WP Builds Newsletter #36 – WordPress 5.0 Beta, getting bored with WordPress and video news

This weeks WordPress news – Covering The Week Commencing 22nd October 2018:

WordPress 5.0 Beta 1 Now Available for Testing
"WordPress 5.0 is marching forward with beta 1 released this evening. Major items that need testing include the Gutenberg editor, the new Twenty Nineteen default theme, and all previous default themes, which have been updated to be compatible with the new editor. You’ll want to make sure you are using Gutenberg version 4.1 before updating your site to WordPress 5.0 beta 1. Gutenberg is now considered feature complete as of the 4.1 release. It is active on more than 580,000 installations…"

WordPress team working on "wiping older versions from existence on the internet"
"The WordPress security team's biggest battle is not against hackers but its own users, millions of which continue to run sites on older versions of the CMS, and who regularly fail to apply updates to the CMS core, plugins, or themes…"

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The New Woo Adopts Gutenberg Components, User Interface Driven by React
"WooSesh, the free virtual conference devoted to WooCommerce kicked off earlier today. Todd Wilkins, Head of eCommerce at Automattic, Kelly Hoffman, Head of Design for eCommerce at Automattic, and Aviva Pinchas, Product Lead of the WooCommerce Marketplace at Automattic got things started with the keynote presentation…"

When You Get Bored with WordPress, Part 1
"One of the more common things that we see in the technology industry is people changing jobs or, at the very least, having a desire to learn new technology and begin employing it in their work. The rate at which things change is incredibly high contrasted with some other industries, and I think that’s why some of us get into the industry, to begin with. It’s hard to get bored, right…?"

WCEU Team is Working on PWA Support for All WordCamp Websites
"WordCamp Europe’s new PWA (Progressive Web App) was one of the highlights of the 2018 event in Belgrade. It allowed attendees to view the schedule, venue map, create bookmarks for sessions, and provided offline access in case of network failure. Attendees could add the app to their home screens and opt to receive push notifications for important updates about the event…"

New Plugin Adds Elementor Templates as Gutenberg Blocks
"One of the most pressing concerns for users in the Gutenberg era is how page builder plugins will respond. Speculation about the new editor “killing off page builders” has run rampant, but these plugins are slowly evolving ahead of Gutenberg’s imminent inclusion in WordPress 5.0…"

Create a Custom Search With Toolset That Helps Customers Find Exactly What They Want
"Customers are becoming more and more demanding and have much shorter attention spans. It’s your job to help them find exactly what they are looking for, as fast as possible! For WordPress developers and site owners, that means you need to install a custom search tool on your site. Custom search will not only help customers locate products faster, it will also improve your sites usability…"

Bringing Array Themes into the WP Engine family
"One of the reasons WP Engine acquired StudioPress this past June was because its impressive catalog of themes are based on the world’s most popular theme framework, Genesis. We were attracted to StudioPress because we wanted to make its themes more accessible to customers and invest in an expansion of those themes. Today, we’re adding to that vision by bringing Array’s themes, as well as the associated Atomic Blocks, into the WP Engine family. Array is trusted by brands such as Dropbox and TED, and for nearly a decade, its theme collection has been used by thousands of designers, photographers, writers, and a wide variety of creative professionals for beautiful, out-of-the-box themes that combine a sophisticated design look with robust functionality in an engaging layout…"

WPCampus is Pursuing an Independent Accessibility Audit of Gutenberg
"WPCampus is looking to hire a company to perform an accessibility audit of the Gutenberg editor. The organization is a community of more than 800 web professionals, educators, and others who work with WordPress in higher education. WPCampus director Rachel Cherry published a request for proposals detailing the organization’s specific concerns…"

Astra Theme – Introducing Mega Menu within the Nav Menu Addon!
"After quite a long Beta releases, we introduce the most awaited Mega Menu in the Astra Pro Addon version 1.6.0. We’ve worked tirelessly to present you the easiest and fastest method to design beautiful mega menus on your website. Yes! You can now create attractive menus to help users navigate within your website. Just be sure you have the Astra theme version 1.5.0 and the Astra Pro addon version 1.6.0 onwards installed on your website…"

Non WordPress, but useful anyway…

AMP Pages Will Soon Support Video Docking, Sticky Ads, More
"The Accelerated Mobile Pages project has announced a variety of new features coming soon to AMP pages. Many of the upcoming features are currently supported by regular web pages. That means site owners will be able to create equivalent AMP pages that more closely resemble the original web page. Here is an overview of some of the new features on the way…"

Being Shot Down Because of Accessibility Needs is Not Something Anyone Should Expect
"Being deaf/hard of hearing means there is certain information I struggle to access. Since my business (and let’s face it, my personal life) revolves around being online, having the likes of accurate subtitles/captions and good quality audio is essential for me in order to be able to consume video/audio-based content. Too many times I have had to cancel listening to a podcast or watching a video within seconds after starting because of terrible audio or lack of captions or transcripts…"