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.
Hello and welcome to Week in Test, the place where contributors of any skill level can find opportunities to contribute to WordPress through testing. For even more talk about testing, join the Test Team over in #core-test.
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Calls for Testing can originate from any team, from themes to mobile apps to feature plugins. The following posts highlight features and releases that need special attention:
Help Test WordPress 6.1 (get involved)You’ve heard all the “cool kids” 😎 talking about it: 6.1 Beta 1 was released on Wednesday, and is available for testing. See the 6.1 Call for Testing post for a rundown of major new features and tips for testing. Prereleases of 6.1 will be available until its official release the first week of November, so 🗓please provide feedback before 1 November 2022.
Take on the roll of an intrepid website owner who makes the switch from Twenty Twenty to Twenty Twenty-Two. Discover 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. site editing by working with navigation, 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 footer patterns, categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. templates, and more! Includes a testing option for users without a dev environment. 🗓Please leave feedback by 6 October 2022. #fse-outreach-program
Would you like to help organize calls for testing? Help work toward a bug-free WordPress and become a testing facilitator.
Here’s a roundup of active tickets that are ready for testing contributions.
Did you know that contributions with the Test Team are also a fantastic way to level up your WordPress knowledge and skill? Dive in to contribute, and gain coveted props 😎 for a coming release.
Who? Any contributor.
Why? It is helpful to show an issue exists for other users in order to move a ticket forward for patching.
The following new tickets are awaiting review, and need testers to attempt to reproduce the reported issue (aka “repro”), and then provide a reproduction test report with the results:
Who? All contributors (not just developers) who can set up a local testing environment.
Why? It is necessary to apply proposed patches and test per the testing instructions in order to validate that a patch fixes the issue.
The following tickets have been reviewed and a patch provided, and need testers to apply the patch and manually test, then provide feedback through a patch test report:
WP_Posts_List_Table class._n).Who? Any QA or 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. developer contributors who can (or are interested in learning how to) build automated PHPUnit tests.
Why? Automated tests improve the software development feedback 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. for quality and backward compatibility.
The following 6.1 tickets need PHPUnit tests built to accompany their respective patches:
serialize() with print_r() in stats() function in wp-includes/cache.php.WP_Widget_Block outputs empty container if 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. has no output.E_DEPRECATED in PasswordHash::gensalt_blowfish.Congrats and thank you to the following contributors who have earned the Test Contributor profile badge:
<release-party>:
<test-chat> in #core-test.<test-scrub> in #core-test.Interested in hosting a
<test-scrub>? Test Team needs you! Check out Leading Bug Scrubs for details, or inquire in #core-test for more info.
Special thanks to @annezazu and @laurlittle for review of this post.
Save the date! WordPress 6.1 is scheduled for release on 1 November 2022. This release is the culmination of over 360 updates and 370 bug fixes. Check out last week’s 6.1 Product Walk-Through for a visual overview of major features shipping with 6.1.
For a list of when each pre-release build will be available for download, refer to the WordPress 6.1 Release Schedule. And drop by the #core-test Slack channel to chat about testing, attend a weekly scheduled team meeting, or a test scrub!
Please only test on a development siteDevelopment Site You can keep a copy of your live site in a separate environment. Maintaining a development site is a good practice that can let you make any changes and test them without affecting the live/production environment. and not on a production/live site. You can follow these instructions to set up a local installLocal Install A local install of WordPress is a way to create a staging environment by installing a LAMP or LEMP stack on your local computer., or use a tool like this to set up a development site.
Once your development site is set up, please install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester Plugin. After activation:
For more detailed steps, click here for complete instructions.
At a high level, here are a few tips to keep in mind to get the most out of helping to test:
Important Note: Anything marked with a tool icon (🛠) is more technical, and may be best suited for those comfortable with more advanced testing steps.
WordPress 6.1 introduces a new default theme, Twenty Twenty-Three (aka TT3). This theme ships with 10 unique Styles variations, the result of a month-long community design collaboration, with submissions from around the globe.
