WordPress 5.3.2 Addresses a Handful of Bugs

On December 18, less than a week since WordPress 5.3.1 security update shipped to the masses, the core team dropped a version 5.3.2 maintenance release. No security issues were named in this update. Instead, 5.3.2 addresses a couple of high-priority bugs along with a few other issues.

Users with automatic updates enabled should already be updated to the latest version or will receive an update soon. Other users should update as soon as they are able, especially if their installation is affected by any of the following issues.

The first high-priority fix addressed an issue with modified post objects that have an invalid date. The fix ensures that the get_feed_build_date() function handles this scenario. The documentation was updated to clarify the function will return false on failure. This change also led to a comparison-check fix in the test tools when inserting a post with a future or published status.

The second major bug fixed in 5.3.2 was an edge case where unique file names could clash. On case-sensitive systems, the wp_unique_filename() function failed to rename some files when the uploaded file matched an existing file with an uppercase file extension. The fix addresses a fatal error in those cases.

Developers tackled another issue with the wp_unique_filename() function. When a destination directory for an uploaded file was unreadable, WordPress was throwing PHP warnings. The fix includes only running the final filename-collision test for files that are saved to the user’s /uploads directory.

Building off the accessibility work in the previous release, buttons with the .active class are now properly styled in the non-default admin color schemes. On some screens, particularly the Permalinks admin screen, active buttons had white text on a light gray background, making them unreadable.

Users who wish to do so, can view the full release documentation from WordPress.

With the widespread usage of automatic updates, it would be nice to see more of these quicker releases during the development cycle. Maybe weekly releases are a bit much. However, shipping a few extra minor releases between major upgrades would be a good opportunity to knock out some of the 6,500 Trac tickets on WordPress’ 2020 roadmap.

Create a Static Site Using Angular & Scully

The team at HeroDevs has just released the alpha version of Scully, a static site generator for Angular. That's right, Angular didn't have an intuitive way to create JAMstack applications before, but now it's possible!

Scully uses a node CLI application to run Angular schematics so you don’t have to learn any new language or syntax. You can see your static files in a new dist folder called static alongside your application folder.

To watch the full setup, Tara Manicsic went through the process of setting it up on a Learn with Jason Twitch stream. You can check it out here if you want to get started.

Direct Link to ArticlePermalink

The post Create a Static Site Using Angular & Scully appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

Facebook Enhances App Dashboard

Facebook has introduced a number of new features to its App Dashboard. Facebook has pitched these new features as giving developers more information regarding the permissions they use and don't use and speeding up the App Review process. However, the new features also give Facebook more access to apps and help the company understand how developers use the Facebook platform.

#249: 2019 in Review

Show Description

We're wrapping it up for 2019! In this special episode, Marie talks to everybody on Team CodePen about their favorite projects of the year.

See the Pen
CodePen's 2019
by CodePen (@codepen)
on CodePen.

Sponsor: WordPress.com

WordPress.com powers a third of the internet. Surprising? Perhaps not once you get to know how easy and friendly, yet powerful and flexible WordPress.com is. If you can build a site on WordPress.com, you should. You're doing yourself a big favor by not taking on the incredible technical debt of hosting a site yourself. Focus on your business instead.

Show Links

CodePen Links

The post #249: 2019 in Review appeared first on CodePen Blog.

Serverless Is Great; Serverless Sucks – Making Sense of the Serverless Landscape

Everyone has heard the famous line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” This famous quote feels like it could perfectly describe the current state of serverless technologies and the way developers are currently building applications for those platforms.

On one hand, serverless is a boon to any company (or developer) building web applications. The idea that one can simply hand off the demands of managing infrastructure to someone else is an alluring prospect for CTOs, managers, or developers building independent projects.

The Next Generation of AI-Driven Fact Checkers

As the volume of misinformation continues to rise, the ability to fact check what we consume is more important than ever. A couple of papers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory highlight the latest developments in the field.

The first paper showcased the limitations of many of the fake news detectors on the market today, both in terms of detecting falsely generated text, but also in falsely condemning human authored works as fake.

Collective #575










Collective item image

Steer the Deer

Hello Monday’s awesome Christmas gift: a game where you can fly Santa’s sled. On desktop you can steer the deer using nothing but your hands.

