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";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:7:"version";s:3:"2.0";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:7:"channel";a:1:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:61:"
	
	
	
	




















































";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16:"WordPress Planet";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"language";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2:"en";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"WordPress Planet - http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"item";a:50:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:97:"WPTavern: Google Concludes FLoC Origin Trial, Does Not Intend to Share Feedback from Participants";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119872";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:237:"https://wptavern.com/google-concludes-floc-origin-trial-does-not-intend-to-share-feedback-from-participants?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=google-concludes-floc-origin-trial-does-not-intend-to-share-feedback-from-participants";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6127:"<p>Google quietly concluded its <a href="https://github.com/WICG/floc">FLoC</a> (Federated Learning of Cohorts) origin trial this week. The trial was part of Google&rsquo;s <a href="https://privacysandbox.com/">Privacy Sandbox</a> initiative, a suite of new technologies designed to replace third-party cookies, fingerprinting, and other commonly-used tracking mechanisms. This particular experiment groups people together based on browsing habits and labels them using machine learning. </p>



<p>FLoC&rsquo;s trial was scheduled to end Jul 13, 2021, and Google has decided to remove the project from the testing phase while analyzing feedback.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve decided not to extend this initial Origin Trial,&rdquo; Google senior software engineer Josh Karlin said in <a href="https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/blink-dev/c/MmijXrmwrJs/m/f0Nc6h-KAQAJ">thread</a> on Chromium&rsquo;s Blink Developers group forum. &ldquo;Instead, we&rsquo;re hard at work on improving FLoC to incorporate the feedback we&rsquo;ve heard from the community before advancing to further ecosystem testing.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The controversial experiment has been met with opposition from privacy advocates like makers of the <a href="https://brave.com/why-brave-disables-floc/">Brave</a> browser and <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/googles-floc-terrible-idea">EFF</a> who do not perceive FLoC to be a compelling alternative to the surveillance business model currently used by the advertising industry. Amazon, GitHub, Firefox, Vivaldi, Drupal, Joomla, DuckDuckGo, and other major tech companies and open source projects have already opted to block FLoC by default. </p>



<p>So far, Twitter has been the first major online platform that <a href="https://9to5google.com/2021/07/05/twitter-appears-to-be-on-board-with-googles-floc-initiative/">appears to be on board with FLoC</a> after references to it were recently discovered in the app&rsquo;s source code. </p>



<p>Google&rsquo;s initial efforts in presenting FLoC failed to gain broad support, which may have contributed to the company putting the brakes on its plan to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome by 2022. As the advertising industry yields to pressure from the last few years of privacy legislation, third-party cookies will be on their way out in what is colloquially known as the &ldquo;Cookie Apocalypse.&rdquo; Google has <a href="https://blog.google/products/chrome/updated-timeline-privacy-sandbox-milestones/">postponed</a> this milestone for Chrome to begin in mid-2023 and end in late 2023.&nbsp;</p>



<p>&ldquo;We need to move at a responsible pace,&rdquo; Chrome Privacy Engineering Director Vinay Goel said. &ldquo;This will allow sufficient time for public discussion on the right solutions, continued engagement with regulators, and for publishers and the advertising industry to migrate their services. This is important to avoid jeopardizing the business models of many web publishers which support freely available content.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Discussion on a <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/53069">proposal for WordPress to block FLoC</a> has stalled in Trac but may have been premature in the first place if FLoC doesn&rsquo;t end making it to further testing. Proponents of blocking FLoC saw WordPress&rsquo; support or opposition as critical to the success or failure of FLoC adoption on the web.</p>



<p>A recent article on the WordPress.com VIP blog titled &ldquo;<a href="https://wpvip.com/2021/06/23/goodbye-third-party-cookies-hello-googles-floc/">Goodbye, Third-Party Cookies, Hello Google&rsquo;s FloC,</a>&rdquo; indicates that Automattic may be straddling the fence on the controversial new technology:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>FLoC has its plus points. But it isn&rsquo;t as privacy-focused as we would like, and can lead to discriminatory practices, as described above. Then there&rsquo;s the concern of letting Google dominate yet another aspect of tech. Google also plans to charge any third-party tracking company for use of any of the data it has collected.</p></blockquote>



<p>For the time being, it looks like major tech platforms are off the hook for taking an active position on FLoC since it has been sent back for major modifications. In the most recently <a href="https://blog.google/products/chrome/updated-timeline-privacy-sandbox-milestones/">updated timeline</a> for Privacy Sandbox milestones, Vinay Goel said Google received &ldquo;substantial feedback from the web community during the origin trial for the&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.google/products/chrome/privacy-sustainability-and-the-importance-of-and/">first version</a>&nbsp;of FLoC.&rdquo; </p>



<p>At the conclusion of its origin trial, FLoC seems far from ready for adoption, having failed to gain a foothold in the industry. The concern is that Google may ram FLoC through anyway using the weight of Chrome&rsquo;s market share, despite the web community&rsquo;s chilly reception. Although these proposed changes to ad tech will impact the entire industry, as well as regular internet users, <a href="https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/08/google_floc_changes/">Google does not intend to disclose any of the private feedback</a> the company received during FLoC&rsquo;s origin trial.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The main summary of that feedback will be the next version, and you can surmise based on what features (and the reasoning for these changes) are available in the next version,&rdquo; Google mathematician Michael Kleber said during a recent&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/lukOlejnik/status/1413096551359123457">Web Commerce Interest Group (WCIG) meeting</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Privacy advocates want to see more transparency incorporated into this process so that major concerns are not left unaddressed, instead of leaving it to stakeholders across the web to try to deduce what Google has solved in the next version of FLoC. Overhauling the advertising industry with new technologies should be done in the open if these changes are truly intended to protect people&rsquo;s privacy.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 16 Jul 2021 03:26:21 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:1;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:88:"WPTavern: Edupack Is Tackling Higher Ed With WordPress, Looking for Development Partners";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119928";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:219:"https://wptavern.com/edupack-is-tackling-higher-ed-with-wordpress-looking-for-development-partners?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=edupack-is-tackling-higher-ed-with-wordpress-looking-for-development-partners";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6721:"<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re basically building the Jetpack for Higher Ed,&rdquo; said Blake Bertuccelli as he pitched me on the idea of <a href="https://edupack.dev/">Edupack</a>, a project still in its early stages.</p>



<p>He and his team are looking for more advisors to <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/braintrust-008-wordpress-blocks-for-higher-ed-pros-tickets-163114043495">join the eighth round</a> of their once-monthly braintrust events. It is a project they began in November 2020, now coming to fruition. Feedback is crucial to pushing such undertakings out of the gate, and the team needs more of it.</p>



<p>Bertuccelli listed several focal points for the Edupack project:</p>



<ul><li><strong>Onboarding:</strong> New campus users can set up a beautiful campus WordPress site with a few clicks.</li><li><strong>Archiving:</strong> Stale sites are automatically archived to save campus resources.</li><li><strong>Reporting:</strong> Accessibility, plagiarism, and resource usage can be accessed from the Edupack dashboard.</li><li><strong>Brand and Content Management:</strong> Approved Higher Ed content patterns and universal brand controls keep sites beautiful and consistent.</li><li><strong>Configuration Management:</strong> Cloud-controlled configuration settings means admins can control millions of sites from one place.</li></ul>



<img />Onboarding form with Tulane-branded elements.



<p>&ldquo;Our onboarding form offers pre-built sites for users to start from,&rdquo; said Bertuccelli. &ldquo;So, if a scientist needs a new site for their lab, the scientist can select a pre-built lab site from our onboarding form then add in their unique content.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Bertuccelli is Edupack&rsquo;s CEO. He called himself a &ldquo;forever learner&rdquo; and is currently reading <em>A History of Western Philosophy</em> by Bertrand Russell.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I paid for my Tulane education by coding WordPress themes,&rdquo; said Bertuccelli. &ldquo;After college, I founded one of New Orleans&rsquo; first WordPress dev shops (<a href="https://decubing.com/">Decubing</a>). A year ago, I presented on building a self-publishing platform with Multisite at WP Campus. The feedback was phenomenal, and two blokes from Birmingham offered to work on a plugin with me. A few months later, we launched Edupack&rsquo;s MVP. Since then, folks from Harvard, Dartmouth, and about 17 other universities have been working with us to make WordPress an even better CMS for Higher Ed pros.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The &ldquo;two blokes&rdquo; he is referring to are his co-founders, Nathan Monk and Matt Lees. They run a WordPress shop called <a href="http://wearesmile.com/">SMILE</a>. Monk is serving as Edupack&rsquo;s CTO. Lees is the Chief Creative Officer &mdash; Bertuccelli called him &ldquo;Lord of the UX.&rdquo; Altogether, the three co-founders have over 30 years of experience working with Higher Ed and WordPress.</p>



<p>The Edupack team is making accessible content a priority, which is a primary issue for Higher Ed. The goal is to offer A11Y reports inside of the WordPress dashboard and tie them into publishing workflows. This would notify users of errors as they publish content.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Our accessibility reports tie into another feature we are launching this month: site archiving,&rdquo; said Bertuccelli. &ldquo;Campus users graduate and often forget about their sites. Edupack sends a notification to a user if the site hasn&rsquo;t been accessed, then adds an &ldquo;archived&rdquo; meta value to the site that super administrators can take action from.</p>



<img />Setting up automated archiving.



<p>&ldquo;Devs often recode thousands of sites to add new Campus branding,&rdquo; said Bertuccelli on the reasons behind Edupack. &ldquo;Department budgets are drained on resources for stale sites. Institutions are sued over inaccessible content or misused branding.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Edupack intends to automate website management so that Higher Ed pros can focus on supporting education.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The following video is an introduction to Edupack:</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">

</div>



<h2>Join the Braintrust Session</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Every third Wednesday of each month, Edupack holds a &ldquo;Braintrust&rdquo; event. Bertuccelli says it is the best way to get involved. The session lasts for an hour over a Zoom video chat. The <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/braintrust-008-wordpress-blocks-for-higher-ed-pros-tickets-163114043495">next event is scheduled</a> for July 21, 10 am &ndash; 11 am (CDT).</p>



<p>Each session focuses on a single question. Next week&rsquo;s question: &ldquo;How can we enhance WordPress blocks for Higher Ed?&rdquo;</p>



<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll demo Edupack updates, brainstorm solutions for block enhancements, then wrap up with action steps for us to do by next month,&rdquo; said Bertuccelli. &ldquo;Folks who manage WordPress sites for global institutions and companies have attended our last seven braintrusts. Any Higher Ed pro is welcome!&rdquo;</p>



<p>Those interested can also keep track of progress via the <a href="https://joinedupack.wordpress.com/">Edupack blog</a>.</p>



<h2>Pricing and the Future</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">There is currently no publicly available pricing list. The project&rsquo;s <a href="https://edupack.dev/frequently-asked-questions/">FAQs page</a> says the team is still tuning the costs, and Bertuccelli remained quiet on any hard numbers.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Community colleges can&rsquo;t afford tech used by bigger schools,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not fair. Edupack will be priced so that every institution can afford the service. We haven&rsquo;t thought about pricing beyond that.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Universities that wish to get check out the project should schedule a demo from the site&rsquo;s homepage.</p>



<p>Edupack has around 20 institutions serving as development partners and guiding <a href="https://github.com/orgs/joinedupack/projects/2">the roadmap</a>. The team invites new schools to join every few months. Currently, Tulane and the University of Gloucestershire are using Edupack. Harvard and Dartmouth should be next.</p>



<p>The service is limited to universities and colleges at the moment. However, the team would eventually like to expand across the education sector. After that, we will have to see.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Edupack&rsquo;s features can be applied to any industry where users run lots of sites,&rdquo; said Bertuccelli. &ldquo;I could see ad agencies using Edupack, hosting companies integrating our tools, and School Districts running their site network via Edupack and WordPress.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 16 Jul 2021 02:07:52 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:2;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:46:"BuddyPress: BuddyPress 9.0.0 Release Candidate";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://buddypress.org/?p=319979";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:66:"https://buddypress.org/2021/07/buddypress-9-0-0-release-candidate/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4379:"<p><strong>Important note</strong>: this BuddyPress release was built in a short time frame (<em>we even skipped the beta release</em>) to be ready for the release of WordPress 5.8. Our team&#8217;s primary goal for 9.0.0 was to migrate the BP Legacy Widgets to new BP Widget Blocks. You don&#8217;t necessarily need <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/wordpress-5-8-release-candidate-3/">the latest WordPress 5.8 pre-release</a> to test the <a href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/buddypress.9.0.0-RC1.zip">BuddyPress 9.0.0 Release Candidate</a>, but we&#8217;d be happy if you could use both pre-release versions to have your feedback about your experience with managing the BP Widget Blocks within the Widget Block Editor.</p>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<div class="wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center">
<div class="wp-block-button has-custom-font-size has-medium-font-size"><a class="wp-block-button__link has-background" href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/buddypress.9.0.0-RC1.zip"><strong>Contribute to BuddyPress: test 9.0.0-RC1</strong></a></div>
</div>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<p>&#8220;Release Candidate&#8221; means that we believe the new version is ready for release, but with more than 200,000 active installs, hundreds of BuddyPress plugins and Thousands of WordPress themes, it’s possible something was missed. BuddyPress 9.0.0 is slated for release&nbsp;on&nbsp;<strong>July 19, 2021</strong>, but&nbsp;<em>your</em>&nbsp;help is needed to get there <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f64f.png" alt="🙏" class="wp-smiley" />.</p>



<p>You can test the <a href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/buddypress.9.0.0-RC1.zip">9.0.0-RC1</a> pre-release in 4 ways :</p>



<ul><li>Try the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/bp-beta-tester/">BP Beta Tester</a> plugin.</li><li><a href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/buddypress.9.0.0-RC1.zip">Download the release candidate here (zip file)</a>.</li><li>Check out our SVN repository: <code>svn co https://buddypress.svn.wordpress.org/trunk/</code></li><li>Clone our read-only Git repository: <code>git clone git://buddypress.git.wordpress.org/</code></li></ul>



<p>A detailed changelog will be part of our official release note. In the meantime,&nbsp;you can check the <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/query?group=status&milestone=9.0.0">9.0.0 milestone changes list from our Trac environment</a>.</p>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<h2>In one picture, here&#8217;s what to expect in 9.0.0</h2>



<div class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://buddypress.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2021/07/bp-widget-blocks.jpg"><img width="1024" height="689" src="https://buddypress.org/wp-content/uploads/1/2021/07/bp-widget-blocks-1024x689.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-319980" /></a></div>



<p>The 10 BuddyPress legacy widgets will have their corresponding BP Blocks so that you can fully enjoy them within the next Widget Block editor and of course inside your Post/Page Block Editor.</p>



<p class="has-text-align-center"><strong>The BP Block collection is going to be tripled from 5 to 15 Blocks <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f64c.png" alt="🙌" class="wp-smiley" /></strong></p>



<div class="wp-block-spacer"></div>



<h2>How you can help</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap has-normal-font-size"><strong><span class="has-inline-color"><sup>T</sup>his is really important</span></strong>: this release also marks the&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/glossary/#string-freeze">string freeze</a>&nbsp;point of the 9.0.0 release schedule. And we have less than <strong>4 days</strong> to update BuddyPress translation.</p>



<p class="has-normal-font-size">So if you speak a language other than English, please&nbsp;<a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/buddypress/">help us translate BuddyPress into as many languages as possible!</a></p>



<p>PS: <strong>If you think you’ve found a bug</strong>, you can share it with us replying to this&nbsp;<a href="https://buddypress.org/support/topic/buddypress-9-0-0-release-candidate/">support topic</a>&nbsp;or if you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report,&nbsp;<a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/">file one on BuddyPress Trac</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 15 Jul 2021 20:45:06 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Mathieu Viet";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:3;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"WPTavern: WordPress 5.8 Media Library Changes You Should Know About";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=120010";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:179:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-media-library-changes-you-should-know-about?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-5-8-media-library-changes-you-should-know-about";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5914:"<p class="has-drop-cap">It is hard not to look through a list of upcoming WordPress 5.8 changes and not find at least a little something to whet your appetite. With so many enhancements headed our way, even we have not been able to keep up with them all here at WP Tavern. The next release will bring a few much-needed media-related upgrades.</p>



<p>Users should enjoy WebP image format support and a copy-to-clipboard button on the media upload screen. Developers have a new hook for filtering the image output format, and the platform is dropping infinite scrolling.</p>



<p>WordPress 5.8 is scheduled to ship on July 20, so these changes will be landing in less than a week. If you have not already done so, give <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/wordpress-5-8-release-candidate-3/">WordPress 5.8 Release Candidate 3</a> a test run and report any issues.</p>



<h2>Infinite Scroll Replaced With Ajax Button</h2>



<ul><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li></ul>Media Library screen (first) and overlay (second) with &ldquo;load more&rdquo; buttons. 



<p class="has-drop-cap">The upcoming core release will <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/50105">drop infinite scrolling</a> for media in favor of an Ajax-powered &ldquo;Load more&rdquo; button. The admin screen and editor&rsquo;s media overlay will cap the initial and subsequent &ldquo;pages&rdquo; to 40 media items each.</p>



<p>This change is a part of an effort from the WordPress accessibility team to improve the experience for end-users. Team member and core contributor Andrea Fercia noted <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/40330">two a11y problems with infinite scrolling</a>. The first is that it is impossible or nearly for keyboard users to reach content appended to the screen. Second, there is no audible feedback or instructions about how infinite scrolling works for screen readers.</p>



<p>He also noted usability and performance issues. Infinite scroll can break the browser&rsquo;s history, and there is no JavaScript fallback. And loading hundreds or more large-sized images increases the memory footprint.</p>



<p>While the media library is getting the Ajax treatment in WordPress 5.8, we should expect similar updates for other areas in the future, including:</p>



<ul><li>Add Themes Screen</li><li>Customizer &gt; Add Menu Items</li><li>Editor &gt; Link &gt; Search</li></ul>



<h2>Copy URL From Add New Media Screen</h2>



<img />Copy URL to clipboard button on the Add New Media screen.



<p class="has-drop-cap">This change is an enhancement that rids the platform of a small but noticeable nuisance that has plagued it for years. When uploading an image from the Media &gt; Add New screen in the WordPress admin, there was no way to grab its URL without clicking over to the edit screen.</p>



<p>WordPress 5.8 introduces a &ldquo;Copy URL to clipboard&rdquo; button that appears after the image has been uploaded. No need to leave the page and track down the URL. The change also makes the user experience consistent with the Media Library screen and overlay in the post editor.</p>



<p>More often than not, browsing Trac means seeing many of the same names. This time around, it seems that a regular user wanted a feature. They created an account &mdash; perhaps for this purpose alone &ndash;, <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/add-a-copy-link-button-at-the-media-upload-page/">wrote a support forum post</a>, was directed to Trac, and <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/51754">created their first ticket</a>. It took eight months to work its way into WordPress, but it is one of those success stories of an average user making things happen by just providing feedback. Thanks for the contribution, <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/users/anotia/">@anotia</a>.</p>



<h2>WebP Image Format Support</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">WordPress is allowing a new image format. And, no, it is <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/24251">not SVG</a> (technically not an image). There are still security hurdles to jump for that to ever happen. However, it now supports WebP, which carries with it the promise of better performance for those who use it.</p>



<p>As Sarah Gooding <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-introduces-support-for-webp-images">reported for WP Tavern</a> last month:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>This modern image file format was created by Google in September 2010, and is now supported by 95% of the web browsers in use worldwide. It has distinct advantages over more commonly used formats, providing both lossless and lossy compression that is 26% smaller in size compared to PNGs and 25-34% smaller than comparable JPEG images.</p></blockquote>



<p>In the report, she noted that only 1.6% (<a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/im-webp">currently at 1.8%</a>) of the top 10 million websites used the WebP format. With WordPress now adding support, that percentage is likely to rise in the coming years.</p>



<h2>Developers: Image Editor Output Format Hook</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">For developers who want to transform images with one mime type to another, 5.8 introduces the <code>image_editor_output_format</code> <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/52867">filter hook</a>. Plugin authors can convert all newly uploaded images or only overwrite specific formats.</p>



<p>The following example converts JPG images to the new WebP format:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>add_filter( 'image_editor_output_format', function( $formats ) {
        $formats['image/jpeg'] = 'image/webp';

        return $formats;
} );</code></pre>



<p>The output format will be applied to all image sub-sizes as they are created. However, this will only work for WebP images if the webserver supports it.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 15 Jul 2021 03:09:34 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:4;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:103:"WPTavern: WooCommerce Patches Critical Vulnerability, Sending Forced Security Update from WordPress.org";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=120008";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:249:"https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-patches-critical-vulnerability-sending-forced-security-update-from-wordpress-org?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=woocommerce-patches-critical-vulnerability-sending-forced-security-update-from-wordpress-org";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3619:"<p>WooCommerce has <a href="https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/2564657/">patched</a> an unspecified, critical vulnerability identified on July 13, 2021, by a security researcher through Automattic&rsquo;s HackerOne security program. The vulnerability impacts versions 3.3 to 5.5 of the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://woocommerce.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2c1434dc56f9506bf3c3ecd21&id=8ff0a5345f&e=0110b26bc5" target="_blank">WooCommerce</a> plugin, as well as version 2.5 to 5.5 of the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/woo-gutenberg-products-block/">WooCommerce Blocks</a> feature plugin.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Upon learning about the issue, our team immediately conducted a thorough investigation, audited all related codebases, and created a patch fix for every impacted version (90+ releases) which was deployed automatically to vulnerable stores,&rdquo; WooCommerce Head of Engineering Beau Lebens said in the <a href="https://woocommerce.com/posts/critical-vulnerability-detected-july-2021/">security announcement</a>.</p>



<p>WordPress.org is currently pushing out forced automatic updates to vulnerable stores, a practice that is rarely employed to mitigate potentially severe security issues impacting a large number of sites. Even with the automatic update, WooCommerce merchants are encouraged to check that their stores are running the latest version (5.5.1).</p>



<p>Since WooCommerce backported this security fix to every release branch back to 3.3, store owners using older versions of WooCommerce can safely update to the highest number in their current release branch even if not running the very latest 5.5.1 version.</p>



<p>At the time of publishing, only 7.2% of WooCommerce installations are using version 5.5+. More than half of stores (51.7%) are running on a version older than 5.1. WordPress.org doesn&rsquo;t offer a more specific breakdown of the older versions, but it&rsquo;s safe to say without these backported security fixes, the majority of WooCommerce installs might be left vulnerable.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>The security announcement indicates that WooCommerce cannot yet confirm that this vulnerability has not been exploited:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Our investigation into this vulnerability and whether data has been compromised is ongoing. We will be sharing more information with site owners on how to investigate this security vulnerability on their site, which we will publish on our blog when it is ready. If a store was affected, the exposed information will be specific to what that site is storing but could include order, customer, and administrative information.</p></blockquote>



<p>For those who are concerned about possible exploitation, the WooCommerce team is <a href="https://woocommerce.com/posts/critical-vulnerability-detected-july-2021/#comment-19937832">recommending merchants update their passwords</a> after installing the patched version as a cautionary measure.</p>



<p>The good news for WooCommerce store owners is that this particular critical vulnerability was responsibly disclosed and patched within one day after it was identified. The plugin&rsquo;s team has committed to being transparent about the security issue. In addition to publishing an announcement on the plugin&rsquo;s blog, WooCommerce also emailed everyone who has opted into their mailing list. Concerned store owners should keep an eye on the <a href="https://woocommerce.com/blog/">WooCommerce blog</a> for a follow-up post on how to investigate if their stores have been compromised.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 15 Jul 2021 01:51:24 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:5;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:68:"WPTavern: #5 – Robert Jacobi on Why He’s Putting Gutenberg First";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"https://wptavern.com/?post_type=podcast&p=119987";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:173:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/5-robert-jacobi-on-why-hes-putting-gutenberg-first?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=5-robert-jacobi-on-why-hes-putting-gutenberg-first";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56963:"<h2>About this episode.</h2>



<p>On the podcast today we have Robert Jacobi.</p>



<p>Robert is Director of WordPress at Cloudways. He&rsquo;s been working with open source software for almost twenty years, and has been the president of Joomla, a member of Make WordPress Hosting and contributor to ICANN At-Large. He is well known for his public speaking about open source and so the discussion today is broad and thought provoking.</p>



<p>We talk about Robert&rsquo;s &lsquo;Gutenberg First&rsquo; approach in which he places the WordPress Block Editor at the heart of all that he does. He sees Gutenberg as a critical component for WordPress&rsquo; future; a future in which as yet unimagined technologies will be built on top of Gutenberg and leverage the &lsquo;atomic&rsquo; way data is stored.</p>



<p>This leads to a discussion on how 3rd party developers will be able to use Gutenberg as an application platform, with unique pathways to create, store and display content.</p>



<p>The heritage of Gutenberg&rsquo;s development is also discussed. Right from the start we knew that the intention of the project was ambitious; it&rsquo;s aim to become a full site editor was explained at the outset. This has led to comparisons with other editing tools and Robert takes on why he thinks that the incremental steps that the Gutenberg project has taken are making it a vital part of WordPress.</p>



<p>We also look forward and get into the subject of how technology never stands still. The underpinnings of WordPress are shifting. New skills and tools will need to be learned, but that does not mean that existing ones are obsolete.<br />Shifting gears, we move into community events and how we&rsquo;ve managed events during the last year. Robert is a huge proponent of in-person events, and is hoping for their return. He loves the accidental situations which arise when you&rsquo;re in the same space as so many other like-minded people. Perhaps though, there&rsquo;s a place for hybrid events; events in which there&rsquo;s in-person and online happening at the same time?</p>



<p>Towards the end we chat about the plethora of mergers and acquisitions which are happening right now, as well as a discussion of Openverse, a search engine for openly licensed media, which was launched with little fanfare recently.</p>



<h2>Useful links.</h2>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/openverse/">Openverse</a></p>



