If you’ve been ready for us to spill the beans… your persistence is about to repay! We’re coming in scorching with the newest, biggest, and greatest that’s but to return from WPMU DEV’s world.
It’s loopy that we’re simply across the nook from 2022. Where did this yr go? With the vacation season upon us, and the final web page of the calendar exhibiting, we knew we had been due for a roundup.
Lots has occurred within the again half of this yr. Quite a couple of huge and thrilling options in our household of plugins and companies had been launched, and we now have much more within the pipeline being polished for the close to future.
When all is quiet on the discharge entrance (as a result of we’re hunkering down within the code lab), you’ll be able to at all times try our commonly up to date product roadmap, to see what’s at present within the works.
Today, nonetheless, we’re bringing that data on to you in a single fell swoop―a compilation of all of the plugin updates & service boosts we’ve had since this previous March, in addition to a sneak peak at what’s simply across the nook.
It wouldn’t be a correct roundup if we didn’t get a lead-in from the person behind the scenes in Oz, our Farmer in armor―WPMU DEV’s CEO, James.
Busy Busy Busy
“What a yr! Courtesy of The World’s Longest Lockdown™ (thanks Melbourne!) I don’t suppose I’ve ever finished a lot work, and it felt like everyone at WPMU DEV was just about doing the identical, hitting product purpose after product purpose.
From a raft of timesaving new website administration instruments in The Hub, to a completely featured shopper billing system, to our managed internet hosting topping the TrustPilot opinions chart and – of course – some completely epic plugin growth… it’s been a hoot.
But as my job is principally studying, e mail, and Slack… you’re a lot better off listening to from the individuals really making this good things occur, so learn on…”
Huzzah, James! If you’d like to listen to James communicate on the panorama of internet hosting and sustaining WordPress web sites, try his visitor spot on Josh Hall’s podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more.
Here are the bounce hyperlinks for this Roundup:
Now let’s get this juicy cocktail blended and poured.
Hosting
It appears befitting to kick issues off with Hosting, because it’s had a banner sophomore yr.
Recent Releases
Product Manager Neel got here prepped and able to dish the grime on internet hosting.
“It’s been two years since we launched hosting, and I’m pleased to say that ours is one of the fastest-growing, managed WordPress hosting services out there.”
“We have added a few significant tools in the past few months, like the Reset WP, Blackfire profiling, and NewRelic monitoring. We also added advanced options in our Static Site Cache feature, which strives to improve site speed & performance.”
“Another big change is the addition of Pro Plugins, now automatically included in our Hosting packages. That’s over $500 worth of premium WP plugin value yearly―free with every hosting account! And they come pre-installed, accessible via the WPMU DEV dashboard plugin.”
“Site Templates (my favorite feature), along with fresh WPMU DEV Templates, were also released. This feature will speed up the design and site development processes for our members.”
“Last but not least… New, Bigger Hosting plans! Five more have been added, providing multiple options to members who need more powerful droplets than Platinum.”
Here’s a more in-depth take a look at the hearty checklist of options Hosting rolled out this yr:
- White Label Temporary Hosting Domains – Now as an alternative of an mechanically given non permanent area identify of insertnamehere.wpmudev.host, new websites you arrange can be named insertnamehere.tempurl.host, which aligns a lot better to a full white label expertise.
- Bruteforce Protection – All WPMU DEV hosted websites have measures enabled on the server degree to assist stop your website ever taking place on account of a bot assault. Enabled by default, you’ll be able to add particular IP addresses or ranges for exemption, or disable it fully.
- Semi-automated including of DNS data & some primary textual content enhancements in DNS/Domains tab with “How to Go Live” documentation
- Reset WordPress Feature – Allows members to reset their website again to the default / new WP set up. It works for Production or Staging websites.
- NewRelic and Blackfire instruments – One-click join NewRelic or Blackfire to debug efficiency points.
- PHP 8 launched – conserving you updated with WP really useful variations.
- Pro Plugins included – 7 of them now come included with our managed WP internet hosting.
- User Templates – Added the flexibility to create and promote your individual website templates (as much as 25) free of charge with our internet hosting.
- HUB Manual migration kind & some minor tweaks within the FTP migration software – A brand new function the place customers can straight submit a ticket for guide migration in The Hub.
- Advanced choices in Static Site Cache function – a number of superior choices for FastCGI added.
- New WPMU DEV Templates – Added 20 new DEV templates, consisting of varied themes or builders, together with a search & filter choice to simplify discovering what you need.
