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";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:7:"version";s:3:"2.0";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:7:"channel";a:1:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:61:"
	
	
	
	




















































";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16:"WordPress Planet";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"language";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2:"en";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"WordPress Planet - http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"item";a:50:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"WPTavern: Chassis Desktop Application for Local WordPress Development Now in Beta";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=71126";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:92:"https://wptavern.com/chassis-desktop-application-for-local-wordpress-development-now-in-beta";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2113:"<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/chassis-desktop.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://hmn.md/" target="_blank">Human Made</a> has released its first public beta of <a href="http://beta.chassis.io/" target="_blank">Chassis Desktop</a>, an application for local WordPress development. <a href="https://github.com/Chassis/Chassis/" target="_blank">Chassis</a> is a Vagrant-based virtual server and a community project that Human Made has commercially supported since 2012. The new desktop app is in early beta at version 0.2.0 with version 1.0.0 coming soon.</p>
<p>Chassis Desktop was designed with a user-friendly interface suitable for beginners and experts alike. It was built by Bronson Quick and Ryan McCue using <a href="http://electron.atom.io/" target="_blank">Electron</a> and contains code from the <a href="https://github.com/facebookincubator/create-react-app" target="_blank">create-react-app</a> project.</p>
<p>On first launch the app makes sure that Vagrant and Virtual Box are installed and then guides the user to create a new box. Setting up a new Chassis install or adding Chassis to an existing install is fast and easy with the simple UI. The app also includes keyboard navigation and a built-in terminal for quick access to more control over your box.</p>
<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/add-new-box.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Over the years Chassis contributors have created an ecosystem of <a href="http://beta.chassis.io/extensions/" target="_blank">extensions</a> for things like MailHog, Photon, Memcache, debugging, and other software. These add-ons allow users to tailor their systems to their needs.</p>
<p>Chassis Desktop aims to make it easy for users to manager their Chassis development environments without having to touch the command line. As it is currently in pre-release status, early adopters may discover some bugs. Beta testers are encouraged to <a href="https://github.com/Chassis/Desktop/issues" target="_blank">log any issues on GitHub</a>.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 02 Jun 2017 03:24:01 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:1;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:43:"Dev Blog: WordPress 4.8 Release Candidate 2";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=4765";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"https://wordpress.org/news/2017/06/wordpress-4-8-release-candidate-2/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1160:"<p>The second release candidate for WordPress 4.8 is now available.</p>
<p>To test WordPress 4.8, you can use the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester</a> plugin or you can <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-4.8-RC2.zip">download the release candidate here</a> (zip).</p>
<p>We&#8217;ve made <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/log/trunk/?action=stop_on_copy&mode=stop_on_copy&rev=40866&stop_rev=40847">a handful of changes</a> since releasing RC 1 last week. For more details about what&#8217;s new in version 4.8, check out the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2017/05/wordpress-4-8-beta-1/">Beta 1</a>, <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2017/05/wordpress-4-8-beta-2/">Beta 2</a>, and <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2017/05/wordpress-4-8-release-candidate/">RC1</a> blog posts.</p>
<p><strong>Think you&#8217;ve found a bug?</strong> Please post to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">Alpha/Beta support forum</a>. If any known issues come up, you&#8217;ll be able to <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/report/5">find them here</a>.</p>
<p>Happy testing!</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 01 Jun 2017 22:13:35 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10:"Mel Choyce";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:2;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:85:"WPTavern: Inpsyde Open Sources Wonolog, a Monolog-based Logging Package for WordPress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=71109";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:95:"https://wptavern.com/inpsyde-open-sources-wonolog-a-monolog-based-logging-package-for-wordpress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1721:"<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/wonolog.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://inpsyde.com" target="_blank">Inpsyde</a>, a WordPress agency and WordPress.com VIP partner based in Germany, has open sourced <a href="https://inpsyde.com/en/wonolog-wordpress-logging-library/" target="_blank">Wonolog</a>, a package that integrates Monolog for sophisticated WordPress data logging. <a href="https://seldaek.github.io/monolog/" target="_blank">Monolog</a> is the most widely used PHP logging library with more than 57 million downloads to date.</p>
<p>Wonolog automatically creates logs that target specific WordPress requests and can be customized with action and filter hooks. Here are a few examples of WordPress data it can log:</p>
<ul>
<li>Log any failed logins</li>
<li>Keep track of all WordPress cron requests</li>
<li>Intercept the WordPress-specific exit function, wp_die(), and log any (direct or indirect) usage</li>
<li>PHP core notices, warnings and (fatal) errors, uncaught exceptions (as well as PHP 7+ Throwable)</li>
<li>WordPress core errors such as database errors, HTTP API errors, wp_mail() errors, and 404 errors</li>
</ul>
<p>Wonolog is available as a Composer package and its creators recommend installing at the website level. Inpsyde has been using it successfully in production with different projects for several months. Wonolog requires PHP 5.6 or higher and WordPress 4.6+. A <a href="https://inpsyde.github.io/Wonolog/" target="_blank">documentation site</a> is available to help new users get started and the project can be found on <a href="https://github.com/inpsyde/Wonolog" target="_blank">GitHub</a>.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 01 Jun 2017 20:54:47 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:3;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 275 – The JavaScript Framework Rabbit Hole";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:58:"https://wptavern.com?p=71102&preview=true&preview_id=71102";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"https://wptavern.com/wpweekly-episode-275-the-javascript-framework-rabbit-hole";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2549:"<p>In this episode, <a href="http://jjj.me/">John James Jacoby</a> and I celebrate WordPress&#8217; 14th birthday. We discuss the removal of HHVM from WordPress&#8217; testing infrastructure and how it was likely the reason PHP 7 gained so many performance improvements.</p>
<p>For a majority of the show, Jacoby and I spoke in-depth on which JavaScript framework WordPress core should choose. We discuss what&#8217;s at stake, who might be impacted, and why the discussion and eventual decision is important for WordPress&#8217; future. To round out the show, we share our picks of the week and let you know about <a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/">upcoming WordCamps</a>.</p>
<h2>Stories Discussed:</h2>
<p><a href="https://ma.tt/2017/05/wordpress-14/">WordPress Turns 14</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-removes-hhvm-from-testing-infrastructure">WordPress Removes HHVM from Testing Infrastructure</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-core-javascript-framework-debate-heats-up-contributors-narrow-discussion-to-react-vs-vue">WordPress Core JavaScript Framework Debate Heats Up, Contributors Narrow Discussion to React vs. Vue</a></p>
<h2>Picks of the Week:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wapu.us/">Wapu.us</a>, created by James Tryon, is a place to discover and learn about Wapuu, the unofficial mascot of the WordPress project.</p>
<p><a href="https://github.com/humanmade/Cavalcade">Cavalcade</a> is a scalable job system, designed as a drop-in replacement for WordPress’ built-in pseudo-cron system <a href="https://engineering.hmn.md/projects/cavalcade/">created by Human Made</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://givewp.com/">Give</a> is a free WordPress donation management plugin by <a href="https://wordimpress.com/">WordImpress.</a></p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday, June 7th 3:00 P.M. Eastern</p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Itunes: </strong><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wordpress-weekly/id694849738" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via RSS: </strong><a href="https://wptavern.com/feed/podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Stitcher Radio: </strong><a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wordpress-weekly-podcast?refid=stpr" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Listen To Episode #275:</strong><br />
</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 01 Jun 2017 01:09:19 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:4;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:57:"WPTavern: WP-CLI 1.2.0 Released, Project Unveils New Logo";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=71086";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"https://wptavern.com/wp-cli-1-2-0-released-project-unveils-new-logo";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3398:"<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-cli-logo.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/cli/2017/05/31/version-1-2-0-released/" target="_blank">WP-CLI 1.2.0</a> was released today with a major overhaul that removes bundled commands from core in favor of maintaining them in distinct packages. This is the second release since the project was <a href="https://wptavern.com/wp-cli-gets-official-wordpress-org-support" target="_blank">brought under the official WordPress umbrella</a> and the first major release since <a href="https://wptavern.com/wp-cli-names-alain-schlesser-new-co-maintainer" target="_blank">hiring Alain Schlesser as a part-time co-maintainer</a>.</p>
<p>Splitting WP-CLI&#8217;s internal commands into separate packages moves the project closer to the goal of having official maintainers for the commands in the future. This new structure for the framework and its commands provides several benefits, as outlined by co-maintainer Daniel Bachhuber in the release post:</p>
<ul>
<li>While developing, the tests are only run for the specific component you’re working on, making the feedback loop much shorter.</li>
<li>Individual command packages can be controlled and set up independently, opening up the opportunity for better collaboration.</li>
<li>Hotfixes and intermediary releases can be published for individual commands, that can then be updated through the built-in package manager.</li>
<li>Tests run really fast now.</li>
<li>When you submit a pull request, you don’t have to wait two hours for the tests to run.</li>
</ul>
<p>This release also includes three new commands, along with dozens of command improvements and framework enhancements.</p>
<ul>
<li><code>wp config get</code> lists constants and globals defined in wp-config.php</li>
<li><code>wp config path</code> gets the path to wp-config.php</li>
<li><code>wp db size</code> gets the size of the database and its tables</li>
</ul>
<p>Version 1.2.0 had 43 contributors, a 95% increase in contributors from the previous release. One of the next priorities for maintainers is to improve the contribution workflow. Bachhuber said there are no plans at the moment to bring on additional paid co-maintainers, but they plan to start onboarding more volunteer committers. These are developers who are involved with the project on a regular basis but not necessarily daily or weekly. They have also created a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/cli/good-first-issues/" target="_blank">Good First Issues page</a> for new contributors and have started working on a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/cli/dash/" target="_blank">customized dashboard for committers</a>.</p>
<h3>WP-CLI Has a New Logo</h3>
<p>Bachhuber introduced the project&#8217;s new logo today, designed by Chris Wallace and his team at <a href="https://liftux.com/" target="_blank">Lift UX</a>. Having an official logo opens up the possibility for WP-CLI swag. Bachhuber said he worked with contributors to create a logo, because &#8220;people can develop stronger emotional affinity to brands with logos (myself included).&#8221; He is also interested in getting stickers created, particularly ones that glow in the dark, but has not yet found a producer. Bachhuber said he is hoping to have some preliminary WP-CLI swag for WordCamp Europe.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 01 Jun 2017 00:17:15 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:5;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:88:"WPTavern: Pods 2.7 Beta Introduces Flexible Relationships, Rewrites Fields in JavaScript";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=71009";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:98:"https://wptavern.com/pods-2-7-beta-introduces-flexible-relationships-rewrites-fields-in-javascript";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2272:"<p>Pods Framework has released two new versions. <a href="http://pods.io/2017/05/30/pods-2-6-9-maintenance-release/">Pods 2.6.9</a> is a maintenance release that includes bug fixes for Pods Templates, Auto Templates, and Pods Shortcodes. Meanwhile, <a href="http://pods.io/2017/05/30/pods-2-7-beta/">Pods 2.7 beta 1</a> introduces a new feature called Flexible Relationships.</p>
<p>Flexible Relationships uses WordPress&#8217; media modal that allows users to add or edit records from within the parent record of a relationship. This feature will work on existing relationships once users upgrade to 2.7. Watch the following video to see Flexible Relationships in action.</p>
<div class="embed-wrap"></div>
<p>In addition to providing Flexible Relationships, the fields were rewritten in JavaScript by Phil Lewis, Contributing Developer to Pods Framework.</p>
<p>&#8220;Phil Lewis of our team rewrote our file upload and relationship fields in what we&#8217;re calling Dynamic Field Views which will allow us to convert all of our field types to be JavaScript powered,&#8221; <a href="https://scottkclark.com/">Scott Kingsley Clark</a>, lead developer of <a href="http://pods.io/">Pods Framework</a> said.</p>
<p>&#8220;The JavaScripts frameworks behind it are Marionette + Backbone. We wrote it with React in mind so we can convert it over whenever React.js is included in core and things settle there&#8221;</p>
<p>The development team is asking for as many users as possible to test Flexible Relationships on a staging or testing site so issues can be addressed before its release, tentatively scheduled for the middle of July. Those interested in testing can download the <a href="https://github.com/pods-framework/pods/archive/release/2.7.zip">beta from Pods&#8217; GitHub repository</a>.</p>
<p>Testers are encouraged to download the <a href="https://github.com/afragen/github-updater">GitHub Updater</a> plugin, created by Andy Fragen, as it makes it easier to download updates from GitHub. If you participate in the testing process, be sure to add &#8216;2.7&#8217; to any feature, enhancement requests, or bugs that you find when <a href="https://github.com/pods-framework/pods/issues/new">creating a new issue</a>.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 31 May 2017 20:37:40 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:6;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:89:"WPTavern: GitHub Introduces Temporary Interaction Limits to Promote Healthier Discussions";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=71072";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:100:"https://wptavern.com/github-introduces-temporary-interaction-limits-to-promote-healthier-discussions";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5118:"<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/github-octocat.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>GitHub is continuing to make good on its promise to <a href="https://wptavern.com/github-responds-to-letter-from-open-source-project-maintainers" target="_blank">improve the platform for open source maintainers and communities</a> with its new <a href="https://github.com/blog/2370-temporary-interaction-limits" target="_blank">temporary interaction limits</a>. The feature was introduced this week as a way for project maintainers to manage participation in heated discussions.</p>
<p>Public repositories, especially those for projects with millions of users, can occasionally have issues or pull requests that become overrun with comments from anyone who has an opinion. Repository owners can now set a 24-hour &#8220;cool down period&#8221; to limit interaction (commenting, creating pull requests, and opening issues) to existing users, prior contributors, and/or repository collaborators.</p>
<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/temporary-interaction-limits.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Temporary Interaction Limits can help mitigate the effects of &#8220;brigading,&#8221; <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14447705" target="_blank">as one Hacker News commenter called it</a> &#8211; when someone directs a large number of people to an issue from Twitter, Reddit, or other social channels in an attempt to influence the outcome of a discussion. Limiting the discussion to prior contributors or collaborators can help keep input focused around the ideas of those who are already invested in the project.</p>
<p>Reactions to the new feature have been mostly positive, although some users don&#8217;t anticipate using it much since <a href="https://github.com/blog/2119-add-reactions-to-pull-requests-issues-and-comments" target="_blank">GitHub added emoji reactions to conversations</a> last year. In addition to keeping threads from becoming unreadable with numerous +1&#8217;s, emoji reactions as an option for expression should help limit interactions from those prone to &#8220;drive-by&#8221; commenting.</p>
<p>A curated repository of &#8220;<a href="https://github.com/nikolas/github-drama" target="_blank">GitHub Drama</a>,&#8221; which includes projects like Bower, Docker, Django, and NodeJS, lists many instances wherein temporarily limiting interaction may have changed the overall tone of the discourse. However, some users questioned the feature&#8217;s usefulness in responses on Twitter and some see it as a way of purposely cutting outside voices out of the conversation.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">So many of us are curious: when would we use this? Locking down an entire repo to calm a single conversation is drastic overkill…</p>
<p>&mdash; Nick Craver (@Nick_Craver) <a href="https://twitter.com/Nick_Craver/status/869661854917939202">May 30, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Nothing settles a technical discussion faster than the in-group forcibly silencing the out-group</p>
<p>&mdash; Lee Clemens (@LeeClemens) <a href="https://twitter.com/LeeClemens/status/869670471561875456">May 30, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">I don't know about the value of this feature regarding open source collaboration, but I'd love to have this capability in my email system</p>
<p>&mdash; Brian Mitchell (@DrBrianMitchell) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrBrianMitchell/status/869726709007998977">May 31, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>In order for temporary interaction limiting to be useful to projects where locking down the whole repository would be too drastic of a measure, GitHub would need to extend it to include the ability to lock down individual issues and pull requests. Some users have also requested a convenient way for repository members to warn an individual without spamming the entire thread or to put specific users in a cool down period.</p>
<p>&#8220;If it&#8217;s a legit heated discussion and you limit it, then you&#8217;re just [going] to come back in 24 hours to very long, impossible-to-follow responses,&#8221; Kris Siegel, Senior Engineer at PlayStation, <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14448871" target="_blank">commented</a> on the related Hacker News thread. &#8220;At least this has been my experience when people have left things to cool down them come back and need to respond to everything.&#8221;</p>
<p>GitHub is aiming to promote healthier discussions with the new interaction limiting feature, but every project&#8217;s community is unique and maintainers may not be able to predict user reactions to locking down an entire repository. If the feature is turned on when a new user is attempting to create their first pull request, it may hinder future contribution.  Open source project maintainers should carefully consider the effects of silencing non-contributors when using the feature.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 31 May 2017 20:35:21 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:7;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"HeroPress: Building A WordPress Career in India";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=1874";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:136:"https://heropress.com/essays/building-wordpress-career-india/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=building-wordpress-career-india";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10706:"<img width="960" height="480" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/053117-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: Give your children the room to grow." /><p>6 years back, I’d have never thought I would be where I am right now. At that time, I was a 12-year-old wondering how softwares were made. Despite the fact that I was born in a middle-class Indian family, my parents never forced me to opt for something I wasn’t interested in. Unlike other middle-class Indian children, the bar of expectations wasn’t set that high and I think it turned out to be for the best.</p>
<p>My parents always supported me and constantly motivated me to learn whatever I liked. Eventually, from wondering about how software was made, I started wondering same about websites. For some reason, I felt more interested in websites than software. For starters, I felt coding in HTML was easier than working with C/C++</p>
<p>Now that I’ve bored you already, let’s get to know each other too. I am <a href="http://technobooz.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Suyogya Shukla</a>, a WordPress developer from Kanpur, India. I work with <a href="https://themeisle.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ThemeIsle</a> as a Support Ninja where I make sure our users are always happy with our products. Let’s go ahead now.</p>
<h3>The Journey</h3>
<p>At the age of 12; still in class 6th, I started to learn about web coding. I started with HTML and learned how to make a really basic webpage. After understanding the basic concepts I wanted to start making a website already. I went ahead and googled &#8211; “How to make a free website” and the webs.com&#8217;s listing lead the page. I immediately clicked on it and started playing around, until I realized that it was WYSIWYG editor and it wasn’t possible for me to customize it a lot (Not that I knew how to!)</p>
<p>At this time I had no idea about domain names and hosting. I researched some more and was introduced to the process of putting your website online, but it cost money! I decided to make a small website locally and then show it to my dad hoping he’d be impressed and provide me with the money I needed to put it online. While learning HTML, I came across this cool language called  “CSS” which would apparently make a website look and work better.</p>
<p>Next thing you know, I was all over w3schools.com and YouTube watching videos about CSS, playing with the examples and much more. It took me a good 2 weeks to understand the basic concepts. I could finally change fonts, play with colors and do a lot more! While I liked how I had more control when I coded my own website, I still missed the easy content management webs.com and other WYSIWYG tools offered. This had me thinking again. What free software can I use to have the same level of control over my website but is just as easy to use when it comes to content management? This, in turn, initiated another research and I was finally introduced to this awesome software which went by the name of “WordPress”!</p>
<p>Over the years I would work on a lot of WordPress based websites and continue to learn more about it every day. I worked for various small design agencies, as a freelancer and a lot more until one fine day in 2016 when I saw a “hiring” notice on <a href="https://themeisle.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ThemeIsle&#8217;s</a> website and decided to give it a shot. After an initial trial period of some 2 weeks, I was hired. I worked part-time (three hours/day, to be exact) for a year because I had school. Two months back, I started working full time. I work with the support and development team (more involved in support as of now, but I eventually want to get into full-time development) where I continue to learn new things every day.</p>
<h3>It’s a Real Career Option!</h3>
<p>For everyone who thinks WordPress is just a blogging tool, you’re wrong! Sure, it’s a blogging tool but it is used for so much more. It’s a real career option with a lot of room for growth. Given you are passionate about WordPress and the technologies used in it, you’d be able to find a job easily.</p>
<blockquote><p>The best thing about the WordPress ecosystem is the people. They’re just so nice!</p></blockquote>
<p>WordPress ecosystem is indeed competitive like any other but in the best way possible. Even if you’re another company wanting to know how some other company manages things or what technologies they use, they won’t hesitate to tell you about it. Almost all of the WordPress enthusiasts go to WordCamps where they meet new people and share knowledge.</p>
<p>Another good thing about choosing WordPress as a career? The flexibility. A large part of the people who work on WordPress, do it remotely. The company WordPress.com, Automattic, is a completely distributed team with people working from different parts of the world. Want even more reasons to choose WordPress? The earning potential. Companies in the WordPress ecosystem are known to pay generously and the best part? You get to work with the folks who are just as passionate about WordPress as you are.</p>
<h3>Engineering isn’t the only way to go</h3>
