The Test Team helps manage testing and triage across the WordPress ecosystem. They focus on user testing of the editing experience and WordPress dashboard, replicating and documenting bug reports, and supporting a culture of review and triage across the project.
If you’d like to help test Full Site Editing, please join the FSE Outreach Program. You can find current calls for testing for this program here and you can join the fun in #fse-outreach-experiment.
On 23 May 2023 at 16:00 UTC, <test-chat> started in #core-test.
And last, but not least:
@oglekler also invited everyone to take part in the Day 15: #WP20 From Blogs to Blocks campaign.
wp-now Package@ironprogrammer drew attention to the recent release of wp-now (npm package), part of the WordPress Playground project. He noted that wp-now works with Node.js, and could be a possible replacement for wp-env. He gave an example of having navigated to a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party source directory and running wp-now start, which quickly launched a new WordPress site to test the plugin.
@ironprogrammer mentioned that the utility could be a fast way for contributors to get set up for testing or development, and referred to WCEU as a possible testing ground for test contributors to try it out.
@oglekler provided a link to a MeetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. event that featured Playground, occurring shortly after Test Chat.
@ironprogrammer then shared his plans to draft wp-now setup instructions to propose for addition to the Test Handbook, and asked the team to try out the utility and report any blockers or challenges they encounter.
@boniu91 asked if PRs and patches could be applied to sites running on wp-now. @ironprogrammer confirmed having tested with plugin repos, but that testing with the wordpress-develop repo would be important before recommending it for broader Test Team use.
The next scheduled meeting is on 30 May 2023 at 16:00 UTC for <test-triage> in #core-test.
Are you interested in helping write Test chat summaries like this one? Volunteer at the start of the next <test-chat> and earn some props!
Props @costdev for peer review of this post.
On 9 May 2023 at 16:00 UTC, <test-chat> started in #core-test.
And a reminder:
@ironprogrammer highlighted that the PR to prerelease Playwright test utils — aka @wordpress/e2e-test-utils-playwright — has been merged, and is slated for release with 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/ 15.8 🎉. He noted that this facilitates inclusion of the package in other test suites, and expressed hope that it would eventually contribute toward improved E2E coverage in WordPress.
@oglekler wondered how well Playwright worked in WP admin, outside of the editor context. She referred to reports of Quick Edit rows disappearing after an update, and whether an E2E test could help identify this.
@ironprogrammer clarified that the release of the @wordpress/e2e-test-utils-playwright package was in response to several requests from community members who wished to use it, and encouraged continued exploration regarding previous discussions about Cypress.
The next scheduled meeting is on 16 May 2023 at 16:00 UTC for <test-triage> in #core-test.
Are you interested in helping write Test chat summaries like this one? Volunteer at the start of the next <test-chat> and earn some props!
Props @juhise for peer review of this post.
This is a summary of a Hallway Hangout that was wrangled in the #fse-outreach-experiment channel as part of the FSE Outreach Program. Thank you to everyone who joined in!
Attendance:
@karmatosed @paaljoachim @beckej @scruffian @annezazu @piermario @james-roberts
Video Recording:
Notes:
We kicked off the hallway hangout going over various places to stay up to date on what’s happening:
From there, we discussed the larger topic of reintroducing content editing to the site editor, including where hints in the interface should be, the need to have strong user stories around using this functionality, and ensuring clarity between template and post editor. We very briefly touched on how there will be expanded Detail views of page, template, template part, styles without going into much detail.
We then jumped into evolving the wp:pattern block and how that ties in with work to add UI to save patterns and having a library to store patterns alongside reusable blocks. This included watching a video demo about syncing patterns and going through details of sync, partial sync, unsync. Later on, we discussed being able to see a hierarchy of styles and knowing which make up a pattern.
