Docker is a popular open-source platform that makes it easy to build, test, deploy, and manage containerized applications in a consistent, portable, or virtual environment. While a powerful tool in your development arsenal, learning the different Docker commands can take time and effort. New users often benefit from having a Docker cheat sheet readily at […]
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With email projected to reach 4.6 billion users in 2025, more businesses are investing in email-based marketing methods like newsletters. An email newsletter contains the latest information about a company’s products and services and any updates that may affect customers. It helps businesses stay connected with audiences, generate sales, and encourage engagement. Having an email […]
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Throughout March, the WordPress core team was busy preparing the first major release of the year – WordPress 6.2, working on various release candidate versions and making last-minute changes to ensure bug-free core functionality.
But that’s not all that’s happened in March. Gutenberg and WooCommerce also rolled out updates to enhance the block editing experience. What’s more, various security patches have been released to ensure the content management system is safe from attackers.
In addition to WordPress news and updates, we’ll go over some new WordPress tools that will help you with website development. We have much to cover in this month’s WordPress roundup – let’s dive right in.
On top of the WordPress 6.2 launch, there have been other great updates that have made the site editor and Gutenberg better, like the distraction-free Gutenberg mode and WooCommerce block improvements.
Wrapping up phase two of the Gutenberg project, WordPress 6.2 has revamped the Site Editor interface and taken it out of beta. This effectively means that the block editor is more stable than ever and will be the staple of site editing from here onwards.
We have covered the updates extensively in our WordPress 6.2 overview article. Here’s a quick recap:
Even though WordPress 6.2 came out this month, the developers still rolled out two Gutenberg updates – versions 15.3 and 15.4.
Note that these versions are not included in the WordPress 6.2 core backport. If you want to check out the new features, you must install and activate the plugin.
WooCommerce rolled out version 7.5.0 this month with the following updates:
Other than improving the existing blocks, WooCommerce also introduced three new ones:
With WordPress 6.2 marking the end of Gutenberg Phase Two, the project now enters Phase Three, centered around real-time collaboration.
While this phase is still in the planning stage, the development team has already laid down the Preliminary Outline for the Phase Three. Mat Mullenweg mentioned a lot of the points in his State of the Word 2022 presentation. Here are some highlights:
Keeping the WordPress ecosystem customization-rich is not the only objective of the community. WordPress is always a target of security threats, and the developers constantly work to keep it safe.
A WooCommerce Payments plugin vulnerability affecting over 500,000 websites was discovered on March 22, 2023. It could be exploited by unauthorized parties to access the admin area and take over the site.
It impacts websites that use WooCommerce Payments versions 4.8.0 to 5.6.1. A security patch has been released – it comes with version 5.6.2.
The WooCommerce team collaborated with the WordPress.org Plugins team to force updates on affected websites. However, if you use this plugin, we recommend checking your plugin version and updating immediately if required.
A severe Elementor Pro vulnerability has also been discovered. It allows unauthorized parties to instantly create an administrator account.
The vulnerability affects websites with Elementor Pro version 3.11.6 or older and WooCommerce installed. Version 3.11.7 has addressed this issue – make sure the plugin is up to date if you use it.
Are you curious about WordPress security stats for 2022? If so, the Patchstack State of WordPress Security 2022 whitepaper is a good read.
This document compiles all WordPress security facts, statistics, and trends in 2022 – immensely valuable to anyone building WordPress websites or developing extensions.
Here are some of the highlights:
One of the coolest characteristics of the WordPress ecosystem is the abundance of tools and extensions that can help you with website development. Here are our picks for this month’s featured WordPress tools.
A Cloudfest 2023 Hackathon project initiated by Milana Cap, docs_dangit is a search engine that helps WordPress developers find code examples from various documentation resources. All you need to do is enter the keyword – be it a PHP variable, WP-CLI command, or a function snippet – and the results will show up.
Currently, docs_dangit relies on WP Code Reference, WP Dev Notes, WP-CLI Documentation, and PHP Docs as its references.
Released in mid-February, the Inspiro Blocks theme from WPZOOM has already racked up over 1,000 active users, and that’s for good reason.
This theme has six style variations and 23 built-in patterns, so it’s got plenty of overall site design options. Combined with a modern and minimalist design, this theme is perfect for anyone looking to quickly build a portfolio or business website.
AI is a growing trend in web development, and the WordPress ecosystem is no exception. A few weeks ago, we covered how to build a WordPress website with ChatGPT, showing that AI has become a useful tool for WordPress development.