<p><a href="https://robertjacobi.com/">Robert&rsquo;s website</a></p>


Transcript<div><div class="chat-transcript"><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:00:00]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Welcome to the fifth edition of the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley. Jukebox is a podcast all about WordPress and the community surrounding it. Every month, we&rsquo;re bringing you someone from that community to discuss a topic of current importance. If you like the podcast, why not subscribe on your podcast player?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>You can do that by going to WP Tavern dot com forward slash feed forward slash podcast. If you have any thoughts about the podcast, perhaps a suggestion of a potential guest or subject, then head over to WP Tavern dot com forward slash contact forward slash jukebox. There&rsquo;s a contact form there, and we&rsquo;d certainly welcome your input.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>Okay, so on the podcast today, we have Robert Jacobi. Robert is director of WordPress at Cloudways. He&rsquo;s been working with open source software for almost 20 years and has been president of Joomla, a member of Make WordPress Hosting and contributor to ICANN At-Large. He&rsquo;s well known for his public speaking about open source, and so the discussion today is broad and thought provoking. We talk about Robert&rsquo;s Gutenberg first approach in which he places the WordPress block editor at the heart of all that he does. He sees Gutenberg as a critical component for WordPress&rsquo; future, a future in which as yet unimagined technologies will be built on top of Gutenberg and leverage the atomic way that data is stored.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>This leads to a discussion of how third party developers will be able to use Gutenberg as an application platform with unique pathways to create, store and display content. The heritage of Gutenberg&rsquo;s development is also discussed. Right from the start we knew that the intention of the project was ambitious. It&rsquo;s aim to become a full site editor was explained at the outset. This has led to comparisons with other editing tools and Robert takes on why he thinks that the incremental steps that the Gutenberg project has taken are making it a vital part of WordPress.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>We also look forward and get into the subject of how technology never stands still. The underpinnings of WordPress are shifting. New skills and tools will need to be learned, but that does not mean that existing ones are obsolete.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>Shifting gears, we move into the community events and how we&rsquo;ve managed events during the last year. Robert is a huge proponent of in-person events and is hoping for their return. He loves the accidental situations which arrive when you&rsquo;re in the same space as so many other like-minded people. Perhaps though there&rsquo;s a place for hybrid event. Events in which there&rsquo;s in-person and online happening at the same time. Towards the end, we chat about the plethora of mergers and acquisitions, which are happening right now, as well as a discussion of Openverse, a search engine for openly licensed media, which launched with little fanfare recently.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>If any of the points raised in this podcast resonate with you, be sure to head over and find the post at WP Tavern dot com forward slash podcast, and leave a comment there.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>And so without further delay, I bring you Robert Jacobi.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>I am joined by Robert Jacobi on the podcast today. How are you Robert?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:04:06]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Doing well. Fantastic to be here. Thank you Nathan.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:04:09]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Would you mind introducing yourself? Tell us who you are and what&rsquo;s your relationship with technology and work?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:04:15]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I&rsquo;m Robert Jacobi director of WordPress at Cloudways. I&rsquo;ve been in the open source space, wow, for almost 20 years, I&rsquo;m feeling old and actually got my raising on open source with the Joomla project, which is a hundred percent volunteer, open source content management system as well, and picked up WordPress slowly got into there. And boy, that&rsquo;s a lot of ands.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>I love the community. I love the greater goal. That open source, espouses and tries to reach. And we&rsquo;re never, always successful. But having code and information more freely accessible is something I really believe in. And I think empowers people globally and provides opportunities that wouldn&rsquo;t happen if these ones and zeros were siloed away in golden towers. I&rsquo;m always just so tickled to talk about open source and all the interesting things we can do with it. It powers communities, it powers, politics, powers, freedoms, it powers companies. It&rsquo;s really amazing. And we talk about WordPress all the time as one of the defining tools in this space. You look at something like Linux, which pretty much literally everything uses these days. It&rsquo;s crazy how, to use Matt Mullenweg&rsquo;s, favorite phrase, these things democratize all of us in so many different ways.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:05:39]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>We&rsquo;ve got a really broad pallet of things that we&rsquo;re going to discuss today, ranging from Gutenberg, right through to WordCamps and all sorts. So we&rsquo;ll crack on with the smorgasbord of what we&rsquo;ve got to discuss. The first of our little laundry list is Gutenberg. You wanted to talk to us a bit today about Gutenberg, what you think of it, and so on. There was an event that I attended recently, which you were also in attendance at, and you were on a panel there, and you mentioned that in the face of proprietary page builders, you always had the approach that Gutenberg should be the first relation. It should come first. And I&rsquo;m curious to know, what did you mean by that? What is Gutenberg first? What is this approach?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:06:17]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>So Gutenberg first to me is that we recognize the benefits of Gutenberg, and don&rsquo;t try to subvert them or sneak around them. I think Gutenberg is one of the most critical backend, frontend changes that has happened to WordPress in its last umpteen years and the potential for all the interesting future forward things that Gutenberg can do should be taken into account. So page builders are wonderful. They offer all this functionality, ease of use, but I think that, they should also take and utilize Gutenberg concurrently.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>The advantages are, one, that Gutenberg&rsquo;s not going anywhere. So God bless all the classic editor folk who loved that experience. More than just being deprecated, it&rsquo;s just, that is not going to be the way of the future.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>And secondly, the potential, what can happen when you start making all that content a bit more atomic. I come from a lot of database work. So you think of atomic data points and Gutenberg does that sort of automagically for you? So there are opportunities in the future with Gutenberg to start parcing that data more finely.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>That&rsquo;s why I think it&rsquo;s very exciting and why everything should be Gutenberg first. Again, that doesn&rsquo;t mean get rid of page builders or different types of themes and theming systems. It&rsquo;s just that at the base, Gutenberg should be a core building block of what you&rsquo;re working with going forward.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:07:51]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>The way that I think many people are using Gutenberg at the moment, I should probably say the block editor, but if you&rsquo;re using the Gutenberg plugin, you&rsquo;ll obviously have an enhanced experience. But if you&rsquo;re using the block editor at the moment, it feels as if it&rsquo;s prime time for editing text, inserting images and some pretty basic stuff like that. But I can see on the horizon a whole plethora of interesting, curious, let&rsquo;s call them plug-ins for now, because that&rsquo;s what they are. Different block components, different plugins, which adapt and amend the capability of Gutenberg. And it feels to me as if that&rsquo;s where its strength might lie. I know we&rsquo;ve got the full site editing and all of that coming down the road, but it feels to me that, there&rsquo;s going to be a whole plethora of third-party tools, bringing all sorts of added benefits into the ecosystem, a block for this thing, and a block for that thing. And whilst that might create some kind of bloat, that to me is an exciting area, and I just wondered if that&rsquo;s something you&rsquo;re interested in, if there&rsquo;s any plugins or blocks that you&rsquo;ve been looking at and thinking, oh, that&rsquo;s curious. That seems to be stretching things a little bit.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:08:55]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>So, you make a, first of all, great point that there&rsquo;s block editor and then Gutenberg platform as a whole, and what end users typically experience is the block editor, but the Gutenberg API, Gutenberg platform as a whole is going to allow for all sorts of crazy third party integrations. That&rsquo;s great. And it might even be a little, you said the perfect word, there might be a bit of bloat and craziness. I&rsquo;ll say that&rsquo;ll probably exist for the next 12 to 24 months. Sure, that&rsquo;s fine. As people figure out what works and doesn&rsquo;t. This is a dawn of a new age around taking WordPress to the next step. We&rsquo;ve talked about for many years, WordPress is just a blog, blah, blah, blah. Okay. We&rsquo;ve gotten past WordPress as a blog. Now WordPress as a CMS. That&rsquo;s great. I think what happens with Gutenberg is we look at it and say, WordPress is an application platform, and this is just another API that we can take advantage of in very different ways. So we can have forums that are much more catered to content creators, that get rid of all the WordPress backend and admin stuff. Okay, you&rsquo;re authenticated. You&rsquo;re logged in. Here&rsquo;s your daily news forum that you&rsquo;re going to add content to. And because we&rsquo;re using Gutenberg, that makes it a lot easier to publish that content and gets rid of the technical cruft, and allows developers and third-party plugin providers to have wholly unique and valuable experiences around that. And that&rsquo;s where the magic I think of Gutenberg really comes into play is where will all these third parties start finding those unique value propositions for specific content, whether it&rsquo;s an, a vertical, like travel or e-commerce, in a generic sense or news or publications or whatnot. It&rsquo;s really expanded the opportunities to create workflows and interfaces and make content production speedier and safer.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:10:55]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I think one of the curious things that I&rsquo;ve observed over the last couple of years about it is that perhaps if we had the magic rewind button, we could go back a couple of years and potentially not really get into a conversation where it was&hellip; okay, we&rsquo;ve got stage 1, 2, 3, and 4, and stages two, three, and four, start to add in functionality that things like page builders, can currently do, full site editing and all that. If it had just been touted as, we&rsquo;ve got a new editor for you, here it is, I think it would have taken people along for the ride much more easily, but we&rsquo;ve got this problem now, this impasse where, it got sold as it&rsquo;s going to become a page builder, but the pace of development and the fact that they&rsquo;ve got the legacy of 40 percent of the web, 40 plus percent of the web, to protect and so on it hasn&rsquo;t been able to move in that direction potentially at the speed that people thought&hellip; well, it&rsquo;s going to be a page builder. It hasn&rsquo;t been able to mature at the rate that they would have liked to have done. And so I&rsquo;m just curious in the next year, two years, whether it will do those things, but also I wish we could rewind and say look, slow down. Let&rsquo;s get the editor experience sussed out first, then we&rsquo;ll do the full site editing and don&rsquo;t expect it to be all these things. Beause at the minute I hear a lot of people saying it&rsquo;s not as good as the tool I&rsquo;ve got over here, and it&rsquo;s not as good as the tool I&rsquo;ve got over there. Speaking of which do you think there&rsquo;s a case where it isn&rsquo;t the best tool where you would say actually, do you know what, I&rsquo;m just going to relegate that and not use it first. Or is it literally, always the first thing in your toolkit for WordPress?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:12:28]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>It is literally the first thing in my toolkit, because it will provide the greatest longevity in whatever&rsquo;s built. Gutenberg&rsquo;s not going anywhere. There was a massive commitment to it from the project side of the universe. And to answer one of your earlier questions about, has it done enough? I think it&rsquo;s exceeded all expectations and this is where I&rsquo;ll get to it. They&rsquo;re always going to be a voices like, okay, it doesn&rsquo;t make bacon and eggs for me in the morning. Okay, That&rsquo;s fine, it doesn&rsquo;t. I think, and I truly believe what the magic of Gutenberg is, is the paradigm shift in forcing people to look at other things. So it&rsquo;s hard to make a giant feature change in anything, whether it&rsquo;s proprietary project, open source project. There are going to be plenty of people who are like, no, this works for me. This is great. Please don&rsquo;t change. I get that. But technology moves forward. People&rsquo;s expectations increase. Ten years ago, we barely had iPhones. All of a sudden we do, and now we expect everything to be infinitely easier and simpler and more responsive. I guess it doesn&rsquo;t do everything that page builders do. That&rsquo;s great. That&rsquo;s fine. We&rsquo;re not trying to cut out the middle man here, and I say we, I&rsquo;m not actually involved directly in Gutenberg at any point, but it moves the technological user experience goal posts forward. All things being equal, the page builders of the world, Beaver Builder, Elementor, they&rsquo;re all going to go their own way. Having Gutenberg as a critical component, soon enough, it will be just a mandatory component, that&rsquo;s the end of the conversation. Says, listen, everyone, this is what we need as part of the ecosystem. This is how you&rsquo;re going to connect with tools. You can absolutely go around those, but why would you want to, because this will be supported by a worldwide community.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>It&rsquo;s not just going to be supported by the Beaver Builder community or the Elementor community, yada yada, this is now the new core and that&rsquo;s very difficult to do, and it&rsquo;s not, jumping back to what I said earlier about it, I think just making that change in and of itself and committing to that change is more important than full site editor or anything else. There&rsquo;ll be incremental steps, but that was the big milestone step. Wow. Okay. This is the new tech, and we&rsquo;re going to have to take advantage of it.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:14:45]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>You said two words in that last little bit, well you certainly said paradigm shift and you said atomic. And I think for me, the atomic bit is really interesting because what I think many people haven&rsquo;t had a chance to get to grips with is literally the atomic nature of it. This little section of your blog post or whatever it may be. You can just have this little interactive thing. It might be that you&rsquo;ve got a block which does, I don&rsquo;t know, lead generation, or you&rsquo;ve got a block, like the cover block, which will just take care of the top of your posts. And each one of those things will have a different array of settings and it doesn&rsquo;t have to be built inside a proprietary thing. It&rsquo;s being built inside of the default editor for WordPress. So it&rsquo;s going to bring a ton of functionality and a ton of interesting things. Some of it will be bloated. I&rsquo;m sure there&rsquo;ll be many people who fall into the trap of installing fifty times more than they need to, or five times more than they need to. But for those of us who were curious and check things out and look and see what the end result is, you&rsquo;re going to be able to create really unique experiences on this one surface, and that to me is really exciting, but have the feeling that the community got left behind in the conversation about this a little bit. So the confusion that it was going to be a page builder leads me to the whole community conversation. I know you&rsquo;re all about community. This is something that you thrive on. You love the WordPress community, as you have had loved many other communities in the past. Do you have any feelings around whether there&rsquo;s been enough involvement. Asking the questions, what should it look like? How should it behave? What do we want to leave on the floor and edit out that we just, it was a blind alley, we shouldn&rsquo;t have had that because there are some things that I think a really excellent, there are some things that I think I&rsquo;m not sure anybody&rsquo;s actually going to make use of that, but there it is. And just wondering what your thoughts were around, whether the community had been involved, whether it could have been involved more.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:16:38]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I&rsquo;m getting chuckles about a lot of these things. Could there have been more all the editing and whatnot. Since community is, especially in WordPress, a huge word, it&rsquo;s always difficult to get every stakeholder, give them the space, give them the time given the vote.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>What I like about what happened with Gutenberg is that it did move, in my mind, relatively quickly, and expeditiously and said, this is what we&rsquo;re doing. And I think it&rsquo;s too easy to be bogged down in the politics of community to actually get stuff done. So if things fall to the wayside, if things were not edit out properly, that&rsquo;s where I think, the greater ecosystem can come into play and say, we&rsquo;re going to tweak this, with a plugin that makes this just a bit better. It takes this out and we have such a robust economy in WordPress. That yeah, go for it. I like to see a bit more activism from people as a whole on these projects, but it&rsquo;s hard. We all have day jobs. We all have stuff to do, and I&rsquo;m not going to blame the leaders of the project for trying to get stuff done. In fact, I&rsquo;m going to give them kudos to just doing it because it&rsquo;s very easy to get pulled back and say you didn&rsquo;t listen to so and so, at some point we have to fish or cut bait, we need to do something and we need to move the technology forward because everyone else is doing it. And open source projects have a tendency, especially at their, let&rsquo;s say late teens, early adult stages, getting sucked into managing the community more than managing the project and pushing it forward.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>You have to do both. It&rsquo;s such a tricky balance. All kudos to everyone at Make dot WordPress, that they were able to do this. And it&rsquo;s a large scale change and get it done. Fine, if you want to complain, that&rsquo;s great. Guess what? No software lives, at that moment in time, it&rsquo;s always updated and tweaked and there are still opportunities to make changes, advocate or different functionality. Expand the API, shrink the API, all those kinds of things. I do love that WordPress was able to cut bait and just go with it.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:18:43]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>One of the underpinnings of WordPress since the inception really was PHP. And obviously now we&rsquo;re moving into an era where these technologies are being inspected, and improvements have been created along the way. And so now we&rsquo;re moving into an era where other technologies, for example, React is coming along and that requires quite a bit of relearning, you&rsquo;ve really got to down tools, get the manuals out, start to read again. Do you have any concern that that kind of thing could be a bit of a roadblock? It will be a bit of have a roadblock for certain people, but the technology has to move forward. Just curious as to what your thoughts are about how that&rsquo;s being implemented and whether or not we&rsquo;re taking it at a slow enough pace or whether we should have just stuck with good old PHP?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:19:29]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I like to use the right tool for the right projects, And I&rsquo;ve been a coder, developer, engineer in multiple languages. I&rsquo;ve actually never done anything with React, that&rsquo;s one of the first ones. And that&rsquo;s okay. We evolve. If we hadn&rsquo;t evolved all these still using C from 1969 or whenever it came out. So this stuff has to move forward. And if React is the best solution to do that on the front end, that&rsquo;s great.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>Some people will be excited by that. Okay. I can expand my personal knowledge and horizons by adding to React. Honestly, a lot of the headless stuff that we see these days is also React. So it&rsquo;s not a bad thing to learn if you want to learn that. If you don&rsquo;t want to learn it. Okay, that&rsquo;s fine. There are plenty of opportunities to still expand your WordPress activities solely with PHP. Okay. Those are more personal choices. Do I want to learn another language? Do I want to improve on what I already have? Yes. Those are choices you have to make, but none of this lives in isolation. So we have to understand that a WordPress, plain old PHP site, might still need to connect up to a bunch of different things and not all those things are going to be on PHP. You still might be connecting up to something with Perl or Python. No, one&rsquo;s forcing you to learn it. Granted Gutenberg injects this react universe into your face, but you can focus on the core things that you need to do without necessarily running into React. It&rsquo;s a tool that more people are&hellip; here&rsquo;s the trick, there are plenty of new people who are entering coding, development, open source communities, and they like React. So it makes sense to take advantage of all this new found wealth, and then also draw them back into the community. Great, you love running with all this JS stuff. Fantastic. Hey, by the way, did you know you could actually implement that as part and parcel with an old-school PHP content management system? Yeah, we can do that. That&rsquo;s great. And look how you can expand your horizon. Yeah, it stinks if you don&rsquo;t want to learn any kind of Node, React stuff. Okay. But, it&rsquo;s sort of the nature of code. If we really want to take the analogy to the extreme, why aren&rsquo;t we still coding on punch cards with ones and zeros. We&rsquo;re going to abstract it and find the best tool to implement the functionality we want to see.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>And I get it me personally, I&rsquo;m not going to go out and learn React today. Me twenty years ago, though, I would have added it into my tool belt in a heartbeat, just because it was just one of those things that you needed at that time, that was the case. People are going to go through their own personal and professional sort of life cycles of what they think they need to have on their knee or in their tool belt to be successful. We can&rsquo;t stop for people who don&rsquo;t want to do anything outside of PHP.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:22:04]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>We&rsquo;re going to shift gears now and talk about in-person events. Under the auspices of things like WordCamp Europe, which is depending on when you&rsquo;re listening to this podcast that may just have happened, or it may be it&rsquo;s coming around in a year&rsquo;s time or something like that.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"> <div class="chat-text"><p>Clearly we&rsquo;ve been through a period that has really shaken the community. I feel that as a community, we were probably as well-prepared as any community could be because we were already working via the internet. We all had our computers out and so on. And yet still there is a concern. And I know that for example, people like Josepha Haden Chomposy has mentioned things like this, that the community in the absence of in-person events, there&rsquo;s been a modest disengagement. And what I mean by that, this is the project, the WordPress project was propelled forward in a large part by those in-person events. So you&rsquo;ve got contrib day, you&rsquo;ve just got the handshaking, you can actually meet people for the first time. You can build relationships and so on. And none of that&rsquo;s happened. We&rsquo;ve had a year out. We don&rsquo;t know quite when that is coming back, hopefully at some point in the near future, but we don&rsquo;t know. And so just curious about your thoughts on that. What do you have to say about events coming back and how a project as big as WordPress, where there&rsquo;s no central office where there&rsquo;s no boss telling everybody what to do. So if you&rsquo;re on the payroll, you&rsquo;ve got to do this today and fix this thing, but that&rsquo;s not how it works. And so the open source model, there may be a chink in its armor here where in-person events don&rsquo;t happen, that camaraderie and those solutions don&rsquo;t present themselves. And so the project, I&rsquo;m going to use the word stalls, that&rsquo;s a complete over-exaggeration, but bits of the project stalled because nobody&rsquo;s meeting up.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:23:49]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I am a huge, huge advocate of in-person anything. Whether you&rsquo;re extrovert or introvert, there&rsquo;s always going to be someone that you really want to talk to sit down in a corner, or have a cup of coffee with and build that relationship. I&rsquo;m no anthropologist or anything, but feel that those kinds of human connections help us grow stronger in light of all the mundane things we do day to day. I don&rsquo;t think the project has suffered because of a lack of in-person events over the last year. I think it&rsquo;s suffered because everyone else has had a lot on their mind and there&rsquo;ll be a, certainly a renaissance of activity as soon as we get into in person but this is one of those things where I don&rsquo;t think correlation and causation match up. If you are worried about friends and family getting ill, did the economy, my personal economies take a downturn. That&rsquo;s going to weigh a lot more on someone than, oh, did I catch up on the latest WordPress dot org, Slack notification about Full Site Editing. So I don&rsquo;t think they&rsquo;re completely tied together, but I will certainly tell you that as those in-person meetups start ramping up, I think that&rsquo;ll be a flurry of excitement and activity. Part of that will be just because we&rsquo;re not still trapped in our tiny little Covid bubbles.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:25:12]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>What personally do you miss from the in-person events? You mentioned about having a coffee and sitting in a corner with somebody and so on, but anything that you find you&rsquo;re missing, it could be something quite banal or it could be something a lot deeper.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:25:24]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>It&rsquo;s really the accidents that happen at in person events. With a completely regimented online experience, I know I&rsquo;m going to be talking with Nathan at such and such time. I know I&rsquo;m going to be talking to whoever everything&rsquo;s organized, calendars. Okay, there&rsquo;s digital here, digital there. We may edit ourselves more on these platforms. When you&rsquo;re in-person accidents happen. We may be walking through the sponsor hall and accidentally bump shoulders. And it&rsquo;s oh my goodness, Nathan, great to see you. I haven&rsquo;t seen you in 14 months. This is amazing. And you just start a conversation and those kinds of conversations are organic and random and not necessarily so overly planned and well thought out. And at those moments, I think unique ideas, exciting things can happen that just don&rsquo;t happen in a much more shrunken space. I love the distributed world. And to your point, I think WordPress is not only just gone through well, it&rsquo;s actually succeeded because we&rsquo;ve already been in that position. We&rsquo;re already ready to be online and take care of the day to day.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>We need those accidental bumpings of atoms to create new kinds of alloys. Oh my goodness. carbon and oxygen linked together. Oh, no, look what happened here. I don&rsquo;t know what they do, I&rsquo;m not a chemist! But my point being is when you&rsquo;re in person and I&rsquo;m going to keep calling them accidents, but not like in a pejorative kind of way, accidents happen, and it allows for very random, unique ideas, conversations, thoughts, whatever to happen, or just even a personal pick me up. Like you do remember me from being on slack for the last year. That&rsquo;s fantastic. There&rsquo;s an affirmation I think that happens for all of us when we&rsquo;re in that kind of proximity with other like-minded people.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:27:21]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I think one of the, there&rsquo;s two points about the online events that I seem to keep coming back to. And the first one is that I feel it&rsquo;s taught us that we ought to have hybrid going forward. What I mean by that is that WordCamp EU, I feel it&rsquo;s going to be difficult to put the genie back in the box of you have to go to the place where the event is. I feel that the future is going to be, sure enough, if you want to turn up and you want to benefit from the hallway and all of those things, go for it. But also if you&rsquo;re living halfway around the world, that now needs to be a door which is not closed to you, you need to have it open. There needs to be streaming of those talks that are happening each day so that everybody can take part. That&rsquo;s one of the things that I feel is going to happen.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:28:03]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I completely agree. There are events that I would have never been able to attend on a very regular basis without there being an online component. Someone will solve this puzzle, but I think it&rsquo;s going to be difficult to do a online and in-person event concurrently. I feel that you&rsquo;ll get the worst of both worlds in that case. What I&rsquo;d like to see, let&rsquo;s take WordCamp Europe 2022. There&rsquo;s going to be a three, four day in person spectacle. That&rsquo;s fantastic. What I would like to see is maybe two days before the in-person starts. There&rsquo;s a whole online portion of that. I&rsquo;d be concerned about trying to do them concurrently. Are we really going to have, we can do all the live video for example, but how interactive can we make those live portions? Oh, look from online, we have a question to the speakers. Okay. That works. But outside of those sessions, how are we going to integrate the sponsor hall, the hallway track as we talk about it? Those are those accidents that I like to refer back to just walking up and down and bumping into each other. I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s an easy problem to solve, but I&rsquo;d love to see some kind of greater online kickoff onboarding experience, where you can meet the speakers, do some quick Q and A&rsquo;s, and conversely, have the speakers say, make sure you don&rsquo;t miss my session on such and such date and time, then that will, of course be also livestreamed.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>It&rsquo;s going to be expensive. It&rsquo;s going to be complicated. And I think there&rsquo;s going to be multiple variations of attempts at making that succeed. I like to go with baby steps to see results. And I think just starting out with maybe a one or two day virtual camp tied to the in-person camp would be a good starter.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:29:46]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>That&rsquo;s what I was meaning really is just basically a camera at the back of the room where there&rsquo;s a presentation going on with the possibility of questions coming, not just from the audience, sat in the auditorium, but from people in a different part of the world. And in fact, I feel it in a way, these kind of like skeuomorphic pieces of software, which tries to replicate the real world, you&rsquo;ve got these AI representations of the hall. It&rsquo;s nice. It&rsquo;s a bit of fun. I feel it&rsquo;s a dead end. Nobody ought to be under the illusion that&rsquo;s what they&rsquo;re going to do. But I do like the idea of just, here&rsquo;s the talk, you can watch it at the same time as everybody else. And then maybe you and your pals can hang out. You can do your bit online and we can do our bit in the real world, and so it goes. It&rsquo;s really just an opening up so that you don&rsquo;t have to attend because the problem there would be that nobody actually makes the attempt to attend, but I don&rsquo;t feel that&rsquo;s the case. And my second point is that I feel that we need this stuff back just because the online stuff, there&rsquo;s a fatigue associated with that, and I don&rsquo;t for a minute think that everybody&rsquo;s fatigued and I don&rsquo;t for a minute, think the online events don&rsquo;t have merit because they have enormous merit and they&rsquo;ve been an amazing bridge, but I feel that there&rsquo;s a proportion of the people who would love to be at live events who just can&rsquo;t make the transition to the virtual events. There&rsquo;s something about it. Something stifles them, perhaps they have the best will in the world, and then it&rsquo;s on the screen. But then something in the real world occurs to them. The cat decides to chew up the sofas, so off you go, you&rsquo;ve got to deal with the cat. You get distracted, you want to go and make a cup of tea, so you get distracted. Whereas if you&rsquo;re at the WordCamp, you&rsquo;re fully there. You&rsquo;ve engaged, you&rsquo;ve committed. You&rsquo;ve potentially got on a plane. You&rsquo;ve booked a hotel, all of that. And there&rsquo;s no substitute for that. So that really was my second point is that I want to get the people who&rsquo;ve been disengaged back in and ready to take on all of the challenges that we&rsquo;ve got.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:31:42]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Yeah. I think we&rsquo;re on the same page. I can do virtual events. I certainly prefer in person. And the best example of how we know that in-person is very valuable is when you go to a lot of these virtual events, the networking spaces are generally very empty. People aren&rsquo;t having those conversations, those random accidental conversations that they would add an in-person event because at an in-person event, you are physically, quote unquote, stuck in that space. If you don&rsquo;t want to talk to someone, you&rsquo;re just going to go your own way. That&rsquo;s great. But if you do, who knows who&rsquo;s next to you and you&rsquo;re going to overhear things and interrupt the conversation and be interrupted and that&rsquo;s that magic that occurs.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:32:29]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Okay. Let&rsquo;s talk about the third point that we wanted to discuss today. I&rsquo;m straying into an area where I don&rsquo;t have a great deal of experience because I watch these things happen from afar. There&rsquo;s nothing that really concerned me. That concerned me in the sense that I might be a consumer of some of the things that are being bought up. But you wanted to talk about, as you described it, the WordPress economy acquisition madness. Now, what did you mean by that? Just kick us off. Explain what you mean by that phrase.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:32:56]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Here&rsquo;s the beauty of being a successful project, people with money will find ways to make money from it. And that&rsquo;s okay, and that&rsquo;s a good thing. We&rsquo;re seeing the likes of Automattic, WP Engine, GoDaddy, Liquid Web, Cloudways, yada, yada, yada. All these companies, wink wink, they&rsquo;re all hosting companies because they&rsquo;ve been in the space for awhile under different platforms and have recurring streams of revenue and cash on hand, they&rsquo;re going to look to grow their businesses, and one of the easiest ways is to find valuable niche projects, that not only will bring cool bit of code into what they&rsquo;re trying to do, but also allow them to reach out to all the people who have installed that plugin.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:33:45]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Do you have concern then that certain parts of the WordPress, let&rsquo;s say plugin or theme space, are going to be consumed by these bigger entities as you described? In many cases, there will be hosting companies for reasons you&rsquo;ve just explained. Do you have a feeling that silos in the future are going to occur? Where if you really want a decent, let&rsquo;s go for, I dunno, membership experience, you really are better off going in the direction of that company, with the brands that it&rsquo;s acquired over time. Or if you want to go for a WooCommerce experience, your best bet is going to be over here, and everything else is a poor relation of that. So we get silos, which we haven&rsquo;t had until now.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:34:28]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I think that&rsquo;ll happen in the short term, but when that happens, a vacuum is created in the overall ecosystem. So if hosting company X has a, quote unquote, monopoly on that membership plugin, you know what, first of all, it&rsquo;s all open source. All it takes is company Y to be like, we want to be in that space as well, and we&rsquo;re going to re-imagine the underlying open source code base in XYZ format. Yes, a lot of letters there, but it&rsquo;ll happen. These kinds of acquisitions and changes in economy I feel are okay. We&rsquo;re all working from an open source code base. If this was all proprietary stuff that you can never take advantage of, I think that would be bad for the community as a whole, but that&rsquo;s not the case. It&rsquo;s just one company saying we&rsquo;re going to be owners of this project. You can still fork that project any day of the week, don&rsquo;t forget. Cause it&rsquo;s all GPL. So I don&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;re losing anything in the long run. There&rsquo;ll be short term hiccups. People won&rsquo;t be happy. If that plugin doesn&rsquo;t do exactly what they want, but they probably wouldn&rsquo;t necessarily be happy even if it wasn&rsquo;t taken over by someone else. I think there&rsquo;s a percentage of people that will always want to see all this independent software, but all these companies are technically, okay maybe they&rsquo;re not all independent because some of them are actually listed on public exchanges, but the opportunity hasn&rsquo;t been taken away, and if such and such plugin gets acquired by such and such hosting company, I certainly see another hosting company looking for that competitor also happening.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:36:01]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Do you feel that, okay, again, rewinding the clock for the second time in this podcast, if we could go back maybe 6, 7, 8 years, something like that, before these companies were buying up suites of plugins and what have you, to bulk out their offering. We basically had independent plugin developers. There may have been a team that grew up over time and they were inventing a solution for a particular problem, and they were really invested in that, and that was great. We want to solve the calendar thing or we want to solve the, I don&rsquo;t know, the menu thing, whatever it may be. I&rsquo;m just wondering if we&rsquo;re maybe getting into the territory of designing things to be acquired. We designed something so that this can happen, so that we can become bought up, taken along for the ride by a big hosting company, and just really whether or not there&rsquo;s any dynamic that changes the way that instead of serving the customer and always trying to offer the best support for the product, really your whole intention for that business isn&rsquo;t to create the product for the customer, it&rsquo;s to create the product for the sell in the future.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:37:01]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>I agree. I think there&rsquo;s a potential for that. On the correlator, are you getting value in what you want out of that product? So if I use, there&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;m going to jump into because it&rsquo;s happened recently, but on the face of it, it&rsquo;s a product that is so useful to me that I&rsquo;m not going to have to do custom code. It&rsquo;s above and beyond every other plugin competitor in that space. Am I going to use it? I&rsquo;m going to use it, yes. And to some degree it doesn&rsquo;t really matter what the incentives for the developer are at that point. If it&rsquo;s doing what I wanted to do, that I&rsquo;m going to use it because that&rsquo;s what I needed to do, and it&rsquo;s going to save me 10 50, 200 hours of development time to use this plugin as opposed to trying to create something on my own. And that&rsquo;s question one, or the answer one. Answer two is there certainly is an issue with, what&rsquo;s a nice word for miscreant. I guess it&rsquo;s gonna be miscreant, where we&rsquo;ve seen recently some plugin developers literally switch out what that plugin does and what its value proposition is with, quote unquote, upgrades. And they&rsquo;ve done it behind your back. Oh, well you signed up for this cute little plugin that makes banners, guess what, now it&rsquo;s going to do all these things and you have to pay for it just to get banners again, and it&rsquo;s like really, really is that really what you want to do? And I think those developers are getting called out on it.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"> <div class="chat-text"><p>The agencies and content creators, certainly in the nearby community are aware of that. I think those kinds of, yeah, they&rsquo;re not necessarily illegal in any way, shape or form because you can do that, but it doesn&rsquo;t really stick by the unofficial developer third party ecosystem code of conduct. And I think we&rsquo;re always going to see exceptions to the rule, but as long as those are just exceptions, I think we&rsquo;re in a good spot.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:38:43]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Let&rsquo;s pivot again. Openverse. I&rsquo;ve got to say, this is something that kind of passed me by. The radar wasn&rsquo;t working properly over the last few weeks since Openverse came along. I&rsquo;m going to ask you to tell us what Openverse is. I have a very vague understanding of what it is, but I&rsquo;d like you to tell us why you think it&rsquo;s important.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:39:03]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>This is a new project in the WordPress ecosystem. I should say WordPress dot org ecosystem. It comes from creative commons search project that was languishing at creative commons. They didn&rsquo;t have community and developers interested in pushing the search component along and, with support from Automattic, it came into the welcoming arms of wordpress dot org. And it has it&rsquo;s own thing called Openverse. I&rsquo;m excited by it. One, because it expands the open source vision of WordPress, WordPress becoming even a greater open source proponent. It&rsquo;s not just the CMS, but now we also have additional things that we&rsquo;re caring about, which I think is fantastic. It simultaneously is going to be working on technical aspects as well as open libra software model, or content model, I should say, where the tool will be helping WordPress as well as anyone else, obviously on finding creative commons, open licensed media. So in this case, images. I think it&rsquo;s a great expansion that&rsquo;s completely in line with what the project is looking to do. And I think it&rsquo;s going to be surprisingly helpful and people won&rsquo;t even realize what&rsquo;s going on, but they&rsquo;ll all of a sudden be able to access a bunch of new content natively in whatever application, obviously WordPress will be at that top of the list, but, you&rsquo;ll be able to access it with Drupal or proprietary systems.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:40:40]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>What was the problem with the old licensing model? What was broken with it?</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:40:43]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>What was broken was there was no one who was going to commit to keeping up the code base to make CC search working and functioning, tweaking it, bug fixes, whatnot. So, as part of the WordPress project, there will actually be active development and maintenance of the creative common search.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:41:02]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Okay, so was there any concern that things which you may have downloaded from third-party sites, we all know the ones that we customarily go to, that they were often perhaps changing the license after you downloaded things, and then suddenly you didn&rsquo;t realize that you were in contravention of a license, which you thought you had full access to download, redistribute, do whatever you wanted and suddenly you realize, oh, okay, that&rsquo;s no longer the case. This image that I&rsquo;ve got, I need to take down.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:41:28]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>So, licensing is so fun and entertaining. So a lot of these download an image sites, those licenses still stand. So if you have downloaded it and are using an image that was licensed under creative comments, that&rsquo;s not going away. Will they relicense new images? Possibly. The point is how easy will it be to find more creative commons based media? And I think that is the purpose of Openverse, to make that as easy and intuitive as possible. So again, it&rsquo;s taking what used to exist as part of creative, common search, almost like a fork, rebranding it under Openverse and, making it part of an ecosystem that&rsquo;s open source.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:42:15]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>And this is going to be completely available inside the WP admin. So you&rsquo;ll have search integrated there, and if you want to search for, I don&rsquo;t know, a cat on cushions, for example, you&rsquo;ll be able to do that and everything that&rsquo;s returned, you&rsquo;ll be able to use, hopefully because the search will have returned something valuable to you in this case cat&rsquo;s on cushions.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:42:35]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>So that is my expectation. Obviously it&rsquo;s not built into any of that yet, but yeah, that is that&rsquo;s where I see the project going.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-1"><div class="chat-author chat-author-nathanwrigley vcard"><cite class="fn">Nathan Wrigley</cite> [00:42:40]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>But it was a nice philanthropic gesture of Automattic to take this on board and just basically put it into WordPress so that the likes of me, and you can find our cats on cushions whenever we please.</p>
</div></div><div class="chat-stanza chat-row chat-speaker-2"><div class="chat-author chat-author-robertjacobi vcard"><cite class="fn">Robert Jacobi</cite> [00:43:35]</div> <div class="chat-text"><p>Right.</p>
</div></div></div></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 14 Jul 2021 14:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Nathan Wrigley";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:6;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:58:"HeroPress: How WordPress Has Changed My Life – Gtarafdar";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=3939";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:160:"https://heropress.com/essays/how-wordpress-has-changed-my-life-gtarafdar/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-wordpress-has-changed-my-life-gtarafdar";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:19947:"<img width="1024" height="512" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/071321-min.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: I’m really thankful to WordPress. Because of this community I have overseas friends." /><p>I’m Gobinda Tarafdar from Dhaka, Bangladesh. In short, Gtarafdar. This short form is available everywhere on social media. Actually, while I was a kid, a medicine specialist suggested this short form of my name. From that time, I had a plan to use it. Moving on, now I have become a WordPress Enthusiast Marketer. In this essay, I will share my journey to WordPress with you.</p>
<p><a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/gtarafdar_winter_clothing.jpg"><img /></a></p>
<h3>Early Stage Of My Career:</h3>
<p>I started my career as a teacher in an academic coaching center back in 2010. I was then a 1st-year student of my 4-year Graduation Program. But the number of my earnings was not sufficient to cover all my livelihood. My parents were giving me support to continue my study at that time. So I was looking for more ways to earn my living. But in our country, it’s tough to get a job without graduation. I tried to find more tutoring jobs but failed to get one. Then I gave stand-up comedy a try. At that time, it became popular. I participated in a TV reality show based on stand-up comedy. But failed to reach the top five. So, didn’t get much success in the comedy sector as well.</p>
<p><a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/gtafdar_standup_comedy.jpg"><img /></a></p>
<p>In this way, two years passed. After a while, I got the idea of a call center job in the telco industry of our country. I gave an interview to our number one telco company Grameenphone &#8211; a sister concern of Telenor. And luckily got the chance to join there. And it’s a game-changing part of my career. I learned a lot about team play, pressure handling, the ability to put myself in a customer’s shoes, and more. But it was a part-time job, and my graduation was about to end. Immediately after finishing my graduation, I got the opportunity to join Grameenphone’s Finance team. However, I had to pass the challenging interview as many other promising candidates were competing with me. Everything seemed so great at that time. Got the opportunity to work in the country&#8217;s best corporate office, but bad luck struck again. Didn’t get the chance to be a full-time employee from contractual employee status.</p>
<p>I took a break to join the country&#8217;s public service commission. Unfortunately, I failed to get the desired position again. In the meantime, my father retired from his job. All of a sudden, so many responsibilities came upon me. By the way, I forgot to mention, in this time frame, I had completed my Graduation, Masters, and MBA. The year where I’m now in the beginning of 2018. After my father’s retirement, I had no time for an experiment. But the main challenge came then.</p>
<blockquote><p>No one wanted to give me a chance as I worked at one of Bangladesh&#8217;s most prominent companies; they thought I couldn’t fit into their office culture.</p></blockquote>
<p>Also, I wanted to start my career as a Digital Marketer, and I had no practical experience at that time. I had some certification of Udemy and Hubspot free courses. But I was confident that I had a degree of MBA in Marketing. But all of my confidence was doomed within three months. I stopped applying everywhere, started to do some research on the job sector. Finally, I decided to join the IT industry, and in our country, WordPress Based companies are in the leading position. So, I had my target fixed towards the WordPress industry.</p>
<h3>A Huge Risk-Taking State in My Career:</h3>
<p>I took a huge risk to start my career in the WordPress industry. After not seeing much job opportunities in the Digital Marketing area in my country, I was planning to join the telco industry again as I was finding no option to cherish my dream. I badly needed a job at that time. But meanwhile, I found a job circular in weDevs. They were looking for a Digital Marketer Intern. So I made my decision to take part in this program. Surprisingly, I got another job offer from a renowned MNC of our country in the sales team. But I took a huge risk and started trying for the weDevs internship program, and refused the salesperson job. My friends <a href="https://twitter.com/MrMayeen">Mayeen</a> &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/AkhterArif">Arif</a> helped me a lot to learn more about WordPress. And they guided me on how I could set up localhost on my computer, and from then, I started to explore themes and plugins from the WordPress repository. I must say I got an interesting tool to play with. After passing three stages, I finally got the chance to join weDevs. weDevs is a popular WordPress Plugin making company. It’s famous for Dokan Multivendor Marketplace Solution for WooCommerce.</p>
<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Gtarafdar_life_at_weDevs.jpg"><img /></a>My Life at weDevs
<p>Ohh, maybe you have a question about how it can be risky to go for the weDevs internship program! Well, the payout of the other company was three times higher than the weDevs internship payout. And I refused to join the other sales team while I still didn’t have any guarantee to join the weDevs team. So now you can judge, isn’t that risky? (Sorry, I can’t share the name of the sales company publicly here due to some policy issue.)</p>
<h3>The Journey to WordPress:</h3>
<p>From the day when I had installed WordPress in my local host, my journey in this ecosystem started. I found it so easy to use and user-friendly that I felt anyone could create a website. I started to read articles and explore the World of WordPress. Also, weDevs’s internship program helped me a lot to get involved in the WordPress industry. My mentor <a href="https://twitter.com/AfshanaDiya">Afshana Diya</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/mainul0aion">Mainul Kabir Aion</a> guided me a lot to dive deep into the sea of WordPress. Learned the area of content marketing, explored paid mediums, gathered knowledge on social media marketing, and more within three months. The internship program was exact and compact, along with interactive.</p>
<p>Here came another twist. I wanted to be a part of the Digital Marketing Team. But because of my communication skills and interpersonal relationship skills, <a href="https://twitter.com/Nizam5428">Mr. Nizam Uddin</a> (Founder &amp; CEO at weDevs) offered me the Business Development executive position. It was an entirely new thing at weDevs. I was the one-man army in the Business Development Team. And it opened up a new world to me. At that time, I got my first chance to attend a WordCamp (WCAhmedabad, India 2018). From that time, I got the motive to be involved in the WordPress Community. I’ll share how WordCamps can help you to join the community closely. Later on, I got the chance to participate in WordCamp Kolkata 2019, WordCamp Nagpur 2019. It was a fantastic journey to join WordCamps in person. In 2019 I took part in WordCamp Dhaka as a volunteer.</p>
<a href="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Gtarafdar_WordCamps.jpg"><img /></a>My Journey to WordCamps
<p>I’d love to share with you; now, I have become part of the Digital Marketing Team of weDevs. After almost two years of my journey as a business development executive, I got this new opportunity to prove myself again. So I took this opportunity and became a Digital Strategist.</p>
<p>Now I’m dedicatedly taking care of a sole product. It’s an Addon of Elementor Page Builder. It’s HappyAddons for Elementor. I’m the product coordinator of this excellent tool. From zero to now, 100k+ users are actively using this tool. It’s an incredible learning period in my career path. I learned how to grow a product from the ground level. It’s a great achievement for me as a Product Marketer.</p>
<h3>How WordCamp Helps Me to Become a Member in the WordPress Community:</h3>
<p>WordCamps are the place of like-minded people. When you are in touch with the right people under the same roof, you will get that homely feeling. Also, in WordCamps, you get to meet industry experts. Interestingly, you can collect lucrative swag items. To some extent, you will get an opportunity to make partnerships to expand the business. Moreover, some companies share job boxes where anyone can share their resume. So it could be a place of opportunities. Who knows what you will get. But in my case, I made so many friends. We are now close buddies.</p>
<p>The exciting part, some WordCamps run contributors day. On that day, you will get the chance to know closely about how you can take part in the core programs of WordPress. From WordCamp Ahmedabad, I started participating in WordPress programs, also started joining WordPress teams meetings. I’ve become active on social media as well to spread news and updates related to WordPress.</p>
<h3 id="enriching">How I’m Enriching My Knowledge of WordPress:</h3>
<p>One line changes my way of thinking. Once I was talking with our Founder &amp; CTO, Mr. <a href="https://twitter.com/tareq_cse">Tareq Hasan</a>, regarding this topic. He just said, “Gobinda, you don’t have to learn coding to solve the problems of WordPress; you have to gain the ability to solve the problem by anyhow. You can solve any kind of problem by referring to other WordPress Plugins and tools.”</p>
<p>I got a new meaning of using WordPress. From that time, I have started to check WordPress plugins and themes to learn more about their purpose. WordPress repository now becomes a place of amusement for me. Sometimes, my colleagues refer to me as a ‘plugin man’ as I try to give a quick solution to WordPress-related problems with the help of WordPress plugins.</p>
<p>Still, I’m participating in several Facebook Group discussions. Trying to solve several solutions and learning what problems are usually people facing while creating websites with WordPress. And believe me, there is definitely a solution to each particular problem.</p>
<blockquote><p>You have to keep patience and search for the solution in the right type of keywords.</p></blockquote>
<p>For example, yesterday on the Facebook group &#8211; WordPressian (Dedicated Facebook Group for those who speak Bangali), a person was looking to create a courier service platform where people can track their package. Most people suggested building a custom-made solution. But I know there is a solution; I randomly found it on the WP repository.</p>
<blockquote><p>So I just googled this term “WordPress plugin: courier service”. Google didn’t disappoint me.</p></blockquote>
<p>I got my answer, read the description, reviewed, checked screenshots, and shared the solution with that person.</p>
<p>To increase my knowledge of WordPress, I use another method. I use some Google Chrome Extensions for checking the Builtwith Materials of WordPress sites. When I jump on a WordPress site, I just click on the Chrome Ext. and check the plugins they’ve used to create their site. And it helps me a lot to learn the tools and their purposes. You can do that if you want to increase your knowledge of WordPress.</p>
<p>Lastly, you have to create a site by yourself. Otherwise, you would not be able to know the issue on your own. At least create your own portfolio site. I have learned so many things while creating my portfolio site: gtarafdar.com. You will know some untold facts, and finally, you will get a boost. <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/retiring-young-bangladesh-thanks-wordpress/">Mr. Asif Rahman</a>, the founder of WP Developers, gave me this idea. He always inspires me to create a personal website. Also, he forced me to write about WordPress daily. Guided me on how I can create a site with Elementor in 2018. I became familiar with a handy tool that helps me create a site without having coding experiences from that time. Later on, it helped me to take over the Happy Elementor Addons Project.</p>
<h3>How you can connect with WordPress Socially:</h3>
<p>Twitter is the best medium. I opened my Twitter account in 2010. But I had no motivation to use it as I didn’t have people close to me there. My friends were all on Facebook. I was also trying to involve myself on Facebook. But after joining weDevs, I found my Mentor, Afshana Diya, was so active on Twitter, and she has so many like-minded people on Twitter, and most of them belong to the WordPress community. I got new motivation to use Twitter. I started to connect with WordPress Professionals. Also interacted with them regularly. And I must say it feels really amazing.</p>
<p>I’ve prepared a Twitter<a href="https://twitter.com/i/lists/1143525711489036288"> list of WordPress Influencers</a>. You can easily follow them from here.</p>
<h3>How you can start your career at WordPress:</h3>
<p>If you have a passion for coding, you could be a WordPress developer. In our region, here is a myth. To become a developer, you have to be a CSE grad. But it’s not true. Let’s check a fact. In our weDevs, most of the Developers are directly not from Computer Science Engineering backgrounds. In the same way, you may have joined the CSE program at an early stage, but now you may not have that much passion for coding. You can be a Product Manager. In the WordPress industry, there is scope for a Product manager as well. Another exciting sector is the Quality Assurance team. So many companies are hiring in this sector. Moreover, if you like to communicate with people, you can join the Support Engineering team. You can’t imagine how many job openings there are in the support engineering field.</p>
<p>Those who don’t have any coding knowledge but are proficient in English and have a passion for writing can join as Content Marketers. There are plenty of job vacancies in the content marketing area.</p>
<p>Another interesting option is joining the Designing team. If you find interest in the designing sector and love to play with the designing tools like Figma, Adobe Tools, Sketch, you can definitely join the design team of a WordPress company.</p>
<p>Later on, other job sectors like HR management, Accounts, Business Development, and other necessary areas are also available on WordPress companies. More interestingly, you can work remotely in so many companies. WordPress founding company Automattic is running its whole operation remotely. You just have to find your perfect niche. Otherwise, you can be frustrated.</p>
<p>I’ve prepared a list of <a href="https://gtarafdar.com/wpjobs/popular-wordpress-companies-to-apply-for-jobs/">WordPress companies</a> where you can apply for jobs.</p>
<p>Finally, don’t be frustrated, my mate. I often hear from my fellow friends and juniors always blame God, parents, and the government because of their unemployment problem. But when I reach them and personally request to gain some technical skills, they just run away most of the time. Not even reply to my messages anymore. Even some of them block me. Lol. Also, some other groups are available; they knock me for jobs and share their family issues, but when I ask them to learn more about web development, they just fly like a bat. I don’t know what their problem is. If you are in the same category, then my mate, you are in huge trouble. Change your mindset. Gain some skills. It could be anything. Try one by one. Then choose the best one for you. But again, don’t be frustrated. Keep focusing on your goal. And dive into it.</p>
<h3>What’s The Challenge on Working in WordPress Industry:</h3>
<p>I’ve shared all the positive things about joining the WordPress industry. But there is a significant challenge you have to face while you will join the community. In my region, very few people know WordPress. Only tech-savvy people are familiar with that. Even most of the people don’t have any prior knowledge about remote job life. I have personally experienced so many funny incidents. Last year when my family members found me in front of my Mac and sometimes talking with some people, sometimes in English, they found me as an alien in my house. Even most of the time, I failed to give proof of how the whole work was done. You will face the same situation if you belong to the rural area of Bangladesh. But don’t worry, I prepared a comic book on <a href="https://gtarafdar.com/book/e-book-describe-wordpress-to-non-techies/">Describe WordPress To Non-Techies</a>. You can read the conversation with my Grandpa. I have tried to give an idea about WordPress. I hope this will help you to introduce WordPress to the non-tech guys.</p>
<h3>How I’m Contributing to the WordPress Community and how you can start:</h3>
<p>Usually, I try to attend the weekly meeting of WordPress teams. I have attended several coffee-talk sessions of WordPress Teams. It helps me join with the members. Also, I’m trying to contribute to the Polyglot team. I have started to give suggestions of translating WordPress in Bangla. But mostly, I contribute in different ways. I have conducted local WordPress meet-ups, volunteered on WordCamps. I spread the news and updates through my social media accounts. Help WordPress people to find jobs. Recently, I’ve started my YouTube Channel(Gtarafdarr). I have begun to create how-to tutorials on WordPress.</p>
<p>If you want to join WordPress core teams, you will need a WordPress Slack Account. From here, you can join WordPress <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/">Slack</a>.</p>
<p>From here, you will find the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meetings/">meeting</a> schedules of different teams. Don’t get puzzled. You can sort out your desired teams and add the meeting reminders to your calendar.</p>
<p>Everyone in the WordPress community is so helpful. If you find any difficulties, raise your hand and people will guide you in the right way.</p>
<p>Also, there are so many WordPress Facebook communities. Some are locals, and few are international, like WordPress, Advanced WordPress, WordPress For Non-Techies by WPCrafter, The WP Admin Bar, WPLeague, WPBeginner Engage &#8211; WordPress Help for Non-Techies, etc. Local Communities are, WordPressians, Kolkata WordPress Community (WPKolkata), etc. You can join these groups to get help from experts. Also, you can help others if you know the answers of the queries.</p>
<h3>This How WordPress Changed My Life</h3>
<p>Finally, I’m really thankful to WordPress. Because of this community I have overseas friends. We talk and meet virtually. All of them are so helpful. I get new motivations to do something extraordinary in my daily routine. I’m thankful to my parents and my younger sister as they rely upon me. They help me to take the risk to chess my dream. I’m grateful to weDevs and Tareq Hasan, Nizam Uddin, <a href="https://twitter.com/Asif2BD">Asif Rahman</a>, Afshana Diya, Mainul Kabir Aion, and my friends Arif, Mayeen, <a href="https://twitter.com/shahriar_na">Shahriar</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/reachmazharul">Mazhar</a>, and so on. They all have played a significant role in helping me become Gtarafdar, a WordPress enthusiast. Also, thanks to the HeroPress team for reaching me and encouraging me to share my story here.</p>
<p>I’m still learning about WordPress and have to go further. If you want to connect with me, you can follow me on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/Gtarafdarr">@Gtarafdarr</a>. Let’s contribute to WordPress and hold the glory of the supreme power of an open-source platform.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/how-wordpress-has-changed-my-life-gtarafdar/">How WordPress Has Changed My Life &#8211; Gtarafdar</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 14 Jul 2021 06:42:10 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16:"Gobinda Tarafdar";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:7;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"WPTavern: InstaWP Launches New Service for Disposable WordPress Testing Sites";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119740";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:199:"https://wptavern.com/instawp-launches-new-service-for-disposable-wordpress-testing-sites?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=instawp-launches-new-service-for-disposable-wordpress-testing-sites";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4526:"<p>Competition in the sandboxing products space is heating with the entrance of <a href="https://instawp.io/">InstaWP</a>, a new service for setting up disposable WordPress testing sites. Founder Vikas Singhal created the tool to provide a quick way to set up live testing sites online or to show something to a client or team.</p>



<p>InstaWP joins the ranks of services like <a href="https://tastewp.com/">TasteWP</a> and <a href="https://wpsandbox.io/">WPSandbox</a> but with a few unique options. At setup, users can select from WordPress versions back to 4.7 and may even choose to spin up a site using the latest beta or release candidate. Like other services, InstaWP allows you to choose your PHP version. The ability to disable WP cache and browser cache is coming soon. Users can create a custom name for their sites or leave it blank for a randomly generated name.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>Free WordPress instances stay live for 8 hours, and users can link their accounts via email to extend it to 48 hours.</p>



<p>InstaWP, not to be confused with <a href="https://instantwp.com/">InstantWP</a>, a local WordPress installation tool, was built on an nginx + Apache server without any containers. Singhal said he found containers to be too heavy for this particular use case. He runs a <a href="https://expresstech.io/">WordPress plugin/theme shop</a> along with an&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="http://justhyre.com/">agency</a>&nbsp;on the side, both of which could benefit from InstaWP&rsquo;s quick testing sites.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I wanted to build a solution for ourselves where we can quickly launch WP instances for a variety of reasons &ndash; testing a feature of WP, testing a plugin/theme, testing in different versions of WP/PHP and last but not the least &ndash; creating an &lsquo;instant&rsquo; test environment for the clients for them to test our plugins/themes,&rdquo; he said.</p>



<p>Singhal started InstaWP a month ago and received so much positive feedback on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Wordpress/comments/o8cxwj/instawp_launch_a_disposable_wp_instantly_free/">Reddit</a> and from the <a href="https://mailchi.mp/poststatus/453?e=de2e3e61f2">Post Status community</a> that he hired two dedicated developers to work on the project. Testers have commented on how fast the service spins up sites. Version <a href="http://next.expresstech.io/instawp/updates/939abf2f-c532-4abc-b701-eec9f89b6fda">1.1.0</a> introduced Slack integration, which allows users to instantly set up a site by typing /wp in Slack. The release also added WordPress admin auto login for quick access without username and password.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>InstaWP has a <a href="https://next.expresstech.io/instawp">public road map</a>. Features on deck for future releases include the following:</p>



<ol><li>Slack and cli commands</li><li>Download Files and DB Backup from the UI</li><li>Direct push to FTP or cPanel</li><li>nginx and nginx + Apache configurations</li><li>Finer controls on PHP settings</li><li>Save configurations for instant launch of pre-configured WP</li><li>Integrations with hosting providers</li><li>Map custom domains</li><li>Multiple servers around the world (USA, Singapore, London, etc.)</li></ol>



<p>Singhal said he was aware of TasteWP as a competitor but plans to differentiate InstaWP based on simplicity and feature set. </p>



<p>&ldquo;My vision with InstaWP is make it a default tool for WP learners, enthusiasts, freelancers, and agencies &ndash; basically everyone,&rdquo; he said. </p>



<p>Singhal plans to monetize the tool for both end-users and plugin and theme authors. Users will have to upgrade to gain access to increased limits, custom domains, FTP access, and the ability to reserve a site. WordPress product authors can upgrade to provide 1-click demos to their clients and prospective customers.</p>



<p>Singhal said so far more than 500 instances have been created and teams from Yoast and some agencies are already using the tool. Several prominent WordPress businesses have requested agency pricing that would allow their users to test their plugins via a 1-click preconfigured install. The service is still under active development and Singhal plans to iron out pricing in the near future. Testers who have suggestions for InstaWP can log them on the tool&rsquo;s <a href="https://next.expresstech.io/instawp#/ideas">idea board</a> for future consideration.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 14 Jul 2021 04:25:16 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:8;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:95:"WPTavern: Duotone Filters: WordPress 5.8 Puts a Powerful Image-Editing Tool Into Users’ Hands";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119885";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:227:"https://wptavern.com/duotone-filters-wordpress-5-8-puts-a-powerful-image-editing-tool-into-users-hands?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=duotone-filters-wordpress-5-8-puts-a-powerful-image-editing-tool-into-users-hands";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4769:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Features such as the upcoming <a href="https://wptavern.com/diving-into-wordpress-5-8s-new-widgets-screen">block-based widgets system</a>, <a href="https://wptavern.com/getting-to-know-the-upcoming-wordpress-5-8-template-editor">the template editor</a>, <a href="https://wptavern.com/query-loop-the-ins-and-outs-of-one-of-wordpress-5-8s-most-powerful-features">theme-related blocks</a>, and others have taken up much of the spotlight as of late. However, one of the best user-focused tools shipping with WordPress 5.8 is a duotone filter for Image and Cover blocks.</p>



<p>The term &ldquo;duotone&rdquo; in this sense means combining two colors as a filter. Then, layering it over an image or video. More specifically, one color is used for the shadows (dark elements), and the second color is used for the highlights (light colors).</p>



<p>When the feature first <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-10-6-adds-duotone-filters-query-pattern-carousel-and-most-used-tags-selector">landed in Gutenberg 10.6</a> back in May, I spent a couple of hours just tinkering around with it on that first day. Since then, I have racked up a few more. It is a powerful media-editing tool that does not require users to dive into image-editing programs, allowing them to change the mood of a story at the click of a button.</p>



<p>Duotones can be anything from a simple grayscale to a mixture of any two colors. Shadows and highlights can even be inverted, depending on the shades chosen.</p>



<p>The following shows the difference between an original image of kittens (<em>because who doesn&rsquo;t love kittens?</em>) and one with a grayscale filter:</p>



<div class="juxtapose"><img id="119947" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/kittens-orig.jpg" alt="" width="1792" height="1008" class="image-compare__image-before" /><img id="119948" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/kittens-gray.jpg" alt="" width="1793" height="1008" class="image-compare__image-after" /></div>Original image vs. grayscale duotone version.



