WordPress 4.6, “Pepper”
Brian Krogsgard
WordPress 4.6, "Pepper", has been released with shiny plugin management, system fonts, link syntax checking, resource hints, and more. This release post includes a special episode of the podcast.
Using Kickstarter to fund open source
Daniel Bachhuber
Successfully crowdfunding open source development is difficult, but not impossible. Here are some of the lessons I took away from my Kickstarter project, "A more RESTful WP-CLI."
WordPress contributions over time
Brian Krogsgard
After Aaron Jorbin shared a graph of new contributors per release, I gave him some homework to dig further into that data, and he has of course delivered. He looked back all the way to WordPress 3.2 (five years ago…
Aaron Jorbin released a graph showing…
Brian Krogsgard
Aaron Jorbin released a graph showing new WordPress contributors per release. It's a significant percentage of overall contributors per release, and it makes me wonder how many folks stick around for contribution number two after their first. I think Aaron has…
Hugo Baeta recently has results from…
Hugo Baeta recently has results from a survey conducted a few months ago whose goal was help better understand how contributors and other community members interact with WordPress.org sites. The survey only had around 32 responses (most from developers), which…
The WordPress REST API endpoints aim for stable 2.0
Brian Krogsgard
Ryan McCue has posted an update on Make WordPress Core that aims to bring the WordPress REST API plugin to a stable 2.0 version, which would be an official sign of enforcing non-breaking changes from then on. The team has…
From “Feature Plugins” to “Feature Projects”
Brian Krogsgard
I've been looking forward to a post like this. Helen Hou-Sandà has written about an evolution of the feature plugin model. Over the last two and a half years, we’ve had successful feature plugins that were merged into core, efforts…
Make WordPress Great Again
Brian Krogsgard
The 2016 Stack Overflow Developer Survey is out. It's got a ton of data and it's been shared around a good bit already. In terms of WordPress, it appeared on the "winners"  list in terms of "trending tech", but the survey notes…
A few core highlights and the state of WordPress 4.5
Brian Krogsgard
WordPress 4.5 should hit beta 1 fairly soon -- like probably within the next 24 hours. In some ways, 4.5 has felt like a hangover release, coming (as releases tend to do) right after a monstrous 4.4, a string of…
Other things you should read about the REST API
Brian Krogsgard
The REST API is a hot topic of conversation right now. I spent 3,000 words verbalizing my opinion on it, but there is a lot of good stuff that smart folks have written about the API and its current state.…
Complete coverage should not be a requirement for core inclusion of WordPress REST API endpoints
Brian Krogsgard
The WordPress REST API is at a bit of a crossroads. There is a proposal on the table by the core team of four contributors — Ryan McCue, Rachel Baker, Daniel Bachhuber, and Joe Hoyle — to ship endpoints to WordPress core iteratively. There is a pushback on this proposal by WordPress Project Lead and co-founder Matt Mullenweg.
A more RESTful WP-CLI
Brian Krogsgard
Daniel Bachhuber maintains the WP-CLI utility tool that is included on the underlying stacks of many, many WordPress websites. Once you get the hang of WP-CLI, it's super useful, and it's easy to discover something it can do that you…
What makes some companies in the open source software world different
Brian Krogsgard
For a long time, I've debated with myself about what makes some consulting companies get a lot more attention in the open source software world versus others. The key factor, I think, is community engagement -- and I mean engagement…
Language packs for WordPress themes and plugins
Brian Krogsgard
Sam Sidler announced today on Make WordPress Plugins that WordPress plugins will soon be able to utilize the WordPress.org language pack feature that ships with WordPress core. Language packs were introduced to core in WordPress 3.7. As I noted then:…
WordPress 4.3, “Billie”, released
Brian Krogsgard
WordPress 4.3, "Billie", has been released. Billie includes four major user-facing features that most website owners will experience on a semi-regular basis, and many other enhancements, bug fixes, and developer features.
Rogue shortcodes cause controversy for 4.2.3 security release
Brian Krogsgard
The WordPress 4.2.3 security release looks like most security releases on the surface, but it has caused a good bit of controversy. The release includes a number of fixes, but one involving shortcodes is the focus of attention. Immediately after…