In addition to activating and testing the base TT3 theme itself, please refer to the official Styles documentation for more information on accessing and modifying theme Styles.
Community designers have banded together to produce a new collection of Header and Footer block patterns for use in all themes.
To help make finding patterns for specific use, new categorization has been added to the pattern chooser to identify patterns by type. To test, look for the new categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. dropdown, and explore the different options available for your theme.
The Quote and List blocks have been supercharged, and now support inner blocks. For instance, Quote can now contain any inner block, such as Heading, Image, List, or even another Quote. And List items are now treated as individual blocks, which makes sorting much easier than before.
To test these updates, create and reorder lists, and make quotes more expressive with inner block options.
The first version of fluid typography support via theme.json is shipping with WordPress 6.1, which allows theme authors to set text that adapts to the user’s viewport.
For details and testing instructions, see Testing and Feedback for the Fluid Typography Feature.
Now classic themes can adopt block-based template parts through a new add_theme_support( 'block-template-parts' ); flag. For guidelines on testing this feature, see the Testing and feedback for using block based template parts in classic themes post.
The WordPress editor has undergone extensive usability improvements, including better consistency between editor design controls, and extending style options to a broader range of blocks. These updates allow for more fine-tuned design control over content, enhancing the editor experience.
These improvements have been extended to a long list of block types that can be tested in 6.1:
Additionally, detailed information on testing specific block features can be found at the following issue tracking links:
With 6.1 comes a new Style engine, bringing with it numerous opportunities to optimize and improve style management in themes. Explore each of the following features for information on testing this new functionality.
add_theme_support( 'disable-layout-styles' ); flag..is-layout-flow and .is-layout-flex.Themes that don’t use a theme.json file can now opt-in to enable the editor’s global styles Appearance Tools. To test, add the add_theme_support( 'appearance-tools' ); feature support flag to your theme, and see the Appearance Tools documentation for supported CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. styles.
Note that adopting Appearance Tools in a classic theme can introduce some unexpected visual changes when applying new default styles (via the support flag) or user-selected styles (modified through the editor). Therefore adopters are encouraged to test thoroughly to be aware of how their individual theme is affected.
As an alternative to providing users with full control over spacing, block themes can now define preset spacing ranges in theme.json to ensure greater consistency throughout the theme.
To learn more about how to implement and test this feature, see these PRs: padding presets, margin presets, and block gap presets.
Locking features have been extended to Patterns, providing theme authors control over the intended design, and providing users with a more streamlined experience while building out content. See the "templateLock":"contentOnly" update for testing instructions.
Locks on blocks also get a much desired update with the ability to quickly apply selected locks to all blocks within a container block, rather than applying locks individually to each inner block. (Now say that ten times fast! 😉) Applies to Column, Cover, and Group blocks. Testing information for this feature can be found at the content lock PR.
The template selection and creation process in the editor has been extended and streamlined, offering an easier way to find, apply, and modify templates, template parts, and patterns – all without code. This has been achieved through the following updates:
To test these updates, begin by creating templates for specific categories, pages, and more. You can also add and edit templates for custom posts types and taxonomies. Get very specific and offer a different template for single categories or tags.
The Cover block now supports using 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. to streamline users’ content editing workflows.
To test this feature, refer to the featured image in media placeholder PR.
Theme authors now have the ability to include patterns for any post type — including custom post types — as well as the ability to prioritize these patterns for their users.
To test this feature, authors can add a patterns folder to their theme, and add these two sample files: new-event-announcement.php and event-recap.php (provided courtesy of #fse-outreach-program). Then try adding a new post to confirm that these custom patterns appear.
Also refer to the ability to use creation patterns for other post types PR for more information on testing starter patterns.
If you find any issues, it’s best to share them on the WordPress.org alpha/beta forums, or if you are more technically savvy and comfortable, on Core Trac. For helpful reporting guidelines, refer to the Test Reports section of the Test Handbook.
Please share feedback as soon as you can before the release on 1 November 2022.
A huge thank you 🙏🏻 to @annezazu, @boniu91, and @dansoschin for review and contributions to this post.
