The summit will cover practical use cases for AI in development, marketing, design, web agency management, and freelance services. It will include mixed formats, including case studies, workshops, and live panel discussions with Q&A.
Over the course of three days, speakers will give presentations in English from 10am – 2pm EST. The schedule features 10 speakers with commercial experience and proven success at applying AI to build WordPress sites. They will cover topics like how to build a search engine for a website using AI, AI tools for daily tasks, AI and accessibility, AI translations, and more.
If you are interested to learn more about AI’s impact on the WordPress ecosystem and how to apply it to agency work, add the event to your calendar and sign up for free on the Crocoblock website.
WordPress’ Themes team launched its Community Themes initiative earlier this year with the goal of bringing together contributors to build block themes year round, the same way that default themes are built and officially supported. Their first theme release was Stacks, a single-purpose theme for creating slide decks that can be used for a presentation.
The team has now released its second community theme called Blue Note, inspired by American jazz record label “Blue Note Records.” It’s more versatile than Stacks, as it can be used for writing/blogging, a personal website, portfolio, nonprofit, memorial, event, or other types of landing pages.
Although Blue Note does not package any style variations, it comes with 14 beautifully designed patterns inspired by jazz record covers. The patterns enable users to quickly add images with text or quotes with multiple designs for each. There are also patterns with striped images, an artful way to break up a single image, paired with text. Users can select from multiple headers and footers, among seven page templates and four template parts.
Blue Note was designed by Automattic-sponsored contributor Beatriz Fialho, inspired by her work on the State of the Word slides in 2020. It was developed during the WCEU contributor day with the help of more than a dozen contributors.  The Community Themes GitHub repository has other themes they are working on which are in various stages of development.
Check out Blue Note on WordPress.org and download it for free via the Themes browser inside the admin.
As a starting point, Automattic-sponsored product designer Saxon Fletcher published some images and videos with a design that appears to have grown out of the editor’s interface to make it a more natural part of the admin. As part of the impetus for this project, he called out plugin developers that have introduced their own admin interfaces in the interim while waiting for WordPress to prioritize this project:
“The added risk here is that plugin authors are side stepping outdated UI by introducing their own which can further fragment the WordPress experience,” he said.
Fletcher emphasized that these mockups are “broad strokes and the first of many iterations.” The structural concepts Fletcher introduced include three main areas:
A Sidebar for navigation
A Page area for the main content, management, and settings
A Frame representing the front-end of the site, which can be in an edit or read-only state
“The frame can be used for previewing any type of content, including your entire site, templates, patterns etc,” Fletcher said. “Plugins can decide as to whether they benefit from having the frame in view while a task is being worked on, or hidden away. If a plugin doesn’t make use of the main content area, the frame will be in its expanded state.”
The admin bar may also be getting a makeover as part of this project, although Fletcher did not elaborate on how it might change. The admin bar doesn’t appear in any of the mockups.
“With the introduction of the frame, which represents the front-end of your site, we have an opportunity to re-think what transitioning between the front and back of your site looks like,” he said.
The initial mockups explore the idea of implementing a drill down navigation UI that can also be used to house basic content, but Fletcher acknowledged the challenges of navigating up/down the submenus more challenging. Design contributors are exploring workarounds for this, including introducing breadcrumbs or highlighting recently visited sections.
This concept for drill down navigation has received the most critical feedback in the comments of the post, as developers are concerned it will make navigation too complicated.
“Not a fan of hiding all the Admin Menus behind a maze of Breadcrumbs, also there are many complex UIs that will not convert well this idea for the menu system, the current benefit with our current menu system is that is very fast to change from one plugin to another or another area of WordPress with very few clicks,” designer Adam Pickering commented. “This proposal for the new admin menu makes that whole UX a lot more time consuming and frustrating for the user. Even if a proposal comes along where you put the previous menu item above the current position of where you are it won’t fix the issue as noted.”
Others are also concerned that the drill-down menu requires too many clicks and maybe even a popup menu on hover/long touch on mobile that pops out more options. Developer Anthony Hortin commented on how similar it is to the Customizer’s navigation:
As others have mentioned, this “drill down navigation pattern†would be incredibly frustrating to use, not only for new users, but experienced users as well. Not being able to see what options are under each menu forces the user to constantly click on each menu item, exit, click on the next menu item, exit, and so forth, until they find the screen they’re looking for. Even as someone who’s been using WordPress for 17+ years, I quite often have to hover over menus to remind myself where to find things.
This is also seen in the Customizer, which has had this style of navigation for years. When working on a new client’s site, it’s frustrating as hell trying to find options within the Customizer if they have a theme that you’re not familiar with. I would hate to see the whole Dashboard go in the same direction.