<p>WordPress offers a set of eight duotone color sets by default. This includes a grayscale, dark grayscale, and various combinations, making for some fun filters. Some will work better than others, often depending on the media file uploaded.</p>



<img />Applying the WordPress purple and yellow duotone filter.



<p>Like many other features awaiting users with WordPress 5.8, theme authors are those who need to dig in to offer a range of ready-baked options for users. The new <a href="https://wptavern.com/fse-outreach-round-8-a-developer-centric-call-for-testing-theme-json-configuration">theme JSON file configuration</a> allows developers to define a set of duotone colors that match their theme.</p>



<p>Defining custom duotone filters is as easy as plugging a name, a slug, and two colors into a <code>theme.json</code> file. The theme developer handbook includes <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/themes/theme-json/#presets">examples of creating such presets</a>.</p>



<img />Custom &ldquo;emerald scale&rdquo; duotone filter from a theme.



<p>Users are not limited to the filters that WordPress or their themes offer. The duotone popover allows them to choose from any range of colors for custom shadows and highlights.</p>



<p>Duotone typically works best when an image has a high contrast, which means a wide-ranging spread between the light and dark colors. Darker shadows and lighter highlights make for more visually stunning filters.</p>



<p>When used with the Cover block, users can add filters to both image and video backgrounds. However, they also have access to the typical overlay color or gradient option. This provides a ton of flexibility for customizing media.</p>



<img />Duotone filter + gradient overlay on a Cover block.



<p>Because the duotone feature works with an inline SVG file under the hood, it also means that using it does not permanently change image or video files. Users can still use their original media elsewhere on the site without uploading a second copy.</p>



<p>Duotone is just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many other possibilities outside of just laying a couple of colors on top of an image. Bence Szab&oacute; wrote an extensive tutorial on using <a href="https://css-tricks.com/creating-patterns-with-svg-filters/">SVG filters for patterns</a> on CSS-Tricks. This could be a route for background options in the future &mdash; <em><a href="https://css-tricks.com/creating-patterns-with-svg-filters/#pine-wood">wood grain, anyone?</a></em> Maybe not every possibility is suitable for core WordPress, but I would love to see plugin authors taking a stab at some alternatives.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 14 Jul 2021 02:04:42 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:9;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 5.8 Release Candidate 3";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=10933";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/wordpress-5-8-release-candidate-3/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3239:"<p>The third release candidate for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-8/">WordPress 5.8</a> is now available! </p>



<p>WordPress 5.8 is slated for release on <strong>July 20, 2021</strong>, and we need <em>your</em> help to get there—if you have not tried 5.8 yet, now is the time!</p>



<p>You can test the WordPress 5.8 release candidate 3 in any of these three ways:</p>



<ul><li>Install and activate the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester plugin</a> (select the <code>Bleeding edge</code> channel and then <code>Beta/RC Only</code> stream)</li><li>Directly download the release candidate version <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.8-RC3.zip">(zip)</a></li><li>Use WP-CLI to test: <code>wp core update --version=5.8-RC3</code></li></ul>



<p>Thank you to all of the contributors who tested the&nbsp;Beta/RC releases and gave feedback. Testing for bugs is a critical part of polishing every release and a great way to contribute to WordPress.</p>



<h2>Plugin and Theme Developers</h2>



<p>Please test your plugins and themes against WordPress 5.8 and update the&nbsp;<em>Tested up to</em>&nbsp;version in the <code>readme</code> file to 5.8.  If you find compatibility problems, please be sure to post to the&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">support forums</a>&nbsp;so we can work to solve them in time for the final release.</p>



<p>For a more detailed breakdown of the changes included in WordPress 5.8, check out the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-beta-1/">WordPress 5.8 beta 1 post</a>.  The&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/03/wordpress-5-8-field-guide/">WordPress 5.8 Field Guide</a>, which is particularly useful for developers, has all the info and further links to help you get comfortable with the major changes.</p>



<h2>How to Help</h2>



<p>Can you speak and write in a language other than English? &nbsp;<a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp/dev">Help us translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!</a></p>



<p><em><strong>If you think you have found a bug</strong>, you can post to the&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta">Alpha/Beta area</a>&nbsp;in the support forums. We would love to hear from you!  If you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report,&nbsp;<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/newticket">file one on WordPress Trac</a>, where you can also find&nbsp;<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major">a list of known bugs</a>.</em></p>



<p class="has-text-align-right"><strong><em>Props to <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbringmann/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>cbringmann</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>chanthaboune</a>, and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/marybaum/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>marybaum</a> for peer-reviewing!</em></strong></p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator" />



<p><em>Code is poetry<br />Jazz is improvisation<br />Both are forms of art<br /><br /></em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 14 Jul 2021 01:09:26 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Jeffrey Paul";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:10;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:94:"WPTavern: UK State of Open Report Finds 97% of UK Businesses Surveyed Use Open Source Software";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119726";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:231:"https://wptavern.com/uk-state-of-open-report-finds-97-of-uk-businesses-surveyed-use-open-source-software?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=uk-state-of-open-report-finds-97-of-uk-businesses-surveyed-use-open-source-software";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4513:"<p><a href="https://openuk.uk/">OpenUK</a>, a WordPress-powered not-for-profit company, has released its <a href="https://openuk.uk/stateofopen/">State of the Open</a> report with data from the UK in 2021. The company advocates for open source software, open source hardware, and open data, while providing a central point of collaboration for people working in the open sectors. </p>



<p>The State of the Open report offers a broad overview of the UK&rsquo;s open source ecosystem. This collection of research includes surveys of UK companies, interviews, industry reports, and analysis from different publications. It was sponsored by GitHub, SUSE, and the Open Invention Network, and conducted by <a href="http://smoothmedia.com/">Smoothmedia</a> consulting firm under the direction of ethnographer and social researcher Dr. Jennifer Barth.</p>



<p>Key findings in <a href="https://openuk.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/openuk_stateofope2021_report_FINALCHANGES_08.pdf">Phase 1</a> of the report include research demonstrating that open source software contributes an estimated &pound;43.1 billion to the UK economy, with the UK ringing in as Europe&rsquo;s largest contributor. </p>



<p><a href="https://openuk.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/State-of-Open-Phase-Two.pdf">Phase 2</a> covers open source adoption in the UK. Researchers found a staggering 97% of the 273 UK businesses surveyed use some form of open source software:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>We found that 97% of businesses of different sizes in all sectors of the UK economy use open source software technology. Although resources became a more pressing concern during the pandemic, 64% of businesses in our sample experienced business growth which translated into a high recruitment drive for roles relating to open source software in the past 12 months (see recruitment findings). Further, we find that almost half of businesses surveyed (48%) are using open source software more as digital adoption becomes embedded in organisational culture and business.</p></blockquote>



<p>Other key findings from Phase 2 include the following:</p>



<ul><li>53% of non-tech organizations contribute to open source software projects</li><li>77% of UK public sector looks to open source for skills developmen </li><li>Over half (54%) have written policies and processes for open source contributions</li><li>89% run open source software internally in their business</li><li>Approximately two thirds (65%) contribute to open source software projects</li></ul>



<p>One interesting observation from the contribution data is that smaller companies are more likely to contribute back to open source than larger companies. Smaller companies are also more likely to use open source software in their businesses.</p>



<p></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">From the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StateOfOpen?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StateOfOpen</a> report from <a href="https://twitter.com/openuk_uk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@openuk_uk</a>, it's clear that businesses of all sizes make key use of open source. The report correlates company size and open source involvement, showing smaller companies more active in contributing to open source. <a href="https://t.co/A7dz3pjqFm">https://t.co/A7dz3pjqFm</a> <a href="https://t.co/L5qeRrs9Xc">pic.twitter.com/L5qeRrs9Xc</a></p>&mdash; Aiven (@aiven_io) <a href="https://twitter.com/aiven_io/status/1414556406703869956?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 12, 2021</a></blockquote>



<p>Survey respondents cited &ldquo;saving on costs&rdquo; as the main reason for adopting open source (75%), followed by more collaboration (72%), skill development (64%), the quality of code (61%), and security (52%).</p>



<p>Phase 3 is planned to be published in September 2021. This report will focus on UK data with a methodology tailored to reveal the value of open source software to the digital economy. It will also include case studies that demonstrate the non-economic, intangible benefits of open source software, such as skills development and collaboration.</p>



<p>The published <a href="https://openuk.uk/stateofopen/">reports</a> are lengthy but will be of particular interest to companies working in the UK and Europe, especially consultancies that may need to justify using open source technologies in engineering decisions. OpenUK plans to conduct a further survey in 2022 as part of this effort to estimate the impact of open source on the UK economy.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 13 Jul 2021 04:20:09 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:11;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"WPTavern: Contributing to Open Source Is ‘Better Than Any College Degree’";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=118776";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:187:"https://wptavern.com/contributing-to-open-source-is-better-than-any-college-degree?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=contributing-to-open-source-is-better-than-any-college-degree";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7666:"<p class="has-drop-cap">A week ago, I published my <a href="https://wptavern.com/taking-the-leap-building-my-first-wordpress-block-plugin">thoughts on the block system</a> from a developer&rsquo;s perspective. Taking a weekend-afternoon deep dive into creating custom block types meant learning some tough lessons and familiarizing myself with a programming language I had little experience using.</p>



<p>Programming has always been a trial-and-error affair for me: write code, refresh the browser, read the error message, and attempt to fix the problem. Then, simply rinse and repeat the process until the program is not broken. Those mistakes are woven into the art of coding, the layers underneath that poetry on the visible canvas.</p>



<p>I have absolutely made the same mistake twice. And, thrice. Probably a lot more than that if I am being honest with myself and you. Eventually, I stop making those same mistakes, and some method or procedure is permanently seared into my brain.</p>



<p>I have written a few hundred WordPress tutorials in the past decade and a half. I am a twice-published author of development books and served as a tech editor on another. However, I am not much of a reader of tech books and documentation. For one, programmers are not necessarily the most engaging writers. Plus, <em>book smarts</em> can only get you so far. You need the <em>street smarts</em> of programming to become good at it, which means learning from experience.</p>



<p>While I firmly believe that reading is a central part of that, there is no replacement for getting your hands dirty. Building things, making mistakes, and learning to fix them is what makes programming fun.</p>



<p>Working on open-source software like WordPress is one of the best ways to do that. There is no upfront cost, assuming you have access to a computer, a prerequisite to programming of any kind. There are usually people willing to lend a hand or answer questions, and there are always problems to solve for those ready to dive into them.</p>



<p>As WordPress Executive Director <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/05/the-commons-of-images/">Josepha Haden Chomphosy chatted with Matt Mullenweg</a> on the <a href="https://wptavern.com/openverse-why-this-project-is-good-for-wordpress-and-the-web">Openverse project</a> a couple of months ago, there was a moment that I found myself nodding my head in agreement.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Because, of course, you know, contributing and being involved with open source is probably the best way to learn a technology, better than any college degree.</p><cite><em>Matt Mullenweg, WordPress Project Lead</em></cite></blockquote>



<p>I have learned more about WordPress, PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript by contributing to open-source software than I ever learned in a college course.</p>



<p>I grew up in a generation that was told that we must get a college degree. It was an integral part of the American dream that would result in suburban life in a neighborhood with perfectly aligned rows of houses, ending in a cul-de-sac. It was the first step toward a two-car garage, white-picket-fence, 2.5 kids, and a dog. College was the promise that my peers and I hinged everything on. It was expected of us, and so many of us did our duty.</p>



<p>Here is the thing that our parents did not know. The internet would change everything.</p>



<p>I graduated high school in 2002. This was during that stretch where the online world was exploding. All of the world&rsquo;s knowledge would soon be at our fingertips. Today that is truer than ever. Anything you will ever need to learn about writing code is available through an internet connection.</p>



<p>My experience with college-level courses in programming was mixed, but I learned a necessary life lesson from them: I was not cut out for a degree in software engineering. I am glad I wised up early on and pursued a different degree, saving myself some time and money.</p>



<p>I rocked my half-summer C programming class, my introduction to writing code. I also had a passionate professor who once worked on U.S. missile projects as a bug-tester. It was probably not the most glamorous job, but he always made it sound exciting because he loved what he was doing. Our class was tasked with building various programs throughout the course, but we usually had a choice in what we were building. For my group&rsquo;s final project, we created vending machine software.</p>



<p>I was on the fast track to becoming a software engineer after that first class. I had built a way for merchants to get paid for delivering sugary treats and soft drinks to customers. It was capitalism meeting programming, and I had a taste for it.</p>



<p>The fall semester rolled around, and I was motivated to move beyond the realm of procedural programming in C. Java, an object-oriented programming (OOP) language, would be my next challenge.</p>



<p>The most advanced thing our class built for an entire semester was a basic calculator. I skipped nearly every lecture because I could not stay awake watching the professor chicken-peck his way through programs for three hours every week. I attended the mandatory &ldquo;labs&rdquo; &mdash; basically a fancy way of saying an extra class where the professor&rsquo;s assistants would teach the actual coursework. </p>



<p>Needless to say, my fire died down. While calculator programs are handy tools, I wanted to branch out and build things that mattered.</p>



<p><em>You know what reignited my flame for programming?</em> At first, it was general web development. But, WordPress was what I really became passionate about. And, I have not looked back since I started using it in 2005.</p>



<p>WordPress was my gateway into a world where I could create things that interested me. I could jump ahead into a project far more advanced than my skill level, trial-and-error my way ahead, and eventually build something that others found value in.</p>



<p>Unless universities have changed, most teach step-by-step foundational lessons to their pupils. Some students may luck out and land in that unique professor&rsquo;s class who gives them leeway to explore various ideas. However, there is no substitute for creating something of your own, solving a problem that you see.</p>



<p>And, that is what programming is all about &mdash; solving problems.</p>



<p>In 2007, I released my first WordPress plugin into the wild. It automatically listed all of the subpages of the currently-viewed page. Dozens of similar plugins have been written since and probably before (<em>it seems WordPress would have a simple &ldquo;list subpages&rdquo; function by now</em>).</p>



<p>Last week, after writing a new plugin, I was reminded of the free education that the WordPress community has given me over the years. Some of it has been reading documentation. Some from WordPress Stack Exchange answers. Other bits have been studying from those who came before me, building upon their open-source code. All of it was from other people giving something back to our community.</p>



<p>This is not necessarily a knock on college.  Some people perform better in that structured environment, and there is value in all forms of education. However, there are alternatives for those who cannot afford college or learn better in a different environment.  And, there is no discounting the experience you get from contributing to something bigger.</p>



<p>If you are one of our readers thinking about getting into programming, just dive in. Make some mistakes. Build. <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn.</a></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 13 Jul 2021 00:40:23 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:12;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:83:"Gutenberg Times: Block Building, Query Loop block and more – Weekend Edition #177";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?p=18471";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:88:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/block-building-query-loop-block-and-more-weekend-edition-177/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15136:"<p>Howdy, </p>



<p>For a few days, we enjoyed non-humid weather in Florida as Hurricane Elsa sucked all the moisture out of the air and took it with it. Sorry, Northern friends. </p>



<p>For some fun summer reading, I can highly recommend the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-8/"><strong>WordPress 5.8 </strong></a>DevNotes, all handily assembled into a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/03/wordpress-5-8-field-guide/"><strong>massive Field Guide</strong></a> by Milana Cap. </p>



<p>After the publishing rush around the WordPress 5.8 release last week, this week is certainly a lot calmer. Although I know that behind the scenes, contributors are working hard on getting Block Editor End-User documentation ready, too. 🐝</p>



<p>Hopefully, you have been busy testing plugins and themes for compatibility with the new widget block-editor. July 20th is only 10 days away. <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/wordpress-5-8-release-candidate-2/"><strong>WordPress 5.8 RC 2</strong></a> is out and could use your eagle eyes to spot last-minute bugs and quirks. </p>



<p>What else has happened in the WordPress Gutenberg space last week? I have a few more links for you. As always, you don&#8217;t have to consume them all in one sitting, you can always come back during the week. </p>



<p>Wishing you a wonderful weekend and start into your next week!</p>



<p>Yours, 💕<br />Birgit</p>



<h2>Gutenberg Development</h2>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/09/whats-new-in-gutenberg-11-0-0-9-july/"><strong>Gutenberg 11.0 was released</strong></a> and <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/get_dave">Dave Smith</a></strong> compiled the release notes for the team. This time in the release cycle of the next WordPress release, it&#8217;s all about bug fixing. <strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> highlights a few enhancements <strong><a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-0-includes-over-70-bug-fixes-continues-improving-with-wordpress-5-8-just-two-weeks-away">in his post</a></strong>. <strong>Grzegorz Ziolkowski </strong>and I recorded the <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-47-developing-block-plugins-wordpress-5-8/">47th episode of the Gutenberg Changelog </a>on Friday. Listen in and get a few more ideas of what&#8217;s in this Gutenberg 11.0  release. the audio should be available over the weekend. </p>



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<p><strong>Matias Ventura</strong> <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/33094"><strong>updated scope for site editing projects</strong></a> to help the team and the community to track upcoming tasks around the main site editing projects. There are a few separate tracking issues for covering some general improvements and then some broader projects. It covers some general UI features that need to be iterated on, mentioned a Browse mode for the site editor, and lists Infrastructure, Patterns, Styling and the Navigation Block. </p>



<h2>Gutenberg and Themes</h2>



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/carolinapoena">Carolina Nymark</a></strong> summarized <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/07/08/summary-theme-features-in-wordpress-5-8/"><strong>all the Theme </strong></a><strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/07/08/summary-theme-features-in-wordpress-5-8/">features</a> </strong>that will come to a WordPress instance near you with WordPress 5.8. It&#8217;s the Cliff Notes with actionable code snippets for opt-in and opt-out decisions. </p>



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<p><strong>Daisy Olson</strong> posted a summary and the recording of this week&#8217;s <strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/07/09/hallway-hangout-discussion-on-theme-json-7-july/">Hallway Hangout Discussion the Theme.json</a>. </strong></p>



<p>The <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/06/24/call-for-testing-thrive-with-theme-json/"><strong>Theme.json Call for testing </strong></a>is still open until July 14, 2021. It has instructions for beginners, Intermediate and advanced WordPress theme developers.  It&#8217;s a fabulous way to learn and share your feedback.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide" />



<p><strong>Maggie Cabrera</strong> created an <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/07/09/gutenberg-themes-week-of-july-9-2021/"><strong>outstanding weekly round-up (#56)</strong></a> post with theme related recently merged PRs, what is discussed and again a great list of overview git hub issues that are waiting for your comments and ideas! </p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide" />



<p>A couple of weeks ago, we had <strong><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/theme-json-for-wordpress-theme-authors-demo-and-live-q-a-w-daisy-olson-tammie-lister-and-jeff-ong/">Daisy Olsen, Tammie Lister and Jeff Ong on a Live Q &amp; A.</a></strong> First we have a short introduction demo on how to work with theme.json and a discussion on how this new way to organize the settings and styles for your theme change how themes work in WordPress. We also answered interesting questions from the audience. If you haven&#8217;t seen it yet, <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/theme-json-for-wordpress-theme-authors-demo-and-live-q-a-w-daisy-olson-tammie-lister-and-jeff-ong/">you can watch it here with transcript and resources. </a></p>




<p><strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg &#8211; Index 2021&#8221;</a>&nbsp;</strong><br />A chronological list of the WordPress Make Blog posts from various teams involved in Gutenberg development: Design, Theme Review Team, Core Editor, Core JS, Core CSS, Test and Meta team from Jan. 2021 on. Updated by yours truly.  <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2020/"><em>The index 2020 is here</em></a></p>




<h2>Block Editor for Content creators</h2>



<p><strong>This is a first in the almost three-year history of the Block editor!</strong> 🙌 🎉<br />Thanks to the indefatigable <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong>, content creators can review End-user documentation for the new features <strong>before </strong>they are released. </p>



<ul><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/list-view/">How to use the List View</a> (former Block Navigator)</li><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/query-loop-block/">The Query Loop Block </a></li><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/block-based-widgets-editor/">Block-Based Widget Editor</a></li><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/support/article/template-editor/">Template Editor</a> </li></ul>



<p>Now it&#8217;s all still a work in progress and there is still time until July 20th.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide" />



<p><strong>Anne McCarthy</strong>&#8216;s <strong><a href="https://wordpress.tv/2021/07/07/anne-mccarthy-block-based-widget-editor-demo/">Block-based Widget Editor&nbsp;Demo</a></strong> is now available on WordPress TV. Check it out to seen what&#8217;s coming to WordPress 5.8. <br /><em>Yep, as Grzegorz Ziolkowski said yesterday, Anne McCarthy is everywhere! </em></p>



<h3>Query Loop Block</h3>



<p>Even if you are not familiar with the developer term Query Loop, once you look at the examples you&#8217;ll instantly realize that this is about the layout of a list of posts you might want to include on your pages, templates or posts. You can change the layout for post title, featured image, excerpt and link.  An early version of this was the Latest Post Block. </p>



<p>The design team also implemented a series of Block Patterns of a few nice variations to display a post list on templates, post and pages. It&#8217;s a fun feature, and it has taken quite a long time to build. The wait was definitely worth it. </p>



<p>It is mighty and could be the most powerful feature in 5.8 as <strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> headlined his post <a href="https://wptavern.com/query-loop-the-ins-and-outs-of-one-of-wordpress-5-8s-most-powerful-features" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Query Loop: The Ins and Outs</strong></a>.</p>



<p><strong>Allison Rivers</strong> over the Torque Magazine also published an article <a href="https://torquemag.io/2021/07/what-is-wordpress-5-8s-query-loop-block/"><strong>What is the Query Loop Block?</strong></a> with lots of great insights and examples. Rivers also has a list of plugins that implemented some advanced features the WordPress version is still missing with its first iteration. </p>



<h2>Block Building and Plugins</h2>



<p>Reading throught the release notes for Gutenberg 11, I found great gem posted by <strong>Riad Benguella</strong>. It&#8217;s a flow graphic that<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32921"> <strong>explains the relationship between the packages that make the post editor</strong></a>. </p>



<img /><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32921">Partial view of Riad Benguella&#8217;s schema</a>



<p>I find this very helpful to keep in mind when to use which package at which stage or the user interactions. </p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide" />



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/richard_tabor">Rich Tabor</a></strong>, Senior Product Manager, WordPress Experience GoDaddy published <a href="https://richtabor.com/gutenberg-block-plugins/">A Primer on Gutenberg Block Plugins for the WordPress Block Directory</a> in which  he walks you through the process of submit your plugin to the WordPress Directory, as he went through when submitting his <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/markdown-comment-block/">Markdown Comment block</a> to the repository. </p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide" />



<p>In the same space, <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/ellatrx">Ella van Durpe</a></strong> published a plugin for private note-taking in WordPress called <strong><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/hypernotes/">Hypernotes</a>.</strong> Justin Tadlock <a href="https://wptavern.com/private-note-taking-and-journaling-with-the-hypernotes-wordpress-plugin">reviewed it</a> for the WordPress Tavern. Van Durpe explain  <a href="https://wptavern.com/private-note-taking-and-journaling-with-the-hypernotes-wordpress-plugin#comment-386210">her comment </a>to the article&#8217;s, that the plugin uses some  <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/33102">experimental PWA capabilities</a> she introduced to the Gutenberg plugin for WP-Admin. </p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide" />



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/AlexStandiford"><strong>Alex Standiford</strong>,</a> developer&nbsp;at <a href="https://sandhillsdev.com/">Sandhills Development </a>(makers of the EDD plugin) published a tutorial about <a href="https://www.wpdev.academy/concepts/api-fetch-the-wordpress-library-you-didnt-know-you-needed/?utm_source=Online+Course+Notification&utm_campaign=fb2a5a9d83-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8cc90959c2-fb2a5a9d83-477961602"><strong>API Fetch – The WordPress Library You Didn’t Know You Needed</strong></a> with code snippets and plenty of theory to with them, too. </p>



<p>Standiford also started the <strong>WPAcademy</strong> with the course <a href="https://www.wpdev.academy/course/beer-lister-plugin/"><strong>WordPress Plugin Development Course</strong></a>, with 37 videos teaching you how to make a beer custom post type, customize the Gutenberg editor, create a new block, and create WP-CLI commands to make testing fast and easy.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide" />



<p><strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> shared his experience in <a href="https://wptavern.com/taking-the-leap-building-my-first-wordpress-block-plugin"><strong>Taking the Leap: Building My First WordPress Block Plugin</strong></a>. He built a breadcrumbs block as a dynamic block that&#8217;s rendered server side. </p>




<p><strong><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/">Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg&#8217;s main (trunk) branch?</a></strong><br />Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review. <br />Have you been using it? Hit reply and let me know.</p>



<p><img alt="GitHub all releases" src="https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/bph/gutenberg/total?style=for-the-badge" /></p>



<p></p>




<h2>Upcoming WordPress Events</h2>



<p><strong>July 17 + 18th, 2021</strong><br /><strong><a href="https://santaclarita.wordcamp.org/2021/">WordCamp Santa Clarita</a></strong></p>



<ul><li>1pm PT / 4pm ET / 20 UTC &#8211; FSE: <strong>What’s Coming to 5.8 &amp; the Story of the Outreach Program</strong> w/ Anne McCarthy</li><li>2pm PT / 5pm ET / 21 UTC &#8211; <strong>How Theme Developers Should Approach Full Site Editing</strong> w/ Joe Casabona</li><li>3pm PT / 6pm ET / 22 UTC &#8211; <strong>Rapid Landing Page Creation With the WordPress Block Editor</strong> w/ Daisy Olsen</li></ul>



<p><strong>July 23, 2021</strong><br /><a href="https://www.wordfest.live/"><strong>WordFest Live </strong></a>&#8211; <em>The&nbsp;</em>festival of WordPress</p>



<ul><li>July 22 &#8211;  10 PM EDT / 2 UTC  &#8211; <strong>Learn to Build Blocks with Advanced Custom Fields</strong> w/ Cameron Jones</li><li>July 23 &#8211; 3:20 pm EDT / 19:20 UTC <strong>How to Create a Fast Loading Stylish Homepage with Blocks &amp; CSS</strong> w/  Davinder Singh Kainth</li></ul>



<p>A<strong>ugust 6 + 7, 2021</strong><br /><a href="https://nicaragua.wordcamp.org/2021/"><strong>WordCamp Nicaragua</strong></a></p>



<p><strong>September 21 + 22, 2021</strong><br /><a href="https://2021.wpcampus.org/"><strong>WPCampus 2021 Online</strong></a><br />&#8220;A free online conference for web accessibility and WordPress in higher education.&#8221;</p>




<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide" />



<p class="has-text-align-center"><strong>Don&#8217;t want to miss the next Weekend Edition? </strong></p>



<form class="wp-block-newsletterglue-form ngl-form ngl-portrait" action="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/" method="post"><div class="ngl-form-container"><div class="ngl-form-field"><label class="ngl-form-label" for="ngl_email">Type in your Email address to subscribe.</label><div class="ngl-form-input"><input type="email" class="ngl-form-input-text" name="ngl_email" id="ngl_email" /></div></div><button class="ngl-form-button">Subscribe</button><p class="ngl-form-text">We hate spam, too and won&#8217;t give your email address to anyone except Mailchimp to send out our Weekend Edition</p></div><div class="ngl-message-overlay"><div class="ngl-message-svg-wrap"></div><div class="ngl-message-overlay-text">Thanks for subscribing.</div></div><input type="hidden" name="ngl_list_id" id="ngl_list_id" value="26f81bd8ae" /><input type="hidden" name="ngl_double_optin" id="ngl_double_optin" value="yes" /></form>



<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide" />";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 10 Jul 2021 21:48:29 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Birgit Pauli-Haack";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:13;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:89:"WPTavern: Query Loop: The Ins and Outs of One of WordPress 5.8’s Most Powerful Features";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119799";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:215:"https://wptavern.com/query-loop-the-ins-and-outs-of-one-of-wordpress-5-8s-most-powerful-features?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=query-loop-the-ins-and-outs-of-one-of-wordpress-5-8s-most-powerful-features";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8613:"<p class="has-drop-cap">WordPress 5.8 is on deck for July 20, just a mere 10 days from now. The release is geared up to be the most feature-packed update the community has seen in a while. <a href="https://wptavern.com/diving-into-wordpress-5-8s-new-widgets-screen">Block-based widgets</a>, <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-beta-1-released-new-blocks-new-widgets-screen-and-pattern-directory-on-deck">the pattern directory</a>, <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-introduces-support-for-webp-images">WebP image support</a>, <a href="https://wptavern.com/getting-to-know-the-upcoming-wordpress-5-8-template-editor">template-editing mode</a>, and many more tools are nearly ready to ship to the masses.</p>



<p>However, one of the most powerful features is the Query Loop block.</p>



<p>If you are unfamiliar with the terms &ldquo;Query&rdquo; and &ldquo;Loop,&rdquo; they are vital concepts within WordPress. Traditionally, they were only necessary for theme and plugin development. However, through the Query Loop block, users will gain exposure to what is, for all intents and purposes, the backbone of how WordPress displays posts on a site&rsquo;s front end.</p>



<h2>Queries? Loops?</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Not everyone will be immediately familiar with these developer terms that WordPress is plopping down in the user interface. For theme and plugin authors, these are everyday concepts. However, even some users who have been using the platform for a decade have never been exposed to them. So, we should get some basic definitions in place.</p>



<p>The term &ldquo;Query&rdquo; is simpler than you might think. It merely means to &ldquo;query&rdquo; or &ldquo;ask&rdquo; for posts from the database according to a defined set of options. For example, one might attempt to get the last 10 blog posts.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Loop&rdquo; is an even easier concept to grasp. It means to &ldquo;loop&rdquo; or &ldquo;cycle&rdquo; through each queried post and output it. Technically, a developer could do things other than displaying the posts during this process, but we are only concerned with what gets printed on the screen.</p>



<p>The two things combined become the Query Loop block. It allows users to ask for a set of posts and display each one.</p>



<p>There is also a Post Template block, which throws a wrinkle in all of this. Aside from the word &ldquo;template&rdquo; being overused in WordPress for various features, this is a new method for an old concept. Traditionally, WordPress theme authors would write out all the HTML and call specific template tags within the queried posts loop to show things like the post title, author, content, and more. This is easy to do within a PHP file. However, in the block editor, there needed to be a new way to group these things together. The Post Template block acts as this group, housing the things users want to display in the Query Loop.</p>



<p>WordPress also has a variation on the Query Loop block called Posts List. They do the same thing, but the latter has a more user-friendly title than the former. The only problem with this variation is that, when it is inserted, the user still sees the same &ldquo;Query Loop&rdquo; block title. There is a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/32268">ticket to fix this</a>, but it is unlikely to make it into WordPress 5.8.</p>



<h2>Query Loop Pattern Inserter</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">When first inserting a Query Loop into the editor, WordPress will introduce users to another version 5.8 feature: the pattern inserter. Instead of having immediate access to interact with the block, users can select from a list of predefined patterns.</p>



<p>By default, the inserter is a carousel that lets users can scroll through patterns individually:</p>



<img />Query Loop pattern inserter: carousel view.



<p>However, they can switch to a grid-based layout and view all of the patterns at once:</p>



<img />Query Loop pattern inserter: grid view.



<p>WordPress 5.8 is set to ship with six Query Loop patterns by default, unless more are added in the coming days:</p>



<ul><li>Standard</li><li>Image at left</li><li>Small image and title</li><li>Grid</li><li>Large title</li><li>Offset</li></ul>



<p>I am not particularly fond of any of the default patterns other than the &ldquo;Large title&rdquo; one (shown in the screenshots above with the black background and white text). For this block to shine, users will need to build out their own designs or wait for theme authors to begin bundling custom Query Loop patterns.</p>



<p>And, that is how it should be. Core WordPress should ship some basics while letting our community of theme designers showcase their craft.</p>



<img />A custom simple blog posts listing.



<p>This is also an opportunity for theme authors to offer alternatives to their custom page template designs. It is not time to throw them out entirely. However, it is a way to begin recreating old ideas in the block era, such as building out eCommerce plugin integrations, portfolio grids, and much more. Some of the tools are still limited (we are getting to those next), but there is enough initial groundwork for exploration, helping users experience WordPress in new ways.</p>



<h2>Block Options</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The Query Loop block has several options for users to customize which posts to <em>query</em> the database for:</p>



<img />Query Loop block and its options.



<p>In the block toolbar, there is a &ldquo;Display settings&rdquo; button. When clicked, it creates a popover with options for how many posts to show:</p>



<ul><li><strong>Items per Page:</strong> Number of posts to display per page</li><li><strong>Offset:</strong> Number of posts to skip over</li><li><strong>Max page to show:</strong> Limit pages (this requires using one of the Query Pagination blocks)</li></ul>



<p>The &ldquo;Settings&rdquo; panel in the Query Loop&rsquo;s block sidebar has several secondary options. Users can enable &ldquo;Inherit query from template&rdquo; to use WordPress&rsquo;s global query, but this is mostly useless for WordPress 5.8 users without the Gutenberg plugin enabled and a block-based theme. For now, you will almost always want to disable this option. This will grant access to a slew of new choices, such as:</p>



<ul><li>Post type</li><li>Ordering</li><li>Filters panel for categories, tags, author, and keyword</li></ul>



<p>The Settings and Filters panels are the most fine-tuned pieces of the Query Loop block. The development team struck a sensible balance between ease-of-use and the dozens of query-related parameters available through code. It provides users with a ton of power right of the gate but should be flexible enough in the future for plugin authors to extend.</p>



<h2>The Post Template</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">When inserting a Query Loop, the editor automatically adds its inner Post Template block. This is where most of the magic happens. Users can directly change how their posts appear. Primarily, they will do so by adding blocks from the Theme category, many of which are for outputting post-related data.</p>



<img />Theme-categorized blocks for outputting dynamic data.



<p>Nearly all other blocks are available for insertion here too. However, many of them will not be great candidates for use within the Query Loop.</p>



<p>One thing that may not be immediately evident is that changes you make to one post within the Post Template block will affect all others. So, if you add a Video or Buttons block here, they will be identical. Remember, this is a &ldquo;template&rdquo; for designing how all posts within the Query Loop will appear.</p>



<p>The drawback for customizing the Post Template block output is the lack of design options for some of the blocks. It is easy to build something like a simple post list:</p>



<img />Posts list with titles and dates.



<p>You can also build a layout like a portfolio project grid, as shown in the following screenshot. However, the Post Featured Image block does not currently have sizing controls, so you are stuck with your theme&rsquo;s default post-thumbnail size &mdash; assuming it is actually registered. <em>Experiences may vary. Wildly.</em></p>



<img />Building a basic portfolio grid.



