Opinion

  • Toolbelt Tidies WordPress Plugin and Theme Admin Notifications

    Toolbelt Tidies WordPress Plugin and Theme Admin Notifications

    It’s a tale as old as, well, WordPress. Ben Gillbanks noticed a conversation where someone thought that admin notices were getting out of hand. Enter another developer’s attempt to address this problem. With a few code additions to his Toolbelt plugin, he had a working solution to stop the madness: the Tidy Notifications module. Despite…

  • Gutenberg 10.8 Adds New Typography Controls and Block Previews

    Gutenberg 10.8 Adds New Typography Controls and Block Previews

    On Wednesday, Gutenberg 10.8 landed in the WordPress plugin directory. The release includes new typography options for controlling the Heading block’s font-weight and the List block’s font family. The Audio and File blocks now show preview content in the inserter. Gutenberg 10.7 felt like it introduced flashier features than 10.8. But, this was still a…

  • A Progress Bar Block Plugin Done Right by the Tiles Team

    A Progress Bar Block Plugin Done Right by the Tiles Team

    I have been on the hunt for a decent progress bar solution for a while now. Most of them are bundled in large block libraries, requiring me to install another 20 or 30 blocks in which I have no need. Others seem to miss the mark entirely with odd configurations and block options. Some of…

  • Open Invitation To Contribute to the WordPress Block Pattern Directory

    Open Invitation To Contribute to the WordPress Block Pattern Directory

    The upcoming block pattern directory is launching alongside WordPress 5.8 in July. The goal is to make several high-quality designs available for users right off the bat. However, the official submission process will not open until the directory launches. In this chicken-and-egg scenario, the Design team is asking for early contributors to submit their pattern…

  • Spice Up Your Food or Recipe Blog With the Nutmeg WordPress Theme

    Spice Up Your Food or Recipe Blog With the Nutmeg WordPress Theme

    Last week, Dumitru Brînzan announced Nutmeg Plus. It is the latest commercial theme offering through his ILOVEWP brand. Earlier today, the free version of Nutmeg landed in the WordPress theme directory. The theme is built for food and recipe bloggers and is another solid example of building on the block system. As is typical of…

  • Create Per-Post Social Media Images With the Social Image Generator WordPress Plugin

    Create Per-Post Social Media Images With the Social Image Generator WordPress Plugin

    It was a bit of a low-key announcement when Daniel Post introduced Social Image Generator to the world in February via tweet. But, when you get repped by Chris Coyier of CSS-Tricks and the co-founder of WordPress uses your plugin (come on, Matt, set a default image), it means your product is on the right…

  • Building Featured Boxes With the WordPress Block Editor

    Building Featured Boxes With the WordPress Block Editor

    It is a new day with another chase for that elusive block plugin that will bring a little joy into my life. Today’s experiment comes courtesy of the Feature Box plugin by Sumaiya Siddika. It is a simple block that allows end-users to upload an image and add some content to an offset box. The…

  • Forks and Alternatives: Custom User Avatar Plugins for WordPress

    Forks and Alternatives: Custom User Avatar Plugins for WordPress

    You know what one of the great things about open source is? Others can use a project’s code, share it wholesale, modify it, and/or distribute their changes. These are the pillars upon which WordPress stands. It is a beautiful thing to watch in practice. Most often, it means we can build off the shoulders of…

  • Breaking Down WPMarmite’s 127-Shop Full Site Editing Study

    Breaking Down WPMarmite’s 127-Shop Full Site Editing Study

    Earlier today, the WPMarmite team released a massive study of 127 WordPress theme shops. It primarily focused on integration with the block editor. The team also surveyed 22 of the shops directly to dive deeper into what the future might look like when the Full Site Editing (FSE) project is entirely bundled into the core…

  • The Automattic Theme Team Announces Blockbase, Its New Block Parent Theme

    The Automattic Theme Team Announces Blockbase, Its New Block Parent Theme

    Any WordPress company that builds and maintains themes worth its salt is already doing at least some preliminary work as WordPress inches ever closer to bundling its upcoming block theme system. Automattic’s Theme Team is no exception. Ben Dwyer announced the team’s new Blockbase parent theme on the Theme Shaper blog yesterday. It includes support…

  • Gutenberg 10.7 Integrates With the Pattern Directory, Introduces New Block Design Controls

    Gutenberg 10.7 Integrates With the Pattern Directory, Introduces New Block Design Controls

    Gutenberg 10.7 landed yesterday. Within a few hours, the development team also released version 10.7.1 of the plugin with a few bug fixes. The latest update primarily focuses on work expected to land in WordPress 5.8 this July. The feature freeze deadline for the current WordPress development cycle passed on Tuesday. This should mean that…

  • FSE Outreach #7: Building a Portfolio in the Upcoming Template-Editing Mode

    FSE Outreach #7: Building a Portfolio in the Upcoming Template-Editing Mode

    Feedback for round #7 of the FSE Outreach Program opened today. Like round #6, the focus is once again on template-editing mode, a feature that is slated to ship with WordPress 5.8. All hands need to be on deck for it to have a chance of a successful landing. I have been eager for this…

  • The Price of Admission: WordPress Users Get To Hold Creators Accountable

    The Price of Admission: WordPress Users Get To Hold Creators Accountable

    When I reported on the WP User Avatar plugin’s rebranding and repurposing last week, it came as no surprise that users were angry. However, I did not expect pushback against those user complaints from a subset of commentators and others in the community. There were a few points, each boiled down to the argument that…

  • You Might Not Need That Block

    You Might Not Need That Block

    As I was perusing the WordPress plugin directory this morning, I noticed a new block plugin, which is always one of the highlights of my week. It was a simple pricing block. Of course, I installed it and began playing around with its features. It was a version-1.0 product, so I was not going to…