Hi!

WordPress 6.3 beta 4 is now available for testing. Also, the kick-off party for WordPress 6.4 has happened and the release will be run entirely by a women and nonbinary squad. One of our team members, Jyolsna J E, is also a part of the release cohort.

You can also subscribe and listen to the podcast version of this newsletter on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.

Until next week,

Bye!

Team WP-CONTENT.CO

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📰 WORDPRESS & AROUND

All the updates around WordPress and its closely related technologies

Revamping Admin Design

As a part of Phase 3 of the Gutenberg Project, the wp-admin may get a UI overhaul.

• Announcing the Inaugural Cohort of the WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program!: The Inaugural Cohort of the Experimental WordPress Contributor Mentorship program happened on July 12, 2023. It is a four-week event between July 12th and August 9th, 2023.
• Improving the Block Library: The project has two main goals, with the first being to improve how the blocks can be organized, listed, and installed by users. The second is to improve how block management works outside the editors.
• What’s new in Gutenberg 16.2?: The latest version brings forth several new changes such as the pattern creation modal in the Patterns section has been updated, the footnotes feature has been improved, an all-new vertical text orientation feature, and includes various other enhancements.
• Real-time Collaboration: architecture: An overview of the technical architecture to implement real-time collaboration in WP Admin has been published along with the different use cases.
• Proposal for establishing a Make Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (“DEIB”) team within the WordPress Community: Birgit Olzem has put forth a proposal for establishing Make Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging team within the WordPress community to enhance and support the existing DEIB initiatives.
• New handbook page for WordCamp Organizers: WordCamp speaker selection (for content and diversity): A new page has been created by the WPDiversity group for the WordCamp Handbook which will help the organizers of WordCamps when it comes to selecting speakers.
• Google sued for allegedly stealing content, data to train AI products: Google is being sued for illegally using copyrighted content and stealing the personal information of millions of Americans to train its AI products. If found guilty, Google could be fined at least $5 billion.
• Twitter blocks links to Meta rival Threads: It seems like Twitter is actively blocking links to Threads, which has seen exponential growth from the first day of launch itself. This move can be seen as an attempt to keep users engaged on Twitter and not to lose them to the competition.
• Introducing NotebookLM: Previously known as Project Tailwind, NotebookLM is an experimental offering from Google. It is essentially a notetaking software and in the initial stages will only be available to a small group of users in the U.S.
• Google Bard gets new features and improvements: Bard is now available in over 40 new languages, and Google Lens is also now available. Other improvements include the ability to read responses out loud, the ability to share Bard conversations with others, and so on.
• Announcing xAI: The goal of the new project is to understand the true nature of the universe. The project is led by Elon Musk and more information will be provided soon.

🗣️ TALK OF THE TOWN

🔥 WordPress 6.3 New Features and Improvements

• WordPress 6.3 Beta 4 released: Beta 4 is now available for downloading and testing. This version discontinues support for PHP 5.
• New in 6.3: Rollback for failed manual plugin and theme updates: The rollback feature that will come with WordPress 6.3 will automatically restore the plugin or theme to the previous version if the update fails.
• Improvements to the metadata API in WordPress 6.3: The lazy loading capabilities for term, comment, and site metadata will be significantly improvement in the upcoming version of WordPress which is a direct result of the improvements made to the metadata API.
• Image performance enhancements in WordPress 6.3: WordPress 6.3 will improve the load time for content with images. The post explains in detail the improvements that were made to achieve this improved loading state.
• Improvements to the Cache API in WordPress 6.3: The post summarises the improvements made to the Cache API in WordPress by the Performance team. This includes improved validation and new actions.
• Introducing the WordPress Command Palette API: A detailed post explaining the Command Palette API that will be rolling out with WordPress 6.3.
• Core Editor Improvement: Advancing the power of Patterns: The post covers some of the new features that will be rolling out with WordPress 6.3.
• Registering scripts with `async` and `defer` attributes in WordPress 6.3: WordPress 6.3 introduces support for registering scripts with async and defer attributes. This new enhancement also marks the closure of a thirteen-year-old trac ticket.
• Social Icons block: Applied colors now dynamically update based on theme.json and Global Styles: WordPress 6.3 will introduce CSS classes to the Social Icons block that corresponds to the selected color values.
• I18N Improvements in 6.3: The post quickly summarizes the I18N improvements coming with WordPress 6.3.
• Improved Caching for Database Queries in WP_User_Query: Various enhancements have been made to the WP_User_Query class, specifically regarding caching of database queries, in WordPress 6.3.
• WP_Query used internally in get_pages(): The function get_pages() has been updated to utilize WP_Query internally and the change will be reflected in WordPress 6.3. This also closes another thirteen-year-old trac ticket.
• Layout updates in the editor for WordPress 6.3: Dev notes for the layout-related changes shipping out with WordPress 6.3 is now live.
• Configuring development mode in 6.3: A new development mode will be introduced with WordPress 6.3. The development mode can be activated by using a new WP_DEVELOPMENT_MODE constant.

