What’s next in Gutenberg? (November)

This is a monthly update containing the high-level items that 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/ contributors are focusing on for November. Please join us in our efforts and let us know in the comments if anything is blocking you from contributing. 

Ways to follow along with Gutenberg development: 

Here’s an overview of ways to keep up with Gutenberg and the Full Site Editing project. There is also an index page of Gutenberg development related posts and a Site Editing Milestone overview issue that breaks down the upcoming work into focus areas. 

Preparations for WordPress 5.6

The WordPress 5.6 Must Haves project board includes issues that need attention in preparation for the WordPress 5.6 release. Many contributors will be spending the month of November working on bugs and regressions to be fixed for inclusion in WordPress 5.6.

A number of issues have been labeled for Dev Notes. A dev note is a blogblog (versus network, site) post, published when a technical change that developers may need to know about will be included in the next WordPress release. 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. are typically published along with the first Release Candidaterelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). which is currently scheduled for November 17, 2020.

Full Site Editing

Work on this major focus for phase 2 is an ongoing effort and is expected to continue iterating over the coming months. For November, priorities are being evaluated in order to identify next focus areas for Full Site Editing.

Overview

  • The Full Site Editing overview issue #20791 can help to identify the major components that will be included in this effort.
  • The Full Site Editing project board is another good place to watch for more detail about the current status of this overall effort.
  • Site editing Infrastructure and UIUI User interface continues to be addressed in overview issue #24818.
  • An effort the ensure that Template tags are accounted for in Full Site Editing is underway in issue #22724.

Query 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.

The Query Block is an important focus area. This feature is being explored in the following issues:

  • An Overview issue aiming to identify and resolve any Missing Query block functionality can be followed in issue #24934.
  • Design work for the controls for the Query block is being explored in issue #25198.
  • The Pagination Block is a part of the overall Query Block effort with design being explored in issue #26557.

Global Styles

Global Styles refers to the system that defines and manages global aesthetics allowing overall site styles, theme styles, and blocks to work well together.

  • An overview issue #20331 contains detailed information about Global Styles.
  • The Global Styles effort is being actively evaluated to identify next areas to focus on as well as areas to de-prioritize.
  • An effort will be made adjust for some things identified during testing with the blocks based version of the Twenty Twenty-One theme.

Ways to Get Involved

While the above items are our focuses, you can always help with triage, needs testing issues, good first issues and reviewing PRs.

If there’s anything we can do to make contributing easier, let us know in the comments or in #core-editor chats. While we can’t promise to fix everything, we’d appreciate being aware of any blockers.

Meetings to Join

While you can view all meetings here, here are specific meetings to join depending on your interest. Remember that you need a WordPress.org slack account to participate: 

  • CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Editor weekly meeting on Wednesdays @ 14:00 UTC in #core-editor focused on all things Gutenberg. 
  • 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) weekly meeting on Fridays @ 16:00 UTC in #accessibility focused on wrangling accessibility related work across Core and the block based editor.
  • Block Based Themes meeting twice monthly on Wednesday @ 16:00 UTC in #themereview focused on preparing for Full Site Editing. 

Note: with daylight savings time related changes happening for many countries on different dates it may be helpful to double check on the times as some meetings may shift times to accommodate attendees preferences.

#gutenberg-next

What’s next in Gutenberg? (October)

This is a monthly update containing the high-level items that 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/ contributors are focusing on for October. Please join us in our efforts and let us know in the comments if anything is blocking you from doing so. 

How to follow along with Gutenberg: 

Here’s an overview of different ways to keep up with Gutenberg and the Full Site Editing project. There is also an index page of Gutenberg development related posts and a new Site Editing Milestone overview issue that breaks down the upcoming work into more concrete next steps. 

5.6 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. 1 Preparation 

With October 20th marking the cut off for WordPress 5.6 Beta 1, there’s going to be a shift in approach this month to focus on what can or cannot be ready for 5.6 since, after the Beta 1, there’s not a way to merge additional features. As part of this preparation, a decision was made by the people working on the Navigation and the editor tech lead for 5.6 to exclude the Navigation Screen from 5.6. Outside of this decision, this focus mainly impacts projects like the Widgets Screen and various editor focused APIs as they will each need to reach a certain threshold in order to be included. Expect there to be lots of effort here to fine tune and make decisions in preparation for an exciting 5.6 release! 

