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 29 August 2023 at 16:00 UTC, <test-chat> started in #core-test.
<release-party>. Raise your hand, or be kind and share this post with folks you think can help out. Thanks!There is an open PR to add a Test Team Rep page to the handbook. Reviews are welcome, which can be comments/reviews on the PR, or a 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.” in #core-test if something needs more discussion.
[This discussion started here.]
It has been proposed that the #fse-outreach-experiment begin the process of spinning down its user testing aspect (i.e. the program’s calls for testing) by the time WordPress 6.4 ships. In place of testing efforts, focus would shift to emphasize wider adoption of the Site Editor through hallway hangouts, dev documentation efforts, and other adoption-focused initiatives on the path toward wrapping up Phase 2 of the WordPress Project Roadmap.
Because the FSE Outreach Program has considerable overlap with Test Team efforts, program leadership has requested input from Test Team contributors with questions or concerns around the proposed shift. This follows other shared feedback from current program participants.
It was stressed that changes in the outreach program be handled carefully and slowly, and to capture opportunities for feedback. The next step is to compile initial feedback and thoughts around this change to share in a Make/Test post for wider input.
Current contributors in the #fse-outreach-experiment have expressed a desire to continue testing in a format adapted from or similar to the outreach program. Structured ad hoc calls for testing from within the Test Team are similar, and would provide an opportunity for continued contribution through testing. [Ed. note: the Test Team should also consider adopting things that worked for FSE CfTs to improve the experience for all testers.]
A possible source for CfT topics could be pulled from roadmap posts (for example), or otherwise collected in an ideas backlog (for example). Some pertinent links for CfTs can be found at:
Work is ongoing for documenting processes in the Test Team. The Handbook project can be found at https://github.com/wordpress/test-handbook.
[This discussion started here.]
The Call for Nominations for the next Test Team Reps is underway. Test Team members’ help is needed to nominate or volunteer for this role, to help represent the team to the wider project.
If you have a nominee in mind, or questions about the role, please comment on the post, ask in #core-test, or reach out directly to @ironprogrammer in SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..
@ironprogrammer stepped forward with an offer to help mentor volunteers for this role. It was also noted that serving as a rep offers an excellent opportunity to gain a broader perspective of how Test Team interacts with other teams, and that while it isn’t a “lead” role, there are some leadership-focused skills that reps develop in the process.
Please submit nominations by Thursday, August 31 Friday, September 22, end of day (UTC).
The next scheduled meeting is on 5 September 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 @annezazu for peer review of this post.
This post is a summary of the Let’s start from the beginning call for testing for the FSE outreach program, the twenty-fifth effort. As always, I want to highlight those who helped to bring others along with them in this latest effort:
Shout out to @mdquer @olein @foosantos as first time contributors for this call for testing. Expect a badge on your WordPress profiles for your contribution!
This call for testing focused on a “from scratch” experience using the big pieces from WordPress 6.3 without detailed instructions for maximum exploration, which is reflected in the lack of new bugs found and in a fair amount of usability feedback and feature requests. In particular, folks struggled immensely with figuring out how to change the sync status of an already created pattern and fumbled through using the Command Palette, with some left confused on how best to use this new tool. While no new bugs were found, Synced Patterns losing their alignment attribute and the Table of Contents 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.’s links not working on an initial save were noted by a few folks. Here’s what some folks had to say overall:
“The only thing to mention is for me is the command palette: The command palette is not satisfying for me. It works , but for me the problem are the keywords. I could not find > top toolbar or list view. As a normal user i would expect a keyword like – list view – should open the list view, or keyword – top toolbar – , should open top toolbar, that does not work for me. I like the new patterns section with synced and unsynced patterns.” @mdquer in this comment.
I’ve been trying to use the new command palette, but I honestly don’t know what to do there. I’ve used it successfully to switch to different pages, but I don’t know what the primary purpose of the command palette is supposed to be so I have no idea if I’m leveraging its capabilities at all…In general I feel like all aspects of GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ have been improved by recent updates. @beckej in this comment.
