Jetpack 3.8 – Google+ Badges and More

With the release of Jetpack 3.8, we’re introducing some great new additions for Google+ accounts and enhancements to existing Jetpack features. We’re also happy that we’ve had some fantastic contributions from members of the Jetpack community in this release.

Google+ Badges and Social Media Icons

New in Jetpack 3.8 are Google+ Badge widgets for your Google+ profiles, pages, and communities. Because Google+ profiles, pages, and communities are different, we offer slightly different versions of the badges:

Person badge using landscape layout and light theme.

Person badge using the portrait layout and the dark theme.

Page badge using portrait layout and light theme.

Community badge using portrait layout and light theme.

• Profiles: Allow people to easily find you on Google+ and add you to a circle directly from your website.
• Pages: Includes the profile badge features and adds some additional functionality.
• Communities: Help people find your community and engage with other users on a topic they find interesting.

You can configure these badges by width, choose from a light or dark theme, and choose from a portrait or landscape layout. There are more options for each badge version and you can read more about this new addition to our Extra Sidebar Widgets feature.

We’ve also heard your requests to add Google+ to our Social Media Icons widget. You can now configure Google+ alongside Facebook, Twitter, and all of our other available options in the widget. Need a refresher on how to set these up? Visit our Social Media Icons support page for more information.

Twitch.tv Shortcode Embeds

We’ve added the ability for you to use a shortcode to embed Twitch.tv videos and streams to your Jetpack-powered site. Simply use the shortcode and you can embed your favorite stream or add your own stream. You can even configure things like height, width, and autoplay. Find out more about the Twitch.tv shortcode.

New WordPress Contact Form Features and Updates

We’ve updated the WordPress Contact Form with some new form options and fixes. First, we’ve added a new “Checkbox with Multiple Items” field to the available contact form fields. Previously, you were only able to set up a single checkbox per field. This option allows you to set up multiple checkboxes all in a single field, saving you time.

Also, we’ve improved the styling of the emailed form responses. Now any responses to your WordPress Contact Form submissions will show up in the order you set in your contact form. No more jumbled responses!

And More…

Other key changes in Jetpack 3.8 include:

• Lots of new filters to allow further customization of Jetpack.
• Better error messaging for Subscription Widget sign up forms.
• Improvements and enhancements to accessibility.
• Full changelog can be seen at WordPress.org.

We worked hard to make Jetpack 3.8 great and we hope you enjoy it!

Community Involvement

In Jetpack 3.8, we’ve had some new features and fixes that have come from members of the Jetpack community. We’d like to take a moment to specifically thank these two community members who’ve taken the time to give back to the community:

First off, we’d like to thank Daisuke Takahashi for his exceptional work on the Google+ Badge Widget. Takahashi lives in Japan and is currently enrolled at university as a freshman and is a big fan of Open Source projects. He has been an active contributor to WordPress including speaking this past weekend at WordCamp Tokyo. Even with his self-professed “basic English skills,” he had no trouble with working with the Jetpack team on his initial code submission and subsequent changes to the widget. Thank you!

Secondly, we want to thank Eduardo Reveles for his substantial issue reports and patch submissions for Jetpack. Take a look at his GitHub profile to see all of his contributions to Jetpack. Thanks again for your help, Eduardo!

Want to help us make Jetpack even better? By contributing to Jetpack, you improve the functionality of millions of sites while gaining hands-on development experience. Best of all, people of all skill levels can help — whether you can barely recognize a filter (or don’t know what that means) or you’ve already authored your own plugins, there are ways for you to pitch in. See how you can help by visiting our Contribute page.

A special thank you to all who contributed to Jetpack during the 3.8 development cycle:
Adam Heckler, Alexander Kirk, Andrew Duthie, Brad Thomason, Brandon Kraft, Chase Livingston, Corey McKrill, Daisuke Takahashi, Dave Green, Derek Smart, Dion Hulse, Eduardo Reveles, Egill Erlendsson, Elliott Stocks, Enej Bajgoric, Gregory Cornelius, Ian Dunn, Igor Zinovyev, James Huff, Jeff Golenski, Jennifer M. Dodd, Jeremy Herve, Jesse Friedman, Joey Kudish, Jorge Bernal, Kat Hagan, Lance Willett, Marcus Kazmierczak, Michael Cain, Miguel Polfliet, Mo Jangda, Payton Swick, Richard Muscat, Rocco Tripaldi, Sam Hotchkiss, Sendhil Panchadsaram, Stephane Boisvert, Timmy Crawford, and Yoav Farhi.

Carolyn S.

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