Delaying 9.2 Release:

As mentioned in the latest core editor meeting, since Beta 1 for WordPress 5.6 is due on October 20, it’s likely that the next Gutenberg release will be delayed by one week in order to match the dates and include as many features as possible. This means that Oct 19th will likely be the RCrelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). for 9.2 and the stable release will be done on Oct 21 since the packages can be incorporated into CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. before Beta 1.

Follow along:

Outside of following individual features and their progress, you can follow where things stand on this WordPress 5.6 Must Haves project board.

Global Styles & Editor focused APIs

Global Styles refers to the system that defines and manages global aesthetics allowing overall site styles, theme styles, and blocks to work well together. While great progress was made in September, the editor focused APIs are still in experimental status and a decision will need to be made about what can be included in 5.6. It’s anticipated that the 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. APIs might not be ready for 5.6 but the block.json one might be instead. Outside of decisions around 5.6, some of this work in the month ahead will include the following:

  • Adding support for themes to control the editor in a global context, and in a per 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. context.
  • Expand the global styles 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. with new options and improve its UIUI User interface.
  • Expand the typography controls and allow users to pick a custom font family and font-weight, and allow themes to configure which font families are available.
  • Add functionality that allows users to use the global styles sidebar to control the editor’s behavior like which color palette is active.

Follow along:

You can follow the progress for this overall system in this overview issue. For more recent and immediate next steps, you can follow this issue describing the current state of work. 

WidgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. Screen

With the new Widget screen moved out of experimental status last month in Gutenberg 8.9, lots of work has gone towards addressing the feedback that’s come in as people have begun exploring this new screen. Right now, inclusion in 5.6 depends on the state of the Widget Screen before Beta 1 on October 20th. In an effort to successfully have this feature included in 5.6, efforts that were previously put towards the Navigation Screen are now being redirected here. As a result, expect that this area of work will be a big focus and decision point for the month ahead.

Along with handling any additional feedback that comes in, the following are specific items that will be worked on:

  • Deciding a path forward for how best to handle customizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. & the widget screen interaction.
  • Creating updated designs for an improved user experience.
  • Exploring how third party widgets can be integrated.
  • Ensuring only superadmins can store HTML using the new APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. endpoint.
  • Addressing a11yAccessibility 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) feedback around improving the navigation tool.

Join the Widgets Screen weekly meeting:

In light of the decision mentioned above, the previous meeting on the Navigation Screen project will now focus on Widgets. As a reminder, the meeting happens in #core every Wednesday at 7AM UTC. These meetings will be focused on triaging issues 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/ with the [Feature] Widget Screen label and discussing any big structural issues. 

Help with testing:

As part of the vision for the Widgets Screen to ease adoption for everyone, modernize the experience outside of just site editing, and upgrade what’s possible by enabling third party extensibility, feedback is still needed to help this become a reality. If you haven’t had a chance to yet, please follow this call for testing and share any bugs or enhancements on GitHub. Thank you to everyone who has given feedback already and helped move this work forward! 

Follow along:

You can follow the progress of this work on this project board and by joining the weekly chat in #core every Wednesday at 7AM UTC.

Full Site Editing

As with the prior months, work on this major focus for phase 2 is ongoing and is expected to continue iterating over the coming months. Currently, 5 out of the 6 milestones for site editing are marked as In Progress with overview tracking issues created for each milestone to better plan next steps. With that said, work this month will continue to focus on finishing up Milestone 1 – Site Editing Infrastructure and UI and Milestone 2 – Site Editor Navigation. As in prior months, it’s expected that this work will continue into the months ahead:

We’re watching the Theme Experiments repo as well to see how themers are attempting to build block-based themes. Please continue to share there and know we appreciate it!

Follow along:

You can follow the progress of this project on this project board. To help break down this work more, a new overview issue with key milestones for site editing was also created. For each major milestone, there are related issues for each milestone that are recommended to follow if you want a more granular look at each next step (example from Site Editor Navigation).

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a part of testing Full Site Editing, check out the experimental outreach program to learn more

Areas to be aware of:

Block & 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 Developers:

There’s a new experimental light box wrapper API that allows for a new way to define blocks in order for the markup in the editor to match the front end. While documentation is planned, it hasn’t been written yet. In the meantime though, you can check out the current PRs as this is now ready to be used by plugins: creating edit/save symmetry and stabilizing the API

Theme Developers:

@joen did a wonderful show & tell session including in progress work on a Full Site Editing theme.

