Editor Chat Summary: 19th January 2022

This post summarises the weekly editor chat meeting (agenda here) held on 2022-01-19 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 12.4.0 was released – thanks to @ajlende for leading this one.
• Highlights post will be released on Make blogblog (versus network, site) soon, but they include:
  • Tag Cloud block gets a new outline style
  • Post publish panel gets a reminder to add categories
  • Site editor gets a brand new keyboard shortcuts help panel

WordPress 5.9

• As per the release schedule, WordPress 5.9 RC 3 was released yesterday.
• Editor tech lead @noisysocks provided an update on the agenda: 

WordPress 5.9 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). 3 was released today. Short of an emergency that necessitates an RC 4, this will become the final WordPress 5.9 release.@mamaduka and I have moved all remaining issues in the WordPress 5.9 project board to a new WordPress 5.9.x project board.Thanks everyone for your hard work on this massive massive release!

• Kudos to @noisysocks and @mamaduka for all the work they have put into this release.

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.

@get_dave provided the update:

• Team are refocusing back onto work landing in the Gutenberg Plugin as opposed to WP 5.9.
• There’s a question about how best to handle editing of Navigation Menus in isolation.
• We’re asking how we can/might need to save Nav blocks to the post under certain circumstances.
• Otherwise the team are working on bugs and extensibility.
• In general, we’re expecting lots of feedback from the release of 5.9 and so we’re probably going to hang fire on any major updates until we gather some of that and assess it.

Query

• @ntsekouras shared that he created a PR today that adds support for custom taxonomies filtering in Query LoopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop., which needs meticulous testing for any regressions.
• Testing would be appreciated.

Styles

@jorgefilipecosta provided the update:

• We had an improvement to the color palette editor.
• And right now we are working on the style variations.

Native Mobile Team

@hypest provided the update:

Shipped

• Translations pipeline improvements, including more strings now properly getting translated!
• Contrast Checker in Text-Based Blocks.

Fixes:

• Regressionregression A software bug that breaks or degrades something that previously worked. Regressions are often treated as critical bugs or blockers. Recent regressions may be given higher priorities. A "3.6 regression" would be a bug in 3.6 that worked as intended in 3.5. in the content justification attribute on the Buttons block.
• Issue on Android with handling of Hebrew and Indonesian translations.
• Issue with long cell labels clipped on Android.
• Issue with native mobile tests erroneously loading reactReact React is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to reason about, construct, and maintain stateless and stateful user interfaces. https://reactjs.org/.-dom.

In Progress:

• Finalizing GSS Font size and line height.

Components Packages

@mciampini provided an update:

• From the point of view of the components team, we’re still getting up to speed after the holidays.
• Mostly helping with reviewing PRs from other folks, e.g on the ToolsPanel , CustomSelectControl and ColorPicker components.
• We’ll be probably able to get back to a more complete update from next week!

Templates & Patterns

There were no updates on either project.

Task Coordination

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

@ntsekouras:

• Besides the custom taxonomies filtering which I shared above, I’ve added support for multiple authors filtering in Query Loop.

@fabiankaegy:

• I’ve been working on making the markup of the Post Template more accessible by adding a mechanism to make the entire template one singular link.

@get_dave:

• I’ve been working primarily on some security / code quality tasks.
• Also researching into use cases around the need to edit Navigation MenuNavigation Menu A theme feature introduced with Version 3.0. WordPress includes an easy to use mechanism for giving various control options to get users to click from one place to another on a site. posts in isolation from the Navigation block.
• Also working with folks on enabling “read only” requests for (non built in) Custom Post Type entities within the Core Data layer.

@bph:

• I have an update on Developer Hours(Proposal on make/core).
• We will start its trial period Feb and March with two events each month.
• I got some great responses to our call for volunteer panelists! I reached out to 11 developers already. Deadline is tomorrow.
• Also, huge thank you also to the #training team for their supports with promotion via the WordPress Social Learning space.
• I am working on the schedule for the panelist and will post an update – hopefully – next week.

Open Floor

Help required to understand MediaReplaceFlow and the way the editor handles HTTPHTTP HTTP is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web and this protocol defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands. 5xx errors when uploading media

• @kenjigarland asks: can anyone can help me understand why MediaReplaceFlow works the way it does (i.e. why it doesn’t use withNotices/noticeOperations), and why the Cover block uses MediaReplaceFlow even when adding new media?
• I have an in-progress changeset that improves error handling for some blocks here.
• Looking for someone to help discuss async.

Do we need Additional CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets. section in the Global Styles?

• @paaljoachim noted that the Customizer includes an Additional CSS section to allow for custom CSS rules.
• This is missing from Global Styles.
• Are there any plans to add it?
• @paaljoachim has opened an Issue to track this.
• @jorgefilipecosta responded to confirm there are currently no plans for this to be added.

How can we improve quality and cadence of key project updates

• @get_dave asked whether we could discuss ways of getting into a regular cadence for updates on the key projects?
• We have lots of key projects but no way to know who is leading them or what the latest status is.
• @priethor said size of updates was a problem and perhaps making these async would help. This would avoid the meeting become all about status updates.
• Other facilitators agreed that as a meeting facilitator it’s often difficult to source updates and the meeting is often missing updates.
• Folks agreed that most projects have a coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. set of contributors (mostly full time folks). It should be easy enough to divide up the task of writing a short weekly update.
• We agreed the following next steps which @priethor will take forward:
  • Identify which are the key overview Issues.
  • Identify core contributorsCore Contributors Core contributors are those who have worked on a release of WordPress, by creating the functions or finding and patching bugs. These contributions are done through Trac. https://core.trac.wordpress.org. to ongoing key projects.
  • Encourage these folks to post weekly updates in 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/ and also encourage them to add a comment to the agenda beforehand.
• The next meeting coordinator, @paaljoachim, will work with @priethor to see if the process can be improved for next week’s chat.

Celebrate new contributors!

@priethor asked us to celebrate new contributions! Kudos to all first-time Gutenberg contributors who joined our efforts in the last 2 releases.

Gutenberg 12.4:

• @alberto-marin
• @ugljanin
• @mauteri

Gutenberg 12.3:

• @alokstha1
• @xaver
• @patelutkarsh
• @wpe_bdurette
• @jiteshdhamaniya
• @Chris Lubkert
• @jonahtanjz

Volunteering for next Gutenberg Plugin release

@fabiankaegy volunteered himself for the next Gutenberg Plugin release.

Wrap up

Thanks to everyone who attended the meeting!

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