What's New in Themes
Discover the latest updates to Arc XP's Themes application.
Themes
Release dates
Sandbox and Production - Thursday, June 5, 2025
Release summary
This release fixes an issue in the following Themes versions:
3.0.0
2.6.0
2.5.2
2.4.1
2.3.2
We identified recent build failures related to the react-google-recaptcha-v3 dependency. This package is indirectly imported through @wpmedia/arc-themes-components, which is utilized by several Identity and Subscription-related blocks. This led to the inability to deploy bundles.
On June 3, 2025, react-google-recaptcha-v3 published a "minor" version update that introduced a breaking change. This update caused @wpmedia/arc-themes-components to resolve to React 19, leading to build and compatibility issues.
As a result, this release pins the react-google-recaptcha-v3 dependency to the known stable version 1.10.1. This change restores compatibility and aligns with the original expected behavior of Arc Themes blocks that rely on react-google-recaptcha-v3.
Users affected
Developers
Action required
If you're experiencing this issue, a workaround is to add the following override to your package.json file:
```
"overrides": {
"react-google-recaptcha-v3": "1.10.1"
}
```Release dates
Sandbox - Thursday, May 8, 2025
Production - Thursday, May 22, 2025
Release summary
Themes 3.0 provides compatibility with Engine 6.0. This release includes no functional or breaking changes for Arc XP blocks bundles already running on Engine 5.0.
Users affected
Developers
Action required
AWS Node 18 runtime support and PageBuilder Engine 5.0 will be deprecating on September 30, 2025. To continue deploying changes in Arc XP environments beyond this date, you must upgrade to Engine 6.0.
See PageBuilder Engine 5.x and Themes 2.x deprecation.
When you're ready to deploy these updates, set the 3.0.0 version in your bundle's {{blocks.json}}, or select the version in Themes Settings.
Release dates
Sandbox - Thursday, April 10, 2025
Production - Monday, April 28, 2025 (was previously Thursday, April 24, 2025)
Release summary
This release includes the following updates:
Top Table List block - Media for small and extra large promos now display the appropriate video or gallery icon.
Gallery block - Captions no longer cut off while scrolling through a gallery.
Card List block - Added protections against undefined or
nullvalues on the offset override in PageBuilder Editor to prevent an error where the block doesn't display content.
Users affected
Developers, PageBuilder Editor users
Action required
When you're ready to deploy these updates, set the 2.6.0 version in your bundle's blocks.json, or select the version in Themes Settings.
Release dates
Sandbox - Wednesday, December 4, 2024
Production - Wednesday, December 11, 2024
Release summary
Inline editing on promo blocks
PageBuilder Editor users now have the ability to edit certain content elements inline within the preview pane on the small, medium, large, and extra large promo blocks. For full details, see Themes - Using PageBuilder Editor Content Search Integrations and Inline Editing on Blocks.
Bug fixes
Identity Sign Up Block - An issue has been fixed where the password matching validation may incorrectly display an error when passwords include special characters.
Gallery Block - An issue has been fixed where vertical images in the gallery were not displaying and scrolling correctly in Safari browsers and iOS devices.
Users affected
Developers, PageBuilder Editor users
Action required
When you're ready to deploy these updates, set the 2.5.2 version in your bundle's {{blocks.json}} or select the version in Theme Settings.
Release dates
Sandbox - Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Production - Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Release summary
You can now use multiple platforms and devices (Web, iOS, Android) with one Apple developer account. This update uses the Open ID Connect protocol.
Images in medium promo blocks now appear the same size in mobile as images in small promo blocks
Users affected
Arc block users
Action required
Choose 2.5.1 when creating new builds in Theme Settings to use the new blocks version.
Release dates
Sandbox - Tuesday, August 20, 2024
Production - Tuesday, September 3, 2024
Release summary
Images on Author Bio Blocks now resized
The Full Author Bio and Short Author Bio blocks are now optimized to use Image Resizer V2 for the author images.
Bug fixes
Promo Blocks - An issue has been fixed on standard and manual promo blocks where image URLs without extensions manually configured on block would not render as expected
Top Table List Block - Alt text missing on the small and medium story media has been added to the block
Card List Block - An issue has been fixed where some content elements were not correctly rendering based on the “offset” override configured on the block. Now the overline, image, and byline correctly display from the corresponding content.
