Nick Halsey 4:59 am on September 23, 2016
Tags: ,   

Customize Update 2016-09-22

This is the weekly update post for the customize component. It includes a summary of this week’s meeting, recent commits, and next week’s meeting agenda.

Weekly Customize Meeting Summary

On Monday we held our weekly 4.7 customize component meeting in #core-customize on Slack [logs]. Participants: @celloexpressions, @ataylorme, @westonruter, @johnregan3. This summary also contains a few notes on action since the meeting.

4.7 Projects

  • Create pages within live preview during site setup – #37914, #37915, #37916, #38002, #38013 – @celloexpressions
    • @boone shared a proposal later in the week for term status; a make/coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. proposal is likely the next step
    • @westonruter committed adding new pages to the static front pageStatic Front Page A WordPress website can have a dynamic blog-like front page, or a “static front page” which is used to show customized content. Typically this is the first page you see when you visit a site url, like wordpress.org for example. options, and making them contextual in #38013.
    • We need a new ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. following up on #38013 for enabling pages to be created within the static front page UIUI User interface. @westonrtuer has initial code for this in the Customize Posts pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party.
    • We still need UXUX User experience feedback on providing a path to edit newly-created pages, #38002.
  • A new experience for themes in the customizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. – #37661 –@celloexpressions
    • We’re primarily pending feedback at this point. Could use some assistance from the shiny updates team to add shiny theme uploads as well.
    • There is another updated patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing. as of today with some minor bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. fixes, based on testing from @rabmalin.
    • Usability testing started today; see the results on Make/Design.
    • A feature proposal post will be published next week.
  • Code-editing gateways, via CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets. – #35395 – @johnregan3
    • We still need information from anyone familiar with the CSSTidy library. It seems that the version included in Jetpack is an up-to-date fork, as the original project was last updated in 2007. If anyone from Automattic can provide input here that would be appreciated.
    • We also need to ensure that the license, GPLGPL GNU General Public License. Also see copyright license. 2.1 or later is compatible with core.
    • The CodeMirror library is also proposed to be bundled with core for this project; we would like core committercommitter A developer with commit access. WordPress has five lead developers and four permanent core developers with commit access. Additionally, the project usually has a few guest or component committers - a developer receiving commit access, generally for a single release cycle (sometimes renewed) and/or for a specific component./lead developer approval for bundling both of these soon so that we can proceed. CSSTidy is a requirement, CodeMirror is a usability enhancementenhancement Enhancements are simple improvements to WordPress, such as the addition of a hook, a new feature, or an improvement to an existing feature. (syntax highlighting).
    • We’re planning to post the feature proposal the week after next.
  • Customizer browser history – #28536 – @westonruter
    • Feature proposal post will be published in three weeks, as this shouldn’t need signficant work to polish up.
  • Customize transactions – #30937 – @westonruter
    • @westonruter is working to sit down and focus on this this week, and will evaluate whether it’s still feasible for 4.7.
  • Improving sliding panels UI – #34391, #34343, #29158 – @delawski
    • @westonruter is planning to commit #34391 on Friday, after a final review from @celloexpressions. (#37661 will need a refresh, to be handled tomorrow night).
    • @delawski is also preparing a make/core post to be published in the next few days.
    • #34343 is pending #34391.
    • #29158 needs design ideas for the back arrows and close button focus styles, ticket updated accordingly.
  • Twenty Seventeen
    • @davidakennedry shared a mockup for video headers in #core-themes. This would require someone digging deep into #36581 and #32861 before work can begin on adding support for videos, and insert from URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org may not be feasible.

Additional Tickets Needing Attention

  • Customizer notifications – #35210 – needs UX feedback and a patch
    • @westonruter will work on this after transactions unless anyone else is willing to work on turning the latest proposal into a patch.
    • This ticket is holding up some of the other tickets on the 4.7 milestone, such as #22037 and #29932, as well as aspects of transactions.
  • Remove customizer support for IE8 – #38021

Ticket Scrub

We reviewed tickets with no replies. Many were authored by component maintainers, and as such required only a +1 on the ticket.

  • #36581: Customizer HeaderHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes. Image Control should extend the cropped image control
    • Pending someone volunteering to work on this.
  • #36589: Don’t use localhost in Tests_Image_Header tests
  • #36688: Exit button in customiser only lower third active
    • Not reproducible, needs reporter feedback.
  • #36733: Use a custom customizer section for add-widgets and add-menu-items panels, making this UI pattern reusable in plugins
    • Could use more discussion, but it would be nice to make this code accessible to plugins.
  • #37275: Facilitate creating controls that manipulate settings with object values
    • Low priority, commented accordingly.
  • #37281: Allow non-error notifications to be set for Customizer settings from PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher
    • This might be useful for Twenty Seventeen, depending on the custom color strategy.
  • #37727: Allow for customize control notifications to have extensibleExtensible This is the ability to add additional functionality to the code. Plugins extend the WordPress core software. templates
  • #37964: Allow customizer controls to be encapsulated by accepting pre-instantiated settings
    • The patch needs to be reviewed.
  • #38077: Facilitating embedding customizer controls outside of sections
    • This will be more useful long-term, but isn’t a priority for 4.7.
  • #38091: Shortcut to collapse current control/section/panel is triggered when it shouldn’t be
    • Could use more opinions on whether this should be in 4.6.2.
  • #38093: WP_Customize_Color_Control – there is no option for transparent color
    • Commented but couldn’t find a duplicate ticket as mentioned in the meeting, does anyone else recall this issue?

Recent Customize Commits

Here are the customize-related commits for the past week:

  • [38618]: Customize: Ensure nav menu items lacking a label use the title from the original object.
  • [38624]: Customize: Let static_front_page section be contextually active based on whether there are any pages (including pages added in menus).
  • [38627]: Customize: Remove IE8 access to customizer to discontinue support.
  • [38628]: Customize: Add wp-util as a dependency for customize-controls.
  • [38642]: AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility): Fix the Customizer available menu items toggles focus for Safari and VoiceOver.

Big thanks to those who contributed to patches committed this week: @ryankienstra, @westonruter, @afercia, @ocean90.

We’re always looking for more contributors; check out the open customize tickets and swing by #core-customize in SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. to get involved. Fun fact: we’re 10 commits away from the 1000th commit that references customize.

Agenda for 2016-09-26 Meeting

Our next regularly-scheduled meeting is next Monday, September 26, 2016, 17:00 UTC. Agenda:

4.7 Projects

Additional Tickets Needing Attention

  • Customizer notifications – #35210 – needs UX feedback and a patch
  • Customizer UI Contrast/Focus Styles – #29158 – needs UI ideas for focus styles on back buttons

Ticket Scrub

  • 4.7 Customize tickets sorted by date modified. We’ll discuss everything with no activity in the last week to make sure we’re still on track.
  • We’ll pick a different query to triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. each week. For example, bugs awaiting review (need verification).

We’ll see you next week!

#4-7, #customize