WordPress Newsletter Issue 8

WordPress Bulletin Issue 8

Hello, I am here with the eighth issue of my newsletter, which includes developments regarding WordPress and the software world. I will try to cover many topics such as news about the WordPress Ecosystem, WordPress Themes, WordPress Plugins, WordPress Tips. Without further ado, I would like to start with our first news;

WordPress Bulletin Issue 8 Contents

Gutenberg, Me and Reverse Gear!

I would like to start the newsletter by apologizing to the WordPress Gutenberg editor, whom I have defamed in every environment and platform without exception since the day it was released. As an old school developer, I think my worst feature is that I have biases. I wish I had gotten rid of my prejudices and tried objectively for this long. I gave priority to my own site and completely renewed it with the Gutenberg editor.

First of all, let me state that the block structure is not as complicated as expected or as I feared. Using ACF (Advanced Custom Fields), I prepared the Content, Portfolio, Course and Plugin blocks that I used on the site in a short time. The logic is very simple and really useful.

I postponed all the other trainings I had planned and started planning the Theme Development training with Gutenberg.

In short, as the famous thinker Sibel Can said, I tell myself “Eat Big Bites, But Don’t Talk Big Words”.

WordPress 6.6 Features

Yes, since we said Gutenberg, we need to examine the important features that will come with WordPress 6.6.

Improved Site Features and Patterns

With the feature called Full Site Editor, you can intervene in almost every aspect of your WordPress site. In addition to this feature, Patterns are included. Before examining these, I would like to briefly talk about the difference between Block and Pattern.

As you know, blocks contain predefined fields to be used within the text. Patterns, on the other hand, contain pre-defined content presentations with a kind of template logic. For example, an about us pattern can be prepared and defined in various views. You can also take this pattern and use it directly with your own content. To give a different example, you can think of it as copying and pasting a table view into the bootstrap library installed on your system. To better understand the Pattern logic I explained, you can review here

According to this logic, Full Site Editor allows you to see and select all the patterns that you have defined for your site and that already come with your theme.

More Stable Regulation Areas

Gutenberg editor makes edits in two main areas. While you edit the content on the left, you also edit the properties of all kinds of elements such as content, block, pattern in the right column. With the new update, new features and regulations have been added to this editor.

Changing Ready Patterns

One of the important features of WordPress 6.6 is that it allows you to overwrite the patterns that come with the theme or that you have installed. As shown in the image below, you can make changes to the relevant pattern by activating the overwrite option and keep the changes you have made.

Pattern Support for Old Themes

We will be able to use the Pattern system, which will come into our lives with WordPress 6.6, for old themes as well. Of course, these themes need to be compatible with Gutenberg.

Style Sets, Color Palettes and Variations

One of the exciting features of WordPress 6.6 is that predefined style sets and variations can be easily integrated into sites, blocks or patterns.

With this feature, you can darken the block you want or change the pattern with your own color sets in the editor.

Grid Layouts

We can create columns with the existing Gutenberg editor, but in some cases this can cause problems and inconsistencies, especially on mobile. With WordPress 6.6, we will be able to create customizable Grid Layouts.

Grouping Blocks with Shortcuts

In the Gutenberg editor, each block is replaced on its own. To move multiple elements at the same time, you need to click on the corresponding button of the editor. WordPress 6.6. We will be able to select and group multiple blocks and move them easily with the CTRL + G / Command + G shortcuts.

Rollback Feature

The Rollback feature, which I mentioned in

WordPress Bulletin Issue 6, is done with an additional plugin, comes natively with WordPress 6.6. Thanks to this feature, you can rollback to the last working state of your site in case of any problem you may encounter during or after any update.

These are the features I can gather for now. Before I forget, I would like to point out that the 3rd version of WordPress 6.6 Beta has also been released. I remind you that you should not install the version, details of which can be found here, on a working site.

WooCommerce 9.0 Released

WooCommerce 9.0 has been released. WooCommerce 9.0 comes with important features;

Improved Payment System

Receiving and Shipping options on the WooCommerce Payment page have been expanded. They added a “Read More” link to the description they added, and this allows us to access long details of the relevant option. Some changes have been made to the Delivery Address interface. If the address field is optional, it will appear hidden. Visual improvements have also been made to the order and payment screens.