Button Component - Hover state style updates have been made to the button component to ensure alignment with Figma Blocks Library
Social sign-in Block - layout of the social sign-in buttons has been optimized
Forgot Password Block - Issue fixed where passwords would sometimes not update
User Management Block - Apple Sign-in is now showing under Connected Accounts
Corrected some redirect issues causing users to end up on the homepage after logging in
Updated language for the password requirements to be more specific
Users affected
Developers
Action required
When you're ready to deploy these updates, select the 2.5.0 version in Theme Settings.
Release dates
Sandbox and Production - Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Release summary
Articles with HTML embeds and PoWa player videos are now rendering as expected.
Users affected
Developers
Action required
When you're ready to deploy these updates, select the 2.4.1 version in Theme Settings.
Release dates
Sandbox - Thursday, May 30, 2024
Production - Thursday, June 6, 2024
Release summary
PageBuilder Editor content search integrations
Themes blocks now include the PageBuilder Editor integrated story search, video search, gallery search, and collections search capabilities through the out-of-the-box content sources. For more details, see Themes - Using PageBuilder Editor Content Search Integrations and Inline Editing on Blocks.
Greek language support
Greek is now one of the 25 languages supported on Themes blocks. You can set each site's language (locale) within Theme Settings.
Signing and resizing of author images
Signing and resizing of author images has been enabled within the Themes content sources. Previously, these were treated as external images requiring you to use the Signing Service to generate an auth, but this is now supported out-of-the-box on content sources.
One Time Access (OTA) on Identity One Time Password Request Form block
The Identity One Time Password Request Form - Arc Block was updated to finalize the login flow using an One Time Access (OTA) nonce. If a valid ota_nonce is present in the URL query parameters to the page containing the Identity One Time Password Request Form - Arc Block, the block logs the user in. Should an invalid nonce be provided, the block displays the corresponding error message and prompts the user to request a new OTA link. In order to make use of this, any communication to your customers should include a link to your OTA page with a query parameter ota_nonce={nonce}.
Bug fixes
Header Nav Chain - An accessibility issue has been addressed where users did not have an appropriate option to collapse the hamburger menu from screen reader navigation. There is now a close button to collapse the menu.
Note
This includes an update to the Figma blocks library. See the change log for more details.
Top Table List Block - An issue has been resolved where the sizes of small and medium promo images were not consistent when displayed on iOS devices.
Identity Log In Block - Added a new custom field called “Reset Password URL”. This custom field asks for the link to the reset password page. This resolves an issue related to the reset password flows. Prior to this update, if the “Identity Log In - Arc Block” has the custom field “Redirect to the previous page” enabled & the user logs in right after resetting their password, the login block would redirect the user back to the reset password page, causing them to think they are not logged in and their password reset did not succeed. This new custom field will allow the Log In block to know the location of the reset password page & prevent redirecting the user there. Instead, the block will redirect the user to the default redirect URL set in the Login block.
Subscriptions Checkout Block - This block has been updated to improve conversion by retaining cart & order information for customers who have begun, but did not complete the checkout process. If a cart or order has been created in the past 48 hours but not completed, the checkout block will retrieve the pending order details and bring the user to the furthest point they’ve previously reached in the Checkout flow, using the products & offer they have previously selected so that they do not have to repeat these steps. The block has also been updated to be fully mobile responsive, providing the same seamless checkout experience on mobile devices.
Users affected
Developers
Action required
When you're ready to deploy these updates, select the 2.4.0 version in Theme Settings.
Release dates
Sandbox and Production - Friday, May 24, 2024
Release summary
Top Table List Block - videos without a “Credit” or “Editor” value in Video Center now render in the XL and medium size configuration for the Top Table List block as expected.
Users affected
Developers
Action required
When you're ready to deploy this update, select the 2.3.2 version in Theme Settings.
Release dates
Sandbox - Thursday, May 2, 2024 Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Production - Thursday, May 9, 2024
Release summary
The checkout block now contains options for Google Pay and Apple Pay. These options are automatically enabled when you configure the payment gateways in the Settings admin. For details on those configurations, see Adding a payment provider. After you configure payment gateways, they appear in the checkout block as shown here:
 |
Additionally, the checkout block can now utilize reCAPTCHA protections. reCAPTCHA is automatically included after you configure it. For more details on configuring reCAPTCHA, see Secure your site against attacks: CORS domains, blocked email domains, and reCAPTCHA.
Users affected
Developers
Action required
Update to the new version of the Theme blocks.
Release dates
Sandbox - Thursday, April 18, 2024
Production - Thursday, May 2, 2024
Release summary
This release includes the following items.
