In this issue of Delicious Brain Bytes, we dive into the first beta release for WordPress 6.7, WordPress Accessibility Day, and much more!
WordPress 6.7 Beta 1 Now Available for Testing
The first beta release for WordPress 6.7 is now available for testing. This beta is intended for testing purposes only and should not be installed on production or mission-critical websites.
The new release includes several key features and improvements, including the Zoom Out view which allows you to create and edit at the pattern level, support for HEIC image uploads, expanded support options for blocks, and the new Preview Options API, which enables plugins and themes to customize content previews.
HEIC images are automatically converted to JPEG when uploaded to the WordPress 6.7 Media Library. Additionally, WordPress 6.7 includes improvements in auto-sizing for lazy-loaded images and expanded background image options.
Other significant updates include refinements to Data Views, a simplified Query Loop Block, and enhancements to the Styles interface.
You can test WordPress 6.7 Beta 1 using the WordPress Beta Tester plugin, direct download, through WordPress Playground, or via WP-CLI with the command wp core update --version=6.7-beta1.
Testing is crucial for identifying issues and ensuring the final release is stable. Report any issues in the Alpha/Beta support forum or via WordPress Trac.
For more information, please see the release post.
New Method to Install and Update ACF
Due to recent events in the WordPress ecosystem, WP Engine employees have been blocked from accessing WordPress.org. This means the ACF team is unable to deploy updates to the free version of ACF hosted on WordPress.org, and users running this plugin lost the ability to automatically update to newer versions.
To resolve this, the engineering team at WP Engine has worked hard on an alternative update mechanism for the free version of ACF. While there are no pending security updates for ACF, this alternative update mechanism ensures your sites are ready to receive new features, bug fixes, and security updates going forward.
Please note that this does not impact customers of ACF PRO. All updates of ACF PRO will continue to be served from advancedcustomfields.com and no action is required. In addition, users of the free version hosting sites on WP Engine or Flywheel do not need to take action and will continue to receive updates to ACF as usual through the WordPress admin.
The block of WordPress.org access has affected all of WP Engine’s free plugins. Iff you have sites that run multiple WP Engine plugins, future updates have been made easier with the introduction of the new “WP Engine Secure Updater” plugin.
For more information, including the new update ACF process and a link to the WP Engine Secure Update plugin, please see here.
The Origins of “Sharding”
You may have run across the term “sharding” in regards to databases. As Raph Koster writes, sharding “…basically means running a bunch of parallel databases and looking into the right one, rather than trying to cram everything into one.”
Koster was curious about why the term “sharding” was being used to describe databases. After a bit of digging, he realized the most likely origin of the term was…himself.
As one of the designers of Ultima Online, Koster needed to create a fictional reason why there were multiple whole copies of Ultima Online running simultaneously, each on its own partition, and evolving in different ways. Terms like “multiverse” didn’t really suit the Ultima aesthetic, so he went with “shards.”
Check out his blog entry for the whole story.
Celebrating WordPress Accessibility Day: A Global Event for Inclusive Web Design
On October 9th, the WordPress community will come together for WordPress Accessibility Day, a 24-hour global event dedicated to promoting and learning about website accessibility best practices. This event is a crucial step towards making the web more inclusive and accessible for everyone.
The primary goal of this event is to educate developers, designers, and content creators on how to build and maintain accessible WordPress websites. With a diverse range of presentations and discussions, attendees will gain valuable insights into the latest accessibility standards, legal requirements, and practical tips for ensuring their websites are inclusive.
Some of the topics under discussion include “How to Remediate Accessibility Issues in WordPress,” “Practical Text Accessibility Tips for Content Creators,” and “Captchas and Other Gotchas: Make Sure Your Secure Website is Accessible.”
Please see the agenda for a complete list of presentations.
Throwing a Cursor Party
Ever wondered how many other people are on the same page as you at the same time? Visitors to Matt Webb’s site, interconnected.org, don’t have to wonder. They can see your cursor, and you can see theirs.
You can even engage in “cursor chat” and talk to other users. A “Quiet Mode” toggle in the upper right of the page allows you to turn off the other cursors so you can read the post in peace.
As Webb writes, “…it started with people saying the cursors were distracting them from reading the post. And then next, check this out, people figured out the cursor chat, and decided that the post was distracting them from chatting to each other. So they started swapping tips: ‘just use inspector 2 delete article.’”
You can dig into the code for cursor party here.
Decoupled WordPress Report
WP Engine has published “The State of Headless 2024”, a research report highlighting the widespread adoption of headless web architecture among industry leaders. The international survey found that 73% of respondents are now using headless, and nearly 98% of those not currently using this web architecture plan to evaluate headless solutions over the next 12 months.
The research was conducted by Censuswide in July 2024, and surveyed 1,015 chief technology officers, chief marketing officers and IT decision makers from organizations achieving an average of approximately USD $800 million in annual revenue.
For more, please see the full report.
Minimizing DNS Propagation Issues With a Reverse Proxy
Migrating servers is a complex process that involves many moving parts. One of the most challenging aspects of server migration is dealing with DNS propagation. When you update your DNS records to point to a new server, it can take several hours for the changes to propagate globally. During this time, some users may still be directed to the old server, which can lead to issues with data consistency, ordering, and revenue loss.
A reverse proxy can help mitigate these issues by allowing you to control the exact moment when the new server starts serving all requests to your domain. In this article, we explore how to set up a reverse proxy using Nginx or Apache, and discuss some additional considerations and alternatives.
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