WordPress, the go-to 15-year-old content management system (CMS), still grows and experiences significant changes and improvements. During the last 2 years, 5 major versions have been released. Their focus was on editor, customizer, widgets and other minor improvements of UX. I would describe these improvements, released after the REST API in WP 4.4, as well-liked by both ordinary users and developers. However, the release coming very soon is a major fundamental change of the core WP experience, content editing. This change affects every WP user. For years, WP relied on tinyMCE editor, which is a quasi-WYSIWYG editor with an extensible list of buttons to add and edit rich content. Now, the core team behind WP has set a kickoff goal: to create a completely new post and page editing experience. Need to adapt to these changes and stay up-to-date As a plugin or theme developer, you may consider how this…

You may have heard whispers and rumors – who are we kidding, more like gradually intensifying buzz, from WordCamp 2017 to the myriad of articles spawned – around WordPress 5.0 and its main feature, Gutenberg editor. Forewarned, as we know, is forearmed. Let’s discuss what to expect from the update and what steps to undertake to prepare your WordPress site for a smooth transition. Checking plugins’ and themes’ compatibility Since the core update promises to divide the WordPress world into a “before” and “after,” it’s crucial to make sure all of your site’s plugins and themes are compatible with it. Here’s how to go about it. Check the plugins’ “Tested up to” field on wp.org. For plugins, in contrast to themes, there’s a really easy way to check compatibility. Take a look at your plugins’ wp.org page first for an indication of up to which version the plugin has been…