded a video message for our clients, which was an important step not only for synchronization but also for my personal recovery. Not to mention the numerous words of support we received afterward. We once again realized that Crocoblock clients are the best.💚 Part of the team immediately moved to safer cities or went abroad. But some stayed in Mykolaiv, and Anna, our CEO, was in an occupied city – Kherson. But that’s her story. I was incredibly happy when she finally left the occupation, and we exhaled in relief. After three months (which felt like a year), my husband and I decided to move closer to Mykolaiv to be near his parents. It was safe there, but due to the constant changes, my depression reached its peak. Fortunately, part of Kherson was liberated, and Mykolaiv was being shelled less frequently, so we decided to return home. That’s when I started treatment with a psychiatrist. She helped stabilize my condition and bring me back.⌛ 💯 2022 was the hardest year for me and my family, but the ability to work and be part of the WordPress community helped me Just Continue. At the end of the year, I decided to thank everyone who supported me, asked how I was doing, joked, and was kind to me in a post on Medium.  Team changes Of course, the war impacted our team, and I immediately noticed how management changed its approach to focus on caring for each team member. 🙌 We started having training sessions based on the team’s requests (e.g., anxiety management), management helped with healing supplies (since there are blackouts or Internet issues in Ukraine), and relocation if needed. During the war, our HR team introduced the IDP (Individual Development Plan), which allows you to outline your development for the year, focus, and receive better feedback. This helped me during my depression. The war brought changes, and I became more anxious, chaotic and found it hard to focus. 👩‍💻 The constant support from my manager was also crucial. My

Continue reading

WordPress 6.6.2 Released with 26 Bug Fixes – WP Tavern

[ad_1] WordPress 6.6.2, released on September 10, 2024, brings 15 bug fixes to Core and 11 to the Block Editor. Led by Tonya Mork and Vicente Canales, with Aaron Jorbin mentoring the team, this is a short-cycle maintenance release ahead of WordPress 6.7, scheduled for November 12, 2024. Core Fixes  This update addresses 15 Core issues, including CSS specificity changes in certain themes and the resolution of Button Block CSS conflicts. Other notable improvements include: Global Styles now blocks empty CSS rules and malformed selectors for custom CSS for blocks. Text-wrapping issues on the About page, which caused line breaks in Japanese, have been fixed. A bug that wiped out template contents when renaming templates has been addressed. The Site Health Tool now correctly loads directory sizes. Autofocus query string parameter in the Customizer URL has been fixed.  Issues with the search functionality in the installed themes section have been resolved. Block Editor Fixes This release addresses 11 issues in the Block Editor, including improved layout style specificity in the non-iframed editor and fixes for pseudo-element selectors in custom block CSS. The release also reduces the specificity of the default featured-image block style rules and prevents the duplication of template parts in non-block-based themes. Post Editor has received multiple improvements.  Tonya Mork’s post gives the complete list of bug fixes in WordPress 6.6.2. Websites with automatic background updates will automatically get updated to WordPress 6.6.2 while others can download it from WordPress.org or update the website via the WordPress Dashboard. Category: News, WordPress [ad_2] Source link

