a:4:{s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:3:"rss";a:1:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:3:"


";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:7:"version";s:3:"2.0";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:7:"channel";a:1:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:61:"
	
	
	
	




















































";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16:"WordPress Planet";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"language";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2:"en";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"WordPress Planet - http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"item";a:50:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"WPTavern: MapLibre Launches as Official Open Source Successor to Mapbox GL JS";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110489";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:199:"https://wptavern.com/maplibre-launches-as-official-open-source-successor-to-mapbox-gl-js?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=maplibre-launches-as-official-open-source-successor-to-mapbox-gl-js";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2864:"<p>In December, Mapbox shocked its open source contributor community with the news that <a href="https://wptavern.com/mapbox-gl-js-is-no-longer-open-source">Mapbox GL JS version 2.0 would be released under a proprietary license</a>. The JavaScript library powers interactive, customizable vector maps on many high profile websites like CNN, The New York Times, Ancestry, Strava, Shopify, Facebook, and more. Older versions remain open source but Mapbox will only be investing in developing new features for the proprietary version going forward.</p>



<p>Multiple parties started their own forks immediately following Mapbox&rsquo;s announcement. In an effort to avoid fragmentation, the community worked together to merge their ideas under one project. One month later, <a href="https://github.com/maplibre/maplibre-gl-js">MapLibre GL</a> is now the official open source successor to Mapbox GL JS. The project&rsquo;s founders represent a diverse group of companies who relied on the open source software, including MapTiler, Elastic, StadiaMaps, Microsoft, Ceres Imaging, WhereGroup, Jawg, Stamen Design, and more.</p>



<p>&ldquo;In December 2020, Mapbox released the second version of their JavaScript library for publishing maps online,&rdquo; MapTiler founder and CEO Petr Pridal said. &ldquo;However, this time all the new features were overshadowed by a change in the license: previously free as in freedom, it became closed for external contributors and usage was restricted to people with active Mapbox subscriptions. One has to pay even for loading this JavaScript library.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Pridal said the MapLibre project name is a shortened form of &ldquo;Map library restarted (or reinvented),&rdquo; with <em>libre</em> referring to freedom and independence. Its founders agreed that MapLibre should be provider-independent, so developers can load maps from their preferred providers or self-hosted maps.</p>



<p> The community-led fork may also become home to <a href="https://github.com/maptiler/maplibre-gl-native">MapLibre GL Native</a>, as contributors are considering a proposal to put MapTiler&rsquo;s open source fork of Mapbox&rsquo;s mobile map SDKs for Android and iOS under the MapLibre umbrella.</p>



<p>Mapbox is used by <a href="https://jetpack.com/support/jetpack-blocks/map-block/">WordPress.com</a> as well as in Jetpack for the <a href="https://jetpack.com/support/jetpack-blocks/map-block/">Map block</a>. The library is also used in many&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/search/mapbox/">plugins</a>&nbsp;on WordPress.org, some with tens of thousands of users. Plugin developers who have integrated Mapbox GL JS version 1.13 or older will want to check out the <a href="https://github.com/maplibre/maplibre-gl-js">MapLibre</a> project as an open source alternative to Mapbox&rsquo;s proprietary 2.0 update. </p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 15 Jan 2021 23:51:33 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:1;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:99:"WPTavern: A Multi-Theme System, the Decade-Long Wait for Grandchild Themes, and Themeless Templates";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110476";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:239:"https://wptavern.com/a-multi-theme-system-the-decade-long-wait-for-grandchild-themes-and-themeless-templates?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-multi-theme-system-the-decade-long-wait-for-grandchild-themes-and-themeless-templates";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5990:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Around 2010, child theming had finally caught its stride. Bigger theme shops were starting to take note, and some were implementing advanced parent themes that were meant to serve as a &ldquo;framework&rdquo; for creating child themes. The theme development community hit a bit of a brick wall amid this explosion of child theming. Grandchild themes became a topic of debate.</p>



<p>One of the use cases for child themes was to protect customizations made by end-users. When the parent theme was updated, those changes remained intact within the child theme. Users could get bug fixes and enhancements without worry. It was an ingenious system.</p>



<p>However, another use case for child themes was to create vast customizations of the parent theme. Many of these child themes were marketed and sold to end-users. <em>The problem?</em> There was no way for users to protect their customizations if and when the developer updated the child theme. WordPress had no grandchild theme concept or any other sort of cascading theme system beyond the parent-child relationship.</p>



<p>So, the problem remained. Unsolved.</p>



<p>Some businesses such as StudioPress and its Genesis parent theme thrived over the years with this system. Others moved along. In reality, child theming became a niche feature that WordPress never expanded upon in any meaningful way. Theme authors were left to their own devices. With the arrival of the customizer and the expansion of page builders, code customizations almost disappeared. Most modifications were handled via an interface launched from the WordPress admin. The average user had little need to DIY their way through custom templates. Thus began child theming&rsquo;s drizzle into near obscurity.</p>



<p>Gutenberg&rsquo;s site editor, which will likely land in WordPress this year, had seemed to be the upcoming final blow to the child theming paradigm. Everyone from developers to end-users will be able to roll out custom templates directly from the WordPress admin.</p>



<p>However, should we be rethinking the role of a hierarchical theming system?</p>



<p>Full Site Editing is already introducing an extra level to the hierarchy. Traditionally, WordPress theming had a two-tier template hierarchy. In the future, it will add a tier for user-created templates. If that is possible, why not go ahead and throw in grandchild themes? Or, simply do away with such arbitrary limitations altogether?</p>



<p>A new pull request to the Gutenberg repository essentially <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/28131">creates a multi-theme system</a>. Or, rather, it creates a multi-theme templating system. Aside from the <code>style.css</code>, <code>functions.php</code>, and <code>theme.json</code> files, block-based themes are essentially a collection of templates.</p>



<p>The patch is proposing that users should be able to opt into this multi-template system. They would have the option to keep templates from an old theme around when they switch to a new one. While not currently implemented in the pull request, he also proposes allowing users to clone templates from their old theme.</p>



<p>&ldquo;In recent months, there have been whispers around the future possibility of multiple themes being active, templates being &lsquo;themeless,&rsquo; etc.,&rdquo; wrote patch creator. &ldquo;This branch is an implementation of that. The idea behind this implementation is there can only be one active theme at a time, but the <code>wp_theme</code> taxonomy can be used to link up individual templates / template parts with one or more themes at a time.&rdquo;</p>



<p>It does not fulfill the dreams of a decade-old grandchild theme system. However, it could provide some precedent for exploring a full hierarchical theme system.</p>



<p>With the simplification and further standardization of how themes work, we should be dusting off old ideas and shoving them into a new light.</p>



<p>Full Site Editing will eventually solve the grandchild theme problem regardless of whether it had intended to. With the new tier of custom user templates, the upgradability problem created years ago will simply disappear. Users will be able to readily update their parent and child themes without fear of losing customizations. WordPress will safely store their custom templates in the database. It will even keep their design changes via the Global Styles system. Maybe, just maybe, child themes will begin to reach their initial height of popularity.</p>



<p>With the proposed system, users could mix and match templates from unrelated themes. If this happens, it begs the question of whether <em>theme</em> templates are even necessary.</p>



<p>Last year, Rich Tabor opened a discussion on the possibility of a <a href="https://richtabor.com/the-future-of-wordpress-themes/">single master theme</a> for WordPress. In that system, WordPress would create a set of base templates. Theme authors could simply override the pieces that they wanted. They could even pare themes down to simple <code>style.css</code> and <code>theme.json</code> files.</p>



<p>That almost seems to be a recipe for bland and boring themes. However, if you couple it with a template directory on WordPress.org similar to what GutenbergHub has <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-hub-launches-landing-page-templates-directory">already introduced</a>, users could pick and choose the templates they want. It could be both wondrous and disastrous, but I would not mind exploring the idea.</p>



<p>WordPress and its Gutenberg project have a lot of options on the table. Theme building could become interesting in the next year or two.</p>



<p class="is-style-highlight"><strong>Update:</strong><em> some names have been removed from this post at the request of the people in question.  While this is not standard procedure, they were removed because they were not integral to the story in this instance.</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 15 Jan 2021 21:04:52 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:2;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:83:"WPTavern: New Local Blueprint Enables One-Click Setup for Testing Full Site Editing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110252";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:211:"https://wptavern.com/new-local-blueprint-enables-one-click-setup-for-testing-full-site-editing?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-local-blueprint-enables-one-click-setup-for-testing-full-site-editing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5484:"<p>If you haven&rsquo;t yet tested the Gutenberg team&rsquo;s progress on the full site editing (FSE) project, WordPress developer Carrie Dils has created a <a href="https://carriedils.com/full-site-editing-blueprint-for-local/">blueprint for Local</a> that makes it easy to jump right in. Full site editing is phase 2 on the Gutenberg roadmap and is one of the <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-7-development-kicks-off-with-focus-on-full-site-editing">main focuses</a> for WordPress core development in 2021. (Check out <a href="https://wptavern.com/what-is-full-site-editing-and-what-does-it-mean-for-the-future-of-wordpress">What Is Full Site Editing and What Does It Mean for the Future of WordPress</a> for a more in-depth look at why it is critical for end users to provide feedback during its development.)</p>



<p><a href="https://localwp.com/">Local</a> is one of the most popular free development tools for WordPress that allows users to set up new testing sites with one click, along with a host of more advanced features. Blueprints make it possible for users to save any site as a Blueprint so that it can be used as a quick start setup option later. The blueprint includes all files, databases, config files, and Local settings. Dils&rsquo; <a href="https://carriedils.com/full-site-editing-blueprint-for-local/">full site editing blueprint</a> includes the following: </p>



<ul><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/">Gutenberg</a>&nbsp;plugin (with &ldquo;Full Site Editing&rdquo; experiment enabled)</li><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments">WordPress theme experiments</a>&nbsp;(these are themes with support for full site editing) with the Twenty Twenty-One Blocks theme enabled</li><li><a href="https://github.com/Automattic/theme-tools/tree/master/gutenberg-test-data">Gutenberg test data</a>&nbsp;(demo blog posts that use the most common Gutenberg blocks)</li></ul>



<p>Follow Dils&rsquo; instructions for downloading and installing the FSE blueprint on MacOS or Windows. Local does not yet have an easy way for installing and sharing blueprints to other Local users, so you will need to add it to the right place within the application&rsquo;s files. If you find that you don&rsquo;t have a Blueprints folder, it may be because it is hidden or because you have never created a blueprint before. Once the zip file is in the right location, you will see the full site editing blueprint among the advanced options when you set up a new site: </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>Once your site is set up, you can start exploring the brave new world of full site editing. (Be prepared &ndash; it is far from production ready but FSE is at a critical time in its development where it needs testing from real users to be a success.) The Gutenberg plugin may need to be updated to the latest. Your new site editing playground can be launched from the Site Editor menu item. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>On the frontend you will find the Twenty Twenty Blocks theme activated. You can also test using the <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/tt1-blocks/">Twenty Twenty-One (TT1) Blocks theme</a>, which was added to the WordPress.org Themes directory today, or any of the other experimental block based themes included in the blueprint. Click around, explore the template browser, try editing the template parts, change the global styles, and see how it&rsquo;s coming along. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>The current state of full site editing is rough. It&rsquo;s hard to tell a feature from a bug at times, but once you get familiar with navigating it you might consider joining the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/11/the-fse-outreach-program-is-officially-starting/">FSE Outreach Experiment</a>. This is an effort to test different aspects of site editing in order to ground the interface in real world feedback as it is developed. For the past few weeks, contributors have been testing the interaction between editing a post versus editing templates. </p>



<p>Anne McCarthy posted the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2020/12/23/fse-program-testing-call-1-template-editing/">first call for testing</a> to the&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/">Make Test</a>&nbsp;blog with instructions for participants. </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>This call for testing is designed to explore the interaction between the two editing experiences (post vs. template editing) to make sure it&rsquo;s clear when you&rsquo;re editing each, granular saving works properly, etc. Ultimately, being able to edit templates like index, single, or archive directly is a huge leap forward compared to what&rsquo;s been possible in the past! Unlocking this level of customization gives you far more control to build the site you want and this call for testing is to help ensure it&rsquo;s as intuitive as possible.</p></blockquote>



<p>The second testing challenge should be published soon. Anyone can contribute by following along with the test script and leaving comments on the post or <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues">logging them as issues on GitHub</a>. Participants are also invited to join the&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/fse-outreach-experiment/">#fse-outreach-experiment</a>&nbsp;channel on WordPress Slack for updates or questions regarding testing.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 15 Jan 2021 08:21:52 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:3;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:73:"WPTavern: Show and Hide Content via the Block Visibility WordPress Plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110411";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:191:"https://wptavern.com/show-and-hide-content-via-the-block-visibility-wordpress-plugin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=show-and-hide-content-via-the-block-visibility-wordpress-plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5736:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Nick Diego&rsquo;s <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/block-visibility/">Block Visibility</a> is not the only plugin to take on the challenge of controlling when blocks are visible on the front end. Other plugins like EditorsKit do a fine job of it. However, Block Visibility is a solution users should not overlook, even if they have already begun testing other options.</p>



<p>Diego first released the plugin in August 2020. Since then, he has added routine updates that have added value without shifting its focus.</p>



<p>One of the biggest reasons to use this plugin is that it is a standalone project. It is purely about doing one thing and doing it well. Its settings are all about giving users complete control over how they want to manage block visibility. From my experience with it, the plugin does its job better than alternatives.</p>



<p>It may not have a large number of installs, but if its five-star rating on WordPress.org is any indication, it at least has a happy user base.</p>



<p>Diego does have plans for a <a href="https://www.blockvisibilitywp.com/premium/">pro add-on</a>. The tentative release date is set for Spring 2021. He seems to be moving forward with that launch after adding some foundational code in the recent version 1.4 release.</p>



<p>&ldquo;As Block Visibility grows, there will be advanced and/or niche functionality that will be useful for certain users,&rdquo; wrote Diego in the <a href="https://www.blockvisibilitywp.com/whats-new-in-version-1-4/">1.4 release announcement</a>. &ldquo;Think integrations with other third-party plugins. There will always be a free version of the plugin but some of these additional features will ultimately be provided by a premium (paid) add-on called Block Visibility Pro.&rdquo;</p>



<p>In my previous job, one of my primary products focused on membership solutions. There is a seemingly endless number of possibilities that users dream up to control content visibility. I have little doubt that a pro add-on is necessary for catching all of the edge cases.</p>



<h2>How the Plugin Works</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Block Visibility is easy to use. End-users click a toggle switch, select from a date-picker, or tick a radio box. Their blocks are shown or hidden on the front end based on their selections. It does not get much simpler than that.</p>



<p>The plugin adds a new &ldquo;Visibility&rdquo; tab for each block, which displays the visibility controls. The exception to this is for inner blocks. For example, the Columns block has controls, but the inner Column blocks do not. However, this can be enabled for inner blocks via the &ldquo;Full Control Mode&rdquo; on the plugin&rsquo;s settings screen.</p>



<p>There are three primary types of options:</p>



<ul><li>Hide the block from everyone.</li><li>Time-based start and stop dates for displaying.</li><li>Visibility by user role.</li></ul>



<img />Block Visibility&rsquo;s controls in the inspector.



<p>Hiding the block from everyone might be useful for users who are testing on a page or for blocks that are a work in progress. Start and stop dates create the potential for drip or trial content on membership-based sites, especially when combined with the role-based visibility options.</p>



<p>These basic options will cover the majority of scenarios that the average user will need them for.</p>



<p>One of the nicer features of the plugin is that it adds a transparent gray overlay, dashed border, and icon to each block that has visibility options set. This is shown when the block is not selected in the editor. It is one of those small touches that make the plugin useful.</p>



<img />Overlay for blocks with visibility options.



<p>There is one confusing piece of the UI. There are two instances where there is a &ldquo;public&rdquo; option. That label immediately makes me think that the block should be visible to everyone. However, reading the description is necessary. These options are for showing content to logged-out users only. I would rather see these two options renamed to &ldquo;logged out&rdquo; for clarity.</p>



<h2>A Promising Future</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">While Block Visibility is a solid plugin right now, we are barely scratching the surface of what will be possible in the long run. In version 1.4, released two weeks ago, Diego added preliminary compatibility with Full Site Editing. This means visibility options will no longer be confined to the post or page content.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Once every piece of content on a website is a &lsquo;block,&rsquo; you will be able to easily control the visibility of practically anything on a WordPress website,&rdquo; wrote Diego in the version 1.4 announcement post. &ldquo;From dynamic navigation menus to user specific headers and footers, the possibilities are endless!&rdquo;</p>



<p>Gutenberg&rsquo;s site editor is a beta feature right now, but the plugin&rsquo;s integration seems to already work well. I ran a quick test to show a custom nav menu to shop customers only. I had no problems on my end.</p>



<img />Setting visibility options for a menu in Gutenberg&rsquo;s site editor.



<p>Users will not be limited to such basic needs in the future. Imagine showing ads in a sidebar to logged-out users. Imagine adding a time-sensitive holiday sale banner in the header. Imagine designing a homepage template that displays different content to subscribers vs. visitors.</p>



<p>There are ways to do all of this today by piecing various plugins together, using custom shortcodes, or writing code. However, when an entire site is made of blocks, you only need one method to control anything&rsquo;s visibility. Literally.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 14 Jan 2021 22:23:03 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:4;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:74:"WPTavern: WordPress Proposal To Align Release Cycle With Industry Standard";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110354";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:193:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-proposal-to-align-release-cycle-with-industry-standard?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-proposal-to-align-release-cycle-with-industry-standard";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7102:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Yesterday, Francesca Marano opened a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/01/12/recap-and-proposal-align-the-wordpress-release-cycle-with-the-industry-standard/">proposal for changing the phases</a> of the core WordPress release cycle. It was a recap of a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/10/29/discussion-align-the-wordpress-release-cycle-with-the-industry-standard/">discussion</a> the began in October 2020. The goal is to align the platform&rsquo;s phases with the larger development industry standard.</p>



<p>Aside from naming, WordPress has mostly followed the software industry in how it tackles its release cycle. Following a well-known convention can make it easier for developers outside of the WordPress ecosystem to transition into it. It would also allow developers to follow cycles of other projects, many of which are WordPress dependencies. This sort of standardization is generally viewed as a good thing throughout the software development world.</p>



<p>Based on the ongoing discussions since October, there is a consensus on renaming the phases to align with the standard. The following table shows what each phase would be renamed to:</p>



<table class="has-subtle-pale-blue-background-color has-background"><thead><tr><th class="has-text-align-right text-right">Phase</th><th>Current Name</th><th>Proposed Name</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td class="has-text-align-right text-right"><strong>1</strong></td><td>Planning and securing team leads</td><td>Preliminary Planning</td></tr><tr><td class="has-text-align-right text-right"><strong>2</strong></td><td>Development work begins</td><td>Alpha</td></tr><tr><td class="has-text-align-right text-right"><strong>3</strong></td><td>Beta</td><td>Beta</td></tr><tr><td class="has-text-align-right text-right"><strong>4</strong></td><td>Release candidate</td><td>Release Candidate</td></tr><tr><td class="has-text-align-right text-right"><strong>5</strong></td><td>Launch</td><td>General release</td></tr></tbody></table>



<p>However, this is a two-part proposal. Simply renaming the phases does not change how the release cycle works. To follow the standard strictly, WordPress would need to change when code is committed too.</p>



<h2>How To Handle the Beta Phase</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">There is one point of contention with how to handle the Beta stage. The standard calls for no additional code changes other than new bug fixes introduced earlier in the cycle. For the WordPress project, this creates a problem.</p>



<p>WordPress will be 18 years old this year. Over the years, it has racked up a ton of older bugs. These are often fixed later in the cycle, sometimes during the Beta stage. These older bugs may not have been a part of the Preliminary Planning phase, but does that mean they should wait until the next release to go in? Strictly following the proposal, they should be put on hold.</p>



<p>It would also introduce a hard freeze on any enhancements set for the release but incomplete.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I worry that we aren&rsquo;t allowing space for older bugs that aren&rsquo;t specific to the planned features in the release,&rdquo; wrote Josepha Haden in a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/10/29/discussion-align-the-wordpress-release-cycle-with-the-industry-standard/#comment-40391">comment on the initial discussion</a>. &ldquo;I also worry that by calling hard freeze earlier in the process we narrow the window for feature inclusion too much. I don&rsquo;t like limiting ourselves to feature specific bugs right now, since that excludes so many of our volunteer contributors. It&rsquo;s harder to work on features since they are complex and fast-moving, and older bugs present more opportunities for casual contributors.&rdquo;</p>



<p>On the flip side, there is potential that a bug fix could introduce new, unforeseen bugs. The later it is added during Beta, the less likely such bugs are noticed before the General Release phase. Waiting for the next cycle provides more time for testing.</p>



<p>One of the benefits of this system is that almost no new bugs would be created during Beta. This would allow volunteers to shift more efforts to testing and fixing issues that emerged in Alpha.</p>



<p>WordPress has always marched to the beat of its own drum. It can more closely follow standards while breaking free from strict confines when it makes sense to do so for the project. Beta-stage bug fixes not intended for a particular release could be handled on a case-by-case basis. We have people in leadership positions who are capable of making these calls when they arise. With automatic updates for minor releases, I am less concerned about late-stage bugs.</p>



<p>Tonya Mork <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/10/29/discussion-align-the-wordpress-release-cycle-with-the-industry-standard/#comment-40380">proposed two solutions</a> for defect work to continue in and around the release cycle. Both would require that WordPress branch off at Beta, providing contributors an avenue to push forward fixing bugs.</p>



<p>The first proposal calls for an earlier feature freeze, providing two or three weeks before Beta 1. This period at the end of the Alpha phase would be solely dedicated to defect work.</p>



<p>The second solution moves this defect work to overlap the previous release&rsquo;s Beta and Release Candidate. This allows work to continue during the time between major releases. It could also shorten the overall major release cycle.</p>



<p>This second solution is also consistent with Joost de Valk&rsquo;s thoughts on handling defect work. &ldquo;I think we should just branch off earlier, and keep trunk open for normal business,&rdquo; <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/10/29/discussion-align-the-wordpress-release-cycle-with-the-industry-standard/#comment-40393">he said on the proposal</a>. &ldquo;That way, <em>everything</em> can be worked on all the time, but it won&rsquo;t be included in the next release depending on when you commit it. That&rsquo;s fine, every piece of open source software I know in the world works like that, except for WordPress.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Many plugin and theme developers already find it tough to keep up when changes drop in the Beta or Release Candidate phases. Having a clear and defined point where changes land will benefit the extension ecosystem, also helping end-users in the long run. This second solution would do that.</p>



<p>There is nothing wrong with combining both solutions either.  Since the plan would be to branch off at the Beta phase, the second solution is already in place by the act of branching.  The real discussion is over whether the project should dedicate a block of time during its Alpha stage that focuses purely on bug fixes.</p>



<p>Comments on the proposal are open through January 20 before moving toward a final decision.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator" />



<p>The next proposal: <a href="https://semver.org/">semantic versioning</a>, anyone? <em>Anyone? Is this thing on?</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 13 Jan 2021 21:52:52 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:5;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:97:"WPTavern: WPScan Can Now Assign CVE Numbers for WordPress Core, Plugin, and Theme Vulnerabilities";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110347";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:235:"https://wptavern.com/wpscan-can-now-assign-cve-numbers-for-wordpress-core-plugin-and-theme-vulnerabilities?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wpscan-can-now-assign-cve-numbers-for-wordpress-core-plugin-and-theme-vulnerabilities";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3148:"<p><a href="https://wpscan.com/">WPScan</a>, a security company that maintains a database of WordPress vulnerabilities, has been officially designated as a CVE (Common Vulnerability and Exposures) Numbering Authority (CNA). The company joins <a href="https://cve.mitre.org/cve/request_id.html#cna_participants">151</a>&nbsp;organizations from&nbsp;<a href="https://cve.mitre.org/cve/cna.html#cnas_growth">25</a>&nbsp;countries that participate in the <a href="https://cve.mitre.org/">CVE Program</a> as CNAs. These organizations are authorized to assign&nbsp;<a href="https://cve.mitre.org/about/terminology.html#cve_id">CVE Identifiers (CVE IDs)</a>&nbsp;to vulnerabilities within their own distinct scopes of work, contributing to CVE&rsquo;s <a href="https://cve.mitre.org/cve/">list</a>&nbsp;of records for publicly known security vulnerabilities.</p>



<p>WPScan&rsquo;s scope includes WordPress core, plugin, and theme vulnerabilities. The company has catalogued more than 21,905 vulnerabilities since 2014 in its database, which it makes available to the community through an API. That API is also used by the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpscan/">WPScan Security Scanner</a> plugin, which is installed on 5,000+ websites. </p>



<p>Being designated as a CNA helps WPScan better manage WordPress vulnerabilities by assigning them unique IDs that are recognized across the industry.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Asking MITRE to assign CVEs for each of our vulnerabilities would have been too time consuming in the past,&rdquo; WPScan founder and CEO Ryan Dewhurst said. &ldquo;Although some security researchers will go through this process directly with MITRE, we didn&rsquo;t due to the volume of vulnerabilities we have to manage. And security researchers only requested them themselves very rarely. The new process means that we ourselves can assign CVE numbers directly to vulnerabilities. This will result in many more WordPress related vulnerabilities being assigned CVE numbers.&rdquo;</p>



<p>WPScan is a team of three security researchers who come from penetration testing backgrounds and have worked within security consulting for the past 10 to 15 years. The company started with a simple Ruby script in 2011, which identified vulnerabilities in self-hosted WordPress sites. For the past two years, Automattic has sponsored the company&rsquo;s efforts in maintaining the database, as WPScan has transitioned to become a sustainable business by selling access to its API.</p>



<p>Dewhurst said the company&rsquo;s customers include &ldquo;some of the biggest security plugins and hosting companies in the world,&rdquo; but many of them don&rsquo;t advertise the fact that use a third-party to source the vulnerabilities. Most of WPScan&rsquo;s enterprise customers are security plugins, companies, and hosts that integrate data from the vulnerability database into their own products and services.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Our business is doing well,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Right now we are trying to find the right balance between being a business and making money, while also benefiting the community as much as possible.&rdquo; </p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 13 Jan 2021 20:52:12 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:6;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:73:"WPTavern: Google Introduces Performance Report for Google News Publishers";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110267";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:191:"https://wptavern.com/google-introduces-performance-report-for-google-news-publishers?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=google-introduces-performance-report-for-google-news-publishers";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2915:"<p>Google has <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2021/01/google-news-performance-report">launched</a> a new Search Console performance report for sites that appear in Google News. Publishers can now track clicks, impressions, and CTR for traffic coming from <a href="https://news.google.com/">news.google.com</a> and the Google News apps for Android and iOS.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>The report helps publishers see how often their articles appear to users in Google News and which ones performed the best. It also includes breakdowns for countries, devices, and dates to give publishers a better overall understanding of how visitors are interacting with their content through Google News. Although the date period defaults to the last three months, the data only goes as far back as December 15, 2020.</p>



<p>In the past, publishers had to submit their sites to be eligible for inclusion in Google News but the policy <a href="https://support.google.com/news/publisher-center/answer/9607025">changed in 2019</a>. Sites are now automatically considered for Top stories or the News tab of Search as long as they &ldquo;produce high-quality content and comply with Google News content policies.&rdquo; </p>



<p>This new report does not include stats from the News tab on Google Search. That information was added in July 2020, when Google updated the Performance report section of its Search Console to allow publishers to filter by News. This screen also lets users compare different traffic sources, i.e. Web vs News to see the impact of articles showing up under the News tab.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>The new report can be grouped by dimensions to get more specific information with different combinations of date ranges, reader locations, devices, and pages. For example, you can get a detailed look at clicks, impressions, and average CTR on a per country basis. This can also be filtered for one certain article to explore more narrow branches of the content&rsquo;s reach.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>Publishers who are using AMP will want to note that this new report includes data from the canonical URL. If you have multiple versions for different devices, the report contains data for both:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Data will only be shown in the property that contains the canonical URL. Therefore, if you have both&nbsp;AMP and desktop versions of a page, the desktop property (which is usually the canonical property) will contain all the data for both AMP and desktop clicks, impressions, and CTR.</p></blockquote>



