Howdy,
We are 31 days away from WordPress 6.5 Beta 1, the version that closes the new version for new features. In so far it’s early, lots of work can still go into the next major upgrade. On the other hand, we are only three Gutenberg plugin versions away from WordPress beta 1. Gutenberg 17.5 RC is available for testing. If you have some time, it would be wonderful if you can use Anne McCarthy‘s instructions to take early opportunities to test WordPress 6.5. If you would rather not set up a local test site, you can also use the Gutenberg Nightly via WordPress playground for your early test.
Munich is again powered by snow and it freezing once more. Hubby and I are getting used to it; somewhat. Definitely longing for warmer weather.
I hope you stay warm and have a joyful weekend!
Yours, 💕
Birgit
PS: If you intend to go to WordCamp Asia, I again opened up my calendar so we can schedule a 1:1 meeting, to chat about your products, what you need to be successful as a developer or how to contribute to WordPress or just catch up on life. And if you are not going to make it to WordCamp Asia, we can always get together at WordCamp Europe in June. 🤗
Developing Gutenberg and WordPress
WordPress co-founder, Matt Mullenweg, elaborated on the WordPress blog the Data Liberation in 2024 project, he announced during State of the Word in Madrid. “Migrating your site to WordPress, or exporting all your content from WordPress, should be possible in one click. I want WordPress’ export format to become the lingua franca of CMSs, whether coming to WordPress or moving within WordPress. “, he wrote.
Justin Tadlock has again compiles the list of changes in Core and Gutenberg in What’s new for developers? (January 2024). “It’s a new year and time for exciting new things happening in the WordPress world. Catch the latest monthly roundup aimed at extenders.” he wrote. It’s a list of updates interesting for plugin, and theme authors as well as freelance and agency developers.
🎙️ The latest episode is Gutenberg Changelog #128 – Gutenberg 22.7 Version and Dev Notes for 7.0 with special guest Maggie Cabrera
Joen Asmussen, summarize the work of the WordPress design team in his post: Design Share: Dec 1-Dec 29. The team worked on
- WP.org Data Liberation
- WP.org: Learning Pathways
- Thumbnail design
- Missing Fonts
- Safari Text-Selection Fix
- Responsive tables for Openverse’s source page
Page builders discussions
Eric Karkovack wondered in his post Can Gutenberg and WordPress Page Builders Coexist?
Matt Medeiros asks: Is 2024 the Year of Page Builders? on the WPMinute episode 198.
In his post, I Tried Building a Layout With the WordPress Block Editor And it Didn’t Go Very Well, Kevin Geary walks us through his learnings, trying the site editor for the first time.
On YouTube, Anne McCarthy and Riad Benguella, Gutenberg Core Developer, chimed in with additional links and information
Using Geary’s video and post as inspiration, Brian Coords walks us through how he would solve the layout problem Geary struggled with. Building an example layout in Gutenberg (response video). He covers this “demo layout using core blocks and a few lines of CSS (via register_block_style). Along the way, I discuss alignments and widths in Gutenberg, semantic elements, flex box tools for layout, custom CSS, and whether the block editor is a “page builder”.
Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners
Jamie Marsland, PootlePress, created a tutorial to help Beginners understand the core concept around WordPress Block Themes: Three Key Principles for Beginners. “WordPress block themes revolutionize the way websites are built and designed, simplifying the process down to three core elements: Blocks Templates and Styles.” he wrote.
Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks
For the WordPress themes team, Justin Tadlock updated the community of contributors on New Block-Focused Theme Handbook Docs and What’s Coming in 2024. After the revamp of the theme handbook, and publishing five new chapters, with eight still in draft. The next steps are the documentation of Patterns, Advanced topics and Classic Themes.
Jacob Martella has some sound advice when you are on the quest of Converting Your Website to the Block Editor. “The biggest thing is that the site editor gives you so much control over how your website looks. You can customize the fonts and colors, change how your header and footer look and edit any template you want right from your dashboard. You don’t need to know CSS or PHP or have to worry about editing any files to do it” he wrote.
Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor.
Reminder! You are invited to the January Developers Hours for January 16th, 2024 at 15:00 UTC (10 am EDT) to Build your first WordPress block. In this online event, you’ll be on a walk-through the new tutorial in the Block editor handbook, and you will also learn more about the block development examples on GitHub.
The page in the Block Editor Handbook experienced a rewrite: “Static or Dynamic rendering of a block” With the help of diagrams and new code examples, developers learn the main differences, advantages, and disadvantages of each approach of block development.
Ryan Welcher released a new version of his Advance Query Loop plugin. Now ACF developer will see their meta keys in the auto-complete list for Post Meta queries.
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.
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