DEV: You Shall Not Cache!

Welcome to DEV, your fortnightly dose of WordPress news.

Here’s your round-up of precious new tools, clever dev tricks, fresh features and community creations. One newsletter to rule them all, forged in the fires of WPMU DEV.🔥

Stick around to the end to see a Weakest Link answer that had the other contestants weak in the knees with giggles.

In today’s edition:

• Crocoblock wants your thoughts: Take the “State of Dynamic WordPress 2025” survey.
• See how WooCommerce 10.3.4 smooths out checkout flows, just in time for the holiday rush.
• WordPress 6.9 Beta 2 is ready for you to play around with it and see what breaks.

Hot Off The Presses: What’s New?

Sometimes navigating your own code feels scarier than slogging through the swamps of Mordor.

You know you technically wrote it, but now it reads like a language long forgotten. Maybe you’re cursing your past self and wishing you’d never embarked on this journey at all.

Don’t worry. You’ll find your way. As Gandalf would say, “All we have to decide is what to do with the code that is given to us.”

As you do that, we’re right beside you with the latest updates, dev wisdom, and WordPress fellowship to light your way through the darkness.

WordPress 6.9 Beta 2 Lands: Get Ready to Test!

WordPress 6.9 Beta 2 is now live for testing, so it’s time to take it out of the box, poke it, prod it and report any bugs you find.

It’s still not ready for production sites, so stick to your staging environment for now.

This release brings 33+ editor updates and fixes since Beta 1, including 28 core tickets squashed. More fixes are on the way, with your help through testing.

Try spinning up a brand-new site with the beta and running your usual theme or plugin setup to see what breaks (and what holds strong).

If you spot an issue, first check whether it’s already listed among known bugs. Then report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or log a bug report in Trac.

Why the testing stage matters:

• Your bug reports and feedback make the final release stronger (and earn you serious dev-karma points).
• Testing early gives you a chance to flag quirks before they become client emergencies.
• And if you maintain sites or build custom themes and plugins, getting in early means fewer last-minute surprises when the release drops.

👉 Get all the details in the official blog post

👉 Download the WordPress Beta Tester plugin

The State of Dynamic WordPress 2025: Here’s Your Chance to Weigh In

When it comes to building dynamic WordPress sites in 2025, what are developers really up to? Which tools are saving time, which are causing headaches and how are clever folks using automation to handle the mundane stuff?

Crocoblock just launched the “State of Dynamic WordPress 2025” survey, designed to uncover real-world workflows and insights from devs like you.

The survey takes just 5-10 minutes and covers how you build, customise, and optimise dynamic WordPress websites.

Your input will help shape a new report packed with data-driven insights into how WordPress developers are working today (and where things are headed next).

👉 Add your voice to the survey here (Every insight counts!)

👉 Read more on the Crocoblock blog

10.3.4 Will Woo You With a Smoother Checkout Process

WooCommerce 10.3.4 just dropped on Halloween and it’s a scarily powerful upgrade with plenty of new features worth checking out. This release focuses on performance tweaks and PayPal fixes, tightening up some loose bolts under the hood.

Here’s What’s New:

• Autocomplete scripts will now actually listen to your admin settings (what a concept!), loading only when explicitly enabled. This means less unnecessary payload and better performance.
• Legacy script handles no longer trigger deprecation notices. Your dev console just got a little quieter.

Plus, Some Major PayPal Upgrades:

• Country codes now convert properly (thanks to the league/iso3166 library).
• Locale codes limited to two characters, as the PayPal API demands, so you’ll see fewer mysterious checkout errors.
• Address validation improved for international orders, reflecting PayPal’s official address requirements.
• Discounts and fees (negative line items) now behave correctly, keeping totals accurate.

If you’re running WooCommerce sites, this release will help to make your checkout process smoother and cleaner, just in time for the Black Friday and Holiday rush.

👉 Read the release notes

👉 View the changelog

Mind Bloggling Facts & Stats

• Bob Dunn’s OpenChannels.fm podcast (formerly Do the Woo) celebrates it’s milestone 700th episode! That’s 9 years, 565 guests, 39 rotating hosts and countless hours of WordPress chats. (Source)
• 1,700 new WordPress builders just joined the fellowship and launched their first websites, thanks to the WordPress Bhopal community’s epic four-month WP Build Tour across Madhya Pradesh. (Source)
• Katie Keith crunched 17,000 real customer records and 77,000 support convos to settle it once and for all: Do lifetime licenses really cost more to support? (Source)

Blogs & Resources You Shouldn’t Miss

Bud Kraus sees things in a different way, literally. Macular Degeneration has destroyed his central vision, so here’s how he adjusts his WordPress teaching workflow.

The Wayback Machine Link Fixer time-travels through the archives so your readers don’t hit dead ends. No DeLorean required.⚡

This guide will show you how to make your accordions pop harder without joining a polka band.

The Birds, the Bees and the Billing: how to have “The Talk” about 2026 privacy changes with your clients.

The art of storytelling for WordPress products: Build a brand so strong your customers will follow you into Mordor, even without second breakfast.

Topher shares a Hallway Chat with thought leader and co-editor of WP Wonder Women, June Liu.

When your clients ask for a Divi migration, show them this article instead.

Coffee Break Distractions

Challenge: How many of these infuriating Bad UX World Cup date pickers can you test before you throw your laptop across the room?

Got opinions on who deserves a WP Award? Get over there and vote already, then! (Voting closes November 25th.)

Jamie Marsland connects the dots between the obnoxious dude on his phone in a quiet cafe and the downfall of civilization.

The world is going into dark mode, and scientists say this is not a good thing.

Okay, so I’m not the only one who does Ctrl + CCCCCCC then Ctrl + V. Got it.

Who said AI wouldn’t create new jobs? Just… maybe not the jobs they were expecting.

Tammie Lister’s Blocktober was a fun adventure in experimental building. See this great round-up of Telex creations.

And finally…

“What ‘D’ is the term for a male duck?”

Love this mix of nerdery and nonsense? Forward it to your favorite WordPress weirdo. 💗