🚨WEB SECURITY & VULNERABILITIES

A collection of web security and vulnerability news and updates for the past week

Massive targeted exploit campaign against WooCommerce Payments Underway plugin

The exploit allows unauthenticated attackers to obtain administrative privileges on vulnerable websites.

• Critical privilege escalation in HT Mega plugin affecting 100k+ Sites: The vulnerability will allow any unauthenticated user to escalate their privilege to that of any role on the WordPress site. All users are advised to update to the latest version immediately.
• Interesting arbitrary file upload vulnerability patched in User Registration WordPress plugin: The vulnerability will allow authenticated attackers with subscriber-level capabilities or above to upload arbitrary files on the affected site’s server which may make remote code execution possible. The vulnerability was fully patched in the latest version.
• All-In-One Security plugin patches sensitive data exposure vulnerability in Version 5.2.0: AIOS recently patched an issue where the plugin was logging plaintext passwords from login attempts in the database.
• Google fixes Google News indexing bug: The issue that lasted over three weeks that drastically impacted the traffic from Google News has been resolved.
• Wordfence Intelligence Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report (July 3, 2023 to July 9, 2023): 61 vulnerabilities were disclosed in 54 WordPress Plugins and in one WordPress theme.
• Malicious injection redirects traffic via parked domain: A recent investigation done by Sucuri’s malware remediation team encountered a variant of a common malware injection that has been active since at least 2017.

🔌 NEW PLUGINS & THEMES

Be one of the first ones to explore some fresh plugins and themes

Neve FSE theme

 An experimental starter theme with eight style variations.

• Kabru theme: A highly customizable block theme with three style variations.
• WP Travel FSE theme: A multipurpose, lightweight responsive block theme.
• Simple product badges plugin: With this, users can create customized badges for store products in WooCommerce.
• Roven omnibus plugin: The plugin allows users to display the lowest prices of a product in the last 30 days.

👥 COMMUNITY NEWS

Updates and News from WordPress Community

Introducing Bluehost WonderSuite: WordPress made WONDERful

Bluehost has launched WonderSuite an all-new digital co-pilot with AI integration.

• Yoast SEO 20.11: Publishing principles to improve E-E-A-T: The latest update improves the E-E-A-T,  and adds a new publishingPrinciples schema.
• WordPress and WPML update minimal requirements to PHP 7+: Following the same pattern as the upcoming WordPress 6.3 release, WPML will also shift to PHP 7+ as the minimum requirement and also drop support for PHP 5.6.
• Sam Alderson is leaving Yoast: Social Media and Brand Manager, Sam Alderson has announced via Twitter that she will be leaving Yoast soon.
• Accessibility expert Adrian Roselli sued for wanting accessibility to be…accessible: Adrian Roselli is facing a lawsuit filed by Audio Eye, with the purpose to stop him from expressing his opinions about the Audio Eye overlay product.
• Everest backup integration with InstaWP: Users can now pre-install Everest Backup when launching a site with InstaWP.
• WordPress Publishers Performance Summit (WPPS): The WordPress publishers performance summit will take place on 27 July 2023 and will include 10 panelists, over 60 attendees, and will have four hours of learning sessions.
• The kick-off meeting of the WordPress 6.4 led by the underrepresented-gender release squad was held recently: WordPress 6.4, the third major release of 2023, had its kick-off meeting a few days ago. This release will be run entirely by a women and nonbinary squad.
• WCUS 2023, What are you looking forward to?: If you are attending WordCamp US in August, you could be a part of an upcoming podcast episode at Do the Woo. All you have to do is to record audio under 3 minutes revolving around the topic, “What are you really looking forward to at WCUS 2023?”
• GitHub introduces passwordless authentication: An all-new passwordless authentication has been introduced which seeks to enhance the overall security and improve the user experience.

