cc image “Subida Surreal” by flickr user marcusrg

Hello Commons WordPress Users –

WordPress 4.4 is now active on the Commons! It offers a bunch of new features, including the new Twenty-Sixteen theme and some revolutionary under the hood functionality for developers.

Commons members should be aware of two other great improvements:

• You can embed an excerpt from another WordPress site by simply pasting its URL on a separate line. It will appear in a box with the title, excerpt, and featured image (if you’ve set one). This also works for group forum posts and replies, but not for email notifications. (see “Clifford” example, below.)
• Images are automatically resized. “WordPress now takes a smarter approach to displaying appropriate image sizes on any device, ensuring a perfect fit every time. You don’t need to do anything to your theme, it just works.” This is also a big improvement for centered images on larger screens – just make sure your image is large enough to fit in your intended space.

Developers will be interested in the REST API initiative:

Infrastructure for the REST API has been integrated into core, marking a new era in developing with WordPress. The REST API gives developers an easy way to build and extend RESTful APIs on top of WordPress.

Infrastructure is the first part of a multi-stage rollout for the REST API. Inclusion of core endpoints is targeted for an upcoming release. To get a sneak peek of the core endpoints, and for more information on extending the REST API, check out the official WordPress REST API plugin.

Here is an embedded excerpt about WordPress 4.4 “Clifford” – click on the title and to see all the new improvements. (To get something like this to display, all you need to do is paste its URL on a new line.  This particular one doesn’t have a featured image.)

WordPress 4.4 “Clifford”