Play it




Collective item image

Crater

Crater is an open-source invoicing app made in Laravel, VueJS and React Native with many useful features.

Check it out



Collective item image

SVG Section Divider

Learn how to create SVG section dividers in Illustrator and how to import them into your web project. A video tutorial by Sebastiano Guerriero.

Watch it




Collective item image

On the origin of cascades

In this talk by Hidde de Vries at dotCSS 2019 you’ll learn how CSS came to be, and how the language’s simplicity and flexibility still make it stand out today.

Check it out







Collective #575 was written by Pedro Botelho and published on Codrops.

Make a smooth shadow, friend.

One box-shadow is cool and all, but check out Philipp Brumm's tool for building out comma-separated multiple box-shadows, which result in a much smoother and more natural look.

This reminds me very much of the idea for easing linear-gradient. In a gradient, this smoothing effect is handled by multiple stops with the position and color eased (sloped) rather than linear (straight). The result is noticeably smoother and a more pleasing look.

See the Pen
smooth box-shadow
by Chris Coyier (@chriscoyier)
on CodePen.

Direct Link to ArticlePermalink

The post Make a smooth shadow, friend. appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

Zenserp

(This is a sponsored post.)

There are plenty of rank tracking software tools out there that allow you to track the position of your website inside the search results pages (SERP) of search engines for certain key phrases. However, these tools are definitely not enough when you are trying to aggregate search results programmatically.

This is exactly what Zenserp enables you to do: The REST-API lets you to retrieve search engine result pages in JSON-format for search queries of your choice. There are countless use cases where this might be useful. Just to name a few:

Rank tracking of your own website or startup

Check your website’s rankings for your most important keywords on a regular basis and see if your SEO campaigns are actually working. It also allows you to check how your rankings in the SERP vary from country to country.

Building Highly Customized SEO Reports

You are building custom SEO reports for your clients? Then you will need a lot of flexibility when it comes to data aggregation and displaying the aggregated data. Our API is just what you need to build highly customized reports that meet the expectations of your customers

Using SERPs as General Data Point for Data Aggregation

When tweaking around with the search queries, there are plenty of useful and valuable data inside the SERP. Since they come in JSON-format, you can automatically feed into your business processes.

Zenserp offers a free plan with 50 monthly API requests for basic use cases. Paid plans go all the way up to enterprise level to support larger projects with high request levels.

The API supports most modern programming languages and comes along with a search request builder that helps you to get started. Also, Zenserp offers a free consulting service, in case you need any help to integrate the service.

Direct Link to ArticlePermalink

The post Zenserp appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

Ballerina Compilation Process

This is not a how-to post; rather it is a post that describes technical concepts behind the implementation of the Ballerina programming language.

When we started developing the language, we were newbies in language development. We had to research everything from scratch. In fact, we took leave for two weeks and studied compiler theory first :)

X12 EDI Connector in Mule 4

What Is X12?

EDI or Electronic Data Interchange permits two exchanging accomplices to trade electronic business records utilizing a typical organization. One of the generally acknowledged configurations is EDI X12. Created by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Accredited Standards Committee X12 (ASC X12), EDI_X12 or X12 appeared in 1979. It has since been embraced by different ventures.

There are various kinds of EDI reports. Every one compares to a "genuine world" business record, similar to receipt, value/deals inventory, human services guarantee, buy request, air shipment data, vehicle shipping request, business credit report, shipment data, and numerous others.

Your IoT Predictions for 2020 (Part One)

What is the future of IoT?
These been plenty in IoT to keep us occupied. Amongst the deluge of daily news, we've seen 5G reach closer to the mainstream market with the release of the first commercial 5G phones, a plethora of alliances, partnerships and testbed projects.

Companies are maturing thanks to series C funding, with IoT cybersecurity providers Armis raising 60m and IoT platform Particle 40m in series C.

You may also like: The Future of IoT


What Is a Service Mesh, and Why Do You Need One?

Do you know what a service mesh is?

"Service mesh" is an umbrella term for products that seek to solve the problems that microservices' architectures create. These challenges include security, network traffic control, and application telemetry. The resolution of these challenges can be achieved by decoupling your application at layer five of the network stack, which is one definition of what service meshes do.