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There was a huge fluctuation in the SERPS yesterday that left a lot of people baffled by the unannounced algorithm ... until Google officially announced it was a bug that was rolled out.
Unlike just about everyone who commented on WW, SEW, etc., I actually fared well from it, until it was reverted, of course.
Do you think it's a sign of good things to come? Or that it's a sign that I'm on the wrong end?
Every day, the ProgrammableWeb team is busy, updating its three primary directories for APIs, clients (language-specific libraries or SDKs for consuming or providing APIs), and source code samples.
With all of the advancements made in JavaScript and newer, shinier frameworks, it is sometimes easy to forget that WordPress still relies on the aging jQuery library. The same holds true for thousands of plugins and themes in the official WordPress directories.
For some, this may feel like a journey back to the mid-2000s, a time when JavaScript very much felt like the Wild West. jQuery solved many issues for a programming language that had not kept up with what developers needed to accomplish.
A ticket created by Aaron Jorbin four years ago to move WordPress to the latest 3.x branch of jQuery is finally coming to fruition. However, the WordPress development team will need to make this transition in stages, particularly after waiting for so long.
WordPress has fallen behind on keeping jQuery updated. For a platform that routinely suggests that users need to be running the latest and greatest version, it is odd that WordPress itself has not done the same with third-party code that it relies on. WordPress currently bundles jQuery version 1.12.4, a version of the library released in 2016. It is also a version that supports Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8.
“Mostly because for the last couple of years the focus has shifted to other/more modern JavaScript libraries,” said WordPress lead developer Andrew Ozz on why the platform has fallen behind. “The number of JavaScript developers that contribute to core is limited, and there is a very high demand.”
In the long term, he said a future option might be to move the WordPress admin to native (vanilla) JavaScript completely, which is a sentiment shared in the comments on his announcement post to update the version of jQuery bundled with WordPress. “This would be great,” he said, “and at the same time, a very large effort.”
Far too many themes and plugins rely on this dated version of jQuery to move any faster. While plugins could choose to overwrite core WordPress’s bundled version of jQuery with the latest version, themes have had no such option. The official theme directory guidelines require themes to utilize the core-bundled scripts, including jQuery. There is a good reason for this: for the most part, it ensures compatibility with core and third-party plugins.
However, now it is time to move on.
WordPress has a three-stage plan to bring jQuery up to date. The core team asks that theme and plugin developers begin testing their extensions with the Test jQuery Updates plugin. This will help them bring code up to date throughout this transitional period.
The first step in this process will be removing the jQuery Migrate 1.4.1 script from WordPress 5.5, which was released earlier today. This version of jQuery Migrate makes older code compatible and helps developers migrate to jQuery 1.9+.
This move will undoubtedly break some plugins and themes. The core team has made the Enable jQuery Migrate Helper plugin available for end-users. “It is intended to be run in production on sites that experience jQuery-related problems after updating to 5.5,” said Ozz. “It works by re-enabling jQuery Migrate and by showing the warnings about the use of outdated/deprecated jQuery functions to site admins.”
The long-term goal is to get developers to update their extensions. In the meantime, this plugin should ease some of the problems.
Ozz said the biggest thing developers need to do right now is to make sure they are testing their extensions against WordPress 5.5. “Ideally, paying more attention to any old jQuery-based scripts and confirming they still work as expected,” he continued. “In almost all cases, the fixes are trivial.”
Beyond WordPress 5.5, things will start to take shape. The tentative plan is to update to the latest version of jQuery and add the latest version of jQuery Migrate as part of the WordPress 5.6 release.
“Again, Migrate will be used to help in updating jQuery based scripts, and also as a backward-compatibility ‘fix’ while plugins and themes get updated,” said Ozz. “The version of Migrate in WordPress 5.6 will be different, as it will correspond to the latest jQuery version. It will serve the same purpose as when it was added for the first time, but now will help core, plugins, and themes get updated from jQuery 1.12.4 to 3.5.1 (or later).”
The third leg of the process will be to once again remove jQuery Migrate from WordPress. This change is tentatively planned for WordPress 5.7, which will not be released until 2021. The end goal is to remove the reliance on Migrate and ship the latest version of jQuery until someday — perhaps far into the future — there may no longer be a need for bundling it with WordPress at all.
