Hi,
“And just like that, winter has faded from our collective memory…”, Om Malik wrote in his Letter from Om, May edition. In Munich, we just had another cold spell, though. There is no doubt we are heading into the next hot summer.
So it’s Saturday afternoon, and I am way behind on your newsletter edition. This week, I published approximately 7,500 words over three posts. Definitely a record! Plus, two podcast episodes (one is still with the editor).
Don’t worry, this weekend edition is not entirely about me. 😜
Have a splendid weekend ahead!
Yours, 💕
Birgit
🎙️ The latest episode is Gutenberg Changelog #125 – WordPress 6.9, Gutenberg 22.1 and Gutenberg 22.2 with JC Palmes, WebDev Studios
Workshop Registration Now Open for WordCamp Europe 2025 – Secure Your Spot Today! A reminder of the workshops offered:
- The Block Developer Cookbook: WCEU 2025 Edition with Ryan Welcher
- From Zero to Demo: Mastering WordPress Playground Blueprints with yours truly
- Building Automated Tests with WordPress Playground with Berislav (Bero) Grgicak
- Interactivity API for Developers: WordPress Gems You Should Know with Milana Cap
Here is the Workshop Registration page. You already need to have a ticket, and use for this registration the same email.
Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is celebrated on May 15, 2025. Amber Hinds from Equalize Digital invites people to join in a virtual accessibility contributor day. This event aims to improve accessibility in WordPress. Whether you’re a developer, designer, content creator, or site owner, you have the skills. You can help make the internet more usable. You can make a difference for millions of people with disabilities. she wrote. You pledge your time Global Accessibility Awareness Day Pledge – May 15, 2025.
Suggested activities include reporting issues for Core, plugins, or themes. They also cover testing patches on accessibility tickets. You can offer feedback on existing accessibility issues or add captions to videos on WordPressTV. Additionally, running a webinar is another activity choice.
Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners
Brian Coords published the release notes for WooCommerce 9.8.4. It addresses a fatal error that occurred as the result of a remote service failure.
Stephanie Pi issued a Developer advisory: Subscriptions core code moving into WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin. he core code that powers WooCommerce Subscriptions will now be managed directly within the main plugin repository, rather than the separate, public Automattic/woocommerce-subscriptions-core codebase. This change, effective May 20, 2025, aims to reduce complexity, streamline versioning, and align with management of other WooCommerce extensions. Only developers directly depending on the core package or monitoring its repository are affected; regular plugin users or API integrators need not take action.
Fabian Kägy and I hung out with Nathan Wrigley for the third episode of the At the Core show. We dove into the latest buzz in WordPress. We especially focused on the 6.8 release. We covered some cool new features like
- better details and accordion blocks,
- tweaks to the stylebook,
- fresh pattern section styles,
- upgraded gallery image options, and
- some nice improvements in template editing.
We discussed the shift toward a slower, more thoughtful approach to WordPress core releases. There are changes in the dev workflow. We also talked about some new plugins like ClassifAI and ThemeSwitcher Pro. These plugins make it easier to integrate AI. They also help to gradually move to block themes. This episode is packed with great tips for anyone looking to stay updated on new developments in WordPress. You also get hands-on insights about the latest features.
Kaspars Dambis created a nifty optimizing plugin called Lazy Load Blocks for WordPress. It does exactly what it says on the tin. Configurable per block, even. Lazy loading blocks improves the Web Vitals. It enhances the Page Speed metrics. It does not impact the layout shift (CLS) when the lazy loading is triggered. There is a great demo video on the page. You will also find screenshots and instructions. Explanations of how this actually works are also included. It’s comes with a small price tag of $5 per month, billed annually.
In his latest video: How Thousands Use WordPress to Get Customer Feedback, Wes Theron demonstrates techniques for content creators and site owners. He shows how to use blocks by Crowdsignal to gather feedback. You can use highly interactive elements like polls, surveys, voting buttons, and more. Theron provides a step-by-step guide on how to add feedback tools to your site. This helps you start making smarter decisions based on real data.
Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks
In my latest post, Mastering Custom Block Styles in WordPress: 6 Methods for Theme and Plugin Developers, I’m sharing some cool tips. These tips are for theme and plugin developers. They cover how to create and manage block styles in WordPress. The article discusses using JSON files. It also covers PHP functions like register_block_style().
In, Seven Tasks to a Custom Block Theme: Anders Norén’s Weekend Workflow, A year ago, over a weekend, Anders Norén shared his block theme building process in a X thread. I finally found the time to make it a more enhanced tutorial for theme builders’ perusal. You learn about Norén’s tools, his methods, and his tricks to enhance his designs.
Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor.
Eric Karkovack just published a tutorial on how to display WordPress custom field data with blocks. He introduces you to the Block Bindings API and walks you through an example from start to finish.
Jonathan Bossenger shared with me DeepWiki, a service by Devin AI. it introduces itself as “your collaborative AI teammate, built to help ambitious engineering teams achieve more.”
You can make it your companion developing for the Block Editor by visiting the sub-site for WordPress/Gutenberg. It provides you with access to the documentation and code in a human-readable form. The chatbot will answer your questions. I tested it with two questions:
- What are Gutenberg stores and what information can you find there? You can read the answer here.
- Is there a good analogy for state to better explain state management? The answer shows quite a few real live analogies: working with a notebook, a collaborative drawing board and a room with light switches and fixtures.
Try it out yourself! It’s pretty helpful as it searches the documentation and digs through the whole Gutenberg code base for answers.
In his tutorial on how to build blocks with WooCommerce, Marco Lucio Giannotta and Karol Manijak guide developers. They show how to build a WooCommerce Product Collection block. They break it down with an easy-going video and some code examples. You’ll get the scoop on block theory. You’ll watch a live-coding session where they create interactive blocks. You’ll dig deep into the default Product Collection block. There are two hands-on exercises. One teaches how to add a “Featured” filter. Another focuses on registering a custom collection of “on-sale products under $40.” It’s a great way to get the hang of block settings, custom queries, and using the WooCommerce API!
The second part of the Unit test (with Jest) for WordPress Blocks is out. JuanMa Garrido programs unit tests for the copyright block from the “Tutorial: Build your first block”. He also explores how to debug the Save component of a block.
The Codeable Team published How to Get Started with the Interactivity API. This article introduces WordPress developers to a way of adding real-time features to websites without using heavy scripts or plugins. It explains that the Interactivity API, available from WordPress 6.5, allows developers to update page elements quickly, enhancing site performance and making development easier. It highlights the API’s benefits in performance, scalability, and WordPress integration.
The next episode of Jon learns to code with AI is up. In WordPress as a MCP Server, Jonathan Bossenger reviewed the WordPress MCP plugin from Automattic. This plugin turns your WordPress site into an MCP server that your AI Agent can interact with. To learn what that exactly means, you need to watch the video.
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