<p>This is for all the Indian parents who are pushing their children to join coachings for IIT and other examinations right now, without their children wanting to &#8211; DON’T. Engineering isn’t the only way one can get a job. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with it but forcing your children to do it because you think there’s no other way? That isn’t right.</p>
<p>Introduce your children to WordPress, introduce them to the world of web programming and see if they like it. Why not promote them to do something they like than to burden them with the weight of engineering when they don’t like it?</p>
<blockquote><p>For all I know if my parents had forced me into engineering I would’ve missed out on everything. Give your children the room to grow.</p></blockquote>
<p>Make them learn new things, introduce them to WordPress and all other cool things ( not just tech related! ) and leave it up to them to choose a career path <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.2.1/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" /></p>
<h3>Working Remotely Is Fun</h3>
<p>Let’s talk about working remotely now. It’s fun. You don’t have to wear a suit or any kind of uniform. You get to work in your PJs. Does it get any better than that? Oh wait, it does. You get to choose your working hours. You can decide to work 3hrs in morning and 3hrs at night or you can work 6hours at a stretch. Fellow night crawler? You can work at night. Apart from that, it gives you a lot of freedom. You can work from wherever you want. You can go to a beach and work. You can work while traveling, basically, you can decide to work from anywhere, anytime! It’s all up to you.</p>
<p>Flexible working hours allow me to concentrate on learning new things on a personal level and maintain a healthy Work/ Life balance. But over time, you might get bored working from home. ( Not sure about you but it did happen with me! )</p>
<blockquote><p>My two cents? Take some time out and go vacationing.</p></blockquote>
<p>Join a co-working space and see if that helps. All in all, I love having the freedom to work from anywhere and the best part still remains that I can work while wearing my PJs.</p>
<h3>What’s Next?</h3>
<p>Let me put it this way; I love WordPress. I have been doing some UI/UX work for a while now and I liked it. I am planning to learn more about it while learning more about WordPress development in parallel. For now, I am starting a small WordPress studio, <a href="http://madewithwp.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Made With WP</a>, with my friends (and colleagues) &#8211; Hardeep and Rohit. <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/be-your-own-teacher/">You might remember Hardeep talking about it in his essay</a>. It’s the same project. I am working on my first WordPress theme and hope to see it in the theme directory soon. I am pretty good with HTML, CSS and comfortable with JS and PHP and I plan to learn more about them.</p>
<p>Apart from that, I am the co-organizer of <a href="https://2017.kanpur.wordcamp.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">WordCamp Kanpur</a>. I have been to two WordCamps so far and run an active meetup in my hometown, Kanpur. I gave my 12th exams this year and I plan to study more about new things as much as I can. Also, I am 18 years old as I write this.</p>
<div class="rtsocial-container rtsocial-container-align-right rtsocial-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal-button"><a title="Tweet: Building A WordPress Career in India" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=Building%20A%20WordPress%20Career%20in%20India&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fbuilding-wordpress-career-india%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: Building A WordPress Career in India" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fbuilding-wordpress-career-india%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-linkedin-button" href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fbuilding-wordpress-career-india%2F&title=Building+A+WordPress+Career+in+India" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: Building A WordPress Career in India"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-pinterest-button" href="https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://heropress.com/essays/building-wordpress-career-india/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/053117-150x150.jpg&description=Building A WordPress Career in India" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: Building A WordPress Career in India"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/essays/building-wordpress-career-india/" title="Building A WordPress Career in India"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/building-wordpress-career-india/">Building A WordPress Career in India</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 31 May 2017 12:00:31 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Suyogya Shukla";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:8;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:110:"WPTavern: WordPress Core JavaScript Framework Debate Heats Up, Contributors Narrow Discussion to React vs. Vue";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70985";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:119:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-core-javascript-framework-debate-heats-up-contributors-narrow-discussion-to-react-vs-vue";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10702:"<a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/lego.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>photo credit: oskay <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/17425845@N00/2156889157">Small Parts</a> &#8211; <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">(license)</a>
<p>WordPress core contributors met this morning to continue the discussion on selecting a new JavaScript framework for use with new core features. The discussion on the Make/Core <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2017/05/24/javascript-chat-summary-for-may-23rd/" target="_blank">post</a> intensified over the weekend with more Vue.js proponents commenting to add their thoughts.</p>
<p>Adam Silverstein and Andrew Duthie facilitated this morning&#8217;s meeting and began by opening up the discussion to include other frameworks such as Preact, Angular, and Ember. However, the discussion quickly narrowed to React vs Vue.</p>
<p>Silverstein encouraged participants to remember that the new framework is for use with new features such as the new editor and that they will continue to use Backbone when it is the right tool, as well as in existing JavaScript. He also emphasized that the discussion pertains to a framework for core and developers are free to use whatever framework they choose to build plugins or themes.</p>
<h3>Vue.js Proponents Consider &#8220;Ease of Learning&#8221; an Important Factor in Selecting a New Framework</h3>
<p>Ease of learning is not among the criteria contributors identified for selecting a new framework, but it is one of the major concerns for Vue.js proponents.</p>
<p>&#8220;Vue can do everything that React can do and is much more approachable,&#8221; Justin Kopepasah said. &#8220;There is a huge adoption of Vue and growth does not show any signs of stopping. Some of the top open source frameworks have adopted Vue and it is used by the top three tech companies in China (including Alibaba). While I do agree that React is a good choice as well, it is not highly approachable by new developers and has Facebook behind it which can be very alarming for people in many ways (not just tech).&#8221;</p>
<p>Justin Tadlock, a core contributor whose code and tutorials have assisted many developers learning WordPress, shared similar thoughts over the weekend on the Mare/Core post:</p>
<blockquote><p>I’ve tried React on a few occasions. Even with over 10 years of programming experience, it was tough to grok for me. I can’t imagine trying to learn it as someone new to WP development.</p>
<p>Vue is dead simple to start learning. I had a small app up and going in minutes. In a couple of hours, I was building some cool, form-related stuff without the docs.</p>
<p>If it were entirely up to me, I’d push for WP to build its own JS framework that solves the problems specific to WordPress. But, if we’re going to choose an existing framework, go with Vue.</p></blockquote>
<p>Matias Ventura, an Automattic engineer and contributor on both the <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/wp-calypso" target="_blank">Calypso</a> and <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/" target="_blank">Gutenberg</a> projects, is a proponent of WordPress adopting React. He contends that considering which is easier to learn is the wrong focus for determining what WordPress&#8217; future interfaces will need.</p>
<p>&#8220;In my opinion, instead of &#8216;easier to get started,&#8217; we need to look at robust programming paradigms and an expressive approach to coding interfaces,&#8221; Ventura said. &#8220;This is what I fundamentally take from Matt’s &#8216;learn JavaScript deeply&#8217; &#8211; the corollary being that WordPress becomes a platform for teaching JavaScript to new programmers, and we need to take that seriously, not just as a convenience to us in the short term.&#8221;</p>
<p>Ventura also noted that WordPress has historically not been successful in attracting JavaScript developers and the JS interfaces in core lack contributors when compared to the PHP side.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have an opportunity to make WordPress development more appealing to a newer generation of developers that learned how to code through JavaScript,&#8221; Ventura said. He encouraged other participants to examine the kinds of interfaces that WordPress needs to modernize and select the best framework for handling them in core.</p>
<p>&#8220;The &#8216;easier to get started&#8217; [argument] seems a bit fallacious to me,&#8221; Ventura said. &#8220;Easier to whom? At what cost to properly learning JavaScript? The demands of rich interfaces in web applications require a deeper understanding of the technologies used. That’s not something we can avoid. JavaScript cannot be seen as mere progressive enhancement anymore as it is the language in which modern interfaces are expressed.&#8221;</p>
<h3>Contributors are Concerned about React being Backed by Facebook</h3>
<p>At the moment, React is more established and more widely adopted than Vue, but contributors are concerned about the framework being backed and licensed by Facebook. In addition to concerns over the interpretation of React&#8217;s additional <a href="https://wptavern.com/automattic-will-continue-to-use-react-js-in-calypso-despite-patent-clause" target="_blank">patent grant</a>, the company has been the source of numerous controversies regarding censorship, data mining, and privacy, among other issues. Opponents don&#8217;t want to see WordPress hitch its wagon to Facebook by using React in core.</p>
<p>&#8220;The adoption of React is much more than adding a library to WordPress: it is adding the culture, business practices, and code base led by a tech giant,&#8221; Justin Kopepasah <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2017/05/24/javascript-chat-summary-for-may-23rd/#comment-32557" target="_blank">said</a>. &#8220;If we include React in Core, in a way we are asking users (from single site owners to enterprise) to accept Facebook has a key role in the future of WordPress. I have little doubt this will cause pause for some companies considering to adopt WordPress.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, other contributors have concerns about Vue.js&#8217; longevity, because it&#8217;s so heavily dependent on its creator Evan You. You <a href="https://www.patreon.com/evanyou" target="_blank">funds his efforts on Patreon</a> but the project doesn&#8217;t have any major corporate backing.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m uncomfortable relying on a project run by a single person that could disappear,&#8221; React proponent and WP REST API co-lead Ryan McCue said. &#8220;Being run by a corporation with a stake in the game means long-term support and relative stability.&#8221; McCue also noted that React has a &#8220;a massive community of teaching and support out there for people learning.&#8221;</p>
<h3>Many Feel WordPress Selecting React as the New JS Framework is a Foregone Conclusion</h3>
<p>Despite all the discussions in meetings and on Make/Core posts, many onlookers and community members are convinced that WordPress choosing React is a foregone conclusion. At the beginning of last week&#8217;s discussion it seemed that most core contributors are in favor of React, but a strong contingent of Vue proponents have turned out to add comments to the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2017/05/24/javascript-chat-summary-for-may-23rd/" target="_blank">discussion</a>.</p>
<p>Selecting React appears to be the only viable choice when the criteria from the beginning includes items like &#8220;proven in a WordPress context&#8221; and &#8220;alignment with Calypso.&#8221; Many have commented to say that the criteria is biased and they assume the decision was already made through the backchannels with a public discussion held for &#8220;optics.&#8221; Automattic engineer James Nylen <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/876" target="_blank">commented</a> last week on an open ticket for the Gutenberg project, saying that &#8220;Per recent discussion in core Slack, WP core has basically decided to adopt React.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;If this was truly meant to be a community discussion, then why is it taking place now?&#8221; WordPress developer Christopher A. <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-to-select-new-javascript-framework-for-use-in-core#comment-221446" target="_blank">commented</a> on our recent post that summarized the initial discussion. &#8220;Choosing a view framework should have happened before the first line of Gutenberg was written. It was known from the start that a view framework would be needed. It was Matt’s desire to get it off the ground as quickly as possible. The best way to accomplish this was to utilize Automattic developers who have experience with React.&#8221;</p>
<p>WordPress is selecting a JavaScript framework at a time where frameworks are rapidly evolving, but contributors involved in the decision said they will preserve the ability for theme and plugin developers to use any framework they choose to build their products. No framework was selected during today&#8217;s meeting and Andrew Duthie said he expects the conversation will continue at WordCamp Europe&#8217;s contributor summit.</p>
<p>&#8220;As to React vs Vue (vs Angular vs …), we’ve been discussing the arguments for and against each in the weekly chat, and we’re intentionally taking it slow,&#8221; Ryan McCue said. &#8220;The key criteria that we’ve picked come from what the project needs, and are not intended to bias the decision in a specific direction. Calypso and other projects are a strong signal towards React, but they’re not the ultimate argument (if they were, we wouldn’t even be discussing it).&#8221;</p>
<p>McCue said he doesn&#8217;t see WordPress replacing the whole admin with Calypso in a way that doesn&#8217;t allow developers to use whatever they choose for their own extensions. The decision to adopt a JavaScript framework for core is more for making core developers&#8217; work easier. At this time, core developers working on new features have a greater knowledge of React than other frameworks.</p>
<p>&#8220;At the end of the day, we need to make a decision on what to use in core, and that decision directly impacts the people working on core,&#8221; McCue said. &#8220;Picking one framework over another doesn’t mean the others are worse, it’s just us (as core contributors) trying to make our own development easier.&#8221;</p>
<p>A summary of the discussion should be posted to the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/" target="_blank">Make/Core blog</a> soon and the discussion on selecting a new JavaScript framework will continue in future meetings.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 30 May 2017 23:15:50 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:9;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:68:"BuddyPress: Building Bridges between Students and Educators in Nepal";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://buddypress.org/?p=266185";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:88:"https://buddypress.org/2017/05/building-bridges-between-students-and-educators-in-nepal/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:9321:"<div><em>This is a guest post by Arjun Bhattarai (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aju29">aju29</a>), Founder and Developer of <a href="http://studentsnepal.com/">StudentsNepal.com</a>. He is currently working towards a Masters degree in Economics.</em></div>
<p>Peer reviewed by <a class="bp-suggestions-mention" href="https://buddypress.org/members/boonebgorges/" rel="nofollow">@boonebgorges</a></p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-266186" src="https://buddypress.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2017/05/snhome1.jpg" alt="StudentsNepal.com logged in" width="1365" height="609" /></p>
<p><a href="http://studentsnepal.com/">StudentsNepal.com</a> is the first and largest community website for students of Nepal with 9,700 registered members and 50,000 subscribers. The site helps students find answers to popular courses and colleges by acting as a bridge between the students and educators/educational organizations.</p>
<h2>Background</h2>
<p>I started working on this side project in December 2014. I remembered I had very little information about courses and colleges I could choose from after finishing Higher Secondary level back in 2011. There were no websites that could readily help students to explore the various opportunities available in Nepal. There are still a lot of students in Nepal who have been brain-fed that studying abroad is the one and only option to be successful. My vision was to change this mindset among the young students of Nepal by informing them about the abundant opportunities and options available within the country.</p>
<p>The goal for creating StudentsNepal is to increase communication among different students with different educational backgrounds while helping them to learn all sorts of information and get hold of educational resources. Communication and interaction are the core values of StudentsNepal and these are the features that help the platform stand out from rest of the educational websites. BuddyPress and bbPress have helped us to achieve these values in a cost effective and efficient way. The beauty of these plugins is that our members can create content and help to rank us higher with search engines.</p>
<h2>Implementation</h2>
<p>The investment to create StudentsNepal.com was very low, a fraction of my pocket money during my final years in college. It is now one of the top educational portals of Nepal. Since WordPress was so easy to master, my dev team and I were able to use most of our free time to create initial content and other valuable resources for our visitors &#8211; students, parents, and educators &#8211; rather than spending time/money coding from scratch or buying a proprietary platform.</p>
<p>Before choosing BuddyPress, I researched open-source social network scripts and platforms. My shortlist included WordPress (BuddyPress), Joomla (JomSocial), and Drupal (social modules). It was clear to me, after reading a lot of support forum posts and articles, that the BuddyPress/WordPress combo was the way to move forward with my dream. I am really happy about this choice today. The other heavyweight plugins that I added were GravityForms, Sucuri, bbPress, and MyCred plus other smaller plugins for specific tasks.</p>
<h2>Customizations &amp; Improvements</h2>
<p><strong>1. Login and Registration Pages</strong><br />
We found out that the default login and registration pages made it difficult for members to log in and have kept site visitors from registering. We resolved the issues by installing the Gravity Forms plugin and adding log in integration via Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ as well as making the registration page more user-friendly.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-266188" src="https://buddypress.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2017/05/studentsnepal-login.png" alt="studentsnepal login screen" width="1349" height="673" /></p>
<p><strong>2. Newsletters</strong><br />
I thought about adding a newsletter because I loved the way some of the blogs I subscribed to sent organized information and recent activities of the blog in a beautiful email format. I decided to add an optin form to start collecting names and emails 2 to 3 months after launching the site. During the first 6 months, only first names and emails were collected with the popup optin form. Later, I changed the optin forms to collect email addresses and phone numbers. I have been using the free package of mailmunch for optin forms (popups) and Amazon AWS for sending newsletters. The newsletter contains scholarship notices for different universities/colleges, student stories, youth events, and other useful academic information.</p>
<p>The newsletters have become one of the most popular features for the community. We did a lot of testing for the positioning and timing of the popup to get the most sign ups. StudentsNepal had around 20,000 subscribers by the end of 2015. The number of subscribers started growing after I inserted the forms in all the subdomains. (news.studentsnepal.com, jobs.studentsnepal.com, quiz.studentsnepal.com, blog.studentsnepal.com). After 3 years, the site has 50,000+ subscribers.</p>
<p>Currently, StudentsNepal sends 1 newsletter per week, and my dev team and I are planning to make it 2 newsletters per week. We had invited students and educators/institutions to contribute content for the newsletters and the response has been just great! Students, particularly, submit generously and regularly to benefit other members, subscribers, and online visitors.</p>
<p>In addition, this project has also helped me connect with lots of awesome individuals and similar-minded startup owners.</p>
<p><strong>3. Design and CSS tweaks</strong><br />
Out of the box, BuddyPress has a plain and simple design and interfaces which can be customized easily. At the end of the day, the features and performance are what matters most to my users whether on mobile, tablet, or desktop. For me, due to extensibility and ease of customization, BuddyPress reigns as king when it comes to a free open source script for a social network.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-266198" src="https://buddypress.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2017/05/Forums-Archive.png" alt="Forums Archive" width="1349" height="1957" /></p>
<p><strong>4. Upgrading Servers</strong><br />
StudentsNepal.com was on a shared hosting plan when I launched it in 2014. It took around 3 to 4 months to cross the benchmark of 500 visitors/day. After getting articles indexed in search engines and started getting higher ranks, StudentsNepal started getting a lot of visitors (especially from Google). Mid-2015 we upgraded to VPS hosting when the website’s articles and contents started getting listed on the 1st page of search engines and it started getting a couple of thousand visitors daily. Based on my experience, it’s a good decision to get a shared hosting plan while the site was starting out and then upgrade to more powerful hosting plan when data showed the increases in user engagement and participation.</p>
<p>With a community of 9,700 registered members, 50k subscribers, and around 150k visitors/month, I am happy to say that our site runs smoothly with nary a downtime on all devices. If you install BuddyPress, you will need a bit more power on your server.</p>
<p><strong>Fast Forward</strong></p>
<p>Future plans for StudentsNepal.com include moving the Shopping and Jobs sections to separate domains and setting up a new site for online classes. I am testing Woocommerce, WP Job Manager, and Moodle for the other projects to expand our services to the community.</p>
<p>If you are creating a site for any niche community and are not sure on which platform to choose, I definitely suggest using WordPress with BuddyPress. These have a lot of stable and robust add-on plugins to help you create awesome and feature-rich communities.</p>
<p>StudentsNepal.com is the first website of its nature in Nepal and it has garnered a lot of media attention and praise. I received a lot of positive and encouraging messages from educators and students in Nepal for creating this platform. I’m just glad that the services provided by the site have been very helpful to so many Nepalese students as well to those who would like to study in Nepal.</p>
<p>Thanks to WordPress and BuddyPress for making this site possible. If you want to learn more about the site or the other customizations implemented, please feel free to contact me. Also, I can help you promote your social network or other related websites with a guest post in the blog section of StudentsNepal.com <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.2.1/72x72/1f600.png" alt="😀" class="wp-smiley" /></p>
<div><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-266191" src="https://buddypress.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2017/05/arjun.jpg" alt="Arjun Bhattarai" width="150" height="150" /> <em><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aju29">Arjun Bhattarai</a> is a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and is currently working towards MA (Economics) at Tribhuwan University, Nepal. Apart from writing and playing with code, he loves swimming and watching sci-fi videos.<br />
Links: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Ajzju">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajubhattarai">Linkedin</a> </em></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 30 May 2017 19:18:06 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8:"@mercime";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:10;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"Matt: A Delicious Compliment";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=47422";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:45:"https://ma.tt/2017/05/a-delicious-compliment/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:780:"<blockquote><p>Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters—sometimes very hastily—but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I&#8217;ve ever received. He didn&#8217;t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.</p></blockquote>
<p>From <span class="irc_pt" dir="ltr">Maurice Sendak, the author of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_the_Wild_Things_Are">Where the Wild Things Are</a>.</span></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 29 May 2017 17:43:54 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:11;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Matt: WordPress 14";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=47405";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://ma.tt/2017/05/wordpress-14/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:868:"<p><img /></p>
