News & Articles

• ManageWP Enters the WordPress News Space (wpmu.org)
  After months of mystery, the guys at ManageWP have offered a sneak peak at their entry into the WordPress news space. ManageWP.org is a WordPress news aggregator, kind of like Digg, where users can submit articles and start discussions.
• Software Renewal Pricing and Putting Yourself in the Customer’s Shoes (stevengliebe.com)
  I recently received an email notifying me of an update to a piece of software I use. I logged in to download the new version and was presented with a ”Buy” link instead of the usual “Download” link. Wait, didn’t I already pay $50 for this software? That’s when I remembered that the seller provides access to download the product for $50 per year.
• Developing for WordPress? Keep your shit secure (mikejolley.com)
  If you are developing WordPress plugins (or themes) for distribution via WordPress.org, or for client projects, it should be a no-brainer that writing insecure code can lead to severe consequences. Having your plugin pulled from the repository, seeing a loss in respect and end-user confidence, or even worse, seeing users fall victim to easily preventable attacks are all possibilities if plugin security is not taken seriously.
• Performance of 7 Top WordPress Hosting Companies Compared (www.wpsitecare.com)
  When it comes to WordPress Hosting, I’m bound and determined to find out which company is providing the most value. There are three major components that make up a great host in my opinion, and those are 1) Performance, 2) Knowledge, Speed, and Reliability of Support, and 3) Pricing and the overall product offering.
• 8 Ways You Can Contribute to WordPress as a Non-Developer (thematosoup.com)
  Don’t you think WordPress would be even better if everyone using it knew how they could contribute? Not by making the app itself better, more intuitive or easier to use, not by making free themes or plugins others can benefit from, but by doing things they’re already capable of that could make lives easier for many people. Here’s how you can help other WordPress users without ever seeing a line of code.
• WordPress Theme and Plugin Pricing: “Unlimited” Sites Is Unsustainable Too (stevengliebe.com)
  The question asked earlier was, how can you really provide support and updates for the lifetime of your product? I think at this point, most in the WordPress community agree that the answer is, you can’t. Eventually it will catch up to you.
• Hey, You! Want to Contribute to Jetpack? (jetpack.me)
  Yeah, you: did you know that you could be instrumental in making Jetpack more robust and secure? If you use and love Jetpack, why not contribute to the project? Like WordPress itself, Jetpack is open-source. You can test planned improvements, check out the code, file and view bug reports, and even submit your own patches. The community’s contributions are what make WordPress and Jetpack so strong.
• The Evolution of WordPress Products (torquemag.io)
  WordPress, as it exists today, is quite a young product. In present day, it’s almost impossible to believe that WordPress has only recently entered the double-digit age, clocking in at just over 10 years old. The disbelief comes in when one looks at just how quickly WordPress, and the community and products surrounding it, have evolved. Today, we’ll be taking a brief look back in time to how WordPress products have evolved.

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Plugin News

• New, Expanded, Better Organized Documentation for BackupBuddy (ithemes.com)
  The BackupBuddy codex just got a major overhaul. We cleaned up, added new pages and updated it with the latest BackupBuddy 4.0 information. You’ll now find easy-to-navigate sections for each BackupBuddy dashboard menu item with detailed information and screenshots.
• The Future of WPDB (markoheijnen.com)
  Forcing plugin developers to adjust their plugins is probably the option but as always we do care a lot of the user experience. They don’t know that their code is crappy and when they upgrade WordPress things break without really knowing why it breaks.
• WPCandy Appears to Have Been Sold (Update: It Has Not Been Sold) (poststat.us)
  WPCandy is one of the oldest resource websites for the community. It has already had one major facelift and reorganization. Ryan Imel purchased WPCandy in 2010 and did an enormous amount of work on the website for a couple of years. I was also a contributing editor until last August, almost exactly a year ago.
• The Ultimate Guide to Promoting Your Plugin (www.supportdash.com)
  When releasing a plugin on the WordPress plugin repository, you’re guaranteed some downloads. Most likely, you’ll spike right away when you’re in the newest plugins section and while your plugin gets announced in various plugin roundups. Then things will die down from there.
• Not Everything Can Be a WordPress Plugin (tommcfarlin.com)
  I – as I’m sure many developers and designers in the WordPress space – have received emails, comments, tweets, or some form of communication as to why any given piece of functionality can be made into a WordPress plugin.
• 12 Free WordPress Plugins That Could Make You A Better Blogger (www.wpkube.com)
  People say, “The choice is in your hands” … and that is so true when it comes to WordPress. Welcome to the world of WordPress that consists of 26,000+ plugins as we speak. I bet we are spoilt with choice right?