<p>Google has published a <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/10083653?hl=en&ref_topic=9384513">help document</a> with more information on configuring the report, data discrepancies, and how to filter and compare data across groups.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 13 Jan 2021 03:54:38 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:7;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:72:"WPTavern: Ask the Bartender: How to Build WordPress Themes from Scratch?";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110276";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:185:"https://wptavern.com/ask-the-bartender-how-to-build-wordpress-themes-from-scratch?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ask-the-bartender-how-to-build-wordpress-themes-from-scratch";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:9037:"<img />



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>I would like to ask, what is the best way to learn to create WordPress themes from scratch? I would like to learn, but there seems to be no comprehensive resource for this.</p><p>Thanks for any help.</p><p>Mark</p></blockquote>



<p class="has-drop-cap">I have been around the WordPress community long enough to remember the days when there were sparse resources available. Those who were just starting out with theme development 15 or more years ago usually resorted to hacking away at an existing WordPress theme. Budding theme authors were building upon the shoulders of those few giants who had already taken the first steps. It was the magic of open-source at work &mdash; development learned through the act of forking.</p>



<p>Maybe it is the way I learned. Perhaps it is part nostalgia for those early days of going down an unknown path and arriving at the other side with a creation of all my own. But, I still believe the best way to learn any type of development cannot be found in documentation or books (<em>says the co-author of a development book</em>).</p>



<p>It is learned through trial and error.</p>



<p>It is learned through hours of mangling a project and not stopping until you fix it.</p>



<p>It is learned through sheer force of will, fueled by some innate passion within you that wants to see a project through. It is frustrating, but you keep going because you are having fun.</p>



<p>The best developers I have had the privilege to work with were not always the most knowledgeable. They were seemingly natural problem solvers. However, they did not awake one day with this ability. They earned it through years of tackling real problems.</p>



<p>First and foremost, the best resource for learning to build themes is an existing WordPress theme. Any of the default Twenty* themes are great starting points. Choose one, start making changes via your code editor, refresh your browser, and see what happens. Read the code. Look for patterns across various files.</p>



<p>You will not learn theme development overnight. It will probably take a few months before you are building basic themes from scratch. It will probably be a year before you are actually good at it. However, everyone is different. The amount of time you put into it is a factor. Your preexisting development knowledge and skills can change that. Sometimes, your innate gifts and ability to learn play into it. But, you will get there with a bit of effort.</p>



<p>I will be honest. The old-timers here in the community, those of us who started out early in WordPress&rsquo;s history, had some help. Tung Do, known as Small Potato at the time, wrote one of the most comprehensive tutorial series on theme development the community has ever had on his now-defunct web design blog. It was an invaluable resource for several years. It was the answer to the missing documentation that everyone was asking for.</p>



<p>Theme development was also far simpler during that time. With a handful of files and templates, you could build something special.</p>



<p>Today, the landscape is much different. If you want to be competitive as a theme shop owner or build custom solutions for clients, you need a broader skillset. Even as a hobbyist, you need to pick up a few more things than you would have a decade and a half ago.</p>



<p>There is good news: the community is teeming with useful resources.</p>



<h2>Traditional vs. Block-Based Themes</h2>



<img />



<p class="has-drop-cap">The theme development market is nearing an inflection point. WordPress will be introducing more and more tools for <a href="https://wptavern.com/what-is-full-site-editing-and-what-does-it-mean-for-the-future-of-wordpress">Full Site Editing</a> in 2021, and this trend will continue in the years beyond. Traditional theme development will be around for a while &mdash; likely a few more years. However, block-based themes are the long-term bet. While there is some crossover between the two, they are entirely different systems.</p>



<p>Realistically, you will need to learn both methods, especially if you have financial motives for going down this journey.</p>



<p>However, you should learn traditional theme development first. This will make it easier to transition down the road. There are far more resources available too.</p>



<p>Another issue with learning block-based theme development as a starting point is that you may not know whether you are at fault if something is broken. The features that make up Full Site Editing are in a rough beta stage. The experience is still a partially broken one. Beginner theme authors should not pile onto what can sometimes be a frustrating experience.</p>



<p>It is time to start reading about Full Site Editing and testing block-based themes like <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/q/">Q</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/block-based-bosco/">Block-Based Bosco</a>. Then, wait for others as they become available in the <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/tags/full-site-editing/">theme directory.</a></p>



<h2>Resources to Begin Theme Development</h2>



<img />



<p class="has-drop-cap">Many people will point you to starter themes, command-line scripts, and other automated tools for kick-starting your theme development journey. However, there is no substitute for building a solid foundation.</p>



<p>I will assume you have some basic or intermediate HTML and CSS knowledge under your belt. If not, you should learn to build simple web pages first. Again, there is no substitute for building that foundation. It will carry you through as you get into more advanced topics. Knowing some basic PHP helps too. However, you can hack your way through your first WordPress theme with just WordPress &ldquo;template tags,&rdquo; which are technically PHP functions that sound less scary.</p>



<p>Your go-to resource should be the official <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/">theme developer handbook</a>.</p>



<p>The breadth of knowledge available there was unavailable for those starting in the early days. You can build a WordPress theme from scratch by simply following along each page in the handbook.</p>



<p>While it was written in 2012, ThemeShaper has a <a href="https://themeshaper.com/2012/10/22/the-themeshaper-wordpress-theme-tutorial-2nd-edition/">17-part tutorial series</a> on developing themes from start to finish. With a few exceptions, most of the information in the tutorials is accurate. The underpinning of traditional theme development has not changed much over the years. This includes basic concepts like templates, The Loop, and similar elements.</p>



<p>ThemeShaper&rsquo;s <a href="https://themeshaper.com/category/theme-development/">Theme Development</a> category is a resource any theme author should be subscribed to. The team continues to post up-to-date tutorials on building themes. Recently, they have focused on block-based theme development. I am sure more tutorials are forthcoming as new features related to Full Site Editing unfold.</p>



<p>Of course, search engines are your friends. Run into a problem? I guarantee you are not the first with that specific problem. The solution is documented somewhere across the web.</p>



<p>If you want to begin block-based theme development, you will need to install the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/">Gutenberg</a> plugin for testing. Your resources will be limited. You will need to be a pioneer, mowing a path for others to follow. It will be a rough trek, but it also offers adventures that others have not taken.</p>



<p>WordPress&rsquo;s block editor handbook has a <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/tutorials/block-based-themes/">guide on creating block-based themes</a>. It makes some assumptions about your knowledge level in terms of theme development. Carolina Nymark, one of the Themes Team representatives, has a site called <a href="https://fullsiteediting.com/">Full Site Editing</a>. It includes an extensive course that is worth taking. There is also the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments">Theme Experiments</a> repository for testing what some people are currently building.</p>



<p>My strongest recommendation is to learn through trial and error while using documentation as a backup when you get stuck. Start playing around with <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/twentytwenty/">Twenty Twenty</a> or <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/twentytwentyone/">Twenty Twenty-One</a>, the two most recent default WordPress themes. Make changes. Get yourself in trouble and break things. Learn by getting yourself out of whatever hole you have dug. Every failure is part of your path toward success. Most of all, enjoy it.</p>



<p>Now, I will throw this question out to our readers, many of whom are theme authors themselves.  Will you share you tips, tricks, and resources for someone who is just starting to build themes?</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 12 Jan 2021 21:58:22 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:8;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Matt: Iceland Film";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=53458";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://ma.tt/2021/01/iceland-film/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:359:"<p>I wanted to share with you all a short film I made with the help of Stephen Bollinger, with videos I made a few years ago on a photography trip to Iceland with <a href="https://om.co/">Om</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/markkawano">Mark</a>. I hope it provides five minutes of serenity in your day.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">

</div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 12 Jan 2021 21:46:38 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:9;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:80:"WPTavern: Gutenberg’s Faster Performance Is Eroding Page Builders’ Dominance";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110192";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:193:"https://wptavern.com/gutenbergs-faster-performance-is-eroding-page-builders-dominance?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gutenbergs-faster-performance-is-eroding-page-builders-dominance";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6016:"<p>WordPress&rsquo; block editor, colloquially still widely known as Gutenberg, is making inroads into the segment of users who have heavily relied on page builders for years. For the most part, <a href="https://publishpress.com/blog/gutenberg/growth-pagebuilders/">page builder plugins have either declined in growth or stagnated in 2020</a>, with the exception of Elementor. In contrast, block collections with page builder features are gaining more users. Performance is becoming an important factor in this migration.</p>



<p>In a post titled &ldquo;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://gutenbergtimes.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e3062ef0fb204dbbc2135b555&id=47325f0912&e=68ffa9a210" target="_blank">Damn.&nbsp;Gutenberg&nbsp;Smokes Elementor</a>,&rdquo; Kyle Van Deusen published benchmarks from his experience building a simple landing page using Elementor and then Gutenberg. </p>



<p>&ldquo;Like any Elementor user, I&rsquo;ve become increasingly anxious about the future of Elementor and just how bloated it is,&rdquo; Van Deusen said. &ldquo;I think Google PageSpeed Insights agrees.&rdquo;</p>



<p>After recreating the same design with Gutenberg and <a href="https://generateblocks.com/">GenerateBlocks</a>, Van Deusen saw a small difference in <a href="https://gtmetrix.com/">GTMetrix</a> scores. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img />GTMetrix scores: Elementor vs Gutenberg</div>



<p>He found the most profound difference when testing with Google&rsquo;s <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/" target="_blank">PageSpeed Insights</a>, where Elementor scored 46% on mobile, and 83% on desktop.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Because I&rsquo;ve had such poor luck getting any kind of decent scores with Elementor sites (especially on mobile), I&rsquo;ve given up using this tool,&rdquo; Van Deusen said. &ldquo;Not because it&rsquo;s not a valuable metric (in fact, it may be the most valuable since this is how Google sees things), but because there wasn&rsquo;t much I could do about it.&rdquo;</p>



<p>In contrast, the page built with Gutenberg gave him a 94% score on mobile and a 99% on desktop.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>&ldquo;In terms of performance, straight out of the box; Gutenberg absolutely smokes Elementor,&rdquo; Van Deusen said. &ldquo;However, each time I&rsquo;ve taken Gutenberg for a spin, I&rsquo;ve left frustrated. As soon as I feel like I&rsquo;m getting the hang of it, eventually the wheels come off and I&rsquo;m back to installing Elementor.</p>



<p>&ldquo;But when your PageSpeed Insights scores go from 46% to 94%, it&rsquo;s time to perk up and pay attention.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Van Deusen said it took him more time to recreate the design in Gutenberg and he had trouble with mobile views. At the moment, he doesn&rsquo;t see switching as an advantageous move for his business.</p>



<p>&ldquo;While I think we can conclusively say, at least for performance, Gutenberg is the clear winner &mdash; it&rsquo;s just not at a point where a guy like me can jump ship,&rdquo; Van Deusen said.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Gutenberg is fun to play with, and I enjoy dreaming of the day when it&rsquo;s viable for me&mdash; but I like to put food on my table. Elementor still helps me do that more efficiently.&rdquo;</p>



<p>In another experiment, WordPress developer Munir Kamal <a href="https://gutenberghub.com/gutenberg-vs-elementor-html-bloat/">rebuilt Elementor&rsquo;s homepage in Gutenberg</a> to compare the HTML markup both page builders generate. The page built with Elementor includes 356 div&rsquo;s in the markup vs 77 for Gutenberg. Kamal found that Elementor generated 796 lines of code vs Gutenberg&rsquo;s 206 lines, resulting in a difference of 99kb vs 28kb respectively. </p>



<p>In August 2020, DearHive, the makers of the DearFlip WordPress plugin, left CodeCanyon to sell plugins from their own site. DearHive&rsquo;s company site was built with Elementor, but suddenly Google ranking mattered for their product site now that they were selling independently from CodeCanyon. Deepak Ghimire, a software developer at the company, cited performance as the chief issue that impacted their ranking and drove them to <a href="https://medium.com/wpunbox/our-move-from-elementor-to-gutenberg-why-we-left-elementor-b525b4caa3da">switch to Gutenberg</a>.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Our page speed went from 83 with Elementor to 98 with Gutenberg,&rdquo; Ghimire said. </p>



<p>Page builder plugins may still have more features at this point in time, but performance is becoming a critical consideration for those who are doing business online. In May 2021, Google plans to&nbsp;<a href="https://wptavern.com/google-search-to-add-page-experience-to-ranking-signals-in-may-2021">introduce a new ranking signal</a>&nbsp;for Search, based on page experience as measured by&nbsp;<a href="https://web.dev/vitals/#core-web-vitals">Core Web Vitals</a>&nbsp;metrics. Performance is an important part of delivering the kind of scores necessary to pass the Core Web Vitals assessment. This ranking signal update from Google may compel even more site owners to migrate away from slow page builders.</p>



<p>For the past two years, WordPress users have been asking if Gutenberg will replace page builders. It looks more and more likely if the most popular ones remain bloated alternatives and the smaller ones keep on the same trajectory of attrition. It won&rsquo;t happen overnight, but it is bound to accelerate when full-site editing makes its debut in WordPress core. </p>



<p>For those who build websites for clients, the best way to future-proof your skills is to learn how to build pages within the framework of the block editor and, if you can, learn how to build custom blocks. It&rsquo;s also a good time to be experimenting with different block collections to streamline your setup so that you don&rsquo;t have to sacrifice high performance in order to build sites efficiently.  </p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 12 Jan 2021 04:15:07 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:10;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Matt: Thirty-seven";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=53415";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:35:"https://ma.tt/2021/01/thirty-seven/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2687:"<p>I turn 37 today. I look around and I feel incredibly lucky to be writing this after a topsy-turvy year. I have health. I have friends whom I love. These are all good reasons to feel optimistic about the future. A few unconnected thoughts today:</p>



<p>My father had me when he was exactly 13,300 days old, and this year I passed that number of rotations of the Earth.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s hard to plan when so much is changing, so resolutions this year haven&#8217;t felt the same. But in times like these it&#8217;s even more important to plan for the long-term. A look back, once a year, is enough to remind of what remains.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m so thankful for the internet. It&#8217;s where I learned and practiced my trade. It&#8217;s where I connect every day with the most interesting and eclectic group of people I could imagine, a modern day Florence during the Renaissance. I hope to make a lot more internet and enable others to do the same.</p>



<p>Many years ago I said &#8220;Technology is best&nbsp;when it brings people together.&#8221; This quote has <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=technology+is+best+when+it+brings+people+together&tbm=isch">taken on a life of its own on motivational posters and images</a>. When I first said it I think I had in mind WordCamps and meetups and other physical gatherings; this year it transformed for me seeing how technology brought together separated by the pandemic. This year has appeared divisive, so it&#8217;s easy to overlook how many times people came together. It&#8217;s like the old saying, it&#8217;s not how many times you fall, it&#8217;s how many times you get up. Fall thirty-six times, get up thirty-seven.</p>



<p>All birthday posts: <a href="https://ma.tt/2003/01/bday/">19</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2004/01/so-im-20/">20</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2005/01/hot-barely-legal-matt/">21</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2006/01/matt-22/">22</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2007/01/twenty-three/">23</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2008/01/twenty-four/">24</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2009/01/twenty-five/">25</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2010/01/twenty-six/">26</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2011/01/twenty-seven/">27</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2012/01/twenty-eight/">28</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2013/01/twenty-nine/">29</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2014/01/matt-3-0/">30</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2015/01/thirty-one/">31</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2016/01/thirty-two/">32</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2017/01/thirty-three/">33</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2018/01/thirty-four/">34</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2019/01/thirty-five/">35</a>, <a href="https://ma.tt/2020/01/thirty-six/">36</a>, 37.</p>



<p></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 12 Jan 2021 03:07:09 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:11;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:78:"WPTavern: EatsWP Brings Virtual Restaurant Menus to the WordPress Block Editor";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110174";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:201:"https://wptavern.com/eatswp-brings-virtual-restaurant-menus-to-the-wordpress-block-editor?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=eatswp-brings-virtual-restaurant-menus-to-the-wordpress-block-editor";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5639:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Yesterday, Jack Kitterhing launched <a href="http://eatswp.com/">EatsWP</a>, his new restaurant-related WordPress plugin. It is a menu creation system that works in the block editor. It also has a built-in QR code feature to work with customers&rsquo; phones.</p>



<p>Kitterhing is the Product Manager at LearnDash. He is also the founder of Immerseus, a shop that builds plugins for the learning management system. He is now extending his reach with the founding of EatsWP. He contracted out the development work to a private freelancer with who he regularly works.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Apart from that, it&rsquo;s just me on this project,&rdquo; said Kitterhing. &ldquo;My other business, I have five full-time employees, and so if required, one of those could be brought over for support. We, myself and my friend, took this idea to launch in under a month, which I&rsquo;m very pleased with considering that Christmas was in the middle as well.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Kitterhing decided to build this plugin based on what he was seeing with small restaurant owners he knew. Some of the issues facing these single-location restaurants are with their physical menus.</p>



<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s expensive to update them or make any changes as it requires a whole new print run,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;By having a digital menu, they can update in minutes and generate a new QR code print. Then combine that with the current world situation, it also isn&rsquo;t very healthy to have everyone touching physical menus, so digital menus made more sense than ever.&rdquo;</p>



<p><a href="https://eatswp.com/pricing/">Pricing for the plugin</a> begins at $37 per year and increases based on the number of sites the user wants updates and support on.  Kitterhing also offers a custom menu design and setup tier.</p>



<h2>How the Plugin Works</h2>



<img />Editing an EatsWP menu item in the block editor.



<p class="has-drop-cap">At the moment, EatsWP is a simple affair. The plugin does not offer hundreds of options or every feature imaginable for a menu-type of plugin. It is a 1.0. However, for the features it does provide, it does them reasonably well. Kitterhing is off to a good start. He has set a foundation, and the only way to go from here is up.</p>



<p>Where the plugin tends to shine is with its primary features, which are its array of blocks. Users begin by adding the Eats Menu block. From there, they have a selection of inner blocks they can place within the menu:</p>



<ul><li>Item With Picture</li><li>Item With Picture and Addons</li><li>Item Without Picture</li><li>Item Without Picture and Addons</li><li>Eats Section Heading</li></ul>



<p>In reality, most of the blocks are just prearranged sets of existing core WordPress blocks. They provide structure and loads of color options. Plus, end-users can click a button to add a &ldquo;New&rdquo; or &ldquo;Popular&rdquo; tag to their menu items. It is a nice touch.</p>



<p>The color options offer some customizability. In the long term, users will likely want more design options. However, it may be prudent for the plugin author to follow core&rsquo;s lead here and implement such options as they become available in the block editor API.</p>



<p>The one missing feature that should be available now is support for wide and full alignments. Kitterhing assured me this would land in the first quarter of this year.</p>



<p>On top of the plugin&rsquo;s blocks, EatsWP allows end-users to generate a QR code for the page their restaurant&rsquo;s menu is on. When a customer scans the QR code with their phone, the page then opens.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The QR code generation is more straightforward than most people expect,&rdquo; said Kitterhing. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re using a well-known QR code generation library. You then simply select the page your menu is on, generate the QR code, print it off, or show it on your website and you&rsquo;re ready to go.&rdquo;</p>



<h2>The Future of EatsWP</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">On the EatsWP website, Kitterhing lightheartedly writes that &ldquo;delicious desserts&rdquo; are coming soon. This includes WooCommerce integration, recipes, and other secret features. Integrating with WooCommerce could open a new avenue for restaurant owners to explore as part of their checkout process.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m hoping that WooCommerce support will be coming Q1 this year,&rdquo; said Kitterhing. &ldquo;As I&rsquo;m sure you can imagine, it&rsquo;s reasonably technically challenging to incorporate this in a user-friendly way. The goal is to have all the connections and product creation actually done within the block editor interface. So someone wouldn&rsquo;t have to go off to WooCommerce to set a product and come back as that&rsquo;s rather long-winded. I&rsquo;m excited to show everyone!&rdquo;</p>



<p>It will be interesting to watch how this integration unfolds in the coming months. Menus are a solid starting point, but having a payment option is necessary in a world with more people are ordering online. This is especially true in the Covid-era where contactless forms of payment are becoming the norm for takeout. Restaurants need simple solutions that they are not hacking together from multiple, non-integrated sources.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The goal within the next 12 months is to turn EatsWP into everything that a restaurant needs to offer a minimal-contact experience for customers,&rdquo; said Kitterhing. &ldquo;Many restaurants don&rsquo;t have websites either, so I&rsquo;m looking into a SaaS option where I&rsquo;d host the menu/site for the restaurant.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 11 Jan 2021 21:46:17 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:12;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:94:"WPTavern: WordPress Community Team Proposes Using a Decision Checklist to Restart Local Events";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110022";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:233:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-community-team-proposes-using-a-decision-checklist-to-restart-local-events?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-community-team-proposes-using-a-decision-checklist-to-restart-local-events";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4502:"<img />photo credit: <a href="https://stocksnap.io/photo/checklist-goals-TBJ9OPDGMK">Glenn Carstens-Peters</a>



<p>WordPress&rsquo; Community Team has been <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-community-team-discusses-return-to-in-person-events">discussing the return to in-person events</a> since early December 2020, and has landed on an idea that would allow local meetup organizers to determine readiness <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/01/07/proposal-decision-making-checklist-for-safe-in-person-meetups/">using a COVID-19 risk-assessment checklist</a>. This would enable organizers to restart meetups when it is safe for their communities, instead of applying a blanket global policy.</p>



<p>Countries like Australia, New Zealand, The Bahamas, Iceland, and Vietnam, are a few examples of locations that are doing a decent job containing the virus. In contrast, the United States logged more than 4,000 coronavirus deaths in a single day this week, pushing the daily average to over 2,700. While the situation remains bleak for many areas of the world, vaccines are rolling out to vulnerable populations, albeit slowly and with a few snags.</p>



<p>In the previous discussion that happened in early December, WordPress lead developer Dion Hulse shared some feedback from Australian organizers who have been eager to restart their meetups.</p>



<p>&ldquo;One of the problems faced in Australia (and probably NZ &amp; Taiwan too) has been the blanket worldwide restrictions companies have put in place,&rdquo; Hulse said. &ldquo;Australia/NZ have been lucky, the pandemic has been successfully contained &ndash; Australia has seen less than 30k cases this year, and NZ 2k cases. To put that in context, the USA has recorded more (detected) cases in 3 hours today than Australia did all year, and more in 30 minutes than NZ.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Hulse said a few Australian meetup groups were denied the go-ahead for restarting because of the global restrictions, which has &ldquo;led to the abandonment of meetups once again (as online meetups have simply not worked here, as most people can still go out in person, so there&rsquo;s been no major push from most Australians to the online platforms like elsewhere).&rdquo;</p>



<p>The Community Team&rsquo;s proposal for a checklist takes these more unique situations into consideration and allows organizers to move forward in areas where public health measures have adequately curbed the spread of the virus. A few example checklist items include the following:</p>



<ol><li>Is your country&rsquo;s (or state&rsquo;s) average positivity rate over the past 28 days under 4%?</li><li>In the past 28 days, has your country or area&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_reproduction_number">basic reproduction number</a>&nbsp;stayed under 1?</li><li>In the past 14 days, have there been under 50 new cases per 100,000 people reported?</li><li>Does your local government allow for in-person events?</li><li>If there is a cap on the number of people who can meet at a time, will you as an organizer follow this guideline?</li></ol>



<p>Contributor feedback so far includes recommendations for dealing with violations of the guidelines and assessing the need for contact tracing in case meetup attendees are exposed during an event. Cami Kaos recommended that the team share a list of locations that have already been vetted using the checklist and have not met requirements.</p>



<p>&ldquo;My hope is that this would reduce a lot of duplicated time and effort for areas that we already know aren&rsquo;t yet, by the standards we&rsquo;re setting, safe,&rdquo; Kaos said. &ldquo;It would save time and disappointment for organizers hoping to meet in person and also contributor time and energy for those deputies who will vet the applications to hold in-person events.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Since the virus is mutating and countries are adapting in different ways, the situation can change rapidly, so organizers would need to be prepared to roll back to online events if conditions for safe meetups deteriorate. WordCamps are still out of the question for the time being, but the Community Team is seeking feedback on the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/01/07/proposal-decision-making-checklist-for-safe-in-person-meetups/">proposal</a> by January 15, 2021, including additions to the checklist and recommendations for public health resources that could aid in guiding the process.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sat, 09 Jan 2021 16:50:31 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:13;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:43:"Matt: Autonomous and Beautiful Home Devices";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=53404";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:60:"https://ma.tt/2021/01/autonomous-and-beautiful-home-devices/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1532:"<p>Of all the smart home upgrades I&#8217;ve made, replacing all my regular smoke detectors with Nest Protects (Google&#8217;s smoke detector) has been the one that I regret the most.</p>



<p>I don&#8217;t really need a smart smoke detector. It doesn&#8217;t need to talk, connect to wifi, and cost hundreds of dollars. I don&#8217;t need it integrated with my Google account which is impossible to share, so I need to be personally involved to replace one.</p>



<p>But other smoke detectors are just so unsightly, and the Nest is light years ahead of the competition from a design standpoint.</p>



<img />



<p>There&#8217;s such an opportunity for something that looks as good as the Nest, but doesn&#8217;t require two-factor authentication to replace. I didn&#8217;t want to call it dumb but beautiful, so let&#8217;s say &#8220;autonomous and beautiful&#8221; appliances and home devices. I still want it to be smart, but if you&#8217;re going to have the risk profile of a device that connects to the internet, it needs to be worth it, like <a href="https://www.brilliant.tech/">Brilliant</a>, <a href="https://www.sonos.com/">Sonos</a>, smart TVs, or connected cameras.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m becoming more wary of any hardware that requires an app, just because of the natural decay of non-SaaS and non-open source software. <a href="https://www.vanmoof.com/en-US">Van Moof bikes</a> are beautiful, but will they still connect well when iOS 24 is out and Bluetooth has been removed from iPhones for security reasons?</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 08 Jan 2021 23:45:46 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:14;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:94:"WPTavern: Blocked-Based Version of Twenty Twenty-One Nearing Readiness for the Theme Directory";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110087";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:233:"https://wptavern.com/blocked-based-version-of-twenty-twenty-one-nearing-readiness-for-the-theme-directory?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=blocked-based-version-of-twenty-twenty-one-nearing-readiness-for-the-theme-directory";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5300:"<img />



<p class="has-drop-cap">Twenty Twenty-One Blocks, now renamed to TT1 Blocks, is inching its way toward the WordPress theme directory. Kjell Reigstad mentioned the prospect in this week&rsquo;s <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/01/06/block-based-meeting-notes-january-6/">block-based themes meeting</a>. Contributors to the theme, which is part of the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments">Theme Experiments</a> project, have pushed some much-needed code updates to the repository.</p>



<p><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments/tree/master/tt1-blocks">TT1 Blocks</a> is the block-based version of the Twenty Twenty-One theme. Its goal is to provide a version of the original theme that works with Full Site Editing (FSE), currently only available through the Gutenberg plugin.</p>



<p>FSE needs more testers. And, testers need themes that will enable the site editor in Gutenberg. Currently, there are only two WordPress themes, <a href="https://wptavern.com/q-first-fse-wordpress-theme-now-live">Q</a> and <a href="https://wptavern.com/block-based-bosco-second-full-site-editing-theme-lands-in-the-wordpress-directory">Block-Based Bosco</a>, in the directory that support the site editor. <a href="https://wptavern.com/armando-wordpress-theme-provides-insight-into-the-current-state-of-full-site-editing">Armando</a> should join them shortly. If a user attempts to find one via the <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/tags/full-site-editing/">FSE filter</a>, they will get no results, as pointed out by Gary Taylor in a <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-9-7-improves-user-experience-updates-reusable-blocks-and-brings-page-templates-to-fse-themes#comment-359503">recent comment</a>. This seems to be an oversight by the theme authors and should be corrected.</p>