Continue reading

How the WordPress Testing Process Works

[ad_1] WordPress is a massive open source tool that relies on thousands of volunteer contributors to create and test updates before they go live. Q: What are the biggest issues you face in testing WordPress releases? Anne: The biggest issues probably come down to… I always want people to test earlier than they do. We have a beta period and then a release candidate period before the final release. The beta period is usually three or four weeks before release. People don’t start paying attention until the beta period hits, which makes sense because they can get their hands on a test version, like 6.6 beta one, and there’s a process to it that makes it easier. But I am all about trying to get people to test earlier. Whenever I’m involved in releases, particularly as a test lead, you’ll see me trying to share posts ahead of time with early opportunities to test the next version of WordPress. I just want that feedback as soon as possible because there’s a rush once we get to the beta period, and there’s stuff that we need to find earlier. So, I would definitely like to get people to test as soon as possible. There’s a new GitHub group you can join called the outreach group. Anyone can join, and it’s basically for people who are interested in giving feedback on the progress, like pull requests and issues. That’s one of the things that we’re trying to get more of: your feedback. But that’s definitely a huge challenge. Also, WordPress runs 43% of the internet. How the heck do you figure out how to cover every use case, every configuration, every environment? That’s where things like getting involved with hosts is really helpful, getting them to test things, and getting agencies to test early, getting people to manually test different configurations. We really are trying to cover the widest spread possible. And that doesn’t even begin to cover plugins and themes and all that stuff. So it’s a huge task, figuring out how to get the right spread of testing. Because if you have 1,000 people test the same kind of environment, that’s actually not as helpful as getting 1,000 people that test 1,000 different environments. So that’s something I’m always thinking about. I’m always afraid we’re only getting a certain kind of testing done. So that keeps me up at night. Q: How can developers get involved in the testing process and what are the benefits of getting involved? Anne: Testing is a great way to get familiar with what’s coming in the next release. I think it’s the best way, honestly. You see where things break, you see limitations, you see what’s new. You can advocate for stuff by opening issues and saying, “I don’t like how this works,” or “this doesn’t work.” We had a case of that with this release [6.6], where some theme authors had feedback about a feature. They didn’t want something to be done automatically, and the feature was changed. Now we’re going back and forth about whether to do an extra beta cycle or not because of this fix, which is awesome. So, I would say: know that your feedback is valuable. However, when you’re in the release cycle, we can’t fix everything, we can’t change everything. If you open a request and you’re really passionate about it and want to see something enhanced, it’s not going to happen during the beta period. There’s a rhythm and a cycle. Things get stricter and stricter as the cycle goes on because we need the releases to be as reliable as possible. In terms of what folks can do, there’s a whole spread. You can use the Gutenberg plugin, which feeds a lot of enhancements into a release, on a development site and test it against your plugins or themes. There’s also a beta tester plugin, which I find a bit more manageable and a bit safer, as you can choose how risky you want to be with what you’re testing. I also want to shout out WordPress Playground as a really easy way to spin up test sites, test your plugins against stuff, and throw them away later. That is a huge tool for developers to try things out. There’s an outreach channel in the Make WordPress Slack if you want to passively consume information and not risk testing on your sites. That is a great spot to hang out in, and it also connects to that outreach handle and GitHub that I mentioned. Dianna: So get involved early in the testing process if you want to see something specific done. Q: How does the WordPress team decide what fixes and updates to work on for each new version of WordPress? Anne: It’s a combination of things. There are leadership priorities. For instance, Matt Mullenweg might come up with something that we want to do. The data liberation project, for example, doesn’t necessarily come into WordPress, but some of the stuff around portability within WordPress might come up in future releases. There’s community feedback. For example, when the last release went out, a feature was included, and there were a lot of requests for an enhancement to be included in the next release. That tends to be prioritized. The same goes for bug fixes. If there’s something hugely breaking, we’ll loop back and fix it. Oftentimes, that might happen in a minor release rather than a major release. So rather than a 6.6, maybe a 6.6.1. Then there are planned projects from contributor teams. For example, the performance team always has stuff related to the release that they’re looking at and trying to ship, as well as just monitoring the different features that are coming. There’s a core team that includes different focuses. For example, 6.6 has a feature called “robot rollback” for auto-updates, which is great for plugins. So if plugins auto-update and something doesn’t work, it will now roll back and not

