Buy Paid Plugins Directly on WordPress.com

Posted by download in Software on 27-01-2022

For users on our Business and eCommerce Plans, plugins are a critical part of the WordPress.com experience. We’re always looking for ways to simplify the process of discovering and installing powerful WordPress plugins.

As a result, we’re now making it possible to purchase certain plugins directly on the WordPress.com plugin page. Not only that, but WordPress.com will offer monthly and annual plugin pricing which provides site owners more flexibility.

Initially, you can purchase six of our most popular WooCommerce plugins on the WordPress.com plugins page.

  • WooCommerce Subscriptions — Allow customers to subscribe to your products or services and pay on a weekly, monthly or annual basis.
  • WooCommerce Bookings — Allow customers to book appointments, make reservations or rent equipment without leaving your site.
  • WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping — Advanced, flexible shipping. Define multiple shipping rates based on location, price, weight, shipping class or item count.
  • WooCommerce AutomateWoo — Powerful marketing automation for WooCommerce. AutomateWoo has the tools you need to grow your store and make more money.
  • WooCommerce Shipment Tracking — Add shipment tracking information to your orders.
  • WooCommerce Xero — Save time with automated sync between WooCommerce and your Xero account.

Purchasing a plugin via the new WordPress.com interface is simple. On the plugins page, click on one of the paid plugin cards to be redirected to a detailed product listing page. When you’re ready, click the purchase button in the top right of the product listing page. Your purchase won’t be final until you confirm your payment method and details on the following page. The plugin will be installed automatically.

This announcement is just the start — look for more paid plugins and other exciting updates over the coming months. Let us know in the comments below what plugins you would like to see available for purchase directly on WordPress.com.

Stay tuned and click here to begin exploring plugins now!

As a reminder, all plugins (free or paid) are currently only available to customers with a WordPress.com Business or eCommerce Plan. If you’re interested in purchasing or upgrading to an annual Business Plan, click here for a 25% discount off your first year.

Promo code: PLUGINSBLOG25

WordPress 5.9 Josephine

Posted by download in Software on 25-01-2022

Welcome to Joséphine!

Introducing 5.9, Joséphine. Named in honor of acclaimed international jazz singer Joséphine Baker, this latest, most versatile WordPress release is here: download it or update it directly from your dashboard.

As a lifelong civil rights campaigner, Joséphine Baker believed that all people could live in harmony together, just as different instruments in a jazz band blend together to make a whole piece. Turn on a playlist from your favorite music service and enjoy her famous renditions of “You are the greatest love”, “Sans Amour”, and “Love is a Dreamer” as you discover all the features of this brand-new WordPress release. 


Full site editing is here.

It puts you in control of your whole site, right in the WordPress Admin.

Say hello to Twenty Twenty-Two.

And say hello to the first default block theme in the history of WordPress. This is more than just a new default theme. It’s a brand-new way to work with WordPress themes.

Block themes put a wide array of visual choices directly in your hands, from color schemes and font combinations to page templates and image filters, all from the Site Editor. So in one place, you can give Twenty Twenty-Two the same look and feel as your organization’s other materials—or take your site’s look in another direction.

You already have the Twenty Twenty-Two theme—it came installed with WordPress 5.9. You will find it with your other installed themes.

Your personal paintbox awaits

Twenty Twenty-Two is not the only theme built for full site editing. More block themes are in the Themes directory, and the number will grow. 

When you use any of those new themes, you no longer need the Customizer. Instead, you have all the power of the Styles interface inside the Site Editor. Just as in Twenty Twenty-Two, you build your site’s look and feel there, with the tools you need for the job in a fluid interface that practically comes alive in your hands.

The Navigation block

Blocks come to site navigation, the heart of user experience.

The new Navigation block gives you the power to choose: an always-on responsive menu or one that adapts to your user’s screen size. And your choices are remembered! In 5.9, the block saves menus as custom post types, which get saved to the database.

More improvements and updates

Do you love to blog? New tweaks to the publishing flow help you say more, faster.

Better block controls

WordPress 5.9 features new typography tools, flexible layout controls, and finer control of details like spacing, borders, and more—to help you get not just the look, but the polish that says you care about details.

The power of patterns

The WordPress Pattern Directory is the home of a wide range of block patterns built to save you time and add to your site’s functionality. And you can edit them as you see fit. Need something different in the header or footer for your theme? Swap it out with a new one in a few clicks.

With a nearly full-screen view that draws you in to see fine details, the Pattern Explorer makes it easy to compare patterns and choose the one your users need.

A revamped List View

In 5.9, the List View lets you drag and drop your content exactly where you want it. Managing complex documents is easier, too: simple controls let you expand and collapse sections as you build your site—and add HTML anchors to your blocks to help users get around the page.

Treat every image in a Gallery Block the same way you would treat it in the Image Block.

Style every image in your gallery differently, or make them all the same, except for one or two. Or change the layout with drag-and-drop.