<p>For more advanced things than changing typography, colors, and spacing, users will need to wait for WordPress 5.9 and beyond. However, theme authors still have the block styles API at their disposal. I, for one, look forward to seeing what they do with it.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 10 Jul 2021 05:17:12 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:14;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:103:"WPTavern: WordPress.org Meta Team Fixes Search Snippet Issue with Download Page Promoting WordPress.com";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119785";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:251:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-org-meta-team-fixes-search-snippet-issue-with-download-page-promoting-wordpress-com?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-org-meta-team-fixes-search-snippet-issue-with-download-page-promoting-wordpress-com";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4709:"<p>Yesterday evening Chris Klosowski, Sandhills Development Partner and Director of Technology, tweeted out a problem with the way WordPress.org&rsquo;s <a href="https://wordpress.org/download/">Download page</a> was appearing in Google&rsquo;s Search results snippets when searching for &ldquo;WordPress.&rdquo; Underneath the link, the preview text referenced WordPress.com&rsquo;s hosting: </p>



<p><em>WordPress.com is the easiest way to create a free website or blog. It&rsquo;s a powerful hosting platform that grows with you. We offer expert support for your WordPress site.</em></p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Seems like maybe the SEO is not working correctly here&hellip;.or is it? You decide&hellip; <a href="https://t.co/hhwZ6LQnW4">pic.twitter.com/hhwZ6LQnW4</a></p>&mdash; Chris Klosowski (@cklosowski) <a href="https://twitter.com/cklosowski/status/1413261396624568322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 8, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>Others <a href="https://twitter.com/hlashbrooke/status/1413268151643504641/photo/1">reported</a> seeing the intended description when Googling, which is designated in the Schema.org tag in the head tag but not printed on the page: </p>



<p><em>&ldquo;Download WordPress today, and get started on creating your website with one of the most powerful, popular, and customizable platforms in the world.&rdquo;</em></p>



<p>The reference to WordPress.com came from the hosting providers listed at the top of the page, where it randomly displays two upon each page refresh. The Download button <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210106091723/https://wordpress.org/download/">used to be at the top of the Download page</a> but ever since mid-January 2021, it has been pushed further down below recommended hosts. This is presumably to help people who want to set up a self-hosted site but don&rsquo;t know where to get started.  </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>&ldquo;Google was skipping our defined page descriptions in favor of some in-page content,&rdquo; WordPress lead developer Dion Hulse <a href="https://twitter.com/dd32/status/1413325529223073798">said</a>, regarding the issue with the search results snippet.</p>



<p>The WordPress Meta team was alerted to the problem and quickly put a solution in place to encourage Google to look somewhere else on the page for the main content.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The Download page has info about the mobile apps and hosting for WordPress,&rdquo; core contributor Corey McKrill wrote in the <a href="https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/11108">commit message</a>. &ldquo;These are in&nbsp;<code>section</code>&nbsp;container elements, which might be the reason that Google is using the content of the hosting container for its search result snippet, instead of the meta description tag. By changing these containers to&nbsp;<code>aside</code> elements, hopefully Google will get the message that they don&rsquo;t contain the most pertinent information for that page.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The meta team also <a href="https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/11109">marked the hosting recommendations on the download page as exempt</a> from being included in the Google search result snippet, so that it doesn&rsquo;t pull text from these <code>aside</code> elements.</p>



<p>Here is what the updated search result snippet looks like after the changes were put in place:</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>Klosowski&rsquo;s tweet highlighted the perennial tension that arises from the confusion between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. The <a href="https://wordpress.org/hosting/">recommended hosting</a> page has always been a contentious bit of real estate on WordPress.org but especially now that hosting companies are also prominently promoted on the Download page.</p>



<img /><a href="https://twitter.com/cklosowski/status/1413264854643736577">https://twitter.com/cklosowski/status/1413264854643736577</a>



<p>In this situation, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, WordPress&rsquo; Executive Director, quickly <a href="https://twitter.com/JosephaHaden/status/1413262537928310785">acknowledged</a> that the search snippet promoting WordPress.com was in fact a problem, heading off those who might promote the notion that it was intentional. The Meta team acted swiftly to resolve the issue and return the snippet to its former meta description. It is not known how long Google has been pulling from the text in the recommended hosts sections to populate the snippet, but the code is now more explicit about the fact that those companies are not the most important content on the Download page.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 10 Jul 2021 02:05:55 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:15;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:42:"WPTavern: Awesome Motive Acquires SearchWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119714";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:129:"https://wptavern.com/awesome-motive-acquires-searchwp?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=awesome-motive-acquires-searchwp";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4345:"<p>Awesome Motive, the company behind <a href="https://www.monsterinsights.com/">MonsterInsights</a>, <a href="https://optinmonster.com/">OptinMonster</a>, <a href="https://wpforms.com/">WPForms</a>, and several other popular products, has acquired <a href="https://searchwp.com/">SearchWP</a>, a commercial plugin that enhances WordPress&rsquo; search functionality. No changes have been announced for the plugin and Awesome Motive CEO Syed Balkhi says it will be &ldquo;business as usual&rdquo; for current customers.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We have built a lot of internal tools to improve our website search that I&rsquo;m really looking forward to sharing with the WordPress community,&rdquo; Balkhi said.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We will be combining Jon&rsquo;s vision with our own experience, so you can literally have the best search plugin in the industry without the high costs.&rdquo;</p>



<p>In 2013, when Jon Christopher launched SearchWP, he quickly carved out a slice of the WordPress search market among early competitors. The freemium model was already popular in those days with plugins like <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/relevanssi/">Relevanssi</a>, but Christopher chose to launch SearchWP as a commercial-only product. </p>



<p>&ldquo;There was already freemium competition, and I felt that the pricing model (which is the same today) was stronger given the product itself,&rdquo; Christopher said. &ldquo;I saw the pricing model as something that would help SearchWP stand out, and I also wanted to avoid opening the doors to overwhelming amounts of support requests right from the start. </p>



<p>&ldquo;I had no idea if SearchWP would be successful given the landscape, I built it first to scratch my own itch while knowing that even if no one bought it, I would 100% use it in my own work, and use it&nbsp;<em>a lot</em>.&rdquo;</p>



<p>His gamble paid off and the plugin has been used on more than 30,000 WordPress sites. Christopher had one support contractor but otherwise had been running the business alone for the past eight years. WordPress&rsquo; growing market share has made one-person plugin businesses difficult to maintain once they become very popular, as seen in the recent <a href="https://wptavern.com/delicious-brains-acquires-advanced-custom-fields-plugin">sale of ACF to Delicious Brains</a>.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I was looking ahead and considering what would be best for SearchWP&rsquo;s customers,&rdquo; Christopher said. &ldquo;I want SearchWP to live as long as it possibly can. If I&rsquo;m by myself it&rsquo;s a bit of a risk to continue that way as the business continues to grow. I know that I prefer to build things from the ground up, and I also know that I&rsquo;m not the guy to build (or manage) a team, it&rsquo;s not my strong suit. Given all of those pieces it was clear to me that it was a good time to consider selling.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Christopher described the 2013 WordPress ecosystem as more &ldquo;scrappy,&rdquo; as developers launched product businesses and worked to figure it out along the way.</p>



<p>&ldquo;There are pros and cons to an environment like that, but it was fantastic from my perspective,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Over time that feeling went away as companies grew, matured, and playbooks began to take shape. That cycle has continued over time and especially in the last 18 months we&rsquo;re getting a look at where WordPress is headed &ndash; lots of big players in a really big space.&rdquo;</p>



<p>For those who are jumping into the waters with a new product business, Christopher underscored the need for strong marketing. </p>



<p>&ldquo;I think that a lack of serious marketing will in fact be a limiter in today&rsquo;s WordPress economy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Products that have been around a long time have a natural momentum that&rsquo;s really tough to beat, but that momentum doesn&rsquo;t come without friction. In order to keep up with where WordPress is going, I do feel like you need assets (and capital) aimed directly and solely at marketing for the long haul.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Balkhi did not elaborate on Awesome Motive&rsquo;s immediate plans for the search plugin but said the company will be executing on a 12-month plan to make it easier for beginners and non-technical business owners to set up in less than 10 minutes.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 09 Jul 2021 03:17:48 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:16;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:111:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 11.0 Includes Over 70 Bug Fixes, Continues Improving With WordPress 5.8 Just Two Weeks Away";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119703";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:265:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-11-0-includes-over-70-bug-fixes-continues-improving-with-wordpress-5-8-just-two-weeks-away?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gutenberg-11-0-includes-over-70-bug-fixes-continues-improving-with-wordpress-5-8-just-two-weeks-away";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6795:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Gutenberg 11.0 landed yesterday with a pile of changes. The development team has been moving fast, and it shows.</p>



<p>For a two-week cycle, version 11.0 includes an insane number of bug fixes. Contributors squashed over 70 in this release alone. This seems to be in preparation for WordPress 5.8, which is expected to land on July 20. The upcoming block-based Widgets screen had the lion&rsquo;s share of bugs. However, the block library had nearly two dozen, many of those issues with new theme-related blocks.</p>



<p>The downside of such a massive release is that there are too many features and not enough time to cover them all. I will be cherry-picking some of my favorites, but feel free to dive into the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/releases/tag/v11.0.0">release notes</a> for a complete picture.</p>



<h2>Theme and Template-Editing Mode Changes</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">One of the primary Full Site Editing features making its way to WordPress 5.8 will be disabled by default for most users. In a rare move from the core project, the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32858">template editor will be opt-in</a>, at least for users with classic themes.  It is opt-out for block themes.</p>



<p>As I <a href="https://wptavern.com/getting-to-know-the-upcoming-wordpress-5-8-template-editor">wrote last month</a>, until users are on actual block themes, the template editor is &ldquo;a sort-of-OK-but-kind-of-amazing landing page creator.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Template-editing is really only as good as the weakest link in the system. This will almost always be the theme over the next few months. Because the template editor is a new feature that directly attempts to overwrite the front-end output, it will always be at odds with many themes that were never designed with it in mind. The opt-in approach is unlikely the best route to mass adoption, but it is in the interest of the user experience.</p>



<p>Making it opt-in also allows theme authors to make template editing a smooth experience. Gutenberg 11.0 introduces a new <code>defaultBlockTemplate</code> editor setting. Theme authors can <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32771">create the default blocks</a> that users begin with when creating a new template.</p>



<img />Starting with a custom default block template.



<p>Ideally, this default template should include some base layout components, such as a header, footer, and post/page content. However, themers are free to put their own spin on this.</p>



<p>For more information on creating default block templates, theme authors should read Themes Team rep Carolina Nymark&rsquo;s <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/07/08/summary-theme-features-in-wordpress-5-8/">overview of WordPress 5.8 theme features</a>.</p>



<h2>Media &amp; Text Block: Drag-and-Drop Media Replacement</h2>



<img />Dragging a new media file into the Media &amp; Text block.



<p class="has-drop-cap">Users have long been able to drag and drop an initial image or video into the Media &amp; Text block. However, they were unable to replace it using the same method. Gutenberg 11.0 creates a new <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/29710">&ldquo;drop zone&rdquo; over the media column</a>, making it easy to change the media to something new.</p>



<p>The feature already exists with the Cover and Image blocks, so this change brings Media &amp; Text up to date. We probably should have had this feature months ago, but the patch sat in limbo waiting for a code review.</p>



<h2>Accessibility: Categories Dropdown Has Label</h2>



<img />Label difference between the Archives and Categories blocks.



<p class="has-drop-cap">The development team added a new <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/33060">&ldquo;Categories&rdquo; label</a> when the Categories block is shown as a dropdown. This is a welcome improvement to help those using screen-readers better navigate the page.</p>



<p>The problem with this change is the lack of consistency. In <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-10-8-adds-new-typography-controls-and-block-previews">Gutenberg 10.8</a>, the team removed the <code>.screen-reader-text</code> class for the Archives block label, making it appear on screen for all users. These types of inconsistencies that seem trivial on the surface tend to pile up, creating code bloat for theme designers in the long run as they try to wrangle them.</p>



<p>I would prefer both labels to be marked as screen-reader text. Regardless of the default, the two should match. Then, throw in an option for the end-user to decide whether to show the label similar to how the Search form handles it.</p>



<h2>The Return of Post Classes</h2>



<img />Post classes appear for Post Template block.



<p class="has-drop-cap">For those theme designers who need them, Gutenberg 11.0 <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/30497">brings back post classes</a>. If you are wondering where posts classes had gone, you may not be alone. In the world of blocks, they are not needed as much as they once were. Traditionally, WordPress theme authors used these classes to dynamically change the output of a post based on contexts such as type, format, category, and more.</p>



<p>When the Post Template block (formerly named Query Loop) was introduced, there was a noticeable lack of the traditional classes attached to the wrapper for individual posts. This latest update brings them back.</p>



<p>In the future, block themes will likely rely on these classes less and less. With much of the design configuration moving to <code>theme.json</code> files and user-controlled options, it is probably time to say goodbye to one of the core features of theme design over the past decade. However, it is a comfort to know it is there when needed.</p>



<h2>Decimals Allowed in Spacing Controls</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">For those who are particular about getting their margin and padding <em>just</em> right, they can finally rejoice. Spacing controls now <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32692">allow for decimal values</a> and not just whole numbers.</p>



<p>In past versions of the plugin, a value such as <code>1.5</code> would be rounded up to <code>2</code>. When used with <code>rem</code> and <code>em</code> units, such rounding created a 50% difference between the intended spacing and reality.</p>



<p>I am happy about this one. It is a fix for <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/31964">one of the tickets</a> I opened (<em>hooray for contributing!</em>). However, I cannot take credit for fixing the problem. That honor goes to Themes Team representative Ari Stathopoulos.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 09 Jul 2021 02:55:19 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:17;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"WPTavern: Private Note-Taking and Journaling With the Hypernotes WordPress Plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119707";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:207:"https://wptavern.com/private-note-taking-and-journaling-with-the-hypernotes-wordpress-plugin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=private-note-taking-and-journaling-with-the-hypernotes-wordpress-plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4831:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Ella van Durpe, a core WordPress contributor and software engineer at Automattic, released a note-taking plugin earlier today. <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/hypernotes/">Hypernotes</a> is a simple custom post type that allows end-users to take private notes or serve as a journaling tool.</p>



<p>I have seen similar plugins in the past. I even began building one years ago before ultimately abandoning it for a simple Markdown solution in a private repository.</p>



<p>What makes Hypernotes unique is its handling of &ldquo;folders,&rdquo; which essentially work like categories. However, each folder gets its own sub-menu link under the Notes section in the WordPress admin.</p>



<img />Hypernotes&rsquo; folder system.



<p>This more closely mimics other note-taking apps where users can switch between various folders to quickly find notes.</p>



<p>The code to make this happen is simple; the idea is ingenious. It is the sort of outside-the-box thinking I love to see from plugin developers.</p>



<p>There are a few trivial issues with it, such as the folder names not being highlighted when viewing their screens. However, that is a WordPress-specific bug. A simple dash before each folder name could spruce up the UI a bit too. They sit below the &ldquo;All Notes&rdquo; menu item, so it would create more of a folder effect.</p>



<p>On the whole, the plugin works well as a note-taking application.</p>



<img />Writing a note in the WordPress editor.



<p>The plugin description does have a security note for users who are wondering just how private their content is:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Only you will be able to see your notes within the WordPress admin, but the notes are NOT encrypted at the moment, so anyone with database access will be able to read them.</p></blockquote>



<p>Hypernotes also ensures that no post is ever accidentally published for all the world to see. Under the hood, it automatically sets all notes to the &ldquo;private&rdquo; status. The plugin&rsquo;s post type cannot be publicly queried on the front end either.</p>



<p>It is worth mentioning that the plugin does not create custom capabilities (permissions) for its post type and taxonomy. Any registered user on the site with the right post-editing capabilities can access others&rsquo; notes in the backend, such as people with the Editor role.</p>



<p>This is unlikely an issue given the nature of the plugin. I imagine the primary audience will be made up of solo bloggers who want a simple note-taking solution.</p>



<p>I ran into one not-so-trivial issue when I began trying out Hypernotes, believing my website was broken. This is usually because of a patch I am testing for the Gutenberg plugin or just one of its run-of-the-mill updates. However, the typical culprit was not to blame. After a half-hour or so trying to figure out why my theme styles were not appearing for Note posts, I finally cracked the issue.</p>



<p>Hypernotes disables all theme editor styles. The beautiful typography of my currently active theme was gone, which would work well with a note or journaling plugin.</p>



<p>This was easy enough to overrule with a few lines of custom code. If I was going to save a few quotes that I liked as personal notes, I at least wanted to do it in style:</p>



<img />Bringing back my theme&rsquo;s custom quotes style.



<p>The plugin also attempts to disable wide/full alignment and theme editor font sizes. The code it uses works for traditional WordPress themes but not for block themes, which have a different mechanism for registering such support. This was also one of the reasons it was tough to track down the issue. Everything else from my theme was working but custom editor styles.</p>



<p>I understand the idea behind removing support for those features. Themes design the front end of the site, and Hypernotes is purely a backend tool. However, I would rather see an option for letting the user control what gets disabled. Some theme editor styles would pair well with the plugin.</p>



<p>Disabling these features has other implications too. For example, all of my theme&rsquo;s custom block style variations were registered and usable from the editor. However, because my styles were not loaded, they did not work correctly.</p>



<p>Another option would be for the plugin to provide its own editor styles. There would still be some complications going that route, such as the block style variations issue, but the plugin could become a beautifully designed note-taking app in its own right.</p>



<p>For a version 1.0 outing, I am a fan of the simplicity. More so, I am impressed with the clever method of handling note &ldquo;folders.&rdquo; I am eager to see how this plugin evolves over future iterations.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 08 Jul 2021 03:13:07 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:18;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Matt: Open Insulin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=54516";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://ma.tt/2021/07/open-insulin/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:895:"<p>One of my big themes is that open source will transform every industry, with key examples being WordPress in web publishing, WooCommerce in online commerce, Wikipedia in reference, and Bitcoin/Ethereum in finance. Medicine, though, has been relatively unscathed so far. Here&#8217;s a great video introducing the <a href="https://openinsulin.org/">Open Insulin project</a>, which for the past 6 years has been developing their own method of manufacturing insulin and is going to open source its process to the world for anyone to recreate.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">

</div>



<p>It also reminds me of the <a href="https://www.economist.com/what-if/2021/07/03/what-if-biohackers-injected-themselves-with-mrna">What If? article in the Economist a few days ago about mRNA self-biohacking</a>. <em>Hat tip: <a href="https://github.com/RiaanKnoetze">Riaan Knoetze</a>.</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 07 Jul 2021 13:49:33 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:19;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:79:"WPTavern: WordPress 5.8 Adds Support for New Emoji Introduced in Twemoji 13.1.0";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119656";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:203:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-adds-support-for-new-emoji-introduced-in-twemoji-13-1-0?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-5-8-adds-support-for-new-emoji-introduced-in-twemoji-13-1-0";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3577:"<p>In the upcoming 5.8 release, WordPress is <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/52852">updating its version of Twemoji</a>, Twitter&rsquo;s open source emoji&nbsp;library that supports the latest Unicode emoji specification. <a href="https://github.com/twitter/twemoji/releases/tag/v13.1.0">Version 13.1.0</a> introduces five new smileys and emotions, including heart on fire, mending heart, face with spiral eyes, face in clouds, and face exhaling. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>Version 13.1 adds mixed skin tone support for all variations of the &ldquo;Kiss&rdquo; emoji and the &ldquo;Couple with Heart&rdquo; emoji. It also makes it possible to add a bearded man or a bearded woman in all skin tone variations.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>WordPress 5.8 will also include significant changes to the syringe emoji that were committed to a previous version of Twemoji (13.0.2) earlier this year. Instead of a blood-filled barrel accented with drops of blood leaking out of the tip, the new syringe emoji contains a non-specific liquid. This makes it more flexible for use cases that don&rsquo;t involve removing blood. Emojipedia has a fascinating look at <a href="https://blog.emojipedia.org/vaccine-emoji-comes-to-life/">the syringe emoji&rsquo;s history</a>, dating back to 1999 when it was primarily used in Japan for blood donation. A 2021 refresh on the syringe makes it possible for it to be used in reference to vaccines, a topic of public conversation across the globe.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>In addition to changes to the syringe, Jonathan Desrosiers, who opened the trac ticket to initiate the update, summarized a few other changes from previous Twemoji versions that modify existing emoji:</p>



<ul><li>Cricket: the colors have been adjusted to improve readability on small screens and to prevent confusion with other Emoji that had a similar color.</li><li>T-Rex: The color and posture of the T-Rex has been adjusted.</li><li>Portuguese flag: A line within the flag&rsquo;s circle has been corrected.</li><li>Thai flag: The proportions of the stripes for this flag have been corrected.</li><li>Fox face: The symmetry has been improved.</li><li>Transgender flag: The lines have been updated to prevent small gaps between stripes from showing when rendered with antialiasing.</li><li>Rolling on the floor laughing: Adjusted to be less exaggerated and appear more natural.</li></ul>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>The official emoji lexicon is constantly being tweaked and updated for accuracy, and to better serve conversations, as current events increase demand for visual representations of specific objects and emotions. Although many of these updates and new additions may seem pandemic-inspired, there&rsquo;s a lengthy, official process for proposing changes to the Unicode Consortium. The Unicode Emoji Subcommittee reviews <a href="https://unicode.org/emoji/proposals.html">proposals</a>, which require compelling data on compatibility, expected usage level, distinctiveness, and other factors. Candidates approved for inclusion do not arrive to major platforms for approximately a year.</p>



<p>WordPress 5.8 will bump Twemoji from 13.0.1 to 13.1.0. Unicode 14.0, the next major update, is expected for release in late 2021. Emojipedia has a <a href="https://emojipedia.org/emoji-14.0/">draft list</a> of what is on deck for the next version and those that are approved would likely make it to major platforms by the end of 2022.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 07 Jul 2021 05:16:34 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:20;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:70:"WPTavern: Jetpack 9.9 Released With a Refreshed Image Gallery Carousel";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119629";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:185:"https://wptavern.com/jetpack-9-9-released-with-a-refreshed-image-gallery-carousel?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jetpack-9-9-released-with-a-refreshed-image-gallery-carousel";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3094:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Today, Automattic <a href="https://jetpack.com/2021/07/06/jetpack-9-9-make-your-best-photos-shine/">released version 9.9</a> of its popular Jetpack plugin. The development team improved the modal animation and transition speed for the Instant Search module and added the Social Preview panel to the pre-publish sidebar. However, the most notable user-facing update was a refresh of its Carousel feature.</p>



<p>The module creates a fullscreen overlay gallery of a post&rsquo;s images once one is clicked. Users can <a href="https://jetpack.com/support/carousel/">enable this feature</a> via the Jetpack &gt; Settings &gt; Writing page in the WordPress admin. Users can also turn on the display of EXIF data and the media attachment commenting form.</p>



<p>Jetpack Carousel handles Image and Gallery blocks a bit differently. Regardless of whether Gallery images are linked or not, they will always be included in the image carousel when clicked. However, only Image blocks that specifically link to the attachment page are added.</p>



<p>I have never much cared for the Jetpack Carousel feature. There were always prettier image-overlay, lightbox-type solutions out in the wild. We use the plugin here at WP Tavern, so it is just something I have learned to live with. There was no sense in installing <em>yet another</em> plugin when we were already using the massive mono-project to run many other features on the site. And, it generally got the job done.</p>



<p>However, today, I can finally say that I am happy with the implementation. It is cleaner, offers a larger viewing area for individual images, and tucks unnecessary bits away for the average user.</p>



<p>The following is a screenshot of the carousel in all its fullscreen wonder:</p>



<img />Jetpack carousel in version 9.9.



<p>For comparison, here is what the same image slide looks like in Jetpack 9.8.1:</p>



<img />Jetpack carousel in version 9.8.1.



<p>In the new version, the image metadata and commenting form are hidden by default. The user must click the info or comment icon buttons to slide each section open. This is a better implementation because it decreases the noise in the carousel while still making the features available for those who want them.</p>



<img />Image metadata in the carousel.



<p>Overall, I am enjoying this update. Swiping and scrolling through the gallery feels smoother.</p>



<p>I would love for WordPress to bring a standard set of functions and blocks for displaying media metadata to the development community. Every plugin and theme author who wants to showcase that info must build a custom system for their projects, such as formatting aperture, shutter speed, and focal length. The following is the output of an image attachment page from a theme I have worked on:</p>



<img />Custom theme image info.



<p>There is no reason that the theme and Jetpack should be working with custom wrappers for the metadata. WordPress stores EXIF and ID3 tags automatically. It just does not expose them to developers in any meaningful way.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 07 Jul 2021 03:13:32 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:21;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 5.8 Release Candidate 2";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=10912";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/wordpress-5-8-release-candidate-2/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3340:"<p>The second release candidate for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-8/">WordPress 5.8</a> is now available! <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f389.png" alt="🎉" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<p>WordPress 5.8 is slated for release on <strong>July 20, 2021</strong>, and we need <em>your</em> help to get there—if you have not tried 5.8 yet, now is the time!</p>



<p>You can test the WordPress 5.8 release candidate 2 in any of these three ways:</p>



<ul><li>Install and activate the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester plugin</a> (select the <code>Bleeding edge</code> channel and then <code>Beta/RC Only</code> stream)</li><li>Directly download the release candidate version <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.8-RC2.zip">(zip)</a></li><li>Use WP-CLI to test: <code>wp core update --version=5.8-RC2</code></li></ul>



<p>Thank you to all of the contributors who tested the&nbsp;Beta/RC releases and gave feedback.  Testing for bugs is a critical part of polishing every release and a great way to contribute to WordPress.</p>



<h2>Plugin and Theme Developers</h2>



<p>Please test your plugins and themes against WordPress 5.8 and update the&nbsp;<em>Tested up to</em>&nbsp;version in the <code>readme</code> file to 5.8.  If you find compatibility problems, please be sure to post to the&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">support forums</a>,&nbsp;so they can get ready for the final release.</p>



<p>For a more detailed breakdown of the changes included in WordPress 5.8, check out the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-beta-1/">WordPress 5.8 beta 1 post</a>.  The&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/03/wordpress-5-8-field-guide/">WordPress 5.8 Field Guide</a>, which is particularly useful for developers, has all the info and further links to help you get comfortable with the major changes.</p>



<h2>How to Help</h2>



<p>Can you speak and write in a language other than English? &nbsp;<a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp/dev">Help us translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!</a></p>



<p><em><strong>If you think you have found a bug</strong>, you can post to the&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta">Alpha/Beta area</a>&nbsp;in the support forums.  We would love to hear from you!  If you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report,&nbsp;<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/newticket">file one on WordPress Trac</a>, where you can also find&nbsp;<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major">a list of known bugs</a>.</em></p>



<p class="has-text-align-right"><strong><em>Props to <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/lukecarbis/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>lukecarbis</a> for the haiku, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>webcommsat</a> and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/marybaum/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>marybaum</a> for peer reviewing!</em></strong></p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator" />



<p><em>Five-eight in two weeks<br />So test your plugins and themes<br />Update your readme</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 07 Jul 2021 01:12:57 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Jeffrey Paul";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:22;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:72:"Akismet: Version 4.1.10 of the Akismet WordPress Plugin is Now Available";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"http://blog.akismet.com/?p=2117";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:58:"https://blog.akismet.com/2021/07/06/akismet-plugin-4-1-10/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:818:"<p>Version 4.1.10 of <a href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/akismet/">the Akismet plugin for WordPress</a> is now available. It contains the following changes:</p>
<ul>
<li>Simplified the code around checking comments in REST API and XML-RPC requests.</li>
<li>Added rel=&#8221;noopener&#8221; to the widget link to avoid warnings in Google Lighthouse.</li>
<li>Set the Akismet JavaScript as deferred instead of async to improve responsiveness.</li>
<li>Improved the preloading of screenshot popups on the edit comments admin page.</li>
</ul>
<p>To upgrade, visit the Updates page of your WordPress dashboard and follow the instructions. If you need to download the plugin zip file directly, links to all versions are available in <a href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/akismet/">the WordPress plugins directory</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 06 Jul 2021 20:33:57 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:17:"Christopher Finke";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:23;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"WPTavern: Taking the Leap: Building My First WordPress Block Plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119592";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:177:"https://wptavern.com/taking-the-leap-building-my-first-wordpress-block-plugin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=taking-the-leap-building-my-first-wordpress-block-plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7356:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Like most years, I spent this U.S. Independence Day cooped up with my furry friends. I closed all the windows, shuttered the blinds, switched on a couple of fans for white noise, and clicked the television on. My cats and I relaxed. It is my job to keep them calm while my &mdash; usually drunken &mdash; compatriots burn hundreds of dollars away in the night sky. It is my ritual, and I enjoy it.</p>



<p>For this holiday, we re-watched Season 1 of <em>Star Trek: Lower Decks</em>, and I learned how to build a block plugin.</p>



<p>This was not my first attempt. When the block editor launched nearly three years ago, I tinkered with a few block type ideas. However, I never got far. Documentation was sparse, and I had almost no experience with JavaScript beyond building trivial bells and whistles for front-end design.</p>



<p>Leaving my day job as a developer to write for WP Tavern also meant limited time to learn block development. And, my free time for the last couple of years has been filled with other projects. Lately, I have had the urge to jump back in and start building things for fun once again. My extended sabbatical from development work gave me time to pursue other interests while allowing my well of creativeness a chance to refill. The break did me some good.</p>



<p>With time to kill yesterday afternoon, I dove right in. After a couple of hours of reading docs, studying other developers&rsquo; code, and breaking things, I had a functional block for a breadcrumbs list.</p>



<img />Custom block registered and ready to insert.



<p>Marcus Kazmierczak&rsquo;s <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/copyright-block/">Copyright Block</a> plugin helped me get over one of the initial humps. It was helpful to see real-world, non-example code written in vanilla JavaScript to get to the meat of how the system worked.</p>



<p><em>My overall thoughts on building custom block types?</em></p>



<p>It was easier than I thought it would be. <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/">Documentation</a> is, at the same time, both overwhelming and limiting. It is tough to find the correct answer if you do not even know what you are looking for. The barrier to entry is much higher than when I built my first plugin in 2007. The <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/block-tutorial/writing-your-first-block-type/">Block Type API</a> makes some things stupidly simple but complicates others.</p>



<p>Successfully inserting my first block type into the editor canvas was gratifying. I don&rsquo;t think that feeling ever goes away as a developer.</p>



<img />Successful insertion and rendering of my first block plugin.



<p>I am excited about the potential for blocks, such as a breadcrumbs list, when the site editor launches. Many similar features do not make sense in the post editor. However, when users can make direct edits to their templates, it will open a world of possibilities.</p>



<h2>Learning Curve</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">I know enough JavaScript to be a danger to myself and others. Having spent almost the entirety of my professional career in the WordPress realm has meant focusing on PHP. But, programming is programming. Once you have a strong understanding of one language, it not an impossible leap to piddle around enough to create a functional script in another. Most of the same foundational concepts are there. The hurdle is often with learning some new syntax.</p>



<p>However, the biggest obstacle with &ldquo;modern&rdquo; JavaScript is setting up the build tools, bundlers, and more. It can be a tall order to even type out that first line of code.</p>



<p>Sure, some of the documentation has vanilla JavaScript examples, but when you get into anything more complex than the basics, it is not so vanilla anymore. You will need a way to bundle JavaScript and transform JSX syntax. That means tools like webpack and Babel.</p>



<p><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/javascript/js-build-setup/">WordPress has its own script</a> for cutting through most of the complexity, but I recommend <a href="https://laravel-mix.com/">Laravel Mix</a>. It is simple enough for even the least-savvy JavaScript programmers among us and has thorough documentation. It is a script made for folks who want to worry less about tooling and more about actually writing code.</p>



<p>Block building is also a different kind of leap. Whether it was custom template tags, shortcodes, widgets, or hooks, traditional WordPress development has meant building those in a PHP environment.  I suspect that most plugin developers have tons of features that they can bring to the masses via the block editor. They will often rely on server-side rendering. WordPress has a <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/packages/packages-server-side-render/"><code>ServerSideRender</code> componen</a>t for actually handling this.</p>



<p>One of the handiest features of registering block types is the <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/block-api/block-supports/">block &ldquo;supports&rdquo; system</a>. <em>Want a background color option?</em> Just one line of code will do. <em>Want the user to access the font-size control?</em> That is a single line too. With little effort, I extended my breadcrumbs block to include a ton of styling options for users. And, they adapt to the site&rsquo;s active theme.</p>



<img />Testing various combination of block-supported styling options.



<p>The list of block-supported features offers an array of standardized options at pretty much no development cost. Even the Customize API, previously the most advanced tool for building form fields, did not come this close.</p>



<p><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/block-tutorial/block-controls-toolbar-and-sidebar/">Building custom inspector controls</a> was straightforward once I got the hang of how the block edit piece of the puzzle worked. For now, I have a simple toggle option for enabling/disabling a feature. Often, the hardest part is just finding what you are looking for. WordPress has a massive library of <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/components/">components</a> to choose from.</p>



<p>At this point, I have a basic block on the client (editor) side. Most of the complexity is handled on the server via PHP. If I could build this in an afternoon while attending to nervous cats, it should not be a stretch for more plugin authors to hop aboard this train. There are thousands of shortcodes and widgets that developers can convert to blocks with minimal code.</p>



<p>I am not ready to release my breadcrumbs block into the wild just yet. There is still some fine-tuning left to do and a few advanced features to implement. Also, a breadcrumbs list is primarily needed in a site editor context where users can drop it into something like their header template. We are not there yet, but I will undoubtedly share the final result with the community when we are.</p>



<p>Next, I will try to build a block that does not rely on server-side rendering. I think I have the hang of it now. Breaking through that initial barrier is always the hardest step.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 06 Jul 2021 00:28:53 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:24;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"WordPress.org blog: WP Briefing: Episode 12: WordPress – In Person!";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"https://wordpress.org/news/?post_type=podcast&p=10889";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:66:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/episode-12-wordpress-in-person/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13116:"<p>In this episode, Josepha Haden Chomphosy talks about WordPress &#8211; In Person! The WordPress events that provide the dark matter of connection that helps sustain the open source project.</p>



<p><em><strong>Have a question you&#8217;d like answered? You can submit them to <a href="mailto:wpbriefing@wordpress.org">wpbriefing@wordpress.org</a>, either written or as a voice recording.</strong></em></p>



<h2>Credits</h2>



<p>Editor:<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dustinhartzler/"> Dustin Hartzler</a></p>



<p>Logo:<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/beafialho/"> Beatriz Fialho</a></p>



<p>Production:<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mkaz/"> </a><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbringmann/">Chloé Bringmann</a></p>



<p>Song: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod</p>



<h2>References</h2>



<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons">The tragedy of the commons</a></p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-release-candidate/">WordPress 5.8 Release Candidate announcement </a></p>



<h2>Transcript </h2>



<span id="more-10889"></span>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>00:11</p>



<p>Hello, everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I&#8217;m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go!</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>00:39</p>



<p>Today we&#8217;re talking about one of my favorite parts of the project &#8211; WordPress events. The in-person component of the project is the dark matter that helps us build resilience and thrive as a group. A lot of what I&#8217;m going to share applies to every WordPress event, whether it&#8217;s a meetup or workshop, a contributor day, any other sort of format. But I&#8217;ll be focused on WordCamps. It&#8217;s been a while since we had any in-person WordCamps. Our last two were WordCamp Malaga in Spain and WordCamp Greenville in the US. But that hasn&#8217;t stopped anyone from gathering people together online. Which honestly makes a lot of sense for WordPress. Because there are many reasons we gather, the main three reasons are connecting, inspiring, and contributing. It&#8217;s true. It says so right in our documentation, &#8220;paper rustling.&#8221; All WordPress events should connect WordPress users, inspire people to do more with WordPress, and contribute to the WordPress project. As an aside, I&#8217;ll tell you that some groups also get to collaborate and educate in there, but connect, inspire, contribute. Those are the big three. And that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m talking about today. And if you subscribe to this podcast for the back office deep cuts, I&#8217;ll also have a few of those for you. </p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>01:57</p>



<p>Alright, so first up, connect. WordCamps are generally annual-ish gatherings organized by local WordPress meetup groups. They&#8217;re not meant to be big or fancy. The definition of the minimum viable product for WordCamp is 50 people gathered all day to talk about WordPress. They are intentionally affordable to allow people from all walks of life to attend, meet, share and learn. This is made possible by donations and sponsorships from local businesses and larger businesses in the WordPress ecosystem. And this helps us get people connected to those in their community that works with or are sustained by WordPress. That connection feeds into the overall health of the global WordPress project. </p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>02:45</p>



<p>Next up is inspire. WordCamps do not discriminate. They are open to any WordPress users, developers, designers, or other enthusiasts, regardless of their level of experience. And because of this, sessions generally span a variety of formats. So presentations or live demos to workshops or panels, any other format you can think of. But that also means that there are a variety of skill levels represented. There&#8217;s always content about how to use WordPress. That’s a given. But you can also count on content that inspires people to do more with their own dreams and aspirations. When I was still organizing WordCamps, my favorite thing was seeing people who came back year after year, putting into practice something that they learned the year before. It is that <em>Choose Your Own Adventure</em> aspect to WordCamps that lets people see the edge of their ideas and then expand that just a little bit further. </p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>03:42</p>



<p>And finally, contribute. WordCamps often have a contribution component to them. Sometimes it&#8217;s just a talk telling you how you can get more involved in the WordPress project. But sometimes, it&#8217;s a whole contributor day. And those range in size from single focus, like everyone, will show up and learn how to review a theme or a focus from every team that we have, like at the big flagship events where we gather hundreds of people into a room just to contribute to WordPress and all of the teams that go with it. Getting started with contributing can be daunting, but it is also essential to avoid something called the Tragedy of the Commons, an economic concept. So I&#8217;ll share a link to that in the show notes below. But the most important thing, the most important thing to remember, is that WordPress is open source. And we asked people to help us keep this great tool running by giving back a little bit of their time if they have gotten any benefit from the WordPress project or CMS over the course of their careers.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>04:40</p>



<p>So that&#8217;s it. The three big things you can get from a WordCamp. I know that I can&#8217;t wait to get back to them myself because while a lot of these things can still happen online and do, it&#8217;s really hard to replace the dark matter of in-person connections for open source projects. And since we&#8217;re talking dark matter anyway, let&#8217;s dig into it a little.</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>05:01</p>



<p>At the start of the section, I mentioned that WordCamps are local, locally organized, and people are encouraged to attend locally. But I am part of a group that ends up traveling to a lot of WordCamps. If you don&#8217;t know about the unseen work of WordPress, this raises eyebrows. So here is some clarification around the back office work that some of these traveling WordCampers often do. When I listed these out, there were about 20 different tasks, 20 different jobs, which was, frankly, a bit overwhelming when I listed them that way. So I&#8217;ve grouped them into kind of two genres, each with a group of current versus future types of work. So my two big buckets, big picture stuff, and then community stewardship.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>05:50</p>



<p>The big picture stuff, our first big genre here, when you&#8217;re looking at current topics, current issues kind of information, when we&#8217;re working on big picture stuff, you get the clarification of the mission or vision of WordPress, the sharing of open source methods or processes that we use in the WordPress project, and also sometimes those goal-setting conversations that you have to have both because we have a bunch of teams and team reps, that have a lot of really great ideas about what can be done in their teams to help WordPress succeed. But then also, because when you are working, when you&#8217;re contributing to a single team in the project, it can sometimes be hard to know how your work relates to the overall goals and visions of WordPress. And so that&#8217;s part of the work that gets done that I do there.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>06:43</p>



<p>And when you&#8217;re looking at future topics, future issues, the second part of this genre, that stuff like starting conversations or discussions around what the future holds for WordPress, and that&#8217;s the project as well as the technology or hearing from people about big things coming up for them. And any content that can support it, anything that I can provide to support those big things. It&#8217;s also a good time for me and others to identify trends based on what I see in presentations or what I hear from people at social functions. Really, it&#8217;s just a huge opportunity for information gathering to make sure that I know what everyone else in the project is trying to do and if they understand what the project is trying to do.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>07:32</p>



<p>And then the second big genre of things that happen in that dark matter kind of work at WordCamps is what I call community stewardship—so taking care of the community itself for the project itself. And a lot of that work is actually incident response kind of work. So conflict resolution, mediation often happens at in-person events, but also uncovering the shared foundations, the shared understanding for upcoming changes. So a lot of really, in the weeds kind of change management work. And for me, it&#8217;s certainly doing my best as a cultural liaison when I do see that there has been some miscommunication or gathering context for the latest disagreement that people are having with me so that I can clarify anything that was misunderstood from what I said. And also a little bit of policy clarification, just explaining why we do things and the way we do them. So for community stewardship, that&#8217;s kind of the current stuff that we look at. And that I do when I&#8217;m traveling for WordCamps. </p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>08:36</p>



<p>And then for the future tasks that we do with community stewardship in the project, that stuff like training, and that&#8217;s training team reps, community deputies, or new contributors like it&#8217;s, it&#8217;s not really one type of training, necessarily. But then also, all of the checking in with our organizers, team reps, volunteers, sponsors, everyone like that, to make sure that what we have in the project and what&#8217;s happening in the project, the tools that we have, the experience that contributors have while they are working here, and WordPress is good, and is what they need. We&#8217;ve got a lot of tools to get things done in WordPress, and we can always make them better. And so checking in with people to kind of see how those processes are, how the tools are making sure that I have an idea of where our holes are and what needs to be patched, and how we can patch them in the long run. So that&#8217;s all of the future planning kind of work and topic stuff, just you know, making sure that WordPress has what it needs to survive long into the future and long after I&#8217;m doing anything with it, and long after you&#8217;re doing anything with it either.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>09:56</p>



<p>So, lots and lots of unseen work being done at our in-person events. But folks who keep a keen eye on the online global work of WordPress will probably recognize that a lot of that work is also done routinely on make.wordpress.org and within the making WordPress Slack. There’s just, I don&#8217;t know, there&#8217;s just something different about receiving information from a human being with a face rather than an avatar with a photo. So I guess at the end of the day, that means the dark matter that keeps open source together is really an issue of communication. And you&#8217;ll get no arguments for me there.</p>



<p><strong>Josepha Haden Chomphosy&nbsp; </strong>10:44</p>



<p>That brings us now to our small list of big things. And there&#8217;s really just one big thing. And that&#8217;s WordPress 5.8. We are about two weeks away from this big release; the community has been working tirelessly on it. And it&#8217;s shaping up to be one of the most tested releases that we&#8217;ve had in a long time. Myself, I&#8217;m grateful to see so much activity before the release. Since 5.8 and 5.9 releases represent such monumental shifts in our software, I&#8217;m incredibly grateful to see so much activity prior to the release, especially in the beta period. We&#8217;ve been testing everything for it feels like six or eight months, and we&#8217;re really starting to see the positive benefits of that. And I think that we, the WordPress community, should be really proud of everything that we&#8217;re going to ship in 2021. Okay, so that was less of a small list of big things and really like one big thing with a generous garnish of encouragement, but you deserve it. So thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress briefing. I&#8217;m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and I&#8217;ll see you again in a couple of weeks.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 05 Jul 2021 12:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15:"Chloe Bringmann";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:25;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:105:"Gutenberg Times: Block-Based Widget Screen and DevNotes Galore for WordPress 5.8 – Weekend Edition #176";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?p=18404";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:73:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/block-based-widget-screen-weekend-edition-176/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:19897:"<p>Howdy, </p>



<p>July is the month celebrating North American Independence (for white people) and the start of the French Revolution. </p>



<p>Happy 154th Birthday, Canada 🇨🇦  (July 1st). <br />Happy 245th Birthday, USA 🇺🇸 (July 4th) <br />Happy 232nd Bastille Day, France 🇫🇷  (July 14th) </p>



