Developer blog meeting summary: May 4, 2023

Last month’s summary, for context.

@bph ran a lively meeting from a simple agenda (and a new continent!):
• Site updates and news
• Project Board
    ◦ In the works
    ◦ Reviews needed
    ◦ To be approved
    ◦ New discussions on topics
• Open Floor

Site updates and news

@bph has moved from Sarasota, FL, USA to her hometown—Munich, Germany—after 25 years in the States.

More exciting than her big move was her news about the blogblog (versus network, site). She’s been working with @dd32 on a few things:

Working on the blog adds goodies to your .org profile

Dion has installed 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/’s WP Activity Notifier 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, which adds a post contribution to your WordPress.org profile activity list every time you publish a post, going forward. The contribution looks like this:

If you wrote an article between November and now, he has added the activity to your profile retroactively, by hand. Thanks, @dd32!

Let’s build a Create Props 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.!

Since all the Make blogs are adding props for review, Dion has also started thinking about a Props block for posts and whatever else. If you have some time to make this real, he and Birgit have opened a MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. #6945 with their thoughts on how to get started.

Cross-publishing dev blog posts in CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. and dev-blog 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/. channels

Addressing a Dev chat conversation with @jeffpaul, Birgit and Dion have also made every new post on the dev blog auto-publish on the Core Slack as well as the #core-dev-blog Slack. So that should get even more eyes on the blog!

A 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/ organization for educational code

Birgit told the group that @psykro is working through a process that will make a GitHub organization for the faculty on the Training team and dev-blog authors to house code people can learn from. More on this when there is news to report …

New posts on the blog

From @greenshady come these:

@welcher published How webpack and WordPress packages interact.

Project status

These posts are in the works:

And these to-dos are approved:

@bph pointed out that some of those are delayed because of travel, or are waiting for a feature to land in a stable release of 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/, Core or a feature pluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins.. Or, she added, because the writers don’t yet have the bandwidth.

New topics

The group approved these new topics:

  1. Tutorial on building patterns and block styles with Details/Summary block
  2. How to manage block governance
  3. Adding custom color options for blocks
  4. Tutorial on style variations in theme.json
  5. How to add starter content to WordPress themes
  6. Make your site’s typography make a statement.
  7. Navigating the Block Editor Handbook
  8. Tutorial on building block-based templates in classic themes

@greenshady noted that a lot of those ideas are his, and he’s happy to write any or all of them. The one post he is firmly committed to writing himself is the tutorial on the Details/Summary block.

The group spent a few minutes discussing what block governance really means in idea #2 and concluded that the post covers restricting access to specific block controls by user role so authors and editors on a WordPress site—maybe a publication or a corporate site, for instance—can edit content and visuals but can only use blocks that are styled to comply with their company brand standards.

@marybaum noted she can start the typography series in idea #6 this week with a plan for the posts and a draft of the first one.

Welcome Olga!

@bph welcomed @oglekler to the meeting and the editorial board. Recommended by @webcommsat (and highly seconded by your friendly neighborhood summary writer) Olga Glekler is a full-stack developer, component maintainer, and contributor to several Make teams over the years. The group gave her a rousing, emoji-filled welcome.

Open floor

@webcommsat suggested that whoever writes the agenda distribute links ahead of time so attendees can come prepared to discuss an idea at a deeper level come meeting time. Several folks thought that was a nice idea and then admitted they might not actually get around to reading the material in advance.

Birgit raised Olga’s post in the dev-blog Slack about software architecture and how to keep basic principles in mind as developers switch from language to language. The group concurred that a discussion of these concepts would be immensely valuable, as long as they stay firmly rooted in WordPress-relevant examples.

#core, #meeting, #summary

Dev Blog editorial group, April 6, 2023

Last month’s summary, courtesy of @webcommsat. Thanks for your in-depth coverage!

@bph led the meeting from her home town of Munich, Germany. Congrats, Birgit!

Site updates and new posts

The dev blogblog (versus network, site) is out of betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process.! @cbringmann made the official announcement on the News blog on March 22.

Since early March, the blog has published these new posts:

Project Board

The project board it available on GitHub

In the works

At meeting time, these posts were in various early stages on the project board:

In progress

On the to-do list 

Items that need reviews

None of the above items were ready for review at meeting time. A couple have since gone through and are now published on the blog.

