WordPress 3.8 agenda for tomorrow

Our next WordPress 3.8 chat is tomorrow, August 28 at 21:00 UTC, following the 3.7 dev chat. Here’s our agenda:

  • Answer questions/comments about the features as plugins process (see yesterday’s post).
  • Review projects with no lead or weekly chat.
  • New feature presentations. Is there a new feature you want to work on that’s not being tracked? Now’s the time to present it. Bring as much information as possible and comment on this post beforehand.
  • Office hours.

Hope to see all of you tomorrow!

#3-8, #agenda

Features, Plugins, and WordPress 3.8

At the dev chat last week, we talked a bit about WordPress 3.8 and the features-as-plugins process. Here’s a recap of what was discussed:

Expectations

A lot of features are in development right now, at varying stages. Given the huge list of new features, there’s no way they’ll all be in WordPress 3.8. That’s okay, and it’s by design.

The features-as-plugins model makes it easy to wait for a feature to be ready before including it in a release. It also allows for a lot of experimentation. Some ideas might not otherwise be developed into potential features, while others are large and complex, and might take multiple cycles to complete. But experimentation can lead to a fully scoped or even fully developed feature that never makes it into coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. because, after hashing out the details, it’s realized it isn’t something that belongs in core. Don’t let that discourage you — trial and error is part of the process and will result in better features and a better WordPress. Features that don’t get included in core can continue to live on as awesome plugins, and the whole ecosystem benefits. In the past, the core team would have suggested that a feature start as a 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 anyway; this formalizes that process.

Ultimately, the decision on whether a feature makes it into core rests in the hands of the core team. To ensure you’re on the right track, keep in contact with the next release’s lead and the lead developers. The release leadRelease Lead The community member ultimately responsible for the Release. should understand what problem you’re trying to solve and why the direction you chose is the appropriate one to solve that problem.

Timeline

For features to be included in a release, they must be ready for the release’s first meeting — that is, day one when the development period begins. At that point, the release lead will review current projects, and along with core developers, determine if they’re fully baked and ready for merging into core.

They’ll be looking for a number of things, including a strong and well-tested user experience, fully-baked design, positive feedback from the community, core-quality code, no major bugs or issues, and a belief that the feature belongs in WordPress core. Every feature is different, so “ready” will mean different things depending on the specific feature, but a release lead must feel comfortable taking on primary responsibility for a feature and the core team must be comfortable taking on responsibility for the long term.

If the core developers decide a feature isn’t ready for core, they’ll let the feature lead know why and what can be done to prepare the feature for a future release.

Features that have been approved for inclusion will have a merge window of about two weeks (timeline still being decided) to get their code into core and wrestle with any latent issues getting it merged. However, as stated above, features must be ready for merging at the start of the merge window.

Who’s responsible for features?

After a feature gets merged into core, the feature team remains responsible for the feature, with added support from the core team. As with any part of WordPress, feedback comes from the entire community. However, after merging into core, a feature will receive a lot more visibility than in the plugin phase. Focus is important to ensure the feature ships.

Keep in mind that while the team remains responsible for the feature in core, ultimate decision-making rests in the hands of the core team, as with any part of core. The release lead will obviously work closely with the feature lead and entire team.

tl;dr

  • Sometimes features won’t end up in core. That’s okay! Not everything belongs in core. It’d still be a great, community-built plugin that helps to improve the ecosystem. Maybe it serves as a prototype, or lessons learned, or even a base for a future initiative.
  • Don’t expect your feature to make it for 3.8. These are features being built with the potential for inclusion in a future version of WordPress. They are not “3.8 features.”
  • To be included in 3.8, features must be “ready,” as defined by the core team, at the start of 3.8 development, shortly after 3.7. Be sure to keep in close contact with the release lead.

Questions? Comments? Ask away!

#3-8, #core-plugins

Featured Content: Getting Started

Ahead of our first official office hours, here is an overview of what I would like to discuss:

What is Featured Content?

Obenland discussed the high-level concept here: https://gist.github.com/obenland/3010432c8edcfcbf95a9

To me, Featured Content is a flexible way to show one or many posts in one or many places in your theme. A blogblog (versus network, site) might have 1 featured post area that will support 1-4 posts, as an example. A more complex site using WP as a CMS might program its homepage using many “featured areas” that contain varying numbers of post-like entities.

Featured Content, in the end, is just a way to return posts chosen by a content producer. The way in which featured content is selected should be intuitive, easy to manage, and use existing WP technology/terminology whenever possible. A featured post-like thing should an entity that points at a canonical post, while having the ability to override any of the parent post’s attributes on display. Example: I should be able to use a different title and image for a post that is featured when it is rendered in a featured area.

I should also be able to schedule featured items, much like I can schedule a post.

How are we going to implement it?

Here are my ideas:

I think we can get a lot of immediate mileage using a custom taxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies., working name: “Featured Area” and a custom post typeCustom Post Type WordPress can hold and display many different types of content. A single item of such a content is generally called a post, although post is also a specific post type. Custom Post Types gives your site the ability to have templated posts, to simplify the concept., working name: “Featured Item”. By default, a function like `wp_get_featured_content()` can return all featured posts. Passing a parameter can return posts matching that featured area slug that are published – `wp_get_featured_content( ‘mini-headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes.’ )`. A custom taxonomy can be registered to post and featured_item. Themes can register the taxonomy for more post_types as necessary.

