Hello, WordPress 4.7.3

Today WordPress released an update which patched 6 major vulnerabilities in its code as well as 39 other maintenance fixes.

https://wordpress.org/news/2017/03/wordpress-4-7-3-security-and-maintenance-release/

Because of the serious nature of the update, I have updated all sites immediately. In addition to the WordPress update, the following upgrades were made:

• WP Smush Pro ~ shrinks image file sizes on upload in order to help keep your website snappy and loading as quickly as possible
• Ninja Forms ~ updated to 3.0.3
• Justified Image Grid ~ updated to 3.5

It is VERY likely that this update to WordPress will spawn a handful of other updates over the upcoming week. I’ll likely update any stragglers by this weekend.

Please let me know immediately if anything on your website seems to have stopped working for you.

Goodbye, CLEF

In addition to the updates, there’s some bad news. If your site has been using the CLEF two-factor authentication, soon you will have to do without it. CLEF is closing up shop. While it was great using your thumbprint to phone to log in with no passwords to remember, the CLEF team was apparently scooped up by another company (no details as of yet). It doesn’t look like the company is interested in keeping CLEF, however, as CLEF’s transition guide gives several other two factor authentication options. I’ll check them out, but I can tell you right now, that I’ll be missing CLEF. We have three months to move away from it, so I’ll keep it up for a couple more months while I check out the other options.

https://blog.getclef.com/discontinuing-support-for-clef-6c89febef5f3#.840efe304

That’s all for now. Have a great night!

WordPress 4.7, Codenamed “Vaughan” was released on December 6, 2016.

Vaughan, named after jazz vocalist Sarah “Sassy” Vaughan, is a planned features update. For information on what new features will await you in this new release, visit:
https://wordpress.org/news/2016/12/vaughan/

There’s a nifty video showcasing the highlights and you can read more about them on the page.

IF YOU NEVER LOOK AT THESE LINKS, I highly encourage you to do so. The videos are short and, especially this time, there have been some changes made to the text editor, menus and the site customizer. All items are heavily used in the normal day to day running of WordPress.

UPDATES

As is normal, plugin updates are rolling in, and updates will be forthcoming shortly.

WordPress 4.5, Codenamed “Coleman” was released on April 12, 2016.

Coleman, named after jazz saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, is a planned features update. For information on what new features will await you in this new release, visit:
https://wordpress.org/news/2016/04/coleman/

There’s a nifty video showcasing the highlights and you can read more about them on the page.

So far, a large number of plugins have has updates in anticipation of this release, and more will be coming. In addition, some themes have also been updated to accommodate some of the new visual features, which is somewhat unusual. We’ll be waiting a few days for things to settle in before updating WordPress to ensure that the update doesn’t break critical plugins. I’ll reach out directly when it is time to update.

WordPress 4.4.1 was released on Jan. 6, 2016.

This is a Security and Maintenance release. For information on what new features will await you in this new release, visit:
https://wordpress.org/news/2016/01/wordpress-4-4-1-security-and-maintenance-release/

Since this is a security update, plugins should update rather quickly. Once all of your website’s plugins are updated or confirmed compatible with the new software, I will contact you personally if we need to coordinate an upgrade date.

WordPress 4.3.1 was released on Sept. 15, 2015.

This is a Security and Maintenance release. For information on what new features will await you in this new release, visit:
https://wordpress.org/news/2015/09/wordpress-4-3-1/

Since this is a security update, plugins should update rather quickly. Once all of your website’s plugins are updated or confirmed compatible with the new software, I will contact you personally to set up an upgrade date.