Additionally, any theme authors experimenting with Full Site Editing should check out the post from @aristath on a New JSON structure for FSE theme.json files.

Ways to Get Involved:

While the above items are our focuses, don’t forget that you can always help with triage, needs testing issues, good first issues and reviewing PRs. In particular for this month, focusing efforts around testing the Widgets Screen would be very helpful and high impact. 

If there’s anything we can do to make contributing easier, let us know in the comments or in #core-editor chats. While we can’t promise to fix everything, we’d appreciate being aware of any blockers.

Meetings to join:

While you can view all meetings here, here are specific meetings to join depending on your interest. Remember that you need a WordPress.org slack account to participate: 

  • Core Editor weekly @ 14:00 UTC in #core-editor focused on all things Gutenberg. 
  • Widget Sync weekly @ 07:00 UTC in #core focused on triaging and discussing Widget Screen work. 
  • Block Based Themes meeting twice monthly at Wednesday @ 16:00 UTC in #themereview focused on preparing for Full Site Editing. 

#core-editor #gutenberg-next

What’s next in Gutenberg? (September)

This is a monthly update containing the high-level items that 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/ contributors are focusing on for September. Please join us in our efforts and let us know in the comments if anything is blocking you from doing so. 

How to follow along with Gutenberg: 

Here’s an overview of different ways to keep up with Gutenberg and the Full Site Editing project. There is also an index page of Gutenberg development related posts and a new Site Editing Milestone overview issue that breaks down the upcoming work into more concrete next steps. 

Global Styles & Editor focused APIs

Global Styles refers to the system that defines and manages global aesthetics allowing overall site styles, theme styles, and blocks to work well together. Currently, the hope is that work on editor focused APIs can be wrapped up in the month ahead if all goes well. Some of this work will include the following:

Follow along:

You can follow the progress for this overall system in this overview issue. For more recent and immediate next steps, you can follow this issue describing the current state of work. 

WidgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. Screen

After months of work, this new screen has been launched out of experiments in the latest Gutenberg 8.9 release. This should allow for plenty of time for feedback before the 5.6 release. With blocks firmly paving the way for the future, this work on the widget screen is meant to help modernize the experience outside of just site editing, ease adoption for everyone, and upgrade what’s currently possible by enabling third party extensibility. This vision can’t be accomplished without feedback so please test and share any bugs or enhancements on GitHub. Work this month will include the following along with the feedback received from users: 

Follow along:

You can follow the progress of this project on this project board.

Full Site Editing

As with the prior months, work on this major focus for phase 2 is ongoing and is expected to continue iterating over the next months. Keep in mind that much of this work relates to other areas like Global Styles & Editor Focused APIs! With that in mind, work this month will mainly focus on the following based on the Milestone 2 – Site Editor Navigation. Note that timing for this work will  likely need to be adjusted depending on progress made meaning this work might start in September but continue going forward.

  • Group document settings in the 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.
  • Indicate current template and template part when in site editor.
  • Move templates and page navigation into the main W 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..
  • Allow browsing all templates and parts. 
  • Incorporate “Add New Page” Flow into “Add Template”.
  • Begin exploring missing functionality for the query 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. as part of milestone 5. 

We’re watching the Theme Experiments repo as well to see how themers are attempting to build block-based themes. Please continue to share there and know we appreciate it!

Follow along:

You can follow the progress of this project on this project board. To help break down this work more, a new overview issue with key milestones for site editing was also created. For each major milestone, there are related issues for each milestone that are recommended to follow if you want a more granular look at each next step (example from Site Editor Navigation).

As a reminder, if you’re interested in being a part of testing Full Site Editing, check out the experimental outreach program to learn more

Navigation Screen

Similar to the Widget Screen, efforts have begun to launch this new screen to the world in order to gather more feedback. Right now, this effort has a few blockers but, if you’re able to, testing this screen and reporting feedback would be a huge help (Install Gutenberg and head to Gutenberg > Experiments to enable this screen). The aim is that this new screen will help expand what’s possible with menus while bringing block functionality to yet another part of WordPress in order to allow for more adoption and to offer a more modern experience.  

Follow along:

You can follow the progress of this project on this project board, review the overview issues (Block Navigation, Navigation Screen) & join the weekly coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. chat.