No new bugs were found and replicated with the following known items raised instead:
Each of these touch on items planned for 6.4 and, in particular, the alignment attribute with synced patterns remains a repeated and well established pain pointPain point Pain points are “places where you know from research or analytics that users are currently getting hung up and have to ask questions, or are likely to abandon the site or app.” — Design for Real Life.
But it looks like the block does not work on previews only after the page has been published. As the preview does not have the correct structure. https://bluewinddesign.com/?page_id=385 (previewed page). Clicking one of the headings in the Table of Contents block the link anchor looks like this: https://bluewinddesign.com/resume/#head-3 . It went to a 404 page. @paaljoachim in this comment.
Many of these feature requests centered on the Command Palette, a feature new to 6.3 and slated for improvements for 6.4, with one request already completed for adding a Toggle List View command. With the growing number of design and styling options, two folks noted a desire to see the Style Book elevated and more readily discoverable, which aligns nicely with a currently open design issue on that exact topic.
New
Previous
I found the autosuggest/listings to be varied in their accuracy. Some of them didn’t make much sense in their order compared to the actual search query. @jordesign in this comment.
The ‘View Page’ button exists in the old block editor, so it would be nice to have a similar experience. (My apologies if this has already been raised in an Issue). @olein in this comment.
After checking further, I realized that Style Book does something like that. In my opinion, Style Book should be the default option with a site preview alternative. Or at least highlight Style Book a bit more somehow. @foosantos in this comment.
Media & text block didn’t apply the border when I edited the image styles. The Media & text could be composed of sub-blocks to inherit the properties of a single image block like the Gallery block does now. @josvelasco in this comment
Out of all of the usability feedback, a few themes emerged:
None of these tasks are necessarily niche to do yet prove to be tricky to navigate, with cumbersome steps or unclear 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. to navigate, like being unable to see the blinking cursor in a new page in the Site Editor.
New
Previous
Using the Style Book – I was hoping to be able to make changes to the H2 specifically while viewing a preview. It wasn’t made clear anywhere what the hierarchy of editing headings was to edit the ‘Heading’ element for styles that go across all headings, but could then make individual changes to different headings under Typography > Headings. @jordesign in this comment.
I typed into the Width box where it said Auto and wrote 100. The image is now smaller. I am wondering where the size drop down is? To select full, large, medium, small, thumbnail. Instead these options are inside the Resolution dropdown and that can be very confusing. @paaljoachim in this comment.
After checking for about 2-3 minutes, I really couldn’t find a way to change from Synced to Unsynced. Both for the original and duplicated. @foosantos in this comment.
I wanted to insert the table of contents block between the title and the first block, so I moved the cursor to the page title with the mouse and pressed enter, but could not move it to the content area. @olein in this comment.
After creating the page from the Site editor, clicking the Type / to choose a block does not make the vertical text cursor | start blinking. You see it only after you start typing or pasting something like the Google Doc’s content. @josvelasco in this comment
On 15 August 2023 at 16:00 UTC, <test-chat> started in #core-test.
And we received one participant-submitted announcement:
Volunteers were asked to step forward to help facilitate the Test table, both in person and remotely on 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/.. @ironprogrammer volunteered to help lead in person at the event, but at the time of this writing there was no clear lead for coordinating contributors online in Slack. Contributors wishing to help are asked to comment below or raise their hand in Slack.
The remote session for Contributor Day is scheduled to begin at 2023-08-24 10:00 EDT in the #contributor-day channel. For more details, see the Test Team at WCUS 2023 post.
It was shared that the nomination process for the next Test Team Reps would begin soon, and team members were encouraged to help identify and nominate individuals who might be a good fit for the role (even themselves). [Ed. note: the 2023-24 call for nominations has been published.]
The next scheduled meeting is on 22 August 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 @boniu91 for peer review of this post.
This post is a summary of the Momery Makeover call for testing for the FSE outreach program, the twenty-fourth effort. As always, I want to highlight those who helped to bring others along with them in this latest effort:
Since this call for testing took place during the early stages of an iterative process, several aspects of the feedback provided have already been swiftly addressed, thanks to ongoing development for WordPress 6.3. The relatively limited amount of bugs received and feedback aligning with feature development reflects a level of solidness in the direction of recent improvements. These improvements encompassed a range of features, such as the ability to rename menus in Site View, add template parts directly from the Site View, publish pages, and introduce additional interface enhancements to improve the template vs content editing experience. Notably, Style RevisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision. proved to be significantly more intuitive compared to the code view available for Templates and Template Parts.
