Tag Archives: new contributors

Birgit Pauli-Haack 2:29 pm on October 7, 2021
Tags: , , new contributors   

Proposal: Gutenberg Developer Hours series of events.

  • Summary: Proposal for a new event: Every other week, invite WordPress developers to meet with 3 developers and discuss your 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/ development questions, code, ideas, and approaches. Follow-up w/ video and resources.
  • Start Date: Soon.
  • Trial period: 4 events.
  • Producer: Birgit Pauli-Haack + Gutenberg Developer Volunteers. 

Background: 

I used to do in-person walk-in clinics for a volunteer internet service provider, where we answered all kinds of questions. If there was a moment with no questions, I would pull a topic out of my hat, talk for five minutes and get another 10 questions that triggered in people’s heads. The place was always packed.

Not everyone is comfortable dealing with an unknown set of questions, but when done right, the panel format is quite fun and interesting. Of course, there were always questions that were too specific or too advanced. We would take note of it and answer them either the following week or via email directly to the attendee. 

I would like to try this in a remote setting with a panel of three developers from the community, who are experienced with working with blocks, and call it Gutenberg Developer Hours. 

About the show

I have heard from a number of people that despite the sheer volume of developer documentation that’s around, it’s hard to know where to start. And when developers hit roadblocks, it also takes a long time to troubleshoot errors and bugs. 

If you’re a developer who’s new to Gutenberg, I invite you to stop by, to get your questions answered or to get advice on architecture or approach. (You can also just lurk, of course!) Maybe you have a code issue: “I’ve been working on this project, but I hit a roadblock and I have no idea where to go from here.”

For the speakers, being on a panel lightens the load, opens the door to a wider range of topics and makes it much less likely any one person will get a question they might not be able to answer. 

As a moderator, I (at first; if the sessions go well, there can certainly be others) can jump in and ask questions to bridge the silence if the group runs out of audience questions. Plus, if a question gets too specific or too advanced, the moderator makes a note of it, discusses with the dev team and gets back to the attendee with a response after the event. That could be:

  • an invitation to office hours, 
  • a set of documentation, or 
  • a blogblog (versus network, site) post inspired by the question. 

It’s certainly part of the trial to find out where the boundaries of this support offerings are. 

At the beginning, I envision a frequency of every other week, once there is a pool of volunteer developer panelists available to schedule.

To get attendees interested, it might help to have a short educational segment that people are interested in for the first two or three shows.

The panelists could also pick a topic. Here are a few that come to mind:

  • How to tap into Gutenberg filters and hooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same.?
  • How to add a button to the toolbar?
  • What is a store in ReactJS? 
  • How to add 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. Styles?

I propose promoting the series on Twitter and Facebook, and on make.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/. Would you like to see this on TikTok? Feel free to make one! Like FSE itself, these panels can be springboards to creative thinking and doing!

The producers will record and transcribe every show, and the moderator will make that clear in the opening moments. If an attendee wants to ask their question outside the recording, the moderator can hit the pause button. 

Reuse, Recycle, Repurpose

In post-production, the shows can generate a new stream of material for Learn, Marketing and Community, and everyone else in the community, to use however you like.

The show’s own producers and editors can cut the full session into smaller educational units and publish them on WordPress.tv. Did a specific question stump the panel? A producer can pull that out and write a separate tutorial about it.

Nuts and Bolts

The show is not a webinar but a normal Zoom meeting, so people can see each other and share their screens and code.

At least for the trial, registration is required. The producers will, of course, respect the attendee’s privacy and use email addresses only for communication regarding the specific Gutenberg Developer Hour session.

I have already approached a few developers to be our resident experts with the idea, and they want to try it. Depending on the feedback, they and I are ready to start soon. (It helps that this is a Zoom call and not a stage-set production!)

Are you a Gutenberg developer with some experience? Would you like to be on the panels? Irrespective of your Gutenberg experience, would you like to help produce the shows? Please let me know in the comments.