“Following the best practices and the recommendations of the jQuery team, Migrate should be used as a helper tool, not as a permanent backward-compatibility solution,” said Ozz. “Ideally, WordPress will be able to do this.”
As a WordPress blog and a WordPress theme author we’ve seen our fair share of confusion about the differences between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org. This is completely understandable since both run on WordPress, both use themes and plugins and both are readily available for free online. But there are major differences between the two and those […]
The post WordPress.com vs WordPress.org Differences, Pros & Cons appeared first on WPExplorer.
WordPress 5.5 was released earlier today, and it is the second major release of 2020.
This new release is packed with a lot of improvements, many of them are focused around the WordPress block editor. It also includes some long-awaited features that are making their debut with this release.
In this article, we’ll share what’s new in WordPress 5.5, and which features you should try after updating your websites.
WordPress 5.5 is a major release, and unless you are on a managed WordPress hosting service, you’ll have to manually initiate the update.
Important: Don’t forget to create a complete WordPress backup before starting the update.
The block editor is where you spend most of your time creating content for your WordPress blog. It has been regularly maintained and each WordPress release brings improvements to the block editor.
WordPress 5.5 brings some significant changes to help you use block editor more efficiently.
Integrated Block Directory
WordPress 5.5 now comes with an integrated block directory. This means that if you want to add a block that is not available on your site, then you’ll automatically see suggestions from the block directory.
Block directory is essentially a collection of WordPress plugins that allow you to add different types of blocks to your site. This does not include block library plugins that come packed with several useful WordPress blocks that you can use right away by installing a single plugin.
UI Changes in The Block Editor
Perhaps the most noticeable thing in WordPress 5.5 is the visual improvements to the block editor. Borders and highlighting are improved to make block editor more accessible.
The ‘Add new block’ button (+) is now more noticeable and looks more like a button with a black background.
Edit Images Inside Block Editor
WordPress 5.5 allows users to edit images inside the block editor. You can adjust image height, width, aspect ratio, crop, and rotate without leaving the post editor.
Of course, you can still perform basic image editing in the media library as well. However, inline image editing will now help new users easily discover these built-in editing options.
Introducing Block Patterns
The block editor already had reusable blocks and groups which allowed users to save most commonly used blocks and reuse them.
WordPress 5.5 adds a new feature called block patterns. These are commonly used blocks with pre-configured settings that you can instantly add.
This allows you to quickly create page layouts while maintaining consistency in style across your website. There are a few of them already available in 5.5. More will arrive as WordPress themes and plugins register their own block patterns.
Improved Block Navigation and Movement
One common issue that many beginners struggled with is block navigation. Particularly if you are using nested blocks like columns or groups, then it became a little difficult to select the parent block or move a child element inside it.
WordPress 5.5 now comes with much better block navigation making it easier to select parent block or a nested element inside it. You can also move blocks by grabbing the handle and drag and drop them.
WordPress 5.5 takes a big leap towards security by introducing automatic updates for WordPress plugins and themes.
You can now simply go to the Plugins page and enable auto-updates for any WordPress plugin that you have installed on your site.
You can also do the same for WordPress themes. Simply go to the Appearance » Themes page and click on a theme to select it. In the theme overview popup, you’ll find the option to enable automatic updates for that theme.
This functionality was already available in WordPress but you either had to change WordPress configuration or use a third-party plugin to manage automatic updates. WordPress 5.5 has now made it incredibly easy to ensure that your websites are always running on the latest code.
Normally, you would update WordPress plugins with automatic updates or by clicking on the update notification. However, sometimes you may have to update a plugin manually.
In that case, your only option was to use an FTP client to upload the new version. WordPress 5.5 has fixed this problem and now you can simply go to the Plugins » Add New page and upload the new version like you would upload any new plugin zip file.
WordPress will automatically detect that you already have this plugin installed and the new file contains a different version. It will then allow you to ‘Replace current with uploaded’ version.
You can do the same thing for themes as well. Simply go to the Appearance » Themes page and then click on the ‘Add New’ button at the top.
After that click on the Upload Theme button to upload your theme zip file. WordPress will automatically detect the existing theme and will give you the option to ‘Replace current with uploaded’ version.
