Data Views, new Block themes, Accessibility Block Twenty-Twenty-Five theme, Template registration for plugins — Weekend Edition 302

"Wooden Blocks" by limecools is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse.

Hi there!

Wow, going on vacation and coming back to all the great content, and features built around the WordPress Block editor felt quite overwhelming. And I am afraid that it might happen to you, too, when you look at this Weekend Edition. Marvel on all the great content creators that share their knowledge, their creativity, and their time to contribute to WordPress.

So, Summer is over, and we are heading into the last four months of the year. For many, that’s the busiest time of the year. I wish you all the luck and perseverance for your art of building websites. And to my American friends, Happy Labor Day weekend!

To all others, have a wonderful weekend!

Yours, 💕
Birgit

Table of Contents

Developing Gutenberg and WordPress

Justin Tadlock posted this month’s roundup of updates in What’s new for developers? (August 2024). and highlighted the Learn WP redesign, the offline mode and PWA support for Playground, and loads of extra block supports. You also find seven updates relevant to plugin developers and seven topics important for theme builders and developers.

Mid-August core contributors met in an informal Hangout sharing in demos what they have been working. Read all about it in Hector Prieto‘s summary and watch the recordings: Hallway Hangout recording: Let’s chat about what’s next in Gutenberg (August 2024)

List of demos and their GitHub Issues:

Joen Asmussen posted the Design Share #62 (Aug 12-Aug 23), about the ongoing work on the WordPress Design team. In the post you find images or videos and associated GitHub links to learn more about the following topics:

  • Systematizing typography styles in the admin UI
  • Text-Wrap Controls
  • Small Placeholders
  • Styling States in the Style Book
  • WordPress.org: Sign-in
  • “Add New”
  • Image Cropping
  • Font Library in Classic Themes
  • Expand ItemGroup for greater flexibility and a more consistent UI
  • Update Modal animation
  • Update ToggleGroupControl appearance
  • Five for the Future refresh

WordPress Minor and Major release schedule

  • Tonya Mork updated us on the next maintenance release, WordPress 6.6.2. Release Candidate 1 is scheduled for Sept. 4, and the full release is planned for Sept. 10. The minor maintenance release will patch several CSS specificity, styling, and user experience issues related to the Block Editor.
  • WordPress 6.7 release squad is complete. WordPress 6.7 Beta 1 is scheduled for Tuesday, October 1 (only a month away)! If you want to follow along, consult the Project Board for Editor Tasks with iteration issues for each feature. Release Candidate 1 and Field Guide will be released on October 12th, 2024. Final release is scheduled for November 11, 2024
  • Anne McCarthy invites you to collaborate on testing the Block Bindings UI and provides you all the tools via Playground blueprint and shows you how to use the feature in an accompanying video.

Gutenberg Plugin releases

In the past three weeks, two new version of the Gutenberg plugin were released:

In the release post, What’s new in Gutenberg 19.0? (14 August), Jorge Costa highlighted

Jyolsna JE, new editor at WPTavern has more details in Gutenberg 19.0 Introduces Two New Experimental Features

Yes, WPTavern has an editor again. Jyolsna JE has been in the WordPress news space for quite a while as editor for the WP Content newsletter, WordCamp Kerala organizer, and contributor on the documentation and translation teams. Jyolsna JE started publishing on the WPTavern on August 14, 2024. You can catch up on her articles here.

First time release lead, Artemio Morales highlighted in his post What’s new in Gutenberg 19.1? (28 August) two significant updates:

Jyolsna JE at WPTavern, also covered this release in Gutenberg 19.1 Introduces Plugin Template Registration API.

Jessica Lychik and I dug a little deeper into the changelog of those two releases and recorded the Gutenberg Changelog episode 106. You’ll also learn more about the WordPress outreach channel for extenders, what it’s all about and how much we appreciate product builders coming and discuss quirks, bugs, and approaches to working with block themes in a no-code, low-code basis as well as developers creating plugins for the block editor. The episode will land in your inbox over the weekend.

🎙️ The latest episode is Gutenberg Changelog #123 – WordPress 6.9 and Gutenberg 21.9 with Isabel Brison, core contributor. and JavaScript developer at Automattic.

Default Theme Twenty-Twenty-Five

The development of the Twenty-Twenty-Five theme is in full swing. Carolina Nymark and Juan Aldasoro as the co-lead developers on the project. Here are the resource links, should you be interested in the progress of the theme, or even available to contribute patterns and templates.

Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners

Troy Chaplin, long-time WordPress developer and designer from Ottawa, Canada, has been working on an accessibility plugin for the WordPress block editor, called Block Accessibility Checks to help content creators make sure their content is accessible, and meets Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). The super early version includes the following checks:

  • core/button has text and a link
  • core/image checks for alt tag, also adds an option to confirm the image is used for decorative purposes, which is not an a11y concern
  • core/table checks for header row on each table

For now, the plugin is available on GitHub. Chaplin plans to submitted it to the WordPress plugin repository, once it is more stable. If you like to test it, use the /developer branch as it includes the /build directory.

With the site editor, content creators gain more power and control over their site’s design and theme. This power also comes with an additional need to learn a new concept: WordPress templates, and their relations to your post and pages. Longtime educator and WordPress expert, Bud Kraus helps you make sense of WordPress templates, in his post on the GoDaddyPro blog. You’ll learn the basis of WordPress themes, and what each block theme template is used for. Kraus also covers WordPress template hierarchy as well as how to find the template used and how to make modifications.