This post is the seventeenth call for testing as part of the Full Site Editing Outreach Program. For more information about this experimental program, please review this FAQ for helpful details. To properly join the fun, please head to #fse-outreach-experiment in Make Slack for future testing announcements, helpful posts, and more will be shared there.
Friendly Reminder
If anyone is interested in being a part of the test creation or facilitation process, check out this recent post on how to get involved.
With each major WordPress release, there are more people who are likely to be in the position of switching to a blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. theme world from a classic theme. With 6.1 approaching in November, this call for testing is rooted in exploring that experience. The form of this test is going to be both prescriptive with steps to take in order to ensure certain features are covered and, at points, open ended so you can explore and think of areas to improve.
To make it more fun, you’re going to step into the shoes as the owner of the 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/ Gallery website. A simple site focused on sharing information about exhibits, current calls for submissions, and ways to stay in touch. After hearing about full site editing features for a while now, you’re deciding to take the plunge and switch from the trusty Twenty Twenty theme to Twenty Twenty-Two. Along the way, you’ll interact with the following and more:
Theme switching
As we’ve explored previously with switching between block themes, there are a lot of both quick wins and overarching decisions to be made. The same is true for switching from classic to block themes. For example, right now there’s not a clear pathway for widgets. Ultimately, the more insights around how to ease this experience and make it feel magical, the more relevant block themes become.
Improved fallbacks and menu management with the navigation block
To offer a better “out of the box” experience with the navigation block, various fallback options have been implemented so the menu you are most likely to want to use is available. This test seeks to explore that and ensure it does truly provide a better default experience. Separately, the interface for menu selection and management has been moved to a dedicated section in the block settings to make it more prominent and easier to work with. You can also pick from a set of icons to better personalize your mobile menu.
New 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 Footer Patterns
Coming to 6.1, these carefully designed block patterns represent a consolidation of recurring headers and footers, simplified in order to work well across themes. When it comes to embracing a block theme, these should help folks quickly find the basics of what they might need to make a site their own in a few clicks.
Zoomed out mode
This experimental tool allows you to focus more on site building than on editing granular blocks by both allowing you to see the entire layout a bit more and always selecting the top level block (often container blocks like Groups or Template Parts). If you use the Quick Inserter, you’re met with patterns instead of blocks to continue the emphasis on more high level actions one might take to customize.
CategoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. Templates
This test once more explores creating a category specific template in order to offer a more tailored experience of looking at specific folks. This aligns nicely with the Gutenberg Gallery where you might want to emphasize different things depending on whether someone is looking at the posts about submissions or exhibit recaps.
Design tools galore
It’s hard to miss how many design tools have been added to even more blocks. Because there are so many new options, this test doesn’t necessarily dive into the details like they have in the past. Instead, please note and explore the various additional options unlocking new possibilities as you go.
Note on InstaWP
As noted previously, the folks behind InstaWP have granted the outreach program an account that we can use for these calls for testing. This means if you want to skip setting up your own test site and instead use a temporary one, you can do so. When you set up a site with InstaWP, no email addresses will be collected which means you’ll need to save the link to access the site again. Big thank you to the InstaWP team for making it even easier for folks to participate in the future of WordPress.
To use a prebuilt test site:
To set up your own test site:
Get familiar with your current site
Switch to a block theme
Use Styles and the zoomed out view to design your site
Customize your navigation
Explore new headers or footers
Create a category specific
Customize your site further – here are some ideas:
What to notice:
This post is a summary of the sixteenth call for testing for the FSE outreach program. As always, I want to highlight those who helped to bring others along with them in this latest effort:
High-level summary
Because this call for testing allowed for folks to explore different areas as much or as little as they wanted to, feedback was mainly caught up in the minutiae of larger features and experiences. Throughout each of these individual points, it’s very clear that an effort to take a step back and stabilize the following would go a long way in particular:
Outside of the above, Patterns and Document Settings both received very little if any critical feedback, reflecting the strength of the current experience. For any designers and developers who want to see someone walk through the experience, I want to also mention the following videos from @paaljoachim to check out as you see fit:
Confirmed Bugs
The following bugs were found in the current experience, all of which were new:
The transforms all worked as expected, however some of the transforms were not super intuitive at first but I think made sense after I understood what they were doing. The transform to columns on multiple clicks of it ended up creating many many columns blocks wrapped inside each other. It was not clear why columns was an option to transform to, but now I am assuming it is so that you can quickly wrap an element into a columns block.
