Editor chat summary: 11th August 2021

This post summarises the weekly editor chat meeting (agenda here) held on 2021-08-11 14:00 UTC in Slack. Moderated by @get_dave.

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 releases

• Gutenberg 11.2.1 which was released and contained a fix for available alignments and layout for the post editor.
• RC for 11.3.0 is available.

Whats next in Gutenberg: July and August

• Most of the content from Whats next in Gutenberg: July and August had been covered in the last Core Editor chat.
• @get_dave reminded folks that the above post has some great links to the “Tracking Issues” for each focus. It’s worth keeping an eye on the one’s you are interested in as they are canonical and a useful point of reference.
• @annezazu reminded us that there’s this new template part focus mode overview issue that is now included in the overall site editing projects scope.

Updates based on the scope for Site Editing projects

Updates were requested for the key projects:

Navigation 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.

@mkaz provided an update:

• Small refinements still underway.
• @annezazu has posted a call for testing that heavily focuses on using the Navigation Block in various ways.

Navigation Editor screen

@get_dave provided the update:

• Work has continued on 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 and stability.
• Now looking to define what is required to bring the Nav Editor out of “experimental”.
• To this end, the team is looking to arrange a hallway hangout (or similarly public forum) to compare/contrast the classic navigation screen with the block-based navigation screen.
• We’re also looking to filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. out or break down any “Epic” Issues from the Nav Editor tracking issue into more actionable tasks (where possible).
• @javiarce has also been looking into and documenting the need to add some “polish” to the Nav Editor screen in order that UXUX User experience bugs/issues don’t spoil the overall experience. I believe he will look to add these as Bugs to the repo soon.
• From this we will then look to reprioritise the task list in this tracking Issue around achieving feature parity at a user interface level (developer APIs will follow).

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. Editor and 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..

@get_dave provided the update:

• There’s currently a major discussion around how best to emulate the markup pattern of “Widget Title” + “Widget” which is how most Themes expect Widget HTML to be structured.
• Currently options are: a Block Pattern and a new “Widget Box” block (update: now renamed to “Widget Group”).
• Seems simple but honestly it isn’t. Any feedback appreciated.
• Also continuing with general bug fixes and stability improvements. 

Native Mobile Team

@mattchowning provided the update:

Shipped

• Added Android support for themes that use Global Styles

Added:

• A guide for writing native mobile integration tests

In Progress:

• Block Picker Search is almost ready to ship.
• Embed block.
• Editor onboarding help section.
• GSS Font size.
• line height.
• colors.

Styles, Patterns and Template Editor

At the time of the meeting no updates were provided. If you are a contributor, please do leave an update in the comments below.

(Aside: see Open Floor section below where we discussed how to avoid situations where there are no updates for key projects during the meeting).

Bonus: impromptu discussion on “Full Page Patterns”

This item was not on the agenda, but it’s worth including here because some good points were raised about the value of this proposal.

• @paaljoachim resurfaced the idea of full page patterns as an alternative to creating a page template.
• There is a proposal to add Full Page Patterns to Core which looks to have stalled.
• One could tell the user to add a full page pattern instead of a reusable block that needs to first be converted back to regular blocks before being filled out.
• Adding patterns is an accident proof way of not affecting any other pages. 
• @mkaz noted that this feature will work now – there is no limit to what can be put into a pattern.
• @get_dave noted the key difference between Full Page Patterns and Templates is that inserting a pattern is a one time operation – once inserted it will receive no further updates should the pattern be amended in future.
• @digamberpradhan and Frank Wazeter were both in favour and could see the value of full page patterns as a discreet concept.

Task Coordination

@paaljoachim:

• Highlighting efforts to make Reusable blocks inherit alignment (also related to Shortcode block issue).
• Hightlighting Breadcrumbs block draft PR.

@annezazu:

• Main focuses this week are:
  • starting to recap the block theme survey (responses due by Friday!).
  • shipping the call for testing today (included lots of testing).
  • responding to feedback as responses roll in.
• I hope to have time to do triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. once more, focused again on labelling PRs to make releases a bit easier.

@get_dave:

• I’ve been working primarily on trying to resolve the issue I mentioned early regarding the legacy Widget markup pattern.
• I’ve also been doing planning around the Nav Editor and what the next steps are. As I mentioned a Hallway hangout will probably happen soon. I’ll post the info in advance and it would be great to see folk join to discuss how we can evolve this project.
• Working with @joen on a Split control for URL and Text within Link UI which should make it easier to add/modify links.
• Tinkering with making Reusable blocks inherit alignment of their internal blocks. Turns out the issue is very much more complicated than I’d first thought (who knew!?).
• Trying to fix a paste bug on Windows – should be ready to land soon.

Open Floor

Proposal for improving the “Key project updates” section of editor chat meetings

• @priethor has a proposal for improving the project updates.
• At the start of each week (or prior to editor chat) let’s ask contributors to leave an update comment on the tracking Issue (these are listed in the recent What’s Next post).
• Will help the chat facilitator keep the pace of the chat when it’s quiet.
• Will also help ensure we don’t end up with a “no updates” situation (see above).
• @get_dave has an example update for the Nav Editor which serves as a basic template.
• Kudos to @nosolosw who started doing this for the Global Styles project.
• Most attendees agreed this would be a nice improvement – let’s include a prompt in the next agenda @itsjusteileen.

Usability feedback on the Template settings panel in Block Editor

• Frank Wazeter raised some feedback about the Template settings panel.
• When you click on “new”, the default thought is to do something akin to “create new from default template,” especially because the dropdown above has “default” selected.
• However, what you get is whatever’s set in ‘defaultBlockTemplates’, which for the vast majority, isn’t anything explicitly set.
• Likewise, if I select another template, my initial assumption is I’m making “New from…” whatever template I set.
• It might make more sense if there was a toggle – similar to in background color for “Color” or “Gradient” to indicate that I’m making a brand new blank template.
• @get_dave advised creating and Issue and Frank did so after the meeting.

Wrap up

Thanks to everyone who attended the meeting!

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