@paaljoachim shared a video of his experience going through the call for testing if you’re looking to get a sense of a test contributor’s experience in more detail:
The following bugs were all reported before this call for testing, reflecting known issues and showing a level of stability in the breadth of new features added to the Site Editor experience:
Right now we can use a Post ExcerptExcerpt An excerpt is the description of the blog post or page that will by default show on the blog archive page, in search results (SERPs), and on social media. With an SEO plugin, the excerpt may also be in that plugin’s metabox. or Post Content. Post Content is the whole entire post in the Editor, but the post up to the “More BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience.” on the front end. This is the behavior that I expect on the front end. But I would really like the Editor to not show the entire post! It just makes the Queries too long.
@antigone7 in this comment.
When I created a new page by way of creating a draft page. I found that a draft page creation option was missing if I tried to create it under the Menu 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. https://s.id/1Nh2y. However, it showed up if I tried to add a non-existent page link via the Navigation block https://s.id/1NgZg.
@franz00 in this comment.
Many of the feature requests tie in nicely with work either completed or currently underway (marked as “In the 6.3 board”). Across most of the following issues, the ability to access exactly what one wants in the Site Editor as a whole acts as a through point, whether when clicking “Edit Site” from the admin bar or trying to search for specific things with the Command Palette. Building into phase 3, the Template Part and Template revisions were seen as subpar in comparison to the new experience offered by Style revisions.
New:
Previous:
I went out of the site editor and found the blog page in the Pages screen. Viewed it. Then clicked Edit Site. I expected to have the Home template open up but instead clicking Edit Site on the frontend will only open the Front Page template, and not the template related to the specific page I am on.
@paaljoachim in this comment.
I feel uncomfortable to roll-back template changes using the provided revision states located at the bottom of a particular template tab. The reason for this discomfort is that the revision states appear to be too raw. Since we rarely used the Code editor in building a site/pages in the Site Editor, seeing loads of HTMLHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites. block codes as reference points to roll back to feels unfamiliar within our current workflow.
@franz00 in this comment.
I had to go to the side menu to change the Page template why from the About page I didn’t see the option to Edit the template page. I found the option when I changed to Contact page by chance. The solution? I don’t know which is the better option. Maybe that open right side bar by default when we change a page or template. Or open and close to see that this appears here. Or in the wizard (I don’t saw the wizard).
@soivigol in this comment.
When typing in ‘page’ into the command centre – I didn’t expect ‘add new page’ to be the first item – rather than the ‘page’ template. Is this weighted in some way? It may just be me.
@jordesign in this comment.
Part of the call for testing instructions included replacing a template part and creating a new menu, both of which caused some confusion. Each experience has improved with additional functionality added to the Site View for each respective section (Patterns, Menus). Outside of that, it’s worth noting that with Reusable blocks being consolidated into Patterns overall, a bug with Reusable blocks now has a wider spread impact. Currently, if you convert a set of blocks into a Pattern, the align full or align wide options are removed, leading to what feels like a broken experience by design since the alignment/flex position depends on the container. This is likely to come up as a broader piece of feedback. The Navigation block continues to receive feedback around the desire to have an easier and more consistent way to rename, regardless of where you are editing a menu (sidebar, in editor, in Site View).
Finally, a few folks mentioned issues with the Post Content block that wasn’t replicable in later versions released after the call for testing.
I think creating a reusable block or a template part from the Site editor should be possible. People using the Site editor probably will know the difference. I like the idea of making things clear, but I’m not 100% convinced. I prefer to have a place to be able to edit everything, including content, and the other just for content.
@josvelasco in this comment.
I first tried to “Replace the Footer”, and while it added a new footer in the Home Template, it had a different name in the Library > Manage All Template Parts. It didn’t change the existing Footer into the new one which was what I expected from “Replace Footer”. Later I realized that this did exactly what it was supposed to do – create a new Footer to use.
@antigone7 in this comment.
