Can you tell one quick reason behind the never-ending popularity of WordPress? Well, while someone will talk of customization and some will talk of flexibility, in the end, what WordPress users get is the constant care and value additions that are visible with every single update. Yes, WordPress as the leading CMS platform in the world has never really stopped evolving. It remains to be the most versatile and rich content management system with an unlimited scope of customization thanks to its rich and constantly growing repository of plugins and themes. No wonder, WordPress is the CMS system behind at least 15% of the most popular 100 websites in the world.
The care of the core WordPress development team has once again come to the surface with the latest WordPress update or WordPress 5.4.1. Since April this year, WordPress revealed plans to come with a bunch of value additions to boost the functionalities of the platform. The platform as of now incorporated several major changes and came with several key announcements for its user audience. These changes rolled through the WordPress 5.4.1 update transformed the platform as more user-centric and efficient.
The update apart from improving the functionalities of the core WordPress also came with improvements for major WordPress plugins such as Gutenberg and BuddyPress. Here through the length of this post, we are going to explain the key offerings of WordPress 5.4.1, Gutenberg 7.9, and BuddyPress 6.0.0.
WordPress 5.4.1
The latest release of the WordPress 5.4.1 update is a major release from the platform in many regards. Unrolled back in April 2020, the promises made by the update have largely remained unattended by the digital media and press as the world was reeling under the Covid-19 pandemic. This update is one of the most significant ones in recent times as it unveiled as many as 7 security fixes and 11 updates for maintenance.
So, if you are a WordPress user and run a blog or website, just avail the latest update from your WordPress dashboard immediately. You can simply avail the WordPress 5.4.1 release by navigating to the WordPress Dashboard and by tapping on the Updates. Alternatively, to avail the update you can also visit https://wordpress.org/download/releases/ and follow the steps for installing the release and updating your WordPress website.
So many security updates from WordPress obviously means a lot of enhancements on the security front. The 11 maintenance updates clearly refer to the fine-tuning of several key WordPress features and functionalities. As with every subsequent update release WordPress tries to improve the user experience and the ease of the admin, this update will not be any different in that regard.
Gutenberg 7.9 and 8.0
Around the same time as the new WordPress release, the much anticipated Gutenberg 7.9 and 8.0. updates were released for the WordPress users as well. Through these releases, the development team of Gutenberg fixed several issues and shortcomings apart from introducing some new features for the users. Let’s have a quick look at the key-value additions coming with Gutenberg 7.9 and 8.0. releases.
New Block Patterns
With the Gutenberg 7.9 update, the icon for block patterns was hidden behind the menu for editor options. But the release also came with three new block patterns. Obviously these new block patterns for presenting text content will help to improve the usability of the content-rich WordPress websites that use Gutenberg.
The first pattern is for numbered columns to help to show columns with text on the right-hand side and numbers on the left. The second pattern allows using Hero Two columns for italic text paragraphs. It consists of a heading and two side by side columns of text. The third pattern is named as “it’s time” and displays a text paragraph followed by two columns and a bigger paragraph.
Changes In Typefaces
The new change brought in typography will allow users to use the heading level as desired and make use of different font sizes for tweaking the look and feel of the content text. The changes in typography will only add more value to the changes brought through new text block patterns.
Gradient
The new Gutenberg update also made it possible for the users to use gradients in the background for covers and buttons. The use of new gradients will give the actionable buttons on any website a facelift in respect of usability.
BuddyPress 6.0.0 Release
Another significant update release that occurred almost simultaneously with the release of the new WordPress version is BuddyPress 6.0.0 release. The latest version of BuddyPress came with the following value additions.
BuddyPress REST API
The release came with a REST API to integrate various endpoints like cover photos, blogs, avatar, user sign-ups, etc.
Nouveau Template Improvements
The new BuddyPress update also came with a lot of improvements for the Nouveau template and it can now provide support for different types of contents. Apart from this the template also came with some improvements to make the design elements better.
Basic Requirements
As for technical requirements, the BuddyPress 6.0.0 update only needs a very basic set of requirements including PHP 5.6 and WordPress 4.8. The new release can be used by WordPress users running backdated WordPress versions up to 4.8 version.
Conclusion
The committed and ever caring WordPress developer community and the core team never fail to come with the most suitable update releases for improving WordPress user experience. The principal objective of this new WordPress release is to address all the bugs and errors creating security glitches. The release apart from addressing these security issues also came with improvements for better functional output of the platform. The other two releases simultaneously add more value to the end-user experience and WordPress admin panels with specific improvements.