Dev Blog editorial meeting summary, December 14, 2023

Summary of the WordPress Developer Blogblog (versus network, site) meeting which took place in the  #core-dev-blog channel on the Make WordPress SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. Start of the meeting in Slack.

Attendees: @bph, @marybaum, @ndiego, @webcommsat, @greenshady, @ironnysh. Apologies: @milana_cap

Last meeting links: summary from last meeting on November 2, 2023 – props to @milana_cap for facilitating and @webcommsat for the summary.

Updates on the Developer Blog site 

1. Central documentation area
   • Following up on a previous discussion for a central area for documentation for writers, reviewers and admins, @bph has opened the Wiki space on the GitHub Repository. This will put all the little details into one place and an excellent way to organize the pieces.
   • In early 2024, she will provide a tracking issue for all the updates and new docs that need to be added, and a request for a few of the editorial group to assist in writing and reviewing. 
2. Redesign
   • The Developer Blog is part of the Redesigning Developer Resources and a call for testing.
   • @ndiego has addressed some MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. feedback on the PR yesterday, and it is nearly complete. This update will standardize the Blog to match the pending updates to Developer Resources and provide a solid platform for additional iterations in the future. He highlighted this update will make easier future updates. By using 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, future changes to the templates can be done more easily and directly. In addition, the Blog will inherit all the new functionality that has been developed for the Developer Resources site, such as, consistent spacing sizes, font sizes, local navigation, etc. Any further feedback is welcome.
   • The meeting thanked @ndiego, the Meta team and all involved for all their work on this.
   • Latest start of production expected early next week. Developer Resources will launch first, then the Blog updates. Further updates can be followed in the #website-redesign channel on Slack. 

Project board and status

Project Board on the Blog repo in GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/.

New posts

Six new Posts published since the last editorial meeting.

• What’s new for developers? (November 2023) by Justin Tadlock and Birgit Pauli-Haack.
  
• Getting started with the Command Palette API by Justin Tadlock. For feedback and review: @dansoschin, @bph, @juanmaguitar, and @richtabor 
  
• A great read—four simple steps to your best body copy ever by Mary Baum. Justin Tadlock, Abha Thakor, and Birgit Pauli-Haack for input and editing.
  
• Styles, patterns, and more with the Details block by Justin Tadlock. Mary Baum, Birgit Pauli-Haack for input and feedback.
  
• A walk-through tutorial on using Create Block Theme plugin by Ganesh Dahal. Editors Birgit Pauli-Haack and Abha Thakor, and Justin Tadlock for input
  
• What’s new for developers? (December 2023) which was a collaborative writing exercise with Justin Tadlock, Ryan Welcher, Nick Diego, JuanMa Garrido and Birgit Pauli-Haack.
  
• Tutorial on building patterns and block styles with Details/Summary block by Justin Tadlock. Feedback and reviews Mary Baum, Birgit Pauli-Haack, and Nick Diego.

@bph said: “A huge thank you to the writers, and their reviewers!! Fantastic job!”

Actions:

• Proposed by @webcommsat to include co-authors, editors and detailed reviewers names in this list in future meetings/ summary to reflect their input and time. This will also help to encourage more people to volunteer their skills to review, edit and writers to work together on a post. @marybaum and others confirmed the time commitment for a co-author or editor can be considerable, and this can be reflected in the inclusion of their 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/ ID. The inclusion of this additional detail was agreed to be added at the meeting. In the existing checklist, the principal writer of a post adds props to those who have been involved in the props channel on Slack.
• Suggestions for people who are good copy editors from other WordPress contributor teams to be shared with @bph for onboarding in 2024 when some additional documentation on expectations and tools is ready.

Posts in progress

In this and the following sections of the meeting summary, the links go to the WordPress Developer Blog repo on GitHub.

