a:4:{s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:3:"rss";a:1:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:3:"


";s:7:"attribs";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:7:"version";s:3:"2.0";}}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:1:{s:7:"channel";a:1:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:61:"
	
	
	
	




















































";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16:"WordPress Planet";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"language";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2:"en";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"WordPress Planet - http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"item";a:50:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:131:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 9.9 Adds Color Options for Social Icons, Includes Rounded Borders for Images, and Changes the Theme JSON Format";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=111628";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:303:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-9-9-adds-color-options-for-social-icons-includes-rounded-borders-for-images-and-changes-the-theme-json-format?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gutenberg-9-9-adds-color-options-for-social-icons-includes-rounded-borders-for-images-and-changes-the-theme-json-format";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7460:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Version 9.9 of the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/">Gutenberg plugin</a> landed earlier today. While it includes several minor UI improvements, the biggest user-facing change is the inclusion of icon and background color options for the Social Links block. Theme authors can now add support for rounded image borders. They are also faced with a breaking change to their theme JSON files.</p>



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-7-beta-1-is-ready-for-testing">WordPress 5.7 Beta 1 </a>was released earlier this week. The final 5.7 release will include features from Gutenberg 9.9 back down to 9.3. Only bug fixes from upcoming plugin updates should be ported into WordPress during the rest of the development cycle.</p>



<p>The development team squashed over 30 bugs in the latest plugin update. It also includes several enhancements and API updates. Plugin developers can now <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/28482">override the block category</a> when registering variations, which should help with discoverability.</p>



<p>Full Site Editing and other experimental work continued as usual. One item that theme authors should keep an eye on is the initial groundwork for additional <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/28049">border options</a>. The experimental feature for adding border colors, styles, and widths for blocks has long been on the wish list of many. I expect that the team will start slowly rolling out block support and a UI in coming versions.</p>



<h2>Color Options for Social Links</h2>



<img />Icon and background colors for Social Links.



<p class="has-drop-cap">Users can now <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/21605">change the icon color and background</a> in the Social Links block. This change allows the user to customize the colors for all icons in the links list. The &ldquo;logos only&rdquo; block style does not support a background color.</p>



<p>The missing piece is the ability to set individual icon colors and their hover colors. One of the use cases in theme design is to provide a solid-colored group of icons that change to the brand colors on hover or focus. The only way to do this from the user&rsquo;s end is via individual icon color options. Even the ability to set the icon hover color for the entire block is still unavailable.</p>



<p>Branding guidelines were <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/21605#issuecomment-629318653">mentioned as a concern</a> with the current color options, but that concern is outside the scope of WordPress&rsquo;s responsibility (see <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/21900#issuecomment-624307120">longer analysis regarding logos</a>). Many brands also have alternate colors they allow, which are not possible to use without icon-specific colors.</p>



<p>Setting the background and text color for all icons at once is a step in the right direction, but the block editor is still not matching what theme authors are doing in traditional theme design. These missing features are blockers for the eventual adoption of Full Site Editing.</p>



<h2>Rounded Border Support for Themes</h2>



<img />Border radius setting for the Image block.



<p class="has-drop-cap">Theme authors can now <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/27667">opt into border-radius support</a> for images. Support comes in two forms. One is a setting to allow end-users to customize the border-radius via the block options sidebar. The second is setting a default border-radius value for all images.</p>



<p>The Gutenberg team first added border-radius support to the Group block in <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-9-8-brings-rounded-borders-to-the-group-block-and-moves-the-site-editor-canvas-into-an-inline-frame">version 9.8</a>. Currently, only the Group and Image blocks support the feature.</p>



<p>The following theme JSON code will add settings and styles support. Note the new format change, which is covered in the next section.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>{
    "settings": {
        "core/image": {
            "border": {
                "customRadius": true
            }
        }
    },
    "styles": {
        "core/image": {
            "border" : {
                "radius": "10px"
            }
        }
    }
}</code></pre>



<h2>New Theme JSON File Format</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Gutenberg 9.9 introduces two breaking changes to the <code>experimental-theme.json</code> file, which will eventually be renamed to <code>theme.json</code> once it is out of the experimental stage. This file allows theme authors to configure custom styles and settings for the block system. Any themes currently using the pre-9.9 format will need to be updated.</p>



<p>The first change makes <code>settings</code> and <code>styles</code> <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/28110">top-level keys in the file</a>. The second change <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/28533">renames and splits</a> the <code>global</code> key to <code>defaults</code> and <code>root</code>. <code>defaults</code> deal with default values and styles while <code>root</code> handles the site root block.</p>



<p>Ari Stathopoulos wrote a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/02/04/gutenberg-9-9-new-json-structure-for-theme-json-files/">tutorial for theme authors</a> to update their themes on the Make Themes blog.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The rationale for this change is that the use cases for theme.json have grown beyond initially considered, and the vision is now being able to absorb a lot of things that themes declare at the moment via other means,&rdquo; wrote Andr&eacute;s Maneiro, the creator of both tickets. &ldquo;Some examples are registering (and translate?) custom templates, declare theme metadata that is currently stored in the stylesheet, declare stylesheet paths, etc.&rdquo;</p>



<p>He also shared a vision of what the format might look like:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>{
    "name": "TwentyTwentyOne",
    "description": "...",
    "customTemplates": ...,
    "textDomain": ...,
    "version": 1,
    "settings": {
            "global": { ... },
            "core/paragraph": { ... }
    },
    "styles": {
            "global": { ... },
            "core/paragraph": { ... }
    }
}</code></pre>



<p>For users, this data might not make much sense. However, any theme author should be able to recognize the significance of potentially moving metadata that is currently stored in their theme&rsquo;s <code>style.css</code> through a non-standard system that WordPress has used for ages. Eventually moving that data to a standard format, JSON, would give WordPress flexibility to shed some of its legacy baggage.</p>



<p>WordPress themes currently have a hard requirement of including a <code>style.css</code> file. We could well be on our way to building WordPress themes that have no need for a stylesheet at all. The future of FSE is likely one in which CSS is all handled through the Global Styles system with the theme&rsquo;s default values set via the <code>theme.json</code> file. If a theme has no styles, it does not make sense to hold onto the <code>style.css</code> file.</p>



<p>However, this change is not merely limited to that possibility. The new format is cleaner and better prepared for future additions.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 05 Feb 2021 21:53:27 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:1;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:64:"WPTavern: Newspack Publishes Showcase with 60 Newsrooms Launched";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=111568";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:173:"https://wptavern.com/newspack-publishes-showcase-with-60-newsrooms-launched?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=newspack-publishes-showcase-with-60-newsrooms-launched";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4464:"<p><a href="https://newspack.pub/">Newspack</a>, a project funded by the Google News initiative and WordPress.com, has published a <a href="https://raindrop.io/collection/11158847">showcase</a> of 60 news sites running on the platform. WordPress.com <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-com-secures-2-4-million-in-funding-from-google-and-partners-to-build-a-publishing-platform-for-news-organizations">announced</a> its plans to build the Newspack CMS two years ago and successfully signed on more than 50 sites in the first year. The cloud-based platform is open source and highly customized to generate revenue for small to medium-sized publications.</p>



<p>Early adopters include the <a href="https://austinweeklynews.com/">Austin Weekly News</a>, <a href="https://mississippitoday.org/">Mississippi Today</a>, <a href="https://hongkongfp.com/">Hong Kong Free Press</a>, <a href="https://oklahomawatch.org/">Oklahoma Watch</a>, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://bangordailynews.com/" target="_blank">Bangor Daily News</a>,&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://oaklandside.org/" target="_blank">The Oaklandside</a>, and many other watchdog publications serving their communities with vital local news coverage. </p>



<p>The <a href="https://raindrop.io/collection/11158847">showcase</a> was created using the Raindrop bookmark manager, which allows viewers to search for a specific site and see all the various homepages at a glance. The diversity of the publications is striking, but clicking through to their websites it&rsquo;s clear that most of them share an intimate connection with their communities that might otherwise have evaporated in the <a href="https://wptavern.com/finding-wordpress-in-the-post-print-news-era">post-print news era</a>. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>Newspack stands out as an affordable, open source alternative to proprietary systems. Publishers generally pay <a href="https://newspack.pub/pricing/">$500-$2,000/month</a> using a sliding scale based on their annual revenue. The <a href="https://newspack.pub/2019/08/12/see-the-revenue-generation-features-of-newspack-in-action/">tools</a> they are given are open and designed to help create economically sustainable journalism. It&rsquo;s not surprising that a community has sprung up around the product, as small publishers share many of the same issues.  A dedicated Slack workspace. facilitates conversation and collaboration for more than 150 editors, designers, product and business people who are all using the same building blocks to run their publications.</p>



<p>In 2020, thirteen Newspack publications were awarded <a href="https://newspack.pub/2020/05/07/newspack-publishers-earn-share-of-covid-19-relief-package/">a total of more than $1 million in grants</a> from the Facebook Journalism Program&rsquo;s relief effort for local news due to Covid-19. Publishing online at a low cost on WordPress has helped many of these publications weather the pandemic, instead of being forced to consolidate or shutter. </p>



<p>In May, 2020, analysts from&nbsp;<a href="https://fundjournalism.org/">News Revenue Hub</a> published a <a href="https://fundjournalism.org/2020/05/26/hub-report-several-sites-are-now-on-newspack-hows-that-going/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter">study</a> examining how Newspack-powered newsrooms are interacting with WordPress. A few key findings showed that Newspack users may require more assistance in managing their sites, which leverage the block editor and come with more than 50 pre-configured plugins:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>The role of Newspack in reducing or replacing the need for website management-related technical resources is unclear, and depends greatly on an individual newsroom&rsquo;s technical knowledge and resources.</p><p>Potential improvements going forward should focus on providing deeper, more standardized education and documentation to broad groups of users.</p></blockquote>



<p>The report concluded that &ldquo;Newspack has established itself as a valuable tool for newsrooms, as well as a valuable method for building sites collaboratively,&rdquo; but warns that the project may face challenges in scaling the hands-on support that pilot newsrooms received in the early stages. More revenue-generating features are still being developed but overall participating newsrooms had a high rate of satisfaction with the platform.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 05 Feb 2021 06:38:23 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:2;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:99:"WPTavern: Call for Feedback on Theme Review Action, a New Automated WordPress Theme Testing Project";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=111325";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:241:"https://wptavern.com/call-for-feedback-on-theme-review-action-a-new-automated-wordpress-theme-testing-project?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=call-for-feedback-on-theme-review-action-a-new-automated-wordpress-theme-testing-project";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5176:"<img />GitHub output of Theme Review Action.



<p class="has-drop-cap">Automation. It is one of those dreams in the minds of many reviewers from the Themes Team. If there was a tool to take care of 90% of the issues, the team could focus on the 10% not easily found by automated scripts.</p>



<p>Enter the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-review-action">Theme Review Action</a> project. Steve Dufresne, a WordPress Meta team contributor, put out a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2021/02/01/call-for-feedback-automated-theme-testing/">call for testing and feedback </a>of the new project on Monday.</p>



<p>&ldquo;If we could combine some of the existing code analysis tools, automate away some of the manual testing and open them up to more development workflows, could we improve theme quality, alleviate pressure on manual testing, and speed up the theme review process?&rdquo; asked Dufresne.</p>



<p>The project currently runs several test suites, including the current <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/theme-check/">Theme Check</a> plugin. Theme authors can run the texts by running the NPX command in their theme folder, adding it as an action on GitHub, or cloning and running it locally. Running via NPX is not currently supported on Windows.</p>



<p>Right now, theme authors are needed. Regardless of whether you are building themes for the directory, clients, third-party marketplaces, or a theme shop, this is an opportunity to give back to WordPress. It is also an opportunity to improve the tools that you could benefit from as a theme developer in the long term. Automated theme tests help the entire theme ecosystem.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Theme authors need to be open to this and understand that it is not all about requirements,&rdquo; said Carolina Nymark, a Themes Team representative. &ldquo;It is about improving theme quality.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The project was, in part, informed by a Themes Team <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2020/04/03/proposal-github-theme-review/">proposal in early 2020</a>. Denis &#381;oljom identified three problems the team was fighting against:</p>



<ul><li>People don&rsquo;t like to read requirements or handbooks.</li><li>Some of the issues that are popping up are repetitive and could be caught automatically.</li><li>Reviewing themes in Trac is really cumbersome.</li></ul>



<p>The proposal&rsquo;s focus was on moving reviews to GitHub, focusing on the third point. However, the Theme Review Action project could be the start of handling one or more issues.</p>



<p>The obvious solution is that the project can be automated. However, because the Theme Review Action project can be set as a GitHub Action, it leaves room for the team&rsquo;s GitHub review proposal.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Two things I mentioned to Steve &mdash; and these are my opinions &ndash;, is that we need checks that run on theme upload and on live themes, and we need a long-term solution,&rdquo; said Nymark. &ldquo;There have been attempts to automate testing before that have not been followed through, and without a plan for how the tool will be used, I am worried about spending time on it.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The team had hoped that the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/handbook/theme-sniffer/">Theme Sniffer</a> project would lead to more automation at one point. It is hard to get hopes up after previous goals never came to fruition.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I too have a similar concern where the project might not get enough adoption to make it to .ORG checking, and that is one of the reasons (other than just being super busy) that I haven&rsquo;t been able to prioritize looking at [Theme Review Action],&rdquo; said Themes Team rep William Patton.</p>



<p>While the team and some theme authors still use the Theme Sniffer, the UI leaves a lot to be desired. Nymark pointed out that it was hard for theme authors to distinguish between the baseline requirements and recommendations.</p>



<p>&ldquo;To display messages from automated tools that are not strictly requirements is very difficult to get right,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;For example, if a tool started reporting CSS linting errors for the WordPress CSS coding standards, many people would find that too opinionated and limiting.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Theme authors, the group that reaps the most financial and reputational benefits from the theme directory, have often been reluctant to chip in. Few companies spare an employee to perform reviews or work on tools that developers and the team need. Calls for testing, feedback, and discussion often go unanswered, leaving a select few to do the lion&rsquo;s share of the work. For this project to be successful and not feel like something foisted upon them down the road, theme developers need to be in the mix.</p>



<p>In the <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-launches-wp-briefing-podcast-episodes-expected-every-2-weeks">first episode</a> of the WP Briefing podcast, WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy talked about focusing on automation as one of this year&rsquo;s goals. If there is one team that could use such tools, it would be the Themes Team.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 04 Feb 2021 22:51:42 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:3;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:109:"WPTavern: New Report Estimates WordPress’ Market Share of US Higher Education Institution Websites at 40.8%";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=111416";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:255:"https://wptavern.com/new-report-estimates-wordpress-market-share-of-us-higher-education-institution-websites-at-40-8?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-report-estimates-wordpress-market-share-of-us-higher-education-institution-websites-at-40-8";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2613:"<p>A new <a href="https://www.eqafy.com/component/content/article/49-higher-education-research/315-us-university-and-college-content-management-systems-2021.html">report</a> from eQAfy, a company that collects and analyzes data about higher education websites, has benchmarked which content management systems US institutions are using. The report is a snapshot of data from December 2020, sourced from the&nbsp;<a href="https://nces.ed.gov/">National Center for Education Statistics</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/">IPEDS database</a>. After scanning a list of 4,000 active institutions,  EQAfy&rsquo;s headless browser was able to detect the CMS for 3,359 homepages (83.8%).</p>



<p>A market leading group of 12 content management systems made up 90% of the homepages eQAfy detected, including four open source solutions and eight proprietary solutions. WordPress captures 40.8% of the market, followed by Drupal at 19.1%, as measured across all institution types (public, private for profit, and private non-profit), levels (2-year and 4-year), and sizes.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>WordPress&rsquo; estimated market share for public institutions came in at 27%, and is much higher in the private for-profit institutions category at 55%. </p>



<p>Looking at 2-year public higher education institutions by student population, WordPress falls to #3 at just 18.3%. Drupal leads the pack in that category with 29.2%, and proprietary CMS&rsquo;s take up the rest of the market. WordPress does much better in the category of 4-year private for-profit higher education institutions, capturing a staggering 75% of the market.</p>



<p>When examining CMS suppliers for institutions by size, WordPress is the overall market leader but does far better in the smallest institutional size categories, with waning dominance in the large to very large categories.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>The <a href="https://www.eqafy.com/component/content/article/49-higher-education-research/315-us-university-and-college-content-management-systems-2021.html#table-10-2-year-private-non-profit-institutions">report</a> has more interesting data comparisons across different categories if you want to dig deeper. It&rsquo;s important to note that eQAfy only collected the main websites for these institutions, which may not be representative of the CMS that powers the schools&rsquo; ancillary websites. They are often created using a combination of platforms. This report covers only which CMS the schools preferred to use for the face of their institutions.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 04 Feb 2021 04:48:39 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:4;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:64:"WPTavern: FSE and WordPress Themes: What Does the MVP Look Like?";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=111262";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:169:"https://wptavern.com/fse-and-wordpress-themes-what-does-the-mvp-look-like?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fse-and-wordpress-themes-what-does-the-mvp-look-like";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8894:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Josepha Haden Chomphosy, the Executive Director of WordPress, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/02/01/full-site-editing-and-themes-where-things-are/">posted a follow-up</a> to her <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2021/01/21/big-picture-goals-2021/">outline of the upcoming year</a>. Questions mounted about what a minimum viable product (MVP) looked like for Full Site Editing (FSE), which is expected to be ready in the Gutenberg plugin in April. The core team is also shooting for a June launch of FSE in WordPress when it ships WordPress 5.8.</p>



<p>These seem like lofty goals, but members of the WordPress development and business community were left asking, &ldquo;What is an MVP for FSE?&rdquo; This is not a new question. Whether it is the swift pace of development, a communication breakdown, or so much of the project being hidden behind layer upon layer of GitHub issues, it can be hard to follow. There is no big webpage that spells out each step in minute detail of where the project is going. Information can sometimes feel scattered. This can give pause to third-party developers and business owners who need to know what to expect to update their products.</p>



<p>Joost de Valk, the CPO of Yoast, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2021/01/21/big-picture-goals-2021/#comment-4975">voiced his frustration</a> with the process in the comments. We later discussed this in more detail.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I think FSE will change what a theme is, and, if it gets executed properly, will make it far easier to build a theme, as themes will be much smaller,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That brings the burden onto the community to come up with reliable methods of styling though, and conventions on class names or similar, to make styling work everywhere. I currently don&rsquo;t understand what is even considered as MVP for Full Site Editing, nor do I see any discussions about how it&rsquo;ll work with themes not purpose built for it, and that worries me.&rdquo;</p>



<p>He shares some of the same concerns as others in the community who feel like there is no process in place for an MVP.</p>



<p>&ldquo;And there is no such thing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Vision without execution is just hallucination.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Chomphosy said that she was aware of the interconnectedness. &ldquo;I also see that the information we have published isn&rsquo;t in a tidy and followable post that would help people make good decisions on behalf of 39% of the web,&rdquo; she said.</p>



<p>She pointed to a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/24551">ticket that lists six (now seven) milestones</a>. Each of those milestones, when taken together, represent where FSE needs to be for an MVP.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Together they outline an architecture that allows the expression of a full theme using blocks and an editor capable of customizing that theme,&rdquo; she wrote. &ldquo;<strong>The MVP should make it possible to build a version of the Twenty Twenty-One theme, using only blocks, without any coding knowledge.</strong>&ldquo;</p>



<p>The following is a breakdown of the milestones that need to reach completion before we see the first version of FSE land in WordPress:</p>



<h2>Milestone 1: Infrastructure and UI</h2>



<p>Perhaps the most crucial part of FSE is a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/24818">workable site editor</a>. Merging the WordPress templating system into a cohesive UI is the foundation of the project. The underlying infrastructure handles how templates and template parts work. At this point, this foundation is in a reliable spot. It is all the features that build upon it that need more work. This milestone also includes getting the site-editing interface in place and handling multi-entity saving.</p>



<p>The final leg of the milestone allows users to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/27814">edit templates</a> from within the post editor, effectively switching between content and design editing. The FSE Outreach Program recently <a href="https://wptavern.com/first-round-of-the-fse-outreach-program-concludes-identifies-template-editing-mode-problems">tested this feature</a> to garner feedback after Gutenberg 9.6.</p>



<h2>Milestone 2: Browsing</h2>



<p>This milestone covers all of the work for <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/24552">navigating the UI</a> of the site editor. There are many moving parts, such as switching between pages, templates, template parts, global styles, and more. Users must know which element they are working on.</p>



<p>This is the only milestone marked as completed. However, there is an open ticket for exploring the idea of a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/23328">&ldquo;browsing&rdquo; mode</a> alongside the edit and select modes.</p>



<h2>Milestone 3: Styling</h2>



<p>For the most part, this milestone centers on the upcoming Global Styles system. The <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/20331">system creates a hierarchy</a> of how styles are applied to blocks from theme defaults to global user modifications, down to per-block style options.</p>



<p>While much of the work is complete for an MVP, there are dozens of feature tickets in the backlog. This is also an area where the block system is years behind third-party page builders. Expect to see long-term feature additions based on post-launch feedback.</p>



<h2>Milestone 4: Theme Blocks</h2>



<p>Theme authors should keep a close eye on this ticket. The only way that block-based themes become a reality for most theme developers is if all <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/22724">template tags have a corresponding block</a> in the site editor. Or, at least if the most-used template tags do. Some of these functions are no longer applicable in the block editor. Theme developers should make sure they have the blocks they need to recreate anything they are building today.</p>



<p>Admittedly, I am sad to see that blocks for Bookmarks/Links are unlikely to be moving forward. While the feature is deprecated, I am still nostalgic about the good ol&rsquo; blogroll days. Maybe this would be best left a plugin. A revival of the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/link-manager/">Link Manager</a> plugin could be in order.</p>



<h2>Milestone 5: Query Block</h2>



<p>The <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/24762">Query block</a> and its corresponding Loop block are, in some ways, the most essential pieces of Full Site Editing. They handle what posts are loaded and how they are displayed. The feature is one of the more complex puzzles to solve. The Gutenberg development team has continued iterating on it for months, and it is now at a good baseline. However, it has miles to go before it can seriously handle all the things that theme authors need to do with it.</p>



<p>Right now, the Query block only handles a handful of options for customizing the query. The team needs to determine what controls should be available in the sidebar for end-users and integrate the blocks with patterns for different types of post-list displays.</p>



<h2>Milestone 6: Navigation Block</h2>



<p>Aside from the Query block, Navigation is the only other block that requires <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/27593">its own milestone</a>. Navigation menu issues have plagued the WordPress project for well over a decade. It is one of the hardest things to get right. While nav menus in WordPress today are generally easy to work with, their design is not customizable by the end-user. The output is wholly at the theme author&rsquo;s discretion. Catering to the array of possible menu designs theme authors might want and making it customizable for the end-user is likely one of the toughest problems for the Gutenberg project.</p>



<p>There are at least a couple of dozen sub-tickets that need contributors. Even then, it could be several versions later before the Navigation block is ready for the more complex patterns used in some themes today.</p>



<h2>Milestone 7: Gradual Adoption</h2>



<p>After the first six milestones representing the MVP are completed, WordPress needs a way to allow end-users and theme authors to gradually adopt FSE. Primarily, this would be a mix of block-based templates and traditional PHP-based templates. Developers should be allowed to update their themes without changing them wholesale, potentially leaving segments of their user base behind.</p>



<p>Block-based widgets and navigation screens also fall under this milestone. Both features were punted to future releases after failing to land in 2020. However, these will be stepping stones for users who are not quite ready to switch to FSE or are unable to because of their theme.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 03 Feb 2021 22:55:56 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:5;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:55:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 5.6.1 Maintenance Release";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=9574";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/02/wordpress-5-6-1-maintenance-release/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8265:"<p>WordPress 5.6.1 is now available!</p>



<p>This maintenance release features&nbsp;<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&milestone=5.6.1&group=status&col=id&col=summary&col=status&col=milestone&col=owner&col=type&col=priority&order=priority">20 bug fixes</a> as well as&nbsp;7 issues fixed for the&nbsp;block&nbsp;editor. These bugs affect WordPress version 5.6, so you’ll want to upgrade.</p>



<p>You can&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.6.1.zip">download WordPress 5.6.1 directly</a>, or visit the<strong>&nbsp;Dashboard → Updates</strong>&nbsp;screen&nbsp;and click&nbsp;<strong>Update Now</strong>. If your sites support automatic background updates, they’ve already started the update process.</p>



<p>WordPress 5.6.1 is a short-cycle maintenance release. The next major release will be&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-7/">version 5.7</a>.</p>



<p>To see a full list of changes, you can browse the&nbsp;<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&milestone=5.6.1&group=status&col=id&col=summary&col=status&col=milestone&col=owner&col=type&col=priority&order=priority">list on Trac</a>, read the&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/01/28/wordpress-5-6-1-rc1/">5.6.1 RC1</a>&nbsp;post, or visit the&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.org/support/wordpress-version/version-5-6-1/">5.6.1 documentation page</a>.</p>



<h2>Thanks and props!</h2>



<p>The 5.6.1 release was led by <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>audrasjb</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>desrosj</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergeybiryukov/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>sergeybiryukov</a> and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/whyisjake/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>whyisjake</a>. Thanks to <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/metalandcoffee/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>metalandcoffee</a> and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hellofromtonya/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>hellofromtonya</a> for running bug scrubs, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/planningwrite/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>planningwrite</a> and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidbaumwald/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>davidbaumwald</a> for their help on the release post.</p>



<p>Props to everyone who helped make WordPress 5.6.1 happen:</p>



<p><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aaribaud/">aaribaud</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aaroncampbell/">Aaron D. Campbell</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/engahmeds3ed/">Ahmed Saeed</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/azaozz/">Andrew Ozz</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/antpb/">Anthony Burchell</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/archon810/">archon810</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aristath/">Ari Stathopoulos</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ayeshrajans/">Ayesh Karunaratne</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/basscan/">basscan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/carloscastilloadhoc/">carloscastilloadhoc</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/poena/">Carolina Nymark</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/celendesign/">celendesign</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cfinke/">Christopher Finke</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/copons/">Copons</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/danfarrow/">Dan Farrow</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/talldanwp/">Daniel Richards</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidbinda/">david.binda</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/denisco/">Denis Yanchevskiy</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dilipbheda/">Dilip Bheda</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ocean90/">Dominik Schilling</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/metalandcoffee/">Ebonie Butler</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/flixos90/">Felix Arntz</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mista-flo/">Florian TIAR</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/garrett-eclipse/">Garrett Hyder</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/gkibria69/">gKibria</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/gziolo/">Greg Ziółkowski</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/helen/">Helen Hou-Sandi</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/iandunn/">Ian Dunn</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ifnoob/">ifnoob</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/isabel_brison/">Isabel Brison</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ismailelkorchi/">Ismail El Korchi</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/whyisjake/">Jake Spurlock</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/macmanx/">James Huff</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/madtownlems/">Jason LeMahieu (MadtownLems)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/">Jb Audras</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnbillion/">John Blackbourn</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/">Jonathan Desrosiers</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jonathanstegall/">Jonathan Stegall</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jorgefilipecosta/">Jorge Costa</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/">Josepha</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/justinahinon/">Justin Ahinon</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kevin940726/">Kai Hao</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ryelle/">Kelly Choyce-Dwan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kjellr/">Kjell Reigstad</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/xkon/">Konstantinos Xenos</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/litemotiv/">litemotiv</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/lucasbustamante/">lucasbustamante</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/akramipro/">Mahdi Akrami</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/majhajob/">majhajob</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/manzurahammed/">Manzur Ahammed</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/clorith/">Marius L. J.</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mattwiebe/">Matt Wiebe</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/maxpertici/">Maxime Pertici</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/melchoyce/">Mel Choyce-Dwan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mbabker/">Michael Babker</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mukesh27/">Mukesh Panchal</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nicolaskulka/">NicolasKulka</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ntsekouras/">Nik Tsekouras</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/oakesjosh/">oakesjosh</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/peterwilsoncc/">Peter Wilson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/freewebmentor/">Prem Tiwari</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/youknowriad/">Riad Benguella</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/iamfriendly/">Richard Tape</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/noisysocks/">Robert Anderson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/rodrigosprimo/">Rodrigo Primo</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sebsz/">SeBsZ</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergeybiryukov/">Sergey Biryukov</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/slaffik/">Slava Abakumov</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sabernhardt/">Stephen Bernhardt</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/t-p/">t-p</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/inc2734/">Takashi Kitajima</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/tanvirul/">Tanvirul Haque</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/thorlentz/">thorlentz</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/timothyblynjacobs/">Timothy Jacobs</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/skithund/">Toni Viemerö</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/arcangelini/">Tony A</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hellofromtonya/">Tonya Mork</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/transl8or/">transl8or</a>, and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/vladytimy/">Vlad T</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 03 Feb 2021 21:30:51 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:9:"Jb Audras";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:6;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:51:"WPTavern: WordPress 5.7 Beta 1 Is Ready for Testing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=111333";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:147:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-7-beta-1-is-ready-for-testing?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-5-7-beta-1-is-ready-for-testing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3105:"<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/02/wordpress-5-7-beta-1/">WordPress 5.7 Beta 1</a> was released this week on schedule and is ready for wider testing. This release will introduce <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&status=reopened&changetime=..02%2F03%2F2021&type=enhancement&type=feature+request&milestone=5.7&group=component&col=id&col=summary&col=type&col=status&col=milestone&col=changetime&col=owner&col=priority&col=keywords&order=changetime">68 new features and enhancements</a>, dozens of bug fixes, and versions 9.3 &ndash; 9.9 of the Gutenberg plugin. </p>