The 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, in its current form, implements all of the above: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-featured-content/

Things to consider:

  • How do we always keep the post and its featured_item brethren in sync?
  • Do featured_items and posts always share the same post_status? Should they be independent?
  • How do themes opt in to multiple featured areas if the terms have not be created for the featured_area taxonomy?
  • What are alternate ways to implement the above?

#3-8, #featured-content

Featured Content Office Hours

As my last task as acting lead for Featured Content, I’m happy to announce our first IRCIRC Internet Relay Chat, a network where users can have conversations online. IRC channels are used widely by open source projects, and by WordPress. The primary WordPress channels are #wordpress and #wordpress-dev, on irc.freenode.net. chat on Monday, 1700 UTC in #wordpress-dev, led by @wonderboymusic.

We will talk about the project organization and intended functionality for the 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 (on a high level!). Goal of the meeting is that everyone has a clear understanding of where the project is headed, what the next step in the process will be, and who is working on that.

#3-8, #core-plugins, #featured-content

WordPress 3.8 Chat Wrap Up

The WordPress 3.8 chat ran a bit long today, but we got a ton of information on the projects people are interested in. I’ve compiled a list of features-as-plugins from the chat today to get a better handle on the status of each project. I may have missed some details, so let me know and I’ll update that page.

If your group hasn’t already, do the following things before next week’s chat:

  • Setup a weekly IRCIRC Internet Relay Chat, a network where users can have conversations online. IRC channels are used widely by open source projects, and by WordPress. The primary WordPress channels are #wordpress and #wordpress-dev, on irc.freenode.net. chat – ideally these should occur before the weekly 3.8 chat.
  • Use your weekly chat to select a lead. Keep in mind that your lead can change later if it needs to, just as MP6 has switched hands.
  • Create a wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ 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 use that page to list your group’s members, what you’ll be working on, and a link to all the relevant docs (including mockups). Add “wordpressdotorg” as a contributor to your project.
  • If you’re not yet at the stage where it makes sense to create a wordpress.org plugin, make sure you create a thorough overview document.
  • Each week you’ll want to post the status of your project to the relevant make P2P2 A free theme for WordPress, known for front-end posting, used by WordPress for development updates and project management. See our main development blog and other workgroup blogs..

Other than that, see you August 22 at 18:00 UTC for the next 3.8 chat.

#3-8

Present your 3.8 feature idea at tomorrow’s meeting

Tomorrow’s WordPress 3.8 meeting at Thursday 18:00 UTC is a great time to present your feature idea to the community. Many groups have already started forming around different ideas.

Comment on this post with a group name to add your group to the list of projects presenting tomorrow. Make sure you bring the following things with you:

  • What problem(s) are you trying to solve?
  • What proposal solution(s) are you interested in exploring?
  • When and where is your group communicating?
  • Who has joined your group so far?
  • If you’ve selected someone to lead your group, who is your lead?
  • If you’ve already started work on your 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, bring a link to your plugin page.

See you tomorrow!

#3-8, #agenda, #core-plugins

Howdy everyone There’s been a lot of discussion…

Howdy everyone! There’s been a lot of discussion over the last week or two around widgets for 3.8. Inspired by @lessbloat, I’ve made a short survey with a few basic questions about widgets and how you use them. It you could, please take a few minutes to share your thoughts:

Take the Widgets Survey

Thanks!

#3-8, #survey, #widgets

I’m doing some quick research into the wp…

I’m doing some quick research into the wp-adminadmin (and super admin) dashboard (which I plan to look at for 3.8). I’d like to learn more about how you use the dashboard, and how you think it could be better. Please take a few moments and fill out this 5 question survey:

Take the survey

Thanks so much for your help!

#3-8, #dashboard, #survey

Twenty Fourteen theme project kick-off

Are you interested in contributing to the new default theme?

Twenty Fourteen example

We’ll kick off office hours for 3.8 cycle next Tuesday August 13, 17 UTC, in #wordpress-dev IRCIRC Internet Relay Chat, a network where users can have conversations online. IRC channels are used widely by open source projects, and by WordPress. The primary WordPress channels are #wordpress and #wordpress-dev, on irc.freenode.net.. Covering goals, scope, and how best to split up tasks. If time allows we can jump into tickets.

Then throughout the 3.8 cycle making the office hours a habit on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 17 UTC.

Don’t worry if you can’t make it every single chat—we’ll be posting here with the twentyfourteen 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.) to keep you updated—and you can follow commits and tickets via TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress..

For a bit of background on the Twenty Fourteen theme, see notes in #24858 and the already-growing list of open tickets. Let’s get to work!

#3-8, #bundled-theme, #theme, #twentyfourteen

Excellent 3.8 brainstorm session today People talked about…

Excellent 3.8 brainstorm session today. People talked about a number of interesting ideas and started to form some groups around them. Not everyone is in IRCIRC Internet Relay Chat, a network where users can have conversations online. IRC channels are used widely by open source projects, and by WordPress. The primary WordPress channels are #wordpress and #wordpress-dev, on irc.freenode.net., so wanted to give an opportunity for people to post a comment with a given area here, and if you’re interested in contributing to that area reply to that comment. This allows people to connect asynchronously. As people comment please connect with them directly in IRC, email, whatever, and discuss.

Next week groups will bring more fleshed out proposals for forming a 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 Project team, including a lead, mockups, user tests, existing plugins…

#3-8