This week’s release includes a mix of new features (like Event Calendar support in our blocks!), and some important fixes, including those that went out a little earlier as hotfixes!
Event Calendar support added to the Homepage Posts block
Sites using the Events Calendar plugin will now be able to display Events in the Homepage Posts block.
If you’re using the Events Calendar, you should now see ‘Events’ in the list of Post Types that appear in the right column when editing the block (not to be confused with ‘Events Listings’, which come from the Newspack Listings plugin).
Events displayed with the block will optionally show the event’s featured image, title, excerpt, dates, venue, and author.
Larger featured images for larger displays
Posts and pages using the Behind, Above and Beside featured image placements in the Newspack Theme will now start using a larger image size, moving from 1200px to 2000px wide. This should help make images crisper on larger screens.
Option to not include Media Partners content when sharing to Apple News
For sites using the Media Partners module, you can now exclude the markup generated by this plugin from Apple News.
The option should now appear under WP Admin > Posts > Media Partners for sites that have that module enabled, under the Global Settings header.
Other general bugfixes & tweaks
Enable specific Jetpack features by default
By default, any new installations of the Newspack Plugin will enable a core set of Jetpack features by default, such as Site Accelerator, Widget Visibility, and the Share Buttons. These are features used by most Newspack sites, so it will improve the set-up process for new sites. This change will not affect the settings on existing Newspack sites.
Correct error related to billing country
This release addresses a bug where, when Newspack is the Reader Revenue Platform, requiring the state for the billing address but not the country would cause an error on checkout.
Check for authentication status before updating the Sign In/My Account button
This release fixes an issue where the Sign In/My Account button would sometimes incorrectly display the ‘My Account’ label when the current user was logged out.
Hotfixes since our last release
We’ve already pushed out a couple changes of note as hotfixes since the last release, since they were more pressing updates. These are all already live on all Newspack sites:
Add option to toggle off auto-generated photo credits
We recently added a feature where the Newspack Plugin would use a photo’s EXIF data to auto-generate image credits that would display on the site. We’ve appreciated the feedback about this new behavior, and have since added a toggle so it can be turned on and off. The default for this option is “off”, so if you would like to continue using this feature, please navigate to Newspack > Site Design > Settings, and toggle “Auto-populate image credits” on.
Options to show photo credits in archives, Newspack blocks
We’ve added the option to display photo credits with the Homepage Posts block, and to display both captions and credits in the Archive pages and in the Post Carousel block.
In the Homepage Post block, the option to display the credit is under the Featured Image Settings panel in the right column. For the archives, the option to display the caption or credit both appear under Customizer > Template Settings > Archive Settings. For the Post Carousel block, the options to display the caption and credit both appear under the ‘Article Meta Settings’ panel in the right column.
Stop showing related products in WooCommerce
By default WooCommerce displays a set of related products on individual product pages, which doesn’t really make sense for how most Newspack sites use WooCommerce. The related products are now hidden by default.
Next release cycle
Our next set of releases will be coming out the week of April 8th! Until then,
– The Newspack Product team
