Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you happen to be hiding out there on the globe today! Coming to you LIVE from . . .
We've got a couple of great in-depth plugins to cover for you, some recent news in both the WordPress World and the Tech World in general, and some awesome WordPress Tips!
Ready or not, here comes spring – along with all its friends of seasonal colds, and all the little death stars known as pollen!!
I mean, it is kinda worth putting up with the little death stars since we also get the better weather and the pretty flowers… but do they have to make the noses so itchy…?
Hopefully everyone out there is keeping healthy!
A few reminders before we start the show today….
Reminders:
- Every Monday at 12:30pm Pacific Time brings you a show from both John and I, or just John as he does interviews and solo shows in alteration with this one!
Join in a little earlier to catch the pre-stream on both shows! - Show notes are added to wppluginsatoz.com within 24 hours of the show airing; you can find them either on the home page, or in the Podcast Vaults!
- This is a value for value show dear listeners, help us get some loven' by hitting some like buttons, sharing an episode or two, or just turn our show on really loudly. We will catch somebodies attention!
If you stick around until the end, you will have a chance to hear some good Questions – sometimes meant for the greenies, sometimes meant for the very experienced – and sometimes the questions are just completely random. Stick around and have a listen, might help! Or at least entertain!
(Don't feel shy about sending in a message just to say hi! Send along suggestions, questions, recommendations, news, art – we always love to hear from our listeners!)
Let's start the show with this weeks Featured Artist:
Artist:
Who is our artist today?!?
Today is….
Firefly! https://firefly.adobe.com/?media=featured
We would love some new art from our Producers out there! If you are so inclined, you can send it into us at https://wppluginsatoz.com/artwork/. If you need some inspiration, you can always go to our site wppluginsatoz.com and check out our Art Vaults – you will find the link for it on the left hand side.
…We can NEVER have too much art!
Breaking News in the WordPress World at large!!
If you have anything you think should be added please send it into me at amber@wppro.ca!
News this week:
WordPress Vulnerability Report
(https://solidwp.com/blog/wordpress-vulnerability-report-april-2-2025/) – In this report there are 542 vulnerabilities. 520 are plugins this week, with 22 Themes.
Plugins: 263 Patched / 257 Unpatched
Themes: 4 Patched / 18 Unpatched
WordPress Vulnerability Report from PatchStack
(https://patchstack.com/database/) – These guys always have the latest information on what is going on regarding the latest in vulnerabilities. At the time of writing this, most recent issue was 2 hours ago and was a Plugin called ‘Responsive Poll' with an Authenticated SQL Injection via ‘s' Parameter vulnerability.
WordPress 6.8 Release Candidate 3
(https://wordpress.org/news/2025/04/wordpress-6-8-release-candidate-3/) – The third iteration is ready for those of you who love to be on the cutting edge of things!!
What's new for developers? (April 2025)
(https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2025/04/whats-new-for-developers-april-2025/) – This is a typical ‘Monthly Roundup' article, although some good and interesting news – April of 2025 brings forward not only a major WordPress release, but this is going to be WordPress's ONLY major release this year! Personally I am VERY excited for this! Hopefully this will give everyone enough time to catch up, and fully fix ALL the bugs before the next update next year.
(This is a more in depth article on what to expect around this fantastic news! https://wpshout.com/wordpress-switches-to-one-major-release-per-year/)
Google officially rolls out links in AI overviews to its own search results
(https://searchengineland.com/google-links-ai-overviews-to-own-search-results-454239) – This is a great article bringing us up to date on what Google AI is doing regarding linking to its own search results – and explaining how this is now an official feature within AI Overviews. There is a statement from Google and a break down of why it is good to care.
I have also heard that Microsoft Bing is now doing the same thing, although I have not been able to confirm this.
The things users would appreciate in mobile apps
(https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2024/04/things-users-would-appreciate-mobile-apps/) – This is a great article going through what people would like to have when they are viewing sites on their mobiles – and although the title says ‘apps', it is actually talking about when you are working on developing a site and making sure that it is mobile friendly.
Some of this seems like it should just be common sense – but really it causes a ‘D'oh!' kinda moment as we realize we should have thought of that already… Great article to at least skim through.
22 Breakthrough Technologies
(https://www.computer.org/press-room/2025-technology-predictions) – This is actually really cool – this is a list of what a team of experts foresee in the future in the form of 22 breakthrough technologies. In order to read the report you need to put your information in, and they send you a link to your email, you download and read it.
Now some of this is right over my head, but I understand most of it – the whole thing is very interesting and worth a read!
(Go visit https://wpshout.com/comics/ for a fantastic brain break!!)
Rogue's Corner News and Extras
***New unique plugins available from WPProAtoz.com
WordPress Items:
Build like its 2005 again
https://joost.blog/build-websites-like-2005/
WP 7 leaked a late April fools gag
https://wpbiz.dev/news/wordpress-7-leaked/
Tip of the day
Talk about https://influencewp.com/ and the benefits of it for WP devs
Check out The Repo at https://therepo.org/ an alternative to the regular plugin repo.