Items that need approval

The group approved these new posts:

New topics

@bph surfaced three new topics from 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/ repo to discuss, 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.-scrub style.

Understanding duotone filter abstraction #62

The group thought this could be a useful tutorial if it focused more on how to get a CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets. image-filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. effect working in a 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., with duotones as the example, as opposed to focusing on the uses for duotones. (Ed. note: Some editorial members are old enough to remember when duotones were cool before. ;-p)

How to offer multiple homepage options in a single theme

The group saw overlap between this idea and two posts already published. @greenshady agreed to 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.” @annezazu and @daisyo and see if those two posts cover this idea. If they think it needs its own post, @marybaum said she could write it later in April.

Deep-dive Tutorial on the New Style Book

After some discussion, the group approved the topic.

Open Floor

@marybaum asked the group if posts about design, like typography, have a place on the blog. The consensus was they do, particularly in light of features like the Style Book and other no-code or low-code tools and their coverage on the blog. Mary then said she’d post some topic ideas on the Github board.

The next meeting is scheduled for May 4th, 2023 at 13:00 UTC in the #core-dev-blog 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/. channel.

Props for review @bph

#core-dev-blog

Dev Blog editorial group, March 2, 2023

This group is part a cross-team collaboration. The editorial group meets monthly on the first Thursday of each month at 13:00 UTC in the #core-dev-blog channel of 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/..

Slack link to start of the meeting on March 2, 2023.

Summary from the February 2023 meeting

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/ card numbers on this page relate to the Developer Blogblog (versus network, site) GitHub repository.

Attendees

Editorial group attendees: @bph, @webcommsat, @marybaum, @milana_cap, @greenshady, @mburridge, @ndiego, @bcworkz
Observer attendees: @carl-alberto
Due to different time zones, some of the editorial group to add to the meeting asynchronously.

Update and actions since last meeting

Developer Blog – Editorial meeting: February 2, 2023 – thanks to @greenshady and @webcommsat for collaborating on the summary.

Ongoing action: Comments / additions needed on the draft template for suggested topics: GitHub #69 Developer Blog.

New published blogs

@bph shared a ‘huge thank you’ to all and to those who helped with direction, editing and reviews.

@greenshady echoed the thanks to reviewers, and that it was ‘a huge help to have the support system to help clean things up and make the content even better.’

Growth in comments on the blog, especially the Intrinsic Design post which has received as of the meeting 20 comments.

@webcommsat update: The call for more ideas and writers was repromoted at Dev Chat yesterday and at WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Asia. Ideas for more promotions are being collated for a future date when the blog is out of betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process.. The Marketing Team is assisting with gathering ideas and is aware that the communication and messaging is limited until post-beta and the formal launch.

Project Board status review

Posts in progress

Topics in the pipeline

A few topics in the pipeline for consideration / approval. They are not all ready to proceed, but writers have started initial thinking on the topics.

General note: in the majority of times, the title on the ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. is for the initial discussion for review rather than the title of the post to be written. The writer and review team will collaborate on the post title during the publishing process.

What’s new for Developer (March 2023) – agreement in principle. What’s new for Developers is a monthly column. and it would now not require monthly pre-approval as a topic via the editorial meeting. This way focus can be on the content, and information for it could be collated throughout the month. It would still go through the editorial process of review, but this agreement will streamline its planning. Starting with the April 2023 edition, it will appear each month on the Project Board.

Homepage with with alternate blocks and query on inner paginated views (#81) – agreement in principle

How Webpack and WordPress packages interact (#79) – agreement in principle

New HTML Tag Processor – an in-depth tutorial (#75) – agreement in principle

useEntityRecords tutorial (#60) – agreement in principle

What the heck is wp-env? (#33) – agreement in principle, further discussions on scope, coverage and audience

