In this episode, John James Jacoby and I are joined by Morten Rand-Hendriksen. We have an engaging conversation about WordCamp US 2017, Gutenberg, and what it’s going to take for it to succeed. Rand-Hendriksen shared what he thinks are the three conditions that need to be met before Gutenberg can be shipped. Near the end…
While attending WordCamp US 2017, there were a number of sessions that stood out to me. Gutenberg and the WordPress of Tomorrow by Morten Rand-Hendriksen was one of them. Hendriksen explains the state of WYSIWYG in WordPress and how it doesn't really exist but Gutenberg provides opportunities to change that. He explores developing sites without…
Gutenberg 1.8 was released this week with several notable improvements that will give plugin developers more flexibility in extending the editor. It introduces block templates, which developers can use when registering a new custom post type. The block templates define a set of pre-configured blocks that will initialize when a user creates a new post.…
This weekend, WordPressers from far and wide will descend upon Nashville, TN, for WordCamp US. One of the highlights of the event is Matt Mullenweg’s State of the Word. Last year, Mullenweg shared a variety of statistics, made a few announcements, and plotted a new course for WordPress development. As the event draws near, here…
The Gutenberg Team will have a usability testing station set up at WordCamp US where attendees can participate in a round of pre-set tests that focus on the writing flow. Testers will answer a short survey that includes their prior WordPress experience level, age, and device used. Volunteers will get participants set up with a…
I apologize for the delay in getting this episode out to you. In this episode, John James Jacoby and I discussed a range of topics, including a caching bug introduced in WordPress 4.9 that causes Page Templates not to display for an hour. We talk about the possibilities of using Gutenberg with WooCommerce and how…
Enclavely, Inc., the owners of the Tailor Page Builder plugin, have announced that they will be discontinuing its development effective immediately. Andrew Worsfold, the original developer, launched Tailor in April 2016 and the plugin received an enthusiastic reception from the WordPress community. After performing a critical review of the major page builders available to users…
The next release of WordPress (5.0) will introduce the new Gutenberg editor and contributors plan to keep it rolling towards the eventual goal of providing a full site building experience. Nearly every WordPress theme and plugin developer will be impacted by the change and many are starting to look ahead to how their products may…
In this episode, John James Jacoby and I are joined by Topher DeRosia, founder of HeroPress. DeRosia provides an update on HeroPress and explains his new role creating WordPress training videos for WinningWP. Jacoby and I discussed the news of the week including, Press This removed in WordPress 4.9, Meta box support in Gutenberg, and…
Gutenberg 1.7 was released today, two weeks after version 1.6, with a fresh round of new features, design updates, and the groundwork for nested blocks and block extensibility. Last week contributors began exploring an alternative to using iframes for meta boxes. This experiment has landed in 1.7 so that the plugin now renders meta boxes…
The discussion surrounding the use of iframes for meta boxes in Gutenberg became more heated over the weekend, as concerned developers implored the team to consider the detriments of the current approach. Responses from Gutenberg’s leadership initially deflected concerns, presenting the iframe implementation as an experiment that “works ‘for now’” but isn’t what the team…
A lively and productive discussion regarding Gutenberg’s use of iframes for meta boxes is happening on GitHub. Yesterday, WordPress developer Kevin Hoffman created an issue titled “Are iframes a viable long-term solution for meta boxes?” Gutenberg 1.5 introduced initial support for meta boxes. Hoffman identified several issues with iframes that have been popping up as…
The Gutenberg plugin’s Halloween release (version 1.6) includes major updates to the writing experience and many performance improvements. The block toolbar has been relocated to the top of the editor, a suggestion that was mocked up and described in detail in a post on the Yoast SEO blog proposing an alternative approach for Gutenberg. Prior…
WordPress beta releases typically don’t generate controversy but in WordPress 4.9 Beta 3, a call to action was added to the dashboard that encouraged users to install and activate Gutenberg. Members of the WordPress community raised concerns that clients may install Gutenberg and shared ways to hide the prompt from users. The negative reaction inspired…
Gutenberg 1.5 was released this morning and introduces several major changes to the plugin. This version takes the new editor off the back burner and makes it the default for creating new posts. The team has also included a way for users to create posts with the Classic Editor, but this requires knowing where to…