Howdy,
Containers are on my mind. In one of those, our household will be shipped next week. 🚚 We will be AirBnB-ing for a few weeks. Exciting times.
I need to sort through some paperwork and create the inventory for the insurance. Sorry for the short intro, today.
Wish me luck!
Yours, 💕
Birgit
Josepha Haden Chomphosy joined DocPop on the Torque Social Hour. They discussed WordPress 20-year Anniversary celebration, WordPress 6.2 – Phase 2 to Phase 3. Torque Social Hour: Preparing for WP20 Celebrations. In this episode, Haden Chomphosy told us about the upcoming plans for WordPress’s 20th Anniversary. They also talked about WP version 6.2, the recent acquisition of the ActivityPub plugin for WordPress, and Plugin Madness 2023.
Developing Gutenberg and WordPress
It’s release candidate week in WordPress land: WordPress 6.2 RC 2 was released on March 14, 2023, and Gutenberg 15.4 RC 1 is also available for testing.
WordPress 6.2 comes with a browse mode of the Site Editor. This includes a black left menu bar that blends in and out depending on if you are editing a template or browsing the menu. Until RC 2, “Navigation” was one of the menu items on the left admin menu, it was, however, pulled before this week’s RC 2. Anne McCarthy summarized the discussion around this issue in their post: FYI: Navigation section of new Site Editor experienced removed for 6.2 RC 2 and shared also the list of issues this feature has. Each one a minor item in the sum it wasn’t up to the quality contributors aimed for.
🎙️ Latest episode: Gutenberg Changelog #89 – Gutenberg 16.6, default theme and Font Library with Nadia Maya Ardiani as special guest, hosted by Birgit Pauli-Haack
WPEngine’s one-day virtual developer conference DE{CODE} will take place next week March 21 through 23rd, 2023. DE{CODE} will be broadcast in three global time zones and anticipates over 5,000 attendees in its fourth year, launching in 2020. Matt Mullenweg and Matias Ventura will discuss the future of WordPress and the rapid innovations in the block editor relied upon by millions of WordPress developers worldwide. It’s also part of the 20-year anniversary celebration of WordPress . Have a look at the schedule of all the great sessions at DE{CODE} 2023

Anne McCarthy was a guest of Rob Cairns for the latest episode. They talk All about 6.2 on Stunning Digital Marketing podcast. Highlights of the show:
- What is coming in WordPress 6.2 .
- The coolest features in WordPress 6.2
- When are we going to update the WordPress Admin Dashboard?
- When are we going to fix the Media Library?
Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners
Jamie Marsland, shows off the Side Editor and Block Themes again via YouTube. He uses both to rebuild Austin Kleon’s website, using the newest WordPress version.
Austin Kleon is the New York Times bestselling author of a trilogy of illustrated books about creativity in the digital age: Steal Like An Artist, Show Your Work!, and Keep Going.
WooCommerce 7.5 has been released, and the post highlights that Woo Blocks are ready for the new feature of the StyleBook coming in WordPress 6.2, Blocks have been rewritten, so users can use the core design tools for changing the look and feel, the block can be easier styled by block themes, and new blocks to manage the store can now be found in the inserter of the block editor.
Sarah Gooding of WPTavern has more details: WooCommerce 7.5.0 Introduces 3 New Blocks, Expands Support for Global Styles
Learn.WordPress Tutorial: Displaying testimonials on your website with Wes Theron. This tutorial will look at adding a testimonial pattern and installing a new block from the Block Directory to your site.
Aki Hamano, a Gutenberg contributor from Japan, released a new version of his Flexible Table Block plugin, with the main changes
- Tested on WordPress6.2
- Redesigned global settings modal
- apply stripe color to tbody only
- Preserve rowspan/colspan when converting to/from core table blocks
Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks
Mike McAlister acclaims: Patterns are gonna be a game changer for WordPress, and he tells you why, after a recap of the genesis of Block Patterns: ” instead of designing a page from scratch, WordPress creators can now lean on patterns to quickly prototype or design their full website in the new WordPress Site Editor with little or no code involved.” McAlister also has concrete vision on how patterns could be a bit more intelligent:
- Go global: change once, update to all places where patterns were added.
- Pattern locking features
- Light/dark version of the same pattern.
If that topic interests you more, Justin Tadlock wrote a post on the Developer Blog, introducing Creating Themes from a Pattern-first mindset
Ganesh Dahal wrote on CSS Tricks on Managing Fonts in WordPress Block Themes. “Block themes can indeed use Google Fonts, but the process for registering them is way different from what you might have done before in classic themes.” he explained.
On the WordPress Developer Blog, Daisy Olsen takes you along when she shows you Block theme templates: the easy way to build an elegant grid of posts. “WordPress block themes let you lay out your home page in countless ways, with endless flexibility. To get you started and show you just a few of the possibilities, this tutorial will help you build a magazine-style home page that shows several recent posts and then a traditional post list for inner pages.“Olsen summarized. Olsen also live-streams regularly on Twitch: Next event: Friday, March 31, 2023 7:30 AM to 9:00 AM Topic: Block Themes and WordPress: Exploring WordPress 6.2
Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor.
In his latest recording, Ryan Welcher wrapped up building an OpenAI block for WordPress. In a previous edition, Welcher built an OpenAI integrated block that can generate images for use in our content. In this show, he turned it into a plugin that is part of the editor interface and inserted image blocks automatically after uploading the selected image.
If you missed the earlier parts of this series, they are also available on YouTube
Using the WordPress REST API is how block editor development interacts with data. Jonathan Bossenger created a series of Workshops on how to use the API.
- Using the WP REST API: Learn how to use the WP REST API to interact with existing WordPress data.
- Interacting with the WP REST API: Learn how to interact add and delete data. The tutorial also looks at a useful developer tool for testing endpoints.
- WP REST API updates, custom fields, and authentication: Learn how to use the REST API and Backbone.js to make update requests, add/update custom fields, and authenticate requests when logged out.
- WP REST API – modifying responses: Learn one of the ways to extend the REST API by modifying responses.
- WP REST API – custom routes and endpoints: Learn how to create custom routes and endpoints and test them with Postman.
I also highly recommend watching K. Adam White‘s talk at WordCamp Asia on Getting the most out of the REST API. During the talk, White renamed it to “Getting the most out of WordPress when you’re writing Block Editor code”. (Recording) (Slidedeck)
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