<p>A few of the highlights expected in 5.7 include the following: </p>



<ul><li><strong>Lazy-load iframes</strong>: When WordPress 5.4 added lazy loading for images, contributors discussed extending this to iframes as well. Now that the&nbsp;<code>loading</code>&nbsp;attribute on&nbsp;<code>iframe</code>&nbsp;tags has been added to the HTML standard, it will be supported in core in 5.7. </li><li><strong>Streamlined migration from HTTP to HTTPS</strong>: WordPress can now detect if a user&rsquo;s hosting environment supports HTTPS and <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-7-will-make-it-easier-to-migrate-from-http-to-https">enables a one-click update process</a>, handling mixed content rewrites where possible. </li><li><strong>Standardize colors used in WP-Admin CSS to a single palette</strong>: WordPress is <a href="https://wptavern.com/skinning-the-wordpress-admin-css-custom-properties-on-the-way">implementing a CSS custom properties system</a> that will make it easier to add custom color schemes.</li><li><strong>Ongoing cleanup after update to jQuery 3.5.1</strong></li><li><strong>New Robots API</strong>: <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/49992">This new API</a> allows developers to centrally manage the content of the&nbsp;<code>robots</code>&nbsp;meta tag injected into the page, and includes a setting to toggle whether search engines are allowed to display large media from the site. By default, a&nbsp;<code>max-image-preview:large</code>&nbsp;robots directive which will be injected into the&nbsp;<code>robots</code>&nbsp;meta tag based on the new setting.</li></ul>



<p>These features need testing, along with the host of updates rolling over from the Gutenberg plugin. The editor is getting the most visible enhancements in 5.7, with features like dragging blocks and block patterns from the inserter into the canvas, major improvements to the buttons block, new social icons, and much more.</p>



<p>The official release is expected in just under five weeks on March 9, 2021. Testing is a critical part of the process for making WordPress better with each update. The easiest way to get in on that is to install the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester</a>&nbsp;plugin (set to the&nbsp;<code>Bleeding edge</code>&nbsp;channel and the&nbsp;<code>Beta/RC Only</code>&nbsp;stream), or download and install the <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.7-beta1.zip">zip</a> of the beta version.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 03 Feb 2021 18:54:13 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:7;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"WordPress.org blog: The Month in WordPress: January 2021";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=9632";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/02/the-month-in-wordpress-january-2021/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11649:"<p>For WordPress, 2021 started on a high note. Read on to learn about updates from last month.&nbsp;</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator" />



<h2>WordPress release updates</h2>



<p>WordPress project executive director — Josepha Haden (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>chanthaboune</a>) <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2021/01/21/big-picture-goals-2021/">shared big picture goals for WordPress in 2021</a>. Highlights include shipping&nbsp; Full Site Editing&nbsp; — first on the Gutenberg plugin in April 2021&nbsp; and later in core (with WordPress 5.8), improved learning opportunities on learn.wordpress.org, and better tooling for contributors. As per the updated <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/roadmap/">WordPress roadmap</a>, WordPress version 5.7 is planned to launch in March 2021 and WordPress 5.8 in June 2021. Some related updates:</p>



<ul><li>Contributor teams are working on <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/01/29/introducing-css-custom-properties/">an updated admin color palette for WordPress 5.7</a> that will be more accessible and easy to read.&nbsp;</li><li>The Core team is working on a proposal to <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/01/12/recap-and-proposal-align-the-wordpress-release-cycle-with-the-industry-standard/">align WordPress release cycles with industry standards</a>.&nbsp;</li><li>WordPress 5.6.1 <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/01/28/wordpress-5-6-1-rc1/">Release Candidate 1</a> is out. This release is set to launch by<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/02/02/a-week-in-core-february-1-2021/"> February 3, 2021</a>. Questions and answers for <a href="https://github.com/wpmarketingteam/WP5.6Marcomms">WordPress 5.6</a> are now <a href="https://github.com/wpmarketingteam/WP5.6Marcomms">available on GitHub</a>. Contact the <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C0GKJ7TFA">#marketing</a> channel in the WordPress Slack, if you would like to contribute.</li><li>The <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/02/wordpress-5-7-beta-1/">WordPress 5.7 Beta 1</a> release is out! Download the <a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.7-beta1.zip">zip file</a> or use the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">beta tester plugin</a> to test it out.&nbsp;</li></ul>



<p>Want to be involved in the next release? You can help build WordPress Core by following<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/"> the Core team blog</a> and joining the <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW">#core</a> channel in <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/">the Making WordPress Slack group</a>.</p>



<h2>Proposal to return to in-person WordPress events in safe locations</h2>



<p>The Community team is <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/01/26/proposal-update-decision-making-checklist-for-safe-in-person-meetups/">discussing an updated proposal</a> to create a decision-making checklist for meetup organizers. The proposal is aimed at locations that have more effectively contained COVID-19 (such as New Zealand and Taiwan, for instance) so that local meetup groups in these areas can organize safe, in-person events. According to the proposal, in-person meetup organizers should review local/global health instructions based on resources and complete a checklist — which recommends whether to organize an event or not based on the organizer’s inputs and other factors. Compulsory safety precautions should be taken for any in-person meetup, and participants/organizers can share event feedback with WordCamp Central. The proposal is still being discussed, so if you have any thoughts, please<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2021/01/26/proposal-update-decision-making-checklist-for-safe-in-person-meetups/"> share them in the comments</a>. <strong>Please note: WordPress meetups and WordCamps are still online at this time and will continue to remain online until further notice.</strong></p>



<p>Want to get involved with the Community team? <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/">Follow the Community blog</a>, or join them in the <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQC7RN">#community-events</a> channel in <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/">the Making WordPress Slack group</a>. To organize a local WordPress community event, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/virtual-events/welcome/applying-for-a-virtual-event/">visit the handbook page</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<h2>Gutenberg 9.7 and 9.8</h2>



<p>Contributor teams released Gutenberg <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/01/07/whats-new-in-gutenberg-6-january/">Version 9.7</a> on January 6th and <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/01/20/whats-new-in-gutenberg-9-8-20-january/">Version 9.8</a> on January 20th. Version 9.7 allows users to drag block patterns from the inserter right into a desired position within the editor. It also has a new block variations feature and several improvements to reusable blocks. Version 9.6 makes the spacer block semi-transparent, adds a variation icon to the block switcher, adds site editor content to an iframe, and stabilizes Full Site Editing (FSE) by removing the auto drafts feature. </p>



<p>Want to get involved in building Gutenberg? Follow <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">the Core team blog</a>, contribute to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/">Gutenberg on GitHub</a>, and join the <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02QB2JS7">#core-editor</a> channel in <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/">the Making WordPress Slack group</a>. You can find out more about the Gutenberg roadmap in the latest <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/02/01/whats-next-in-gutenberg-february-2021/">What’s next in Gutenberg blog post</a>.</p>



<h2>Inviting Learn WordPress Contributors</h2>



<p>Contributor teams working on the <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn WordPress</a> initiative are asking for <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/contribute/">new workshop presenters and discussion group facilitators</a>. The Training Team is recruiting<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/01/27/learn-wordpress-working-group-call-for-handbook-volunteers/"> volunteers for the Learn WordPress handbook</a> and has put up a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/2021/01/29/request-for-testing-slides-plugin/">call for testing for the slides plugin</a> to identify a simplified way to present slides. The Polyglots Team has floated a proposal to <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2021/01/13/proposal-translating-learn-wordpress/">translate Learn WordPress</a>. The Meta Team is exploring the possibility of <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2021/01/03/protecting-childrens-privacy-on-wordpress-through-the-lens-of-coppa/">making Learn WordPress (and wordpress.org) COPPA-compliant</a> to host workshops aimed at kids. </p>



<p>Want to contribute to the Training team? Follow the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/training/">Training team</a> blog, or join them in the <a href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RW657Q">#training</a> channel in the Make WordPress Slack.&nbsp;</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator" />



<h2>Further Reading</h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2020/12/23/fse-program-testing-call-1-template-editing/">Round 1</a> of the Full Site Editing (FSE) outreach program <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/01/15/fse-program-template-editing-testing-summary/">has wrapped up</a>. As a result, gaps were identified in the Gutenberg 9.6 template-switching experience &#8211; you can follow the issues in GitHub. You can follow issues in GitHub and submit questions to the team. The program identified gaps in the current template-switching experience that shipped with Gutenberg 9.6. You can follow the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/27814">issues reported in GitHub</a>. Do you have questions about the FSE program? You can now <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/02/02/fse-program-bring-your-questions/">submit them here as part of the outreach program</a>.</li><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/category/heropress/">People of WordPress</a> — A cross-team initiative led by the Marketing team to highlight WordPress contributors is back with <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/01/people-of-wordpress-thelma-mutete/">a post featuring Thelma Muelte of Zimbabwe</a>. If you are an active contributor to a WordPress.org team or a local WordCamp, contact the Marketing Team with the #ContributorStory tag to be featured in the series.</li><li>Joseph Haden (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>chanthaboune</a>) launched a podcast titled <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2021/02/welcome-to-your-wp-briefing/">WP Briefing</a> which is aimed at WordPress users, builders, and contributors of all levels. The podcast &#8211; which is available on all major platforms, will include overviews of WordPress philosophy, community success stories, and major updates. </li><li>The Plugin team has added a requirement that <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2021/01/26/reminder-plugins-must-not-interfere-with-updates/">plugins in the WordPress repository must not make changes to the default auto-update settings on a site</a>. The only exception to this requirement is for those plugins that manage auto-updates.</li><li><a href="https://india.wordcamp.org/2021/">WordCamp India 2021</a> — a regional online WordCamp has begun. It’s running over three weekends and started with <a href="https://india.wordcamp.org/2021/workshops/">Multilingual workshop sessions on January 30 and 31</a>. The workshops <a href="https://india.wordcamp.org/2021/workshops/">can be found on the event site</a> and will soon be featured on <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn WordPress</a>. <a href="https://india.wordcamp.org/2021/tickets/">Tickets are still available</a> for the event —which will have a contribution event on February 6-7, followed by sessions on February 13th and 14th. </li><li>The WordPress Foundation has <a href="https://wordpressfoundation.org/2021/do_action-hackathons-and-open-source-workshops-in-2021/">invited applications for online do_action hackathons and encouraged folks to organize online open-source workshops</a> in 2021.</li><li>The Themes Team shared a post on the usage of the “Report this theme” button in 2020. The team is also <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2021/01/25/call-for-maintainers-theme-unit-test/">looking for maintainers</a> for its <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Unit_Test">Theme unit test</a>.</li><li>The Meta Team has launched an initiative to <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2021/02/01/call-for-feedback-automated-theme-testing/">facilitate automated theme testing</a> and is <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/meta/2021/02/01/call-for-feedback-automated-theme-testing/">requesting feedback</a>.</li><li>Members of the Core Team are <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/01/14/stale-issues-in-gutenberg-repository/">considering a “stale bot”</a> to close out stale issues in the Gutenberg GitHub repository.</li></ul>



<p><em>Have a story that we should include in the next “Month in WordPress” post? Please </em><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/month-in-wordpress-submissions/"><em>submit it using this form</em></a><em>.</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 03 Feb 2021 15:01:17 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Hari Shanker R";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:8;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:36:"HeroPress: Discover Where You Belong";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=3469";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:124:"https://heropress.com/essays/discover-where-you-belong/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=discover-where-you-belong";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7102:"<img width="960" height="480" src="https://s20094.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/020221-min.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: I discovered that the way forward was to create spaces for others." /><p>My path to WordPress is, like so many stories, a twisty road lined with both struggle and good fortune. And yet, when I reflect on what led me here, it simply comes down to the common threads that bind us together as a community: the desire to make meaningful connections, the ability to do amazing things together, and the very human comfort that comes with knowing that I belong here.</p>
<h3>It starts here</h3>
<p>Just before I made my way into this world, my parents immigrated from Taipei, Taiwan to San Diego, USA. Growing up, I held a level of pride in being first generation which warred against a long list of discomforts that, as a kid, I couldn’t fully comprehend. That unlike my school mates, I rarely saw my extended family. That my English didn’t sound like that of my Californian friends, nor did my Mandarin mirror my Taiwanese cousins’. That cultural norms at friends’ homes were diametric experiences from my home.</p>
<p>I realize that this sounds like I had a challenging, confusing childhood, but I assure you that I had a good time growing up. My folks are loving and made sure I had opportunities whenever possible. I always have had wonderful friends who generously share their lives and love my quirks. And, I have a brother who, despite being far smarter than I will ever be, still puts up with my big sister act.</p>
<p>My point is that, it was painfully clear to me where I couldn’t fit in. Like many third culture kids, my perplexing cultural foundation had a profound impact on my values, and created importance around the concept of belonging, something I still hold to this day, and which pushed me along my way to WordPress.</p>
<h3>The twisty road</h3>
<p>I was terrible at college. I had no sense of what I wanted to do with my life, and drifted from major to major until I found myself entirely broke and rudderless. It was 2010, and with minimal job experience and 45 credits short of a degree, I desperately applied for jobs, taking the first that offered me a full time position.</p>
<p>It was a pivotal moment in my life. The job gave me purpose, and I actually felt like I was good at something for a change. I worked closely with my boss and mentor, a highly regarded commercial real estate advisor with a warm heart and penchant for dad jokes. What set him apart was his belief in community values: the importance of education, humility, empathy, good stewardship, qualities that made him a respected leader in many circles. Over the ensuing years, I would finish my degree. But the lessons that meant the most were learned by following my mentor’s example, and would later translate well to open source leadership.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, I began volunteering with renewed passion: sorting clothes at homeless shelters, working on literacy programs, teaching English at the library, serving meals, maintaining trails, building homes. I fund raised and coordinated volunteer events. Eventually, I joined advisory boards and committees of a few nonprofits, and became enamored of the strategic, thoughtful work that came with these roles.</p>
<a href="https://s20094.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/HfH-Nicaragua.jpg"><img /></a>Building homes in Estelí, Nicaragua. One of my favorite volunteer memories!
<p>Ideas around positive change and impact through community initiatives blossomed in my mind. Driven by strongly held values, I continued to help and was welcomed at every turn. I learned that it was people who could create spaces in which anyone, everyone could belong and add value by virtue of being a unique, enthusiastic human being. I wanted to create these spaces.</p>
<h3>Finding WordPress</h3>
<p>Now, it is a true story that I also found my way to WordPress through my partner, and that WordPress brought us together. We met through a mutual friend, and when I realized that he could build me a website, I asked him to do so for work. Arguably, one of my first experiences with WordPress could be described either as sharing what my site required with my developer, or innocently flirting with my future partner. The joke I like to tease him with is that I needed someone to maintain the site, so I married him.</p>
<p>The other truth was that, after eight years of volunteering and lessons in leadership, my passion had turned to community building. I wanted a career in creating sustainable communities where people were openly welcomed, and members tangibly feel that they belong and experience joy in their participation.</p>
<p>Simultaneously, working with my WordPress site also reinforced my sense of belonging to something bigger. Despite not having any technical background (y’all, my degree is in English), I was able to not just publish with WordPress, but have a functional site that worked incredibly well for my purposes. I saw WordPress as a way for anyone to have a voice online, and as a result, I was also drawn to the idea of creating these tools that non-developers, like myself, could use in an increasingly online world.</p>
<p>By that point, my WordPress developer had become my fiancé, and he once again suggested a WordPress-based solution, this time for my career needs. Just before we married, he forwarded a job opportunity with Automattic as a sponsored community organizer within the WordPress open source project. It was a perfect match.</p>
<p>And that is how, in 2018, after going through the standard Automattic interview process (another story that I’m happy to share with anyone interested) I found myself a community organizer for the WordPress Project.</p>
<h3>Where do we go now?</h3>
<p>I’ve only been in my current role for two and a half years, but during this time, my belief in the power of resilient communities has only grown, fortified by supporting meetup and WordCamp organizers, bolstered by working on diversity initiatives, and humbled by opportunities to serve teams as their lead, mentor, or member. I’ve met and worked with so many phenomenal community members, full of passion and creativity, and have loved every minute of what we do together.</p>
<a href="https://s20094.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/WCUS-2019.jpg"><img /></a>The WordCamp US 2019 team. I miss you all so much!
<p>More than anything, what excites me the most is that we still have so much more we can achieve together. Personally, I also still have much to learn, about community growth, about WordPress, and about every individual who seeks to add WordPress to their story.</p>
<p>In seeking out where I belong, I found WordPress, and I discovered that the way forward was to create spaces for others &#8211; I invite you to do that with me.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/discover-where-you-belong/">Discover Where You Belong</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 03 Feb 2021 07:09:31 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10:"Angela Jin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:9;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:21:"Matt: Compounding Ice";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=53641";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:38:"https://ma.tt/2021/02/compounding-ice/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:1899:"<p>I learned something novel about how the ice age happened from this <a href="https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/the-freakishly-strong-base/">Freakishly Strong Base post by Morgan Housel</a>:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>The prevailing idea before [Wladimir] Köppen was that ice ages occur when the earth’s tilt supercharges the wrath of cold winters. Köppen showed that wasn’t the case. Instead, moderately cool summers are the culprit.</p><p>It begins when a summer never gets warm enough to melt the previous winter’s snow. The leftover ice base makes it easier for snow to accumulate the following winter, which increases the odds of snow sticking around in the following summer, which attracts even more accumulation the following winter. Perpetual snow reflects more of the sun’s rays, which exacerbates cooling, which brings more snowfall, and on and on.</p><p>You start with a thin layer of snow left over from a cool summer that no one pays much attention to, and after a few tens of thousands of years the entire earth is covered in miles-thick ice.</p></blockquote>



<p>Fascinating! The blog goes on to apply the idea to that strong base, accumulating a bit at a time, to investing and business. The power of compounding seems appropriate to share on <a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/email-from-jeff-bezos-to-employees">the day Jeff Bezos announced his retirement</a>.</p>



<p>I&#8217;ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Charlie Munger, which is also how the <a href="https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/the-freakishly-strong-base/">article ends</a>: </p>



<blockquote><p>&#8216;The first rule of compounding: never interrupt it unnecessarily.&#8217;</p><cite>Charlie Munger</cite></blockquote>



<p><em>The iceberg photo is one <a href="https://ma.tt/2011/08/glacier/">I took near Svalbard in 2011</a>.</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 03 Feb 2021 01:44:42 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:10;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:40:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 5.7 Beta 1";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=9599";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/02/wordpress-5-7-beta-1/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7617:"<p>WordPress 5.7 Beta 1 is now available for testing! <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f5e3.png" alt="🗣" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<p><strong>This software is still in development,</strong>&nbsp;so it’s not recommended to run this version on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with the new version.</p>



<p>You can test the WordPress 5.7 Beta 1 in two ways:</p>



<ul><li>Install/activate the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester</a> plugin (select the&nbsp;<code>Bleeding edge</code>&nbsp;channel and the&nbsp;<code>Beta/RC Only</code> stream)</li><li>Direct download the beta version here (<a href="https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.7-beta1.zip">zip</a>).</li></ul>



<p>The current target for final release is March 9, 2021. That’s just <strong>five weeks away</strong>, so your help is vital to making sure that the final release is as good as it can be.</p>



<p>So what’s new? <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f914.png" alt="🤔" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<h2><strong>Improvements in Core</strong></h2>



<p><strong>Lazy-load iframes</strong><br />Now you can enable lazy-loading of iframes by adding the <code>loading="lazy"</code> attribute to iframe tags on the front-end.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Migrating from HTTP to HTTPS is streamlined</strong><br />Switching a WordPress site from HTTP to HTTPS has proven to be a pain for all involved. While on the surface, the Site Address and WordPress Address have to be updated, content with embedded HTTP URLs remains unchanged in the database. With this release, migrating a site to HTTPS is now a one-click interaction. URLs in the database are automatically replaced when the Site and WordPress Address are both using HTTPS.&nbsp; Also, Site Health now includes an HTTPS status check.</p>



<p><strong>Standardize colors used in WP-Admin CSS to a single palette</strong><br />This change collapses all colors used in the CSS to one of the available shades of blue, green, red, yellow, grey, black, and white. The palette makes it simpler than ever to build components your users can read, because half the range gives you great contrast with white type and a half with black, according to current accessibility guidelines.</p>



<p><strong>Ongoing cleanup after update to jQuery 3.5.1</strong><br />jQuery deprecations in WordPress Core and bundled themes show up a lot less often, and the notifications make more sense to the user.</p>



<p><strong>New Robots API</strong><br />The new Robots API allows the filter directives to be included in the ‘robots’ meta tag. Also, the directive <code>max-image-preview:large</code> is now included by default to allow large image previews to be displayed in search engines (unless the blog is marked as not being public).</p>



<h2><strong>Improvements in the Editor</strong></h2>



<ul><li>Inserter drag and drop: Blocks and block patterns can now be dragged directly from the inserter into the post canvas.</li><li>Full height alignment: Blocks such as the Cover block now can have an option to expand to fill the entire viewport.</li><li>Block variations: The icon and description of a block variation is now shown in the block inspector, and a new dropdown in the block inspector lets you switch between block variations.</li><li>Reusable blocks: Several enhancements to the usability and stability of reusable blocks have been made, and reusable blocks are now saved at the same time that the post is saved.</li><li>Buttons block: The Buttons block now supports vertical alignments, and you can set the width of a button to a preset percentage.</li><li>Social Icons block: You can now change the size of the icons in the Social Icons block.</li><li>Font size in more places: You can now change the font size in the List and Code blocks.</li><li>Many many other enhancements and bug fixes. To see all of the features for each release in detail check out the Gutenberg release posts: <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/11/04/whats-new-in-gutenberg-4-november/">9.3</a>, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/11/19/whats-new-in-gutenberg-18-november-2/">9.4</a>, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/02/whats-new-in-gutenberg-2-december/">9.5</a>, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/23/whats-new-in-gutenberg-23-december/">9.6</a>, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/01/07/whats-new-in-gutenberg-6-january/">9.7</a>, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/01/20/whats-new-in-gutenberg-9-8-20-january/">9.8</a>, and 9.9 (link forthcoming).</li></ul>



<h2><strong>How You Can Help</strong></h2>



<p>Watch the Make WordPress Core blog for 5.7-related developer notes in the coming weeks, which will break down these and other changes in greater detail.</p>



<p>So far, contributors have fixed <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&changetime=..02%2F03%2F2021&milestone=5.7&group=component&max=500&col=id&col=summary&col=owner&col=type&col=priority&col=component&col=version&order=priority">143 tickets in WordPress 5.7</a>, including <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=closed&status=reopened&changetime=..02%2F03%2F2021&type=enhancement&type=feature+request&milestone=5.7&group=component&col=id&col=summary&col=type&col=status&col=milestone&col=changetime&col=owner&col=priority&col=keywords&order=changetime">68 new features and enhancements</a>, and more bug fixes are on the way.</p>



<p><strong>Do some testing!</strong></p>



<p><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/testing/beta-testing/">Testing for bugs</a> is a vital part of polishing the release during the beta stage and a great way to contribute. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/2728.png" alt="✨" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<p>If you think you’ve found a bug, please post to the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/">Alpha/Beta</a> area in the support forums. We would love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/newticket">WordPress Trac</a>. That’s also where you can find a list of <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/major">known bugs</a>.</p>



<p><em>Props to <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/hellofromtonya/">@hellofromtonya</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sarahricker/">@sarahricker</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/">@webcommsat</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/marybaum/">@marybaum</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jeffpaul/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>jeffpaul</a>, and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>audrasjb</a> for your peer revisions and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>desrosj</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidbaumwald/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>davidbaumwald</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbringmann/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>cbringmann</a>, and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>chanthaboune</a> for final review on this exciting news.</em></p>



<p>____________________________________</p>



<p><em>New Year, new goals<br />Each day, one small step<br />It’s the little things&#8230;</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 02 Feb 2021 22:31:43 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Ebonie Butler";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:11;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:72:"WPTavern: Skinning the WordPress Admin, CSS Custom Properties on the Way";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=111327";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:187:"https://wptavern.com/skinning-the-wordpress-admin-css-custom-properties-on-the-way?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=skinning-the-wordpress-admin-css-custom-properties-on-the-way";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4912:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Using CSS custom properties for the WordPress admin color scheme system is listed for the WordPress 5.7 milestone. It feels low-key enough that most would pass it over as a simple upgrade to keep up with the times. However, this feature can create ripples that spread and benefit the ecosystem in the years to come.</p>



<p>Kirsty Burgoine, a front-end developer at Human Made, announced the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/01/29/introducing-css-custom-properties/">introduction of CSS custom properties</a> for the WordPress admin. The initial work landed in a ticket for <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/49999">iterating on the admin color schemes</a>. The first stage reduced the color palette from 199 colors down to 99, creating a more reasonable list to work from.</p>



<img /><a href="https://codepen.io/ryelle/full/WNGVEjw">WordPress color palette</a> by Kelly Choyce-Dwan.



<p>The second stage will look at how to implement a CSS custom properties system that makes sense. That means doing the dreaded work of <em>naming things</em>. The Core CSS team is currently looking for feedback on how to best handle property names going forward and are open to alternative implementation suggestions.</p>



<p>Once custom properties are in place, the new system could open a world of possibilities in the long term.</p>



<h2>Thinking Ahead</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">My hopes of having WordPress admin themes have lived and died on each piece of news around custom color schemes, imaginative mockups, and the general hype of projects that never lived up to their promise. I may well be getting my hopes up again.</p>



<p>Developers have been able to register custom admin color schemes since WordPress 2.5, but it was never an ideal system.</p>



<p>One of my favorite plugins is <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/admin-color-schemes/">Admin Color Schemes</a>, which is maintained by designers from the core WordPress team. It adds several schemes for users to choose from.</p>



<img />Cruise scheme from the Admin Color Schemes plugin.



<p>Sass, which is used to generate the admin color schemes in core today, has simplified the process. However, third-party developers still need to make sure their custom schemes remain updated between WordPress versions. The system is not built to protect against future compatibility issues.</p>



<p>CSS custom properties change the game. With their widespread use and compatibility with modern browsers, custom admin theming &mdash; at least color scheming &mdash; is much more of a reality.</p>



<p>I have not been this excited about the possibility of something new since Tung Do released his <a href="https://wptavern.com/dp-dashboard-an-alternative-wordpress-admin-design">short-lived DP Dashboard plugin</a> in 2013. Now, a few days shy of eight years since its initial beta testing phase, I once again have some hope.</p>



<img />Original beta design of the DP Dashboard plugin.



