This Week in WordPress – August 19 to 25

You know what time it is? It’s This Week in WordPress livestream time! Well, not this very second, but it will be soon! Today’s the day Nathan and I sit down, yak about WordPress, and get to know you better!

Starting today at 3:00pm Eastern (and every Friday at the same time), I will be sitting down with one of the Elegant Themes team or with a Divi Nation community member to discuss all the cool stuff that happened in, you guessed it, this week in WordPress. You will be able to watch the stream at our Facebook page as it happens, and you will also be able to find it on the Elegant Themes YouTube channel once the stream is over.

So buckle up, it’s time so see what happened this week in WordPress.

News

The Complete WordPress GDPR Guide

This year, the European Union passed a law called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that will go into effect in May 2018. What this means is that any EU citizens who visit your site (whether you are an EU citizen yourself or not) will be protected under much stricter data rules than currently apply. Shaumik Daityari did a fantastic write-up of how this applies to WordPress sites, and you should undoubtedly check it out. Otherwise, you may be subject to up to €20 million in fines. Yikes.

Is Gutenberg a WordPress Watershed Moment?

Morten Rand-Hendriksen sure thinks so.

This is a revolution, […] a watershed moment for WordPress. This is entirely new and fundamentally different from how WordPress works and how we work with it today. I cannot overstate it enough when I say this changes everything.

Whether you agree with him or not, it may be worth thinking about the point he makes here: Gutenberg really might fundamentally change how we work with WordPress. Food for thought.

Facebook’s React Patent Drama

I love React. It’s super cool. Admittedly, I am just learning how to use it and how to integrate it in with WordPress, but I can see why people have gone gaga over it recently. Unfortunately, the Apache Software Foundation disallowed React’s use because of Facebook’s patent license for the library, and that’s thrown a lot of the web development world into a tizzy. Calls and requests for FB to change their licensing have sprung up, and the official response came back a few days ago: nope.

It will definitely be interesting to see how this plays out in terms of WordPress because the Calypso admin interface, Gutenberg, and of course the Divi Builder are all built with React. WP Tavern does say that Automattic is cool with the licensing for now. Keywords: for now.

WordPress.org Teaches You to Upgrade PHP Versions

Or they will, at least. WP is built on PHP, so it’s important to keep your versioning up to date (though, full disclosure, I literally only updated my servers to 7.1 from 5.6 yesterday because a plugin I was playing with needed it). The Core PHP Team had a meeting and are currently putting together guides and documentation to help folks out with the process, from docs detailing the importance of upgrading to third-party tutorials and how-tos. So keep an eye out for that, or you can head on over to the Github repo and start contributing to a worthy cause.

Resources

• Everyone is talking about Gutenberg, but you may not want to use it yet. I mean, it’s not a production product yet, first of all. But if you want some alternatives to the new editor that you can use right now, you’ve got options.
• You know you’re a geek when you get super excited over different text editors and keyboard shortcuts and tricks you can use to make them do what you want them to do. If you’re as geeky as I am, read this.
• Sucuri wants to help protect you and your users from phishing attacks. Like G.I. Joe told me when I was a kid, knowing is half the battle.
• Stop. Making. These. Mistakes.
• If you’re like me, you hate hate hate it when you look at your WP dashboard and have so many menu options that you can’t find what you need. These plugins are gonna help you and me out tremendously.
• SQL Injections are terrifying. Malware and server attacks can ruin your entire quarter. Prepare yourself for breaches in security, and your quality of life (and profit margins!) will definitely improve.
• I took years to understand how unbelievably important featured images are to WordPress content. My own blog archives are still in dire need of improvement, and WPMU breaks down exactly why you should do as I say and not as I do!
• Our very own Nick Schäferhoff made me laugh out loud when I read his article on why people probably hate my website. He hits on my personal favorite of all nitpicks: stock photos of unbelievably happy office workers having a jolly old time in their naturally lit corporate environment. Literally, I LOL’d.

Tutorials

• You know what’s almost as important as those featured images I just talked about? Thumbnails. Here’s how to set up some defaults to keep your stuff looking oh so fresh and so clean.
• Migrating websites and WordPress installations is never fun. But it’s not that difficult once you know what you’re doing. It’s learning what you’re doing initially that can be rough. We’ve got you covered, though.
• I had never thought of this before, but you can totally use WordPress and BuddyPress for a secure intranet for your company. Ain’t that just the coolest thing ever? Well, maybe not ever, but it sure is cool, nonetheless. Learn how to set it up here.
• Widgets are part of what make WP so awesome. Often, they’re relegated to the sidebar, but thanks to this handy-dandy tutorial, you can put them pretty much anywhere in a template file, navigation, or wherever else you need custom code or functionality.

What Did You Discover This Week in WordPress?

I think that’s some pretty neat stuff this week, if I do say so myself. One of my favorite things about the WP community is just how much info there is out there and how much goes on in any given week. There has to be a ton I’ve missed, so let me know what’s going on in your neck of the woods.

Either sound off in the comments, or throw some questions and topics at Nathan and me at 3:00pm Eastern time during our livestream on Facebook. #hinthint. If you can’t make it, don’t worry. The video will live on YouTube and Facebook after we’re finished.

Thanks for being awesome, y’all. Until next time, this has been your week in WordPress.