WP Builds Newsletter #42 – WordPress 5.0 is out, nobody dies and Google stepping into WordPress

This weeks WordPress news – Covering The Week Commencing 3rd December 2018:

WordPress 5.0 “Bebo”
"We’ve made some big upgrades to the editor. Our new block-based editor is the first step toward an exciting new future with a streamlined editing experience across your site. You’ll have more flexibility with how content is displayed, whether you are building your first site, revamping your blog, or write code for a living…"

State of the Word 2018 – Learn blocks deeply
"Gutenberg – After stating the reasons we are all here, Mullenweg played some user test videos of the current editor. “Suffice it to say, this editor experience is not working for us,” Mullenweg said. The solution for these frustrations is blocks and Gutenberg. Mullenweg demonstrated building a page using Gutenberg featuring Bebo Valdés, the musician for which 5.0 is named. This portion focused on the user focus of the project…"

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WordPress 5.0 “Bebo” Released, Lays A Foundation for the Platform’s Future
"In 2016 at WordCamp US in Philadelphia, PA, Matt Mullenweg announced to the world that a new post and page editor would be coming to WordPress. “The editor does not represent the core of WordPress publishing,” Mullenweg said…"

How to Update to WordPress 5.0: A Checklist
"WordPress 5.0 just landed with a new post and page editor called Gutenberg. Because WordPress 5.0 is a major version release, you’ll want to have a proper update checklist in place so the update goes smoothly. In this post, we cover how to update to WordPress 5.0 with a quick checklist. Most sites should update with little or no issues…"

WordPress 5.0 Review: What’s New? Should You Upgrade or Wait?
A helpful explanation of what Gutenberg does and whether or not it's right for you.

New Block Gallery Plugin Offers a Suite of Photo Gallery Blocks for Gutenberg
"The new Gutenberg editor has basic support for galleries with a few nice features, such as the ability to set the number of columns and automatically crop thumbnails for a more uniform appearance. If you need more control over your galleries, Rich Tabor’s Block Gallery plugin is currently the best option made specifically for use with Gutenberg and WordPress 5.0+. It offers a suite of photo gallery blocks with minimal, tasteful styling that fits unobtrusively into virtually any site design…"

AMP Plugin for WordPress Version 1.0 Introduces Gutenberg-Integrated AMP Validation
"Version 1.0 of the official AMP plugin for WordPress was released on the eve of WordCamp US, after two years in development by contributors from Automattic, XWP, and Google. This first stable version has a massive changelog with 30 people credited for their contributions. The plugin is now considered ready for production and is active on more than 300,000 sites…"

The Events Calendar & Gutenberg
"The Events Calendar family of plugins is all in on the new block editor. Whether you’re well-versed or just getting started, learn more about the new editing experience and how it works with our products here…"

What Can Be Learned From The Gutenberg Accessibility Situation?
"A hard release deadline in software is usually fine, but there is a glaring issue with this particular one: what will be the main editor for a platform that powers about 32% of the web isn’t fully accessible. This issue has been raised many times by the community, and it’s been effectively brushed under the carpet by Automattic’s leadership — at least it comes across that way…"

WordCamp Europe Opens the Call for Host City 2020
"WordCamp Europe has opened the call for a host city for 2020. Previous editions of the event have been held in Leiden, Sofia, Seville, Vienna, Paris, and Belgrade, and the next on deck is Berlin in 2019. Organizers are always working ahead for an event this size. In fact, the team plans together for the better part of a year before attendees arrive for the three-day event. The upcoming WCEU is currently being planned by a team of 66 organizers from 15 countries…"

WPMU DEV Dashboard Now With Built-in Analytics And Plugin White Labeling
"The WPMU DEV dashboard plugin is currently used on a quarter of a million sites. And why wouldn’t it? It unlocks better security and performance, backups, one-click installations, automated updates, reports and improved support access…"

WP Builds – Rebecca Gill and her amazing life; flourishing from adversity
"This is a little bit of a departure for us today because we take a deep dive into the life of our guest – Rebecca Gill. Typically on the podcast we chat about plugins and themes and talk to developers about their ideas and their code. Not today, well not just that today! Today we listen to the story of how life has shaped Rebecca, and I can tell you that so much has happened to her that it’s amazing that she’s still able to get up in the morning…"

Advanced Scheduling Options for Appointments through your WordPress site
Run through of how to use this 'new kid on the block' scheduling plugin.

Elementor – Introducing Action Links: Connect With Your Clients Seamlessly
"Connect visitors to WhatsApp, Waze, Google Calendar & more apps with one click using Elementor's new Action Links feature…"

Botnet of Infected WordPress Sites Attacking WordPress Sites
"The Defiant Threat Intelligence team recently began tracking the behavior of an organized brute force attack campaign against WordPress sites. This campaign has created a botnet of infected WordPress websites to perform its attacks, which attempt XML-RPC authentication to other WordPress sites in order to access privileged accounts…"

Non WordPress, but useful anyway…

Microsoft is building its own Chrome browser to replace Edge
"Microsoft is building its own Chromium browser to replace the default on Windows 10. The software giant first introduced its Edge browser three years ago, with a redesign to replace Internet Explorer and modernize the default browsing experience to compete with Chrome and others. While the modern look and feel has paid off for Edge, the underlying browser engine (EdgeHTML) has struggled to keep up with Chromium. Microsoft is finally giving up and moving its default Windows 10 browser to Chromium…"

Chrome Extension to streamline your daily SEO tasks
I've not tested this but it sure looks interesting!

Bringing the best of Google tools to WordPress
"Get authoritative and up-to-date recommendations from Googl Site Kit shows key metrics and insights from four different Google products…"