<p>Given the little wisdom I have accumulated over the years, I now see that completely custom admin themes never led to the right path. I am happy we never went down it. Administration UIs need to work consistently for users and adapt to changes over time. Custom themes were a maintenance nightmare every time WordPress added a feature. However, a system built on CSS custom properties means that customizations do not break &mdash; or break far less often &mdash; as the software&rsquo;s UI evolves.</p>



<p>While the focus right now is on color schemes, nothing is stopping WordPress from moving onto other features in the future. It is possible to set up a global styles system for designers to skin the admin in all kinds of interesting ways without breaking anything. Minor options like the border-radius of buttons, font-family choices, or heading font-sizes would be easy to roll in over time.</p>



<p>As the block system continues to replace parts of the WordPress admin, custom admin skins will be far easier to maintain. Because everything in the block system is built as a component, it better future-proofs against back-compatibility issues.</p>



<p>There is a long and winding path toward a feature-complete admin skinning system. However, it is not outside the realm of possibility.</p>



<p>I look forward to the day when theme authors can easily roll out admin designs that match the front end. Perhaps integration with the block system&rsquo;s <code>theme.json</code> is a possibility. I would not mind seeing a separate admin theme directory in the future either. The use case may be too niche at this point, but it never hurts to keep the idea in the back of everyone&rsquo;s mind.</p>



<p>If nothing else, the move to custom properties lets the team clean up the admin CSS and makes it easier to add custom color schemes. That is a win for the WordPress project.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 02 Feb 2021 22:16:55 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:12;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:73:"WPTavern: WordPress 5.7 Will Make It Easier to Migrate From HTTP to HTTPS";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=111377";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:191:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-7-will-make-it-easier-to-migrate-from-http-to-https?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-5-7-will-make-it-easier-to-migrate-from-http-to-https";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2593:"<p>The next major release of WordPress will make it much easier for users to <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/50131">migrate their sites from HTTP to HTTPS</a>. It introduces new capabilities to detect if the user&rsquo;s hosting environment has support for HTTPS and provides a one-click update process, handling mixed content rewrites where possible.</p>



<p>&ldquo;A major pain point in WordPress has been the migration of a WordPress site from HTTP to HTTPS: While changing the Site Address and WordPress Address to use HTTPS is trivial, updating references to the old URLs in existing content is not,&rdquo; WordPress Core Committer Felix Arntz said in the <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/51437">ticket</a> proposing the feature. &ldquo;It cannot be accomplished within core UI and requires use of more advanced tools, such as WP-CLI or plugins like Better Search Replace, which is a no-go for most users.&rdquo;</p>



<p>In WordPress 5.6, there is no clear guidance in the Site Health screen about how to migrate to HTTPS, even though it shows as an issue. The user would need to learn more about how to update it manually, starting with changing the site URLs. </p>



<p>In WordPress 5.7, if HTTPS is supported, the Site Health Status screen will notify users and guide them with a new button that updates the site with a single click. It also migrates the site content on the fly to use HTTPS for URLs. Arntz recorded a video demo of the update:</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">

</div>



<p>This change also comes with new environment variables and filters that allow hosting providers to change the URLs linked in the HTTPS status check in Site Health, so they can more effectively manage it for their customers&rsquo; hosting options. This is similar to how hosts can modify URLs for updating the PHP version, which has had a positive impact on getting sites running on supported versions of PHP.</p>



<p>It&rsquo;s important to note that the streamlined HTTP to HTTPS migration in 5.7 does not handle updating content in the database. Also, if a site&rsquo;s URLs are controlled by constants, the update is not possible to complete automatically. In these instances, the HTTPS status check on the Site Health screen will inform the user why the site would need to be manually updated.</p>



<p>More technical details are available in the <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/51437">ticket</a> and<a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/50131"> commit message</a>, and a dev note should be forthcoming.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 02 Feb 2021 19:08:50 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:13;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:44:"WPTavern: Block Manager Redesign Coming Soon";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=111349";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:133:"https://wptavern.com/block-manager-redesign-coming-soon?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=block-manager-redesign-coming-soon";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4379:"<p>WordPress&rsquo; block management interface was <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-5-3-introduces-block-management-adds-nesting-to-the-cover-block">introduced in Gutenberg 5.3</a>, released in March 2019, and is due for an update. In case you haven&rsquo;t explored the editor&rsquo;s Tools menu, the block manager setting allows you to select which blocks will be shown or hidden in the block inserter.</p>



<p>Last week, Automattic engineer Nik Tsekouras opened a new issue in the Gutenberg repository for tracking <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/28572">block manager enhancements</a>. A few planned enhancements are already on deck, including moving the block manager into the Preferences Modal, redesigning it to use panels, and adding support for <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/27708">toggling block variations</a> on and off.</p>



<p>The <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/28329">updated Preferences Modal</a> is expected in the&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/milestone/141">Gutenberg 9.9</a>&nbsp;milestone, which will be included in WordPress 5.7. (Gutenberg versions 9.3 &ndash; 9.9 will be rolled into the release.) Moving the block manager into its future home inside the Preferences modal will be completed in a follow-up PR, since it needs to be refactored to use the panels design. Tsekouras shared a gif of the design plan for this update:</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<a href="https://cloudup.com/ccaOScZFCHe"><img src="https://cldup.com/AlD8gnb5Wn.gif" alt="Block manager update" width="3002" height="2288" /></a>
</div>



<p>In the discussion on the tracking issue, Birgit Pauli-Haack requested that the updated block manager also include information about how many times each particular block is used on the site. She <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/28572?mc_cid=e944847429&mc_eid=68ffa9a210#issuecomment-770220305">described</a> a common scenario where this feature could be helpful:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>We recently took a site live were multiple team members collaborated designing the site and adding content, each aiming for the best outcome with blocks.</p><p>Some installed additional blocks from plugins to test and provide options or just do a proof of concept.</p><p>Before we took the site live, we noticed there are now 148 blocks available over 4 additional plugins + core.</p><p>We now have no way to find out which blocks were used over 40 pages and posts. I looked at a few Block managers plugins and none seems to be able to provide an answer to a fairly basic question:<br />Which blocks did we actually use throughout the site?</p><p>We would need the information to decide on which plugin can we safely uninstall.and which should we keep.</p><p>A revamp of Block managers could &ndash; and should- provide an answer.</p></blockquote>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img />An example of instances displayed in the Find My Blocks plugin</div>



<p>The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/find-my-blocks/">Find My Blocks</a> plugin, created by Eddy Sims, offers a more advanced version of what Pauli-Haack is requesting. It has its own dedicated settings page for displaying a list of the block types in use on the site, along with the number of times each has been used, posts/pages where the blocks are in use, if it is a reusable block, a nested block, and much more information. Pauli-Haack suggests the block manager simply show the number of instances where the block is in use.</p>



<p>As the block editor becomes more widely adopted, it is going to become imperative for users to be able to see, at a glance, the number of instances where a block is in use. Right now, even those who adopted the block editor right away haven&rsquo;t been using it for more than a few years. Long term, after years of adding blocks, people are going to need more information when managing them, and they may not know about utility plugins like Find My Blocks. </p>



<p>Discussion is still open on the topic Pauli-Haack raised regarding block manager enhancements. You can subscribe to the new block manager enhancements <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/28572">tracking issue</a> if you want to follow the progress on updates coming in the next few months.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 02 Feb 2021 04:14:29 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:14;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"WPTavern: WordPress Launches WP Briefing Podcast, Episodes Expected Every 2 Weeks";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=111330";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:205:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-launches-wp-briefing-podcast-episodes-expected-every-2-weeks?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-launches-wp-briefing-podcast-episodes-expected-every-2-weeks";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5097:"<p class="has-drop-cap">True to its name, the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/podcast/welcome-to-your-wp-briefing/">first WP Briefing podcast</a> lasted just over 12 minutes. Josepha Haden Chomphosy, the Executive Director of WordPress, jump-started the second month of 2021 with a show that should arrive on the our doorstep every two weeks. With what seems to be overwhelming <a href="https://twitter.com/WordPress/status/1356271101559656453">positive support on Twitter,</a> the podcast was welcomed by the WordPress community.</p>



<p>This will be different from many other podcasts in the WordPress ecosystem. It will not cater specifically to a developer audience. Chomphosy also said there would be no hot-takes <a href="https://twitter.com/JosephaHaden/status/1356277030921244672">on Twitter</a>. &ldquo;Just bite-sized chunks about the WordPress OSS project and the how/why around what it does.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The show promises to be short. And, because it will only come around every fortnight, it gives people time to keep up to date at their leisure.</p>



<p>&ldquo;You can think of this as a sort of WordPress appreciation for any level &mdash; and honestly, all levels of WordPress awareness,&rdquo; said Chomphosy of the podcast&rsquo;s purpose. &ldquo;Bite-sized insights into what makes it all work. &ldquo;</p>



<p>Chomphosy will be running the show every couple of weeks and plans to follow a specific format of three segments:</p>



<ol><li>An easy-to-digest overview of a cool WP philosophy.</li><li>A highlight of a community success story or a noteworthy contributor.</li><li>A small list of big things to know about (or do) in the coming weeks.</li></ol>



<p>Guest speakers may join the show from time to time to cover specific topics when their expertise is warranted.</p>



<p>A common theme in the past few years, particularly as the pace of block development has quickened, is that many people find it hard to keep up with the project. Even those who are neck-deep in WordPress development can feel a little lost at times. A podcast built on the idea of keeping the community in the loop may even be a bit overdue.</p>



<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been on my list of needs since late 2017, but hasn&rsquo;t been my highest priority during that time,&rdquo; said Chomphosy. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been years since WordPress has been small enough for any single, part-time contributor to keep track of what&rsquo;s next. Contributors across the project are doing excellent work to communicate efficiently about the work we&rsquo;re all focused on, but it never hurts to lend some clarification where possible.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/seriously-simple-podcasting/">Seriously Simple Podcasting</a> plugin currently powers the podcast. The plugin is developed by Castos, which is a podcasting host and analytics service. It has over 20,000 active installs and a 4.8-star rating.</p>



<p>Chomphosy said they chose Seriously Simple Podcasting because the WP Briefing crew was already familiar with it. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to ask folks to learn an entirely new software while we&rsquo;re still working out the process.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The first episode focused on an introduction to WP Briefing. The overview segment covered three trends in action from Matt Mullenweg&rsquo;s <a href="https://wptavern.com/state-of-the-word-2020-wordpress-moves-toward-full-site-editing">State of the Word 2020</a> address. Dave Loodts was this week&rsquo;s success story after sharing how he &ldquo;blindly&rdquo; chose a career in freelance web development and is still going strong after 15 years (<em>congrats, Dave!</em>). Chomphosy wrapped up the podcast with notes on Full Site Editing, <a href="https://wptavern.com/learn-wordpress-platform-launches-with-free-courses-workshops-and-lesson-plans">Learn WordPress</a>, and automation tools to help contributor teams.</p>



<p>It is definitely worth a listen if you can spare a few minutes. I am excited to see where this project goes in the future and see how it helps keep more of the community in <em>the loop</em>.</p>



<p>If I had one feature request, it would be for the development team to put the podcast player in the WordPress embed, which is easy enough to do with a custom embed template. This would let bloggers embed the show on their pages and share it with more people.</p>



<p>However, there may be ways to embed it via third-party services down the road. &ldquo;It just went live and we&rsquo;re working on getting it listed everywhere,&rdquo; said Automattician Marcus Kazmierczak in response to <a href="https://twitter.com/gkurushin/status/1356273579273428995">whether it would be on Google Podcasts or Spotify</a>. &ldquo;Hopefully it&rsquo;ll be showing up shortly.&rdquo;</p>



<p><strong>Update:</strong> the embed now includes the audio player:</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://wordpress.org/news/podcast/welcome-to-your-wp-briefing/">Welcome to your WP Briefing</a></blockquote>
</div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 01 Feb 2021 21:52:41 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:15;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:82:"WPTavern: Upsells, Barriers, and the End/Beginning of the Quality $free Themes Era";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110940";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:203:"https://wptavern.com/upsells-barriers-and-the-end-beginning-of-the-quality-free-themes-era?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=upsells-barriers-and-the-end-beginning-of-the-quality-free-themes-era";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14535:"<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>The WordPress.org theme directory is becoming little more than a crippleware distributor. I suppose it was inevitable given its reach, which can be worth $1,000s/month for theme authors.</p><cite>Justin Tadlock <a href="https://twitter.com/justintadlock/status/1147472529113698311">via Twitter</a></cite></blockquote>



<p class="has-drop-cap">As I think back on that tweet from 2019, I realize how unfair it was to refer to the themes coming into the directory as &ldquo;crippleware.&rdquo; At the time, I was a part of the Themes Team (formerly the Theme Review Team). However, there were real cases of crippleware submitted to the directory when I wrote that.</p>



<p>To define crippleware: some themes blocked core WordPress features and made them available via the &ldquo;pro&rdquo; versions. It was one of the more blatant abuses of the free themes directory I had seen for a profit.</p>



<p>However, the term does not represent the majority of themes submitted. Most of what we see today are &ldquo;lite&rdquo; themes. Some of them are well-designed themes that provide value to end-users at no cost. Others are stripped-down versions of what you would typically see from a starter theme. While they are fully functional &mdash; the Themes Team&rsquo;s rules have been strict on this requirement &mdash; the real value of the theme is in the upsell.</p>



<p>This is not the start of an anti-commercial theme rant. When WordPress developers and agencies are successful, it benefits the whole ecosystem. But, how do we balance that with providing value &mdash; which is subjective, I know &mdash; to the free theme directory? How do we transition the theme directory to something flowing with more artistic or even experimental ideas?</p>



<h2>Guidelines and Stumbling Blocks</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Matt Mullenweg, WordPress co-founder and project lead, posted the following on the Post Status Slack <a href="https://poststatus.slack.com/archives/CHNM7Q7T8/p1610310645240600">two weeks ago</a>:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>The .org theme directory is particularly bad when you compare it to any half-decent commercial theme marketing page, or the designs available on other site building services or Themeforest directories. The .org theme directory rules and update mechanism have driven out creative contributions, it&rsquo;s largely crowded out by upsell motived contributions.</p></blockquote>



<p>There is a lot to unpack in his statement. I agree with most of it. The Themes Team agrees with at least some of it. However, its members lack direct control over the system outside of the guidelines.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I actually agree with this in a sense,&rdquo; said Themes Team rep William Patton. &ldquo;Creativity has not prospered in the directory, and I think a large part of it is the barrier of entry. &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t do bad things&rsquo; is the overarching guideline for the theme directory, but that can be viewed very subjectively. If it were the only guideline we would see a lot of things that might not be best suited here. If we want to encourage creativity then more freedom to express it would likely be a good way to start bringing it back. However, it can be hard to know where the line should be placed.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The team sometimes gets pulled in two different directions. When the project lead asks for things to be more open, many members rally around that idea. On the other hand, the call for <a href="https://wptavern.com/why-accessibility-matters-for-wordpress-themes-and-their-users">stricter accessibility requirements</a>, for example, are popular with others in the community. It is a choice between two ends of the spectrum that are tough to pull together as the gatekeepers to the official directory.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Why couldn&rsquo;t it be more like the plugin directory?&rdquo; asked Mullenweg. &ldquo;That has all the same potential issues and has been working pretty well. I&rsquo;d like it to work just like the plugin directory, with direct access for authors, and most reviews being post-review vs. pre-review.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The Themes Team is not against the idea. More than anything, they just need the help to make any significant change.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Having the themes directory work like the plugins directory would be great!&rdquo; said Themes Team rep Ari Stathopoulos. &ldquo;And, in fact, it&rsquo;s something we&rsquo;ve all been asking for years, but there are many technical challenges because they are built fundamentally differently. Plugin authors have access to their plugin&rsquo;s SVN while themes don&rsquo;t. Theme reviews are public while plugin reviews are private and closed. There would need to be lots of changes in systems and meta. Not to mention that, as far as I know, plugins don&rsquo;t do post-reviews, they do pre-reviews the first time a plugin is uploaded and post-reviews for updates (which is exactly what happens in themes too).&rdquo;</p>



<p>The team has created tickets, asked for help, and have generally awaited a champion to push innovative ideas &mdash; or any ideas &mdash; forward. <em><a href="https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/215">Seven-year-old ticket</a> to support the standard readme files available to plugins?</em> No takers as of yet. <em><a href="https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/5504">Allowing block-based themes</a> to be uploaded?</em> Maybe we can make that happen sometime soon.</p>



<p>The guidelines are likely less crippling than the outdated Trac review system, uploading ZIP files for updates (which Mullenweg mentioned), the limitation of a <code>style.css</code> header for the theme description, and the lackluster theme previewer.</p>



<img />Theme review system on Trac.



<p>For the most part, nearly every guideline has been put in place in hindsight. The team finds consistent abuse or issues and course-corrects.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think that Matt&rsquo;s idea of a creative theme is a theme that is not secure or not compatible with GPL,&rdquo; said team repo Carolina Nymark. &ldquo;Creativity is not limited by being asked to sanitize options. It is not limited by making sure that your theme can be translated. If the reviewers saw creative, beautiful themes that lacked in some other aspect like basic accessibility, then the team could help explain to the theme author what kind of changes are necessary. But that is not the kind of themes that are being submitted.&rdquo;</p>



<h2>Financial Incentive</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">In the mid-2000s, the average theme developer could get away with building an entire theme on a lazy weekend afternoon. WordPress was far less complicated. Theme development was not a race to the bottom, bundling every feature imaginable.</p>



<p>Today, we live in the era of the multi-purpose theme. To soar to the top of the popular list, most themes need to handle everything from being the online face of a pizza restaurant to masonry grids for artist portfolios. They also either need good luck, name recognition, or good marketing. That is the reality for the average theme developers trying to make a name for themselves.</p>



<p>It makes for boring themes in a free theme directory. If the theme author has any financial motivation behind creating a WordPress theme, they need to bundle the <em>nicer</em> features into a paid package.</p>



<p>As Eric Karkovack wrote in his piece for Speckyboy, <a href="https://speckyboy.com/are-high-quality-free-wordpress-themes-a-thing-of-the-past/">Are High-Quality Free WordPress Themes a Thing of the Past?</a>, &ldquo;Money changed the equation.&rdquo;</p>



<p>There is not much incentive to push a free theme out to the directory just for fun. Most themers are spending a month or more of their time in today&rsquo;s ecosystem to build a theme. The days of the weekend-afternoon project seem all but gone.</p>



<p>Even releasing a theme to give back can often be a letdown. There is little chance of any name recognition as the developer&rsquo;s creation is swamped by the hordes of lite themes in control of the directory. There is no way for unknown players to get any exposure through the directory except in the brief moments their theme lands in the latest themes list. It is that one make-or-break moment that could potentially help best the algorithm and slip into the nearly unattainable popular list.</p>



<p>In comparison to Themeforest, the WordPress.org directory is lacking. Themeforest is inviting to users because it provides the backend tools for theme authors to market their themes. They can load up custom demos, provide screenshots, use a modern categorization system, and provide all sorts of extra data to end-users. They&rsquo;re in the business of selling a product to users. </p>



<img />WordPress themes on ThemeForest



<p>While WordPress.org may be free, it should still be selling the promise of a beautiful website to its users. I have always said it, the themes available on WordPress.org are the face of WordPress.</p>



<p>Users deserve better. Theme authors deserve better tools to make it happen.</p>



<p>Even with better tools and a better-designed directory in place, there is no guarantee of an uptick of creative contributions or a better overall balance that keeps pure upsells in check.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I think that due to the reach a theme or plugin that becomes popular quickly commands, monetization is a necessity to be able to properly &lsquo;support&rsquo; such an endeavor,&rdquo; said Joost de Valk, CPO of Yoast, in response to Mullenweg&rsquo;s statement on Post Stats. &ldquo;I think the community also &lsquo;demands&rsquo; a certain stability and a certain level of support that is simply unfeasible to expect from any non paid contributor. Because WordPress.org has no way of doing that monetization &lsquo;on platform,&rsquo; this is what you end up with.&rdquo;</p>



<p>He also argued that something akin to an app store would make things like the &ldquo;balkanization from non-G-based site builders&rdquo; less attractive to theme authors. Such a store has little or no chance of becoming a reality.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I think we first need to agree on what the theme directory should be,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We need a &lsquo;mission statement,&rsquo; of sorts. And I think we probably need less control than we currently have, be much more like the plugin directory. But if we have a vision of what it should be, then we could work towards that.&rdquo;</p>



<p>There is an opportunity to turn things around. Full Site Editing will leave ample room for releasing creative, fully-featured themes with upsells. There is plenty of reason to be excited about pattern design and template packs, <a href="https://wptavern.com/block-system-will-create-more-commercial-opportunities-for-wordpress-theme-authors">better value-adds</a> for theme authors who want to upsell. The problem is going to be getting authors to abandon traditional themes and explore new terrain.</p>



<h2>Changes Are Coming, Maybe, Hopefully</h2>



<img />Popular listing on the WordPress theme directory.



<p class="has-drop-cap">For some, this is a song and dance they already know the lyrics and steps to. It is a years-long conversation that has netted little in return.</p>



<p>However, the WordPress.org theme directory may be forced to change one way or another. Block-based themes are not arriving in some distant future; they are knocking at the door. Full Site Editing is slated to <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-roadmap-update-full-site-editing-targeted-for-5-8-release-in-june-2021">land in WordPress 5.8</a> this June.</p>



<p>With this change, the WordPress.org theme directory needs to be prepared. Even with a move today, it will be a mad scramble to get systems ready in a handful of months. If waiting for the last minute, it is just asking for chaos. Block-based themes should already be <a href="https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/5504">allowed to be uploaded</a>, for example.</p>



<p>As we saw earlier this week, Automattic launched its <a href="https://wptavern.com/automattic-launches-the-blank-canvas-wordpress-theme-for-building-single-page-websites">Blank Canvas</a> theme. It is designed to work on single-page websites. It does not support commenting out of the box, which is a requirement for inclusion into the official directory.</p>



<p>Block-based themes will forever change the system. In the past, traditional themes needed to cover all their bases, integrating with every front-end feature of WordPress. In the future, that is not necessarily the case. Because everything will be built from blocks and users will have direct access to customize those blocks, a theme has no need to cover everything. The user can add and remove features at their leisure.  The review guidelines need to be molded for this future.</p>



<p>Full Site Editing almost seems purpose-built for outside-the-box theme designers. Whether it is a simple, one-page wedding invitation or an author&rsquo;s book landing page, there are more possibilities upcoming than there ever were in the past. And, these things will be far easier to build on the theme-design side of things. It will remove a lot of burden from developers and from the Themes Team during reviews.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Regarding the FSE themes: to be honest all my hopes are there,&rdquo; said Stathopoulos. &ldquo;They are very different, and it&rsquo;s a fresh start for the repository. New theme paradigm, a different set of rules (with of course some overlap for basic things), and a new way of doing things and thinking about themes. However, if they are presented in the same way in the same repo we have now, then nothing will change. the theme repo <em>needs</em> to change, and there&rsquo;s no way around that. But that&rsquo;s a decision that will have to be made from the WordPress leadership and implemented by meta.&rdquo;</p>



<p>As always, I remain optimistic about the future of WordPress themes, hoping for the ushering in of a new era. I get the sense that the Themes Team shares some of that enthusiasm, at least cautiously so. More than anything, they need the community, particularly theme authors, to chip in and shape that vision of what the WordPress theme directory should be.</p>



<p>Perhaps today, the stars are nearing alignment. Mullenweg plans to chat with the team and gather feedback in the coming weeks.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 29 Jan 2021 22:53:52 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:16;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:60:"WPTavern: GitLab Drops Bronze/Starter Tier in Pricing Update";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=111219";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:165:"https://wptavern.com/gitlab-drops-bronze-starter-tier-in-pricing-update?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gitlab-drops-bronze-starter-tier-in-pricing-update";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5745:"<p>This week GitLab <a href="https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2021/01/26/new-gitlab-product-subscription-model/">announced</a> a pricing change that eliminates its Bronze/Starter tier in favor of a three-tier subscription model. The Starter tier, previously offered at $4/month, included features like single-team project management, next day business support, and 2,000 CI/CD minutes.</p>



<img />GitLab Pricing prior to Jan 26, 2021 Update



<p>GitLab&rsquo;s updated <a href="https://about.gitlab.com/pricing/">pricing</a> page shows the benefits that were included in the Starter plan are now only available in the Premium tier at a 5x price increase, introducing a larger gap between free accounts and paying customers. The change specifically impacts those who were happy to pay for a few extras but don&rsquo;t need the full array of premium features.</p>



<img />



<p>GitLab is offering to transition customers at a discount, where existing customers have the option to renew at the current price for an additional year or upgrade to Premium at a discount. The company also makes a case for the free tier, which it says includes 89% of the features in Bronze/Starter, with 450 new features added last year. </p>



<p>&ldquo;The Bronze/Starter tier does not meet the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hurdlerate.asp">hurdle rate</a>&nbsp;that GitLab expects from a tier and is limiting us from investing to improve GitLab for all customers,&rdquo; GitLab co-founder and CEO Sid Sijbrandij said. &ldquo;Ending availability of the Bronze/Starter tier will help us accelerate development on&nbsp;customers&rsquo; priority needs&nbsp;such as improving usability, availability, performance, and delivering enterprise-grade security and compliance.&rdquo;</p>



<p>It makes sense that GitLab is turning its attention to factors like &ldquo;hurdle rate,&rdquo; as Sijbrandij told <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/15/gitlab-ceo-eyes-public-market-after-secondary-valued-it-at-6-billion-.html">CNBC</a> that he&rsquo;s still looking to take the company public after a late 2020 employee share sale, which valued the company at $6 billion. GitLab passed $150 million in annual recurring revenue in 2020, but is tightening up its subscription model as the company tailors commercial offerings for those who need DevOps features.</p>



<p>GitLab did not share the pricing update announcement on Twitter, perhaps in anticipation of how controversial it would be. The company posted the link in the <a href="https://forum.gitlab.com/t/new-gitlab-product-subscription-model/45923">GitLab forums</a> where customers expressed disappointment in the change.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We are currently paying Bronze level because there are some features that we find interesting,&rdquo; Riccardo Padovani said. He specifically referenced issue weights, iterations, multiple issue assignees, and issue dependencies.</p>



<p>&ldquo;These features are now in the premium level. We were not interested in the previous &lsquo;silver&rsquo; level. On the long term, this is basically a 5 times price increase. Being a vocal supporter of GitLab in my company,&nbsp;<strong>I am not happy about this, at all</strong>.&rdquo;</p>



<p>One customer said the change &ldquo;feels like a bit of a kick in the teeth,&rdquo; while another noted that GitLab&rsquo;s mid-tier offering costs just one dollar less than <a href="https://github.com/pricing">GitHub&rsquo;s enterprise plan</a>. Many of GitLab&rsquo;s existing Starter tier customers have a large number of users who are not developers and do not have access to code or pipeline features. They are supporting staff who check bug reports or project management teams that create issues. Without the ability to pay per user role, upgrading every seat in the team to Premium doesn&rsquo;t make sense for these types of use cases. </p>



<p>Customers who had recently convinced their organizations to go with GitLab, along with those who have invested time developing processes around the Starter tier features, are some of the most vocal opponents to the change. Some <a href="https://forum.gitlab.com/t/new-gitlab-product-subscription-model/45923/42">found the announcement off-putting</a>, as it made it seem like paying Starter plan customers were actually costing GitLab money, requiring the tier to be eliminated. Many expressed that they only signed up for the tier to support GitLab and that they only used a handful of the features.</p>



<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s worth pointing out that you say that &lsquo;many Bronze/Starter customers adopted Gitlab just for source code management,&rsquo; &ndash; yes &ndash; that&rsquo;s exactly what we use Gitlab for,&rdquo; one customer said. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t use CI, Issue Tracking, or any other features offered even in the free version, but we do want to have a couple of the SCM features offered in the Bronze/Starter tier. Do you really think that customers like us that are only looking for SCM are going to pay more for unnecessary features?&rdquo;</p>



<p>The GitLab employees in the thread seemed ready to defend the decision against the onslaught of criticism. While a few said they will take customers&rsquo; concerns and feedback under consideration, most were prepared to assure critics that the decision was made &ldquo;through extensive research,&rdquo; which likely leaves those most affected further alienated, if the 5x cost increase didn&rsquo;t already make the decision for them. Bronze/Starter tier customers who are still examining their options can find the various transition paths in the pricing change <a href="https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2021/01/26/new-gitlab-product-subscription-model/">announcement</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 29 Jan 2021 19:16:52 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:17;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:76:"WordPress Foundation: do_action hackathons and open-source workshops in 2021";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:41:"https://wordpressfoundation.org/?p=172229";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:92:"https://wordpressfoundation.org/2021/do_action-hackathons-and-open-source-workshops-in-2021/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6654:"<p>In 2020, we saw do_action events and open-source workshops move online. Around the world, community members organized 5 do_action hackathons (<a href="https://wordpressfoundation.org/2020/charity-hackathons-august-2020-report/">4 of which were online</a>) and a handful of <a href="https://wordpressfoundation.org/2020/open-source-workshops-november-2020-report/">open-source workshops</a> last year. In moving these events online, community organizers not only brought their WordPress community closer together, but they were also able to make a positive impact on their local or regional community in an exceptionally-difficult year.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>Seeing this impact, we would like to help more organizers host even more of these online charity hackathons (do_action events) and Introduction to Open Source workshops in 2021. This post shares more information for community organizers who would like to organize do_action events in 2021.</p>



<h3>do_action charity hackathons</h3>



<p>Based on feedback from the community members, <a href="https://wordpressfoundation.org/2020/charity-hackathons-august-2020-report/">do_action events so far have been quite impactful</a> in how they bring participants together to help non-profits establish an online presence, something all the more significant in 2021. Here is how we plan to support do_action events in 2021:</p>



<ul><li><strong>Improving the online do_action event documentation: </strong>The community team is currently working on revamping the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/event-formats/do_action-charity-hackathon/organising-an-online-do_action-event/">documentation for online do_action events</a> to include tips on remote collaboration, using collaboration tools, remote project management etc. Additionally, we will be reaching out to past do_action organizers to share recaps and help share task lists to help organizers get used to the online event format.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>Sponsored accounts:</strong> Organizers can reserve and use <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/getting-started/special-virtual-events-zoom-request/">Community-sponsored Zoom Pro accounts</a> for their events.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>Countrywide do_action events: </strong>There were <a href="https://wordpressfoundation.org/2020/charity-hackathons-august-2020-report/">a few countrywide do_action</a> events in 2020. More regional/countrywide events are encouraged.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>Linking do_action events with WordCamps and mentoring: </strong>Since WordCamps are also online, organizers can organize do_action events in tandem with their online WordCamps, for more impact. Similarly, new do_action organizers will get mentoring from past organizers/mentors/community deputies.</li><li><strong>Technology changes: </strong>The following changes will be implemented on the doaction.org website in 2021 to support our organizers in a better way:&nbsp;<ul><li>doaction.org to Google Workspace / G Suite (so that organizers can use custom emails &#8211; get access to a branded Google Workspace account) &#8211; <em>Due March 2021</em></li><li>Doaction.org will be modified to support multiple event dates. &#8211; <em>Due June 2021</em></li><li>The do_action application will be moved to doaction.org.- <em>Due June 2021</em></li></ul></li></ul>