<p>Today is 14 years from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2003/05/wordpress-now-available/">very first release</a> of WordPress. The interface I&#8217;m using to write this (Calypso) is completely unrecognizable from what WordPress looked and worked like even a few years ago. Fourteen years in, I&#8217;m waking up every day excited about what&#8217;s coming next for us. The progress of the editor and CLI so far this year is awesome, and I&#8217;m looking forward to that flowing into improvements for customization and the REST API. Thanks as always to <a href="https://mikelittle.org/">Mike</a> for kicking off this crazy journey, all the people chipping in to make WordPress better, and <a href="https://konstantin.obenland.it/">Konstantin</a> and <a href="https://ethitter.com/">Erick</a> for surprising me with the cool cake above.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sun, 28 May 2017 02:38:33 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:12;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:44:"WPTavern: In Case You Missed It – Issue 20";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:58:"https://wptavern.com?p=70879&preview=true&preview_id=70879";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:51:"https://wptavern.com/in-case-you-missed-it-issue-20";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6987:"<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/ICYMIFeaturedImage.png?ssl=1" rel="attachment wp-att-50955"><img /></a>photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/112901923@N07/16153818039">Night Moves</a> &#8211; <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/">(license)</a>
<p>There’s a lot of great WordPress content published in the community but not all of it is featured on the Tavern. This post is an assortment of items related to WordPress that caught my eye but didn’t make it into a full post.</p>
<h2>WordPress Turns 14 Years Old</h2>
<p>WordPress turns 14 years old tomorrow. David Bisset <a href="http://davidbisset.com/wordpress-14-years/">celebrates the occasion</a> and mentions four things he wants to see in the next year.</p>
<h2>WordPress 4.8 Dev Notes</h2>
<p>As the WordPress 4.8 release date draws near, component maintainers are publishing dev notes for the features they worked on. So far, the following dev notes have been published:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2017/05/26/media-widgets-for-images-video-and-audio/">Media Widgets for Images, Video, and Audio</a></li>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2017/05/26/tag-cloud-widget-changes-in-4-8/">Changes to the Tag Cloud Widget in WordPress 4.8</a></li>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2017/05/23/addition-of-tinymce-to-the-text-widget/">Addition of TinyMCE to the Text Widget</a></li>
<li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2017/05/20/editor-api-changes-in-4-8/">Editor API Changes in 4.8</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Keep an eye on <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">Make WordPress Core</a> for further dev notes.</p>
<h2>HeroPress Announces Educational Scholarship Winners</h2>
<p>HeroPress has <a href="https://heropress.com/winners-announced-wpshout-running-scholarship/">announced</a> the winners of the WPShout Up and Running educational scholarships. Birgit Olzem, in Gerolstein, Germany, was one of the winners chosen.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Can't believe it, but I'm one of the winners of the <a href="https://twitter.com/WPShout">@WPShout</a> Up &amp; Running Scholarship. Many thanks to all &amp; congratulations to all winners <a href="https://t.co/Us5CrJN3Jg">https://t.co/Us5CrJN3Jg</a></p>
<p>&mdash; CoachBirgit <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.3/72x72/1f4d1.png" alt="📑" class="wp-smiley" />☯<img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.3/72x72/1f393.png" alt="🎓" class="wp-smiley" /> (@CoachBirgit) <a href="https://twitter.com/CoachBirgit/status/867851526672351234">May 25, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<h2>A WordPress Plugin That Renames Excerpt to TL;DR</h2>
<p>The other day, I was thinking about how the TL;DR (Too long, didn&#8217;t read) summary of articles is similar to the way Excerpts work in WordPress. I browsed the plugin directory to see if anyone had created a plugin that renamed Excerpts to TL;DR.</p>
<p>I wasn&#8217;t surprised when I discovered <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/too-long-didnt-read/">TL;DR</a> created by <a href="http://ozh.org/">Ozh Richard</a>. It hasn&#8217;t been updated in more than two years so it won&#8217;t show up in casual searches. It simply renames Excerpt to TL;DR using a filter to replace a string with custom text.</p>
<h2>Human Made Shares Handbook</h2>
<p><a href="https://hmn.md/">Human Made</a>, a WordPress development agency based in the UK, has <a href="https://hmn.md/2017/05/25/handbook/">published</a> its <a href="https://handbook.hmn.md/">handbook</a> that includes on boarding practices, health and safety policies, and their hiring process.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s not a perfect fit for every one, it provides an in-depth look at the principles the company values. The company provides a number of great employee benefits. Take their <a href="https://handbook.hmn.md/working-here/hr-policies/bereavement/">bereavement policy</a> for example.</p>
<h2>What&#8217;s in Matt&#8217;s Backpack?</h2>
<p>Matt Mullenweg provided <a href="https://ma.tt/2017/05/whats-in-my-bag-2017/">an update</a> on what he&#8217;s carrying around in his backpack. While it&#8217;s filled with technology, ear buds, and the like, the item that stands out to me is the fidget spinner.</p>
<p>If you don&#8217;t know what a fidget spinner is, <a href="http://www.livescience.com/58963-how-fidget-spinners-work-physics.html">this article</a> by Live Science is a good primer.</p>
<h2>Organizing WordCamps and Developing the Finnish Community</h2>
<p>A great article that describes the Finnish WordPress community and what transpired after switching the name of WordCamp Finland to WordCamp Helsinki.</p>
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2017/05/24/whats-in-a-name-organizing-wordcamps-and-developing-the-finnish-community/">What&#8217;s in a name? Organizing WordCamps and developing the Finnish community</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<h2>Five Things To Know about Video Headers</h2>
<p>Deborah Edwards-Onoro, of Lireo Designs, <a href="https://www.lireo.com/5-things-video-headers-wordpress-4-7/">shares</a> five things you should know about video headers, a feature that was introduced in WordPress 4.7.</p>
<h2>Marketing Tips and Experiences</h2>
<p>Scott Bolinger, <a href="http://scottbolinger.com/marketing-what-works-and-doesnt/">shares</a> what has and hasn&#8217;t worked in his marketing efforts:</p>
<p>&#8220;I’ve had my nose stuck in product code on and off for 3 years now, but recently I’ve decided to shift my focus to marketing. This is something I’ve done before, and it seems to come in cycles, depending on what my business needs.</p>
<p>Over the years I’ve tried many different things related to marketing, most of them have fallen short. A few things have worked, I thought I’d share some of my journey up to this point.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Women Who WordPress Wapuu!</h2>
<p>In what is a traditional part of this series, I end each issue by featuring a Wapuu design. For those who don&#8217;t know, Wapuu is the <a href="http://wapuu.jp/2015/12/12/wapuu-origins/">unofficial mascot</a> of the WordPress project.</p>
<p>The Women Who WP Wapuu represents the <a href="https://womenwhowp.org/store/">Women Who WP group</a>. The group is dedicated to inspiring, connecting, challenging, and educating women throughout the WordPress community, through referrals, networking, workshops and mentorship focused on professional development and WordPress.</p>
<p>The Women Who WP Wapuu pin was a huge hit at WordCamp Chicago earlier this year. If you&#8217;d like to purchase one, <a href="https://wapu.us/product/women-wp-pin/">Wapu.us has 11 available</a> for $6 each.</p>
<img />Women Who WordPress Wapuu
<p>That&#8217;s it for issue twenty. If you recently discovered a cool resource or post related to WordPress, please share it with us in the comments.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 26 May 2017 21:48:48 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:13;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:60:"WPTavern: WordPress Removes HHVM from Testing Infrastructure";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70862";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-removes-hhvm-from-testing-infrastructure";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3249:"<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/hhvmhack.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Before the release of PHP 7 in 2015, many WordPress managed hosting companies looked to Facebook&#8217;s HHVM to provide better performance. Pagely, WP Engine, and SiteGround added HHVM hosting options in 2014 and early 2015. However, PHP 7 performance gains have been enough to preclude wider HHVM adoption.</p>
<p>WordPress core developer John Blackbourn announced yesterday that the project has<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2017/05/25/hhvm-no-longer-part-of-wordpress-cores-testing-infrastructure/" target="_blank"> removed HHVM support in the Travis test suite</a> after April 2017 stats showed a mere several dozen WordPress websites running on HHVM. WordPress never officially supported HHVM but Scott Taylor made <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/27881" target="_blank">many improvements to core for better HHVM compatibility</a> three years ago. Blackbourn clarified on Slack that WordPress is not removing this support but rather will no longer include HHVM in its testing infrastructure.</p>
<p>&#8220;Support for HHVM itself hasn&#8217;t been dropped, but support for testing WordPress on HHVM has been dropped,&#8221; Blackbourn said. &#8220;HHVM usage is so minuscule (literally in the dozens according to update stats) that we can&#8217;t warrant the time needed to ensure the test infrastructure works.&#8221;</p>
<p>The change isn&#8217;t likely to affect too many developers, but it&#8217;s an important milestone that signifies how well PHP 7 has been performing for sites that have switched. Blackbourn suggests those running WordPress on HHVM should consider switching to PHP 7+, as it is &#8220;far more widely supported and tested, and offers all of the memory and performance benefits that HHVM pushed forward.&#8221;</p>
<p>The open source MongoDB project also announced yesterday that it will <a href="https://derickrethans.nl/mongodb-hhvm.html" target="_blank">no longer be supporting its HHVM driver</a>, saying it no longer makes good use of contributors&#8217; engineering time.</p>
<p>&#8220;At the start of 2015 we began work on an HHVM driver for MongoDB, as part of our project to renew our PHP driver,&#8221; Derick Rethans, MongoDB engineer and author of <a href="http://xdebug.org/" target="_blank">Xdebug</a>, said. &#8220;Back then, HHVM was in its ascendancy and outperforming PHP 5.6 two to one. With such a huge performance difference it was reasonable to assume that many users would be switching over&#8230;With PHP 7 released, we saw very little use of the HHVM driver for MongoDB.&#8221;</p>
<p>These announcements may be the start of more open source projects giving HHVM compatibility a lower priority. On the <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/40548" target="_blank">ticket</a> for removing HHVM from the test matrix on Travis, John Blackbourn thanked HHVM for its importance in helping move PHP forward.</p>
<p>&#8220;The PHP world owes a lot to HHVM for helping it push it forward,&#8221; Blackbourn said. &#8220;Without HHVM, maybe we wouldn&#8217;t have seen such incredible performance gains in PHP 7.&#8221;</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 26 May 2017 19:07:30 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:14;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:60:"WPTavern: Rainmaker Digital to Partner with Nimble Worldwide";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70828";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"https://wptavern.com/rainmaker-digital-to-partner-with-nimble-worldwide";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3341:"<p><a href="http://rainmakerdigital.com/">Rainmaker Digital</a>, formerly known as Copyblogger Media, has <a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/rainmaker-services/">entered into a letter of intent</a> to partner with <a href="http://www.nimbleworldwide.com/">Nimble Worldwide</a>, a marketing agency based in Dallas, TX. Assets from both companies will be combined into a new entity with Rainmaker Digital being the majority owner. Brian Clark, CEO of Rainmaker Digital, says the partnership enables them to transform from a Software as a Service provider to Software and Services.</p>
<p>&#8220;People need sophisticated marketing technology, yes — but they also need done-for-them services such as design, content, and lead generation strategy,&#8221; Clark said.</p>
<p>&#8220;In that last year, we’ve explored several viable ways to do more for our customers and prospects as a hybrid technology and digital marketing service provider. After careful deliberation, we’ve come up with a path that allows us to expertly provide anything that a Rainmaker user needs.&#8221;</p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t the first time both companies have worked together. Prior to <a href="http://rainmakerplatform.com/platform/tour/email/">RainMail</a>, Rainmaker&#8217;s in-house email marketing service, the company used Nimble Worldwide as its email marketing provider. Although the partnership brings in a number of new employees under Rainmaker Digital, Clark admits that they had to let some employees go.</p>
<p>&#8220;This deal provides instant access to an experienced team of digital marketing professionals and a network of talented contractors that ensures our service solutions are expertly crafted and delivered,&#8221; Clark said. &#8220;This grows the Rainmaker team significantly, without the pain and uncertainty of building an agency from scratch.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;The change in business model unfortunately left four of our existing employees without positions, along with the loss of some of our own contractors. That was certainly no fun, and our operations leadership preserved every job possible despite the significant reorganization.&#8221;</p>
<p>Before the end of June, customers will no longer be able to purchase services à la carte. Instead, sales of the platform will be more hands on, bundled with services, and prices will significantly increase. Customers who start a free trial before the end of June will be able to use the platform at a cheaper rate and without the bundled service components.</p>
<h2>Genesis Framework Remains a Priority</h2>
<p>StudioPress, Synthesis, Copyblogger, Authority, and DCI are not part of the deal and remain separate entities. Clark says StudioPress sales are going strong and the Genesis Framework is still a priority.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our Synthesis managed WordPress hosting line will be folded into the StudioPress brand at some point, which shows how much we value StudioPress going forward,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Genesis is still in the hands of Nathan Rice, and he&#8217;s moving it forward at a faster pace than in years past when he had to divide time to work on Rainmaker. Now that he&#8217;s free from that, I&#8217;m excited to see where he takes the framework, which will continue to be a part of Rainmaker as well.&#8221;</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 26 May 2017 17:24:58 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:15;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:70:"WPTavern: WordPress to Select New JavaScript Framework for Use in Core";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70794";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-to-select-new-javascript-framework-for-use-in-core";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2892:"<p>WordPress core contributors have started collaborating more around their JavaScript efforts this year with regular core-js meetings. One item on the most recent meeting&#8217;s agenda was <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2017/05/24/javascript-chat-summary-for-may-23rd/" target="_blank">discussion on choosing a new JavaScript framework for use in core</a> as an alternative to Backbone.</p>
<p>Contributors began by summarizing the criteria for evaluating framework options, includes factors like stability, longevity, maturity, adoption, accessibility, proven in a WordPress context, and extensibility, among others. Most of the discussion centered on the benefits and drawbacks of React vs Vue.</p>
<p>The majority of those who participated in the meeting seemed to favor React, as it is already used with several major WordPress projects such as Calypso, Gutenberg, and Jetpack. WordPress&#8217; project lead, Matt Mullenweg, has publicly stated that Automattic is betting on React long-term. Mullenweg has also <a href="https://wptavern.com/matt-mullenweg-announces-tech-and-design-leads-for-new-focus-based-development-cycle" target="_blank">expressed a desire for Calypso, or a similar interface, to replace wp-admin</a> in the future. The company has been building its products on React for several years and is pot committed at this point when it comes to the framework.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/carlhancock">@carlhancock</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/chriswallace">@chriswallace</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/mattmedeiros">@mattmedeiros</a> Fair, but React is what us, Facebook, and many others are betting on long-term.</p>
<p>&mdash; Matt Mullenweg (@photomatt) <a href="https://twitter.com/photomatt/status/808698242863165440">December 13, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>WordPress officially adopting a JavaScript framework will likely have a ripple effect that will influence how many products in the ecosystem are built and/or re-written. Proponents of Vue.js find it easy to learn and extend. Those who are advocating for React also cite its extensibility, stability, and its proven use with popular WordPress products.</p>
<p>Contributors present for the meeting agreed they would be hesitant to commit a new framework to core without using it in some way for a core feature. The decision has not yet been made. Anyone with experiences to share on implementing JS frameworks in the context of WordPress is invited to comment in the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2017/05/24/javascript-chat-summary-for-may-23rd/" target="_blank">discussion on the meeting notes</a> and join the next core-js meeting <a href="http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20170530T1300" target="_blank">Tuesday, May 30, 2017, 8:00 AM CDT</a>.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 26 May 2017 02:49:56 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:16;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:41:"Dev Blog: WordPress 4.8 Release Candidate";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=4758";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"https://wordpress.org/news/2017/05/wordpress-4-8-release-candidate/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2352:"<p>The release candidate for WordPress 4.8 is now available.</p>
<p>RC means we think we’re done, but with millions of users and thousands of plugins and themes, it’s possible we’ve missed something. We hope to ship WordPress 4.8 on <strong>Thursday, June 8</strong>, but we need <em>your</em> help to get there. If you haven’t tested 4.8 yet, now is the time!</p>
<p>To test WordPress 4.8, you can use the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester</a> plugin or you can <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-4.8-RC1.zip">download the release candidate here</a> (zip).</p>
<p>We&#8217;ve made <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/log/trunk/?action=stop_on_copy&mode=stop_on_copy&rev=40840&stop_rev=40821">a handful of changes</a> since releasing Beta 2 earlier this week. For more details about what’s new in version 4.8, check out the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2017/05/wordpress-4-8-beta-1/">Beta 1</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2017/05/wordpress-4-8-beta-2/">Beta 2</a> blog posts.</p>
<p><strong>Think you’ve found a bug?</strong> Please post to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">Alpha/Beta support forum</a>. If any known issues come up, you’ll be able to <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/report/5">find them here</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Developers</strong>, please test your plugins and themes against WordPress 4.8 and update your plugin’s <em>Tested up to</em> version in the readme to 4.8. If you find compatibility problems please be sure to post to the support forums so we can figure those out before the final release – we work hard to avoid breaking things. An in-depth field guide to developer-focused changes is coming soon on the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">core development blog</a>.</p>
<p>Do you speak a language other than English? <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp/dev">Help us translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!</a></p>
<p>This release&#8217;s haiku is courtesy of <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/matveb/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>matveb</a>:</p>
<p><em>Érrese uno</em><br />
<em>Cien veces y más</em><br />
<em>Erre ce dos</em></p>
<p>Thanks for your continued help testing out the latest versions of WordPress.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 25 May 2017 23:04:37 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10:"Mel Choyce";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:17;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:11:"
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"HeroPress: Winners Announced for the WPShout Up and Running Scholarship";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://heropress.com/?p=1864";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:157:"https://heropress.com/winners-announced-wpshout-running-scholarship/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=winners-announced-wpshout-running-scholarship";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3403:"<img width="960" height="639" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ipad-uandr-1-1024x682.png" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Two hands holding an ipad so we can see the screen." /><p>After long hard thinking, the winners of the WPShout <a href="https://upandrunningwp.com/">Up and Running</a> Scholarship are announced!</p>
<ul>
<li><big>Elisabeth Klaar, Cambridge UK</big></li>
<li><big>Mohamed Hassan, Colombo, Sri Lanka</big></li>
<li><big>Bridget Mudzwiti, Harare, Zimbabwe</big></li>
<li><big>David Smith, Edmonton, Canada</big></li>
<li><big>Stephanie Meza, Bronx, NY, USA</big></li>
<li><big>Amy Koester, Gainesville, FL, USA</big></li>
<li><big>Birgit Olzem, Gerolstein, Germany</big></li>
<li><big>Ekene Olatunji, Lagos, Nigeria</big></li>
<li><big>Donum Theo, Yogyakarta, Indonesia</big></li>
<li><big>Jennifer Obiekwugo, Lagos State, Nigeria</big></li>
</ul>
<p>The winners will be contacted by WPShout with instructions on how to claim their scholarship. Congratulations to those who won!</p>
<div class="rtsocial-container rtsocial-container-align-right rtsocial-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal-button"><a title="Tweet: Winners Announced for the WPShout Up and Running Scholarship" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=Winners%20Announced%20for%20the%20WPShout%20Up%20and%20Running%20Scholarship&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fwinners-announced-wpshout-running-scholarship%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: Winners Announced for the WPShout Up and Running Scholarship" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fwinners-announced-wpshout-running-scholarship%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-linkedin-button" href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fwinners-announced-wpshout-running-scholarship%2F&title=Winners+Announced+for+the+WPShout+Up+and+Running+Scholarship" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: Winners Announced for the WPShout Up and Running Scholarship"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-pinterest-button" href="https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://heropress.com/winners-announced-wpshout-running-scholarship/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ipad-uandr-1-150x150.png&description=Winners Announced for the WPShout Up and Running Scholarship" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: Winners Announced for the WPShout Up and Running Scholarship"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/winners-announced-wpshout-running-scholarship/" title="Winners Announced for the WPShout Up and Running Scholarship"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/winners-announced-wpshout-running-scholarship/">Winners Announced for the WPShout Up and Running Scholarship</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 25 May 2017 18:00:22 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:18;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:92:"WPTavern: JSON Feed Creators Aim to Revitalize Interest in the Open Web with RSS Alternative";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70772";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:103:"https://wptavern.com/json-feed-creators-aim-to-revitalize-interest-in-the-open-web-with-rss-alternative";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11876:"<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/json-feed-logo.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://jsonfeed.org/" target="_blank">JSON Feed</a>, a project created by <a href="http://www.manton.org/" target="_blank">Manton Reece</a> and <a href="http://inessential.com/" target="_blank">Brent Simmons</a>, launched last week. It&#8217;s a syndication format similar to RSS and Atom but built with JSON.</p>
<p>&#8220;The premise was simple: the time is right for a JSON-based approach to feeds,&#8221; Reece said. &#8220;We hope that JSON Feed is straightforward enough to be implemented quickly, and capable enough to push the next decade of blogging software forward. We love RSS too and tried to learn from its success.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="https://jsonfeed.org/version/1" target="_blank">Version 1</a> of the spec was published last week and the intro includes a very simple example. Publishers can further extend their feeds by creating custom objects.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/json-feed.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>The team has also developed a <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/jsonfeed/" target="_blank">JSON Feed plugin for WordPress</a>, which is now available in the official WordPress Plugin Directory. They are also working on a JSON Feed Parser for Swift.</p>
<p>If you want to see some example JSON Feeds on the web, check out <a href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/json" target="_blank">Daring Fireball</a>, <a href="http://www.allenpike.com/feed.json" target="_blank">Allen Pike</a>, and <a href="http://flyingmeat.com/blog/feed.json" target="_blank">Flying Meat</a>. Reece&#8217;s Micro.blog project also supports JSON Feed for its Twitter-like <a href="https://micro.blog/feeds/manton.json" target="_blank">timeline</a>.</p>
