WP Weekly 234 - 500K Infected - Custom Meta Tags, WP Delay, Care Plan Items

500,000+ websites were infected in 2024, reveals the report on State of WordPress Security in 2025. WooCommerce 9.8 RC1 is delayed, and is WordPress going to have one release per year? New updates for Elementor, Meta Box, & WS Form.

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• New Meta Box Dashboard… Anh Tran shared about the all new dashboard for Meta Box promising better UI/UX experience including live search for documentation, quick actions for creating data, and fast access to helpful video tutorials.
  
  
• Baseline Status in WordPress… Chrome team made a web component for Baseline. Geoff Graham shared the baseline status web component formatted as a WordPress block. Here is the free Baseline Status plugin to get started.
  
  
• Elementor Cache… Elementor 3.28v Developers Update focus on making it easier to clear cached data from both the WordPress dashboard and from the front-end. This update also improved the Form Fields API by adding new methods for declaring script and style dependencies.
  
  
• Upcoming Online Events… the DE{CODE} Event is coming back this year on April 15, 2025. Also, the Web Agency Summit by Atarim for 2025 has been announced. And, in just around 24 hours, catch the YouTube Live for ‘Name That Page Builder’!
  
  

New Plugins: WS Form, Meta Tags, Elementor Translate

Option Management… Mark Westguard has released Option Management addon for WS Form users. This developer friendly feature allows you to set WordPress options and populate form fields with option values.

Meta Tags for WordPress… Jeff Starr has released a new Head Meta Pro plugin that allows you complete control of meta tags on your WordPress website with conditional options per post, page, archives, and more.

Elementor Translation… Leonardo Losoviz will be adding Elementor content translation to Gato AI Translations for Polylang, allowing you to translate your Elementor pages and templates automatically.

1. One WordPress Release per Year… Matt Mullenweg shared in the core committers channel of WordPress Slack regarding WP release in light of the legal case and scale back of official contributions. “One approach would be delaying 6.8 and making it the only release this year, 6.9 in 2026, and then aim for a 7.0 in late 2027”.
   
   
2. WooCommerce 9.8 RC1 Delayed… Brian Coords shared about the delay in the first WooCommerce 9.8 Release Candidate due to an issue with WordPress 6.8 Beta 2 – “the Site Editor fails to load when WooCommerce is active”.
   
   
3. Design Tools per Block… check the updated table indicating available design features for various default blocks of the block editor, all updated for the WordPress 6.8 version.
   
   
4. WordCamp Europe… the official Wapuu mascot has been announced for the event, wearing the costume of a Waggis – one of the most iconic figures of the Basel Carnival. Also note, the call for volunteers closes soon on March 31, 2025.
   
   
5. WP Milestones… going massive, Kadence Blocks has officially surpassed the 500,000 active installs milestone. Booking for Appointments and Events Calendar, the Amelia plugin has crossed the 80,000 active installs milestone. POSIMYTH Innovations YouTube channel has crossed the 10,000 subscribers milestone.
   
   

Updates: WP Simple Pay & Zolo Blocks

Stripe Account Notifications… WP Simple Pay 4.13.0v has introduced Stripe Account Notifications feature that displays instant notifications right in your WordPress dashboard if there is an issue with your Stripe account.

Zolo Blocks… 2.2.4v allows you to swap container styles with the Container Variation Replace option. This Zolo Blocks update has also added slider content alignment control and skip button for container variation picker.

Quick Bits

• What should be included in your ‘Website Care Plan’ offering?
• Anne Katzeff on adding Categories to a Block Theme Menu.
• Core: WordPress 6.8 Beta 2 is now available for your testing.
• Check the photo library (Flickr) of WordCamp Asia 2025 event.
• More photos (Google) in community captures album of WC Asia.
• Pocket Casts Web Player for podcasts is now free for everyone.
• Watch: Replay of all sessions of the WP:25 virtual conference.
  
  
• Learn on YouTube
• David McCan explains pros & cons of SCF plugin (ACF Pro fork).
• Paul compared 3 toolkit plugins: WP Extended, ASE, WP Master.
• Gen Herres shares 6 quick tests to score web accessibility risk.
  
  
• Career Moves
• Jeff Mankini is joining the Code Snippets team as chief content.
• Mike Demo in World Host Group as Technical Account Manager.
  
  

Report: State of WordPress Security in 2025

Patchstack has published the State of WordPress Security report, in collaboration with Sucuri. Report reveals 7966 vulnerabilities were uncovered in 2024. 99.9% of vulnerabilities came from plugins/themes, 33% of vulnerabilities disclosed without a patch, and 500,000+ WordPress websites were infected.

A few predictions for 2025 include: AI will both create and find more vulnerabilities, WordPress Plugin developers need to step up their security (CRA), and the fear over the WordPress supply chain and governance.

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Upcoming Events

Flagship WordCamps
June 05, 2025: WordCamp Europe 2025, Basel, Switzerland.
August 26, 2025: WordCamp US 2025, Oregon, USA.

Online Events for WordPress
March 17, 2025: Name That Page Builder, LIVE from The Admin Bar.
April 07, 2025: Web Agency Summit 2025 by Atarim, online event.
April 15, 2025: DE{CODE} 2025, for WP Builders & Innovators.

Offline Events for WordPress
March 17, 2025: CloudFest 2025, Europa-Park, Germany.
April 23, 2025: PressConf 2025, Tempe, Arizona, USA.
September 25, 2025: LoopConf 2025, London, UK.

More WordCamps
March 21, 2025: WordCamp Nepal 2025, Kathmandu, Nepal.
April 26, 2025: WordCamp Málaga 2025, Torremolinos (Málaga).
May 17, 2025: WordCamp Johor Bahru 2025, Johor, Malaysia.
May 17, 2025: WordCamp Leipzig 2025, Leipzig, Germany.
May 23, 2025: WordCamp Logroño 2025, La Rioja, España.
June 27, 2025: WordCamp Kraków 2025, Kraków, Poland.
June 28, 2025: WordCamp Montclair 2025, Montclair, NJ, USA.

Business of WordPress database updated: 5 acquisitions in Jan 2025.

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By
Davinder Singh Kainth
A creative who Loves to Create Online Spaces powered by WordPress.

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