<p>There are many more countries celebrating Independence Day in July, though. <a href="https://www.infoplease.com/culture-entertainment/holidays/national-holidays-around-world">Here is the list. Take a look! </a> 🌐</p>



<p><strong>July 20th</strong>, WordPress 5.8 will be released and there are a ton of block editor related dev notes for themes and plugin developers. <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-release-candidate/">Use this week&#8217;s RC 1 version </a>to test your sites, plugins and themes! </p>



<p>Be well! Have a great weekend, wherever you are located! </p>



<p>Yours, 💕<br />Birgit</p>





<p></p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide" />



<h2>WordPress 5.8 Dev Notes for Block editor features</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">This week was also the deadline to published Developer Notes around the upcoming WordPress 5.8 release. </p>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/07/01/block-styles-loading-enhancements-in-wordpress-5-8/"><strong>Block-styles loading enhancements</strong> </a> by <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/aristath">Ari Stathopoulos</a></strong> &#8211; Ari has the details on how the two new features &#8211; <em>Load styles only for rendered blocks</em>  and  <em>Inline small styles</em> &#8211; work and how theme developers and block builders can tap into it. </p>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/29/blocks-in-an-iframed-template-editor/"><strong>Blocks in an iframed (template) editor</strong></a> by <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/ellatrx">Ella van Durpe</a></strong> &#8211; The new Template editor is the first block editor loaded in an iframe and isolate it from the rest of the admin screen. Ella has the benefits for you as well as the details on how to adjust your blocks if you rely on <code>document</code> or <code>window</code> and provides code fixes for your ReactJS blocks. There is more. Definitely worth a read if you are deep in plugin development. Ella&#8217;s post compliments Grzegorz Ziolkowski&#8217;s post: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/16/block-editor-api-changes-to-support-multiple-admin-screens-in-wp-5-8/"><strong>Block Editor API Changes to Support Multiple Admin Screens</strong></a></p>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/29/on-layout-and-content-width-in-wordpress-5-8/"><strong>On layout and content width</strong></a> by <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/riadbenguella">Riad Benguella</a></strong> &#8211; This is a shorter post, introducing the Settings for layout and content width and how you can adjust your theme to take advantage of them. </p>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/29/block-based-widgets-editor-in-wordpress-5-8/"><strong>Block-based Widgets Editor</strong></a> by <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/noisysocks">Robert Anderson</a></strong>. He wrote: &#8220;WordPress 5.8 introduces a new&nbsp;block-based widgets editor to the Widgets screen (<code>Appearance → Widgets</code>) and&nbsp;Customizer&nbsp;(<code>Appearance → Customize → Widgets</code>).&#8221; and continues to explain the <strong>three methods</strong> (including the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-widgets/">Classic Widget plugin</a>)  of opting out. You might find interesting to learn how the Legacy Widget block helps with the backward compatibility for existing widgets and widget areas.  </p>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/29/block-editor-api-removals-58/"><strong>Various Block Editor API removals</strong></a> by <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/riadbenguella">Riad Benguella</a></strong> has the details  on the removal of <code>EditorGlobalKeyboardShortcuts</code>, <code>hasUploadPermissions</code> and their alternatives. Also, the block &#8220;Subheading&#8221; has been removed, too. </p>



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/TimothyBJacobs">Timothy Jacobs</a>&#8216;</strong> post lists all the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/29/rest-api-changes-in-wordpress-5-8/"><strong>REST API Changes</strong></a> necessary for the Widget Block Editor. He also shows how to adjust Legacy widgets, so they are seen and handled by it. Timothy illustrates the changes with extensive code snippets, that should help you get up to speed fast. </p>



<p>And if that isn&#8217;t enough already, <strong>Milana Cap</strong> lists <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/28/miscellaneous-developer-focused-changes-in-wordpress-5-8/"><strong>Miscellaneous developer focused changes</strong></a> in her dev note. The team removed support for IE 11 from build and test tools and gives you more control and consistency for the document title. WordPress 5.8 also brings a consistent type for integer properties of WP_Post, WP_Term, WP_User and a bookmark object and better caching of post/page IDs for subsequent request. There are quite a few more goodies in this upcoming release. Take a look! </p>




<p><strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg &#8211; Index 2021&#8221;</a>&nbsp;</strong><br />A chronological list of the WordPress Make Blog posts from various teams involved in Gutenberg development: Design, Theme Review Team, Core Editor, Core JS, Core CSS, Test and Meta team from Jan. 2021 on. Updated by yours truly.  <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2020/"><em>The index 2020 is here</em></a></p>




<h2>User-facing changes in WordPress 5.8</h2>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/TimothyBJacobs"><strong>Timothy Jacobs</strong></a> gave a detailed preview of <strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQgQ4ZeOE0g&t=31s">What&#8217;s coming to the Block editor in WordPress 5.8</a></strong> to the members of the WordPress NYC meetup. You can see a demo of Duotone for image &amp; cover, Single Column color and spacing settings, Table block updates, and reusable block changes. He spent a few more minutes on the new Widget Screen as well as the Post Template Editor and the new Query Block. </p>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/courtneyengle"><strong>Courtney Robertson</strong></a> wrote in <a href="https://www.godaddy.com/garage/what-wordpress-5-8-means-for-your-clients-websites/"><strong>What WordPress 5.8 means for your clients&#8217; websites</strong></a> &#8220;This release expands the role of the block editor to include nearly every area of WordPress. You’ll want to check out all the updates to discover what WordPress 5.8, Full Site Editing, and Block-Based Themes mean for your clients’ websites.&#8221;. The post is a fabulous comprehensive list of what is new in WordPress 5.8 with short videos and the relevant details. </p>



<h2>Block-Based Widget in WP Admin and Customizer</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">You can also watch <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4P5P_L9og4"><strong>Exploring the Block Widgets Editor</strong></a> in WP Admin and Customizer&nbsp;on YouTube. She wrote in the description: &#8220;This video seeks to give an initial look at this feature and answer some top questions people might have. Shout out to <a href="https://twitter.com/critterverse"><strong>Channing Ritter</strong> </a> who put together the demo portion!&#8221;.</p>



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/karks88">Eric Karkovack</a></strong> also did a deep dive into the block-based Widget Screen for you: <a href="https://speckyboy.com/wordpress-widgets-screen/"><strong>The WordPress Widgets Screen Joins the Gutenberg Era</strong></a> and provides you with a great tutorial on how to use the new screens with screenshot and all. </p>



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/diving-into-wordpress-5-8s-new-widgets-screen"><strong>Diving Into WordPress 5.8’s New Widgets Screen</strong></a> by <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/justintadlock">Justin Tadlock</a></strong>. He is a fan of the new feature and glad it made it into the WordPress core for this upcoming release. While the WPAdmin Widget screen feels like a good block editor, he wrote about the block widgets in the Customizer: &#8220;Customizer support for block widgets is light years ahead of where it was just a few short months ago. However, it feels awkward at best. There is a deep feeling of not belonging. While it was a remarkable programming feat to make the two features work together, the user experiences are nearly a decade apart.&#8221;  </p>




<p><strong><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/">Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg&#8217;s main (trunk) branch?</a></strong><br />Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review. <br />Have you been using it? Hit reply and let me know.</p>



<p><img alt="GitHub all releases" src="https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/bph/gutenberg/total?style=for-the-badge" /></p>



<p></p>




<h2>Plugins for the Block Editor</h2>



<p>This week, I found quite a few people sharing their experiences with block editor plugins. </p>



<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/chrislema">Chris Lema</a> </strong>compared in his post <a href="https://chrislema.com/content-visibility-for-gutenberg/"><strong>Content Visibility for Gutenberg</strong></a> three plugins that allow you to control the visibility of single blocks on your page or posts. We mentioned two of them here multiple times. Chris tested the pro version for his purposes:</p>




<p><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-46-devnotes-for-wordpress-5-8/"><strong>Episode #4</strong>6 is now available</a> with transcript. <br />Next recording July 9th, 2021</p>



<p>Send questions, comments or news to <a href="mailto:changelog@gutenbergtimes.com">changelog@gutenbergtimes.com</a></p>



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<img />




<ul><li><a href="https://www.blockvisibilitywp.com/pro/">Block Visibility</a> by Nick Diego</li><li><a href="https://conditionalblocks.com/">Conditional Blocks Pro</a> by Morgan Hvidt</li><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/content-visibility/">Content Visibility</a> by Rich Tape</li></ul>



<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide" />



<p><strong>Rich Tabor</strong> released <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/markdown-comment-block/"><strong>Markdown Comment Block</strong></a> in the WordPress plugin repository. He wrote in his description: &#8220;Having the ability to add, and keep, any relevant editing comments within my posts, without rendering them on the front-end, means that I am freed up to mentally jot any idea down without thinking about it. It is simply natural and convenient.&#8221;  <strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> gave it a review in <a href="https://wptavern.com/add-editor-only-notes-via-the-markdown-comment-block-wordpress-plugin">Add Editor-Only Notes via the Markdown Comment Block WordPress Plugin</a></p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide" />



<p>Thanks to <a href="https://twitter.com/remkusdevries"><strong>Remkus De Vries&#8217;</strong></a> new newsletter &#8220;<a href="https://remkus.devries.frl/subscribe/">Remkus Ramblings</a>&#8220;, I learned about two more plugins for the block editor: </p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/highlight-and-share/"><strong>Highlight and Share</strong> </a>by <strong>Ronald Huereca</strong> &#8211; &#8220;It&#8217;s a social sharing plugin that allows you to highlight text and and share among several social networks including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more,&#8221; Remkus said. I wished I had this plugin when I ran a social media marketing agency&#8230;. </p>



<p>The second one is <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/block-editor-colors/"><strong>Block Editor Colors</strong></a> by MotoPress &#8211; Remkus wrote: &#8220;(&#8230;)which allows you to edit default Gutenberg block editor colors or the ones registered in a theme, as well as add your colors!&#8221;</p>



<p><em><a href="https://remkus.devries.frl/about/">Remkus de Vries</a>, Head of Partner &amp; Customer Relationship at <a href="https://twitter.com/servebolt">ServeBolt</a>, started his newsletter last month, and he uses  &#8211; you probably guessed it &#8211; my favorite newsletter plugin: <a href="https://newsletterglue.com/">Newsletter Glue</a>. 👋 Waving at Lesley Sim </em></p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide" />



<p class="has-drop-cap">I got quite excited when I learned about Automattic&#8217;s <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/sketch/">Sketch plugin</a>,  a plugin that allows its users to sketch within the editor and show it immediately on the front end. Based on <a href="https://www.npmjs.com/package/perfect-freehand">perfect-hand </a>library, it is the product of a collaboration between  Matias Ventura, Pablo Honey and Oscar Lopez. It&#8217;s one of Automattic&#8217;s <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/block-experiments/tree/master/blocks">Block Experiments</a>.</p>



<ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/pootlepress"><strong>Jamie Marsland</strong></a> of PootlePress <a href="https://www.pootlepress.com/2021/07/the-sketch-block-for-gutenberg/">created a video</a> to share some thoughts on how you can use it creatively on your site and he also has a few suggestions for version 2 of the Sketch block. </li><li><a href="https://wptavern.com/automattic-releases-sketch-block-for-drawing-in-the-wordpress-editor"><strong>Justin Tadlock</strong>,</a> also took it out for a spin and <a href="https://wptavern.com/automattic-releases-sketch-block-for-drawing-in-the-wordpress-editor">shared his experience</a> on the WordPress Tavern. </li></ul>



<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide" />



<h2>Building Blocks</h2>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/binarymoon/"><strong>Ben Gillbanks</strong></a> shows you  <a href="https://www.binarymoon.co.uk/2021/06/how-to-get-a-list-of-all-wordpress-blocks-in-the-editor/"><strong>how to get a list of all blocks in the editor</strong></a> of a post or page. He wrote: &#8220;It’s particularly handy for WordPress plugin developers, but will also be useful when setting properties in&nbsp;<code>theme.json</code>&nbsp;a new feature that is part of the upcoming Full Site Editing functionality of WordPress.&#8221;</p>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/fabiankaegy"><strong>Fabian Kägy</strong></a>&#8216;s WordCamp Europe presentation <a href="https://wordpress.tv/2021/06/28/fabian-kagy-building-great-experiences-in-the-new-editor/"><strong>Building great experiences in the new&nbsp;editor</strong></a> is now available on WordPress TV. He wrote in his session description &#8220;Starting out building blocks or experiences for the WordPress block editor can be a bit daunting. Where do I start? Custom blocks, block patterns or just styling core blocks. In this talk, I will walk through the different options and share the benefits and downsides of each while talking about overall good practices for building great editorial experiences.&#8221;</p>



<p><em>If you are looking for other talks, you might have missed, 23 <a href="https://wordpress.tv/event/wordcamp-europe-2021/">WordCamp Europe 2021 talks</a> are now available on WordPress TV </em></p>



<h2>Upcoming WordPress Event</h2>



<p><strong>July 7th, 2021 -1pm EDT / 17:00 UTC</strong><br /><strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/06/24/call-for-testing-thrive-with-theme-json/">Hallway Hangout: FSE Testing call #8 theme.json</a></strong> with Daisy Olson</p>



<p><strong>July 17 + 18th, 2021</strong><br /><strong><a href="https://santaclarita.wordcamp.org/2021/">WordCamp Santa Clarita</a></strong></p>



<ul><li>1pm PT / 4pm ET / 20 UTC &#8211; FSE: <strong>What’s Coming to 5.8 &amp; the Story of the Outreach Program</strong> w/ Anne McCarthy</li><li>2pm PT / 5pm ET / 21 UTC &#8211; <strong>How Theme Developers Should Approach Full Site Editing</strong> w/ Joe Casabona</li><li>3pm PT / 6pm ET / 22 UTC &#8211; <strong>Rapid Landing Page Creation With the WordPress Block Editor</strong> w/ Daisy Olsen</li></ul>



<p><strong>July 23, 2021</strong><br /><a href="https://www.wordfest.live/"><strong>WordFest Live </strong></a>&#8211; <em>The&nbsp;</em>festival of WordPress</p>



<ul><li>July 22 &#8211;  10 PM EDT / 2 UTC  &#8211; <strong>Learn to Build Blocks with Advanced Custom Fields</strong> w/ Cameron Jones</li><li>July 23 &#8211; 3:20 pm EDT / 19:20 UTC <strong>How to Create a Fast Loading Stylish Homepage with Blocks &amp; CSS</strong> w/  Davinder Singh Kainth</li></ul>



<p>A<strong>ugust 6 + 7, 2021</strong><br /><a href="https://nicaragua.wordcamp.org/2021/"><strong>WordCamp Nicaragua</strong></a></p>



<p><strong>September 21 + 22, 2021</strong><br /><a href="https://2021.wpcampus.org/"><strong>WPCampus 2021 Online</strong></a><br />&#8220;A free online conference for web accessibility and WordPress in higher education.&#8221;</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-left-aligned" />



<p id="block-8c56f083-3d78-42e0-84ec-62ea90a2afa5">On the<a href="https://wpcalendar.io/online/"> <strong>Calendar for WordPress Online Events</strong> </a>you can browse a list of the upcoming WordPress Meetups, around the world, including WooCommerce, Elementor, Divi Builder and Beaver Builder meetups.</p>




<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide" />



<p class="has-text-align-center"><strong>Don&#8217;t want to miss the next Weekend Edition? </strong></p>



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<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide" />";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 03 Jul 2021 15:17:23 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Birgit Pauli-Haack";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:26;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:124:"WPTavern: Castos Picks Up $756K in Funding from Automattic and Yoast SEO to Expand Services in the Private Podcasting Market";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119530";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:299:"https://wptavern.com/castos-picks-up-756k-in-funding-from-automattic-and-joost-de-valk-to-expand-services-in-the-private-podcasting-market?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=castos-picks-up-756k-in-funding-from-automattic-and-joost-de-valk-to-expand-services-in-the-private-podcasting-market";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3974:"<p><a href="https://castos.com/">Castos</a>, a WordPress-powered podcast hosting provider, <a href="https://castos.com/central/pre-seed-fundraising-round/">announced a $756K pre-seed fundraising round</a> today from Automattic, Yoast SEO, and several individuals. The company raised money from all the investors in this round via a SAFE note, which founder and CEO Craig Hewitt said is a fairly standard investment vehicle for companies at Castos&rsquo; stage of growth.</p>



<p>&ldquo;On both the individual and corporate investor side I think the investors see the vision that we have for what the Private Podcasting market can mean for Castos and want to help us achieve that potential,&rdquo; Hewitt said.</p>



<p>Private Podcasting is a growing trend where creators and organizations broadcast to supporters in a more intimate format that isn&rsquo;t open to the public. Hewitt likens them to membership sites, except in audio format. It is often used by people who are running membership sites, courses, or online communities as a way to stay connected with members.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The other application is companies wanting a way to connect with their employees in audio format,&rdquo; Hewitt said. &ldquo;Podcasting is perfect for that because it&rsquo;s mobile-first, on-demand, and can be consumed asynchronously.&nbsp; We call it the&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://castos.com/step-away-experience/" target="_blank">Step Away Experience</a>.&nbsp;Companies that are adopting Private Podcasting internally are giving their team members a way to consume their internal content without being tied to their computer on a Zoom call or glued to Slack.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Castos is developing a mobile app specifically targeted at the private podcasting market. Hewitt&rsquo;s team is aiming to have the app become a place where people can listen to all of the private podcasts for which they have a subscription. Listeners would simply use the app instead of going through the process of manually subscribing to all their private podcasts via RSS feed. New episodes will appear automatically in the app for subscribers.  </p>



<p>&ldquo;For our corporate clients, the ability to white label our app with their own branding/style is a big win,&rdquo; Hewitt said.&nbsp;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s also a much more secure way to distribute private podcast content.&nbsp; There&rsquo;s no RSS feed to share around, no files to download (our app is streaming only to offer more security to those files).&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>



<p>The pandemic <a href="https://wptavern.com/podcasting-during-the-pandemic-castos-sees-300-growth-in-new-podcasters">ramped up unprecedented interest in podcasting</a> when lockdowns were in place across the globe. Even with vaccines more readily available now, Hewitt said Castos is still witnessing strong growth in the podcasting industry.</p>



<p>&ldquo;There are all the new podcasters in the market now since so many launched podcasts during the pandemic, but now that people are traveling again and commuting to work we&rsquo;re seeing listenership going up quite a bit,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;&ldquo;This is a trend we expect to continue into the future.&rdquo;</p>



<p>In the past 10 months, Castos has grown to serve nearly 3,500 customers and the team has grown from seven employees to 13. The company&rsquo;s <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/seriously-simple-podcasting/">Seriously Simple Podcasting</a> plugin is used on more than 30,000 WordPress sites. Castos is actively <a href="http://castos.com/careers">hiring for several roles</a> right now, thanks to the new round of fundraising.</p>



<p>&ldquo;All of the funds will go towards growing our team,&rdquo; Hewitt said. &ldquo;This will be pretty evenly split between product (designers and developers) and Sales and Marketing roles &ndash; more people, more energy, more great minds working on ways that we can better serve our customers.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 03 Jul 2021 02:18:40 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:27;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:83:"WPTavern: WordPress Biratnagar Announces Plans for Ujwal Thapa Memorial Scholarship";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119267";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:211:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-biratnagar-announces-plans-for-ujwal-thapa-memorial-scholarship?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-biratnagar-announces-plans-for-ujwal-thapa-memorial-scholarship";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3468:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Earlier this week, the WordPress Biratnagar Facebook group <a href="https://www.facebook.com/wordpressbrt/posts/1170172963498116">announced a WordCamp scholarship</a> in honor of Ujwal Thapa. The goal is to honor the legacy left behind by one of Nepal&rsquo;s leaders both inside and outside of the WordPress community.</p>



<p>Thapa <a href="https://wptavern.com/ujwal-thapa-co-founder-of-the-wordpress-nepal-community-passes-away">passed away a month ago</a> at age 44 from complications with COVID-19. He was a political activist, founding the Bibeksheel Nepali party, originally a peaceful movement against corruption and social injustice. He was the co-founder of WordPress Nepal, a group that has grown to 8,000 members. He was also a close friend and mentor to many in the community and helped many more launch careers in the IT industry.</p>



<p>&ldquo;After the untimely death of WordPress contributor and co-founder of WordPress Nepal Ujwal Thapa in 2021, due to COVID-19, the WordPress Biratnagar community decided on this scholarship,&rdquo; wrote the WordPress Biratnagar team. &ldquo;Ujwal was a dedicated patron to the WordPress community in Nepal, and the WordPress Biratnagar decided to pay applause to his memory in this way.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The scholarship will cover the following:</p>



<ul><li>Travel to Biratnagar from within Nepal.</li><li>Hotel stay for the duration of the event.</li><li>A ticket to <a href="https://biratnagar.wordcamp.org/">WordCamp Biratnagar</a>.</li><li>Local transportation.</li><li>Meals outside the official event.</li></ul>



<p>Nepal is still struggling with getting COVID-19 cases under control at the moment. The CDC <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/covid-4/coronavirus-nepal">lists the country</a> as &ldquo;very high&rdquo; risk and recommends avoiding travel. There is no date set for a physical conference, and a WordCamp Biratnagar 2021 event is unlikely. The organizing team may not be able to grant a scholarship until next year at the earliest.</p>



<p>WordCamp Biratnagar lead organizer Ganga Kafle said they are just waiting for the situation to return to normal but cannot be sure when that will happen. While there is no date for the next WordCamp, they are still holding regular meetups.</p>



<p>The group is still discussing the details of the scholarship. Currently, they plan to consult with other community groups within Nepal and the global community. Any help creating and maintaining such a scholarship system would be welcome.</p>



<p>The WordPress Biratnagar team did agree to some guidelines. Once submissions open, applicants must be Nepalese. &ldquo;We believe that empowering community members is an excellent way to honor his memory and carry on his legacy,&rdquo; wrote the team in its announcement.</p>



<p>Group leaders mostly agreed to award the scholarship to those meeting the following criteria:</p>



<ul><li>People with disabilities.</li><li>People from lower-income families.</li><li>Women interested in WordPress.</li></ul>



<p>The group said the selection process would be completely transparent, and the awarded scholarship would be at the discretion of the current WordCamp Biratnagar organizers.</p>



<p>Kafle said the scholarship would also be annual. The team plans to keep this going in honor of Thapa and paying respect to the man who helped jump-start many of their careers and involvement with WordPress.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 02 Jul 2021 23:25:56 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:28;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"WordPress.org blog: The Month in WordPress: June 2021";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=10896";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:68:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/07/the-month-in-wordpress-june-2021/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11387:"<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Once you step into contribution time, your main concern is the users of WordPress, or new contributors, or the health of the WordPress ecosystem as a whole or the WordPress project. So you get all this subject matter expertise from competitive forces, collaborating in a very “us versus the problem” way. And when you do that, you’re always going to find a great solution.</p></blockquote>



<p>In the “<a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/episode-11-wordcamp-europe-2021-in-review/#more-10837">WordCamp Europe 2021 in Review</a>” episode of the WP Briefing podcast, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/">Josepha Haden</a> talks about the importance of collaboration, which is vital in building WordPress. This edition of The Month in WordPress covers exciting updates that exemplify this philosophy.&nbsp;</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator" />



<h2>Updates on WordPress 5.8</h2>



<p>Get excited, folks! The beta versions and the first release candidate of WordPress 5.8 are out. <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-beta-1/">Beta 1</a> came out on June 9, followed by <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-beta-2/">Beta 2</a> on June 15, <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-beta-3/">Beta 3</a> on June 23, and <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-beta-4/">Beta 4</a> on June 25. The <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-release-candidate/">first release candidate</a> of WordPress 5.8 was published on June 30. You can test the beta versions and the release candidates by <a href="https://wordpress.org/download/releases/#betas">downloading them from WordPress.org</a> or by using the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester</a> plugin. WordPress 5.8 <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-8/">will be out by July 20, 2021</a>, and is also <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2021/06/28/wordpress-5-8-ready-to-be-translated/">ready to be translated</a>.</p>



<p>Want to contribute to WordPress core? Check out the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/">Core Contributor Handbook</a>. Don’t forget to join the WordPress <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW">#core</a> channel in the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/">Make WordPress Slack</a> and follow the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">Core Team blog</a>. The Core Team hosts weekly chats on Wednesdays at <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=5&min=00&sec=0">5 AM</a> and <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=20&min=00&sec=0">8 PM</a> UTC. Help us promote WordPress 5.8 by <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/06/18/meetup-group-resources-talking-points-for-wordpress-5-8/">organizing meetups about the release</a>, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2021/06/30/help-produce-social-media-materials-for-5-8-release/">producing social media marketing materials for 5.8</a>, or <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/06/30/help-test-wordpress-5-8s-fse-features/">testing the release</a>.</p>



<h2>Gutenberg versions 10.8 and 10.9 are out</h2>



<p>We said hello to Gutenberg <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/10/whats-new-in-gutenberg-10-8-9-june/">version 10.8</a> and <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/24/whats-new-in-gutenberg-10-9-23-june/">version 10.9</a> this month. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/10/whats-new-in-gutenberg-10-8-9-june/">Version 10.8</a> adds rich URL previews, enhancements to the list view, and an updated block manager. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/24/whats-new-in-gutenberg-10-9-23-june/">Version 10.9</a> offers several performance enhancements, along with more block design tools and template editor enhancements.</p>



<p>Want to get involved in building Gutenberg? Follow <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">the Core Team blog</a>, contribute to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/">Gutenberg on GitHub</a>, and join the <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02QB2JS7">#core-editor</a> channel in the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/">Make WordPress Slack</a>. The “<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/04/whats-next-in-gutenberg-june-2021/">What’s next in Gutenberg</a>” post offers more details on the latest updates.&nbsp;</p>



<h2>WordCamp Europe 2021 concludes</h2>



<p>One of the biggest and most exciting WordPress events, <a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2021/">WordCamp Europe 2021</a>, was held from June 7-9, 2021. A team of 40 members organized the event, which had 3200+ registrations, 42 speakers, and 43 sponsors. What a success! You will find more details <a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2021/a-recap-on-wceu-2021/">in the event recap</a>. One highlight was a <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/gutenberg-highlights/">Gutenberg demo</a> hosted by <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/matveb/">Matías Ventura</a> and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/matt/">Matt Mullenweg</a>. You can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaYQGYDpXpU4A17kxN-AgJQ/featured">watch the event recording on the WordCamp Europe YouTube channel</a>, and videos <a href="https://wordpress.tv/event/wordcamp-europe-2021/">are now available on WordPress.tv</a> as well. The team has announced <a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2022/">WordCamp Europe 2022</a>, which is being planned as an in-person event in Porto, Portugal. Want to be a part of the 2022 WCEU organizing team? Their <a href="https://europe.wordcamp.org/2022/call-for-organisers/">call for organizers is now open</a>. Apply now!</p>



<h2>Full Site Editing updates</h2>



<p>Don’t miss the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/06/24/call-for-testing-thrive-with-theme-json/">latest Full Site Editing (FSE) Outreach program testing call: &#8220;Thrive with theme.json&#8221;</a>, which is aimed at a developer-centric audience. The deadline is July 14. Also don’t miss a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/06/24/call-for-testing-thrive-with-theme-json/">hallway hangout on testing theme.json on July 7 at 5 PM UTC</a>. The team has published a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/06/24/fse-program-polished-portfolios-summary/">recap of the Published Portfolios testing call</a>, which shares some interesting results.&nbsp;</p>



<h2>BuddyPress 8.0 is out!</h2>



<p>The first major BuddyPress release of 2021, <a href="https://buddypress.org/2021/06/buddypress-8-0-0-alfano/">version 8.0</a> “Alfano,” came out on June 6. The short-cycle release offers features such as the ability to recruit new members, an improved registration experience, and profile field types. Download it from the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/buddypress/">WordPress.org plugin directory</a> or check it out from its <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/browser/branches/8.0">Subversion repository.</a></p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator" />



<h2>Further reading</h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://japan.wordcamp.org/2021/">WordCamp Japan 2021</a> was held from June 20- 26. The weeklong event, which had two session days followed by five contributor days, sold 1300+ tickets, with 45 speakers and 23 sponsors. Catch the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/wordcampjapan">event recording on YouTube</a>!</li><li>Josepha Haden <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2021/06/03/announcing-make-wordpress-org-project/">announced</a> a new Make site — <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/project">make.wordpress.org/project</a> — for project-wide announcements, which will no longer be posted to Make/Updates. Check out the latest post on that site on <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/project/2021/06/17/the-metrics-of-contributions/">the metrics of contributions</a>.</li><li>The Community Team announced that <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/07/01/in-person-meetup-events-for-vaccinated-community-members/">in-person meetups can be organized for fully vaccinated people</a>, in places where vaccines are freely available.</li><li>The Core Team added<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/21/bundled-themes-changes-in-wordpress-5-8/"> block patterns and improvements</a> to all legacy default themes. The team also shared a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/22/extending-the-site-health-interface-in-wordpress-5-8/">feature request</a> that will allow developers to modify and extend the Site Health feature in Core.</li><li>The Design Team shared an update on the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/06/23/update-initial-patterns-for-the-patterns-directory/">block pattern directory</a>; the team is continuing to review suggestions and has offered some guidelines in this post.</li><li>The Design Team is also <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/a-new-design-is-coming-to-wordpress-news/">working on redesigning this blog</a> (wordpress.org/news). Catch a sneak peek of the blog&#8217;s new look <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/06/03/redesign-of-wordpress-org-news/">in this Make/Design blog post</a>.</li><li>The Accessibility Team shared the <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/coding-standards/wordpress-coding-standards/accessibility/">updated WordPress Accessibility coding standards</a>.</li><li>The Polyglots Team proposed a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2021/06/03/proposal-month-long-translation-day-2021-celebration/">monthlong translation day celebration in September</a>.</li><li><span>The Support Team </span><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/2021/06/new-irc-server-for-support/">moved their IRC chat server from Freenode to Libera</a><span>.</span></li><li>The Documentation Team is<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2021/06/06/writing-documentation-for-wordpress-release/"> working hard on updating our docs</a> for WordPress 5.8.&nbsp;</li><li>The Themes Team has decided to <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2021/06/06/writing-documentation-for-wordpress-release/">automatically set theme updates live for old themes</a> instead of routing them through the review queue.</li><li>The <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/Requests">WordPress Requests library</a> has a new release: <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/Requests/releases/tag/v1.8.1">version 1.8.1</a>.&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ujwal_Thapa">Ujwal Thapa</a> &#8211; co-founder of the Nepal WordPress community <a href="https://wptavern.com/ujwal-thapa-co-founder-of-the-wordpress-nepal-community-passes-away">passed away due to COVID-19</a>. Our community deeply mourns his loss and is thankful for his contributions.</li><li>The latest edition of “<a href="https://wordpress.org/news/category/heropress/">People of WordPress</a>” features <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/people-of-wordpress-tijana-andrejic/">Tijana Andrejic from Serbia.</a></li></ul>



<p><em>Have a story that we should include in the next “Month in WordPress” post? Please </em><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/month-in-wordpress-submissions/"><em>submit it using this form</em></a><em>.&nbsp;</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 02 Jul 2021 15:11:24 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Hari Shanker R";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:29;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"WPTavern: WordPress Green Lights In-Person Meetup Events for Vaccinated Attendees";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119422";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:207:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-green-lights-in-person-meetup-events-for-vaccinated-attendees?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-green-lights-in-person-meetup-events-for-vaccinated-attendees";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4152:"<p>After considerable discussion, the WordPress Community Team is lifting the requirements of the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/2021-returning-to-in-person-meetups/in-person-meetup-decision-checklist/">in-person meetup safety checklist</a> for meetups that gather fully-vaccinated attendees. The checklist is still applicable to all meetup groups but in places where vaccines are freely available, meetup organizers can now forego its requirements if they limit gatherings to those self-reporting as fully vaccinated.</p>



<p>When Andrea Middleton <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-community-team-discusses-adding-vaccination-status-to-in-person-meetup-safety-checklist">proposed adding vaccination status</a> to the checklist in mid-May, the idea was met with a wide range of concerns and strong opinions. WordPress&rsquo; global community has experienced the pandemic in different ways, living under a spectrum of local restrictions, with disparate access to vaccines and varying responses to available vaccines. Some participants in the discussions were concerned about organizers having to request information about vaccination status from attendees, which is illegal in many places. Middleton clarified that attendance would be based on the honor system, and organizers would not be requesting any health information from individuals. </p>



<p>&ldquo;The WordPress community team is&nbsp;<strong>not</strong>&nbsp;expecting or requiring local organizers to organize in-person events for fully-vaccinated people &mdash; we&rsquo;re simply removing the barrier to doing so,&rdquo; she said. The decision <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/07/01/in-person-meetup-events-for-vaccinated-community-members/">announcement</a> includes a flow chart for the conditions that are now in place:</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>Middleton characterized the proposal as contentious and something that may be an unpopular decision. Participants in the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/05/12/proposal-adding-vaccination-status-to-the-in-person-meetup-safety-checklist/">discussion</a> got heated in expressing their opinions, which varied greatly based on each person&rsquo;s unique pandemic experiences and convictions. </p>



<p>While some think it overstepping to prohibit unvaccinated people from attending meetups, others think only allowing vaccinated attendees would create a &ldquo;two-tiered&rdquo; meetup program.</p>



<p>&ldquo;This proposal means that multiple groups of people will no longer be allowed to attend our meetings,&rdquo; Taco Verdonschot commented. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re limited to the meetings that are streamed online. They&rsquo;re basically second class citizens in our community now. They can&rsquo;t join the party, they have to watch through the window. Just this idea makes me extremely uncomfortable.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Verdonschot cited several examples of people who might be excluded by the proposal to restart meetups for vaccinated attendees:</p>



<ul><li>People with a low income in areas where the vaccines aren&rsquo;t provided for free</li><li>Younger people in countries where vaccinations are administered to the elderly first, and only slowly make their way to the younger generations (like The Netherlands)</li><li>People who cannot get a vaccination for medical reasons, for example, because of known allergic reactions to vaccinations</li><li>Pregnant women</li><li>People with a limited immune system</li><li>People whose religion doesn&rsquo;t allow them to get vaccinated</li></ul>



<p>&ldquo;I realize there are some on the team who do not agree, and I hope that these guidelines are flexible enough that you are able to&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disagree_and_commit">disagree and commit</a>&nbsp;in this case,&rdquo; Middleton said in the decision announcement.&nbsp;</p>



<p>&ldquo;While I agree that it&rsquo;s only a matter of time when fully-vaxxed-only meetups are a thing of the past, I do think it&rsquo;s important to make that possible for our communities.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 02 Jul 2021 02:52:28 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:30;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"WPTavern: Automattic Releases Sketch Block for Drawing in the WordPress Editor";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119486";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:201:"https://wptavern.com/automattic-releases-sketch-block-for-drawing-in-the-wordpress-editor?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=automattic-releases-sketch-block-for-drawing-in-the-wordpress-editor";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3872:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Automattic released a new plugin titled <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/sketch/">Sketch Block</a> earlier today. It is a one-off block that allows end-users to draw directly in the editor. The plugin is marked as a beta release and requires Gutenberg to be activated to use. It is a part of the company&rsquo;s <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/block-experiments/tree/master/blocks/sketch">Block Experiments project</a>.</p>



<p>To be perfectly honest, I spent an excessive amount of time playing around with this block plugin today. And, if I am going overboard with that honesty, most of that time was just trying to write out my name. It was hard not to. Drawing things directly in the editor is just kind of fun.</p>



<ul><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li></ul>Attempts to write my name with Sketch Block.



<p>I am unsure how many practical uses the plugin actually has at its current stage, but not everything needs a purpose outside of pure entertainment. Like an embedded <a href="https://wptavern.com/block-a-saurus-embeds-a-side-scrolling-t-rex-game-via-the-block-editor">Block-a-saurus game</a> and <a href="https://wptavern.com/the-wacky-world-of-sorta-brilliants-sorta-fun-block-plugins">ghost-written headings</a>, sometimes we just need reminders about the wild and whacky side of the web. We also need to experiment with new ideas from time to time, which can lead to unexpected discoveries, creating the foundation of future technological advancements.</p>



<p>Sometimes we just need to relieve some stress and sketch out our names in a new tool.</p>



<p>I tested the block using my laptop&rsquo;s trackpad &mdash; not an ideal method for freehand drawing. Unfortunately, I did not have access to a larger touchscreen device for a more thorough test.</p>



<p>The block offers a limited number of controls as of version 1.0.7. Users can select between three different stroke widths and choose from their theme&rsquo;s color palette. The block&rsquo;s height can be resized, but there seems to be a minimum of 200px.</p>



<p>I did manage to break it a few times, running into the &ldquo;This block has encountered an error and cannot be previewed&rdquo; error. There also seemed to be an unknown minimum width, which could not be adjusted. My goal was to create a columnized team page with each member&rsquo;s signature beneath their profile photo. However, the Sketch block kept breaking outside of my columns. In the end, I created a single-member bio section:</p>



<img />Creating a profile card with Sketch Block



<p>The plugin is built on top of the <a href="https://github.com/steveruizok/perfect-freehand">Perfect Freehand</a> JavaScript library. When comparing Automattic&rsquo;s block implementation to the <a href="https://perfect-freehand-example.vercel.app/">library&rsquo;s demo</a>, the plugin falls short of offering the same experience in block form.</p>



<p>Perfect Freehand&rsquo;s demo felt smoother. I was able to consistently draw with more accuracy using my laptop&rsquo;s trackpad. I do not know if just the size of the drawing area made a difference or if the editor interfered with the feeling.</p>



<img />Drawing in the Perfect Freehand demo.



<p>The JavaScript library has a ton of extra options too. Users can transform even the worst drawing into something a bit cleaner with the thinning, smoothing, streamline, and other controls. I would love to see the Sketch Block plugin integrate the full suite of tools available through Perfect Freehand.</p>



<p>Despite a few bumps, the plugin is a solid first release for a beta project. I am eagerly waiting for what future versions have in store. I also wonder what applications it might have outside of piddling around for fun, such as notetaking or animations.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 02 Jul 2021 01:50:50 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:31;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:51:"WPTavern: Gatsby WP Themes Launches New Marketplace";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=116788";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:147:"https://wptavern.com/gatsby-wp-themes-launches-new-marketplace?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gatsby-wp-themes-launches-new-marketplace";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2861:"<p>The <a href="https://gatsbywpthemes.com/">Gatsby WP Themes</a> project has launched a new marketplace for developers who are building WordPress-powered sites with Gatsby on the frontend. Originally founded by Zac Gordon and Alexandra Spalato, the commercial venture is now primarily managed by Spalato and Paulina Hetman. </p>



<p>The team&rsquo;s first project involved <a href="https://wptavern.com/gatsby-wordpress-themes-project-partners-with-theme-shops-to-port-popular-themes-to-gatsby">porting the Twenty Twenty WordPress Theme</a> to a Gatsby WP Theme. They are now focused on creating commercial themes targeted at developers and agencies who can use them to save time when building clients&rsquo; sites. Gatsby is more well-suited to sites that don&rsquo;t have a lot of dynamic content, such as marketing or documentation sites.</p>



<p>Gatsby WP Themes is launching with several starter themes with different styles for each child theme. They include designs suitable for blogs, personal sites, businesses, restaurants, and portfolios.</p>



<ul><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li></ul>



<p>Gatsby themes have several distinct advantages over just grabbing a starter or boilerplate Gatsby site from GitHub. Spaloto identified a few reasons why developers might opt for using a theme:</p>



<ul><li>Gatsby themes allow Gatsby site functionality to be packaged as a standalone product for reuse.</li><li>All of your default configuration lives in an npm package.</li><li>Themes are versioned packages that can be updated like any other package.</li><li>If you created multiple sites using the same theme, you can just update the central theme to push changes across all of them.</li><li>Themes are composable: You can install a blog theme alongside a notes theme, alongside an e-commerce theme (and so forth).</li></ul>



<p>All themes in the new Gatsby WP Themes marketplace include built-in support for dynamic comments, search, Mailchimp integration, sitemaps, Google analytics or Google Tag Manager, and various widgets. The marketplace also includes Gatsby plugins that make popular WordPress plugins more compatible with Gatsby frontends. The current offerings add support for Contact Form 7, lightbox functionality, and Yoast SEO. </p>



<p>Spalato and Hetman are aiming at connecting with WordPress users who don&rsquo;t code, those who don&rsquo;t know React but want to use Gatsby, agencies, developers, and marketers. They have not promoted the marketplace much but already have more than 800 subscribers on Mailchimp. The team plans to release new themes and/or starters frequently as they continue building up their catalog of products.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 01 Jul 2021 05:07:41 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:32;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:76:"WPTavern: Block Patterns Will Change Everything, Part 2: Headers and Footers";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119402";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:193:"https://wptavern.com/block-patterns-will-change-everything-part-2-headers-and-footers?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=block-patterns-will-change-everything-part-2-headers-and-footers";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6656:"<p class="has-drop-cap">It is hard to believe that it was over a year ago &mdash; March 23, 2020, to be exact &mdash; that I wrote a post on why <a href="https://wptavern.com/block-patterns-will-change-everything">block patterns would be the future of WordPress</a>. It has been a slow process as I have patiently waited for the feature to mature into a powerful tool for end-users. I am still as much a believer now as I was then.</p>



<p>WordPress is betting big on patterns too. The feature is now a top-level <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/33094">site-editing component</a> with several sub-features under development. As Gutenberg project lead Matias Ventura noted, &ldquo;From directory browsing to placeholder setup to transformations, patterns are crucial component of the entire site editing scope.&rdquo;</p>



<p>A year ago, patterns were just an idea, almost a footnote compared to other upcoming features. Since WordPress 5.5 included the Patterns API for developers, over 100 themes in the official directory bundle them.</p>



<p>A new pattern directory is launching on WordPress.org next month alongside the version 5.8 release. There are already over 30 <a href="https://wordpress.org/patterns/">community-contributed patterns</a> approved. More are likely to land in the coming weeks. The directory will also eventually be open to anyone who wants to submit new designs. Any WordPress user will have the choice to select from this collection directly from their WordPress admin interface.</p>



<p>These ideas are just scratching the surface.</p>



<p>At its core, the block patterns feature is a simple way of bundling one or more blocks into a preconfigured design. Users can point and click to insert them into their post or page content. The goal of the block system is not just to be a page builder where users must create everything from scratch. While we want it to be flexible enough to do that, most users should have the ability to simply insert sections of a design and customize them. This could be as simple as an audio player with a background to a portfolio layout that showcases their latest projects.</p>



<p>Right now, the user experience is only set up to handle a dozen or patterns at a time &mdash; too many choices can be a less-than-ideal adventure. As the library grows, the interface will need to evolve with it.</p>



<p><em>How can we build experiences on top of this foundation that mitigates some of the complexity?</em></p>



<p>The Gutenberg development team is already working on multiple solutions, such as <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/28736">contextual suggestions</a> for a selected block. However, one of the more promising features is patterns registered for specific block types. In this case, template parts.</p>



<p>For example, if a user wants to select a new pattern for the header of their website, they should not have to sort through every option to find something. With Header patterns, the editor presents the user with a carousel of choices to scroll through specific to that template part.</p>



<ul><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li></ul>Scrolling through header patterns.



