Tag Archives: updates

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 11:34 pm on January 26, 2021
Tags: , updates   

Reminder: Plugins Must Not Interfere with Updates

While we do look for plugins that touch the update services on submission, we do not monitor existing plugins, which is where this reminder stems from.

Unless your pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party has the purpose of managing updates, you must not change the defaults of WordPress’ update settings.

You may offer a feature to auto-update, but it has to honor the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. settings. This means if someone has set their site to “Never update any of my plugins or themes” you are not to change those for them unless they opt-in and request it.

The reason for this is that plugins should not over-reach their authority. When a plugin is made, it is self-defined by the developers as what it will do and why. There are some logical reasons to expand that of course (an anti-spam comment plugin may grow to also handle feedback forms), but for most plugins, the arbitrary management of plugin updates is outside their stated goals.

Plugins crossing over purposes, overriding settings that are unrelated to the function of their specific goal, can and will cause unexpected outcomes. It also destroys the faith users have in you to not break their sites. Sadly, this happened recently to a well used plugin, and the fallout has been pretty bad.

We do understand that many plugins want to take advantage of the new features within WordPress. But if your plugin is a custom blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience., you really don’t have a need to be changing how the uploader works, or even setting your plugin to default-auto-update.

At this time, we have no plans to spell this out in a guideline. We do currently, regularly flag plugins that go outside their dictated (self defined) boundaries, and this is not a change. Please, respect your users.

#reminder, #updates

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 9:47 pm on May 1, 2020
Tags: simplepie, updates   

SimplePie Updated for WordPress 5.5

An early commit for WordPress 5.5 (which isn’t even in betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process., don’t get scared) is a long awaited update to SimplePie! That’s right #36669 has finally gone through.

The library has been updated in WordPress trunk from version 1.3.1 to version 1.5.5. Trunk always contains the bleeding edge, unreleased WordPress code that is being worked on for the next release. When you have a chance, please take the time to test your pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party on trunk to ensure you do not experience any issues or unintended behavior after this update.

Here are some resources that may help you:

  • A full list of changes in the library: https://github.com/simplepie/simplepie/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md
  • The changeset updating SimplePie in WordPress: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/47733

Later, we will be emailing people whom we feel would be directly impacted by this change, but for now if your plugin uses RSS feeds in any way, or directly integrates with SimplePie, we ask you take the time to check if everything is still working.

#updates #simplepie

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 6:02 pm on July 28, 2016
Tags: , , updates   

Reminder: WordPress 4.6 is imminent. Are your plugins ready? (also make sure your email is valid)

The email went out last night to everyone with commit access to a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party.

After testing your plugins and ensuring compatibility, it only takes a few moments to change the readme “Tested up to:” value to 4.6. This information provides peace of mind to users and helps encourage them to update to the latest version.

For each plugin that is compatible, you don’t need to release a new version — just change the stable version’s readme value.

Looking to get more familiar with 4.6? Read this roundup post on the core development blog to check out the changes made to register_meta(), native fonts, persistent comment cache, Customizer APIs, WP_HTTP API, and much, much more: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/07/26/wordpress-4-6-field-guide/

Thank you for all you do for the WordPress community, and we hope you enjoy 4.6 as much as we do.

Also, as we’ve been warning for the last two cycles, some plugins have been closed. It’s a requirement that we be able to contact you. We’ve also been pushing back on auto-replies, since they make it impossible for us to tell if there’s a human reading. Frankly, based on the content of the auto-replies, this is the cycle we see:

We email you and receive an auto reply of “A support ticket has been created…” We email a warning “Hey, please remove us from this auto reply…” and we get another auto reply. We don’t reply to that one, but 3 months later when we send another email, the cycle starts anew. This tells us that you are not actually reading your support emails. Which means we have no way to contact you (and your users probably hate you, just FYI). So this time, plugins have been closed.

Your plugin has been closed (or you were removed from a plugin) based on the following criteria:

  • If you have auto-replied to our ‘Are your plugin ready?’ email 4+ times, and your plugin has not been updated in 2+ years
  • If your email bounced
  • If your auto-reply says “I’m on vacation until…” and it’s a invalid future date (example: someone’s out of office said they’d be back August 2014…)
  • If your auto-reply said you no longer work at a company
  • If your auto-reply says the company no longer exists

If the only valid emails for the plugin meet those criteria, the plugin was closed. If it was only one committer, they were removed and everyone else was emailed and notified.

In all cases we absolutely emailed each and every one of you. I did it myself. I directly contacted over 80 plugins about this situation and expressly told them if their plugins were closed or if people were removed, and why.

If you find your plugin was closed and you didn’t get an email, check spam, because they were all sent. Even to people who auto-replied. Which was really annoying.

#notice, #reminder, #updates