WordPress 5.9 for developers

Theme.json for child themes

In 5.9, theme.json supports child themes. That means your users can build a child theme right in the WordPress Admin, without writing a single line of code. 

This dev note has all the details. Take a look!

Block-level locking

Now you can lock any block (or a few of them) in a pattern, just by adding a lock attribute to its settings in block.json—leaving the rest of the pattern free for users to adapt to their content. 

Multiple stylesheets in a block

Now you can register more than one stylesheet per block, which lets a given block load only the styles its markup requests, and not a whole sheet. Read the details in this dev note.

The changes to the Gallery Block listed above are the result of near-complete refactor. Have you built a plugin or theme on the Gallery Block functionality? Be sure you read this dev note. It tells you what you need to do for compatibility.


Learn more about the new features in 5.9

Want to dive into 5.9 but don’t know where to start? Check out this free course about Simple Site Design from Learn WordPress. There are a variety of learning materials including short how-to video tutorials and resources on new features in WordPress 5.9, with much more planned.


Check the Field Guide for more!

Check out the latest version of the WordPress Field Guide. It has lots of useful information with links to detailed developer notes to support you building in WordPress for everyone you serve. WordPress 5.9 Field Guide.

The Squad

The WordPress 5.9 release was led by Matt Mullenweg, and supported by this highly enthusiastic release squad:

WordPress 5.9 also reflects the hard work of 624 generous volunteer contributors. Collaboration occurred on 370 tickets on Trac and more than 1900 pull requests on GitHub.