Participants in the discussion were also critical of the Frame concept for the admin, as most admin tasks don’t lend themselves to frontend previews.
“I’m most skeptical of the ‘surfaces’ approach and moving to a ‘front end first’ approach to things,” developer Jon Brown said. “Aside from theme edits, almost nothing I do in wp-admin requires or would benefit from a front-end view. If I’m managing orders on a WC site, I certainly don’t need/want to see the front end. If I’m editing plugin settings, again no front end. I get it makes sense for authoring new content, but that’s about it.”
As part of the Collaboration phase, Fletcher also proposed that the admin become more customizable for different use cases, so its navigation and system variables would make performing certain tasks more efficient for blogs, e-commerce, portfolios, and multisite, for example. He also hinted at the ability for the community to share their configurations.
“We’d like to see WordPress become a fun platform to build multiuser products on top of, more so than it already is,” he said.
WordPress developers will have a major transition ahead to make their extensions compatible with the new admin. Some individuals and teams are better positioned than others to make that step forward. Fletcher’s proposal recognizes that backwards compatibility will be an important consideration for not breaking settings pages for plugins that don’t get updated.
“Perhaps the trickiest part of this whole initiative is rolling admin changes out in a way that is iterative, doesn’t break existing workflows and encourages gradual adoption,” Fletcher said. “The site editor has given us a space to experiment, including being able to browse your site’s pages in the latest 6.3 release, and that may extend to other core admin pages like site settings, but at some point we’ll need to ‘break out’ of the editor to prevent too much duplication. We also need to support plugin pages that may never update, and do it in a way that feels seamless.”
The discussion continues and the developer community is invited to weigh in on the initial concepts and structural elements proposed in the post.
WordPress 6.3 “Lionel” was released earlier this week with an overview video that offers a beautiful, dizzying demo of the many new features packed into this update. It’s a two-minute guided tour of WordPress’ greatly expanded customization features, streamlined Site Editor interface, pattern creation and management, and the new Command Palette in action.
For the first time, the release marketing also includes a new web experience that showcases the features in 6.3 through a visual tour. It is essentially a release landing page with a beautiful dark mode style design and includes video demos for each major new feature. This visual resource is especially helpful for users who may have a difficult time getting a handle on a release that is so packed with updates. It’s also a resource that lasts long after all the Twitter buzz and other marketing has died down.
During the past few release cycles, WordPress contributors have stepped up the product demos to help make the world aware of all the new capabilities landing in these updates. WordPress 6.3 Editor Triage co-lead Anne McCarthy, who co-hosted the 6.3 live product demo with fellow contributor Rich Tabor, gave a glimpse behind the scenes at the immense amount of effort and attention to detail and design that goes into these official project demos.
As WordPress is expanding these resources and improving its marketing, McCarthy extended an invitation to any contributors who are able to follow a release in depth, understand the overarching vision, connect the dots on all the details, and artfully present them to the public. This is a somewhat rare combination of skills but a contribution opportunity with a high level of impact. Anyone interested can get in touch with McCarthy, who said she wants to enable others to take this on in the future “to ensure a diverse set of folks can step into the spotlight.”
Gutenberg 16.4 has been released with a new auto-inserting blocks experimental feature. It allows developers to specify a location in which the block will be automatically inserted, such as before or after a template. The block can then be repositioned after insertion using the editor tools.
“This applies both to the frontend and to the Site Editor (via the REST API), allowing for further user customization,” Automattic-sponsored engineer Sarah Norris said in the 16.4 release post. She posted a video demonstrating how it works with an example “like” block:
Although the auto-inserting blocks is still behind the experimental flag, developers can try it by adding an __experimentalAutoInsert field to the block.json file of a dynamic block. Example code is available in the release post.
“This feature aims to improve the extensibility of block themes through plugins and continues to be actively developed,” Norris said.
The GitHub ticket for auto-inserting blocks describes a common scenario from the days of classic themes where a plugin would use a filter to auto-append a login/logout link to a navigation menu. This is no longer possible with block themes, so contributors have devised auto-inserting blocks as a creative solution that retains ease of use offered by simply activating a plugin and preserves the ability of the user to modify the blocks once inserted.
Gutenberg 16.4 also introduces a new, horizontal ProgressBar component that can be used throughout the interface. It may soon replace the Spinner component that is currently used in the Site Editor loading experience. An indeterminate version (indicates that a process is occurring but with no specific progress measurement) and a determinant version (a progress bar that indicates the progress made, moving towards 100%) are included in this component.
WordPress’ Plugin Review team is wading through a backlog that was over 900 plugins awaiting approval earlier this week. The current count has 870 plugins sitting in the review queue, with an average wait time of 61 days before initial review.