This month, we checked out a couple of interesting AI tools that can simplify WordPress content creation.
AIOSEO AI Title/Description Generator
Meta titles and descriptions can make or break your content marketing campaign. A good meta title helps you rank higher in search engines, while a meta description encourages readers to click on your post.
Writing a great meta title and description can be challenging. That’s why AIOSEO have launched a new feature called AI Title/Description Generator – a result of their partnership with OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT.
The feature is quite simple. On the post editor’s AIOSEO section, click the robot icon next to the post title and meta description fields, and it will generate five suggestions based on your content.
One caveat of this feature is that it’s only available in the premium version. So if you wish to use this new AI tool, choose one of their premium plans that start from $49.6/year.
EveryAlt
Alt text helps visually-impaired readers – effectively, it’s a text description for an image. Having alt text on your images is a must to ensure your content is accessible.
EveryAlt can help you with this. It will generate an alt text suggestion based on a given image. Simply drag and drop the image to the interface, and it will generate the text which you can also modify.
Here’s an example of an image with the alt text generated by EveryAlt.
Currently, a free account will get 25 image credits. It costs $9.99 to get an allowance of 1,000 images.
The EveryAlt WordPress plugin, which is currently in beta. Once it’s fully released, you can expect the same convenience in your WordPress admin panel.
Even though WordPress 6.2 has finally been released, that doesn’t mean the community is slowing down. For instance, there are thousands of WordPress plugins and themes out there that still haven’t been compatibility-tested with WordPress 6.2.
Always keep an eye on your WordPress update admin panel and update your plugins and themes whenever a new version is available.
The post This Month in WordPress: March Roundup appeared first on Hostinger Blog.
Creating a WordPress podcast website is a great way to reach a wider audience, solidify your branding, and access more monetization opportunities. Doing so may be challenging if you have no prior website-building knowledge. However, with the many tools available today, anyone can set up a website for their podcast quickly and easily without coding. […]
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The wp_get_attachment_image is a WordPress function that lets you easily retrieve and display image attachments based on their IDs. Whether you’re building a custom theme or a plugin, this function provides a flexible way to display images with custom sizes and attributes. In this tutorial, we’ll go over the wp_get_attachment_image() function and explain its parameters. […]
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Regularly maintaining your WordPress website is essential to ensure it is error-free and performs optimally. However, the process can take a lot of time and, in some cases, require a certain amount of technical knowledge. Fortunately, various WordPress maintenance services are available to help manage your site. Using one can save a lot of time […]
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After deciding that you need a website, the next step is determining how to create it. Usually, people who don’t code use a website builder or hire a web developer to streamline the web development process. As each method has pros and cons, picking the one that best fits your needs and preferences is important. […]
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Strategizing social media marketing starts with getting the perfect social media handle. A unique handle is crucial not only for launching a business but for boosting its growth, as it can help business owners build a brand. This article discusses everything you need to know about social media handles – their importance, best practices, and […]
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The first major release of the year – WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy”, is finally here. This version brought over 900 enhancements and bug fixes in the core software.
WordPress 6.2 also marks the end of the Gutenberg Phase Two project focused on customization. The next major update will begin Phase Three for better collaboration.
This version comes with an improved site editor to make your workflow even more efficient and open more customization possibilities. Let’s dive into WordPress 6.2 and see what it has to offer.
The Site Editor interface has received several significant changes. Most notably – the Browse Mode. What’s more, the new color-coding system and block settings panel updates result in a more intuitive and better workflow.
Users can see the new interface immediately when they enter the Site Editor. Instead of taking you to the homepage template with no sidebar, it will start with the template preview that includes a sidebar to navigate the different templates. This interface is also called Browse Mode.
The dark-gray left sidebar lets you browse through the available templates and template parts, while the main editor canvas on the right will preview the selected template. What’s cool is that now you can switch and preview between templates and template parts seamlessly.
While it may not seem significant, this lets you see subtle differences between templates for better design consistency. Previously, you’d have to open the template panel, which took up the whole screen, hindering you from seeing the preview and switching between templates quickly.
Moreover, the sidebar width is adjustable. The preview will also change according to the canvas area, letting you see how the template responds to the changes to the viewport width.
When you’d like to edit the selected template, click on the editor canvas or the Edit icon on the sidebar.
Click the Add New Template button on the sidebar to add a new template or template part from the browse mode. Alternatively, you can still access the old templates and templates parts panel by clicking the Manage all templates or Manage all template parts buttons.