Production Process:

You do not have to be an experienced Gutenberg developer to help with production. In fact, it might be a great way to get your feet wet! And it is yet one more way to contribute to WordPress.

  • Schedule the Gutenberg Developer Hours, one at a time. 
    • Set-up Zoom space, with registration.
    • Announce the next session via social channels, Make/Project, Gutenberg Times, and other available channels. 
  • Connect with the volunteers on a regular basis so they can schedule themselves. 
  • Recruit volunteers as panelists, moderators and content producers. 
  • Published post with resources and solutions.

If you want to be part of the team working on this initiative, let us know in the comments and I will connect with you via 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/.. And as always, the team and I value your comments and questions immensely.

Please don’t hesitate to connect with me on WP Slack @bph if you have additional questions.

Thank You to @annezazu, @daisyo, and @sparklingrobots for collaboration and refinement of the initiative.
Props @jeffpaul and @audrasjb for peer review.

#developer-hours, #gutenberg, #new-contributors

Sergey Biryukov 8:06 pm on February 21, 2018
Tags: , new contributors,   

New Contributors Meeting Recap – February 14th

On Wednesday, February 14th, the weekly new contributor meeting was held in the #core 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/. room. Here is a recap of the meeting. A full chat log is also available.

Participants: @adamsilverstein @abdullahramzan @aduth @chetan200891 @clorith @desrosj @dougvanslembrouck @jorbin @joyously @lakenh @notnownikki @thrijith @welcher @williampatton @xkon

Discussion Highlights

Contributing with 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/.

Even though every change to WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. must pass through TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress./SVNSVN Subversion, the popular version control system (VCS) by the Apache project, used by WordPress to manage changes to its codebase. eventually, SVN is not the only option for creating patches.

See these articles for more intofmation on creating patches with Git:

Coding standards

An easy way to make your IDEIDE Integrated Development Environment. A software package that provides a full suite of functionality to software developers/programmers. Normally an IDE includes a source code editor, code-build tools and debugging functionality./editor aware of the WordPress coding standardsWordPress Coding Standards The Accessibility, PHP, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, etc. coding standards as published in the WordPress Coding Standards Handbook. May also refer to The collection of PHP_CodeSniffer rules (sniffs) used to format and validate PHP code developed for WordPress according to the PHP coding standards. regarding whitespace usage is to use the .editorconfig file that trunktrunk A directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision. contains. This file uses a common standard, and there are plugins available for almost all popular environments that automatically parse the file and adjust the whitespace settings for the project.

Extensions can be found on the website of the project. Some IDEs like PHPStorm already come with built-in tools for the WordPress coding standards.

Refreshing a patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing.

Older tickets often have attached patches that no longer apply to the current codebase. The older the ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker., the lower the likelihood that the associated patch will apply cleanly. If you find a ticket with a patch that does not apply, add the needs-refresh keyword to indicate this.

Over time, code shifts around and sometimes these patches only need a bit of reorganization to apply. Other times, you may find code that has been refactored and needs an alternative solution for the proposed 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./enhancementenhancement Enhancements are simple improvements to WordPress, such as the addition of a hook, a new feature, or an improvement to an existing feature.. Once this has been done, create a new patch with the clean code and submit it to the ticket.

While refreshing a patch, it’s also a good idea to make sure the patch is what you would consider the best approach and to verify that it follows the style guide.

See Contribute with Code handbook article for more information.

Ticket ownership

Ticket owner is generally responsible for moving the ticket forward. From the handbook:

When working on a ticket, the Owner field is typically left blank, even if you have contributed a patch. Committers utilize the field to offer traction for a ticket, to identify they are investigating, committing, or otherwise following a ticket, or to tentatively accept the bug or enhancement for core inclusion. It is also common during the feature development phase for developers to accept tasks in the area of responsibility for which they have volunteered, as well as related bug reports. Trusted contributors may assign tickets to others based on an inside knowledge of who should be responsible for reviewing it.