WordPress developer Marcus Burnette drew attention to the matter on Twitter after submitting a plugin he created to display a gallery of your own WordPress Photo Directory photos on your website. Other developers commented on his post, reporting that their recently-approved plugins took two months.
WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy responded with an invitation to contributors who want to learn how to review plugins and apply to join the team.
— Josepha Haden Chomphosy (@JosephaHaden) August 8, 2023
The volunteer team responsible for reviewing plugins has undergone significant restructuring after the departure of long-time contributor Mika Epstein. In June, the team added six new sponsored volunteers and opened applications for more team members. They have selected new team reps and have more than 20 applicants who have expressed interest in volunteering.
“The first challenge we found during our onboarding was the fact that a lot of processes were not clearly documented,” newly selected team rep Francisco Torres said in a recent update. “We asked A LOT of questions during this process and ensured that all the answers Mika shared with us were added to the team’s internal docs. This effort should make it a lot easier for new contributors to join the team down the road.
“We have also improved our internal tools to catch the most common coding mistakes and have built our predefined responses into the output provided by this tool. We still review this content manually before sending out replies, but by merging the two tasks into one (reviewing the code and drafting the message) we have been able to cut down review time considerably.”
In strategizing ways to cut through the formidable plugin backlog, the team has begun speeding up the process by performing a cursory initial review, followed by a more thorough one once the plugin author has fixed the most obvious issues.
“In order to tackle the backlog faster, we’re now spending less time on initial reviews,” Torres said. “We begin checking issues that take us less time, and then as soon as we spot one or two issues with the plugin that would prevent it from being approved, we email the plugin author to ask them to fix the initial issues. If the author gets back to us with those first fixes, then we proceed with an in-depth review.”
A two-month wait can be demoralizing for developers who are excited to share their open source plugins with the world. Now that the whole process is getting documented and refined to be more efficient, the Plugin Review Team will be better able to onboard new reviewers and put them in place to tackle the backlog.
The Kadence Blocks plugin, which is used on more than 300,000 WordPress sites, has patched a critical vulnerability in its Advanced Form Block file upload capability. Version 3.1.11, released on August 8, 2023, patches the security issue with the form uploads.
The plugin’s development team is getting out ahead of the situation by posting an advisory on their blog, with a short description of the vulnerability and its potential for exploit.
The Kadence Advanced Form Block, introduced in Kadence Blocks 3.1, offers site owners the ability to add a file upload capability to their site. The code within the Advanced Form Block had insufficient tests to limit what types of files can be uploaded. This could allow attackers to upload a file claiming to be a valid image type that actually contained malicious PHP code. That PHP code could be malicious, and in so doing, take over a vulnerable WordPress website. Exploiting this vulnerability would require a settings at the server level that would be considered insecure. Most premium hosting providers secure upload folders from PHP execution at the server level, though many budget hosting providers do not.
Kadence Blocks developer Ben Ritner said sites that are not using the Advanced Form Block file upload capability are not subject to this vulnerability. At this time the vulnerability is not known to have been exploited.
Kadence Blocks users are encouraged to update immediately and check for unexpected users, admin accounts, and content changes. The advisory also includes ways to make file uploads more secure, including limiting file type, adding authentication, and scanning for viruses.
WordPress 6.3 “Lionel†was released today, named for Lionel Hampton, an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, and bandleader.
As the last release in Phase 2 of the Gutenberg project, many updates in WordPress 6.3 are targeted at polishing up customization features and the UI that supports them.
Content, templates, and patterns can now be edited together, without the user having to leave the Site Editor. This streamlines the workflow across templates and content, making it easier to build out a website with live previews. Users can now create new pages and view page details in the sidebar, an experience that is very similar to editing a page in the block editor except that it keeps the process inside the flow of design editing.
Pattern Management Expands to Include Creating and Syncing Patterns
Pattern management was a major focus of the 6.3 release. Users can now arrange blocks to create their own patterns and save them to a library where they can be searched and edited.
Reusable blocks have been renamed to synced patterns but still function the same way. They can be created and edited in the block editor and then inserted into posts or pages with the edits synced. Block patterns, once inserted, can be edited and are not synced across other instances.
The difference between synced and non-synced patterns is shown in the sync status details section within the pattern sidebar navigation screen. A new lock icon designates theme patterns as unable to be edited or modified.
New Command Palette Tool Enables Quick Search and Command Execution
WordPress 6.3 introduces a new Command Palette that was designed to be an extensible quick search and command execution tool. Users can do things like navigate to a page or post, add new content or a template, and toggle UI elements and editor preferences, among other things. It can be activated by using keyboard shortcuts (⌘+k on Mac or Ctrl+k on Windows) or by clicking the sidebar search icon in Site View, or clicking the Title Bar.