<h3>JSON Feed Creators Want to Inspire More Developers to Create Apps for the Open Web</h3>
<p>Reece and Simmons decided the time was right to build an updated syndication format, as more and more developers are refusing to work with XML.</p>
<p>&#8220;I believe that developers (particularly Mac and iOS developers, the group I know best) are so loath to work with XML that they won’t even consider building software that needs an XML parser,&#8221; Simmons said. &#8220;Which says to me that JSON Feed is needed for the survival of syndication.&#8221;</p>
<p>In an <a href="http://www.therunloop.com/4" target="_blank">interview</a> on the The Run Loop podcast, Simmons attributed the decline in open web development to developers&#8217; growing aversion for working with XML, which always has problems with character encoding. Many developers find JSON to be easier to use and less buggy.</p>
<p>&#8220;It has kind of made me sad these past five or ten years where it seems like development for the open web has slowed down a lot, particularly when we talk about the intersection of the Mac desktop and the open web,&#8221; Simmons said. &#8220;There just isn&#8217;t that much going on. I realized that one of the reasons is that people really hate XML and will go out of their way to avoid it. If they see XML APIs or XML stuff they&#8217;re not interested. That&#8217;s yucky, old, weird, hard stuff. But everyone likes JSON, all the cool APIs are JSON, even the not cool APIs are JSON. Everyone uses JSON.&#8221;</p>
<p>Simmons said he is hopeful that the existence of JSON Feed will inspire developers to build new things for the open web.</p>
<p>&#8220;What I&#8217;m hoping to see is that particularly Mac and iOS developers will consider doing new and innovative stuff on the open web, rather than writing yet another Twitter client or something that does something with Facebook. I want to see apps that do something with data that is not stored in somebody&#8217;s silos. I&#8217;m sick of corporate ownership of our data and of what I look at.&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not surprising that Simmons decided to partner with Reece, who built <a href="https://micro.blog/" target="_blank">micro.blog</a> out of similar convictions regarding the open web. They worked together on the project since February and recruited a dozen different peers to review the specification before launching last week. Now that version 1 is published, its creators hope JSON Feed will make its way into other parts of the web and applications.</p>
<p>&#8220;What I&#8217;m hoping is that this is part of a bigger thing,&#8221; Simmons said. &#8220;The idea is to revitalize interest in the open web, in blogging, in syndication, and all of that kind of stuff.&#8221;</p>
<h3>Feed Readers are Beginning to Add Support for JSON Feed</h3>
<p>Initial reactions to JSON Feed have been mixed. Many proponents wonder why it has taken so long for something like this to emerge, but critics ask why the web needs yet another syndication format. A few common criticisms on Hacker News that echo the sentiments of many who oppose the idea:</p>
<p><em>&#8220;We don&#8217;t really need another syndication format that no reader is going to support or support well for years.&#8221;</em> &#8211; <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14361977" target="_blank">@oefrha</a></p>
<p><em>&#8220;If you&#8217;re going to make a new feed format in 2017, I&#8217;m sorry but copying what came before it and throwing it into JSON just isn&#8217;t enough.&#8221;</em> &#8211; <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14362286" target="_blank">@russellbeattie</a></p>
<p><em>&#8220;One has to wonder whether Simmons is just trying to revive the old RSS ecosystem. &#8220;What do developers like these days, JSON? Let&#8217;s do RSS in JSON!&#8221; &#8230; This does not help. The real challenge these days is to replicate the solutions Facebook and Twitter brought to feeds (bi-directionality and data-retention in particular) in a decentralized manner that could actually become popular. Simply replicating RSS in the data-format du jour is not going to achieve that.&#8221;</em> &#8211; <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14363784" target="_blank">@toyg</a></p>
<p>Despite critics, feed readers are already starting to add support for JSON Feed. The good news for publishers is that they don&#8217;t have to abandon their RSS feeds. Publishers can add support for JSON Feed alongside their existing feeds.</p>
<p>The new <a href="https://json-feed-viewer.herokuapp.com/" target="_blank">JSON Feed Viewer app</a> is built on top of JSON Feed. <a href="http://blog.newsblur.com/post/160982162270/newsblur-now-supports-the-new-json-feed-spec" target="_blank">NewsBlur announced support</a> for the spec this week, along with <a href="http://blog.inoreader.com/2017/05/announcing-json-feed-support.html" target="_blank">Inoreader</a>, <a href="https://betamagic.nl/blog.html" target="_blank">News Explorer</a>, and <a href="https://feedbin.com/blog/2017/05/22/feedbin-supports-json-feed/" target="_blank">Feedbin</a>.</p>
<p>Ben Ubois, founder of Feedbin, addressed one of the most common criticisms that feed readers aren&#8217;t likely to add support for the new JSON Feed spec because of the prevalence of RSS:</p>
<p>&#8220;One of the criticisms I’ve seen of JSON Feed is that there’s no incentive for feed readers to support JSON Feed,&#8221; Ubois said. &#8220;This is not true. One of the largest-by-volume support questions I get is along the lines of &#8216;Why does this random feed not work?&#8217; And, 95% of the time, it’s because the feed is broken in some subtle way. JSON Feed will help alleviate these problems, because it’s easier to get right.&#8221;</p>
<p>JSON Feed also has a few additional features that existing formats don&#8217;t offer as easily. Simmons highlighted a few graphics-related features in his <a href="http://www.therunloop.com/4" target="_blank">interview</a> with The Run Loop podcast:</p>
<blockquote><p>For instance, when you define an author, you can provide a URL of an avatar image. You can imagine someone doing kind of a Twitter-like view of a feed with avatars for different posts. It also has support for things like the URL of the featured image or banner image that you can specify for an article and your RSS reader can format it somewhat like it would look like if you had actually gone to the web page with the banner image in the background. It has a way to specify fav icons and a larger icon for your feed, which right now news readers have to guess what your favicon is or scrape the homepage looking for the metadata tag that says where it is. They have to make all these additional requests to find out some of the basic graphics about your feed or about the article and that stuff is all specified inside the JSON feed. People who actually use those get a much nicer interface on the reading side.</p></blockquote>
<p>Dave Winer <a href="http://scripting.com/stories/2012/09/10/rssInJsonForReal.html" target="_blank">experimented with the idea of JSONified RSS in 2012</a>, but it didn&#8217;t catch on. His <a href="http://scripting.com/2017/05/21/reEvanWilliamsAndJsonFeed.html" target="_blank">reaction to the new JSON Feed spec</a> is &#8220;pretty neutral, kind of a shoulder shrug.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;If developers have a hard time using XML in their apps, if that&#8217;s the problem, why not attack it right there?&#8221; Winer said. &#8220;Work to make it easier. I work in Node and the browser, and in both places XML and JSON are equally easy to use. The same could be done for any environment. In fact in the browser, XML is integrated deeply into the programming model, because the web is made out of XML.&#8221;</p>
<p>In contrast, John Gruber thinks it&#8217;s the right time for the project and didn&#8217;t hesitate to add a JSON feed for <a href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/json" target="_blank">Daring Fireball</a>. He is eagerly supporting the JSON Feed project and is closely monitoring its adoption, publishing links to all the apps and feed readers that have already added support.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think this is a great idea, and a good spec,&#8221; Gruber said. &#8220;I even like the style in which the spec is written: for real humans (much like the RSS spec). If you want to see a real-life example, Daring Fireball has a JSON Feed. I’ve got a good feeling about this project — the same sort of feeling I had about Markdown back in the day.&#8221;</p>
<p>With the momentum from quick adoption by smaller news readers, JSON Feed has the potential to revive news syndication if some of the larger ones add support. Developers may even be more inspired to create new feed readers, given the ease of implementing the new spec.</p>
<p>Manton Reece said that if JSON Feed had come along when blogging was at its peak, when there were fewer problems, he thinks there would have been less of a pressing feeling that the web needs a new syndication format.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m amazed with the traction it&#8217;s gotten,&#8221; Manton Reece said in a recent <a href="http://www.coreint.org/2017/05/episode-283-reset-all-the-things/" target="_blank">interview</a> on the Core Intuition podcast. &#8220;Of course some people will be negative about it and some people won&#8217;t like it. We certainly expected a lot of pushback on it. Everybody knows we need this, but it&#8217;s daunting. Who is going to try to push something like this when there are millions of RSS feeds? It feels like why even bother, it&#8217;s impossible. But things change over time and I think this is important enough and blogging is important enough that it&#8217;s worth making the investment now. Tomorrow the web is not going to be any different, but over time it might be a little different. Everybody knows that we need something like this but there hasn&#8217;t been something everybody could get behind until now.&#8221;</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 25 May 2017 17:51:12 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:19;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:88:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 274 – WordPress Commercials, Storefront, and the Customizer";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:58:"https://wptavern.com?p=70802&preview=true&preview_id=70802";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:93:"https://wptavern.com/wpweekly-episode-274-wordpress-commercials-storefront-and-the-customizer";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2278:"<p>In this episode, <a href="https://jjj.blog/">John James Jacoby</a> joins me to discuss the news of the week. We give our take on the new WordPress.com commercials and whether or not they hit the mark. We share what&#8217;s new in Storefront 2.2.0 and the problems some people are facing trying to get visas to attend WordCamp Europe. Last but not least, we discussed the Customizer having a variable width in WordPress 4.8. Beginning with episode 275, Jacoby will be my co-host for WordPress Weekly.</p>
<h2>Stories Discussed:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-coms-tv-commercials-are-confusing">WordPress.com’s TV Commercials Are Confusing</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-europe-attendees-are-being-denied-visas-because-conference-ticket-price-is-too-low">WordCamp Europe Attendees Are Being Denied Visas Because Conference Ticket Price Is Too Low</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/storefront-2-2-0-released-includes-design-refresh-and-major-improvements-to-new-user-experience">Storefront 2.2.0 Released, Includes Design Refresh and Major Improvements to New User Experience</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-8-increases-maximum-width-of-the-customizer-sidebar-to-600-pixels">WordPress 4.8 Increases Maximum Width of the Customizer Sidebar to 600 Pixels</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/cape-town-to-host-4th-annual-wordpress-charity-hackathon-on-july-15">Cape Town to Host 4th Annual WordPress Charity Hackathon on July 15</a></p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday, May 31st 3:00 P.M. Eastern</p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Itunes: </strong><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wordpress-weekly/id694849738" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via RSS: </strong><a href="https://wptavern.com/feed/podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Stitcher Radio: </strong><a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wordpress-weekly-podcast?refid=stpr" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Listen To Episode #274:</strong><br />
</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 25 May 2017 01:43:56 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:20;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"Matt: Profile of Anker";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=47364";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:39:"https://ma.tt/2017/05/profile-of-anker/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:437:"<p>As a computer accessory enthusiast, I&#8217;m excited <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/22/15673712/anker-battery-charger-amazon-empire-steven-yang-interview">that Verge did an in-depth profile of Anker</a>, which makes some of the best chargers, cables, and batteries around. It also makes me more curious about the story behind <a href="https://www.aukey.com/">Aukey</a> and <a href="http://www.jackery.com/">Jackery</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 24 May 2017 15:08:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:21;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:42:"HeroPress: My Life, Designed by WordPress!";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=1854";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:120:"https://heropress.com/essays/life-designed-wordpress/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=life-designed-wordpress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6967:"<img width="960" height="480" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/052417-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: I dreamt of a community to help me; people who will encourage me." /><p>It has been a short time since I joined WordPress community and learnt a lot of things at the age of 12. It took me a day writing this essay as I wish I could write my whole mind in it.</p>
<blockquote><p>“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. – Arthur Ashe”</p></blockquote>
<h3>So, here’s the start I had:</h3>
<p>From my childhood, I’ve been wondering about Software Technologies. I always wondered about the constructions of website, and a program. It was the time when my mother <a href="https://www.facebook.com/yogita.patil.18" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Yogita</a>, just introduced me Google, the God of websites! All the curiosity I had was strengthened when using Google.</p>
<p>Do you know what shaped my career? A search string on Google which said ‘How to make a website’! Not much useful, but the slow start I had was everything I need. That was 2012. (Me, 8 yrs old) When I tried an online web designing tool named SimDif. Just then, I got to know Weebly. I made my first permanent website, <a href="http://mathsbuzzz.weebly.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">mathsbuzzz.weebly.com</a> and the curiosity went deeper.</p>
<p>Now I thought of making a website myself, with no tool, with real programming! That was 2013. At that time, Microsoft Frontpage was nearly coming to an end of popularity. I embraced it. Though it couldn’t be called programming, but I liked it as I went one step further.</p>
<p>I also learnt a bit of HTML from a book I had at home. It’s not even half of the story I’m telling. The time I was introduced to WordPress is much further. That’s 2016.</p>
<h3>What in 2015?</h3>
<p>I had a course of advanced HTML/CSS in 2015 where I got to know completely about Framing, Coding and Publishing a website. Then, I practiced it a lot and then thought about putting a step forward to PHP.</p>
<h3>It’s 2016</h3>
<p>Summer vacations were to get over and I had a course of PHP. There’s where I came to know about the REAL PROGRAMMING. I started making my first coded website and it was completely published in September 2015. It was my mother’s online store. And then, from November 2016, I made another website and completed the project in February 2016. That was my first blog, IQubex.com made with simple HTML/CSS and no PHP.</p>
<p>I was actually equipped with HTML/CSS knowledge and was practicing PHP. But, I never got what I dreamt of. I dreamt of: “My exposure in Web Developing World. A community, which will help me in my needs. People, who will encourage me.”</p>
<p>Dream became true.</p>
<h3>When WordPress Came In My Life</h3>
<p>Its still 2016, when striked an article in Newspaper about WordCamp Nashik 2016. My mother read it and thought that it would prove like a miracle for me. It was the start of October 2016. Nashik is my city and so it was always easy for me to attend WordCamp Nashik.</p>
<p>It was for developers, bloggers and all the people who maintained their interest in Web Technologies. I knew that I too fit in that category.</p>
<h3>Now came, 16th October 2016</h3>
<p>We all know how cool experiences we get in a WordCamp. But this was the best for me as it was the first WordCamp of my life. From then, I migrated my blog to WordPress and got everything better. I saw how people program for WordPress and how big is the WordPress world.</p>
<p>So, what did I miss? Nothing. I got a helping community. I got nice friends. I got people who are much more experienced and their knowledge which will help me throughout the life. What more? The best thing I received is Motivation.</p>
<p>I used to write less on my blog as it was not equipped with PHP and was basic HTML/CSS. Due to that, I uploaded articles every now and then. But after the arrival of WordPress in my life, I wrote frequent articles, more beautifully, with more customization and with more interest. Then progressed my blog!</p>
<h3>What next?</h3>
<p>It was WordCamp Pune 2017 where I became the youngest speaker of WordCamp. I had an interview with <a href="https://www.twitter.com/rahul286" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rahul Bansal</a> Sir. He met me at WordCamp Nashik. So, I was able to talk in front of people. This is how my confidence got a boost positively.</p>
<p>Now I run more than 3 websites and constructing more. I also developed a plugin on WordPress. Learning about making theme. I’m also aiming to be a good developer in future. After all, there is a lot of time left. I’m 13 yrs old.</p>
<p>So, simply saying, before WordPress I was unaware of what I have to do in future, and now I can see the complete scene of my future career. Thanks to WordPress and its Community.</p>
<div class="rtsocial-container rtsocial-container-align-right rtsocial-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal-button"><a title="Tweet: My Life, Designed by WordPress!" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=My%20Life%2C%20Designed%20by%20WordPress%21&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Flife-designed-wordpress%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: My Life, Designed by WordPress!" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Flife-designed-wordpress%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-linkedin-button" href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Flife-designed-wordpress%2F&title=My+Life%2C+Designed+by+WordPress%21" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: My Life, Designed by WordPress!"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-pinterest-button" href="https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://heropress.com/essays/life-designed-wordpress/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/052417-150x150.jpg&description=My Life, Designed by WordPress!" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: My Life, Designed by WordPress!"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/essays/life-designed-wordpress/" title="My Life, Designed by WordPress!"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/life-designed-wordpress/">My Life, Designed by WordPress!</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 24 May 2017 11:00:10 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Kumar Abhirup";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:22;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:63:"WPTavern: WordPress 4.8 Improves Accessibility on Admin Screens";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70701";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:74:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-8-improves-accessibility-on-admin-screens";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2474:"<p>In WordPress 4.3, the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/">Accessibility Team</a> <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2015/07/31/headings-in-admin-screens-change-in-wordpress-4-3/">restored&nbsp;H1 headings</a> to&nbsp;the admin screens. This paved the way for the team to change the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2015/10/28/headings-hierarchy-changes-in-the-admin-screens/">headings hierarchy</a>&nbsp;in WordPress 4.4. In WordPress 4.8, admin screens are more accessible&nbsp;thanks to <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2017/05/17/cleaner-headings-in-the-admin-screens/">organizing the header text</a> on pages.</p>
<p>The headers on admin screens typically contain more than text. For example,&nbsp;the Add New button on the Posts and Pages admin screens is included within the Posts and Pages header text.</p>
<p><img /></p>
<p>This makes it difficult for assistive technologies to help users navigate different sections of a page. The changes in WordPress 4.8 turn the headings on admin screens into their own elements.</p>
<p>Before WordPress 4.8 the HTML looked like this:</p>
<p><code>&lt;h1&gt;<br />
    Posts<br />
    &lt;a href="... /post-new.php" class="page-title-action"&gt;Add New&lt;/a&gt;<br />
&lt;/h1&gt;</code></p>
<p>Now it looks like this:</p>
<p><code>&lt;h1 class="wp-heading-inline"&gt;Posts&lt;/h1&gt;<br />
&lt;a href="... /post-new.php" class="page-title-action"&gt;Add New&lt;/a&gt;<br />
&lt;hr class="wp-header-end"&gt;</code></p>
<p>Andrea Fercia, WordPress core committer and a member of the accessibility team, explains what theme and plugin authors need to know.</p>
<p>&#8220;If your plugin or theme follows the previous WordPress pattern of adding extraneous content to the main heading, please update your plugin or theme to make the heading cleaner,&#8221; Fercia said.</p>
<p>&#8220;All you need to do is move the extraneous content outside of the heading. WordPress 4.8 ships with new CSS rules to take care of the new markup structure and in most cases, no additional changes will be required.&#8221;</p>
<p>These improvements are <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/26601">three years</a> in the making. After much discussion and being punted to future releases, Fercia says the Accessibility team decided to handle the changes in smaller commits versus one large patch. This provided the necessary momentum to get the changes in core.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 24 May 2017 04:33:09 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:23;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"WPTavern: Cape Town to Host 4th Annual WordPress Charity Hackathon on July 15";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70558";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:88:"https://wptavern.com/cape-town-to-host-4th-annual-wordpress-charity-hackathon-on-july-15";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3777:"<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/cape-town-charity-hackathon-2017.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Cape Town will be hosting its <a href="https://doaction.org/event/cape-town-2017/" target="_blank">fourth annual do_action WordPress Charity Hackathon</a> on July 15 this year. The objective of the event is to build websites for 10 different non-profit organizations in one day, an ambitious endeavor that requires a mix of different web and marketing talents working in highly concentrated teams. Participants help non-profits kick start their websites so the organizations can focus on doing what they do best &#8211; helping the local community.</p>
<p>Hugh Lashbrooke, who is leading the organization of the event again this year, said the team has secured a new venue that will be better suited to a hackathon. <a href="http://workshop17.co.za/" target="_blank">Workshop17</a>, a collaboration and meeting venue, will host the charity hackathon&#8217;s 70 participants (7 people per team). The event is currently half-full and is recruiting another 35 participants.</p>
<p>&#8220;One thing the event has done for me, and others in the community, is open us up to the rest of what is happening in the city,&#8221; Lashbrooke said. &#8220;Our skills may seem pretty self-serving (building websites to make money), but they can be used for a lot more. Everyone who participates has so much fun on the day that I think they forget that it&#8217;s really work.&#8221;</p>
<p>This year&#8217;s charities include the following organizations:</p>
<ul>
<li>Tygerberg Association for Persons with Physical Disabilities</li>
<li>Kidz Adventure Camp</li>
<li>Little Lambs Christian Day Care</li>
<li>Iliso Care Society</li>
<li>Daughters Of Destiny</li>
<li>Durbanville Children&#8217;s Home</li>
<li>The Homestead Projects for Street Children</li>
<li>Usiko Stellenbosch</li>
<li>Rotary Club of Constantia</li>
<li>ASSITEJ South Africa</li>
</ul>
<p>The Cape Town WordPress community pioneered the concept of using WordPress to lift up local charities and this type of event has now spread to other areas of the world. As a member of the WordPress project&#8217;s Community Team, Lashbrooke has been working on making the do_action charity hackathons easily reproducible. It&#8217;s now part of the WordPress Community Program with <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/event-formats/do_action-charity-hackathon/" target="_blank">guidelines in the community events organizer handbook</a>.</p>
<p>The new <a href="http://doaction.org" target="_blank">doaction.org</a> website lists the upcoming hackathons and takes care of all the manual admin work that Lashbrooke did for himself for the first couple of events. The functionality is built on top of his experience in running the events.</p>
<p>&#8220;There has been a ton of interest in the event from communities around the world, and we&#8217;ve already seen successful events in Austin and Johannesburg,&#8221; Lashbrooke said. &#8220;More hackathons are scheduled for Pretoria, Beirut, and Montreal later this year. A few of the other cities that have shown interest and applied, but have not scheduled anything yet, are Fort Myers, Denver, New York City, and Ahmedabad, amongst others.&#8221;</p>
