AMP support comes to Liveblog

We are pleased to announce the release of Liveblog v1.9 which introduces support for the AMP project, alongside our popular AMP for WordPress plugin. In addition to AMP, v1.9 includes:

  • Improved performance for high-traffic liveblogs
  • Implementation of the LiveBlogPosting schema
  • Support for cross-domain updates
  • A number of bug fixes

Clients are invited to upgrade and test this new version.

Upgrading on WordPress.com

Moving from 1.4+

We encourage all VIPs using Liveblog v1.4 and above to upgrade to this version by specifying the version parameter of wpcom_vip_load_plugin() like so;

wpcom_vip_load_plugin( 'liveblog', 'plugins', '1.9' );

Moving from 1.3

Please open a ticket with our support team to arrange your upgrade.

Upgrading on VIP Go

For VIP Go, you can take advantage of the new version by adding the latest reviewed version (v1.9) to your plugins folder. The plugin can be downloaded from WordPress.org.

If you have any questions please open a ticket where we’ll be happy to assist your transition to the newest version.

Bugs, feature requests, and contributions are more than welcome on Github. Keep an eye on the projects board for the future roadmap, and let us know what your priorities are.

Speeding up deployments with preprods

This notice relates to the following platforms: WordPress.com VIP

A number of you use preprod environments to test your code on a VIP environment before pushing to production.

For a little while now we’ve been running an experiment with selected repositories where we can quickly check for differences between a production and pre-production repository, and deploy production changes without review if preprod has already been reviewed.

Let’s look at an example. Say you have your two repositories:

  • vip-enterprise – the production repository
  • vip-enterprise-preprod – the pre-production repository

You commit changes to vip-enterprise-preprod where they drop into the Deploy Queue and are reviewed by our engineers, and deployed after any feedback is addressed.

Following deployment, your team runs any appropriate tests to ensure the code is behaving as expected in pre-production.

Once you’re satisfied,  you commit those same changes to vip-enterprise and they drop into our Deploy Queue. At this point, an engineer needs to ensure those changes are safe to deploy, which means reviewing the code – a highly inefficient practice given the code was already reviewed in vip-enterprise-preprod.

Historically, we didn’t have a good way to avoid that inefficiency but our recent experiment has changed that. Now, our engineers can run a simple command:

$ diffpreprod vip-enterprise
Updating 'wp-content/themes/vip/vip-enterprise':
U wp-content/themes/vip/vip-enterprise/functions.php
Updated to revision 330618.
Updating 'wp-content/themes/vip/vip-enterprise-preprod':
U wp-content/themes/vip/vip-enterprise-preprod/style.css
Updated to revision 329133.
vip-enterprise and vip-enterprise-preprod match!

Good to deploy vip-enterprise

In less than a minute, the engineer has seen r330618 drop in, ran diffpreprod and found it safe to deploy.

We’re running this for select clients already, and will start rolling it out to all preprods soon, so if you want to take advantage of these speedier deployments, please check that your production and pre-production environments are in sync.

If you’d like more information, or assistance, please open a ticket.

Liveblog 1.8 introduces media library integration

We are pleased to announce the release of Liveblog v1.8 which introduces media library integration along with a number of enhancements to the editor interface.

New features:

  • Allow multiple authors for each Liveblog entry
  • Entries no longer have to have an author
  • Share entries with entry-specific permalinks
  • Media library integration in the entry editor
  • Edit entry HTML within the editor

Bug fixes:

  • Bug with some installs using the correct REST API base URL
  • Various coding standards issues

With thanks to our development partners Big Bite Creative we’re inviting clients to test the new version and upgrade.

Upgrading from 1.7

We encourage all VIPs using Liveblog v1.7 to upgrade to this version by specifying the version parameter of wpcom_vip_load_plugin() like so;

wpcom_vip_load_plugin( 'liveblog', 'plugins', '1.8' );

Upgrading from 1.3

Please open a ticket with our support team to arrange your upgrade.

Upgrading on VIP Go

For VIP Go, you can take advantage of the new version by adding the latest reviewed version (v1.8) to your plugins folder. The plugin can be downloaded from WordPress.org.

If you have any questions please open a ticket where we’ll be happy to assist your transition to the newest version.

Bugs, feature requests, and contributions are more than welcome on Github.

Co-Authors Plus v3.3 now available

We are pleased to announce the release of Co-Authors Plus v3.3 (nicknamed “Rebecca”) which completes months of work from 30 contributors including VIP, our clients and partners.

This release has been dedicated to laying a good foundation for future development. It contains numerous bug fixes and significantly improved test coverage.

With thanks to everyone involved, including our partners at rtCamp and VIP intern Rebecca Hum, who this release is named for.

Upgrading

To upgrade to v3.3 on WordPress.com VIP simply change your theme to load the new version:

wpcom_vip_load_plugin( 'co-authors-plus', 'plugins', '3.3' );

On VIP Go, update your included – or submoduled – version of the plugin to use the 3.3.0 tag or pull the v3.3.0 release from WordPress.org then update your application to load the new version as above.

If you have any questions please open a ticket where we’ll be happy to assist your transition to the newest version.

Bugs, feature requests, and contributions are more than welcome on Github.

Call for testing: Co-Authors Plus v3.3

We are excited to announce the release of v3.3-beta of the popular Co-Authors Plus plugin.

This release has been dedicated to laying a good foundation for future development. It contains numerous bugfixes and significantly improved test coverage from 30 contributors.

We’re encouraging all of our clients and partners to thoroughly test this release before we release the stable version, which is currently planned for one week from now – on Tuesday, the 17th April.

If you spot any issues, please file an issue on Github indicating you’re testing this beta release. If you have questions please open a ticket.