WordPress 5.5 now lazy loads images on your website. This means that it will only load the images that are visible to the user on screen and delay loading other images.
WordPress now make it a default feature for all sites by adding the ‘loading’ attribute to img tag. This attribute is supported by all modern web browsers (except Safari).
This improves your website speed and performance significantly. This is also good for WordPress hosting companies, ISPs, and the overall interwebs.
WordPress powers more than 35% of all websites on the internet this major improvement in speed will save a lot of bandwidth, server resources, and electricity.
WordPress 5.5 will now automatically publish XML sitemaps for your website. An XML sitemap is a file that lists all of your website content in XML format. This helps search engines like Google to easily discover and index your content.
Sitemaps are a crucial part of WordPress SEO and this feature would help many beginners who are not following SEO best practices.
However, the default WordPress XML Sitemaps are quite limited in features and functionality. This is why both top WordPress SEO plugins, All in One SEO and Yoast SEO will continue providing their own XML sitemaps.
If you are already using an SEO plugin or Sitemaps plugin, then you don’t need to do anything. These plugins will automatically disable the default WordPress XML sitemaps.
WordPress themes using the get_custom_logo() or the_custom_logo() will not add a link to the homepage when the homepage is displayed. (See details)
Theme developers can now pass arguments among template files. (See details)
Developers can now define default terms for custom taxonomies. (See details)
WordPress 5.5 includes updated external libraries like phpMailer, SimplePie, Twemoji, and more. (See details).
Developers can control the auto-update options by disabling, enabling, or selectively blocking them for specific plugins or themes. (See details)
Dashicons will be updated and include 65 new icons. (See details)
WordPress 5.5 will come with the ability to scan for PHP compatibility issues more effectively. (See details)
We hope this article helped you learn what’s new in WordPress 5.5. We are particularly excited about lazy loading images and block editor changes.
What’s your favorite feature in WordPress 5.5? Let us know in the comments below.
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The post What’s New in WordPress 5.5 (Features and Screenshots) appeared first on WPBeginner.
WordPress 5.5 “Eckstine” landed today, named for American jazz singer Billy Eckstine. This release introduces major improvements for the block editor and the security of WordPress. It was made possible by the contributions of 805 volunteers (with 38% of them being new contributors.) The 5.5 update is a testament to the stability of WordPress during uncertain times, as well as its unstoppable, distributed contributor base, who continue to get things done despite the pandemic’s unique challenges.
WordPress continues refining the editing experience with more than 1,500 updates from 10 releases of the Gutenberg plugin included in 5.5. (The plugin is where all the magic is tested prior to landing in WordPress releases, and features are periodically rolled in.) Some of the most notable changes include inline image editing, device previews, and smoother block movement with better drag-and-drop, block movers, block selection, and block relocation.
Block Patterns are making their debut in WordPress 5.5, with a handful of default patterns already available in the block inserter. This new feature helps users build pages faster by allowing them to instantly place sets of blocks that are already artfully arranged. We have written extensively about why block patterns will change everything and it will be exciting to see what developers do with them now that the feature is in core.
WordPress recently launched a block directory for single-block plugins and users can now search for and install blocks directly inside the editor. Selected blocks are downloaded seamlessly in the background and automatically activated and placed in the content. The advantage is that users don’t have to break their workflows in order to install new functionality. Blocks installed via the editor can also be uninstalled from the plugins page in the admin.
Block patterns, combined with the new block directory, will make page building much faster inside the editor by enabling users to quickly spin up layouts and add blocks on the fly.
Version 5.5 introduces a new UI for enabling auto-updates for themes and plugins. This is an exciting new era for WordPress that brings a higher level of website security while requiring less effort from users. Those who choose to get on the automatic updates train will no longer have to log into their sites and be greeted with a slew of nagging update notices. These updates will happen the same day they are available, so users don’t have to check in as often and sites are better protected from plugin and theme vulnerabilities getting exploited.
WordPress uses wp-cron to fetch updates for plugins and themes twice per day. The feature ships turned off by default in WordPress 5.5, so users will need to visit the theme and plugin pages in the admin to enable automatic updates. The bulk actions menu dropdown now has options for enabling or disabling auto-updates on all plugins, but users can always enable the updates for select plugins if they have any concerns.