<p>With most block-based themes relegated to a few GitHub repositories, it does not bode well if no one can find themes to test the most important set of features coming to WordPress in 2021. Users should be able to easily install an FSE-ready theme today.</p>



<p>&ldquo;It has been brought up that it may be easier for people to test and contribute to full site editing if Twenty Twenty-One blocks was available in the WordPress theme directory,&rdquo; wrote Themes Team representative Carolina Nymark in a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments/issues/140">ticket about renaming TT1 Blocks</a>.</p>



<p>TT1 Blocks is something that feels more official. While third-party block-based themes are needed, the <em>officialness</em> of something from core contributors gives more users a sense of trust. Plus, it would be easy for someone with .ORG administrator privileges to stick it to the top of the theme directory&rsquo;s featured page to get more eyes on it. <em>Doing this with a third-party theme would unleash a hoard of developers who want the same treatment for their themes.</em></p>



<p>The prospect of the theme coming to the directory is something the WordPress project needs.</p>



<p>The volunteers who have been chipping away at this TT1 Blocks have turned a <a href="https://wptavern.com/twenty-twenty-one-blocks-theme-launching-as-a-separate-project">bare-bones theme</a> into something closer to the original Twenty Twenty-One. There are still some leaps remaining to get it to where it needs to be. Much is this rests in the Gutenberg development team&rsquo;s hands. There are currently over a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments/projects/1#column-12084948">dozen blockers</a> identified by the Theme Experiments project that need to be resolved in the Gutenberg plugin first.</p>



<img />Single post in the site editor with TT1 Blocks



<p>There are multiple open tickets on the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments/projects/1">project board</a> for theme developers who are looking for a way to contribute. This is an opportunity to learn more about block-based themes and pay it forward.</p>



<p>At the moment, I am not-so-patiently awaiting the release of TT1 Blocks to the theme directory.</p>



<p>There are days when I wonder if there is a final destination, some light at the end of this never-ending tunnel that leads to block-based themes being the norm. I get overexcited about each new project. I quickly test pull requests and updates on the handful of repositories I am watching, hoping for a glimpse of something spectacular.</p>



<p>Part of this excitement is because I designed and developed WordPress themes for around 15 years in some form or fashion. Today, I am no longer in the design and development game. I must live vicariously through the people who are putting untold hours into this grand experiment. I get to tell their stories, which has its own rewards.</p>



<p>I also know that this sort of development is a slog. Everyone has big ideas, but the real world calls for slow, steady, and dedicated work. Often it is thankless.</p>



<p>When I saw the mere mention of TT1 Blocks potentially coming to the theme directory, it added a bit of spark to an otherwise rough few days. I wanted to end this particular week with something hopeful. And, testing out the latest work those volunteers have put into TT1 Blocks has done just that.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 08 Jan 2021 23:12:39 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:15;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:74:"WPTavern: JetBrains Denies Being Under Investigation for SolarWinds Attack";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110028";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:193:"https://wptavern.com/jetbrains-denies-being-under-investigation-for-solarwinds-attack?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jetbrains-denies-being-under-investigation-for-solarwinds-attack";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4847:"<p>JetBrains, makers of Phpstorm, one of the most popular IDEs for PHP developers, has published a <a href="https://blog.jetbrains.com/teamcity/2021/01/statement-on-the-story-from-the-new-york-times-regarding-jetbrains-and-solarwinds/">statement</a> denying any involvement in the SolarWinds attack, which compromised multiple US federal agencies and private companies. The company stated that it has not been the subject of an official investigation:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>JetBrains has not taken part or been involved in this attack in any way. SolarWinds is one of our customers and uses TeamCity, which is a Continuous Integration and Deployment System, used as part of building software. SolarWinds has not contacted us with any details regarding the breach and the only information we have is what has been made publicly available.</p></blockquote>



<p>This statement contradicts a recent New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/us/politics/russia-cyber-hack.html">article</a> that claimed unspecified officials were investigating the company&rsquo;s TeamCity continuous integration software as a possible entry point for the attack: </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>By compromising TeamCity, or exploiting gaps in how customers use the tool, cybersecurity experts say the Russian hackers could have inconspicuously planted back doors in an untold number of JetBrains&rsquo; clients. Because TeamCity is so widely deployed, experts said, it is imperative to determine whether its software contains a vulnerability, or if attackers exploited TeamCity customers via stolen passwords or gaps in unpatched, outdated software.</p></blockquote>



<p>The New York Times did not specify which officials and &ldquo;cybersecurity experts&rdquo; were the source for this information but claimed that SolarWinds was also investigating the software internally. A <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210106195835/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/us/politics/russia-cyber-hack.html">previous version</a> of the article referred to JetBrains as &ldquo;an obscure software company,&rdquo; which <a href="https://twitter.com/razvanbunea/status/1347254615616729090">ruffled the feathers</a> of the company&rsquo;s most ardent customers. SolarWinds told both the Times and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/solarwinds-hack-breached-justice-department-systems-11609958761">The Wall Street Journal</a> that it has not confirmed a definitive link between JetBrains and the breach of its own software.</p>



<p>A&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsroom/press-releases/press-releases-2021/item/2176-joint-statement-by-the-federal-bureau-of-investigation-fbi-the-cybersecurity-and-infrastructure-security-agency-cisa-the-office-of-the-director-of-national-intelligence-odni-and-the-national-security-agency-nsa" target="_blank">joint statement</a> from the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the National Security Agency (NSA) released this week points to Russia as the origin of the attacks: </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>This work indicates that an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor, likely Russian in origin, is responsible for most or all of the recently discovered, ongoing cyber compromises of both government and non-governmental networks. At this time, we believe this was, and continues to be, an intelligence gathering effort. We are taking all necessary steps to understand the full scope of this campaign and respond accordingly.</p></blockquote>



<p>Phpstorm is widely used among WordPress developers, especially since&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://wptavern.com/phpstorm-8-released-with-full-wordpress-support" target="_blank">version 8 added official support for WordPress</a> in 2014. JetBrains users took to Twitter with questions and concerns about claims that the company was under investigation. Today, JetBrains published another <a href="https://blog.jetbrains.com/blog/2021/01/07/an-update-on-solarwinds/">update</a> that clarifies its previous statement. It states that the company&rsquo;s IDEs are standalone tools with no relation to TeamCity and that there is no evidence that any of their servers or tools have been tampered with. </p>



<p>JetBrains is organizing an independent security audit of TeamCity and has promised a transparent report of any vulnerabilities found that may have led to a breach.</p>



<p>&ldquo;For over 20 years, one of our pillars has been to be transparent, honest, and truthful with our customers, and nothing hurts us more than seeing unfounded allegations that damage our reputation and instill doubt on our customers,&rdquo; JetBrains CEO Maxim Shafirov said.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 07 Jan 2021 23:12:39 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:16;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:114:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 9.7 Improves User Experience, Updates Reusable Blocks, and Brings Page Templates to FSE Themes";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110018";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:269:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-9-7-improves-user-experience-updates-reusable-blocks-and-brings-page-templates-to-fse-themes?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gutenberg-9-7-improves-user-experience-updates-reusable-blocks-and-brings-page-templates-to-fse-themes";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7906:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Gutenberg 9.7 <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/01/07/whats-new-in-gutenberg-6-january/">landed yesterday</a> with several updates and improvements. Users should expect to see changes to the interface for block variations, transforms, and patterns. Reusable blocks are being worked on after what seemed to be a hiatus. Developers can also now add custom page templates to their block-based WordPress themes.</p>



<p>This release had the fewest number of bug fixes I have seen in a while. The development team only pushed eight fixes into the update, which could signal that things were more stable than usual after the 9.6 release a couple of weeks ago.</p>



<p>Most of the work in 9.7 dealt with new features and enhancements. As expected, Full Site Editing got its fair share of time. However, even this seemed dialed back a bit for this release. Many of the updates are to the post-editing interface.</p>



<h2>User Experience Improvements</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The team pushed out several updates to how features work in the editor. Some of them might seem minor but improve the overall editor experience.</p>



<p>Block variations received a welcome enhancement. Variations are when one underlying block is used to create multiple variations of the same block. For example, the Embed block has YouTube, Twitter, and other variations. In past versions, the block inspector in the sidebar and block navigation would show the generic name, icon, and description. However, Gutenberg 9.7 will now show the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/27469">details for the variation</a> in use.</p>



<img />YouTube variation for the Embed block.



<p>When transforming a block, <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/27861">users can see a preview</a> of what the block will look like. This is a small improvement. However, it might save a few headaches when before deciding to transform one block into another.</p>



<img />Preview when transforming Quote block into a Pullquote.



<p>Gutenberg 9.6 introduced a <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-9-6-introduces-drag-and-drop-blocks-and-global-inheritance-for-the-query-block">drag-and-drop feature</a> for blocks in the inserter. The team has now <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/27927">extended that feature to block patterns</a>. This is just another rung on the ladder for those looking for more drag-and-drop capabilities.</p>



<h2>Reusable Blocks Updated</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">It has been a while since I tested reusable blocks. The feature has seemingly taken a backseat to other, newer features in the past year or so. It never felt much better than an initial prototype. There is still no way to easily manage them unless you know where to look. However, it appears the Gutenberg development team is <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/27887">actively developing</a> this almost-forgotten feature.</p>



<p>Users can expect more in future releases. &ldquo;Based on these changes, the UI for reusable blocks is most likely going to see some iterations on the upcoming weeks,&rdquo; wrote Riad Benguella in the announcement post.</p>



<p>I ran an initial test to see what the feature looked like in Gutenberg 9.7. After clicking the &ldquo;Add to reusable blocks&rdquo; button, the editor did a quick flash. Then, a notification appeared at the bottom of the screen that the reusable block had been created. Because I did not have my block options sidebar panel open at the time, I saw no way to edit the reusable block&rsquo;s title. My immediate thought was that the team took an already half-baked feature and made it exponentially worse.</p>



<p>Upon further digging, I found that users can edit the reusable block&rsquo;s title in the block options sidebar. However, the team did not stop there. They added several improvements to the feature.</p>



<img />Editing the reusable block name in the sidebar panel.



<p>Reusable blocks are now editable within the post editor itself. Users can drag an image out of the block, for example. The inspector sidebar is available for the inner blocks. Reusable blocks now look and feel like any other part of the editor. Any edits will reflect across all instances of the reusable blocks on the site.</p>



<p>The big difference is in how they are saved.</p>



<img />Saving a reusable block along with the post.



<p>Reusable blocks are now a part of the &ldquo;multi-entity&rdquo; save system. When clicking the editor&rsquo;s update button, users will have an option to save the entire post and/or individual reusable blocks.</p>



<h2>Custom &ldquo;Page&rdquo; Templates for FSE Themes</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Block-based <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/27778">themes now support</a> what has been traditionally known as page templates. All post types are technically supported with the feature. However, the team seems to be sticking with the &ldquo;page&rdquo; terminology after some discussion.</p>



<p>It took some digging because there is no existing documentation and the original example in the ticket did not reflect the end result of the code that passed. However, I managed to suss out how the feature works. For theme authors who want to test this feature, use the following example code of adding a &ldquo;contact&rdquo; template. Place it at the root level of your theme&rsquo;s <code>experimental-theme.json</code> file. You will also need to accompany this with a <code>block-templates/contact.html</code> template in your theme.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>"pageTemplates": {
        "contact": {
                "title": "Contact",
                "postTypes": [
                        "page"
                ]
        }
}</code></pre>



<p>This feature does not do anything particularly groundbreaking right now. It merely adds the custom template to the drop-down select on the edit post/page screen. It is the equivalent of the current page template system available to traditional themes.</p>



<img />Selecting a custom page template from FSE theme.



<p>While this is a nice development, traditional page templates may not make much sense in the block theming paradigm. There is no way to change the visual output of the page in the editor based on the selected template &mdash; users must still view the page on the front end to see the result of its application. The block system is about instant visual feedback. Page templates need to be rethought for the new era.</p>



<p>&ldquo;In terms of UI and integration with the template mode, we can do a lot more than the old select box,&rdquo; said Benguella, who was the developer behind the pull request. &ldquo;We can show a preview for templates and offer a modal or something like that for folks to pick from&hellip;We&rsquo;d need some design thinking and explorations there. This PR just sets the technical requirements to make it work.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Much, but not all, of what page templates were needed for in the past decade can now be replaced by block patterns.</p>



<p>In the long term, I would rather see page templates that behaved more like predesigned block layouts. This is how block templates for custom post types work today. However, that is on the post-type level rather than the level of the individual post.</p>



<p>Traditional page templates are dated. Themes rarely offer more than a few. One to remove the sidebar. One to move the sidebar to the left or right. Another to make the page content area wider.</p>



<p>What is clear is that we need more exploration on what page templates of the future will look like. Are they necessary in the block system? Are there better ways of handling what traditional themes are using them for? How will they work in an interface that needs visual feedback?</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 07 Jan 2021 22:34:08 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:17;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:123:"WPTavern: All in One SEO Plugin Turns on Automatic Updates without Notifying Users, Removes Functionality in Latest Release";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109933";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:289:"https://wptavern.com/all-in-one-seo-plugin-turns-on-automatic-updates-without-notifying-users-removes-functionality-in-latest-release?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=all-in-one-seo-plugin-turns-on-automatic-updates-without-notifying-users-removes-functionality-in-latest-release";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4960:"<p>Buried in the <a href="https://aioseo.com/changelog/">changelog</a> of a series of minor releases that dropped before the Christmas holiday, <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/">All in One SEO</a> plugin users were given the surprise gift of automatic updates. After a seemingly endless run of releases (12 updates during a span of six weeks at the end of 2020), the plugin&rsquo;s developers decided to change its auto update policy so that it defaults to &ldquo;on.&rdquo; The plugin is installed on more than 2 million WordPress sites.</p>



<p>Version 4.0.8, released December 21, 2020, flipped on automatic updates without notifying users of the change. Despite having auto updates turned off for the plugin, many users discovered the change when they were notified by email that their sites had been updated without permission. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>Frustrated users took to the plugin&rsquo;s support forums to report the issue and find out how it was possible.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Multiple sites have updated to 4.0.11 without my permission and while all auto updates are disabled,&rdquo; one user <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/auto-update-29/#post-13837970">said</a>. &ldquo;I/we do not want to hear that &lsquo;it shouldn&rsquo;t happen&rsquo; and we are looking into.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Your once reliable plugin has destroyed hundreds of pages of social meta data on multiple sites, broken layout (and this after I fixed the problems and told you last week, I will be disabling all updates).&rdquo;</p>



<p>Others commented on the issue, citing problems with a previous major release as the source of many bugs that followed.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The rollout of version 4, and auto-updating without any chance to backup first was a blunder by AIOSEO,&rdquo; plugin user Derek Haines <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sudden-rush-of-5-star-reviews/">said</a>. &ldquo;It has cost me hours, days, and now weeks to fix the problems caused.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The All in One SEO plugin team <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/auto-update-29/#post-13840599">apologized</a> for the inconvenience users experienced but said they could not reproduce it on their end. The plugin&rsquo;s settings page has a toggle for auto updates but it is just a wrapper for WordPress&rsquo; auto updater.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I just wanted to give you an update and let you know that we&rsquo;ve decided to remove our own auto-update functionality all together since this issue seems to be happening on a limited amount of websites and we aren&rsquo;t able to reproduce it on our end,&rdquo; Arnaud Broes said.</p>



<p>The problem was also <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/advancedwp/permalink/3806581632737356">discussed</a> in the Advanced WordPress Facebook group.</p>



<p>&ldquo;All In One SEO Pack apparently turned auto updates on, and in a few cases I found sites where those updates failed,&rdquo; Eric Karkovack reported. &ldquo;I had no idea they were turned on and in one case a site was inaccessible.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Karkovack noted that there was only a small mention in the changelog, despite the plugin liberally using the dashboard notification UI for sales.</p>



<p>William Earnhardt, WordPress core contributor and developer at Bluehost, offered some insight as someone who has worked on core as well as plugins installed on a massive scale.</p>



<p>&ldquo;In my experience if you are weighing the two options, auto-updates prevent significantly more issues and support requests than they create,&rdquo; Earnhardt said. &ldquo;So I&rsquo;m strongly in the camp of enabling them by default, with a mechanism for preventing or disabling for those who prefer (core makes this possible with filters and now with per-plugin UI). </p>



<p>&ldquo;I think when making these decisions, we as developers have to consider what is best for the broadest number of users and be realistic about the type of users we have. If a user is already not updating plugins regularly, it is unlikely they are going to have the awareness to flip a toggle to turn auto-updates on. So opt-in makes them mostly useless.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Earnhardt agreed that notifying users of the change would have been a good idea, but admin notices are already &ldquo;frequently abused and quite noisy.&rdquo;</p>



<p>&ldquo;It would likely be missed if not persistent, but really should only show after the update and then go away,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Is that enough when combined with a note in the changelog? Probably for most, but I&rsquo;m sure some would disagree.&rdquo;</p>



<p>As promised nine days ago, All in One SEO&rsquo;s developers have now removed the functionality from the plugin in its first update of 2021, version 4.0.12 released today. It is noted in the changelog: &ldquo;Fixed: Completely remove auto updates wrapper to let WordPress handle updates.&rdquo; </p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 06 Jan 2021 23:47:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:18;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:84:"WPTavern: Liquid Web Acquires The Events Calendar WordPress Plugin From Modern Tribe";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109909";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:213:"https://wptavern.com/liquid-web-acquires-the-events-calendar-wordpress-plugin-from-modern-tribe?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=liquid-web-acquires-the-events-calendar-wordpress-plugin-from-modern-tribe";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4092:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Liquid Web <a href="https://ithemes.com/the-events-calendar-plugin-joining-liquid-web-family/">announced today</a> via the iThemes blog that it acquired The Events Calendar from Modern Tribe. The acquisition gives them ownership of the plugin, its suite of event-related plugins, and the team behind it all.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve acquired all the associated plugins, including Event Tickets, etc.,&rdquo; said Matt Danner, the COO at iThemes. &ldquo;They identify under the single umbrella of The Events Calendar as a team, so we&rsquo;ve continued to position the team that way.&rdquo;</p>



<p>As part of the acquisition, the 50+ employees from The Events Calendar plugin team are now a part of the Liquid Web family. They will continue working on the plugin and its related products. Zach Tirrell <a href="https://theeventscalendar.com/blog/news/the-events-calendar-joins-the-liquid-web-family/">announced on The Events Calendar blog</a> that he would remain at the helm and that the team structure was not changing.</p>



<p>The remaining 74 employees of Modern Tribe will continue working on the agency&rsquo;s other projects, including clients like Microsoft and Harvard University. Reid Peifer, the Creative Director at Modern Tribe, teased potential future projects in his <a href="https://tri.be/blog/the-events-calendar-joins-the-liquid-web-family/">announcement post</a>. &ldquo;We can&rsquo;t help but make things, so you may see a few surprises from us in the coming months as well.&rdquo;</p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/the-events-calendar/">The Events Calendar plugin</a> on WordPress.org currently has over 800,000 active installs with an average rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars. Modern Tribe launched the plugin in 2011 and has continued to build a larger product line and customer base around it over the last decade.</p>



<p>For existing customers, it should be business as usual. Nothing has changed about who is currently developing The Events Calendar. The website is still a separate entity, and billing will remain the same.</p>



<p>The acquisition is mere months after iThemes, owned by Liquid Web, <a href="https://wptavern.com/ithemes-enters-the-wordpress-membership-plugin-market-acquires-restrict-content-pro">purchased Restrict Content Pro</a> (RCP), a membership plugin. While RCP continues to have an independent site, users can snag it with one of the plugin bundles directly from the iThemes website.</p>



<p>However, The Events Calendar will be wholly independent of iThemes. Customers hoping to see a similar bundle with The Events Calendar will be out of luck.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The RCP acquisition was done under the iThemes brand,&rdquo; said Danner. &ldquo;We brought that team into our team, and the membership product is a key part of how we&rsquo;re positioning iThemes. The Event Calendar&rsquo;s acquisition was done under the larger Liquid Web brand. Their team is coming into Liquid Web alongside iThemes as part of the bigger software division. While we definitely think there are future opportunities to collaborate between our teams (which could include bundles of products from both teams), their products are not going to become part of the iThemes product line.&rdquo;</p>



<p>One of the biggest remaining questions is whether the separate teams will eventually create integrations between The Events Calendar and RCP. There are multiple reasons event organizers might want to restrict content based on memberships, especially when it comes to virtual events. Danner did not give up any specific plans in his response.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re very excited to explore all the opportunities to integrate our products,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think there are some great opportunities for RCP and TEC to work more closely together, and both customer bases have requested deeper integration between the two. This acquisition was a perfect fit from so many angles. The people, the values of the team, and the products all align with what we&rsquo;re building at Liquid Web.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 06 Jan 2021 22:21:22 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:19;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"Akismet: Version 4.1.8 of the Akismet WordPress Plugin is Now Available";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"http://blog.akismet.com/?p=2109";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:99:"https://blog.akismet.com/2021/01/06/version-4-1-8-of-the-akismet-wordpress-plugin-is-now-available/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:667:"<p>Version 4.1.8 of <a href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/akismet/">the Akismet plugin for WordPress</a> is now available. It contains the following changes:</p>
<ul>
<li>Removal of a deprecated jQuery function.</li>
<li>A fix for a bug causing some data to be excluded from API calls when marking a comment as spam or not-spam.&nbsp; This should improve spam detection accuracy.</li>
</ul>
<p>To upgrade, visit the Updates page of your WordPress dashboard and follow the instructions. If you need to download the plugin zip file directly, links to all versions are available in <a href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/akismet/">the WordPress plugins directory</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 06 Jan 2021 17:01:02 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:17:"Christopher Finke";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:20;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:33:"Matt: Farnam Street and Postlight";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=53384";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:50:"https://ma.tt/2021/01/farnam-street-and-postlight/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2137:"<p>I recorded two interviews very far apart from each other, but which have surprisingly both come out today. The first is for one of my favorite sites on the web, <a href="https://fs.blog/">Farnam Street</a>. I was honored to be <a href="https://fs.blog/knowledge-project/">episode 100 on their Knowledge Project podcast</a>. Knowledge Project is probably one of the podcasts I&#8217;ve listened to the most since it started. Please check out their other guests as well, they really do have the most interesting conversations with the most interesting folks.</p>



<p>Shane and I cover turnarounds, how environment affects performance, pros and cons of distributed work, uncovering your lacuna, mental models, and patterns of decision making.</p>



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<p>On a completely different vein, I did a deep geek-out on technology and content management systems with <a href="https://ginatrapani.org/">Gina Trapani</a> and <a href="https://www.ftrain.com/">Paul Ford</a>, two of my favorite technologists, <a href="https://postlight.com/podcast/wordpress-and-beyond-with-matthew-mullenweg">on the Postlight podcast</a>. We covered a lot of tech history, my thoughts on Chromium and Mozilla&#8217;s Gecko engine, structured data, Gutenberg, and a lot more. If you&#8217;re a developer or a long-time WordPress community member you&#8217;ll enjoy this one, but it might be esoteric or technical if you&#8217;re not immersed in this world. Here&#8217;s a Spotify embed of the episode:</p>



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<p>In both we do touch on my idea that, on a long enough timeline, the survival rate for all proprietary software drops to zero. (Hat tip to Fight Club.) Proprietary software is an evolutionary dead end. You can think of open source packages like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene-centered_view_of_evolution">genetic alleles that have a higher fitness function</a>, and eventually become the fittest organism. The longer I spend watching mega-trends in technology, the more I see that pattern everywhere, from encyclopedias to cryptocurrencies.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 05 Jan 2021 23:51:50 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:21;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:92:"WPTavern: Block System Will Create More Commercial Opportunities for WordPress Theme Authors";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109904";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:229:"https://wptavern.com/block-system-will-create-more-commercial-opportunities-for-wordpress-theme-authors?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=block-system-will-create-more-commercial-opportunities-for-wordpress-theme-authors";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6978:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Ten years ago, a potential WordPress theme buyer might stumble upon a site like ThemeForest. The themes on the site would primarily tout the hundreds of shortcodes they included. These shortcodes would allow the user to build anything they wanted with simple BBCode-like brackets around some tag or another.</p>



<p>The practice was not limited to ThemeForest. Nearly every theme development company at the time &mdash; and they were sprouting up by the dozens a decade ago &mdash; needed to compete in the same arena. Despite all their faults (never mind that no user could reasonably remember hundreds of them), shortcodes topped the list of features.</p>



<p>Today, the landscape is much different. In part powered by page builders like Elementor and Beaver Builder, themes are more apt to offer pre-built design options. Gone are the days when users must painstakingly fill their pages with shortcode soup manually. At the click of a button, their theme will automate the design of their homepage for them. The user merely needs to fill in the content. At the click of another button, the user gets a contact or services page. A restaurant owner might get a fully-laid out food menu. A new online shop owner can get a full set of pre-built WooCommerce products by importing their theme&rsquo;s demo content.</p>



<p><em>Customizability</em> is the name of the game. This has not really changed over the years, but the methods for getting there have.</p>



<p>When perusing commercial theme shops today, the common thread is the multitude of demos. These demos showcase the various layouts the user can have if they just fork over the $50 or $60 for access. There are themes with over 500 demos.</p>



<p>Some themes market hundreds of templates or dozens of pre-built, one-click website designs. At the end of the day, it is all about making the user&rsquo;s site look a certain way without the hassle of hours of work.</p>



<p>The problem with traditional theming is that all of these themes are built with non-standard solutions. This is no fault of the theme authors. They had to build or use third-party systems where WordPress had failed. Elementor has standardized this to some degree &mdash; many commercial theme shops fully support it, often as the default experience. However, it still only represents a fraction of the market and is not a part of the core platform.</p>



<p>WordPress is still catching up to the dream that the premium marketplace has already been capitalizing on.</p>



<p>However, WordPress can do this better in the long term and level the playing field for many other theme developers. We are on the verge of true one-click solutions from the core platform. It will be a tough run for the next year, but the theme shops that adopt the block system the soonest stand the most to gain.</p>



<h2>What the System Offers</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">If you have ever installed themes that offered dozens of header designs, the experience has likely been hit or miss. Most such themes require users to go through dozens of options fields in the customizer or &mdash; <em>yikes!</em> &mdash; a custom-built options page that looks nothing like the WordPress interface. While there are simpler solutions that some theme authors have created, WordPress has never had a built-in way of allowing users to do this.</p>



<p>Enter template parts made out of blocks.</p>



<p>Themes Team rep Carolina Nymark showcased just how simple this is with the upcoming site editor. Her <a href="https://wptavern.com/armando-wordpress-theme-provides-insight-into-the-current-state-of-full-site-editing">Armando theme</a> offers three custom header templates.</p>



<img />Selecting a header template with the Armando theme.



<p>The system is far from ready. There are missing features that we will likely not see for a while. For example, there&rsquo;s currently no way to categorize or otherwise group all the header templates just yet. Users can just as easily replace the header with a footer template.</p>



<p>However, this is an important step forward.  The theme author did not write any complicated PHP or JavaScript. There was no need to build a custom options panel or fields. No third-party system was warranted. The developer created the templates, and they became instantly available through the site-editing interface. The theme author&rsquo;s responsibility went back to simply designing. The user has access through a standardized interface.</p>



<p>If theme authors want to offer hundreds of switchable templates, they can. If they want to add two or three while upselling the others, they can do that too.</p>



<p>Now, expand upon this idea with other types of templates. These can be a footer, sidebar, homepage, or any template. The commercial applications are endless. Theme authors can offer commercial themes or upsells with far less work than ever before.</p>



<p>The possibilities do not end with templates. Block patterns are another viable feature to commercialize. As shown with the Genesis Blocks plugin, its &ldquo;layout selector&rdquo; offers various patterns to quickly insert into the post content.</p>



<img />Slate collection from the Genesis Blocks plugin.



