Justin Tadlock

  • Carrd-Like Theme Experiment Provides a Glimpse Into the Future of Theming

    Carrd-Like Theme Experiment Provides a Glimpse Into the Future of Theming

    It is no secret that I think the future of theming with WordPress is bright, that the Gutenberg project will eventually pay off. As a former full-time theme developer, I lived through the years where there were no standards for how to build certain features. It was much like the Wild West. There were vast,…

  • Dragging and Dropping Meta Boxes Might Not Be So Simple in WordPress 5.6

    Dragging and Dropping Meta Boxes Might Not Be So Simple in WordPress 5.6

    If you have been testing the latest development version of WordPress in the past week or so, you may have noticed that the ability to drag and drop meta boxes seemingly disappeared. This is not a bug. Nine days ago, lead developer Andrew Ozz committed a change that requires end-users to click the “screen options”…

  • Yext Launches a WordPress Plugin To Connect To Its Answers Platform

    Yext Launches a WordPress Plugin To Connect To Its Answers Platform

    Last week, Yext launched its Yext Answers plugin to the WordPress community. The goal was to bring a platform that won the Best Software Innovation category of the 2020 Global Search Awards to WordPress. However, my experience was far from satisfactory. “For people searching on a WordPress website, the Answers Connector provides a seamless search…

  • Q: First FSE WordPress Theme Now Live

    Q: First FSE WordPress Theme Now Live

    Themes Team representative Ari Stathopoulos is now officially the first theme author to have a theme in the directory that supports full-site editing (FSE). With a slimmed-down beta release of FSE shipping in WordPress 5.6 this December, someone had to be the first to take the plunge. It made sense for someone intimately familiar with…

  • MakeStories 2.0 Launches Editor for WordPress, Rivaling Google’s Official Web Stories Plugin

    MakeStories 2.0 Launches Editor for WordPress, Rivaling Google’s Official Web Stories Plugin

    Earlier today, MakeStories launched version 2.0 of its plugin for creating Web Stories with WordPress. In many ways, this is a new plugin launch. The previous version simply allowed users to connect their WordPress installs to the MakeStories site. With the new version, users can build and edit their stories directly from the WordPress admin.…

  • WordPress 5.6 Release Team Pulls the Plug on Block-Based Widgets

    WordPress 5.6 Release Team Pulls the Plug on Block-Based Widgets

    I was wrong. I assured our readers that “the block-based widget system will be ready for prime time when WordPress 5.6 lands” in my previous post on the new feature’s readiness. I also said that was on the condition of not trying to make it work with the customizer — that experience was still broken.…

  • Past Twenty* WordPress Themes To Get New Block Patterns

    Past Twenty* WordPress Themes To Get New Block Patterns

    Mel Choyce-Dwan, the Default Theme Design Lead for WordPress 5.6, kick-started 10 tickets around two months ago that would bring new features to the old default WordPress themes. The proposal is to add unique block patterns, a feature added to WordPress 5.5, to all of the previous 10 Twenty* themes. It is a lofty goal…

  • Using the Web Stories for WordPress Plugin? You Better Play By Google’s Rules

    Using the Web Stories for WordPress Plugin? You Better Play By Google’s Rules

    What comes as a surprise to few, Google has updated its content guidelines for its Web Stories format. For users of its recently-released Web Stories for WordPress plugin, they will want to follow the extended rules for their Stories to appear in the “richer experiences” across Google’s services. This includes the grid view on Search,…

  • Diving Into the Book Review Block Plugin

    Diving Into the Book Review Block Plugin

    Created by Donna Peplinskie, a Product Wrangler at Automattic, the Book Review Block plugin is nearly three years old. However, it only came to my attention during a recent excursion to find interesting block plugins. The plugin does pretty much what it says on the cover. It is designed to review books. It generally has…

  • Are Block-Based Widgets Ready To Land in WordPress 5.6?

    Are Block-Based Widgets Ready To Land in WordPress 5.6?

    Two weeks ago, the Gutenberg team put out an open call for block-based widgets feedback. I had already written a lengthy review of the new system earlier in September but was asked by a member of the team to share my thoughts on the most recent iteration. With the upcoming freeze for WordPress 5.6 Beta…

  • Privacy-Conscious WordPress Plugin Caches and Serves Gravatar Images Locally

    Privacy-Conscious WordPress Plugin Caches and Serves Gravatar Images Locally

    Ari Stathopoulos released his new Local Gravatars plugin last week. The goal of the plugin is to allow site owners to take advantage of the benefits of a global avatar system while mitigating privacy concerns by hosting the images locally. In essence, it is a caching system that stores the images on the site owner’s…

  • WP Agency Summit Begins Its Second Annual Virtual Event October 12

    WP Agency Summit Begins Its Second Annual Virtual Event October 12

    Jan Koch, the founder and host of WP Agency Summit, is kicking off his second annual event on October 12. The five-day event will feature 37 speakers from a wide range of backgrounds across the WordPress industry. It is a free virtual event that anyone can attend. “The focus for the 2020 WP Agency Summit…

  • EditorPlus 1.9 Adds Animation Builder for the Block Editor

    EditorPlus 1.9 Adds Animation Builder for the Block Editor

    Munir Kamal shows no signs of slowing down. He continues to push forward with new features for his EditorPlus plugin, which allows end-users to customize the look of the blocks in their posts and pages. He calls it the “no-code style editor for WordPress.” The latest addition to his plugin? Animation styles for every core…

  • Kick off Block-Based WordPress Theme Development With the Theme.json Creator

    Kick off Block-Based WordPress Theme Development With the Theme.json Creator

    Gutenberg 9.1 made a backward-incompatible change to its theme.json file (experimental-theme.json while full-site editing is under the experimental flag). This is the configuration file that theme developers will need to create as part of their block-based themes. Staying up to date with such changes can be a challenge for theme authors, but Ari Stathopoulos, a…