With Ben on the call, we went over the focuses for 6.3 for navigation, including: adding back the navigation section to the Site Editor, improved link control, and using slugs to reference menus. We talked about the problem with how you can repeatedly import classic menus, leading to lots of extra menus, and discussed the need to see where menus are used when they are listed out so you know which to delete.
We ended on some interesting technical happenings that lead to some powerful UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing./UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it. options:
Lots of work has momentum right now so stay tuned for much of it to be tested!
On 25 April 2023 at 16:00 UTC , <test-chat> started in #core-test.
There was no agenda preceding the chat.
@ironprogrammer asked @oglekler if there was an update from the last chat’s E2E discussion, and they would follow-up later.
@ironprogrammer invited/reminded the team to consider submitting topics and/or applying to the 2023 WordPress Community Summit, emphasizing that ideas and input from underrepresented community members is especially important to summit discussions.
The next scheduled meeting is on 2 May 2023 at 16:00 UTC for <test-triage> in #core-test.
Are you interested in helping write Test chat summaries like this one? Volunteer at the start of the next <test-chat> and earn some props!
Props to @costdev for peer review of this post.
On April 11, 2023 at 16:00 UTC , <test-chat> started on #core-test.
There was no agenda preceding the chat.
@ironprogrammer re-introduced this section as pertaining to Test Team discussions from 2021. Because contributorship has changed a lot since then, he asked that contributors interested in representing a particular focal group reach out to @boniu91 or @ironprogrammer (himself). He also noted that the team can adjust the focal groups to align with current needs, particularly if it would help inspire greater collaboration.
@oglekler noted their positive experience with Cypress, an open-source testing tool which uses Mocha and jQuery, and can be run headless. @ironprogrammer asked if it was compatible with the current WordPress E2E standard, Playwright, and suggested that discussion with other E2E contributors be held to discuss further.
@ironprogrammer suggested that a follow-up Make/Test post be considered to gauge interest on possible focal group rep interest, particularly for E2E.
@ironprogrammer gave a brief update on the Test Handbook, noting that a new 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/. page was under final review. The page will provide new Test Team contributors a good place to start at WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. events. He encouraged contributors to share the page at future WordCamp Contributor Day events, and to raise suggestions for improvement in the #core-test channel, or to create a PR in the handbook’s official GitHub repo.
The next scheduled meeting is on April 18, 2023 at 16:00 UTC for <test-triage> in #core-test.
Are you interested in helping write Test chat summaries like this one? Volunteer at the start of the next <test-chat> and earn some props!
Props to @costdev for peer review of this post.
On March 28, 2023 at 16:00 UTC , <test-chat> started on #core-test.
There was no agenda preceding the chat.
Are you interested in hosting a <test-scrub>? The Test Team needs you! Check out Leading Bug Scrubs for details, or inquire in #core-test for more info.
@ironprogrammer pointed out that the release process helps ensure that issues like the regression noted above can be identified and resolved prior to general release.
And a shout out was given to @juhise for running last week’s Test Team Triage, as well as thanks to everyone else who attended! 🎉
@afragen requested UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it. testing for the Plugin Dependencies feature plugin, noting that @azaozz was looking for “newish” user feedback for the plugin dependency activation workflow. The instructions provided by Andy included two steps: installing the feature pluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins., and then installing a separate plugin with a dependency.
@costdev and @afragen explained that providing only basic instructions might better measure how easy or difficult the workflow is to users in discovering the process organically — i.e. how to successfully install the dependent plugin without outside guidance.
@costdev outlined the feedback desired from testers, and @ironprogrammer asked where the feedback should be provided. Additional discussion along with @afragen lead to the decision to create a new call for testing post. [Editor’s Note: The CFT for the above has been posted to Make/CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress..]
The next scheduled meeting is on April 4, 2023 at 16:00 UTC for <test-triage> in #core-test.
On 14 March 2023 at 16:00 UTC , <test-chat> started on #core-test.
There was no agenda preceding the chat.