<p>Genesis Blocks even offers collections of these patterns that share a similar design aesthetic. In other words, these are essentially pattern categories.</p>



<p>This is an easy path forward for theme authors who are looking to upsell. Build one or two categories of patterns. Periodically bring in new groups of patterns for users who want a fresh look without changing themes.</p>



<p>Gutenberg Hub already provides hundreds of <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-hub-launches-collection-of-100-block-templates">templates and patterns</a>, filling a void that is currently missing from the theme ecosystem. The site offers convenient solutions, but something is missing: they are not tied into the theme&rsquo;s design. Forward-thinking theme authors should already be building competing solutions that offer all the same templates and patterns that match their themes.</p>



<img />Gutenberg Hub&rsquo;s landing page &ldquo;templates&rdquo; (patterns).



<p>A year or two ago, there was some rumbling about the block editor leading to the death of WordPress theming. <em>Traditional</em> theming will trickle into nonexistence in the coming years. Of course, there will be pockets of holdouts, but the future is about one-click solutions. And, WordPress is setting the stage for all users to have this ability at their fingertips. The theme shops that recognize this the soonest will profit from it the most. Everyone else will be fighting for the scraps they leave behind.</p>



<p>It is not time to abandon traditional theming or forgo page-builder support. However, it is time for themers to begin rolling out block patterns and to start outlining, testing, and building block-based themes.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 05 Jan 2021 22:34:08 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:22;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:57:"WordPress.org blog: The Month in WordPress: December 2020";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=9508";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:72:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/01/the-month-in-wordpress-december-2020/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11600:"<p>We bid goodbye to 2020 in style with the release of WordPress 5.6 and the launch of Learn WordPress. But these weren’t the only exciting updates from WordPress in December. Read on to learn more!</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator" />



<h2>WordPress 5.6 is here</h2>



<p>The latest major WordPress release,<a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2020/12/simone/"> version 5.6</a> “Simone”, came out on December 8. The release ships with a new default theme called <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/twentytwentyone/">Twenty Twenty One</a>. It offers a host of features, including:</p>



<ul><li>Greater layout flexibility</li><li>More block patterns</li><li>Video captioning support</li><li>Auto-updates</li><li>Beta-compatibility for PHP 8.0</li><li>Application password support for the REST API</li><li>Updates to jQuery</li></ul>



<p>In addition, WordPress 5.6 is now available in 55 languages. You can find more information about the release in the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/11/20/wordpress-5-6-field-guide/">field guide</a>, and you can update to the latest version directly from your WordPress dashboard or by <a href="https://wordpress.org/download/">downloading</a> it directly from WordPress.org. A total of 605 people hailing from 57 different countries contributed to the development of WordPress 5.6. <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>audrasjb</a> has <a href="https://jeanbaptisteaudras.com/en/2020/12/wordpress-5-6-core-stats-contributions-by-country-company/">compiled many more stats like that</a>, showing what a tremendous group effort this was—they’re well worth a read!</p>



<p>Want to contribute to upcoming WordPress releases? Join the WordPress <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW">#core</a> channel on the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/">Make WordPress Slack</a> and follow the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">Core team blog</a> to learn the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/21/wordpress-5-7-planning-roundup/">latest on WordPress 5.7</a>, which is <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/roadmap/">slated to be out by March 9, 2021</a>. The Core team hosts weekly chats on Wednesdays at <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=5&min=00&sec=0">5 a.m.</a> and <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?hour=20&min=00&sec=0">8 p.m.</a> UTC.</p>



<h2>Watch the State of the Word 2020 recording</h2>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/">State of the Word 2020</a>, the annual keynote address delivered by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, was streamed online for the first time on December 17. It was followed by a live Q&amp;A from community members all across the world. You can find the stream recording on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI3qCoiuG3w">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WordPress/videos/1281447442248369">Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1dRKZNvnrmdKB">Twitter</a>. The <a href="https://wordpress.tv/2020/12/17/matt-mullenweg-2020-state-of-the-word/">State of the Word</a> video and the <a href="https://wordpress.tv/2020/12/17/matt-mullenweg-2020-state-of-the-word-qa/">Q&amp;A session</a> are also available on WordPress.tv.&nbsp;</p>



<h2>Learn WordPress has launched</h2>



<p>Learn WordPress, a new free, on-demand WordPress learning resource, launched officially on December 15. It offers <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/workshops/">workshops</a>, <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/lesson-plans/">lesson plans</a>, quizzes, and <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/courses/">courses</a> for anyone interested in publishing with, building for, or contributing to WordPress. WordPress enthusiasts can also <a href="https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-discussions/">participate in discussion groups</a> focused on specific topics to learn with and from each other.</p>



<p>Want to participate in Learn WordPress? <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/contribute/">Here are four ways you can do so</a>! Additionally, contributors have <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2020/12/03/learn-wordpress-blue-sky-thinking/">launched a discussion</a> on the future of <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn WordPress</a>—feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. To help promote Learn WordPress, check out the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/">Marketing Team</a>’s <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2020/12/09/help-us-promote-learn-wordpress/">materials</a>, which detail a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/marketing/2020/12/09/help-us-promote-learn-wordpress/">range of fun and creative ways</a> to share this new resource.</p>



<h2>Give feedback on the Full Site Editing project</h2>



<p>Contributor teams have kicked off the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/11/the-fse-outreach-program-is-officially-starting/">Full Site Editing (FSE) outreach program</a> for anyone who is building or maintaining a WordPress site so that they can give feedback on the upcoming <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/handbook/focuses/full-site-editing/">FSE feature</a> that will be part of Gutenberg Phase 2. Your feedback will go a long way in improving FSE user flows. To participate, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2020/12/23/fse-program-testing-call-1-template-editing/">check out the initial testing call</a> on the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/">Make/Test blog</a> and join the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/fse-outreach-experiment/">#fse-outreach-experiment</a> Slack channel.<br /><br />Want to follow updates on the FSE project? Check out <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/05/20/ways-to-keep-up-with-full-site-editing-fse/">this blog post</a>. You can find <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/10/status-check-site-editing-and-customization/">2020 updates to the FSE project</a> in the Make/Core blog.</p>



<h2>BuddyPress 7.0 “Filippi” and 7.10 are now available</h2>



<p><a href="https://buddypress.org/2020/12/buddypress-7-0-0-filippi/">BuddyPress version 7.0</a> went live on December 9. Its features include:&nbsp;</p>



<ul><li>New administration screens to manage Member and Group Types</li><li>New BP blocks for posts and pages</li><li>A default profile image for network sites</li><li>Improved BuddyPress Noveau support for the Twenty Twenty One theme.&nbsp;</li></ul>



<p>A BuddyPress maintenance release (<a href="https://buddypress.org/2020/12/buddypress-7-1-0-maintenance-release/">version 7.1</a>) launched on December 21.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Want to provide feedback or suggestions for BuddyPress? Share your comments on the announcement posts for <a href="https://buddypress.org/2020/12/buddypress-7-0-0-filippi/">7.0</a> or <a href="https://buddypress.org/2020/12/buddypress-7-1-0-maintenance-release/">7.1</a>. If you find a bug, please report it in the <a href="https://buddypress.org/support/">support forums</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<h2>Gutenberg 9.5 and 9.6 released</h2>



<p>The Core team launched <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/02/whats-new-in-gutenberg-2-december/">version 9.5</a> and <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/23/whats-new-in-gutenberg-23-december/">9.6</a> of Gutenberg last month. Both versions include several improvements to FSE flows, bug fixes, and feature upgrades. Version 9.5 introduces features like full height alignment and support for font sizes in the code block. Version 9.6 includes features like the ability to drag blocks from the inserter and a vertical layout for buttons.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Want to get involved in building Gutenberg? Follow <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">the Core team blog</a>, contribute to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/">Gutenberg on GitHub</a>, and join the <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02QB2JS7">#core-editor</a> channel in <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/">the Making WordPress Slack group</a>.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator" />



<h2>Further Reading</h2>



<ul><li>The Community team <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2020/12/01/discussion-how-can-the-wordpress-community-return-to-hosting-safe-in-person-events/">kicked off a discussion</a> about what the WordPress Community can do to host safe, in-person events again, in light of the continuing pandemic. </li><li>The Polyglots team published its <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2020/12/30/polyglots-team-end-of-year-post-2020/">end-of-year post</a>, along with the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/author/evarlese/">results of its 2020 translator survey</a>.</li><li><a href="https://sevilla.wordcamp.org/2020/">WordCamp Sevilla 2020</a> was held online from December 26-29. You can catch the recorded livestream playback on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/wordpresssevilla/live">YouTube</a>. Videos of the event will <a href="https://wordpress.tv/event/wordcamp-sevilla-2020/">soon be available on WordPress.tv</a>.</li><li>WordPress project executive director <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/">Josepha Haden</a> and project co-founder <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/matt/">Matt Mullenweg</a> will be jointly hosting <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/15/regular-office-and-listening-hours/">quarterly office and listening hours</a> in 2021. Sign-ups for the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/15/regular-office-and-listening-hours/">first ones in January 2021</a> are almost filled up.</li><li>The Core team <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/02/wp-notify-project-review/">published updates</a> on the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/feature-notifications/">WP Notify project</a>, which seeks to <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2019/08/05/feature-project-proposal-wp-notify/">improve the notifications system</a> in WordPress Core.</li><li>The Support team <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/support/2020/12/handling-potential-jquery-issues-in-wordpress-5-6/">published a post</a> detailing jQuery issues in WordPress 5.6.</li><li><a href="https://india.wordcamp.org/2021/">WordCamp India Online 2021</a> will be held over three weekends between January 30 and February 14. There will be workshops, a contributor event, and sessions (in that order). The calls for <a href="https://india.wordcamp.org/2021/call-for-sponsors/">sponsors</a>, <a href="https://india.wordcamp.org/2021/call-for-workshops/">workshop presenters</a>, <a href="https://india.wordcamp.org/2021/call-for-contributor-team-leads/">contributor team leads</a>, and <a href="https://india.wordcamp.org/2021/call-for-volunteers/">volunteers</a> are now open. Don’t forget to grab your <a href="https://india.wordcamp.org/2021/tickets/">free tickets</a>!</li><li>The Documentation team <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2020/12/01/external-linking-policy-1st-review-of-plugin-developer-handbook/">shared a first review</a> of its <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/docs/tag/external-linking-policy/">external linking policy</a>. It is using the <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/">plugin developer handbook</a> as a test.</li></ul>



<p><br /><em>Have a story that we should include in the next “Month in WordPress” post? Please </em><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/month-in-wordpress-submissions/"><em>submit it using this form</em></a><em>.</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 05 Jan 2021 10:55:56 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Hari Shanker R";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:23;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:93:"WPTavern: WordPress.com Rattles Freelancer Community with New Website Building Service Launch";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109818";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:231:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-com-rattles-freelancer-community-with-new-website-building-service-launch?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-com-rattles-freelancer-community-with-new-website-building-service-launch";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7137:"<p>WordPress.com launched a new <a href="https://wordpress.com/built-by-wordpress-com/?utm_source=enblog&utm_medium=automattic_referred&utm_campaign=january_2021_launch&flags=a8c-analytics.on,ad-tracking,google-analytics&ga_optimize=on">website building service</a> today with prices starting at $4,900. Automattic has been beta testing the service since the last quarter of 2020. The product <a href="https://wordpress.com/blog/2021/01/04/let-our-experts-build-your-dream-website/">announcement</a> invites customers to let WordPress.com&rsquo;s&nbsp;professional team &ldquo;translate your vision into a compelling and modern website&rdquo; but does not specify pricing for more customized websites:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Whether you need a fast and performant eCommerce store for your products and/or services, a polished website for your professional services firm, or an educational website for your online courses, our experts can build it for you on WordPress.com, the most powerful platform for businesses and enterprises large and small.</p></blockquote>



<p>Initial reactions from the WordPress developer and freelance community were mixed. Some see the competition as good and others perceived it as a threat to WordPress consultants and small agencies, because a product from WordPress.com carries the full weight of the official WordPress brand. </p>



<p>&ldquo;Whether this succeeds or not there are a lot of folks with a sick stomach today because of it,&rdquo; WordPress developer Chris Wiegman <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisWiegman/status/1346151976296443904">said</a>.</p>



<p>Automattic stepping into the $5k website market came as a surprise to many, after years of keeping to the enterprise space with its <a href="https://wpvip.com/">WordPress.com VIP</a> service. (Sometime in 2019 the service started going by &ldquo;WordPress VIP&rdquo; without the &ldquo;.com&rdquo; appended to it.) Freelancers haven&rsquo;t had to worry too much about competing against a large company like Automattic when trying to attract clients. It&rsquo;s also an interesting move because the company <a href="https://wptavern.com/automattic-has-discontinued-active-development-on-edit-flow-plugin">seemed stretched thin</a> when it came to maintaining plugins used by VIP clients in 2019, despite seeing &ldquo;demand for WordPress in the enterprise market like never before,&rdquo; <a href="https://wptavern.com/automattic-has-discontinued-active-development-on-edit-flow-plugin#comment-307821">according to Nick Gernert</a>, head of VIP. </p>



<p>&ldquo;Can&rsquo;t say I&rsquo;m surprised by this announcement, but it doesn&rsquo;t bode well for the community, to be honest,&rdquo; WordPress consultant Joshua Nelson <a href="https://twitter.com/onemorejosh/status/1346147871465353216">said</a>. &ldquo;Freelancers will be hurt the most. A for instance: My custom built sites start at $3k. Once you factor in a designer that $4.9k rate looks very competitive.&rdquo;</p>



<p>In response to community concerns on Twitter, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg said the product is targeted at people who have a difficult time getting started with WordPress.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I would be extremely surprised if this impacts anyone&rsquo;s consulting business, if you do have a current or potential client leave for it please let me know &mdash; it should be all new-to-WP users who wouldn&rsquo;t have been successful getting started,&rdquo; Mullenweg <a href="https://twitter.com/photomatt/status/1346212091200491520">said</a>. He also confirmed that the new service was set up for &ldquo;referring business out&rdquo; and referenced a previous experiment in 2018 where WordPress.com <a href="https://wordpress.com/support/upwork/">partnered with Upwork</a> to refer clients for custom development.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://twitter.com/photomatt/status/1346212543732170752
</div>



<p>The product launch lacked this information and some <a href="https://twitter.com/mattmedeiros/status/1346221279246999552">noted</a> the copy was confusing with phrases like &ldquo;Built by us&rdquo; and &ldquo;Our experts can build it for you.&rdquo;</p>



<p>WordPress professionals took to <a href="https://poststatus.com/">Post Status</a>&lsquo; Slack to discuss the implications of Automattic&rsquo;s new offering. Mullenweg responded to them, saying he is &ldquo;100% certain this will drive more up-market consulting in the future&rdquo; to consultants who handle larger projects and potentially bring more business to plugin and theme developers. He also noted that <a href="https://www.web.com/websites/website-design-services">Bluehost&rsquo;s full service</a> product is a similar solution and that services like <a href="http://web.com/">Web.com</a> have been competing in this space for awhile.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Typically these are called DIFM (do it for me) vs DIY (do it yourself),&rdquo; he said.</p>



<p>Automattic must be witnessing a strong demand for DIFM, as participants in the discussion at Post Status referenced Mullenweg&rsquo;s comments on the topic during his most recent <a href="https://wptavern.com/state-of-the-word-2020-wordpress-moves-toward-full-site-editing">State of the Word</a> address delivered in December 2020:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Lots of people lost their jobs. Lots of people were looking to supplement their income. This drove an incredible amount of entrepreneurship, so people who were looking for people who knew WordPress. And on the other side of that, normal folks who knew or learned WordPress found that they had a lot to demand for their work, so they were able to supplement or replace their income, essentially for folks who have a do it for me mentality, so someone who is looking for someone else to build a website. It&rsquo;s never been a better time to learn and invest in improving your WordPress skills.</p></blockquote>



<p>The idea behind this product is to help those who get stuck with WordPress  before they turn to competitors that market website creation to beginners. It indicates that WordPress still has a long road ahead before it is truly an approachable tool for beginners embarking on their first site building experience.</p>



<p>Automattic has not published a pricing structure for the features included in a basic $4900 website. Based on images on the <a href="https://wordpress.com/built-by-wordpress-com/">landing page</a>, the sites do not seem extensively customized beyond what existing themes offer. It seems like more of a website setup service and does not explicitly promise custom development.</p>



<p>When asked how agencies can apply to be put into the pipeline for referrals from WordPress.com&rsquo;s new service, Mullenweg indicated that the product is still in the experimental stage.</p>



<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s unclear if anyone wants this yet, so for this experiment don&rsquo;t have that yet,&rdquo; Mullenweg <a href="https://twitter.com/photomatt/status/1346258917135769600">said</a>. &ldquo;If it works then definitely we will try to open it up.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 05 Jan 2021 04:40:32 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:24;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"WPTavern: 2021: Reshaping the Tavern Experience";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109489";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:137:"https://wptavern.com/2021-reshaping-the-tavern-experience?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=2021-reshaping-the-tavern-experience";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4025:"<img />



<p class="has-drop-cap">Resolutions. Goals. Guidelines for the year ahead. Call them what you want. Not everyone takes part, but I am a firm believer in having a vision for the coming months. That vision can be malleable, flowing with the changes of time, yielding to new ideas as they are birthed. However, some large, beaming guideposts help when setting foot into the wild of a new year.</p>



<p>Our team at WP Tavern has gotten a bit of a breather over the holidays. We have an exciting project we are just getting off the ground. We set some things in motion months ago. Now, it is time to push forward.</p>



<p>Without going into all of the details, which are currently in flux, the following are the big goals for the site in 2021.</p>



<h2>New Design</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The biggest goal of 2021 is to add a fresh coat of paint to the website. Going hand in hand with that goal is to launch this new design 100% on blocks. To effectively write about WordPress&rsquo;s upcoming changes, we need to be ahead of the game. That means living a bit on the bleeding edge, running a block-based theme, and testing the site editor. It means sharing what we love and airing our frustrations.</p>



<p>Changing designs is not simply about slapping on some fresh colors. Design is about functionality. At the center of such a change is providing more tools for engagement.</p>



<p>We are thinking over multiple ideas about what this might look like, and we have a generous third-party team standing by to help us implement much of this. Some of those ideas are things like showing the top comments and trending forum topics. Feedback from our readers is more than welcome in this regard. Ultimately, this is the part of the Tavern experience that belongs to you.</p>



<p>The keen-eyed among you may have noticed I slipped in something about forum topics in the preceding paragraph. That was no accident. The return of the Tavern forums is a distinct possibility in 2021. There are many considerations we must make before going down this road around how it is moderated. The goal would be to provide an inviting atmosphere where people could freely talk about our beloved content management system. Again, this would be a feature of the site that is primarily about you.</p>



<h2>Podcast</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">While many of you are avid readers of our content, we know some of you have asked us to bring back a podcast in some form. Some of you want to listen to WordPress-related news on your drive to work or while you unwind at the end of a busy day.</p>



<p>We heard you loud and clear.</p>



<p>Our team is actively pursuing adding a podcast. This is a project that we have been working on for a while now. It is something we genuinely want to happen.</p>



<p>Before exploring this project, I had no idea of the amount of work necessary for producing a professional podcast. If you had put me behind the mic a few months ago, I would just be shooting from the hip, hoping to hit a target, any target. I have a newfound respect for anyone who produces a podcast today.</p>



<p>If we get a new podcast off the ground in 2021, it will be a professionally-produced show. The goal is to have planned topics and guests representative of the diversity of the WordPress community. I am excited about the possibility.</p>



<h2>Welcome to 2021</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">A new design and potential podcast are big-ticket items. They are not features we can launch overnight. When we do them, we want to do them right.</p>



<p>There are other items on the checklist we will likely get to throughout the year too. But, this is a point in the year where we should sit back and listen. Are there things you want to see changed about the Tavern experience? Are there topics we missed last year that you want to see us cover more?</p>



<p>As always, our team looks forward to bringing you our regular news, reviews, and opinions throughout the year. Stay tuned in for more.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 04 Jan 2021 21:36:33 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:25;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"Matt: What’s In My Bag, 2020";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=53341";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:43:"https://ma.tt/2021/01/whats-in-my-bag-2020/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15521:"<p>Instead of <a href="https://ma.tt/category/in-my-bag/">sharing what&#8217;s in my backpack</a> this year, I want to share the apps and pandemic purchases that were meaningful to me, along with a few words on each. Something I haven&#8217;t shared with you yet on this blog is&#8230; I went down a #vanlife rabbit hole and ended up camping and working remotely a decent chunk of the year. I learned a ton and feel much more resilient. So this is a phoneful and truckful update of my year.</p>



<p>First I&#8217;ll start with apps, these all link to Apple&#8217;s app store but almost all have Android equivalents that I also use:</p>



<ul><li><a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/calm/id571800810">Calm</a> and <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/waking-up-guided-meditation/id1307736395">Waking Up</a> —&nbsp;Very different but both incredibly valuable meditation apps. I had an 82-day streak with Calm this year! I wouldn&#8217;t have survived without these.</li><li><a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fitbod-workout-fitness-plans/id1041517543">Fitbod</a> —&nbsp;You tell the app what equipment you have, how much time you have, and it gives you a workout like a trainer would, rotating muscle groups.</li><li><a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/streaks/id963034692">Streaks</a> — An app for starting and tracking habits. This is a funny one because I actually stopped using it because it worked. The things I was tracking on Streaks became daily habits and I stopped using the app every day. The same thing happened for me with <a href="https://www.zerofasting.com/">Zero</a>, my daily fast became part of my routine so I&#8217;d only use Zero if I was doing a longer one.</li><li><a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tumblr/id305343404">Tumblr</a> —&nbsp;It was so nice to have a social network centered around creativity and humor.</li><li><a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/asana-your-work-manager/id489969512">Asana</a> —&nbsp;Getting organized helped lessen anxiety.</li><li><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/pocket-casts/id414834813">Pocket Casts</a> —&nbsp;I switched to this because it syncs between devices, and I used my Android device a lot especially while driving.</li><li><a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/alltrails-hike-bike-run/id405075943">AllTrails</a> — I spent more time in nature this year than almost any previous, and AllTrails was an amazing way to find great hikes.</li><li><a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-economist/id1239397626">The Economist</a> —&nbsp;The most insightful news, and the weekly cadence helped me avoid the wild variance of the daily news cycle. My favorite news app.</li><li><a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/youtube-watch-listen-stream/id544007664">YouTube</a> —&nbsp;Wow, there&#8217;s a lot of stuff on here. This was the year I started to &#8220;get&#8221; why people spend so much time on YouTube. Some favorite finds were <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtmY49Zn4l0RMJnTWfV7Wsg">Jacob Collier</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY1kMZp36IQSyNx_9h4mpCg">Mark Rober</a>.</li><li><a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/walmart-shopping-grocery/id338137227">Walmart</a> —&nbsp;Surprisingly good on road trips for curbside pickup orders scheduled a few hours ahead. Yes, I have now <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/12/nearly-every-american-spent-money-at-wal-mart-last-year.html">joined 95% of the US population</a>.</li><li><a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/blueground/id1183301329">Blueground</a> and <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/avantstay/id1455404746">Avantstay</a> —&nbsp;Good for longer stays in places. I found both through <a href="https://www.airbnb.com/">Airbnb</a>, which is still the king.</li><li>Food apps in order of usage: <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/doordash-food-delivery/id719972451">DoorDash</a>, <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/uber-eats-food-delivery/id1058959277">Uber Eats</a>, <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tock-restaurant-reservations/id1369347408">Tock</a>, <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/toast-takeout-delivery/id1362180579">Toast TakeOut</a>.</li><li>Camping apps in order of usage: <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/alltrails-hike-bike-run/id405075943">AllTrails</a>, <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/chimani-national-park-guides/id436381327">Chimani</a>, <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/recreation-gov/id1440487780">Recreation.gov</a>, <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ioverlander/id894352689">iOverlander</a>,  <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/boondocking/id561352659">Boondocking</a>, <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/freeroam-boondocking-more/id1434359242">FreeRoam</a>, <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/harvest-hosts/id1321631420">Harvest Hosts</a>.</li><li>App I deleted and re-added the most: <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/twitter/id333903271">Twitter</a>. I love the things I learn from using it, but hate feeling like I&#8217;m wasting time.</li></ul>



<p>When on road trips I found Android Auto running off the Pixel 5 much more reliable than CarPlay, which would frequently freeze up on me. Things have improved with iOS 14, but I still always use the Pixel when I&#8217;m on a longer drive.</p>



<p>I also have been living with my Mom since July, including her two cats and <a href="https://matt.blog/2021/01/02/introducing-lily-belle/">new Coton du Tulear puppy</a>. Pets are humbling! It&#8217;s been great to learn how to support them best, as I last lived with animals when I was in high school and wasn&#8217;t that conscious of the responsibility then.</p>



<p>Amazon says I made over 850 orders this year, more than double from any previous year. Here are the non-tech purchases that ended up having a big impact on me:</p>



<ul><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GZ2DY7K/?tag=photomatt08-20">SmartMouth mouthwash</a> —&nbsp;Available in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IADXVUY/?tag=photomatt08-20">travel packs as well</a>, this is magical for having great breath, which you&#8217;ll notice more now that you&#8217;re wearing a mask all the time.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XHMNGF9/?tag=photomatt08-20">Marvis Royal Toothpaste</a> —&nbsp;Delicious! SLS-free! I switch between this and the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000MUH344/?tag=photomatt08-20">SmartMouth toothpaste</a> which works better but isn&#8217;t as luxuriously tasty.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Theragun-Elite-Generation-Percussive-Treatment/dp/B08G3Q44YJ/?tag=photomatt08-20">Theragun</a> — Because you can&#8217;t get a massage.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N41D7QY/?tag=photomatt08-20">Hurtle vibration platform</a> —&nbsp;Really weird but seems to shake the stress out of you, especially if you stretch on it for 5-10 minutes.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bowflex-SelectTech-Adjustable-Dumbbells-Pair/dp/B001ARYU58/?tag=photomatt08-20">Bowflex Adjustable Dumbbells</a> —&nbsp;I was lucky enough to get these before they sold out and became crazy expensive. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JQU3BPK/?tag=photomatt08-20">Buckwheat meditation cushion</a> — So much more comfortable to have a cushion, especially for longer meditation sessions. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GDF47Q8/?tag=photomatt08-20">Here&#8217;s a smaller version</a> I use on the road.</li><li><a href="https://www.philips-hue.com/en-us">Tons of Philips Hue lights</a> —&nbsp;Got a ton of joy from playing with the colors on these.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07S7DWWJZ/?tag=photomatt08-20">Cloth napkins</a> —&nbsp;Felt so luxurious, easy to wash and re-use.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HML9YLD/?tag=photomatt08-20">Heated cat bed</a> —&nbsp;My Mom&#8217;s cats are obsessed with this now. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/SHARONDS-Scissors-Thinning-Professional-Stainless/dp/B08BWXWHWH/?tag=photomatt08-20">Sharonds hair cutting scissors</a> —&nbsp;10x better than the scissors I had lying around the house.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L67KL81/?tag=photomatt08-20">Babyliss clippers</a> —&nbsp;They&#8217;re gold and have a &#8220;Lamborghini&#8221; motor which is ostentatious but works great.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GB4TDST/?tag=photomatt08-20">Hair Apron Cape</a> — You feel like a dog with <a href="https://neothesamoyed.tumblr.com/post/173710808330/ice-cream-cone-boy">one of those cones</a>, but mostly works.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QN7FWC9/?tag=photomatt08-20">Yeti Lowlands picnic blanket</a> — Expensive but sturdy.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07V6MR1R5/?tag=photomatt08-20">Cliq camping chair</a> —&nbsp;Super small and great design, but ended up using these less than I thought because we mostly just stayed on the ground on the Yeti blanket.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RX1TBKM/?tag=photomatt08-20">Isdin foot care cream</a> —&nbsp;Really softens your feet.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018GXZ016/?tag=photomatt08-20">Silicone tip cooking chopsticks</a> or the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07LC6253B/?tag=photomatt08-20">ones with the spoon on the end</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Surpahs-Multipurpose-Roll-Up-Drying-Inches/dp/B08196DX71/?tag=photomatt08-20">Roll-up drying rack</a> —&nbsp;Goes great over the sink.</li><li>Joseph Joseph <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TD663Y1/?tag=photomatt08-20">nesting kitchen tools</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006BSBRWK/?tag=photomatt08-20">nesting bowls</a> —&nbsp;They&#8217;re so pretty as well.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CPSJRT4/">Hanging solar mason jar lights</a> —&nbsp;Like fireflies in a jar.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0828BNW82/?tag=photomatt08-20">Matador Freerain32 waterproof packable backpack</a> — My new favorite for hiking.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PFJZ1LV/?tag=photomatt08-20">Matador Transit30 packable duffle bag</a> —&nbsp;I ended up using this way more than I expected.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08CXPBZLD/?tag=photomatt08-20">This bamboo table</a> —&nbsp;Just the right size for eating or working on the ground.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ikea-Large-Shopping-Bags-SET/dp/B00KVJJGN2/?tag=photomatt08-20">Ikea Frakta bag</a> —&nbsp;Just a few dollars each and can hold so much, and available on Amazon.</li></ul>



