Issue #33 - Test Drive - Material Design, Website Boost, 100th Time

A lot of cool new things to test drive on your development WordPress install, be it Material Design blocks or the Jetpack Boost plugin promising faster websites. Also, new updates for Elementor, Page Builder Framework theme, and the 100th Gutenberg release, all covered in this issue.

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• New for Play… the material design team at Google has released WordPress specific plugin and theme to apply the material design on WordPress websites without code. While, the powerpack plugin team has launched a new SmartDocs plugin for creating knowledge base documentation on a WordPress website.
  
  
• Brand New… if you happen to use Fluent Forms plugin, then this new WP User Role add-on can create a simple 1 level membership website. For image-intensive websites, the new infinite uploads service should be a useful choice as it serves media contents from cloud storage thereby allowing easier overall scaling.
  
  
• Product Updates… adding custom code on Elementor websites now super easy with custom code feature along with other performance improvements in version 3.1 release. Page Builder Framework Theme version 2.6 has added performance features like storing gravatar locally and compile inline CSS setting.

1. Core Updates… the login screen will have a “Save Password” button from WordPress 5.7 release onward. WordPress 5.6.2 release candidate is available with a few block editor fixes. Also, WordPress 5.7 Beta 3 is available for testing with the current target of March 09, 2021 as the final release date.
   
   
2. Blocks Life… Gutenberg 10.0 is the 100th release with a focus on loading time improvement, 7.6s in Gutenberg 10.0 as compared to 8.0s in Gutenberg 9.9 release. This code makes it easier to tell apart Gutenberg blocks on the editor. And, the familiar frustrating process of finding the right block plugins with blocks that you need now!
   
   
3. Got Noticed… create beautiful screenshots of your code with the new Ray.so tool that has a bunch of customization options including the dark mode. Also, check the new Jetpack Boost plugin which actually improves the website speed, as confirmed by Chris Lema (only for dev sites till version 1.0.0 is out).

• Free membership functionality to lock content added to Brizy.
• The 2020 journey of Fluent Forms to 50,000+ active installs.
• GraphQL API curious, here is the demo of the WP plugin.
• Makers of Astra theme, Brainstorm Force has a new look site.
• Apply to be a speaker at Atarim’s Web Agency Summit 2021.
• Nominations are open for Torque Plugin Madness 2021.
• A recap of the WordFest event & when is the next one?

Analyzing search trends of 2020, WooCommerce keywords increased 44.3% and the overall WordPress keywords increased by 14.0%. It was expected considering a lot of offline businesses went online due to pandemic. Within WordPress, plugins had a better run as compared to the themes ecosystem. Further, this infographic provides more WooCommerce insights and trends for the year 2021.

• WPWEEKLY15OFF 15% OFF code on Groundhogg 1yr plans.
• 30% off on Fluent CRM, Forms, Ninja Tables till Valentine's.
• Holiday20 code for 20% off on all WPdeveloper products.
• New Lifetime Deal of BackupGaurd for WordPress backups.
• Typeform like cool forms in WordPress with Tripetto free plan.
• Make Elementor & Beaver client friendly with Wallace Inline.
• Not comfortable with CSS? MicroThemer makes it all easy!
• Popular Gutenberg Blocks plugin Qubely at $49 lifetime deal.

Upcoming Events: Online-only, WordCamp Prague (Czech Republic) on Feb 27, 2021, WordCamp Greece on April 16, 2021.

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

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