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<\/p>\nHi there!<\/p>\n
What a week! WordPress 7.1 Beta 1 (and Beta 2) arrived with a huge array of updates. We\u2019ll unpack them together over the next four weeks, right up to the final release on August 19, 2026.<\/p>\n
One thing shouldn\u2019t wait, though: the security release WordPress 7.0.2. Go update your production sites now \u2014 this newsletter will still be here when you\u2019re back. <\/p>\n
In this edition, you\u2019ll also find the first speaker lineup for WordCamp US, a fourth page-builder migration story, WooCommerce 11.0 on the horizon, and plenty of block development goodness: from iframed editors to on-brand maintenance pages.<\/p>\n
Grab your favorite Saturday beverage and dig in.<\/p>\n
Yours, The first wave of WCUS 2026 speakers is live \u2014 and it reads like a who\u2019s-who of WordPress in practice.<\/strong><\/p>\n WordCamp US just published its opening lineup<\/a> for August 16\u201319 in Phoenix: 34 confirmed speakers so far, including K Adam White, Brian Coords, Jamie Marsland, Kathy Zant, Miriam Schwab, and Robert Abela<\/strong>, all experienced developers, educators, security specialists, community builders.<\/p>\n The program runs four tracks. <\/p>\n The full session schedule isn\u2019t out yet, but the speaker list alone is a useful signal. If someone on that page is a voice you follow, a tool you depend on, or a corner of WordPress you\u2019re actively navigating, you now have a specific reason to be in the room.<\/p>\n WordPress 7.1 Beta <\/strong>1<\/a> was release on July 15, 2026. is now available for testing. The release post offers instructions how to sent up a test side and shows an extensive list of new features. <\/p>\n The security team released WordPress 7.0.2<\/strong><\/a> with the urgent appeal to update right away. The security fixes were also backported in 6.9.5 and 6.8.6. <\/p>\n The security fix was also included in WordPress 7.1 Beta 2<\/strong>, so testing sites are also protected during this release cycle. <\/p>\n Huzaifa Al Mesbah,<\/strong> from the Core Test team, published the accompanying Help Test WordPress 7.1<\/strong><\/a> post. <\/p>\n A few WordPress 7.1 Dev Notes<\/strong> are already available: <\/p>\n In about 10 days, WooCommerce 11.0 release is schedule. Brain Coords has the skinny for you in what\u2019s coming for developers in WooCommerce<\/strong><\/a>. Performance leads the release with 28 PRs \u2014 product object caching becomes the default for new stores, speeding up variable products by 9\u201312%. You\u2019ll also find email verification connecting guest orders to accounts, new phone validation hooks, video embeds in the block email editor, and the final removal of the Product Editor beta. The beta is ready for your testing now.<\/p>\n Jamie Marsland<\/strong> followed his instincts and build Jamie\u2019s Front-End Editor for Content Teams<\/strong><\/a>, a plugin that lets your editors click any paragraph or heading on the live page and start typing \u2014 no block editor required. With the latest updates, you can now edit text, links, buttons and images right on the live page. No wp-admin, no block editor, just click and change it in place.<\/p>\n Built on the Interactivity API with no build step, it preserves block markup on save, records edits as native block notes for an audit trail, and lets you restrict chosen roles to front-end-only editing. Let Marsland what you think. <\/p>\n Last week<\/a>, I shared three migration stories from page builders to the Core block editor and block themes. Here\u2019s a fourth perspective: The team at WP Expert, an Ottawa agency founded by Frederic Sune<\/strong>, put together a comprehensive post on migrating agency sites from page builders to Gutenberg<\/strong><\/a>, should you go on that journey, too. You\u2019ll find the strategic arguments (better Core Web Vitals, smaller attack surface, less technical debt) alongside a practical playbook covering backups, staging, block theme selection, pattern development, and SEO safeguards. The post also explores what block-based architectures mean for an agency\u2019s business model, from premium modernization packages to fewer layout-related support tickets. An FAQ rounds it out.<\/p>\n Brian Coords<\/strong> tackles a common WooCommerce pain point: custom product templates for block themes<\/strong><\/a>. He combines two core WordPress features \u2014 the plugin template registration API from 6.7 and the venerable On the WordPress Developer Blog, Troy Chaplin <\/strong>shows you how to build an on-brand maintenance mode for block themes<\/a>.<\/strong> You add one small hook to your theme\u2019s \u201cKeeping up with Gutenberg \u2013 Index 2026\u201d<\/a> <\/strong> The previous years are also available: On WP Mayor, Jean Galea <\/strong>untangles when to reach for WP-CLI, the REST API, or the Abilities API<\/a>.<\/strong> His mental model: they\u2019re layers, not rivals. WP-CLI lives on the server for bulk work, REST serves off-server callers like headless front ends, and the Abilities API tells AI agents what they\u2019re allowed to do, complete with schemas and permission checks. Galea also shares how his own sites lean on all three at once.<\/p>\n Get up to speed how to make your custom blocks plugin work in the iframed post editor, if you haven\u2019t yet. After five years of ruminating and communicating the switch is coming to WordPress 7.1. In his post, Ryan Welcher<\/strong> explains why the post editor is going full iframe in WordPress 7.1<\/strong><\/a> and what that means for your custom blocks. You\u2019ll find the fixes for the most common breakage \u2014 global The video volunteers at WordCamp Portugal uploaded all recordings to WordPressTV and two of the talks caught my eye: <\/p>\n Imran Sayed<\/strong> walks you through the fastest way to build Gutenberg blocks with modern tools, scripts, and AI<\/strong><\/a>. If custom block development has felt complex or time-consuming, you\u2019ll appreciate his focus on practical, real-world workflows you can adopt immediately \u2014 moving fast without over-engineering. The recording is available on WordPress.tv, and the presentation slides are linked below the video for easy reference.