Areas to be aware of:

Block & 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 Developers

Since the block directory is still a new feature in the WordPress world, the following includes the prior links once more along with two additional issues to chime in on: 

Theme Developers

Review the latest Gutenberg Themes roundup and, in particular, check out @tomjin’s PHP theme template compatibility proposal as it relates to Full Site Editing. Please chime in with your thoughts! Outside of this proposal, here are two other items that might be of interest:  

Ways to Get Involved:

While the above items are our focuses, don’t forget that you can always help with triage, needs testing issues, good first issues and reviewing PRs. Focusing efforts around Widgets and Navigation in particular this month would be very helpful as both screens are on their way to no longer being experimental features. 

If there’s anything we can do to make contributing easier, let us know in the comments or in #core-editor chats. While we can’t promise to fix everything, we’d appreciate being aware of any blockers.

Meetings to join:

While you can view all meetings here, here are specific meetings that touch on Gutenberg development to join depending on your interest and availability. Remember that you need a WordPress.org slack account to participate: 

  • Core Editor weekly meeting on Wednesdays @ 14:00 UTC in #core-editor focused on all things Gutenberg. 
  • 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) weekly meeting on Fridays @ 15:00 UTC in #accessibility focused on wrangling accessibility related work across Core and the block based editor.
  • Navigation Sync weekly meeting on Wednesdays @ 07:00 UTC in #core focused on triaging and discussing Navigation screen work. 
  • Block Based Themes meeting twice monthly on Wednesday @ 16:00 UTC in #themereview focused on preparing for Full Site Editing. 

#core-editor #gutenberg-next

What’s next in Gutenberg? (August)

This is a monthly update containing the high-level items that 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/ contributors are focusing on for August. Please join us in our efforts and let us know in the comments if anything is blocking you from doing so. 

How to follow along with Gutenberg: 

As a reminder, here’s an overview of different ways to keep up with Gutenberg and the Full Site Editing project. Tied to this, there’s a new page courtesy of @bph, @williampatton, and myself that provides an index of Gutenberg related posts across various Make blogs. 

Addressing WordPress 5.5 feedback

WordPress 5.5 is set to be released on August 11th and any efforts spent here will be focused only on addressing critical regressions that might come up with this release. Ideally though, this won’t be an area that needs great attention for this month’s work.  

Follow along:

You can follow the remaining items for 5.5 here.

Global Styles & Editor focused APIs

As a reminder, Global Styles refers to the system that defines and manages global aesthetics allowing overall site styles, theme styles, and blocks to work well together. Last month, this was a smaller focus but, with 5.5 shipping in August, more time will be spent building out the Global Styles system and editor focused APIs. Some of this work will include the following:

Follow along:

You can follow the progress for this overall system in this overview issue. For more recent and immediate next steps, you can follow this issue describing the current state of work. 

WidgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. Screen

As part of expanding the 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. editor to other screens in the adminadmin (and super admin), work slowly but surely continues to improve the widget screen as part of a wider effort to add more block enabled sections to the WordPress experience. You can find initial ideas for what this might look like in this issue. Work will include the following: 

Follow along:

You can follow the progress of this focus by reviewing issues with the [Feature] Widgets label.

Full Site Editing

Work on this major focus for phase 2 is ongoing and is expected to continue iterating over the next months. We’ve wrapped up the major work needed to build the technical foundation of this project and are now moving towards expanding the UX & UI:

We’re watching the Theme Experiments repo as well to see how themers are attempting to build block-based themes. Thank you to everyone participating there as it’s a super useful way for us to determine prioritization. 

Follow along:

The high level, important tasks have been split into sections and highlighted on this overview issue. If you’re interested in being a part of testing Full Site Editing, check out the experimental outreach program to learn more

Navigation Screen

As a reminder, those who have been working on a new, block-based, menus page (nav-menus.php) in wp-admin are running a weekly chat in #core to begin better syncing up efforts. The meeting happens in #core every Wednesday at 7AM UTC. These meetings will be focused on triaging issues 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/ with the [Feature] Navigation screen or [Block] Navigation labels but are also open for discussing improving the navigation creation process in WordPress, increasing compatibility with Full Site Editing, and maintaining backward compatibility.

If this interests you, check out the following issues to join the discussion: 

Follow along:

You can follow the progress of this project on this project board, review the overview issues (Block Navigation, Navigation Screen) & join the weekly coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. chat.