Photo Center focal point respected on blocks
The lead art, list, and promo blocks now respect image focal points set in Photo Center. If a focal point does not exist on the image, smart crop is applied as the fallback.
reCAPTCHA for Registration and Sign-in blocks
You can now enable the Subscriptions Registration and Sign-in blocks with reCAPTCHA protections. You must configure and enable reCAPTCHA in the Subscriptions Settings admin. After the options for User registration and User sign-in are enabled, the reCAPTCHA protections are automatically included on those screens. For more details on configuring reCAPTCHA, see Secure your site against attacks: CORS domains, blocked email domains, and reCAPTCHA. We are including reCAPTCHA protections on the Checkout and One-time access link blocks in the future.
Apple Sign-in
Apple sign-in is now available as part of the social-sign-on block. You can add the social-sign-on block on your register and sign-in pages. If you have Apple enabled/configured as a third Auth provider, the Sign-in with Apple button will appear so your users can register and sign-in with those credentials. If the use already has an account, and is using the same email address, this sign-in option is added to their Identity account. For more information on configuring social sign-in options, see Configure third-party authentication providers. And for details on Apple sign-in, see How to Configure Apple Login with Arc XP Subscriptions.
Bug Fixes
The headphone icon has been replaced with an icon that aligns with the icons library standards. It was previously smaller than the other icons.
Header Nav Chain - An issue has been fixed where the hamburger menu was not closing, when clicking anywhere else on the page outside of the sections list.
Lead Art Block - An issue was fixed where an erroneous black bar and close button were displaying after exiting out of “Expand” mode.
Section Title Block - An issue has been fixed where section links that wrapped to more than one line were not centering appropriately on mobile.
Users affected
Developers
Action required
When you're ready to deploy these updates, select the 2.3.0 version in Theme Settings.
This hotfix applies to Themes 2.1.3, 2.1.4, and 2.2.1.
Release dates
Sandbox and Production - Thursday, March 21, 2024
Release summary
Login Block: Redirects are now correctly routing users to the designated page after login.
Paywall Block: The RegWall button is now above the fold on mobile.
Users affected
Developers
Action required
If you are on Themes 2.0 and would like to receive these subscriptions blocks updates, select 2.1.3 or higher version or set the version in your blocks.json and complete a deployment.
Release dates
Sandbox and Production - Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Release summary
Default Output-Type Block: polyfill.io usage has been removed from the default output-type. It’s no longer needed as it intended to polyfill for IE11 support. More importantly, the polyfill.io domain has transferred ownership, which is no longer under the original trusted ownership. If you have a custom default output type, we recommend removing it or switching to
fastly-polyfill.ioorcdnjs.cloudflare.com/polyfill.Results List Block: Results List was defaulting to lazy load regardless of changing the custom field. Changing the lazy load custom field should now work as expected. It now defaults to eager loading unless lazy load is toggled.
Full Author Bio Block: The font color for the author role and the connect text has been corrected to use the text-color token.
Short Bio Block: The font color of the author's name in the short bio block has been updated to use the correct primary-color token.
Content API Content Source: The content-api source redirect handler now also checks for vanity redirects against the Draft API schema, in addition to the related content check redirect it was already performing.
Users affected
Developers
Action required
If you have a custom default output type, we recommend removing polyfill or switching to fastly-polyfill.io/cdnjs.cloudflare.com/polyfill. When you're ready to deploy these updates, select the 2.2.1 version in Theme Settings.
Release dates
Sandbox - Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Production - Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Release summary
Engine 5 compatibility with Themes
Themes version 2.2.0 is now bundled with Engine 5.0.3. This update brings compatibility with Node 18, aligning with the latest improvements and security features.
Audience Targeting compatibility with Themes
Themes version 2.2.0 is now compatible with Audience Targeting, an integrated, server-side targeting tool that lets you easily build audiences leveraging out-of-the-box criteria and curate and deploy CDN-powered, tailored digital experiences using PageBuilder Editor. To learn more and get started, see Arc XP's Audience Targeting.
Bug Fixes
Resolved a margin property definition in the Medium promo's media-item token from a physical to a logical property. This now ensures better layout consistency across different reading directions and further improves Themes internationalization compatibility.
Resolved an issue where the top banner ad (970x250) was not aligning correctly within its container. The ad now centers properly, improving visual alignment and consistency across all pages where it's configured to appear.
Users affected
Developers
Action required
Ensure you have taken the necessary steps to be Engine 5 and Node 18 compatible. When you're ready to deploy these updates, select the 2.2.0 version in Theme Settings.
