Happy Holidays!
It’s almost there, in less than two weeks, we leave 2020 behind us and start the New Year! Wishing you and yours all the best for this new beginning, good health, prosperity and happiness.
Yours, 💕
Birgit
State of the Word
This week’s State of the Word was different from the previous years, as it didn’t come with a whole room full of WordPress enthusiast at a WordCamp US. This year it was a short sweet 26 minutes keynote by Matt Mullenweg with appearances of Joen Asmussen demoing the Site Editor and Josepha Haden introducing successful businesses that started because of the pandemic. “When online is your only options, WordPress is your best option”.
The Question & Answer session was also different: WordPress Community members were asked to send in their questions via video, and instead answering all the questions himself, Matt deferred to other members on the WordPress teams. It was high diversity crowd coming together.
Sarah Gooding wrote a full recap for the WPTavern.
David Bisset also posted an excellent summary with some background information on the Post Status newsletter.
Here on the Gutenberg Times, I was most intrigued by the demo of the beta version of the Site-Editor by Joen Asmussen. You can read all about here.
Learn.WordPress was officially launched with over 30 Workshops and Discussion groups. Let Hugh Lashbrooke introduce you to the new program. We have a list of Block Editor Workshops, for beginners and advanced content creators and developers.
G2 Components, a From-Scratch Reimagining of WordPress Components (WPTavern)
Justin Tadlock wrote about Jon Quach’s new component design system, G2 Components, that has been in the works for the last six months. It’s about to start bleeding into the Gutenberg @wordpress/components script, with switching out the base components one at a time, without breaking 3rd party developers plugins. At least that’s the idea of it. Jon and the Gutenberg team is carefully walking the backwards compatibility line. The developer experience around the block-editor will get a major upgrade once the G2 components are successfully integrated. They will not only be available for the block-editor but of other wp-admin interfaces as well.
Block-based Themes (aka Full-Site-Editing)
How to use the scaffolding script to start your new block-based theme, is the topic of this article in the WPTavern by Justin Tadlock. He walks you how to get started and then use the Gutenberg site-editor to finish the theme. It’s a bar bones theme, of course, a fresh canvas for designers. Justin then digs into the various pieces of the generated theme.
Carolina Nymark, contributor to the Themes team and educator at full-site-editing.com, started the “Discussion: Requirements for full site editing themes” for themes to be approved to the official Themes repository on WordPress.org.
Ernesto Mendez wrote Part II in ThemeShaper’s series of Getting Started with Block Themes on Templates. He explained: “In the classic way of theming, we usually have functions that give us the different parts that make up a post, such as the_title(), the_content(), and so on. Block themes give us the same features using blocks directly!”. Ernesto also shared shared more about the difference between a classic WordPress theme and a block-based one and walks you through creation, saving and editing of the various pieces.
Help Steer the Future of WordPress via the FSE Outreach Program “The official launch of the program should coincide with the release of Gutenberg 9.6, which is expected to ship within the next week. The program will focus on specific features and flows related to full-site editing.” wrote Justin Tadlock
Kjell Reigstad published is #32 Gutenberg + Themes: Week update of ongoing development. He keeps us updated on the latest discussions and issues that can use your input. Also, his list of Overview Issues and Resources is a treasure chest.
I just discovered an article I missed in by Ari Stathopoulos: “Printing navigation-block HTML from a legacy menu in themes” Something really helpful when you might need to migrate a site from a classic theme to a block-based theme. If you are up for a theme experiment, earlier this month, Kjell published a Photo blog theme for blocks
Block Pattern Directory
Speaking of WordPress.org Directory: Late in October, Alex Shiels kicked of the work on a Block Pattern Directory ideas and discussion.
The meta-team hasn’t been wasting any time. You can follow along on the GitHub repository and its project board for the initial version. Similar to the Block-directory, there are a few moving pieces that need to fit together:
- The website of the Pattern Directory for WordPress.org, similar to on the plugin and themes directories.
- Pattern Directory support in the core editor so users can search and insert block patterns directory from the inserter, similar to the block directory, without the installation steps. Patterns probably can be directly added to the post or page from the directory.
- Pattern Submission Tool – based on the editor with sidebar controls and metadata entry. This will include a validation and curation step before the submitted pattern is published. You can also follow along the first designs by Michael Arestad. This is probably the most exciting part of the new directory as it will accommodate the community’s creativity.
- Pattern Directory API for the backend of the site
- REST-API end-point, and
- new Pattern CPT permissions for creation and editing
Developing for the Block Editor
Ronald Huereca published a 12 part series on “Creating a Gutenberg Sidebar” plugin. He wrote: “Building sidebars is hard and not very straightforward.” In he walks you through how to get webpack set up so you can create a sidebar without the use of any boiler-plate-type scripts. This is set up as a basic course to create a plugin for WordPress, in general and for the block-editor specifically.
WordPress Events
January 22, 2021 – 24-hour event
The festival of WordPress – WordFest
Enabling a global celebration of WordPress, bringing our community together in a safe environment, whilst facilitating freedom of movement within a 24-hour virtual event. The organizers just announced the first, second, third and fourth set of speakers, among them Leonardo Losoviz, Chris Ford, Fatima Sarah Khalid, Naomi C. Bush, Piccia Neri and so many more. Can’t wait until the organizer publish the list of sessions. The format is 30 min pre-recorded w/ 15 min Q & A, so attendees can interact with the speakers live.
January 28th, 2021 at 11 am ET / 16:00 UTC
Gutenberg Times Live Q & A: WordPress Site-Editor (TNG)
We talk with Carolina Nymark back, our resident expert on Full-site Editing as well as Ari Stathopoulos, Core Contributor and who landed the first block-based theme, Q, in the repository and Anne McCarthy, who runs the Full-Site editing outreach program. We’ll have the latest updates on Full-Site-Editing, block-based Themes and Global Styles for you and answer all your questions.
January 30–February 14, 2021
WordCamp India
Yes! You read those dates right. The Organizers plan to have our WordCamp over three weekends! It will be a fully online event
- January 30 – 31 – Workshop Days
- February 6 – 7 – Contributor Days
- February 13 – 14 – Speaker Talks
The call for speakers will be open until December 31, 2020.