  • working title only – suggestions can be added to the ticket, eg how to use wp-env
  • further discussion on the main audience to follow (please add on the ticket): potentially developers who may be using MAMP/WAMP, Local, Valet, etc, and who may have heard of wp-env but are unsure what it is and how it differs from what they’re used to
  • suggestion of focusing on a survey of local hosting environments, but with an emphasis on wp-env.
  • discussion that developers would appreciate more in-depth explanation of wp-env than roundup of all the environments. Not too much detail on other environments as developer audience for this post are likely to know about them. Some others have suggested value of highlighting roundup of environments. The audience level set for this post will be crucial to the content focus decided
  • the audience to be subtly described early on in the piece to help people know of it is for them. This can be summarized with the excerptExcerpt An excerpt is the description of the blog post or page that will by default show on the blog archive page, in search results (SERPs), and on social media. With an SEO plugin, the excerpt may also be in that plugin’s metabox. too.
  • to focus on encouraging more people to start using wp-env which is officially recommended by 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/
  • discussion on other pieces on wp-env, including a more in-depth one, and an article aimed at promoting its take-up and with some case studies on its use, and potentially inviting other case studies
  • comments can be added to the Issue #89 on GitHub 

Tutorial on spacing for block themes (#68) – agreement in principle

Working with theme.json filters (#82) – agreement in principle. Discussion about how this will be super valuable and a good example to promote use of this dev blog. This would also be important to cross-link with any existing or future plans for related Learn WP resources.

Share examples of using the new filter blockEditor.useSetting.before (#38) (title of the discussion, not working title yet)

  • agreement in principle for idea, further discussion to follow
  • @bph: there will be a Dev Notedev note Each important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase. about this new filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. hook and this would be a follow-up post to give people more examples and use cases
  • alternative titles to be added to the ticket. @marybaum to work with @ndiego and @greenshady on options

Support Resources for Developers (#54) (working title for discussion) – lots of good ideas and useful information. Discussion on:

  • further developing scope, narrowing its focus to save the writer time, identifying the key items for focus.
  • potentially rewording the title to reflect its focus and thereby be clearer what readers will find within it
  • as a title ‘Support resources for developers’ covers a broad area including what the docs team and documentation does, dev notesdev note Each important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase., Learn WordPress etc. (more details on a general and regular support resources content below
  • not necessarily the right thing for the developer blog at this stage of its content development, but potentially move towards the creation of an evergreen post or page that is routinely updated/ regular column rather than a one-off blog post (@ndiego)
  • Furthermore, to be aware that there are plans for a regular “What’s new on the developer blog”, as discussed at earlier in the meeting
  • the first edition of What’s New for Developer links to Learn.WordPress.org resources

Open floor

Two items were planned on the agenda for the Open Floor discussion: time was only available for the first one of this meeting.

Recognizing contributors in terms of badges

Discussion on what activity is considered a contributor badge-activity and also which team badge.
Given the nature of the content and the Dev Blog covering multiple contributing teams, there are several potential options discussed:

  • CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Contributor (currently the Dev Blog comes under the Core Team umbrella. Note Core Contributor includes both code and non-code contributions)
  • Documentation Contributor
  • Training Contributor
  • a hybrid arrangement, with the type of contribution determining the badge. If badges were based on type of activity would this work, eg writing or editing a usage studies receive a Docs badge, tutorial development under Training Team badge etc?
  • a new solution/ dedicated badge within one of the teams listed above, eg a Core Dev Blog contributor badge
  • a new solution and in the longer term becoming a team in itself. Discussion on potential difficulties with creating a dedicated and additional Make team and its own badge system.
    • Workflows are still evolving, so there may need to be an interim solution to allow time for this, as with the model used for Learn WordPress.
    • Discussion noted that it would be important to find a solution which did not result in considerable additional administrative work, especially as it is likely that many contributors would come from other teams, and to keep the cross-team collaboration positioning for the Blog
    • Balancing administrative items versus the project management and administration associated with the editorial and production cycle for the Blog itself, especially its cross-working with docs, core, training with Learn WordPress, and marketing

Contributions in general are defined by the ‘How to contribute page’.

@bph summarized the main areas of contribution for the Dev Blog

  • Participate: Chime in on topic discussions or share your ideas for topics that might help a larger group of developers
  • Write: Adopt one of the ideas to write about and volunteer as a writer.
  • Review: each drafted post goes through two reviews. You can contribute by reviewing blog posts according to editorial guidelines or from a technical aspect.
  • Become a Member of the Editorial Group

Current process for badges:

  • each Make Team has one or more badges they can allocate
  • Core-Test, and Core-Performance are their own teams and have their own badges

Actions:

  • following the discussion and the summary on the Core blog, @bph and @webcommsat will raise the question as in metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. / as a meta ticket and explore options for the interim
  • @webcommsat to follow-up in Core about badge documentation in the handbook. Training badge documentation is currently in review. Docs badge documentation will be added to the post.
  • the above actions may need to wait until the main requirements for the current WordPress release are completed

The next meeting will be on Thursday, April 6, 2023, at 13:00 UTC. Note for some time zones, daylight saving time will have come in by this date.  