Create a reusable block. NB! Before creating a Reusable block I had a full width block. After the conversion to a Reusable block the alignment controls went away and it seems that the block went to a no alignment. How do I have the Reusable block in full width alignment?
@paaljoachim in this comment.
When I go to add three columns with the Columns block, I have the option to give the gap space between columns and I have the padding default left and right padding in each column. I am confused. I think that if I have gap option, should not have padding or reverse.
@soivigol in this comment.
When searching for pages in the command centre – there was a slight delay before they showed as results – but there was no visual indicator that anything was happening.
@jordesign in this comment.
This post is a summary of the Rapid Revamp call for testing for the FSE outreach program, the twenty-third effort. As always, I want to highlight those who helped to bring others along with them in this latest effort:
Shout out to @poojabhimani @oncecoupled @josvelasco @krupalpanchal as first time contributors for this call for testing. Expect a badge on your WordPress profiles for your contribution!
Once more, bug wise, the call for testing was quite contained, reflecting a solid state in the experience considering how many new features are being built upon. Overall, the feedback mostly centered on iterating upon 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. theme previewing, improving template vs content editing clarity, confusion around which revision tool to use, and some more minor usability pain points, like poor drag and drop for the Details block or inconsistent triggering of the command center. There was plenty of positive feedback around how much smoother and cohesive the experience feels, with easier access to high level items thanks to the Site Editor additions of top level items in the sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. for Pages, Styles, and Navigation.
The newly added details block is wonderful. I used it to create an FAQ section, which contained paragraphs, list of items, code, and quote blocks. When I rearranged the blocks, I found it incredibly easy to drag and drop them at any level of block hierarchy. This snap ability turned out to be a significant improvement for GB 15.8. Awesome…I noticed that we now have Pages in the Site Editor, which has made transitioning between editing page templates and editing page/post contents much more easy. However, I still feel the tension between them are still strong. This is mainly because the right sidebar of the template and page/post content still display their respective details and options.
@franz00 in this comment.
I love how everything is becoming more fluent.
@josvelasco in this comment.
@oncecoupled offered a recording of the experience that’s worth watching for an overall look at one person’s journey through this call for testing.
Despite a variety of new features to test, the bugs remained fairly tame in number and severity:
New:
Previous:
After adding content to About page and leaving the cursor in a paragraph block, when I click on the CMD + K, not open the command center. In this case, open a Search to add a link (the popup that appears when a link is inserted). I have to click in the parent block to work fine in the command center. @soivigol in this comment.
With a strong emphasis on block theme previewing and the feature itself being in an early state, numerous feature requests came up to polish that specific experience, alongside requests for more styling options for the Details block and an easier to find pathway for Style revisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision.. Block theme previewing is a game changer and the feedback provided here offers some solid iteration opportunities.
New:
Previous:
Once I clicked on the Live Preview link and entered the Site Editor with the Navigation Sidebar (the dark grey menu area) on the left, I was expecting to be able to navigate between all the installed block themes and 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/ block themes, similar to how the preview of classic themes work.
@poena in this comment.
Outside of more specific issues, feedback was repeated around the confusion between editing a template and a page, which aligns nicely with the already shipped next call for testing that focuses on some improvements there. Beyond the following, two folks mentioned that the “Work with me” link showed up twice as there was a Page list block present in the Navigation menuNavigation Menu A theme feature introduced with Version 3.0. WordPress includes an easy to use mechanism for giving various control options to get users to click from one place to another on a site., causing the item to automatically be added after publishing. This caused some confusion and wasn’t intuitive to understand what was happening.
Adding “Work with Me” again, I figured out why it appears twice on the outside navigation. I also see it twice on any template or the Header template part after the “Work with Me” page is published, if I leave the Editor and open the Editor again. The menu in the Twenty Twenty-Three theme is a “Page List”. When I add the additional Item, it always adds below or outside of the Page List. I couldn’t see how to add it to the Page List. But then when the Work with Me” page is published, it’s automatically added to the Page List, but it’s also outside where it was added originally.
@antigone7 in this comment.
When I made some revisions to the site design and clicked “Reset to defaults,” I expected to be taken back to the default settings of the active style (grapes), but instead the Editor presented me with TT3 default theme.
@franzaurus in this comment.
