September was a sad month for the WordPress community.
Even though a lot was going on in WordPress development – like it always is – our thoughts were turned in another direction.
Welcome to This Month in WordPress w/ CodeinWP – a monthly roundup of news and stories from around the world of WordPress. This is the September 2015 edition.
September 2015 in WordPress
As Post Status tells us:
Alex King passed away at his home last night, after battling cancer for more than two and a half years. Alex was one of the original WordPress developers, and leaves a lasting legacy and impact on the WordPress community.
Version 4.3.1 is here! It’s a security release, fixing three issues (read below) and 26 smaller bugs. You should click that update button as soon as possible if you haven’t already.
The three issues being fixed:
- a cross-site scripting vulnerability when processing shortcode tags,
- another separate cross-site scripting vulnerability that was found in the user list table,
- an open door for the users without permissions to publish private posts and make them sticky.
On September 22, Matt Mullenweg hosted a live Q&A session on ProductHunt. Some great questions were asked (and answered).
Check the record of the session to get first-hand insights from the man himself. Or, if patience is not your best friend, WP Tavern collected some highlights from the event.
It was only a matter of time… The move to include the REST API in the WordPress core was finally made, as the development team proposed to merge it starting with the release of versions 4.4 and 4.5.
The REST API’s addition to the WordPress core is still not official – this is just a proposal made by the team.
Speaking of the REST API… it seems like it generated a lot of buzz in the WordPress community. Early in September, a new conference dedicated to the REST API was announced. The conference is ingeniously named “A Day of REST” and will be held in London next year, on January 28.
The event seeks to offer developers an opportunity to learn how to interact and work with the new WordPress REST API.
A campaign initiated by Sucuri is meant to protect WordPress sites from the visitorTracker_isMob malware. The campaign started as the Sucuri team discovered an increasingly higher number of WordPress sites infected with this malware.
The campaign is named VisitorTracker (because of the function name used in all injected javascript files: visitorTracker_isMob). The Sucuri team says that of all the infected websites detected these days, 95% are built on WordPress and, as far as they are concerned, the campaign targets the latest vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins.
A bug in the Google Chrome browser recently affected lots of WordPress users by creating a “distortion” in their admin panel menus and making the items overlap.
Update. Since that time, Chrome’s development team has managed to fix the issue with the release of version 47. So if you’re on Chrome, make sure you’re running the latest version.
Great Articles From Around The Web
Let’s start with what you should keep in mind when buying a WordPress premium theme. It’s your money, it does matter.
How to Contribute to WordPress (and Just Generally Be an Awesome Person)
Feeling like giving something back to the WordPress community? Here you can find how to make yourself useful and contribute to our great CMS.
Planning to launch a WordPress site? If you want it to be done in a professional manner, it will cost you a particular sum of money. How much? See this.
Accepting Payments on WordPress – How to Choose and Integrate Your Payment Processor
If you have a business that uses online payments, you should do some research to make sure nothing goes wrong with your confidential information and your money.
Core Concepts of WordPress Themes: The Template Hierarchy
Let’s take a glance at the technical side of WordPress themes, by learning something about the WordPress template hierarchy.
WordPress Plugin Roundup – September 2015
Wondering what are the newest plugins on the WordPress market? Check out this September roundup. By the way, all those plugins are free.
A handful of beautiful free WordPress themes were launched in September as well. Do you care to find out what those are?
How to hire a WordPress developer when you know nothing about code
It’s simple … this post tells you all about how to hire the right person for the WordPress work that you have at hand.
20 Websites with Unorthodox Geometry Elements for Your Inspiration
Looking for some exquisite and spectacular WordPress designs for your next website? Here are 20 examples you might want to look into.
Custom CSS in WordPress (Does It Conflict with Child Theming?)
Here’s one for you: If you’re writing custom CSS in your theme built-in editor, does it mean you’re creating a child theme? See what Tom McFarlin thinks about it.
19 Types of Websites You Can Create With WordPress
See how much you can do when using WordPress to run your site. Spoiler alert: You can do almost anything.
The Ultimate Mega Guide to Using Video With WordPress
If you have a site that’s mostly centered around videos, you can’t just add them and expect that things will go right. There are lots of adjustments you should do to make sure your site works properly.
I think that’s it for this September edition. Did we miss anything?