2linctools, Aaron D. Campbell, Aaron Jorbin, Aaron Robertshaw, abesell132, Abha Thakor, acosmin, Adam - WPMU DEV Support, Adam Bosco, Adam Morgan, Adam Silverstein, Adam Zielinski, Addie, Adil Ali, aduth, Aezaz Shekh, Ahmed Chaion, ajotka, Akash Soni, Akira Tachibana, Alain Schlesser, Alan Jacob Mathew, Alex Concha, Alex Lende, Alexandru Vornicescu, alexeydemidov, Alexis Lloyd, alexstine, AlGala, allilevine, almendron, Amanda Riu, Anand Upadhyay, André, Andrea Fercia, Andrei Draganescu, Andrew Nacin, Andrew Nevins, Andrew Ozz, Andrew Serong, André, Andy Fragen, Andy Peatling, Andy Schmidt, andynick, Angelika Reisiger, Anjana Vasan, Ankit K Gupta, Ankit Panchal, Anne McCarthy, Anthony Burchell, Anthony Eden, Anthony Ledesma, Anton Vlasenko, Antonis Lilis, arena, Ari Stathopoulos, Arthur Chu, Ashfame, Ayesh Karunaratne, baelx, Bartlomiej, Beatriz Fialho, Beau Lebens, Beda, Benachi, benitolopez, Benjamin Denis, Benjamin Gosset, benjamin.anakena, Bernhard Reiter, bgardner, bijayyadav, BinaryKitten, Birgir Erlendsson (birgire), bobbingwide, Boone Gorges, Brad Jorsch, Brad Parbs, Bradley Taylor, Brandon Kraft, bravokeyl, Brennan Goewert, Brian Richards, bronsonquick, Bruno Ribaric, Brylie Christopher Oxley, Caleb Burks, calebwoodbridge, carepsules, Carike, Carlos Bravo, Carlos Garcia, Carolina Nymark, cdyerkes, Ceyhun Ozugur, Chad, Chiaki, Chintan hingrajiya, Chip Snyder, Chloe Bringmann, Chouby, Chris Klosowski, Chris Van Patten, chriscct7, Christian Tamayo, Christina Workman, Christopher Churchill, clucasrowlands, Colin Stewart, Collieth Clarke, Collins Agbonghama, Copons, Corey, Cory Hughart, Courtney Robertson, craigfrancis, Crisoforo Gaspar, critterverse, Csaba (LittleBigThings), Dávid Szabó, Daisy Olsen, Damon Cook, Dan Farrow, Dan Soschin, Daniel Bachhuber, Daniel Post, Daniel Richards, Daniel Shaw, danieldudzic, Daniele Scasciafratte, darerodz, Daria, Daschmi, datagutten, datainterlock, Dave Page, David Anderson, David Baumwald, David Biňovec, David Calhoun, David Gwyer, David Herrera, David Kryzaniak, David Mosterd, David Rozando, David Ryan, David Smith, davidwebca, Debabrata Karfa, Deepak Lalwani, Denis Yanchevskiy, Dennis Snell, Dhanendran, dhusakovic, DiedeExterkate, Dilip Bheda, dingo-d, Dion Hulse, dlt101, Dominik Schilling, donmhico, Donna Botti, dontgo2sleep, Doug Wollison, dpegasusm, Dr. Ronny Harbich, dratwas, Drew Jaynes, drosmog, dustinrue, ecotechie, ehtis, EkoJR, Ella van Durpe, Emmanuel Hesry, empatogen, Enchiridion, Enej Bajgorić, Enrique Sánchez, erayalakese, Eric Malalel, Erick Hitter, Erik, etoledo, Evan Mullins, Fabian Kägy, Fabian Todt, Faisal Alvi, fedepia, Felipe Elia, Felipe Santos, Felix Arntz, Florian TIAR, FPCSJames, fperdaan, Francesca Marano, Francesco, fullofcaffeine, Gal Baras, Garrett Hyder, Gary Jones, Gary Pendergast, gazchap, generosus, Gennady Kovshenin, George Hotelling, George Mamadashvili, George Stephanis, Gerardo Pacheco, Gilbert Pellegrom, Glen Davies, goldsounds, Govind, Grant M. Kinney, Greg Rickaby, Greg Ziółkowski, Guillaume TURPIN, Héctor Prieto, Hans-Christiaan Braun, haosun, Hareesh, Hasanuzzaman, Hauwa Abashiya, Haz, Henry Wright, herbmiller, Herm Martini, Herre Groen, hilayt24, hirofumi2012, Hitendra Chopda, Hossein Farahani, htmgarcia, Hudson Atwell, Hugh Lashbrooke, hugod, Ian Dunn, ianhayes94, ianmjones, Ignat Georgiev, Igor Benic, ilovecats7, infected, Ipstenu (Mika Epstein), Isaac, Isabel Brison, ismaeld, J.D. Grimes, Jack Reichert, Jake Spurlock, jakub.tyrcha, Jam Viet, James Huff, James Koster, Jan Thiel, janw.oostendorp, Jason Johnston, Jason R. Johnston, Javier Arce, Javier Casares, Jay Upadhyay, Jean-Baptiste Audras, Jean-Philippe, Jeff Bowen, Jeff Ong, Jeffrey Paul, Jenny Dupuy, Jeremy Felt, Jeremy Herve, Jeremy Scott, Jeremy Yip, Jesús Amieiro, Jesper van Engelen, Jessica Lyschik, Jignesh Nakrani, Joe Dolson, Joe McGill, joegasper, Joel James, Joen Asmussen, John Blackbourn, John Espiritu, John Godley, John James Jacoby, john zenith, JohnRDOrazio (CLPTE), Jonathan Bossenger, Jonathan Desrosiers, Jonny Harris, Jono Alderson, Joost de Valk, Jorge Costa, Jos Klever, Joseph Dickson, Josepha Haden, Joy, jsnajdr, JuanMa Garrido, juanruitina, Juhi Saxena, Juliette Reinders Folmer, Junaid Bhura, Junko Nukaga, Justin Ahinon, Justin DoCanto, Justin Tadlock, K. Adam