<p>This same feature is possible with footers too:</p>



<img />Selecting a footer pattern.



<p>Those who have been beta testing WordPress 5.8 or running the Gutenberg plugin in the last few months may have noticed some similarities to the Query Loop block (formerly named Query). It is the same underlying system that allows developers to attach patterns to a specific block.</p>



<p>Users can already select from multiple Query Loop patterns when first inserting the block:</p>



<img />Selecting a Query Loop pattern.



<p>&ldquo;Recent improvements to the Template Part and Query Loop blocks has opened up a whole new world for how patterns can be used,&rdquo; wrote Kjell Reigstad in a recent <a href="https://themeshaper.com/2021/06/25/theme-patterns-for-the-site-editor/">ThemeShaper blog post</a>. &ldquo;Both blocks can now display a carousel of block patterns in their setup state, allowing users to choose between a menu of pre-designed versions of these blocks. These patterns can be bundled with your theme, so that users have a wide range of pre-designed header, query, and footer options available to choose from in the Site Editor.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Reigstad has an <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/31610">open ticket</a> for several core header and footer patterns. The following is a short video clip of how this works:</p>



<div>

</div>



<p>As any theme developer knows, you cannot simply plop anything into the header and make it look good. It is one of the most specialized areas of theme design. One wrong turn and the entire design falls apart. The downside to this feature will be third-party patterns coming from the directory. Some will work. Others will not fit into every theme design, but they are not necessarily meant to. It could be a support nightmare for theme authors or an opportunity.</p>



<p>Theme developers will be able to steer their own ship, offering a range of choices that are perfectly molded to their designs.</p>



<p><em>I can already see it&hellip;multipurpose themes with 50+ header patterns listed in their marketing material.</em></p>



<p>While it is unlikely that many people had this in mind during the conceptual stages of block patterns, they are evolving. They will be more than just something users can stick into their post content at random. They are that semi-controlled experience that will give users the flexibility of choice, but the theme serves as a guide for making intelligent decisions.</p>



<p>If a theme author offers four or five well-designed Header or Footer template patterns, users are more likely to select from those. It is easier than building from the ground up.</p>



<p>Such a system also opens more <a href="https://wptavern.com/block-system-will-create-more-commercial-opportunities-for-wordpress-theme-authors">commercial opportunities</a>. Imagine upselling specialized pattern collections for niches. A restaurant site header might want to focus on an &ldquo;order online&rdquo; button. A news website could feature a &ldquo;latest stories&rdquo; ticker above the site title and navigation. There are endless ideas, all awaiting a savvy theme developer to implement and monetize them.</p>



<p>As always, I am eager to see where patterns go. They are still the most exciting WordPress feature, offering the API that theme authors have needed for the past decade.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 01 Jul 2021 02:06:22 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:33;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:54:"WPTavern: WP Engine Makes Local Pro Free for All Users";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119329";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:153:"https://wptavern.com/wp-engine-makes-local-pro-free-for-all-users?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wp-engine-makes-local-pro-free-for-all-users";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3025:"<p>WP Engine <a href="https://wpengine.com/blog/wp-engine-supercharges-wordpress-development-local-pro-free-for-everyone/?utm_medium=organicsocial&utm_source=twitter">announced</a> today that Local Pro, the commercial upgrade for its local WordPress development product, is now free for all users. Beginning with <a href="https://localwp.com/releases/">version 6.0</a>, all features that formerly required a paid subscription are now available with a free Local account. These include Live Links Pro, Instant Reload, Link Checker, and MagicSync. </p>



<p>&ldquo;We believe Local Pro features benefit a broader WordPress developer community and we want to deliver the full value of Local to more developers than ever,&rdquo; WP Engine Senior Vice President Seth Halpern said. &ldquo;We want to empower the freedom to create on WordPress by making all Local features available for free.&rdquo;</p>



<p>WP Engine&rsquo;s recently published research&nbsp;estimates the&nbsp;<a href="https://wpengine.com/wordpress-economy/">WordPress economy at $596.7B</a>. The company may be in a better position to gain customers for its hosting products if they make Local completely free, as the tool was designed to seamlessly connect with WP Engine and Flywheel&rsquo;s hosting. It is currently used by more than 300,000 developers. Over the years Local has gained popularity due to how easy it makes setting up WordPress development and testing environments. </p>



<p>Version 6.0 also introduces Local&rsquo;s new <a href="https://localwp.com/cloud-backups/">Cloud Backups add-on</a>, which will allow users to backup to Google Drive or Dropbox. Cloud backups can be restored from the Tools tab. The 6.0 release post details a few features that have been moved to new locations in the interface:</p>



<ul><li><a href="https://localwp.com/help-docs/connect/magic-sync/">MagicSync</a>&nbsp;is now a global preference, and the default push/pull experience can be toggled in the Preferences menu.&nbsp;</li><li>Live Links Pro, now&nbsp;<a href="https://localwp.com/live-links/">Live Links</a>, will be accessible for all users by connecting your Local account.</li><li><a href="https://localwp.com/help-docs/local-features/link-checker/">Link Checker</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://localwp.com/help-docs/local-features/instant-reload/">Instant Reload</a>&nbsp;have been moved to the Local Add-ons Library.&nbsp;</li><li>Xdebug Add-ons have moved from the Utilities tab into the Tools tab within Local.</li></ul>



<p>Existing Local Pro subscribers will have access to priority support until September 1, 2021. After that time, dedicated ticket support will be discontinued in favor of directing users to the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://localwp.com/community/" target="_blank">community forums</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://localwp.com/help-docs/" target="_blank">help docs</a>. WP Engine is offering customers full or prorated refunds, which will be sent out before July 31, 2021.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 30 Jun 2021 04:28:15 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:34;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:51:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 5.8 Release Candidate";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=10873";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-release-candidate/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4740:"<p>The first release candidate for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-8/">WordPress 5.8</a> is now available! <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/1f389.png" alt="🎉" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<p>Please join us in celebrating this very important milestone in the community&#8217;s progress towards the final release of WordPress 5.8!</p>



<p>“Release Candidate” means the new version is ready for release, but with thousands of plugins and themes and differences in how the millions of people use WordPress, it is possible something was missed.  WordPress 5.8 is slated for release&nbsp;on&nbsp;<strong>July 20, 2021</strong>, but <em>your</em>&nbsp;help is needed to get there—if you have not tried 5.8 yet,&nbsp;<strong>now is the time</strong>!</p>



<p>You can test the WordPress 5.8 release candidate in three ways:</p>



<ul><li>Install and activate the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester plugin</a> (select the <code>Bleeding edge</code> channel and then <code>Beta/RC Only</code> stream)</li><li>Directly download the release candidate version <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.8-RC1.zip">(zip)</a></li><li>Using WP-CLI to test: <code>wp core update --version=5.8-RC1</code></li></ul>



<p>Thank you to all of the contributors who tested the&nbsp;Beta releases and gave feedback.  Testing for bugs is a critical part of polishing every release and a great way to contribute to WordPress.</p>



<h2>What is in WordPress 5.8?</h2>



<p>The second release of 2021 continues to progress on the block editor towards the promised future of full site editing with these updates:</p>



<ul><li>Manage Widgets with Blocks</li><li>Display Posts with New Blocks and Patterns</li><li>Edit Post Templates</li><li>Overview of the Page Structure</li><li>Suggested Patterns for Blocks</li><li>Style and Colorize Images</li><li><code>theme.json</code></li><li>Dropping support for IE11</li><li>Adding support for WebP</li><li>Adding Additional Block Supports</li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/05/27/whats-new-in-gutenberg-10-7-26-may/">Version 10.7</a> of the Gutenberg plugin</li></ul>



<p>WordPress 5.8 also has lots of refinements to enhance the developer experience.  To learn more, subscribe to the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">Make WordPress Core blog</a> and pay special attention to the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/5-8+dev-notes/">developer notes tag</a> for updates on those and other changes that could affect your products.</p>



<h2>Plugin and Theme Developers</h2>



<p>Please test your plugins and themes against WordPress 5.8 and update the&nbsp;<em>Tested up to</em>&nbsp;version in the <code>readme</code> file to 5.8.  If you find compatibility problems, please be sure to post to the&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">support forums</a>,&nbsp;so those can be figured out before the final release.</p>



<p>The WordPress 5.8 Field Guide, due to be published very shortly, will give you a deeper dive into the major changes.</p>



<h2>How to Help</h2>



<p>Do you speak a language other than English? &nbsp;<a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp/dev">Help us translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!</a>&nbsp; This release also marks the&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/glossary/#hard-freeze">hard string freeze</a>&nbsp;point of the 5.8 release schedule.</p>



<p><em><strong>If you think you have found a bug</strong>, you can post to the&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta">Alpha/Beta area</a>&nbsp;in the support forums. We would love to hear from you!  If you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report,&nbsp;<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/newticket">file one on WordPress Trac</a>, where you can also find&nbsp;<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major">a list of known bugs</a>.</em></p>



<p class="has-text-align-right"><strong><em>Props to <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>audrasjb</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbringmann/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>cbringmann</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>webcommsat</a>, and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pbiron/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>pbiron</a> for copy suggestions and final review.</em></strong></p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator" />



<p><em>We are almost there,<br />WordPress 5.8 comes next month.<br />We need your help: test!</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 30 Jun 2021 03:47:48 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Jeffrey Paul";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:35;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:79:"WPTavern: Add Editor-Only Notes via the Markdown Comment Block WordPress Plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119331";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:203:"https://wptavern.com/add-editor-only-notes-via-the-markdown-comment-block-wordpress-plugin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=add-editor-only-notes-via-the-markdown-comment-block-wordpress-plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3843:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Rich Tabor, the Senior Product Manager of WordPress Experience at GoDaddy, <a href="https://twitter.com/richard_tabor/status/1408460733055184897">tweeted that he had an idea</a> for a new block at the end of last week. Shortly after, the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/markdown-comment-block/">Markdown Comment Block</a> plugin appeared on WordPress.org.</p>



<p>The plugin is a one-off block. It allows users to enter notes directly into the post editor that will not appear on the front end of the site. Tabor said he came up with the idea when working on an article for building single-block plugins.</p>



<p>There are few things I love more than simple plugins with a tight focus, performing a single function. Markdown Comment Block lands in this category.</p>



<p>The plugin creates a new block that works nearly the same as a typical Paragraph block:</p>



<img />Adding inline comments to a post.



<p>Users can change the text color, but they will not have access to the typical Rich Text controls. Those should be unnecessary anyway.</p>



<p>As someone who does long-form writing almost exclusively in Markdown, the block&rsquo;s use of the double percent-sign syntax for comments intrigued me. Technically, the Markdown spec does not support any sort of special characters for them. It handles HTML comments. However, those appear in the source code on the front end when the document is rendered. I have only seen the <code>%%</code> mark to denote comments in the <a href="https://www.inspire-writer.com/">Inspire Writer</a> app for Windows. Tabor said he had seen the same in <a href="https://ulysses.app/">Ulysses</a>. The feature also exists in the <a href="https://useiceberg.com/">Iceberg editor</a> for WordPress, which Tabor created alongside Jeffrey Carandang.</p>



<p>The plugin also introduces the <code>%%</code> keyboard shortcut. Typing it directly in the editor will create a new Markdown Comment block.</p>



<p>My primary use case for the plugin would be leaving notes for my later self. However, it could also be handy in users&rsquo; publishing flows. The block adds a &ldquo;Resolve&rdquo; button to the toolbar. Clicking it deletes the comment.</p>



<img />Clicking the &ldquo;Resolve&rdquo; button will delete the block.



<p>The block itself will not likely offer a robust enough feature set for complex workflows. However, pairing it with a plugin like <a href="https://wptavern.com/upgrade-your-publishing-flow-with-the-post-descriptions-wordpress-plugin">Post Descriptions</a> could round out the experience for larger teams of writers and copyeditors.</p>



<p>The Post Descriptions plugin allows users to add notes on the post level. These notes appear on the post-management screen, letting other team members know when to check an article. However, it may be hard to provide the full context of what issues need to be resolved before publishing. Markdown Comment Block adds an inline comments system, letting team members pass in-text notes.</p>



<p>Theme developers should appreciate that the block uses CSS custom properties too, which makes it easy to overwrite its default style rules.  In moments, I was able to make it match my theme:</p>



<img />Custom color, font, and line-height styles.



<p>The <code>--markdown-comment-font-size</code>, <code>--markdown-comment-line-height</code>, and <code>--markdown-comment-color</code> variables are available for theme developers who want to add in support.</p>



<p>The one complaint I had about the block is its title: &ldquo;Comment.&rdquo; It is easy to confuse it with the six other comment-related blocks already in the WordPress block list. And, there will only be more in upcoming versions. Giving it a title of &ldquo;Markdown Comment&rdquo; would better distinguish it from others.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 30 Jun 2021 00:15:55 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:36;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:113:"WPTavern: BuddyPress 9.0 Scheduled for Short Development Cycle to Ship Block-Based Widgets Ahead of WordPress 5.8";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119255";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:271:"https://wptavern.com/buddypress-9-0-scheduled-for-short-development-cycle-to-ship-block-based-widgets-ahead-of-wordpress-5-8?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=buddypress-9-0-scheduled-for-short-development-cycle-to-ship-block-based-widgets-ahead-of-wordpress-5-8";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3801:"<p><a href="https://buddypress.org/2021/06/buddypress-8-0-0-alfano/">BuddyPress 8.0</a> was just released earlier this month on June 6, but the core development team is gearing up for a <a href="https://bpdevel.wordpress.com/2021/06/24/bp-dev-chat-summary-june-23-2021/">short development cycle for 9.0</a>. The release will be specifically targeted at getting BuddyPress core widgets ready for WordPress 5.8&rsquo;s new block widgets experience. Contributors are aiming to hit the following timeline to ship 9.0 before the next major WordPress release:</p>



<ul><li>Beta: July 8.</li><li>RC: July 12.</li><li>Final:&nbsp;<strong>July 16</strong></li></ul>



<p>BuddyPress entered the world of blocks with the release of version 6.0 in May 2020, allowing users to insert a specific Member or Group into content. Version 7.0, released six months later, introduced blocks for featuring a list of members, a list of groups, and the ability to embed a public activity post. Over the next few weeks, BuddyPress contributors will continue the process of <a href="https://github.com/buddypress/bp-blocks/issues/37">migrating the rest of the BuddyPress component widgets to blocks</a>. These include the following:</p>



<ul><li><strong>Blogs Recent Posts Widget</strong>: A list of recently published posts from across the network</li><li><strong>BP Core Login Widget</strong>: Shows a Log In form to logged-out visitors, and a Log Out link to those who are logged in</li><li><strong>BP Core Friends Widget</strong>: A dynamic list of recently active, popular, and newest Friends of the displayed member. Widget is only shown when viewing a member profile</li><li><strong>BP Groups Widget</strong>: A dynamic list of recently active, popular, newest, or alphabetical groups</li><li><strong>BP Core Members Widget</strong>: A dynamic list of recently active, popular, and newest members</li><li><strong>BP Core Recently Active Widget</strong>: Profile photos of recently active members</li><li><strong>BP Core Who&rsquo;s Online Widget</strong>: Profile photos of online users</li><li><strong>BP Messages Sitewide Notices Widget</strong>: Display Sitewide Notices posted by the site administrator</li></ul>



<p><strong>BP Nouveau widgets:</strong></p>



<ul><li><strong>BP Latest Activities</strong>: Display the latest updates of your community having the types of your choice</li><li><strong>BP Nouveau Navigation Widget</strong>: Displays BuddyPress primary nav in the sidebar of the site. (Must be used as the first widget of the sidebar and only once.)</li></ul>



<p>In addition to building a block for every BuddyPress widget, contributors are aiming to make it possible to <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/8496">transform existing BP widgets into their corresponding BP block</a>.</p>



<p>With the new block widgets screen imminently landing in WordPress, BuddyPress has to make this move forward to keep pace with the progress of the block editor&rsquo;s march beyond use in the content editor. Otherwise, BuddyPress users would need to <a href="https://wptavern.com/classic-widgets-plugin-disables-wordpress-5-8s-upcoming-block-based-widgets-system">disable block widgets with the Classic Widgets plugin</a> in order to maintain access to BuddyPress core widgets.</p>



<p>Contributors are also working on creating a new Follow component, a frequently requested feature which would use the now abandoned <a href="https://github.com/r-a-y/buddypress-followers">BuddyPress Follow</a> plugin as inspiration. The feature will work similar to Twitter following or the Facebook follow button that allows users to see public activity posts for those they are following. The Follow component is being built as a plugin first and will ship with 9.0 if it is ready in time.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 29 Jun 2021 01:07:05 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:37;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:58:"WPTavern: Diving Into WordPress 5.8’s New Widgets Screen";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119259";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:155:"https://wptavern.com/diving-into-wordpress-5-8s-new-widgets-screen?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=diving-into-wordpress-5-8s-new-widgets-screen";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6657:"<p class="has-drop-cap">It has been a while since I have touched widgets. Once the site editor landed in the Gutenberg plugin, I almost exclusively dropped the old sidebar paradigm and moved to block templates. Reactivating old themes and jumping into the widgets screen felt like time-traveling into a bygone era.</p>



<p>After months of being deeply embedded within block themes, it is hard to imagine moving back to the sidebar widgets system that most WordPress users are still using today.</p>



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-8-beta-1-released-new-blocks-new-widgets-screen-and-pattern-directory-on-deck">WordPress 5.8 is slated to ship</a> with a small taste of bringing blocks outside of the content editor. However, it can feel like a surface-level refresh of a dying system, one that does not always work.</p>



<p>Block-based widgets are part of the transitional phase between classic WordPress and the future, which centers on a complete site editor. Once the bulk of themes are built atop blocks, the need for widgets will wane. The site editor and block themes do not support the old sidebar system. Instead, users will be able to place blocks anywhere.</p>



<p>Last October, I asked the question: <a href="https://wptavern.com/are-block-based-widgets-ready-to-land-in-wordpress-5-6">Are Block-Based Widgets Ready To Land in WordPress 5.6?</a> At the time, the widgets screen was expected to launch with the final release of 2020. However, the development team pulled back on the feature&rsquo;s inclusion, primarily because the customizer implementation was sub-par.</p>



<p>Asking the same question of WordPress 5.8, my answer is mostly the same. It is time to ship the current feature and prepare for a future without widgets. There are so many components that are far more exciting around the corner. The primary user-experience issues will linger around until users have moved on to block themes.</p>



<p>I have long been in the camp of starting from a clean slate for block themes, letting widgets die out. However, the path WordPress has chosen is to create this stepping stone for users who may be on traditional themes for a while. It provides an opportunity to use blocks outside of the editor, which may be a leap forward for many.</p>



<p>With the vast number of libraries, one-off blocks, and support from plugin authors, users have a wealth of block choices at their fingertips. Right now, if there is no equivalent widget, those users can only ever use those blocks in their content. Within a block-widget system, that limitation does not exist.</p>



<p>It also lifts some burdens from developers. Those who want to shed some of their old code and go all-in on blocks can begin considering deprecating or retiring widgets.</p>



<p>Transitioning to the new Widgets screen should feel simple to users familiar with the WordPress content editor. Inserting blocks is the same. The difference is that each sidebar has its own container.</p>



<img />Widgets screen with a Gallery block in the Footer sidebar.



<p>The range of blocks within core WordPress could also let users drop some of their widgets-based plugins. One of the most popular types of widgets over the years has been for handling post lists. There are dozens of such plugins and an untold number of themes that include one. Coupled with WordPress 5.8&rsquo;s Query Loop block, users can now recreate many of those widgets themselves.</p>



<img />Custom post list using the Query Loop block.



<p>Much of this depends on the theme&rsquo;s design support of blocks and whether it will accommodate anything other than traditional widgets.</p>



<p>Customizer support for block widgets is lightyears ahead of where it was just a few short months ago. However, it feels awkward at best. There is a deep feeling of not belonging. While it was a remarkable programming feat to make the two features work together, the user experiences are nearly a decade apart.</p>



<img />Editing a Heading block in the customizer.



<p>Despite the customizer providing a live preview, the Widgets screen in the WordPress admin gives the necessary workspace. Trying to squeeze the block editor into the tiny customize controls panel was never going to be an ideal experience, and it still is not. It gets the job done, but I recommend the traditional widgets screen for fewer headaches.</p>



<h2>Problems Remain</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">In the eight months since I first dived into the block-based widgets, the system has been overhauled. However, the potential issues I brought up remain. Just dropping blocks into a sidebar can have mixed results. For example, compare a Legacy Widget to Heading and Latest Comments blocks in the footer sidebar of the popular OceanWP theme:</p>



<img />Mismatched headings and colors.



<p>The issue is that WordPress treats every block as a widget. Traditionally, widgets have had both a title and content. Blocks have no such concept. A Heading followed by something like a Paragraph, Latest Comments, or another block has no special meaning in the block system. They are all treated separately.</p>



<p>This issue is in full view when adding blocks to the default Twenty Twenty-One WordPress theme:</p>



<img />Block treated as widget in Twenty Twenty-One footer sidebar.



<p>Notice the Heading and Latest Comments blocks are columnized because they are seen as separate widgets.</p>



<p>To address this, users must add multiple blocks into a Group block if they want them treated as a single &ldquo;widget.&rdquo; It is a simple matter, but it could still be a usability hurdle for some.</p>



<p>Even with a fix in place, there is no guarantee that blocks will appear as the widgets the theme author intended.</p>



<p>I long ago gave up on the hope that there would be better handling for block widgets. The <a href="https://wptavern.com/classic-widgets-plugin-disables-wordpress-5-8s-upcoming-block-based-widgets-system">Classic Widgets plugin</a> is available for those who need it, and <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/widgets/opting-out/#using-remove_theme_support">theme authors can opt-out</a>. These are necessary tools for an experience that can range from downright awesome to utterly broken.</p>



<p>Bringing blocks outside of the content editor for traditional theme users is probably necessary for the transition, but the current site editor experience already feels much smoother than block widgets. The long-term focus should be on moving away from the dated concept of widgets and into a WordPress front-end 100% built on blocks.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 28 Jun 2021 23:52:29 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:38;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:96:"Gutenberg Times: Theme.json Resources, Block Patterns and WordPress 5.8 – Weekend Edition #175";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?p=18320";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:101:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/theme-json-resources-block-patterns-and-wordpress-5-8-weekend-edition-175/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13004:"<p>Howdy, </p>



<p>We enjoy cooling off at the community pool after our lunch walks. It&#8217;s the simple things, right? </p>



<p>I learned so much in this week&#8217;s Live Q &amp; A! You might too. Jeff prepared a insightful demo of the basics. Thank you to all those watching and asking great questions! It was a pleasure and honor to have Daisy Olson, Tammie Lister and Jeff Ong on the show. <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/theme-json-for-wordpress-theme-authors-demo-and-live-q-a-w-daisy-olson-tammie-lister-and-jeff-ong/">The recording is available here.</a> So are the links to the shared resources and the transcript. </p>



<p>What else happened this week in WordPress? Amazingly plenty. Get yourself your favorite beverage and start reading and watching. </p>





<p>Yours, 💕<br />Birgit</p>





<h2>Release week at WordPress</h2>



<p>WordPress is such a fantastic open-source project. I admire the team and the people in it so much! </p>



<p>The <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C01VACX5E2W">public Slack channel of the release squad</a> helped me understand more of the complexities behind making software that is used by many millions of people all over the world. If you ever get a chance to spend a few minutes scrolling through the discussions on slack, on trac or GitHub, do it. Meet the people, who bring the work of hundreds of contributors over the finish line. Meet the contributors. </p>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-8/">WordPress 5.8 Beta 4</a> is out and ready for your testing. WordPress 5.8 RC 1 is scheduled for June 29th, 2021. That comes with a hard string freeze, and the Polyglot teams get into high gear with translations. It&#8217;s also the deadline for DevNotes of the more significant changes coming  with this release. </p>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/24/whats-new-in-gutenberg-10-9-23-june/">Gutenberg 10.9 and 10.9.1</a> were released. Some bug fixes will be ported back to be included in the WordPress 5.8. Grzegorz Ziolkowski and I recorded the Gutenberg Changelog #46 yesterday, and it will be published on Monday. Our editor, Sandy, is on a well-deserved break over the weekend.  <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-10-9-renames-the-query-block-adds-collapsible-list-view-items-and-rolls-out-rich-url-previews"><strong>Justin Tadlock </strong>took 10.9 </a>for a spin at the WPTavern. </p>



<p>&#8212; <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/podcast/changelog-46-devnotes-for-wordpress-5-8/">Gutenberg Changelog #46 is now available</a> &#8212; 6/27</p>




<p><strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg &#8211; Index 2021&#8221;</a>&nbsp;</strong><br />A chronological list of the WordPress Make Blog posts from various teams involved in Gutenberg development: Design, Theme Review Team, Core Editor, Core JS, Core CSS, Test and Meta team from Jan. 2021 on. Updated by yours truly.  <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index-2020/">The index 2020 is here</a></p>




<h2>Theme.json Resources</h2>



<p>You can read an&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/25/introducing-theme-json-in-wordpress-5-8/"><strong>Introducing theme.json in WordPress 5.8</strong></a>&nbsp;by&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://twitter.com/nosolosw">Andre Maneiro</a></strong>&nbsp;on the Core Make blog.</p>



<p>You can read up on the details specifications in the Block Editor Handbook:&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/themes/theme-json/">Global Settings &amp; Styles (theme.json)</a>.</strong></p>



<p>Another fantastic way to get your feet wet is to heed the&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/06/24/call-for-testing-thrive-with-theme-json/"><strong>Call for Testing #8</strong></a>&nbsp;out of the FSE outreach program. <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> has some interesting tasks for you. <a href="https://wptavern.com/fse-outreach-round-8-a-developer-centric-call-for-testing-theme-json-configuration"><strong>Justin Tadlock </strong></a> has more for you on the <em>WordPress Tavern</em> </p>



<p><strong>Tammie Lister</strong>&nbsp;started a new project <a href="https://ephemeralthemes.com/">&#8220;Ephemeral Themes&#8221;</a> and shared her thoughts on theme.json and why she is excited again for theme development.&nbsp;<a href="https://ephemeralthemes.com/2021/06/20/theme-json-inspires/"><strong>Theme.json inspires</strong></a></p>



<p>The Gutenberg team is in ongoing discussion about various topics. Two were raised during the <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/theme-json-for-wordpress-theme-authors-demo-and-live-q-a-w-daisy-olson-tammie-lister-and-jeff-ong/">Live Q &amp; A</a>. Both could use your opinion and ideas.</p>



<ul><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/29568">Default Colors, Theme Colors, and Custom Colors</a></li><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/20244">Responsive Global Styles as a work in progress</a></li></ul>



<p>A good way to get started and see the configuration in action is to study the themes available in the&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments/"><strong>Theme Experiments repository</strong></a>&nbsp;on GitHub.</p>



<h2>Full Site Editing </h2>



<p>Another theme by <strong>Ana Segota,</strong>  built for the Site editor will come to the WordPress directory. Justin Tadlock took it for a spin. <a href="https://wptavern.com/clove-a-showcase-of-block-patterns-by-anariel-design"><strong>Clove: A Showcase of Block Patterns by Anariel Design</strong></a>.</p>



<p><strong>Anne McCarthy </strong>published <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/06/24/fse-program-polished-portfolios-summary/"><strong>FSE Program Polished Portfolios Summary</strong></a> with the updated feedback from a great group of participants. </p>



<p>On her personal blog, <strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> also published <a href="https://nomad.blog/2021/06/11/on-future-outreach-program-models-in-the-wordpress-community/"><strong>On Future Outreach Program Models in the WordPress Community</strong></a>. She shared some of her learn lessons on running the FSE outreach program and what needs to happen to make this a permanent contributor activity within WordPress. </p>



<p>Here is the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/06/09/upcoming-fse-outreach-program-schedule-june-july/">Upcoming FSE Outreach Program Schedule</a></p>



<p><a href="https://twitter.com/scruffian"><strong>Ben Dwyer</strong> </a>on ThemeShaper posted <strong><a href="https://themeshaper.com/2021/06/23/universal-themes-some-ideas/">Some Ideas for Universal Themes</a>.</strong> He wrote: &#8220;A universal theme would work in both editing modes.&nbsp; A user should be able to build a site in classic mode and switch to FSE mode when the Site Editor is more mature or when they are ready to try all the extra tools that Full Site Editing will bring. Changes to a theme in classic mode should be reflected when I enable the Site Editor.&#8221; and goes into more details on how that could work. At Automattic, they experiment with the <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/themes/tree/trunk/quadrat">Quadrat theme</a>. </p>




<p><strong><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/">Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg&#8217;s main (trunk) branch?</a></strong><br />Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review. <br />Have you been using it? Hit reply and let me know.</p>



<p><img alt="GitHub all releases" src="https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/bph/gutenberg/total?style=for-the-badge" /></p>



<p></p>




<h2>Block Patterns</h2>



<p>About 80 Patterns have been published in the Pattern Directory on WordPress.org, <strong>Kjell Reigstad</strong> reported in his <strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/06/23/update-initial-patterns-for-the-patterns-directory/">Update: Initial Patterns for the Patterns Directory</a> </strong>over the last two weeks, Kjell, Mel Choyce and Beatriz Fialho were fielding community submissions and working with the designers. There are wonderful and useful patterns, you can use for your site.</p>



<p>The discussion about <strong>Block Patterns</strong> on the WordPress Tavern has readers ruminating about <strong><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-theme-lock-in-silos-and-the-block-system">Theme Lock-In, Silos, and the Block System</a>.</strong> In a Post Status discussion, <strong>Tammie Lister </strong>thought the opposite is true. &#8220;it&#8217;s going to be easier, not harder, to switch with the newer set up.&#8221; And then she continues: &#8220;Try swapping between themes now. It&#8217;s not a picnic. It&#8217;s often a sad rained on picnic with soggy sandwiches of sadness, even with the best hope.&#8221; 🌧️ I might steal that metaphor from Tammie 💕</p>



<p>Speaking of Block Patterns, the design team also brought Block Patterns to all WordPress Twenty themes, all the way back to Twenty-Ten. They will be released with WordPress 5.8. <strong>Milana Cap</strong> published about these <strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/21/bundled-themes-changes-in-wordpress-5-8/">Bundled themes changes in WordPress 5.8</a>.</strong> They are a great inspiration for designer on what can be possible with Block Patterns now. Justin Tadlock at the WordPress Tavern also <a href="https://wptavern.com/a-throwback-to-the-past-refreshing-old-twenty-wordpress-themes-with-block-patterns">took the new patterns out for a spin.</a></p>



<p>In <strong><a href="https://themeshaper.com/2021/06/25/theme-patterns-for-the-site-editor/">Theme patterns for the Site&nbsp;Editor</a> </strong> <strong>Kjell Reigstad</strong> show off a new UI to handle the display of different patterns for a header. It is an expansion of the block pattern display for Query Loop for various Post list layouts. He also shared his code and a short tutorial. Kjell also used the Quadrat theme from the Automattic repository </p>




Header Patterns in Quadrat Theme / Automattic




<h2>Block Development and Plugins</h2>



<p>For block builders, the Core-editor team published two DevNotes this week. </p>



<p><strong><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/23/block-api-enhancements-in-wordpress-5-8/">Block API Enhancements in WordPress 5.8</a> </strong>by <strong>Grzegorz Ziolkowski</strong>, encouraging plugins developers to using the block.json metadata file. He lists under the benefits: </p>



<ul><li>code sharing between JavaScript and PHP and other languages, </li><li>optimized enqueuing of assets on the frontend to support performance increases.</li><li>Allows listing of the block on the Block Type REST API endpoint </li><li>It&#8217;s a requirement for blocks to be included in the WordPress Plugin Directory  </li></ul>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/25/block-supports-api-updates-for-wordpress-5-8/"><strong>Block supports API updates for WordPress 5.8</strong></a>&nbsp; by <strong>Daisy Olsen</strong>, which outlines and additional support options for color, duotone, fontSize, lineHeight, spacing options for blocks and themes. </p>




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<p>Featured Image: <a target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6068229">&#8220;File:Lego Color Bricks.jpg&#8221;</a>&nbsp;by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.flickr.com/people/13403905@N03" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Alan Chia</a>&nbsp;is licensed under&nbsp;<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0?ref=ccsearch&atype=rich" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CC BY-SA 2.0</a></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 26 Jun 2021 19:18:25 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Birgit Pauli-Haack";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:39;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:127:"Gutenberg Times: Theme.json for WordPress Theme Authors – demo and  Live Q &amp; A w/ Daisy Olson, Tammie Lister and Jeff Ong";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?p=18324";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:125:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/theme-json-for-wordpress-theme-authors-demo-and-live-q-a-w-daisy-olson-tammie-lister-and-jeff-ong/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56956:"<p>On June 24th, we hosted Gutenberg Times Live Q &amp; A on the topic  <strong>&#8220;Theme.json for Theme Authors &#8211; Getting started with theme development for Full-site Editing&#8221;</strong> It was a great pleasure and privilege to have <a href="https://twitter.com/DaisyOlsen">Daisy Olson</a>, developer advocate at Automattic, <a href="https://twitter.com/karmatosed">Tammie Lister</a>, design lead at Extendify and <a href="https://twitter.com/jffng">Jeff Ong</a>, code wrangler at Automattic on the show. </p>



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<p>Jeff Ong prepared <a href="https://youtu.be/dBwhHKKblhU?t=831">a demo</a> for us, and then attendees had some interesting questions our panelists answered. You can read the transcript below.</p>



<p>WordPress 5.8 will come with the infrastructure and foundation to control the block editor and theme settings via the configuration file theme.json. JSON is a universal data format that is readable to PHP and JavaScript alike.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large"><p>Themes no longer have to pretend that they&#8217;re plugins.</p><cite>Tammie Lister</cite></blockquote>



<div class="wp-block-sortabrilliant-guidepost"><ul><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#0-resources-about-theme-json-and-themes-for-full-site-editing">Resources about theme.json and themes for Full-site editing</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#1-themes-for-full-site-editing-in-the-word-press-org-repository">Themes for Full-site Editing in the WordPress.org repository</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#2-strong-what-will-change-most-for-the-theme-developers-when-building-themes-for-full-site-editing-strong">What will change most for the theme developers when building themes for full-site editing?</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#3-demo-configuring-the-block-editor-with-theme-json-file">Demo: Configuring the block editor with theme.json file</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#3-meta-charset-utf-8-why-do-we-want-to-rewrite-css-in-json">Why do we want to rewrite CSS in JSON</a></li><li><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/#4-what-happens-when-you-update-the-color-palette-will-saved-blocks-have-the-new-colors">What happens when you update the color palette? Will saved blocks have the new colors?</a></li></ul></div>



<h2 id="0-resources-about-theme-json-and-themes-for-full-site-editing">Resources about theme.json and themes for Full-site editing</h2>



<p>During the show, we mentioned a few places where you can dive in and learn more about theme.json.</p>



<p>You can read an <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/25/introducing-theme-json-in-wordpress-5-8/"><strong>Introducing theme.json in WordPress 5.8</strong></a> by <strong>Andre Maneiro</strong> on the Core Make blog. </p>



<p>You can read up on the details specifications in the Block Editor Handbook: <strong><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/themes/theme-json/">Global Settings &amp; Styles (theme.json)</a>. </strong></p>



<p>A good way to get started and see the configuration in action is to study the themes available in the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments/"><strong>Theme Experiments repository</strong></a> on GitHub. </p>



<p>Another fantastic way to get your feet wet is to heed the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/06/24/call-for-testing-thrive-with-theme-json/"><strong>Call for Testing #8</strong></a> out of the FSE outreach program. Anne McCarthy has some interesting tasks for you. </p>



<p><strong>Tammie Lister</strong> started a new blog and shared her thoughts on theme.json and why she is excited again for theme development. <a href="https://ephemeralthemes.com/2021/06/20/theme-json-inspires/"><strong>Theme.json inspires</strong></a></p>



<p>The Gutenberg team is in ongoing discussion about various topics. Two were raised during the Live Q &amp; A. Both could use your opinion and ideas. </p>



<ul><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/29568">Default Colors, Theme Colors, and Custom Colors</a></li><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/20244">Responsive Global Styles as a work in progress</a></li></ul>



<h2 id="1-themes-for-full-site-editing-in-the-word-press-org-repository">Themes for Full-site Editing in the WordPress.org repository</h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/blockbase/">Block Base</a> by Automattic</li><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/naledi/">Naledi </a>by Anariel Design</li><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/tt1-blocks/">TT1 Blocks</a> by WordPress contributors, the FSE sibling of the Twenty-Twenty-One Theme</li><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/block-based-bosco/">Block-Based Bosco</a> by Fränk Klein</li><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/armando/">Armando</a> by Carolyn Newmark</li><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/q/">Q </a>by Ari Stathopoulos</li><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/hansen/">Hansen</a> by Uxl Themes</li></ul>



<p class="has-larger-font-size" id="transcript"><strong>Transcript</strong></p>



<p class="has-text-align-center" id="transcript"><em><span class="has-inline-color has-accent-color">This transcript is still a work in progress</span></em><strong><span class="has-inline-color has-accent-color"> </span></strong>&#8211; Birgit</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Well, and then we can start the webinar here. The webinar is now live and welcome to our 28th Gutenberg live Q and A on this June 24th. My name is Birgit Pauli-Haack and I am your host for today&#8217;s discussion. Thank you all for watching, and it&#8217;s great to have you. And while you all come in, use the chat window to tell us where you are and where you&#8217;re watching from.&nbsp;</p>



<p>And today we will discuss a new way to configure themes, that is black themes, with global styles and settings file theme.json. And it will enable theme developers to centralize all the block-based settings, color palettes, font sizes, and other block-based customizations. This way you will also control which of the other block features the theme supports or does not support.&nbsp;</p>



<p>So that&#8217;s my simple mind&#8217;s description of the new features and I&#8217;m so thrilled to have three experts on the show to go beyond this simple explanation and help theme developers to get started. I&#8217;m extremely honored to have Daisy Olsen, developer advocate at Automatic and WordPress contributor. Hey, good to have you. Also Jeff Ong, code wrangler at Automatic.</p>



<p><em>Jeff Ong: </em>Hello.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Thanks for being here. And at last but not at least Tammie Lister, design lead at Extendify.</p>



<p><em>Tammie Lister:</em> Hello.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> We&#8217;ll do some proper introduction in less than a minute. I just have a few housekeeping notes. So after the introduction, we&#8217;ll have a first round robin question and then we see a demo. Jeff was working really hard on it and I think he was the only one repairing hard for this live Q and A. And then we&#8217;ll discuss the different angles and how they get started. And then, of course, answer your question.</p>