Continue reading

12 Best WordPress Hosting Providers of 2024 Compared & Tested

[ad_1] So who wins the battle to become the best WordPress hosting overall? Okay, I know that everyone’s hosting needs are different, so instead of pointing to one “best” solution, I’ve opted to highlight the top hosts based on what they’re likely best suited for. Here’s how they stand out according to the research presented about and our long-term methodology toward evaluating hosting: SiteGround – best overall 🏆 If you’re looking for a well-rounded hosting option that combines strong performance, reliable uptime, excellent customer support, and ease of use, SiteGround is our top recommendation. It’s a great choice for all types of WordPress users, from small personal sites to larger businesses. Bluehost – easiest to use for beginners 🚀 Bluehost is my top choice for beginners who are new to WordPress. Its user-friendly interface, straightforward setup process, and affordable pricing make it ideal if you’re just starting out. Plus, it offers solid performance and support to get your site up and running with minimal hassle. Kinsta – best for power users 💪 Kinsta is ideal for advanced users who need top-tier performance and scalability. With features like free CDN and edge caching, built-in performance monitoring, and a global network of data centers, Kinsta is perfect for WordPress power users. It offers excellent security with a managed firewall, DDoS protection, and malware removal, making it a great choice for handling larger, more complex websites that require superior performance and expert-level support. FYI, WPShout is hosted on Kinsta. Hostinger – most popular host 🔥 Hostinger delivers incredible value with its low pricing and feature-rich plans. It’s highly popular among WordPress users (most popular host in our surveys) thanks to its affordability without sacrificing key features or performance. If you want reliable hosting that’s easy on your budget and trusted by many, Hostinger is an excellent pick. I’d like to stress that none of the WordPress hosting providers here failed any test. The overall standard was refreshingly high. Furthermore, all providers also offer a full range of more advanced hosting options if you start to outgrow the entry-level packages. My hope is that the information above will help you do two things: (1) provide a framework to distinguish between high-profile providers, and (2) use their overall offerings as a sensible reference point if you are comparing with other hosting services in the market. Let’s zoom back out 🔭 Our methodology Choosing the right hosting provider can be challenging, so we’ve developed a thorough methodology to test and review web hosting companies. Since 2009, we’ve reviewed over 50 providers using a combination of expert analysis, real user feedback, and performance monitoring. Our team of experienced reviewers offers honest opinions, while our annual hosting survey provides additional insights from real users. We continuously update our reviews to ensure they reflect the latest information. Our review process starts by signing up for hosting plans and setting up test websites with demo data. We then conduct performance tests, measuring load times from various global locations and tracking uptime over time. Each host is rated based on pricing, performance, features, and user reviews. Pricing is carefully reviewed, accounting for hidden fees and discounts, while performance is evaluated based on real-time testing of uptime and load times. We also assess features like storage, bandwidth, and tools available for building or managing websites. WPShout’s annual WordPress hosting surveys Our WordPress hosting surveys started as a way to gather real-world feedback from users about their hosting experiences. While many publications review hosting services, we wanted to go beyond our own testing and tap into the collective opinions of our readers. By doing so, we could get a broader perspective on what hosting providers truly perform well in different scenarios. Initially, our surveys focused on experienced WordPress users, but the sample size was too small to draw solid conclusions. To improve the quality of the data, we now open the surveys to a wider audience, including beginners. These surveys run discreetly as a pop-up on our site, with no active promotion, allowing us to gather honest, unfiltered feedback without spammy interference. We’ve been doing them since 2016. The surveys ask key questions like which host users rely on, their satisfaction levels, and plans to switch providers. Depending on the responses, users are guided to relevant follow-up questions, helping us get detailed insights into both positive and negative experiences with various WordPress hosts. 👉 To learn more about the surveys, go here. Month-to-month load time and uptime tracking We began our hosting performance tests around 2019, initially just comparing Bluehost and SiteGround. Over time, our testing expanded to 16 different hosting accounts, which we maintain solely to measure and compare performance. Each host is independently purchased, and we never inform the companies of our testing. We set up WordPress on all test sites with the same theme, content, and plugins to mimic real-world conditions as much as possible. This helps us evaluate the true performance of each host in a more authentic scenario. For load time measurements, we focus on the total time it takes for a page to fully load, rather than just initial response times. We use WebPageTest to conduct tests from six global locations and perform multiple runs to average out the results. This method allows us to simulate a real user’s experience across different locations and connection types and handle over 480 monthly tests. For uptime tracking, we use UptimeRobot, which monitors each site 24/7 and logs any downtime. While uptime isn’t directly related to site speed, it’s another critical factor in a host’s reliability. 👉 To learn more about how we track host performance, read this. I hope this guide has been helpful and that it’ll assist you in picking a host that matches your needs exactly. I’d love to hear more about your experience in the comments below. Get in touch! [ad_2] Source link

