Hallway Hangout: Let’s explore the power of block variations

Join Ryan Welcher (@welcher) and me next month for a casual conversation about 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. variations and how you can use them to enhance the editing experience in WordPress. An often overlooked feature, variations are a great way to extend existing blocks and can be as simple or complex as you like. Many WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. blocks you use daily are variations!

To kick off the discussion, we will provide a brief overview of what variations are and how they work. Ryan will then share how he built the Advanced Query Loop 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 and why he opted for a variation of the Query block instead of building a custom block from scratch. And if you have built any variations or are using them in interesting ways, we encourage you to share them with the group. 

While block variations tend to be a more developer-focused topic, this Hallway Hangout will be accessible to everyone. The event will be held on Thursday, September 14, 2023, at 1:00 PM CST (18:00 UTC). The meeting link will be shared through the Learn WordPress MeetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. group. RSVP for the event to access the link. 

Recording

Notes

The Hallway Hangout was attended by 34 community members, including facilitators @ndiego and @welcher. 

Nick gave a brief overview of what Block Variations are and how to use them. Ryan then discussed how and why you might want to build more advanced variations and demoed his Advanced 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. plugin. Questions were asked and answered throughout. The following resources were shared during the event:

• An introduction to block variations (WordPress Developer Blogblog (versus network, site) post)
• The developer documentation for Block Variations.
• The code reference for all Core blocks and their attributes.
• The 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/ repository for the Advanced Query Loop plugin.
• Ways to modify frontend markup of a block using render_block and block filters.
• The next event: Hallway Hangout: What’s new for developers in WordPress 6.4 (October 12th)

Props to @welcher for review.

#block-api, #blocks, #hallwayhangout