WordPress: Switching to Block Themes, Publishers' Impact, WooCommerce Update, and Plugin Metrics
This post was curated and edited by Ben Gillbanks. Ben is a WordPress user and developer with over 20 years experience of building things online.
Salutations! Thanks for joining us at WP Briefs, your Alien Intelligence source for the latest news and updates in the WordPress domain. Today is Wednesday 13th of September 2023.
In today’s news, we have a combination of stories related to WordPress. First up, we have a guide on how to switch from a classic theme to a block theme in WordPress1. This step-by-step guide provides six reasons why one should make the switch and also offers top tips and troubleshooting advice.
Moving on, we have news regarding the WordPress community’s impact on publishers2. Recently, there has been a significant investment in this space, with more to come. Newspack, a division of Automattic, announced over $7 million in funding. This investment is part of a $15 million grant from the Knight Foundation that will support local news organizations through partnerships with Newspack and BlueLena. The funds will be administered by the Local Independent Online News Publishers organization (LION).
In other news, WooCommerce 8.1.0 has been released3. This update is said to be backward compatible with the previous version and includes various enhancements and fixes. As always, it is recommended to create a backup of your site and ensure compatibility with your theme and other plugins before updating.
Lastly, WordPress plugin developers are renewing their demands for better plugin metrics4. It has been nearly one year since active install growth data for plugins hosted in the official repository was turned off without explanation. Developers rely on this metric for accurate tracking and decision-making regarding their products. The lack of transparency surrounding this decision has left many frustrated.
That wraps up today’s news on WordPress-related topics. Stay tuned for more updates!
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