<p>Clothing and wearables, like much of the world I trended toward comfort and away from normal shoes and socks:</p>



<ul><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IKRF2PW/?tag=photomatt08-20">Bumpers flip flops</a> — Weird but you get used to them.</li><li><a href="https://www.oofos.com/products/mens-ooahh-sport-slide-sandal-black-matte">Oofos slide sandals</a> —&nbsp;Ridiculously comfortable, and this model looks like it has the <a href="https://automattic.com/">Automattic</a> logo on it.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077LJSDQL/?tag=photomatt08-20">Glerups wool slippers</a> —&nbsp;Like wool clogs, I wear the rubber-soled ones out if just stepping out for a bit.</li><li><a href="https://www.patagonia.com/shop/capilene-air-baselayers">Patagonia Capilene Air baselayers</a> — So warm! Addictive.</li><li><a href="https://fahertybrand.com/">Faherty Brand</a> — I just love their whole look and feel, and have met the brothers before.</li><li><a href="https://www.aloyoga.com/">Alo Yoga</a> —&nbsp;Pricey but looks great and fun to workout in. I&#8217;ve had some quality issues with their items though.</li><li><a href="https://shop.lululemon.com/">Lululemon</a> —&nbsp;Especially their new tech canvas pants.</li><li><a href="https://unboundmerino.com/">Unbound Merino</a> —&nbsp;My go-to shirt, also decent socks.</li><li><a href="https://www.uniqlo.com/us/en/home/">Uniqlo</a> —&nbsp;Great value, and no logos!</li></ul>



<p>Electronics:</p>



<ul><li><a href="https://ma.tt/2020/05/ceo-video-streaming/">Everything in the streaming post</a> — I ended up doing a ton of press and talks this year as the world became more <a href="https://distributed.blog/">distributed</a>. I also personally helped many others get similar setups.</li><li><a href="https://store.ui.com/">Everything Unifi</a> — It&#8217;s a year I really appreciated solid internet. </li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LVZ3UI6/?tag=photomatt08-20">Retractable 50&#8242; ethernet cord</a> — I actually daisy-chained two of these to do an internal company town hall presentation.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RVF386D/?tag=photomatt08-20">25&#8242; retractable power extension cord</a> — I also carry two of these.</li><li><a href="https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro-13/">Macbook 13&#8243; M1</a> — It really is the fastest computer you&#8217;ve ever used. This replaced a maxed out 16&#8243;.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B088666T68/?tag=photomatt08-20">Hyppr 100w USB-C charger</a> — Smaller and better than Apple&#8217;s charger.</li><li><a href="https://www.apple.com/airpods-max/">Airpods Max</a> — I didn&#8217;t want to like them but they&#8217;re slick.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089N2RJ4X/?tag=photomatt08-20">Airpods Pro Dekoni Tips</a> — Great upgrade for normal Airpods.</li><li><a href="https://www.apple.com/iphone-12-pro/">iPhone 12 Pro Max</a> — It&#8217;s like a mini iPad. Camera with RAW support is fantastic.</li><li><a href="https://www.apple.com/pro-display-xdr/">Apple Pro Display XDR</a> — Wow.</li><li><a href="https://store.google.com/us/product/pixel_5">Pixel 5</a> — Pretty great that they got the fingerprint reader back in as FaceID with a mask is terrible, so this has become my primary device if I&#8217;m out for a walk.</li><li><a href="https://store.google.com/product/pixelbook_go">Pixelbook Go</a> — For my Mom.</li><li><a href="https://store.google.com/product/chromecast_google_tv">Chromecast with Google TV</a> — Bad name but great product. Truly. Really well designed.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FJ91TLB/">Kindle Oasis with the new warm light</a> — Even though I read less this year, this made what I did read a pleasure.</li><li>Sinjimou charging stand for <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sinjimoru-Including-iPhone-Convenient-Silicone/dp/B07GQNY5RD/?tag=photomatt08-20">iPhone</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GQV2NXN/?tag=photomatt08-20">USB-C</a> — Works great, really cheap.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DD9TQSG/?tag=photomatt08-20">Megaboom 3</a> — Two of these paired together in stereo is the best sound, weight, and battery life combo I&#8217;ve found on the road and in parks.</li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QTVMWVL/?tag=photomatt08-20">Garmin 945 watch</a> — I&#8217;ve talked about this watch previously, but this year I discovered the GPS maps feature when in hiking mode, which can literally be a lifesaver. Amazing for going off-trail.</li></ul>



<p>There you have it. As always, if you&#8217;ve tried something here and found an alternative that&#8217;s better, let me know in the comments!</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sun, 03 Jan 2021 04:37:14 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:26;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:39:"WPTavern: 2020: Step Away From the Fire";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109487";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:121:"https://wptavern.com/2020-step-away-from-the-fire?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=2020-step-away-from-the-fire";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11328:"<img />



<p class="has-drop-cap">If there was a common theme that held humanity together in 2020, it was that most of us agreed that the year was nothing short of a dumpster fire.  That and <a href="https://wptavern.com/you-deserve-to-wear-sweatpants-dont-let-anyone-tell-you-any-different">sweatpants.</a></p>



<p>As people <a href="https://wptavern.com/finding-balance-in-these-uncertain-times-remote-work-and-sharing-our-struggles">learned to cope</a> with a new reality in the Covid-19 era, the WordPress community has been a <a href="https://wptavern.com/need-to-smile-today-stay-wordpress-strong">beacon of hope</a>. When other industries needed to learn how to work remotely, we were already <a href="https://wptavern.com/leave-at-door-new-free-woocommerce-plugin-enables-contact-free-delivery">ahead of the pack</a> and <a href="https://wptavern.com/big-orange-heart-opens-2020-remote-work-wellbeing-and-mental-health-survey">willing to help</a>. As people dealt with the stress of not having meetups in person, the WordPress community thrived with online events.</p>



<p>The early year was tough. From toilet paper shortages to being unable to work from a favorite coffee shop, the pandemic took its toll.</p>



<p>However, we have learned to cope throughout the year. We used new ways to communicate from a distance. Created new circles of friends. Found extra time for long-forgotten hobbies online and off.</p>



<p>We continued to create art, which is the thing that makes our species so undeniably unique.</p>



<p>Maybe it is all the lessons we have learned through the past several months. Perhaps it is that a new year is upon us. The winds of change feel like they are gently nudging us forward.</p>



<p>Over the past couple of months, I have noticed a new calmness. A new hopefulness. A feeling that we will continue to rise above any challenges that come our way. While death and illness are still a part of our daily reality, we must continue to lean on the people within communities like WordPress for support. We will continue marching ahead together.</p>



<p>I always like to take stock of the past year. This helps keep me grounded and remain optimistic about the future. The following is a look back at 2020 for WP Tavern and WordPress.</p>



<h2>WP Tavern Stats</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">We have had a solid year of publishing here at the Tavern. Our team, including guest authors, wrote 401 posts. In 2019, we knocked out 382. Next year, I expect that figure to increase.</p>



<p>Our word count average soared. This year, we averaged 790 words per post. In 2019, that number was 589. While word count is not a testament to quality writing, we did have opportunities to dive deeper into topics than before. In total, we wrote over 315,000 words. That is about 80,000 words shy of Brandon Sanderson&rsquo;s <em>The Way of Kings</em>. You could say that we wrote enough to fill an epic fantasy novel.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Likes&rdquo; were up this year too. We went from an average of 7.0 likes per post in 2019 to 8.7 in 2020.</p>



<p>For comments, it is hard to gauge. The WordPress.com Stats feature does not seem to be accurately tracking our comment counts. The figure is nowhere close to correct. By my rough estimate (counting in hundreds), we have at least twice as many published comments as the data shows.</p>



<p>There were a few days scattered throughout the year in which we came within a hair&rsquo;s breadth of surpassing the site&rsquo;s all-time daily view count. But, alas, we fell just shy of the mark. <em>Maybe next year.</em></p>



<h2>Most Viewed Posts of the Year</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The following is a list of the 10 most-viewed posts published this year. They are not necessarily representative of our best work. However, they do represent what folks were reading. Everything beyond this was pretty close in terms of stats.</p>



<ol><li><a href="https://wptavern.com/preparing-for-wordpress-5-4-changes-theme-and-plugin-developers-should-know-about">Preparing for WordPress 5.4: Changes Theme and Plugin Developers Should Know About</a></li><li><a href="https://wptavern.com/matt-mullenweg-unveils-gutenberg-roadmap-at-wceu-wordpress-agencies-and-product-developers-sprint-to-prepare">Matt Mullenweg Unveils Gutenberg Roadmap at WCEU, WordPress Agencies and Product Developers Sprint to Prepare</a></li><li><a href="https://wptavern.com/w3c-drops-wordpress-from-consideration-for-redesign-narrows-cms-shortlist-to-statamic-and-craft">W3C Drops WordPress from Consideration for Redesign, Narrows CMS Shortlist to Statamic and Craft</a></li><li><a href="https://wptavern.com/major-jquery-changes-on-the-way-for-wordpress-5-5-and-beyond">Major jQuery Changes on the Way for WordPress 5.5 and Beyond</a></li><li><a href="https://wptavern.com/what-is-full-site-editing-and-what-does-it-mean-for-the-future-of-wordpress">What Is Full Site Editing and What Does It Mean for the Future of WordPress?</a></li><li><a href="https://wptavern.com/biden-harris-transition-website-launches-on-wordpress">Biden-Harris Transition Website Launches on WordPress</a></li><li><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-6-will-ship-with-another-major-jquery-change">WordPress 5.6 Will Ship With Another Major jQuery Change</a></li><li><a href="https://wptavern.com/godaddys-go-wordpress-theme-offers-a-page-building-experience-via-the-block-editor">GoDaddy&rsquo;s &lsquo;Go&rsquo; WordPress Theme Offers a Page-Building Experience via the Block Editor</a></li><li><a href="https://wptavern.com/font-awesome-releases-new-covid-19-awareness-icons">Font Awesome Releases New COVID-19 Awareness Icons</a></li><li><a href="https://wptavern.com/automatic-theme-and-plugin-updates-slated-for-wordpress-5-5">Automatic Theme and Plugin Updates Slated for WordPress 5.5</a></li></ol>



<p>For some reason, Sarah&rsquo;s piece on <a href="https://wptavern.com/how-to-add-subscript-and-superscript-characters-in-wordpress">adding subscript and superscript characters</a> from 2014 always sneaks its way into the most-viewed posts of the year. It was technically #6 on the list, but it wasn&rsquo;t published in 2020.</p>



<h2>The Year in WordPress</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">It was the year that saw the rise of online-only WordCamps. What started with WordCamp Asia <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-asia-2020-canceled-over-covid-19-concerns">canceling its inaugural event</a> in February ended with Matt Mullenweg giving the annual <a href="https://wptavern.com/state-of-the-word-2020-wordpress-moves-toward-full-site-editing">State of the Word</a> virtually, a first. WordCamp Europe <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-europe-2020-online-registration-now-open-tickets-are-free">took its massive event online</a> for 2020 while WordCamp U.S. canceled its planned virtual get-together after months of <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-us-2020-canceled-due-to-pandemic-stress-and-online-event-fatigue">pandemic stress and online event fatigue</a>.</p>



<p>We saw the community rise up and tackle problems from the beginning. Companies like Wordfence, Yoast, and GoDaddy <a href="https://wptavern.com/the-international-wordpress-community-and-wordcamps-amid-covid-19">provided help</a> for those who were not refunded travel expenses after cancellations. At the end of the day, that is what the WordPress community is all about: people helping other people.</p>



<p>WordPress kept chugging along, despite the stressful year. The big highlights were three major releases of the software:</p>



<ul><li><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-4-adderley-released-includes-improved-editor-new-blocks-and-developer-apis">WordPress 5.4 &ldquo;Adderley&rdquo;</a></li><li><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-5-eckstine-introduces-block-directory-block-patterns-and-automatic-updates-for-themes-and-plugins">WordPress 5.5 &ldquo;Eckstine&rdquo;</a></li><li><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-6-simone-includes-new-twenty-twenty-one-theme-and-improved-editor">WordPress 5.6 &ldquo;Simone&rdquo;</a></li></ul>



<p>WordPress also <a href="https://wptavern.com/happy-17th-wordpress">turned 17</a> this year.  Its step into adulthood next year should be an adventure.</p>



<h2>Posts From Contributing Writers</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Rather than focusing too much on the work that Sarah and I have put into the Tavern this year, I want to say thank you to our contributing writers. They managed to fill some gaps when we were unable to throughout the past 12 months. They have added viewpoints outside of our own, enriching the content that our site offers. If anything, I want to see further contributions from a wider range of the WordPress community in the future.</p>



<p>I do not typically like to play favorites with our guest writers, but Francesca Marano&rsquo;s piece titled <a href="https://wptavern.com/a-non-technical-release-leads-journey-to-becoming-a-mentor-for-wordpress-core-development">A Non-Technical Release Lead&rsquo;s Journey to Becoming a Mentor for WordPress Core Development</a> was one of my favorite reads of the year. Her backstory is a good intro to the article. Her depth of knowledge and insight into <em>the room where it happens</em> makes it a must-read for anyone unfamiliar with how WordPress gets made.</p>



<p>Chris Maiorana&rsquo;s <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-university-was-always-online">WordPress University Was Always Online</a> is a reminder that the education we need to excel in the online business market is but at our fingertips. It also touches on how the pandemic has allowed more people to realize that the traditional college experience is not the only path forward. It is a great piece that forces us to explore alternatives. And, these alternatives have always been available in the WordPress ecosystem.</p>



<p>Maiorana&rsquo;s piece on the <a href="https://wptavern.com/state-of-the-meetup-under-lockdown">State of the Meetup Under Lockdown</a> explores how the virtual realm has changed meetups. <a href="https://wptavern.com/bringing-back-blogs-in-the-age-of-social-media-censorship">Bringing Back Blogs in the Age of Social Media Censorship</a> is a look into how blogs are the answer in the age of censorship, even when we disagree with a person&rsquo;s position on a subject.</p>



<p>On the technical end of things, Jonathan Bossenger wrote an in-depth piece for <a href="https://wptavern.com/getting-your-wordpress-plugins-and-themes-ready-for-php-8">Getting Your WordPress Plugins and Themes Ready for PHP 8</a>. He goes through everything that developers need to know to get their projects updated. The article also provides tools and resources to make things easier.</p>



<h2>Goodbye, 2020</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">While the year might not have been ideal in many ways, there were some great moments. As I reflect upon the events of the last 12 months, I do not see a complete dumpster fire. There was a lot of good that came out of it. The world has changed in some large ways. Our societies have undergone some subtle reshaping. I do not know what 2021 holds, but I remain optimistic.</p>



<p>I look forward to another year covering the events surrounding WordPress. I hope you continue down this journey with the WP Tavern team.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 31 Dec 2020 22:44:20 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:27;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:43:"Matt: Jack Dorsey and Running Two Companies";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=53328";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:44:"https://ma.tt/2020/12/running-two-companies/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1808:"<p>I had the <a href="https://distributed.blog/2020/12/16/episode-26-jack-dorsey-and-remote-collaboration/">pleasure of interviewing Jack Dorsey for the Distributed podcast</a>, a conversation that ended up going a bit deeper and longer than previous episodes.</p>



<p>In preparation for the interview I kept coming across people critical about the fact that Jack is the CEO of two companies simultaneously, <a href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://squareup.com">Square</a>, each having over 5,000 employees.</p>



<p>I think what people miss is that at that scale, running a company is not that different from running a large division of a company. No one asks Jeff Bezos how he&#8217;s CEO of both a retail company and a cloud computing one (AWS), or Tim Cook how he&#8217;s CEO of a hardware business and a services business, and of course with both of those examples the breadth of what the companies cover is much wider. Also as an added benefit, shareholders can choose to invest in Square and Twitter together or not.</p>



<p>All of that said, I think having a CEO-level seat at two of the most influential technology companies today does allow for accelerated learning, as organizational experiments will naturally happen at each company and then the best practice can be shared to the other. Jack wasn&#8217;t aware how much peer executives at each company meet with each other to share learnings, but that seems like an obvious win. </p>



<p>Readers of this blog will especially appreciate how much we talked about open source and cryptocurrencies, and his view on the three things he&#8217;s responsible for as CEO. <a href="https://distributed.blog/2020/12/16/episode-26-jack-dorsey-and-remote-collaboration/">Give it a listen and let me know what you think</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 31 Dec 2020 03:18:19 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:28;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:74:"WPTavern: Understanding the Query Block and Its Importance in Site Editing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109593";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:193:"https://wptavern.com/understanding-the-query-block-and-its-importance-in-site-editing?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=understanding-the-query-block-and-its-importance-in-site-editing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5285:"<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>I really don&rsquo;t understand this Query block even though it&rsquo;s been mentioned in several Tavern posts. My eyes seem to gloss over when reading about it &ndash; ha!</p><p>Is it important that regular WordPress users understand this block, or is it really a block for developers?</p><p><a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-9-6-introduces-drag-and-drop-blocks-and-global-inheritance-for-the-query-block#comment-357249">Marcus</a></p></blockquote>



<p class="has-drop-cap">I have given the Query block a lot of attention as of late. On occasion, I may have even called it one of the largest hurdles the Gutenberg development team has needed to jump before block-based themes become a reality. However, the &ldquo;query&rdquo; WordPress term is not something all users or Tavern readers are familiar with. It is a concept as old as WordPress and generally something that only developers needed to familiarize themselves with. When Full Site Editing lands in WordPress, the new block will expose the Query to far more users as part of the site editor interface.</p>



<p>It is a block that is currently a part of the Gutenberg plugin but not WordPress core. However, at some point in 2021, more and more end-users and developers will be working with it.</p>



<p>In WordPress terminology, we are really talking about two things, the Query and the Loop. The Query is defined by a set of arguments or options that determine what posts to display. The Loop is the part of the machine that &ldquo;loops&rdquo; through the queried posts and displays them, one after another. The Query asks for posts; the Loop cycles through them.</p>



<p>Traditionally, theme authors were responsible for adding the Loop code to their templates, which used the global Query that WordPress supplied. Themes could also create custom queries, such as adding a posts list widget, categorized homepage post sections, or anything. And, &ldquo;posts&rdquo; can be anything from normal blog posts to WooCommerce products to the latest topics from the bbPress plugin.</p>



<p>The Query may be one of the single most important aspects of WordPress. In essence, it is the engine behind displaying the content of every page on the site. Without it, all WordPress sites would simply be a header and a footer.</p>



<p>The Gutenberg plugin provides two blocks for the Query:</p>



<ul><li><strong>Query:</strong> The outer block for setting the options for which posts will show.</li><li><strong>Query Loop:</strong> The inner block, which is automatically added when using Query.</li></ul>



<p>Currently, users can select between four fairly standard variations when first adding the Query block. They are combinations of the post featured image, title, date, and excerpt.</p>



<img />Query block variations.



<p>These can be further customized via the block options panel in the sidebar. Users can also find &ldquo;view&rdquo; options in the toolbar for selecting between List and Grid views. The List view is the traditional list of posts flowing vertically down the page. The Grid view displays posts in two to six columns.</p>



<img />Grid view of posts while using the Query block.



<p>The Query block has a basic set of options for which post types to display and how to order them. It has filters for categories, tags, authors, and keywords. The block is not as robust as what is possible with code yet. It is missing some basic options like a post number limit and nearly all of the more advanced parameters. However, it is a promising starting point.</p>



<p>The more exciting aspects of this feature for end-users may not be the Query block at all. It is customizing the blocks that go inside, which display things like the featured image, post title, and more.</p>



<p>As a former theme author, I cannot count the number of times users have asked me about customizing some aspect of the posts layout. Having them dive into code to make minor changes, such as removing the post author name or displaying the category in a different place, was not an ideal experience. The site editor will put this power directly into each user&rsquo;s hands.</p>



<img />Adding post-related blocks to the Query block in Grid view.



<p>The comment by Marcus was on the Tavern&rsquo;s post covering <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-9-6-introduces-drag-and-drop-blocks-and-global-inheritance-for-the-query-block">Gutenberg 9.6</a>. The latest version of the plugin introduced global query inheritance for the Query block. This means that theme authors can now replicate the content layer in block-based themes. Previously, pages like archives and search results would simply display the latest posts when a theme used the Query block. Now, each of those pages can display the correct posts.</p>



<p>However, the Query block is so much more than that. In the hands of users, it can be a powerful tool for creating custom output on a homepage &mdash; think newspaper-style categorized sections. Users can also create post lists in a sidebar, such as the latest forum replies or products. Theme authors can offer templates or block patterns with unique designs or as starting points for end-users to modify. There is no shortage of possibilities.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 30 Dec 2020 23:05:39 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:29;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:158:"WPTavern: GitHub’s 2020 State of the Octoverse Report Highlights: Developers are Working More Hours but Turning to Open Source Projects for Creative Outlets";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109613";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:353:"https://wptavern.com/githubs-2020-state-of-the-octoverse-report-highlights-developers-are-working-more-hours-but-turning-to-open-source-projects-for-creative-outlets?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=githubs-2020-state-of-the-octoverse-report-highlights-developers-are-working-more-hours-but-turning-to-open-source-projects-for-creative-outlets";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3644:"<p>GitHub has published its annual <a href="https://octoverse.github.com/">Octoverse report</a> for 2020. The code hosting platform currently serves more than 56 million developers who created 60+ million new repositories this past year. The volume of work pumping through GitHub&rsquo;s pipes and its preeminence as the world&rsquo;s largest developer platform gives the company access to a trove of data on how people have been working during the pandemic. </p>



<p>The Productivity report shows that developers have been putting in longer hours as compared to the previous year. It includes data on what time of day people seem to be more productive, as well as minute changes in the volume of work across various time zones and countries with different COVID-19 responses. The graph below tracks the US Pacific Time Zone, showing a spike in the push window and work volume beginning in mid-March with lockdowns. The volume of work remained consistently higher than the previous year.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>GitHub recorded 35% more repositories created than last year and 7.5 hours faster pull request merge times in teams&rsquo; most productive and collaborative weeks.</p>



<p>Developers seem to be getting more done and GitHub attributes this to people using automation to accelerate their work, improved development practices, and the flexibility of blurring the lines between work and life. The report also cautions that this high volume of work may not be sustainable long-term should be tempered with regular breaks and conscious energy management practices.</p>



<p>This collection of reports also highlights a few trends in the wider open source community. Alongside a general jump in work volume, GitHub tracked an increase in open source activity on weekends and holidays, at the same time that Enterprise developer activity dropped. Open source project creation is also up by 25% year over year since April 2020.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>The data suggests that even when developers conclude their regular work, they are turning to open source projects for creative outlets. These projects often provide meaningful connections and community while the world is stuck at home.</p>



<p>Based on these findings, GitHub recommends that organizations recognize the importance open source projects hold for employee wellbeing and enrichment when they are contributing outside of work.</p>



<p>The State of the Octoverse also includes reports on Community and Security. GitHub found that 17% of the vulnerabilities hosted on its platform were explicitly malicious but triggered just 0.2% of alerts. The remaining 83% of vulnerabilities were the result of mistakes. The company found that vulnerabilities are fixed 1.4x faster when repositories are set up to automatically generate a pull request when a patch is available.</p>



<p>In 2020, the average time for vulnerabilities to go undetected before being identified is four years for GitHub-hosted repositories. On average, it takes 4.4 weeks for the community to code and release a fix, and 10 weeks to alert the community on the availability of a security update. Once notified, users generally apply the update within one week.</p>



<p>GitHub reports that its community is becoming more diverse as those who identify as developers have decreased from 60% in 2016 to 54% in 2020. Profiles related to education are growing (up from 17% in 2016 to 23% in 2020), followed by users working in data. The platform is becoming more approachable for collaborators who do not come from a development background. </p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 30 Dec 2020 07:08:51 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:30;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:94:"WPTavern: Armando WordPress Theme Provides Insight Into the Current State of Full Site Editing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109503";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:233:"https://wptavern.com/armando-wordpress-theme-provides-insight-into-the-current-state-of-full-site-editing?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=armando-wordpress-theme-provides-insight-into-the-current-state-of-full-site-editing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5271:"<p class="has-drop-cap">As we inch closer to a year in which <a href="https://wptavern.com/what-is-full-site-editing-and-what-does-it-mean-for-the-future-of-wordpress">WordPress&rsquo;s primary focus</a> will be on Full Site Editing, it is fortunate timing that Themes Team representative Carolina Nymark publicly <a href="https://twitter.com/carolinapoena/status/1343541924028968963">announced her latest theme</a>, Armando. It is a blogging theme that makes use of the latest features from the Gutenberg plugin.</p>



<p>The theme is currently <a href="https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/93476">awaiting review</a> for the WordPress theme directory. It is also <a href="https://github.com/carolinan/fullsiteediting/tree/course/armando">available via GitHub</a>.</p>



<p>The news of Armando came moments after Nymark <a href="https://twitter.com/carolinapoena/status/1343538279346544643">announced a redesign</a> of her <a href="https://fullsiteediting.com/">Full Site Editing</a> website. The site is a resource for WordPress users and developers to learn more about upcoming features. It is built entirely out of blocks. It is also one of the few sites in the wild running a block-based theme in production.</p>



<p>Armando is one of the better themes for testing Full Site Editing. This should come as no surprise. Nymark is a veteran of the Themes Team. She tends to cover all the bases and has done so with this theme. There are even notes in the code where she intends to change things as site editing improves.</p>



<p>The theme is a solid starting point for theme authors who have yet to dip their toes into block-based theme development. It is also usable enough for end-users who want to experience the current state of Full Site Editing.</p>



<img />Editing a single post template in the site editor.