On WPMinute, Matt Medeiros put together a comprehensive guide to uncloak the building blocks of a WordPress site (pun unintended). In Understanding Gutenberg Blocks, Patterns, and Templates, he explains the differences between blocks, patterns, and templates, and how they can be used to create and manage website content more effectively. Medeiros demystifies each component, offering practical insights and examples to help users understand their individual roles and how they work together within the Gutenberg editor. The guide is aimed at aiding WordPress users in leveraging these tools to enhance the customization and functionality of their websites.

Speaking of Block themes, the WordPress Theme repository houses now 909 Block Themes. You can find a theme in nostalgic DOS monochrome computer design, or a theme for a construction company, a digital agency, your photo collection, or for your friendly neighborhood cricket club. I am intrigued by the purpose-driven designs. What is our go-to theme nowadays?

Jeremy Anderberg, WordPress.com, highlighted four new block themes for August 2024. You can browse the hosting company’s theme directory. All 32 free themes are also available for download to use on a site hosted somewhere else. You can find the download links on the respective theme’s page by scrolling to the bottom and looking for the download box.

Fränk Klein collected examples of sites in his post Full-Site Editing in The Real World: 7 websites built using block themes and provides some background to their implementation strategies.

Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks

Joel Olawanle, wrote for Kinsta blog, about the Core concepts to understand in WordPress theme development and covers essential theme files (style.css, index.php, functions.php), the template hierarchy, and child themes. You’ll learn theme customization, best practices for development, including coding standards, security, and performance tips, ensuring you can build and optimize effective WordPress themes.

On GutenbergMarket, James Koussertari published A Comprehensive Guide to Building WordPress Block Themes as a central resource which collates the best articles & tutorials on the web. “Plus, a sprinkle of my own insights, golden nuggets & workarounds.” he wrote on X.

WebDevStudios has released a new collection of WordPress block themes designed to enhance website customization and improve user experience. The themes are tailored to provide seamless integration with the WordPress block editor, allowing for greater flexibility and easier content management. Details on their approach, links to the theme and its demo site and code repository on GitHub all can be found in the article by Lisa Sabin-Wilson, Embracing the Future: How WebDevStudios Is Leading with WordPress Block Themes

In his video WordPress theme json units and spacing scale, Elliott Richmond explains in roughly five minutes how to handle preset for spacing, and how to adjust the user interface for client projects.

Richmond has published over ten quick tutorial videos on how to work with WordPress theme.json. You can catch the other videos via his playlist on YouTube

 “Keeping up with Gutenberg – Index 2024” 
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. 2024 on. Updated by yours truly. The previous years are also available: 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023

In this week’s Developer Hours: Building WordPress themes with the Create Block Theme plugin, Tammie Lister and I explored how to use the Create Block Theme plugin to make block theme development easier. Tammie Lister, core committer, theme maintainer, and contributor to Gutenberg, joined us to explain how it works and talk about the new features. Whether you’ve used the plugin before or created your own block theme, you won’t want to miss this chance to see how it can improve your workflow.

Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor

Joe Velasco wanted to share with you that “I use real WordPress block plugins only”. He took a closer look at plugins that offer blocks and found some have not really subscribed to the concepts of the block editor: They are “disguised as shortcodes” or “blocks with non-native settings”. He goes on and describes what “real WordPress blocks” deliver. And Velasco also quotes Carsten Back, who stopped creating ‘real’ blocks and works within block variations, as he only needs to keep track of the relevant pieces and leave updates of core/blocks to the core contributors.

Justin Tadlock explored the newest feature: Plugin developers can now register block templates via plugins in WordPress 6.7. In WordPress 6.7, plugin developers now can register block templates directly through their plugins. This simplifies the site-building process for users by giving them ready-made layouts and configurations. Tadlock explains how this is done using the register_block_template() function, with a practical example to illustrate the process. Custom templates can be created for different post types, allowing for more flexibility in content presentation. This update aims to enhance the capabilities of the WordPress block editor, making it easier and more intuitive to use.

You can also join Justin Tadlock and Nick Diego at the next Developer Hours on September 10 at 15:00 UTC to discuss the feature and how to use it.

In his post on the WordPress Developer Blog, How to extend a WordPress block Nick Diego published a handy guide for anyone looking to enhance existing WordPress blocks. It covers what block extensions are and why they’re useful, teaches you how to use the Block API filters to tweak settings and components, and gives step-by-step instructions on creating new block variations.

You’ll also learn how to add custom controls to the block inspector for more flexibility. Plus, there’s a complete example to follow, showing the whole process from start to finish. The mix of code snippets and clear explanations makes it easy for developers of all levels to dive in and start customizing.

JuanMa Garrido published his first post on the Developer Blog, Using Data Views to display and interact with data in plugins. He talks about using Data Views in plugins to manage and display data. It starts by explaining what Data Views are and how they improve plugins by handling data efficiently.

There’s a step-by-step guide on setting everything up, along with interactive examples to show how to fetch, display, and update data. The post highlights benefits like better code management and user interaction, and it includes useful code snippets. To wrap up, Garrido summarizes the advantages and suggests further reading. It’s a handy guide for developers wanting to boost their plugins with Data Views.

Back to the basics, was the goal for the Developer Hours: Hello, Blocks! – An Introduction to Block Development. Ryan Welcher and JuanMa Garrido explained how blocks are structured and defined within WordPress, giving you a foundational understanding of block.json, attributes, block supports, and more. You will learn the differences between statically and dynamically rendered blocks, along with the pros and cons of each. Finally, we introduced tools that will help you quickly start creating your own custom blocks.

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

GitHub all releases

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

Featured Image: “Wooden Blocks” by limecools is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

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1 Comment

Gutenberg and block themes gives more flexibility to WordPress sites. I love using them on my blogs. It’s so easy to use and manage them. Thanks for this shout out.