@chopinbach in this comment.
Another time, when I was looking to transform a heading, the “preview” would sometimes be cut off. You can see this in the below video, especially the preview for transforming it to a paragraph. What’s odd is that hovering up and down over the different options, it sometimes displayed correctly and sometimes not.
@clubkert in this comment.
It is a mystery to me when or why this happens. It seems to happen more when I drop to the end of the post, but it also happens when I drop the row between two paragraphs.
@robglidden in this comment.
Feature Requests
At a high level, most feature requests related to better organization for block transforms as folks ran into various dead ends and clunky steps to switch between blocks:
For the final item around having a way to revert to an original image, this stands out as particularly important to consider when one looks ahead at the various options potentially added to image alterations in the future, from duotone to object fit options.
Changing a paragraph into any blocks can easily be reverted back into a Paragraph Block, except when it is changed to a Code Block. While one can easily unwrap a quote back to a paragraph, or revert a pullquote, a preformatted, a verse, a heading, or a list back to paragraph block. The same effortlessness is gone once the paragraph is transformed to a Code Block. Here one is faced with unintuitive options to operate on the Code Block (quote, preformatted, group, columns, custom 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.). To transform the Code Block into a paragraph, it needs to be changed into a Preformatted Block first.
@franz00 in this comment.
I cannot remove a crop on an image, only replace it with the original from the media library. I would like to be told a new image was created. It would be nice if the image block would be smart enough to have a “revert to original” button and know which image in the media library to revert to.
@robglidden in this comment.
General Usability
As mentioned in the high level overview, both drag & drop and block transforms were key items that recurred throughout this call for testing. This was particularly true when thinking about usability since, at times, transforms felt smooth and obvious whereas at other points it led you through what one described as a “labyrinth”. Drag and drop felt similarly inconsistent with the ability to both easily move a large collection of blocks in one moment and the next being unable to add a block to an empty Columns block.
Text transforms generally worked fine, but feels a bit like a labyrinth. As there are different transforms based on what the current block is. It feels a bit random.
@paaljoachim in this comment.
The transform to columns on multiple clicks of it ended up creating many many columns blocks wrapped inside each other. It was not clear why columns was an option to transform to, but now I am assuming it is so that you can quickly wrap an element into a columns block…Changing blocks to another type and eventually not being able to change back to the original type was somewhat frustrating, but not a big deal.
@chopinbach in this comment.
It is sometimes strange when you want to move a section somewhere else in the list view with the mouse. The positioning is not always cleanly possible.
@hage in this comment.
One thing I noticed was the cover block gave me an option to convert it to an image block (which made sense). The other options were column block or group block. When I tried the group block, it didn’t actually transform into a group block. It created a group block on top of (or around? not sure what the right terminology) the existing cover block. This actually seemed useful. But isn’t what I would have thought by “transform.”
@clubkert in this comment.
Moving images is done successfully both by drag & drop the blocks in the List View, and by using the move up/down chevrons in the image’s Block Toolbar. But the image movement is failed when I use the Move to option in the image’s Block Toolbar. Or perhaps my expectation isn’t inline with its designated usage.
@franz00 in this comment.
This post is the sixteenth call for testing as part of the Full Site Editing Outreach Program. For more information about this experimental program, please review this FAQ for helpful details. To properly join the fun, please head to #fse-outreach-experiment in Make Slack for future testing announcements, helpful posts, and more will be shared there.
Friendly Reminder
If anyone is interested in being a part of the test creation or facilitation process, check out this recent post on how to get involved.