For good-first-bugs, the person who submitted the patch is assigned as an owner so that the ticket shows as “claimed” in the queue.

It’s OK to drop ownership if the ticket is no longer relevant for you, just reassign it to an empty field.

See The Bug Tracker (Trac) handbook article for more information.

Tickets brought up

  • @notnownikki has been working with @iseulde and @azaozz on #43187, which comes from an issue in 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/.
  • @williampatton asked for feedback on #42057, specifically opinions on introducing an additional parameter for a function in a minor releaseMinor Release A set of releases or versions having the same minor version number may be collectively referred to as .x , for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.3, and all other versions in the 5.2 (five dot two) branch of that software. Minor Releases often make improvements to existing features and functionality., and more eyes on back compatback compat Backward compatibility - a desire to ensure that plugins and themes do not break under new releases - is a driving philosophy of WordPress. While it is a commonly accepted software development practice to break compatibility in major releases, WordPress strives to avoid this at all costs. Any backward incompatible change is carefully considered by the entire core development team and announced, with affected plugins often contacted. It should be noted that external libraries, such as jQuery, do have backward incompatible changes between major releases, which is often going to be a greater concern for developers. to make sure nothing is broken by the change.

Thanks to everyone who attended! As always, please feel free to leave a comment below or reach out to any of the moderators (@adamsilverstein, @desrosj, @flixos90, @sergeybiryukov, @stevenkword, @welcher) with questions on Slack. Or, feel free to reach out to any core developer or component maintainer with questions specific to certain core areas.

#core, #new-contributors, #summary

Jonathan Desrosiers 4:05 pm on February 13, 2018
Tags: , new contributors   

New Contributor Meetings Return

The New Contributor meeting is held in the WordPress.org Slack aimed at anyone looking for help contributing to WordPress. No questions are too big or too small, and all are welcome!

This meeting started last July, and will be returning on February 14, 2018 at 20:00UTC after a brief hiatus. It will be held twice monthly on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month at 20:00 UTC.

The meeting is moderated by the following volunteers on a rotating basis: @desrosj, @flixos90, @sergey, @stevenkword, and @welcher.

Questions or comments about the meeting? Topics you would like to request be covered? Want to help out with this meeting? Any other feedback? Feel free to post in the comments below or reach out to one of the moderators on Slack. We hope to see you there!

#core, #new-contributors

Jonathan Desrosiers 9:16 pm on September 1, 2017
Tags: , new contributors,   

New Contributors Meeting Recap – August 30th

This past Wednesday, the weekly new contributor meeting was held in the #core 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/. room. Here is a recap of the meeting. A full chat log is also available.

Participants: @adhun @afercia @alfonso100 @asalce @azaozz @boonebgorges @coderkevin @cousett @davidmosterd @desrosj @flixos90 @harryjackson1221 @jack50n9 @joemcgill @joyously @katmoody @mapk @mp518 @mrasharirfan @nicbertino @pbearne @psdtohtmlguru @ryankanner @sergeybiryukov @sygnoos @thomasplevy @tjnowell @xkon @yahil @mrasharirfan

Discussion Highlights

Ways other than TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. to find where to help

  • While Trac is the primary spot, there are several other places to find areas to focus your contribution efforts:
  • Everything must pass through Trac eventually. But, Trac is not always the best place for ideas to take shape. Other instances will pop up based on the needs of the CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. & component focuses.
  • For finding priorities within Trac, the Next Major Release (currently 4.9) ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. list is a good place to start.

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) Contributions

If your expertise is not in code, but rather accessibility, the 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) team meets weekly, every Monday at 17:00UTC in the #accessibility Slack room. All are welcome!

Meetings are held regularly for many of the Core components and Make WordPress teams. Attending these meetings is a great way to get a feel for how progress is made within the project and find ways you can offer help.

New PHPUnit Test section in the Core Handbook

@boonebgorges has recently spent some time constructing a new section of the WiordPress Core Handbook, “Writing PHPUnit Tests“.