Release dates
Sandbox - Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Production - Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Release summary
Configurable aspect ratios on Results List and Lead Art blocks
You can now configure both the Results List and Lead Art block to render in the following aspect ratios:
3:2 (default for Results List)
16:9 (default for Lead Art)
4:3
 |
 |
 |
Bug fixes
The vertical divider between the right rail and main regions on Right Rail and Advanced Right Rail layouts now render as expected.
An extraneous vertical divider has been removed from the Advanced Right Rail.
Section Title links now appear as expected on mobile. An outstanding margin CSS physical property was causing the section title links to not always display correctly around the separators on mobile. The physical property has been replaced with the appropriate logical property.
Image component styles are no longer duplicated in the CSS output.
Datetime format is now respected in the Card List block. Previously, the Card List block was not reading the value set in the
dateLocalizationsite property. The configured format is now respected.The
line-block-startinvalid logical property was replaced with theline-heightproperty so that logical properties are consistent across all blocks.Bold and italic text now render with text styles on Article Body block. Previously, text with bold and italics styles applied in Composer were not displaying those text styles in the Article Body block.
Users affected
Developers
Action required
When you're ready to deploy these updates, select the 2.1.4 version in Theme Settings.
Themes Settings
Release dates
Sandbox - Thursday, September 5, 2024 (was previously Thursday, August 29, 2024)
Production - Thursday, September 12, 2024 (was previously Thursday, September 5, 2024)
Release summary
View Settings
You can now view settings in a build that is deploying or has already completed in Themes Settings. This allows you to view and troubleshoot your settings in a read-only mode, without the need to create a new build. To access the build settings, navigate to Themes Settings and click View Settings on an in progress or completed build.
Micro Experiences Query Param
In preparation for the upcoming Micro Experiences feature, you will now see a ?mxId=00000000 query param appended to Theme Settings URLs, with no impact to the user experience.
Users affected
Themes users
Action required
None
Release dates
Sandbox - Monday, May 20, 2024
Production - Tuesday, May 28, 2024
Release summary
You can now create a new build regardless of the state of the previous build. This provides a self-serve option to move forward with a new build after a build has failed due to an error within the bundle or selecting the wrong Themes version. The “Create new build” button remains active and can now be selected during this state:
|
Users affected
Developers, Admins
Action required
None
Release dates
Sandbox - Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Production - Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Release summary
Node 18 dependencies
Theme Settings now includes updates to back-end dependencies for Node 18. This upgrade ensures compatibility with the latest Node.js features and improvements, enhancing overall stability and performance.
Bug fixes
Creating builds with a high number of values no longer experiences throttling and unprocessed data.
Image uploads now work as expected in Development and Sandbox environments.
Users affected
Admins, Developers
Action required
Nones
Sandbox - Thursday, April 27, 2023
Production - Thursday, April 27, 2023
Global and Website Settings no longer throws an “unexpected token” error for fonts when you open the page. Previously, this error prevented you from making updates to your settings. Now, because the Google font payload size is reduced, you can access and update the Global and Website Settings page as expected.
Release dates
Sandbox - Friday, March 4, 2022
Production - Friday, March 11, 2022
Release schedule by region:
Sydney: 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM Eastern Time
Tokyo: 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM Eastern Time
Washington, D.C.: 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM Eastern Time
Frankfurt: 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM Eastern Time
Release summary
Themes Settings 1.0 introduces Themes Settings, an application that lets you configure key aspects of your Themes website. In Themes Settings, you create a build to make changes and edit various settings, including Global Settings, Arc and Custom blocks, and Defaults. Themes Settings lets you set default values for all or most of your Themes websites. Before building, you can preview the changes, and then promote them to your live website.
For full documentation on Themes Settings, see Getting Started with Theme Settings.
Users affected
Themes users
Action required
None
Themes Blocks Styling
Release dates
Sandbox and Production - Monday, April 8, 2024
Release summary
Out-of-the-box Themes alias tokens are no longer overridden with the addition of any custom alias token styling. When developers work locally on their site bundles, they will now see all of the Themes alias tokens pulled in to their styling. Custom styles are not affected. This bug fix does not affect styles in bundles that have already been uploaded or deployed.
Prior to the fix, a single alias token override existed and no Arc Themes tokens were pulled in. For example:
Now, the alias token override exists and also pulls in all Arc Themes Tokens. For example:
Users affected
Developers
Action required
During local site development, Arc Themes tokens are now populated during style compilation. Developers should check their alias tokens in their site index.scss files and make sure their sites look as intended. This bug fix does not affect any bundles that are already deployed.