- New Hosting Plans – Five totally different tiers have been added, scaling our world of internet hosting to suit bigger wants.
Coming Soon
Neel had some cool bits to inform us about on this space.
“We’ll be refining some existing features, while adding some new ones. And as always, we’re constantly working to improve our hosting in terms of speed, security, user experience, and all the essential hosting tools that provide faster site creation, to give you the best overall hosting experience.”
Here’s a fast recap of what’s within the pipeline for Hosting:
- PHP 8.1 – preliminary testing started earlier this month.
- Hourly Backups – huge improve from our present day by day backups. This is vital for ecommerce & membership websites.
- UI Options for redirect – easily direct site visitors from one URL to a different; nice for correct web optimization following adjustments, avoiding errors like 404, and common rerouting inside your website.
- Other server efficiency tweaks/optimization and UX/IX enhancements – we frequently work on these, and 2022 can be no totally different.
The Hub
What do you get once you cross The Hub with a recap? A Hubcap!
Oh, what a shiny, purposeful magnificence this one is.
The Hub is our snappy, subtle website supervisor, for all of your hosted websites (ours, or third social gathering) in a single, effectively organized place.
Recent Releases
Product Manager Mukul was pumped about all of the latest and upcoming options for The Hub and The Hub Client.
“Leading with the headline… Client Billing!”, Mukul enthused.
“This was one of our biggest features released in the back half of this year. It’s been high on our most requested list since we launched Hosting, so we’re thrilled to have put it into motion.”
Client Billing is feature packed. Here are only a few topline gadgets:
Q3 & This fall introduced huge updates for Plugins Integration. Mukul continued, “Members can now install WPMU DEV Pro plugins, WP.org plugins, upload plugin ZIP files, or use the URL method to install plugins from publicly accessible repositories (e.g., GDrive, Dropbox, etc.). Additionally, all existing plugins can be managed from The Hub 2.0.”
Moving on, he added, “Since the last roundup in March, we have added configs for other plugins and services as well.”
These New Configs are for the next:
- Uptime
- Hummingbird
- Smush
- Smartcrawl
- Snapshot
The Hub’s strong checklist of releases from earlier this yr comply with:
- Ignore Updates – Plugin and theme updates can now be ignored till members determine to replace them.
- Site Template Manager – After releasing the Hosting Templates, a devoted space underneath Sites > Site Templates was additionally added to view and handle them. Also, a latest Templates Manager replace permits members to add a thumbnail picture to their customized website templates.
- New Hosting Templates – The new default templates library has been rising. There are at present 23 default templates, and we’ll proceed so as to add extra.
- Manual Migration for Hosting – Members can now request a free guide migration to WPMU DEV internet hosting for his or her websites hosted elsewhere.
- Create New Sites On Any Plans – Until lately, all member websites had been first created on the Bronze plan then upgraded to a better plan afterwards. Now creating new internet hosting websites will be finished on any plan.
- SmartCrawl’s Lighthouse Integration – The web optimization service tab on the Hub was adjusted so as to add assist for the SmartCrawl integration with Lighthouse for web optimization scans.
- Support Page Migration – from Hub 1.0 to Hub 2.0. UX was improved as effectively.
- Improved Help Bubble – The UX was up to date, and its styling matched with Hub 2.0.
- UI Preferences – Members now have the flexibility to cover/present sure website companies as most well-liked.
- Multiple UI/UX adjustments had been made throughout totally different components of the Hub, to enhance the UX.
Coming Soon
Mukul additionally shared a handful of goodies which can be at present within the works, probably the most notable being…
“Domain Reselling!! Members and their clients will now be able to search and buy new domains… directly from the Hub!”
Check out the opposite upcoming Hub options beneath:
- Global IP List (Security) – Members will be capable of create a worldwide IP Allow/Block checklist that can be synced to all of their web sites.
- Accounts Page Migration – from Hub 1.0 to Hub 2.0
- DNS Improvements – Specifically, the UX setup can be improved.
The Hub Client
The Hub Client has seen a bit of newness as effectively…
Recent Releases
From Mukul: “Earlier this year, we integrated LiveChat and tawk.to, which members can use to provide real-time chat support to their clients”.
Coming Soon
As for what’s within the pipeline, Mukul shared, “The Hub Client will be tying into the Reseller Platform and Automations. The Hub & Hub Client teams will be working in tandem to ensure a seamless reselling experience for our members and their clients.”
