WP Builds Newsletter #8 – Elementor updates / API, WooCommerce loves GDPR and Theme Review Changes

This weeks WordPress news – Covering The Week Commencing 9th April 2018

4.9.6 will likely be a quicker release cycle
Some initial targets were discussed for this release. The “Try Gutenberg” prompt, GDPR related items, any changes resulting from several discussions currently happening about needed API changes to prepare for Gutenberg. All of these items need clearer requirements of what is needed for them to be committed.

Elementor Pro 2.0 Integration is here for the Page Builder Framework
If you haven’t heard, the team at Elementor is about to release Elementor Pro 2.0 which lets you design your header, footer, single and archive pages & more using Elementor. Page Builder Framework works great with Elementor Pro 2.0 by default – Premium Add-On users can now take advantage of an even deeper integration.

WP Builds is brought to you by...

and

How we’re tackling GDPR in WooCommerce core
GDPR is coming, and we’re working hard to get new tools in WooCommerce core to help store owners comply. If you’re not familiar with GDPR yet, Hannah wrote a great introduction to GDPR on the main WooCommerce blog which you can read to get caught up. It’s important to note that this new law doesn’t just apply to stores in the EU – this applies globally to stores that sell products to EU residents.

Call for Testing: WordPress for iOS 9.8
WordPress for iOS version 9.8 beta is available for testing on TestFlight. Not part of the beta program yet? Please sign up for our TestFlight program to request to join as a beta tester. What to Test: Uploads are now asynchronous!, Pages that fail to upload will now be marked red., The input field for writing comments can now grow up to 5 lines.

Customizing the WordPress Administration Menu (For User Experience)
For some projects, there are going to be times where there’s not a lot of new stuff to explore, you know? You get the requirements, you know how to solve the problems, and then you move forward with building the solution. Then other projects that come your way and though you may not know how to do them at the beginning of the project, you know you’ll be able to do so programmatically because if it’s written in code, it’s going to be possible.

Changes in Theme Review Process
We all know that queue time is around 3 months. We have quite a small numbers of active theme reviewers at the moment, and even when a ticket is being reviewed, the review process itself can take pretty long to complete. The change is based on moving burden from reviewer’s shoulder to theme author’s and making theme authors more responsible. From today, reviewers can check mainly following issues to pass the review.

AI and WordPress: How Artificial Intelligence Can Help Your Website
You see it talked about in the daily news and even more in tech magazines and blogs. The rise of artificial intelligence has people thinking of robots taking over the world, like science fiction books, movies, and TV shows have come to show us. However, artificial intelligence, or AI, is much more than that. Yes, we’re starting to see self-driving cars and self-service kiosks in retail stores, but surely you’ve seen artificial intelligence spread throughout several industries like medicine, education, research, or even AI and WordPress.

Introducing Elementor Developer API
Today we are unveiling our new Developers site created specifically for plugin and theme developers who want to integrate the power of Elementor into their products. We have spent the last seven months documenting the entire Elementor code base with phpDocs, making the code readable and easier to use. We have also moved our tutorials from GitHub to a new site dedicated for developers.

Non WordPress, but useful anyway…

Hacked Website Trend Report – 2017
This report is based on data collected and analyzed by the Sucuri Remediation Group (RG), which includes the Incident Response Team (IRT) and the Malware Research Team (MRT). The data presented stems from the analysis of 34,371 infected websites summarizing the latest trends by bad actors. In this report, we build from data points seen in the 2016/Q3 report to identify the latest tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) detected by the Remediation Group.

What is the optimal content length? Here’s what the science says
What is the optimal content length? How long should your blog posts be? What is the ideal word count for SEO? These are questions many would-be bloggers and marketers ask themselves. Obviously many things go into successful content marketing. From choosing the right keywords, to learning to write well, to image optimization. All these are factors in the success of your content.

Page Caching: Varnish Vs Nginx FastCGI Cache 2018
Back in 2016 Brad compared Varnish and Nginx FastCGI Caching to see which would come out on top. Back then Nginx FastCGI Caching was superior in performance, but has anything changed in the last two years? That’s what we’re here to find out! This time round I’m also going to benchmark WordPress without any cache and throw a WordPress caching plugin into the mix. I’ve opted for Simple Cache, because as the name suggests it’s simple to set up. Let’s get to it!

Chrome and Firefox will support a new standard for password-free logins
Web browsers are building a new way for you to log in, announced today by the W3C and FIDO Alliance standards bodies. Called WebAuthn, the new open standard is currently supported in the latest version of Firefox, and will be supported in upcoming versions of Chrome and Edge slated for release in the next few months. WebAuthn has been working its way toward W3C approval for nearly two years, but today marks the first major announcement of browser support. Apple has not commented on Safari support for WebAuthn, although the company is part of the working group that developed the standard.