I was confused initially that the style revisions are stored together, not individually by block. I guess I expected this because they were on different “pages” and because I’m used to existing post/page revisions being separate.
@oncecoupled in this comment.
Clicking into the Post Content group it acts just like 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. There is no page inserter but the inserter is at the bottom right of the Post Content. To me that feels strange. I expected to see the standard page inserter.
@paaljoachim in this comment.
With the Details Block I felt very frustrated. In a first moment, I tried to drag and drop to move the selected content to “Type / to add a hidden block”, but it’s impossible why the Details block is closed when lost the focus. I had to use the keyboard (CMD + X) to cut the content and paste it. Additionally, I tried to click in the arrow to close the block (by intuition), but don’t occur anything. Only close when lost the focus and open when get the focus.
@soivigol in this comment.
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 post is a summary of the Front Page Fun call for testing for the FSE outreach program, the twenty-second effort. As always, I want to highlight those who helped to bring others along with them in this latest effort:
Shout out to @pagelab and @valmedia2023 as first time contributors for this call for testing. Expect a badge on your WordPress profiles for your contribution!
In general, the call for testing was relatively tame bug wise, with only a few obvious ones found, mainly in 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.. The usability feedback related to many ongoing projects in the Site Editor underscoring the impact of solving these consistent problems, in particular the clarification of the content <> template relationship and confusion around the overall experience of managing pieces of navigation. Most participants were perplexed by the “hybrid” content editing option in the Navigation section, which suddenly appeared, causing one person to believe they had encountered a bug.
While the new Grid layout type was the primary focus of the testing call, feedback on it was limited to suggestions for consolidating the various options between the grid layout, Columns block, Gallery block, and Table block. Despite being a focal point, there was little mention of patterns in the template creation experience, suggesting that the consistency in pattern mental model was successful.
First: the Instawp link was precious, and made everything work smoothly right away. The editor is becoming quite powerful, and I am increasingly enjoying the flexibility of working with blocks, layouts, patterns, and templates…However, it boils down to a higher cognitive load overall while performing tasks in the editor, compared to the classic editing experience. It is powerful, but it creates multiple contexts for similar operations, with an increasingly greater number of options and pop-ups. It is getting better, though. I know some of this can be attributed to the newness of everything, and it will take time until I — and everyone else — feel completely at home in the editor. We’re in a transitional era where users — and even developers — are becoming visual site builders, so I think this is inevitable.
@pagelab in this comment.
It is incredible that I can create new pages from the menu and can edit the pages from the same site without having to page by page editing our content. Specially interesting to create a website for clients.
@soivigol in this comment.
I created three draft pages: biography, discography, and buy. I assumed that the draft page referred to in the dark grey 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. under Navigation was the “page posts” page. Since we had only created draft pages before, seeing them listed under the new Navigation menuNavigation Menu A theme feature introduced with Version 3.0. WordPress includes an easy to use mechanism for giving various control options to get users to click from one place to another on a site. oriented me towards a page content editing function. But when I was presented with “a page with many texts inside, which didn’t look like a page but should be a page,” I became completely disoriented. 🙃 I even created another local instance of WordPress, thinking that I had encountered a bug.
@Franz00 in this comment.
The Navigation block featured heavily in this call for testing, leading to most new issues touching on the current experience with three folks mentioning a delay in proper naming of draft pages. The experience of adding a new page in the Site Editor experience is an important one, particularly with the backdrop of adding content editing.
New:
Previous:
It doesn’t always display the full word “Inspiration” depending on how fast I type or pause while typing. Sometimes “Inspira” or “Inspirati”. Some sort of confused debouncing behavior.
@robglidden in this comment.
Folks requested a few features in this call for testing mainly around the specifics of creating navigation and how that relates to using the Site Editor at large.
New:
Previous
Going to the Editor. For a short moment I see Styles, Templates and Template Parts. Suddenly a half second later I see Navigation at the top. It is distracting seeing 3 areas and then a moment later 4 areas. I have sometimes clicked almost immediately and then I have end up clicking into the wrong area.
@paaljoachim in this comment.
I miss the list view while editing on a mobile device as there’s no quick way to visualize the block structure without it. It is the most reliable and stable 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. navigation point within the block editor, in my opinion.