<p>Bringing the do_action charity hackathons under the official WordPress community program allows the team to offer logistical and financial support to organizers in the same way they already support WordCamp and meetup organizers. They do not have an official mentorship program set up yet, as the event types is still new, but Lashbrook said the community team does what it can to help hackathon organizers get started.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 23 May 2017 19:52:49 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:24;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:38:"Matt: What’s in My Bag, 2017 edition";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=47340";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:43:"https://ma.tt/2017/05/whats-in-my-bag-2017/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:19635:"<p>I am a road warrior who has racked up several million miles over the past decade, and since I&#8217;m also working more-than-full-time running <a href="https://automattic.com/">Automattic</a> (a totally distributed company) and leading <a href="https://wordpress.org/">WordPress</a> I need the ability to be productive wherever I can find a comfortable place to sit. I carry a backpack with me almost all the time and obsessively tweak and iterate what&#8217;s in it, which led to posts in <a href="https://ma.tt/2015/01/whats-in-my-bag-2014/">2014</a> and <a href="https://ma.tt/2016/03/whats-in-my-bag-2016-edition/">2016</a>. This is the latest edition, and I hope you enjoy it.</p>
<p><img /></p>
<ol>
<li>This is a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Buff-Merino-Wool-Headband-Black/dp/B0035N09CS/?tag=photomatt08-20">grey wool buff</a>, which works as a scarf, a hat, or an eye cover if I&#8217;m trying to sleep. I tried this out because of one of <a href="http://tynan.com/gear2017">Tynan&#8217;s also-great gear posts</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003JNQS88/?tag=photomatt08-20">Theraband resistance band</a>, which I aspirationally carry around to help stretch in the morning. Hat tip: Jesse Schwartzman of <a href="http://eatingacademy.com/personal/move-defines-live">this blog post fame</a>.</li>
<li>Some generic <a href="https://www.mauijim.com/">Maui Jim</a> polarized sunglasses with rubber nose pads, which I like for running or hiking because they don&#8217;t move around or slip even when you&#8217;re hot.</li>
<li><a href="https://tzukuri.com/">Tzukuri &#8220;Ford&#8221; + charger</a>, a super-cool <a href="https://audrey.co/">Audrey company</a> that is like a combination of a Tile and cool sunglasses. They connect via bluetooth to your phone and can notify you when you leave them behind, or use the app to locate them. A charge lasts 30 days. I think this is only available in Australia right now, but should be coming to other countries soon. (Or just buy them on vacation in Australia.) These replaced my fancy Maison Bonnet sunglasses.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.westoneaudio.com/index.php/products/hearing-protection/es49-custom-hearing-protection.html">Westone ES49 custom earplugs</a>, for if I go to concerts or anyplace overly loud. (3rd year)</li>
<li>A <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tile-Mate-Finder-Anything-Finder/dp/B01L3VEC08/?tag=photomatt08-20">Tile</a>, which was a gift from my sister. I keep this in a pocket in my backpack and it helps me locate it if I lose it, or if I can&#8217;t find my phone I can press the button and it&#8217;ll make it beep. Surprisingly handy. Hat tip: Charleen.</li>
<li>Hermes business card holder. (3rd year)</li>
<li>A cut-out of a chamois cloth, which I use for cleaning smudges and such off glasses and screens. Mine is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CM589B8/?tag=photomatt08-20">from Amazon</a> but you can get at any car place or Walmart, <a href="http://www.wikihow.com/Prepare-a-Genuine-Leather-Chamois-for-Use">use this guide to prepare</a>, and then cut pieces off. Hat tip: Dean.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MCW7EOW/?tag=photomatt08-20">Airpods</a>. These are just fantastic, and I highly recommend them. I use them for calls, <a href="https://overcast.fm/">podcasts</a>, <a href="http://www.audible.com/">audiobooks</a>, <a href="https://www.calm.com/">meditating</a>, <a href="https://www.duolingo.com/">Duolingo</a>&#8230; they&#8217;ve become an essential daily product for me. A cool trick is to use one ear while the other is charging in the &#8220;floss&#8221; case. Hat tip: Jony.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01E3SNO1G/?tag=photomatt08-20">Bose QuietComfort 35</a>, wireless bluetooth headphones. I misplaced my <a href="https://ma.tt/2015/04/best-headphones-spring-2015-edition/">cool WordPress Sennheisers</a> and picked these up in an airport before a long flight. They&#8217;re extremely comfortable, great battery life, and I keep an audio splitter and Lightning audio adapter in the case. I&#8217;ve hated on Bose many times in the past, but these are decent and I get why people like them, especially the comfort aspect. I am listening to them as I write this. I used <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FE8VM8Q/?tag=photomatt08-20">Audeze EL-8 Titanium</a> for a while, which obviously sound better, but the lightning cable was unwieldy and it was annoying (and ridiculous) I couldn&#8217;t plug them into my laptop. Hat tip: Every airport electronics store.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0161D1CL0/?tag=photomatt08-20">Jabra Sport Pace bluetooth earbuds</a>, which replaced my Powerbeats for running and working out. They have been way sturdier. Pretty inexpensive, too, right now about $60. I know in theory you can run with Airpods, but I&#8217;d be too scared of one going down a street drain.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.carbonfiberdesigns.com/Carbon-Fiber-Money-Clip.html">Cool carbon fiber money clip</a>, which I use to hold a little cash for places like street vendors that don&#8217;t take credit cards, or if I&#8217;m in another country and need to carry around currency. The site is a little sketchy, they should upgrade to <a href="https://woocommerce.com/">WooCommerce</a>. Also pictured: The <a href="http://web.mta.info/metrocard/EasyPayXpress.htm">EasyPay XPress NYC Metro Card</a>, which is super handy in New York as it auto-refills. Only downside is it doesn&#8217;t work on the PATH trains. Hat tip: Tynan and Rose.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H3BNWXA/?tag=photomatt08-20">Vapur Shades roll-up water bottle</a>. Can hold a full liter, and rolls up to be small like this. Kind of new so I don&#8217;t have a strong opinion yet. Hat tip: Lululemon Lab in Vancouver.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MRWWV6S/?tag=photomatt08-20">Fidget spinner</a>, I think this one is from Amazon. Try one of these if you haven&#8217;t yet, they&#8217;re surprisingly addictive. If you go over to 14 on the left you&#8217;ll see a custom metal one a friend made for me. Hat tips: Zach and Xa.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016QO5YNG/?tag=photomatt08-20">Apple Magic Mouse 2</a>. A classic. (3rd year)</li>
<li>This is the latest <a href="https://shop.lululemon.com/p/men-bags/Para-Backpack/_/prod8260286?rcnt=2&N=8av&cnt=7&color=LM9Y11S_0001">Lululemon Para backpack</a>, and unlike last year&#8217;s Cruiser it&#8217;s currently available in stores and online. I dig this iteration: it has a little less padding on the shoulders, but the big front zipper pocket is super handy and in general it&#8217;s a lot more streamlined and water resistant. Om clued me in <a href="https://www.aersf.com/fit-pack-00006">to a similar one from Aer</a>, I don&#8217;t know who designed it first. Hat tip: Rose.</li>
<li>So&#8230; there are two laptops, a custom prototype 13&#8243; Automattic-logo Macbook touchbar, and the stickered 15&#8243;. I generally only travel with one of these, the 13&#8243; for shorter trips or the 15&#8243; if I&#8217;m going to be on the road for more than a few weeks. The performance is just better on the 15&#8243;. My favorite things about both are the 4 USB-C ports, that you can charge on any of them, and the Touch ID. (Automatticians after 4 years of tenure can get a custom Macbook, which we now offer with the WordPress, Automattic, or Jetpack logo. I usually get the test ones to make sure the quality is up to snuff.) I carry around the larger 87W brick from the 15&#8243;, and keep the extension cable now so it&#8217;s easier to plug in on those weak plugs on planes.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016381AHE/?tag=photomatt08-20">Kindle Oasis</a>. I still love the Kindle. I&#8217;ve started listening to audiobooks this year and the integration with Audible is cool. The Oasis is great because of the real buttons and the fact that you can flip it to hold in either hand, but it&#8217;s been the most annoying model in a few generations because the screen brightness isn&#8217;t adaptive, and it gives &#8220;low battery&#8221; warnings when the extra battery cover is low but the actual device is not, which seems to defeat the purpose. Great form factor and ergonomics though.</li>
<li>Passport, because you never know when you&#8217;ll need to leave the country.</li>
<li>A pocket-sized <a href="https://www.baronfig.com/">Baron Fig</a> notebook, which I use in meetings to avoid my phone. Hat tip: Rose.</li>
<li><a href="https://madeby.google.com/phone/">Google Pixel</a>. Best Android phone I&#8217;ve used, uses USB-C which I love, I love the size. I use this mostly for testing and staying current on Android, or as a backup. I use <a href="https://fi.google.com/">Google Fi</a> for service on this one.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DOJDTQ0/?tag=photomatt08-20">Forerunner 735, charger, and heart rate strap</a>. I actually <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XGD6CS4/?tag=photomatt08-20">switched to the 935</a> since this picture was taken, but my notes apply to both. (Here&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2017/03/garmin-forerunner-935-depth-review.html">a great review of the new 935</a>.) Garmin makes the best fitness smartwatches in the world right now. Aspects are clunky: the app is not the most elegant, the add-on watch faces and such leave something to be desired, the sleep tracking is way worse than Fitbit, and there is no fine-grained control over notifications. That said, the battery life goes 8-10 days (!) so I often don&#8217;t even bring the charger when I travel. The stats are unparalleled especially for running. It&#8217;s waterproof and can also track swimming and biking. Finally my favorite feature: the screen is always on. I know that sounds basic, but I have been driven crazy by years of Fitbit and Apple Watch require tapping or wrist gesticulations just to see the time. (Extra awkward in a meeting.) My hardcore fitness friends love this one too. Hat tip: Aaron.</li>
<li>Three little fun personal care items: a great chapstick from Japan I don&#8217;t know what it&#8217;s called, but it says <a href="https://retaw.tokyo/en/">retaW aoyama / tokyo fragrance lipcream</a> on it, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005LVYSKQ/?tag=photomatt08-20">Aveda Peppymint breath refresher</a>, and an <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000IB0H8G/?tag=photomatt08-20">Aesop Ginger Flight Therapy</a> roller similar to the Blue Oil one from last year. Hat tip Esther, Naoko, and my mom.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00O5JARCI/?tag=photomatt08-20">Belkin car mount</a>, really handy when renting a car and navigating around. (3rd year)</li>
<li>This is a more-expensive but not-better version of what I had last year, which I&#8217;ll quote and actually recommend: &#8220;This is probably the least-travel-friendly thing I travel with, but the utility is so great I put up with it. It&#8217;s the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D4LBOV6/?tag=photomatt08-20">Sennheiser Culture Series Wideband Headset</a>, which I use for podcasts, Skype, Facetime, Zoom, and Google Hangout calls with external folks and teams inside of Automattic. Light, comfortable, great sound quality, and great at blocking out background noise so you don&#8217;t annoy other people on the call. Worth the hassle.&#8221; I leave the USB-C adapter attached to this. Cable still annoys me.</li>
<li>iPhone 7 Plus, on Verizon, with a <a href="https://bellroy.com/products/phone-case-3-card/i7plus/caramel">Bellroy 3-card case</a>. If you&#8217;re a guy I highly recommend trying out a phone wallet case, it&#8217;s a game-changer to only have one thing to keep track of and not having a wallet in your back pocket is good to avoid getting misaligned. I have three cards in it, an Amex, a Visa, and my drivers license. In NYC I also squeeze in the Metrocard. Hat tip: Craig (a previous Bellroy model).</li>
<li>The Japanese company <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TES88NK/?tag=photomatt08-20">Maruman makes this awesome grid-paper lie-flat notebook</a>, which I fill and occasionally draw in. I love this thing, and having a work area where I can have my laptop, mouse, iPad, and this notebook all set up next to each other is my happy place. The paper is soft. Hat tip: Brian.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01D3ODTNO/?tag=photomatt08-20">9.7&#8243; iPad Pro</a> + smart keyboard cover on AT&amp;T. I didn&#8217;t expect to, but I really love this device. It gives me way more joy than my phone or my laptops. Gorgeous screen, long battery life, always connect, I can tether to it, write on it with the pen in 32, the keyboard is fast and silent, split screen is handy&#8230; I don&#8217;t know how to describe it. Like the Airpods, this product just excels in every area. I still have and need to use a laptop, but it&#8217;s less of my day and mostly because of some internal tools and security stuff we have.</li>
<li>I ended up with this beast <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C316EIK/?tag=photomatt08-20">Cable Matters USB-c mega-dongle to cover ethernet, VGA, HDMI, and old USB</a>. Warning! <a href="http://www.asix.com.tw/download.php?sub=driverdetail&PItemID=131">To use the ethernet on MacOS you need weird drivers</a>. Hat tip: Amy.</li>
<li>I&#8217;m not sure why I started using this <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H2RBQUG/?tag=photomatt08-20">Plantronics Voyager bluetooth headset</a>, but it&#8217;s really good. This might not make the cut next year as the Airpods are pretty good, but if I&#8217;m going to be on a regular (non-Facetime) phone or conference call for a few hours, this is what I turn to. Hat tip: An Uber driver.</li>
<li>Lockpick set. (3rd year)</li>
<li>An awesome <a href="https://www.1101.com/store/techo/pc/en/2017/detail_toolstoys/tt_pen.html">Hobonichi Techo pen</a> (they have cool notebooks too), a sharpie (for signing fans&#8217; items), and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016NY7784/?tag=photomatt08-20">Apple Pencil for the iPad Pro</a>.</li>
<li>Two rings: one <a href="https://www.maisonmargiela.com/us/">Margiela</a> one which has my lucky number 11 circled (for a long reason related to their numbering system), and one with the WordPress logo that was also a swag prototype for a ten-year tenure gift. I might wear these to remind me of something I&#8217;m trying to remember or focus on during a day.</li>
<li>I&#8217;m digging this <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EN9QK6G/?tag=photomatt08-20">Imazing 10k charger</a>: it&#8217;s a cool color, smaller and lighter than last year&#8217;s, has a USB-C port, and outputs well. I found I never needed the 20k capacity of last year&#8217;s, hence the downsize to 10k.</li>
<li>This <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UWMCXD8/?tag=photomatt08-20">Aukey 30W / 6A travel wall charger</a> I wish was all USB-C ports. I sometimes trickle-charge the laptop off this overnight.</li>
<li>A really mediocre Native Union two-port USB I got from TED. Not going to link since it&#8217;s not very good because of the way it plugs in. Since the photo I replaced it with the much-more-useful <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Q873I3K/?tag=photomatt08-20">Aukey 2-port</a>, which I highly recommend and give away all the time.</li>
<li>A pretty handy <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GIQ8GOC/?tag=photomatt08-20">Ventev dashport car port charger that&#8217;s small and light</a>. I found myself rarely using the USB-C on last year&#8217;s so I opted for smaller size and less weight in this one.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VM2OPHY/?tag=photomatt08-20">Mintia mints</a> from Japan, yum. (I buy these there or ask friends to bring them back, they are much cheaper there than the cost on Amazon.)</li>
<li>This rat&#8217;s nest of cables and adapters is embarrassing, and I will further apologize and rant in the epilogue.</li>
<li>A random used mystery book I picked up at the <a href="http://paperhound.ca/">Paper Hound Bookshop</a> in Vancouver.</li>
</ol>
<p>What blows me away making this list is that since last year almost every single item has changed, unusually high churn. I see now why y&#8217;all were tweeting me to update this post.</p>
<p><strong>Two bonus items:</strong> Even in the summer I&#8217;ll often have something like <a href="https://shop.lululemon.com/p/mens-jackets-and-hoodies-hoodies/Surge-Light-Jacket/_/prod8431221">this light Lululemon running jacket</a> stuffed in a pocket for over air conditioned places or at the end of a flight when it gets chilly. I&#8217;m also currently testing out the <a href="http://www.choosemuse.com/">assisted meditation device The Muse</a>, but it hasn&#8217;t really stuck yet and I usually just turn to <a href="https://calm.com/">Calm</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Ensuring network continuity:</strong> One thing you&#8217;ll notice is the iPhone is on Verizon, which has the best network in the US, the iPad is on AT&amp;T, and the Pixel is on Google Fi. This allows me to have a diversity of network access which is occasionally handy in the US and has saved my butt a few times when overseas. Whichever device has the best connection I&#8217;ll just tether the others to it. I almost never join coffee shop or hotel wifi these days, a good LTE connection is usually better.</p>
<h3>USB-C Is Why We Can&#8217;t Have Nice Things</h3>
<p>Oh, USB-C, I love you. You&#8217;re reversible, fast, and work for everything, like I can charge my laptop with almost anything, and many new devices like Google Wifi use you for power. The dangerous cable on Amazon thing seems to have worked itself out, and having 4 ports on the laptop is amazing, I can charge everything I need off it. But as you can see from the mess of cables and how many other legacy USB things I&#8217;m carrying around, we&#8217;re (still!) in this really awkward in-between phase for computing. First, there are no good retractable cables, especially ones that have USB-C on one end and Lightning or Micro-USB on the other. I wish my headset, headphones, sunglasses, and Kindle didn&#8217;t need Micro-USB, and I wish the Airpods, iPhone, iPad Pro, Magic Mouse would just give up on Lightning and support USB-C instead. But we&#8217;re in this liminal space, and the number one thing I hope is better by next year&#8217;s post is that the USB-C accessory world has flourished and I just have a couple of neat retractable USB-C cables and things like the battery, wall charger, and car charger in 34, 35, and 37 just have all USB-C ports. A boy can dream, right?</p>
<h3>In Closing</h3>
<p>Partly because the backpack is a little smaller, I&#8217;ve really tried to streamline and a lot of things from last year, like a small digital camera, the Chromecasts, travel router, etc I don&#8217;t bother carrying around in my backpack anymore. I hope these can get simpler and shorter every year. I tagged these with an affiliate ID for Amazon this year but mostly just to see if anyone actually buys stuff from these posts. I walk millions of steps a year with my backpack and wouldn&#8217;t carry something around unless I really believed in it, which is also why I&#8217;m always testing and trying new things. As you can tell a lot of this kit has evolved from recommendations, so if you have any please leave a note in the comments. I&#8217;ve also considered doing something similar for shoes, clothes, apps, suitcases, or toiletries, so holler if you&#8217;d like any of those. Alrighty, that&#8217;s it until next year!</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 23 May 2017 17:05:50 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:25;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:92:"WPTavern: WordCamp Europe to Halt Regular Ticket Sales May 31, Fewer than 400 Tickets Remain";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70556";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:102:"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-europe-to-halt-regular-ticket-sales-may-31-fewer-than-400-tickets-remain";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2074:"<p>WordCamp Europe organizers will be <a href="https://2017.europe.wordcamp.org/2017/05/22/wceu-regular-ticket-sales-to-end-on-may-31st" target="_blank">ending regular ticket sales on May 31</a>. The event has sold out well in advance in previous years, but the logistics of managing a budget for an estimated 3,000 attendees prompted organizers to opt for ending ticket sales two weeks before the event:</p>
<blockquote><p>As WordCamp Europe is a community event, we have to be extra careful with every penny that’s spent. We are invested in things that improve the event’s accessibility and inclusivity, and we’d like to have the precise number of people attending to avoid unnecessary costs (for example, ordering extra lunches – something that we need to do two weeks in advance).</p></blockquote>
<p>As tickets have been on sale for nearly a year, the majority of those who are planning to attend have already purchased their tickets. A few already-purchased tickets may also become available at the last minute due to France <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-europe-attendees-are-being-denied-visas-because-conference-ticket-price-is-too-low" target="_blank">denying visas to prospective attendees</a>. One reason officials cited in several instances is that the ticket price is too low to justify international travel.</p>
<p>Rocío Valdivia, an organizer on WordCamp Europe&#8217;s Community Team, reports that approximately 10 attendees have been denied entry for the Community Summit due to visa issues.</p>
<p>&#8220;A lot of them were from India and one from Indonesia,&#8221; Valdivia said. &#8220;100% of them were from Asia.&#8221; Several who were denied have resubmitted their visa documents with updated invitation letters and are waiting to hear from officials.</p>
<p>Last-minute attendees who miss the May 31st regular ticket deadline can still <a href="https://2017.europe.wordcamp.org/tickets/" target="_blank">purchase a micro-sponsorship</a> for € 150.00, which includes a ticket to the event.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 23 May 2017 15:39:08 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:26;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:87:"WPTavern: WordPress 4.8 Increases Maximum Width of the Customizer Sidebar to 600 Pixels";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70572";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:98:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-8-increases-maximum-width-of-the-customizer-sidebar-to-600-pixels";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3135:"<p><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/customize-api/">WordPress 3.4</a> introduced the WordPress Customizer API and over time it has evolved from being a theme customizer to a framework for live-previewing changes to WordPress.</p>
<p>Since its inclusion, one of the most <a href="https://wptavern.com/new-wordpress-feature-plugin-lets-users-resize-the-customizer-pane#comment-118594">common complaints</a> about the Customizer is its narrow sidebar. Even on widescreen monitors, the Customizer sidebar is only 300px wide.</p>
<p>This limitation was one of the motivating factors behind the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/customize-pane-resizer/">Customize Pane Resizer</a> feature plugin <a href="https://wptavern.com/new-wordpress-feature-plugin-lets-users-resize-the-customizer-pane">created in 2015</a>. Although Customize component maintainers tried to get the feature plugin ready in time for WordPress 4.5, it didn&#8217;t make it.</p>
<h2>In WordPress 4.8, the Customizer Sidebar Has a Variable Width</h2>
<p>Weston Ruter, Customize component maintainer, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2017/05/16/customizer-sidebar-width-is-now-variable/">announced</a> that the Customizer sidebar in WordPress 4.8 has a variable width.</p>
<p>&#8220;Ticket <span class="p2_hovercardify"><a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/32296">#32296</a></span> was created to allow the sidebar pane to be user-resizable with a grabber just like the Dev Tools pane in Chrome can be resized,&#8221; Ruter said.</p>
<p>&#8220;After a lot of back and forth, the scope was reduced to remove the user-resizable aspect and to instead address a more fundamental issue that the sidebar is exceedingly and unnecessarily narrow on high-resolution displays.&#8221;</p>
<p>The sidebar has a minimum width of 300px and a maximum width of 600px. What users see depends on the width of their screen. I use a 21 inch widescreen monitor and the width of the sidebar on my screen is 345px.</p>
<img />345 Pixel Wide Customizer Sidebar
<p>While not a huge change, the extra width is noticeable. WordPress theme and plugin developers who have built custom controls into the Customizer are highly encouraged to test WordPress 4.8 to ensure that they display properly on large screens.</p>
<p>&#8220;Custom controls in plugins and themes should utilize alternative approaches to doing layout than using pixel widths,&#8221; Ruter said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Use of percentage-based widths or flexbox will help ensure that controls will <em>appear properly in larger displays</em>, while also making controls <em>future-compatible</em> when the sidebar width could be user-resizable.&#8221;</p>
<p>If you&#8217;d like to be able to adjust the width of the sidebar, check out the <a href="https://github.com/xwp/wp-customize-pane-resizer">Customize Pane Resizer</a> plugin. I tested it on WordPress 4.8 beta 2 and it works as expected. There&#8217;s also the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/fluid-customizer/">Fluid Customizer</a> plugin which also allows you to manually resize the sidebar.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 23 May 2017 02:46:45 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:27;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"Dev Blog: WordPress 4.8 Beta 2";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=4749";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://wordpress.org/news/2017/05/wordpress-4-8-beta-2/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1596:"<p>WordPress 4.8 Beta 2 is now available!</p>
<p><strong>This software is still in development,</strong> so we don’t recommend you run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site just to play with the new version. To test WordPress 4.8, try the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester</a> plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-4.8-beta2.zip">download the beta here</a> (zip).</p>
<p>For more information on what’s new in 4.8, check out the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2017/05/wordpress-4-8-beta-1/">Beta 1</a> blog post. Since then, we’ve made <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/log/trunk/?action=stop_on_copy&mode=stop_on_copy&rev=40819&stop_rev=40664&limit=100&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=">over 50 changes</a> in Beta 2.</p>
<p>Do you speak a language other than English? <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp/dev">Help us translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!</a></p>