White, KafleG, Kai Hao, kallookoo, Kalpesh Akabari, kaneva, Kapil Paul, Kelly Choyce-Dwan, Kelly Hoffman, keoshi, Keramot UL Islam, kero, Kerry Liu, Kevin Fodness, keyur5, Kharis Sulistiyono, Kjell Reigstad, Knut Sparhell, Koen Van den Wijngaert, Konstantin Obenland, Konstantinos Xenos, kurudrive, kwisatz, Kyle Nel, KZeni, lalitjalandhar, laurelfulford, Laxman Prajapati, leemon, leogermani, Liam Gladdy, liammitchell, Linkon Miyan, linux4me2, Loïc Antignac, Loran A. Rendel, Lucas Karpiuk, lucasw89, lucatume, Luis Felipe Zaguini, Luke Carbis, Luke Cavanagh, luovalabs, lynk, M Asif Rahman, Madalin Gorbanescu, Madison, Maggie Cabrera, Mai, Malae, malthert, manfcarlo, Manisha Makhija, Manzoor Wani, Marco Ciampini, Marcus Kazmierczak, Marek Hrabe, Marin Atanasov, Marius L. J., Mark-k, Mary Baum, Mateus Machado Luna, Matias Ventura, Matt, Matt Chowning, Matt Mullenweg, Matt Wiebe, mattoakley, Max, MaxD, Maxime Culea, mclaurent, MEDUSOR, Meg Phillips, Meher Bala, Mel Choyce-Dwan, mgol, Micah Wood, Michael Adams (mdawaffe), Michael Beckwith, Michael Burridge, Michael Nelson, Michal Czaplinski, Michel - xiligroup dev, Miguel Fonseca, mikaelmayer, Mike Jolley (a11n), Mike Schroder, Milan Dinić, Milana Cap, Minal Diwan, mirka, mjaschen, mjulian7, mmxxi, moch11, Mohammad Rockeybul Alam, moto hachi, mqudsi, mreishus, mrjoeldean, mtoensing, Muhammad Arslan, Muhammad Faizan Haidar, Mukesh Panchal, Musab Shakeel, Mustaque Ahmed, Nadir Seghir, Nalini Thakor, Namith Jawahar, Naoko Takano, NateWr, Ned Zimmerman, NettSite, Nicholas Garofalo, Nick Diego, Nick Halsey, nickcernis, Nico, Nidhi Jain, Niels Lange, Nik Tsekouras, Nikhil Chavan, nlpro, ockham, Olga Gleckler, Oliver Campion, Omar Alshaker, Omar Reiss, opr18, Outzen Larkin, Ov3rfly, ovann86, ovidiul, Paal Joachim Romdahl, Pablo Honey, page-carbajal, palmiak, Pankaj Mohale, Pascal Birchler, Patrick B, Paul Bearne, Paul Biron, Paul Bunkham, Paul Kevin, Paul Schreiber, Paul Von Schrottky, Paulo Pinto, pbking, Pedro Mendonça, pepe, Peter Wilson, Petter Walbø Johnsgård, Phil Johnston, Philip Jackson, Pierre Gordon, Pieterjan Deneys, Piotrek Boniu, Pooja Derashri, powerbuoy, praem90, Pramod Jodhani, Presskopp, presstoke, procodewp, psealock, psufan, pwtyler, Rachel Baker, Radixweb, Rahul Mehta, ralucastn, Ramon Ahnert, ramonopoly, ravipatel, Rehan Ali, Renatho (a11n), retrofox, Riad Benguella, Rian Rietveld, Rich Tabor, Richard Foley, richards1052, Rick Curran, Rishabh Budhiraja, Riyadh Ahmed, rmartinezduque, Robert Anderson, robertght, robtarr, Rodrigo Arias, Rohan Rawat, Rohan Sharma, Ronak Ganatra, Roxy Kohilakis, Ruslan, rviscomi, Ryan Welcher, S Page, Sébastien SERRE, Sören Wrede, Sabbir Hasan, Sabri Bouchaala, Safirul Alredha, Samir Shah, Samuel Wood (Otto), Sandip Mondal - a11n, Sanket Chodavadiya, Sarah Norris, sarayourfriend, Sathiyamoorthy V, savicmarko1985, Sayedul Sayem, Scott Buscemi, scribu, scruffian, Sean McMillan, Sebastian Pisula, Segayuu, Sergey Biryukov, Sergio Cinos, SergioEstevao, Shaharyar Afzal, shaunandrews, Shazahanul Islam Shohag, shimon246, Shital Marakana, Shiva Poudel, siddharth, Siddharth Thevaril, siliconforks, simonhammes, Siobhan, Siobhan, sirreal, sjlevy, skunkbad, Smit Rathod, snapfractalpop, Sourov Roy, spytzo, ssergei, stacimc, Stefano Minoia, Stefanos Togoulidis, Stephen Bernhardt, Stephen Edgar, Stephen Rider, Steve Dufresne, Steve Henty, stevegs, Storm Rockwell, Sybre Waaijer, Synchro, szaqal21, Taco Verdonschot, Takahashi Fumiki, Tammie Lister, Tara King, Tarei King, Tellyworth, terraling, Terri Ann, Tetsuaki Hamano, theMikeD, Thierry Muller, Thijs Hulshof, Thimal Wickremage, thisiswilliam, Thomas Patrick Levy, timlappe, Timothy Jacobs, titsmaker, tjcafferkey, tmatsuur, TobiasBg, tobifjellner (Tor-Bjorn Fjellner), Tomek, Tomoki Shimomura, Tony G, Tony Tahmouch, Tonya Mork, Toro_Unit (Hiroshi Urabe), Torsten Landsiedel, Tracy, Travis Northcutt, tubys, Tung Du, twstokes, Udit Desai, umesh84, Utpol Deb Nath, Venkat Raj, versusbassz, verybg, Vicente Canales, Viktor Szépe, Vishit Shah, Vlad T, Vondelphia.com, vortfu, wb1234, WebMan Design | Oliver Juhas, Wes Theron, Weston Ruter, WFMattR, Will Skora, William Earnhardt, williampatton, wojsmol, woodyhayday, wp_kc, wpnomad a11n, wpweaver, Yagnik Sangani, Yui, Yvette Sonneveld, Zebulan Stanphill, and zoiec.