<p>Does all of this sound exciting? If you would like to organize a do_action event in your locality, please <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/event-formats/do_action-charity-hackathon/do_action-event-application/">send in your application through this form</a>! Community deputies will get back to you shortly to take it forward.</p>



<h3>Introduction to Open-source workshops</h3>



<p>Introduction to Open Source workshops help spread knowledge and understanding of the open web and open source. They have also been instrumental in onboarding new contributors to WordPress. With the <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/">Learn WordPress</a> workshops on<a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/workshop/introduction-to-open-source/"> Introduction to Open-source</a>, meetup groups could host a watch party of the recorded workshop or <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/2020/12/08/tuesday-trainings-how-to-organize-a-successful-discussion-group/">organize a discussion group</a>. Here’s how community members can organize open-source workshops in 2021.&nbsp;</p>



<ul><li>Community members can now host <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/workshop/introduction-to-open-source/">Introduction to Open-source workshop</a> discussion groups in the <a href="https://www.meetup.com/learn-wordpress-discussions/">Learn WordPress meetup group</a>. If you would like to host a discussion group for a global audience, please <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/discussion-groups/">apply to become a discussion group leader</a>.</li><li><a href="https://github.com/wptrainingteam/what-is-open-source">Lesson</a> <a href="https://github.com/wptrainingteam/what-you-can-do-with-wordpress">plans</a> for the Introduction to Open-source workshops are available! Any meetup group can plan their open-source workshop based on the lesson plans.&nbsp;</li><li>Meetup groups worldwide are also encouraged to<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/virtual-events/organize-learn-wordpress-discussion-groups-for-your-wordpress-meetup/"> organize an Introduction to WordPress watch party + discussion group</a> (based on the Learn WordPress workshop on <a href="https://learn.wordpress.org/workshop/introduction-to-open-source/">Introduction to Open-source</a>) as part of their meetup (it does not need any prior approval).&nbsp;</li></ul>



<p>Organizers can feature these workshops and discussion groups in the WordPress Foundation blogs by <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/contact/">reaching out to the community team</a>. Since open-source workshops are online, there is no cost involved in organizing them, but organizers can always <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/getting-started/special-virtual-events-zoom-request/">request paid zoom accounts for their event</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The WordPress community has the power to uplift and empower people across the world by organizing these events. Our community organizers have already done stellar work in 2020, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. As we step into 2021, we look forward to supporting and seeing what organizers do with these online events to help their communities!</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 29 Jan 2021 12:55:28 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Hari Shanker";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:18;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:112:"WPTavern: WP Lookout Lets WordPress Users Track and Receive Notifications for Their Preferred Plugins and Themes";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=108062";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:269:"https://wptavern.com/wp-lookout-lets-wordpress-users-track-and-receive-notifications-for-their-preferred-plugins-and-themes?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wp-lookout-lets-wordpress-users-track-and-receive-notifications-for-their-preferred-plugins-and-themes";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8074:"<p class="has-drop-cap"><em>Should WordPress notify users of plugin ownership changes?</em> That was the question that Ian Atkins asked two months ago. WP Tavern readers seemed to think it was a good idea, at least those who commented on our <a href="https://wptavern.com/should-wordpress-notify-users-of-plugin-ownership-changes">coverage of it</a>. However, the original <a href="https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/5509">Trac ticket</a> has not seen any movement since.</p>



<p>There are real technical issues with automating the process. A change of ownership does not necessarily equate to a change of the plugin author. This is often the case when someone acquires a company and maintains the brand.</p>



<p>Tracking such changes does not necessarily need to go through WordPress. Chris Hardie built a service called <a href="https://wplookout.com/">WP Lookout</a> that notifies users of such changes and much more. It has also been available since August of 2020.</p>



<p>&ldquo;WP Lookout watches for interesting changes to the WordPress themes and plugins that someone cares about,&rdquo; said Hardie. &ldquo;I created WP Lookout for professional WordPress developers, consultants, and site managers who want to stay more informed about the plugins and themes that they (and their clients) depend on.&rdquo;</p>



<p>While WP Lookout faces the same challenges with plugin ownership changes, it does have an advantage. It also <a href="https://wplookout.com/2020/12/tracking-mentions-in-wordpress-news/">tracks WordPress news organizations</a>, including WP Tavern and <a href="https://poststatus.com/">Post Status</a>. Even if the ownership change is not reflected on the plugin&rsquo;s WordPress.org page, the story may be picked up in the news.</p>



<p>Hardie launched the news-tracking feature in early December 2020. It includes the <a href="https://www.wordfence.com/blog/category/vulnerabilities/">Wordfence vulnerabilities blog</a> and <a href="https://ithemes.com/category/wordpress-vulnerability-roundup/">iThemes vulnerabilities roundup blog</a> as a part of the service&rsquo;s security notification system. The service also scans change logs for keywords related to security.</p>



<p>Notifications do not stop there. The WP Lookout tracks plugin, theme, and core WordPress updates. It also supports several commercial plugins such as Advanced Custom Fields Pro, Gravity Forms, and WP Rocket.</p>



<p>&ldquo;When we first decide to use a theme or plugin on a WordPress site, we hopefully research it thoroughly &mdash; code quality, ratings, support responsiveness, new release history, speed of security fixes, and so on &mdash; but once it&rsquo;s installed it&rsquo;s easy to neglect those important bits of &lsquo;health&rsquo; information over time,&rdquo; said Hardie. &ldquo;Auto-updates are great from many perspectives, but I think anyone who has had to manage and troubleshoot a non-trivial WordPress site over time knows that it&rsquo;s also important to stay aware of, for example, what&rsquo;s happening in the change log or whether ownership of a plugin has changed hands. But nobody wants to log in to wp-admin on a bunch of sites every week to gather that info.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Hardie said WP Lookout will always have a robust free option for people who just want a daily email notification for a handful of plugins and themes. However, there are paid tiers for customers to access more features. They allow users to track more plugins and themes and get immediate alerts through email, RSS, Slack, or custom webhooks.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The middle tier supports up to 50 themes/plugins, immediate email notifications, and a personalized RSS feed,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The Builder tier supports up to 200 themes/plugins and adds in Slack and custom webhook support along with the option to just get security-related notifications. With more real-world user feedback, we may adjust what&rsquo;s in each tier over time.&rdquo;</p>



<p>All users get access to the Builder tier for a few weeks after signing up. After that, they must subscribe or stick with the free tier features.</p>



<h2>How the Service Works</h2>



<img />Single plugin tracking history.



<p class="has-drop-cap">WP Lookout allows users to search for and add a tracker for individual plugins. The service primarily relies on the public WordPress.org API for getting plugin and theme data. This is the same system that WordPress uses to check to see if updates are available.</p>



<p>&ldquo;But it also goes beyond what the API offers,&rdquo; said Hardie. &ldquo;For example, there&rsquo;s no standard yet for theme authors to provide .ORG theme change logs, and so that information doesn&rsquo;t show up when you go to update a theme in wp-admin; you&rsquo;d have to go poking around in Trac or source files to find it. So WP Lookout follows the trail to the change log details and <a href="https://wplookout.com/2020/08/wordpress-theme-changelog-details/">puts that right in front of you</a>.&rdquo;</p>



<img />Active plugin trackers.



<p>There is also a <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-lookout/">WP Lookout plugin</a> available in the plugin directory. It uses an API key, which users can get from the WP Lookout website. The plugin then lets the WP Lookout service know what plugins and themes are installed and adds them as trackers. Using the plugin is far more efficient than manually adding individual plugins and themes.</p>



<p>For plugins and themes that are not on WordPress.org, the service uses custom update APIs provided by the third-party developers. If that is not sufficient, it uses webpage scraping. For news sources, it parses RSS feeds.</p>



<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been interesting to see the wide variety of ways that WordPress theme and plugin authors do or don&rsquo;t manage and present data publicly about their products,&rdquo; said Hardie. &ldquo;Some have API endpoints that return the same level of detail as the .ORG API, others have change log/version documents generated by some internal tools, and still others don&rsquo;t bother doing much at all. I think an argument could be made to standardize on something here for the long-run to help boost the culture of keeping software updated, even/especially if it eventually makes the need for a tool like WP Lookout obsolete.&rdquo;</p>



<h2>The Future of WP Lookout</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Hardie has no plans of sitting on what he has already built. One of the next goals is regularly adding new themes and plugins that are not on WordPress.org. This will mean connecting with development teams and figuring out how users can get notifications of things that often have no public APIs. The lack of standardization in the space could be a tough hurdle to jump.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I have a long list of features I&rsquo;m planning to add, including things like integrating tracking GitHub repo releases, bringing some helpful data points from WP Lookout into the wp-admin interface, WordPress Packagist integration, allowing per-tracker Slack channel configurations, better internationalization, and better handling of change logs that theme/plugin authors chose to maintain outside of their .org code repositories,&rdquo; he said.</p>



<p>Hardie does not want to get too far ahead of himself with feature ideas. He said he is excited to get more feedback from users about what they find useful. Currently, there are 80 users, which is publicly available data. WP Lookout maintains an <a href="https://wplookout.com/open/">open data and financial transparency page</a>.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Despite having paid options for more advanced users, I mostly think of this as a service I want to operate for the WordPress community, and I&rsquo;ll always have a robust set of free functionality,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m also committed to participation in Five for the Future, bringing what I&rsquo;ve learned here back into improvements that might benefit all WordPress users, whether they take advantage of WP Lookout or not.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 28 Jan 2021 21:56:16 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:19;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:104:"WPTavern: ElasticPress.io Service Considers Next Move after Elasticsearch Abandons Open Source Licensing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110644";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:253:"https://wptavern.com/elasticpress-io-service-considers-next-move-after-elasticsearch-abandons-open-source-licensing?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=elasticpress-io-service-considers-next-move-after-elasticsearch-abandons-open-source-licensing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6933:"<p>Elastic, makers of the search and analytic engine&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.elastic.co/what-is/elasticsearch" target="_blank">Elasticsearch</a>, have re-licensed its core product so that it is no longer open source. The company is moving new versions of both Kibana and Elasticsearch from the&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0" target="_blank">Apache 2.0-license</a>&nbsp;to be dual-licensed under the&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.mongodb.com/licensing/server-side-public-license" target="_blank">Server Side Public License (SSPL)</a>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/blob/0d8aa7527e242fbda9d84867ab8bc955758eebce/licenses/ELASTIC-LICENSE.txt" target="_blank">Elastic License</a>, which do not meet the <a href="https://opensource.org/osd">Open Source Definition</a>. </p>



<p>In a post titled &ldquo;<a href="https://www.elastic.co/blog/why-license-change-AWS">Amazon: NOT OK &ndash; why we had to change Elastic licensing</a>,&rdquo; Elastic blames Amazon for the license change:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Our license change is aimed at preventing companies from taking our Elasticsearch and Kibana products and providing them directly as a service without collaborating with us.</p><p>Our license change comes after years of what we believe to be Amazon/AWS misleading and confusing the community &ndash; enough is enough.</p></blockquote>



<p>Elastic claims AWS&rsquo;s behavior has &ldquo;forced&rdquo; the company to abandon its open source licensing, citing examples of what they perceive to be &ldquo;ethically challenged behavior.&rdquo; In 2019, Amazon created an Open Distro for Elasticsearch, and Elastic claims they used code copied by a third party from their commercial code, further dividing the community.</p>



<p>As a result of the license change, Amazon <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/stepping-up-for-a-truly-open-source-elasticsearch/">announced</a> its intention to officially fork Elasticsearch and Kibana, with plans to roll the forks into its Open Distro distributions:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Our forks of Elasticsearch and Kibana will be based on the latest ALv2-licensed codebases, version 7.10. We will publish new GitHub repositories in the next few weeks. In time, both will be included in the existing Open Distro distributions, replacing the ALv2 builds provided by Elastic. We&rsquo;re in this for the long haul, and will work in a way that fosters healthy and sustainable open source practices&mdash;including implementing shared project governance with a community of contributors.</p></blockquote>



<p>The Open Source Initiative (OSI) <a href="https://opensource.org/node/1099">reacted</a> to the news of the license change, calling the SSPL a &ldquo;fauxpen&rdquo; source license:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Fauxpen source licenses allow a user to view the source code but do not allow other highly important rights protected by the <a href="https://opensource.org/osd">Open Source Definition</a>, such as the right to make use of the program for any field of endeavor. By design, and as explained by <a href="https://www.elastic.co/blog/licensing-change">the most recent adopter</a>, Elastic, in a post it unironically titled &ldquo;<a href="https://www.elastic.co/blog/licensing-change">Doubling Down on Open</a>,&rdquo; Elastic says that it now can &ldquo;restrict cloud service providers from offering our software as a service&rdquo; in violation of OSD6. Elastic didn&rsquo;t double down, it threw its cards in.</p></blockquote>



<p>Elastic&rsquo;s license changes may affect a few companies in the WordPress ecosystem that are redistributing Elasticsearch as a commercial offering. <a href="https://10up.com/">10up</a>, creators of <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/elasticpress/">ElasticPress</a>, by far the most popular Elasticsearch plugin for WordPress, also runs the&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="http://elasticpress.io/">ElasticPress.io</a>&nbsp;SaaS platform. More than 6,000 sites are using the open source plugin, but the company said these users will not be affected.</p>



<p>&ldquo;No matter what this won&rsquo;t affect the EP plugin,&rdquo; 10up vice president of engineering Taylor Lovett said. &ldquo;I would say the news is definitely discouraging and not a great look for Elastic.&rdquo;</p>



<p>10up <a href="https://wptavern.com/10up-unveils-elasticpress-io-elasticsearch-as-a-service-for-wordpress-sites">launched</a> ElasticPress.io in 2017 and Lovett says it has become &ldquo;an active part of the business with a plethora of customers,&rdquo; and continues to grow. The company is currently seeking legal advice on how Elasticsearch&rsquo;s licensing change will affect the ElasticPress.io service. Since previous versions of Elasticsearch remain open source, the company has time to figure out a new way forward.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Right now we really don&rsquo;t know what&rsquo;s going to happen,&rdquo; Lovett said. &ldquo;There is no rush for us to upgrade&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="http://elasticpress.io/">ElasticPress.io</a>&nbsp;to Elasticsearch 7.11+ so we have plenty of time to decide how to address the issue.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Lovett confirmed that 10up is considering using the Amazon fork as an option but has not  made a decision on the matter yet.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I will say this does affect the end user in a way that they may end up having to choose between different flavors of Elasticserarch,&rdquo; Lovett said.<br /><br />&ldquo;For example, you may need to decide if you want the official Elastic distribution or if you want to go with AWS&rsquo;s fork.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Unfortunately, for businesses that built services on top of redistributing the previously open source Elasticsearch, Elastic&rsquo;s creators have gone back on <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200120104750/https:/www.elastic.co/what-is/open-x-pack">the promise they made in 2018</a> to never change the license of any of the Apache 2.0 code of Elasticsearch, Kibana, Beats, and Logstash projects.&nbsp;As a consequence, Amazon has emerged as the one to drive the truly open source option for Elasticsearch and Kibana for the future.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Elastic&rsquo;s relicensing is not evidence of any failure of the open source licensing model or a gap in open source licenses,&rdquo; the OSI board of directors stated in a recent <a href="https://opensource.org/node/1099">post</a> on the matter. &ldquo;It is simply that Elastic&rsquo;s current business model is inconsistent with what open source licenses are designed to do. Its current business desires are what proprietary licenses (which includes source available) are designed for.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 28 Jan 2021 20:25:53 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:20;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:96:"WPTavern: Automattic Launches the Blank Canvas WordPress Theme for Building Single-Page Websites";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110986";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:237:"https://wptavern.com/automattic-launches-the-blank-canvas-wordpress-theme-for-building-single-page-websites?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=automattic-launches-the-blank-canvas-wordpress-theme-for-building-single-page-websites";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7389:"<img />Split Screen pattern from Blank Canvas.



<p class="has-drop-cap">On Monday, Automattic <a href="https://wordpress.com/blog/2021/01/25/building-single-page-websites-on-wordpress-com/">announced its Blank Canvas theme</a> on WordPress.com. The goal is to allow end-users to build single-page websites, such as an &ldquo;about me&rdquo; or product landing page.</p>



<p>Blank Canvas is a child theme of <a href="https://wptavern.com/exploring-seedlet-automattics-block-first-wordpress-theme">Seedlet</a>, which Automattic&rsquo;s <a href="https://themeshaper.com/about/">Theme Team</a> has been using as a launchpad. One example is its recently-released <a href="https://wptavern.com/automattic-releases-spearhead-a-seedlet-child-theme-aimed-at-podcasters-and-content-creators">Spearhead</a> child theme. It also provided the foundational work for the recent Twenty Twenty-One default WordPress theme.</p>



<p>One-page themes are nothing new. Theme builders have been releasing them for years in various forms.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been working on block patterns a lot lately, and it became clear that many of the single-page websites we come across daily &mdash; collections of links, newsletter signups, etc. &mdash; are basically just simple block patterns sitting on an otherwise blank page,&rdquo; said Kjell Reigstad, the lead developer on the theme. &ldquo;That being the case, it seemed like WordPress should be able to power these sorts of single-page sites pretty easily. Blank Canvas is an attempt to try that out.&rdquo;</p>



<p>WordPress is not the ideal platform for the majority of one-page sites. Doing so includes setting up a database, installing the software, and keeping everything updated. The admin interface is not well-suited to those types of sites. WordPress is a content management system. One page is not enough content to need a full-blown CMS to manage. There simply is little upside for the average user to go through the hassle of doing this on even the cheapest of shared hosting.</p>



<p>However, if you have a network where someone else, such as WordPress.com, takes out all the hassle of maintaining the backend and when it does not cost you a dime, WordPress suddenly makes more sense. It becomes an ideal platform for these types of sites.</p>



<p>Frankly, I do not know why they have not pushed this concept sooner. Jason Schuller has made a go of it with Leeflets in the past. Since then, he and Philip Kurth have taken that idea further and launched <a href="https://wptavern.com/landing-kit-for-wordpress-maps-any-post-or-page-to-a-custom-domain">WP Landing Kit</a>, which builds on the same concept of creating multiple single-page landing sites from one WordPress installation.</p>



<p>In some respects, Blank Canvas offers a glimpse into Full Site Editing. It is almost a stepping stone or a small yet limited preview of things to come. The theme puts the entire design process into a single page and a single editor. Eventually, this will be extended to the whole website.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s a great way to think about it,&rdquo; said Reigstad. &ldquo;Full Site Editing is coming soon, but in the meantime, Blank Canvas lets you do just a little bit more with Gutenberg than you could before.&rdquo;</p>



<h2>About the Theme</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The theme is called <strong>Blank</strong> Canvas for a reason. Its <a href="https://blankcanvasdemo.wordpress.com/">demo page</a> is literally a blank screen with a footer message. The idea is that the end-user designs their homepage &mdash; or their entire site in the case of a single-page website &mdash; via the block editor.</p>



<p>For those who need a starting point, the theme comes packaged with six block patterns:</p>



<ul><li>About Me</li><li>Links</li><li>Invitation</li><li>Split Screen</li><li>Card</li><li>Email Signup</li></ul>



<img />Invitation block pattern.



<p>Self-hosted WordPress users can install the theme too. It is currently awaiting review for the theme directory, but they can snag the ZIP file or SVN link from its <a href="https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/94482">Trac ticket</a>. For those giving it a test, be sure to disable the title and tagline via the customizer so they do not appear on the front end. That is assuming you want to use the theme as intended. It will also work as a more traditional theme because the Seedlet parent theme covers all the necessary features.</p>



<p>There are differences between the theme on WordPress.com and that submitted to the WordPress.org theme directory. The .ORG version has only four block patterns. The .COM version includes an additional Card pattern, which integrates with Automattic&rsquo;s Layout Grid plugin. The Email Signup pattern needs Jetpack&rsquo;s form feature.</p>



<p>Simple conditional checks for Layout Grid or Jetpack before registering the patterns would suffice for users with those plugins installed. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s planned,&rdquo; said Reigstad of adding the missing patterns, &ldquo;but we just didn&rsquo;t implement it yet.&rdquo;</p>



<img />Email Signup block pattern.



<p>WordPress.com users have something else to look forward to. In November, the service <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-com-drops-over-100-block-patterns-carving-a-path-the-design-community-should-follow">launched over 100 patterns</a>. &ldquo;One of the nice things is that there are already a lot of patterns out there that seem ready-made for single-page websites,&rdquo; said Reigstad.</p>



<p>He did say the team is working on bundling more patterns in the future. These may include more &ldquo;link in bio&rdquo; designs that expand on the one already in the theme today.</p>



<h2>Pioneering Block-Friendly Themes</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Several of the ideas available in this theme seemed to have started from the WordPress <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments">Theme Experiments repository</a>. It features block patterns similar in scope to the <a href="https://wptavern.com/carrd-like-theme-experiment-provides-a-glimpse-into-the-future-of-theming">Carrd-like theme</a> Reigstad built last October.</p>



<p>&ldquo;In general, building block-based themes helped redefine our idea of what a theme needed to be,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;d tended to think of a theme as a complicated piece of software that accounts for every scenario you throw at it: a blog, custom post types, category pages, search pages, the 404 page, etc.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Reigstad said that the block-based themes paradigm has forced the Theme Team to start small. Because Full Site Editing is still in flux, its features not ready, the team has built proof-of-concept themes with limited functionality.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The possibilities for block-based themes have grown considerably since then (as shown by TT1 Blocks, Q, Block-based Bosco, and others), but the early constraints helped spark ideas like that Carrd-inspired theme,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It turned out that you could build a pretty useful site with just a handful of blocks.</p>



<p>&ldquo;That mindset definitely informed Blank Canvas &mdash; we started small, with just the functionality someone would need to build a single-page site. Since it&rsquo;s based on a full-featured theme (Seedlet), you can grow with it too.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 27 Jan 2021 22:11:43 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:21;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:106:"WPTavern: Plugin Team Draws a Line: Plugins Must Not Change WordPress’ Default Automatic Update Settings";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=111034";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:249:"https://wptavern.com/plugin-team-draws-a-line-plugins-must-not-change-wordpress-default-automatic-update-settings?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=plugin-team-draws-a-line-plugins-must-not-change-wordpress-default-automatic-update-settings";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3110:"<p>WordPress&rsquo; plugin team has published a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2021/01/26/reminder-plugins-must-not-interfere-with-updates/">statement</a> regarding plugins making changes to users&rsquo; update services: </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Unless your&nbsp;plugin&nbsp;has the&nbsp;<em>purpose</em>&nbsp;of managing updates, you&nbsp;<strong>must not</strong>&nbsp;change the&nbsp;defaults&nbsp;of WordPress&rsquo; update settings.</p><p>You&nbsp;<em>may</em>&nbsp;offer a feature to auto-update, but it has to honor the&nbsp;core&nbsp;settings. This means if someone has set their site to &ldquo;Never update any of my plugins or themes&rdquo; you are not to change those for them unless they opt-in and request it.</p></blockquote>



<p>The statement was prompted by plugins overstepping this boundary, which, up until recently, has simply been understood but not explicitly forbidden. Mika Epstein said the practice &ldquo;destroys the faith users have in you to not break their sites.&rdquo; It also reflects poorly on WordPress as a whole when plugin authors abuse core features to serve their own interests.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Sadly, this happened recently to a well used plugin, and the fallout has been pretty bad,&rdquo; Epstein said. </p>



<p>She did not identify the plugin in question, but one particular incident that happened last month bears a strong likeness to this description. On December 21, 2020, the <a href="https://wptavern.com/all-in-one-seo-plugin-turns-on-automatic-updates-without-notifying-users-removes-functionality-in-latest-release">All in One SEO plugin turned on automatic updates without notifying its users</a>, aside from a short, ambiguous note in the changelog.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>All in One SEO was active on more than 2 million WordPress sites when it rolled out this update. Many users were frustrated to discover that their sites had been updated without permission, despite having auto updates turned off for the plugin. The plugin&rsquo;s developers removed the auto updates wrapper&nbsp;functionality from the plugin earlier this month, in favor of letting WordPress handle updates.</p>



<p>After this incident, those who were affected were left with questions. Should WordPress allow this practice? Should plugin developers be required to place a notice in the dashboard if they are going to flip automatic updates on? While many users are willing to trust WordPress core to do automatic updates in a safe way, some are not willing to extend that trust to plugin developers, whose quality of updates vary widely. The plugin team offering guidance and communication on this matter was absolutely necessary to deter aggressive plugin developers from destroying what is still a fragile trust in automatic updates.</p>



<p>&ldquo;At this time, we have no plans to spell this out in a guideline,&rdquo; Epstein said. &ldquo;We do currently, regularly flag plugins that go outside their dictated (self defined) boundaries, and this is not a change. Please, respect your users.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:43:13 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:22;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:102:"WPTavern: Jetpack Launches Customer Research Project to Improve the Plugin and Reduce User Frustration";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110995";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:249:"https://wptavern.com/jetpack-launches-customer-research-project-to-improve-the-plugin-and-reduce-user-frustration?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jetpack-launches-customer-research-project-to-improve-the-plugin-and-reduce-user-frustration";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6244:"<p>Jetpack&rsquo;s Design and Research Team is <a href="https://automattic.design/2021/01/26/were-all-ears/">launching a new customer research panel</a> as part of an ongoing effort to collect feedback in advance of launching new features. They are allocating one day every month to talk with users:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>It&rsquo;s a small step toward an important goal of better understanding what our users need, seeing and hearing first hand where they are frustrated, and learning how Jetpack can work better for them.</p><p>The relationship benefits both sides. Our customers enjoy a sneak preview of features coming down the roadmap, and are empowered to help shape the product&rsquo;s future. And our design slash research team sees first hand, how our products perform with real folks using them.</p></blockquote>



<p>Jetpack is recruiting customers for 45-minute long interviews on Zoom where they will preview some new designs and talk about proposed product improvements that are already in the works. In exchange, participants receive a $25 Amazon gift card.  </p>



<p>This outreach effort may help in easing the periodic friction between Automattic and the larger WordPress community, which tends to emerge like pop-up storms on social media and quickly dissipate, but not without taxing onlookers&rsquo; good will. Although Jetpack is active on more than 5 million sites, and is marketed as &ldquo;the most popular WordPress plugin for just about everything,&rdquo; its team occasionally seems out of touch with users.</p>



<p>One recent example of this happened when Matt Medeiros drew attention to the wording for the Jetpack Scan upsells that appear on the plugins page in the admin.  Specifically, people took issue with the claim that &ldquo;adding plugins can expose your site to security risks.&rdquo; While this is true, participants in the resulting heated discussion said it implies that Jetpack, the plugin that claims to do &ldquo;just about everything,&rdquo; is the only safe plugin. </p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Everyone: WordPress is amazing because you can use plugins! <br />Jetpack: Careful, it's a scary place that WordPress repo is.<br />Everyone: Didn't you come from .org? <br />Jetpack: Just buy my protection plan. <a href="https://t.co/5oqbsroqSA">pic.twitter.com/5oqbsroqSA</a></p>&mdash; I podcast a lot&#127897; (@mattmedeiros) <a href="https://twitter.com/mattmedeiros/status/1352275821763948550?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>Some perceived it to be in violation of <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-org/detailed-plugin-guidelines/#11-plugins-should-not-hijack-the-admin-dashboard">#11 of the Plugin Directory guidelines</a>, which states that plugins should not hijack the admin dashboard. The guideline also recommends avoiding advertising in the admin &ldquo;as it is generally ineffective,&rdquo; as well as frustrating for users who are not looking for additional complications while solving problems.</p>



<p>This particular case was resolved after Automattic product designer Jeff Golenski took the community feedback to his team. They <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffgolenski/status/1352417067849428993">updated the advertisement</a> to be less fear-inspiring regarding the WordPress plugin ecosystem.</p>



<p>In another potent example of disconnect from the larger community, <a href="https://wptavern.com/jetpack-7-1-adds-feature-suggestions-to-plugin-search-results">Jetpack 7.1 quietly introduced suggestions to the plugin search screen</a>. The update artificially inserted a search result into the first plugin card slot, identifying the corresponding Jetpack feature if one was available. Jetpack&rsquo;s module placement in the results subtly implied that other plugins were inferior options to its existing modules. Some of the modules advertised required an upgrade. The UI did not make it clear that the artificial search result was not coming from the plugin directory&rsquo;s algorithm. The Jetpack team claimed that it was designed to be a notice but its implementation was virtually indistinguishable from an advertisement.</p>



<p>In a later release, Jetpack <a href="https://wptavern.com/jetpack-7-2-1-removes-promotions-for-paid-upgrades-from-the-search-screen">removed all feature suggestions that previously advertised upgrades</a>, characterizing the mistake as &ldquo;an error in judgment.&rdquo; This kind of misstep could have easily been avoided if the feature had been presented to actual users in advance. User researchers could have asked, &ldquo;How would you like it if we put some of our paid upgrades in the top search spot when you are searching for a new plugin?&rdquo; </p>