<p><strong>If you think you’ve found a bug</strong>, you can post to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta">Alpha/Beta area</a> in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/reports/">file one on WordPress Trac</a>, where you can also find <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major">a list of known bugs</a>.</p>
<p><em>WordPress four point eight<br />
One step closer to release<br />
Please test Beta 2!</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 23 May 2017 00:02:03 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10:"Mel Choyce";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:28;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:106:"WPTavern: Storefront 2.2.0 Released, Includes Design Refresh and Major Improvements to New User Experience";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70561";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:116:"https://wptavern.com/storefront-2-2-0-released-includes-design-refresh-and-major-improvements-to-new-user-experience";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3651:"<p>WooCommerce&#8217;s flagship <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/storefront/" target="_blank">Storefront</a> theme <a href="https://storefront.wordpress.com/2017/05/22/storefront-2-2-0-is-now-available-to-download/" target="_blank">released version 2.2.0 today</a>. The release has been more than five months in the making since planning began in early December 2016.</p>
<p>Storefront 2.2.0 focuses on improving the new user experience. Getting all of the right widgets and design settings in place to set up a new store has been a challenge for users in the past. This release introduces a new setup and configuration wizard in the Cusotmizer that takes advantage of WordPress 4.7’s Starter Content feature. If the user is starting with a fresh store, the wizard will automatically import example products, create the homepage and set the correct template, assign the &#8216;full width&#8217; template to the cart and checkout pages, and remove unnecessary widgets.</p>
<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/storefront-setup-wizard.png?ssl=1"><img /></a>Storefront setup wizard in the Customozer
<p>This release also brings an overall design refresh that includes a new homepage hero section. The Storefront development team replaced the theme&#8217;s previous dark header background with a white one in order to put the focus on product images and improve the appearance of site logos. This small but important change gives the theme an overall lighter look and will be important for child themes to account for in their styles.</p>
<p>Storefront 2.2 also adds subtle changes to typography, font weights, and button styles for a more minimalist, less-opinionated base design.</p>
<a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/storefront-design-refresh.png?ssl=1"><img /></a>Storefront design refresh
<p>These changes are in line with what Matt Mullenweg said about Storefront when we interviewed him in December. He said Storefront was due for a design update and has a lot of potential for improvement.</p>
<p>“With the Storefront theme there’s actually a lot we can do there to make it look like a really cool store out of the box, much like the default themes in WordPress,” Mullenweg said. “Part of the reason we change them every year is what was cool in 2012 is not cool in 2017. Fashions change, trends change. I think Woo should evolve Storefront in the same way. There’s kind of a look for independent stores right now. They’ve got a certain vibe. Let’s make it easy to do that vibe, so that you don’t have to be on Etsy or Amazon or one of the e-commerce monoliths to keep people coming to you and supporting your product.”</p>
<p>Whereas many Storefront users had to opt for a child theme in order to have a more product-focused homepage in the past, the design and user experience improvements in the 2.2.0 release make the theme a more compelling option for use by itself.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/storefront/" target="_blank">more than 90,000 stores using Storefront</a> as a base for their sites WordPress.org lists eight child themes using Storefront as a parent and WooCommerce.com also has a directory of <a href="https://woocommerce.com/product-category/themes/storefront-child-theme-themes/" target="_blank">free and commercial child themes</a>. This major release will likely affect all stores using these themes in one way or another. To avoid any surprise design updates, the WooCommerce team recommends that users test version 2.2.0 in a development environment before updating.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 22 May 2017 20:13:26 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:29;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:27:"Matt: Boarding Wrong Flight";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=47325";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:44:"https://ma.tt/2017/05/boarding-wrong-flight/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:567:"<p>The Economist writes <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2017/05/where-am-i?fsrc=gnews">about who&#8217;s wrong when flyers end up in the wrong cities</a>. This has actually happened to me! Probably 7-8 years ago, it was an Air Canada flight from New York to Montreal, and I accidentally boarded the one to Toronto. The mistake was realized when we were on the ground, but had pulled away from gate. Being Canadian, they were exceedingly nice and asked me to stay on the flight but they&#8217;d find me one from Toronto to Montreal after I landed.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sun, 21 May 2017 22:45:02 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:30;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:25:"Matt: IBM Goes Non-Remote";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=47342";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:42:"https://ma.tt/2017/05/ibm-goes-non-remote/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1784:"<p>Like Yahoo a few years ago, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ibm-a-pioneer-of-remote-work-calls-workers-back-to-the-office-1495108802">IBM, an early pioneer of distributed work, is calling workers back to the office</a>.</p>
<blockquote><p>The shift is particularly surprising since the Armonk, N.Y., company has been among the business world’s staunchest boosters of remote work, both for itself and its customers. IBM markets software and services for what it calls “the anytime, anywhere workforce,” and its researchers have published numerous studies on the merits of remote work.</p></blockquote>
<p>If &#8220;IBM has boasted that more than 40% of employees worked outside traditional company offices&#8221; and they currently have 380,000 employees (wow), then that&#8217;s 152k people on the market.</p>
<p>As I said when Yahoo did the same, it&#8217;s hard to judge this from the outside. A company that was happy about how they&#8217;re doing wouldn&#8217;t make a shift this big or this suddenly. It&#8217;s very possible the way distributed folks were interacting with their in-office teams wasn&#8217;t satisfactory, especially if they were forced to use subpar in-house tools like SameTime instead of Zoom or Skype. Yahoo didn&#8217;t have the best trajectory after they made a similar move, and hopefully IBM isn&#8217;t going to follow the same path.</p>
<p>In the meantime, Automattic and <a href="https://zapier.com/blog/companies-hiring-remote-workers/">many other companies</a> are hiring. If you aren&#8217;t going to work in a company&#8217;s headquarters, it is probably safest to work at a company that is fully distributed (no second tier for people not at HQ) rather than be one of a few &#8220;remote&#8221; people at a centralized company.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 20 May 2017 19:21:45 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:31;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:80:"Post Status: WordPress in higher education, with Rachel Cherry — Draft Podcast";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=37073";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"https://poststatus.com/wordpress-higher-education-rachel-cherry-draft-podcast/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2465:"<p>Welcome to the Post Status <a href="https://poststatus.com/category/draft">Draft podcast</a>, which you can find <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/post-status-draft-wordpress/id976403008">on iTunes</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/music/m/Ih5egfxskgcec4qadr3f4zfpzzm?t=Post_Status__Draft_WordPress_Podcast">Google Play</a>, <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/krogsgard/post-status-draft-wordpress-podcast">Stitcher</a>, and <a href="http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1061/rss">via RSS</a> for your favorite podcatcher. Post Status Draft is hosted by Brian Krogsgard.</p>
<p>Brian is joined by guest-host Rachel Cherry &#8212; a Senior Software Engineer at Disney, and the organizer of WPCampus, an event for WordPress in higher education. They discuss many of the things that folks working with WordPress in higher education encounter during this episode.</p>
<p>Prior to working for Disney, Rachel spent around a decade working on the web in higher ed, most recently at the University of Alabama.</p>
<p><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');</script><![endif]-->
<a href="https://audio.simplecast.com/70150.mp3">https://audio.simplecast.com/70150.mp3</a><br />
<a href="https://audio.simplecast.com/70150.mp3"> Direct Download</a></p>
<h3>Links</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://bamadesigner.com/">Rachel&#8217;s website</a></li>
<li><a href="https://wpcampus.org/">WPCampus</a>, which will be held on July 13-14 in Buffalo, New York.</li>
<li><a href="https://theeventscalendar.com/">The Events Calendar</a>, by Modern Tribe</li>
<li><a href="http://eng.ua.edu/">University of Alabama Engineering</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/washingtonstateuniversity">Washington State University Github</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Sponsor: SiteGround</h3>
<p><a href="https://www.siteground.com/wordpress-hosting.htm/?utm_source=post_status&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=ps_ads">SiteGround</a> is engineered for speed, built for security, and crafted for WordPress. They offer feature-rich managed WordPress hosting with premium support, and are officially recommended by WordPress.org. Check out <a href="https://siteground.com/poststatus/?utm_source=post_status&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=ps_ads">SiteGround&#8217;s website</a> for a special deal for Post Status listeners, and thanks to SiteGround for being a Post Status partner.</p>
<p><em>Photo by <a href="http://found-art-photography.com/">Found Art Photography</a></em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 20 May 2017 16:09:13 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15:"Brian Krogsgard";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:32;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:79:"WPTavern: Avada Theme Version 5.1.5 Patches Stored XSS and CSRF Vulnerabilities";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70466";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:90:"https://wptavern.com/avada-theme-version-5-1-5-patches-stored-xss-and-csrf-vulnerabilities";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2987:"<p>Theme Fusion&#8217;s <a href="https://avada.theme-fusion.com/" target="_blank">Avada WordPress Theme</a>, the highest selling theme on Themeforest for the past four years, has <a href="https://theme-fusion.com/security-fixes-added-5-1-5/" target="_blank">fixed stored XSS and CSRF vulnerabilities in its 5.1.5 release</a>. The security issues were <a href="http://wphutte.com" target="_blank">discovered by WP Hütte</a>, a WordPress security blog, and the site published details of the vulnerabilities after Theme Fusion patched its theme.</p>
<p>Although the patched version has been available since early April, a <a href="http://wewatchyourwebsite.com/avada-wordpress-theme-please-update-immediately/" target="_blank">notification</a> was only recently sent out to Avada customers from Envato via email, urging them to update. Avada announced the release of 5.1.5 but did not publish anything publicly on the security issues that it fixes. Customers started learning about the vulnerabilities from the <a href="https://wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/8801" target="_blank">WPScan Vulnerability Database</a>, WP Hütte, and posts on Twitter.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Avada 5.1.5 is out and is compatible with the new WooCommerce 3.0!</p>
<p>&mdash; ThemeFusion (@Theme_Fusion) <a href="https://twitter.com/Theme_Fusion/status/849311534916521984">April 4, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">I love it, when I only discover information about security fixes by accident. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Avada?src=hash">#Avada</a> <a href="https://t.co/DPZFiuEVzO">https://t.co/DPZFiuEVzO</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Jan-Peter Lambeck (@jplambeck) <a href="https://twitter.com/jplambeck/status/865276828453359616">May 18, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/Theme_Fusion">@Theme_Fusion</a> any public release on the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/avada?src=hash">#avada</a> security issues?</p>
<p>&mdash; Val Vesa (@adspedia) <a href="https://twitter.com/adspedia/status/865299944613261313">May 18, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Theme Fusion left the security issues buried in the <a href="http://theme-fusion.com/avada-documentation/changelog.txt" target="_blank">changelog</a> until today when customers began receiving email notices about it. A fix was available for more than a month while customers who were unaware and had not updated were left vulnerable. Envato&#8217;s email encourages all users to update, as the release is for all previous versions of Avada.</p>
<p>If you have purchased Avada for clients or for yourself, you can update to the latest version by downloading it from your Envato Market account and reinstalling it. Customers with the Envato Market WordPress plugin installed can access automatic updates within the WordPress admin.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 20 May 2017 01:20:53 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:33;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:75:"WPTavern: Quick Tip: How to Access Jetpack’s Alternative Module Interface";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70462";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:82:"https://wptavern.com/quick-tip-how-to-access-jetpacks-alternative-module-interface";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1621:"<p>Late last year, Jetpack 4.3 unveiled a <a href="https://wptavern.com/jetpack-4-3-released-features-new-react-js-powered-admin-interface">new admin interface</a> written in React.js. The Jetpack team received feedback from more than 8K users before it was publicly released.</p>
<p>While the old interface displayed all modules on one page, the new interface breaks up module management into sections. You can also access some modules by typing its name into the search bar.</p>
<img />Modules are Displayed in Sections
<p>A few days ago, I ran into a situation where I needed to find out if the Tiled and Carousel modules were enabled. I tried to locate the modules on the settings page but experienced difficulty as it&#8217;s filled with toggles and sub-menus. It&#8217;s not clear which module or modules are activated when a menu item is turned on.</p>
<img />Jetpack Module Search Results
<p>If you prefer to use the old interface for managing modules, add <strong>wp-admin/admin.php?page=jetpack_modules</strong> to the URL. You can also access the old interface through Jetpack&#8217;s Debug page.</p>
<img />Jetpack&#8217;s Alternative Module Interface
<p>I prefer this interface over the new one as I know which modules are on or off. Modules are also easier to find as they&#8217;re listed in alphabetical order. Ben Gillbanks <a href="https://www.binarymoon.co.uk/2017/01/wordpress-jetpack-admin-backup-problems/">originally shared the tip</a> after discovering it solved his issues with changing Jetpack&#8217;s settings.</p>
<p>Which interface do you prefer?</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 19 May 2017 23:26:02 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:34;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:101:"WPTavern: WordCamp Europe Attendees Are Being Denied Visas Because Conference Ticket Price Is Too Low";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70446";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:112:"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-europe-attendees-are-being-denied-visas-because-conference-ticket-price-is-too-low";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7476:"<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/wordcamp-europe-2017.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>This morning, WordCamp Europe 2017 organizers published an <a href="https://2017.europe.wordcamp.org/2017/05/19/a-letter-from-wordpress-community-to-emmanuel-macron-the-president-of-france/#en" target="_blank">open letter to Emmanuel Macron</a>, the president of France, regarding attendees being denied visas for the event. According to the rejections attendees have received, France is denying the visas because the ticket price for the conference is too low:</p>
<blockquote><p>It has come to our attention that our friends from some countries are having problems with their Visas being rejected on the ground that “a 40€ entry fee cannot justify international travel”, something that makes this conference accessible to all. We are sad this is happening because now — for the first time in WordCamp Europe history — our inclusiveness is a burden we are carrying.</p></blockquote>
<p>The open letter explains the WordCamp tradition of keeping ticket prices low to make it more inclusive for all income levels.</p>
<p>WCEU Communications Lead Emanuel Blagonic estimates that five people from India that have already been denied visas but said more attendees and contributors will be taking their interviews in the coming days.</p>
<p>&#8220;We didn&#8217;t write it to get an official response, as it is an open letter, but we hope to send the message about the importance of being inclusive and accessible – what WordCamps are, mainly because of the small ticket price,&#8221; Blagonic said. &#8220;We hope this letter will help officials understand that.&#8221;</p>
<p>Despite the innocuous nature of WordCamps, obtaining visas to attend these events is a perennial struggle for attendees coming from nations that have strained relations, security concerns, or other issues with the host country. Petya Raykovska, who helped organize last year&#8217;s WordCamp Europe in Vienna, said that Pakistan was the country from which the most people were declined visas. This year she has already seen several members of the Polyglots contributor team denied visas for the community summit.</p>
<p>&#8220;Both the WCEU and WCUS teams go above and beyond to help people get to the camp,&#8221; Raykovska said. &#8220;The WCEU team has been doing that for years, writing invitation letters in formats required by the embassies for each of the different countries.&#8221;</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the letters don&#8217;t always make enough of an impact. <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chiragpatel/" target="_blank">Chirag Patel</a>, a core contributor and editor of the Gujarati translation, was denied a visa coming from India. He expressed disappointment and said he hates the visa process.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am a volunteer and was selected for the WCEU Summit as well but I am not able to get a visa,&#8221; Patel said. &#8220;It is so frustrating.&#8221;</p>
<p>Patel is re-applying with a new invitation letter and WordCamp contact details, but cannot make his travel arrangements until he is approved. This has resulted in a significantly higher cost for the trip. Patel said if it were not for his company supporting him, he would not be able to afford the increase in cost.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rarst.net/" target="_blank">Andrey Savchenko</a>, a WordPress contributor living in Ukraine, is no stranger to visa denial but is fortunate to have a five year visa to the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/borders-and-visas/schengen_en" target="_blank">Shengen area</a> to attend WCEU this year. When attending WCEU in Seville in 2015, his invitation from the organizers was lost twice in the mail and he received a visa a mere five days before the event.</p>
<p>&#8220;That added around $400 to the cost of my flights,&#8221; Savchenko said. &#8220;Also, due to the short term visa, I could not even fly home from Seville. I had to take the train to Madrid and fly from there, to be out of country before my visa expired the day after the WordCamp.&#8221;</p>
<p>Savchenko was denied a visa to the U.S. for the first community summit in 2012. He described the interview in a post titled &#8220;<a href="https://www.rarst.net/thoughts/world-with-borders/" target="_blank">The world with borders</a>:&#8221;</p>
<blockquote><p>My thin folder stays closed through all of it. My home, the one location in the world I care deeply about, is nothing. My savings, which fuel slim hope I will be able to live in a way different from paycheck-to-paycheck one day, are of no interest &#8211; all are disposable and meaningless on their scale against the chance of me “escaping” to their country.</p>
<p>I get back my passport and a boilerplate response letter from thick pile of printouts. It thoroughly explains that I failed to display considerable attachments and am thus guilty of trying to sneak into and stay in United States illegally by default. I feel curiously powerless &#8211; no loopholes to find, no leverage to apply, no help to call for, no proof that matters.</p>
<p>They spend ten minutes of their time (split about evenly between security, taking my fingerprints and interview itself) for which they charge $170. The following evening I spend much longer on Twitter, telling many people I won’t meet them and accepting their bitter disappointment.</p></blockquote>
<p>Lead organizer Paolo Belcastro said the team has received approximately 60 requests for invitation letters, which accounts for roughly 2% of expected attendees. Although there have been only a handful of visa denials so far, many have yet to interview. Belcastro said the team penned the letter based on the feedback of a few while they still have a chance to help them.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think the worst about [the interview process] is how helpless it makes you feel,&#8221; Savchenko said. &#8220;Someone gets to make a judgement about you as a person and you get to pay to be called untrustworthy and unwelcome.&#8221;</p>
<p>For WordCamp attendees who have never had to jump through the hoops of a visa application, it&#8217;s important to remember that events held in major U.S. or European cities will always be missing the faces of valuable contributors who were unable to obtain a visa. Situations like these underscore the reality that virtual, online events, while lacking in much of the excitement and interpersonal connection, are by far the most inclusive way to gather and pass on information.</p>
<p>WCEU organizers said they hope the President of France can help &#8220;unblock the situation&#8221; for the remaining attendees who are still going through the visa application process. Belcastro said the chances of the open letter being read by anyone with the power of changing anything are small, especially since the French government went through a major change last week.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s important to note that we have no wish to ask for any special treatment,&#8221; Belcastro said. &#8220;It&#8217;s not about asking for automatic approval of visas for our attendees, as there are many other criteria involved that we totally respect.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our wish is to underline that the value of a conference can&#8217;t be measured by the price of its entry ticket &#8211; the same way the value of WordPress can&#8217;t be measured by its price tag.&#8221;</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 19 May 2017 20:06:50 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:35;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16:"Matt: Candy Diet";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=47331";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:33:"https://ma.tt/2017/05/candy-diet/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:713:"<blockquote><p>The bestselling novel of 1961 was Allen Drury&#8217;s <em>Advise and Consent</em>. Millions of people read this 690-page political novel. In 2016, the big sellers were coloring books.</p>
<p>Fifteen years ago, cable channels like TLC (the &#8220;L&#8221; stood for Learning), Bravo and the History Channel (the &#8220;History&#8221; stood for History) promised to add texture and information to the blighted TV landscape. Now these networks run shows about marrying people based on how well they kiss.</p></blockquote>
<p>It&#8217;s from a few months ago, but <a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2017/01/the-candy-diet.html">Seth Godin is really on fire in The Candy Diet</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 19 May 2017 18:06:54 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:36;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"WPTavern: WordPress.com’s TV Commercials Are Confusing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70288";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:64:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-coms-tv-commercials-are-confusing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6029:"<p>In Matt Mullenweg&#8217;s 2016 <a href="http://wordpress.tv/2016/12/07/matt-mullenweg-state-of-the-word-2016/">State of the Word</a>, <a href="https://videopress.com/v/IYfHX4jN?at=1650">he announced</a> the <a href="https://wptavern.com/matt-mullenweg-proposes-wordpress-growth-council">WordPress Growth Council</a>. The council was created as a think-tank for individuals and organizations in the WordPress community to share ideas on how best to tell WordPress&#8217; story to grow market share.</p>
<p>The Growth Council serves as a collaborative means to combat the more than $300M in advertising spent by competitors like Squarespace and Wix. In the presentation, Mullenweg stated that marketing WordPress would become a higher priority compared to previous years.</p>
<h2>WordPress.com&#8217;s First TV Ads</h2>
<p>Automattic has unveiled <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwRn5wq8AJk">five commercials</a> that are being tested in six different television markets. The videos were created <a href="https://design.blog/2017/05/18/how-a-detroit-hackathon-turned-into-wordpress-coms-first-ever-tv-spots/">earlier this year</a> when a volunteer team of Automatticians visited Detroit, MI, to participate in the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/eshachhabra/2015/03/31/8-innovative-urban-solutions-from-knight-cities-challenge/#6e5a96864d95">Rebrand Detroit</a> project.</p>
<p>Working with <a href="http://hajjflemings.com/">Hajj Flemings</a>, founder of <a href="https://brandcamp.design/">Brand Camp University</a>, the team helped launch new sites for nine small businesses over a 48 hour period. The sites that were launched include:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://artinmotiondet.com/">Art in Motion</a></li>
