The Weekly WordPress News, Tutorials & Resources Roundup No.78

Yesterday saw the release WordPress 4.0 “Benny” so time to update your sites :) New features include a nice media grid for your uploaded files, better embeds ( paste a Youtube URL in and see it become an embedded video ),  a post editor that expands as you type and a new plugin gallery with visual search. Small touches but I’m liking the refinements. Check out the launch post here.

This week there was a security flaw found in the popular Revolution Slider which allows someone to get access to your wp-config file, A huge problem so make sure you are using the latest version which fixes this. What has made this particular problem worse is the sheer number of themes which bundle this plugin as an extra “feature”, particularly on ThemeForest. I have long thought this is a bad idea and I wouldn’t personally bundle a plugin with a theme – it’s better to just recommend plugins and let the plugin author handle support an updates.

This week I have been working on our next release for ThemeFurnace which will be my first WooCommerce theme – I needed a clean and simple theme for an eCommerce site and there just wasn’t any good options in the WordPress directory and the premium options all seemed preoccupied with huge sliders and fancy CSS3 effects so what we are building will hopefully address that.

Enjoy the news and have a great weekend!

This is our weekly WordPress news roundup post, you can view previous news roundups on this tag. Join our 8000 followers on Twitter for more frequent WordPress news throughout the week, Facebook page or even on Pinterest.

WordPress News and Articles

• WordPress 4.0 “Benny” – Update your WP installs to this latest version with some nice refinements.
• The WordPress Plugin Boilerplate – Tom updated his plugin boilerplate to version 3.0 and launched a dedicated website for it.
• 4 Reasons Why You Should Sell WordPress Plugins Independently – The big question when selling WP plugins, go it alone or use a marketplace?
• 42 Experts Reveal Their Top 10 Must Have WordPress Plugins – An infographic and roundup of recommended plugins from some familiar faces ( me included!)
• Yoast ebook: Optimize your WordPress site – Yoast released an eBook, haven’t checked it out yet but looks good.
• Problems and Challenges of WordPress eCommerce Solutions – Some points to consider when choosing WordPress for your eCommerce site.

Tutorials and How-Tos

• The WPLift Guide to the WordPress Database: Understand, Optimize and Backup – Our guide to the WP Database, understand, optimize and backup.
• The WPLift Complete Guide to WordPress Image Handling – This guide covers how to set image sizes for themes, edit and manage your uploaded images.
• Fixing the WordPress White Screen of Death – I’m sure most people have encountered this at some point, here’s how to fix it.
• How to Create a Quick Style Guide for Client Websites – Sarah at WPTavern covers a plugin called Stylify Me which allows you to create style guides for websites.
• WordPress Plugin Development with Git/GitHub – A good tutorial on how to use Github for plugin development.

Resources & Freebies

• Opus Theme Review: A Multi-Purpose WordPress Business Theme – Our review of a feature-packed multi-purpose theme.
• Increase Sales by Recovering Abandoned Shopping Carts in WooCommerce – A very handy plugin if you run an eCommerce site with WooCommerce.
• Rams: A Free WordPress Blogging Theme With Zero Fluff – WPTavern covers a simple and nice looking theme for blogging.