Below is a summary of this week’s JavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. chat (agenda, Slack Transcript). Have a topic for discussion for the next meeting? Leave a suggested edit on next week’s agenda.
Agenda: NPM Mono-Repo Subdirectory Declaration
https://github.com/npm/rfcs/blob/latest/implemented/0010-monorepo-subdirectory-declaration.md
@adamsilverstein quoted @aduth‘s note that we should consider implementing the npm monorepo declaration in the WordPress npm packages.
@aduth added that implementing this declaration would be a straightforward task that would help make npm more “aware” of where to find the specific source for a package in a mono-repository, hopefully improving links.
The idea was well received.
@aduth has created issues related to this task:
Feel free to share your thoughts and provide feedback related to this subject in the issues.
Agenda: Feature Flags
https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/13324
Feature flags were merged in the Gutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ repository. Quoting @gziolo:
feature flags in Gutenberg, it’s very simple approach which will allow us to enable new features only for the plugin 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 while keep it completely removed from WordPress core Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. using dead code elimination.
We went into more detail of what feature flags are and what they allow.
@atimmer noted that most commonly feature flags allow to enable or disable specific features while Gutenberg feature flags apply to a whole set of features e.g.: “phase 2 features”.
@aduth referred that the reason behind this decision may be related at least partly to the objective of simplifying dead code removal.
More information can be found at https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/13324.
@adamsilverstein shared that he wants to introduce a feature in the hooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same. package whose code should only be included when the SCRIPT_DEBUG flag is set. Any feedback to this is welcome and can be provided in https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/12038.
During the discussions, it was referred that, although dead code removal is a common and used by famous libraries like React React is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to reason about, construct, and maintain stateless and stateful user interfaces. https://reactjs.org/., there are no good resource/references available online to help developers understand how dead code removal works.
If you know any good resource feel free to share the link in the comments or the core-js channel.
Agenda: Build support for wordpress/scripts
Relevant PR’s:
According to @gziolo both PR’s are almost ready, but they need additional testing given the complexity of running the scripts with default configuration in various external projects.
@adamsilverstein noted that webpack setup is a significant barrier to entry for new developers and the more we can improve our tools the better.
@gziolo referred that a tutorial was already created and it will be simplified after latest changes are published.
Open floor
@nerrad referred that he would like to use the new version of React, more specifically React hooks, and asked when a React upgrade should be considered and when a WordPress release will contain the next version of React.
Answering to @nerrad, @aduth noted that upgrading React should be a non-issue although we may need some scrutiny on what is exposed. Regarding the WordPress releases, @aduth expects that anything merged to Gutenberg repository between now and mid-March should be part of the WordPress 5.2 release, but this specific subject will be clarified during the next #core-editor meeting https://make.wordpress.org/core/2019/02/19/editor-chat-agenda-february-20th/.
@nosolosw announced that in the past days the first auto-generated API An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. documentation was merged to the Gutenberg repository: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/13856.
The tool that autogenerated the documentation is proposed in https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/13329.
The next package/component that will be used as a testbed for the tool is not yet decided and every suggestion is welcome.
#core-js, #javascript, #meeting-notes