<p>Historically, the company has had a few rocky launches where it seemed some product teams did not consider the community&rsquo;s perception in their marketing approaches. Most recently, this was evident in the launch of WordPress.com&rsquo;s new&nbsp;<a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-com-rattles-freelancer-community-with-new-website-building-service-launch">website building service</a>, which failed to include important information, i.e. that the intention was to refer business out. </p>



<p>The new customer research panel is a strategic move for Automattic and should allow the company to avoid a lot more frustration and miscommunication around Jetpack. It could also be valuable as a means of testing potential marketing angles, beyond just specific features the team is developing.</p>



<p>&ldquo;When you have a team continually connecting with their customers, you find that they start to become internal ambassadors for the users, helping to weave the user&rsquo;s voice into product and design conversations throughout the entire product design process.&rdquo; Automattic UX/Product Designer Yvonne Doll said in the announcment.</p>



<p>If you want to help the Jetpack team realize these goals and become ambassadors for their users, visit the plugin&rsquo;s <a href="https://jetpackresearch.blog/">user research blog</a> and sign up to participate in upcoming interviews. </p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 27 Jan 2021 02:33:37 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:23;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:64:"WPTavern: WP Buffs Finalizes First Acquisition, Purchases WP EZI";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110796";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:171:"https://wptavern.com/wp-buffs-finalizes-first-acquisition-purchases-wp-ezi?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wp-buffs-finalizes-first-acquisition-purchases-wp-ezi";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6915:"<img />



<p class="has-drop-cap">Earlier today, WP Buffs <a href="https://wpbuffs.com/wp-ezi-acqusition/">announced that it had acquired WP EZI</a>, a WordPress maintenance and support service. It was a five-figure acquisition for 64 active subscriptions and 343 total customers. Paul Tselekidis, the former owner of WP EZI, is <a href="https://wpezi.com/joining-wp-buffs/">stepping away from the project</a>.</p>



<p>WP Buffs offers 24/7 WordPress website management. Its team works directly with website owners and startups. They also work with white-label partners in the WordPress space. Agencies, freelancers, and hosting companies resell the WP Buffs subscription services instead of hiring a global team of their own.</p>



<p>This is the first acquisition for the company and was done through their new <a href="https://wpbuffs.com/acquisitions/">Business Acquisition Unit</a>.</p>



<p>For WP EZI users, nothing should change about how they use the service. &ldquo;The day-to-day of the folks at WP EZI (aside from Paul) will continue unchanged as they&rsquo;ve all decided to stay on board and are excited for this new chapter of the business,&rdquo; said Joe Howard, the Founder and CEO of WP Buffs. &ldquo;For the time being, they will continue to function as team members of WP EZI, although they&rsquo;ll, of course, be given a warm welcome as new members of the WP Buffs family.&rdquo;</p>



<p>At the moment, none of the pre-acquisition WP Buffs staff will move over to any WP EZI projects or vice versa. The two brands will remain separate.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Mostly, this is for current WP EZI subscription clients, as keeping them happy and unbothered is our top priority,&rdquo; said Howard.</p>



<p>One change coming to WP EZI is that it will no longer offer new care plan subscriptions. The goal is to send those leads to WP Buffs. WP EZI will continue serving current care plan customers and handle one-off projects.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The strength of WP Buffs is in our strong systems and scalable business model of selling and executing on subscription services,&rdquo; said Howard. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;ll continue to accept new care plans there and send all one-time requests to WP EZI. They have experience with this business model, so we&rsquo;re going to keep that team doing the work they&rsquo;ve proved to be strong at.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Howard did not give much away in terms of long-term changes. He said that while they are mulling over some ideas, their priorities were a peaceful transition for WP EZI clients and learning from and helping the current team.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Most of the benefits for WP Buffs come from acquiring an already profitable business and client base,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Furthermore, the acquisition allows us to funnel care plan leads into WP Buffs and more one-time work into WP EZI. These silos will allow each team to be more efficient since they&rsquo;ll be able to focus on their areas of strength.&rdquo;</p>



<h2>On Acquisitions and Growth</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">On the low end, the deal was likely at least mid to upper-five figures. We know that it was a five-figure acquisition. There were 64 active customers with an $87 per month subscription or more. This also assumes a consistent active subscription count for the last year or so. This is speculation but should provide some low ballpark numbers for others looking to sell a WordPress-related business.</p>



<p>While Howard did not provide an exact figure, his company provided far more information than is typical of business acquisitions in the WordPress ecosystem. Often, these deals are made only with an agreement that neither party share the sale price. The transparency from WP Buffs should come as a breath of fresh air to other small business owners. It can be overwhelming venturing into a first acquisition from either end.</p>



<p>One of his goals is to be transparent with how WP Buffs is run. His <a href="https://wpbuffs.com/2020-year-in-review/">2020 year in review</a> post is lengthy, but he does not hold back on mistakes and successes. It provides a lot of insight that other business owners can learn from.</p>



<p>Howard has some experience scaling businesses beyond that $10,000 &ndash; $15,000 monthly recurring revenue (MRR) spot, which is where some small businesses begin to plateau. I asked him to share his experience with other business owners.</p>



<p>&ldquo;WP Buffs now does $100,000+ MRR,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That means we don&rsquo;t have the same issues as a care plan company at the scale of WP EZI &mdash; and if we do, we can pay to make those challenges go away.&rdquo;</p>



<p>With WP Buffs now in control of the WP EZI brand, they can dedicate funding where needed and use their leadership and management where needed. Because their team has been here before, it should provide the experience to push past any hurdles.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The reality here is just an economics of scale,&rdquo; said Howard. &ldquo;&lsquo;Bigger&rsquo; companies can simply flex a little more muscle to get rid of roadblocks. Plus, they have more financial flexibility to experiment and get things wrong to find that one thing that makes the difference when it comes to growth.&rdquo;</p>



<p>He wrapped up his advice by saying that businesses should focus on their subscription metrics:</p>



<ul><li>Develop 1-2 predictable, lead acquisition channels and grow those (increase MRR growth from new sales).</li><li>Get a ton of client feedback and make fast adjustments to keep them happy (lower churn).</li><li>From the client feedback, implement new features, offerings, value to current clients so they&rsquo;ll stay with you longer and tell others about you (increase expansion revenue and lifetime value).</li></ul>



<p>&ldquo;One basic piece of advice is it&rsquo;s never too early to start thinking about selling, even if it&rsquo;s not on your roadmap,&rdquo; said Howard. &ldquo;Whether you ever want to sell your business or not, the things that make the kind of business people want to purchase are the same things that simply make it a good business, so why not do them?&rdquo;</p>



<p>Howard and Tselekidis had an <a href="https://wpmrr.com/podcast/paul-kidis-wp-ezi/">open and honest conversation</a> about the acquisition on the WPMRR podcast. Some of it is personal, but it provides a glimpse behind the curtain of a WordPress business sale.</p>



<p>Tselekidis talked about spreading himself too thin among his various projects in the podcast. After a self-analysis and reevaluating his interests, he decided to find a new home for WP EZI. This will allow him to focus on and pursue other goals. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s time to move on; like it&rsquo;s my time,&rdquo; he said of continuing work that he was not as passionate about. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to do a disservice by my clients.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 26 Jan 2021 21:41:16 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:24;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:25:"Matt: Revue Joins Twitter";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:42:"https://ma.tt/2021/01/revue-joins-twitter/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:42:"https://ma.tt/2021/01/revue-joins-twitter/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:591:"<p>Very excited to share the <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2021/making-twitter-a-better-home-for-writers.html">news that Revue is joining Twitter</a>. I’m a huge fan of the idea of better newsletters and <a href="https://automattic.com">Automattic</a> was the largest investor in <a href="https://www.getrevue.co/">Revue</a>. I’m looking forward to seeing what the very talented team will do as part of the Twitter network. Also many thanks to <a href="https://kk.org">Kevin Kelly</a> and <a href="https://om.co">Om</a> for introducing me to Revue early on. </p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 26 Jan 2021 18:43:18 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:25;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:91:"WPTavern: WordPress Roadmap Update: Full-Site Editing Targeted for 5.8 Release in June 2021";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110884";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:225:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-roadmap-update-full-site-editing-targeted-for-5-8-release-in-june-2021?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-roadmap-update-full-site-editing-targeted-for-5-8-release-in-june-2021";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3700:"<p>WordPress core contributors are pushing forward on an ambitious plan to land full-site editing in core before the end of the year. Josepha Haden Chomphosy, the open source project&rsquo;s executive director, published an <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2021/01/21/big-picture-goals-2021/">updated roadmap</a> for 2021 that aims to get an MVP of full-site editing (FSE) in the Gutenberg plugin by April, 2021. FSE v1 would then be on track for shipping with WordPress 5.8, which is anticipated in June, 2021.</p>



<table><tbody><tr><th>5.7&nbsp;</th><td>April 2021 &ndash; <strong>MVP for FSE in Gutenberg plugin</strong></td></tr><tr><th>5.8</th><td>June 2021 &ndash; <strong>&nbsp;v1 in Core</strong></td></tr></tbody></table>



<p>Chomphosy defined the scope of FSE as &ldquo;the ability to edit all elements of a site using Gutenberg blocks&rdquo; and said it will include &ldquo;all in-progress features designed to help existing users transition to Gutenberg as well.&rdquo;</p>



<p>When asked what would be considered an MVP of full-site editing, Chomphosy pointed to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/24551">a GitHub issue</a> that contributors are using for tracking all the milestones associated with the project. Part of the infrastructure and UI is marked as complete, as well as browsing between pages, templates, and template parts. Styling, theme blocks, the query block, and the navigation block still need more work. More progress may have been made but the tracking issue has not been updated since December 19, 2020. </p>



<p>Dipping into the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/01/22/editor-chat-summary-20th-january-2021/">notes</a> from the recent editor meetings shows a steady stream of FSE improvements, which presumably will coalesce into an MVP in approximately five weeks. Chomphosy&rsquo;s announcement avoided explicit promises regarding what features are expected at that time.  </p>



<p>Related projects like the widgets and navigation block editors have new dedicated Slack channels for those interested in following and contributing: </p>



<ul><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C01D71823PB" target="_blank">#feature-widgets-block-editor</a></li><li><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C01KDAZJMQ9" target="_blank">#feature-navigation-block-editor</a></li></ul>



<p>If you have questions about where FSE is headed, an upcoming Gutenberg Times Live Q&amp;A episode titled &ldquo;<em>Updates on WordPress Site-Editor (FSE) and Themes</em>&rdquo; will feature a panel of people who are actively contributing in these areas. It includes Carolina Nymark, author of <a href="https://fullsiteediting.com/">a course on full site editing and block based themes</a>, Ari Stathopoulos, core contributor and author of the first block-based theme in the repository, and Anne McCarthy, who is managing the FSE outreach experiment. </p>



<p>The episode will air live on Friday, January 29th, 2021, at 11AM EST, hosted by Birgit Pauli-Haack, curator of the <a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/">Gutenberg Times</a>. <a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/9716061492351/WN_vtNXZ0zTTs2S0S98X0Y9og">Registration</a> for the event is free. Pauli-Haack plans to cover all the latest updates on full-site editing, block-based themes, and global styles. The panel will also touch on the navigation and widget screens, as well as what features will most likely land in WordPress 5.7. Viewers can bring questions and participate via Zoom and YouTube live. The episode will be recorded and shared afterwards with a transcript and resources.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 26 Jan 2021 03:16:56 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:26;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"WPTavern: Jump-Start a Year’s Worth of Content via the Launch With Words Plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110800";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:201:"https://wptavern.com/jump-start-a-years-worth-of-content-via-the-launch-with-words-plugin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jump-start-a-years-worth-of-content-via-the-launch-with-words-plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8435:"<p class="has-drop-cap">On Sunday, Bridget Willard announced her latest project, <a href="http://launchwithwords.com">Launch With Words</a>. In collaboration with Ronald Huereca, who performed the development work, they built a plugin that helps clients jump-start routine, monthly blog posts. In the future, there will be premium &ldquo;content packs&rdquo; that include content for various industries.</p>



<p>The Launch With Words plugin is essentially a JSON importer for blog posts. The plugin itself is simple. However, the idea is what makes this plugin special.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The audience is small business owners,&rdquo; said Willard. &ldquo;So many of us in the WordPress ecosystem are overeducated. We are annoyed that clients don&rsquo;t know how to do X, Y, and Z. But that&rsquo;s not their job; it&rsquo;s ours.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Willard wrote starter content for both the Twenty Nineteen and Twenty Twenty default WordPress themes. She said it occurred to her that theme starter content is great, but why was no one tackling this for blog posts?</p>



<p>&ldquo;This plugin comes from something I&rsquo;ve been saying to friends for years, &lsquo;launch with words; get paid faster,'&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;<em>Lorem ipsum</em> is such a pain. Seriously. As someone who partners with WordPress agencies and freelancers to write copy for website launches, placeholder text is my nemesis.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Willard <a href="https://bridgetwillard.com/">runs her own business</a>, which offers social media management, copywriting, consulting, and business coaching. She is a marketing consultant who has been writing for the web since 2001.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I was a secretary by trade with a background in accounts receivables and collections,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;After I earned my teaching credential, I spent a year teaching junior high and high school math before I realized I didn&rsquo;t like parents. But hey, that bachelor&rsquo;s degree isn&rsquo;t wasted. I decided to go back to office work and landed in accounting (hello, algebra). I excelled in accounts receivable and collections but was at the top of my salary range.&rdquo;</p>



<p>She left the construction industry in 2015 and began working for an advertising agency. During this time, she helped build the GiveWP brand. She also led the WordPress Marketing Team for two years.</p>



<h2>How the Plugin Works</h2>



<img />Importing content with the Launch With Words plugin.



<p class="has-drop-cap">Launch With Words simply imports content. On its own, it does nothing else. Willard provides a downloadable JSON file via the Launch With Words website. This &ldquo;<a href="https://bridgetwillard.com/downloads/launch-with-words-starter-content-pack/">starter pack</a>&rdquo; is available for free to everyone. It includes 12 draft blog posts to keep users blogging on their site for the next year.</p>



<p>While it is geared toward freelancers and agencies working with small business owners, anyone can use the plugin and starter pack. If you are having trouble pushing out content regularly, the monthly prompts could be the injection you need to get the creative juices flowing.</p>



<p>Each draft post includes a topic theme, topic type, and blog checklist. The topic theme is centered on usual events or holidays that match the month of the year. For example, the following is the theme for May:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Topic Theme: Summer is around the corner and, if your business is seasonal, you may have a bit of extra time or be swamped. It generally depends on your sales cycle.</p><p>This is a great time to go to your inspiration journal and look for a case study that can be written. Get the content published before people start going on vacations and forget about hiring a small business.</p></blockquote>



<p>Just pull up each month&rsquo;s draft post, follow the topic, and go from there.</p>



<img />Draft blog post for December.



<p>Willard says that the plugin builds off the services she offers. &ldquo;This plugin absolutely solves the repeated issues I encounter with people &mdash; namely, &lsquo;What do I write about?'&rdquo;</p>



<p>She has not started using the Launch With Words plugin with her clients yet. In the past, she has used the <a href="https://bit.ly/BridgetWebQuestions">Website Content Questionnaire</a>, a tool she built that others can copy to their Google Drive for free.</p>



<p>&ldquo;What makes web copy great is having a bit of the backstory about people,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;What makes them different? Do they like hockey? Did they start working in fast food? Are they building sites for the healthcare industry?&rdquo;</p>



<h2>Premium Content Packs</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Willard will begin offering premium content packs soon. Each will come with 12 fully-written blog post drafts for each month of the year, catering to specific industries. She plans to launch these individual packs at $497.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I get asked how I come up with prices often,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Because I look at websites and products and SaaS services constantly, pricing is now intuitive to me. It&rsquo;s pretty easy for a developer or a small business to throw down $500 knowing it will give them content for a year. It&rsquo;s a crazy low price. I&rsquo;m not a fan of the word &lsquo;cheap.&rsquo; But this is buying in bulk. This is the Costco model.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The blog posts should range between 300 and 500 words, a service in which Willard would generally charge $200.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Anyone can tweak the copy to localize it or make it their own,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Before you ask, the only thing worse than duplicate content is no content. It&rsquo;s not novel to offer content; what&rsquo;s novel is to offer content that lives in a blog post. It&rsquo;s not an RSS feed from a syndication service that you can&rsquo;t edit. It&rsquo;s amazing how much franchises pay for boring content to distribute to their networks. Any business should have access to quality content that they can localize.&rdquo;</p>



<p>One has to wonder how Willard could pace herself and produce quality content for these premium packs. However, she is no stranger to the writing process. She has published several books, writing four in the past year.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I write to teach,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;If you boil my essence down, I am a teacher. A few people have encouraged me to publish books. I have two Christian-based books out on Amazon that I did on Lulu.com, but it was so painful, I didn&rsquo;t bother.&rdquo;</p>



<p>It was not until she talked with Nathan Ingram, a business coach in the WordPress space, at WordCamp Seattle in 2019 that she decided to give things another go. He introduced her to Kindle Direct Publishing, a driving factor behind her more recent publishing success.</p>



<p>&ldquo;So I took a blog series idea, &lsquo;Dysfunctional Love Songs,&rsquo; and wrote and published that book in April as my COVID project. In October, &lsquo;Keys to Being Social,&rsquo; my life&rsquo;s work was published. &lsquo;The Definitive Guide to Twitter Marketing&rsquo; was written on a Sunday in January. My fourth book, &lsquo;How to Market Your WordPress Plugin&rsquo; is with my editor and will be published this year.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Willard said these writing projects have helped her stay focused on positive things during the Covid-era.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Otherwise, it&rsquo;s easy for things to turn dark &mdash; if we&rsquo;re all going to die, why pay off my credit cards? You know? I can&rsquo;t just sit around watching Netflix. I do, but I need an outlet.&rdquo;</p>



<p>She does not plan on going it alone for all of the premium content packs. She is already in talks with writers in other fields who would be better suited to the specific subject matter. However, Willard will lean on her construction-related expertise to build some of the packs.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The best advice writers give is that you should write what you know,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the first chapter in Anne Lamott&rsquo;s &lsquo;Bird by Bird.&rsquo; I&rsquo;ve been writing about construction for 20 years. It won&rsquo;t require very much research. I mean, if I can sit down on a Sunday and write 7,000 words on Twitter for that book, I&rsquo;m pretty sure I can write 12 blog posts fairly soon.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 25 Jan 2021 21:57:09 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:27;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:83:"WPTavern: Ask the Bartender: How To Bulk Convert Classic WordPress Posts To Blocks?";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110841";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:207:"https://wptavern.com/ask-the-bartender-how-to-bulk-convert-classic-wordpress-posts-to-blocks?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ask-the-bartender-how-to-bulk-convert-classic-wordpress-posts-to-blocks";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5513:"<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>I was wondering if you could help me. I want to convert all of my old posts (about 600) to Gutenberg blocks. Do you know an easy way to do that?</p><p>Philip</p></blockquote>



<p class="has-drop-cap">I often get these short questions via private messages. I always try my best to help other WordPress users whenever I can. This was an easy solution in Philip&rsquo;s case. After a quick chat, he actually learned that he did not need to migrate his posts to the block system. I thought it would be best to open this topic to a wider audience. Maybe it would help someone else along the way.</p>



<p>There is currently an <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/18645">open ticket</a> on the Gutenberg repository for a bulk converter. It has sat dormant until a few days ago. The primary argument for including this feature in the plugin and eventually WordPress itself is that the lack of this option is an obstacle for newcomers to the block editor.</p>



<p>I disagree with the notion that it is any sort of obstacle for block-editor adoption. There does not seem to be a massive call for the feature in the WordPress support forums. Web searches do not pull up too many support queries for it. It seems to be a niche use case. Or, in some cases, there is a simple misunderstanding that end-users need to do any sort of conversion or migration at all.</p>



<p>However, the biggest reason it is a non-obstacle is that posts written in the classic editor are still basic HTML. Regardless of the editor, older content will output just fine on the front end, at least in most cases.</p>



<p>The first question anyone should ask before deciding on bulk converting their old posts to the newer block format is whether they should do it at all. The answer for the majority of users will simply be <em><strong>no</strong></em>. There are few reasons to do so.</p>



<p>Doing a mass conversion like this, especially with hundreds or more posts, is subject to broken sites. I have done enough single-post updates to know that the process does not always go smoothly. Sometimes, I need to touch up something here or do some manual changes there. On a large scale, there really is no way to know what got broken until you test every single post or page on the site. In some cases, everything is OK. In others, it is a nightmare.</p>



<p>If you are thinking of going down the bulk-conversion route, make a backup first. There is a good chance that you will need it. You should also test this on a staging site.</p>



<p>My recommendation for most users is to convert posts on an as-needed basis. I like to make the switch any time I edit an old post. The only reason I convert them is that I prefer working with the block editor over classic.</p>



<p>Posts written in the old editor will be in the Classic block. After selecting the block that houses the content, I hit the &ldquo;Convert to blocks&rdquo; button in the block toolbar. I do a quick check of anything that might need to be fixed before hitting the update button.</p>



<img />&ldquo;Convert to blocks&rdquo; button for the Classic block.



<p>In most cases, there is no reason to convert old posts to blocks except when you are actually editing those posts.</p>



<p>Despite claims that things will &ldquo;just work&rdquo; when switching to the block editor, that is not the day-to-day reality of all WordPress users. Some of the biggest reasons I have seen to bulk convert are around theme design issues. For example, the block system made some fundamental changes to image markup. If your theme handles left and right-aligned images added via the block editor but breaks down on your old posts, bulk converting may be an option. However, the first course of action should be checking in with your theme author about adding support for the classic markup.</p>



<p>There are likely numerous other edge cases. Bulk converting posts is an invasive operation that can only be reverted by restoring a pre-conversion backup. It should be a last resort.</p>



<p>If you are at the point where you know you need to convert all your old posts, there are a few options available.</p>



<p>The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/bulk-block-converter/">Bulk Block Converter</a> plugin is likely the most-used solution at the moment. Organic Themes released it a little over a year ago but has only updated it once. User reviews have been mixed. A few of the problems seemingly stem from WordPress &mdash; the plugin extends the core WordPress block converter used in single posts.</p>



<p>For those with clients who want to find a middle ground between bulk conversion and having the client manually convert their old posts, 10up&rsquo;s <a href="https://github.com/10up/convert-to-blocks">Convert to Blocks</a> plugin might be the right solution. It converts posts on the fly, only making changes when a user opens the post-editing screen.</p>



<p>Fr&auml;nk Klein is also working on a PHP-based bulk converter plugin named <a href="https://bulkconverttoblocks.com/">Bulk Convert to Blocks</a>. It is currently in the development stage and not ready for use on live sites. It offers a screen in the WordPress admin to perform the conversion and will continue working in the background if the user leaves the page. Because it runs via PHP, developers can extend it with custom actions and filters. It also provides a WP CLI command for those who prefer to work from the command line.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 22 Jan 2021 22:39:30 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:28;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:66:"WPTavern: TasteWP Spins Up Free WordPress Testing Sites in Seconds";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110274";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:177:"https://wptavern.com/tastewp-spins-up-free-wordpress-testing-sites-in-seconds?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tastewp-spins-up-free-wordpress-testing-sites-in-seconds";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5318:"<p><a href="https://tastewp.com/">TasteWP</a> is a newcomer among online WordPress sandboxing solutions. The site allows users to spin up a new WordPress instance in a matter of seconds. Web-based sandboxes like these have been popular for a long time, since they are convenient to fire up and destroy when performing a quick test on a plugin or theme. It&rsquo;s easier than maintaining a local development environment, which many casual WordPress users have not taken the time to set up. </p>



<p>TasteWP&rsquo;s temporary testing sites are hosted for 48 hours for non-logged-in users and 7 days for those who are logged in. The one-click setup gives you a random site URL and login credentials.</p>



<img />



<p>The free sites are limited to 220MB per instance. A successful set-up notice is displayed in the dashboard with information on when the site will be automatically deleted. TasteWP limits non-logged-in users to creating 2 sites and the limit is 6 for logged-in users. They can be removed or added within the site manager. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>When creating a new site, the Advanced Options allows users to set up multisite, select a PHP version, WordPress version, and choose from a number of advanced configuration options and pre-installed extensions. The PHP version can also be changed later within the site manager.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>TasteWP is reminiscent of the now defunct <a href="https://wptavern.com/poopy-life-lets-you-create-free-unlimited-wordpress-test-installs">poopy.life</a> service. In addition to the unsavory and unforgettable name, poopy.life was laden with obtrusive upgrade ads that floated across the screen periodically. TasteWP takes a different route for promotion and includes three of its plugins pre-installed on the default testing sites.</p>



<p>TasteWP is run by <a href="https://inisev.com/">Inisev</a>, a 15-person company that has been developing&nbsp;WordPress&nbsp;plugins for four years.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Our key motivator for starting&nbsp;TasteWP&nbsp;was a) scratching our own itch (we needed a platform ourselves to try out new plugin versions on different&nbsp;WP/PHP version combinations) and b) promoting our products,&rdquo; Inisev co-founder Nicolas Ahmann said.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Having said that, if there is enough demand (and there seems to be), we&rsquo;ll also offer very affordable premium plans for non-expiring instances with bumped space soon.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Ahmann said the team is currently funding their projects from their own pockets as well as a few private investors.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We had some VCs knock at our door recently, and while we don&rsquo;t rule out taking them on board at some point in the future, we feel quite comfortable with our current approach where we grow organically (i.e. without too much ad spending),&rdquo; Ahmann said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure, if we had taken on a lot of capital a few years ago, we would have spent a lot of marketing budget on products which weren&rsquo;t ready at the time. Instead, we were forced to make the products better. Limited budgets sharpen your mind immensely.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Ahmann said the company has several enhancements planned for TasteWP, but they don&rsquo;t want to make the product more complicated to use. </p>



<p>&ldquo;We developed a Linux application which copies exactly the same moves as user would do to create a website, except that we&rsquo;re omitting the front-end and graphics rendering parts which makes it much easier to process by the computer,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Also we inject anything that is needed into the database directly. That allows us to create those sites so fast without preparing them before (but still fully customized for each user).&rdquo;</p>



<p>The company is planning to enable users to call specific URLs, such as&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://tastewp.com/?themeslug=slug-of-theme" target="_blank">https://tastewp.com?themeslug=slug-of-theme</a>,&nbsp;which would spin up an instance with that theme or plugin already installed. This would allow theme and plugin creators to share the link with their potential users/customers so that they can play around themselves. </p>



<p>Localization is also a high priority for future TasteWP enhancements, since the company is based in Europe where many languages are spoken. </p>



<p>&ldquo;We always felt that it doesn&rsquo;t get the attention as it needs, considering that approximately<a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_language"> 40% of websites are not in English,</a>&rdquo; Ahmann said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s often just DIY people (not devs) who are trying to create their websites. We always encourage them to learn English (as it&rsquo;s the world&rsquo;s&nbsp;language). But imagine you grew up in Turkey, for example. Nobody around you speaks English &ndash; the teachers in schools only speak it in a broken way. In those cases it&rsquo;s key that people can take their first&nbsp;WordPress&nbsp;steps in their language, and what&rsquo;s easier to&nbsp;do&nbsp;so than spinning up an instance with one click on&nbsp;TasteWP&nbsp;which is in your language? Long story short: we&rsquo;ll keep translating it into (many) more languages.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 22 Jan 2021 20:47:27 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:29;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:119:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 9.8 Brings Rounded Borders To the Group Block and Moves the Site Editor Canvas Into an Inline Frame";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110768";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:283:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-9-8-brings-rounded-borders-to-the-group-block-and-moves-the-site-editor-canvas-into-an-inline-frame?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gutenberg-9-8-brings-rounded-borders-to-the-group-block-and-moves-the-site-editor-canvas-into-an-inline-frame";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6699:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Gutenberg 9.8 <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/01/20/whats-new-in-gutenberg-9-8-20-january/">launched yesterday</a> with a few minor UI improvements. The development team added an initial implementation for border-radius support for the Group block that theme authors can opt into. They also moved the site editor into an iframe element to remove CSS conflicts from the global admin styles.</p>



<p>Those who have been testing Full Site Editing should be pleased that they will no longer need to deal with the seemingly never-ending creation of auto-drafts for templates and template parts. <em>Good riddance.</em> They would have inevitably caused user confusion in the long run. The change took around a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/27910">month of discussion and work</a>, but it reduced a complex and fragile process into a more stable system for the long term.</p>



<p>While the previous plugin release saw barely more than a handful of bug fixes, version 9.8 jumped back to over two dozen. A Gutenberg update without at least that many just does not feel right.</p>



<h2>Minor UI Improvements</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The latest version of the plugin improves the UI when working with the Spacer block. When a user selected the block in the past, it appeared as a light gray rectangle. Now, it is <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/28103">semi-transparent. </a>This allows whatever is in the background, such as the Cover block with a background image, to show. This change should help users more easily make size adjustments in cases where viewing the background is necessary.</p>



<img />Semi-transparent Spacer block when selected.