Continue reading

WordPress Community Team to Close Inactive Meetup Groups by September 16, 2024 – WP Tavern

[ad_1] Automattic’s Community Engagement Specialist, Devin Maeztri, has announced that the WordPress Community Team will close all inactive meetup groups by September 16, 2024. Over the past month, the team has been working hard to reactivate recently inactive WordPress Meetups. “This project comes in response to recent data revealing that nearly half of our groups are currently inactive—a statistic that underscores the need for proactive measures.”, Devin explained. As of June 2024, there are more than 762 WordPress Meetup groups across 108 countries and nearly 537,000 members.  The Community Team released a list of inactive Meetups at risk of removal from the WordPress Chapter Meetup Program. Organizers have until September 16 to confirm if they wish to remain active. As per the list, 22 meetups have already requested closure. Spain leads with six closure requests, followed by the USA (4), France (3), and Indonesia (3). Meetup groups that fail to respond will be removed from the WordPress Chapter Meetup Program. Currently, 140 groups are yet to respond, with the largest numbers coming from the USA (33), Italy (8), Brazil (7), Spain (6), India (6), and Venezuela (4). “Once a group is removed from the WordPress network, Meetup.com will guide Co-organizers, Assistant Organizers, Event Organizers, and Members on how to keep the group active independently (including managing the subscription fee).”, Devin assured. Since June 2024, WordPress.com has offered free websites for local WordPress meetups. Organizers who believe their group was mistakenly flagged as inactive and groups that wish to rejoin the WordPress network after removal can contact the Community Team at support@wordcamp.org. [ad_2] Source link

Continue reading

Automattic Will Migrate 500+ Million Tumblr Blogs to WordPress

[ad_1] If you like ambitious projects, I think this news tidbit will be right up your alley. In late August, Matt Mullenweg and Automattic announced plans to migrate all of the existing Tumblr websites to WordPress. Given that Tumblr hosts more than  half a billion blogs  (yes – that’s a “B”), I think this might just be one of the largest migration projects ever undertaken. This journey started back when Automattic acquired Tumblr in 2019 for a fairly paltry sum of under $20 million (the exact amount wasn’t released). I say fairly paltry because Yahoo had acquired Tumblr for $1.1 billion back in 2013 (yes – that’s also a “B”), so there was a pretty hefty drop-off in the valuation. When Automattic made the acquisition, Matt had already hinted at the end goal of migrating Tumblr to WordPress: “WordPress is an open source web operating system that can power pretty much anything, including Tumblr.com, but it’s also a large property so will take a bit to figure out and migrate.” Almost exactly four years later, it seems that the time has finally come to launch the migration. It’s important to note that, for now at least, the migration is about migrating the backend of Tumblr to WordPress. Active Tumblr users will obviously be wary of the switch, but Automattic said the following about the migration: “We’re not talking about changing Tumblr. We’re not turning Tumblr into WordPress. That would defeat the purpose. We acquired Tumblr to benefit from its differences and strengths, not to water it down. We love Tumblr’s streamlined posting experience and its current product direction. We’re not changing that. We’re talking about running Tumblr’s backend on WordPress. You won’t even notice a difference from the outside.” Automattic reiterated on X/Twitter that “the changes will be exclusively at the backend.” If you think it would be fun to work on such a large project, Automattic is actively looking for experienced programmers to help with the move, especially those with strong PHP knowledge. You can check out the dedicated application form here to learn more and submit yourself for consideration. … Don’t forget to join our crash course on speeding up your WordPress site. Learn more below: Was this article helpful? No Thanks for your feedback! Or start the conversation in our Facebook group for WordPress professionals. Find answers, share tips, and get help from other WordPress experts. Join now (it’s free)! [ad_2] Source link

Continue reading
1 2 3 4 … 20