Howdy,
After a weekend of deep winter, we are back to Spring temperatures in Bavaria. How is Spring/Fall coming along in your part of the World?
On the WordPress front, core developers are working hard to get features in for the next major release of WordPress 6.0. My favorite feature is the Cover Block for the features image in the Post template. It’s my first time on a major release squad, and I am so glad, I am not the only co-lead for documentation. I will learn a ton about the process and this release!
What is your favorite feature you can barely wait for it to land in WordPress Core? Hit reply and let me know!
As always,
Yours, đ
Birgit
PS: WordPress 5.9.3 came out as Security and Maintenance release. It fixes 19 bugs, including Cover and Image Blocks. Update if you haven’t yet. đ§
WordPress 6.0 Walkthrough
The recording of the April 5th, 2022 Walkthrough of what’s to come in WordPress 6.0 is now available on WordPress.TV.
Dan Soschin published a 6.0 Product Walk-Through Recap with a summary, an issues list, the chat transcript and a video transcript..Get a sneak peek at what is coming to WordPress 6.0 and what might still need some work before it will be available in Core.
The Highlights:
- Style Switcher
- More Templates: Date, Author, Category, Tags
- WebFonts API
- Gap Support for the Gallery Block
- Block Locking UI
- New and improved Color Panel
- Intuitive transforms that remain styling between blocks
- Select text across multiple blocks
- Flex-based container blocks including Row and Stack
- List View with refined UI and accessibility improvements.
And there is more. Check it out!
Sarah Gooding watched the Walkthrough and has this article for you: WordPress Contributors Host 6.0 Walkthrough
During this week’s #core-editor meeting the release co-coordinator Hector Prieto announced that Gutenberg 13.0 will be the last plugin version to make it into WordPress 6.0. To give a few developers a couple more days to land their commits, the RC for 13.0 was pushed to 4/8/22.
Developing Themes, Custom Blocks and Features for the Block Editor
Ryan Welcher: published on YouTube the recording of his live demo: Integrating a custom post type into Gutenberg and Full Site Editing.
Daisy Olsen held a series of five Social Learning events on Zero to Block Theme Parts 1 â 5. In this GT post, all topics, videos, and resources are listed. This is the one-stop post to get started with developing block themes.
Munir Kamal gives you an Introduction to the Gutenberg block styles API for developers. Using Block Styles is a feasible way to introduce additional styles, and flavors of core blocks without having the build custom blocks. Kamal explains the various aspects on the example on changing the bullet styles of a unordered list block, adding stars, hearts, and arrows instead of bullets.
Ben Dwyer posted this week’s Gutenberg + Themes round-up (78th) highlighting important discussion and features for theme builders. He covered:
- Block locking UI,
- New template types
- Theme exporting, and
- Patterns, that don’t need any PHP files anymore.
Sean Langlands, Support Engineer, WordPress VIP wrote “How Gutenberg Guardrails Empower Creators: Theme.json and Block Locking APIs in WordPress“. This post contributes to the discussion on how much control can the user have in a corporate environment where brand guidelines, limit color choices and design systems need to be adhered to for a consistent publishing experience. Langlands, covers the settings controlled via theme.json,, how to protect important block patterns, and how you can use theme.json and the locking API with a classic theme. The article is full of resources to dig deeper and provides an example theme.json.
How to disable theme features and Lock Block Templates for Full-Site Editing in WordPress on Gutenberg Times
Nick Schäferhoff took an in-depth look into WordPress Block Patterns for the Torque magazine. You’ll learn why and how to use them. After a thorough introduction, Schäferhoff explains the two ways to create Block patterns: via code or via a plugin, and how to edit a pattern once you added it to your site. He then lists multiple sources to obtain patterns. It’s an excellent article to get you started on the topic.
WordPress in the newsroom
Freedy Mayhew of PressGazette, shared how they, together with WordPress VIP partner Big Bite, transformed the editorial production process for global newsroom and how they use Gutenberg and headless WordPress for sites that publish around 500 articles a day.
BigBite published a white paper on the same topic: WordPress in the newsroom: Scaling up editorial production. “It looks at why WordPress is fast becoming the platform of choice for broadsheets and tabloids alike, and it includes an overview of its evolution as well as a brief history of digital publishing. It also outlines how Big Biteâs team collaborates with clients to extend the functionality of Gutenberg and meet the bespoke needs of global newsrooms, resulting in unprecedented agility and production speed. ” They wrote on their webpage where you can download the white paper. (for free, without giving out your email) .
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.
Updates for Content Creators and #nocode site builders
Derek Hanson recounts his experience recreating the WordPress Twenty Seventeen Theme using full site editing. “Iâve been excited about full site editing (FSE) and the future of WordPress theme design for a long time. Itâs a slow process, but each new Gutenberg plugin release and the forthcoming WordPress 6.0 show just how far WordPress has come along in democratizing publishing on the web.” Hanson wrote. He gives kudos to Anne McCarthy and Jamie Marsland for their inspiration. Hanson also submitted a set of Block Patterns to the Pattern Directory.