This call for testing returns us to some of the basics of using the blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor. While it can be fun and exciting to dig into the cutting edge items, it’s just as important to ensure the baseline experience continues to be excellent. This is especially true when full site editing as a concept brings the block paradigm to more parts of the site experience. To that end, the format of this test is going to take on a more open ended, scavenger hunt style experience. As you go through it, you’ll explore the following various features:
Transform menu
Each block offers various blocks you can transform to and from in order to quickly take the same content you currently have and switch it into a new block.
Select text across blocks
This feature was launched in WordPress 6.0 and works with any Rich Text block (Paragraph, Heading, List, and Quote). How can it be improved though? What rough edges can you find?
Drag and drop
Drag and drop is a classic part of the block editor experience, whether you’re writing a post or creating a template. As WordPress evolves with new blocks and new features, it’s important these original features continue to perform and remain reliable.
Various add block options
Adding blocks comes in a few forms: the inserter, slash inserter (/), quick inserter, sibling inserter, and the “insert before/after” options built into the additional menu of each block. Ensuring each appears and functions as expected is key to being able to create what you want with blocks.
New document settings and experience
The document settings were recently revamped in Gutenberg 13.7:
The fields for post format, slug, template, and authors are aligned and have the same width. The template displays ‘default template’ instead of none, and the Permalink link opens a popover to edit the slug, when clicked. The result is a cleaner, more organized display that should help you more readily access all the important information about your post/page at a glance.
Using patterns
Patterns are increasingly important to the creation process and this test explores the basics of adding, moving, and customizing them.
And more!
This covers the high level items but you can expect to also use duotone, dimension controls, 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 cover block, etc if you complete each smaller task.
Note on InstaWP
The folks behind InstaWP have granted the outreach program an account that we can use for these calls for testing. This means if you want to skip setting up your own test site and instead use a temporary one, you can do so. When you set up a site with InstaWP, no email addresses will be collected which means you’ll need to save the link to access the site again. Big thank you to the InstaWP team!
Launch test site or setup test environment
To set up your own test site:
Overview of content on the test site
Once your test site is in place, please perform the following tasks in one or more of the three posts available in whatever order you’d like! None of the posts have a featured image set and they are all intentionally set as drafts. You do not need to run through all of these and it’s intentional that the task is left open ended, where there might be multiple ways to accomplish the task at hand. While the list looks long, each task should be quick, needing typically just a few seconds of action so please run through as many as you can.
Align, move, and customize images
Add, move, transform text blocks
/, quick inserter, and sibling) as possible.Insert and reorder patterns
Adjust the document settings
What to notice:
This post is a summary of the fifteenth call for testing for the FSE outreach program. As always, I want to highlight those who helped to bring others along with them in this latest effort:
Shout out to @clubkert @chopinbach @franz00 @osamunize @eboxnet for being first time contributors. Expect a badge on your WordPress profiles for your contribution!
High-level summary
As with prior calls for testing that centered on using 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. 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 current experience remains equal parts magical and clunky to configure exactly as one wants. When combined with the fact that when creating a new template, you’re met with an empty view, this call for testing mainly weights towards feature requests to ease the experience rather than outright bugs. Of all of what’s shared here, these are the most repeated items of feedback: unclear UX for how to get out of a locked block with headings & paragraph blocks, improve the verbiage around the Query Block settings and revise Query Block controls, edit site link should open the current template, and add fallback template content on creation.
The addition of starter patterns with locked blocks when creating a new post offered a peak at how streamlined and curated the experience can be while also revealing that more visual cues are needed to better understand what exactly is happening, particularly with locked blocks and layout controls. Most of what was discussed matches what has been previously found which underscores the impact resolving these repeated key problems will have.
For any designers and developers who want to see someone walk through the experience, I want to also mention the following videos to check out to see the call for testing in action:
To help ground the following feedback, here are some quotes about the overall experience to keep in mind:
It’s so smooth and easy. The fact that you can create template overrides for specific categories is brilliant. I can’t wait to use that on a custom theme with custom blocks. Post patterns are also great!
@eboxnet in this comment.
