WordPress News Roundup February 2012: WordPress 3.4 Takes Shape Around a Theme Customizer

February 2012 was one of the quietest months of the period on the official WordPress blog, which published nothing at all. Behind the scenes, though, WordPress 3.4 was taking shape. Core developers were building a live theme customizer and a new WP_Theme class to modernise how WordPress handles themes, and early signs pointed to a release focused firmly on design.

Elsewhere, the plugin directory faced questions about licensing, All in One SEO Pack passed 10 million downloads, and LIFE magazine relaunched its website on WordPress.com VIP.

Mergers, Acquisitions, and Investments

No WordPress-related acquisitions or funding rounds were announced in February 2012.

WordPress Core Updates

There was no core release in February. WordPress 3.3.1 remained the current version while WordPress 3.4 development moved forward.

• Theme customizer: At the end of the month, WP Tavern reported on the theme customizer being built for 3.4, which would let users preview and change a theme’s colours, backgrounds and headers before publishing.
• The WP_Theme class: Core developer Andrew Nacin introduced a new WP_Theme class for 3.4, a rewrite of the code WordPress uses to find and load themes.
• Links in captions: Developers also discussed allowing HTML, such as links, in image captions, a change that would make it into 3.4.

Other WordPress News

• LIFE.com on WordPress.com VIP (February 1): Mullenweg announced that LIFE magazine had relaunched its website on WordPress.com VIP, another big media brand on Automattic’s enterprise platform.
• WordPress.com on Windows 8: A WordPress.com app for Windows 8 was shown on stage at Mobile World Congress at the end of the month, as Microsoft previewed its new operating system.
• All in One SEO Pack milestone: WP Tavern reported on February 28 that All in One SEO Pack had passed 10 million downloads, making it one of the most downloaded plugins in the directory.
• A theme review milestone: Volunteer Emil Uzelac was congratulated for reviewing 700 themes for the WordPress.org theme directory.
• Hosting survey: Joost de Valk launched a survey asking WordPress users about their hosting experiences.
• E-commerce updates: Shopp released version 1.2 of its e-commerce plugin, and StudioPress released a free Simple Social Icons plugin.

Security Alerts and Plugin Vulnerabilities

No core security release or major plugin vulnerability was announced in February 2012. Site owners were still applying January’s WordPress 3.3.1 update, and DreamHost customers were checking their sites after that host’s January breach.

Industry Trends and Insights

The main governance story of the month was about plugin licensing. WP Tavern reported that around 500 plugins in the directory listed licences that did not match the directory’s GPLv2 guideline, many of them GPLv3. Andrew Nacin said the core team planned to discuss the directory’s licensing rules, and plugins that were compatible with GPLv3 would not be removed while the guidelines were under review.

• Licensing matters: The debate showed how seriously the project took the GPL, which underpinned the whole commercial ecosystem of themes and plugins.
• Visual bookmarking: Pinterest was growing fast, and WordPress site owners were starting to add “Pin It” buttons alongside Facebook and Twitter sharing tools.
• Theme history: As Twenty Twelve was being prepared, WP Tavern published a look back at the history of WordPress default themes.
• Performance awareness: Tools that measured how much each plugin slowed down a site were gaining attention, reflecting rising concern about page speed.

Theme of the Month: Thesis

Thesis, from Chris Pearson’s DIYthemes, remained one of the best-known premium theme frameworks in early 2012, popular with bloggers and marketers for its SEO options and design controls. Its history, including a public licensing dispute with Mullenweg in 2010, also made it a reminder of why the GPL debate mattered.

Plugin of the Month: P3 Plugin Performance Profiler

P3, the Plugin Performance Profiler built by GoDaddy developer Kurt Payne, scanned a site and showed how much each active plugin added to page generation time. WP Tavern highlighted it in February, and it quickly became a useful first step for anyone trying to work out which plugin was slowing their site down.

Host of the Month: WordPress.com VIP

WordPress.com VIP added LIFE.com to a client list that already included big names in sport and media. Its pitch, fully managed WordPress with Automattic’s own engineers behind it, was proving attractive to publishers that needed scale and reliability.

Founder of the Month: Chris Pearson

Chris Pearson, founder of DIYthemes and creator of Thesis, had built one of the most commercially successful theme frameworks of the late 2000s. His work helped prove there was a large market for premium WordPress design tools, even as his licensing stance put him at odds with the project.

Looking Ahead to March 2012

March would bring South by Southwest in Austin, where WordPress planned a strong presence, and continued work on WordPress 3.4 ahead of its first beta. PHP 5.4 was also close to its final release, bringing new language features for developers.