Editor Chat Summary: 29th September 2021

This post summarises the weekly editor chat meeting (agenda here) held on 2021-09-29 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 11.6.0 was released – thanks to @ntsekouras for leading.
• Highlights include:
  • Site Logo cropping and rotating within the editor.
  • Locking control at block level.
  • Query Pagination uses Flex Layout.

WordPress 5.9 “Go, no go” date and priorities

• The “go, no go” review date for WordPress 5.9 is coming up on October 12, 2021.
• Gutenberg 11.6.0 was the final full release of the Gutenberg Plugin prior to that date (although we’ll have an 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). for 11.7.0 on the 6th October which can be used for the “go/no go”).
• The main goal for 5.9 is getting full site editing to all WordPress users.
• The key “candidate” features are listed in the suggested roadmap.

Updates based on the scope for Site Editing projects

Updates were requested for the key projects:

Global Styles

@youknowriad provided an async update on the agenda:

• We’re making some good practice hoping to be in a good shape for 5.9.
• We’ve been iterating on the designs proposed in this overview issue.
• We’ve landed the drill down Navigation in the sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. and we are iterating on the different panels and components. (you can follow the updates on the issue)

Also related to this, @mciampini provided an update from the folks working on the components package:

Shipping:

• After merging the new Navigator components for the Global Styles sidebar, we’ve made a number of refinements.
• We’ve renamed them to NavigatorProvider and added tests. Remaining work on these components is being tracked in this issue. These components provide support for hierarchical navigation without including their own opinionated styles, making them suitable for a range of use cases in the editor.
• The Item component, which is used alongside ItemGroup to semantically group related components, was updated to automatically render with a button when an onClick function is provided rather than using an isAction prop for that purpose. ItemGroup is also used extensively in the new Global Styles designs. 

In Progress:

• We’re now moving to use the NavigatorProvider components in other contexts in Gutenberg, including the preferences modal.
• This will help us to validate the 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. of the component and reduce overlap with the existing Navigation components that specifically render the “W” sidebar in the full site editor.

Template Editor

No one was available to provide an update. I asked around and @kevin940726 let me know of progress on the Template Part Focus Mode:

• Merged #34679 to add the “Edit template part” button in ellipsis menu.
• Merged #34732 to add the back button in the focus mode (isolated template part mode)
• Rob is working on #35170 to show the ellipsis menu in the list view
• I just merged #35202 and opened #35239 to add template areas to top bar and the inspector

Patterns

No one was around at the time of the meeting, but having asked around, @ntsekouras provided an update for us:

• Lots of exploration going on lately but not lots to share right now.
• PR for Featured patterns from pattern directory will move forward soon.

Navigation Editor

@get_dave provided the update:

• Discussion is ongoing on the best way to ensure interoperability and compatibility between Nav 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. and Nav Editor.
• Proposal to utilise a new classic Menu block in the Nav Editor continues. Any feedback welcomed.
• Folks (particularly @spacedmonkey / @Jonny Harris) have been working hard on backwards compatibility. Any more feedback on this Issue would be a great help.
• Lots of 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 continue to roll in for the Editor. Great work by everyone involved.

Would particular like to highlight the need to provide feedback on the ongoing discussion regarding the proposal to utilise a dedicated classic Menu block in the Editor.

Navigation Block

@joen provided the update:

• Working on navigation things around improving the setup state for url-less menu items (ultimately to help enable nav block patterns).
• Continuing with light navigation related things such as URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org dialog improvements for the basic mode of the menu, and mockups for transforms to switch to advanced building.

Block based Widgets Editor

No one was around to provide an update but one improvement I’m aware of is that you can now edit the title of the Widget Group block directly.

Seems like a small change but it really helps improve the flow of a block which is critical for solid backwards compatibility.