WordPress’ Design Tools Updated to Include More Customization Capabilities
This release significantly expands the capabilities of existing design tools to make it easier to customize the finer details. Users can now design their own caption styles through the Styles interface without writing any CSS. Duotone filters are now available to be managed in Styles for blocks that support them and there is an option to disable them entirely. The Cover block’s settings capabilities have been expanded to include text color, layout controls, and border options.
A few other notable new features and improvements in WordPress 6.3 include the following:
Style revisions in the Site Editor let users revert to previous versions of the design
New Footnotes block automatically links annotations throughout the content
New Details block allows users to easily show or hide content
Preview block themes before activating
Set aspect ratio on images
Distraction-free mode now available in the Site Editor
Revamped top toolbar
Improvements to List View’s drag-and-drop functionality
New modal for building templates with patterns
Failed update safeguards
Minimum supported version of PHP updated to 7.0.0
50+ accessibility improvements for labeling, tab and arrow-key navigation, revised heading hierarchy, and new controls in the admin image editor
This release also brings more than 170 performance improvements and is significantly faster than previous versions.
“Based on the performance benchmarks conducted for RC3, WordPress 6.3 loads 24% faster for block themes and 18% faster for classic themes, compared to WordPress 6.2, based on the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) metric,” Google-sponsored contributor Felix Arntz said in a summary on the improvements. “For WordPress 6.2, those improvements amounted to 18% and 5% respectively, so it is fair to summarize that WordPress 6.3 is a major achievement in terms of performance. “
The most notable performance gains came from the introduction of defer and async support for the Scripts API and fetchpriority support for images, along with optimization of the emoji-loader.js script.
WordPress 6.3 is the result of the efforts of more than 650 contributors across 52 countries, with ~32% of them (205) being first-time contributors.
After updating to WordPress 6.3, users may notice a new “Get Involved” tab on the About page, designed to help new contributors find their place in the WordPress project. This addition closes a 10-year old ticket that suggested adding a “Contribute†tab to the About page. It features both code-based and no-code contribution opportunities with a link to a new WordPress.org/contributor page. This page debuts a new interactive tool that helps visitors find contributor teams that might be a good fit for their interests and capabilities.
“As the community looks to the future, all efforts turn to 6.4 and, subsequently, the transition into Phase 3, which is expected to introduce powerful collaboration tools to the website creation and management experience,” WordPress 6.3 release lead MatÃas Ventura said.
ConvertKit has updated its official WordPress plugin and WooCommerce add-on to support a range of new features. More than 40,000 sites use ConvertKit’s plugin to integrate their newsletters, email campaigns, and digital products with WordPress. The service is free for the user’s first 1,000 subscribers but offers more automated features and third party integration on its paid tiers.
The latest version of the ConvertKit plugin for WordPress brings the “Members Content” feature out of beta. It allows site owners to set up gated content for things like courses, e-books, or curated content without having to switch platforms, keeping members on the WordPress site.
In the WordPress admin, under the ConvertKit >> Member Content settings, admins can now specify a ConvertKit Commerce product to be required in order to view a post, page, or WooCommerce product page.
This update also adds a “Newsletter feed” that ConvertKit users can embed on their WordPress sites to display a paginated list of their public broadcast emails. It can be shown as a grid with images and descriptions or a list with subject and date.
Recent updates to the plugin also introduce product embeds, allowing site owners to create a storefront of their ConvertKit products on their WordPress sites. The styles for the embedded products can be edited inside the Site Editor.
Other notable improvements in this round of updates include the following:
The WooCommerce add-on for ConvertKit has been updated to map customer first and last names to ConvertKit custom fields
New “Form Trigger Block” creates a button that triggers a pop-up modal
PHP SDK now available for building on top of the ConvertKit API
WordPress’ Training Team is launching its first Learn WordPress Course Cohort, which is a social learning method where a group of people go through the learning process together with some synchronous group activities. One of the benefits of cohorts is the sense of community and connection that can develop between the participants, fostering more support and collaboration.
The first course cohort topic is “Developing your first WordPress Block,” aimed at first-time block developers who have never built a block before. It lasts six weeks and covers the following topics:
Week 1: Introduction, preparing your environment for block development.
Week 2: Using create-block to scaffold your first block, Internationalisation.
The cohort is limited to 14 participants who will be selected at random if they meet the requirements. These include a WordPress.org profile, a Make Slack account, and availability every Wednesday at 8:00 UTC for the duration of the course.
A course on beginning block development is likely to be very popular, so the Training team has committed to maintaining a waiting list for any applications that are not selected in the first round. This is a remarkable opportunity for any developer who has not yet experimented with building blocks but thrives in a more social learning environment. Future cohort courses on the same topic will be scheduled after this one is complete.
