Howdy,
Next week, I’ll be heading out to Taipei, ahead of WordCamp Asia, to acclimate and do some sightseeing. If you are in the area, you can double-check my calendar so we can meet. Getting meeting times and places sorted ahead of time, makes it more likely that the conversations will happen, and not just between doors or sessions.
This week, you can get more insights on what is coming with WordPress 6.5 again. Now that Beta 2 has been released, it’s time to test your plugins and themes for compatibility and report issues.
I am totally excited about this new release and I wish you fun exploring the new features!
Yours, đź’•
Birgit
PS ICYMI:
- WPTavern is publishing again. Seven writers a showing off their skills in a public trial for two permanent positions. For now, James Giroux, Ronny Shani and Adam Silver have published their articles. Good luck to all of them!
- Also back from a publishing break: Rae Morey, editor of The Repository
Developing Gutenberg and WordPress
WordPress 6.5 Beta 2 is now available for testing. The WordPress test team has a few tips for your testing pleasure: Help test WordPress 6.5. In last week’s edition I shared tools to set up test sites.
Ronny Shani reported on the release on WPTavern: WordPress 6.5 Is Around the Corner; Test Beta 2. Shani, accumulated quite a collection of links and videos about features already published on the web.
Bud Kraus invites you to the Learn WordPress Online Workshop: What’s New In WordPress 6.5? on April 9, 2024, at 19:00 UTC. He’ll cover, among other features
- Font Library
- Revisions for Styles, Templates and more
- Synched Pattern Overrides
Recording the next Gutenberg Changelog episode, Tammie Lister and I talked through Gutenberg 14.6 and 17.7 and what comes to WordPress 6.5 and other community initiatives and discussions. The episode will arrive at your favorite pods app over the weekend.
🎙️ Latest episode: Gutenberg Changelog #98 – WordPress 6.5, Gutenberg 18.0 Community Theme Project and the Contributor Mentorship Program with special guest Maggie Cabrera
In their post, Overlapping problems, Anne McCarthy addresses the complexity that arises when multiple issues co-exist and interact with one another, complicating their resolution. McCarthy discusses strategies for managing these concerns by prioritizing them and employing a holistic approach to understand and resolve their interconnected nature.
They also emphasize the psychological effects of facing such issues and the need for adaptive problem-solving techniques. McCarthy included practical examples to illustrate how these concepts are applied in real-world scenarios.
Brian Coords kicked off an interconnected Twitter thread , and as a consequence Anne McCarthy invites contributors and extenders to a Hallway Hangout: Let’s chat about overlapping problems in the Site Editor on February 27 at 17:00 UTC.
Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners
Tammie Lister published four more Editor Tips:
Jamie Marsland, PootlePress recreated NASA homepage with WP Blocks in 30 mins! Follow along as Marsland uses nothing more than WordPress, the default block theme, and core Gutenberg blocks (no plugins, no additional CSS).
Brian Gardner, WPEngine shows you in his video how to disable patterns in the WordPress block inserter and site editor for his Powder theme, available in the WordPress Theme repository. His solution: a simple uncheck the pattern category on a settings page, before you turn over the site to a client.
Anne McCarthy posted a new video: No Code, All Fonts thanks to the Font Library in WordPress 6.5. She wrote in the description:
- The Font Library operates globally, similar to the Media Library, allowing you to easily install, remove, and activate fonts across your entire site.
- Whether a font is installed by you or provided by your theme or plugin, the Font Library provides seamless selection across your editing experience.
- Google Fonts is integrated into the Font Library experience, offering various typography options and quick uploads.
- This new ability empowers you to control a foundational aspect of your site’s design without the need for coding.
- Extenders can provide their font collections and manage permissions, including turning the feature off.
Eric Karkovack set out to Clearing Up the Confusion Surrounding Block Themes. “Some users may not know if block themes are suitable for them. Others may have never heard of them at all. And we can’t forget the confusing comparisons with classic themes.” he wrote. Karkovack lists quite a few reasons why one would use a Block theme over a conventional theme.
Anders Noren, theme builder from Norway Sweden and early adopter of block themes, just announced a new block theme: “Norrsken is a simple blog theme inspired by the Aurora Borealis.” Introducing Norrsken. Fun fact: it is Noren’s 30th theme in the WordPress Repository!