Theme Releases

Couponize (www.wpexplorer.com)	Responsive Real Estate (www.wpexplorer.com)	Hudson E-Commerce (www.wpexplorer.com)
Joshua (www.web-savvy-marketing.com)	Lisa Marie (www.web-savvy-marketing.com)	Virtue (wordpress.org)
zeeNoble (wordpress.org)	CWP Robi (wordpress.org)	Focus (wordpress.org)

Theme News

• Twenty Fourteen Theme Takes a Step Further (wpmu.org)
  A WordPress.com premium theme has been pulled from sale to become the default Twenty Fourteen theme. Work has begun on recycling Further, Automattic’s first magazine-style theme. A demo site is available.
• 30 Premium Flat WordPress Themes That Rock! (www.1stwebdesigner.com)
  Looking for some flat WordPress themes for your website? Flat is hot right now! Flat design or flat UI is now the growing trend in the web design industry and the audience are going gaga for it. Going for a minimalist approach, flat designs are sophisticated, simple and sexy.
• Behind The Scenes Of The Collections Theme (www.wptavern.com)
  The Theme Foundry recently released a brand new commercial theme into the market called Collections. Collections is a beautiful theme that puts all of the focus on the content. I’m used to seeing themes with a left or right sidebar with widgets in the footer but this theme doesn’t have those. This theme artfully showcases what’s possible with using Post Formats.
• You’ve Been GPL’d! (torquemag.io)
  I’d like to tell you all a story to give some perspective on recent events that have happened in the WordPress community. Once there was a smart Founder who wanted to change the world. He was a scrappy and outspoken 20-something who decided to build his own Open Source Software (OSS) project with a few friends because he knew he could design something that was better than the competition.

Tutorials

• 2 Easy Steps to Giving Images in WordPress a Circular Look with CSS (wpmu.org)
  While not new by any means, circular images definitely seem to be in style these days. Wherever you look, it seems circular images are all around. … But then again, what else could they be? :)
• How To: Add WordPress Widgets to your Posts and Pages (wplift.com)
  I’m the process of setting up my personal portfolio for my writing services, using WordPress of course, and I was thinking of ways to easily add different types of content, from different sources, to my pages. One simple yet effective way of making the pages a bit more interesting as well as displaying other types of content, was to add the widgets that are usually displayed in the sidebar to posts and pages.
• How to Display the Last Updated Date on Your Blog Posts (www.wpmayor.com)
  Displaying a date on your blog posts is recommended, both for search engines and also for your audience. Most blogs display the post publish date, which you would think makes sense. But I think there’s a better way of doing it, and that is by displaying the last updated date.
• Heartbeat API: Using Heartbeat in a Plugin (wp.tutsplus.com)
  In this tutorial we’re going to create a simple plugin which uses the Heartbeat API. Our plugin will alert logged in users, via a growl-like notification, whenever another user logs in or out of the site. Since this tutorial is focussed on the Heartbeat API, I shall leave out details about creating the plugin header or file structure: the plugin is very simple, and you can examine the source code in full at this GitHub repository.
• Beginning With WordPress: First Steps With Your New Website (wp.tutsplus.com)
  Well… would you look at at that… a whole new WordPress site! Clever you! Have you logged in yet? If so, you might be sitting looking at the Dashboard wondering what the heck you do next… so, let me help you with that! (Failing that you’re wondering what on earth a Dashboard is, that’s ok, all will become clear.)
• The WordPress Theme Customizer: Adding a New Setting To An Existing Section (tommcfarlin.com)
  Since the release of the WordPress Theme Customizer, my team and I have been more and more interested in using it as a way for users to make changes to the appearance of their theme without the use of the dashboard.
• Creating a Shortcode for Responsive Video (wp.tutsplus.com)
  If you’re anything like me, you use YouTube to host any video you add to your WordPress site. It saves worrying about browser or device compatibility, it saves space on your servers, and it can be a lot more reliable. In addition, it means your videos can be accessed by YouTube viewers as well as visitors to your site or blog.