• Working with custom slotfills
• New developer focused workflow article about how the login and registration works in WordPress.
• Optimizing your WP_Query queries for better performance
• A tutorial about the highlights of the browser and focus modes of the Navigation Block
• What’s new for developers? (January 2024) #179

To-do list

• Using the Grid layout type for theme creators
• How to manage block governance
• Tutorial on building block-based templates in classic themes
• How to disable specific blocks in WordPress
• Creating a custom External Template for the @wordpress/create-block package
• Overview of the coding standards tooling available to WordPress developers
• An overview of the Block Hooks feature

In the last few months there has been a slowing down of writing and reviewing, due to contributors’ other demands, the release, and their own work commitments. Increasing the number of volunteers in these areas will help address this. Action, as above, on identifying good copy editors from other teams.

Actions:

• As Dev Chat has now concluded for 2023 and will be back in the second week of 2024, instead of @webcommsat sharing the monthly call out of posts that need writers in that meeting, it was agreed to wait until the next editorial meeting on January 4, 2024. 
• @webcommsat will include a link to the summary of the meeting in a comment on the Dev Chat summary when published.

Future topic ideas for approval

Many new ideas for topics have come through or are in the pipeline. They are not all ready to proceed.

All the topics below were given a positive vote. Further scoping and drafting to follow. Any other comments can be added on the individual GitHub tickets listed.

• Create Figma designs for WordPress Block Theme #175
• Introduction on using Gutenberg components for plugin pages #183
• Tutorial: Creating a mega menu with the block system

• Discussion on idea: #182 Tutorial: Creating a mega menu with the block system
  • This represents initial thinking on this area. There are no easy ways to create mega menus in the block system or in classic theming.
  • Some questions to consider:
    • are mega menus possible with the block system?
    • if so, can we build something that’s user friendly with the tools at hand?
    • if so, can we explain this through a tutorial?
      
• Adding a “screen reader text” block option via themes
• Tutorial: Adding Starter Page and Template Patterns
• Dev Blog: 2023 Year in Review
  • Ideas for the article are welcome.
  • @greenshady is aiming for this to be ready as a draft in the first week of January 2024.
• A first look at the Interactivity API #141
  • A note on the Interactivity APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways., that topic was on the list since May, but only now the Interactivity API will become a public API with the 6.5 WordPress release.
• Pitfalls working with @wordpress/data, useSelect and useDispatch and how to avoid those. #184
• Tutorial on using create-block scaffolding to write a multi-block plugin #186

Discussion on advance review of the approval list:

• the list is now shared in the agenda reminder earlier on the day of the meeting; however, this may not give non-sponsored contributors or those in other timezones or unable to read the items that day the ability to comment most usefully or raise questions
• the topic areas are available on the GitHub repo as live tickets and can be reviewed there at any time of the month, and comments added in advance of the Editorial meeting
• the aim is to encourage some discussion of those topics and to flesh out an article and identify different angles
• Actions:
  • agreed for a link to new topics to be shared regularly in the Dev Blog slack channel to raise awareness and interest in the topics and potential writers stepping forward
  • to encourage those putting ideas together to have them on the GitHub project board by a certain date (if possible) before each meeting. It may not always be possible, but in principle, encouraging this will improve the process, a more informed discussion, allow for more asynchronous contributions, and a way of encouraging engagement in the channel and discussion on GitHub. 

Open floor

1. Idea for a potential post: @marybaum – “From no-code to no-hands: three ways to generate posts in a taxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies. term” case study
   • Link to more details in Slack.
   • This will be expanded in a more detailed scope in the GitHub repo.
2. @webcomms raised a previous discussion in the Slack channel. She, like many others in the group, receives requests from developers wanting to know what order to learn WordPress development, tips to help become or familiarize with WP development, etc.
   • Actions: for a discussion to be created in GitHub spaces.
   • It fits our scope
   • Similar posts to be identified from the Dev Blog
   • This will fit well with the discussion of learning paths, the Training team is tackling..

Next meeting

The next Developer Bog editorial group meeting will be on January 4, 2024, at 13:00 UTC in the #core-dev-blog channel.

#dev-blog, #summary