<p>Speaking of questions, how do you pose your questions? There&#8217;s a Q and A on the bottom of the screen, a kind of icon. You click on that and write your question. And for those watching on YouTube use the chat window next to the video player. And so saying hi. Hi, Victor. From Buenos Aires in Argentina. Awesome. Thank you for being here. All right. When you do comments and questions, so please be kind even if you disagree.&nbsp;</p>



<p>This is a family endeavor. All right. Well, I&#8217;m thrilled you all agreed dear panelists to come on the show and I get an hour to talk with you about your work. So, Daisy, tell us a little bit about you, where are you&#8217;re located and what is it that you do as developer advocate on the purpose project and at Automatic?</p>



<p><em>Daisy Olsen: </em>Yeah. I&#8217;m Daisy Olsen and I live in New Hampshire in the United States. It&#8217;s a beautiful day here right now unlike some parts of this country that are really hot. We got the cool weather over here this week. So as a developer advocate, I talk about WordPress a lot.</p>



<p>I get out and do workshops, teach classes, write documentation and just stay involved and close to the projects development so that I know what&#8217;s going on theoretically and can share that out particularly with plugin and theme developers as well as agencies and freelancers and things like that.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Awesome. So glad you&#8217;re here. Thank you. So, Tammie, thank you for coming back to the show. It&#8217;s been over three years. The last time you were on the show was just after Gutenberg was merged into Core and you were one of the three leads with Matias Ventura and Joen Asmussen. </p>



<p>And you shared a lot about the journey of Gutenberg and the philosophy behind it. So I will put the link to the show into the show notes for you who have been coming later to Gutenberg. But this year you joined the WordPress product company Extendify. So what do you do there?</p>



<p><em>Tammie Lister:</em> First of all, has it been three years? That goodness. Time flies. So in Extendify I focus on design. So our solutions extend the editor. And then the aim is to make it even more usable for people&#8217;s purpose that they want to use it for. And I&#8217;m really, really excited about that.</p>



<p>So it means that people can have the best experience from the content they&#8217;re creating, to the layout, the patterns, the styles, whatever that the editor enables, that&#8217;s really what I&#8217;m focusing on. So it&#8217;s a interesting new challenge to do. And you have blew my brain with that time span. You really have. That&#8217;s awesome.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Well, it&#8217;s also over three years that Gutenberg times us. So I&#8217;ve been part of that journey so for so long.</p>



<p><em>Tammie Lister:</em> Congrats.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Nothing really held my attention for so long. And normally I get really bored. Well, I&#8217;m also really happy that Extendify took over <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/editorplus/">Editor Plus</a> from Munir Kumal and the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/block-options/">EditorsKit</a> from Jeffrey Carandang. So, those have a more sustainable way now to access because both Munir and Jeffrey seem to have&#8230; Munir joined you, but Jeffrey moved on to be a consultant at , I think, 10up.</p>



<p><em>Tammie Lister:</em> It&#8217;s so really exciting.&nbsp;</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. I imagine. So thank you also to Jeff Ong for joining us today as well. You&#8217;re a code wrangler in Automatic and what have you been working on lately except for the demo. I know about that.</p>



<p><em>Jeff Ong</em>: Well, first, thank you for having me and hosting this. Awesome to be here. I feel very honored to be with three on-time contributors. So super cool. At Automattic, I&#8217;ve been working on theme development, pretty solely focused on that for the last year. And my background is not in WordPress. </p>



<p>So it&#8217;s kind of been an interesting journey to transition and learn about the ecosystem and really coming at a transitory time figuring out how do we kind of move into this new block-based paradigm? How do we make themes that work with the block editor really well and can hopefully unlock more creativity for just really great design. And I can tell you what sites again. Well, making new themes and figuring out how to do that with the latest version of Gutenberg, which turns out every day.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> So the viewers follow Jeff Ong, he&#8217;s going to teach you how to do things with the Block Editor. And we will soon see a little demo of that. It&#8217;s what Daisy said, &#8220;What you did in five minutes, I taught a course on that in three hours.&#8221; So it&#8217;s going to be a little fast paced today.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 id="2-strong-what-will-change-most-for-the-theme-developers-when-building-themes-for-full-site-editing-strong">What will change most for the theme developers when building themes for full-site editing?</h2>



<p>But before we head into media&#8217;s raised, I would like to ask each of you, so what do you think will change most for the theme developers when building themes? These are for agency building custom themes for the clients or for theme shops rolling out new themes to sell. Do you want to start, Tammie?</p>



<p><em>Tammie Lister:</em> Yeah. That&#8217;s interesting because I think perhaps it&#8217;s a change if you wanted to be a change. Because lots of this is an opt-in, as is the way. WordPress, the best way to opt-in. I go back to a lot of times that this is a freeing of things and I think it brings an opportunity that has pros and cons, ups and downs with opportunities.</p>



<p>But plug-ins themes no longer have to pretend that they&#8217;re plugins and they no longer have to be everything and have to be things that they weren&#8217;t intended to be in the first. So I think that that is a challenge in itself because there&#8217;s a certain way that you maybe thought you had to do things and now you don&#8217;t have to work around things. We often have to work around things in WordPress.&nbsp;</p>



<p>And if you don&#8217;t have to work around it, it can feel a little bit peculiar, but once you realize you don&#8217;t have to do that, it&#8217;s actually really awesome. But you have to realize you don&#8217;t have to and that WordPress was getting in the way. I also think as a result there&#8217;s going to be a space for more creativity, and this can also be really to challenging because maybe you were limited to what you could do creativity wise because of just the confinements of the space and the confinements of what you could do before.&nbsp;</p>



<p>And it&#8217;s going to open things again to a lot more people. And a lot more people who maybe didn&#8217;t have access to a theme developer with experience who knew the exact ins and outs of it. So I think that&#8217;s a challenge because new people in this space, new creativity. But honestly I think it&#8217;s a good thing. It&#8217;s just if you want to and you&#8217;re open to it and you can kind of explore those new ways, but I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s a change that you have to make. I think that&#8217;s the thing.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Awesome. Thank you. Daisy, what do you think?</p>



<p><em>Daisy Olsen: </em>So I think I would agree with Tammie that the barrier of entry for a new theme designer. And I think that&#8217;s one of the key things is it&#8217;s bringing the design back to theming. Theming over time became very functional. We had a lot of theme companies that were trying to make their themes as flexible, powerful and feature-ful as possible to reach a wide variety of people.</p>



<p>And I think that we can see some opportunity for vertically oriented designs coming out where you have a theme that is geared towards a restaurant or geared towards, I don&#8217;t know, a salon or a certain kind of a business or even a personal site.</p>



<p>And I think that there&#8217;s a lot of opportunity to be able to have a lot of variety out there in the marketplace so that when someone asks you inevitable question, because this was probably the most common question when I was working for a thing company is which theme is best for this?&nbsp;</p>



<p>I&#8217;m doing this kind of a site, which themes should I use. And it could make it so, well, here are five that are really geared towards what you&#8217;re trying to do instead of, oh, you can use any of them. You just have to do all this work to get it to look bright.</p>



<p>Birgit Pauli-Haack: Yeah. That&#8217;s a good point. Thank you. Jeff?.</p>



<p><em>Jeff Ong:</em> Definitely, from a design perspective, it&#8217;s super exciting. I want to highlight maybe a little bit more from the development side. This seems like the biggest opportunity or clearest opportunity to ensure that your theme is integrated with the editor. That the things that you&#8217;re doing with the editor and your ability to customize it to control what presets and options are available there to the users of the theme, this is the theme [inaudible 00:12:27].</p>



<p>It&#8217;s a unifying kind of idea and single point of truth. Talking about theme.json and even just this whole concept of how do we bring the experience together. I think we have an opportunity to do that and that&#8217;s going to change even in some small level. Even if your theme.json cloud just as a few settings. You can take it slow like Tammie was saying. Incorporate parts of it because to me you have this new contract now that can really unify things and bring things together from a lot of disparate parts and pieces.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Lots to think about. And I agree with all of you. I had this pleasure last year that I took over themes from agencies and they were so powerful and all the things that normally a plug-in will do, custom post types and rigid and all that. It&#8217;s all in one place and we won&#8217;t be able to change a theme at all. </p>



<p>So now this is definitely going to make life a lot easier for site owners as well So lots to think about and listening to you is quite inspiring to kind of think, oh, well how many direction can my brain go now? But, Jeff, are you ready for your demo? I think it would be helpful for all the people here on the call to see what it&#8217;s all about and how it kind of gets started.</p>



<p><em>Jeff Ong:</em> Yes. We have 10 minutes roughly. Yes. Can you see my screen? </p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> We can see your screen. Yes.</p>



<h2 id="3-demo-configuring-the-block-editor-with-theme-json-file">Demo: Configuring the block editor with theme.json file</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBwhHKKblhU&t=18s">14.02</a></p>



<p>Jeff Ong: So we have a blank theme here and I just want to kind of go over some, not going to cover everything, but some of the key parts of that theme.json introduces and show how that impacts a blank theme and also the editor. So hopping over to my code editor. I have my theme.JSON here. This is a really basic, simple theme and nothing going on yet.&nbsp;</p>



<p>In here I&#8217;m going to go ahead and the first thing I want to talk about are the settings of your theme.JSON. Settings are kind of what control or give you the ability to configure the editor and what kind of customization options are present to a user and the theme. The only thing I have right now is the layout, which we&#8217;ll get to in a second. But let&#8217;s say I want to add some color options here.</p>



<p>Previously it would be done in the functions PHP. I have kind of a few sheets over here. Sorry. I need to hide these meeting control. I&#8217;m going to copy a color palette from this. I&#8217;m going to set a palette that&#8217;s going to become available to me in my theme. I go to edit the same post. In here I see my cornso, my orange, red, and color blue that&#8217;s become available to me.&nbsp;</p>



<p>What&#8217;s pretty interesting about this is before you would have had to kind of go into functions at this whole palette and then also define the class name, something like this to actually apply those styles. Let&#8217;s say I want this heading to be orange, update it. Show it here. I get all this cool stuff for free. This class was generated for me by Gutenberg using this preset and that I have defined meeting controls defined here in my palette options.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Another cool thing or interesting about the possibility here is within the same configuration. Let&#8217;s say I&#8217;m the theme designer. I have the option right now to change the color to kind of anything I want. The powerful thing about theme.json at this time is it can actually turn something like this off. I actually don&#8217;t want people or my users to be able to change anything, change the color palette.</p>



<p>But let&#8217;s go ahead and reset this back here. Turned off custom colors within theme.json. And then back here you&#8217;ll see that option has disappeared. So inaccessible color combinations or just color combinations that you don&#8217;t want to be available. You can turn that off. This is just one of the options that are available. Color is just one of the options that you can customize.</p>



<p>You can also take a look at something like typography. I think I can find some font sizes here. Refresh. I can see now that those presets were available, are now available to me. I can do the same thing again here too. Say I don&#8217;t actually want people to be able to change all sides here. As a designer I know it&#8217;s best and I don&#8217;t want people putting in random font sizes.&nbsp;</p>



<p>So disable that and now only my presets are available too. Oh, by the way, this content is just kind of some standard block-based content. Again, I&#8217;m getting all of this kind of for free or for free in a way by just applying some preset values here. Well, I think the next thing that I wanted to cover is going into the last thing. I&#8217;ll cover it within the settings because you can actually change these per block.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Remember we were looking at color before. I could add a color key to the paragraph block and actually say, just kidding. I want to allow you to be able to change the color of paragraph blocks. Just the paragraph blocks. I can open up the whole thing. So within here now I can see, oh, I can actually change just for paragraph blocks. I go up to my heading. This custom color is not available. This color option is not available.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If you want to I could also supply a custom palette. I&#8217;m not going to do that, but could say if you wanted a specific palette that&#8217;s just applied for paragraph blocks. That would be how you do it. So I think that&#8217;s it for settings. I&#8217;m going to go ahead and collapse this now and move on to the styles key of our theme.json. And now within here I can start to define some files.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Remember our colors from up here from the palette. I can go ahead and because I know that WordPress is generating CSS variables based on these palettes, I can go ahead and start to use those within the styles application of the style section of my theme.json. So with the preset color, put orange red. See what else do. These are going to apply at the top level. So this is going to apply to everything.</p>



<p>Say I only wanted, for instance, my headings to be&#8230; Let&#8217;s make this. Do the same thing in here and say, ah, I just want, actually, let&#8217;s just make my paragraph colors black. So, again, what I&#8217;ve done here is I&#8217;ve set my global kind of text color to this orange red was preset, which was provided by WordPress and generated here to the entire text. And then actually I can go in and target specific block, set the settings for that as well.&nbsp;</p>



<p>I think we are close. I just want to show, well, if you&#8217;re editing this, something that&#8217;s also probably going to happen and mess this up. It should throw some kind of an error here yet. Notice there when decoding theme.json. So that&#8217;ll let you know there&#8217;s something going on because it&#8217;s pretty easy tip something up here.&nbsp;</p>



<p>And I think that&#8217;s just a small note is we&#8217;ll likely encounter that if you&#8217;re configuring keys and nested objects trying to figure out how each of those apply. You pause here for a second. I guess the last thing I want to cover too is the concept of elements. So within here, any h2 that I have is going to be applied a specific style here. So I have the same because [inaudible 00:24:24] can appear outside of blocks or links, for example.</p>



<p>These are restricted to a specific set at the moment. So let&#8217;s just say text. So, again, because this is not actually rendered as a pocket and an element and that can appear anywhere. That&#8217;s something that I can target with this kind of top level elements select here. Everything else here you can target with the name of the block.&nbsp;</p>



<p>That is most of what I wanted to cover pretty fast, but again all of the settings that you can find here or that I&#8217;m going over, there&#8217;s way more than just color. There&#8217;s spacing, typography and all of that can be found in documentation that Birgit, I think she shared it here. So that I want to open it up. And I guess there are questions. If there are specific parts that anyone would want to go into in a little more detail. Happy to do that.</p>



<p><em>Daisy Olsen: </em>Thank you, Jeff. </p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Thank you, Jeff. This was awesome. Do you want to just say something?</p>



<p><em>Daisy Olsen: </em>Yeah. I just wanted to say that maybe we could just talk about layout real quick because I think that&#8217;s going to be a big one for 5.8.</p>



<p><em>Jeff Ong:</em> Yeah. And I kind of skipped over. It was the first thing that was in here. Yes. Layout key is a way for you to quickly define the default, the width of your content within WordPress or within here. So if you see here, if I don&#8217;t define this layout, a lot of my content is just going to be full width by default. </p>



<p>You can supply two values here. Content size, it&#8217;s just going to be the default width. You can also define, I think it&#8217;s, what is it? Wide size. Wide width. Nothing happened there because I hadn&#8217;t provided it. Maybe there&#8217;s a better way to show that with cover block.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Birgit Pauli-Haack: Nice. I like it.&nbsp;</p>



<p><em>Jeff Ong:</em> Pretty cool. You can, I mean, alignment coming together and within a unified system reliably layout content with starting here is pretty powerful stuff I&#8217;d say.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. Awesome. So I shared in the chat window, if you haven&#8217;t seen it, the documentation link where you can read up about the theme.json as a whole. When you say, Daisy, that that&#8217;s the layout will be important for 5.8, which part of it would be, where does it come into play?</p>



<p><em>Daisy Olsen:</em> So with 5.8 with the custom template functionality that&#8217;s coming where you can basically create a custom template for an entire page or a post that would cover your header as well as your content. If you need to have these setting set for the width, especially the content size for it but preferably also wide so that your site knows how wide it should be. </p>



<p>Otherwise you get kind of the facts that Jeff showed where it was the full width of the page. It didn&#8217;t have anything to contain it down to the width that you want. So for any theme that wants to use the template editor would benefit from having a theme.json file that even if it only has the one thing in it, it would be good way to take advantage of it.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. It&#8217;s an excellent tip. Thank you, Daisy. You heard it here first. So we already got some questions in our Q and A, but I just wanted to have one question for Jeff before. That&#8217;s my prerogative as a host, I get the first question. So if I understood it correctly, so until now, theme.json comes into play I had to create many different places or touch many different places to make a color palette work.</p>



<p>So, I had to put it in my functions.php and then I also have to put it in my style sheet. Is [inaudible 00:30:04] that I don&#8217;t have to do this anymore, or do I still have to put it into my style sheet, or is it automatically created with when I put the color palette in the theme.json?</p>



<p><em>Jeff Ong:</em> It is wonderful question. It is automatically created. This is all that that style sheet looks like since this is one of the big very exciting aspects of a theme.json. It&#8217;s that it&#8217;s managing this for you. And then also I think more down the line by providing colors and styles in this way. And then also by applying the styles here you can guarantee that those blocks are going to integrate properly.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s like the styles for those blocks are going to be more closely tied and actually in how the block is implemented. So no more writing styles that are overwriting that we&#8217;re having to target specific nested blocks. And so there&#8217;s tons of complications to this and there&#8217;s a lot more room to mature and develop, but I think that&#8217;s one of the parts I&#8217;m most excited about. To your point, there&#8217;s one place now where I can define my palette and show how it should be applied. I don&#8217;t have to go into two different places to do it.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> All right. Well, let&#8217;s go to the questions. Victor Kane, from the beginning of the show has already put them in and he&#8217;s particular interested in finding out about the workflow using them theme.json. So one is the best editing alternative for VS Code formatting, and then the second one was the possibility for exporting interactive selections to clipboard and code. I&#8217;m not quite sure I understand the question. Maybe you understand it, Jeff Daisy, Tammie.</p>



<p><em>Tammie Lister:</em> Personally. So I think this is a personal choice. I&#8217;m going to start with an answer and then go to&#8230; I use VS Code, so I may not be able to give the right answer there. I would be curious to know what you don&#8217;t want in VS Code, and I think that that&#8217;s the thing. This opens up personal&#8230; I&#8217;m going to be really bad at reading the response in chat whilst talking. So I&#8217;m going to be a little bit pertinent and kind of speak first. I&#8217;m sorry, I&#8217;ll get back to it.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s your personal choice how you write and then you can kind of go back to it. So the thing that I did, this was my workflow, it has been my workflow so far, and I think this is the thing, we&#8217;re all finding our own new workflows with these new toys that we&#8217;re playing with. So what I&#8217;ve been doing is I&#8217;ve been using theme.json.&nbsp;</p>



<p>I&#8217;ve actually been setting up variables using SAS that have been then pulling in root variables into my theme.json so that I can pull them through. That&#8217;s a weird way to do it. That&#8217;s strange, but the reason being, it means I can reuse and keep things separately. But I&#8217;m sure that everybody on this call has their own little workflows that they are kind of working from.</p>



<p><em>Daisy Olsen:</em> My approach to that was actually the opposite that I was using my theme.json to set all of my variables so that I didn&#8217;t need SAS, which I think for those that never quite got their head wrapped around preprocessed CSS, it might be a way to simplify things for those that prefer it that way.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Awesome. </p>



<p><em>Tammie Lister: </em>I think it&#8217;s what you&#8217;re cozy with, right? And I think that&#8217;s the thing. This can adapt to what was your cozy blanket of coding, and you don&#8217;t have to lose that yet, I think.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> All right. So Victor commented on that. If I get the results, I want interactively with the global settings panel on the right-hand side of the editor, can I export that to a theme.json format?</p>



<p><em>Daisy Olsen: </em>The answer is not right now. I think there&#8217;s discussion in the teams about maybe building it, but it hasn&#8217;t been the highest priority because everything needs to work first before we start working on an exporter. But there are other parts of that can be exported in that full site editing experience that can be exported. So I think it would be a natural progression to add the ability to do a theme.json export.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yes. Definitely there will be.</p>



<p><em>Tammie Lister:</em> From the very beginning, there were designs in global style. Sorry. The reason I know is that was one thing I did partake on. There was exporting. So I have a feeling if we all wanted to play some little happy bets, there will be exploiting at some point.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. But if we all bet on the same thing, it&#8217;s not really bet, right? Victor, as always, you&#8217;re a little bit ahead of the time. So and from Jan Horna, from the Czech Republic, it&#8217;s very hot by now there. </p>



<p>He has two questions as a theme developer, one, is the theme.json supposed to include all the styling, formatting definitions and replaced the CSS style? And I think we&#8217;d take it one at a time. So we talked a little bit about it from my question, but would it replace? You could still do all those styling in the style sheets as you want, right?</p>



<p><em>Daisy Olsen:</em> And I think there are some things that will remain in other styling, but you could use the variables that you set or the properties that you set in your theme.json in your CSS. So they can work together. But I don&#8217;t think that theme.json, at least right now, will not completely replace an entire site&#8217;s design, especially if you have a very complex design.</p>



<h2 id="3-meta-charset-utf-8-why-do-we-want-to-rewrite-css-in-json">Why do we want to rewrite CSS in JSON</h2>



<p><em>Jeff Ong:</em> Yeah. And this was one of my first questions and honestly, skepticism early on of the proposal around this, is CSS is great. Why do we want to rewrite CSS in JSON. And then it slowly, I mean, other people are obviously smarter than me understood this quickly. It&#8217;s not about rewriting all of CSS. There&#8217;s definitely going to be aspects of your site, especially if you have taking, like you&#8217;re saying, more complicated designs that will remain in CSS. </p>



<p>But this is about creating, I think, more of the foundational elements and understanding how the blocks will interact with your styles and having that single point of contact, I think is most important. So I think for me, at least it&#8217;s more about the foundational elements that are going to be placed and managed this way than replacing your entirety of your styles. Because this great.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Things like animations and transformation, and this is all really powerful stuff that I don&#8217;t imagine, really, at least in the super near future, having a big part of theme.json. To the question about, will you be able to save an export a theme.json from global styles? I think this is a really important thing to keep in mind is what I just showed you is kind of unnatural. I don&#8217;t imagine a future necessarily where theme developers are writing raw JSON.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s really, there&#8217;s not a great experience for it. It&#8217;s a configuration file. And so the more, to points that have already been raised, it&#8217;s about we&#8217;re in this phase now because we need to kind of identify and get it to work, and then we can kind of build an ecosystem around what would a really cool UI look like to generate one of these files? Is it native directly to global styles? How do we start to imagine those interfaces so the theme developers or theme designers can really get to the core of this experience too?</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> All right. Well, thank you. Good point. You wanted to say something.</p>



<p><em>Tammie Lister: </em>Yeah. I was just going to say over time, CSS has gained so much. So I didn&#8217;t know about anyone else, but I had a block.css file that was getting bigger and bigger of supporting blocks and doing things. And something I&#8217;ve noticed that I can do is throw that file away, and I couldn&#8217;t be happier because what I can do now is lean into these defaults. I&#8217;m still going to have some lines of CSS, the output by whatever, a preprocessor, whatever, my happy little whatever. </p>



<p>Because everyone has got their own way and we should have our own way of doing it. But it&#8217;s a foundation, and it means that we&#8217;re not having to work around the editor or find different ways of doing it. I set up naturally a hack file for the editor out of habit. I haven&#8217;t filled it with anything yet in the latest theme I&#8217;ve been working on.&nbsp;</p>



<p>I&#8217;m delighted if I never fill that up with anything on the next theme, because it means that the new way we&#8217;re doing things hasn&#8217;t had me to work around that. I can just use the foundation and create a really awesome experience on top of it. And that&#8217;s what we should be doing. We should be working with the editor, not having to work around it, or using not important like it was going out of fashion to go over control of it. It was this awkward middle ground we were working in trying to make things fit that paradigm.&nbsp;</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> And I think that fits right into the next question from Jan Horna again, and he says so as a block theme developer, should I focus from a strategic point of view on theme.json block styles, or block patterns. In other words, how do I differentiate? It&#8217;s kind of a high-level question there.</p>



<p>D<em>aisy Olsen: </em>I would say all of the above. They&#8217;re all important things. And your block styles are part of theme.json, I would say. But block patterns are really a powerful partner to the theme.json, that you can create building blocks for a site where you&#8217;ve got some really amazing very specific designed elements that could be used for different things on a site. So if you&#8217;re creating a commercial application that&#8217;s going to go out to a wide audience, they can be more generic. </p>



<p>But if you have a client and you&#8217;re working as a freelancer or in an agency where you have a site that needs to have access to these things that they&#8217;re going to use more than once, patterns are a fantastic way to do that, where most of the work is done for them. They don&#8217;t have to reconfigure everything from the ground up every time they want to create something similar to what they&#8217;ve done before.</p>



<h2 id="4-what-happens-when-you-update-the-color-palette-will-saved-blocks-have-the-new-colors">What happens when you update the color palette? Will saved blocks have the new colors?</h2>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Thank you. And Spencer McCormick in the chat had a question. So what happens when you update the color palette or similar, for example, if you have a primary and secondary colors, when you update and change the palette colors, will saved blocks have the new colors? That&#8217;s an interesting question. Thank you, Spenser.</p>



<p><em>Daisy Olsen:</em> I can answer that to some extent. If you think of your palette as named colors, if you give the different hex code to the same name, it should apply to the site. But if you give it a new name, then that&#8217;s a new element, and it won&#8217;t apply to anything that already had an old name attached to it.</p>



<p><em>Jeff Ong:</em> There is a hefty discussion related to this question on the naming of colors in the way that Gutenberg wants to supply a default palette or a default set of named colors so that you could reliably&#8230; What we&#8217;re seeing I think is that I think patterns have been wanting to rely on specific colors across kind of, so you can guarantee oh, when corn flour shows up it&#8217;s always going to be corn flour. </p>



<p>It&#8217;s always going to be available. There&#8217;s a lot of complication and nuance around it. But if, I think today, to answer your question, like Daisy is saying, today, if I were to supply a value or a named value here and then change it or take it out of my palette, then that would break the experience or it would no longer be applied to that.</p>



<p>And that&#8217;s part of the challenge, how do we reliably solve for that? How do we give theme office the tools to figure that out. But now if they set a custom color, if you set a custom color on an element or a block, then that will remain because it&#8217;s a specific X value, but the class names will go away though, if they&#8217;re supplied by the theme.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> So great discussions. And I&#8217;m probably going to share, and if it&#8217;s one issue where that discuss the theme team every week kind of shares all the things that are discussed and that need input from the community or other theme developers on their make blog. </p>



<p>So that is definitely a place to go to chime in and we&#8217;ll find all the discussions that are happening. And then chime in in the ones that you find important and that you are worried about. So Tim Bowen has the question, how does the theme.json handle responsive sizes for font sizes especially. Responsive sizes.</p>



<p><em>Daisy Olsen: </em>By default, I&#8217;m not sure.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> You&#8217;ve stomped the panelists. Yes, we did it.</p>



<p><em>Tammie Lister:</em> I mean, you can use not just pixel values for your fonts, so-</p>



<p><em>Daisy Olsen:</em> That&#8217;s what I was going to say. </p>



<p>Tammie Lister: &#8230; that helps. And I think it&#8217;s a work in progress. So things like responsive and breakpoints. But the now answer is you don&#8217;t have to just use pixels. And Jeff just gave a great leak.</p>



<p>Je<em>ff Ong: </em>I just dropped the issue in that has not seen a lot of activity around it, but the idea of media. So the first part of your question on font sizes, there are ways of calculating this where they&#8217;re not pixel values tied to specific viewports. You could supply a calculated value, for example, in your small&#8230; that is based on a viewport size. </p>



<p>So it&#8217;s kind of a paradigm shift or design paradigm shift of getting away from you must be 12 pixels under below 600 pixel viewport width, to more of are we okay with kind of a fluid typography kind of system? That being said, there are instances where you need media queries, and that is not currently&#8230; I don&#8217;t know how actively that&#8217;s being worked on right now. But a wonderful thing open to contributors.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> So Patty has a comment and a question after that, Patty O&#8217;Hara, I most often develop custom themes for clients and hand them off for the clients to update the content. And playing around with new tools, I&#8217;m excited to start using them, but don&#8217;t want to give access to global standards to anyone with admin access. Will the granularity of permissions changes so that I can block access to changing fonts and colors from within the admin?</p>



<p><em>Tammie Lister:</em> I think this amazing thing happens in where also Jeff showed some of the control you can do. So in the demo, there was some control that you can do. But my process is a history of configurability and being able to do that be it in code, or be it in a plugin. But I honestly think we need to be a little bit cautious. This is my personal opinion here, and we need to maybe embrace allowing people to do styling. </p>



<p>You can set boundaries, you can set branding boundaries, you can set pallets, you can set topography. But we need to move away a little bit from having such pixel fixated control in that sense and think about safely within boundaries, expression of these tools. And that people can create really amazing things, and you can maintain branding that way, and it can empower someone.&nbsp;</p>



<p>These themes are becoming style guides, and that&#8217;s something that is known in the corporate world and used within that space as well. It&#8217;s a term, but it&#8217;s kind of democratizing design in that sense in giving people all these tools to play with, and I think it&#8217;s a huge change in the way that we&#8217;ve done things, but I think it&#8217;s really, really important and really, really empowering to the people that are using our themes.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>That&#8217;s a good advocacy for set it free. Thank you.</p>



<p><em>Tammie Lister:</em> But you&#8217;re allowed to have boundaries. I think you can set it free, but be comfortable about some boundaries. I think sometimes when we say set it free, it can be scary because we don&#8217;t say you&#8217;re allowed to have some boundaries, but with pallets and with these style guides, that&#8217;s what you&#8217;re saying. You&#8217;re saying I&#8217;m making these good decisions for you and you can choose from this platform of good decisions. And that&#8217;s kind of awesome. I think,</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack: </em>Yeah. I like the plea for block patterns that Daisy just a couple of minutes had that block patterns also give you the possibility or the option to actually provide different facets of how a section can be organized or styled within the style design system that you build with the block add on. </p>



<p>And so I think that there is a lot of creativity that will come from that as well. So Tim Bowen is brave and contemplating, is it safe to use the theme.json now for a project launching in August? Would we just activate the Gutenberg plugin and add JSON file? Or is there more to it? I would love to move away from our functions in Editor.js method probably as soon as possible. So what would we say to Tim?</p>



<p><em>Daisy Olsen:</em> The theme is not a block theme, as in it doesn&#8217;t use HTML templates, then I probably wouldn&#8217;t put the Gutenberg plugin on a production website, unless you are ready to deal with unexpected things happening. But placing your theme.json file in your classic theme on the 5.8 beta or release candidate that will be coming, I would start testing there and see if the things that you&#8217;re putting in your theme.json file work with 5.8 on a classic theme. That&#8217;d be my suggestion.</p>



<p><em>Tammie Lister:</em> I think if it&#8217;s launching in August, that means 5.8 should be out. She tries to check her mental calendar. So I think tests. I, personally, am okay. I would consider it if it was going into a site, but I would also want to know how many users were using it, what their levels was, what they were doing, what they were going to create, and how they were going to do it. So it&#8217;s a&#8230; this is not legal advice. I feel that there should be [inaudible 00:50:36] advice that I can be. </p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Don&#8217;t try this at home. </p>



<p><em>Tammie Lister:</em> But by then, 5.8 should be out.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Yeah. 5.8 comes out July 20th, that&#8217;s at least the schedule for that. So we ran out of questions right now one the Q and A sessions here. Well, you&#8217;re welcome, Tim. Good luck with that, and let us know. Is there more to the setting it up besides just activating the plugin or adding the JSON file. Well, back to kind of using it and editing. </p>



<p>When there are already themes available in the theme repository that use the full set up for full site editing and use all the template parts and templates with the blocks, and header blocks, and photo blocks, and all that. But I&#8217;m not quite sure of that yet. Be careful about the using the Gutenberg plugin in production. It always has a few hiccups there.</p>



<p>So it wasn&#8217;t the first time ever that I retreated to the last version when I had one and had to wait till one, two, or three point releases to come out. So I&#8217;m hesitant to say do it in production. Test it as much as possible. So I have a lot of things on my screen, but not the right thing. Here, so it is. Oh, Ryan, we are pretty good time wise. </p>



<p>So, I don&#8217;t have an additional&#8230; So, when we say how to get started, what was the first thing most difficult part for you for learning, or was there a mind shift until it clicked? Just to kind of get away from a fear of learning something new, and was there something when you go back ages on the theme.json thing.</p>



<p><strong><em>Tammie Lister: </em></strong>So for me, it was realizing it wasn&#8217;t as hard as I maybe mentally thought it was. It was just the same with learning anything. You always think it&#8217;s going to be super hard, or at least with me, I read like dev doc and I&#8217;m like&#8230; My brain makes that noise. And then I just letting my theme be lighter. Letting it take the weight of that, giving up control, which as someone that&#8217;s maybe a bit of an old themer, giving up control of things, that&#8217;s an interesting process to go through. </p>



<p>But it&#8217;s really important embracing those foundations. And when you do, there&#8217;s that mind shift of creating in the editor. That was the moment that&#8230; And I&#8217;m still going through the process. I think it&#8217;s a process, and it&#8217;s a process as these tools are evolving. We&#8217;re talking about be gentle, they&#8217;re in production. These tools are still evolving and working.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If you are using these tools now before it&#8217;s released, then you&#8217;re going to hit bugs and report them. But that&#8217;s the thing. This theme.json also&#8230; the moment I kind of, the Jenga box, the blocks fell in my brain was I stopped seeing it as global stars. And I knew it wasn&#8217;t just global stars, but I felt it wasn&#8217;t just global stars and this felt like it could be the backbone of my theme, and it felt like it wasn&#8217;t everything in my theme, but it felt like it could be the backbone, is the best way I can describe it.&nbsp;</p>



<p>And I could hang my theme from it. And we&#8217;ve hung our theme from functions.php wrongly, I think. So it was just that change from PHP to doing it all in the editor and creating and seeing that JSON. It just was free, and it&#8217;s more in line with how things are made outside WordPress, which I think is delightful.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Any comments from you that you want to add, Daisy?</p>



<p><em>Daisy Olsen: </em>So when I first started working with a theme.json file, I found that I had to&#8230; So there&#8217;s a whole section called styles, and I had to realign my thinking about what that meant, because what it&#8217;s saying is there are style settings in your blocks or for your site level depending on how it&#8217;s being applied, and what you&#8217;re doing is configuring the defaults for it. </p>



<p>So if I think of the theme.json file as a default file, then it helped me frame it so that I&#8217;m not necessarily replacing my CSS depending on&#8230; I mean, I&#8217;m letting theme.json do the heavy lifting, kind of like Tammie said, but then I can take it further if I feel like I need to, or I want to. So I like thinking of it as a configuration file or a defaults file.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> That&#8217;s a good point. Jeff, do you have any stories how I came about?</p>



<p>Jeff Ong: It&#8217;s been really helpful to pair on it with people, to work on a theme with someone. I think if my team at Automattic. It&#8217;s a very culture of collaboration, and if you have the opportunity to say, &#8220;I&#8217;m having trouble with this. Would you want to work on this?&#8221; With someone like that, because this definitely can be a head bashing kind of why is this not being applied? </p>



<p>I literally just wrote color green. Why is it not green? It can be so frustrating dealing with that. So to have someone just to look at your code and be like &#8220;Oh, you missed a comma or actually you need an extra key there&#8221; is really, really helpful for something like this.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Oh yeah. So well, I think we&#8217;re coming to the end of our show. This has been very interesting and inspiring. So thank you all so much. And for those who want to dive into at a guided kind of testing session, Anne McCarthy, who, as you might know, runs the Full Site Editing Outreach program, she&#8217;s about to post the eighth call for testing, and it will all be about the theme.json file.</p>



<p>So as soon as it&#8217;s out, I will share a link in the show notes. And of course, also if you subscribed to our Gutenberg Times newsletter, you will definitely be informed about that. So at this point, I only have two more questions for our panelists. So do you have any announcements that you couldn&#8217;t get out before and you want the people to keep in mind? And if people want to get in touch with you, what would be the best way. Tammie, you want to start?</p>



<p><em>Tammie Lister:</em> Yeah. So I&#8217;m comatose in all the things. I&#8217;m pretty easy to find in a good way. And I love chatting to people. So please do. I think my thing to say would be remember all of what happening now you can help shape. Just because we&#8217;ve sat here talking about it doesn&#8217;t mean we know anything more than you? It just means we&#8217;ve poked it and we&#8217;ve played around with the code. </p>



<p>So do that. Start exploring it. And it&#8217;s a lot more accessible than it ever was. It&#8217;s starting to be more accessible. There&#8217;s more documentation than there ever was coming out. And if you care about what happens with themes or you ever cared about what happens to themes, and maybe you could have that reignited, start to join the conversation. And I guess my final point would be, I think my hope is to see this experimentation come back to themes.&nbsp;</p>



<p>I think we forgot about that a little bit and we need to have some fun again in these. We used to have so much fun in WordPress themes, and I look forward to not just themes to have a purpose, but just themes that are art, themes that are just wacky experiments, and start enjoying theming and make some art. I&#8217;m really excited to see what things people create and use them just for one day even. That&#8217;d be amazing.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Yeah. So Jeff, anything you want to have people keep in mind, and how to get in contact with you.</p>



<p><em>Jeff Ong:</em> Yeah. Contact at J-F-F-N-G. And I guess keeping in mind, I&#8217;m just building on the last thing Tammie said, perhaps find a way to have fun with it and get curious about it, and try it. There&#8217;s really to me, a fundamental tendance of learning about something or you just have, how do I get curious about this thing? How do I play with it and have fun? And that&#8217;s going to be the most important thing to keep in at the center.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Thank you, Jeff, and thank you so much for the audio work on the demo. Daisy.</p>



<p><em>Daisy Olsen:</em> I&#8217;m Daisy Olsen on most things, Olsen with an E, and I would say that as far as what you can do as the next step if you&#8217;re interested in learning more about this, is go to&#8230; I&#8217;m pretty sure that Birgit has a link to this somewhere, the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments/">theme experiments repository on GitHub</a> in the WordPress space has things that other people have done or are working on. </p>



<p>So I love to see examples of something in action to help me learn more about it and to see what other people have done. So I would say go check out something.json files in there and see what people have come up with.</p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack:</em> Awesome. Thank you so much. So big thank you to Daisy, Jeff, and Tammie to come today and make your time. A big thank you also for the viewers with all your great questions. I think we got a great array of it. And if you have more questions, you can always send them to me via email to <a href="mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com">pauli@gutenbergtimes.com</a>, and I&#8217;ll get you the answers.</p>



<p>And the recording of the show will be available in a few minutes on our YouTube channel. And I&#8217;ll share all the links then also in the video description. And within a few days, we will have also a transcript that we will publish on the Gutenbergtimes.com. So be well, good-bye, and good luck. That was fun. Thank you.</p>



<p>Jeff Ong: Thank you, everyone.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 26 Jun 2021 17:23:43 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Birgit Pauli-Haack";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:40;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:46:"WPTavern: Major Revamp Coming to GitHub Issues";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119005";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:137:"https://wptavern.com/major-revamp-coming-to-github-issues?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=major-revamp-coming-to-github-issues";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2872:"<p>This week GitHub unveiled new features that will be included in a total revamp of <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://github.com/features/issues" target="_blank">GitHub Issues</a>, including project tables that are similar to spreadsheets, custom fields, a keyboard driven command palette, improved task lists, and issue forms. The new project table view is an alternative to project boards, allowing users to filter, sort, and group issues and pull requests. Project managers can customize the table with custom fields and saved views.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>GitHub is also making it easier to manage issues that include subtasks. Users can now add lists and the issue will automatically track the status with a progress indicator.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p><a href="https://github.blog/changelog/2021-06-23-issues-forms-beta-for-public-repositories/">Issues forms are now in beta</a> for public repositories. Many open source projects currently use Markdown issue templates and encourage contributors to provide more details by removing the placeholder text and replacing it with their own. Maintainers can now set up YAML configured forms with required fields and instructions to better guide the process.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<a href="https://cloudup.com/cxWiOL85R4T"><img src="https://cldup.com/Uh6zy46mrI.gif" alt="Issue forms" width="2010" height="1005" /></a>
</div>



<p>The revamped Issues feature is being updated to provide a bridge between the planning tools and the problems the tools were created to solve. Mario Rodriguez, Head of Product for GitHub&nbsp;Enterprise, explained why they are evolving GitHub Issues in the beta <a href="https://github.blog/2021-06-23-introducing-new-github-issues/">announcement</a>:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>As teams and projects grow, the way you work evolves. Tools that hard-code a specific methodology are too rigid and complex to flex to whatever the moment demands. Often, we find ourselves creating a spreadsheet or pulling out a notepad, just to have the freedom to think. But then our planning is disconnected from where the work happens and quickly goes stale.</p></blockquote>



<p>The WordPress project hasn&rsquo;t yet moved away from Trac but most of Gutenberg development happens on GitHub. It&rsquo;s also the most popular repository hosting site for WordPress theme and plugin authors. Contributors to these projects may soon see some of these features in action for personal accounts and organizations that opt into the beta.</p>



<p>The new <a href="http://github.com/features/issues">GitHub Issues</a> is expected to be out of beta later this year. GitHub plans to bundle it for free, along with the new project planning capabilities, with its Free, Pro, Team, and Enterprise plans.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 26 Jun 2021 03:49:51 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:41;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:94:"WPTavern: FSE Outreach Round #8: A Developer-Centric Call for Testing Theme JSON Configuration";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=118998";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:229:"https://wptavern.com/fse-outreach-round-8-a-developer-centric-call-for-testing-theme-json-configuration?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fse-outreach-round-8-a-developer-centric-call-for-testing-theme-json-configuration";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7807:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Round #8 of the Full Site Editing (FSE) Outreach Program began yesterday. Instead of the user-centric call for testing features from the UI, program lead Anne McCarthy <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/06/24/call-for-testing-thrive-with-theme-json/">asks that volunteers dive into code</a>. The new adventure is all about testing <code>theme.json</code> files.</p>



<p>The twist is likely to limit the pool of usual volunteers. However, it could open it up to an audience that may have been sitting on the sideline for the previous tests: theme developers.</p>



<p>Before jumping headfirst <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/themes/theme-json/">theme JSON files</a>, we should probably all get on the same page.</p>



<p>I have been calling <code>theme.json</code> the tipping point between the old WordPress and the new WordPress. When version 5.0 of the core platform launched in late 2018, it was a revolutionary step forward, but not on the surface. A new editor is just a new editor. Some will love it; others will hate it.  And, it was more often clunky than not.  For the most part, WordPress was still WordPress.</p>



<p>The core software was due for an upending. Newer technologies were not only democratizing publishing in their own ways, but they were also bringing that same concept to design.</p>



<p>The introduction of blocks was merely foundational. The new editor was an imperfect tool, often feeling like the proverbial round peg being shoved into a square hole.</p>



<p>The only way to live out the early vision of the Gutenberg project was to continue bridging the gap between what the user sees in the admin and what gets output on the front end. That is what the <code>theme.json</code> file is all about. It is a translator that allows users, themes, and WordPress to all speak the same language.</p>



<p><em>What does this mean exactly?</em></p>



<p>From a user&rsquo;s viewpoint, they see all sorts of controls for changing their blocks. Color, font size, alignment, and other options are tools that allow them to customize their content.</p>



<img />Customizing a profile card for my cat using block options.



