JavaScript Chat Summary: April 14, 2020

Below is a summary of the discussion from this week’s JavaScriptJavaScript 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.

Internet Explorer End-to-End Testing

(Slack conversation)

Context: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/21528

Feature Proposal: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/16509

Discussion: The above pull request seeks to introduce a new package incorporating a Selenium-based web driver to run Internet Explorer tests through BrowserStack’s automation APIAPI 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..

Discussion Points:

  • It’s been something of a pain point in GutenbergGutenberg 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/’s history of browser-specific bugs that can’t be captured with the current set of testing tools.
  • It ought to be done with careful consideration since having multiple test setups for end-to-end tests is prone to introduce some confusing developer experience.
  • @adamsilverstein could imagine there might be other ways to leverage Browserstack as well, e.g., if we want to cover additional browsers.
  • Running on merge to master seems fine, although that means you’ll be fixing things after they are broken.
  • @aduth raised that typically Browserstack is a paid service (“$12.50/mo for Freelancers” plan is the cheapest). They offer free open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. testing, which he applied for and was accepted. But that doesn’t help for local testing since we’d not want to be sharing our credentials.

News Roundup

This roundup contains a few links for Gutenberg and JavaScript related news curated (and commented on) by @nerrad.

  • Dave Ryan posted a reflection on the recent WPBlockTalk conference. One standout observation he made that I took note of:
    • “The BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Editor is great, but perhaps some of the biggest potential for the Gutenberg project exists in the relationship Blocks can have with the external, web ecosystem — both how edits in the Block Editor can be pushed to other services and how external systems can automate content creation and edits on the WordPress side.”

#core-js, #javascript