<p>The theme does not have a particular artistic flair. It is simple. It is a basic blogging theme that showcases each element the Gutenberg team has covered thus far in its journey toward the new block-based design system.</p>



<p>Armando also uncovers some of the current problems with the system. As Nymark noted in her stylesheet, &ldquo;Date and categories are all block elements, we need to adjust them to align them better next to each other.&rdquo; On the front end, the theme&rsquo;s CSS adjusts these block-level elements to correctly line up with each other. However, as seen in the site editor view, they are separated as blocks. Post metadata like the author, date, and category often need to be inline. This choice for aligning basic elements of theme design also needs to exist in the site editor. That is if we ever want theme authors to adopt it. <em>And, we haven&rsquo;t even gotten to the complicated stuff yet.</em></p>



<p>Armando is one of the first block-based themes I have seen to include a 404 template. This is important because it is one reason the site editor needs to exist in WordPress. Throughout all of the platform&rsquo;s history, there was no standard way for users to edit their 404 page, which is the page visitors see when they travel to an invalid URL on a site.</p>



<img />Editing the 404 template 



<p>Landing on a 404 page on most WordPress sites is one of the worst user experiences a site visitor can have on the web. Traditionally, themes might have added some unhelpful text, a search box, and maybe a list of recent posts. But, most users had no control over it unless they directly edited their theme&rsquo;s code. They could not add a bit of pizzazz, personalized messages, or more meaningful directions for the visitor who stumbled upon the page through no fault of their own. Some themes have provided workarounds for this over the years. Such solutions have included allowing users to assign a private page or adding customizer options. However, changing themes meant losing that 404-page customization because it was a non-standard solution.</p>



<p>Full Site Editing changes that. Users will have direct access to creating a custom 404 page that best suits their site. It is nice that the Armando theme already includes a template to start from.</p>



<p>The Armando theme also includes three different header templates for users to switch between. This could offer some insight into how theme authors may tackle design choices in the future. Traditional themes often have numerous checkboxes, input fields, and dropdowns for changing such design elements. Selectable template parts could be the alternative.</p>



<img />Switching the header template part.



<p>I lean more toward seeing theme authors using block patterns rather than templates for this. However, WordPress needs to add a method for designating patterns on specific editing screens (e.g., post editor vs. site editor). In the long run, the patterns UI feels like it will be a better place. That is assuming it ever receives an <a href="https://wptavern.com/proposal-to-create-an-expanded-view-or-overlay-for-the-block-patterns-inserter">expanded view or overlay option</a>.  There may be solutions where patterns and template parts merge as well.</p>



<p>Either way, this type of experimentation is what we need to see in the WordPress theme development world at the moment. I welcome more of it.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 29 Dec 2020 22:37:56 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:31;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:64:"WPTavern: AMP Under Fire in New Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109265";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:173:"https://wptavern.com/amp-under-fire-in-new-antitrust-lawsuit-against-google?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=amp-under-fire-in-new-antitrust-lawsuit-against-google";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6515:"<p><a href="https://amp.dev/">AMP</a> (Accelerated Mobile Pages), an open source initiative that originated with Google, is coming under greater scrutiny at the tail end of 2020, as the company is facing a rash of antitrust lawsuits beginning in October. The second suit is the one most pertinent to the AMP project. (A third suit brought by 38 state attorneys general alleges that Google is operating an illegal monopoly for online search and search advertising.)</p>



<p>The second suit is led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and nine other state attorneys general. It alleges that AMP was created for the purpose of pushing publishers away from &ldquo;header bidding,&rdquo; an advertising mechanism that allows sites to route their ad inventory through several ad exchanges and sell the space to the highest bidder. Header bidding requires JavaScript and therefore doesn&rsquo;t play well with AMP.</p>



<p>The <a href="https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/images/admin/2020/Press/20201216%20COMPLAINT_REDACTED.pdf">complaint</a> claims that &ldquo;Google&rsquo;s program secretly let its own<br />exchange win, even when another exchange submitted a higher bid.&rdquo; It also alleges that &ldquo;Google ad server employees met with AMP employees to strategize about using AMP to impede header bidding, and how much pressure publishers and advertisers would tolerate:&rdquo; </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>First, Google restricted the code to prohibit publishers from routing their bids to or sharing their user data with more than a few exchanges a time, which limited AMP compatibility with header bidding. At the same time, Google made AMP fully compatible with routing to exchanges through Google. Google also designed AMP to force publishers to route rival exchange bids through Google&rsquo;s ad server so that Google could continue to peek at rivals&rsquo; bids and trade on inside information. Third, Google designed AMP so that users loading AMP pages would make direct communication with Google servers, rather than publishers&rsquo; servers. This enabled Google&rsquo;s access to publishers&rsquo; inside and non-public user data. AMP pages also limit the number of ads on a page, the types of ads publishers can sell, as well as enriched content that publishers can have on their pages.</p></blockquote>



<p>There are many more claims about collusion with Facebook and other anti-competitive practices, but the section regarding AMP may be of particular interest to publishers who are considering implementing it:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Google falsely told publishers that adopting AMP would enhance load times, but Google employees knew that AMP only improves the [redacted] and AMP pages can actually [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]. In other words, the ostensible benefits of faster load times for cached AMP version of webpages were not true for publishers that designed their web pages for speed. Some publishers did not adopt AMP because they knew their pages actually loaded faster than AMP pages.</p><p>Google also [redacted]&nbsp;<em>of non-AMP ads by giving them artificial one second delays</em>&nbsp;in order to give Google AMP a [redacted] [redacted] slows down header bidding, which Google uses to turn around and denigrate header bidding for being too slow.</p></blockquote>



<p>The complaint references internal documents that demonstrate how AMP is an inferior product when compared to the options previously available to publishers:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Google gave publishers a Faustian bargain: (1) publishers could lose more money by using header bidding because Google Search would suppress their search rankings and send traffic to competing AMP-compatible publishers; or (2) publishers could lose less money by using AMP pages and forgoing exchange competition in header bidding. Either option was far inferior to the options available to publishers before AMP was introduced. Just how inferior? [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] according to internal Google documents.</p></blockquote>



<p>Just 48 hours after this lawsuit was filed, AMP Advisory Committee member Terence Eden <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/12/i-have-resigned-from-the-google-amp-advisory-committee/">resigned</a> from his position as a non-corporate representative. </p>



<p>The <a href="https://github.com/ampproject/meta-ac/blob/master/WORKING_MODE.md#goal-of-the-ac">goal of the AMP AC</a> is to &ldquo;Make AMP a great web citizen,&rdquo; but Eden declined to nominate a replacement candidate, because he is concerned that &ldquo;Google has limited interest in that goal.&rdquo;</p>



<p>&ldquo;Google&rsquo;s thesis is that the mobile-web is dying and people prefer to use apps &ndash; therefore making the web faster and more app-like will retain users,&rdquo; Eden wrote.&nbsp;&ldquo;<a href="https://github.com/ampproject/meta-ac/issues/32">Google doesn&rsquo;t publish data about this</a>, so I can&rsquo;t directly criticize their motives. But I do not think AMP, in its current implementation, helps make the web better.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I remain convinced that AMP is poorly implemented, hostile to the interests of both users and publishers, and a proprietary and unnecessary incursion into the open web.&rdquo;</p>



<p>In a follow-up email to&nbsp;<em><a href="https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/19/google_amp_resignation">The Register</a></em>, Eden&nbsp;said, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what Google&rsquo;s motives are. But AMP has not been responsive to the needs of users, publishers, or the web community. We need an open, standards based approach to the web.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Where will AMP go in 2021? Publishers have already invested a lot of resources in order to comply with its proprietary subset of HTML. Smaller sites often lack the resources to support AMP, which may be one reason why Google began investing heavily in developing <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/google/#content-plugins">WordPress plugins</a> that make its products easier to use. More than 500,000 WordPress site are now using the official <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/amp/">AMP plugin</a>.</p>



<p>Google has spent years clawing for greater AMP adoption, despite widespread criticism that the project is a threat to the open web. Every last bit of that effort is now in jeopardy if the complaints in the antitrust lawsuits and their supporting documents are found to be true.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 29 Dec 2020 05:43:57 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:32;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:84:"WPTavern: Navigate the Content Canvas With the Block Editor Outline WordPress Plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109480";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:213:"https://wptavern.com/navigate-the-content-canvas-with-the-block-editor-outline-wordpress-plugin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=navigate-the-content-canvas-with-the-block-editor-outline-wordpress-plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4173:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Last week, Kalimah Apps released its <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/editor-block-outline/">Editor Block Outline</a> plugin to the WordPress plugin repository. The idea is simple. The plugin adds a bordered outline to each block in the document along with their associated labels. For some users, this will help them navigate more complex layouts.</p>



<p>There is little information available about Kalimah Apps through the usual WordPress-related channels. However, this is its second plugin in the directory. Its first plugin, which has not been updated in four years, was a massive library of over 40 shortcodes, 1,000s of icons, and dozens of animations. Editor Block Outline is much more scaled back and lean.</p>



<p>The plugin adds a new sidebar panel to the editor. Its icon, located in the upper right of the screen, looks like a picture frame. It has several options to allow users to personalize the experience, such as what contexts to show the outline and whether to show the block name. The latter option is sometimes best disabled when inserting blocks with many inner blocks. Otherwise, the interface may look a bit cluttered.</p>



<p>Users can also select an outline color, border style, and opacity. I recommend knocking opacity down below 50% for more of a <em>guideline</em> look, something that is visible but does not feel like it is a part of the content.</p>



<img />Selecting outline options for Editor Block Outline.



<p>All of the settings are stored as user metadata. Using this data storage method means that each user can decide how they want to use this plugin. Or, they can even disable it altogether. Because it is stored this way, settings will carry over from one post to the next.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Do you want to know the feeling of driving while drunk, or to move around with blinders on? Then use Gutenberg without this plugin!!!&rdquo; That is how one user <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/topic/works-perfectly-2168/">reviewed this plugin</a>. While I may not describe the default editor quite so &mdash; ahem &mdash; <em>eloquently</em>, this plugin does solve some problems, particularly when you need to more easily click around the interface.</p>



<p>As Brian Gardner <a href="https://twitter.com/bgardner/status/1329543944401801227">joked on Twitter</a>, selecting some blocks like Columns is tedious work or a fun game of whack-a-mole:</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Live footage of me trying to select the main Columns block in WordPress to increase the number. <a href="https://t.co/Fud3DLQ4VH">pic.twitter.com/Fud3DLQ4VH</a></p>&mdash; Brian Gardner (@bgardner) <a href="https://twitter.com/bgardner/status/1329543944401801227?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2020</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>Of course, there are ways around that, such as using the navigation tree, breadcrumbs, or keyboard commands. However, the block editor is meant to be a visual interface that allows end-users to simply point and click on the elements they wish to edit. Selecting specific blocks has generally improved over time, but users still run into issues. Editor Block Outline makes it a much simpler affair.</p>



<img />Selecting the Columns block.



<p>In Full Site Editing (FSE) mode with the Gutenberg plugin enabled, the plugin did not hold up quite as well. Depending on the theme in use, the blocks&rsquo; text labels were sometimes huge or did not match across the canvas. The plugin&rsquo;s icon was also not available on the site editor screen.</p>



<p>FSE is still in beta. The plugin cannot be expected to work with it yet. However, this is where I imagine the plugin will make the most sense for many users. In the post editor, it would get in the way of writing long-form posts. However, the plugin could become an invaluable tool for navigating complex layouts in both the post and site editors.</p>



<p>More than anything, the reason I like Editor Block Outline is its dedication to a singular purpose. It adds a simple feature that enhances the editor without taking on too large of a role.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 28 Dec 2020 21:05:56 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:33;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"Matt: State of the Word 2020";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=53321";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"https://ma.tt/2020/12/sotw-2020/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1319:"<p>This tumultuous year, two things really helped me get through it: my colleagues at <a href="https://automattic.com/">Automattic</a> and the community of <a href="https://wordpress.org/">WordPress</a>. </p>



<p>At the end of the year I usually deliver a speech to the WP community we call the State of the Word, that celebrates what we accomplished the previous year and shines a light on what we could focus on in the coming year. There&#8217;s always a great energy in the room and I love mixing with the audience before and after the talk. This year we did it online, which meant we could produce the talk a little more, and we made extra time for the Q&amp;A afterward with answers not just from me but folks across the community. </p>



<p>One thing I&#8217;ll call out <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2020/12/simone/">WordPress 5.6</a> had an all women and non-binary release squad of over 50 people, a first for WordPress and probably any large open source project. Also the <a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/history_overview/content_management/all/y">market share of WordPress</a> grew more in 2020 than it has in any year since it started being tracked!</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re curious about what&#8217;s next for WordPress, check it out:</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">

</div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Sun, 27 Dec 2020 22:55:19 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:34;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:115:"WPTavern: Google to Migrate Structured Data Testing Tool to New Domain after Backlash from Deprecation Announcement";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109332";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:275:"https://wptavern.com/google-to-migrate-structured-data-testing-tool-to-new-domain-after-backlash-from-deprecation-announcement?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=google-to-migrate-structured-data-testing-tool-to-new-domain-after-backlash-from-deprecation-announcement";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2781:"<p>Google&rsquo;s <a href="https://search.google.com/test/rich-results">Rich Results Test</a> came <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2020/07/rich-results-test-out-of-beta">out of beta</a> in July with support for all Google Search rich result features like carousels, images, or other non-textual elements. At that time, Google announced it would be deprecating the <a href="https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/u/0/">Structured Data Testing Tool</a>, which SEOs, developers, and site owners have relied on for testing structured markup and troubleshooting schema issues.</p>



<p>The SEO community reacted strongly to this change, because the Rich Results Test only validates structured data that is supported by Google. It also does not provide much useful feedback on errors. </p>



<p>&ldquo;This is awful,&rdquo; SEO consultant Barry Adams said in response to the change. &ldquo;The SDTT is a tool that validates ALL schemas and helps make the web a semantically richer place. The RR test only supports a tiny narrow subset of Google-approved schemas. You&rsquo;re downgrading the web with this move.&rdquo;</p>



<p>When Google <a href="https://twitter.com/googlesearchc/status/1280507131318460418">announced</a> the Structured Data Testing Tool&rsquo;s deprecation on Twitter, comments from various web professions indicated widespread disappointment in the decision.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The new tool is painfully slow,&rdquo; digital marketing consultant Ian Lurie said. &ldquo;The old tool showed a structured data result for the URL tested above. It provided useful feedback and supported industry-wide standardization. The truth is, you&rsquo;re replacing a great structured data tool for an inferior Google-specific one.&rdquo;</p>



<p>After taking note of all the negative feedback, Google <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2020/12/structured-data-testing-tool-update">announced</a> last week that it will no longer be deprecating the tool. Instead, the company plans to migrate it to a new domain:  </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>To better support open standards and development experience, we&rsquo;re refocusing the Structured Data Testing Tool and migrating it to a new domain serving the schema.org community by April 2021. The main purpose of the tool will be to check syntax and compliance of markup with schema.org standards.&nbsp;</p></blockquote>



<p>Google is making some changes to the tool to differentiate it from the Rich Results Test. The Structured Data Testing tool will not be able to check for Google Search rich result types. It will be refocused to validate only schema.org properties, and is recommended for validating types that Google Search doesn&rsquo;t yet consume.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 23 Dec 2020 23:56:28 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:35;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:61:"WPTavern: Learn WordPress Launches Trac Introductory Workshop";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109334";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:167:"https://wptavern.com/learn-wordpress-launches-trac-introductory-workshop?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=learn-wordpress-launches-trac-introductory-workshop";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2230:"<p>Jonathan Desrosiers, a WordPress core committer and software engineer at Bluehost, has published a new workshop titled &ldquo;<a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/workshop/how-to-use-trac/">How to Use Trac</a>&rdquo; on the <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn WordPress</a> platform. The 20-minute video offers a crash course on  the ticket tracking software that WordPress relies on to manage core development. Trac is also used for contributing to <a href="https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/">WordPress&rsquo; meta</a> component, which includes WordPress.org sites and API, directories, support areas, and other projects.</p>



<p>Trac&rsquo;s antiquated UI can be intimidating for newcomers, posing another barrier to contribution. Even experienced WordPress contributors are eager to move core development to GitHub or some other platform. It can get confusing since bugs related to the editor need to be reported on GitHub instead of Trac. Until WordPress adopts another platform, the ability to navigate Trac remains an important skill.</p>



<p>Desrosiers&rsquo; workshop covers topics like searching for pre-existing tickets before reporting a new issue, how to write a good bug report or feature request, how to identify component maintainers, attaching patches, and how proper classification of the ticket can help other teams get involved. He also helps workshop students understand ticket resolutions so they can frame their expectations accordingly. This video includes a full walkthrough of creating a new ticket where Desrosiers explains each field on the form. </p>



<p>Once you get up to speed on learning Trac and start contributing, you may also want to follow the <a href="https://twitter.com/wordpresstrac">WordPress Trac on Twitter</a>. New contributors may also want to explore <a href="https://wptavern.com/wptracsearch-an-elasticsearch-powered-search-interface-for-wordpress-trac-tickets">WPTracSearch</a>, an unofficial project that provides an alternative Elasticsearch-powered interface for searching WordPress Trac tickets. WPTracSearch delivers more accurate results, even for basic queries, that can be filtered based on milestone, component, focuses, usernames, and more criteria.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 23 Dec 2020 21:38:43 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:36;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:98:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 9.6 Introduces Drag-and-Drop Blocks and Global Inheritance for the Query Block";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109323";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:241:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-9-6-introduces-drag-and-drop-blocks-and-global-inheritance-for-the-query-block?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gutenberg-9-6-introduces-drag-and-drop-blocks-and-global-inheritance-for-the-query-block";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5098:"<p class="has-drop-cap">For some people, Christmas arrived a couple of days early. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/23/whats-new-in-gutenberg-23-december/">Gutenberg 9.6 launched</a> with its first iteration of drag-and-drop blocks from the inserter. There are some other enhancements like <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/27297">vertical buttons</a>, heaps of bug fixes, new APIs, and other improvements. But, let&rsquo;s be real. The ability to drag blocks from the inserter into the content canvas is the highlight of this release.</p>



<p>Another key feature is that the Query block, which is only available when Full Site Editing is enabled, now <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/27128">inherits from the global query arguments</a>. As has been usual as of late, much of the work in the Gutenberg plugin has focused on improving the site editor.</p>



<h2>Drag Blocks Into the Content Canvas</h2>



<img />Dragging a block from the inserter and dropping it between paragraphs.



<p class="has-drop-cap">Perhaps the Gutenberg development team has <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-7-development-kicks-off-with-focus-on-full-site-editing#comment-357130">seen</a> <a href="https://wptavern.com/proposal-to-create-an-expanded-view-or-overlay-for-the-block-patterns-inserter#comment-353059">your</a> <a href="https://wptavern.com/google-search-to-add-page-experience-to-ranking-signals-in-may-2021#comment-351977">comments</a> and <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-9-0-brings-major-improvements-to-navigation-screen-and-query-block#comment-344463">your</a> <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-6-wish-list-homepage-post-type-selection-and-block-management#comment-336374">other</a> <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-8-5-adds-single-gallery-image-editing-allows-image-uploads-from-external-sources-and-improves-drag-and-drop#comment-334299">comments</a>. If there is one common thread among the comments on our Gutenberg-related posts, it is that a segment of the WordPress user base wants more drag-and-drop capabilities.</p>



<p>The new feature only works with blocks right now. Users cannot yet drag and drop patterns from the inserter.</p>



<p>After several tests since Gutenberg 9.6 Release Candidate 1 landed last week, I have had no issues with it. For the most part, the experience felt smooth and easy to use.</p>



<p>I have never seen the allure of drag-and-drop features in a content editor. If I am not typing in Markdown, I am in the WordPress editor and using keyboard shortcuts. Throughout my career, I have either been writing code or writing words daily. Picking up my fingers from the keyboard only serves to waste time.</p>



<p>Sometimes I forget that the block editor already has some drag-and-drop capabilities available, which allow end-users to move blocks from one position to another in the canvas. I tend to work with the top toolbar enabled, so I rarely see the feature.</p>



<p>Nevertheless, I do see how dragging and dropping blocks could be useful to some users. I use them in other types of editors, such as Gimp or Photoshop, at times. The one thing I like about those is the toolset is always available in the sidebar. This is not the case with the block inserter. While it will stay open for users to drag multiple elements into their content, it disappears once users begin working elsewhere. That could become irritating if the user is in more of a visual-design workflow instead of a content-editing mode.</p>



<p>Dragging blocks from the inserter would make more sense for my workflow in the upcoming site editor rather than the post editor. The feature works great in that context too.</p>



<h2>Query Block Supports Inheriting the Global Query Arguments</h2>



<img />Inheriting the Query block&rsquo;s options from the URL.



<p class="has-drop-cap">The low-key star of this release is an update to the Query block, which is only available when using a block-based theme. The update is one of the most important breakthroughs for Full Site Editing, a pivotal moment in the history of the Gutenberg project.</p>



<p>In previous iterations, the Query block required that themes via their block templates or end-users via the site editor define which posts to display. While that is a necessary function of the block, the missing piece was the global query support.</p>



<p>In the simplest terms, whatever URL a visitor lands upon tells WordPress which posts to load. The data for loading these posts is all stored in a global set of query arguments. Themes can then loop through these posts to display them.</p>



<p>In Gutenberg 9.6, the Query block can now inherit these query arguments. This means that things like the blog posts page, category archives, search results, and more will display the correct posts when someone visits one of those specific URLs.</p>



<p>On the surface, this change merely adds a single option to the interface. However, under the hood, it is a achievement that clears a gaping path for developing block-based themes.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 23 Dec 2020 20:16:53 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:37;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:79:"WPTavern: Exploring Photo Blocks, an Experimental FSE-Ready Photoblogging Theme";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109274";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:201:"https://wptavern.com/exploring-photo-blocks-an-experimental-fse-ready-photoblogging-theme?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=exploring-photo-blocks-an-experimental-fse-ready-photoblogging-theme";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4979:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Kjell Reigstad announced the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments/tree/master/photo-blocks">Photo Blocks</a> theme on December 9. It is a part of an ongoing set of experimental work from the WordPress <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments">Theme Experiments</a> repository on GitHub. It is essentially a testbed of ideas that are helping to propel the upcoming block-based theming era.</p>



<p>In the past few months, I have covered the repository&rsquo;s <a href="https://wptavern.com/carrd-like-theme-experiment-provides-a-glimpse-into-the-future-of-theming">Carrd-like landing page theme</a>, <a href="https://wptavern.com/twenty-twenty-one-blocks-theme-launching-as-a-separate-project">Twenty Twenty-One Blocks</a>, and the Full Site Editing (FSE) <a href="https://wptavern.com/jump-start-block-based-theme-development-with-the-fse-theme-generator">Theme Generator</a>. There is a lot of movement happening in the repository that theme developers would be remiss to overlook.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I built a new block-based photoblog theme in the experiments repo,&rdquo; Reigstad <a href="https://twitter.com/kjellr/status/1336697938538618882">tweeted</a> just a couple of weeks ago. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s refreshing to see how well this works just with existing FSE tools.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Like most FSE-capable themes currently making the rounds, it is simple. There are miles left before block-based themes and the upcoming site editor reach maturity. Photo Blocks showcases yet another step in the evolution of the system.</p>



<img />Posts page view of Photo Blocks in the site editor.



<p>The theme uses the Query block&rsquo;s new grid view, which was added in <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-9-5-improves-site-editor-and-adds-new-options-for-cover-and-code-blocks">Gutenberg 9.5</a>. The Query block is one of the most important pieces of the Full Site Editing system. Like in traditional themes, the query and &ldquo;the loop&rdquo; output posts on the front end.</p>



<p>The addition of the grid view allows themes to output their posts in columns. This is a nice addition for Photo Blocks and other photoblogging or portfolio themes. Currently, the Query block supports only a second type of view, the default list of posts. It all seems to limit design possibilities right now, but the grid option does provide some hope that more robust tools are coming.</p>



<p>The Query block is undoubtedly one of the most complex features the Gutenberg team is building, and it is a crucial block for the upcoming site editor.</p>



<p>There is also no posts pagination or navigation at the moment. That is because the Gutenberg team is still <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/26557">ironing out the details</a> of such a block. This is another Herculean task given the near-limitless variations on designing posts navigation. The block will need to provide theme authors the flexibility they are accustomed to when writing code.</p>



<h2>Why Testing and Building Experimental Themes Matters</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The development of Photo Blocks exposed some missing features in Gutenberg. Without community feedback from building and testing block-based themes, it is tough for the development team to identify such issues.</p>



<p>Currently, the only way to have same-height images in the Photo Blocks theme&rsquo;s post grid is to manually crop and upload images with the same aspect ratio. Reigstad opened a ticket to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/27620">set a consistent crop</a> for the Post Featured Image block. <em>I would also recommend an image-size option similar to how it is handled in the Image block.</em></p>



<p>Traditionally, themes that output a grid of featured images would fall back to a default image or use the first image from the post content if one was not set. There is currently no way to do this with the Post Featured Image block &mdash; another missing key feature. Reigstad opened a new ticket that proposed <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/27617">taking the idea further</a>.</p>



<p>&ldquo;In the past, the featured image was a single image, added and managed separately from the rest of the post content,&rdquo; he wrote. &ldquo;For block-based sites however, that restriction is largely unnecessary. Rather than just an image, we should consider making it possible to set a video or audio embed as the &lsquo;Featured&rsquo; block. Also, since posts are made up of structured data, it&rsquo;s theoretically possible to signify any block from within post content as a &lsquo;Featured&rsquo; block.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The idea of featured media is not new. Many themes have had featured audio and video in the past. However, the concept of marking any type of block as featured is worth exploring. Even if not every block lends itself well to this, surely some do beyond images.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 23 Dec 2020 00:35:44 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:38;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:57:"WPTavern: Shutterstock Launches Official WordPress Plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=108844";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:159:"https://wptavern.com/shutterstock-launches-official-wordpress-plugin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=shutterstock-launches-official-wordpress-plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2130:"<p>Shutterstock has released an <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/shutterstock">official plugin for WordPress</a>. The 17-year old company is as old as WordPress itself but this is the first time it has provided convenient access to its library inside the admin.  </p>



<p>Seven years ago, Shutterstock released a <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/shutterstock-affiliate-plugin/">plugin for affiliates</a> using a third-party development company, but it failed to gain much traction and is no longer updated. The new block-based plugin applies more broadly to WordPress site owners looking for commercial stock photography. It provides a block that allows users to search Shutterstock&rsquo;s library of 340 million images and get suggestions based on the text content. Users can place preview images on pages and posts, license with one click, download, and publish images and editorial content.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>Shutterstock&rsquo;s plugin respects WordPress&rsquo; user roles and permissions system, so organizations can restrict image licensing to editors and administrators while still allowing authors to insert image previews. The plugin also has access to the user&rsquo;s license history so they can download any content that has been previously licensed on Shutterstock.</p>



<p>A couple weeks after launching, the plugin is active on fewer than 10 WordPress sites. It&rsquo;s not clear if that is due to its customers not knowing about it or the endless variety of free images that WordPress users have access to through other services. Since the plugin only offers access to a limited library by default, it is primarily aimed at Shutterstock customers who have an existing subscription to connect for the full collection.  </p>



<p>Along with the official plugin release, Shutterstock also announced a new partnership with WordPress.com VIP. It is now one of the service&rsquo;s &ldquo;<a href="https://wpvip.com/partner/shutterstock/">Featured Technology Partners</a>,&rdquo; streamlining the publishing workflow for Automattic&rsquo;s enterprise customers. </p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 22 Dec 2020 23:32:46 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:39;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:86:"WPTavern: What Is Full Site Editing and What Does It Mean for the Future of WordPress?";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109217";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:215:"https://wptavern.com/what-is-full-site-editing-and-what-does-it-mean-for-the-future-of-wordpress?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-is-full-site-editing-and-what-does-it-mean-for-the-future-of-wordpress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10892:"<img />Block-based Twenty Twenty-One theme in the site editor.