Areas to be aware of:

Block & 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 Developers

The Block Directory is coming to WordPress 5.5 and to help get ready @tellyworth shared this post discussing proposed guidelines and the following resources:

The Gutenberg Times covered this new feature in a comprehensive article that includes historical information to help understand what this might unlock for the community. 

Theme Developers

@poena wrote an extensive block-based theme tutorial to help others get started with building their own.

Ways to Help:

While the above items are our focuses, don’t forget that you can always help with triage, needs testing issues, good first issues and reviewing PRs. If there’s anything we can do to make contributing easier, let us know in the comments or in #core-editor chats. While we can’t promise to fix everything, we’d appreciate being aware of any blockers.

#core-editor #gutenberg-next

What’s next in Gutenberg? (July)

This is a monthly update containing the high-level items that 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/ contributors are focusing on for July. Please join us in our efforts and let us know in the comments if anything is blocking you from doing so. As a reminder, here’s an overview of different ways to keep up with Gutenberg and the Full Site Editing project. 

Preparing for WordPress 5.5

On July 6th, Gutenberg 8.5 RCrelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). is planned to be released! This is the last Gutenberg release going into WordPress 5.5 and is the major focus for this month so 5.5 can be set up for success. Keep in mind that this means that all features and enhancements that need to go into WordPress 5.5 must be ready for this upcoming release. After the 8.5 release, ideally only fixes for regressions or fixes for bugs in new features will be added in. You can read the latest news about what editor features are planned for inclusion in 5.5 here.

Follow along:

You can follow the progress for this effort on this project board.

Full Site Editing

Work on this major focus for phase 2 is ongoing and is expected to continue iterating over the next months. We’ve wrapped up the major work needed to build the technical foundation of this project and are now moving towards expanding the UX & UI:

  • Refining and pruning block patterns.
  • Refining the navigation 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. and navigation screen.
  • Building out flows for new template creation.
  • Improving the flow for inserting new or selecting existing template parts, currently being explored as “sections” in the block editor. The exact naming is being discussed further here.

We’re watching the Theme Experiments repo as well to see how themers are attempting to build block-based themes. Thank you to everyone participating there as it’s a super useful way for us to determine prioritization. 

Follow along:

The high level, important tasks have been split into sections and highlighted on this overview issue. If you’re interested in being a part of testing Full Site Editing, check out the experimental outreach program to learn more

Navigation Screen

As @andraganescu mentioned here, those who have been working on a new, block-based, menus page (nav-menus.php) in wp-adminadmin (and super admin) are starting a new weekly chat in #core to begin better syncing up efforts. The meeting will happen in #core every Wednesday, July 8, 2020, 01:00 AM MDT, starting next week, on July 8th. These meetings will be focused on triaging issues 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/ with the  [Feature] Navigation screen or [Block] Navigation labels but are also open for discussing improving the navigation creation process in WordPress, increasing compatibility with Full Site Editing, and maintaining backward compatibility.

To help get everyone thinking more about navigation, check out the following related issues that are currently being explored:

Follow along:

You can follow the progress of this project on this project board, review the overview issues (Block Navigation, Navigation Screen), and join the weekly coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. chat.

Miscellaneous Focuses

Because preparing for 5.5 is such an important piece of this month to get right, the items below are still focuses but are more minor than they have been these last few months. Once work for 5.5 is in a solid place, it’s expected that greater attention will return to these areas:

Global Styles

As a reminder, Global Styles refers to the system that defines and manages global aesthetics allowing overall site styles, theme styles, and blocks to work well together. You can follow the progress for this overall system in this overview issue. For more recent and immediate next steps, you can follow this issue describing the current state of work. 

WidgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. Screen

As part of expanding the block editor to other screens in the admin, work slowly but surely continues to improve the widget screen. You can follow the progress of this focus by reviewing issues with the [Feature] Widgets label.

Areas to be aware of:

Block & 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 Developers

There is a new block creation tutorial done by @mkaz in light of the block directory’s experimental status being removed. Expect new block guidelines, more documentation, and a  block validator tool coming your way this month. For now, anything that can be done to test the block directory and give feedback would be greatly appreciated to make this a success. 

Theme Developers

Last week, an awesome Q&A from the Gutenberg Times (hat tip @bph) was done on block-based themes featuring @itsjusteileen @kjellr. You can see some pretty neat demos in there including the theme export button. If you’re curious about or working on block based themes, check out the recorded discussion.