Some Extras – check out our Facebook or Twitter!
Why Imposter Syndrome is part of every Developer's Journey?
(https://pixicstudio.medium.com/why-imposter-syndrome-is-part-of-every-developers-journey-c4bd485626aa)
How to build and add taxonomies to WordPress Post Types
(https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/blog/add-taxonomy-to-custom-post-type/)
How to minify JavaScript and CSS in WordPress
(https://wplift.com/how-to-minify-javascript-and-css-in-wordpress/)
Google's AI-powered SERPs: Strategies for recipe, travel, and lifestyle bloggers
(https://searchengineland.com/google-ai-powered-serps-strategies-recipe-travel-lifestyle-bloggers-454170)
Is keyword targeting as impossible as spinning straw into gold?
(https://searchengineland.com/is-keyword-targeting-as-impossible-as-spinning-straw-into-gold-454205)
Official: Google AI Overviews link to more search results
(https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-overviews-links-search-results-39221.html)
Solo Development: Learning to let go of perfection (https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2025/01/solo-development-learning-to-let-go-of-perfection/)
The secret lives of Generative AI models: What they create when we're not watching
(https://www.computer.org/publications/tech-news/trends/secret-lives-gen-ai)
How to change HTML text font & font color
(https://blog.hubspot.com/website/change-font-in-html)
HTML projects for beginners: 10 easy starter ideas
(https://blog.hubspot.com/website/html-projects-for-beginners)
20 UX design examples hand-picked by experts [with analysis]
(https://blog.hubspot.com/website/ux-design-examples)
Automattic lays off 281 people across 90 countries: The Web Reacts
(https://wpshout.com/automattic-lays-off-16-percent-of-workforce/)
Gaining years of experience in a few months
(https://marcgg.com/blog/2025/02/11/high-growth/)
Dragon Rating Time with John!
John's Plugin
WP Dev Flag
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-dev-flag/
https://poodleplugins.com/#our-plugins
The Lowdown:
This plugin makes it easy to distinguish between your local development site, and your live site.
Rating 5 Dragons
PLUGIN #2!
WPProAtoZ Email & IP Guardian
https://wpproatoz.com/product/turn-off-wp_mail-toggle-email-control/
The Lowdown:
WPProAtoZ Email & IP Guardian is a lightweight plugin designed for developers and site administrators who need to manage outgoing emails and site access in WordPress. With a simple settings page under “Settings” > “Email Control”, you can disable all emails sent via `wp_mail()` and restrict site access to specific IPs or IP ranges using `.htaccess`.
Ideal for development, staging, or testing environments, this plugin prevents unwanted emails and unauthorized access with minimal configuration.
Key features:
- Disable all outgoing emails with a single checkbox.
- Customize the admin notice displayed when emails are disabled (default: “<strong>THIS DEV SITE HAS NO OUTGOING MAIL</strong> Mail from wp_mail() has been disabled for this site.”).
- Log blocked emails to debug.log when WP_DEBUG is enabled.
- Test email functionality with a built-in button.
- Restrict site access to allowed IPs or IP ranges via `.htaccess`.
- Dynamic IP management with add/remove functionality.
- Uses both `wp_mail` filter and `phpmailer_init` fallback for reliable email blocking.
No need to edit core files or `wp-config.php` - everything is managed through an intuitive settings page.
Rating 5 Dragons
WordPress Tips
We would love to hear some tid bit tips from some of our producers out there – what did you figure out by breaking something? Or what did you need to learn in order to help someone? You can send these tid bits into me at amber@wppro.ca
My tip to you today…
When you feel like something just is not going right, when you feel ‘ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN' that whatever you are currently working on is gonna fail, and like, you would rather just throw in the towel….
That is likely just you getting over a massive hurdle in capability, skill development, and overall professional level of awesome.
I mean sure, you feel like a steam roller just went over you, and you might feel pretty certain that some under the bed monster coughed you up as a fur ball last night…
but so long as you keep pushing through, you will eventually make it to the other side. And once you are there, you will have a chance to look at what you just did – after of the required 14 hour crash of course…
and I am fairly certain that you will go ‘Holy $h!& – did I do that?!?'
And that is why pushing through all the ick factor of being some under the bed creatures coughed up fur ball is always worth it.
Now go take a shower and crash so that you can start it all over again tomorrow!
Dragon Rating Time with Amber!
Amber's Plugin
Dino Game – Embed Google Chrome Dinosaur Game in your website
https://wordpress.org/plugins/dino-game/
The Lowdown:
Every once in a while I go searching for games. I have gotten used to not seeing anything new, and nothing really updated – except I was pleasantly surprised with this one!
The Dino Game that for some reason is so popular is available with recent updates and even a new attribute – you can make the game silent!!!!