@pagelab in this comment.
Usability feedback repeated much of what’s already known and is actively being worked on, including the tension between templates <> content and improvements to adding links to the Navigation block by reducing the number of steps needed.
Personally, I miss having all my content (posts, pages, categories) and navigation options visible at once, all the time, without having to see a bunch of other options for other tasks. It’s just easier than clicking three or four times in the site editor UI, in multiple places, just to see what content is available to add as a menu item.
@pagelab in this comment.
The Grid block is a very small beginning of something that can expand into something very useful. That can become a base for the Columns, Table and Gallery blocks. With each their own variation/unique features.
@paaljoachim in this comment.
The site already had a Navigation section and I wanted to rearrange the one I just created. But the Navigation section in the sidebar did not let me select which of the menus I wanted to adjust. It just took one of the oldest ones I had. I expected that somewhere perhaps on the bottom that I would be able to switch menus and even select which is primary and as well as other selections in how a specific menu is to be used.
@paaljoachim in this comment.
In the new pages, it was confusing. I didn’t see where I had written the new content. When I changed to edit About page, then I can see how I had written the new content in the Post Content Block. Then, I went back to the new pages and I had to search the Post Content Block in List View to edit correctly the pages… when we go to edit new pages, I think that the Post Content Block should have a placeholder to see where to begin to write or add new content.
@soivigol in this comment.
This post is a summary of the Build a Block Theme exploration for the FSE outreach program, the twenty-first effort. As always, I want to highlight those who helped to bring others along with them in this latest effort:
Shout out to @jameskoussertari @soivigol @gaambo as first time contributors for this exploration. Expect a badge on your WordPress profiles for your contribution!
As a reminder, explorations are more open-ended ways of exploring the Site Editor and gathering feedback, sometimes involving work in progress features and very early prototypes. In this case, we used the Create BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Theme 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 to augment the Site Editor into even more of a block theme building tool in order to test the limits of what’s possible and find gaps.
Watch the experience
@paaljoachim and @nomadskateboarding both took videos sharing their experiences that you can watch below:
High level summary
Using the Site Editor alongside the Create Block Theme plugin supercharges the experience, mainly by filling in gaps around font management and offering more nuanced creating/exporting options. With these added features, the Site Editor is both left to shine as a theme building tool and the current known pain points impacting regular site building come to the surface, like needing more clarity around where layers of styles are coming from. In general, feedback fell into three categories: Create Block Theme plugin pain points, missing options in the Site Editor (font management, synced patterns, desire for more styling options with certain blocks), and 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. considerations for the Site Editor that match the site building experience. This all underscores how addressing key points of current feedback about the base experience of the Site Editor, including on mobile, will cascade to improve broader use cases, like using it as a theme building tool. To make the feedback easier to understand, anything specific to the Create Block Theme plugin has been marked as such.
Since I’m not a designer but would love to have a proper spacing layout, good hierarchy of headings, and a harmonious color palette, I then copied some of those elements from a couple of themes. For spacing values (spacing.spacingSizes and styles.spacing.blockGap), I copied them from the Frost theme and adopted the predefined font size values of headings & paragraphs from the Beaumont theme. As for the color palette, I sought a monochromatic color scheme, which I generated from W3School’s color schemes.I previously wrote custom CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. to set the site-title & post-title’s text-decoration to none, but later found out that it can be done in 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.. So my theme doesn’t use custom CSS anymore.
@franz00 in this comment.
I did previously a Block Theme with code and created some sections with the Site Editor and copy/paste the code. But this advance is grateful! It’s incredible, can create a Block Theme no writing any code 🙌
@soivigol in this comment.
Bugs
Most of the bugs found related to the experience of using the Site Editor on mobile web with basic options like undo/redo buttons not being visible, with a few additional bugs across the broader Site Editor experience and Create Block Theme plugin.
When arranging the site title and site tagline next to each other with the Row variation, there’s no setting for the CSS property align-items, which with the value baseline would allow the smaller site tagline to be nicely aligned with the site title. I can add an extra class for this and it works in the backend, but in the frontend my class is overwritten by the default is-layout-flex class, which has align-items: center. In the backend, the order of the classes is correct, while in the frontend the custom classes load too early and are overwritten by the WP default classes, so I have to use !important here.