Ways to Help:

While the above items are our focuses, don’t forget that you can always help with triage, needs testing issues, good first issues and reviewing PRs. If there’s anything we can do to make contributing easier, let us know in the comments or in #core-editor chats. While we can’t promise to fix everything, we’d appreciate being aware of any blockers.

#core-editor #gutenberg-next

What’s next in Gutenberg? (June)

This is a monthly update containing the high-level items that 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/ contributors are focusing on for the next month. Please join us in our efforts and let us know in the comments if anything is blocking you from doing so. As a reminder, here’s an overview of different ways to keep up with Gutenberg and the Full Site Editing project. 

Full Site Editing (FSE)

Work on this major focus is ongoing and is expected to continue iterating over the next months. Right now, we’re wrapping up the major work needed to build the technical foundation of this project and are soon moving towards expanding the UX & UI:

We’re watching the Theme Experiments repo as well to see how themers are attempting to build 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.-based themes. Thank you to everyone participating there as it’s a super useful way for us to determine prioritization. 

Follow along:

The high level, important tasks have been split into sections and highlighted on this overview issue.

Global Styles

As a reminder, Global Styles refers to the system that defines and manages global aesthetics allowing overall site styles, theme styles, and blocks to work well together. The Global Styles work remains a major focus for this month. The important tasks for the month are:

Follow along:

You can follow the progress of this focus in this overview issue.

Navigation Screen

The new Navigation Menu screen and Navigation block will continue to be iterated on and polished. In particular, work is being done to create a true drag and drop experience and to explore improving the selection/focus experience (feedback welcome). In an effort to expand the functionality allowed within navigation, work is being done to explore adding different kinds of blocks other than links.

Follow along:

You can follow the progress of this project on this project board.

Refining the interface

The previous releases saw a big UI update for the editor canvas and the inserter. The team will continue to iterate based on the remaining tasks and the user feedback. The remaining tasks here include:

Follow along:

You can follow the progress of this focus in this overview issue

WidgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. Screen

As part of expanding the block editor to other screens in the adminadmin (and super admin), work continues to improve the widget screen including finding bugs in the legacy widget block, ensuring synchronization, and more. Depending on the work done here, the screen should be ready to leave the experimental state and receive additional feedback soon. 

Follow along:

You can follow the progress of this focus by reviewing issues with the [Feature] Widgets label.

Areas to be aware of:

Block & 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 Developers

@aduth just merged this pull request to update default block categories which should be available in next week’s plugin release. This could be particularly impactful for block implementers, since the default categories have changed. For now, please review this drafted devnotedev 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. here as a point of reference for this change. 

Theme Developers

@epiqueras recently broke down all template tags alongside their block equivalent in order to lay the groundwork for Full Site Editing: 

“The idea is for everyone in the community, especially those very familiar with traditional theme development, to contribute to this list. There might be things we are missing. There might be things we could lose.”

Please check out this overall issue and share what might be missing. 

Ways to Help:

While the above items are our focuses, don’t forget that you can always help with triage, needs testing issues, good first issues and reviewing PRs. If there’s anything we can do to make contributing easier, let us know in the comments or in #core-editor chats. While we can’t promise to fix everything, we’d appreciate being aware of any blockers.

#core-editor #gutenberg-next

What’s next in Gutenberg? (May)

This is a monthly update containing the high-level items that 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/ contributors are focusing on for the next month. Join us in our efforts.

Full Site Editing

Work on this major focus is ongoing and is expected to continue iterating over the next months.

The Site Editor UI is improving constantly and it remains a priority while other important building pieces will be tackled such as the Query block and the controlled InnerBlocks APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways..

The important tasks have been split into sections and highlighted on this overview issue.

Global Styles

The Global Styles work remains a major focus for this month. The important tasks for the month here are:

You can follow the progress of this project on this overview issue.

Navigation Screen

The new Navigation Menu screen and Navigation 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. will continue to be iterated on and polished.

Refining the interface

The previous releases saw a big UIUI User interface update for the editor canvas and the inserter. The team will continue to iterate based on the remaining tasks and the user feedback.

The remaining tasks here include:

  • Support pattern categories.
  • Improvements to the inserter tips.
  • Better canvas inserters (also called sibling inserter)

While these are our focuses don’t forget you can always help with triage, needs testing issues, good first issues and reviewing PRs.