<\/p>\n Jorge Costa<\/strong> shows you how to use the AI building blocks already shipped in WordPress core<\/strong><\/a> (the WP AI Client, the Abilities API, and the MCP adapter) to bring AI-powered features into your own plugins, themes, and sites. He also tackles the bigger question: when agents can spin up entire projects on any stack, why is WordPress still the right bet? Slides are linked<\/a> alongside the recording.<\/p>\n Check out the not so new any more Talk Devy to Me<\/strong> series on Ryan Welchers YouTube Channel! In the latest epsiode, Antonio Sejas<\/strong> demos Studio Code, the agentic AI assistant<\/strong><\/a> built into WordPress Studio\u2019s desktop app and CLI. You can spin up sites, run performance audits, add content, and install plugins and themes through natural language conversation \u2014 all locally, so nothing you break goes public. Sejas explains how it works under the hood before building something live with the host. Studio Code is free while in beta, so now\u2019s a good time to experiment. <\/p>\n If you rather want to read about the updates in WordPress Studio, Fredrik Rombach Ekelund<\/strong> shares three big updates to WordPress Studio<\/strong><\/a>: a new default Native PHP runtime makes your local sites load 30\u201350% faster while using a third of the memory, the Studio CLI now installs with one dependency-free command \u2014 no Node.js or npm required \u2014 and Claude Sonnet 5 is the new default model in Studio Code, improving multi-step work like tracing bugs across files. A Sandbox runtime remains available for testing untrusted code.<\/p>\n Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg\u2019s master branch?<\/a><\/strong> Now also available via WordPress Playground<\/a>. There is no need for a test site locally or on a server. Have you been using it? Email me <\/a>with your experience.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Questions? Suggestions? Ideas? <\/em> For questions to be answered on the Gutenberg Changelog<\/a>, ![\"\ud83d\udc95\"](\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/17.0.2\/72x72\/1f495.png\")
Birgit<\/em><\/p>\n
\nWordCamp US 2026: Four Tracks, Three Workshops, 33 Speakers<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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us.wordcamp.org\/2026\/tickets<\/a> \u2014 $100 General Admission \u00b7 $750 Micro-Sponsor (includes listing on the sponsors page) ![\"\ud83d\udc65\"](\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/17.0.2\/72x72\/1f465.png\")
Full speaker list \u2192<\/a><\/p>\nDeveloping Gutenberg and WordPress<\/h2>\n
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The latest episode is Gutenberg Changelog #132 \u2013 Proposals for Core, Calls for Testing, WordPress 7.1 and Gutenberg 23.4 and 23.5<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gutenbergtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-10-at-10.56.17-edited-1.png?resize=652%2C183&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nPlugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners<\/h2>\n
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\nTheme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks<\/h2>\n
single_template_hierarchy<\/code> filter \u2014 to serve custom templates for product collections, like all products in a category. His example plugin falls back to your Single Product template unless you override it. Clone the repo and give it a try; custom Product fields are next on his list.<\/p>\n
\nfunctions.php<\/code> once, then design and manage the maintenance page entirely in the Site Editor with full access to your Global Styles. Renaming or deleting the template toggles maintenance mode on and off, no code needed. An SEO-friendly variant adds 503 headers so crawlers know the downtime is temporary.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gutenbergtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/maintenance-mode.png?resize=652%2C345&ssl=1\")
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A chronological list of the WordPress Make Blog posts from various teams involved in Gutenberg development: Design, Theme Review Team, Core Editor, Core JS, Core CSS, Test, and Meta team from Jan. 2024 on. Updated by yours truly.\u2002<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
2020<\/a> | 2021<\/a><\/strong> | 2022<\/a><\/strong><\/strong> | 2023<\/a><\/strong> | 2024<\/strong><\/a> | 2025<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nBuilding Blocks and Tools <\/h2>\n
\nwindow<\/code> and document<\/code> references, editor styles enqueued into the wrong document, stale admin-scoped CSS, and third-party libraries \u2014 plus a companion demo plugin with broken\/fixed block pairs, Playground blueprints for testing both states, and a handy pre-flight checklist.<\/p>\n
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Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gutenbergtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Screenshot-2025-11-15-at-12.06.44.png?resize=196%2C45&ssl=1\")
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Don\u2019t hesitate to send them via email<\/a> or<\/em>
send me a message on WordPress Slack or Twitter @bph<\/em>.<\/p>\n
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send them to changelog@gutenbergtimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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