Justin Tadlock

  • Gutenberg 11.6 Improves the Global Styles UI, Adds Child Theme Support

    Gutenberg 11.6 Improves the Global Styles UI, Adds Child Theme Support

    Gutenberg 11.6 landed yesterday. Contributors added dozens of enhancements and bug fixes. Admittedly, there was not a whole lot that excited me as a user about this release. Typography options for the Post Title block. Nice. Cropping for the Site Logo. A necessary addition. Toolbar button for converting old Gallery blocks to the new —…

  • Preview WordPress Block Pattern and Theme Combinations via New Site

    Preview WordPress Block Pattern and Theme Combinations via New Site

    Andrew Starr, the owner of UXL Themes, has cobbled together a new project around block patterns. His new site, aptly named WP Block Patterns, allows users to preview any WordPress.org-hosted block themes and patterns together. The project does not allow visitors to download anything or ask them to sign up. It is a basic demo…

  • A Web Font API Possibly Coming to WordPress

    A Web Font API Possibly Coming to WordPress

    Ari Stathopoulos announced a proposal for implementing a web fonts API in core WordPress. The goal is to standardize how theme authors register and enqueue font styles. It may also serve as the foundation of other features down the road. Jono Alderson opened the original ticket for such an API in February 2019. The discussion…

  • Add Custom SVGs via the Icon Block WordPress Plugin

    Add Custom SVGs via the Icon Block WordPress Plugin

    Nick Diego released the Icon Block plugin last week. Unlike similar blocks that are available, it does not rely on a third-party library. Instead, it caters to the developer and DIY crowd, allowing them to add any SVG directly to the editor. Diego is the author of the Block Visibility plugin, which is just a…

  • Adding Blocks With Animated Backgrounds Using WebArea’s Latest Plugin

    Adding Blocks With Animated Backgrounds Using WebArea’s Latest Plugin

    As always, I like to highlight some things on the lighter side of the WordPress world. We have had enough business acquisitions in the past week — the whole year, really — that we need to take a break and enjoy the more experimental developments that the community has to offer. Such as the case…

  • Should Users Be Able To Select More Than One Block Style?

    Should Users Be Able To Select More Than One Block Style?

    When I first tried the block styles feature in WordPress, I was impressed. As a theme creator, it was a simple way of allowing users to select a design-related class without them actually needing to know what was happening under the hood. In that first week or so, I hit the problem that many others…

  • GoDaddy Pro To Host Second EXPAND 2021 Event on September 24 in India

    GoDaddy Pro To Host Second EXPAND 2021 Event on September 24 in India

    GoDaddy Pro will kick off EXPAND 2021 – India on September 24, the second event of its kind this year. It is a one-day virtual conference that will feature sessions from industry leaders and experts in the field. Nikhil Arora, the Vice President and Managing Director for GoDaddy India, will present the keynote address. In…

  • StellarWP Acquires Learning Management System LearnDash

    StellarWP Acquires Learning Management System LearnDash

    StellarWP announced today that it acquired LearnDash, a learning management system (LMS) for WordPress. The product allows educators to create online courses, quizzes, and dynamic content. LearnDash will continue to operate autonomously, keeping its team intact. In May, Liquid Web launched its new umbrella brand, StellarWP, alongside its acquisition of Impress.org and its flagship product,…

  • Tove: A Block-Based WordPress Theme by Anders Norén

    Tove: A Block-Based WordPress Theme by Anders Norén

    I have been secretly keeping tabs on Anders Norén over the past couple of weeks, awaiting the moment he pushed his first block theme to the WordPress directory. I first noticed it when he tweeted a screenshot two weeks ago. And, today was the day it happened. Tove landed in the review portal several hours…

  • Newsletter Glue Pro, My First Foray Into Journalism, and New Ideas

    Newsletter Glue Pro, My First Foray Into Journalism, and New Ideas

    As a teen, I would visit my Uncle David’s house every other week or so. He was the only family member with a computer. It was an old, bulky monstrosity that ran whatever the latest version of Windows that existed at the time. It was one of my first introductions to dial-up, but my primary…

  • Konstantin Kovshenin Launches Sail, a CLI Tool for Deploying to Digital Ocean

    Konstantin Kovshenin Launches Sail, a CLI Tool for Deploying to Digital Ocean

    Last week, Konstantin Kovshenin launched Sail, a CLI tool for deploying WordPress applications to the DigitalOcean cloud. The project is free to use and open source. However, he has plans for an upgraded premium experience down the road. Kovshenin cited speed and efficiency as the two primary reasons developers should give his new tool a…

  • Theme Author Survey Results: Uploading via ZIP Files Preferred, SVN Access Forthcoming

    Theme Author Survey Results: Uploading via ZIP Files Preferred, SVN Access Forthcoming

    Earlier today, Dion Hulse announced the results of a six-week survey on the WordPress.org theme upload process. The goal was to figure out if uploading a ZIP file was a “pain point” and see what other methods theme authors prefer. Then, move forward based on the feedback. In total, 256 people responded to the survey.…

  • Theme Authors Should Be Able To Opt Out of Any Design Feature

    Theme Authors Should Be Able To Opt Out of Any Design Feature

    As I debugged issues with the new block gap feature added in Gutenberg 11.4 last week, I found the ticket introducing it. And, there was already a new ticket for one problem I had hit. However, there was some discussion over whether themes should be allowed to opt-out, rolling their own solution. There was no…

  • Add a Little Pumpkin Spice to Your WordPress Admin This Autumn

    Add a Little Pumpkin Spice to Your WordPress Admin This Autumn

    Autumn is my favorite time of the year. On some weekends, I like to drive through my old hometown with the windows rolled down. I crawl through the school zone at 25 mph and breathe in the football field’s freshly cut grass. All those memories of blood, guts, and glory under the Friday night lights…