<p>While I hope the Spacer block will eventually die a slow and agonizing death as it is replaced by more appropriate margin and padding block options, this change does help in the interim.</p>



<p>In a follow-up to the UI improvements in Gutenberg 9.7, work on block variations continues. Variations are when one block is used as the foundation to create multiple variations of the same block. The most common example is the Embed block, which has YouTube, Vimeo, and other variations. Before 9.7, these variations shared the same generic icon, name, and description in the block inspector and navigation instead of the variation-specific information.</p>



<p>Gutenberg 9.8 builds on the trend of using the variation&rsquo;s data where it makes sense. The block switcher (transform) button in the editor toolbar now <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/27903">displays the variation&rsquo;s icon</a>.</p>



<img />Variation icon in use in the block switcher.



<p>It is a small change, but it shows the development team&rsquo;s continued devotion to polishing the editor interface.</p>



<h2>Loading the Site Editor Canvas in an iframe</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Gutenberg 9.8 separates the canvas area of the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/25775">site editor into an iframe</a>. This separation means that global admin styles do not bleed into or override styles within the editor itself. The good news is this is a first step toward doing the same in the post editor too.</p>



<p>This has been a change that I have been waiting for since the inception of the block editor. From a theme development and design standpoint, styling the editor to match the front end is ripe with issues. It has meant nesting CSS selectors when it should have been unnecessary. It has meant adding a few <code>!important</code> rules to overwrite what seems like oddities in the core CSS. While styling the block editor has improved by leaps and bounds in the past couple of years, it can still often be a pain.</p>



<p>WordPress core committer Ella van Durpe <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/20797#issue-579381499">listed the benefits</a> of moving the canvas into an iframe:</p>



<ul><li>There would be no admin CSS bleed at all. This is something we&rsquo;ve been struggling with since the beginning.</li><li>There would be no need to simulate media queries, which is arguably technically more difficult than using an iframe.</li><li>Relative units like <code>(r)em</code> and <code>vw</code>/<code>vh</code> just work.</li><li>For a full site, a theme stylesheet can be just dropped in the editor without any adjustment. I think this is important as it makes the life of theme authors much easier.</li><li>It&rsquo;s possible to have one selection per window, so one in the admin and one in the content. This is useful for e.g. the link UI where the selection in the content can be kept while the selection is also in an input element (for the URL). Maybe be useful in other cases.</li></ul>



<p>While I find it tough to believe that theme stylesheets would just work without a hitch &mdash; <em>does such a world exist?</em> &ndash;, they should work far better than in the past. There are likely items theme authors will need to contend with, but they should be minimal. Developers should keep a close eye on the future development of this.</p>



<h2>Border Radius Support for the Group Block</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">As part of Gutenberg&rsquo;s experimental feature set, the Group block now supports a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/27665">border radius option</a>. However, end-users will not automatically see it in the block inspector. This is an opt-in feature for themes at the moment. Presumably, it will be a part of the default set of options for several blocks in the future.</p>



<img />Setting the border-radius value for the Group block.



<p>For theme authors who want to add support, they will need to drop the following code snippet into their <code>experimental-theme.json</code> file and edit the <code>radius</code> value:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>"core/group" : {
        "styles" : {
                "border" : {
                        "radius" : "50px"
                }
        }
}</code></pre>



<p>This will allow theme authors to set the default border-radius for the group block. However, it will not hand over control to users. For that, themes will need to add the following snippet under the <code>settings</code> section of their <code>experimental-theme.json</code> file:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>"border" : {
        "customRadius" : true
}</code></pre>



<p>I tested this with a modified version of the <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/tt1-blocks/">TT1 Blocks </a>theme without issue. Mostly, I am looking forward to more styling options like this in future iterations of the plugin.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 21 Jan 2021 22:31:51 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:30;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:54:"WordPress.org blog: People of WordPress: Thelma Mutete";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=9518";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"https://wordpress.org/news/2021/01/people-of-wordpress-thelma-mutete/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8322:"<p><em>WordPress is open source software, maintained by a global network of contributors. There are many examples of how WordPress has changed people’s lives for the better. In this monthly series, we share some of those lesser-known, amazing stories.</em></p>



<img src="https://i1.wp.com/wordpress.org/news/files/2021/01/Thelma-Mutete.jpg?resize=500%2C750&ssl=1" alt="Thelma Mutete at a WordCamp" class="wp-image-9564" width="500" height="750" />



<p>From a young age Thelma was encouraged by her father to ‘work hard, and dream big’. In High School, she pursued a career in Computer Science. She said: “I did not know what I would be doing or how I would get there but I just knew that I was going to pursue a career in information technology.”</p>



<p>She wrote her first line of code at the age of 16 living in Zimbabwe, Africa. This was to mark the beginning of her enthusiasm for computer programming.</p>



<p>When she joined the school’s computer class, Thelma thought she would learn Excel and Word. Instead, the assignment was to write her first program in C. She said: “It was not easy, but it was very exciting. l remember writing up simple code for a Video Club – a check-in/out for VHS tapes and CDs. Thus began my fascination with computers.”</p>



<p>Seven years later, she went on to university to study for a Bachelors in Business Management and Information Technology. Her third year internship was at a local web design and hosting company. Though she had hoped her placement would be at a local bank or telecommunications company, the chance to discover website design turned out to be the best thing that could have happened.&nbsp;</p>



<p>In 2017, Thelma went on to work for a company designing websites using HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript and Joomla. She had heard about WordPress but had not used it. She recalls: “People have this misconception that WordPress is not for real developers and it is not secure and at that time I was one of those people.”</p>



<h2>Finding a local community</h2>



<p>From a discussion with a member of the local WordPress community, <a href="https://heropress.com/essays/wordpress-opened-whole-new-world/">Thabo Tswana</a>, about a striking swag gift from a WordCamp, Thelma’s interest was sparked.&nbsp;</p>



<p>She started to find out more about WordPress and WooCommerce, and visited her local WordCamp Harare website. She was delighted to find that she could learn more about WordPress without needing any pre-existing knowledge, and wanted to be involved. So instead of just attending the camp, she volunteered too!&nbsp;</p>



<p>Her response to her first WordPress event mirrors the experience of many others in the community. She said: “I only started using WordPress because of the awesome people that l had met at that WordCamp. Everyone was so welcoming.”</p>



<p>A week later, with help from Thabo, she designed her first website using WordPress.</p>



<p>She soon became more involved with the community and Meetups. Thelma participated in the first-ever ‘Women Who WordPress’ Meetup in 2018, with lots of women getting involved from bloggers to developers.&nbsp;</p>



<p>She said: “We were free to talk and discuss a lot of things. We had more time to discuss the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org, we shared views on how to handle discrimination at work, how to promote your website and a whole lot of other things.”</p>



<h2>Establishing roots in WordPress</h2>



<p>In 2018, WordCamp Harare had its first-ever female Lead Organizer <a href="https://tapiwanashe.com/">Tapiwanashe Manhobo</a>. Thelma was part of the organising team that year and was assigned to handle Harare’s first Kids Camp to take place eight months later. You can read more about her experiences of organizing a <a href="https://thelmachido.wordpress.com/2019/11/21/wordpress-juniours-first-edition/"><strong>Kids Camp</strong></a> on her blog.</p>



<p>She said: “After the first Kids Camp, we had several people in the local Zimbabwean WordPress community who were enthusiastic about encouraging young people to embrace ICT. In 2019, we had not planned to have a Kids Camp because of financial constraints but to our surprise, we had some anonymous donations and we managed to have a WordPress Community outreach to a youth centre, <a href="https://cttzim.org/"><strong>Centre for Total Transformation</strong></a>, a week after our WordCamp. It is a non-formal school that caters for underprivileged and vulnerable children. The group were able to share practical skills about using WordPress, computer hardware and software.</p>



<p>Thelma shares that she became hooked on WordPress because of its community. “I enjoy attending WordCamps, meeting new people and just learning new stuff. I have a huge list of WordCamps I would like to attend. Last year I managed to cross WordCamp Johannesburg off my list. When everything is back to normal my plan to travel to WordCamps will proceed (fingers crossed).”</p>



<h2>Reaping the fruits of ongoing learning</h2>



<p>Thelma is committed to ongoing development training. She said: “Even though I can still cook up code in C and Java, for now, I have also included WordPress PHP functions to the mix. It was not easy to get to this point, daring myself got me to this slightly better stage. I try to do my best where I can and I am happy to say it has paid off so far.”</p>



<p>Thelma has continued her journey working in design and digital marketing last year with Trust Nhokovenzo who works in digital marketing and is active in&nbsp; the WordPress Community. He came across her name as a developer from talking with others involved in WordPress. She went to work with his team at a marketing agency.</p>



<p>Her interest in the development of WordPress continued and she joined the <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2020/12/simone/">5.6 Release Squad</a> in the mid 2020.&nbsp;At the end of 2020, she moved to become a Happiness Engineer working with WordPress.com. Thelma’s fascination with the platform and the community continues to grow and her contributor story is ongoing.</p>



<p>Find out more about the <a href="https://www.meetup.com/Harare-WordPress-Meetup">Harare WordPress community</a> in Zimbabwe.</p>



<h2>Contributors</h2>



<p>Thanks to Nalini Thakor (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nalininonstopnewsuk/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>nalininonstopnewsuk</a>) and Surendra Thakor (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sthakor/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>sthakor</a>), Yvette Sonneveld (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/yvettesonneveld/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>yvettesonneveld</a>), Abha Thakor (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>webcommsat</a>), Larissa Murillo (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/lmurillom/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>lmurillom</a>), Meher Bala (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/meher/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>meher</a>), Josepha Haden (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>chanthaboune</a>), and Chloé Bringmann (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cbringmann/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>cbringmann</a>). Thank you to Thelma Mutete (<a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/thelmachido/" class="mention"><span class="mentions-prefix">@</span>thelmachido</a>) for sharing her #ContributorStory.</p>



<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/s24EVZGKbxVeafljPU1ubF1DjIwn98E3-wGx1LD2CWYk7zYQppFhXNpb0aUhGe01TStMdTwXrcYaxBZQHRgZJ10lvW2hsg61Ce37_pBGJuTRQlJ6r9iUxlJtvuDuwLhIvPo1MVEb" alt="HeroPress logo" />



<p><em>This post is based on </em><a href="https://heropress.com/essays/hello-world-discovering-the-world-through-wordpress/"><em>an article originally published on HeroPress.com</em></a><em>, a community initiative created by </em><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/topher1kenobe/"><em>Topher DeRosia</em></a><em>. HeroPress highlights people in the WordPress community</em>.</p>



<p>#ContributorStory #HeroPress</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 21 Jan 2021 16:40:13 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"webcommsat AbhaNonStopNewsUK";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:31;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:82:"WPTavern: Gutenberg Contributors Consider Implementing a Bot to Close Stale Issues";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110562";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:209:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-contributors-consider-implementing-a-bot-to-close-stale-issues?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gutenberg-contributors-consider-implementing-a-bot-to-close-stale-issues";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5386:"<p>Gutenberg project contributors are considering <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/01/14/stale-issues-in-gutenberg-repository/">implementing a stale bot</a> to tame the repository&rsquo;s overgrown <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues">issues</a> queue, which currently has 2,733 open issues. Stale bots are usually employed to automatically close &ldquo;stale&rdquo; issues and PRs based on a predefined set of parameters for inactivity. </p>



<p>&ldquo;The current recommendation is to set our policy to a 180-day of no activity, so if no comments or commits are on an issue or PR in 180 days, then the bot will post a comment to the issue alerting the user it will be closed in 7-days due to inactivity,&rdquo; Marcus Kazmierczak proposed.</p>



<p>One important concern is getting the tone right for the automatically-generated message. When you&rsquo;re employing bots on a widely used open source project, they had better be friendly. A chilly, indifferent bot can unwittingly turn away potential contributors with the wrong kind of messaging. Kazmierczak proposed the following message:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>This is an auto-generated message to let you know that this issue has gone 180 days without any activity and meets the project&rsquo;s definition of stale. This will be auto-closed if there is no new activity over the next 7 days. If the issue is still relevant and active, you can simply comment with a &ldquo;bump&rdquo; to keep it open, or add the &ldquo;[Status] Not Stale&rdquo; label. Thanks for keeping our repository healthy!</p></blockquote>



<p>Participants in the discussion on the proposal are divided on the best approach. Daniel Llewellyn, one of the most vocal opponents to using a stale bot, contends that an automatically closing issues sends the wrong message. </p>



<p>&ldquo;If we care about users and that they trust that we will fix their problem then automatically closing their issue gives them the signal that we don&rsquo;t,&rdquo; Llewellyn said.</p>



<p>&ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t want to fix a problem then it is better for a human to explain why the problem won&rsquo;t be fixed and personally close the issue. Automating this on the assumption that because nobody has commented in a while means it isn&rsquo;t important is bad!&rdquo;</p>



<p>Joy Reynolds agreed with this assessment, noting that closing issues through any means can be discouraging.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had issues closed by humans for being stale, also, and it isn&rsquo;t any better,&rdquo; Reynolds said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had issues closed because someone created a new issue on the same thing. This loses all the history and the watchers.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve also had an issue closed at Launchpad for being stale (and their system used only two weeks as a time frame). That served no purpose at all. It only makes people go away, frustrated.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Kazmierczak reiterated in the comments that the bot can be configured to skip issues labeled as bugs and that issues and PRs can be bumped to reset the 6-month clock.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The overall goal of the proposal is to improve feedback and responses to issues by ensuring what&rsquo;s there is relevant,&rdquo; Kazmierczak said.</p>



<p>Auto-closing issues is the most controversial part of the plan. The general consensus in the comments leans towards using the bot for labeling and triaging in order to manually close the issue later.</p>



<p>&ldquo;My preference would be for a bot to alert humans in a&nbsp;slack&nbsp;channel when a&nbsp;ticket&nbsp;is declared stale and become progressively more insistent until a human responds,&rdquo; Peter Wilson said. </p>



<p>Milana Cap suggested using a bot to nudge the ticket author as a compromise between &ldquo;being friendly and thoughtful to contributors while keeping maintainers sane.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Whatever approach contributors land on, excluding tickets marked as bugs is going to be critical for making the stale bot productive. Otherwise, it becomes just a fancy way of kicking the can down the road, delaying the inevitable. </p>



<p>In a recent post titled &ldquo;<a href="https://blog.benwinding.com/github-stale-bots/">Github Stale Bots: A False Economy</a>,&rdquo; software developer Ben Winding wrote about why stale bots don&rsquo;t deliver what maintainers are aiming to achieve. Based on his experience with the <a href="https://github.com/angular/angular/issues">Angular</a> repository&rsquo;s bot, Winding summarized the stale bot&rsquo;s effect on the issues queue: </p>



<ol><li>Reduce the metric of&nbsp;<em>Open Issues</em>&nbsp;in github</li><li>Made duplicate issues far more likely</li><li>Increased friction of users reporting that the issue still exists</li><li>Ultimately decreased the quality of the software, as the issues don&rsquo;t accurately reflect reality</li></ol>



<p>If the Gutenberg repository&rsquo;s stale bot can be configured not to close bugs and used to maximize human involvement, it will be less likely to deter people from reporting issues. Feedback on the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/01/14/stale-issues-in-gutenberg-repository/">proposal</a> is open until January 29, 2021. Kazmierczak is seeking input on the bot&rsquo;s implementation, specifically its time threshold and messaging.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 21 Jan 2021 16:03:26 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:32;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:24:"Matt: New WhiteHouse.gov";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=53526";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:41:"https://ma.tt/2021/01/new-whitehouse-gov/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2842:"<p>After you&#8217;ve watched <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/inauguration-day-live-updates/2021/01/20/958743170/poet-amanda-gorman-reads-the-hill-we-climb">the amazing poem from Amanda Gorman</a>, check out the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/">new WhiteHouse.gov that re-launched today</a> using WordPress &amp; Gutenberg with a number of cool features including dark mode, text zoom, a totally responsive layout, and a Spanish version of the site. The site is clean, <a href="https://twitter.com/wesbos/status/1351957829461155849">fast</a>, and accessible. It&#8217;s exciting and an honor that the online home for the Executive branch is on Open Source software, and I&#8217;m proud WordPress can carry the torch that <a href="https://dri.es/whitehouse-gov-using-drupal">Drupal lit in 2009</a>.</p>



<p>Besides Gutenberg, poking around I noticed a HTTP header and HTML comment <a href="https://usds.gov/apply">encouraging people to join USDS</a>, and this great #46 easter egg in the theme file:</p>



<img />



<p>Anyone notice any other plugins? I haven&#8217;t spoken to him directly but I&#8217;d be shocked if <a href="https://nacin.com/">Nacin</a> wasn&#8217;t involved with this one. I&#8217;m also curious if any of the WP agencies were involved, it has touches of <a href="https://10up.com/">10up</a> but I don&#8217;t see any mention of it on their site or <a href="https://twitter.com/10up">Twitter</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/HoeflerCo/status/1351984719634771970">Hoefler&amp;Co  credits</a> <a href="https://wideeye.co/">Wide Eye Creative with the design</a>.</p>



<p>I noticed a few people happy that some previous pages and files on the old site were returning 404 errors, like the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/how-trump-administration-s-1776-report-warps-history-racism-slavery-n1254926">controversial 1776 report</a>, but on this I think the webmasters of the United States of America should demand better, since <a href="https://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI">Cool URIs Don&#8217;t Change</a>. Previous websites are <a href="https://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/archived-websites">all saved by the National Archives</a>, but there doesn&#8217;t appear to be any sort of norm for automatically redirecting links that went to any subdirectories or addresses under WhiteHouse.gov. </p>



<p>There are WP plugins that could help, like <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/redirection/">Redirection</a>, but also perhaps the root domain itself could always redirect to a subdomain, like 46.whitehouse.gov, so we&#8217;d have a consistent domain and permalinks for everything, and then each new administration would get a new subdomain.</p>



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/biden-white-house-sticks-with-wordpress-for-website-relaunch">More coverage on WP Tavern</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 21 Jan 2021 01:15:26 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:33;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:70:"WPTavern: Biden White House Sticks with WordPress for Website Relaunch";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110712";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:185:"https://wptavern.com/biden-white-house-sticks-with-wordpress-for-website-relaunch?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=biden-white-house-sticks-with-wordpress-for-website-relaunch";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3896:"<img />



<p>President Joe Biden took office today and unveiled a new <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/">whitehouse.gov</a> that has been relaunched on WordPress. The previous administration switched from Drupal to WordPress in 2017, and technologists working with the Biden administration decided to stick with the same CMS. </p>



<p>In keeping with the multilingual and accessibility features implemented on <a href="https://wptavern.com/biden-harris-transition-website-launches-on-wordpress">the Biden-Harris transition team website</a>, whitehouse.gov launched with toggles for contrast and font size, along with a Spanish language switcher. The relaunched site also includes an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/accessibility/">accessibility statement</a> with a commitment from the administration to work towards conforming to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1, level AA criteria.</p>



<p>Much of the content and design from the transition website has been preserved. The transition site now forwards to whitehouse.gov, while links to the previous administration&rsquo;s pages land on a 404 page with a link to <a href="https://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/archived-websites">archived presidential websites</a>.</p>



<p>Savvy observers might notice that the typography has been updated from the transition site, flipping the Mercury and Decimal typefaces. Hoefler&amp;Co, the typeface design firm that <a href="https://www.typography.com/blog/biden-fonts">created these typefaces</a> for Biden&rsquo;s 2020 campaign, <a href="https://twitter.com/HoeflerCo/status/1351984719634771970">tweeted</a> about how &ldquo;the serif Mercury felt more like the voice of the institution.&rdquo;  The sans-serif Decimal functions more in a supporting role on the site.</p>



<p>Web professionals kicked the tires a bit and noticed the site is putting up fairly decent Lighthouse scores.  </p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/hoaioTVqE3">https://t.co/hoaioTVqE3</a> scoring super well on lighthouse, has dark mode and font size selector<br /><br />h8ers gonna be mad that it's wordpress and jQuery tho <a href="https://t.co/tyMNjdmnTH">pic.twitter.com/tyMNjdmnTH</a></p>&mdash; Wes Bos (@wesbos) <a href="https://twitter.com/wesbos/status/1351957829461155849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 20, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>Under the hood, code snoopers noticed an advertisement for the <a href="https://www.usds.gov/">U.S. Digital Service</a> (USDS), the group of technologists who maintain many of the federal government&rsquo;s public-facing digital services.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>In addition to the message from USDS, the site&rsquo;s source code includes a link to the US government&rsquo;s analytics program at <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://analytics.usa.gov/" target="_blank">analytics.usa.gov</a>. Tim Lowden, who manages the federal government&rsquo;s aggregated web analytics initiative, <a href="https://twitter.com/tdlowden/status/1351939004342685697">said</a> this data has been made available for the first time since late 2017.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>The analytics service records more than 2.5 billion pageviews across federal government websites each month. The data is available to the public, but it&nbsp;<a href="https://www.digitalgov.gov/services/dap/common-questions-about-dap-faq/#part-4">does not track individuals</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2763052?hl=en">anonymizes the IP addresses</a>&nbsp;of visitors. It shows information for visitors&rsquo; devices, browsers, operating systems, and location broken down into cities and countries. Many of those visiting the site today are from countries other than the U.S. </p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 21 Jan 2021 00:20:24 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:34;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:46:"Gary: WordPress Importers: Free (as in Speech)";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:25:"https://pento.net/?p=5478";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"https://pento.net/2021/01/21/wordpress-importers-free-as-in-speech/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8227:"<p>Back at<a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/18/wordpress-importers-stating-the-problem/"> the start of this series</a>, I listed four problems within the scope of the WordPress Importers that we needed to address. Three of them are largely technical problems, which I covered in previous posts. In wrapping up this series, I want to focus exclusively on the fourth problem, which has a philosophical side as well as a technical one — but that does not mean we cannot tackle it!</p>



<div class="wp-block-group alignwide is-style-twentytwentyone-border"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<p class="has-text-align-center">Problem Number 4</p>



<p class="alignwide has-extra-large-font-size"><strong>Some services work against their customers, and actively prevent site owners from controlling their own content.</strong></p>
</div></div>



<p>Some services are merely inconvenient: they provide exports, but it often involves downloading a bunch of different files. Your CMS content is in one export, your store products are in another, your orders are in another, and your mailing list is in yet another. It&#8217;s not ideal, but they at least let you get a copy of your data.</p>



<p>However, there&#8217;s another class of services that actively work against their customers. It&#8217;s these services I want to focus on: the services that don&#8217;t provide any ability to export your content — effectively locking people in to using their platform. We could offer these folks an escape! The aim isn’t to necessarily make them use WordPress, it’s to give them a way out, if they want it. Whether they choose to use WordPress or not after that is immaterial (though I certainly hope they would, of course). The important part is freedom of choice.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s worth acknowledging that this is a different approach to how WordPress has historically operated in relation to other CMSes. We provide <em>importers</em> for many CMSes, but we previously haven&#8217;t written <em>exporters</em>. However, I don&#8217;t think this is a particularly large step: for CMSes that already provide exports, we&#8217;d continue to use those export files. This is focussed on the few services that try to lock their customers in.</p>



<h2>Why Should WordPress Take This On?</h2>



<p>There are several aspects to <em>why</em> we should focus on this.</p>



<p>First of all, it&#8217;s the <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/">the WordPress mission</a>. Underpinning every part of WordPress is the simplest of statements: </p>



<p class="has-text-align-center"><strong>Democratise Publishing</strong></p>



<p class="has-text-align-center"><em>The freedom to build. The freedom to change. The freedom to share.</em></p>



<p>These freedoms are the pillars of a Free and Open Web, but they’re not invulnerable: at times, they need to be defended, and that needs people with the time and resources to offer a defence.</p>



<p>Which brings me to my second point: WordPress has the people who can offer that defence! The WordPress project has so many individuals working on it, from such a wide variety of backgrounds, we&#8217;re able to take on a vast array of projects that a smaller CMS just wouldn&#8217;t have the bandwidth for. That&#8217;s not to say that we can do <em>everything</em>, but when there&#8217;s a need to defend the entire ecosystem, we&#8217;re able to devote people to the cause.</p>



<p>Finally, it’s important to remember that WordPress doesn’t exist in a vacuum, we’re part of a broad ecosystem which can only exist through the web remaining open and free. By encouraging all CMSes to provide proper exports, and implementing them for those that don’t, we help keep our ecosystem healthy.</p>



<p>We have the ability to take on these challenges, but we have a responsibility that goes alongside. We can&#8217;t do it solely to benefit WordPress, we need to make that benefit available to the entire ecosystem. This is why it&#8217;s important to<a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/20/wordpress-importers-defining-a-schema/"> define a WordPress export schema</a>, so that any CMS can make use of the export we produce, not just WordPress. If you’ll excuse the imagery for a moment, we can be the knight in shining armour that frees people — then gives them the choice of what they do with that freedom, without obligation.</p>



<h2>How Can We Do It?</h2>



<p>Moving on to the technical side of this problem, I can give you some good news: the answer is definitely <em>not</em> screen scraping. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f604.png" alt="😄" class="wp-smiley" /> Scraping a site is fragile, impossible to transform into the full content, and provides an incomplete export of the site: anything that&#8217;s only available in the site dashboard can&#8217;t be obtained through scraping.</p>



<p>I&#8217;ve recently been experimenting with an alternative approach to solving this problem. Rather than trying to create something resembling a traditional exporter, it turns out that modern CMSes provide the tools we need, in the form of REST APIs. All we need to do is call the appropriate APIs, and collate the results. The fun part is that we can authenticate with these APIs as the site owner, by calling them from a browser extension! So, that’s what I’ve been experimenting with, and it’s showing a lot of promise.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re interested in playing around with it, <a href="https://github.com/pento/free-as-in-speech">the experimental code is living in this repository</a>. It&#8217;s a simple proof of concept, capable of exporting the text content of a blog on a Wix site, showing that we can make a smooth, comprehensive, easy-to-use exporter for any Wix site owner.</p>



<img width="904" height="446" src="https://pento.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Screen-Shot-2021-01-20-at-5.26.38-pm.png" alt="Screenshot of the " />



<p>Clicking the export button starts a background script, which calls Wix&#8217;s REST APIs <em>as the site owner</em>, to get the original copy of the content. It then packages it up, and presents it as a WXR file to download.</p>



<img width="972" height="948" src="https://pento.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Screen-Shot-2021-01-20-at-5.27.38-pm.png" alt="Screenshot of a Firefox download dialog, showing a Wix site packaged up as a WXR file." class="wp-image-5528" />



<p>I&#8217;m really excited about how promising this experiment is. It can ultimately provide a full export of any Wix site, and we can add support for other CMS services that choose to artificially lock their customers in.</p>



<h2>Where Can I Help?</h2>



<p>If you’re a designer or developer who’s excited about working on something new, head on over to the repository and <a href="https://github.com/pento/free-as-in-speech/issues">check out the open issues</a>: if there’s something that isn’t already covered, feel free to open a new issue.</p>



<p>Since this is new ground for a WordPress project, both technically and philosophically, I&#8217;d love to hear more points of view. It’s being discussed in <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/01/19/dev-chat-agenda-for-january-20-2021-january-21-2021/#comment-40563">the WordPress Core Dev Chat this week</a>, and you can also let me know what you think in the comments!</p>



<div class="wp-block-group is-style-twentytwentyone-border"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<p><em>This post is part of a series, talking about the WordPress Importers, their history, where they are now, and where they could go in the future.</em></p>



<ul><li><em><a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/18/wordpress-importers-stating-the-problem/">Part 1: Stating the Problem</a></em></li><li><em><a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/19/wordpress-importers-getting-our-house-in-order/">Part 2: Getting Our House in Order</a></em></li><li><em><a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/20/wordpress-importers-defining-a-schema/">Part 3: Defining a Schema</a></em></li><li><a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/21/wordpress-importers-free-as-in-speech/"><em>Part 4: Free (as in Speech)</em></a></li></ul>



<p></p>
</div></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 21 Jan 2021 00:14:45 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Gary";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:35;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:102:"WPTavern: First Round of the FSE Outreach Program Concludes, Identifies Template-Editing Mode Problems";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110638";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:247:"https://wptavern.com/first-round-of-the-fse-outreach-program-concludes-identifies-template-editing-mode-problems?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=first-round-of-the-fse-outreach-program-concludes-identifies-template-editing-mode-problems";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5309:"<p class="has-drop-cap">The Full Site Editing (FSE) <a href="https://wptavern.com/help-steer-the-future-of-wordpress-via-the-fse-outreach-program">Outreach Program</a> has now concluded its <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/01/15/fse-program-template-editing-testing-summary/">first round of testing</a>. Its first focus area was centered on the template-editing mode introduced in <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/23/whats-new-in-gutenberg-23-december/">Gutenberg 9.6</a>. The volunteers involved with the project identified several pain points.</p>



<p>Gutenberg 9.6 added a new button that allows end-users, provided they are using a block-based theme, to switch between editing their post and the template that displays the post. As Josepha Haden <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-9-3-provides-indicator-of-where-full-site-editing-is-going-a-future-without-widgets-and-customizer-screens">said last year</a>, the ultimate goal is to &ldquo;consolidate down to just one beautiful, intuitive interface.&rdquo; Essentially, this new feature merges content and design in a way we have not seen in core WordPress before. It is a step toward that lofty goal.</p>



<p>Traditionally, WordPress has always separated content from design. However, these two aspects of websites are continually merging together. There is a desire for this. The adoption of page builders over the last half-decade or so has made it abundantly clear.</p>



<p>The biggest issue with this new template mode is that users need a working knowledge of the WordPress template system to understand the ramifications of their edits. One of the primary questions of the focus area was whether it was clear that the user was making large-scale changes to all posts when switching to the template-editing mode.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I believe it was not clear enough how those changes could impact the site,&rdquo; <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2020/12/23/fse-program-testing-call-1-template-editing/#comment-1307">wrote H&eacute;ctor Prieto in response</a>. &ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t already know how templates, template parts, and global blocks like Site Title work, you might not understand how your editing will affect the rest of the site.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Switching modes does create a quick popup at the bottom left of the screen that reads:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Editing template. Changes made here affect all posts and pages that use the template.</p></blockquote>



<p>It is easy to miss before it fades away. There is a ticket to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/28175">stick this message</a> on the screen and allow the user to dismiss it. There is also another ticket for clarifying when a user is <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/27849">editing a template vs. content</a>.</p>



<img />Entering template-editing mode from the post editor.



