Summary of the Developer Blog editorial meeting on 5 September 2024

Summary of the WordPress Developer Blogblog (versus network, site) meeting, which took place in the  #core-dev-blog channel on the Make WordPress SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. Start of the meeting in Slack.

Attendees: @greenshady @webcommsat @oglekler @ndiego @zeelthakkar @jagirbahesh @bcworkz (async) and @bph (facilitator).

Last meeting notes: Developer Blog editorial meeting summary 1 August 2024

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Contributor updates

• Congrats to @ajlendelende and @aljullu to receiving their Documentation Contributor badges for their contributions to the Developer Blog.  
• Call for contributors to take on What’s new for Developers roundup post for November? @greenshady @ndiego or I (@bph) will be right with you to guide you through the research as well as the writing part. If you want to take it on, come to the #core-dev-blog channel or DM either one of us.

Newly published posts since last meeting

Since the last meeting, we published the following articles

• Registering custom aspect ratios in WordPress 6.6 by @greenshady, reviewed by @marybaum and @welcher
• How to extend a WordPress block by @ndiego, reviewed by @fabiankaegy, @juanmaguitar, @welcher, and @greenshady
• Using Data Views to display and interact with data in plugins by @juanmaguitar, reviewed by @greenshady @welcher, @bph, @marybaum, @oandregal, and @eidolonnight
• What’s new for developers? (August 2024) by @greenshady, reviewed by@ndiego and @welcher
• Registering block templates via plugins in WordPress 6.7 by @greenshady reviewed by @aljullu, @ndiego, and @bph

Huge Thank You to the writer and reviewers! 

Project status

The project board for Developer Blog content is on 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/.

Issues closed

• Adding a “screen reader text” block option via themes –  Opened the discussion again, so community could further discuss a different approach.
• What you *can* and *cannot* do with PHP in patterns – moved to Theme Handbook

In review

• Optimizing your WP_Query queries for better performance I feel this could use some assistance and needs a 1st review
• WP-CLI for site owners and admins by Milana, second review is done  (published already )
• Create Figma designs for WordPress Block Theme is still in progress
• Building a multi-block plugin – Troy is working on getting ready to publish. (ready to be published)

In progress

• Case Study: How Pew Research Center is using the interactivity api to use blocks as interactive components
• Why you might not need a child theme
• Customizing and extending the Formatting Toolbar
• How to build a theme demo with WP Playground blueprints
• Tutorial on how to create custom components /
• Using Data Views in your plugin/preparing for the future (part 2)
• An overview of available directives for the Interactivity API (Video)
• Classic themes: tutorial on moving away from widgets to template parts
• What’s new for developers? (September 2024) (to be published today)

On the to-do-list, assigned to writers

• Overview of the coding standards tooling available to WordPress developers
• Tour Guide for First-time writers on the Developer Blog
• Performance best practices
• How to create and run automated tests for WordPress blocks #269
• Creating a low-code block theme development workflow with WordPress Playground and the Create Block Theme plugin

Topics approved, in need of a writer

• React best practices and pitfalls
• Migrate classic sidebars and widgets to block for themers
• Overview of “block theme” stuff you can do with classic/hybrid themes (since then assigned to @troychaplin)

If you are interested in taking on a topic from this list or know someone who would be a good person to write about them, comment on the Issue or pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” @bph in Slack either in the #core-dev-blog channel or in a DM.

New topics approved

• Exploring post formats in a block theme world (maybe with 6.7 additions)
• Extending User profile views natively with DataViews
• How to customize WordPress embeds to match your theme
• How to conditionally register/unregister patterns
• How to add contentOnly editing support to a custom block
• You don’t need CSS for that: All the ways you can use theme.json for styling

The topic idea Modifying text with the HTML API in WordPress 6.7 needs to simmer some more to see if there will be more elaborate examples coming in the next major WordPress version. Justin will bring it back to the October meeting should the topic deemed mature enough for a blog post.

Open floor

@greenshady inquired about the possibility of translating the content of the Developer blog into other languages. Currently, there isn’t a formal proposal for a process and tools. It’s worth exploring, though. It was stated that it’s complicated for Rosetta sites, and it might not be easy to translate. It would be better if the translationtranslation The process (or result) of changing text, words, and display formatting to support another language. Also see localization, internationalization. can be put right into the adminadmin (and super admin). If there is someone who translated an article, we could publish it on the Dev Blog under “other languages” and once we have a critical mass, we can create categories for Spanish, German etc. The bigger issue than the technological implementation is the recruiting and onboarding of translators to be contributors.

@bph is to reach out to the training team, to learn about their process, as they are a few steps ahead in working with translators.

@greenshady will open an issue, where we can follow up on discussion and progress.

Next meeting: October 3rd, 2024, at 13:00 UTC in the #core-dev-blog channel

Props to @greenshady for the review of the post.

#meeting, #meta, #summary