Miscellaneous Topics

  • @coderkevin inquired if there had been discussions about memory leakage within the test suite. #41641 was mentioned as the ticket to read into for this. The Distributed Host Testing project is also relevant to that ticket.
  • Currently, there is no central place for documentation on the test suite’s factory classes. The inline documentation for the __construct() functions within each factory class is currently the best place for this information.

Tickets Reviewed

  • #41743 (Using the_widget on a 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. that has not been registered results in an undefined index notice.)

 

Next Week’s Meeting

The next meeting will take place in the #core slack channel on Wednesday, September 6, 19:00 UTC. Please feel free to drop in with any questions or tickets you’d like to discuss!

Thanks to everyone who attended! As always, please feel free to leave a comment below or reach out to any of the moderators (@adamsilverstein, @desrosj, @stevenkword, @welcher) with questions on Slack. Or, feel free to reach out to any core developer or component maintainer with questions specific to certain core areas.

#new-contributors, #summary

Felix Arntz 11:21 pm on August 17, 2017
Tags: , new contributors,   

New Contributors Meeting Recap – August 16th

Yesterday, the new weekly contributor meeting was held in the #core 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/. room. Here is a recap of the meeting. A full chat log is also available.

Participants: @adamsilverstein @brainfork @clorith @davidmosterd @desrosj @dipeshkakadiya @drewapicture @flixos90 @geoffreyshilling @jnylen0 @johnbillion @joyously @justpeace @mikeschroder @milindmore22 @morganestes @mte90 @mrahmadawais @nabil_kadimi @sergey @stevenkword @zakkath

Discussion Highlights

Documentation on coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. unit testunit test Code written to test a small piece of code or functionality within a larger application. Everything from themes to WordPress core have a series of unit tests. Also see regression. suite

  • There’s currently no documentation on the core unit testing suite in the handbook.
  • The current and best method for learning is to read some of the existing tests and see how they do it. With specific questions, @boone and @johnbillion are always good people to go to.
  • Several developers indicated their interest in working on an introduction or documentation for it. Any results will be published in a future meeting.

Documentation on contributing with 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/.

  • Documentation on Git contributions is still lacking. Most typical handbook pages with patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing. instructions only reference SVNSVN Subversion, the popular version control system (VCS) by the Apache project, used by WordPress to manage changes to its codebase. commands and don’t have Git examples. @morganestes will start working on consolidating pages and instructions and would love to have some guidance on contributing tests as part of that.
  • @jnylen0 shared a handbook page specific to contributing with Git.

Documentation on getting started with contributing

  • There’s not a very good “Getting Started” documentation in the handbook. It throws several things at you in different pages. You can learn how things technically work, but not really how to get started from a workflow/mindest point of view.
  • @adamsilverstein shared what is probably the best “Getting Started” page for core contributing.
  • However where you start, to a large extent depends on your preferences. It’s important to find one or two areas of core in which you’re most interested in and concentrate on those first.
  • To get a feeling for what is being worked on and how these processes work, participating or even just lurking in meetings can help a lot. Show up to some dev chats, and other component meetings you’re interested in.
  • If you don’t need to do it remotely and have the possibility to attend a 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., probably the best way to start is attending a 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/.. The in-person communication has huge benefits, especially for the beginning.

Moving tickets forward

  • Persistence is generally key in keeping your patches moving on tracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress.. Knowing who 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.” and how often can take you a long way. Start with the component maintainers and work out to the core developers. Ask for feedback at a dev chat, or if you don’t want to jump in yourself ask whomever is running dev chats to toss out the ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. for public discussion.
  • Ping specific people, don’t worry about being annoying or anything. It can happen that someone is short on time and does not respond immediately, and that may feel like a bummer. But every core developer is trying to help, so do not hesitate being persistent. Actually, component maintainters and core devs expect to get pinged and try to make core contributing as welcome as possible.
  • The easiest way to get in touch is commonly in a component meeting if there is one. But if there is none, pinging a maintainer is the way to go.