<p>Gutenberg&rsquo;s current method is different than what you might see in a typical page builder. When switching to template-editing mode, the user is no longer editing that single post&rsquo;s front-end output. Instead, they are making global edits. A page builder would generally save any customizations to that page alone. If this remains the same, it could be a hurdle for the average user to clear.</p>



<p>A template creation feature needs to be a part of this new mode. Users should be able to fork or clone their existing single post template and save it as a new template specific to that post. Or, maybe hand them a way to save it as a reusable template (i.e., &ldquo;page&rdquo; template). Paal Joachim Romdahl <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2020/12/23/fse-program-testing-call-1-template-editing/#comment-1303">shared a similar thought</a>, likening it to the &ldquo;Save As&hellip;&rdquo; feature commonly found in computer programs.</p>



<p>I do question whether users should be able to edit global templates while editing a single post. The two are only related insofar as the template displays the post content on the front end. WordPress should explore any type of design work from the post-editing screen as, first and foremost, specific to that post.</p>



<p>The volunteers also identified other issues. Applying changes to the template and saving drops the user back into the post editor. The &ldquo;cancel&rdquo; button is tough to find &mdash; it is in a different location than where the user clicked to go into template-editing mode.</p>



<p>Switching between post and template editing feels like an FSE 2.0 type of thing. The development team has enough issues on its plate with the normal site editor. It is a far cry from being a viable, production-ready product. The team&rsquo;s focus should be on working the kinks out of that system before merging it with the post editor. Crawl before you walk. Walk before you run.</p>



<p>However, I am willing to be pleasantly surprised. In the long run, it will probably be a good thing that we are getting an early look at what these two different pieces of WordPress will look like working in conjunction.</p>



<p>This is also why participation in the FSE Outreach Program is vital. The community needs this more formal type of process to identify areas that need improvement.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 20 Jan 2021 23:17:21 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:36;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:42:"HeroPress: Changing Careers Into WordPress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=3454";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:136:"https://heropress.com/essays/changing-careers-into-wordpress/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=changing-careers-into-wordpress";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6844:"<img width="960" height="480" src="https://s20094.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/012021-min.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: With WordPress skills, you have more concrete skills to offer." /><p>If you’re looking to change careers into technology, WordPress is a great way to do it.</p>
<p>In 2013, I was in a career counselor’s office. Just realizing that I needed to change careers out of music, almost the only thing I had known for the last 20 years:</p>
<a href="https://s20094.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/trombone-namm.jpg"><img /></a>At NAMM in Anaheim, California
<p>Aside from feeling like a huge failure, I knew I’d need a lot of luck to get a job.</p>
<p>Someone would have to take a big chance on me.</p>
<p>But there were a few problems.</p>
<p>I was terrified of talking to strangers, much less asking them big favors. And I had almost no traditionally useful skills.</p>
<p>Enter WordPress.</p>
<h2>Lots Of Options</h2>
<p>When you’re changing careers, you’ll want skills that will help no matter what you end up doing.</p>
<p>You don’t want to deep-dive into calculus and find out that it won’t help.</p>
<p>Learning WordPress is perfect.</p>
<p>If you get really interested in the technical side, you can be a JS or PHP developer.</p>
<p>If you really like content creation, that’s also great. You can start a blog or work in marketing.</p>
<p>If none of it interests you, at least you can help people set up a website as you look for another career.</p>
<p>So soon after meeting with the career counselor, I took Zac Gordon’s course on WordPress Theme Development.</p>
<p>I wrote a theme based on his course, and really liked how WordPress worked.</p>
<p>He taught me to build sites, and later write plugins.</p>
<a href="https://s20094.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/with-zac-gordon.jpg"><img /></a>Zac Gordon with XWP
<h2>Invite Yourself To The Party</h2>
<p>The great thing about WordPress is that you can contribute right away.</p>
<p>With some careers, you need somebody to take a chance on you before you can do much.</p>
<p>To get experience as an investment banker or business consultant, you probably need to actually have the job.</p>
<p>But with WordPress, you can invite yourself.</p>
<p>You can open pull requests to Core or Gutenberg without anyone asking.</p>
<p>You can deploy plugins to wp.org that real people use, without having a college degree.</p>
<p>With this growing experience, I applied online to <a href="https://xwp.co/">XWP</a>.</p>
<p>Weston Ruter responded right away, and was really helpful.</p>
<p>I started opening simple PRs to “help” with the Customizer work.</p>
<p>In reality, my work might have slowed things down, and was really simple.</p>
<p>But I didn’t have to wait to be invited. I invited myself to the party, and one of the PRs was merged into Core.</p>
<p>Later, when I interviewed with <a href="https://xwp.co/">XWP</a> and got the job, I could show that I had a little experience working with other developers.</p>
<a href="https://s20094.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/with-xwp-1.jpg"><img /></a>XWP At WordCamp US Contributor Day, 2017
<p>It’s still embarrassing looking back at the work I did. But WordPress allows you to contribute, regardless of your experience level.</p>
<p>Years later, when I lived in Mexico City, one of my friends got interested in technology.</p>
<p>He was like me. He had a degree in an unrelated field, and wanted a great career.</p>
<p>So I showed him how much opportunity WordPress has.</p>
<p>He did something similar to what I did.</p>
<p>He opened PRs to an agency’s repos, and the agency asked him if he wanted to talk about a job, without him needing to apply. Years later, he’s still doing really well at his job.</p>
<p>I did very little, other than point him to a huge opportunity: WordPress.</p>
<h2>Concrete Skills</h2>
<p>Changing careers is really awkward.</p>
<p>You read about networking, which seems like you’re asking strangers for favors and sending spam DMs.</p>
<p>You also learn to reframe things as transferable skills.</p>
<p>So if you’ve done hard things, you can say you’re “comfortable with ambiguity.”</p>
<p>But with WordPress skills, you have more concrete skills to offer.</p>
<p>It’s less awkward explaining to someone why they should take a chance on you.</p>
<p>You’ve shown you’re committed to your career path by your portfolio of plugins.</p>
<p>And you don’t have to send spam DMs on LinkedIn.</p>
<p>In 2014, I went to my first WordPress meetup, <a href="https://www.meetup.com/WPLosAngeles">WordPress Los Angeles</a>. I was nervous, but I wasn’t trying to take any value.</p>
<p>I could even answer a few questions.</p>
<p>Renee Johnson and I met there. We even reunited in WordCamp Europe and Mexico City several years later when I lived there:</p>
<a href="https://s20094.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/with-renee.jpg"><img /></a>Yani Jimenez and Renee Johnson, Mexico City
<p>With WordPress skills, you can flip from taking to giving value. Everything is much less awkward.</p>
<p>As you probably know, there are many self-taught developers in WordPress.</p>
<p>College degrees rarely come up in hiring conversations, at least in my experience.</p>
<p>And I’ve found WordPress very accepting of different career backgrounds. Matt Mullenweg was a musician, famously naming every release after a jazz musician.</p>
<p>People in WordPress are very understanding about changing careers.</p>
<p>Now, I don’t hide it, and it’s rarely more than a footnote in conversations.</p>
<h2>Mentorship</h2>
<p>Don’t go it alone.</p>
<p>It’s easy to think that you can just take online courses and eventually be ready for a job.</p>
<p>But code reviews are one of the main ways you’ll learn. And people in WP want to help.</p>
<p>If you contribute a few PRs to someone’s GitHub repo, they’ll probably do a quick code review of your own plugin or theme.</p>
<p>Weston was really helpful in doing a detailed review of my theme.</p>
<p>You also can learn a lot contributing to Gutenberg or other plugins.</p>
<p>They’ll give you detailed reviews. And you’ll basically get the same experience as if you were getting paid.</p>
<p>But if I were to do this again, I’d also look for more formal mentorship.</p>
<p>Hiring someone to review your plugins and themes would probably help.</p>
<h2>Nothing To Fix</h2>
<p>There’s a saying in marketing “what you can’t fix, you feature.”</p>
<p>In WordPress, you don’t have to fix your non-traditional career background.</p>
<p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/changing-careers-into-wordpress/">Changing Careers Into WordPress</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 20 Jan 2021 17:50:06 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Ryan Kienstra";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:37;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:44:"Gary: WordPress Importers: Defining a Schema";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:25:"https://pento.net/?p=5495";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"https://pento.net/2021/01/20/wordpress-importers-defining-a-schema/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8792:"<p>While schemata are usually implemented using language-specific tools (eg, XML uses <a href="https://www.w3.org/standards/xml/schema">XML Schema</a>, JSON uses <a href="https://json-schema.org/">JSON Schema</a>), they largely use the same concepts when talking about data. This is rather helpful, we don&#8217;t need to make a decision on <a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/19/wordpress-importers-getting-our-house-in-order/">data formats</a> before we can start thinking about how the data should be arranged.</p>



<p><em>Note: Since these concepts apply equally to all data formats, I&#8217;m using &#8220;WXR&#8221; in this post as shorthand for &#8220;the structured data section of whichever file format we ultimately use&#8221;, rather than specifically referring to the existing WXR format.</em> <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<h2>Why is a Schema Important?</h2>



<p>It&#8217;s fair to ask why, if the WordPress Importers have survived this entire time <em>without</em> a formal schema, why would we need one now?</p>



<p>There are two major reasons why we haven&#8217;t needed one in the past:</p>



<ul><li>WXR has remained largely unchanged in the last 10 years: there have been small additions or tweaks, but nothing significant. There&#8217;s been no need to keep track of changes.</li><li>WXR is currently very simple, with just a handful of basic elements. In a recent experiment, I was able to implement a JavaScript-based WXR generator in just a few days, entirely by referencing <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/src/wp-admin/includes/export.php">the Core implementation</a>.</li></ul>



<p>These reasons are also why it would help to implement a schema for the future:</p>



<ul><li>As work on WXR proceeds, there will likely need to be substantial changes to what data is included: adding new fields, modifying existing fields, and removing redundant fields. Tracking these changes helps ensure any WXR implementations can stay in sync.</li><li>These changes will result in a more complex schema: relying on the source to re-implement it will become increasingly difficult and error-prone. Following Gutenberg&#8217;s lead, it&#8217;s likely that we&#8217;d want to provide official libraries in both PHP and JavaScript: keeping them in sync is best done from a source schema, rather than having one implementation copy the other.</li></ul>



<p>Taking the time to plan out a schema now gives us a solid base to work from, and it allows for future changes to happen in a reliable fashion.</p>



<h2>WXR for all of WordPress</h2>



<p>With a well defined schema, we can start to expand what data will be included in a WXR file.</p>



<h3>Media</h3>



<p>Interestingly, many of the challenges around media files are less to do with WXR, and more to do with importer capabilities. The biggest headache is retrieving the actual files, which the importer currently handles by trying to retrieve the file from the remote server, as defined in the <code>wp:attachment_url</code> node. In context, this behaviour is understandable: 10+ years ago, personal internet connections were too slow to be moving media around, it was better to have the servers talk to each other. It&#8217;s a useful mechanism that we should keep as a fallback, but the more reliable solution is to include the media file with the export.</p>



<h3>Plugins and Themes</h3>



<p>There are two parts to plugins and themes: the code, and the content. Modern WordPress sites <em>require</em> plugins to function, and most are customised to suit their particular theme.</p>



<p>For exporting the code, I wonder if a tiered solution could be applied:</p>



<ul><li>Anything from WordPress.org would just need their slug, since they can be re-downloaded during import. Particularly as WordPress continues to move towards an auto-updated future, modified versions of plugins and themes are explicitly not supported.</li><li>Third party plugins and themes would be given a filter to use, where they can provide a download URL that can be included in the export file.</li><li>Third party plugins/themes that don’t provide a download URL would either need to be skipped, or zipped up and included in the export file.</li></ul>



<p>For exporting the content, WXR already includes custom post types, but doesn&#8217;t include custom settings, or custom tables. The former should be included automatically, and the latter would likely be handled by an appropriate action for the plugin to hook into.</p>



<h3>Settings</h3>



<p>There are a currently handful of special settings that are exported, but (as I just noted, particularly with plugins and themes being exported) this would likely need to be expanded to included most items in&nbsp;<code>wp_options</code>.</p>



<h3>Users</h3>



<p>Currently, the bare minimum information about users who’ve authored a post is included in the export. This would need to be expanded to include more user information, as well as users who aren’t post authors.</p>



<h2>WXR for <em>parts</em> of WordPress</h2>



<p>The modern use case for importers isn&#8217;t just to handle a full site, but to handle keeping sites in sync. For example, most news organisations will have a staging site (or even several layers of staging!) which is synchronised to production.</p>



<p>While it&#8217;s well outside the scope of this project to directly handle every one of these use cases, we should be able to provide the framework for organisations to build reliable platforms on. Exports should be repeatable, objects in the export should have unique identifiers, and the importer should be able to handle any subset of WXR.</p>



<h2>WXR Beyond WordPress</h2>



<p>Up until this point, we&#8217;ve really been talking about&nbsp;WordPress→WordPress migrations, but I think WXR is a useful format beyond that. Instead of just containing direct exports of the data from particular plugins, we could also allow it to contain &#8220;types&#8221; of data. This turns WXR into an intermediary language, exports can be created from any source, and imported into WordPress.</p>



<p>Let&#8217;s consider an example. Say we create a tool that can export a Shopify, Wix, or GoDaddy site to WXR, how would we represent an online store in the WXR file? We don&#8217;t want to export in the format that any particular plugin would use, since a WordPress Core tool shouldn&#8217;t be advantaging one plugin over others.</p>



<p>Instead, it would be better if we could format the data in a platform-agnostic way, which plugins could then implement support for. As luck would have it, <a href="https://schema.org/">Schema.org</a> provides exactly the kind of data structure we could use here. It&#8217;s been <a href="https://schema.org/docs/releases.html">actively maintained for nearly nine years</a>, it supports a <a href="https://schema.org/docs/schemas.html">wide variety of data types</a>, and is intentionally platform-agnostic.</p>



<p>Gazing into my crystal ball for a moment, I can certainly imagine a future where plugins could implement and declare support for importing certain data types. When handling such an import (assuming one of those plugins wasn&#8217;t already installed), the WordPress Importer could offer them as options during the import process. This kind of seamless integration allows WordPress to show that it offers the same kind of fully-featured site building experience that modern CMS services do.</p>



<p>Of course, reality is never quite as simple as crystal balls and magic wands make them out to be. We have to contend with services that provide incomplete or fragmented exports, and there are even services that deliberately don&#8217;t provide exports at all. In the next post, I&#8217;ll be writing about why we should address this problem, and how we might be able to go about it.</p>



<div class="wp-block-group is-style-twentytwentyone-border"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<p><em>This post is part of a series, talking about the WordPress Importers, their history, where they are now, and where they could go in the future.</em></p>



<ul><li><em><a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/18/wordpress-importers-stating-the-problem/">Part 1: Stating the Problem</a></em></li><li><em><a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/19/wordpress-importers-getting-our-house-in-order/">Part 2: Getting Our House in Order</a></em></li><li><em><a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/20/wordpress-importers-defining-a-schema/">Part 3: Defining a Schema</a></em></li><li><a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/21/wordpress-importers-free-as-in-speech/"><em>Part 4: Free (as in Speech)</em></a></li></ul>



<p></p>
</div></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 19 Jan 2021 23:13:37 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Gary";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:38;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:101:"WPTavern: Custom Layouts Plugin Creates a Posts Display System for Both the Classic and Block Editors";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110409";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:247:"https://wptavern.com/custom-layouts-plugin-creates-a-posts-display-system-for-both-the-classic-and-block-editors?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=custom-layouts-plugin-creates-a-posts-display-system-for-both-the-classic-and-block-editors";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5383:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Ross Morsali, via his brand Code Amp, released the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/custom-layouts/">Custom Layouts</a> plugin last week. The plugin&rsquo;s goal is to provide a visual post layout builder for users of both the block and classic editors.</p>



<p>For end-users, this is yet another choice between the multitude of plugins for displaying posts. After years of new plugins launching in this space, it would seem that there would be a clear front-runner, but developers are still trying to tame this wild and complex feature. The Custom Layouts plugin has its own approach, and it is worth giving it a quick spin to see if it suits you.</p>



<p>I have written extensively about the <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-9-6-introduces-drag-and-drop-blocks-and-global-inheritance-for-the-query-block">upcoming Query block</a> and its role in the <a href="https://wptavern.com/understanding-the-query-block-and-its-importance-in-site-editing">future of WordPress</a>. However, it is necessary to look at alternative solutions for displaying posts via the block editor. The Gutenberg development team should take note of the things that work and those that do not.</p>



<p>For developers, the plugin is a noteworthy experiment that uses the block editor component system outside of the actual editor. Custom Layouts uses these various components on its custom Layout and Template Editor screens.</p>



<p>The plugin is a product of Morsali learning React and the block system in the last year and a half. &ldquo;Working with Gutenberg and the Block Editor as a developer is a far superior experience to the old paradigm (the classic editor) &mdash; the learning curve is definitely greater, but once you get over the hump it seems the future is bright,&rdquo; he wrote in the <a href="https://codeamp.com/creating-the-custom-layouts-plugin/">plugin&rsquo;s announcement post</a>. &ldquo;I also love the fact that we don&rsquo;t actually need to be using the Block Editor to use Gutenberg components &mdash; that means we can still build what we want and how we want it (providing we&rsquo;re using React), whilst keeping the UI in tune with the rest of WordPress.&rdquo;</p>



<h2>How the Plugin Works</h2>



<img />Template editor screen.



<p class="has-drop-cap">Custom Layouts takes a different route than similar plugins, splitting its components into different screens. The terminology can be confusing to the uninitiated. The plugin introduces two parts that serve as the foundation of its system:</p>



<ul><li><strong>Templates:</strong> Handles the design of individual posts.</li><li><strong>Layouts:</strong> Controls queried posts and their layout.</li></ul>



<p>I have had a beta version of the plugin since late December. This has given me three weeks to decide whether I like the approach. On the one hand, the plugin caters to two different user bases. One set can implement their layouts via the Custom Layouts block. Those on the classic editor can use the Layout Editor screen. Both share the Template Editor.</p>



<img />Creating a three-column grid layout.



<p>The plugin&rsquo;s system is a good option for users of the classic editor. It comes with a visual interface they would otherwise not have. It also provides a shortcode for easy copying/pasting into the post editor.</p>



<p>For users of the block editor, having a separate screen for the template builder will likely feel unnatural. Because the block editor is a visual interface itself, the multiple screens create a disjointed atmosphere that never feels <em>right</em>.</p>



<p>However, there is a solution for that in the plugin. I recommend users skip the Template Editor and Layout Editor screens altogether. The Custom Layouts block serves as an alternative layout builder in the block editor. Plus, users can edit existing templates via a popup overlay or even create new ones without ever leaving the post-editing screen. </p>



<img />Overlay for editing a template.



<p>Building everything from the post editor feels like it should feel. Users get more of that instant feedback that they are accustomed to through the block editor.</p>



<p>There are benefits to the multi-component system. Separating the template builder means that users can build and reuse a specific design from a single source. They can also update individual templates, which will subsequently apply to all uses of those templates across the site.</p>



<p>The other benefit is that end-users are not overloaded with choices. Building a query-related block, widget, shortcode, or similar component is fraught with complexity. This is because there are three pieces of laying out a list of posts: the query to load them, the overall layout, and the design of the individual posts. Putting options for each of these pieces into the block inspector, for example, means creating a balance between sacrificing some choices and providing every possible setting to the user. This balancing act is what drove Morsali toward separating the components of the plugin.</p>



<p>On the whole, Custom Layouts is a solid plugin. The downside is that there is a little bit of a learning curve because it serves two audiences. Users will need to figure out which workflow best suits them first. Once they figure that out, the plugin is pretty nice to work with.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 19 Jan 2021 21:48:33 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:39;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:84:"WPTavern: WordPress for Android Previews New Story Posts Feature, Now in Public Beta";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110474";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:211:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-for-android-previews-new-story-posts-feature-now-in-public-beta?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-for-android-previews-new-story-posts-feature-now-in-public-beta";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3697:"<p>WordPress users on Android may have noticed a new prompt in the mobile app for publishing Story posts. This feature is now in public beta in the Android app, ahead of an upcoming launch on the WordPress iOS app. Stories will also coming to the Block editor on WordPress.com in early 2021. </p>



<p>Early access to Story posts is available in version 16.3+ of the app, released in mid-December. The prompt appears at the bottom of the site management screen. Selecting a Story post immediately takes you to your phone&rsquo;s media where you can add photos or a video.</p>



<ul><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li></ul>



<p><br />The mobile app&rsquo;s implementation of the Stories feature is different from other platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, in several key ways. Most importantly, WordPress stories are not ephemeral. They live permanently on your site and anyone can view them after they are published. WordPress.com&rsquo;s <a href="https://wordpress.com/support/story-block/">documentation</a> for the block highlights a few differences: </p>



<ul><li>Posts with Stories won&rsquo;t disappear after 24 hours.&nbsp;</li><li>The Story content can be added to and edited after publishing.&nbsp;</li><li>Anyone visiting your site can view the Story.&nbsp;</li><li>You can share your Story on any platform using the post&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.com/support/permalinks-and-slugs/">permalink</a>.</li></ul>



<p>After testing the feature, I can confirm a few more differences. While the WordPress app&rsquo;s implementation transcends other platforms&rsquo; limitations on the duration of the story&rsquo;s visibility, it lacks basic features that users have come to expect from other apps. It doesn&rsquo;t support animated gifs, effects, location, stickers, music, and other embellishments that make stories such a creative social medium. At the moment, the only thing you can do is add colored text with a background.</p>



<ul><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li></ul>



<p>Videos work as Stories, too, but they don&rsquo;t seem to have the same preview with a thumbnail image. It&rsquo;s just a generic placeholder for now. That may be something the team is still working on, but I logged an <a href="https://github.com/wordpress-mobile/WordPress-Android/issues/13809">issue</a> on GitHub for it, in case it&rsquo;s a bug. </p>



<ul><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li></ul>



<p>In the interest of owning your own content, I can see it being useful to create stories on your own website and share them to other networks. The current implementation is basically a fullscreen slideshow. It is not yet more compelling than what social networks offer, but it looks like WordPress for iOS <a href="https://github.com/tumblr/kanvas-ios/projects/1">plans to expand on these features</a> using the open source <a href="https://github.com/tumblr/kanvas-ios">Kanvas library</a> from Tumblr.</p>



<p>Kanvas makes it possible to add&nbsp;effects, drawings, text, stickers, and make GIFs from existing media or the camera. If you have ever used the&nbsp;<a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tumblr/id305343404">Tumblr iOS app</a> then you have seen Kanvas in action in the camera, media editor, GIF maker, and media posting tool. It should make for a more exciting Stories implementation on iOS, with features on par with what users have come to expect from other platforms. Something similar for Android may be in the works and this post will be updated as soon as we receive comments from the mobile team.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 18 Jan 2021 23:55:06 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:40;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:53:"Gary: WordPress Importers: Getting Our House in Order";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:25:"https://pento.net/?p=5465";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:76:"https://pento.net/2021/01/19/wordpress-importers-getting-our-house-in-order/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15440:"<p>The <a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/18/wordpress-importers-stating-the-problem/">previous post</a> talked about the broad problems we need to tackle to bring our importers up to speed, making them available for everyone to use.</p>



<p>In this post, I&#8217;m going to focus on what we could do with the existing technology, in order to give us the best possible framework going forward.</p>



<h2>A Reliable Base</h2>



<p>Importers are an interesting technical problem. Much like you&#8217;d expect from any backup/restore code, importers need to be extremely reliable. They need to comfortable handle all sorts of unusual data, and they need to keep it all safe. Particularly considering their age, the WordPress Importers do a remarkably good job of handling most content you can throw at it.</p>



<p>However, modern development practices have evolved and improved since the importers were first written, and we should certainly be making use of such practices, when they fit with our requirements.</p>



<p>For building reliable software that we expect to largely run by itself, a variety of comprehensive automated testing is critical. This ensures we can confidently take on the broader issues, safe in the knowledge that we have a reliable base to work from.</p>



<p>Testing <em>must</em> be the first item on this list. A variety of automated testing gives us confidence that changes are safe, and that the code can continue to be maintained in the future.</p>



<p>Data formats must be well defined. While this is useful for ensuring data can be handled in a predictable fashion, it&#8217;s also a very clear demonstration of our commitment to data freedom.</p>



<p>APIs for creating or extending importers should be straightforward for hooking into.</p>



<h3>Performance Isn&#8217;t an Optional Extra</h3>



<p>With sites constantly growing in size (and with the export files potentially gaining a heap of extra data), we need to care about the performance of the importers.</p>



<p>Luckily, there&#8217;s already been some substantial work done on this front:</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content"><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2015/11/18/wordpress-importer-redux/">WordPress Importer Redux</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>There are other groups in the WordPress world who&#8217;ve made performance improvements in their own tools: gathering all of that experience is a relatively quick way to bring in production-tested improvements.</p>



<h2>The WXR Format</h2>



<p>It&#8217;s worth talking about the WXR format itself, and determining whether it&#8217;s the best option for handling exports into the future. XML-based formats are largely viewed as a relic of days gone past, so (if we were to completely ignore backwards compatibility for a moment) is there a modern data format that would work better?</p>



<p>The short answer&#8230; kind of. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f642.png" alt="🙂" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<p>XML is actually well suited to this use case, and (particularly when looking at performance improvements) is the only data format for which PHP comes with a built-in streaming parser.</p>



<p>That said, WXR is basically an extension of the RSS format: as we add more data to the file that clearly doesn&#8217;t belong in RSS, there is likely an argument for defining an entirely WordPress-focused schema.</p>



<h3>Alternative Formats</h3>



<p>It&#8217;s important to consider what the priorities are for our export format, which will help guide any decision we make. So, I&#8217;d like to suggest the following priorities (in approximate priority order):</p>



<ul><li><strong>PHP Support</strong>: The format should be natively supported in PHP, thought it is still workable if we need to ship an additional library.</li><li><strong>Performant</strong>: Particularly when looking at very large exports, it should be processed as quickly as possible, using minimal RAM.</li><li><strong>Supports Binary Files</strong>: <a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/18/wordpress-importers-stating-the-problem/#comment-37926">The first comments on my previous post</a> asked about media support, we clearly should be treating it as a first-class citizen.</li><li><strong>Standards Based</strong>: Is the format based on a documented standard? (Another way to ask this: are there multiple different implementations of the format? Do those implementations all function the same?</li><li><strong>Backward Compatible</strong>: Can the format be used by existing tools with no changes, or minimal changes?</li><li><strong>Self Descriptive</strong>: Does the format include information about what data you&#8217;re currently looking at, or do you need to refer to a schema?</li><li><strong>Human Readable</strong>: Can the file be opened and read in a text editor?</li></ul>



<p>Given these priorities, what are some options?</p>



<h4>WXR (XML-based)</h4>



<p>Either the RSS-based schema that we already use, or a custom-defined XML schema, the arguments for this format are pretty well known.</p>



<p>One argument that hasn&#8217;t been well covered is how there&#8217;s a definite trade-off when it comes to supporting binary files. Currently, the importer tries to scrape the media file from the original source, which is not particularly reliable. So, if we were to look at including media files in the WXR file, the best option for storing them is to base64 encode them. Unfortunately, that would have a serious effect on performance, as well as readability: adding huge base64 strings would make even the smallest exports impossible to read.</p>



<p>Either way, this option would be mostly backwards compatible, though some tools may require a bit of reworking if we were to substantial change the schema.</p>