Noren published his first theme, Lingonberry, in 2013. His first block theme, Tove, made its debut in September 2021 and Norrsken is his 9th Block theme in the repository.
Nick Diego has been Experimenting with block-based mega menus combining two different extensibility features of the block editor coming to WordPress 6.5:
- Add custom blocks to the Navigation block in WordPress.
- The Interactivity API
Diego shared his code on GitHub. He is also working on a tutorial for the WordPress Developer Blog.
Jamie Marsland was inspired to try it out, and created a few examples. In his video WordPress Gutenberg Mega Menus – Sneak peek! he shares his knowledge and shows you how you can use it, too.
Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks
Anne Katzeff, graphic designer, theme builder, artists and fellow WordPress meetup organizer, ventured on the journey of building her first Block theme and shares her progress and pain points. Her blog posts are rich with screenshots and other illustrations. She really takes you along her design process and how she gets things done.
- In part one, she covers setting the stage, with fonts, using the new font library and Global settings for color, dimensions, and layouts.
- In part two, Katzeff tackled navigation, menu, and header template part.
Next Tuesday, Feb 27 at 16:00 UTC, Justin Tadlock and Ryan Welcher will host the next Developer Hours session on building complex layouts with blocks. Nick Diego likes to call this the art of “block composition” and you won’t want to miss this. You can RSVP via Meetup: How to build modern web layouts with WordPress blocks
Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor.
Are you a PHP developer and hate JavaScript? Well, could be you just need someone like you to explain to you the important bits that are used in WordPress. Aurooba Ahmad published: Introducing JS Essentials for WP Devs, a course “with 15 bite-sized lessons delivered daily to help you absorb JavaScript essentials. So you can go from zero to JS development as quickly as possible.” she wrote. The first lesson will come out on March 4, 2024, you need to sign up, though. The best part? It is free.
Justin Tadlock introduced the first segment of a tutorial dedicated to the Block Bindings API on the WordPress Developer blog. The article, titled “Introducing Block Bindings, part 1: connecting custom fields,” provides step-by-step instruction and code examples on how to connect custom fields to blocks within the WordPress editor and display on the front end. It serves as a primer to the new API, that helps to streamline the process of binding meta fields to blocks,
On the WPTavern site, James Giroux reported on Interactivity API Prepares for its Official Debut in WordPress 6.5. “The Interactivity API and how it uses WordPress could be a pivotal moment in the Project’s history. It could create a new way of working with WordPress. ” he wrote. And he might be right. It’s definitely exciting, and I am excited about all the tutorials and case studies that will be written in the upcoming months.
If you don’t have a lot of time, but are curious about the Interactivity API, you and listen to Mario Santos, Ryan Welcher and Josepha Haden Chomphosy on the 73rd episode of the WP Briefing discussing the Interactivity API. “a new foundational tool that helps developers create memorable interactive front-end experiences.” and the show notes lists a ton of resources.
A couple of weeks ago, I shared about Buzz around the Interactivity API on the Weekend Edition 284, with links to more documentation and videos.
Ryan Welcher ran a Live Stream on Twitch and working on converting a React app to do blocks with the Interactivity API in WordPress.
Leonardo Losoviz Gato GraphQL v2.1, it allows doing GraphQL as Automator, leveraging GraphQL persisted queries to automate data-related and block-related tasks. In his post, Automate your WordPress tasks, with the new Gato GraphQL v2.1, Losoviz added an example how the comments block can be automatically added to the post. “As you can compose the GraphQL persisted queries and automation rules directly within the wp-admin, it takes no time to create a super-customized automation pipeline, tailored to your needs.” Losoviz wrote.
This week, Tammie Lister spoke on the WP Product Talk podcast, where she discussed Designing for the Future of WordPress. You can find the full episode on their website soon, right here.
During her talk with Amber Hinds and Zack Katz, who both own plugin companies, they talked about how WordPress seems to be both moving too slowly and too quickly at the same time, making it hard for people to keep up. She also encouraged people to speak up more when they find something missing in WordPress.
Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg’s master branch?
Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review.
Now also available via WordPress Playground. There is no need for a test site locally or on a server. Have you been using it? Email me with your experience
Questions? Suggestions? Ideas?
Don’t hesitate to send them via email or
send me a message on WordPress Slack or Twitter @bph.
For questions to be answered on the Gutenberg Changelog,
send them to changelog@gutenbergtimes.com