Changing workflow keywords on tickets

  • Everyone can and should properly apply and modify workflow keywords on a ticket. Here are some examples:
    • If you add a patch, add the has-patch keyword if it isn’t set yet.
    • If you provide tests, add the has-unit-tests keyword if it isn’t set yet.
    • If you feel a patch is rather complex, feel free to add dev-feedback.
  • If you aren’t sure that your patch addresses the issue, or if you don’t feel that you understand the issue well, it’s best to let someone else look and change the keywords appropriately. But also no worries, if you accidentally or mistakenly set a “wrong” keyword.

Next Week’s Meeting

The next meeting will take place in the #core slack channel on Wednesday, August 23, 19:00 UTC. Please feel free to drop in with any questions or tickets you’d like to discuss!

Thanks to everyone that attended! As always, please feel free to leave a comment below or reach out to any of the moderators (@adamsilverstein, @desrosj, @stevenkword, @welcher) with questions on Slack. Or, as mentioned above, to any core developer or component maintainer with questions specific to certain core areas.

#new-contributors, #summary

Jonathan Desrosiers 1:52 pm on August 3, 2017
Tags: , new contributors,   

New Contributors Meeting Recap – August 2nd

Yesterday, the new weekly contributor meeting was held in the #core 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/. room. Here is a recap of the meeting. A full chat log is also available.

Participants: @adamsilverstein @asalce @azerial @chetan200891 @circlecube @clorith @desrosj @dipeshkakadiya @dnavarrojr @e_baker @helen @jdmensing @johnbillion @jorbin @josiahsprague @joyously @kelseyfecho @linsoftware @luckyankit @milindmore22 @mte90 @nabil_kadimi @proscriptsell @punit5658 @stevenkword @t-rave @welcher @zakkath

Discussion Highlights

Before Creating Tickets

  • Before creating a ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker., there are a few things you should do:
    • Ensure you are running the latest version of WordPress (if reporting a 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.).
    • Search TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. to make sure a ticket for your bug or enhancementenhancement Enhancements are simple improvements to WordPress, such as the addition of a hook, a new feature, or an improvement to an existing feature..
  • Creating a duplicate ticket is ok, as long as you did your best to find a pre-existing ticket.

Writing a Title

  • A good ticket title should accurately summarize the problem the ticket addresses.
  • Someone should be able to see the title and get the general idea of what the ticket is trying to solve, not the solution.

Writing a Description

  • A ticket description should include:
    • A description of the behavior you expect and why
    • A description of the behavior you are seeing
    • Steps to reproduce the behavior so other contributors can see it for themselves and track down the source.
    • If an enhancement ticket, describe what it improves upon and why this is beneficial.
  • If it involves something else (like a specific browser, or server type), make sure to detail that as well.
  • If applicable, screenshots are also very helpful.
    • Screenshots are best uploaded directly to Trac. This prevents images from becoming dead links when removed from external image sources.
  • Always try to focus on the problems being solved, even if it’s an enhancement, you are trying to solve a problem of some sort.

Examples of tickets with good titles and descriptions: #41525, #37013.

What is the difference between CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. 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. Trac?

Core Trac is meant for tickets relating to the WordPress software you install and run (including unit tests). Meta Trac is meant for a bunch of other things, but mainly things that are 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/ related. There is a full list at the top of the Meta Trac home page.

Security Vulnerabilities

It is very important that any issues with security implications be reported through responsible disclosure privately. For more information on reporting security vulnerabilities, see the WordPress Handbook.

What is considered “enough testing”?

  • This will vary based on the ticket and what problem is being solved.
  • Testing may span multiple releases for complex problems.
  • It also is up to the committercommitter A developer with commit access. WordPress has five lead developers and four permanent core developers with commit access. Additionally, the project usually has a few guest or component committers - a developer receiving commit access, generally for a single release cycle (sometimes renewed) and/or for a specific component. that chooses to take ownership of the ticket. They need to be completely comfortable with the change, and confident that there is little to no potential for issues.
  • Once committed, the testing does not end. Testing continues by using trunk.
  • After that, the alpha, 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., and 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). releases are in place to catch anything that might have been missed.