#core-editor #gutenberg-next

What’s next in Gutenberg? (April)

This is a monthly update containing the high-level items that 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/ contributors are focusing on for the next month. Join us in our efforts.

Full Site Editing

Work on this major focus is ongoing and is expected to continue iterating over the next months.

The team is still working on the Edit Site UIUI User interface in order to bring parity with the Post Editor, support more template-management related features and improve the FSE blocks.

The important tasks have been splitted into sections and highlighted on this overview issue.

Global Styles

The Global Styles work is a major focus for this month. One of the most important aspect here is to add support for the global styles configurations (variables) to multiple blocks.

Some blocks have already been updated to support color settings and line height. This trend is expected to continue and expand to other settings and other blocks.

At the same time, the Global Styles UI is being iterated on the Edit Site screen.

You can follow the progress of this project on this overview issue.

Patterns & Inserter UI

Recently, the Patterns feature and APIs have been added to the editor. The UI is still experimental and an overall redesign of the inserter to absorb both blocks and patterns is one of the month’s priorities.

The team will continue to explore adding more patterns. This highlighted a need for more advanced block tools and customizations.

Updated Navigation Screen

A new experimental Navigation Menu screen is being explored and will serve as 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.-based replacement for the existing menus page.

Refining the interface

The previous releases saw a big UI update for the editor. The team will continue to iterate based on the remaining tasks and the user feedback.

While these are our focuses don’t forget you can always help with triage, needs testing issues, good first issues and reviewing PRs.

#core-editor, #gutenberg-next

What’s next in Gutenberg? (March)

This is a monthly update containing the high-level items that 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/ contributors are focusing on for the next month. Join us in our efforts.

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. Content Areas

Work on this major focus is ongoing and is expected to continue iterating over the next months.

  • Continue improving the Edit Site UIUI User interface
    • Improve the saving flow. 20421
    • Improve the template selector picker. 20469 20478
  • Continue on the Full Site Editing blocks (post tags 20418, post comments 19894).
  • Work on the Block Context APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways.. 19685
  • Continue on the experimental block-based themes.

Global Styles

  • Update the CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. blocks styles to support the Global styles variables.
  • Define and document the available settings.

Patterns

These are different from the Block Variations API (that was initially named patterns as well). These are pre-made post/page sections that can be inserted and edited.

  • Create a rich built-in patterns library. 20345
  • Iterate on the Patterns UI. 17335

Tightening up

  • The first iteration of the new Block UI has been merged and it will be polished/iterated on during the upcoming month. 19344
  • Implement the first version of the Block Editor Controlling API. 20588
  • The ongoing effort to use a lighter Block DOM structure in the editor and match the frontend.

While these are our focuses don’t forget you can always help with triage, needs testing issues, good first issues and reviewing PRs.

#core-editor, #gutenberg-next

What's next in Gutenberg? (February)

This is a monthly update containing the high-level items that 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/ contributors are focusing on for the next month. Join us in our efforts.

WordPress 5.4

The main priority for this month is to ensure that the version of Gutenberg included n WordPress 5.4 is stable and performant.

  • Fix all critical bugs discovered before and after the WP 5.4 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. 1.
  • Write 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. and document the APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. changes landing in WP 5.4.

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. Content Areas

Work on this major focus is ongoing and is expected to continue iterating over the next months.

  • Work on a separate Edit Site UIUI User interface
    • Switching templates. 19141.
  • Add more Full Site Editing blocks (post navigation 19956, comments form 19954, comments count 19953) and enhance the existing ones (Post Author, Post Date).
  • Continue on the experimental block-based themes.

Global Styles Settings

Global styles are an ongoing project that has two main goals:

  • Simplify how theme authors tweak the visual aspect of the different blocks.
  • Allow the user to override these styles globally in the UI for Full site editing.

The next steps are:

  • Update the CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. blocks styles to support the Global styles variables;
  • Define and document the available settings.

Block UI

The first iteration of the new Block UI is expected to land later this month. 19344.

Tightening up

Existing interactions and blocks will be iterated on:

  • Social Icons block update to use the Block variations API. 19887.
  • Resizeable editor (Multi-device preview) 19082.
  • Polishing the Navigation block Projects/31.

While these are our focuses don’t forget you can always help with triage, needs testing issues, good first issues and reviewing PRs

#core-editor, #gutenberg-next