Props to @bph for facilitating the meeting, @webcommsat for writing the summary, and @bph for peer review.

#core-dev-blog, #meeting

Developer Blog – Editorial meeting: February 2, 2023

Once per month, contributors gather to discuss updates and topics for the WordPress Developer Blog on the #core-dev-blog 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/. channel. The following are the notes for the February meeting.

Attending live during the meeting were: @webcommsat@milana_cap, @mburridge, and @greenshady. Meeting preparations and facilitators: @bph and @greenshady. Read the full meeting discussion on Slack.

January 2023’s meeting.

Dev Blogblog (versus network, site) updates and news

Have you got a topic for the blog?

On January 11, 2023, @webcommsat published an open call to bring on new contributors to pick up existing topics or create new ones.

Volunteers are still needed who can share their knowledge with the WordPress developer community. It can be a really great way to pay it forward or even learn a new topic that you’re not familiar with by researching and writing about it.

A number of ideas were discussed to promote the call including sharing it at WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Asia’s Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. later in February.

Upcoming redesign

Earlier this week, @joen shared some mockups the upcoming redesign of the Dev Blog and other aspects of 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/. This is part of a larger site redesign, and there is no official date yet for the launch.

A new ‘All Posts‘ page is now available on the Dev Blog.

Project status

New posts

In the past month, three posts were published on the Dev Blog:

Thanks to all the contributors who were involved with the writing, reviewing and editing of these posts.

Posts in progress

There are also several topics that are in various stages of readiness (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/ links below):

Approved topics

The group voted on and approved the following topics from the Discussion Board on GitHub:

Some of these topics have writers.
If you would like to contribute to any of these posts, comment on the relevant GitHub ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. listed above.

Open floor

Proposal: @webcommsat suggested a template to better facilitate discussions on new topics and assist topic proposers and writers in providing a description in addition to a working title.
Discussion: The group considered this and agreed to create a discussion template on the Developer Blog Content GitHub repo to support workflows. This would serve as a guide to assist in the reviewing of ideas and help topic ideas to be fleshed out when they are initially identified.
There is now an open ticket to create this template.
If you have a suggestion for inclusion in this template, add your comments on the post.

The next meeting will be on Thursday 2 March, 2023 at 13:00 UTC.

Props to @greenshady and @webcommsat for the summary.

#core-dev-blog, #meeting, #summary

Can you help with topics for the WordPress Developer Blog?

The tenth article has just been published on the WordPress Developer Blog! Check out A walk-through of layout classes in WordPress 6.1 and the other posts available on this new venture.  

The blogblog (versus network, site) has a content board 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/ and you can add directly to the discussions on topic ideas. You can add new ideas, help to flesh out the topics already suggested, or volunteer to be involved in writing a post. Below is the current list of topics ideas:

Before you get started, check out How to contribute and the Tips and Guidelines for Writers pages on the site. There will be more information on these pages as the blog moves out of betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process..

You can ask questions and join discussions async in the #core-dev-blog channel of 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/.

Monthly meetings of the editorial group take place every first Thursday of the month in the Slack channel.

The next meeting will take place on February 2, 2023 at 13:00 UTC.

Props to @bph for co-authoring and reviewing this post.

#core-dev-blog

Developer Blog – Editorial meeting: January 5, 2023

January 5, 2023 meeting

Start of the meeting in the CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.-Developer-Blogblog (versus network, site) channel of 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/..

Attending live during the meeting: @bph, @webcommsat, @milana_cap, @greenshady, @bcworkz, @ndiego, @psykro, @mburridge. Async updates: @marybaum

 1. Project status

Project Board on the Developer Blog repo 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/.

Notes from the November 2022 and December 2022 Editorial meetings.

@bph update: Since the last meeting four posts have been published: Huge thank you to the contributors and their reviewers.