Is there a protocol for old tickets that have become stagnant?

  • Check that the problem or enhancement in the ticket is still relevant.
  • Test any patches on the ticket to ensure they still apply cleanly.
  • Test that the patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing. still solves the issue.
  • Add the needs-refresh tagtag A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses tags to store a single snapshot of a version (3.6, 3.6.1, etc.), the common convention of tags in version control systems. (Not to be confused with post tags.) if not.
  • Stagnant tickets can be frustrating, but remember, no one is purposefully ignoring your efforts. Most (if not all) of the folks here are volunteers working in their free time.

Tickets discussed

  • #39535 – Canonical redirects disallow tag named comments
  • #37057 – Creation of an esc_html functions for _n(), _nx(), _ex(), and number_format_i18n()
  • #41521 – Menu list with dropdown icon alignment bug in responsive.
  • #41497 – Menu has style problem in listing on adminadmin (and super admin) menu page

Next Week’s Meeting

The next meeting will take place in the #core slack channel on Wednesday, August 9, 19:00 UTC. Please feel free to drop in with any questions or tickets you’d like to discuss!

Thanks to everyone that attended! As always, please feel free to leave a comment below or reach out to any of the moderators (@adamsilverstein, @desrosj, @stevenkword, @welcher) with questions on Slack.

#new-contributors, #summary

Felix Arntz 3:36 pm on July 27, 2017
Tags: , , , , new contributors,   

New Contributors Meeting Recap – July 26

Yesterday our weekly new contributors meeting was held, again with some great questions and insights into contributing to WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. Here is the recap for the chat, alternatively the full chat log is also available.

Participants: @adamcarter @audunhus @desrosj @dipendahal @flixos90 @hardeepasrani @johnbillion @joyously @jsonm @samikeijonen @stevenkword @welcher @xkon

Discussion Highlights:

  • Working on one of the three focuses (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/, 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., REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/.) is preferred, but it’s also as great to contribute to another area of core as development in those components of course has not stopped. Contributions are welcome everywhere, the focuses only gain more traction and attention at this point.
  • VVV is only one way to contribute to WordPress core. It is the recommended way to do so since it has all the tools needed preinstalled and configured, but contributors are free to choose whichever way they like. It might just require more setup work when not using VVV.
  • An easy way to make your IDEIDE Integrated Development Environment. A software package that provides a full suite of functionality to software developers/programmers. Normally an IDE includes a source code editor, code-build tools and debugging functionality. / editor aware of the WordPress coding standardsWordPress Coding Standards The Accessibility, PHP, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, etc. coding standards as published in the WordPress Coding Standards Handbook. May also refer to The collection of PHP_CodeSniffer rules (sniffs) used to format and validate PHP code developed for WordPress according to the PHP coding standards. regarding whitespace usage is to use the .editorconfig file that trunktrunk A directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision. contains. This file uses a common standard, and there are plugins available for almost all popular environments that automatically parse the file and adjust the whitespace settings for the project. Extensions can be found at on the website of the project. Some IDEs like PHPStorm already come with built-in tools for the WordPress coding standards.
  • While every new change in WordPress requires unit tests to verify its correct behavior (except for wording or docs changes, or those that are too complex to test for other reasons), it is not required that the person who writes a patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing. also needs to provide unit tests for it. It would be nice, but if someone doesn’t feel comfortable enough for the time being or first would like to get the patch reviewed, that’s perfectly fine as well.

Tickets Discussed:

  • #41370 is a good-first-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. ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. that could use some attention and work. It belongs to the REST API focus, so is likely to get reviewed and also merged quickly once ready. The goal of the ticket is to figure out why creating a term that already exists results in a 500 error, and change that to a more meaningful 400 or 409 error. Please have a look if you are interested in the REST API.
  • #41318 is another ticket that could use some work, particularly unit tests to ensure the existing patch works correctly.

