In this week’s WordPress weekly news, we will talk about WordPress editor for mobile apps, SiteLock’s recent acquisition, WordPress 4.8.1 and much more.

WordPress 4.8.1

WordPress 4.8.1 has introduced a dedicated customer HTML widget. Custom HTML users can now copy and paste HTML snippets with this update. With WordPress 4.8 came the TinyMCE functionality which made some custom HTML users unhappy as the visual editor often leaves out some portions of the code.

“For advanced users or any user who needs to paste in HTML snippets, there is now a dedicated ‘Custom HTML’ widget that is made specifically for adding arbitrary HTML to your sidebar,” Weston Ruter, WordPress core committer and contributor, said. “This widget will retain the application of the widget_text filters, in addition to having a new dedicated widget_custom_html_content filter. For use cases that involve adding content to your sidebar, the Text widget will continue to feature the same Visual editing interface that the post editor has (TinyMCE).”

Introducing Hamilton: A Free WordPress Portfolio Theme

Andres Noren, a Swedish designer and developer, was on his vacation when he decided to launch his new WordPress portfolio theme, Hamilton. The theme is absolutely free and made for photographers, illustrators and designers.

The theme allows you to opt for a tag line on the front page while displaying picture in masonry – style grid in a clean interface. The theme is also responsive to various screen sizes and devices. “Hamilton has a pretty simple design at its core, so when it was more or less finished, I decided to add a couple of fun theme options to make it more customizable,” Norén said. “The main one is the Dark Mode. With a click of the mouse in the WordPress Customizer, you can change Hamilton from dark text on a white background to white text on a dark background.”

SiteLock Acquires Patchman

Patchman is a Dutch company that provides malware removal and vulnerability patching for hosting providers. It has been acquired by SiteLock, a website security company, increasing its customer base to 12 million sites, previously 6 million sites, with more than 4 million websites powered by WordPress.

Since Patchman only focuses on hosting providers, it has given SiteLock the opportunity to cater more to its hosting partners. SiteLock is now looking to partner up with more than 500 hosting providers including Bluehost and InMotion hosting.

SiteLock president Neill Feather believes neither of the two parties were looking to do business together when they met at the WorldHostingDay show in Rust, Germany.

“It truly was a matter of 1+1=3,” Feather said. “Traditionally, SiteLock is very strong in detecting and removing malware for end users. Patchman offers a service tailored specifically to hosting providers and aimed at fixing the security vulnerabilities that hackers exploit to infect websites with malware. By working together we are able to address a wider market and offer a broader solution to the problems that we solve for our customers. We can now attack the problem from multiple angles.”

Aztec – The Latest Editor For Android and iOS WordPress Users

The new editor, Aztec, will soon be released for Android and iOS WordPress users. It might look similar to the old one at first but it’s much more advance in terms of speed and reliability. Aaron Douglas, iOS engineer at Automattic, announced the beta testing for Aztec with a video illustrating the difference between Aztec and the previous editor.

Mobile users will now have full support for their accessibility technologies with Aztec’s use of OS provided text controls. It also includes the option to draft using dictation. Quick corrections can also be made with the help of undo/redo buttons. Spell check will also provides a simpler and more reliable user experience.

The Week’s Best Tutorials & Tips

That’s all from this week’s WordPress Weekly News. If you have some exciting WordPress news, do share it in the comments below.