<p>There are severe limitations with what is possible in the current system. Theme authors can register a handful of options. Outside of that, the theme and block systems can feel like they are pitted against each other for control.</p>



<p>That is where the <code>theme.json</code> file comes in. It allows themes and WordPress to get on the same page, creating a standardized system that improves the user experience.</p>



<p>This file that lives a theme&rsquo;s root folder hands over the power to configure dozens of presets (e.g., color and font options), custom CSS properties, and default styles for blocks and HTML elements.</p>



<p>It also gives themers the power to enable or disable specific features. For example, developers can turn off the ability for users to set a custom font size but provide access to their perfect scale of choices that fit into the design&rsquo;s vertical rhythm.</p>



<p>However, it will move beyond the simple configuration of blocks in the content editor. When the global styles system launches alongside the site editor in the future, users will customize many of the presets and overwrite the default block styles. Because everyone is speaking that same language, fewer conflicts arise.</p>



<p>As designer Tammie Lister pointed out in her piece for Ephermeral Themes, <a href="https://ephemeralthemes.com/2021/06/20/theme-json-inspires/">Theme.json inspires</a>, themes have been stuck. The software, the community, has put too much responsibility on the shoulders of themers over the years. They have had to innovate and build the systems that should have been coming from WordPress. Not only did the core platform need to be turned on its head, but the design system deserved an overhaul.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I am very aware that saying &lsquo;first major theme process to core&rsquo; in years is quite a statement,&rdquo; wrote Lister. &ldquo;Theme.json to me is that though. I don&rsquo;t say this ignoring iterations and improvements, WordPress is a project flowing with the energy of those. However, themes were on life support stuck in a land when the rest of front end development was moving on. It wasn&rsquo;t for some trying to change that, mostly when they did the time wasn&rsquo;t right and as it didn&rsquo;t come from core it was always a harder change.&rdquo;</p>



<p>It is time for a new front-end design era. But, first, we must test.</p>



<h2>Testing Theme JSON</h2>



<img />Real-world theme.json file.



<p class="has-drop-cap">The more I journeyed into this call for testing, the more I realized it did not feel right for me. Over the past couple of months, I have already been in the thick of working from the <code>theme.json</code> file. I know most of the little quirks and see the gaps. The tricks for working with it feel second nature to me.</p>



<p>I have performed all of the beginner and intermediate steps dozens upon dozens of times. I have already filed tickets for any issues I have run into. Or, someone else has already beat me to the punch.</p>



<p>Those stages of this testing round need fresh eyes. The best feedback will be from theme authors who will be viewing the problems through a different pair of lenses.  If you are in this group, there is no time like the present to test and provide feedback.</p>



<p>The advanced stage calls for recreating a classic theme using <code>theme.json</code>. It is best to stick with something simple. Otherwise, you could be looking at a weeks-long experiment. McCarthy recommends Twenty Twenty or Storefront. I have already been performing this song and dance too. My test project was an old theme that I gutted and turned into a block theme.</p>



<p>There is one overarching issue that I keep coming back to. It is that theme authors must work from a JSON file at all.</p>



<p>I understand the &ldquo;why&rdquo; behind using JSON. It is a universal format that we can pass around from JavaScript to PHP. Third-party APIs can understand it.</p>



<p>However, I am currently sitting on top of 900+ lines of code in my <code>theme.json</code>. I have heard from a couple of other theme authors who have been doing deep work with similar numbers. I expect it to only grow.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Number of lines&rdquo; is not necessarily some metric where a specific total is a dividing point between &ldquo;good&rdquo; or &ldquo;bad.&rdquo; The problem is that comments are not allowed in JSON files. One of the cornerstones of sound development is documenting code. Skipping out on documentation of a few dozen lines is not so bad. However, when you speed past 900, things can get out of hand.</p>



<p>Plus, at a certain point, you start wanting to split pieces into their own groups. This much code is begging for better organization.</p>



<p>The thing that is currently missing is a PHP layer for theme authors to use. Remember, JSON is a universal format. It is easy to convert PHP to JSON and vice-versa. Building in this layer for theme authors would accomplish two things:</p>



<ol><li>They can organize what will likely be 1,000s of lines of code.</li><li>It will be easier to transition to the new system.</li></ol>



<p>The latter point is likely the most salient. PHP has been the language of theming since the theming has been around. Developers know it and are comfortable using it, and WordPress should meet them in the middle. If we are closing gaps, this is the one that needs filling before more configuration possibilities are added and <code>theme.json</code> files balloon into unwieldy, 5,000-line behemoths.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 26 Jun 2021 03:30:07 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:42;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:40:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 5.8 Beta 4";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=10855";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-beta-4/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3891:"<p>WordPress 5.8 Beta 4 is now available for testing!</p>



<p><strong>This software is still in development,</strong>&nbsp;so it is not recommended to run this version on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with it.</p>



<p>You can test the WordPress 5.8 Beta 4 in three ways:</p>



<ul><li>Install/activate the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester</a> plugin (select the&nbsp;<code>Bleeding edge</code>&nbsp;channel and the&nbsp;<code>Beta/RC Only</code> stream).</li><li>Direct download the beta version here (<a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.8-beta4.zip">zip</a>).</li><li>Using WP-CLI to test: <code>wp core update --version=5.8-beta4</code></li></ul>



<p>The current target for the final release is July 20, 2021. That’s less than <strong>four weeks away</strong>, so we need your help to make sure the final release is as good as it can be.</p>



<h2><strong>Some Highlights</strong></h2>



<p>Since <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-beta-3/">Beta 3</a>, <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&changetime=06%2F24%2F2021..06%2F26%2F2021&milestone=5.8&group=component&max=500&col=id&col=summary&col=owner&col=type&col=priority&col=component&col=version&order=priority">18</a> bugs have been fixed. Most tickets focused on polishing existing default themes, fixing bugs in the new block Widget screen, and squashing Editor bugs collected during beta.</p>



<h2><strong>How You Can Help</strong></h2>



<p>Watch the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">Make WordPress Core blog</a> for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/5-8+dev-notes/">5.8-related developer notes</a> in the coming weeks, which will break down these and other changes in greater detail.</p>



<p>So far, contributors have fixed <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&changetime=..06%2F25%2F2021&milestone=5.8&group=component&max=500&col=id&col=summary&col=owner&col=type&col=priority&col=component&col=version&order=priority">254 tickets in WordPress 5.8</a>, including <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&status=reopened&changetime=..06%2F25%2F2021&type=enhancement&type=feature+request&milestone=5.8&group=component&col=id&col=summary&col=type&col=status&col=milestone&col=changetime&col=owner&col=priority&col=keywords&order=changetime">91 new features and enhancements</a>, and more bug fixes are on the way.</p>



<p><strong>Do some testing!</strong></p>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/testing/beta-testing/">Testing for bugs</a> is a vital part of polishing the release during the beta stage and a great way to contribute. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/2728.png" alt="✨" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<p>If you think you’ve found a bug, please post to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">Alpha/Beta</a> area in the support forums. We would love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/reports/">bug report</a>, file one on <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/newticket">WordPress Trac</a>. That’s also where you can find a list of <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major">known bugs</a>.</p>



<p><em>Props to <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>desrosj</a> <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/clorith/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>clorith</a> for reviews and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>chanthaboune</a> for final edits!</em></p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator" />



<p><em>Releasing software<br />Is complex when open source<br />Yet WordPressers do</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 25 Jun 2021 17:14:06 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Jeffrey Paul";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:43;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:115:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 10.9 Renames the Query Block, Adds Collapsible List View Items, and Rolls Out Rich URL Previews";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119015";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:271:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-10-9-renames-the-query-block-adds-collapsible-list-view-items-and-rolls-out-rich-url-previews?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gutenberg-10-9-renames-the-query-block-adds-collapsible-list-view-items-and-rolls-out-rich-url-previews";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6463:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Yesterday, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/24/whats-new-in-gutenberg-10-9-23-june/">Gutenberg 10.9</a> landed in the WordPress plugin directory. The update overhauls the Query and Query Loop blocks, allows users to expand or collapse items in the editor list view, and introduces rich URL preview cards for links. The new version also packs in an updated template-mode <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32427">creation modal</a> and <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32166">moves the blocks manager</a>.</p>



<p>This update ships several enhancements, particularly to the user experience. One of my favorite low-key upgrades is <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32371">a new set</a> of add-card, bug, key, post author, and security icons by Filipe Varela, a product designer at Automattic.</p>



<p>Another small-but-packs-a-punch UI change is the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32609">inclusion of the post type</a> in the editor breadcrumb trail. The type&rsquo;s singular name label now replaces the root &ldquo;Document&rdquo; item.</p>



<p>For the past several cycles, the new template editor slated to launch with WordPress 5.8 has been enabled by default. The goal was always to allow everyone the chance to experience it, regardless of whether they were on a classic or block theme. The development team has now scaled this back to only be <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32858">auto-enabled for block themes</a>. Classic themes must opt-in to support it. Theme authors should read the recent <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/16/introducing-the-template-editor-in-wordpress-5-8/">template editor overview</a> by Riad Benguella for the complete details.</p>



<h2>Query and Query Loop Blocks Renamed</h2>



<img />Query Loop block in the editor.



<p class="has-drop-cap"><em>Query? Query Loop? What the heck is all this?</em> If you are unfamiliar with those terms, you are not alone. Even on the developer end, the early implementation of the Query and its inner Query Loop block could be a little confusing. For the average user, it probably makes even less sense.</p>



<p>Gutenberg 10.9 takes one step toward <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32514">clearing up this confusion</a> for end-users. The former Query Loop block is now named Post Template. This is a far more accurate description of what it does. It is the &ldquo;template&rdquo; that outputs individual posts. It contains all the things you see, such as the post content or excerpt, the featured image, tags, categories, and more. This template is, of course, customizable via the block editor.</p>



<p>While this is a step toward a less complex user experience, it is not quite where it needs to be yet. The Query block has been renamed to Query Loop. Therein lies the remaining issue. The terminology might still be confusing.</p>



<p>The goal is to expose a variation of this block named Posts List to users. It already exists, but the query-related terminology still appears when using it. There is an <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/32268">open ticket to address this</a>.</p>



<p>The primary win with this update is the overhauled text in the Query Loop block sidebar. &ldquo;The query block is a powerful and complex block,&rdquo; said lead Gutenberg developer Matias Ventura in a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32694">GitHub ticket</a>. &ldquo;It can be intimidated to users without proper guidance. We can use this block as an opportunity to explain some of the underlying concepts of the WordPress software in a more didactic manner.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The more advanced options, such as whether to inherit from the URL and which post types to include, now have longer descriptions. Each should guide the user through features that have long existed in the developer world.</p>



<p>If you are a theme author and have already been building with these two blocks, do not worry about everything breaking when updating. The Query block has simply been renamed to &ldquo;Query Loop&rdquo; in user-facing text. Under the hood, it is still the same. The former Query Loop block has literally been renamed to Post Template (<code>core/post-template</code> block name). It is backward compatible. However, you should update any past calls to the <code>wp:query-loop</code> block to <code>wp:post-template</code>.</p>



<h2>Expand and Collapse Nested List View Blocks</h2>



<img />List view with collapsed nested blocks.



<p class="has-drop-cap">The development team introduced an <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/32117">expand/collapse feature</a> for the editor&rsquo;s list view. Once opening the panel, users should now see arrow icons next to each item with nested blocks. Closing one or more of them makes it easier to see all or many top-level blocks at once.</p>



<p>The downside is that the open/close state is lost once the list view is closed. If I had one request, it would be to store this data while editing the post. That would improve the user experience with longer documents, particularly when switching between navigating and editing.</p>



<p>This update, along with the persistent behavior of the list view in Gutenberg 10.7, has made for a much more well-rounded document navigation experience.</p>



<h2>Rich URL Previews</h2>



<img />



<p class="has-drop-cap">The editor will now <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/31464">show a website preview</a> in the link editor popup. This feature only works for links in a Rich Text context, such as in the Paragraph, Heading, and List blocks. The preview also only appears after the link has been set and clicked on, not when initially typing it.</p>



<p>If available, the popup preview displays the site icon, title, image, and description.</p>



<p>&ldquo;In the near future however, we expect to extend this to provide previews of internal URLs and to roll out support to more areas of the software,&rdquo; wrote George Mamadashvili in the Gutenberg 10.9 announcement post.</p>



<p>Admittedly, I was not keen on the idea of adding this feature. It felt like unnecessary bloat when more pressing issues were lying on the table. However, in the past day, I have enjoyed the quick previews when double-checking links in posts.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 25 Jun 2021 02:34:25 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:44;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:41:"WPTavern: Jetpack Launches New Mobile App";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=118883";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:127:"https://wptavern.com/jetpack-launches-new-mobile-app?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jetpack-launches-new-mobile-app";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3798:"<div><img /></div>



<p>Automattic has launched a new <a href="https://jetpack.com/2021/06/21/jetpack-mobile-app/">mobile app for Jetpack</a>, available on iOS and Android. The app features an array of Jetpack-specific features, as well as those applicable to users on paid plans, along with core WordPress features. </p>



<p>Inside it looks nearly identical to the official WordPress mobile apps, but it is noticeably missing WordPress.com specific features like the Reader. The bottom menu links to &ldquo;My Site&rdquo; and &ldquo;Notifications.&rdquo; </p>



<p>Those who are on paid Jetpack plans will have access to features like backups, restores, and security scanning for use inside the app when on the go. It also includes the same Activity Log and Stats features found in the main WordPress app. In its current state, it doesn&rsquo;t look like the app offers anything more than what you are used to on the standard mobile apps unless you are a <a href="https://jetpack.com/features/comparison/">paid Jetpack customer</a>. So far, the app doesn&rsquo;t include any upgrade paths for free users or to jump from plan to plan. If Automattic decides to add in-app purchases, it will have to <a href="https://wptavern.com/automattic-tangles-with-apple-over-lack-of-in-app-purchases-in-the-wordpress-for-ios-app">share the revenue with the app stores</a>. Having a separate app from the official mobile apps gives the company the option to build in more direct paths for monetization in the future.</p>



<ul><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li></ul>



<div><img /></div>



<p>You may want to stick with the official WordPress apps if you manage both WordPress.com and Jetpack-enabled sites, to keep everything conveniently in the same place. If you decide to use both apps, you will want to remove your Jetpack sites from the main WordPress app so that you aren&rsquo;t getting double notifications from having the site accessible through both apps.</p>



<p>Automattic&rsquo;s integrated products remain controversial features of the official WordPress apps. It is a good move to separate self-hosted Jetpack sites from the clutter of having WordPress.com-specific features in the app, but it does little for improving the official app&rsquo;s experience for self-hosted users who are not using Jetpack. Clicking on Stats in the app still prompts users to install Jetpack when managing self-hosted sites. The Reader menu item is ever-present at the bottom of the page. These products take up screen real estate regardless of whether they are being used. </p>



<p>A toggle to turn off these features in the app&rsquo;s settings might be a good stop-gap measure towards disentanglement, but ultimately the official mobile apps should not promote any commercial interests. </p>



<p>If Automattic moved WordPress.com features into the Jetpack app, then anyone using the company&rsquo;s products could be directed to this app for managing their sites. The official WordPress app could then be kept free of any products that the user doesn&rsquo;t choose to install. If the vanilla state of the app is not enough, users can be prompted to add themes and plugins to enhance the WordPress experience.</p>



<p>The Jetpack app is aimed at people who have sites using Jetpack but don&rsquo;t need the WordPress.com features that are built into the official WordPress apps. It brings more value to those who are on paid plans and want access to those features on the go. More than 500 people have already downloaded the Android app. It will be interesting to see if Jetpack users will gravitate towards the new app or remain on the standard WordPress app for more centralized management of Jetpack and non-Jetpack enabled websites.  </p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 24 Jun 2021 17:59:04 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:45;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:63:"WPTavern: Clove: A Showcase of Block Patterns by Anariel Design";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=119011";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:169:"https://wptavern.com/clove-a-showcase-of-block-patterns-by-anariel-design?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=clove-a-showcase-of-block-patterns-by-anariel-design";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5403:"<img />Clove theme homepage.



<p class="has-drop-cap">Earlier today, Ana Segota <a href="https://twitter.com/Ana_Segota/status/1407694456418152458">tweeted</a> and <a href="https://www.anarieldesign.com/free-full-site-editing-theme-clove/">announced</a> via the Anariel Design blog that her company had submitted its second block-based theme to WordPress.org. Clove is a more well-rounded follow-up to her first such theme, <a href="https://wptavern.com/anariel-design-launches-naledi-a-block-based-wordpress-theme">Naledi</a>. It is currently under review for inclusion in the official directory, but anyone can give it a test run by snagging the ZIP file from <a href="https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/101349">its ticket</a>. Or, just peruse the <a href="https://anarieldesign.com/themedemos/clove/">live demo</a>.</p>



<p>This should officially be the 10th <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/tags/full-site-editing/">block-based theme</a> to go live in the WordPress.org theme directory (note that a couple by Automattic are not tagged). That is assuming all goes well during the review process.</p>



<p>It has been a long road thus far, but 10 themes with the Full Site Editing tag is a notable milestone. The <a href="https://wptavern.com/exploring-full-site-editing-with-the-q-wordpress-theme">Q theme</a> by Ari Stathopoulos was the first to land in the directory back in October 2020. Now, eight months later, there is still room for other theme authors to become pioneers in the space. With almost no competition, who will design that first block theme that squeezes its way into the most popular list?</p>



<p>If &ldquo;practice makes perfect,&rdquo; Segota is now ahead of the curve by pushing her second theme to the directory. This makes her theme company only one of two with multiple block themes.</p>



<p>Clove is experimental, as all block themes are. It relies on the ever-shifting parts of the Gutenberg plugin, but it all comes together into a floral, nature-themed design. There are hints of inspiration from Twenty Twenty-One, but it feels more structured, less chaotic.</p>



<p>The design is less of a theme and more of a showcase of block patterns and styles. Even on the template level, it reuses those same elements across each of its seven templates, providing multiple entryways for users to tinker with its features.</p>



<p>Clove even includes pricing columns.  I seem to recall writing about how theme authors could <a href="https://wptavern.com/you-might-not-need-that-block">implement them via patterns</a> just over a month ago. Maybe the Anariel Design team came to the same conclusion. Maybe they took my message and ran with it. I like to think the latter is true. Either way, the result is a beautiful, theme-specific pattern &mdash; the sort of artistry that is tough to achieve from a plugin.</p>



<img />Customizing the Pricing Columns pattern in the WordPress editor.



<p>I am less of the fan of the overlapping and uneven columns in some of the designs designs, preferring some of the more-structured patterns, such as Three Quotes Images:</p>



<img />Three-column pattern that showcases images along with quotes.



<p>Despite my general dislike of the uneven column style, my favorite piece of the entire theme is the Illustrations page template, which leans into that design method.</p>



<p>The page intro section is an announcement to the world, &ldquo;Hey, check out my work.&rdquo;</p>



<img />Illustrations template intro section.



<p>I also like the Illustrations page template&rsquo;s widgets-like area in the footer. It manages to stuff several blocks in without feeling too crowded. It even showcases a box for artists to highlight their next exhibition.</p>



<img />Illustrations page template footer &ldquo;widget&rdquo; area.



<p>The Clove theme also registers 10 block styles for users to choose from. Most of them add different types of borders or frames to various elements. Plus, there is the fun-but-kind-of-an-oddball blob &ldquo;Shape&rdquo; for images.</p>



<ul><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img />Latest Posts &ndash; Dividers</li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img />Image &ndash; Framed</li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img />Image &ndash; Shape</li></ul>



<p>Segota was one of several people to submit custom designs to the upcoming block pattern directory. There is some noticeable crossover between her current theme work and submissions, such as the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/pattern-directory/issues/149">Playful Gallery</a> pattern that did not quite make the cut. Others, like her <a href="https://wordpress.org/patterns/pattern/recipe/">Recipe design</a>, did. There is still an <a href="https://wptavern.com/open-invitation-to-contribute-to-the-wordpress-block-pattern-directory">open invitation for people to contribute</a>.</p>



<p>I am always like a kid in a toy store when a new block theme comes along, reaching out to grab the latest gadget. I want to see more experiments like Clove. Keep them coming, theme authors.</p>



<p><strong>Side note:</strong> For people interested in the background-clipped text design used in Clove&rsquo;s site logo, I <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/32787">opened a ticket</a> to take us one step closer to doing it in the editor. Currently, users must create an off-site image and upload it.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 24 Jun 2021 01:23:08 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:46;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:76:"WordPress Foundation: Answering FAQs on WordPress Trademarks and their usage";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:41:"https://wordpressfoundation.org/?p=189036";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:92:"https://wordpressfoundation.org/2021/answering-faqs-on-wordpress-trademarks-and-their-usage/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6388:"<p class="has-drop-cap">The WordPress Foundation owns and <a href="https://wordpressfoundation.org/trademark-policy/">manages trademarks</a> for the WordPress and WordCamp names and <a href="http://wordpress.org/about/logos/">logos</a>. Over the years, many people have approached us with questions on WordPress trademarks and how to use them. This blog post aims to address some of the most common questions and clarify the usage of WordPress trademarks.</p>



<h3>Can I use “WordPress” in my name?</h3>



<p>Strictly speaking, you cannot use “WordPress” in your website name or your product name. As mentioned in the <a href="https://wordpressfoundation.org/trademark-policy/">WordPress Foundation trademarks page</a>:  </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p><em>Permission from the WordPress Foundation is required to use the WordPress or WordCamp name or logo as part of any project, product, service, domain name, or company name.</em></p></blockquote>



<p>The purpose of trademark law is to keep others from using or misusing a trademarked name or logo. But it cannot stop them from picking it up. Sometimes, people use “WordPress” in their name, title, URL, or username when “WordPress” really does not belong there. However, such uses of the trademark violate the WordPress trademark nevertheless, and cannot be allowed.</p>



<h3>What is the actual trademark Policy?</h3>



<p>You can find the entire written Trademark policy on the <a href="https://wordpressfoundation.org/trademark-policy/">Trademarks policy page</a> of this website. In short, the purpose of this policy is to make it easy for anyone to use the WordPress or WordCamp name or logo for community efforts that spread and improve WordPress. It also aims to make it difficult for anyone to use the WordPress or WordCamp name or logo to trick or confuse people looking for official WordPress or WordCamp resources. When you are in doubt, ask yourself this question: <em>“Is this an “official” WordPress event or resource?” </em>If the answer is “no,” then you should leave the trademarked name “WordPress” or “WordCamp” out of it.</p>



<h3>Does this mean I cannot build something for WordPress?</h3>



<p><strong>NO. </strong>The trademark policy <strong>does not</strong> restrict people from building anything for WordPress. WordPress, both the software and the community surrounding it, is open source. It takes all kinds of contributors to create, build, support, maintain, educate, and energize WordPress. But it does mean if you are creating something within the WordPress space that is not officially part of the WordPress project, you should not use the name “WordPress” to name it. However, you can use an alternative name like “WP” instead of “WordPress” for your products.&nbsp;</p>



<h3>I was unaware of the Trademark policy and already created something using “WordPress” in the name or the URL. What do I do now?</h3>



<p>If you happen to be in that position and you want to figure out how to fix things, please feel free to reach out to <a href="mailto:trademarks@wordpressfoundation.org">trademarks@wordpressfoundation.org</a> (or send us a message through the <a href="https://wordpressfoundation.org/trademark-policy/">contact form</a> on this site), and someone will help you bring your site, event, or product into compliance with the WP Trademark.&nbsp;</p>



<h3>Does the trademark policy apply to WordPress swag?&nbsp;</h3>



<p>Yes. Using the WordPress logo in products or any sort of swag is not permitted. Without express permission from WordPress Foundation, you cannot sell WordPress goods or co-brand your goods to make them seem affiliated with WordPress.</p>



<p>However, WordPress swag (shirts, stickers, bags, hand sanitizer, stuffed animals, sweatshirts, mugs, cups, pencils… to name a few) &#8211; given out at a WordCamp is okay. Branded WordPress swag from sponsors at a WordCamp is also allowed. This is because the swag is being given out for free (not for profit) at an official WordPress event, and has been approved. You can also find approved WordPress swag in the <a href="https://mercantile.wordpress.org/">official WordPress swag store</a>.</p>



<h3>Reading all this, I realize someone I know is not in compliance with the Trademark. What should I do?</h3>



<p>The first thing is to remember that this person could be unaware they are not complying with the trademark. We want to assume good intent whenever possible. You can talk to them about it if you feel comfortable or even just share <a href="https://wordpressfoundation.org/trademark-policy/">the trademark policy</a> with them. Alternatively, you can submit information to the <a href="https://wordpressfoundation.org/contact/">Trademarks contact form</a> on the site or send an email to trademarks@wordpressfoundation.org and let someone there do the work of assuming good intent and reaching out to them.</p>



<h3>I have already reported this site/thing/person, and nothing has been done!</h3>



<p>The process of resolving trademark issues takes a while, so we have assigned more bandwidth to speed up the process.  If you have reported something in the past, know that it is being worked on in the coming months. If you are worried that it got lost, you are welcome to send it in again. </p>



<h3>Is there anything I can do to help?</h3>



<p>The biggest help anyone in WordPress can give is to respect the Trademark themselves. I know that it seems like passive work for many, and you may be looking to do something actively. Being an active and respectful part of a community is a big help, though.</p>



<p><em>This post is based on </em><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/03/30/tuesday-trainings-can-i-use-wordpress-in-my-product-name/"><em>Part 1</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/04/06/tuesday-trainings-can-i-use-wordpress-in-my-product-name-part-2-of-2/"><em>Part 2</em></a><em> of the “Can I use “WordPress” in my product name?” </em><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/tuesdaytrainings/"><em>Tuesday Training</em></a><em> from </em><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/camikaos"><em>@camikaos</em></a><em> in the </em><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/"><em>Make WordPress Communities</em></a><em> blog.</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 23 Jun 2021 09:08:25 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Hari Shanker";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:47;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:40:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 5.8 Beta 3";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=10843";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-beta-3/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5564:"<p>WordPress 5.8 Beta 3 is now available for testing!</p>



<p><strong>This software is still in development,</strong>&nbsp;so it is not recommended to run this version on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with it.</p>



<p>You can test the WordPress 5.8 Beta 3 in three ways:</p>



<ul><li>Install/activate the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester</a> plugin (select the&nbsp;<code>Bleeding edge</code>&nbsp;channel and the&nbsp;<code>Beta/RC Only</code> stream).</li><li>Direct download the beta version here (<a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.8-beta3.zip">zip</a>).</li><li>Using WP-CLI to test: <code>wp core update --version=5.8-beta3</code></li></ul>



<p>The current target for the final release is July 20, 2021. That’s just <strong>four weeks away</strong>, so we need your help to make the final release is as good as it can be.</p>



<h2><strong>Some Highlights</strong></h2>



<p>Since <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/06/wordpress-5-8-beta-2/">Beta 2</a>, <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&changetime=06%2F16%2F2021..06%2F23%2F2021&milestone=5.8&group=component&max=500&col=id&col=summary&col=owner&col=type&col=priority&col=component&col=version&order=priority">38</a> bugs have been fixed. Here is a summary of some of the included changes:</p>



<ul><li>Block Editor: Move caching to endpoint for unique responses. (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/53435">#53435</a>)</li><li>Bundled Themes: Improve display of blocks in widget areas. (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/53422">#53422</a>)</li><li>Coding Standards: Bring some consistency to HTML formatting in <code>wp-admin/comment.php</code>. (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/52627">#52627</a>)</li><li>Editor: Include Cover block in the list of block types registered using metadata files. (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/53440">#53440</a>)</li><li>Editor: Include Cover block in the list of block types registered using metadata files. (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/53440">#53440</a>)</li><li>Media: Add new functions to return the previous/next attachment links. (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/45708">#45708</a>)</li><li>Media: Improve upload page media item layout on smaller screens. (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/51754">#51754</a>)</li><li>Media: Update total attachment count when media added or removed. (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/53171">#53171</a>)</li><li>REST API: Decode single and double quote entities in widget names and descriptions. (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/53407">#53407</a>)</li><li>Twenty Nineteen: Update margins on full- and wide-aligned blocks in the editor. (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/53428">#53428</a>)</li><li>Widgets: Add editor styles to the widgets block editor. (<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/53344">#53344</a>)</li></ul>



<h2><strong>How You Can Help</strong></h2>



<p>Watch the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">Make WordPress Core blog</a> for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/5-8+dev-notes/">5.8-related developer notes</a> in the coming weeks, which will break down these and other changes in greater detail.</p>



<p>So far, contributors have fixed <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&changetime=..06%2F23%2F2021&milestone=5.8&group=component&max=500&col=id&col=summary&col=owner&col=type&col=priority&col=component&col=version&order=priority">254 tickets in WordPress 5.8</a>, including <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&status=reopened&changetime=..06%2F23%2F2021&type=enhancement&type=feature+request&milestone=5.8&group=component&col=id&col=summary&col=type&col=status&col=milestone&col=changetime&col=owner&col=priority&col=keywords&order=changetime">91 new features and enhancements</a>, and more bug fixes are on the way.</p>



<p><strong>Do some testing!</strong></p>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/testing/beta-testing/">Testing for bugs</a> is a vital part of polishing the release during the beta stage and a great way to contribute. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.1.0/72x72/2728.png" alt="✨" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<p>If you think you’ve found a bug, please post to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">Alpha/Beta</a> area in the support forums. We would love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/reports/">bug report</a>, file one on <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/newticket">WordPress Trac</a>. That’s also where you can find a list of <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major">known bugs</a>.</p>



<p><em>Props to <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeffpaul/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>jeffpaul</a> <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>desrosj</a> <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hellofromtonya/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>hellofromtonya</a> <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pbiron/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>pbiron</a> for reviews and final edits!</em></p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator" />



<p><em>Esperanza first.<br />Want to know the next jazzer?<br />Then please test beta.</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 23 Jun 2021 02:36:26 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7:"Josepha";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:48;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:62:"WPTavern: WordPress Theme Lock-In, Silos, and the Block System";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=118923";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:165:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-theme-lock-in-silos-and-the-block-system?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-theme-lock-in-silos-and-the-block-system";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6343:"<p class="has-drop-cap">For many years, I was a hardcore advocate of separating any non-design functionality from themes into their own plugins. I wrote extensively on the issue. Whether it was shortcodes, custom post types, user metadata, and any number of things related to a user&rsquo;s content/data, I drew a deep line in the sand. <em>This belongs in a plugin.</em></p>



<p>If you have never heard of the &ldquo;theme lock-in effect,&rdquo; that&rsquo;s OK. For many, it is a non-issue. Places like the WordPress.org theme directory have, for the most part, drew a similar line in the sand.</p>



<p>The goal has always been to avoid trapping a user into perpetual use of a particular theme. It is not an ideal user experience when some crucial data is no longer available when switching designs. And, all users eventually want to change that up from time to time. Getting stuck with <code>[shortcode-soup]</code> tags littered throughout a site is never fun. Neither is losing admin access to dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of pages from a custom post type that suddenly disappears.</p>



<p>The WordPress theme development community has avoided this problem &mdash; some more so than others &mdash; by bundling crucial content-related features separately in plugins.</p>



<p>Those theme authors who bypassed theme lock-in via plugins have mostly done so in their own silos. For example, instead of integrating with an existing portfolio plugin, they would just create their own. <em>The only themes that support that plugin?</em> Theirs. Ultimately, users were still trapped.</p>



<p>I cannot lay the entire weight of this issue on the shoulders of theme authors. Portfolio plugins are a dime a dozen. Supporting WooCommerce for an eCommerce solution or bbPress for forums are easy choices. But, when there is no clear industry front-runner, an in-house solution is just as good as most others.</p>



<p>However, the block system is already complicating matters. When a theme supports features like font sizes, colors, and gradients, it essentially locks users in. Switch to another with a different configuration, and every font size, color, and gradient the user chose to use is gone.</p>



<p>Imagine inserting a Paragraph block and choosing that sky blue from your theme as the block&rsquo;s background. Now, imagine doing this a few hundred times only to have it disappear a couple of years down the road when you want to switch designs.</p>



<p>I won&rsquo;t dive into the technical details of how this works under the hood. It is just the way the system was designed. Some problems <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/7553">could have been mitigated early on</a>, but that ship sailed two and a half years ago with the launch of WordPress 5.0. There are also ways this might be solved in the future with technical workarounds.</p>



<p>Last week, a reader named Nick <a href="https://wptavern.com/getting-to-know-the-upcoming-wordpress-5-8-template-editor#comment-382930">brought up this issue</a> in regards to block patterns. The theme in question used custom CSS classes to achieve a specific design.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Because Gutenberg lacks all the features mentioned above, the theme uses some custom CSS classes, and these classes are coded in the theme&rsquo;s style sheet. The problem with this is that now that you have used these patterns, YOU ARE LOCKED IN to this theme. Because the moment you change themes, the new theme will not have these custom classes defined, the patterns will be broken. This is THE SAME reason why shortcodes were outlawed many years ago from inside the themes &mdash; and yet when it comes to patterns, this is somehow allowed?</p></blockquote>



<p><strong>Note:</strong> Shortcodes were disallowed in the WordPress theme directory because the actual post content was broken on theme switch. It was unrelated to a broken design.</p>



<p>I already hear what some of you are thinking. <em>This is not the same as &ldquo;content&rdquo; lock-in.</em> No, it is not. Not exactly. However, because the block system intertwines content and design, it sort of is. I doubt the average user appreciates the distinction when they end up in scenarios with white text on a white background, as shown in the following screenshots:</p>



<ul><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img />Blue background with one theme.</li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img />Blue background gone with second theme.</li></ul>



<p>That is a <em>very</em> real scenario. I see it almost daily as I test out different themes.</p>



<p>And, this is just the beginning. As WordPress&rsquo;s design system grows and themers can configure more pieces, users will become more locked into their existing theme. Or, they may be locked into one developer&rsquo;s or one shop&rsquo;s way of doing things.</p>



<p>I do not necessarily see this as a <em>Bad Thing</em>. We have always had these little silos in the WordPress ecosystem, and they have mostly worked out.</p>



<p>In a sense, little has changed.</p>



<p>Users often stick with the same theme companies for one reason or another. And, those same themers tend to build on top of homegrown libraries or frameworks, reusing the same systems &mdash; at least the best ones do. This usually means that users can freely switch between themes made by the same people without losing anything.</p>



<p>The old-school purity test of not mixing content and design is gone.</p>



<p>This is a chance for solo developers and shops to strengthen their brand. If this is the system that WordPress is providing, build strong products on top of it. Build naming schemes that allow users to switch between your themes. Create loyal customers who will want to stick with you for years.</p>



<p>If users are essentially locked into one shop&rsquo;s theme products, that sounds like a lucrative opportunity to build solutions and healthy user communities around individual brands.</p>



<p>I also envision a future where users will need to switch themes far less often. After the site editor and global styles features become available, users will have more direct control over their design. Once they have settled on a solid theme, they may never need to change it as long as it stays relatively up to date.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 23 Jun 2021 01:04:49 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:49;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"WPTavern: WooCommerce Selects Paystack as Preferred Payments Partner in Africa";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=118666";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:201:"https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-selects-paystack-as-preferred-payments-partner-in-africa?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=woocommerce-selects-paystack-as-preferred-payments-partner-in-africa";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3656:"<p>WooCommerce has named Paystack its preferred payments partner for&nbsp;WooCommerce in Africa. More than 20,000 merchants are using the free  <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/woo-paystack/">Paystack WooCommerce Payment Gateway</a> plugin but searching for and downloading the plugin separately is no longer required. Store owners can now easily select Paystack as a payment method when inside the WooCommerce dashboard.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>Paystack has a recently updated tutorial for <a href="https://support.paystack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360009881280-How-to-set-up-Paystack-on-WooCommerce">how to set up the gateway in WooCommerce</a>. As an alternative to the recommended method, merchants can opt to <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/woo-paystack/">install the free plugin</a> instead.</p>



<p>Paystack is the most widely used payment gateway in Africa, accounting for more than half of all online transactions in Nigeria. More than 60,000 stores use the gateway. In October 2020, it was <a href="https://wptavern.com/stripe-acquires-paystack-for-200m">acquired by Stripe</a> for more than $200M. The gateway can be used by businesses in Nigeria and Ghana and last month it <a href="https://paystack.com/blog/company-news/sa-launch">added support for South Africa</a>, after a six-month long pilot program. </p>



<p>&ldquo;Paystack is leading the charge in bringing a world-class payments experience to African merchants,&rdquo; WooCommerce Director of Business Development Mechiel Couvaras said. &ldquo;Their product offering, user experience, and expansion plans within Africa were some of the most important factors in considering the partnership. Receiving funding from&nbsp; Stripe and Visa was also a strong indicator of their potential.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Paystack, like all of WooCommerce&rsquo;s other payment partners, has a financial arrangement with the e-commerce platform where it pays a percentage of transactions processed. Couvaras said the Paystack partnership is directly with Paystack and separate from WooCommerce&rsquo;s Stripe partnership.</p>



<p>&ldquo;eCommerce is still very nascent in most African countries, however, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://trends.builtwith.com/shop/WooCommerce-Checkout/Nigeria" target="_blank">Nigeria</a> and <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://trends.builtwith.com/shop/WooCommerce-Checkout/South-Africa" target="_blank">South Africa</a> are amongst our fastest growing countries globally,&rdquo; Couvaras said. When Stripe acquired Paystack, the company noted that African online commerce is growing 21% year-over-year, 75% faster than the global average. WooCommerce is well-positioned to capture some of that growth with Paystack pre-installed as a preferred payment partner.</p>



<p>The e-commerce platform is also keeping tabs on other emerging markets, as global market adoption has grown to <a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-woocommerce">8.2% of the Alexa top 10 million websites</a>. Over the past year WooCommerce launched partnerships with Indian payment companies <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://woocommerce.com/products/razorpay-for-woocommerce/" target="_blank">Razorpay</a> and <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://woocommerce.com/products/payu-india/" target="_blank">PayU India</a>, as well as <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://woocommerce.com/products/mercado-pago-checkout" target="_blank">Mercado Pago</a>, a Latin American payments company focused on supporting local payment methods across Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Uruguay.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 22 Jun 2021 20:52:26 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}s:4:"type";i:128;s:7:"headers";O:42:"Requests_Utility_CaseInsensitiveDictionary":1:{s:7:"*data";a:8:{s:6:"server";s:5:"nginx";s:4:"date";s:29:"Fri, 16 Jul 2021 08:38:27 GMT";s:12:"content-type";s:8:"text/xml";s:4:"vary";s:15:"Accept-Encoding";s:13:"last-modified";s:29:"Fri, 16 Jul 2021 08:30:10 GMT";s:15:"x-frame-options";s:10:"SAMEORIGIN";s:4:"x-nc";s:9:"HIT ord 1";s:16:"content-encoding";s:2:"br";}}s:5:"build";s:14:"20201016172007";}