<li><a href="https://brixdetroit.com">Brix Wine and Charcuterie Boutique</a></li>
<li><a href="https://laposadadetroit.com/">La Posada</a></li>
<li><a href="https://redbagdetroit.com/">Red Bag Boutique</a></li>
<li><a href="https://elsalpicondetroit.com">El Salpicon</a></li>
<li><a href="http://royalfreshmarketdetroit.com/">Royal Fresh Market</a></li>
<li><a href="https://mamacoosboutique.com">Mama Coo’s Boutique</a></li>
<li><a href="http://thegardenbugdetroit.com">The Garden Bug</a></li>
<li><a href="http://justjavahouse.com/">Motor City Java House</a></li>
</ul>
<p>The commercials are part of a series called &#8216;Free to be&#8217; where business owners share what success means to them and the city of Detroit.</p>
<div class="embed-wrap"></div>
<p>Each video displays a WordPress logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen with occasional factoids highlighted across the center. The commercials end with the WordPress logo displayed in the center with the words, Websites, Blogs, and Domains underneath.</p>
<img />WordPress.com Commercial Ending
<h2>The Message in the Commercials Is Unclear</h2>
<p>I&#8217;ve watched each commercial a few times and my initial reaction is confusion. I don&#8217;t know exactly what WordPress.com is trying to sell me. It&#8217;s obvious that these people are seeing success with hosting their sites on WordPress.com. But is it because of the tools available or is it because the VIP team or other staff members stepped in and guided them through the process?</p>
<p>Unlike Squarespace&#8217;s commercials that showcase the product front and center, these commercials don&#8217;t show any of the capabilities of WordPress.com. In one of the videos, the text, &#8220;Customizable websites that can change with the times&#8221; is displayed. Instead of showing the business owners changing the look of their site with the Customizer, the commercial ends.</p>
<img />Customizable With The Times
<p>In a different video, WordPress&#8217; total market share is used as a selling point. Using this datapoint in a commercial geared towards WordPress.com is unsettling. Eric Mann, a long time WordPress developer, <a href="https://ttmm.io/tech/wordpress-com-not-wordpress/">feels the same way</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>I have no problem with WordPress.com advertisements on TV or the Radio or elsewhere. They’re great ways for Automattic to build recognition of their product and encourage new signups.</p>
<p>I <em>do</em> have a problem with advertisements conflating WordPress and WordPress.com by subtly suggesting that the &#8216;27% of the Internet run on WordPress&#8217; is due to Automattic or is somehow <em>because</em> of WordPress.com.</p></blockquote>
<p>A majority of the 27% or now 28% of the web, according to <a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_management/all">W3Techs</a>, uses self-hosted WordPress, not WordPress.com.</p>
<p><img /></p>
<p>Self-hosted WordPress and WordPress.com have a symbiotic relationship. Getting into semantics may seem like nitpicking but it&#8217;s important to distinguish that they are not the same thing.</p>
<p>The marketing material used in the screenshot above conflates them. Examples like this don&#8217;t do anything to alleviate the <a href="https://poststatus.com/resources/wordpress-versus-automattic/">confusion that exists</a> between WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress.</p>
<p>I realize I&#8217;m not the target market for these ads but they leave me with more questions than answers. Squarespace commercials intrigue me to the point of wanting to check out what the service has to offer. Meanwhile, I don&#8217;t have any emotional reaction after watching the WordPress.com commercials.</p>
<p>In the future, I&#8217;d like to see a commercial that highlights the tools available on WordPress.com and shows a human using them to quickly edit and change their sites. This is something I think a lot of people can relate to instead of reading text that explains what the service&#8217;s capabilities are.</p>
<p>If you were tasked with producing a commercial for WordPress.com, how would you showcase the best of what the service has to offer? Let us know what you think of the commercials in the comments.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 19 May 2017 07:10:13 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:37;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"WPTavern: Primary Vagrant 4.0 Updated to Use PHP 7.1, Introduces a Site Generator";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70287";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:91:"https://wptavern.com/primary-vagrant-4-0-updated-to-use-php-7-1-introduces-a-site-generator";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5094:"<p>In 2014, <a href="https://chriswiegman.com/" target="_blank">Chris Wiegman</a> forked VVV to create <a href="https://github.com/ChrisWiegman/Primary-Vagrant" target="_blank">Primary Vagrant</a>, an Apache based Vagrant configuration that uses <a href="https://puppetlabs.com/" target="_blank">Puppet</a>. The project has steadily evolved over the past three years and the latest release includes significant changes that require users to destroy any existing environments before upgrading.</p>
<p><a href="https://chriswiegman.com/2017/05/primary-vagrant-4-0/" target="_blank">Primary Vagrant 4.0</a> runs on PHP 7.1 by default. It also introduces a <a href="https://github.com/ChrisWiegman/Primary-Vagrant/wiki/Adding-a-Project" target="_blank">site generator</a> that makes it easy to create and manage new sites. The project has incorporated <a href="https://github.com/vagrant-landrush/landrush" target="_blank">Landrush</a>, a Vagrant plugin that provides a simple DNS server without users having to edit their hosts file.</p>
<p>Wiegman said the direction for the release came from a combination of user feedback as well as features and fixes incorporated back from a fork of Primary Vagrant that he uses at his day job as a WordPress/Web Developer at UF Health at University of Florida. He and four other colleagues use it daily, which has helped him continually improve the project. Version 4.0 was released alongside a new extensive <a href="https://github.com/ChrisWiegman/Primary-Vagrant/wiki" target="_blank">Wiki</a> which Wiegman created to make it easier for his team at work.</p>
<p>Switching between PHP versions is not yet as easy as Wiegman would like it to be. It can be done but he doesn&#8217;t recommend it. He is considering moving the project to use Docker in the future but will be sticking with Vagrant for the time being.</p>
<p>&#8220;Most Docker configs I see are really done the same way as Vagrant boxes simply swapping Docker for Vagrant,&#8221; Wiegman said. &#8220;I’ve debated moving this project to Docker but it would be done to allow more flexibility (swap nginx/mysql, php versions, etc). So far I’ve been more interested in making this as complete as possible for what I need it to do and I think with 4.0 it’s finally there.&#8221;</p>
<p>Wiegman has been considering abandoning Vagrant for Docker for more than six months. In a November 2016 post titled <a href="https://chriswiegman.com/2016/11/vagrant-not-answer-everyone/" target="_blank">Vagrant Is Not the Answer for Everyone</a>, he identified a few of its shortcomings.</p>
<p>&#8220;After working with Vagrant for nearly three years. and even writing a post on how great it is, I can now say without hesitation that it is not the solution I thought it was,&#8221; Wiegman said. &#8220;I don’t say that lightly either as I’m about to launch version 4.0 of my Primary Vagrant project. Instead I say it based on the expectations we have put on it as a development community combined with the ecosystem (or lack thereof) of the tools we have been using to attempt to bend it to our will.&#8221;</p>
<p>Vagrant&#8217;s lack of flexibility for configuring software versions along with the lack of good interfaces to modify things like virtual host configurations have caused Weigman to take a second look at other solutions. Although Vagrant solves many issues for those who need to reproduce a development environment, dealing with the frustrating fragility of its maintenance requirements can sometimes be a major time sink.</p>
<p>&#8220;The need for a good Vagrant box to install and configure the various pieces that make it all work means it doesn’t take much for something to fail resulting in, at best, an error message that requires another provision and, at worst, lost hours spent attempting to solve the issue in the tool that is supposed to help you build your product,&#8221; Wiegman said.</p>
<p>The engineering team at 10up, creators of VVV, have also recognized some of the major drawbacks of using VVV, Vagrant, and Virtual Box/Hyper-V. They have recently <a href="https://wptavern.com/10up-releases-wp-docker-an-open-source-docker-configuration-for-local-wordpress-development" target="_blank">released WP Docker</a> as a faster, more lightweight alternative. Although the company still uses VVV in some instances, its development teams are free to choose the best solution for their projects.</p>
<p>For Primary Vagrant&#8217;s upcoming 5.0 release, Wiegman is considering using Puppet 4 or replacing it with a new provisioning solution. He is also carefully examining a move to Docker and is experimenting to decide what will be best. Moving to Docker would offer the ability to treat PHP, MySQL, Apache, and other services more like a module that could be easily replaced, allowing for greater customization.</p>
<p>&#8220;If I went Docker it might become Primary Docker and Primary Vagrant might be put up for adoption,&#8221; Wiegman said. &#8220;I&#8217;m not really sure yet, as that’s a pretty major change.&#8221;</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 19 May 2017 04:26:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:38;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:23:"Matt: One Million Words";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=47339";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:40:"https://ma.tt/2017/05/one-million-words/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:297:"<p>My colleague Sara <a href="https://whenihavetime.com/2017/05/18/a-million-words-published-at-work-in-a-remote-company/">has reached one million words posted to our internal sites</a>, and has some tips for distributed work and communication. I just checked my stats, I&#8217;m only at 867k.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 18 May 2017 23:56:32 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:39;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"WPTavern: Atom Editor Adds Git and GitHub Integration";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70245";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:64:"https://wptavern.com/atom-editor-adds-git-and-github-integration";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3355:"<p>GitHub <a href="https://github.com/blog/1831-atom-free-and-open-source-for-everyone" target="_blank">open sourced its JavaScript-powered Atom editor</a> in 2014 with extensibility designed to be its single-most important feature. Over the past three years, a thriving ecosystem of more than 6,000 <a href="https://atom.io/packages" target="_blank">packages to extend the editor</a> has grown out of Atom&#8217;s open source community. GitHub estimates Atom now has 2.1 million active users.</p>
<p>This week Atom added a major missing piece for developers who rely on GitHub as an indispensable part of their workflows. A <a href="https://github.atom.io/" target="_blank">new core package adds Git and GitHub integration</a> to the editor with a dock item and status bar widgets. The first iteration&#8217;s UI gives Atom users the ability to stage changes, create commits, create and switch branches, and resolve merge conflicts. Users can also see pull requests associated with the current branch in the sidebar, as well as a detailed view of issues or pull requests.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/github-package-git.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>The Atom editor is gaining popularity with WordPress developers. Its package directory lists more than a dozen <a href="https://atom.io/packages/search?q=WordPress" target="_blank">packages for WordPress development</a>, including <a href="https://wptavern.com/atom-editor-package-adds-autocomplete-for-wordpress-actions-and-filters" target="_blank">autocomplete for WordPress actions and filters</a> and <a href="https://wptavern.com/new-atom-editor-package-offers-code-snippets-for-wordpress-plugin-and-theme-developers" target="_blank">code snippets for plugin and theme developers</a>.</p>
<p>GitHub also announced the launch of its new open source GitHub client. <a href="https://desktop.github.com/" target="_blank">GitHub Desktop Beta</a> has been redesigned in <a href="https://electron.atom.io/" target="_blank">Electron</a> to provide a simpler user experience for developers who are new to Git. Building the application on Electron also enables the product&#8217;s development team to move its existing desktop apps to a shared codebase, as outlined on the <a href="https://githubengineering.com/how-four-native-developers-wrote-an-electron-app/" target="_blank">GitHub Engineering blog</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>From the start, GitHub Desktop for macOS and Windows were two distinct products, each with their own team. We worked in two separate tech stacks using two different skill sets. To maintain parity across the codebases, we had to implement and design the same features twice. If we ever wanted to add Linux support, we’d have to do it all a third time. All this meant we had twice the work, twice the bugs, and far less time to build new features. As it turns out, building native apps for multiple platforms doesn’t scale.</p></blockquote>
<p>Rewriting the desktop client on Electron allows GitHub to provide a unified cross-platform experience while reducing development time for the product. The beta app is open source and is <a href="https://desktop.github.com/" target="_blank">available for download</a> for users who want the newest desktop features before they are officially released.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 18 May 2017 03:31:43 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:40;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:94:"WPTavern: WPWeekly Episode 273 – Mental Health Awareness With Bridget Willard and Ed Finkler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:58:"https://wptavern.com?p=70259&preview=true&preview_id=70259";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:101:"https://wptavern.com/wpweekly-episode-273-mental-health-awareness-with-bridget-willard-and-ed-finkler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2943:"<p>The month of May is <a href="http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/may">Mental Health Awareness</a> month. On this episode, Ed Finkler, founder of <a href="https://osmihelp.org/">Open Sourcing Mental Illness</a> (OSMI), and Bridget Willard, Marketing Manager for <a href="https://wordimpress.com/">WordImpress</a>, join me to raise awareness of mental health.</p>
<p>We start the show by discussing what mental health is and what it means to feel normal. We talk about the stigma associated with opening up to others and why it&#8217;s often seen as a brave action. Finkler shares tips on how people can help those battling mental illness. He also explains what not to do.</p>
<p>The following resources were mentioned during the show:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://wphugs.org/">WPHugs</a> &#8211; A safe space for people to openly discuss mental health issues.</li>
<li><a href="https://mental-health-support.herokuapp.com/">Mental Health Support</a> &#8211; A public group on Slack that provides mental health support.</li>
<li><a href="https://osmihelp.org/resources">OSMI Handbooks</a> &#8211; Handbooks for employees, employers, and guidelines for good mental health in the workplace.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/cs/">Mental Health First Aid</a> &#8211; A course that educates people on how to help those with a mental health or substance-use crisis.</li>
</ul>
<p>Finkler announced on the show that he is stepping down from his role at Graph Story and will be working on the OSMI project full-time. OSMI is <a href="https://osmihelp.org/2017-campaign">raising funds</a> for 2017. Funds will be used for traveling to speak at events, create and update helpful resources, and a salary. If you&#8217;re able, please consider donating. OSMI is a US 501(c)(3) organization, and all donations are tax-deductible.</p>
<h2>Stories Discussed:</h2>
<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-7-5-patches-six-security-issues-immediate-update-recommended">WordPress 4.7.5 Patches Six Security Issues, Immediate Update Recommended</a><br />
<a href="https://wptavern.com/what-to-expect-in-wordpress-4-8">What to Expect in WordPress 4.8</a></p>
<h2>WPWeekly Meta:</h2>
<p><strong>Next Episode:</strong> Wednesday, May 24th 3:00 P.M. Eastern</p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Itunes: </strong><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wordpress-weekly/id694849738" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via RSS: </strong><a href="https://wptavern.com/feed/podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Subscribe To WPWeekly Via Stitcher Radio: </strong><a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wordpress-weekly-podcast?refid=stpr" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Click here to subscribe</a></p>
<p><strong>Listen To Episode #273:</strong><br />
</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 18 May 2017 00:53:16 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:41;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:88:"WPTavern: WordCamp Europe Contributor Day to Host 13 Workshops, Event is Nearly Sold Out";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70224";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:98:"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-europe-contributor-day-to-host-13-workshops-event-is-nearly-sold-out";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1707:"<p><a href="https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/testing.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://2017.europe.wordcamp.org/2017/05/17/everything-you-need-to-know-about-wceu-contributor-day/#more-5991" target="_blank">WordCamp Europe&#8217;s Contributor Day</a> is set for Thursday, June 15th, 2017, the day before the conference days begin. Attendees will be split into contributor teams and this year the event will also feature four talks and 13 workshops. The selected team leaders are long-time WordPress core and community contributors from around the world.</p>
<p>Scheduled talks include topics aimed at contributors, such as &#8220;How the WordPress Security Team Works&#8221; and &#8220;Why Your [Translation] Community Needs a Glossary.&#8221; The workshops are more educational sessions that kickstart contribution, i.e. setting up a development environment for contributing to WordPress, internationalization for developers, JavaScript in core, and learning how to contribute code to the Meta Team, among other topics.</p>
<p>The Contributor Day <a href="https://2017.europe.wordcamp.org/schedule/contributor-day-schedule/" target="_blank">schedule</a> was published to the event&#8217;s website today with room locations identified for teams, talks, and workshops.</p>
<p>Capacity for the event is 500 attendees, which is larger than many WordCamps. As of this morning, there were fewer than 50 spots remaining. <a href="http://wceurope.polldaddy.com/s/sign-up-for-contributor-day-2017" target="_blank">Contributor Day signup</a> is separate from the WordCamp registration and is still open for the last few available tickets.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 17 May 2017 19:30:35 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:42;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:60:"HeroPress: Community saved my life: Falling down, lifted up.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=1842";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:144:"https://heropress.com/essays/community-saved-life-falling-lifted/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=community-saved-life-falling-lifted";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:9265:"<img width="960" height="480" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/051717-1024x512.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: It is through helping others that I am helping myself every day... #mentalhealth" /><blockquote><p>“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”<br />
― Margaret Mead</p></blockquote>
<p>This essay took me a long time to end; mainly because, in many ways, I am still writing it. My first essay for HeroPress was two years ago (&#8220;<a href="https://heropress.com/essays/w-w-waiting-for-the-right-circumstances/">W-W-Waiting For The Right Circumstances</a>&#8220;), June 2015; an essay written at a time in which I was at my Zenith.</p>
<p>It was a story written by a young man full of hope, dreams, and accomplishment. A young man peaking in his career and his relationships. A young man who still had a long way to learn in this world; especially about himself and what true community meant. This essay, the one you are reading now, is from rock bottom.</p>
<h3>The Great Depression</h3>
<p>People, mostly those who do not have depression, think of depression as a severe sadness; it is not sadness. Sadness can be felt. Depression is more of a vacuous endurance of life; each moment folding aimlessly into the next. Sadness would be a relief in comparison.</p>
<p>I have had depression many times in my life prior to the one I am about to tell you about; previously I had managed to endure through it, this time was different and this time I needed help. I, unsurprisingly to me, was diagnosed with (aptly named) &#8216;manic depression&#8217;. This explained my amazing highs, my deepest lows, and the plateau of the in-between.</p>
<p>What did this mean for me? I didn&#8217;t know, I was still me. Nothing about me had changed other than learning a new label that I had to bare. I was still me. I was still me.</p>
<p>According to the World Health Organization (WHO) in <a href="http://www.who.int/whr/2001/media_centre/press_release/en/">2001</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;One in four people in the world will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>I was one in that four people; a large number, yet I felt alone.</p>
<p>Alone because there is so much stigma attached to having a Mental Wellness issue that we barely talk about it, its almost taboo. We are a society more comfortable with having a broken leg than to tell our bosses, colleagues, friends or peers that we are depressed.</p>
<p>That needed to change.</p>
<h3>WordCamp Closet</h3>
<p>At WordCamp Cape Town 2016, I stood in-front of an audience and came out of the figurative closet with my presentation of: &#8220;<a href="https://wordpress.tv/2016/11/24/leo-gopal-the-wordpress-community-mental-wellness-and-you/">The WordPress Community, Mental Wellness, and You</a>&#8221;</p>
<p>After that talk, many people came out of their own closets to me and thanked me for being so &#8216;brave&#8217; as to talk so openly about a subject so few understood much about. My hope with that talk, with this essay, that an act of openness like this is no longer seen as &#8216;being brave&#8217; but being normal, being understood. It was the &#8216;bravery&#8217; of people like Cory Miller and Rich Robinkoff that allowed me to be brave in telling my own story.</p>
<p>That was September 2016. In February 2017, I reached my darkest hour when I attempted to take my own life.</p>
<h3>A New Beginning</h3>
<p>In many ways, this is my WordPress re-origin story.</p>
<p>After surviving my own actions, it was the WordPress community that were there to support me. It was my friends I had made in the local WordPress community, and when I opened up about my experience, the international WordPress Community came to help me.</p>
<blockquote><p>There are so many people in the WordPress Community who I owe a huge debt to. People who genuinely reached out and cared about the response I gave when asked, &#8216;How are you?&#8217;.</p></blockquote>
<p>It was in this moment of realizing I had the WordPress Community that I began to live again; the WordPress community saved my life. It was in this moment that I realized that if I knew I could have this support sooner, I may not have gone as far as I had gone. It was in this moment that I vowed to be blatantly honest with the world so that no one else may ever feel that they are that alone again.</p>
<p>Is there any other software specific community that can make the claim of being so caring as to have helped someone stay alive? I do not know the answer to that question, but I do know that WordPress and its community has definitely done that for me.</p>
<h3>WPHugs: Giving back to community</h3>
<p>I openly wrote about my experiences.</p>
<p>I even mention it straight up in Job Interviews, and I do believe that this, knowingly or unknowingly, has costed me various positions I could have easily received had there not been any mention of a mental illness and my recent events &#8211; and its understandable.</p>
<p>How would you react when you ask a candidate about why he left his previous employment, and he answers: &#8220;I am manic depressive, I went a few months off my meds, I did not understand it enough at the time, and then tried to take my own life and later moved cities to be closer to family and friends&#8221;? When all I could have said was I moved cities to be closer to family, with a smile that couldn&#8217;t be argued with.</p>
<p>I started an initiative called <a href="https://wphugs.org/">WPHugs</a>, a passion project hugely inspired by HeroPress, which is designed to be a safe space in the WordPress Community where topics of Mental Health, and general well-being and life balance can be freely and non-judgmentally spoken about, with care and compassion offered by all. This reminds me, we should have a creed, all great communities have one.</p>
<p>It is simply fortunate timing that <a href="https://wphugs.org/">WPHugs.org</a> and this essay are launched and written in Mental Health Awareness Month. Some may even go as far as calling it serendipity; a word I have tattooed in Braille on my wrists.</p>
<p>It is through helping others that I am helping myself, everyday&#8230;</p>
<h3>In conclusion-ipsum</h3>
<p>My story is not unique &#8211; it is simply one that is told.</p>
<p>In speaking out about Mental Wellness and the huge role our community plays in its stigma, I hope that someone, somewhere, also gets &#8216;brave enough&#8217; to speak up and reach out.</p>
<p>I have no conclusion to this essay&#8230; I continue, everyday, to write it; and I hope you do too.</p>
<p>The WordPress community doesn&#8217;t just power a percentage of the internet; It empowers too.</p>
<p>P.S. Talking about it will only become easier by talking about it, so please, continue the conversation; lets more of us talk and keep talking.</p>
