WordPress News Roundup August 2017: WordPress 4.8.1 Release, Gutenberg 1.0 Arrives and Mullenweg Confirms It for WordPress 5.0

August 2017 had no big launch events, but it set the course for WordPress for the next year and a half. Gutenberg reached version 1.0, a revised roadmap proposed merging it into core in early 2018, and Matt Mullenweg answered growing concerns with a post titled “We Called It Gutenberg for a Reason”, confirming the new editor would ship in WordPress 5.0.

The month also brought WordPress 4.8.1, goals for WordPress 4.9, and a quiet but important change at WordPress.com, where Business plan customers could now install plugins and themes from the wider ecosystem.

Mergers, Acquisitions, and Investments

• maekit acquires WP Remote (August 10): Human Made announced the sale of its WP Remote management service, with 20,000 users, to maekit, a web design business platform, which said it planned to add cloud-based backups.

No other notable deals were announced in August.

WordPress Core Updates

• WordPress 4.8.1: Released August 2, it included 29 maintenance fixes and enhancements, mostly for the rich Text widget, and introduced a dedicated Custom HTML widget. WordPress 4.8 had passed 13 million downloads.
• WordPress 4.9 goals: On August 11, the core team published goals for 4.9, focused on code editing and Customizer improvements, with release targeted for November 14.
• Gutenberg roadmap: A revised roadmap proposed merging Gutenberg into core in early 2018, and on August 28 Matt Mullenweg confirmed in “We Called It Gutenberg for a Reason” that the editor would ship with WordPress 5.0. As it turned out, the merge slipped to December 2018.
• Gutenberg releases: Version 0.7.0 added opt-in usage tracking, which was removed again in 0.8.0 after feedback. Version 0.8.0 added Categories, Text Columns, Shortcode, Audio and Video blocks, and Gutenberg 1.0.0 arrived at the end of the month with drag and drop for image blocks. The team also confirmed the meta box API would not be formally deprecated.
• PHP requirements: WordPress.org began letting plugin authors declare a minimum PHP version, shown on directory pages though not yet enforced, and work started on a page explaining the benefits of upgrading PHP.
• REST API roadmap: Ryan McCue published an ambitious REST API roadmap that would need many community contributions.
• Old sites: Core contributors explored automatically upgrading sites still on WordPress 3.7 to 3.8 so they could keep receiving security updates.

Other WordPress News

• WordPress.com opens up: WordPress.com’s Business plan gave subscribers access to third-party plugins and themes, turning a closed platform into a gateway to the WordPress.org ecosystem.
• Pearson dispute dismissed: The US Trademark Trial and Appeal Board dismissed Automattic’s trademark dispute with Thesis creator Chris Pearson.
• WordCamp for Publishers: The first WordCamp for journalists and publishers took place in Denver, August 17–19.
• WordPress Foundation: The Foundation announced it would sponsor local open source training events and called for organizers.
• WordCamp US experiments: WordCamp US planned a community bazaar for its December event in Nashville.
• Onboarding tools: Rich Tabor released Merlin WP, an onboarding wizard to help theme developers walk users through setup.
• Publishers and Medium: Several publishers that had moved to Medium began returning to WordPress after short experiments with the platform.
• WP-CLI 1.3.0: The command-line tool shipped a major release with many new features.

Security Alerts and Plugin Vulnerabilities

August was a quiet month for headline WordPress security news, with no core vulnerabilities disclosed. The most security-relevant core discussion was about very old sites: the idea of auto-upgrading WordPress 3.7 sites was meant to keep abandoned installs on a branch that still got fixes. Privacy also edged onto the agenda as plugins such as a Gravity Forms add-on for stopping entry storage appeared, aimed at the EU’s coming GDPR.

Industry Trends and Insights

• Facebook holds firm: In mid-August, Facebook said it would not change React’s BSD-plus-patents license, leaving WordPress with a hard decision about Gutenberg’s foundations.
• Chrome HTTP warnings: Google announced that Chrome 62 would show “Not secure” warnings on HTTP pages with forms starting in October, adding urgency to HTTPS adoption.
• Usability findings: Early user tests of Gutenberg showed its interface elements could appear and disappear at better moments, and Morten Rand-Hendriksen shared his view of what the editor would mean for the future of WordPress.
• A unified India community: The JaiWP movement emerged as an alternative project uniting Indian WordPress communities.

Theme of the Month: Astra

Astra, a lightweight multipurpose theme from Brainstorm Force, was one of 2017’s fastest-rising newcomers. Built for speed and for page builders, it offered a sensible bridge for site builders while the block editor was still a plugin and the classic editor remained the default.

Plugin of the Month: Merlin WP

Merlin WP gave theme developers a polished setup wizard for installing recommended plugins, importing demo content and configuring a theme. It tackled one of the worst parts of the WordPress first-run experience, and it was free and open source.

Host of the Month: WordPress.com

WordPress.com’s decision to let Business plan customers install third-party plugins and themes was August’s most significant hosting change. It made WordPress.com a real option for site owners who wanted managed hosting without giving up the plugin ecosystem.

Founder of the Month: Rich Tabor

Rich Tabor, founder of ThemeBeans, released Merlin WP in August and shared it freely with other theme developers. His focus on the user experience of setting up themes would carry into his later work on blocks.

Looking Ahead to September 2017

September would bring continued work on WordPress 4.9 ahead of its November 14 target, and more Gutenberg releases as the team worked toward compatibility with themes and meta boxes. The React licensing question was still unresolved.

The third Global WordPress Translation Day was scheduled for September 30, and Camp Press was set for September 23–24 in Oklahoma.