🔖INTERESTING READS & PODCASTS

More blog posts and podcasts from WordPress Community you don’t want to miss

• Women and non-binary folx of XWP: From XWP
• Malware Madness 1/2: Why everything you know about your WordPress Malware Scanner is wrong: From Snicco
• The state of WordPress security plugins in 2022: From Snicco
• What Liquid Web’s new investors mean for StellarWP: From StellarWP
• Real-time collaboration in WordPress: Here’s What to Expect: From Torque
• Building the perfect CMS with WP VIP CTO – Interview with Brian Alvey: From Osom to Know
• Carrie Dils on how to internationalize your WordPress code: From WP Tavern Jukebox
• Sneak a Peek at WordPress 6.3 with Special Guest Mike Schroder: From WordPress Briefing
• Glamming the Accessibility Checker plugin with Amber Hinds: From Glam That Plugin
• Talking with Mario Peshev about the WordPress ecosphere and economy: From Within WordPress with Remkus
• Elevate your game: Secure investors and grow your WordPress product: From WP Product Talk
• The wonderful world of WordPress: From The WP Minute
• Breaking down the breakdown: A grand experiment in branded podcasts: From Podcast Workflows
• How to plan & execute a social media strategy for your business: From Jetpack
• Analysis of 39 WordPress plugins with over a million active installations: From Plug Score
• Marketing a mobile app: 13 advanced tactics you need to know: From Kinsta
• Internal linking for SEO: Why and how?: From Yoast
• Make your site’s typography make a statement: From WordPress Developer Blog
• 3 overlooked SEO conversion metrics to consider: From Search Engine Land

🛠 GUIDE ZONE – HOWTO’S and MORE

Handpicked fresh guides from WordPress circle

• How to harden WordPress: A basic overview: From Sucuri
• 7 Tips to improve website security: From Learn WordPress
• Tips and shortcuts for using the block editor & streamlining content creation: From WordPress TV
• Demystifying the navigation block: How to set up your site’s navigation now and in the future: From WordPress TV
• WP-CLI for PHP developers: From WordPress TV
• How to vet content topic ideas for the WordPress Training Team: From WordPress TV
• How to add a search bar to WordPress (5 ways): From Jetpack
• WordPress database: A detailed guide with best practices: From Jetpack
• The ultimate WordPress security checklist [enterprise-grade]: From WP Scan
• 8 Ways to dress up quotes with CSS & JavaScript: From Speckyboy

📆 SAVE THE DATES

Do not miss a WordPress event ever again

• WordCamp Bengaluru on July 29, 2023: Call for speakers and sponsors is now open.
• WordCamp Kampala on August 5-6, 2023: Tickets are out.
• The WordPress Community Summit on August 22-23, 2023: The Community Summit is an “unconference,” without slides, selected speakers, or planned presentations. 
• WordCamp US 2023 on Aug 24-26, 2023: Contributor day signup is now open.
• WordCamp Kathmandu on September 8-9, 2023: Call for sponsors is now open.
• WordCamp Rochester on September 30, 2023: Call for speakers and sponsors is now open.
• WordCamp Masaka on October 6-7, 2023: Tickets are available now.
• WordCamp Deutschland 2023 on Oct 19-21, 2023: Call for speakers is now open.

🎁 WORDPRESS DEALS OF THE WEEK

Just the best deals of the week, again, handpicked by yours truly!

EXCLUSIVE DEALS

• 4 Months free offer on hosting plans of WP Engine (Coupon Code- FREEDOMTOCREATE)
• 15% off yearly plans at Videvo (Coupon Code – WPV15)

OTHER DEALS

• 33% off on Paid Memberships Pro plugin from July 13-19, 2023 (Coupon Code -SUMMER23)
• 10% off on Crazydomains WooCommerce online store (Coupon Code- BUILDURSTORE)
• 50% discount on yearly and lifetime plans on Variable Inspector Pro
• Up to 50% off on plugins & PHP scripts at CodeCanyon
• Up to 40% off for CartFlows
• Up to 75% off on plugins, themes and hosting at WP Hive
• 50% off Web Hosting Packages at StableHost (Coupon Code – 50OFFYEAR1)
• 80% off for plugins at WPPool
• Up to 75% off hosting plans at HostPapa
• 50% off for Advanced Giftcards for WooCommerce plugin
• 55% off for Annual Hosting plans at Nexcess
• 85% off at AtlasVPN 
• 30% off for Fluent Forms plugin
• 50% off at Formidable Forms
• 20% off for FluentCRM plugin
• 50% off for WP Social Ninja plugin 
• Upto 95% off for PitchGround products 
• Upto 65% off WordPress Hosting plans at InMotion Hosting
• 73% off hosting plans at SiteGround
• 60% off at Hostgator India
• Up to 85% off on VPS plans at Liquid Web (Coupon Code – SUMMER85VPS)
• 50% off on Managed Dedicated Server Hosting at Liquid Web

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