This game is really quite simple – the dino runs, you press the space bar to make it jump over obstacles. The dino doesn't actually move, the ground moves.
And usually there is this REALLY irritating noise that accompanies the jumping – I know this because both of my daughters find this and play it… more often then one would think would really be enjoyable honestly. And then if their friends are over everyone else has to take a turn….
There is a NO sound option with this, which honestly, I think it just genius.
Now onto the more technical aspects of this awesome game plugin – there is no plugin dashboard so to speak. You need to go to the ‘details' area from your main plugin area, or you can go to the WordPress.org plugin page or you can go to the plugin homepage. Wherever you choose to go, that is where you will be able to grab the two short code options – my testing out saw that they both work well for Elementor, ClassicPress, and Gutenberg.
You place this shortcode in a regular text area, and off you go!
Unfortunately unless a person already knows how to play this they won't really know what to do because clicking on it with your mouse does not start the game – so you may want to copy and paste the ‘how to play' rules into the same area for people so that they know what to do.
Once you hit that space bar and get going, it goes! You can slow down the speed, or speed up the speed manually as well – so if you have a page on a site meant for younger children, this would be a great way to help them with their coordination, but you can slow it down to make it so they don't break your computer out of frustration on ya too.
I am honestly so glad to see a game that is recent and being kept up to date – I would LOVE to see more games! There used to be a snake game on here… I don't see it anymore though. I had it added to my own sandbox for ages and would just go there and play snake when I was bored and waiting for anything. Snake is an awesome one – maybe someone out there will bring that back to life….?
This is a totally free plugin, plays well with others and is exceedingly light weight. If games are your thing or you think this would be helpful for kidlets on your site, check it out!
Also, may as well check it out yourself anyways just so that you know what that terrible noise coming from your kids computer is… it really is terrible – the silencing option here is just awesome.
Rating: 5 Dragon
Donations from across the galaxy!
Producership Credits are a thing that do actually exist – we offer them up to those who donate through Time, Talent or Treasure. You can use these credits to boost up your resume, add to your LinkedIn file, so on and so forth!
Even if you are not interested in receiving a Producership Credit, check out how you can use us as your own stepping ladder in the world of the internets – get yourself an interview, get us to make your announcement for you, let the world know you have something to say or a company worth checking out!
Have a look through our site wppluginsatoz.com. Check out the Time, Talent and Treasure pages.
Miscellaneous Announcements from all:
Have an announcement like a meetup, or to announce you'll be on stage at a WordCamp? Let us know and we will add it here and help get your news out to the world!
WordCamp Vienna 2025 – April 25-26
WordCamp Málaga – April 26027
WordCamp Bilbao 2025 – May 9-11
WordCamp Lisboa, Portugal – May 16-17
WordCamp Johor Bahru – May 17
To see the entire list you can follow the link here in the show notes, then click on ‘More WordCamps' right below the list of the next 5. https://central.wordcamp.org/
If you are interested in finding a WordPress Meetup somewhere around the world you can go check out the places here: https://www.meetup.com/pro/wordpress/
Keep checking back every week to find out what else is going on!
How to reach us:
Feel like sending us something through the snail mail system? You can do that thanks to our brick and mortar address that we provide for you!
You can also reach us the more common way of the internets – have both of our internets available down below for ya!
WP Plugins A to Z
C/O John Overall
20-754 E Fairview Rd.
Victoria, BC V9A 5T9
Canada
John:
- My website:http://www.johnoverall.com/
- WordPress Emergency Support:http://wppro.ca/wpemergency
- email:john@wppro.ca
Amber:
- email: amber@wppro.ca
Today's Plugins we covered were:
John’s Plugin:
WP Dev Flag By Poodle Plugins
- makes it easy to distinguish between local dev site and live site
- can personalize it for colour and positioning
- able to add a link onto the badge
Rating: 5 Dragons
AND
WPProAtoZ Email & IP Guardian by WPPro AtoZ
- Disables all outgoing emails with a single checkbox
- Restrict site access to allowed IPs or IP ranges via ‘.htaccess'
- No need to edit core files or ‘wp-config.php' – everything is managed through an intuitive settings page
Rating: 5 Dragons
Amber's Plugin:
Dino Game – Embed Google Chrome Dinosaur Game in your website By Tahmid ul Karim
- Great simple game for adults and kids alike
- light weight and plays well with others
- you can MUTE this one!!!!!!!
Rating: 5 Dragon
Q & A Time with Amber – Catch this info on our YouTube Channel
If you have questions you would like to have asked on the show, send them in to me atAmber@WPPro.ca – we may never stump my dad, but we can get some good conversation out of him at least!
- What is the best way to figure out what problems out there need solving so that you can be the problem solver for people?
- What is the most interesting problem you have ever solved for someone?
Questions asked after closing credits:
- What was the hardest ‘mountain' in your career that you had to overcome?
- What was the easiest obstacle in your path, and why was it so easy do you think?
