Team Gandalf Update

Last week marked the end of our second cycle and the beginning of our sprint to get things done. We began by doing just that: last Friday, we merged the theme customizer into core. There’s still quite a bit to do and polish, so please keep that in mind. Development is being tracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress.(k)ed at #19910.

In the past week, we’ve introduced better JSJS JavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors. APIs, working preview navigation (you can click URLs and it works, hooray), namespaced attributes (which will allow us to enable form submission within previews), and more. We also uncovered and fixed a fairly insane 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. that stemmed from a low-level bug in Opera’s JS engine. Good times.

Moving forward, the main goals are to integrate more setting types (headers, widgets), improve the refreshing process, polish the UIUI User interface, and remove any vestigial 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 cruft. Dominik’s time will be limited over the next few weeks due to exams, so if any of this sounds exciting to you, please let me know.

#customize, #gandalf, #team-update

Team Gandalf Update

Yesterday marked the halfway point of our second cycle. We’re moving along at a steady clip. The main goal for the coming week is to tie up any loose ends and begin integrating 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 into coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. Until then, follow our progress at #19910 and in the plugin repo.

We’ve made considerable progress in the past week. We completed a first pass for menu locations and have almost all of the elements we need for custom backgrounds (all that remains is the file upload dialog and fixing the color picker). We also added the ability to alter/choose a static front pageStatic Front Page A WordPress website can have a dynamic blog-like front page, or a “static front page” which is used to show customized content. Typically this is the first page you see when you visit a site url, like wordpress.org for example. within the customization (as decided in dev chat yesterday). Under the hood, we’ve made numerous improvements including working APIs (including rendering controls, previewing, and saving) for theme_mods and options, proper handling of multidimensional IDs, and a whole bunch of 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. fixes.

#customize, #gandalf, #team-update

Team Gandalf Update

Our first cycle ended yesterday, and all is well. Follow along with the fun at #19910 in the plugin repo.

Dominik (ocean90) and I have implemented a base UIUI User interface, and have properly sandboxed both the theme preview and the customization controls. Only the target theme can alter the controls/preview, the preview can be independently refreshed, and the controls/preview can communicate with each other.

We’re set to begin our second cycle. A tentative scope:

  • Develop APIs for adding/previewing/saving individual settings.
  • Implement custom background (properly, with save).
  • CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. integration (decided in dev chat).
  • Work with the Headerators to implement custom headers.
  • Begin work on adding menu locations.

#customize, #gandalf

Team Gandalf Update

Wednesday marked the halfway point of our first iteration. The description of our current cycle can be found in #19910. Development is currently taking place in 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 (you can find the repo here). For an overview of appearance improvements, see #19909.

We’ve accomplished most of the initial goals for this cycle and are now refining and building out the existing concepts. Currently, the two remaining points are to add an (initially blank) save action and to enable communication between the UIUI User interface and preview via postMessage.

On Tuesday, we had a UXUX User experience review with Jane where we decided to proceed with a stacked accordion UI to navigate between different components in the preview frame. We also decided to add a button to collapse the sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. (similar to the “collapse menu” button in the adminadmin (and super admin) menu, but larger and “more buttony”). Once postMessage support has been added, we’ll also experiment with a zooming feature to allow the user to get a bird’s eye view of the page. In addition to adding the save action and postMessage, ocean90 and I are hoping to get a head start on the accordion UI so we can break more tasks out to subteams.

We have another meeting with Jane in #wordpress-dev scheduled on Monday at 21:00 UTC that will double as office hours. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to swing by the meeting, drop a comment here, 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.” me (koopersmith) or ocean90 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.. All in all, we’re on track to meet our two week deadline.

#customize, #gandalf