This Week In WordPress: May 7, 2012

How to Leverage the Upcoming Theme Customizer in WordPress 3.4
Check out this cool overview that gives you a look inside the Theme Customizer coming out with WordPress 3.4. The process of setting up and previewing a new theme is completely streamlined and oh-so sleek. This definitely gives theme developers everywhere something else to think about when developing their themes. Making WordPress easier for the user? We approve.

The WordPress.org Plugin Repository Now Officially Accepts GPLv3 Licensed Code
WordPress core team member Andrew Nacin recently posted on the WordPress development blog that the wordpress.org Plugin Repository now accepts GPLv3 compatible code, which brings it inline with the themes directory. There’s no need to get into the joys of understanding all the different software licenses here, but if you distribute code, in particular open source code, understanding licensing requirements is essential.

Optimizing WordPress Loading Speed with header.php and .htaccess
WordPress automatically loads in a lot of information with header.php and some of the enqueued scripts from functions.php. WP Tuts Plus gives you some great examples of some spring cleaning you can do in header.php and with your .htaccess file. One helpful tip: if you have a large site with many posts, reduce your MySQL database size by removing revisions.

How to Fix Hacked WordPress Sites: Step by Step
Having your site hacked is scary. Are you able to retrieve your data, is everything lost, when did the attack occur? These are all questions that can give a developer or site owner a heart attack, but they can all be dealt with. WordPress Jedi calmly goes over how to see what happened, how to scan and fix files and the steps to take after you are back up and running. After you read this, go back up your database, because really, what can it hurt to be safe?