Hi there,
It was a fairly normal WordPress week, apart from the general password reset for all plugin committers on the repository. That was highly unusual.
The release of WordPress 6.6 is moving along right on schedule. Release candidate 2 is out. The video Watch the Build: How WordPress Release Pages are Created in the Site Editor allows you a look behind the scene of this part of the release process.
Gutenberg 18.7 was also released. Together with my friend Maya, I recorded a Gutenberg changelog episode again, number 103. I just can’t get my head around that we already recorded over 100 shows. We also added new music.
This Weekend Edition has quite a few videos linked on what’s coming in WordPress 6.6, on Grid layouts, and Interactivity API. Something for everyone. To learn about new features and grasp their impact, it’s much easier to see them demo’ed in a video setting or screen share than just learn about it via a blog post or a podcast.
Wishing you a fabulous weekend!
Yours, 💕
Birgit
Developing Gutenberg and WordPress
First time release lead, Kai Hao, published Gutenberg plugin version 18.7 and highlighted in his release post What’s new in Gutenberg 18.7? (03 July), the feature of moving grid items around via drag and drop in manual mode, and new content panels for template parts, allowing developers and users to add descriptions to those sections.
Nadia Maya Ardiani and I reviewed the latest Gutenberg version for our Gutenberg Changelog episode 103. We also discussed the latest learning path courses by the training team, upcoming events and WordPress 6.6. The episode will be published over the weekend and arrive shortly after at your favorite podcast app. It was lovely to chat with my friend, Maya from Indonesia again.
🎙️ Latest episode: Gutenberg Changelog #104 – Block Themes, Gutenberg 18.8, WordPress 6.6 with special guest Carolina Nymark
Tammie Lister wrote on X (former Twitter): “Being sponsored to work on the WordPress default theme task force has been one of the most rewarding contribution areas for me in a while. I wrote a post about what has gone on so far. Thank you to everyone who supported me and collaborated.” You can read more about the project on her Update on default theme focus.
The work on the default theme Twenty Twenty-Five has begun with a fresh GitHub Repo. There isn’t much information available yet. After checking in with Caroline Nymark, who created the repo, I learned that the release squad for WordPress 6.7 hasn’t been announced; the repo is more a placeholder until the new theme leads are picked.
Upcoming events
July 8th, 2024 at 16:00 UTC Hallway Hangout: Section styles and other block style variation updates with Justin Tadlock and others: “At a technical level, the expanded tool set does not add too many new concepts to learn. However, in practice, working with these updates can present challenges and may even have you rethinking your approach to theme design.” says the description.
As already mentioned in Weekend Edition 297
July 9th, 2024, 15:00 UTC – Developer Hours: Editor unification and extensibility in WordPress 6.6.
July 23, 2024, at 15:00 UTC Developer Hours: Do you really need a custom block? Let’s explore alternatives.
Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners
Isabel Brison showed us in a Hallway Hangout how to work with the Grid block and what will be in WordPress 6.6. After answering questions, Brison also showed us what she is working on in a Gutenberg Experiment. Learn more via the post Recap Hallway Hangout: Exploring Grid Layouts.
You can also try things out via this Playground instance. The experiment is already enabled.
Anne McCarthy published videos on YouTube around WordPress 6.6. for content creators and site builders.
- Negative Margins, Grid Block, & Custom Shadows
- The power of a shared publishing flow & unified extensibility APIs
- Bringing a Modern Patterns Experience to Classic Themes
Bud Kraus selected for you the 6 Hot Changes Coming to WordPress 6.6 on the Hostinger Blog. He highlights Pattern overrides, the Grid block, Sections Styles, Data views, Pattern management for classic themes and negative margins. Kraus provides screenshots and instructions on how to use the features.
You might have waited for the video of WordCamp Europe’s edition of the Speed Build Challenge live on stage. Jamie Marsland published the actual Speed Build challenge and cut in from the Matt’s Summer Update and the Q & A after. Epic Showdown: Who will win WordCamp Europe’s First-Ever WordPress Speed Build? with Jessica Lyschik and Rich Tabor.
Stephanie Pi just announced WooCommerce 9.0: Our most accessible checkout and much more. It comes with an improved check-out experience, the next iteration of Product blocks, new REST-API endpoints for the refunds and much more. Actually, WooCommerce 9.0.1 came out a few days later, fixing what caused a fatal error on installations.
Carlo Daniele, blogger at Kinsta, has all the pertinent information about WordPress 6.6 in his post What’s new in WordPress 6.6: Pattern overrides, Block Bindings API, Data Views, new design tools, and much more! You’ll find short explanations, screenshots, and code examples on how to implement some new features into your projects.
Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks
One of my favorite plugins lately is the Create Block Theme plugin. The team working on it just released version 2.3
- Add image credits edit capabilities to the edit theme modal by @matiasbenedetto in #662
- Make external links translatable by @t-hamano in #663
- Add an about section in the editor by @matiasbenedetto in #667
- Landing Page: Improve design by @t-hamano in #673
- Persist font settings when cloning a theme by @mikachan in #678
Nick Diego collected 15 ways to curate the WordPress editing experience and explained each of them in his latest post for the WordPress Developer Blog. Diego covered all possible ways from disabling parts of the design tools, Block directory or Pattern directory to Openverse. Also, how to unregister core block styles and variations or formatting options for RichText blocks. If you build bespoke themes for client projects, some of this might be quite useful to make the block editor a streamlined experience for the client’s content creators, and stay true to branding and design requirements.
Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor.
Armando J. Perez-Carreno had a two-part conversation with Seth Rubenstein from the Pew Research Center, on how he and his team use the Interactivity API for their website. Rubenstein demonstrated the use of facets and the Interactivity API in creating dynamic and interactive blocks, as well as the concept of ‘atomic’ blocks.
- The Interactivity API in Action, a conversation with Seth Rubenstein
- Interactivity API: Getting Creative with Atomic Blocks
Joel Olawanle, technical writer at Kinsta, set out to help developers Preparing for React 19: a guide for WordPress 6.6 users.
Magdalena Paciorek gave a talk on Building custom post types with blocks at WordCamp Europe. The recording made it to WordPress TV for your perusal. In this session, she took a look at how to create bespoke WordPress websites that make use of custom post types directly in the site editor. Paciorek also explored how to build templates with blocks and examined different ways to extend the editor, including the use of block filters, block formats, custom block styles, block patterns, inner blocks, block locking, interactivity API, building our own blocks, and more.
Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg’s master branch?
Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review.
Now also available via WordPress Playground. There is no need for a test site locally or on a server. Have you been using it? Email me with your experience
Questions? Suggestions? Ideas?
Don’t hesitate to send them via email or
send me a message on WordPress Slack or Twitter @bph.
For questions to be answered on the Gutenberg Changelog,
send them to changelog@gutenbergtimes.com