By release day, 71 locales had translated 90 percent or more of WordPress 5.9 in their language. Community translators are hard at work ensuring more translations are on their way. Thank you to everyone who helps to make WordPress available in 205 languages.

Many thanks to all of the community volunteers who contribute in the support forums. They help to answer questions from people across the world. The success of releases from the first one in 2003 owes much to the efforts of the support contributors. 

If contributing to WordPress appeals to you, it’s easy to learn more and get involved. Discover the different teams that come together to Make WordPress website and find out the latest plans on the core development blog.

Connect With Your Audience: Integrate Social Media With Your WordPress.com Website

Posted by download in Software on 22-01-2022

Integrating your social media presence with your WordPress.com website has never been easier. We offer many options and tools that are available on all plans, at no additional cost. Whether you want to auto-share your website posts to a social media platform, display your social media posts on your website, provide links to your various accounts, or encourage your website visitors to share your content, we’ve got what you need to connect with your audience. 

Posting to Social Media

All WordPress.com plans include Publicize, a feature that lets you automate posting to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Tumblr. When you set up and configure these social media accounts to your site, every new post you publish will automatically post to the platforms you’ve selected. This is a great way to repurpose your website content on your social channels, reach your audience where they already are, and drive traffic to your site. 

Integrate Social Media - Publicize

It’s important to note that Publicize cannot push posts to Instagram since Instagram doesn’t allow auto-posting from third-party services. However, if you’re on the Business plan or ecommerce plan, then you could consider using a third-party automation tool such as Buffer or Hootsuite, both of which can be connected to your WordPress.com site using plugins. There may be other tools that offer this feature as well, though you’ll want to research their limitations and plans to learn more.*

*Please note that third-party tools and plugins are outside the scope of WordPress.com support.

Social Media Feeds on Your Site

Another option that WordPress.com offers is displaying your social media platforms on your website. You can add widgets, blocks, or feeds to your WordPress.com site to display posts from your social media accounts in real-time. This can help you stay connected with your audience when they’re taking a break from social media, but still checking your site.

WordPress.com offers built-in features for displaying your social media feeds from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and TikTok, to name a few. We also provide a number of support documents to help walk you through the options for these embedding features.

Integrate Social Media - Social Media Feeds

Social Media Menus

You can also strengthen the cross-connection between your website and your social media platforms with the addition of social media menus. Many WordPress.com themes offer a dedicated Social Menu that allows you to connect your site to various social media platforms and display their respective icons on your site.

If your theme doesn’t offer this menu option, you can still create social media-style menus using our Social Icons Block. This ensures that your audience knows how to easily find you on your preferred social media platforms.

Integrate Social Media - Social Media Menus

Social Sharing

Last but not least, don’t forget to enlist your visitors to share the love from your website to their social accounts by setting up WordPress.com’s Social Sharing option.

This feature allows you to choose which social platforms you want to encourage your visitors to spread the word by providing a Share button on every piece of content you publish. Nothing connects your audience more than the ability to share.

Integrate Social Media - Social Sharing

WordPress.com provides you with multiple built-in tools to make your website the centralized hub for connecting and integrating with your social media platforms—at no additional cost—so you can connect to your audience smoothly and seamlessly, all while driving traffic to your WordPress.com website.

WordPress.com will be hosting a live special topic webinar on Tuesday, February 22, 2022 at 19:00 UTC. Join our WordPress experts to learn all of the essential tips to integrate social media with your website and how to add Link in Bio pages to your website. Register for free today!

WordPress 5.9 RC3

Posted by download in Software on 19-01-2022

The third Release Candidate (RC3) for WordPress 5.9 is here!

Thank you to everyone who has contributed thus far toward testing and filing bugs to help make WordPress 5.9 a great release. WordPress 5.9 is slated to land in just one week—on January 25, 2022. You still have time to help! Since RC2 arrived last week, testers have found and fixed two bugs, 14 fixes from Gutenberg. There has been one additional Gutenberg fix today.

Testing the release

You can test the WordPress 5.9 release candidate in three ways:

Option 1: Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).

Option 2: Download the beta version here (zip).

Option 3: When using WP-CLI to upgrade from Beta 1, 2, 3, 4, RC1, or RC2 on a case-insensitive filesystem, please use the following command sequence:

Command One:

wp core update --version=5.9-RC3

Command Two:

wp core update --version=5.9-RC3 --force

Your help to test the third Release Candidate is vital: the more testing that happens, the more stable the release, and the better the experience for users, developers, and the WordPress community.

Thank you to all contributors who tested the RC2 release and gave feedback. Testing for bugs is a critical part of polishing every release and is a great way to contribute to WordPress.

How to help

Help test WordPress 5.9 features – this post provides a guide to set up your testing environment, a list of testable features, and information about how to submit feedback you find as you go.

Skilled in languages other than English? Help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages! Thanks to every locale that is working on translations.

Developers and those interested in more background to the features can find more in the Field Guide. You can also follow the 5.9 development cycle and timeline.

If you have found a bug, you can post the details to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums.

If you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, you can file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also check the issue against a list of known bugs.

For their help in compiling this post, props to @cbringmann, @webcommsat, @psykro,@marybaum, @chanthaboune, @davidbaumwald, and @hellofromtonya.

Get Early Access to Full Site Editing!

Posted by download in Software on 17-01-2022

A big change is coming to WordPress to make it easier than ever to create websites called Full-Site Editing. You can be one of the first to try it exclusively on WordPress.com, before it gets merged into core open source WordPress with the upcoming release of WordPress version 5.9. 

What is Full Site Editing?