@luminuu in this comment.
Feature Requests
Outside of major missing features, like the ability to sync patterns globally or modify interactive states for blocks, most folks either expressed a need for more advanced features catering to power users, including the ability to disable templates or set fallback fonts, and additional options for individual blocks to broaden stylistic possibilities.
New:
Previous
How the heck do I delete pre existing templates? Such as Two Page templates Page (Large 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.) and Page (No Separators). As well as the extra Single Post (No Seperators) template.
@paaljoachim in this comment.
Patterns are a fantastic way to provide clients and users prebuilt layouts for rapid website creation. Unfortunately though, they lack one important feature, which would take them from being great to absolutely amazing. This missing feature is the ability to sync and edit patterns globally, without altering the content within them.
@jameskoussertari in this comment.
When I saved and returned to the previous screen a “System font” was added as well. How would I go about specifying a fallback font? Eg I normally use “Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif” as fallbacks for font-family – I guess this is only possible via custom CSS?
@soivigol in this comment.
What I found confusing is that for typography, there’s the preset font sizes (S, M, L, XL) but there’s no interface to change those preset sizes globally from the editor. Same for the defaults of Padding, Margin, Block Spacing and similar items.
@luminuu in this comment.
General usability
Outside of issues related to the Create Block Theme plugin, usability concerns all touched on currently known patterns of feedback, from improved grouping of templates to needing to reimagine the Styles information architecture to improve the baseline intuitiveness. In particular, styling challenges were the most common as folks sought to create something new from scratch and ran into points of confusion around the hierarchy of styles, how to quickly use the Styles interface, and current gaps in the experience.
New:
Previous:
I add a Header pattern and now I have one official Header template part where I see it has the Header template part label. The other newly added Header pattern does not have the Header template label but is in a Row. How do I make the new pattern become the Header template part?
@paaljoachim in this comment.
After examining the troubled templates and patterns, I found that the image path was going to the theme’s root assets/images folder. Copying the required images to the said folder solved the problem. Learning from this, I wondered if the image copying could be done during the CBT overwriting process and whether the overwriting process of templates that used coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.’s patterns could output the result to the HTMLHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites. template only instead of the HTML + PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php. pattern to minimize confusion.
@franz00 in this comment.
I like the link to Global Styles in the Appearance > Editor menu.
@antigone7 in this comment.
Styling buttons (the block and elements) is split into “typography” and “colors”. This hierarchy may make sense and it’s a way how many plugins in the past implemented in the 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.. Still another way may be “I want to style buttons, now show me all controls to style buttons”. At the moment one has to go into typography for text and then into color for colors.
@gaambo in this comment.
I didn’t have to use the Custom CSS. But for this, I have wrapped the featured imageFeatured image A featured image is the main image used on your blog archive page and is pulled when the post or page is shared on social media. The image can be used to display in widget areas on your site or in a summary list of posts. in a group block to give it margin. I think that it is a good idea to can insert Custom CSS, why in this case, it is a better practice to set an Additional Class in the Featured Image Block and give it style with a few CSS lines. It’s interesting to have this option, but the location is difficult to reach. I had a frustration until to I found.
@soivigol in this comment.
Top level typography styles: The icons for the different entries sometimes communicate current state (eg the background color on the button item), but other settings (eg removing text-decoration underline from link) does not change that. So the list is kind of mixed of current styles and base-styles. The text Aa icon seems to have a different font (the one i defined?) than heading and captions (allthough heading / captions do inherit that font).
@soivigol in this comment.
I had adjusted the font size under Styles -> Typography -> Text to be higher than the default one, however it would not apply to all blocks in the content. I had to manually update Post Date, Categories and Tags. For the Post Author and Post Content blocks changing the font size to a custom of 21px did not have any effect on the block. For the post content block, the font size is set at the surrounding div, but does not apply to the paragraph child elements, as there’s a default CSS p { font-size: 16px }, which came from a the font size setting in the Paragraph block, as I found out after some testing. I wonder where the 16px from came from, either from the Create Block Theme or some default setting in WP?
@luminuu in this comment.
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.