Howdy,
The Winter came to Bavaria just in time for me to enjoy it. Or Not. It took me week, to not be cold all the time. How are you doing with Winter in your area?
Today’s round-up includes the schedule and the release squad for the next major WordPress release, planned for March 28, version 6.2. Beta 1 and Feature Freeze is next week (Feb 7th) with Gutenberg plugin release version 15.1.
Next Friday, February 3rd, Nick Diego and I will record episode 79 of the Gutenberg Changelog. We will chat about the latest two releases of the Gutenberg plugin and also what’s in-store for WordPress 6.2 in broader strokes. If you have questions, send them to us at changelog@gutenbergtimes.com and we will answer them in the show, and if you are ok with it, we’ll mention you by name, too.
And now without further Ado, the news around the block editor from the last two weeks.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Yours, 💕
Birgit
Developing Gutenberg and WordPress
In her article: WordPress Project Aims to Complete Customization Phase and Begin Exploring Collaboration in 2023, Sarah Gooding discusses the Big Goals for 2023, Josepha Haden Chomsphosy posted on the Make Blog earlier this month.
Michael Burridge was the lead for the Gutenberg 15.0 plugin release. He highlighted in the release post What’s new in Gutenberg 15.0? (18 January)
- The Block inspector tabs experiment has been stabilized
- The “Paste styles” option was added to the block settings
- Edit block style variations from global styles
- Images constrained to their containers
- New “Sticky” Position block support
Sarah Gooding wrote Gutenberg 15.0 Introduces “Sticky” Position Block Support, Adds “Paste Styles” Option. The release also marks the end of the block inspector tabs experiment, which is now stabilized in the plugin.
🎙️ Latest episode: Gutenberg Changelog #93 – Gutenberg 17.1, Command Palette, Data Views and Grid Layout – a chat with Isabel Brison
Anne McCarthy published FSE Program Running Through Refinements Summary, with the outcomes from the 19th call for testing. “Feedback for all the tested features was generally positive with folks able to see how what’s being worked on unites and moves forward the Site Editor experience. As always, there were also noted bugs, feature requests, and areas of refinement that mostly matched either current priorities or previously reported items, underscoring where the experience needs to move towards. ” she wrote.
Hector Prieto finalized the schedule and the release squad for WordPress 6.2 in his post WordPress 6.2 Planning Roundup.
- Beta 1 is scheduled to be released February 7th, 2023
- Release candidate 1 will escape into the world on March 7, 2023
- Final release is scheduled of March 28, 2023.
if you want to follow along on the release squad communication you can lurk in their public channel on the WordPress Make Slack #6-2-release-leads
Dave Smith published a behind-the-scenes view on the new editing experience for the Navigation block. Watch how this all came about and how the list view experience will solve previous problems. Easier Nav block Editing for WordPress 6.2.
Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners
Munir Kamal wrote a tutorial on How to Create Google Web Stories on WordPress Website. AMP Stories were all the rave in 2019. Three year’s later AMP is no more, but you can still take advantage of the incredible mobile interface for Web stories. Kamal showed you how using the Google Web stories plugin.
Patterns, Reusable Blocks and Block Locking is the title of Wes Theron‘s workshop to Learn WordPress. He explored using block patterns, creating and editing reusable blocks and utilizing the block locking features.
In his post 8 Best WordPress Gutenberg Blocks (And How to Use Them), Nick Schäferhoff, show you first how to add blocks to your post pages and work with the Inserter. Then he takes a deeper dive on eight powerful WordPress core blocks, the query loop block and the fairly new post template blocks.
Carolina Nymark shows you the tutorial How to add a background image or background video with full site editing in 4 steps. “Adding a background image using the Customizer was a single step process. In the Site Editor you have more options to choose from, for example duotone and opacity.” Nymark wrote.
Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks
The 20th Call for testing via the FSE Outreach program takes you through the latest features of the Gutenberg plugin (15.0). This time you come from a classic theme and switch to Twenty-Twenty Three theme, and test the migration of widgets and menus with the new features. Anne McCarthy will collect all your feedback and summarize the outcome. Deadline is February 1st, 2023.