Smush
Time to get mushy over Smush-y. We’re simply so proud of our blazing quick, compression crushing, extremely rated picture optimizer.
Recent Releases
Lead Developer Anton says, “We’ve been hard at work to improve Local WebP Compatibility with as many hosts and servers as we could find!”
“We’ve also added what are probably the two most consistently requested features: Optimizing Uploaded Images (from originals), and the option to Disable Scaled Images.”
Coming Soon
Next up, Anton says, “Making sure CDN continues to provide the best in class performance and stability is the object of our focus right now.”.
No doubt we’ll proceed to see new data Smushed.
Hummingbird
Our quick flying, feat of engineering, full pace optimizer. If these wings may speak, right here’s what they’d say…
Recent Releases
Lead Developer Anton shared, “Hummingbird has had some amazing features added to its arsenal this year.”
Among them: Asynchronous Loading, Preloading & Preconnect for Assets, Cloudflare APO Integration, a Browser Caching Wizard, and Font Optimization.
Anton continued, “We added a new Performance Report for Database Cleanup, so now you can schedule and send reports for regular cleanups of your DB. We also added Performance Reports for Subsites, so they’re now available in every subsite in multisite installs.”
“We also created a brand new, unified section in the dashboard UI for Notifications, eliminating the need to visit each one individually.”
“A Browser Caching wizard was added as well. It automatically configures your settings if you host with WMPU DEV, and offers options and information for setup if you host elsewhere.”
“Page Cache Integration with WP Ultimo is another new automated feature, helpful for those who use this popular tool.”
Rounding out the checklist, Anton indicated upgrades in Asset Optimization. “We now have Asset Optimization in multisite, which allows you to choose where Hummingbird should store your modified assets. And, the Asset Optimization Engine is more robust and error-free.”
Great strides for Hummingbird. What’s on the projected flight plan?
Coming Soon
“Our next big goal is to automate and simplify the Asset Optimization (AO) Engine”, says Anton. “We want every user to be able to set up their sites without the fear of breaking them.”
“We’re testing out a New Safe Mode feature, as well as enhanced automated configurations, and presets, which will include: adding font optimization to automatic mode in AO, an improved UI for manual mode in AO, and a new onboarding wizard.”
If it wasn’t already clear, Anton drove it dwelling with, “2022 is going to be a big one for Hummingbird!”
Defender
Who likes their safety like their espresso? Strong, daring, and units you up for an awesome day. Here’s the tea on our most ready protector, Defender.
Recent Releases
Product Manager Nastia had lots of intel on Defender.
“This was a big year for the Defender plugin team. I’m really proud of everyone for working together and making great steps forward.”
“During the second quarter of 2021, we focused on the user by protecting passwords. Passwords are the weakest link when it comes to security; we’re all guilty of re-using our passwords on multiple sites. Unfortunately, data breaches happen all too often, exposing billions of records. That’s why we’ve added Pwned Password Check, and in the event of a data breach, the option to force all users to reset their passwords.”
“Alongside this, we’ve made improvements to Malware Scanning, and will continue doing so.”
Nastia continued, “Our third quarter was all about providing anti-spam solutions. Here came support for Google reCAPTCHA, a widely known bot mitigation service. We’ve made this flexible enough to work with all default WordPress forms, including logins, registration, and comments, but most importantly, it has been Integrated with the WooCommerce Plugin.”
“For even better protection against malicious bots, we’ve introduced User-Agent Banning, with a list of known bad bots already blocked by the Defender plugin. It protects not only against spambots, but also DDoS, XSS, and SQL injections.”
Coming Soon
Nastia gave us a peek into Defender’s pipeline…
“We’re hardening security against vulnerabilities, implementing New Ux Improvements for Malware Scanning & Scheduling, and integrating with The Hub 2.0’s new Global Ip Allowlist/Blocklist feature.”
Stay tuned!
Forminator
Do you wanna construct a snowman? Take a ballot to seek out out. Or a quiz to see who is aware of the supply of that quote. It’s all attainable with Forminator.
Recent Releases
Product Manager, Mohammad had heaps to share about Forminator.
“In Q3 & Q4, we’ve released a lot of features and improvements. Topping the list is Bulk Import/Edit Options for the Select/Radio/Checkbox fields. In addition, we now have Image Support in Radio and Checkbox fields, as well as Polls.”
“We didn’t forget our quiz lovers out there. In the last quarter, we added Pagination Options, and a Question Description Html Field, which supports any type of media content―even videos!”.