If you caught the State of the Word or follow along with news on WordPress.org, you may have heard about “Full Site Editing”, a set of new features that will allow you to edit all parts of your site. This collection of powerful new features empowers WordPress users to easily create and customize their entire websites without needing to know how to code. 

Some highlights of Full Site Editing include:

  • Point and click edits in all parts of your site, including headers, footers, and sidebars!
  • Drag and drop blocks to design beautiful and complex navigation menu bars.
  • Edit items like your header, page content, and footer all in one place. You’ll no longer need to jump out of your page editor to make changes in the Customizer! Everything is available to edit right where you already are.
  • Use all the power of blocks, reusable blocks, and pre-designed block patterns to design every part of your site.

If you’ve struggled to make your entire WordPress website look just the way you wanted in the past, we encourage you to give it another try. Full Site Editing may be exactly what you’ve needed.

What’s Available Right Now?

The WordPress.com team is excited to announce that we’re now offering early access to Full Site Editing (Beta) for all new sites created by our existing English-speaking users! If this describes you, then you don’t have to wait. 

Eager to give it a try? Just spin up a new site from your dashboard.

If FSE is not yet available to you, don’t worry. Stay tuned for more updates as the rollout continues for both existing sites and new users.

Want to know more about Full Site Editing Beta? Check out this free Full Site Editing course created by the WordPress.org team to help you get started!

WP Briefing: Episode 23: A letter from WordPress’ Executive Director

Posted by download in Software on 17-01-2022

As we greet a new year, WordPress’ Executive Director writes a letter to the project and community that speaks to the hopes of the year ahead.

Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@wordpress.org, either written or as a voice recording.

Credits

Transcript

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  00:10

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing. The podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go!

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  00:40

Yesterday marked three years since the WordPress project welcomed me as their executive director. As I start my fourth year, I’ve spent a bit of time considering what the next five years will bring us. WordPress will turn 19 this year, which means that we will soon be a whopping 20 years old; for some of the people who have been with the project since the beginning, that can represent two-thirds of their whole life. And even if you were not that young when you got here, two decades as an open source project is really a cause for celebration. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  01:10

I am not in that group that has been here forever. I showed up for the first time in 2009, as a community organizer, self-sponsored, and I learned so much about myself as a person and as a leader while I was doing that. So when I arrived as a sponsored contributor in 2015, I already knew exactly what made this work so fulfilling for me was these three things: 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  01:34

First, the ability to lend a hand in those moments where I wish someone had lent a hand. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  01:40

Second is the delight of seeing people’s first successes and the joy of watching them grow over time. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  01:48

And the third was a chance to be part of something great, which turned out to be something greater; greater than me or you or a CMS. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  01:58

This list is still at the heart of what I feel I get out of the WordPress project. But it has also grown substantially in my seven years as a sponsored contributor. I now also love how we as a community of contributors get to foster a better way to lead and a better way to collaborate. And through those things help people find a way to have a better life. Not just through WordPress, the CMS, but through WordPress, the people, and WordPress, the project. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  02:25

And so when I think of what I want for WordPress in its 19th year, so that we can head with confidence and dignity into our 20th year, it is this: 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  02:35

I want you to remember that you are not alone here. People come together in the world often because of a shared location. But WordPress fosters this beautiful experience of bringing us together because of what we care about. Whether you care about PHP standards, diversity in technology, helping people with their first big wins, making WordPress more secure. I mean, if what you care about is being able to write the most arcane and complex apps on top of WordPress that the world has ever seen. Then there are others out there who want to do that with you, too. We have so many things to connect about. And fortunately, we support a great piece of software for getting our thoughts out in the world. Take some time to see who else shares your thoughts and potentially learn a bit about the view from the other side. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  03:26

And speaking of the other side, I also want us to approach our discussions as the US versus the Problem TM. WordPress may be 20 years old, and we may stand on the shoulders of giants, but right now, the people who are here you, you are explorers and creators and guides toward the best possible future for WordPress. The tension that we witness between teams is always about the best possible answers for the people who use our software. It is about securing the freedoms of the open web for everyone who comes after us whether they know they need those freedoms or not. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  04:04

And finally, I want us to expand our reasons for doing this at all. If you are a member of the community of contributors, We frequently talk about how we give back because WordPress gave to us. Or if you are part of a Five for the Future group. You have heard that companies who have experienced success because of WordPress should commit 5% of their resources back to the project to ensure WordPress’ long-term success. But the reason that I keep doing this, and hopefully a new reason for you to keep doing this is that we can take part in securing opportunities for future users of WordPress. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  04:42

Yes, I want WordPress to be the best CMS. Yes, I want this community to be vibrant and engaged. Yes, I want WordPress to be a shining beacon of how to work remotely. And I want all of that because I know it is our careful and tireless stewardship of this project that lets us continue to lend a hand in those moments where people wish for someone to lend a hand. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  05:11

Those are my hopes for WordPress in 2022 to move us forward into WordPress of the future. I hope you all will come with me and we can continue our journey together. 