The current count of Block Themes in the WordPress Theme directory is 62. The latest approved themes are:
Grigora Blocks Has the Potential To Be a Solid Starter Theme by Justin Tadlock.
Wes Theron published a new video on Learn.WordPress – The difference between reusable blocks, block patterns, templates, and template parts. Watch a walk through the key differences between reusable blocks, block patterns, templates, and template parts. Theron also shed light on when and why you need to use them.
On Twitter, Ana Segota announced the Pro version of full-site editing Bricksy theme is now available on Anariel Design site. “I’m soo excited to announce our first #FSE premium theme Bricksy Pro đ.. With its full-site editing experience, professionally designed block, and page patterns, it is fully customizable and easy to use”, she wrote.
Bud Kraus‘ recording of his Social Learning event with the title Creating A Sidebar For Your Posts Using The Full Site Editing Blank Template also was just published on WordPress.tv
In the WPTavern this week
All block related articles by Justin Tadlock
- Featured Cover Blocks and the Future of Binding Data to Generic WordPress Blocks
- Displaying Post Modified and Reading Times via WordPress Blocks
- How To Build Book and Book Review Cards with WordPress Blocks
đď¸ Latest episode: Gutenberg Changelog #98 â WordPress 6.5, Gutenberg 18.0 Community Theme Project and the Contributor Mentorship Program with special guest Maggie Cabrera
FSE Program Updates
From the FSE Program, two post have been published this week by Anne McCarthy
FSE Program: Answers from Round Four of Questions with 10 distinct questions answered. The most elaborate answer with lots of resources to discussion and work in progress received the question: “Can we expect the ability to create our own block patterns and export full block themes?” It’s not the only burning question people had, through. Check out the post .
Also available, is now the feedback from the 12th call for testing Hyping Headers Summary. Anne McCarthy curated all the comments into topics after the high-level summary: templates and template parts, design tools, patterns, and general usability feedback.
The ease of laying out the header with rows/columns and dropping in site elements (logo/site title/navigation) was awesome.”
Carrie Dils
Justin Tadlock heard the call for testing and shared his experience in this article: FSE Outreach #13: Building an Author Template from the WordPress Site Editor
If you’d like to get hands-on with the new features, leave your feedback by April 21, 2022, on the post: FSE Program Testing Call #13: Authoring an Author Template.
Upcoming WordPress Events
8 Social Learning Meetups
April 12, 2022 2pm EDT 18:00 UTC
Builder Basics: Headers and Footers in Full Site Editing w/ Nick Diego
April 13, 2022, 10 am EDT / 14:00 UTC
Create a Magazine Layout with the WordPress Gutenberg Block Editor with Wes Theron
April 15, 2022, 11 am EDT / 15:00 UTC
Block Theme Discussions: Presets in theme.json with Daisy Olsen
April 19, 2022 2pm EDT / 18:00 UTC
Builder Basics: Exploring Block Layout, Alignment, and Dimensions (Part 2)
April 20, 2022 – 3am EDT / 7am UTC
No-Code Techniques to Showcase Your Images on Any Device with Benjamin Evans
April 20, 2022 12:00 pm EDT / 16:00 UTC
Understanding the Page Editor vs. Site Editor with Georgina Reeder
April 21, 2022 3 am EDT / 7 am UTC
Using Block Patterns with Wes Theron
April 25, 2022 noon EDT / 16:00 UTC
Hello Blocks! Coding a custom block with Ryan Welcher and Wes Theron
WordCamps and other events
More and more WordCamps are being scheduled! On WordCamp Central you can view the whole calendar.
April 20th, 2022 – 10 am – 4 pm CST
DE{CODE} 2022
a virtual developer conference by WPEngine
May 16-20, 2022
WordSesh
A virtual conference. Call for Speaker is open
June 2 – 4th, 2022
WordCamp Europe
Sign up for updates to get notifications about speakers, sessions, and schedule.
June 25, 2022
WordCamp Montclair, NJ
The call for speakers is open only until April 15th, 2022
June 20 – 24, 2022
Page Builder Summit will take place June 20th to June 24, 2022. The call for sponsors is still open. Sign-up for the VIP list to learn first when tickets are available and the schedule is published.
September 9 – 11, 2022
WordCamp US
in-person conference in San Diego. Call for Speakers is open, deadline April 17th, 2022
On the Calendar for WordPress Online Events site, you can browse a list of the upcoming WordPress Events, around the world, including WordCamps, WooCommerce, Elementor, Divi Builder and Beaver Builder meetups.