“We’re also excited to mention improvements to Registration Forms. You can now conditionally assign user roles during the registration based on registrar selections. And, we’ve added the option to Bulk Approve Registrars, in addition to other improvements.”
Mohammad closed out this part saying, “Let’s talk about our recent awesome Payment improvements. Forminator Pro now has Stripe Subscriptions for Recurring Payments, and you can create multiple recurring pricing plans (fixed or dynamic). Oh, I almost forgot to mention, you can now conditionally use Stripe or Paypal payments on the same form, so your users can select their preferred payment method.”
If you haven’t tried Forminator but, you’re actually lacking out on an eye catching, multi-functional buyer interactive plugin.
Coming Soon
Mohammad had this to say about what we are able to count on quickly from Forminator…
“We’re pleased to announce that we’ve been hard at work adding two more conditional features. The first one will allow users to Assign Submissions to any Integration conditionally based on the submitter’s selections. The second will allow users to Change After-Submission Behavior, based on the submitter’s selections―which will be very handy for users who want to redirect submitters to different pages (post-submission), based on their selections and other scenarios.”
“We’re also adding a great timesaver, Global Appearance Presets. This will allow users with multiple forms added to their sites to set their appearance settings (once applied) to all their forms, and avoid wasting time styling each one individually.”
“And finally, by the end of this year, we’ll be rolling out TWO of the top requested features: Grouping Fields, and the Repeater option. Grouping fields will allow grouping a number of fields to apply the same rules once, instead of adding to each field individually (such as visibility conditions, required or optional, and custom Appearance settings). Then you can enable the Repeater option on the frontend, so users can repeat a field or group of fields manually or conditionally.”
Sounds superior! Can’t wait to attempt all of these out.
SmartCrawl
The CEO of web optimization, the diva of schemas, taking you on a superb run by Google’s Rich Results Test software… it’s SmartCrawl.
Recent Releases
“We’ve been cranking things out this year!”, mentioned SmartCrawl’s Project Manager, Mohammad.
“Most recently, Schema Builder got a big upgrade. Local Business support has been added, along with the option to add Multiple locations. And SmartCrawl now has 60+ subtypes to cover most types of businesses.”
In addition to native enterprise, the next varieties have been added, as requested from WPMU DEV customers:
- Recipe schema
- Job Posting schema
- Movie schema
- Course schema
- Book schema
- Software Application schema
Mohammad continued, “In addition to the WooCommerce custom schemas presets we added, we’ve improved the default WooCommerce schema, which now supports open graph product tags (price and currency), and added Recommended Rules to Robots.txt and No-index Hidden Products.”
“Another feature we released over the summer, which we’ve gotten great feedback on, is the Lighthouse SEO Scan in SmartCrawl. We added a new and more reliable SEO audit tool, the Lighthouse SEO Checkup. It’s designed to ensure that pages are optimized for search engine results ranking, and is built with contextual help for each audit. Also, we improved our SEO Audits reporting system to support conditional reports.” For instance: If rating is lower than 70%, ship a report.
Rounding out the options launched earlier this yr are:
- SmartCrawl Configs – Configs will be set to use mechanically on newly created websites.
- Multisite Sitewide Permission – with the brand new permission module, Super Admin can determine who has permission to entry SC settings on subsites―Super Admins or Site Admins―and which modules ought to be activated on Subsites.
- Google News Sitemap – has been added, to checklist information articles and posts revealed within the final 48 hours in order that they present up in Google News.
Coming Soon
Mohammad crammed us in relating to what’s on the horizon for SmartCrawl.
“Redirection Module Improvements is coming. This will add bulk import and search functionality to the Redirection module, as well as supporting regex redirections and more.”
Hold tight…
Snapshot
Snapshot’s obtained you in terms of protected and environment friendly WordPress backups. Access, handle, and restore in a snap.
Recent Releases
Product Manager Nastia shared the Snapshot workforce’s accomplishments this yr…
“In the second quarter of 2021, the main issue raised by our members was that they had insufficient WPMU DEV storage. We listened, and doubled the storage space for all new members―at no additional cost. Alongside this, our team worked hard to resolve issues with backups taking too much storage space. We’ve also added an option to limit the number of backups and improve the rotation process.”
“Another member request was the ability to restore a site through the Snapshot UI when the site was inaccessible. As a result, we came up with the FTP Restoration Method, where a site can be restored directly to a server by simply providing FTP credentials.”
“Additionally, in the third quarter, we developed our most requested destination: Dropbox. We also added Configs, and integration with The Hub 2.0.”