So cool to see how far FSE has come and all of the improvements related to templates. We’re getting closer to the power of the template hierarchy of traditional themes!
@bgturner in this comment.
Selecting “categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging.” from the “Add new” template menu was unintuitive for me. That 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. implies to me that I could add many “category” templates, which is not true. That confused me as to whether I would be creating a “category” template for every type of category, or choosing which categories to assign the template to. When I realized I couldn’t add another “category” I figured out what was going on…I enjoyed playing around with 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. / cover interaction and the “inner blocks use full width” feature. At the end of the test it was also cool to see the category template in use.
@arturgrabo in this comment.
Maybe I am too used to classic WordPress themes with 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 footer pretty much always there. But it was very easy to create the template without a footer or header. Which obviously is cool that you can do that, but for whatever reason my brain was expecting header and footer to be auto included by default.
@chopinbach in this comment.
Confirmed Bugs
Previously reported:
New issues:
Locked heading blocks in the provided templates were super, duper frustrating. With normal heading blocks, if I press “return” at the end of a heading I get a paragraph block. With the locked headings I got stuck in the heading blocks. This felt like a major departure from typical interactions in the block editor.
@arturgrabo in this comment.
Feature Requests
As reflected in the high level summary, most feature requests have been mentioned before with a particular focus on various refinements, like adding a “view site” link in the editor or renaming “default template” in the template panel to match what one would see in the template list. While these are listed as feature requests, the lack of each adds up quickly creating an experience that accomplishes what you want but not without repeated moments of confusion.
New issues:
Previously reported:
Another thing that feels a bit bumpy is when saving the template, there’s no way to quickly access your site again.
@luminuu in this comment.
It sometimes feels like I am “trapped” in the site editor without an easy way to get back to the dashboard. One suggestion would be having a dropdown to select whether I want to go back to the dashboard vs. see Site/Template/Template part editor. Similarly, I sometimes wish there was a “view site” option from the site editor. Again, I feel trapped.
@clubkert in this comment
I would prefer to have the same experience each time. It’s confusing to suddenly see patterns when I was expecting blocks. I would like to always see blocks first with a button or such to switch to the patterns.
@antigone7 in this comment.
I found that a different role will have a slightly different saving experience. Under administrator role, after I clicked publish for a new event or a new event recap, a suggestion menu to assign a category appeared. But this didn’t happen under an author role. So, author will have to go back to post tab, if she just remembered that she hasn’t assigned an event category to the post.
@franz00 in this comment.
It works very well, as long as you remember to select “Inherit query from template” when you add the Query Loop. (I forget sometimes.) So I had different templates for one category over all the others.
@antigone7 in this comment.
So I would prefer if it said “Template Single” instead of “Template Default Template”. Or maybe “Template Single (Default)”, though I don’t see how being shown Single is the default is really helpful at that moment.
@robglidden in this comment.
General Usability
Feedback from this experience centered heavily on the Query Loop block and template creation experiences, rather than using block locking or post patterns or the featured image in the Cover block, despite those being newer features. As with every call for testing where a new template is being created, the experience of being dropped into an empty template to build from scratch is underwhelming. Determining when and how to use various settings for controlling both layout and query options continues to be a major 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. This will likely be eased when better defaults are available (Query loop block automatically added with “inherit query by default” set to true) rather than needing to create more from scratch, even with patterns.
Please ensure to read the quotes below as they help give context to what’s shared below as simple issues.
I really liked the “Inner blocks use full width” option, but I could not figure out what the “Wide” setting did. Changing the value didn’t do anything, and both the icon and description were unclear.
@arturgrabo in this comment.
In the template editor, I was expecting the center-top dropdown (which said home initially) to allow me to easily switch to different templates.
@clubkert in this comment.
When using the query loop block, it isn’t immediately obvious how to view other design options. One suggestion would be to have the grid view displayed by default and allow someone to choose the single view as an option.
@clubkert in this comment.
I don’t mind curated blocks or locked blocks at all… I only wish that the visual editor will prepare me (or the common user as the intended user of a bespoke theme) when dealing with curated blocks…Perhaps giving the curated block a different color? Or any sign that it is not your usual kind of block?