<p class="has-drop-cap">As I said last week, <em>2021 will be the year of the site editor</em>.  Matt Mullenweg&rsquo;s <a href="https://wptavern.com/state-of-the-word-2020-wordpress-moves-toward-full-site-editing">State of the Word</a> confirms it.  WordPress 5.7&rsquo;s <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-7-development-kicks-off-with-focus-on-full-site-editing">release planning</a> is focused on it.  It has been a long journey getting to this point, and it will be a much longer adventure afterward. The ultimate promise of the work that <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-core-editor-team-publishes-ui-prototype-for-gutenberg-an-experimental-block-based-editor">began nearly four years ago</a> is nigh.</p>



<p>The Gutenberg project was never <em>just</em> about editing content. WordPress was aging software by late 2016. It needed to cater to modern audiences who may be less tech-savvy than the platform&rsquo;s existing user base. It needed to capture a younger generation of developers who were looking at the greener grass of JavaScript-heavy software. It needed to offer an experience on par with modern web applications. WordPress had a lot of boxes it needed to check or face irrelevance.</p>



<p>The one thing that has truly kept the platform afloat is its large and diverse ecosystem of third-party developers.</p>



<p><em>One of the most popular types of plugins?</em> Page builders. Those such as Elementor, which launched in early 2016, were filling in the experience gaps that WordPress was missing. While it was a testament to the platform&rsquo;s extendibility for such third-party projects to arise, it was also a failure that the core platform could not offer a better experience to both users and developers out of the box. Far too many theme authors were forced into supporting third-party builders to remain relevant. They were focusing more and more on compatibility with plugins than simply designing.</p>



<p>The shortcomings of the widgets, shortcodes, meta boxes, and settings systems meant that developers had to either rely on non-core frameworks or reinvent the wheel. Every new API brought with it a new method for adding basic form fields. At best, it was inelegant, a platter of spaghetti that had been thrown at the wall, some of it managing to stick.</p>



<p>WordPress was beginning to show its wrinkles. It needed to revolutionize itself. It needed to feel fresh again. For better or worse, the developers behind the Gutenberg project have been putting in the work to do just that.</p>



<p>It is slow work. But, it is promising work.</p>



<p>While the term &ldquo;Gutenberg&rdquo; is often used interchangeably with &ldquo;block editor,&rdquo; the two are not one and the same. Gutenberg is a project. A plugin. An idea. A new way of thinking about publishing on the web. As the opening lines of the description of the plugin read:</p>



<blockquote><p>&ldquo;Gutenberg&rdquo; is a codename for a whole new paradigm in WordPress site building and publishing, that aims to revolutionize the entire publishing experience as much as Gutenberg did the printed word.</p></blockquote>



<p>The project has four phases:</p>



<ol><li>Easier Editing</li><li>Customization</li><li>Collaboration</li><li>Multilingual</li></ol>



<p>WordPress users who have not been testing the Gutenberg plugin have only experienced Phase 1 of the project. The launch of the block editor in <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-0-bebo-released-lays-a-foundation-for-the-platforms-future">WordPress 5.0</a> and its continued work set the stage for the phases to follow. The underlying block system is what will fuel the next decade or longer of WordPress.</p>



<p>Today, we are firmly in the midst of Phase 2. And, this is where things will get interesting.</p>



<h2>Full Site Editing</h2>



<img />Selecting a template in the site editor, using the Block-Based Bosco theme.



<p class="has-drop-cap">Phase 2 of Gutenberg, which began in late 2018, promised to bring blocks outside of the post content. In an introduction to this next step, Mel Choyce-Dwan <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2018/12/08/gutenberg-phase-2/">outlined the three main focuses:</a></p>



<ul><li>Be outside of <code>post_content</code>.</li><li>Focus on customization.</li><li>Upgrading themes, widgets, and menus.</li></ul>



<p>Since then, those core concepts have remained the same. However, the full picture, the shape of what those concepts would look like, has changed in the last two years. If there is one thing anyone on the development team has learned, it is probably that it is hard to launch such drastic changes.</p>



<p>Full Site Editing is a mix of concepts. It is one part transition from tradition and one part full overhaul of how users and developers design the front end of WordPress sites.</p>



<p>Nav menus and widgets, which are a part of the old paradigm, have been set to relaunch under the block system for the past two major WordPress releases. They were not ready. Users should expect to see them in WordPress 5.7. However, these feature upgrades are merely stepping stones to true the true Full Site Editing feature. They offer a way for end-users who are still using classic WordPress themes to get a taste of blocks outside of the post-editing screen.</p>



<p>For the users who take the next step, widgets and nav menus &mdash; at least the traditional admin screens &mdash; will disappear. The customizer, which was once touted as the future of theme development, is also getting the ax. Site customization via a system where everything is a block will reign supreme.</p>



<p>Once the switch flips, the world will be looking at a whole new WordPress.</p>



<p>WordPress 5.7 and beyond will be about the site editor and block-based themes. The site editor is the visual representation of block templates that theme developers offer to users. Templates are infinitely customizable by the user from the WordPress admin. While themers will create custom configurations and set defaults, the power to decide what the front end of the site will look like will ultimately reside in the user&rsquo;s hands.</p>



<p>Since the launch of Phase 1, the block editor has been a love/hate affair. Expect the site editor to be no less controversial.</p>



<p>Underneath it all, a theme&rsquo;s code and the site editor will be talking in the same language. This essentially means that users could transition to theme authors if they have a knack for design or simply want to give it a go.  They  should be able to do this without leaving the comfort of the trusty site editor, which already allows exporting templates.</p>



<p>Because the post editor and the site editor both work on the same, underlying block-based foundation, there is no reason for users to not be able to seamlessly switch between the two. There is <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/26355">currently a ticket</a> for adding such a toggle on the post-editing screen. It will allow users to switch to a template-editing mode while never leaving the post editor.</p>



<img />Template-editing mode likely to land in Gutenberg 9.6.



<p>This is not a newly-introduced concept. Josepha Haden, who led the WordPress 5.6 release, <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-6-release-team-pulls-the-plug-on-block-based-widgets">touched on this earlier this year</a>. &ldquo;I think one of the problems that we&rsquo;re trying to solve with Gutenberg has always been a more consistent experience for editing elements across the WordPress interface,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;No user should have to learn five different workflows to make sure their page looks the way they imagined it when it&rsquo;s published.&rdquo;</p>



<p>One of the larger goals is reducing the number of workflows into a single interface. We are likely years away from seeing the whole of WordPress site management reduced that far. However, the site editor is the next step toward that potential user experience.</p>



<h2>What Does All This Mean for the Future?</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">While the last few years may have felt like a whirlwind of changes to our beloved platform, <em>you ain&rsquo;t seen nothing yet</em>. We were just getting our bearings in Phase 1. The development team was building the foundation while also launching the user-facing block editor. With that foundation in place, the team can focus more on features. This will especially be true as the <a href="https://wptavern.com/g2-components-a-from-scratch-reimagining-of-wordpress-components">G2 Components project </a>overhauls and standardizes how core and third-party developers build upon the block system.</p>



<p>The big Phase 2 changes this year means that theme authors will need to get up to speed. Traditional WordPress themes will still be necessary for a while. However, any theme author who is not already tinkering with block-based themes is already months behind. This is the time to be exploring and helping to shape the system. It is time to be filing bug reports and feature requests.</p>



<p>If possible, theme authors should be attending the twice-monthly <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/handbook/about/#meetings">block-based themes meetings</a>. If time does not allow for attendance, you should at least be reading and participating on the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/">Make Themes blog</a>.</p>



<p>It is also important to check out projects like the <a href="https://wptavern.com/q-first-fse-wordpress-theme-now-live">Q theme</a> or follow the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments">Theme Experiments</a> repository.</p>



<img /><a href="https://wptavern.com/carrd-like-theme-experiment-provides-a-glimpse-into-the-future-of-theming">Carrd-like theme experiment</a> from the site editor.



<p>For end-users, this entire project is about you. Your feedback is crucial. If you are not already testing your site with the Gutenberg plugin, you should be. It is sometimes weeks or months ahead of what you are getting with WordPress alone.  Try out an FSE theme like <a href="https://wptavern.com/block-based-bosco-second-full-site-editing-theme-lands-in-the-wordpress-directory">Block-Based Bosco</a>.  Consider joining the <a href="https://wptavern.com/help-steer-the-future-of-wordpress-via-the-fse-outreach-program">FSE Outreach Program</a>. You can test and provide feedback directly on upcoming features.</p>



<p>FSE brings with it the promise of major changes in 2021. Many of these changes will uproot old methods of managing your WordPress websites. Those methods will be replaced with one of the largest overhauls to the platform in its history. It is time to get prepared.</p>



<p>It is going to be an interesting new year.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 22 Dec 2020 00:56:53 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:40;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"WPTavern: WordPress 5.7 Development Kicks Off with Focus on Full Site Editing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109212";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:199:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-7-development-kicks-off-with-focus-on-full-site-editing?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-5-7-development-kicks-off-with-focus-on-full-site-editing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3662:"<p>If the 2020 <a href="https://wptavern.com/state-of-the-word-2020-wordpress-moves-toward-full-site-editing">State of the Word</a> address was any indication, WordPress is moving full steam ahead to land full site editing in 2021. The 5.7 release cycle <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/21/wordpress-5-7-planning-roundup/">kicked off</a> this week with the proposed scope centered around full site editing via&nbsp;Gutenberg. Matt Mullenweg will be leading the release and the rest of the team leadership is still being rounded up. Bug scrubs for<em>&nbsp;</em><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/early" target="_blank">early tickets</a> that require more time or early testing are already underway. </p>



<p>WordPress 5.7 contributors anticipate working on the following features in the next release:</p>



<ul><li>Update WordPress&nbsp;Core&nbsp;to include current releases of the Gutenberg&nbsp;plugin</li><li>Gutenberg: ship additional blocks, refine the&nbsp;UI, add tools for themes and design, and continue working on the&nbsp;widget&nbsp;screen</li><li>Continue work on&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/11/10/wp5-6-auto-update-implementation-change/">auto-updates</a>&nbsp;and<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/06/29/updating-jquery-version-shipped-with-wordpress/">&nbsp;jQuery</a></li></ul>



<p>&ldquo;We might add more items in the upcoming weeks, and we will reconfirm the above-proposed list after the end-of-Gregorian year holidays,&rdquo; Francesca Marano said in a planning roundup post. She said core development is not &ldquo;closing up shop&rdquo; for the holidays, and volunteers plan to run&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/11/call-for-volunteers-early-bug-scrubs-for-wordpress-5-7/">bug scrubs</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/11/dev-chat-schedule-for-the-end-of-the-year/">dev chats</a>. Those who cannot attend a meeting but want to advocate for a ticket can always comment on the dev chat agenda post to have it included in the discussion.</p>



<p>Matias Ventura created a GitHub issue in August for contributors to track the progress of <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/24551">full-site editing milestones</a>. Some of the infrastructure and UI is already in place, as well as the ability to navigate through pages, templates, parts, and know which is area is active. Styling, theme blocks, the Query block, and the Navigation block are still in progress.</p>



<p>There are a lot of moving pieces to make full-site editing features cohesive and ready for prime time. In Ventura&rsquo;s most recent <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/10/status-check-site-editing-and-customization/">status update</a> on the project he reported that all of the features outlined are &ldquo;in advanced stages&rdquo; and can be used in the Gutenberg plugin already.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The main hurdle to include the work in major WordPress releases are the various dependencies between each project when it comes to ensuring a great user experience,&rdquo; Ventura said. &ldquo;The immediate focus is then on completing the milestones, stabilizing the work, and doing as much testing with different kinds of users as possible.&rdquo; </p>



<p>WordPress contributors are planning <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/roadmap/">four releases in 2021</a>, allowing for multiple opportunities to introduce new features.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>Beta 1 for 5.7 is planned for early February and the general release is expected March 9, 2021. </p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 21 Dec 2020 23:18:47 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:41;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:91:"WPTavern: Ask the Bartender: Integrate With Third-Party App or Use Native WordPress Plugin?";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109173";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:223:"https://wptavern.com/ask-the-bartender-integrate-with-third-party-app-or-use-native-wordpress-plugin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ask-the-bartender-integrate-with-third-party-app-or-use-native-wordpress-plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5054:"<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>My question to you is how you see the future (or even the present) of integrating software with WordPress and when you should make the distinction of going the integration vs. native approach.</p><p>In other words, with the vast ecosystem of WordPress plugins out there, how can a website owner discern which responsibilities WordPress the software should handle and whether that functionality is actually better to plug another software or service into instead?</p><p>Alex</p></blockquote>



<p class="has-drop-cap">There was a time when I would have said build <em>all the things</em> in WordPress. I was younger then, a bit more naive. I was optimistic about using WordPress as a framework to build anything. There is a part of me that still leans in this direction. Mostly, this is because I want to see what developers in the WordPress ecosystem can achieve. I applaud anyone who pushes the platform beyond its current limits.</p>



<p>Few people would have guessed that WordPress would become an eCommerce powerhouse. However, WooCommerce has proven it can be done. I still remember when nearly every WordPress theme and plugin author was selling their commercial products via E-junkie. Now, Easy Digital Downloads is the go-to solution, and AffiliateWP handles the affiliate side of things.</p>



<p>Some of the best products from the WordPress plugin market arose from issues with third-party app integration. Their creators bucked the system and brought useful tools directly into WordPress. Many of these are now multi-million dollar products and companies that employ dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people. They have their own ecosystems that allow even more third-party developers to make a living. And this is all done on top of WordPress.</p>



<p>I will always root for the home team, for the developers in our community to build native solutions.</p>



<p>However, the reality is that WordPress is not the best solution for everything. Depending on the application, the development team has likely put years of work into it, creating a specialized system that caters to that application&rsquo;s users. The experience can often be far better than something available for WordPress.</p>



<p>I cannot imagine using WordPress as the backbone of a social video site like YouTube, even if it was a small site. The hosting costs would be astronomical. It is far easier and cheaper to rely on integration with YouTube rather than trying to rebuild it.</p>



<p>In Alex&rsquo;s original correspondence, he also brought up a specific case about integrating with a third-party forum. This is a far more realistic quandary than an average user trying to build the next YouTube. It is also a question that does not have a single answer.</p>



<p>For users who are creating forums on their site for the first time, my advice would be to go with bbPress. It is a plugin that brings native forums to WordPress. While it is not nearly as powerful as some third-party forum applications, its best feature is that it works directly with the built-in user, role, and capability systems in WordPress. These are some of the more complex APIs in WordPress, and trying to sync user accounts between applications can often be a headache. It is also a complex technical topic that goes beyond the scope of this post. If starting from scratch, I would recommend bbPress or another WordPress forum plugin.</p>



<p>On the other hand, if a user already has an existing forum with a large amount of content, I would lean toward integrating it and WordPress, particularly if the site owner plans to keep user registrations strictly within the forum software. Much of that will come down to what the end-user feels comfortable with. If they have a strong history with their existing application, making a change may simply not be the best route. There are other items to consider, such as whether sharing a single theme across both platforms is necessary. bbPress can also import content from many existing forum applications.</p>



<p>The answer to the question is that it depends. Each use case is different.</p>



<p><em>Should a popular seller on Etsy move everything to WooCommerce?</em> Probably not. That user might want to install the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/etsy-shop/">Etsy Shop</a> integration plugin. Eventually, they might expand their brand enough to no longer rely on the Etsy platform. At that point, WooCommerce could be the answer.</p>



<p>It comes down to time, cost, research, and testing. Even when a plugin brings a native solution to WordPress that is ideal for most people, it might not be the best answer for an individual. Specifics matter, and I am always happy to talk those over.</p>



<p class="has-white-color has-blue-700-background-color has-text-color has-background text-white bg-blue-700">This is the second post in the Ask the Bartender series.  Have a question of your own? <a href="https://wptavern.com/contact-me/ask-the-bartender">Shoot it over</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 18 Dec 2020 20:50:28 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:42;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:74:"WPTavern: State of the Word 2020: WordPress Moves Toward Full Site Editing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109009";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:191:"https://wptavern.com/state-of-the-word-2020-wordpress-moves-toward-full-site-editing?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=state-of-the-word-2020-wordpress-moves-toward-full-site-editing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6819:"<p>WordPress enthusiasts around the world tuned into Matt Mullenweg&rsquo;s annual State of the Word address this week, delivered virtually for the first time. Mullenweg recognized the community&rsquo;s efforts in working together during a global pandemic, without the benefit of periodic in-person events that have traditionally re-energized collaboration on the project.</p>



<p>During a most unusual year that has warped the passage of time and slowed it to the speed of molasses, WordPress&rsquo; release schedule kept a steady, reassuring pace in contrast. The first part of the State of the Word highlighted the three major releases shipped in 2020, which introduced improvements to the block editor, a new default theme, application passwords for the REST API, and new, game-changing features like block patterns, to name just a few. </p>



<p>WordPress continues to grow its dominant market share and is currently sitting at 39.3% of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.alexa.com/">Alexa</a>&nbsp;top 10 million sites. Mullenweg attributed&nbsp;that growth to three major contributing factors: the lockdown, e-commerce, and economic uncertainty. The lockdowns put in place to mitigate the virus&rsquo; spread had the effect of giving people the space and time to connect online. It also drove an uptick in entrepreneurship and e-commerce. Mullenweg reported that WooCommerce facilitated more than $20 billion in sales. </p>



<h3>Site Editor Beta Demo Shows Progress on Full Site Editing Project</h3>



<p>Gutenberg design contributor Joen Asmussen joined by video to unveil a sneak peek of the progress on the Full Site Editing (FSE) project with a <a href="https://youtu.be/QI3qCoiuG3w?t=1293">demo of the Site Editor beta</a>. The Site Editor allows users to edit a theme&rsquo;s template outside of the post&rsquo;s content. It introduces new blocks for things like the query loop, navigation, site title, tagline, and other aspects of editing templates.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>The block list view shows all the different areas of the page, such as the header, footer, columns, and site title, so the user can jump to the section for quick access. Block patterns can also be used within template designs to speed up page layout or match a demo design. Given the current complexity of creating a template design from a blank canvas, block patterns have the potential to become even more indispensable when WordPress users finally get the reins for editing theme templates.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>&ldquo;This is the culmination of several ongoing projects to expand upon and improve the customization possibilities in WordPress,&rdquo; Asmussen said. The demo offers a quick overview of how the FSE project is coming together. The reality of &ldquo;everything becoming a block&rdquo; is finally materializing. Gutenberg will soon be capable of providing a consistent editing experience across all aspects of site customization. </p>



<p>&ldquo;By creating this common framework that every theme and plugin can build on, we&rsquo;re reducing the balkanization within WordPress from people who are solving these problems lots of different ways, and providing what I believe is the basis for the next decade of WordPress&rsquo; growth,&rdquo; Mullenweg said.</p>



<h3>WordPress&rsquo; Global Community Reiterates the Demand for Multilingual Capabilities</h3>



<p>The number of questions during the Q&amp;A related to multilingual capabilities underscores the fact that WordPress is undeniably a global community. More than 50% of WordPress sites are not using English. Better multilingual support could be key to the next era of WordPress&rsquo; growth. Nevertheless, multilingual features are at the tail end of the four-phase roadmap for the project&rsquo;s immediate future. </p>



<p>Mullenweg said WordPress is about &ldquo;two years into a 10-year project,&rdquo; with good chunks of phase 1 and phase 2 done. Phase 1 includes editing inside the post/page content, creating the fundamental building blocks and also bringing them to the mobile apps. Phase 2 is centered around editing outside the content, using blocks to create the site&rsquo;s templates.</p>



<p>Phase 3 will introduce new collaboration features and workflow for real-time co-editing. Phase 4, which Mullenweg said is &ldquo;just in the imagination stage right now,&rdquo; covers multilingual features. He said he expects this phase to likely &ldquo;be taken underway pretty vigorously in 2022.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Mat&iacute;as Ventura answered a question about a phase 4 roadmap, confirming that there is no specific plan for its multilingual implementation right now. He said there have been some initial conversations regarding the implications of localization, specifically around patterns and block themes, and how those can be built. Nothing substantial has emerged yet but the team will be creating a more detailed overview of what is needed. Fallback languages is one feature that several community members brought up in the Q&amp;A time.</p>



<p>When asked whether some existing multilingual solutions could be reused for core, Mullenweg was hesitant to prescribe a specific approach at this time. He said he is anxious to get better multilingual support in Gutenberg and offered what I believe is the most candid explanation thus far for why multilingual capabilities fall further down the the list of priorities:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Whether we do it as part of core or as part of an official plugin is to be decided. Part of the reason we made it phase 4 is that we can only do so many things well at a time. It is supremely important that we execute super well on these first phases of Gutenberg blocks. If we don&rsquo;t get phase 1 and phase 2 to be the best experiences in the world for editing bar none, of any open source or proprietary competitors or builders, phase 3 and 4 just won&rsquo;t matter because&nbsp;WordPress won&rsquo;t be relevant a decade from now. I do believe that is the most important problem we&rsquo;re facing. I don&rsquo;t want to dilute the core contributors&rsquo; focus away from the initial phases of Gutenberg because that&rsquo;s how important I think they are.</p></blockquote>



<p>Mullenweg said there is nothing stopping the community from investing more in multilingual plugins and exploring different approaches to see what will get core most of the way there. The next official step would be figuring out a framework that will work well with plugins and themes.</p>



<p>Depending on your interest and involvement in the community, there is a lot more to explore in the Q&amp;A. Check out the whole presentation in the video below.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">

</div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 18 Dec 2020 09:21:01 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:43;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:100:"WPTavern: Contact Form 7 Version 5.3.2 Patches Critical Vulnerability, Immediate  Update Recommended";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109081";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:241:"https://wptavern.com/contact-form-7-version-5-3-2-patches-critical-vulnerability-immediate-update-recommended?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=contact-form-7-version-5-3-2-patches-critical-vulnerability-immediate-update-recommended";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1899:"<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/contact-form-7/">Contact Form 7</a> has <a href="https://contactform7.com/2020/12/17/contact-form-7-532/">patched</a> a critical file upload vulnerability in version 5.3.2, released today by plugin author Takayuki Miyoshi. The plugin is installed on more than five million WordPress sites. </p>



<p>&ldquo;An unrestricted file upload vulnerability has been found in Contact Form 7 5.3.1 and older versions,&rdquo; Miyoshi said. &ldquo;Utilizing this vulnerability, a form submitter can bypass Contact Form 7&rsquo;s filename sanitization, and upload a file which can be executed as a script file on the host server.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The vulnerability was discovered by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jinsonvarghese.com/">Jinson Varghese Behanan</a>&nbsp;from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.getastra.com/">Astra Security</a> on December 16, 2020, and Miyoshi released a fix less than 24 hours later. Behanan highlighted a few ways this vulnerability might be exploited:</p>



<ol><li>Possible to upload a web shell and inject malicious scripts</li><li>Complete takeover of the website and server if there is no containerization between websites on the same server</li><li>Defacing the website</li></ol>



<p>Astra Security plans to publish more details on the vulnerability in two weeks after the plugin&rsquo;s user base has had more time to update to the patched version.</p>



<p>Version 5.3.2 removes control, separator, and other types of special characters from the filename to fix the unrestricted file upload vulnerability. At the time of publishing, more than a million Contact Form 7 updates have been downloaded today. Approximately 20% of the plugin&rsquo;s user base is protected from the vulnerability. Now that it has been patched and published, Contact Form 7 users who do not update will be more at risk of having the vulnerability exploited.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 17 Dec 2020 22:32:42 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:44;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:73:"WPTavern: Help Steer the Future of WordPress via the FSE Outreach Program";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=109083";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:191:"https://wptavern.com/help-steer-the-future-of-wordpress-via-the-fse-outreach-program?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=help-steer-the-future-of-wordpress-via-the-fse-outreach-program";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4280:"<p>All hands on deck. 2021 will be the year of the Site Editor.</p>



<p>Anne McCarthy announced the official <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/11/the-fse-outreach-program-is-officially-starting/">start of the Full-Site Editing (FSE) Outreach Program</a> last Friday on the Make Core blog. The program is primarily geared toward end-users. With few channels for average users to communicate with the development team, this offers an opportunity for them to provide direct feedback.</p>



<p>This announcement comes on the heels of Matias Ventura&rsquo;s full <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/10/status-check-site-editing-and-customization/">overview of the FSE project</a>. In the post, he laid out where specific FSE features currently stand and what needs to happen to bring the project to fruition.</p>



<p>The FSE Outreach Program was <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/05/01/an-experimental-outreach-project-for-full-site-editing/">expected to begin earlier</a> in the year. Josepha Haden announced it on May 1. However, there was no movement for most of 2020. An early version of FSE was also expected to land in WordPress 5.6, but that was too lofty of a goal for a feature that will essentially change everything about front-end development on the platform.</p>



<p>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. According to the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/handbook/full-site-editing-outreach-experiment/faq-for-fse-outreach-experiment/">program FAQs</a>, participants could be asked to volunteer for up to three hours per week. However, it will also be flexible enough for anyone to participate, regardless of their available hours.</p>



<p>The program is also starting small, limiting feedback to more common user experiences. It is still experimental at this stage. Easing participants into such a testing program seems like a smart approach.</p>



<p>Right now, the Site Editor can sometimes be a painful user experience. While it is already possible to put together some interesting layouts, at least as a labor of love, there are many missing pieces. Workflows are odd. Expected features for a design tool are nowhere to be found.  Someone might look at it today and think there is no way it could be a viable core feature next year, but the development team continues to polish the experience with each Gutenberg update. The Site Editor is not production-ready yet, but it is time to get serious about testing and feedback.</p>



<p>Those interested in volunteering for the program should have a WordPress Slack account and join the <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C015GUFFC00">#fse-outreach-experiment</a> channel. McCarthy said she will also post an update on the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/">Make Test</a> blog with further details for participants once Gutenberg 9.6 is released.</p>



<h2>The First Focus Area</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The first feature up for discussion is a new <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/26355">template editing mode inside the post editor</a>. It adds a new &ldquo;Template&rdquo; option in the post-editing sidebar that will allow users to jump between editing their post and editing the template that outputs that post. It is a marriage of the post and site editors. Underneath, both are run by the block system, so there is little difference in the experiences.</p>



<img />Potential template editing option in the post editor.



