Upcoming Core Updates Archives

Upcoming WordPress Release: 4.4

December 9, 2015/in Upcoming Core Updates, WordPress News/by Kevin

When Does the New Release Come Out?

Today! You should already be receiving alerts in your dashboard for the new update. All wpONcall customers have already been updated and checked for any issues. We are not seeing any big issues with our client sites so far. It seems to be a fairly trouble-free update.

How will this version effect me?

For the most part, you will not see any noticeable changes when logging into WordPress. There are some big backend features that effect the big picture of WordPress’ future path (in particular, introducing the WordPress API into core – learn more here). For most users, this won’t have any effect on how they currently use their WordPress site. It will, however, have an impact on how we will interact with WordPress in the future.

One cool feature that you can start using today is “Responsive Images”. In WordPress 4.4. WordPress will automatically serve the correctly sized image depending on the screen size of the device. You can upload an image that is 1500px wide and it will serve a smaller version automatically. This makes it easier for site owners to do less editing and resizing of their images before uploading.

Another noticeable change is the comment form on posts. Now, the comment field is the first to show, then the name, email and website fields. The comment form used to have the comment field show last. This will make it easier for visitors to leave a comment.

Of course, there are other changes in WP 4.4, but nothing that will have much impact on you!

Anything to look out for?

We haven’t had any major issues yet. We will update here if anything comes up.

You should update your site as soon as possible and make sure to make a backup before you do!

Here is a video overview of the changes:

Time to Update! WordPress 4.3 Now Live

August 18, 2015/in Upcoming Core Updates, WordPress News/by Kevin

Today WordPress 4.3 was released into the wild. This official video gives a good idea of how the changes will impact your site:

The major updates were:

Stronger Passwords

This is a great feature that is long overdue. Now WordPress gives you the option to generate a strong password when you create a new user instead of creating a weak password that you can remember. Resetting your password will also be more strict.

Site Icons (Favicons)

This is a nice addition, but almost all premium themes already have a field to add a favicon to your site. This will be nice for sites using a theme without the feature.

A Different “Menus” Interface

The WordPress menus interface can still be found with its original interface when you go to “Appearance” then “Menus”. 4.3 has added a new interface to the “Customizer” which allows you to see the menu in a live preview as you change it. This will be helpful for seeing if a new menu item fits in your navigation before you make it live.

Formatting Shortcuts

This is a cool feature that allows you to add formatting to your page without clicking on the tools above the text box. This is very similar to markup editors that let you format as you type (our favorite is Ulysses).

Comments Turned Off On Pages

This is an annoying quirk left over from the blogging days of WordPress (a comment field showing on your static pages). Now you don’t have to worry about comments showing on pages in case your theme did not already take care of it.

A Word of Warning!

Unfortunately, there is a bigger chance of this update breaking your site than previous core updates. WordPress 4.3 is removing the ability to use PHP 4 style constructors, which means your plugins can break if they have not updated to the PHP 5 standards. You should do a search of your plugins on this page to make sure your plugins won’t break with the update: http://gist.github.com/chriscct7/d7d077afb01011b1839d

All wpONcall clients don’t have to worry about this update as it will all be taken care of by us! Good luck with your updating!

New Security Release: 4.2.4

August 4, 2015/in Upcoming Core Updates, WordPress News, WordPress Security Alerts/by Stacey

Today, WordPress 4.2.4 was released as an important security fix. This update comes just one week after the release of WordPress 4.2.3.

4.2.3 caused quite a few issues with many sites as it changed the way WordPress uses shortcodes. This caused many sites to break their formatting when they relied of shortcodes to display content. The release team did not give a lot of warning to this change, although it was important to close the security hole with cross-site scripting.

This update, 4.2.4 supposedly fixed the issue sites were having with 4.2.3, so many plugin and theme authors will be happy. This update also addresses more issues with cross-site scripting as well as a SQL injection vulnerability.

You should update your site right away and always remember to backup your site before updating!

Important WordPress Security Release Today: 4.2.3

July 23, 2015/in Upcoming Core Updates, WordPress Security Alerts/by Stacey

WordPress 4.2.3 was released today as an important security patch. There will not be any visual changes in this update (as with all other incremental WordPress updates), but it is extremely important to update to secure your site.

Specifically, the update addresses:

a cross-site scripting vulnerability, which could allow users with the Contributor or Author role to compromise a site.

WordPress 4.1 Rolling Out Today – Are You Ready?

December 18, 2014/in Upcoming Core Updates/by Kevin

Today, 12/18, WordPress 4.1 will be rolling out and show up as an alert in your dashboard. This update will come with:

Distraction Free Writing Mode – the updated distraction free mode allows easier switching between normal and distraction free mode (which is a mode that let’s you focus on just your content, not all the options).
Inline Image Editing – An easier way to align your image in the visual mode of the editor.
A New Default Theme – Twenty Fifteen, the new default theme, features a horizontal navigation and other new features. If you already use a custom or premium theme, you probably won’t be using this.
Language Packs – If you are using WordPress in another language (other than English), you can now change the default language from the admin area.
Other Developer Tools – API and query improvements will make WordPress even more powerful for developers and users.

Take a look at wpbeginner’s guide to WordPress 4.1.