Product Collection Block

The Product Collection Block, where you can display various products, has gone live from the beta version to the live version. Block provides a compact product category listing with its many features.

5X Faster Search Results

The indexing system they developed with WooCommerce 9.0 can make searches much faster compared to older versions. So much so that this figure is surprisingly fast. While the response time for a search with empty results in WooCommerce 8.9 is 3261 milliseconds, with WooCommerce 9.0 this figure drops to 1904 milliseconds, and with the new feature, Full-text index, it drops to 676 milliseconds. Almost 5 times faster. Great job indeed.

New Rest API Endpoint for Returns

You had to write a special endpoint in case orders placed in WooCommerce were returned. With WooCommerce 9.0, refunds are natively included in existing endpoints, allowing all returns to be listed with the address wc/v3/refunds.

There are many more features, you can review them in detail here.

2024 WordPress Statistics

The instawp site, which has conducted a comprehensive statistical study on WordPress, published WordPress statistics for 2024. The statistics that caught my attention, out of a total of 50 titles, are as follows:

What is the Market Share of WordPress?

WordPress still maintains its title as the largest CMS.

According to the results, WordPress is currently the most preferred content management system with a percentage of 63%.

43.3% of the sites currently live are made with WordPress.

There are 434 million WordPress sites in total. It’s a really big number.

Approximately 500 websites a day are built with WordPress infrastructure.

When looking at the search volume, the word WordPress has a volume of 37 million.

In which countries is WordPress used most?

United States
Russia
United Kingdom / United Kingdom
Iran
India
Canada
Australia
Brazil
Vietnam
Germany

The United States takes the lead with 9 million WordPress sites. Russia and India rank second and third with 550k and 275k WordPress sites.

It’s interesting that we don’t have a country here. Since no information is given about the rest of the list, I cannot see exactly where we are.

Which language is WordPress used most?

Actually, there is no need to look at any statistics for this question. English, which is accepted as a world language, ranks first here too.

Which is the Most Popular WordPress Plugin?

Yoast SEO ranks first with 10 million installations in total.

WordPress and WooCommerce

WooCommerce has an important place in the E-Commerce systems market with 70 million e-commerce sites, which is also a very important figure. Again, it is preferred by 38.74% among total e-commerce systems.

The 10 most popular websites built with WordPress

These are the statistics that I find important. If you would like to access all the details, you can access it here

Gravatar Announced Profile Service

As you know, we could upload the images we call profile photos or avatars to gravatar.com and use them in many areas where our email is used and the service is integrated. Gravatar has included the profile feature in this system. Thus, we can call a structure such as the author box that I manually prepared on my site, via gravatar. You can access the details of the system here

WordPress.com Announced Its New Administration Panel

WordPress.com Announces New Administration Panel

WordPress.com administration panel and screens have been renewed both visually and in terms of features. Here With the innovation, details of which you can access, both hosting management and site-based (plug-in) New features (such as upload/update/delete) have been added.

WordCamp Europe 2024 Completed

WordCamp Europe, held in Turin, Italy, was completed with intense participation. Details and highlights of the event attended by our beloved Çağdaş Dağ from our country here. We are waiting for a blog or video from him in which he explains his experiences.

Future WordPress Event Calendar

The event schedule planned to be held in the coming months is as follows;

July 19, 2024: Stellar Spark
September 17, 2024: WordCamp US 2024
September 23, 2024: Digital Asset Congress
October 09, 2024: WordPress Accessibility Day 2024

Ready WordPress Themes of the Week

This week I have listed themes that can work fully integrated with Gutenberg;

Felt WordPress News / Magazine / Community Theme

Felt is a prepared WordPress theme designed for news, magazines and communities. You can find the details of the theme here.

Julia WordPress Agency Theme

Julia is a WordPress theme designed for sites that run agencies and model directors. You can find the details of the theme here.

Inspro Blocks Multi-Purpose WordPress Theme