<p>Long-term, it makes sense that users should be able to switch seamlessly between both editors. I worry that we may be jumping the gun a bit on this feature since the Site Editor is still at a rough beta stage. However, it does not hurt to get some early feedback on what the workflow should look like.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Please keep in mind that this is the program&rsquo;s first iteration,&rdquo; wrote McCarthy in the post. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re starting with this first item and expecting the outcome to be a comprehensive list of issues that the Gutenberg team can work on as capacity allows.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 17 Dec 2020 22:09:34 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:45;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"WPTavern: Mapbox GL JS Is No Longer Open Source";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=108948";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:139:"https://wptavern.com/mapbox-gl-js-is-no-longer-open-source?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mapbox-gl-js-is-no-longer-open-source";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:9008:"<p><a href="https://github.com/mapbox/mapbox-gl-js">Mapbox GL JS</a>, formerly an open source JavaScript library for interactive, customizable vector maps, has adopted a proprietary license in its recent <a href="https://github.com/mapbox/mapbox-gl-js/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md#200">version 2</a> update:</p>



<ul><li>mapbox-gl-js is no longer under the 3-Clause BSD license. By upgrading to this release, you are agreeing to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mapbox.com/legal/tos/">Mapbox terms of service</a>.&nbsp;Refer to LICENSE.txt for the new licensing terms and details. For questions, contact our team at&nbsp;<a href="https://support.mapbox.com/">https://support.mapbox.com</a>.</li><li>Beginning with v2.0.0, a billable map load occurs whenever a Map object is initialized. Before updating an existing implementation from v1.x.x to v2.x.x, please review the&nbsp;<a href="https://docs.mapbox.com/accounts/guides/pricing/#mapbox-gl-js-v100-and-higher">pricing documentation</a>&nbsp;to estimate expected costs.</li></ul>



<p>Versions 1.x remain under the&nbsp;3-Clause BSD license, but <a href="https://www.mapbox.com/">Mapbox</a> will only be investing in developing new features for the proprietary licensed version 2.0+. This news came as a surprise to many engineers who have built products on top of this previously open source library.</p>



<p>&ldquo;This move has produced&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://joemorrison.medium.com/death-of-an-open-source-business-model-62bc227a7e9b" target="_blank">shockwaves</a>&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://blog.cleverelephant.ca/2020/12/mapbox-morrison.html" target="_blank">in</a>&nbsp;the geospatial industry,&rdquo; Javier de la Torre wrote on the <a href="https://carto.com/blog/our-thoughts-as-mapboxgl-js-2-goes-proprietary/">CARTO blog</a>. &ldquo;Many organizations are using Mapbox GL JS directly or fork from it. This library is responsible for the visualization of the so-called basemap, the cartography layer that underpins most maps. Previously Open Source, MapboxGL is a great solution, and could be used with many different data sources, so it became the de facto way to render basemaps.&rdquo; </p>



<p>Mapbox <a href="https://www.mapbox.com/showcase/">powers all sorts of maps</a> for high profile websites like CNN, The New York Times, Ancestry, Strava, Shopify, Facebook, and more. It is also used by WordPress.com and Jetpack for the <a href="https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/map-block/">Map block</a>. The library is used in many <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/search/mapbox/">plugins</a> on WordPress.org, some with tens of thousands of users. Developers using versions 1.x will want to be aware of the future of the Mapbox GL JS library. </p>



<p>&ldquo;Mapbox&rsquo;s decision this week to release a brand new version of Mapbox GL JS and keep it proprietary stunned me,&rdquo; <a href="https://www.azavea.com/">Azavea</a> product specialist Joe Morrison <a href="https://joemorrison.medium.com/death-of-an-open-source-business-model-62bc227a7e9b">wrote</a> on his personal blog. &ldquo;Not only was v1 already a wildly popular open source library, but Mapbox&rsquo;s reputation as a prolific creator of open source software is a cornerstone of their whole identity. Describing what makes Mapbox special without mentioning &lsquo;open source&rsquo; is like trying to describe chocolate milk to an alien without using the word &lsquo;liquid.'&rdquo;</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Mapbox GL JS v2: <br />We need to deduct a few points for Mapbox's ridiculously obfuscated and convoluted way of trying to avoid mentioning the licence change in their announcement email. Can only imagine what series of meetings between comms, marketing and devs led to this. <a href="https://t.co/wWK4z51fzo">pic.twitter.com/wWK4z51fzo</a></p>&mdash; Steve Bennett (@stevage1) <a href="https://twitter.com/stevage1/status/1336498655793086464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 9, 2020</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>Mapbox hasn&rsquo;t formally clarified why it went proprietary with the library so speculation abounds. Morrison theorizes that cloud providers are killing the open core business model of software companies. <a href="http://crunchydata.com/">Crunchy Data</a> Geospatial Engineer Paul Ramsey <a href="http://blog.cleverelephant.ca/2020/12/mapbox-morrison.html">responded</a> to Morrison&rsquo;s article, contending that Mapbox is not an &ldquo;open core&rdquo; company and that the business of selling location based services may not be panning out for them:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>But like Google, the value proposition Mapbox sells isn&rsquo;t in the software, so much as the data and the platform underneath. Mapbox has built a unique, scalable platform for handling the huge problem of turning raw OSM data into usable services, and raw location streams into usable services. They sell access to that platform.</p><p>Mapbox has never been a software company, they&rsquo;ve always been a data and services company.</p></blockquote>



<p>Mapbox employee Saman Bemel Benrud said the company is finally moving to make its products sustainable:</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Disruption by undercutting costs via VC subsidies is still a thriving business model, and it just creates unsustainable products while destroying the thing that existed before. Mapbox is trying to become sustainable, finally, and I&rsquo;m here for it.</p>&mdash; Saman Bemel Benrud (@samanbb) <a href="https://twitter.com/samanbb/status/1336380594410770434?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2020</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>This change has the potential to negatively impact the developers and companies that built products on top of Mapbox GL JS, thinking its open source licensing was set in stone.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The change says nothing about &lsquo;open source&rsquo; in the large as a model, and everything about &lsquo;single vendor projects&rsquo; and whether you should, strategically, believe their licensing,&rdquo; Ramsey said.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I (and others) took the licensing (incorrectly) of Mapbox GL JS to be a promise, not only for now but the future, and made decisions based on that (incorrect) interpretation. I integrated GL JS into&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/CrunchyData/pg_tileserv/blob/master/assets/preview-table.html">an open source project</a>&nbsp;and now I have to revisit that decision.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Some community members have already <a href="https://github.com/maplibre/maplibre-gl-js">forked Mapbox GL JS</a> to maintain the 1.x version, but the vast majority of contributors to the original library were sponsored by Mapbox. The immediate future of the MapLibre GL fork may not include many new features, as the initial roadmap&rsquo;s stated goal is &ldquo;consistency and backwards-compatibility with previous releases and continued bug-fixes and maintenance going forward.&rdquo; </p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Our first pre-release version of BSD-licensed maplibre-gl is out, a drop-in replacement for mapbox-gl. Big thanks to Seth Nickell! <a href="https://t.co/f9XqzpwDrT">https://t.co/f9XqzpwDrT</a></p>&mdash; MapLibre (@maplibre) <a href="https://twitter.com/maplibre/status/1336875209559855104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>A lengthy <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25347310">discussion</a> on Hacker News drew a <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25350808">response</a> from former Mapbox engineer Tom MacWright, who wrote the company&rsquo;s open source policy as a founding member of the team. </p>



<p>&ldquo;I won&rsquo;t get into all the context, but I think we should consider whether a community without contributors is a community,&rdquo; MacWright said. &ldquo;GL JS never had major active contributors outside of the company, and there are no self-funded webgl experts with lots of time who are ready to maintain a fork.</p>



<p>&ldquo;OSS, we hoped, was about enabling people and unlocking people&rsquo;s ability to collaborate. It turns out that in 2020, it&rsquo;s mostly helping companies and getting nothing in return. That&rsquo;s not a dynamic you can build a sustainable business on.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The MapLibre GL fork may gain some momentum and emerge as a viable alternative to Mapbox&rsquo;s closed source library, but it will take time to see how well it is maintained. In the meantime, the existing version 1.x can meet most users&rsquo; needs. Mapbox has burned through a lot of good will with this controversial licensing update, which some perceive as a &ldquo;bait and switch&rdquo; offense. Rebuilding community trust, after removing the freedoms granted by the previous license, will be an uphill battle.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 17 Dec 2020 04:45:01 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:46;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:79:"WPTavern: Jump Start Block-Based Theme Development With the FSE Theme Generator";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=108900";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:203:"https://wptavern.com/jump-start-block-based-theme-development-with-the-fse-theme-generator?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jump-start-block-based-theme-development-with-the-fse-theme-generator";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4913:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Block-based themes are not complicated. Their structure is almost simple enough that developers are unlikely to need a tool to generate a blank theme. However, for those unfamiliar with how themes are built for the upcoming full-site editing (FSE) feature, a boilerplate is a good place to start.</p>



<p>The <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments">Theme Experiments</a> repository now has a new <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments/tree/master/emptytheme">Empty Theme</a>. Alongside it is a command-line tool to generate a copy of that theme with a custom name, author, and URI.</p>



<p>The idea is not new. There are tons of such tools for generating a theme in the wild. However, it is time for new tools that focus on block-based theming.</p>



<p>For theme authors who want to generate a new block-based theme, they must clone a copy of the Theme Experiments repository. Then navigate to that folder via their command-line tool and type the following command:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>php new-empty-theme.php</code></pre>



<p>From that point, it is a simple matter of answering a few questions and letting the tool do the work of creating a new theme folder.</p>



<h2>Digging Into the Generated Theme</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The generated theme is not much to look at. However, it is a theme that works within the new full-site editing system. After activation, theme authors can begin tinkering with the theme via the Site Editor screen (requires the Gutenberg plugin).</p>



<img />Generated theme in the Site Editor.



<p>There is one exception to it being a <em>working</em> theme. Loading the header template part is currently broken. Of course, I <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments/issues/146">opened a ticket</a> for that issue, which should be easy for the development team to resolve.</p>



<p>The file and folder structure is slim in comparison to traditional themes. It contains the bare-bones to get a theme up and running in the Site Editor. The following files and folders are included:</p>



<ul><li><code>/assets</code><br />&ndash; <code>alignments-front.css</code></li><li><code>/block-template-parts</code><br />&ndash; <code>header.html</code></li><li><code>/block-templates</code><br />&ndash; <code>index.html</code><br />&ndash; <code>singular.html</code></li><li><code>experimental-theme.json</code></li><li><code>functions.php</code></li><li><code>index.php</code></li><li><code>readme.md</code></li><li><code>style.css</code></li></ul>



<p>Even those are likely to be trimmed down in the future. The <code>experimental-theme.json</code> file will eventually be renamed to <code>theme.json</code>.</p>



<p>The current <code>alignments-front.css</code> is nearly 80 lines of boilerplate code for handling the various block alignments. There is no need for every theme author to recreate all of this code, which should not change much between themes. That is why there is an open ticket for Gutenberg to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/26633">provide alignment styles</a> on the front end. Theme authors will be able to overwrite this. However, the fewer files and lines of code theme authors need to contend with, the better.</p>



<p>The standard <code>index.php</code> template is empty. It will no longer be useful for building themes now that block-based templates are stored in the <code>/block-templates</code> and <code>/block-template-parts</code> folders. <code>style.css</code> just houses the theme information. FSE themes will mostly use <code>theme.json</code> to configure default styles.</p>



<p>In the coming months and years, theme authors will be working primarily in the <code>theme.json</code> file and block template folders. The jury is still out on whether the theming ecosystem will readily accept this change. At the same time, it feels refreshing to see the untangling of theme development. Traditional theming today has created behemoth codebases in an attempt to keep up with features that users want. A shift in how developers build themes was inevitable and necessary.</p>



<p>My one nit-pick with the generated theme is the inclusion of the pluggable theme setup function in the <code>functions.php</code> file, which has somehow become a mainstay of core-developed themes over the years. There are APIs for enabling or disabling everything in such setup functions, and there is no reason for child themes to overwrite them wholesale.</p>



<p>If things go according to plan, even the standard theme setup function may be on the chopping block. These functions are generally a list of calls to <code>add_theme_support()</code>. The long-term plan is for the current theme-supported features to either be enabled by default for block-based themes or configurable via the <code>theme.json</code> file.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 16 Dec 2020 21:54:30 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:47;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:23:"HeroPress: Marginalized";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=3437";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:98:"https://heropress.com/essays/marginalized/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=marginalized";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13958:"<img width="960" height="480" src="https://s20094.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/121520-min.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull quote: Being underestimated is a gift." /><p>When I was asked to write an essay for HeroPress, I humbly accepted due to my desire to help others. HeroPress needs a post and perhaps something I say could have a positive impact on another person. Little did I realize that having to write as a “marginalized” individual would cause me to want to retreat.</p>
<p>The word “marginalized” stirs up a lot of emotion in me and thoughts such as “am I marginalized enough”, “what if I offend someone”, and “will I be attacked” tend to come to mind. Interestingly, I worry that I’ll be attacked by more women than men. I could easily write the story of my woes because I’ve had plenty but I like solutions, perseverance and resilience better. Some of these solutions may help you realize why I could be seen as “marginalized” but perhaps we’ll find a new label such as human and worthy of kindness, trust, inclusion, and a seat at the decision table.</p>
<h3>The Beginning</h3>
<p>I have been in the WordPress space since 2005 and tech since 2003. My team realized early on that WordPress was actually a CMS. We ranked #2 in google for web design back when SEO was easy. I was answering phones, marketing, and doing billing at that time. I would ask about budgets when potential clients would call and I had to turn away a lot of business because they couldn’t afford us. The worst part was that I didn’t have a trusted company that I could refer them to at the time. While focusing on web design I couldn’t understand why it took so long to create a website and why we couldn’t create our own less expensive solution to offer them.</p>
<p>Long story short, a prototype was made, then refined and rebranded as Pagely, and the term “Managed WordPress Hosting” was created. It was about 2 years later that our next competitor arrived and another 2 years for the behemoths to create their own managed WordPress solutions. Sounds grand right? Being the first and the originator of a multi-billion dollar industry had its challenges and these are problems that our competitors didn’t have to face. Now, let’s add being a female.</p>
<p>I feel that I need to preface these next parts of my life story mainly because I’m a female and it’s what I’ve been trained to do even subconsciously. I’m joking, sort of.</p>
<p>Usually if I use a word that doesn’t resonate with certain males, I’ll get mansplained to instead of searching for clarity. Their initial jump to assume that “I don’t know” instead of “they don’t understand” astounds me. That’s not to say I am infallible, didn’t say something ridiculous, or am unwilling to learn/self-reflect. It’s unnerving when Captain Obvious brings forth the basics.</p>
<p>That being said, first, I understand that my labels include female, white, American, founder, wife, mother, wealthy, privileged and more depending on who I’m talking with. It took years of therapy to take my own traumas seriously because I didn’t have it as bad as others. It caused me to repress my own experiences and put others before myself even when they didn’t deserve space in my kind mind. Now, I’m more resilient and realize that I can’t be everything to everybody but I can include everyone with exception of the unhinged.</p>
<p>Second, this is my story. It may not be similar to your own, and I don’t have all the answers. I’m not competing with anyone’s troubles. We can both exist.</p>
<p>Third, I’m very grateful because I have been surrounded mostly by successful women and men willing to help Josh and I accomplish our shared goals. Josh is my husband and co-founder of Pagely.</p>
<h3>First Impressions</h3>
<p>When Pagely first started, hate mail ensued along with many people signing up. I went to a WordCamp and a prominent figure in the WordPress community asked me where the person was that came up with Pagely because they really liked it. They were alluding to my husband Josh. This happened even when Josh said repeatedly that I had come up with the idea. It was at that moment that I realized that most people would not associate me with the idea or company I co-founded.</p>
<p>I had to make the conscious choice to decide if I wanted to be right or be successful. I chose to focus on success and also I didn’t get here alone. Many wonderful men and women helped. I had to laser focus on my goal which was to provide the best hosting experience regardless of minor annoyances along the way.</p>
<p>Many times I was not invited to join various non-Pagely meetings. Josh tried to include me even when men told him to uninvite me. Luckily, when I wasn’t allowed in the room, Josh shared the agenda with me and many times was my voice to get things done. Now, if I’m not included, I find a table that will have me, find allies, or I create my own group. I shouldn’t have made getting in that room a big priority. My solution was to remove obstacles, find the win/win to achieve my goal, and not take or make it personal.</p>
<p>This type of scenario happened often and what’s interesting is that the people that were saying these “sexist” remarks were good people. The problem was so prevalent and complex that I had a hard time communicating what I was experiencing.</p>
<h3>Reaching Out</h3>
<p>I asked other women how they handled sexism. I asked a brilliant and well respected female entrepreneur in Phoenix how she handled what I was experiencing. She told me that she saw it all the time and just treated men like her children and gave accolades. She was included because she could stroke their egos. Another friend said that she would wear short skirts so she wouldn’t have to explain and defend why her ideas deserved merit. Another friend would wear business attire daily while her male cohorts wore hoodies. Her brain didn’t change but their outlook did. There were also some that claimed that they didn’t experience it but when the #metoo movement arrived, they were the most vocal. Of course, this is an extremely small subset of people I asked but this was the reality of the time.</p>
<p>What’s striking is that my experience in other fields was worse. At least in tech we’re open to talk about and acknowledge the issue. It’s a start, it’s getting better, and tech attracts early adopters. When I was in healthcare, I graduated college with summa cum laude honors. I had the highest board scores in the state for my field, yet one employer told me I was only hired because I was pretty, another place said that they prefer to hire Mexicans because they work harder, and another place claimed that they like to hire females that didn’t plan on having children.</p>
<p>So many check marks to obtain which can cause females to compete with each other because of a feeling of lack of abundance and no defined rules.</p>
<p>These learnings from the places I worked happened over a period of time and some of my friends experienced sexism and abuse weekly. They were used to being treated poorly and considered less than. They accepted the situation and were grateful for the opportunity to work. Some were afraid to have or share their brilliant ideas because their paycheck was more important than their voice. Also, some were content and had other areas of their life that fulfilled them or they were ultra-resistant. The vast differences we have with one another are amazing, beautiful, and inspiring.</p>
<h3>Representation or Tokenization?</h3>
<p>I still have mixed feelings about being the token female. I was asked to speak on a SXSW panel a couple of times because I was the only tech female the person knew. I’m trying to get comfortable using my gender to get through the guarded gates but I can’t tell if I’m fostering inspiration, adding to the separation, or devaluing my accomplishments. Therefore I tend to stay private and stay focused on creating my ideal work environment that waterfalls over into giving the best hosting experience for our clients. Also, when I ask other women to speak at Pressnomics or work with me at Pagely, I don’t want it to be because I’m trying to hit a quota.</p>
<p>I choose to work with women because they are qualified. Our engineering team is 50% female and our largest teams are run by women because they were the most qualified candidates. Period. (pun intended). What makes this even more gratifying for me is that the entire team participates in the hiring process and it feels like we have an environment for equality that is natural due to the character of the people we hire.</p>
<p>However, we have hired men and learned that they are triggered by assertive females. My solutions in these instances include making sure they realize the issue, what’s at stake if they don’t change, and I leave my door open to conversation. They are still good people. They chose to have a female employer. My general causation theory is the stigma around therapy especially for men, lack of resources to provide a public mental health safety net, repressed feeling of childhood powerlessness from a female, and myriad other possibilities.</p>
<p>The flip side to this is aggressive females which also afflicts me at certain times. My progression to aggression looks something like the following. I start with casual understanding, then I ask questions for full understanding. Then I assert, re-evaluate, assert or accept. If I don&#8217;t accept, I assert again. If my assertions don&#8217;t work, aggression can happen followed by reflection. This may lead to a desire to remove the obstacle and find another solution or evaluate the origin of my aggression. This doesn&#8217;t happen often. I&#8217;ve learned that I&#8217;m triggered by feeling unseen or unreciprocated respect when I have a strong desire for an outcome that seems heavily challenged.  I accept these feelings and understand that I&#8217;m not always right. The awareness allows me to seek clarity, speak up with vulnerability, heal, and choose a healthier approach that humanizes the relationship.</p>
<p>My ideal solution is to remind myself that everyone has a story, listen to their story, find clarity, and let them know they are safe and don’t need to carry the trauma anymore. Open communication with mutual respect is key. You get what you give. Also, burning bridges serves no one and neither does passively laying on train tracks.</p>
<h3>Observation</h3>
<p>Another one of my theories is that women are considered safe. During our Pressnomics conference, Josh will receive more praise and while I do get praise, I tend to get more (or all) of the criticism. This is not about getting praise; although appreciated, it’s not the point. It’s about why people feel more comfortable expressing negative emotions to females. I believe the reason why is because women seem safer and they are more likely to ask about experiences.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this can open a floodgate from people with varying levels of passion which can cause female entrepreneurs to retreat from taking more active roles. I crave feedback for Pagely because it’s something we want to give to the world. However, Pressnomics is an invitation into my proverbial house and if they don’t like it, there’s a lot of other conferences they can attend or make their own. I’ll gladly attend their conference, especially if it’s run by another “marginalized” human and aligns with my goal. I will listen to people who “get&#8221; what Pressnomics is (it’s more of a feeling) but nitpicking my font and color choice for the website is where I draw the line.</p>
<p>I had to get to this place because people were not going to decide my worth or determine if my creations were good enough. When I create, I come from love and a deep desire to help with the golden rule in mind. I’ve been to other conferences, where Josh leaves my side and men have said “I’m creating a Pagely killer”, “We’re going to destroy you”, and competitors that are actively trying to debate with me while my only intention was to be kind.</p>
<p>My goal with Pressnomics is to inspire great minds to work together, share information, and energize the WordPress ecosystem in a safe and caring atmosphere for all who attend.</p>
<p>My ideal solution when dealing with negative people is to not take it personally. Their truth does not need to be my truth and words from jerks no longer have an affect on me. Sadly, most jerks delve out disdain regardless of the recipient which means they might be miserable and lack empathy.</p>
<h3>Wrapping It All Up</h3>
<p>What does WordPress mean to me? It’s a business foundation that allows ALL people the initial building blocks for success. The barrier to entry is low and inclusion is high. Also, the majority of people in the community look past stereotypes and generalizations and want to share and lift all tides. I am very grateful to the community, our supporters, the dreamers, and to the outstanding core contributors.</p>
<p>What do all of us “marginalized” people have in common? We showed up and worked around obstacles. If there’s not room for you at a table, figure out something else. Perhaps, kindly discuss the observation, or create your own table. Life’s too short to be unhappy in someone else’s world. Create your own and invite others. WordPress is a great place to do that.</p>
<p>Last, being underestimated is a gift. They’ll never see you coming until they can’t help but notice. If you’re with the right people while that’s happening, there’s no better feeling.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/marginalized/">Marginalized</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 16 Dec 2020 10:02:40 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sally Strebel";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:48;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:90:"WPTavern: Learn WordPress Platform Launches with Free Courses, Workshops, and Lesson Plans";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=108957";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:221:"https://wptavern.com/learn-wordpress-platform-launches-with-free-courses-workshops-and-lesson-plans?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=learn-wordpress-platform-launches-with-free-courses-workshops-and-lesson-plans";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3567:"<p>WordPress.org has officially launched its new &ldquo;<a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn WordPress</a>&rdquo; platform, a free educational resource that includes courses, workshops, quizzes, lesson plans, and discussion groups. The material spans the spectrum of WordPress experience from beginners to advanced, and and allows users to learn asynchronously at their own pace. After a successful beta launch in August, the platform is now ready for the public.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>Traditionally, most WordPress learning opportunities have been in-person at WordCamps and local meetups. Since large gatherings have been put on pause this year due to the pandemic, the Learn WordPress platform offers a new way for users to stay connected. The discussion groups are a new event format similar to a virtual event that brings learners together at the same time to discuss a topic. Discussion groups are scheduled through Meetup.com and most of them center around workshop material.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>&ldquo;In addition to the wealth of valuable content available on Learn WordPress, the platform provides an opportunity for individuals to learn alongside other community members and become connected with a global network of WordPress users, developers, and contributors,&rdquo; WordPress community manager Hugh Lashbrooke said. </p>



<h3>A New Way to Contribute to WordPress: Create Learning Resources and Facilitate Discussions</h3>



<p>Learn WordPress is launching with two courses: &ldquo;<a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/course/publishing-with-wordpress/">Publishing with WordPress</a>&rdquo; and &ldquo;<a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/course/unleashing-the-power-of-wordpress/">Unleashing the Power of WordPress</a>,&rdquo; which covers basic customization topics. The project is open to contributions and anyone can <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/workshop-presenter-application/">submit an idea for a workshop</a>.</p>



<p>The platform also includes more than 85 <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/lesson-plans/">lesson plans</a> that the Training team has been working on for the past few years. They are available as resources for people who want to run their own workshops. </p>



<p>Learn WordPress has several lesson plans and workshops on the topic of creating new blocks, such as <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/workshop/intro-to-gutenberg-block-development/">Intro to Gutenberg Block Development</a>. Many WordPress developers have yet to get on board with creating for the block editor and topics like this seems ripe for launching a discussion group with a series facilitated by an experienced block developer.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The work on Learn WordPress has been a strong cross-team collaboration between the Community and Training teams, with the Marketing and TV teams also being really involved in making things happen,&rdquo; WordPress community manager Hugh Lashbrooke said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been super encouraging to see such excellent work across so many teams to make this ambitious project a reality.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Anyone can <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/contribute/">contribute</a> to lesson plans and workshops, as well as facilitate discussions. If you want to get more involved in expanding and promoting the platform, you can join <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/">WordPress&rsquo; Training team</a> for meetings on Fridays at 11:00 UTC and Tuesdays at 17:00 UTC in the #training channel on Slack.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 15 Dec 2020 23:30:18 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:49;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:73:"WPTavern: Record and Track Past Events With the LifePress Calendar Plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=108962";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:191:"https://wptavern.com/record-and-track-past-events-with-the-lifepress-calendar-plugin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=record-and-track-past-events-with-the-lifepress-calendar-plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4784:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Two weeks ago, Ashan Jay released <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/lifepress/">LifePress</a> to the WordPress plugin directory. It is an interactive, front-end calendar for tracking past events &mdash; a journal of sorts. For a version 1.0 launch, it has enough features with just the right touch of simplicity to show promise.</p>



<p>This is not Jay&rsquo;s first rodeo when it comes to calendar-based plugins. He is also the creator of <a href="https://www.myeventon.com/">EventON</a>, a virtual event calendar for WordPress.</p>



<p>The goal of the plugin is simple. As its description reads, &ldquo;LifePress is a calendar based journal recorder that will allow you to track back progress and review past events to learn from the past and make positive progress in the future.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Watch an introduction video to the plugin:</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">

</div>



<h2>Digging Into the Plugin</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Call me a fan. The ease of use of this plugin is spot-on. LifePress creates a page called &ldquo;LifePress Dashboard&rdquo; upon activation, which allows individual users of the site to see and manage life events on the front end on a per-user basis. It feels much like Google Calendar, except in WordPress.</p>



<p>And that is the plugin&rsquo;s main selling point &mdash; it allows end-users to store all of their data in their own database instead of on a third-party server.</p>



<p>On the front end, users are presented with a weekly calendar view by default. However, there is a button for switching between weekly and monthly views.</p>



<img />Monthly calendar view.



<p>A simple &ldquo;+&rdquo; button lets users create new calendar entries. After clicking it, an overlay appears for adding a date, title, optional description, and tag. Most users should pick up the system quickly and without documentation.</p>



<img />Creating a new calendar entry.



<p>The tag system allows users to group different types of entries with custom colored backgrounds. Colored dots for each tag adorn the left sidebar, allowing users to toggle specific entry types on and off, which is one of my favorite features of the plugin. It is a simple thing, but it adds to the overall user experience.</p>



<p>The design is, for the most part, great. The interface is uncluttered and simple to use. However, the plugin is not without some flaws, which is to be expected with a version 1.0. The plugin&rsquo;s various overlays, such as from the new-entry popup, butt against the top of the page. Some spacing at the top would help with the layout.</p>



<p>Backend management could use a little work. There is no way to edit a tag&rsquo;s color after it has been created. This feature also does not appear to be available on the front end.</p>



<p>The monthly-calendar view was consistently off by one day of the week when I first installed LifePress in my testing environment. For example, today is Tuesday, December 15, 2020. However, the plugin had the 15th listed under Monday. I managed to track this issue down to the &ldquo;week starts on&rdquo; setting in WordPress. The plugin will only work if this option is set to Sunday (the WordPress default sets this to Monday). Every other day of the week pushes the calendar back another day.</p>



<p>This is a non-issue with the default, weekly calendar view. However, it should be addressed by the plugin author for the monthly layout.</p>



<h2>Features Requests</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">While LifePress is geared toward being a journal and tracking calendar, it would be nice if it could pull double-duty and behave like a simple event calendar too. The plugin already allows end-users to add items to future dates, so the core of scheduling events is already in place. To extend this already-existing feature, the plugin could have a notification system. Users should be able to at least get custom emails as a reminder for upcoming events on the schedule. This could make it worthwhile enough for some users to ditch Google Calendar, depending on their use case.</p>



<p>If the plugin wants to continue focusing on being a great journal and tracking calendar, it should have a progress-tracking mechanism built in. It is great to see that I put in my daily 30-minute jog on the calendar, for example. However, it would be even better if I could see that I am hitting my exercise goals on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis.</p>



<p>That sort of application is not just relevant to personal exercise regimens. It can be applied to other facets of life or used in business environments.</p>



<p>Overall, it is a good first outing for the plugin. However, there is a lot of potential for more features in the future.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 15 Dec 2020 21:48:53 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}s:4:"type";i:128;s:7:"headers";O:42:"Requests_Utility_CaseInsensitiveDictionary":1:{s:7:"*data";a:8:{s:6:"server";s:5:"nginx";s:4:"date";s:29:"Sat, 16 Jan 2021 15:20:05 GMT";s:12:"content-type";s:8:"text/xml";s:4:"vary";s:15:"Accept-Encoding";s:13:"last-modified";s:29:"Sat, 16 Jan 2021 15:00:08 GMT";s:15:"x-frame-options";s:10:"SAMEORIGIN";s:4:"x-nc";s:9:"HIT ord 2";s:16:"content-encoding";s:2:"br";}}s:5:"build";s:14:"20201218223114";}