Authors @mburridge, @greenshady, @dsas – reviewed / edited by @milana_cap, @bph, @webcommsat, and others.

Posts in the works

Assigned, discussions in progress:

Posts in progress:

2. Approval of topics

Discussion on Topic Ideas from the discussion board.
A few of the topics in the pipeline were discussed. They are not all ready to proceed, but some have writers who are considering the topics.

The topics in the list below were agreed and ready proceed.

Topic ideas that are still looking for input and writers:

Some writers volunteered during the meeting. It was agreed to promote a call for input and writers wider and various options were discussed to encourage awareness, mentor and share learning, and increase the number of voices. Options included: Month in WordPress newsletter, a 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. blog post and cross-posting to other teams and in specific meetings, individual networks on social.

The core dev blog is still in betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process., so a larger promotion /marketing campaign will be at the end of the current cycle. Post-beta stage, there could be more analysis on referrers to the core dev blog and identifying developer advocates who may be able to help promote awareness.

Work on the beta version continues, with identified issues to address with design and metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress.. No date as yet for the marketing launch. GitHub repo for more information on design areas.

3. Open Floor

Discussion on the approval process for topics as it develops.

The next meeting will be on February 2, 2023, 13:00 UTC

Reviewed by @bph

#core-dev-blog, #summary

Developer Blog – Editorial meeting: December 1, 2022

Start of the meeting on the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.-dev-blogblog (versus network, site) channel of 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/..

1. Introductions

Attending live during the meeting: @bph, @milana_cap, @webcommsat, @marybaum, @bcworkz, @ndiego

2. Two weeks of public betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. – Feedback

The Developer Blog went live for public beta two weeks ago on November 18, 2022. Announcement post on the Make Blog. @bph thanked the team for the huge effort.

Some feedback via Twitter:

“The “pattern-first mindset” article = :ok_hand:”

“This is just what the doctor ordered. I had never even heard of “SlotFills” before browsing the blog.”

“Nice post about SlotFills :ok_hand:”

“Finally, a central resource for everything”

WPTavern also picked it up. with some nice comments from the community.

“I love the idea of this blog. It’s really hard to filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. through what’s relevant to me as an agency developer and what’s there to help move things along in the make blog. It’s [the Make core blog] very unfriendly place to get information and it tends to be my last place I look to find updates on WordPress. So, I think a blog that is more dedicated to direct actionable items for developers would be a huge plus!”

Some actions found by the design team. In collaboration with @greenshady, smaller issues were resolved via the Site Editor. Others need to wait for the MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. team to fit them into its work queue. The core dev blog will keep its beta label a little longer until these items are resolved.

Request to all to collate other feedback.

3. Project status

Project Board in the Developer Blog repo 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/.

Three pending articles on the board, the topics (not the content drafts) themselves were considered during the meeting. 

  • Intrinsic design vs. device view points
  • Application state managed withDispatch, withSelect and compose 101
  • Adding a 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. on enter (title to be reworded)

After the topics were approved they moved to the next stages. 

Two articles available for first review (these can be found in the first review column on GitHub)

  • Application state managed withDispatch, withSelect and compose 101:
  • Adding a block on enter

One article for final review before publishing:

  • Leveraging theme.jsonJSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML. and Per-Block Styles for More Performant Themes

4. Round Robin: Topic Ideas/Questions

Ideas can be added to the GitHub board under: Discussion > Ideas https://github.com/WordPress/developer-blog-content/discussions/categories/ideas.

Suggestions for topics in the meeting included:

  • more PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher tutorials and PHP native content
  • some GitGit Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. Git is easy to learn and has a tiny footprint with lightning fast performance. Most modern plugin and theme development is being done with this version control system. https://git-scm.com/. and SVNSVN Subversion, the popular version control system (VCS) by the Apache project, used by WordPress to manage changes to its codebase. tutorials to meet people where they are
  • The render_block hook. This would include lots of PHP
  • non-editor topics including, shortcodeShortcode A shortcode is a placeholder used within a WordPress post, page, or widget to insert a form or function generated by a plugin in a specific location on your site. is converting to blocks
  • democratizing the metaverse
  • topics which focus on news and not product promotion

Work to reach out to support, performance team, core committers and others for topic ideas.

