<div class="rss-widget"><ul><li><a class='rsswidget' href='http://wordpress.org/news/2014/04/smith/' title='Version 3.9 of WordPress, named “Smith” in honor of jazz organist Jimmy Smith, is available for download or update in your WordPress dashboard. This release features a number of refinements that we hope you’ll love. A smoother media editing experience Improved visual editing The updated visual editor has improved speed, accessibility, and mobile support. You can paste into the […]'>WordPress 3.9 “Smith”</a> <span class="rss-date">April 16, 2014</span><div class='rssSummary'>Version 3.9 of WordPress, named “Smith” in honor of jazz organist Jimmy Smith, is available for download or update in your WordPress dashboard. This release features a number of refinements that we hope you’ll love. A smoother media editing experience Improved visual editing The updated visual editor has improved speed, accessibility, and mobile support. You [&hellip;]</div></li></ul></div><div class="rss-widget"><ul><li><a class='rsswidget' href='http://wptavern.com/short-interview-with-john-james-jacoby-on-the-progress-of-bbpress-2-6?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=short-interview-with-john-james-jacoby-on-the-progress-of-bbpress-2-6' title='John James Jacoby Presenting On The bb’s At WCNC 2104 Over the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of conversing with a lot of smart people in the WordPress community. John James Jacoby is one of those people I can talk to for hours on end. Not only does he care about online communities and forums as much as I do, but he’s incredibly intelligent about it. Every time he and I are at a WordCamp together, I always find time to talk to him. I share the feelings I had while being an active member on forums and how he’s helping to bring that experience to the masses through the bb’s (BuddyPress and bbPress). In the following interview, Jacoby explains how BuddyPress was able to achieve dramatic increases in performance. We also discuss whether or not forums are dead. Hint, we don’t think so. Last but not least, he gives us an update on what’s in store for bbPress 2.6 and why it hasn’t been released yet.  http://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/John-James-Jacoby-at-WordCamp-North-Canton-2014.mp3Run Time 7:38Artist Jeff ChandlerFile Name John-James-Jacoby-at-WordCamp-North-Canton-2014.mp3File Size 3.92 MBFile Type MP3Mime Type audio/mpegAudio Info  '>WPTavern: Short Interview With John James Jacoby On The Progress Of bbPress 2.6</a></li><li><a class='rsswidget' href='http://wptavern.com/recap-of-wordcamp-north-canton-2014?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=recap-of-wordcamp-north-canton-2014' title=' Held within the Business and Entrepreneurial Center on the Stark State College campus, WordCamp North Canton 2014 was a repeat success. Sessions ranged from Plugins 101 to the Science Of Design. I only attended two sessions throughout the day as I spent the majority of my time networking. The sessions I participated in only had about 10-12 attendees but that didn’t faze the speaker as they still delivered a great presentation. Organizing The Second WordCamp Proved More Difficult Than The First When I interviewed one of the primary organizers of the event Joe Rozsa, he said the event was difficult to put together despite it being the second event he’s organized. A large amount of ticket sales near the time of the event added complexity but the team was able to overcome the challenge and maintain a smooth running WordCamp. In the following interview, Rosza tells me how he was able to secure the venue on a college campus and the challenges he faced while organizing the event. He also gives some great advice to first time WordCamp organizers. http://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Interview-With-Joe-Rozsa.mp3Run Time 6:31Artist Jeff ChandlerFile Name Interview-With-Joe-Rozsa.mp3File Size 3.33 MBFile Type MP3Mime Type audio/mpegAudio Info There Is Room For Improvement Main Session Room The room you see in the image above is the main session room. The front of room is where sessions were held while the tables in the back of the room were used for networking. Unfortunately during some of the sessions, there was a considerable amount of noise and chatter from the back of the room. Although some of the speakers didn’t mind, it felt rude to be talking and networking while a speaker was presenting. I mentioned this to Rozsa who told me the facility would not allow him to close and open the room as needed. Hopefully next year, the building will allow this room to be sectioned off to keep the networking room and the presentation rooms separate. WordCamp North Canton 2014 Schedule This years event featured two tracks, one for users and developers. With under 200 attendees, I felt like having five sessions at the same time was too much. Some of the sessions I witnessed had under 10 people in the room while others were packed. I’d like to see the event scale back to three sessions at a time max. The event just doesn’t have the amount of attendees to justify five sessions at any given time. There were also three sessions dedicated to security during the day. I attended the third session by Joseph Herbrandson of Sucuri and it seemed