Liveblog v1.7 introduces new mobile-friendly React front end

We are pleased to announce the release of Liveblog v1.7 which introduces a completely new React-powered front end, adds new features and provides improved support for liveblogging from mobile devices.

The new front end, built from the ground up, retains existing Liveblog features, including:

  • Key events
  • Hashtags
  • Lazy loading of events
  • Slash commands

Enhancements in version 1.7 include:

  • A more mobile-friendly interface
  • Easier image insertion, including on mobile
  • Better formatting tools
  • Pagination of entries
  • Performance improvements for high-traffic liveblogs

With thanks to our development partners Big Bite Creative we’re inviting clients to test the new version and upgrade.

Upgrading from 1.6

We encourage all VIPs using Liveblog v1.5 to upgrade to this version by specifying the version parameter of wpcom_vip_load_plugin() like so;

wpcom_vip_load_plugin( ‘liveblog’, ‘plugins’, ‘1.6’ );

Upgrading from 1.3

Any clients still on v1.3 will be contacted shortly so that we can arrange to migrate you to v1.7 before we remove the now deprecated v1.3.

Upgrading on VIP Go

For VIP Go, you can take advantage of the new version by adding the latest reviewed version (v1.7) to your plugins folder. The plugin can be downloaded from WordPress.org.

If you have any questions please open a ticket where we’ll be happy to assist your transition to the newest version.

Bugs, feature requests, and contributions are more than welcome on Github.

Liveblog v1.6 now available

A new version of the Liveblog plugin is now available to WordPress.com VIP clients. 1.6 is a feature & bugfix release and is intended to replace v1.5 and includes;

  • REST API support
  • Performance improvements to lazy loading
  • Auto-archiving of Liveblogs
  • Removed copied core functions
  • Improved test coverage
  • Bugfix for edited comments appearing on archived Liveblogs
  • Bugfix for multiple edits issue
  • Bugfix for deleted key events appearing after edits
  • Bugfix for shortcodes within key events
  • Bugfix to allow editing entries more than once

Upgrading from 1.5

We encourage all VIPs using Liveblog v1.5 to upgrade to this version by specifying the version parameter of wpcom_vip_load_plugin() like so;

wpcom_vip_load_plugin( ‘liveblog’, ‘plugins’, ‘1.6’ );

Upgrading from 1.3

This also means that we are now deprecating v1.3 and intend to remove the plugin in 1 month, on Monday, 30th October 2017. This upgrade will require us to assist you so please open a ticket with us when you have tested and are ready to upgrade.

Upgrading on VIP Go

For VIP Go, you can take advantage of the new version by adding the latest reviewed version (v.1.6) to your plugins folder. The plugin can be downloaded from WordPress.org.

If you have any questions please open a ticket where we’ll be happy to assist your transition to the newest version.

Bugs, feature requests, and contributions are more than welcome on Github.

Alert: WordPress.com VIP Availability Issues

This notice relates to the following platforms: WordPress.com VIP, VIP Go

Update 15:57 UTC: We are currently processing a backlog of jobs and expect that to take a few hours. Indexing of content into Elasticsearch may be delayed in the meantime.

Update 15:20 UTC: Sites are responding as expected. We are still seeing some delays in processing jobs, which we are working to resolve.

Update 15:00 UTC: We have identified the source of the problem – an increase in jobs that overwhelmed some systems – and have taken action to mitigate. We are seeing the jobs queues settling down and service returning to normal.

We are currently troubleshooting issues with the WordPress.com platform, and sites may experience slow load times or errors in the meantime.

Sorry for the trouble! We are working on the issue, which we believe to be related to Elasticsearch and the jobs system.

Please visit the VIP Lobby for more detailed updates (you can request access if you don’t have it already) at https://lobby.vip.wordpress.com – we will continue to update this post and @wpvipstatus until the issue is resolved.

If you have any questions, please email vip-support@wordpress.com.

UK Election week – June 5-10, 2017

The UK Election on June 8, 2017 has the potential to be a high profile and busy time for many sites, and for the VIP team.

Here are a few things you can do in preparation:

  • Let us know in advance if you are scheduling any launches, new features, or election-specific specials during that week, especially if you require assistance from the VIP team.
  • Adhere to security best practices:

In anticipation of a busy week, we will have increased staffing on tickets and deploys. As always, if you have a security issue or workflow-blocking concern, please open an urgent ticket with us and we will respond immediately.

 

Lean Commits === Swift Deploys

One of the most common actions of a developer working on a WordPress.com VIP-hosted project is committing code through our review workflow. We want to get your code deployed quickly while also making sure it is secure and performant, and this process involves human review. (Read more about why we do code reviews.)

A few months ago, we implemented automated PHP CodeSniffer checks on incoming commits. This allows us to provide some kinds of feedback on your commits right away, speeding up the overall review feedback process. As always, we encourage you to set up PHPCS in your local development environment too.

We also ask you to keep your commits small. Large commits take longer to review, can be more complex and can hold up other commits. If the changeset is larger than about 1,000 lines of code it may need more time than our traditional review/deploy workflow facilitates, to give it the proper attention it deserves. In these cases we may revert the commit and ask you to consider smaller, more atomic commits, or push the changes to a scheduled review and follow up in a support ticket about planning a timeline for that.

When we consider the size of a changeset we’re looking at the pending commits sitting in the queue. For example, if there are 3 commits around 900 lines each all committed fairly close together it’s likely we’ll end up looking at all of these as a single changeset. That would push over the limit and we may need to take a bit longer to perform the review, or review those outside of the review/deploy queue.

There are several ways commits can have a more efficient journey through the queue;

Whenever you’re in doubt, please open a ticket with us and check first. We’ll always be happy to help you think about ways to create smaller commits so they have a smooth journey through to deployment.

Happy committing!