Reminder to add ideas into the ‘Ideas section’ on the Core Dev Blog GitHub to capture suggestions and to help would-be contributors. Also, this will enable a discussion and scope to be finalized.

5. Open Floor

Code blocks field – advice from the 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) team. Nothing as yet. @bph to follow up on Friday.

Central google drive for storing posts once subject approved, materials relating to the dev blog – @bph to follow up an area to use, which is also backed up. @webcommsat suggested feedback on the blog can also be added there in the future.

Docs Team style guide https://make.wordpress.org/docs/style-guide/

Props to co-author @marybaum and @bph for review.

#core-dev-blog, #summary

Developer Blog Editorial meeting November 3, 2022

Attendees: @bph, @webcommsat, @glendaviesnz

1. Status update

@bph gave the following updates.

  • For the soft launch:
    • three articles almost finished, and waiting for finalization post-review, and adding at the bottom excerptExcerpt An excerpt is the description of the blog post or page that will by default show on the blog archive page, in search results (SERPs), and on social media. With an SEO plugin, the excerpt may also be in that plugin’s metabox., categories, and credits.
    • thanked @webcommsat for doing a thorough review on these as blogblog (versus network, site) test pieces and sharing all these 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 picking up the points that also need to be added / discussed for tips for writers. Longer discussion on what in the review process needs to change / be clarified or set out from this learning from test reviews. More on this later in this post. 
  • For the marketing launch:
    • have four posts and a few pages: they are not yet published, they are in public preview. Justin is working on performance with 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. themes, and other is on CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets. styles available to theme devs.
    • don’t have is anything to do with PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher and backend.
    • JBossenger finishing converting short codes to blocks.

Proposed timeline from @bph

  • Due date for posts for go live was October 26, 2022
  • Three posts of four were completed for publication by the deadline
  • Soft launch: November 14-20, 2022 In this week after 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/, probably Thursday, or if articles are published earlier, then Wednesday. @bph advised all A8C contributors involved are on a retreat next week and so no work on dev coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. blog etc from them will be possible during that time.
  • The Welcome Post, About Page, How to Contribute, Writing for Tips. Three of four are completed. Writers are adjusting content and items discussions as part of the review process.
  • Dec 1, 2022 – next editorial meeting, will solicit feedback on additional content.
  • Week of Nov 28 – Dec 4, 2022: Official Release post draft for news section.

Developer blog repo on GitHub

There are areas for discussions, ideas and projects.

https://github.com/WordPress/developer-blog-content/issues

The Developer Blog Content Board (screenshot below) now has views for: progress, status.

During the meeting on November 3, 2023, new columns, labels were added to the Core Developer Blog Content Board. A status view was added to show both status and labels. A future column under discussion – Learn WordPress. This would be to assist the Training Team in knowing what may potentially be already covered in the dev blog or could be reused with a retarget of materials for LearnWordPress.org

  • Agreed every post should link to documentation and to Learn 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/ where one exists. If a Learn WordPress item is added later, this can be added where relevant and adds value to a blog through revisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision..
  • In the future, hope to be able to use the Revisions 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. Revisions should be marked up in the revision plugin and on the GitHub card.

Props on GitHub tickets

  • This was discussed for what was needed. @webcommsat referred to the work that has been shared in core about efforts to standardize this across core/ the project and to assist with automation of credit. @desrosj is involved with this. @bph added that as this is work in progress, for the betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. launch of the core dev blog, props would not be added to the end of a GitHub ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. when closing it. 
  • Once the guidelines on how to write the props are available, this can be added. It was agreed that this could be done retrospectively for posts that have already been published.

Action: nothing at present, once core/ project wide process is ready

Review process 

Where to make major comments on text

  • Agreed more information was needed on the review process flow, building and revising from the process at the last meeting in light of having content to test. As reviewing and editing differs greatly across the project, an approach to apply specifically to the core dev blog has been confirmed to make it easier and clearer for both writers and reviewers. 
  • In the case of these ‘test’ posts, no draft google document existed to add comments in suggestion mode. They were already in the CMS, as flagged at the earlier meeting. New posts also do not benefit from the use of the revision plugin, and the only option was to see the old versus the new in the CMS. 
  • Actions: To go forward, for the dev blog we will use the GitHub ticket for anything which would be a bigger change of content. This will then need to be followed up by the writer. If further discussion is needed, writers should use the reviewer’s GitHub ID in the reply. The ticket can be a discussion area as there is no easy way to do this on the CMS itself for new posts.