Josepha Haden Chomphosy  05:23

Thanks again for listening. I’m Josepha Haden and this is the WP Briefing. See you again in a couple of weeks.

WordPress 5.9 RC 2

Posted by download in Software on 11-01-2022

The second Release Candidate (RC2) for WordPress 5.9 is now available! 

“Release Candidate” means the new version of the software is ready for release. It helps the community check that nothing is missed, given the thousands of plugins and themes and differences in how millions of people use the software.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed thus far towards testing and filing bugs to help make WordPress 5.9 a great release. WordPress 5.9 is slated for release in just two weeks on January 25, 2022. There’s still time to help! Since RC1 was released, six bugs have been found and fixed. There were 13 bug fixes backported from Gutenberg.

Testing the release

You can test the WordPress 5.9 release candidate in three ways:

Option 1: Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).

Option 2: Direct download the beta version here (zip).

Option 3: When using WP-CLI to upgrade from Beta 1, 2, 3, 4, or RC1, on a case-insensitive filesystem, please use the following command sequence:

Command One:

wp core update --version=5.9-RC2

Command Two:

wp core update --version=5.9-RC2 --force

Your help to test the second Release Candidate is vital: the more testing that happens, the more stable the release, and the better the experience for users and developers—and the entire WordPress community.

Thank you to all of the contributors who tested the RC1 release and gave feedback. Testing for bugs is not just a critical part of polishing every release, it is also a great way to contribute to WordPress.

How to Help

Help test WordPress 5.9 features – a guide to how you can take part.

Can you write in another language other than English? You can help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages! Release Candidate 1 marked the hard string freeze point of the 5.9 release schedule. Thanks to every locale that is already involved with translations.

Developers and those interested in more of the background to the features can find more in the Field Notes. More developer notes will be added as the release progresses to its final stage. You can also follow the 5.9 development cycle and timeline.

If you think you have found a bug, you can post the details to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums.

 If you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, you can file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also check the issue against a list of known bugs.

Props to: @psykro and @webcommsat, and @hellofromtonya, @audrasjb, @cbringmann and @marybaum for final review.

Get Started with new webinars

Posted by download in Software on 07-01-2022

Launching a website or learning how to monetize your online store can be overwhelming. But we are here to help you along the way. We are hosting free webinars to help get you on track and answer any questions you have.  We cover different topics and will soon have new ones. Make sure to bookmark the Webinars page for upcoming webinars. In the meantime, check out our January webinars.

The timezones are in UTC but you can click the time to see it in your own timezone.

Getting Started
Mondays1900 UTC
Tuesdays1000 UTC
Wednesdays0600 UTC
Thursdays1900 UTC
Fridays1600 UTC
Making Money
Mondays – hours alternate weekly0600 UTC and 1600 UTC
Blogging
Tuesdays – hours alternate weekly0600 UTC and 1600 UTC
Every other Wednesday at1400 UTC
WooCommerce 101
Thursdays 1600 UTC
Spanish Webinars
Every other Wednesday 1400 UTC

Get the specific dates and registration forms at https://wordpress.com/webinars/

Who’s Invited: New WordPress.com users and anyone interested in learning more about WordPress.com’s website capabilities.

Our WordPress.com customer service team, we call them Happiness Engineers, are experts in helping new users get up and running on their new websites. Across each week of webinars, we’ll cover questions about the basics of setting up your website, handling simple and recurring payments, blogging best practices, and adding in eCommerce capabilities. Come with questions as you’ll be able to make them during the live webinar.

Everyone is welcome, even if you already have a site set up. We know you’re busy, so if you can’t make the live event, you’ll be able to watch a recording of the webinar on our YouTube channel.

Live attendance is limited, so be sure to register early. We look forward to seeing you on the webinar!

WordPress 5.8.3 Security Release

Posted by download in Software on 06-01-2022

This security release features four security fixes. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. All versions since WordPress 3.7 have also been updated.

WordPress 5.8.3 is a short-cycle security release. The next major release will be version 5.9, which is already in the Release Candidate stage.

You can update to WordPress 5.8.3 by downloading from WordPress.org or visiting your Dashboard → Updates and clicking Update Now.

If you have sites that support automatic background updates, they’ve already started the update process.

Security Updates

Four security issues affect WordPress versions between 3.7 and 5.8. If you haven’t yet updated to 5.8, all WordPress versions since 3.7 have also been updated to fix the following security issue (except where noted otherwise):

  • Props to Karim El Ouerghemmi and Simon Scannell of SonarSource for disclosing an issue with stored XSS through post slugs.
  • Props to Simon Scannell of SonarSource for reporting an issue with Object injection in some multisite installations.
  • Props to ngocnb and khuyenn from GiaoHangTietKiem JSC for working with Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative on reporting a SQL injection vulnerability in WP_Query.
  • Props to Ben Bidner from the WordPress security team for reporting a SQL injection vulnerability in WP_Meta_Query (only relevant to versions 4.1-5.8).