The interface changes don’t end there. The Block Settings panel is also improved – it now has split controls.
Have you ever customized a block and felt annoyed at having to scroll to find a specific setting? Starting from WordPress 6.2, the block settings panel will have two tabs for the controls – Settings and Styles.
The Settings tab – represented by a gear icon, contains block-specific options. For example, you can find the layout and position settings in the group block settings, while the post date block contains the Date Format and Link to the Post options. All advanced block settings to add CSS classes or HTML anchors are also in the Settings tab.
The Styles tab – represented by the WordPress style icon, contains the general style settings, such as color, dimensions, typography, and border. The customization options may differ for each block.
It’s worth noting that the Site Editor block settings icon has been changed. Instead of a gear, it now resembles a screen with a right sidebar.
Have you ever accidentally changed or deleted any reusable block or template component? Doing so may affect other parts of the website that use the same component.
In WordPress 6.2, template parts and reusable blocks are color-coded to differentiate them from other blocks. You will see a purple outline and icons when you select them, helping identify them. This change is applied in the list view, the block toolbar, and the editor canvas.
WordPress is all about creating content. Thus, every update improves the writing and editing experience, and WordPress 6.2 is no exception.
The distraction-free mode is available in the page and post editor. It hides all sidebars, the top navigation panel, and the block toolbar, leaving only the editor canvas and your content on the screen.
To activate it, open the Options menu at the top-right corner of the screen and select Distraction free. When you want to return to the standard editing, hover over the screen’s top section. The top navigation panel will appear, allowing you to access the Options menu again.
What we like the most about this feature is that it hides the block toolbar. It can be annoying when the block toolbar hides a portion of the text when writing. With the distraction-free mode, this won’t happen.
The beauty of the distraction-free mode is that you can still add various blocks using the inserter in the editor area. This means that you’re not restricted to editing text, and you can create content with images, videos, and other visual elements.
Need to add openly-licensed media to your content? There’s no more need to look for it on a separate site, download it, and re-upload it to your site. The Openverse integration now lets you browse these images straight from your editor.
All you need to do is open the Block inserter from the top-left corner of the editor screen, open the Media tab, and select Openverse. Use the search bar to enter a query and find suitable images you need. When you finally find one, click on it, and it will be automatically inserted into your content.
This integration has also been improved since the beta version. It now uploads the image to the media library to avoid problems with hotlinking. If it can’t upload the image to the library, it will warn you before proceeding.
Using block patterns is an easy way to get your content layout done. WordPress 6.2 features a redesigned pattern inserter to improve user-friendliness and at-a-glance navigation.
Now, pattern categories are listed in the inserter panel instead of a drop-down menu. This makes it easier to navigate between categories. The inserter panel also expands rightwards for a preview.
If you want to browse for a pattern using the dedicated block pattern panel, click Explore all patterns, and the pop-up will appear.
Other than the interface, block patterns are also recategorized in this version for better user-friendliness. Some of the changes are as follows:
The post outline is now moved into the list view panel. Therefore, you’ll notice the panel is now split into two tabs – List view and Outline.
In the outline tab, you can see the structure of your content, including its word count, time to read, and heading structure.
Switching and customizing global styles is now more convenient with the refined global styles panel. Some new features will make your life easier, too.
The global styles panel now offers two improved ways to preview any style variation.
The first is the zoomed-out editor canvas to better provide a style overview when you enter the style browser. Previously, when selecting a style variation, the editor canvas would remain the same, so you’d have to scroll down to see the changes on other parts of the site, such as the header and footer.
You can also add patterns while in the zoomed-out editor canvas. This will let you experiment with different styles and patterns and choose one you see fit.
Another way to see a broad preview of style variations involves using the style book. You can access it by clicking the Eye icon on the Global Styles panel.
This will show you how all website elements will look with every style variation. For example, in the text section, you can see all the heading levels, paragraphs, and quotes. The design section shows how buttons, columns, and links will look with a style variation.
The style book has five tabs – text, media, design, widget, and theme. Each contains main blocks that are often used for site customization.
The global styles panel lets you change block styles globally. However, the previous versions were missing the block preview feature. This means you couldn’t see the changes unless the block in question was in the editor canvas.
This is solved in WordPress 6.2, which introduces the inline preview in the global style panels. Now you can see how the block will look at the top of the global styles panel.
Gutenberg introduced shadow support via the theme.json file in January 2023, allowing theme developers to incorporate shadow elements. This customization was code-based only.