Are you interested in hosting a <test-scrub>? The Test Team needs you! Check out Leading Bug Scrubs for details, or inquire in #core-test for more info.
@afragen called for awareness of the Rollback Update Failure and Plugin Dependencies plugins, so that they might land in 6.3-alpha. @ironprogrammer noted that both features could improve the user experience in WordPress.
@afragen also asked for testing of #53323: Place Hello Dolly in containing folder, so that this plugin follows documented best practices.
@costdev mentioned that improved release testing has been discussed in #core, and asked if anyone had thoughts on how the number of testers might be increased during 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./RC phases. @ironprogrammer noted that this has been suggested as a 2023 WordPress Community Summit topic, but that short term options are needed.
@costdev asserted that collaboration with MarComms (#marketing) would be key to finding ways to pull in more contributors for testing. He asked where we might extend reach/awareness, and what motivates users to become testers.
@afragen suggested that managed hosting providers, such as WordPress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/, might facilitate RC testing by working with opt-in site owners. @costdev agreed that this would help environment testing, but that there is a lack of feature-specific testing and reporting. He asked what tools might be offered to make this easier.
@costdev’s question spawned a long thread discussing ideas to simplify issue reporting for pre-release builds, the outcome of which is described below.
The next scheduled meeting is on 21 March 2023 at 16:00 UTC for <test-triage> in #core-test.
Thank you props to @costdev for review of this post.
This is a summary of a Hallway Hangout that was wrangled in the #fse-outreach-experiment channel as part of the FSE Outreach Program. Thank you to everyone who joined in!
Attendance:
Jeff Ong, Ellen Bauer, Nick Diego, and Edwin Cromley
Video Recording:
Topics:
We covered a wide variety of topics: the outreach program’s future, updates for the 6.1 release, aspects of phase 2 to wrap up, the current experience of developing and maintaining blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. themes, and more.
What will happen to the outreach program now that 6.1 is out?
The outreach program is continuing as is! When it comes time to wind it down, it will be heavily communicated and, ideally, continued in some form or another. As with “gradual adoption” of FSE features, expect a more gradual phasing out.
Various updates around 6.1
We chatted through some of the key feedback coming in with 6.1 released last week. This was shared publicly in the release leads channel prior to the call.
Managing updates for block themes
The discussion around 6.1 feedback led to a conversation about managing updates for block themes. In particular, there were some layout changes that needed to be managed. Keeping up with these changes for each release can lead to a feeling of “Why did we build these themes already?!” when there’s so much to keep on top of with each release. It still is taking a lot of work with each release.
@bph the idea was brought up to have a compressed set of links to follow based on audience perhaps for the Developer blog, inspired by Rich Tabor’s twitter roundup. We discussed how there were also 2x the number of dev notes for this release compared to 5.9 and 6.0.
In general, there seems to be a cycle of finding a solution to work around current limitations > the gap getting filled in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. > needing to update > cycle repeats. There are questions around when this process will get less intense.
Themeshaper
Questions around themeshaper came up with folks wanting to see more there and reminiscing on the kinds of posts that were shared previously as being quite illuminating. Speaking personally, I’m now trying to share more directly in Core when posting but it is an “outlet” that would be great to see revived.
Pixl theme discussion
After Matt tweeted about the Pixl theme, this led to questions around: “Is this the direction we’re heading in? Is it meant to be super simple block theme? Am I overcomplicating it somehow?” We talked about how it was likely just a note about a cool, quirky theme and that ultimately block themes are for all cases (or will be in the future as functionality grows). The goal is to do everything, from very simple to very high level. Nick shared that he’s, “Taking a lot of block themes and throwing them away. I took what was available and took it to the next level, like custom classes or custom code, that block themes couldn’t do at that time. Now, I’m stripping it out and refreshing it with a much simpler architecture.” Ellen is doing the same and it’s a lot of work. From there, you have to consider propagating updates. While this is a big part of being an early adopter, it’s still worth noting and it becomes intimidating to step into eCommerce considering.