Next step after feedback on a draft post:

  • Incorporate the feedback/ further discussion

Further discussion on how opinion in posts

  • As in the review testing process, it showed greater clarity was needed in this area for future writers and reviewers.
  • ‘Opinion’ has different interpretations in editing. It does not mean a piece has to be bland or lifeless. Try to take care when writing a reflective comment like ‘what could have been done’ so that it does not inadvertently read or be misread as criticism in standard posts, eg be misread as the team missed this, or should have done…(that is, opinion free).
  • Personality of the writer is not the same as opinion, and this can still come out in the writing style. 
  • Where posts/ articles are case studies, then ‘I’ can be used.
  • Action: To be clarified if “In my view, …” approach would be appropriate for non case study posts

Color contrast

  • Graphics in one article (the color contrast was hard to read).
  • Colors used for screenshots and light and dark mode.
  • Considering ways to avoid colors of text/ arrows etc which may be difficult to see or have limited color contrast.
  • Discussion on bringing together some tips for writing / graphics for 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).

Style guide discussions

Ongoing from the last meeting, further discussion on the style to be used in examples identified in the review of the initial content pieces.

Style guides

A variety exist within the project. In addition, an updated style guide and brand guidelines is in progress in the Marketing Team.

Actions:

  • to add this to the open query on the tips for writers doc

Agreed that for writers and reviewers, they just need to know which style guide to check against and for this to be easy to do.

For specific queries, the following was agreed:

  • references to ‘frontend’ in computing should be ‘front end’

Credits on posts

There is a mixture of use within the project as a whole, where they are shown at all. Agreed in all pages and post, the credit/props:

  • will be right aligned,
  • italics, and
  • includes everyone who is involved with it through using their WordPress.org username.

Action: add style to use to tips for writers doc

Labels and categories discussion

This has been summarized in an updated note from the October 6, 2022 meeting below.

Next steps for soft launch of the Dev Blog:

  • outcome of items discussed being added to the tips for writers document, and after any reformatting, the GitHub card to be marked for ready for review label
  • ‘How to contribute’ page: this is in progress. @bph is drafting this and will share it with the editorial group for review
  • nothing much else needed for soft launch
  • on-site navigation: bph working on that and get some comments from stakeholders.
  • how to contribute page: in progress

Next meeting

Agreed due to the limited attendance at the video meetings, that these meetings will be held in 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/. as chat meetings which will also allow those in different time zones to comment asynchronously in the threads. This will also avoid the burden on someone to make notes from a video meeting or recording.

The next meeting will be on: December 1, 2022, at 13:00 UTC in the core-dev-blog channel of the Make WordPress Slack.

#core-dev-blog, #summary

WordPress Developer Blog is in public beta

Over the weekend, the new WordPress developer blog public came online in its betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. stage.

A huge thanks to everyone who helped to push it over the finish line:

As always, it takes a village and a half to get to this point in a new initiative. 😍

Provide Feedback

Beta means getting out of the bubble and being ready for feedback from a wider audience. Let us have it in the comments of this post.

Next Steps

Background

Here is a list of previous posts on the Make CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. blogblog (versus network, site) in reverse chronological order

#core-dev-blog #developers

Props to @priethor @cbringmann @audrasjb for peer review

Developer Blog Editorial Group – Meeting Notes September 1, 2022

Attendees: @marybaum, @daisyo, @milana_cap, @psykro, @webcommsat, @mburridge, @bcworkz, and @bph

Agenda

  • Introductions
  • Editorial Guidelines (from this proposal)
  • Infrastructure of the Developer Blogblog (versus network, site) 
  • Project / Issues tracking
  • Review process
  • Tasks & Posts left to go live

Editorial Guidelines for Writers and Reviewers

From the proposal: 

From the discussion, the consensus emerged that this new Developer blog is not just ‘more documentation’. Rather, it’s a place to talk to developers as people, first, and then as members of a community.

To that end, the group agreed that one of the first pages on the blog should be about writing for the blog—both in tone, from the above style guides, and with tips and tricks on how to write, so people will keep reading. 