WordPress 6.2 introduces UI tools to let end users change the shadow presets via the global styles panel.
Currently, four shadow presets are available by default, but you can add more via the theme.json file.
Here is a sample code snippet you can use to add a shadow preset:
{
"version": 2,
"settings": {
"shadow": {
"presets": [
{
"name": "Small",
"slug": "sm",
"shadow": "0 1px 3px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1), 0 1px 2px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.06)"
},
{
"name": "Medium",
"slug": "md",
"shadow": "0 4px 10px 0 rgba( 0, 0, 0, 0.3 )"
},
{
"name": "Large",
"slug": "lg",
"shadow": "0 8px 15px 0 rgba( 0, 0, 0, 0.3 )"
}
]
}
}
}
When editing a block’s style, you may decide to apply it to other similar blocks. For example, after styling a heading, you like the look and want to apply it to all the heading blocks on your site.
Instead of editing other blocks individually or making the same edit in the global styles panel, you can now open the block settings panel and select the Apply globally option from the Advanced section.
Or, if you want to use the same style for a specific block, you can open the More options menu in the block toolbar, select Copy styles, and click Paste styles on the receiving block.
WordPress 6.2 brings a new way of creating navigation links in the editor with the new navigation block UI tool.
This tool is accessible through the block settings panel. You will notice another tab for the navigation block list view. While this functions similarly to the block editor list view, the tools offer a more focused experience for editing the navigation, helping you implement good navigation on your site.
First, it’s now easier to rearrange navigation items by dragging and dropping them on the UI. This is a great addition – you won’t have to use the main list view or the block-moving tools.
You can also use the drag-and-drop system to create a sub-menu or move a sub-menu level to a higher level. Alternatively, you can open the options menu for each page link block to remove it or add a sub-menu.
When you click an individual page link, it will open the link settings where you can change the label, URL, description, and link rel attribute.
Another improvement is adding more block types to the navigation block. For example, you can insert a page list block, and it will automatically add all pages to the navigation. Most importantly, it will have a simple single-button option to turn them into individual page link blocks, where you can edit and arrange them more freely.
This new process is amazing when you have plenty of pages to add. Adding a page list block lets you get all the pages there without inserting the links individually.
To prevent any link and submenu changes, the Restrict Editing feature is now accessible via the block-locking tool. This feature is helpful for site admins or agencies to ensure the site’s navigation won’t be changed unexpectedly, which may cause the navigation to break.
Other than the holistic updates we’ve discussed above, some major updates were also made to improve the editing experience in WordPress.
The new sticky position support lets you keep a block at the top of the viewport when users scroll down the page. Currently, this feature is available in group, stack, and row blocks at the root level. You can use these container blocks to put an important notice on your website and set it sticky.
To set a sticky block, make sure it’s in the root level. Then, open the block settings panel and find the Position option. Choose Sticky from the drop-down menu.
Group, row, and stack blocks have been easily transformable to each other with the dedicated transform tool in the block settings. WordPress 6.2 takes this flexibility further with the variation picker when you add a group block to the editor.
You will see the layout options, which let you start the group block as a row or stack block. Note that these options are not available in row and stack block placeholders.
Adding an image from your computer is now easier than ever. You can drag and drop it from a local folder to an empty paragraph block. It will automatically transform into an image block and upload the image to the media library.
While this seems minor, removing the beta status means that the Site Editor is more stable than ever for WordPress website creation and customization. Plus, it’s been renamed to just Editor.
Although this release officially ends the beta status of the site editor and Phase Two of Gutenberg, the WordPress team will still improve the editor and fix bugs through future WordPress and Gutenberg updates.
Updating WordPress is relatively simple. However, be sure to create a website backup beforehand and use a staging environment to test the update before committing. WordPress 6.2 is a major release, and updating your live site may result in compatibility issues and errors.
The staging environment feature is available with select WordPress hosting plans. Read our WordPress staging tutorials to set up a test environment.
Once you’ve created a backup and tested the new version in a staging environment, you can update your main site without worry. Follow our tutorials to update your WordPress website, and enjoy the new features in WordPress 6.2!
The post WordPress 6.2 Is Finally Here: A Detailed Overview appeared first on Hostinger Blog.
WordPress is a popular content management system (CMS) that continuously offers intuitive and powerful features to design an engaging website. For example, it lets you add custom background images to help make the website more appealing. In this article, we will cover four easy methods to add a background image in WordPress. You will also […]
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