Other notable updates in WordPress 5.5 include the following:
For a more technical breakdown of some of the changes under the hood, check out the developer notes and the 5.5 field guide.
Nearly everyone owns a smartphone, although “phone” may not be the most representative term for it. Our phones are media devices, gaming consoles, social media browsers, video-chat tools, among other functions. Mobile phones are able to offer this laundry list of capabilities because of APIs. When you open your healthcare provider's app on your smartphone, it isn't storing all that information on the device itself.
Having an online website has become a necessity for your business to keep going. Without having an online site, reaching to an audience on a global level is just impossible. The crucial step of getting...
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AIH Technology has announced a new inclusive Facial Recognition as a Service (FRaaS) API. The company’s facial recognition algorithm is designed to be ethnicity neutral which many facial recognition providers have failed to accomplish. The API is currently available through the Microsoft Azure Marketplace.
From the latest CNCF annual survey, it is pretty clear that a lot of people are showing high interest in using a service mesh in their project and many are already using in them production. Nearly 69% are evaluating Istio and 64% are looking at Linkerd. Linkerd was the first service mesh in the market, but Istio made service meshes more popular. Both projects are cutting edge and very competitive, making it a tough choice to select one. In this blog post, we will learn more about Istio and Linkerd architecture, their moving parts, and compare their offerings to help you make an informed decision.
Over the past few years, microservices architecture has become a popular style of designing software applications. In this architecture, we breakdown the application into independently deployable services. The services are usually lightweight, polyglot in nature, and often managed by various functional teams. This architecture style works well until a certain point, when the number of these services becomes large and difficult to manage. Suddenly, they are not simple anymore. This leads to challenges in managing various aspects like security, network traffic control, and observability. A service mesh helps address these challenges.
Anti-Patterns seem harmless but lead to error-prone solutions and make your code unmaintainable in the long-run.
For those who aren't familiar with the term ‘anti-pattern,’ it may sound like frivolous jargon or a throwaway catchphrase, but for those in the know, it’s a little more sinister than that.
Migrating data between different types of databases is not a trivial task. In this article, we will compare two various tools for migrating from SQL Server to MySQL.
MySQL Workbench is a solution from Oracle to convert various databases to MySQL.
Before jumping into the US news regarding COVID-19 tracker apps, I’ll reiterate a universal grain of salt to take whenever reading about tracker apps: the success of these apps hinges entirely on users self-reporting a positive test result. ProgrammableWeb has a working list of APIs launched with the aim of assisting the effort to battle COVID-19.
Information is no power unless it is equally accessible to all. Data can be the new age oil, but it cannot be used to fuel the world unless it is equally available, accessible, and affordable by all the stakeholders. More so in a day and age where, under the weight of the global pandemic, enterprises worldwide have embraced “Virtual Agile Delivery” as the new accepted norm of working.
Surveys have shown that employees on an average end up spending ~40 minutes a day in trying to discover a document. While 71% of the people keep asking around, around 46% of them choose to use the company directory, roughly 34% use the intranet and 30% of the people eventually send a company wide mail to find the information they need.
No – I don’t want to start a new flame war in which I put one framework above the other. Both, Spring Boot and Jakarta EE are great frameworks to build great modern Java applications. Some developers prefer this, others prefer that. Why is that? I think it’s often just because the one developer has collected more experience with Spring Boot, the other one with Java EE. These technologies are developing very fast and it is difficult to learn and be able to apply everything correctly. It is a kind of protectionism that you put one over the other so that you don’t appear stupid and ignorant. But there is a certain noise around Spring Boot that gives the impression that Spring Boot would be the far better system.
I am personally working with Java EE since the beginning – 20 years ago! So – yes I know the one much better than the other and I don’t have a deep understanding about Spring Boot that others may have.
There have been numerous articles and online webinars dealing with the benefits of using Alluxio as an intermediate storage layer between the S3 data storage and the data processing system used for ingestion or retrieval of data (i.e. Spark, Presto), as depicted in the picture below:
To name a few use cases:
In the last post, we learned about the introduction part of the Swift Package Manager.
If you missed this, please read Introduction to Swift Package here.