If you are a bit unsure if you can do it, follow along with Courtney Robertson and Sarah Snow, who did a walk through the call for testing in this video: Courtney Robertson, Sarah Snow: Call For Testing: Find Your Style
WPEngine Builders tweeted: The WordPress Developer Blog is a treasure chest of knowledge for those who want to build block themes and leverage new settings for the editor. Here’s an example that’s super useful and can result in beautiful things. Using the box shadow feature for themes by Justin Tadlock.
Nick Schäferhoff took the latest WordPress default theme for a spin and published his review in Twenty Twenty-Three Theme Review: Flexible and Community Driven. The difference between previous default themes and Twenty-Twenty Three is ‘an intense focus on community involvement.’ Schäferhoff took a closer look at some key features of this theme.
In this video, Jonathan Bossenger talks you through using theme.json with classic themes. The theme.json is a file that allows block theme developers to control the settings and styles of the blocks in the Editor. In this video, you’re going to learn what happens when you add a theme.json file to a classic theme.
During this week’s Twitch livestream, Daisy Olsen covered the fourth part of Building a Starter Block Theme series: Presets in theme.json. “In this video, we have many technical difficulties and a look at how to add Theme Supports to control which block style controls are available for content creators and site editors.” Olsen wrote. Hey it’s a live stream!
The previous parts of the series “Building a Starter Block Theme” are:
- Part 3: Theme Supports in theme.json
- Part 2: Index template, singular template, Header and Footer parts
- Part 1: Local Development, Create Block Theme Plugin, Code Review
Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor.
Ryan Welcher covered a myriad of topics in his latest livestream recording. Gutenberg 14.9 | Advanced Query Loop | WordPress Tutorial. He looked at some WordPress developer-focused changes in the Gutenberg 14.9 release. Welcher also added the ability to query multiple post types in his Advance Query Loop plugin.
Carlo Daniele wrote a tutorial to teach developers How To Add Meta Boxes and Custom Fields To Posts in Gutenberg. “If you’re a developer and want to get more out of WordPress custom fields, integrate them seamlessly into the block editor, and display them on the frontend of your WordPress website using a custom Gutenberg block, then you’re in the right place.” Daniele wrote.
Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg’s master branch?
Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review.
Have you been using it? Hit reply and let me know.
Dean Sas, JavaScript wrangler at Automattic, invites developers to learn about “Some very cool things can happen when you hit Enter in a block. You’re writing a list in the editor, and you hit Enter and automatically, you get another bullet point! If you’d like to make your own blocks to do something like that, Sas’ article helps you with. It will probably make more sense to you if you’ve written some blocks before.
To get started developing with blocks, see the Learn WordPress course: Introduction to Block Development: Build your first custom block
WordPress blocks have come a long way since Gutenberg was first released as part of WordPress 5.0 in 2018. Special guest: Nick Diego fills you in on the latest episode of Delicious Brain Waves Episode 16 – Unlocking the Power of WordPress Blocks.
Kristin Falkner is a freelance web developer specializing in fully custom WordPress sites. In her article, Utilizing Patterns vs. Building Custom ACF Blocks, Falkner describes her journey from ACF blocks to creating block patterns with WordPress core blocks.
Upcoming WordPress events
February 4 + 5, 2023
WordCamp Birmingham, AL
February 17 – 19, 2023
WordCamp Asia 2023
March 21, 2023
WP Engine is hosting DE{CODE}
Check the schedule of WordCamp Central of upcoming WordCamps near you.
Learn WordPress Online Meetups
January 31, 2023 – 3pm ET / 20:00 UTC
Creating a photography website with the block editor
February 3, 2023 – 3 am ET / 8am UTC
Let’s make custom templates in the Site Editor!
February 3, 2023 – 10:30 ET / 15:30 UTC
Block Themes and WordPress: Live Stream
February 7, 2023 – 22:00 ET / 3 am UTC
APAC: Creating a photography website with the block editor
February 7, 2023 – 15:00 ET / 20:00 UTC
Builder Basics: Adding Custom CSS to Block Themes
More events are scheduled via the Meetup group
