The Month in WordPress: October 2017
While this month we focused on building new features for WordPress core, we advanced other areas of the project too. Read on to learn more about what the WordPress project accomplished during the month of October.
Take the 2017 Annual WordPress User Survey
The annual WordPress User Survey is a great opportunity for you to provide your feedback about how you use WordPress. This year is no exception, as the 2017 WordPress User Survey is out now.
The information collected in the survey is used to make informed decisions about improvements across the WordPress project, so your answers are incredibly valuable and help shape the future of the platform.
WordPress 4.8.3 Security Release
At the end of October, WordPress 4.8.3 was released containing an important security fix for all previous versions of WordPress. If your WordPress installation has not updated automatically, please update it now to protect your site.
This security issue was brought to light by a community member, so if you ever discover a security vulnerability in WordPress core, please do the same and disclose it responsibly.
WordPress 4.9 Nearly Ready for Release
WordPress 4.9 was in rapid development this month. We released four beta versions and published a release candidate. The target for shipping WordPress 4.9 is November 14 — just two short weeks away. With many new features, this is a hugely exciting release that improves WordPress’ user experience considerably. Notably, you’ll see improvements to the theme selection experience, plenty of widget enhancements, drastically improved code editing, and much better user role management.
To get involved in building WordPress Core, jump into the #core channel in the Making WordPress Slack group, and follow the Core team blog.
WordPress Charity Hackathons are Growing
For the last few years, the number of do_action series of WordPress charity hackathons has grown around the world. What started as a community event to assist local nonprofit organizations, has become something many WordPress communities are replicating in an increasing number of cities.
As of this month, do_action events have been hosted in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa, Beirut, Lebanon, Austin, Texas, and Montréal, Canada. In addition, events are now scheduled for Bristol, England and Zurich, Switzerland in 2018.
To get involved in organizing a do_action event locally, read the do_action organizer’s handbook and join the #community-events channel in the Making WordPress Slack group.
Gutenberg Development Advances
While work steadily continues on Gutenberg — the new editor for WordPress core — one update from this month addresses one of the primary concerns that some people shared about the project.
Up until the release on October 24, Gutenberg did not support the meta boxes that so many WordPress content creators rely on. The new editor now has initial support for meta boxes as well as a host of other critical features for content creation in WordPress.
Test out Gutenberg right now and help develop it by joining the #core-editor channel in the Making WordPress Slack group and following the Core team blog.
Further Reading:
- DonateWC, a new initiative that assists people in attending WordCamps, sponsored Trust Nhokovedzo from Harare, Zimbabwe to speak at WordCamp Cape Town, South Africa this month.
- The popular Canvas theme was retired this month to allow WooCommerce to focus on moving their products forward more effectively.
- The next installment of Camp Press, the WordPress community retreat event, will take place in Iceland.
- If you run a WordPress meetup group, but are struggling to find content for your events, the WordPress Marketing team has put together some ideas to help.
- WordCamp US 2017 is just around the corner — there’s still time to grab your tickets.
If you have a story we should consider including in the next “Month in WordPress” post, please submit it here.