Editor chat summary: 27th January 2021

This post summarises the weekly editor chat meeting (agenda here) held on 2021-01-27 14:00 UTC in Slack. Moderated by @andraganescu

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/ 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 Release

  • Gutenberg 9.9 RCrelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). has been delayed for January 29th 2021, to sync with the upcoming betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 1 release of WordPress

WordPress 5.7 Beta 1

  • WordPress 5.7 Beta 1 is due for release on the 2nd February 2021.
  • Beta 1 will represent the cut-off point for new commits/features for 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.
  • The deadline for changes is Gutenberg 9.9 RC on the 29th January.
  • There is a WordPress 5.7 project board where you can follow along and keep up to date with progress.
  • WordPress 5.7 will include versions 9.3 to 9.9 of Gutenberg

Monthly Plan & Key Project updates

  • We requested updates on the key projects.

Full Site Editing

Global Styles

  • not many updates but issue 27506 is a good starting point to gauge GS status 

Block based WidgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. / Navigation Editor

@andraganescu provided an update for the widgets editor:

@mkaz added an update on the ongoing additions to the Navigation block:

  • The Navigation Block tracking issue is here, though we are also working on issues raised for items needed to help develop themes. So that list my get supplemented with a few additional issues. (edited) 

@grzim added an update about the navigation editor:

  • The work on menu name edit is back on track Issue 24581 . There is an ongoing discussion in #feature-navigation-block-editor about moving name edition to a side panel.
  • UXUX User experience and 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) issues have been fixed Issue 28183 , Issue 24369
  • Also inconsistencies in e2e tests are being fixed.

Task Coordination

@hypest provided a

short update about what the native mobile folks have been up to:

  • Reusable blocks rendered in-editor (only available in DEV builds for now)
  • Audio block close to merge
  • Fix for blocks auto-scroll when the keyboard appears
  • Fixes for issues resulting from some GB-web side changes
  • Fix for File block’s automated test.

@bernie will continue to work on some release tooling automation soon. Afterwards, there are two things on the automated testing front that I’d like to work on:

  • Run e2e tests in FF (draft PR).
  • Visual diffs (to avoid block regressions) (issue)
  • Anyone interested in helping with those? Experience with puppeteer would be especially helpful for the e2e tests!

@annezazu is working on the “What’s Next” post for February and the FSE program. For the FSE program, I’m trying to find creative ways for more people to help through sharing various roles for the program (helping write calls for testing, triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. feedback, etc), updating documentation with more information about the process I’m loosely following/creating, and sharing an idea around how we can include polyglot communities! I wasn’t here to announce the how to triage in GitHub course is live on LearnWP too! Working on another course this week/next week for more GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ basics 

@paaljoachim is Working on consolidating setup local dev environment + testing instructions for Gutenberg and coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress..
Triaging Design and Gutenberg issues.
Working on a Dev site for support structure. Experimenting with the design for Learn and more. 

@mcsh updates:

  • Fixed a fatal infinite recursion issue in Reusable Blocks (@gziolo now fixing the same in Template Parts)
  • Code reviews
  • Too many conversations to name, but recently: with @ella about Footnotes, with @ntsekouras about focus bugs and other issues related to ReactReact React is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to reason about, construct, and maintain stateless and stateful user interfaces. https://reactjs.org/. refs, @gziolo about how we do e2e testing, table of contents block, etc.

@andraganescu did mostly code review and testing on widgets and navigation editors

@joen has been working on a bunch of small navigation block user experience related things:

  • Menu item word wrap
  • URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org cutoff
  • Menu item overflow menu polish
  • Button block appender
  • Space between

@itsjonq is Continuing his efforts to work on integrating the new Component System into Gutenberg (working on it directly as well as coordination). He is also tinkering with new UIUI User interface tools for Gutenberg in parallel, focusing specifically on background/color tools at the moment.

@ntsekouras updates:

  • Lot’s of triaging and GH reviews with some fixes
  • `Preferences` modal is probably ready to merge (PR /28329) – thanks @joen for the styling polish there

Open Floor

Will there be Global Styles also in the Post Editor? Or is that only to be for the Site Editor?

The general consensus on @paaljoachim‘s question was that the post is a place which lacks enough visibility for the impact the changes would have so most likely the answer now is no.

What’s Next post for February

@annezazu brought up the next focuses:

  • Preparing for 5.7
  • Global Styles
  • FSE
  • Block-based Widget Editor

Global styles in WordPress 5.7

@mcsf mentioned that whatever pieces of GS that may land in 5.7, they will concern the theme.jsonJSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML. structure and won’t impact users. At best, there will be experimental APIs that devs may use in Core, following in the footsteps of the well-known add_theme_supports extensions

AMA session about FSE and a dedicated FSE feature channel

@annezazu proposed to great enthusiasm an AMA session about FSE and also the creation of a dedicated feature channel for FSE.

A plan to standardize the use of feature channels

@priethor suggested a plan to standardize the use of feature channels:

  • Gather feedback on the overall feeling about these channels, whether folks think this segmentation improves communication or makes it more difficult.
  • If feature channels are agreed to be an improvement, create feature-specific channels for other feature projects such as FSE.
  • List these channels on the Feature Projects Overview page and promote them in automated welcome messages, as suggested by @annezazu.

@francina mentioned that “having multiple channels dilutes the attention of contributors, issues are not developed in a silo and are interdependent, so I am not sure having a myriad of channels is really helping, but willing to try”.

Internal Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. at Yoast on February 5th

Also @francina mentioned:

We are doing an internal Contributor Day at Yoast on February 5th. Let me know if there are some PRs that need developers and/or users testing

This is a great opportunity to bubble up things in need of testing or extra development hands!

Input wanted on the editing of a menu’s name in the navigation editor

Lastly @grzim called attention on PR 25343 where editing a menu’s name is added to the navigation editor, for sharing opinions on the approach taken there to make it as user-friendly as possible.

Thanks to everyone who attended!

#core-editor, #core-editor-summary, #meeting-notes, #summary