WP Builds

In this engaging conversation, Matt Schwartz, Founder of CheckView and a key player in the WordPress community, shares insights on automating form and checkout testing for WordPress. He highlights how CheckView helps catch issues before they become customer headaches, ensuring smooth user interactions. Topics include integration challenges with security tools like Cloudflare and the importance of ongoing monitoring to prevent lost sales. Matt also discusses pricing strategies and the evolving roadmap of CheckView, making it a must-listen for agencies and site owners alike.

This Week in WordPress #342, titled "AI is Lit," dives deep into the rapid integration of AI into the WordPress ecosystem. Nathan Wrigley, Michelle Frechette, Andrew Palmer, and Rob Cairns discuss new community initiatives like WP Includes Me and WP Trailbodies, recent accessibility improvements in WooCommerce, and upcoming events. The main focus is on the transformative impact of AI projects, such as the new Abilities API, agentic plugins, and tools from Elementor and Hostinger. The panel also explores the implications of AI on design, security, and content creation in the WordPress space.

In this WP Builds episode, Nathan Wrigley chats with Robert Abela of MelaPress about managing WordPress user roles and capabilities. Robert shares insights on the importance of granular role control for site security and accountability, introducing their new free plugin, MelaPress Role Editor, which lets users create, customise, and assign multiple roles and capabilities. They discuss real-world scenarios, UX improvements, and future plans for enhanced features. Listeners learn how to streamline WordPress permissions, avoid security risks, and improve site management with user-friendly tools. If you’ve ever wanted more control over your site’s access, need to lock down who can touch what (and how), or just want to avoid the all-too-common admin free-for-all, this episode is for you.

In episode #341 of "This Week in WordPress," Nathan Wrigley is joined by Michelle Frechette, Tim Nash, and Tammie Lister to discuss the latest WordPress and tech news. Key topics include WordPress’s new AI integration roadmap, advancements in AI for healthcare, a recent security issue with Gravity Forms, and the push for a decentralised plugin repository. They also review recent and upcoming WordPress events, talk about plugins and core updates, and reflect on community stories. The episode balances technical discussion, community highlights, fun banter, and a touch of “doomsaying” about web security and browser competition. Check it out!

In this episode, Nathan Wrigley interviews Aurélien Denis about MailerPress, an upcoming WordPress plugin for sending email campaigns directly from your site. Aurélien explains how MailerPress mimics the Gutenberg UI, uses custom blocks for email creation, and integrates features like branding with theme JSON and querying WordPress content (including WooCommerce products). The plugin stores contacts in custom tables and allows flexible email delivery via popular services. They're seeking beta testers and hint at future AI and automation features.

In this episode of "This Week in WordPress" #340, Nathan Wrigley, Michelle Frechette, Tammie Lister, and Piccia Neri discuss community news and updates, including the gamification of WP World, a new accessibility podcast, and the maintaine.rs open-source story collection. They cover WordPress project news, calls for contributors for versions 6.9 and 6.8.2, responses to the Matt Mullenweg / WP Engine controversy, and the launch of a WordPress contribution internship program. The panel also highlights independent WordPress events, a proposal for phased plugin updates, and growth in block-based themes like Ollie, along with broader tech and community reflections.

In this episode of WP Builds, Nathan Wrigley talks with Katie Keith, founder and CEO of Barn2 Plugins, about their new partnership with Setary, a SaaS bulk editing tool for WooCommerce products. Katie shares the story behind the partnership, how Setary streamlines bulk product edits through a spreadsheet interface, and its time-saving benefits for both technical and non-technical users. They also discuss plans for a Shopify version and upcoming features like scheduling. Katie touches on integration with custom fields, pricing, and special offers for existing Barn2 customers.

In "This Week in WordPress #339," Nathan Wrigley is joined by Zach Stepek, Tim Nash, and Remkus de Vries to discuss new educational WordPress courses on security and performance, as well as Nathan’s new Podcaster Plus plugin seeking beta testers. The panel covers the upcoming WP Awards, lower-than-expected WordCamp US ticket sales, and the paused Tumblr-to-WordPress migration. They highlight updates to the WordPress developer blog, a new plugin called Better Loops, and whether default themes should be paused. We also have a lively debate on event sponsorships, AI’s impact on content, and practical WordPress community updates.

On the podcast today we have Daniela Soibelman from Elementor, but we're not talking about the Page Builder, we're talking about a new plugin for website accessibility. It's called Ally, and it's a new web accessibility plugin. Daniela explains her journey at Elementor, the inspiration behind Ally, and how the plugin helps WordPress users create more accessible websites with features like usability widgets, compliance statements, and future plans for AI-powered accessibility scans and remediation. Ally works with any WordPress site, not just Elementor-built pages, aiming to make web accessibility simpler and more achievable for everyone. Whether you’re running a small blog or managing sites for clients, this episode will help you understand not just what Ally offers right now, but where it’s headed, making accessibility a shared, achievable goal for everyone working on the web.