We’re thrilled to announce that the 100th Refoundry website has launched! 

Crestview Strategy’s vibrant, engaging new site (designed and built by Forge and Smith) was the fabulous #100. 

This is a major achievement for our tiny team, and it’s incredibly exciting to see how far our plugin has come since the first Refoundry site went live. 

Refoundry Milestones

Here’s a high-level look at Refoundry’s path so far:

• September 2021: Founder Shawn Johnston secured IRAP funding and hired a lead engineer to join Forge and Smith and develop a new site builder plugin
• December 2021: Shawn hired two more engineers 
• December 2022: Forge and Smith built the first client website on Refoundry
• February 2023: The first Refoundry website launched for Versamet Royalties
• January 14, 2025: Refoundry became available to download from the Plugin Directory
• January 17, 2025: Wallop became the first agency partner (we don’t count Forge and Smith because technically we are Forge and Smith) 
• May 2025: Refoundry sites #97-102 were launched by Forge and Smith

There are also many Refoundry sites that haven’t yet gone live, and are currently in various stages of build and QA at Forge and Smith and Wallop. 

Refoundry Release Timeline

On the technical side, Refoundry has had even more exciting developments in the last year. Nerd out with us over all these releases and what they made possible.

v1.7.0 (Released March 4, 2024)

• Introduced Tabbed Inspector UI, improving clarity and reducing visual clutter by organizing controls based on user role (e.g., Settings for Admins, Layout & Styles for Editors).
• Major overhaul to Reusable Component Blocks (RCBs):
  • Cascading overrides now work reliably across nested RCBs.
  • Reset controls added per block and at the top level for easier maintenance.
• Filter Blocks (Advanced + Dropdown) now dynamically hide terms that would return no results, helping users avoid “dead ends.”
• Improved server-side rendering performance, especially for complex queries and post-heavy sites.

v1.7.1 (Estimated March 18, 2024)

• Bug fixes for filter term logic and UI display.
• Corrected branding to “RE-foundry.”
• Fixed visual issues in Advanced Filter controls.

v1.7.2 (Estimated April 1, 2024)

• Improvements to editor stability:
  • Fixed copy/paste issues caused by upstream Gutenberg changes.
  • Added ability to explicitly clear background values in RCBs.
• Sidebar layout tweaks to address UI compactness and preview area sizing.

v1.7.3 (Estimated April 15, 2024)

• Addressed compatibility issues with deprecated Gutenberg device preview APIs.
• Fixed shortcodes and excerpt behavior regressions.

v1.7.4 (Estimated May 1, 2024)

• Fixed image blocks not respecting default alt text from media library entries.

v1.7.5 (Estimated May 15, 2024)

• Bug fix: Filter blocks now properly show all available terms when “hide irrelevant” is disabled.

v1.8.0 (Released September 1, 2024)

• General plugin polish:
  • Fixed styling inconsistencies across several blocks.
  • Improved Advanced Filter overlay experience in the editor.

v1.8.1 (Estimated September 16, 2024)

• UI and authoring enhancements:
  • Heading block now displays the current heading level directly in the toolbar.
  • Added missing color controls to the Post Author block.
  • Fixed persistent inline underline styling in textStyles when toggled off.
• Major performance improvements:
  • Reduced unnecessary Redux store fetches, especially in the Site Editor.
  • Background rendering optimized for faster preview and page load times.
• Improved reliability of:
  • Slider blocks with auto-height inside initially hidden elements.
  • Featured image alt text usage.
  • Post terms display logic and spacing overrides.
  • Custom field visibility across various contexts.

v1.8.2 (Estimated September 30, 2024)

• Relaxed HTML sanitization to stop stripping valid elements like SVGs and search inputs.
• Fixed legacy Author block not rendering expected CSS classes.

v1.8.3 (Estimated October 14, 2024)

• Fixed utility fallback functions and minor styling issues in the editor.
• Related Posts block now correctly detects post type context in the editor.
• Improved usability of Advanced Filters overlay when parallax scrolling is enabled.

v1.9.0 (Released March 4, 2025)

Pro Minor Release

• Multisite support added, enabling Refoundry to run across networked WordPress installs.
• Major editor performance upgrades:
  • Improved rendering speed on pages with heavy use of Reusable Component Blocks (RCBs).
  • Related Posts block optimized to scale on large content sites (thousands of posts).
• New features:
  • Text Style Format: Inline text formatting tied to your global textStyles.
  • Mixed Content Block: Enables inserting flexible content into RCBs, unlocking advanced layout patterns.
  • Theme JSON support: Themes can now predefine Refoundry settings and RCB presets.
• RCB improvements:
  • New detach function and ability to create RCBs from selected blocks.
  • RCB search now includes visual previews.
• Added styling controls to multiple blocks: Tabs, Accordion, Post Terms, and Slideout.
• Social sharing: Bluesky icon added.
• UI improvements:
  • Redesigned license page.
    Introduced a new welcome screen for onboarding.

v1.9.1 (Estimated March 18, 2025)

• Query Block: Added new sorting options.
• New format tool for inserting dynamic copyright year.
• Image and Featured Image blocks: Added source size control and toolbar image replacement.
• Improved RCB transformations: prevents errors and invalid conversions.
• Button block’s “Use Post Link” toggle now clears old URLs as expected.
• Filtered color settings now prevent duplicate entries.

v1.9.2 (Estimated April 2, 2025)

• Slideout block:
  • Corrected heading levels and color behavior.
  • Toggle background now transparent by default for better design control.

v1.9.3 (Estimated April 16, 2025)

• Related Posts block now consistently returns the correct number of posts.
• Query Post Template works when post type is set to “any”.
• Post type switching in Related Posts resets taxonomy filters appropriately.
• Fixed spacing for social icons.

v1.9.4 (Estimated May 1, 2025)

Pro Minor Release

• Rebuilt the Statistics block for stability and reliability.
• Fixed issues with Mixed Content Block rendering and inner block syncing inside nested RCBs.
• Fixed iOS-specific bug where the navigation overlay was hidden by the browser’s UI.
• Fixed uppercase styling in navigation and hash behavior in Accordion.
  Added compatibility for WordPress 6.8.

v1.9.5 (Estimated May 15, 2025)

Pro Minor Release

• Resolved SVG stripping caused by plugin changes (e.g. FontAwesome SVG output).
• Accordion block overhaul:
  • New layout and style controls.
• Block system enhancements:
  • Added flex/gap controls to List block and global gutter settings.
  • Responsive background and height support for Image blocks.
  • Image captions and decorative image handling via aria-hidden.
• Advanced editing inside RCBs:
  • Blocks like Accordion, Grid, Logo Grid, Slider, and Tabs now support adding/removing child blocks inside RCBs.
• SEO + performance:
  • Added Yoast SEO integration.
  • Navigation block now has customizable overlay position and close button.
• Expanded styling and layout:
  • Tabs block now supports vertical layout and border styling.
  • Logo Grid block supports 5-column layouts and min-height.
  • Font weight options now reflect actual loaded weights.
• Visual fixes:
  • Addressed blurry images in Chrome.
  • Renamed “Component Styles” section to Button Styles to avoid confusion.