Native Mobile Team

@antonisme provided the update:

Shipped

• Embed block improvements and fixes
• Use tarball instead of git tagtag A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses tags to store a single snapshot of a version (3.6, 3.6.1, etc.), the common convention of tags in version control systems. (Not to be confused with post tags.) for reactReact React is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to reason about, construct, and maintain stateless and stateful user interfaces. https://reactjs.org/.-native-editor forked dependencies
• Added native version of Dashicon component for mobile

Fixes:

• Fixed unstable React Native e2e tests
• Fixed column block fix width float attribute cut off issue

In Progress:

• Launching soon a way to contact support from inside editor
• Additional Embed block improvements
• GSS Font size, line height, colors

Task Coordination

The following items were shared by folks to update us on what work is in progress or where help is needed:

@shaunandrews:

• I’m working up a some designs around block controls (like height, width, border, background, etc) and their groupings (dimensions? shape? layout?).
• Check out the #design channel for some more info. I hope to write up some thoughts this week.

@mamaduka:

• Helping with PR reviews/testing.
• Worked on a few small PRs of my own.
• I’ve PR that should fix editor crash when dragging multiple blocks into innerBlocks. I’m not very familiar with this part of the code, and I would appreciate extra eyes on it.
• Also started working on useSelect call optimizations because of missing dependencies across the codebase.

@annezazu:

• Still working through feedback on the current exploration on block theme switching.
• Shipped a YouTube video about the Query Loop block.
• Kicked off a post that I hope turns into a wider conversation about an approach for adopting FSE features.
• Helped with the latest / News post.
• Cleared unlabelled issues backlog.
• Working on the next call for testing for the outreach program.
• Midway through a coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. editor improvement post on 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) improvements.

@welcher:

• I’ve been working with @mciampini on https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/33263 to get the components package docs updated.
• I’m planning to drop it into the new contributors meeting to enlist some help. I’ve also started a Twitch stream doing general Gutenberg development topics.

@get_dave:

• I’ve been working on some UXUX User experience updates and fixes for the Link UIUI User interface. Mainly based on these issues listed in the tracking issue:
  • Adding a split text/URL control (hat tip @joen).
  • Adding ability to create Pages directly from the Link UI.
  • Fix Link UI when hyperlink has an empty href value.
  • Disallowing the creation of empty links.
• Also been continuing to input on architectural discussions around the Nav Editor and Block.

@mciampini:

• I will continue refining the Navigator* components and the ItemGroup and Item components.
• Helping with PR reviews around the @wordpress/components package.
• Helping Riad with the updated Global Styles sidebar.

Open Floor

Adding locking capabilities to Reusable Blocks

• @paaljoachim explained that at the moment it is too easy to make an accidental change to a Reusable block.
• We soon should get a lock mechanism in place as per the overview Issue on locking.
• @johnstonphilip queries whether locking is enough to ensure that the user understands the action they are taking is destructive across other pages.
• @get_dave noted that the Update/Publish flow now separates out changes to the current Post vs Reusable Blocks (similar to how the Site Editor handles saving template parts).
• @get_dave recommend raising an Issue to suggest having a more explicit warning inline on the Reusable Block to flag that you are making changes to a global entity.

Getting useInnerBlockProps and LinkControl out of “experimental” status

• @fabiankaegy brought up two tickets related to features that are currently marked as __experimental which he thinks are at the point where they can be moved out of the experimental state.
  • useInnerBlocksProps  hook. 
  • LinkControl Component.
• @get_dave responded re: <LinkControl> to say:
  • There are still a number of items I’d like to see ticked off the tracking issue prior to merging (help with these appreciated).
  • It is quite powerful, but we should look at reducing the complexity of the component itself before committing to it.
  • Due to look at the architecture soon to see what improvements can be made – @youknowriad has mentioned this in the past.
• @get_dave noted that @ellatrix has a PR to stablise useInnerBlocksProps and that more reviews and input are needed to get this to land.
• It was agreed that given how long the components have been around that we should look to standardise both.

Wrap up

Thanks to everyone who attended the meeting!

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