Category: News & Announcements

Supporting our team and clients during the spread of COVID-19

Posted in Community, News & Announcements by Dave Rosen

XWP is committed to the safety of our team members and the continued support of our clients and the delivery of their projects.

As we continue to hear reports of how COVID-19 is spreading and impacting the world, we remain committed to the safety of our team members and the ongoing delivery of services and support to our clients and the WordPress community through our Open Source endeavors.

Safety for our Team

We are fortunate to operate in an industry and under a business model that, by comparison, is less directly affected by the impact of COVID-19. We have, since our inception, been a 100% remote team. This means that implementing a practice of self-isolation during this pandemic is easier to facilitate. Our team members are equipped through the provision of company resources and processes to operate at full capacity from their home workspace.

We have an internal community program (called Unleash+) that provides funds to team members for products, activities, and experiences that enhance (unleash) their personal lives. We are reworking this program to help provide team members with extra resources for gaining access to items and services needed during this time.

Delivering for our Clients

Our remote operations mean we are well equipped to continue to deliver in full to our client and partner commitments. Working remotely is normal for our team members and they will not need to adjust to a new way of doing things. Additionally, if a team member were to contract the illness, there is no risk of further spread amongst the team.

In a time when our clients’ internal operations are adjusting to cope, they can rest assured that the team they have in us is ready to support them.

We are also offering support to our clients and partners in advice around transitioning internal teams to remote. We have 15+ years of experience in remote and have a wealth of experience we are willing to share. 

Some Changes

We can’t deny that there are some changes to regular operations. Our teams have always enjoyed engaging at, supporting, and running events around web tech and Open Source. For the foreseeable future, all event attendance by XWP team members for business or community contribution purposes is cancelled.

Along with this, we occasionally meet in person with certain clients. While 95% of client engagement is remote, this facetime often brings value to our projects. As with events, this will also be on hold for the foreseeable future and we will work with clients remotely.

We will reassess these restrictions when appropriate and as the nature of this pandemic evolves.

Love in community 

In times of fear, look for those doing good!

It’s so easy to become lost and burdened by the cycle of news. Of course, we should remain informed, but remember that the world we live in, the world burdened by this pandemic, is one made up of communities. If we look within our communities, we can see everywhere signs of goodness in people. Help, care, love, and support shines when there is darkness. Be inspired by the goodness of others and find ways you can shine for your community.

Unsplash + WordPress: Bringing the web’s favorite photo library to the web’s favorite CMS

Posted in News & Announcements, Project by Rob Stinson

This week we kicked off a project we’ve been excitedly building towards. We’ve started working with the incredible team at Unsplash on their WordPress plugin. When launched, the plugin will bring a richer and deeper experience to content creators in WordPress in how they can access, interact, and use the wonderful photography from the Unsplash library.

The ethos of Unsplash is one that is beautifully aligned with WordPress. Both platforms:

  • Embrace Open Source
  • Grow through rich community contribution
  • Empower content creators

The evidence of this alignment is in the fact that the photos of Unsplash are already found across a massive proportion of the 35% of the web that WordPress powers.

The work planned is exciting and we can’t wait to share the completed plugin with the WordPress community. Stay tuned for more updates.

Tide Joins WordPress

Posted in News & Announcements, Project, Technology by Tine Haugen

A rising tide lifts all boats.

Our company’s mission to work for an open web that is secure, performant, reliable, and accessible has been the driving force behind Tide, a tool that aims to lift code quality across the WordPress ecosystem.

During the 12 month journey Tide has been on, we’ve discovered that the vision behind it also aligns with the goals of WordPress. We saw the value and importance of Tide being part of WordPress itself where it can have a bigger impact and a greater chance of achieving its vision.

During the State of the Word presentation this past weekend Matt Mullenweg announced WordPress’ adoption of the Tide project.

This was a milestone moment for XWP and Tide, and a giant step closer to accomplishing what we set out to do; building a stronger open web.

Tide now belongs to the WordPress community and we are so grateful it will have the community to support it.

How you can contribute to Tide

A priority near-term for XWP is completing the transition to WordPress.org and ensuring that the project continues to build momentum with Derek Herman and Jeff Paul as leading contributors from our team. They welcome and encourage all community participation.

The project site for Tide is make.wordpress.org/tide. Visit and subscribe to the site to remain updated with progress and details on where to contribute. To get involved directly in conversations around Tide, join the #tide channel on the Make WordPress slack.

We would like to thank those who tried out Tide at WordCamp US. The public API will be back online no later than December 20th, paving the way for the integration with WordPress.org.

Thanks to Automattic, Google, and WP Engine who supported us throughout the journey. We are excited to see what the future holds for Tide in WordPress!

Tine Haugen,
Managing Director

Tide: A path to better code across the WordPress ecosystem

Posted in News & Announcements, Project by Rob Stinson

Involve yourself in enough WordCamps, meetups and community forums, and you start to notice a trend. The same kind of question is asked over and over. It sounds something like…

What plugin should I install to do {feature}?

WordPress users have the world’s most popular CMS, with 29% of the web under its wing and 53,000+ plugins, yet there is still a confidence gap when choosing plugins and themes. Right now, WordPress does a great job of providing plugin and theme information related to:

  • The features
  • The support you receive
  • User reviews

These are all part of what makes a good plugin or theme, but there is an important piece missing. This piece of information answers the question…

Will the code I’m about to install break or put my site at risk?

A plugin or theme could deliver the exact range of features you need, with great support, and positive reviews, but if the quality of code it contains is poor, you risk the integrity of your website. A single line of good code can unlock potential for you and your website, but bad code can trigger untold calamity.

Unfortunately, the barrier of entry to writing good code is higher than we would like to admit.

The good news

We believe there’s a way to streamline complex web engineering processes around code quality into elegant tools that all WordPress users – from builders to admins to developers – can understand. Tools that empower users to make better decisions on the plugins and themes they install on their sites. Tools that equip developers to easily spot problems and craft a better class of code.

Say to Tide.

Tide, a project started here at XWP and supported by Google, Automattic, and WP Engine, aims to equip WordPress users and developers to make better decisions about the plugins and themes they install and build.

Tide is a service, consisting of an API, Audit Server, and Sync Server, working in tandem to run a series of automated tests against the WordPress.org plugin and theme directories. Through the Tide plugin, the results of these tests are delivered as an aggregated score in the WordPress admin that represents the overall code quality of the plugin or theme. A comprehensive report is generated, equipping developers to better understand how they can increase the quality of their code.

The image below is an early concept of how Tide could introduce the score to the plugin tile in the WordPress admin. How would you present this data? We welcome your feedback.

WordPress plugin card concept with Tide Score

Tide brings code transparency to the individual, with the collective outcome being an increase of quality across the entire WordPress ecosystem.

Tide at WordCamp US

Alongside our friends at Google, we’ll be sharing Tide with the WordPress community at WordCamp US in just a few weeks. The Tide plugin will be released shortly after. Add your email below if you want to hear more about this project as it develops.

Why this is important to us

At XWP, we are working for a future where the open web is more performant, secure, reliable, and accessible. WordPress plays an undeniably large role in this with the quality of code across the ecosystem setting the stage for either its success or struggles.

What’s next

We know it’ll take some time to make this tool perfect, but we believe in the positive impact good code will have on the WordPress community and the open web. In the same spirit as other open source projects like Let’s Encrypt, Travis CI and WordPress itself, we believe that “a rising tide lifts all boats,” and we want your help in getting this right. If you feel you can contribute, stay tuned as we release further details in the coming weeks.