<div class="rtsocial-container rtsocial-container-align-right rtsocial-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal-button"><a title="Tweet: Community saved my life: Falling down, lifted up." class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=Community%20saved%20my%20life%3A%20Falling%20down%2C%20lifted%20up.&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fcommunity-saved-life-falling-lifted%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: Community saved my life: Falling down, lifted up." class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fcommunity-saved-life-falling-lifted%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-linkedin-button" href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fcommunity-saved-life-falling-lifted%2F&title=Community+saved+my+life%3A+Falling+down%2C+lifted+up." rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: Community saved my life: Falling down, lifted up."></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-pinterest-button" href="https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://heropress.com/essays/community-saved-life-falling-lifted/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/051717-150x150.jpg&description=Community saved my life: Falling down, lifted up." rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: Community saved my life: Falling down, lifted up."></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/essays/community-saved-life-falling-lifted/" title="Community saved my life: Falling down, lifted up."></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/community-saved-life-falling-lifted/">Community saved my life: Falling down, lifted up.</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 17 May 2017 12:00:48 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:9:"Leo Gopal";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:43;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16:"Matt: New TV Ads";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=47336";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:33:"https://ma.tt/2017/05/new-tv-ads/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:416:"<p></p>
<p>As I mentioned in the <a href="https://ma.tt/2016/12/state-of-the-word-2016/">State of the Word</a> this is the year we&#8217;re ramping up marketing. There is lots to learn and much to follow, but we have our first TV ads up in six markets to test. Each shares a story of a business in Detroit, and I actually got the chance to visit one of the businesses earlier today.</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 17 May 2017 05:08:27 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:44;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:83:"WPTavern: WordPress 4.7.5 Patches Six Security Issues, Immediate Update Recommended";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70198";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:93:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-4-7-5-patches-six-security-issues-immediate-update-recommended";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2543:"<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2017/05/wordpress-4-7-5/" target="_blank">WordPress 4.7.5</a> was released today with fixes for six security issues. If you manage multiple sites, you may have seen automatic update notices landing in your inbox this evening. The security release is for all previous versions and WordPress is recommending an immediate update. Sites running versions older than 3.7 will require a manual update.</p>
<p>The vulnerabilities patched in 4.7.5 were responsibly disclosed to the WordPress security team by five different parties credited in the release post. These include the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>Insufficient redirect validation in the HTTP class</li>
<li>Improper handling of post meta data values in the XML-RPC API</li>
<li>Lack of capability checks for post meta data in the XML-RPC API</li>
<li>A Cross Site Request Forgery (CRSF)  vulnerability was discovered in the filesystem credentials dialog</li>
<li>A cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability was discovered when attempting to upload very large files</li>
<li>A cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability was discovered related to the Customizer</li>
</ul>
<p>Several of the vulnerability reports came from security researchers on HackerOne. In a recent <a href="https://www.hackerone.com/blog/Q-and-A-with-Wordpress-security-team-lead-aaron-campbell" target="_blank">interview with HackerOne</a>, WordPress Security Team Lead Aaron Campbell said the team has had a spike in reports since <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-is-now-on-hackerone-launches-bug-bounties" target="_blank">publicly launching its bug bounty program</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;The increase in volume of reports was drastic as expected, but also our team really hadn’t had to process any invalid reports before moving the program public,&#8221; Campbell said. &#8220;The dynamics of the Hacker Reputation system really came into play for the first time, and it was really interesting to figure out how to best work within it.&#8221;</p>
<p>If WordPress continues to sustain the same volume of reports on its new HackerOne account, users may see more frequent security releases in the future.</p>
<p>WordPress 4.7.5 also includes a handful of maintenance fixes. Check out the <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&milestone=4.7.5&group=component&col=id&col=summary&col=component&col=status&col=owner&col=type&col=priority&col=keywords&order=priority" target="_blank">full list of changes</a> for more details.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 17 May 2017 01:44:14 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:45;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:41:"WPTavern: What to Expect in WordPress 4.8";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70132";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:52:"https://wptavern.com/what-to-expect-in-wordpress-4-8";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4951:"<p>WordPress 4.8 Beta 1 <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2017/05/wordpress-4-8-beta-1/">is available for testing</a> and has a couple of features that will likely have a big impact.</p>
<h2>New Image, Video, and Audio Widgets</h2>
<p>WordPress 4.8 has three new core widgets and adds a visual editor to the Text widget. Adding video, audio, or images to text widgets typically involves using custom HTML.</p>
<p>Each of the new widgets in 4.8 takes advantage of the WordPress Media Library. Because the widgets use the media modal, users can insert content from a URL. This is particularly convenient for the Video widget as most videos are not stored locally.</p>

<a href="https://wptavern.com/what-to-expect-in-wordpress-4-8/corevideowidget"><img width="341" height="454" src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/CoreVideoWidget.png?fit=341%2C454&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://wptavern.com/what-to-expect-in-wordpress-4-8/coreaudiowidget"><img width="341" height="251" src="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/CoreAudioWidget.png?fit=341%2C251&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="" /></a>
<a href="https://wptavern.com/what-to-expect-in-wordpress-4-8/coreimagewidget"><img width="341" height="360" src="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/CoreImageWidget.png?fit=341%2C360&ssl=1" class="attachment-full size-full" alt="Core Image Widget" /></a>

<p>Here is what the core widgets look like on Twenty Seventeen after they&#8217;ve been configured.</p>
<img />Core Widgets on The Frontend
<p>The text widget now has a visual editor with a couple of basic formatting tools available. The visual editor supports Keyboard shortcuts. However, it does not support <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Embeds">oEmbed</a>. Like the post editor, you can switch between Visual and HTML mode. The HTML version of the editor benefits from the upgrade as it provides users with the same formatting tools that are available in the visual editor.</p>
<img />Text Widget HTML Mode
<h2>Link Boundaries</h2>
<p>Link boundaries are <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/89">a byproduct</a> of the ongoing work to <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-core-editor-team-publishes-ui-prototype-for-gutenberg-an-experimental-block-based-editor">Gutenberg</a>, WordPress&#8217; new block-based editor. If you&#8217;ve ever written links in the visual editor, you may have noticed that sometimes it&#8217;s difficult to move the cursor outside of the link element.</p>
<p>In WordPress 4.8, link boundaries provide a visual cue of when the cursor is inside a link element. <a href="https://cloudup.com/c49BKKIE7SW">This video</a> recorded by Matias Ventura provides a visual demonstration of how link boundaries work.</p>
<img />Inside Link Boundary
<img />Outside Link Boundary
<p>During testing it felt like this was more of a bug fix to how the visual editor behaves rather than a new feature.</p>
<h2>Dashboard News Widget Includes Upcoming Local WordPress Meetups</h2>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.meetup.com/topics/wordpress/">1,180 WordPress meetups</a> registered on Meetup.com and <a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/">close to 100 WordCamps</a> scheduled for this year. In an effort to remind users of the WordPress communities that exist around them world-wide, the WordPress News Dashboard widget has been modified to include Meetups and WordCamps near a user&#8217;s location.</p>
<img />News Widget Shows Upcoming Meetups and WordCamps
<p>The widget will try to guess your location automatically. If it&#8217;s incorrect, clicking the Pencil button opens a box where you can type in your city. The bottom of the widget includes links to the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/meetups-landing-page">WordPress Meetup landing page</a>, <a href="https://central.wordcamp.org/schedule/">WordCamp Central Schedule</a>, and the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/">WordPress.org news blog</a>.</p>
<h2>WordPress 4.8 Sets the Stage for Gutenberg</h2>
<p>It should be noted that WordPress 4.8 will not include Gutenberg. It does, however, lay the foundation for Gutenberg to arrive in a future release.</p>
<p>The easiest way to install and test WordPress 4.8 Beta 1 is to install and activate the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">Beta Tester plugin</a> on a staging site. Once activated, visit Tools &gt; Beta Testing and select Point release nightlies and then update WordPress.</p>
<p>If you believe you&#8217;ve encountered a bug, you can report it to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">Alpha/Beta section</a> of the WordPress support forums. Please provide as much detail about the bug as possible. WordPress 4.8 is <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/4-8/">tentatively scheduled</a> for release June 8th.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 16 May 2017 23:26:05 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:46;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:94:"WPTavern: Hookr Plugin Rebrands as WP Inspect, Project to Shift to a Module-Based Architecture";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70093";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:104:"https://wptavern.com/hookr-plugin-rebrands-as-wp-inspect-project-to-shift-to-a-module-based-architecture";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3162:"<p><a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/wp-inspect.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>A year and a half after the <a href="https://wptavern.com/new-free-hookr-plugin-displays-all-available-hooks-inside-wordpress" target="_blank">initial release</a> of the controversially-named Hookr plugin, its creator, Christopher Sanford, has rebranded the plugin as WP Inspect. The plugin provides a WordPress hook/API reference for developers and displays the actions and filters that fired as the page loaded. At launch Sanford was fairly committed to the Hookr brand, despite criticism, due to an oversaturated market for WordPress developer plugins. After 3,500 downloads, Sanford decided to rebrand and put the plugin in the official directory.</p>
<p>&#8220;Based on the usage and positive feedback, I wanted to target a broader audience, which led to both the re-brand and submission to the WordPress Plugin repository,&#8221; Sanford said. &#8220;Leveraging the plugin repo, it will be much easier to coordinate/communicate updates, which is somewhat lacking today.&#8221;</p>
<p>The 1.0.0 release of <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-inspect/" target="_blank">WP Inspect</a> includes mostly bug fixes and technical debt cleanup with two major enhancements:</p>
<ul>
<li>WP Inspect will only be active under specific roles, with Administrators being enabled by default. (Previously it was active for everyone.)</li>
<li>Action detail now requires no additional clicks. (Before, if users wanted to inspect an action, they would have to click the action name.)</li>
</ul>
<p>Sanford said WP Inspect will be migrating to a module-based architecture that will allow users to create their own tooling. He is also planning to release several commercial modules that will expand the debugging capabilities of the plugin. He said he doesn&#8217;t anticipate the type of demand or usage that would warrant a marketplace for third-party modules, but he&#8217;s open to the idea.</p>
<p>With the plugin now rebranded and released, Sandford is using his time to create the infrastructure to offer Hookr as a SaaS product for commercial theme and plugin developers.</p>
<p>&#8220;Depending on membership level, users can interface with HookrAPI to get additional details for debugging,&#8221; Sandford said. &#8220;Users may submit their current codebase for &#8216;comment coverage&#8217; analysis, which is great for determining the quantity and quality of inline code documentation. Finally, users may submit their projects to HookrAPI for real time code parsing and documentation to be included with their commercial theme or plugin.</p>
<p><a href="https://i2.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/hookr-api-e1494965787732.png?ssl=1"><img /></a></p>
<p>Sanford plans to launch a sister site to the online <a href="http://hookr.io/" target="_blank">Hookr.io</a> reference, under another &#8220;G-rated&#8221; name with a simplified interface, as well as an offline version of Hookr. These will lay the groundwork for the next item on the roadmap: native mobile applications with offline data.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 16 May 2017 22:54:45 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:47;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:58:"Dev Blog: WordPress 4.7.5 Security and Maintenance Release";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=4734";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:51:"https://wordpress.org/news/2017/05/wordpress-4-7-5/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2304:"<p>WordPress 4.7.5 is now available. This is a <strong>security release</strong> for all previous versions and we strongly encourage you to update your sites immediately.</p>
<p>WordPress versions 4.7.4 and earlier are affected by six security issues:</p>
<ol>
<li>Insufficient redirect validation in the HTTP class. Reported by <a href="https://dk.linkedin.com/in/ronni-skansing-36143b65">Ronni Skansing</a>.</li>
<li>Improper handling of post meta data values in the XML-RPC API. Reported by <a href="https://hackerone.com/jazzy2fives">Sam Thomas</a>.</li>
<li>Lack of capability checks for post meta data in the XML-RPC API. Reported by <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/vortfu">Ben Bidner</a> of the WordPress Security Team.</li>
<li>A Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF)  vulnerability was discovered in the filesystem credentials dialog. Reported by <a href="https://twitter.com/yorickkoster">Yorick Koster</a>.</li>
<li>A cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability was discovered when attempting to upload very large files. Reported by <a href="https://dk.linkedin.com/in/ronni-skansing-36143b65">Ronni Skansing</a>.</li>
<li>A cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability was discovered related to the Customizer. Reported by <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/westonruter">Weston Ruter</a> of the WordPress Security Team.</li>
</ol>
<p>Thank you to the reporters of these issues for practicing <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/testing/reporting-security-vulnerabilities/">responsible disclosure</a>.</p>
<p>In addition to the security issues above, WordPress 4.7.5 contains 3 maintenance fixes to the 4.7 release series. For more information, see the <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Version_4.7.5">release notes</a> or consult the <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&milestone=4.7.5&group=component&col=id&col=summary&col=component&col=status&col=owner&col=type&col=priority&col=keywords&order=priority">list of changes</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/download/">Download WordPress 4.7.5</a> or venture over to Dashboard → Updates and simply click “Update Now.” Sites that support automatic background updates are already beginning to update to WordPress 4.7.5.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who contributed to 4.7.5.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 16 May 2017 22:39:31 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15:"Pascal Birchler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:48;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:86:"WPTavern: U.S. District Court Denies Pre-Trial Motion to Dismiss GPL Infringement Case";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70100";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:96:"https://wptavern.com/u-s-district-court-denies-pre-trial-motion-to-dismiss-gpl-infringement-case";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6120:"<a href="https://i0.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/gavel.jpg?ssl=1"><img /></a>photo credit: weiss_paarz_photos <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/141290938@N03/27193168442">Gavel &#8211; Courtroom and Gavel</a> &#8211; <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">(license)</a>
<p>The District Court for the Northern District of California has denied a motion to dismiss a complaint of breach of contract and copyright infringement claims in <a href="https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/3:2016cv06982/305835/32" target="_blank">a case regarding the GPL</a>. The plaintiff, <a href="http://artifex.com/" target="_blank">Artifex Software Inc.</a>, is the creator of <a href="http://artifex.com/products-ghostscript-overview/" target="_blank">Ghostscript</a>, an AGPL-licensed PDF interpreter. In 2016, the company filed a lawsuit against <a href="http://hancom.com" target="_blank">Hancom</a>, a South Korean software company that incorporated Ghostscript into its Hangul word processing software without complying with the GPL.</p>
<p>Ghostscript is available for free for those who use it in compliance with its AGPL license. Artifex also offers a <a href="http://artifex.com/licensing/" target="_blank">commercial license of Ghostscript</a> that is required if the user is including it and distributing it within an application that is not licensed under the AGPL. Richard Stallman outlined this common practice of <a href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/selling-exceptions" target="_blank">&#8220;selling exceptions&#8221; to the GPL</a> in 2010, saying that he has considered it acceptable since the 1990&#8217;s, because &#8220;this approach has made it possible for important programs to become free software.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/candce/3:2016cv06982/305835/32" target="_blank">complaint</a>, Hancom failed to purchase a commercial license and also did not distribute the source code as required by the AGPL:</p>
<blockquote><p>Because Defendant did not have a commercial license for Ghostscript, its use and distribution of Ghostscript constituted consent to the terms of the GNU GPL&#8230;In addition, Defendant’s website stated that it had licensed Ghostscript under the GNU GPL. Nonetheless, Defendant failed to comply with key provisions of the GNU GPL. In particular, because Defendant integrated Ghostscript into its software without revealing to the end-user that Ghostscript was part of the Hancom software, the GNU GPL required Defendant to distribute its software with the accompanying source code. Defendant did not do so and thus violated the GNU GPL, terminating Defendant’s license to use Ghostscript. Defendant’s failure to obtain a commercial license deprived Plaintiff of a licensing fee, or, alternatively, its failure to comply with the GNU GPL deprived Plaintiff of the opportunity “to further promote the advancement of interpreter technologies.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Although Hancom is said to have removed Ghostscript from its software in August 2016, Artifex is asking for a court order for Hancom to stop the infringement and seeks compensation for damages. Artifex also requests that the court require Hancom to distribute to each licensee of Hangul and Hancom Office the complete source code for the products in accordance with the GPL.</p>
<p>Hancom responded by filing a motion to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that Artifex had not demonstrated the existence of a contract, how it was breached, or the damages caused by a breach.</p>
<p>An order issued by Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley ruled that Artifex has sufficiently established the existence of a contract:</p>
<blockquote><p>The GNU GPL, which is attached to the complaint, provides that the Ghostscript user agrees to its terms if the user does not obtain a commercial license. Plaintiff alleges that Defendant used Ghostscript, did not obtain a commercial license, and represented publicly that its use of Ghostscript was licensed under the GNL GPU. These allegations sufficiently plead the existence of a contract.</p></blockquote>
<p>Furthermore, the ruling also recognized the damage that results from a company failing to comply with an open source license, citing the 2008 ruling on Jacobsen v. Katzer, another open source licensing dispute:</p>
<blockquote><p>Indeed, as the Federal Circuit has recognized, there is harm which flows from a party’s failure to comply with open source licensing: “[t]he lack of money changing hands in open source licensing should not be presumed to mean that there is no economic consideration” because “[t]here are substantial benefits, including economic benefits, to the creation and distribution of copyrighted works under public licenses that range far beyond traditional license royalties.” Jacobsen v. Katzer, 535 F.3d 1373, 1379 (Fed. Cir. 2008).</p></blockquote>
<p>Although QZ.com and other media outlets are reporting that this is a groundbreaking ruling that <a href="https://qz.com/981029/a-federal-court-has-ruled-that-an-open-source-license-is-an-enforceable-contract/" target="_blank">makes open source licenses an enforceable contract</a>, the case has not yet gone to trial. The court has simply denied Hancom&#8217;s arguments that because the company didn&#8217;t sign anything, the GPL does not constitute a contract. The ruling states that Artifex&#8217;s allegations regarding the dual licensing structure for its product are enough for the company to begin the process of pleading damages for its claim that Hancom breached its contract. It is not a ruling about whether or not copyleft licenses are enforceable.</p>
<p>Artifex is now free to pursue its case of breach of contract and copyright infringement claims against Hancom, but it&#8217;s still very early and may end in a settlement. Hancom is ordered to file its answer by May 18 and both parties are scheduled to appear for an Initial Case Management Conference on June 15.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 16 May 2017 19:09:28 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:49;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:115:"WPTavern: WordPress.com Experiments With Allowing Business Plan Customers to Install Third-Party Plugins and Themes";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=70129";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:126:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-com-experiments-with-allowing-business-plan-customers-to-install-third-party-plugins-and-themes";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2521:"<p>One of the most important things that distinguishes self-hosted WordPress from WordPress.com is the ability to install custom themes and plugins. A <a href="https://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/">recent change</a> to WordPress.com&#8217;s Business Plan removes this limitation, allowing customers to install most third-party plugins and themes.</p>
<img />WordPress.com Comparison Chart
<p>In a <a href="https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/plugins-817?replies=9#post-2944050">WordPress.com support thread</a> created in February, a user asked how to install plugins on WordPress.com. Volunteers responded with the usual explanation that plugins can not be installed on WordPress.com and that they would need to use the self-hosted version of WordPress instead.</p>
<p>A few days ago, Valedeoro, a member of WordPress.com&#8217;s support staff, <a href="https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/plugins-817?replies=9#post-2943898">updated the thread</a> announcing that third-party plugin support had recently been opened to customers on the WordPress.com Business Plan.</p>
<blockquote><p>Quick update on third-party plugins: We&#8217;ve recently opened the opportunity to install plugins for Business Plan users. Keep in mind that most features are covered already by the plugin included in your WordPress.com account, so it is possible that you do not need any additional plugins.</p></blockquote>
<p>Further into the thread, a second support staff member <a href="https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/plugins-817?replies=9#post-2944050">acknowledged</a> that WooCommerce can be installed. A third support staff member <a href="https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/plugins-817?replies=9#post-2944290">confirmed</a> that the ability to install most third-party plugins and themes was added to the Business Plan.</p>
<p>Details of the changes have not been published yet. &#8220;We’re still in an experimentation phase,&#8221; Automattic representative Mark Armstrong said. &#8220;It’s something we’ve rolled out to Business Plan users over the last couple weeks, and we’re looking forward to continued testing.&#8221;</p>
<p>This move would place WordPress.com squarely in the managed WordPress hosting space. If installing custom plugins and themes becomes a permanent feature, it will be interesting to see how it affects <a href="https://bobwp.com/living-in-a-state-of-wordpress-confusion/">the confusion</a> between WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress.</p>
<div id="epoch-width-sniffer"></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 16 May 2017 08:30:07 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Jeff Chandler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}s:4:"type";i:128;s:7:"headers";O:42:"Requests_Utility_CaseInsensitiveDictionary":1:{s:7:"*data";a:8:{s:6:"server";s:5:"nginx";s:4:"date";s:29:"Fri, 02 Jun 2017 09:24:03 GMT";s:12:"content-type";s:8:"text/xml";s:4:"vary";s:15:"Accept-Encoding";s:13:"last-modified";s:29:"Fri, 02 Jun 2017 09:15:10 GMT";s:15:"x-frame-options";s:10:"SAMEORIGIN";s:4:"x-nc";s:11:"HIT lax 249";s:16:"content-encoding";s:4:"gzip";}}s:5:"build";s:14:"20130911120210";}