@franz00 in this comment.
When selecting an “Event Recap” pattern, the caption was not visible in the preview because the pattern was too long vertically, and had to scroll to confirm it.
@osamunize in this comment.
Editing the layout of a group is a little tricky. I think getting more comfortable with the 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. would help, but having additional feedback around what is selected and where I can move things would be helpful.
@bgturner in this comment.
This blur is too strong/too much contrast. It would be helpful with a much more subtle blur. As the current background blur is exhausting on the eyes.
@paaljoachim in this comment.
The Inherit query from template toggle is not obvious for the average non-dev to enable.
@courane01 in this comment.
This post is the fifteenth call for testing as part of the Full Site Editing Outreach Program. For more information about this experimental program, please review this FAQ for helpful details. To properly join the fun, please head to #fse-outreach-experiment in Make Slack for future testing announcements, helpful posts, and more will be shared there.
This call for testing focuses on what, on the surface, feels like a common task you might have done in the Site Editor: creating a new template and applying it to some posts. As you go through the tasks though, the way the following features align will hopefully surprise you and show you a greater layer of depth in the site editing experience.
More template options
Expanding what templates can be created from the Site Editor continues to be a high priority with a number of new options to explore. This test in particular will focus on the general CategoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. template but stay tuned for Gutenberg 13.7 (the next version) when you’ll be able to create a template for a specific category. This means you could have a different template for all your posts categorized as “WordPress” for example! Depending on when you participate in this call for testing, that means you might have access to this new option to explore too.
New template picker design
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/ 13.6 offers a new, streamlined template picker design that helps both conserve space and more naturally align with other post details:
More descriptive layout controls
If you’ve been left confused by every mention of “Inherit Default Layout”, the recent update to the description of this feature will be welcomed.
(Semi locked) Starter patterns when creating a new post
Both the patterns and the fact that various blocks are locked are all part of some of the features one can use to curate the editor experience. Even though these might not be incorporated out of the box with a new WordPress site, they are still important to test so that those who do rely on them have a great experience. In this case, the test goes through the new starter patterns that were first introduced in WordPress 6.0 with pages and are now available for any post type with Gutenberg 13.6. As a bonus, a few blocks are locked in each pattern to help explore more granular ways to control the experience.
Using a 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 Cover 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.
Another feature from WordPress 6.0 is making an appearance in this test, alongside some subsequent improvements to the placeholder when the featured image is in use and the easier discoverability of the option itself in the media replace option.
Helpful Hint: As you go through this test, you might find the List View helpful while navigating between content.
Note on InstaWP
The folks behind InstaWP have granted the outreach program an account that we can use for these calls for testing. This means if you want to skip setting up your own test site and instead use a temporary one, you can do so. When you set up a site with InstaWP, no email addresses will be collected which means you’ll need to save the link to access the site again. Big thank you to the InstaWP team!
Launch test site or setup test environment
To use a prebuilt test site:
To set up your own test site:
Create a category template
Create two new posts to explore patterns
View your category template
yoursiteurl.com/category/events/What to notice:
Remember to share a screenshot of what you created if you’re up for it!
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:
@elmastudio @fabiankaegy @annezazu Lisa Synder @beckej @oglekler
Video Recording:
Topics
We mainly talked through the following different posts that help show both the complex problems at hand and potential thoughts around how to approach solutions:
Throughout the conversation, we had mini dives into various topics, including talking about comparing patterns, template parts, and reusable blocks. We also discussed how there are various layers in which to approach this work from the end user level to the deeper technical considerations. The hope throughout it all is to make these more complex and detailed explorations more understandable and engaging.
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:
@ndiego @annezazu @elmastudio and a Marcy joined us for a time.
Video Recording:
Topics
Briefly touched on two recent blog posts to be aware of:
What’s missing and what’s stopping people from switching to 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
Communicating the value of FSE
Patterns and opening up tooling
Difficulty with terminology
Naming of bock themes and the theme directory
Limitations of the pattern directory