In this month’s release, we focussed on bringing you some new tools to add and embed content in your posts and pages.
When WordPress 5.0 was released a year ago, we brought you a slew of blocks to use in the new block editor: Simple Payments, Forms, Maps, Galleries, Subscriptions, and a lot more! In this release, we’d like to give you two more blocks.
Pinterest
The Pinterest block is the easiest way to embed Pinterest content to your site — it allows you to embed boards, profiles, and pins. Pro tip: combine a layout grid with pins to get this visually striking layout.
Star Rating
The new Star Rating block allows authors to add star ratings to any post or page. With just a few clicks, you can add your review of movies, books, songs, recipes — anything you can put a number on.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 8.5 out of 10.
To use the block, start by adding up to 10 stars, then customize the color to fit your post, then click the rating of your choice.
Note: the block is solely for you to create and insert ratings into a post, it will not solicit feedback or polling from your site visitors.
And more
This release also introduces Jetpack Backup, a solution for backups, restores, and migration that is fully integrated with Jetpack.
As always, this release includes many other bug fixes and improvements. This time around we focussed on the connection process to ensure that your site’s connection to WordPress.com is as reliable as possible.
You can check the changelog for more details. To use the latest version of Jetpack on your site, update your existing installation or install Jetpack.
A big thank you to everyone who contributed to this release:
Andrés Maneiro, Aurorum, Ben Dwyer, Bernie Reiter, Brandon Kraft, Caleb Bauermeister, Daniel Walmsley, Derek Smart, Echo Gregor, Enej Bajgoric, Filipe Varela, Gary Pendergast, Grant Kinney, Igor Zinovyev, Jefferson Rabb, Jeremy Herve, Joan Rho, Kim Brown, Kirk Wight, Kostiantyn Plakhotia, Marin Atanasov, Mark George, Matthew Denton, Michael D Adams, Michael Turk, Miguel Lezama, Miguel Torres, Mikael Korpela, Piotr Delawski, Robert Franklin, Ryan Kienstra, Scott Evans, Yaroslav Kukharuk.
VaultPress backups remain available. If you currently use the VaultPress dashboard via a Jetpack Personal, Premium, or Professional Plan, you can keep using VaultPress with no issues; your plan remains available and gives you access to backups via VaultPress, but also to all the other features included in each plan.
Jetpack Backup, on the other hand, is a new solution focussed on backups. It does not rely on the VaultPress plugin; your site can be backed up as soon as you purchase that solution and you won’t need to install an additional plugin. You’ll be able to view your backups, download them, or start a restore, all from your central WordPress.com dashboard and its Activity Log.
After the upgrade, I don’t have the star block under Jetpack or any other section. Are there any other requirement for star block that my theme must have? Thank you for your time.
It’s like a regular update. When switching from 7 to 8 I would expect more powerful features or changes. The new tools are lovely, especially Pinterest one. But I can’t say the same for the star rating. As a result, only the authors can use it. This may not meet the expectations.
Thanks Jetpack team for the update. I wish success in future works. 🙂
When switching from 7 to 8 I would expect more powerful features or changes.
I see what you mean; that’s indeed one approach plugin authors can take when updating the version of their plugin. With Jetpack, we try to stay close to WordPress’ own standards and version numbering structure:
Version 4.0 is no different than 3.9 and 4.1. There isn’t a “WordPress 3” or “WordPress 4” – we’re weird like that for historical reasons.
That’s why Jetpack 8.0 is no different than 7.9 or 8.1. 🙂
I can’t say the same for the star rating. As a result, only the authors can use it. This may not meet the expectations.
Thanks for the feedback. We will iterate on that block, and we’ll see what we can do to improve it. Keep an eye on this blog to find out when we’ll release some more updates!
YESSSSSSSSS. Please keep creating more blocks. It’s the single most important thing to help people fall in love with Gutenberg. You need to create things that let them do something that wasn’t easy or possible before. You need to give them a reason to be excited about this new way of doing things.
Jetpack 
Thanks, but don’t use blocks and never will.
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Can you clarify what impact this has on VaultPress backups in the short- and long-term?
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VaultPress backups remain available. If you currently use the VaultPress dashboard via a Jetpack Personal, Premium, or Professional Plan, you can keep using VaultPress with no issues; your plan remains available and gives you access to backups via VaultPress, but also to all the other features included in each plan.
Jetpack Backup, on the other hand, is a new solution focussed on backups. It does not rely on the VaultPress plugin; your site can be backed up as soon as you purchase that solution and you won’t need to install an additional plugin. You’ll be able to view your backups, download them, or start a restore, all from your central WordPress.com dashboard and its Activity Log.
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Where is the “Star Rating” in blocks???
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You can find the new block under the “Jetpack” section in the block picker, or by searching for “Star” thanks to the search form there.
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After the upgrade, I don’t have the star block under Jetpack or any other section. Are there any other requirement for star block that my theme must have? Thank you for your time.
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Could you contact us via this contact form with more details about your site, so we can take a look with you?
Thank you!
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It’s like a regular update. When switching from 7 to 8 I would expect more powerful features or changes. The new tools are lovely, especially Pinterest one. But I can’t say the same for the star rating. As a result, only the authors can use it. This may not meet the expectations.
Thanks Jetpack team for the update. I wish success in future works. 🙂
LikeLike
I see what you mean; that’s indeed one approach plugin authors can take when updating the version of their plugin. With Jetpack, we try to stay close to WordPress’ own standards and version numbering structure:
That’s why Jetpack 8.0 is no different than 7.9 or 8.1. 🙂
Thanks for the feedback. We will iterate on that block, and we’ll see what we can do to improve it. Keep an eye on this blog to find out when we’ll release some more updates!
LikeLike
YESSSSSSSSS. Please keep creating more blocks. It’s the single most important thing to help people fall in love with Gutenberg. You need to create things that let them do something that wasn’t easy or possible before. You need to give them a reason to be excited about this new way of doing things.
LikeLiked by 1 person