First Props:

From this week on, we’ll highlight new contributors with their first props in this post. Props is what you get when a changeset lands in core where you have significantly helped with, for example through a patch, unit tests or something else. Please let us know about your first props when you get them. You can easily get an overview of your props at this URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/search?q=props+USERNAME&noquickjump=1&changeset=on (replacing USERNAME with your actual 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/ username)

This week, @xkon received his first props. Congrats! 🎉

Next week’s Meeting:

The next meeting will take place in the #core 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 on Wednesday, August 2, 19:00 UTC. Please feel free to drop in with any questions or tickets you’d like to discuss!

Thanks to everyone that attended! As always, please feel free to leave a comment below or reach out to any of the moderators with questions on Slack.

#new-contributors, #summary

Ryan Welcher 2:51 pm on July 25, 2017
Tags: , new contributors,   

New Contributors Meeting Recap – July 19

Last week’s New Contributors Meeting was held on Wed July 19th at 19:00. Once again, there were lots of great questions asked in the #core channel. Read the full chat archive here.

Discussion Highlights:

Tickets Discussed:

  • #41155 – WordPress 4.8 Adminadmin (and super admin) 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. Sub Menu Navigation Issue
  • #41317 – Consistent sub menu item spacing when count indicator is present
    • Congrats to @JDTrower for pushing it along and getting it in the 4.9 Milestone!
  • #41314 – If the required fields are not set on user profile’s save, every field’s value will be dropped

The next meeting will take place in the #core 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 on Wed, July 26th at 19:00. Please feel free to drop in with any questions or tickets you’d like to discuss!

Thanks to everyone that attended! As always, please feel free to leave a comment below or reach out to any of the moderators with questions on Slack.

Moderators: @flixos90, @welcher, @stevenkword, @desrosj

#new-contributors, #summary

Ryan Welcher 8:07 pm on July 18, 2017
Tags: , new contributors,   

New Contributors Meeting Recap – July 12

This week’s New Contributors Meeting was held on Wed July 12th at 19:00. Once again, there were lots of great questions asked in the #core channel. Read the full chat archive here.

Discussion Highlights:

Tickets Discussed:

  • #40921 – Inconsistent Handling of mp4 by Audio 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.
  • #40138 – Bundled themes: the tagtag A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses tags to store a single snapshot of a version (3.6, 3.6.1, etc.), the common convention of tags in version control systems. (Not to be confused with post tags.) cloud widget should output a list
  • #22669 – iPad: Can’t Scroll Plugins Modal
  • #41168 – Identify the active theme when editing a site’s themes

The next meeting will take place in the #core 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 on Wed, July 19th at 19:00. Please feel free to drop in with any questions or tickets you’d like to discuss!

Thanks to everyone that attended and please feel free to leave a comment below or reach out to any of the moderators with questions.

Moderators: @flixos90, @welcher, @stevenkword, @desrosj

#new-contributors, #summary

Ryan Welcher 12:53 pm on July 10, 2017
Tags: , new contributors,   

New Contributors Meeting Recap – July 5

The inaugural New Contributors Meeting was held on Wed July 5th at 19:00 and had a great turnout with lots of questions asked in the #core channel (read the full archive ).

The informal agenda was to try and answer as many general questions as possible and then move over to a 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/ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. review portion.

Discussion Highlights

Tickets Discussed:

  • #33756 – Improve docs for sanitize_title()
  • #38828 – Update_blog_details() performance improvement ideas
  • #38310 – Improve “wp_update_term” documentation

 

The next meeting will take place in the #core slack channel on Wed, July 12th at 19:00. Please feel free to drop in with any questions or tickets you’d like to discuss!

Thanks to everyone that attended and please feel free to leave a comment below or reach out to any of the moderators with questions.

Moderators: @flixos90, @welcher, @stevenkword, @desrosj

#new-contributors, #summary