like folks were worn out by the topic. Herbrandson delivers his information in an energetic way but being the third security session of day lead attendees to check out other sessions. With fewer presentations going on at the same time, it will help prevent this scenario from happening. Ermano’s Hits Another Home Run One of the highlights for me was the lunch prepared by Ermannos pizza. Their Margherita pizza was just as good as last years. There were also plenty of salad dishes and beverages on hand. Lunch was capped off by Ermannos’ now famous WordCamp S’mores. WordCamp North Canton 2014 ended the day at a local hotel bar for the after party. Looking Forward To Next Year Overall, the event was a success albeit with a few things to work on for 2015. The sessions I attended were presented by people passionate about the subject they were talking about. Most of the people in the audience were either new to WordPress or had little to no development experience. When I asked some of the attendees who also attend my local WordPress meetup what they thought of the event, every one of them said it was worth every penny with big smiles on their faces. Joe Rozsa and his team of volunteer staff members are to be commended for a job well done. Thanks to everyone who helped put on a fantastic event in my back yard. As long as North Canton keeps holding a WordCamp, I’ll keep coming. Meanwhile, keep an eye on the official WordCamp Columbus Ohio blog for information on the third WordCamp to be held in Ohio this year.        '>WPTavern: Recap Of WordCamp North Canton 2014</a></li><li><a class='rsswidget' href='http://wptavern.com/save-time-building-wordpress-customizer-controls?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=save-time-building-wordpress-customizer-controls' title=' Adding controls to WordPress’ theme customizer can be somewhat tedious and there are many tutorials dedicated to creating your own controls. WordPress Theme Customizer Custom Controls is a project on Github that provides a collection of ready-made controls that you can drop right into your theme. This set of extra controls was created by WordPress developer Paul Underwood. The collection includes:  Category Dropdown – Creates a dropdown of all the categories on your WordPress theme Date Picker – Adds a date picker control to the theme customizer Layout Picker – Adds 3 images of layouts to the page for you to select a new style Menu Dropdown – Creates a dropdown of all the menus on your WordPress site Post Dropdown – Creates a dropdown of all the posts on your WordPress site Tags Dropdown – Creates a dropdown of all tags on your WordPress site Text Editor – Creates a textbox with the TinyMCE textarea Textarea – Creates a textarea input field Taxonomy Dropdown – Creates a dropdown of taxonomies ( Usage: see Gist 4538951 ) User List Dropdown – Creates a dropdown of users for a role ( Usage: see Gist 4564337 ) Google Fonts Dropdown – Create a dropdown to show you the 30 most popular fonts on Google web fonts  How to Use the WordPress Theme Customizer Custom Controls If you want to use all of the custom controls in your theme, including them is very simple. Download the project from Github, unpack it and then drop the /wordpress-theme-customizer-custom-controls/ directory wherever you want within your theme’s structure, making sure to adjust the path below if you change it. Add this to your theme’s functions.php file: require_once &#039;/inc/wordpress-theme-customizer-custom-controls/theme-customizer-demo.php&#039;; This will put all of the custom controls into the customizer under a “Custom Controls Demo” item and will include WordPress’ default controls under “Default Demo Controls:”  Ideally, you would adjust the controls to better suit your theme and add only the ones that work with the design. It provides a great starting place and an easy way to learn more about how the controls are created, should you want to add more of your own. The Taxonomy and User List dropdowns both require a bit of extra setup and the usage is demonstrated in the example gists for each. The Google Fonts Dropdown has built-in caching, which creates a cache file on the user’s machine so that you don’t have to call the API so many times. Adding custom controls to the customizer is a great way to allow for more personalization in a theme created for a client or for public distribution. The user can easily change styles and preview them live, without having to make requests for design changes. Hopefully, the Custom WordPress Customizer Controls can save you a little time in building out your next theme. For more information, check out the project’s Github page and Paul Underwood’s post detailing each control.'>WPTavern: Save Time Building WordPress Customizer Controls</a></li></ul></div><div class="rss-widget"><ul><li class='dashboard-news-plugin'><span>Popular Plugin:</span> <a href='http://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-custom-fields/' class='dashboard-news-plugin-link'>Advanced Custom Fields</a></h5>&nbsp;<span>(<a href='plugin-install.php?tab=plugin-information&amp;plugin=advanced-custom-fields&amp;_wpnonce=f74d8e4334&amp;TB_iframe=true&amp;width=600&amp;height=800' class='thickbox' title='Advanced Custom Fields'>Install</a>)</span></li></ul></div>