“Lastly, you can now upload your backups to an FTP/SFTP destination, and back up password-protected sites.”
Coming Soon
Nastia had this to say about Snapshot’s future…
“Currently in the works are some some big design improvements, and a super secret feature we can’t share yet, but know this―it’s BIG.”
Two snaps up!
Dashboard
It’s your WP Dashboard, however on steroids. Link your websites to our tremendous servers for added options, extra management, and one-click entry to our 24/7 assist, all whereas making your website safer.
Recent Releases
Lead Developer Joel gave us the rundown on Dashboard.
“One-Click Bulk Install & Activate options for Plugins was a big deal this year. Users have long been clamoring for this one, and we’re getting a lot of positive feedback on it.”
“Another major update was upping Support for PHP to 8.0. We also presented a new UI for user permissions management.”
Here’s the total checklist of releases from earlier this yr:
- One-click Bulk Install & Activate
- PHP assist upgraded to eight.0
- Link customized brand utilizing a URL for White label
- Supports premium plugins and themes updates (Hub and Automate)
- White label WPMUDEV plugin menus and icons from Dashboard plugin
- Ability to reset plugin settings to default
- Optional knowledge and settings cleanup on uninstallation
- Force sync from Hub
- Ability to cover assist tickets in Dash plugin from Hub
- Improved Analytics Widget UX
Coming Soon
Joel hints that 2022 is shaping up properly.
“We’re planning improvements in premium plugins and themes updates support, as well as for Analytics. Also coming is the ability to install plugins from the Hub using zip, plus various improvements in white label support.”
Dash-ing by the snow, extra goodies comin’ your method…
Comics
Because smiling is contagious, and laughter is nice for the soul, we added a brand new class to WPMU DEV’s portfolio this yr: the funnies.
Lead comedian artist (and fellow weblog author) Nate was keen to speak about it.
“Back in early September, we launched The DEV’s Pixels. It’s a brand new function that features authentic comics created in-house, then shared on our website and obtainable to obtain.“
“Covering a variety of tech topics, from development, computing, internet, and client relations, to other relatable material for agencies and freelancers, we publish one new comic a week, and add it to our inventory.”
When requested what spawned the concept, Nate replied: “Comics can benefit your agency in many ways. They are great marketing tools for your email, social media, blog, etc., and ours can be used and shared freely.”
Nate didn’t cease there… “In addition to the regular comics, we also launched our own Caption Contest! Anyone can submit an entry (or multiple entries) for a chance to win. It’s already rather popular, with submissions rolling in as soon as we publish. In fact, due to participation growing so rapidly, we just added reaction emojis so everyone can get in on the fun.”
Sign-ups can be found by e mail, if you wish to get notified when a brand new one drops and add your quip to the queue. 😄
Click right here to see what a winning caption seems to be like.
Blog XChange
Another contemporary element we launched this yr was a crossover between our member boards and our firm weblog.
Here to inform us about it’s Lead Editor, Martin.
“Earlier this year we launched The Blog XChange, a collaborative forum where members can post original and useful content ideas for new articles and tutorials from their personal knowledge and experience of WordPress. If selected, WPMU DEV gives the contributor a shoutout, and links promoting their business in the published post, plus generous hero points ―which can be used to earn free hosting credits…or even a lifetime membership!”
Martin continued, “Since launching The Blog XChange, we’ve received 80+ submissions from over 20 members, and published several new articles and tutorials as a result. We’ve also got a number of new post ideas in the pipeline for next year, so we’re pretty excited.”
“The Blog XChange is a win-win initiative for members and WPMU DEV. I encourage all members to read our guidelines for posting, and submit their content ideas.”
If you’re not already a daily reader of our weblog, you’re lacking out on quite a bit of nice content material. We publish new articles a number of occasions every week. Come check it out!
Final Round
Cheers! We hope you loved this literary libation as a lot as we loved serving it to you.
As arduous as we work and as a lot as we accomplish, we additionally know that tech is consistently evolving, which implies our services are by no means finished and dusted. There are at all times new objectives in entrance of us, and we’re ever in movement to clear that subsequent hurdle.
This is what we like to do… however it could imply nothing with out our WPMU DEV-ers.
So a fast notice of appreciation to you, our devoted members, for persevering with to offer invaluable enter and suggestions. We take your feedback and solutions to coronary heart, giving all of them due consideration within the boardroom and builders room.
Keep ’em coming!
