Web Dev News Roundup: Google’s Mobile Web Specialist Certification

Zoe Adkins runs through this month’s Web Development news, including a new Google certification for mobile web developers, and new releases from WordPress.

Google’s Latest Certification Program

The new Mobile Web Specialist Certification is a chance for mobile web developers to promote their skills.

Google has released a study guide to help any entrants prepare for this certification, which consists of coding challenges and an exit interview.

According to Tech Crunch’s Frederic Lardinois,

You’ll have four hours to complete the coding challenges and you can take three stabs at the exam if you don’t pass in your first attempt. Some of the topics covered here include basic website layout and styling, progressive web apps, performance optimization and caching, as well as testing and debugging.

Entrants who pass the exam are rewarded with a digital badge, which can be displayed across social media profiles.

WordPress Tightens Security

WordPress has announced 4.8.2, a security update for previous editions.

The WordPress team recommend installing this immediately, as it is designed to combat issues such as:

• Path traversal vulnerabilities in the file unzipping code and customizer

• The open redirect on user and term edit screens

• Cross-site scripting vulnerabilities in the plugin editor, link modal, visual editor and template names

Aside from fixes for the above, this new release also consists of solutions to issues in the 4.8 release.

4.9 Beta 1 Release

Although WordPress 4.9 Beta 1 is available, the team don’t advise you run it on a production site, as it is still under development.

The finished product is forecast to go live on 14^th November 2017, but the WordPress team are calling on its users to assist them with finalisation.

To make sure sites can be easily customised with no remaining bugs, the following items will be tested before the big release:

• Addition of a frontend preview link to the Customizer to allow changes to be browsed on the frontend, even without a user being logged in

• Support for shortcodes in Text widgets

• Support for adding media to Text widgets

• Improve flow for creating new menus in the Customizer

For the full list of items, check out WordPress News.

More Web Dev News and Advice

For more digital updates, read this week’s SEO News Roundup: Google’s Penguin Is Swimming On Autopilot

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