These examples might go on such a page (and drive its tone): 

  • In an open-source environment, there is no imperial we’re making the decisions and doing the things. Specific people, or groups of people, might do things, and the code does things. Spell out who is driving the action.
  • Use active verbs; the way to get around using we is not to say a thing was done (by magic?), but to say that a person, group, function, or other piece of code does a thing. In a pinch, say a thing happened or got done; at least getting done is a little more active than being done.
  • Make the reader the star of the show. Walk in their shoes, and lead the way forward, to show what they’ll get from reading the next sentence, and the next, until they see the tangible benefits that come when they do what you recommend. 
  • Look to the Documentation Style Guide for official terminology re: code examples, references to UIUI User interface elements and technical instructions, so they stay consistent across the teams. 

The training and marketing teams have published guidelines that can be screened to ensure consistency across the project.

For using screenshots within a post, this Best Practices for Capturing Screenshots will be a useful guide. Other assets like video, animated GIFs or presentation would need to covered as well.

The blog will also need a set of publishing standards to guide decisions on SEO, excerptExcerpt An excerpt is the description of the blog post or page that will by default show on the blog archive page, in search results (SERPs), and on social media. With an SEO plugin, the excerpt may also be in that plugin’s metabox. handling, subheaders, featured images, TL;DRs etc. 

As the group builds the GoLive edition, it will have to handle these things for the first time; later iterations can influence long-term policy.

Authorship 

The proposal said: “Posts should be published by users of 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/, with the author link going to the WP Profile page. Authors should also credit reviewers, editors, and other contributors.” 

Participants agreed to clarify that the author link should go to a contributor’s personal WP.org profile and not a company’s profile. That follows how the training team handles authorship. 

Original content and republishing  

Participants discussed concerns of plagiarism and how to detect it. It was suggested during a still to be finalized submission process, the author will give assurance that its original content. Another suggestion is to include this topic in a future reviewer’s checklist, but to avoid it becoming a difficult task with the onus being on checking the author had self-verified it as original content. In the longer-term future, blockchain technology may be able to assist. 

Infrastructure for the Developer Blog

  • The Developer Blog site is on the way to have final design and information architecture for GoLive. It is only accessible to the contributors working on it. 
  • Asynchronous discussions and announcements take place in the new WP 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/. channel #core-dev-blog
  • The public 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/ space Developer Blog Content tracks content tasks, which already has an initial set of labels and stages. That set is bound to grow as the team adds content categories and issue types. A separate Discussion space can host ideas for blog posts, relevant conversations and even final outlines before a given idea becomes an actual task on the issue list. 
  • This project board will show content as it progresses from concept to published posts
  • The Theme’s code also lives on GitHub. The MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. Team owns it, just as it does the rest of WP.org. 

Birgit will add editorial group members to the site and GitHub spaces in the following weeks and message them on WP Slack. 

The Review process is roughly as outlined in the proposal.  With the GitHub tools it can come to life. 

Once the first set of posts go through the process, the editorial group will likely have tweaks to make to the formal guidelines. 

Task list to Go live 

  • A great set of first posts. 
    • Three ideas
      • Business case for create-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. script adoption
      • Perspective Change between classic themes + Block Themes
      • Journey of a PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher developer to 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/ adoption, enhancing Core blocks and building custom blocks.
    • Meeting leaders asked participants to think about additional ideas, and also mention it to other contributors and members of the community, on what is particularly missing.  
  • Review collected posts by the editorial group
  • Draft more content areas for the following blog pages, and share with the group to help start building:
    • About page
    • How to get involved
    • Editorial Guidelines
  • Finish setting up the website 

Tasks will go on the issues list for collaboration and version controlversion control A version control system keeps track of the source code and revisions to the source code. WordPress uses Subversion (SVN) for version control, with Git mirrors for most repositories.

Future meetings

The next meeting will be October 6, 2022, at 13:00 UTC / 9 am EDT 

Initially, meetings will be once a month on the 1st Thursday of the month. 

  • November 3rd at 13:00 UTC / 9 am EDT
  • December 1st at 13:00 UTC / 9 am EDT

Props for review: @webcommsat @mburridge @jeffpaul 

#core-dev-blog