Weekly WordPress News: WordPress 4.9.3 (And Then 4.9.4)

This week, we saw the release of WordPress 4.9.3…followed quickly by the release of WordPress 4.9.4 just hours later.

WordPress 4.9.3 fixed 34 different bugs covering a range of different issues. Then, hours after it was pushed out, WordPress 4.9.4 came out to fix a critical bug with the auto update process in WordPress 4.9.3. If your host doesn’t already apply updates for you, you’ll need to manually click the update button to get your site running with WordPress 4.9.4.

We also have some beginner tutorials for both WooCommerce and the WordPress Customizer, as well as a more advanced tutorial for creating a Gutenberg block.

Let’s get to all of this week’s news…

WORDPRESS NEWS AND ARTICLES

• WordPress 4.9.3 Maintenance Release – released on February 5th, WordPress 4.9.3 fixes 34 different bugs.
• WordPress 4.9.4 Fixes Critical Auto Update Bug in 4.9.3 – an explanation of why WordPress 4.9.4 was released so quickly.
• The WordPress Philosophy: What Is It and Why Should You Care? – Matt Cromwell’s post on the “WordPress Philosophy”
• New Policy Changes in WordPress Plugin Directory – a visual explanation of some of the policy changes at the WordPress.org plugin directory.
• 2017 Year In Review: Hiring, Firing And Revenue Details – Delicious Brains is breaking the trend with a 2017-in-review post in Feburary!
• WooCommerce 3.3.1 fix release notes – WooCommerce 3.3.1 was just released to fix the issues with the 3.3 release that got pulled from the plugin directory.

TUTORIALS AND HOW-TOS

• WooCommerce Tutorial: How To Start An eCommerce Store On WordPress – a detailed look at how to get up and running with WooCommerce.
• Beginner’s Guide: How To Use The WordPress Customizer – a beginner-friendly look at how to use the WordPress Customizer.
• Create a WordPress Job Board with the Posts Table Pro Plugin – how to use the Posts Table Pro plugin to create a job board.
• How to create a Gutenberg Block for Displaying a Post – a developer tutorial from Igor Benic.
• Make an Easy Membership Site with WordPress and Patreon – a video tutorial from Joe Casabona.

RESOURCES & DEALS

• Modula Gallery Review: An Easy-To-Use WordPress Gallery Plugin – check out this review if you’re looking for a quality gallery plugin.
• The Best WordPress Plugins to Add & Manage Ads on Your Blog – some helpful plugins to manage ads.
• Peter Hollens and Creating Online – episode 65 of How I Built It.
• Niching down your web design business – a new episode of Matt Report.