Thank you to all of the reporters above for privately disclosing the vulnerabilities. This gave the security team time to fix the vulnerabilities before WordPress sites could be attacked. Thank you to the members of the WordPress security team for implementing these fixes in WordPress.

For more information, check out the 5.8.3 HelpHub documentation page.

Thanks and props!

The 5.8.3 release was led by @desrosj and @circlecube.

In addition to the security researchers and release squad members mentioned above, thank you to everyone who helped make WordPress 5.8.3 happen:

Alex Concha, Dion Hulse, Dominik Schilling, ehtis, Evan Mullins, Jake Spurlock, Jb Audras, Jonathan Desrosiers, Ian Dunn, Peter Wilson, Sergey Biryukov, vortfu, and zieladam.

The Month in WordPress – December 2021

Posted by download in Software on 05-01-2022

December was a busy month for the WordPress community. In the latest episode of the WP Briefing podcast, WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy shares a carol of thanks and shows her gratitude to all the people who make the WordPress project a success.

(…) I know that we have gotten so much done together in the last few years. And I am equally sure that we’re going to get so much done in the years to come. And so thank you all so much for your continued work with WordPress and the way that you just bring your best at all times.

Josepha Haden, Executive Director of the WordPress project

We said goodbye to 2021 with the annual State of the Word, along with the release of WordPress 5.9 Beta 4, among many other exciting updates. Read on to learn more about the latest community achievements.


WordPress 5.9: The first release candidate just landed

Are you interested in contributing to WordPress core? Join the #core channel, follow the Core Team blog, and check out the team handbook. Also, don’t miss the Core Team’s weekly developer chat on Wednesdays at 8 PM UTC.

Gutenberg releases: Versions 12.1 and 12.2 are here

The Core Team launched two new versions of Gutenberg last month. Both come with new features, code quality improvements, and bug fixes.

  • Gutenberg 12.1 marks the return of the template List View and includes several Navigation block enhancements, new global styles features, an improved developer experience for block themes, and more.
  • The Gutenberg 12.2 release focuses on user experience improvements and brings the block styles preview to the Widgets Editor, among other new features.

Want to get involved in developing Gutenberg? Follow the Core Team blog, contribute to Gutenberg on GitHub, and join the #core-editor channel in the Make WordPress Slack. Follow the #gutenberg-new tag for details on the latest updates.

Highlights from State of the Word 2021

  • State of the Word 2021, the annual keynote address delivered by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, was livestreamed from New York City on December 14, 2021. The event gathered WordPress enthusiasts at 29 watch parties around the world.
  • Matt shared his thoughts on the progress of the WordPress project and made announcements regarding its future in 2022. The presentation was followed by a Question and Answer session.

If you missed the event’s livestream, you could watch the State of the Word recording and the Q&A session on WordPress.tv.

Team updates: 2022 major release timings, new team rep announcements, and more

Are you looking for some 5.9 resources to share with your local community? Check out the WordPress 5.9 Talking Points for Meetup Organizers post.

Feedback/Testing requests: Contribute by testing or translating WordPress 5.9

  • Your feedback on WordPress 5.9 release candidates is still needed and appreciated! If you haven’t tried this version yet, you can find instructions on testing 5.9 features in this post.
  • Do you speak a language other than English? The Polyglots Team announced that WordPress 5.9 is also ready to be translated.
  • Version 18.9 of WordPress for Android is available for testing.

Share your feedback on WordPress 5.9.

Apply to speak or host a workshop at WordCamp Europe 2022

  • WordCamp US 2022 is currently looking for organizers.
  • The WordPress community celebrated its first in-person WordCamp after 21 months in Sevilla (Spain) on December 11-12, 2021. WordCamp Taiwan was held online the same weekend.
  • The Test Team organized the Hallway Hangout titled Let’s talk about WordPress 6.0 on December 21, 2021. The team also shared a wrap-up of the Site Editing Safari as part of the FSE Outreach Program.
  • The Training Team hosted several WordPress Social Learning Meetups last month, and there will be many more in January 2022.
  • Last year the WordPress Foundation made significant progress in its mission to educate the public about open source software. Learn more about it in this 2021 recap.

Don’t miss the following upcoming WordCamps: WordCamp Birmingham, Alabama 2022, WordCamp Genève 2022, WordCamp Vienna 2022, and WordCamp Europe 2022.

The Call For Sponsors and Call For Speakers for WordCamp Europe 2022 are open! Read this post to learn more about the Organizing Team’s plans for the first in-person WordCamp Europe in three years.


Have a story that we could include in the next ‘Month in WordPress’ post? Let us know by filling out this form.

The following folks contributed to December 2021’s Month in WordPress: @anjanavasan, @harishanker @lmurillom @meher @nalininonstopnewsuk @webcommsat