Stability for maintenance & stability for UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it. of block themes
We talked about how there’s a split when talking about stability: stability of block themes in terms of less maintenance and stability of the UX for end users of block themes. We discussed how patterns are a big deal for UX in general and shared some examples of using starter patterns, with Nick sharing a great resource he wrote.
Latest Phase 2 Update
We went through the latest phase 2 overview issue update, talking at a high level about what’s to come and how work is progressing. This included a lot of discussion around the ability to save, import, and export variations. Feedback was given that style variations are often ignored for clients and that it would be more useful to be able to copy style variations/copying block styles. At the same time, being able to import/export your own branding via style variations would also be wildly helpful.
What about removing the beta label?
We ended by talking about the betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. label, how it’s likely slated for 6.2, how another update will need to be done to ensure the issue is up to date, and how the label itself might change away from just “editor”.
This is a summary of a Hallway Hangout that was wrangled in the #fse-outreach-experiment channel as part of the FSE Outreach Program. Thank you to everyone who joined in!
Attendance: Rich Tabor, Damon Cook, Courtney Roberston, Paal Joachim Romdahl, Jeff Ong, Nick Diego, Vagelis, Sé Reed, Piermario Orecchioni.
Video Recording:
Topics:
The main topic centered around the work underway to wrap phase 2 gathered in this overview issue. Expect regular updates to this issue and know that other work will continue but there’s a big emphasis to complete the tasks outlined there.
As of last week, the following was in place:
From there, we dug into the following individual issues to chat through at a high level what we were seeing. At a high level, it stuck out to folks how many different explorations there are, conflicting designs at times, etc. By doing this work concurrently, these differences can be resolved and the solutions refined together.
Introduce “Browser” and surface main navigation UI.
We talked about how this was a change in the entrance to the site editor just as much as it was for navigating between content. There was a desire to be able to click on the site title in the nav component to take you to the front end of the site. We discussed the important of 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) testing for this change and it’s top of mind to test for the FSE Outreach Program.
Global styles: Offer a way to view a document containing all blocks and styles
Make it possible to push local block styles to global block styles
Using the template editor for plugins
Media library getting the “FSE treatment”
Feedback on the Quick Inserter prioritizing patterns in certain circumstances
Other topics and questions
Folks shared that responsiveness is still a big topic along with navigation block. Multiple people echoed both. Damon shared in the chat: “The Navigation block has SO much complexity, but tackling the challenges will likely surface many great ideas that can be rolled out to other blocks that have complete UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing./interaction”. Finally, we chatted at the end about the history of the Query LoopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. block naming (why not loop?), where folks can report issues when 6.1 is out in the wild, and what’s next for the FSE Outreach Program.
This is a summary of a Hallway Hangout that was wrangled in the #fse-outreach-experiment channel as part of the FSE Outreach Program. Thank you to everyone who joined in!
Attendance: Carolina Nymark, Daisy Olsen, Manuel Esposito, Rich Tabor, Herb Miller, Ellen Baeur, Ana Segota, Evan Mullins, Damon Cook, David Bowman, Jessica Lyschik, Ed Beck, Courtney Roberston, Amy L, Rita Best.
Video Recording:
Topics:
Apologies for the lack of timestamps – this conversation was vast and deep, making it hard to separate out into specific sections.
theme.json. It would undoubtedly be high maintenance and would have to be under active updates alongside new 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/ features being merged into core, but it could also have a webpage equivalent to markup/output. A WordPress theme Style Guide: Figma file with the equivalent of block output on a site for users to copy/paste the code into their theme and see everything on a page… kinda deal.”Overall, while there is both excitement and interest in what block themes unlock, it’s also clear that there are a build up of pain points to address, whether through clearer resources or changes to Gutenberg itself. These conversations are just one way to start surfacing these themes (get it) and to begin finding ways forward.