<h4>WXR (ZIP-based)</h4>



<p>To address the issues with media files, an alternative option might be to follow the path that Microsoft Word and OpenOffice use: put the text content in an XML file, put the binary content into folders, and compress the whole thing. </p>



<p>This addresses the performance and binary support problems, but is initially worse for readability: if you don&#8217;t know that it&#8217;s a ZIP file, you can&#8217;t read it in a text editor. Once you unzip it, however, it does become quite readable, and has the same level of backwards compatibility as the XML-based format.</p>



<h4>JSON</h4>



<p>JSON could work as a replacement for XML in both of the above formats, with one additional caveat: there is no streaming JSON parser built in to PHP. There are 3rd party libraries available, but given <a href="http://seriot.ch/parsing_json.php">the documented differences between JSON parsers</a>, I would be wary about using one library to produce the JSON, and another to parse it.</p>



<p>This format largely wouldn&#8217;t be backwards compatible, though tools which rely on the export file being plain text (eg, command line tools to do broad search-and-replaces on the file) can be modified relatively easily.</p>



<p>There are additional subjective arguments (both for and against) the readability of JSON vs XML, but I&#8217;m not sure there&#8217;s anything to them beyond personal preference.</p>



<h4>SQLite</h4>



<p>The <a href="https://sqlite.org/index.html">SQLite</a> team wrote <a href="https://www.sqlite.org/affcase1.html">an interesting (indirect) argument</a> on this topic: OpenOffice uses a ZIP-based format for storing documents, the SQLite team argued that there would be benefits (particularly around performance and reliability) for OpenOffice to switch to SQLite.</p>



<p>They key issues that I see are:</p>



<ul><li>SQLite is included in PHP, but <a href="https://www.php.net/manual/en/sqlite3.installation.php">not enabled by default on Windows</a>.</li><li>While the SQLite team have a strong commitment to providing long-term support, SQLite is not a standard, and the only implementation is the one provided by the SQLite team.</li><li>This option is not backwards compatible at all.</li></ul>



<h4>FlatBuffers</h4>



<p><a href="http://google.github.io/flatbuffers/">FlatBuffers</a> is an interesting comparison, since it&#8217;s a data format focussed entirely on speed. The down side of this focus is that it <em>requires</em> a defined schema to read the data. Much like SQLite, the only standard for FlatBuffers is the implementation. Unlike SQLite, FlatBuffers has made no commitments to providing long-term support.</p>



<table class="has-fixed-layout"><thead><tr><th></th><th class="has-text-align-center">WXR (XML-based)</th><th class="has-text-align-center">WXR (ZIP-based)</th><th class="has-text-align-center">JSON</th><th class="has-text-align-center">SQLite</th><th class="has-text-align-center">FlatBuffers</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Works in PHP?</td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/2705.png" alt="✅" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/2705.png" alt="✅" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/26a0.png" alt="⚠" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/26a0.png" alt="⚠" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/26a0.png" alt="⚠" class="wp-smiley" /></td></tr><tr><td>Performant?</td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/26a0.png" alt="⚠" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/2705.png" alt="✅" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/26a0.png" alt="⚠" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/2705.png" alt="✅" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/2705.png" alt="✅" class="wp-smiley" /></td></tr><tr><td>Supports Binary Files?</td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/26a0.png" alt="⚠" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/2705.png" alt="✅" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/26a0.png" alt="⚠" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/2705.png" alt="✅" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/2705.png" alt="✅" class="wp-smiley" /></td></tr><tr><td>Standards Based?</td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/2705.png" alt="✅" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/2705.png" alt="✅" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/2705.png" alt="✅" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/26a0.png" alt="⚠" class="wp-smiley" /> / <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/274c.png" alt="❌" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/274c.png" alt="❌" class="wp-smiley" /></td></tr><tr><td>Backwards Compatible?</td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/26a0.png" alt="⚠" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/26a0.png" alt="⚠" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/274c.png" alt="❌" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/274c.png" alt="❌" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/274c.png" alt="❌" class="wp-smiley" /></td></tr><tr><td>Self Descriptive?</td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/2705.png" alt="✅" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/2705.png" alt="✅" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/2705.png" alt="✅" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/2705.png" alt="✅" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/274c.png" alt="❌" class="wp-smiley" /></td></tr><tr><td>Readable?</td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/2705.png" alt="✅" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/26a0.png" alt="⚠" class="wp-smiley" /> / <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/274c.png" alt="❌" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/2705.png" alt="✅" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/274c.png" alt="❌" class="wp-smiley" /></td><td class="has-text-align-center"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/274c.png" alt="❌" class="wp-smiley" /></td></tr></tbody></table>



<p>As with any decision, this is a matter of trade-offs. I&#8217;m certainly interested in hearing additional perspectives on these options, or thoughts on options that I haven&#8217;t considered.</p>



<p>Regardless of which particular format we choose for storing WordPress exports, every format should have (or in the case of FlatBuffers, <em>requires</em>) a schema. We can talk about schemata without going into implementation details, so I&#8217;ll be writing about that in the next post.</p>



<div class="wp-block-group is-style-twentytwentyone-border"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<p><em>This post is part of a series, talking about the WordPress Importers, their history, where they are now, and where they could go in the future.</em></p>



<ul><li><em><a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/18/wordpress-importers-stating-the-problem/">Part 1: Stating the Problem</a></em></li><li><em><a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/19/wordpress-importers-getting-our-house-in-order/">Part 2: Getting Our House in Order</a></em></li><li><em><a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/20/wordpress-importers-defining-a-schema/">Part 3: Defining a Schema</a></em></li><li><a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/21/wordpress-importers-free-as-in-speech/"><em>Part 4: Free (as in Speech)</em></a></li></ul>



<p></p>
</div></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 18 Jan 2021 22:50:26 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Gary";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:41;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:63:"WPTavern: Kinsta Launches Free Local WordPress Development Tool";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110351";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:171:"https://wptavern.com/kinsta-launches-free-local-wordpress-development-tool?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=kinsta-launches-free-local-wordpress-development-tool";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5961:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Kinsta, a managed WordPress hosting company, announced its local development tool named <a href="https://kinsta.com/devkinsta/">DevKinsta</a> earlier today. The tool allows developers to spin up new WordPress sites, including multisite support, in moments. Each site is automatically configured with Nginx, PHP, and MySQL.</p>



<p>DevKinsta packages Adminer, an open-source database manager. The system also includes an SMTP server and email inbox for testing outgoing emails locally.</p>



<p>&ldquo;This is the first version of the tool, let&rsquo;s say the MVP, but we have a dedicated development team supporting and adding a lot of new features to it,&rdquo; said Tom Zsomborgi, Kinsta&rsquo;s Chief Business Officer.</p>



<p>Developers can run and test HTTPS support and enable <code>WP_DEBUG</code> at the flip of a switch. Kinsta web hosting customers can also deploy their sites directly from the interface.</p>



<p>It took me around an hour to get the system set up and running. To be more exact, I spent 53 minutes. Close enough. Between having to sign out, restart my laptop, and waiting for various pieces to install, I at least managed to get a little laundry done in those dull, in-between moments.</p>



<img />Installing DevKinsta on Windows.



<p>The setup process was not a completely pain-free affair. However, the price of admission to use this tool &mdash; a little bit of my time &mdash; was well worth it.</p>



<p>Let me be clear. I have tested far worse systems. Even with over 15 years of development experience under my belt, I have utterly failed at setting up other local dev environments. For DevKinsta to simply get me to the finish line is a success.</p>



<p>However, I like simple things, and I prefer them to move along relatively quickly. I am accustomed to a 20-minute XAMPP setup. While it may not be as fancy or have the bells and whistles of more sophisticated development tools, it gets the job done and rarely doles out headaches.</p>



<p>The holdup was setting up Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL 2) and Docker, which are both requirements. Jump-starting DevKinsta itself was a breeze. And, as an old-school XAMPP user, DevKinsta&rsquo;s ease of use has pulled me in enough to do more than just give it a passing glance. I could actually see myself using this on a day-to-day basis.</p>



<p>In short, I am sold. DevKinsta is a tool all WordPress developers should at least spin up once.</p>



<p>Thus far, the <a href="https://twitter.com/kinsta/status/1351177344740941829">feedback on Twitter</a> has been generally positive. However, Linux users may have to wait a bit because the tool is only available for macOS and Windows at the moment.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I love seeing companies releasing local development tools but I wish more would offer their services to Linux users,&rdquo; <a href="https://twitter.com/chadmccullough/status/1351195217483988998">tweeted</a> WordPress developer Chad McCullough. &ldquo;There are a lot of us developers out there running Linux.&rdquo; The Kinsta team responded that the tool will eventually support Linux and that news is forthcoming.</p>



<img />Spinning up a new WordPress site.



<p>The simple and straightforward UI is what makes this tool useful. Most developers do not need overly complicated configurations and options. They simply need to launch an environment that lets them work on their own projects. Anything beyond the basics far too often gets in the way.</p>



<p>DevKinsta makes it easy to launch and manage multiple development installs. Developers can also switch PHP versions via a simple dropdown &mdash; versions 7.2 &ndash; 8.0 are currently supported.</p>



<img />Site management screen.



<p>The obvious comparison for DevKinsta will be against <a href="https://localwp.com/">Local by Flywheel</a>, which has increasingly become a primary tool for many WordPress developers.</p>



<p>Zsomborgi explained why the company thinks DevKinsta is a better option. &ldquo;In our case, Docker is an important part here. Local doesn&rsquo;t use virtualization in the background. Local has to install every piece of the environment to the host machine (NGINX, apache, different PHP versions, etc.). DevKinsta encapsulates these technologies into containers. Containers do make things easier for maintaining different applications without interrupting the host OS or installing many of the dependencies that are not required. We pretty much don&rsquo;t touch the host OS, but have Docker as our main dependency to run the applications on their own environments.&rdquo;</p>



<p>He said this speeds up the upgrade process and makes it easier to maintain bug fixes and send out security patches. He also said that because each application runs on its own Kernel namespace, any security issues should not affect the host OS.</p>



<p>&ldquo;If the user is comfortable enough with Docker, he can extend DevKinsta features,&rdquo; said Zsomborgi. &ldquo;For example, he can monitor the usage of the container, or the PHP usage specifically as an example with docker monitoring tools that comes out of the box with Docker installation. The user can install any utility inside DevKinsta containers without touching the host OS and use applications that are not supported on Windows, for example.&rdquo;</p>



<p>One of the use cases he mentioned was installing a benchmark tool to get statistics about site performance. This can be installed inside the Nginx container as a sidecar or separate container.</p>



<p>&ldquo;In the past, Local didn&rsquo;t use exactly Docker,&rdquo; said Zsomborgi. &ldquo;They used VirtualBox + DockerMachine. We tried it, and it was a bit painful. But without VirtualBox, DevKinsta can be more stable and scalable. So we use Docker without VirtualBox. It also needs virtualization, but nowadays, there are fewer Windows computers that have disabled virtualization by default.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 18 Jan 2021 21:07:16 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:42;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:46:"Gary: WordPress Importers: Stating the Problem";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:25:"https://pento.net/?p=5449";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"https://pento.net/2021/01/18/wordpress-importers-stating-the-problem/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:8838:"<p>It&#8217;s time to focus on the WordPress Importers.</p>



<p>I&#8217;m not talking about tidying them up, or improve performance, or fixing some bugs, though these are certainly things that should happen. Instead, we need to consider their purpose, how they fit as a driver of WordPress&#8217; commitment to Open Source, and how they can be a key element in helping to keep the Internet Open and Free.</p>



<h2>The History</h2>



<p>The WordPress Importers are arguably <em>the</em> key driver to WordPress&#8217; early success. Before the importer plugins existed (before WordPress even supported plugins!) there were a handful of <code>import-*.php</code> scripts in the <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/wp-admin?rev=688"><code>wp-admin</code> directory</a> that could be used to import blogs from other blogging platforms. When other platforms fell out of favour, WordPress already had an importer ready for people to move their site over. One of the most notable instances was in 2004, <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/book/blob/trunk/Content/Part%202/9-freedom-zero.md">when Moveable Type changed their license and prices</a>, suddenly requiring personal blog authors to pay for something that had previously been free. WordPress was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time: many of WordPress&#8217; earliest users came from Moveable Type.</p>



<p>As time went on, WordPress became well known in its own right. Growth relied less on people wanting to switch from another provider, and more on people choosing to start their site with WordPress. For <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/13307">practical reasons</a>, the importers were moved out of WordPress Core, and into their own plugins. Since then, they&#8217;ve largely been in maintenance mode: bugs are fixed when they come up, but since export formats rarely change, they&#8217;ve just continued to work for all these years.</p>



<p>An unfortunate side effect of this, however, is that new importers are rarely written. While a new breed of services have sprung up over the years, the WordPress importers haven&#8217;t kept up.</p>



<h2>The New Services</h2>



<p>There are many new CMS services that have cropped up in recent years, and we don&#8217;t have importers for any of them. WordPress.com has a few extra ones written, but they&#8217;ve been built on the WordPress.com infrastructure out of necessity.</p>



<p>You see, we&#8217;ve always assumed that other CMSes will provide some sort of export file that we can use to import into WordPress. That isn&#8217;t always the case, however. Some services (notable, <a href="https://support.wix.com/en/article/exporting-or-embedding-your-wix-site-elsewhere">Wix</a> and <a href="https://godaddy.com/community/Websites-Marketing-Website/Exporting-Website-Builder-Site-to-Word-Press/td-p/124526">GoDaddy Website Builder</a>) deliberately don&#8217;t allow you to export your own content. Other services provide incomplete or fragmented exports, needlessly forcing stress upon site owners who want to use their own content outside of that service.</p>



<p>To work around this, WordPress.com has implemented importers that effectively scrape the site: while this has worked to some degree, it does require regular maintenance, and the importer has to do a lot of guessing about how the content should be transformed. This is clearly not a solution that would be maintainable as a plugin.</p>



<div class="wp-block-group alignwide is-style-twentytwentyone-border"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<p class="has-text-align-center">Problem Number 4</p>



<p class="alignwide has-extra-large-font-size"><strong>Some services work against their customers, and actively prevent site owners from controlling their own content.</strong></p>
</div></div>



<p>This strikes at the heart of the <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/#bill-of-rights">WordPress Bill of Rights</a>. WordPress is built with fundamental freedoms in mind: all of those freedoms point to owning your content, and being able to make use of it in any form you like. When a CMS actively works against providing such freedom to their community, I would argue that we have an obligation to help that community out.</p>



<h2>A Variety of Content</h2>



<p>It&#8217;s worth discussing how, when starting a modern CMS service, the bar for success is very high. You can&#8217;t get away with just providing a basic CMS: you need to provide all the options. Blogs, eCommerce, mailing lists, forums, themes, polls, statistics, contact forms, integrations, embeds, the list goes on. The closest comparison to modern CMS services is&#8230; the <em>entire</em> WordPress ecosystem: built on WordPress core, but with the myriad of plugins and themes available, along with the variety of services offered by a huge array of companies.</p>



<p>So, when we talk about the importers, we need to consider how they&#8217;ll be used.</p>



<div class="wp-block-group alignwide is-style-twentytwentyone-border"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<p class="has-text-align-center">Problem Number 3</p>



<p class="alignwide has-extra-large-font-size"><strong>To import from a modern CMS service into WordPress, your importer needs to map from service features to WordPress plugins.</strong></p>
</div></div>



<h2>Getting Our Own House In Order</h2>



<p>Some of these problems don&#8217;t just apply to new services, however.</p>



<p>Out of the box, WordPress exports to WXR (WordPress eXtended RSS) files: an XML file that contains the <em>content</em> of the site. Back when WXR was first created, this was all you really needed, but much like the rest of the WordPress importers, it hasn&#8217;t kept up with the times. A modern WordPress site isn&#8217;t just the sum of its content: a WordPress site has plugins and themes. It has various options configured, it has huge quantities of media, it has masses of text content, far more than the first WordPress sites ever had.  </p>



<div class="wp-block-group alignwide is-style-twentytwentyone-border"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<p class="has-text-align-center">Problem Number 2</p>



<p class="alignwide has-extra-large-font-size"><strong>WXR doesn&#8217;t contain a full export of a WordPress site.</strong></p>
</div></div>



<p>In my view, WXR is a solid format for handling exports. An XML-based system is quite capable of containing all forms of content, so it&#8217;s reasonable that we could expand the WXR format to contain the entire site.</p>



<h2>Built for the Future</h2>



<p>If there&#8217;s one thing we can learn from the history of the WordPress importers, it&#8217;s that maintenance will potentially be sporadic. Importers are unlikely to receive the same attention that the broader WordPress Core project does, owners may come and go. An importer will get attention if it breaks, of course, but it otherwise may go months or years without changing.</p>



<div class="wp-block-group alignwide is-style-twentytwentyone-border"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<p class="has-text-align-center">Problem Number 1</p>



<p class="alignwide has-extra-large-font-size"><strong>We can&#8217;t depend on regular importer maintenance in the future.</strong></p>
</div></div>



<p>It&#8217;s quite possible to build code that will be running in 10+ years: we see examples all across the WordPress ecosystem. Doing it in a reliable fashion needs to be a deliberate choice, however.</p>



<h2>What&#8217;s Next?</h2>



<p>Having worked our way down from the larger philosophical reasons for the importers, to some of the more technically-oriented implementation problems; I&#8217;d like to work our way back out again, focussing on each problem individually. In the following posts, I&#8217;ll start laying out how I think we can bring our importers up to speed, prepare them for the future, and make them available for everyone.</p>



<div class="wp-block-group is-style-twentytwentyone-border"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<p><em>This post is part of a series, talking about the WordPress Importers, their history, where they are now, and where they could go in the future.</em></p>



<ul><li><em><a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/18/wordpress-importers-stating-the-problem/">Part 1: Stating the Problem</a></em></li><li><em><a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/19/wordpress-importers-getting-our-house-in-order/">Part 2: Getting Our House in Order</a></em></li><li><em><a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/20/wordpress-importers-defining-a-schema/">Part 3: Defining a Schema</a></em></li><li><a href="https://pento.net/2021/01/21/wordpress-importers-free-as-in-speech/"><em>Part 4: Free (as in Speech)</em></a></li></ul>



<p></p>
</div></div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 18 Jan 2021 00:25:32 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Gary";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:43;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"WPTavern: MapLibre Launches as Official Open Source Successor to Mapbox GL JS";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110489";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:199:"https://wptavern.com/maplibre-launches-as-official-open-source-successor-to-mapbox-gl-js?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=maplibre-launches-as-official-open-source-successor-to-mapbox-gl-js";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2864:"<p>In December, Mapbox shocked its open source contributor community with the news that <a href="https://wptavern.com/mapbox-gl-js-is-no-longer-open-source">Mapbox GL JS version 2.0 would be released under a proprietary license</a>. The JavaScript library powers interactive, customizable vector maps on many high profile websites like CNN, The New York Times, Ancestry, Strava, Shopify, Facebook, and more. Older versions remain open source but Mapbox will only be investing in developing new features for the proprietary version going forward.</p>



<p>Multiple parties started their own forks immediately following Mapbox&rsquo;s announcement. In an effort to avoid fragmentation, the community worked together to merge their ideas under one project. One month later, <a href="https://github.com/maplibre/maplibre-gl-js">MapLibre GL</a> is now the official open source successor to Mapbox GL JS. The project&rsquo;s founders represent a diverse group of companies who relied on the open source software, including MapTiler, Elastic, StadiaMaps, Microsoft, Ceres Imaging, WhereGroup, Jawg, Stamen Design, and more.</p>



<p>&ldquo;In December 2020, Mapbox released the second version of their JavaScript library for publishing maps online,&rdquo; MapTiler founder and CEO Petr Pridal said. &ldquo;However, this time all the new features were overshadowed by a change in the license: previously free as in freedom, it became closed for external contributors and usage was restricted to people with active Mapbox subscriptions. One has to pay even for loading this JavaScript library.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Pridal said the MapLibre project name is a shortened form of &ldquo;Map library restarted (or reinvented),&rdquo; with <em>libre</em> referring to freedom and independence. Its founders agreed that MapLibre should be provider-independent, so developers can load maps from their preferred providers or self-hosted maps.</p>



<p> The community-led fork may also become home to <a href="https://github.com/maptiler/maplibre-gl-native">MapLibre GL Native</a>, as contributors are considering a proposal to put MapTiler&rsquo;s open source fork of Mapbox&rsquo;s mobile map SDKs for Android and iOS under the MapLibre umbrella.</p>



<p>Mapbox is used by <a href="https://jetpack.com/support/jetpack-blocks/map-block/">WordPress.com</a> as well as in Jetpack for the <a href="https://jetpack.com/support/jetpack-blocks/map-block/">Map block</a>. The library is also used in many&nbsp;<a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/search/mapbox/">plugins</a>&nbsp;on WordPress.org, some with tens of thousands of users. Plugin developers who have integrated Mapbox GL JS version 1.13 or older will want to check out the <a href="https://github.com/maplibre/maplibre-gl-js">MapLibre</a> project as an open source alternative to Mapbox&rsquo;s proprietary 2.0 update. </p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 15 Jan 2021 23:51:33 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:44;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:99:"WPTavern: A Multi-Theme System, the Decade-Long Wait for Grandchild Themes, and Themeless Templates";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110476";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:239:"https://wptavern.com/a-multi-theme-system-the-decade-long-wait-for-grandchild-themes-and-themeless-templates?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-multi-theme-system-the-decade-long-wait-for-grandchild-themes-and-themeless-templates";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5994:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Around 2010, child theming had finally caught its stride. Bigger theme shops were starting to take note, and some were implementing advanced parent themes that were meant to serve as a &ldquo;framework&rdquo; for creating child themes. The theme development community hit a bit of a brick wall amid this explosion of child theming. Grandchild themes became a topic of debate.</p>



<p>One of the use cases for child themes was to protect customizations made by end-users. When the parent theme was updated, those changes remained intact within the child theme. Users could get bug fixes and enhancements without worry. It was an ingenious system.</p>



<p>However, another use case for child themes was to create vast customizations of the parent theme. Many of these child themes were marketed and sold to end-users. <em>The problem?</em> There was no way for users to protect their customizations if and when the developer updated the child theme. WordPress had no grandchild theme concept or any other sort of cascading theme system beyond the parent-child relationship.</p>



<p>So, the problem remained. Unsolved.</p>



<p>Some businesses such as StudioPress and its Genesis parent theme thrived over the years with this system. Others moved along. In reality, child theming became a niche feature that WordPress never expanded upon in any meaningful way. Theme authors were left to their own devices. With the arrival of the customizer and the expansion of page builders, code customizations almost disappeared. Most modifications were handled via an interface launched from the WordPress admin. The average user had little need to DIY their way through custom templates. Thus began child theming&rsquo;s drizzle into near obscurity.</p>



<p>Gutenberg&rsquo;s site editor, which will likely land in WordPress this year, had seemed to be the upcoming final blow to the child theming paradigm. Everyone from developers to end-users will be able to roll out custom templates directly from the WordPress admin.</p>



<p>However, should we be rethinking the role of a hierarchical theming system?</p>



<p>Full Site Editing is already introducing an extra level to the hierarchy. Traditionally, WordPress theming had a two-tier template hierarchy. In the future, it will add a tier for user-created templates. If that is possible, why not go ahead and throw in grandchild themes? Or, simply do away with such arbitrary limitations altogether?</p>



<p>A new pull request to the Gutenberg repository essentially <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/28131">creates a multi-theme system</a>. Or, rather, it creates a multi-theme templating system. Aside from the <code>style.css</code>, <code>functions.php</code>, and <code>theme.json</code> files, block-based themes are essentially a collection of templates.</p>



<p>The patch is proposing that users should be able to opt into this multi-template system. They would have the option to keep templates from an old theme around when they switch to a new one. While not currently implemented in the pull request, he also proposes allowing users to clone templates from their old theme.</p>



<p>&ldquo;In recent months, there have been whispers around the future possibility of multiple themes being active, templates being &lsquo;themeless,&rsquo; etc.,&rdquo; wrote the patch creator. &ldquo;This branch is an implementation of that. The idea behind this implementation is there can only be one active theme at a time, but the <code>wp_theme</code> taxonomy can be used to link up individual templates / template parts with one or more themes at a time.&rdquo;</p>



<p>It does not fulfill the dreams of a decade-old grandchild theme system. However, it could provide some precedent for exploring a full hierarchical theme system.</p>



<p>With the simplification and further standardization of how themes work, we should be dusting off old ideas and shoving them into a new light.</p>



<p>Full Site Editing will eventually solve the grandchild theme problem regardless of whether it had intended to. With the new tier of custom user templates, the upgradability problem created years ago will simply disappear. Users will be able to readily update their parent and child themes without fear of losing customizations. WordPress will safely store their custom templates in the database. It will even keep their design changes via the Global Styles system. Maybe, just maybe, child themes will begin to reach their initial height of popularity.</p>



<p>With the proposed system, users could mix and match templates from unrelated themes. If this happens, it begs the question of whether <em>theme</em> templates are even necessary.</p>



<p>Last year, Rich Tabor opened a discussion on the possibility of a <a href="https://richtabor.com/the-future-of-wordpress-themes/">single master theme</a> for WordPress. In that system, WordPress would create a set of base templates. Theme authors could simply override the pieces that they wanted. They could even pare themes down to simple <code>style.css</code> and <code>theme.json</code> files.</p>



<p>That almost seems to be a recipe for bland and boring themes. However, if you couple it with a template directory on WordPress.org similar to what GutenbergHub has <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-hub-launches-landing-page-templates-directory">already introduced</a>, users could pick and choose the templates they want. It could be both wondrous and disastrous, but I would not mind exploring the idea.</p>



<p>WordPress and its Gutenberg project have a lot of options on the table. Theme building could become interesting in the next year or two.</p>



<p class="is-style-highlight"><strong>Update:</strong><em> some names have been removed from this post at the request of the people in question.  While this is not standard procedure, they were removed because they were not integral to the story in this instance.</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 15 Jan 2021 21:04:52 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:45;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:83:"WPTavern: New Local Blueprint Enables One-Click Setup for Testing Full Site Editing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110252";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:211:"https://wptavern.com/new-local-blueprint-enables-one-click-setup-for-testing-full-site-editing?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-local-blueprint-enables-one-click-setup-for-testing-full-site-editing";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5484:"<p>If you haven&rsquo;t yet tested the Gutenberg team&rsquo;s progress on the full site editing (FSE) project, WordPress developer Carrie Dils has created a <a href="https://carriedils.com/full-site-editing-blueprint-for-local/">blueprint for Local</a> that makes it easy to jump right in. Full site editing is phase 2 on the Gutenberg roadmap and is one of the <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-7-development-kicks-off-with-focus-on-full-site-editing">main focuses</a> for WordPress core development in 2021. (Check out <a href="https://wptavern.com/what-is-full-site-editing-and-what-does-it-mean-for-the-future-of-wordpress">What Is Full Site Editing and What Does It Mean for the Future of WordPress</a> for a more in-depth look at why it is critical for end users to provide feedback during its development.)</p>



<p><a href="https://localwp.com/">Local</a> is one of the most popular free development tools for WordPress that allows users to set up new testing sites with one click, along with a host of more advanced features. Blueprints make it possible for users to save any site as a Blueprint so that it can be used as a quick start setup option later. The blueprint includes all files, databases, config files, and Local settings. Dils&rsquo; <a href="https://carriedils.com/full-site-editing-blueprint-for-local/">full site editing blueprint</a> includes the following: </p>



<ul><li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/">Gutenberg</a>&nbsp;plugin (with &ldquo;Full Site Editing&rdquo; experiment enabled)</li><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments">WordPress theme experiments</a>&nbsp;(these are themes with support for full site editing) with the Twenty Twenty-One Blocks theme enabled</li><li><a href="https://github.com/Automattic/theme-tools/tree/master/gutenberg-test-data">Gutenberg test data</a>&nbsp;(demo blog posts that use the most common Gutenberg blocks)</li></ul>



<p>Follow Dils&rsquo; instructions for downloading and installing the FSE blueprint on MacOS or Windows. Local does not yet have an easy way for installing and sharing blueprints to other Local users, so you will need to add it to the right place within the application&rsquo;s files. If you find that you don&rsquo;t have a Blueprints folder, it may be because it is hidden or because you have never created a blueprint before. Once the zip file is in the right location, you will see the full site editing blueprint among the advanced options when you set up a new site: </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>Once your site is set up, you can start exploring the brave new world of full site editing. (Be prepared &ndash; it is far from production ready but FSE is at a critical time in its development where it needs testing from real users to be a success.) The Gutenberg plugin may need to be updated to the latest. Your new site editing playground can be launched from the Site Editor menu item. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>On the frontend you will find the Twenty Twenty Blocks theme activated. You can also test using the <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/tt1-blocks/">Twenty Twenty-One (TT1) Blocks theme</a>, which was added to the WordPress.org Themes directory today, or any of the other experimental block based themes included in the blueprint. Click around, explore the template browser, try editing the template parts, change the global styles, and see how it&rsquo;s coming along. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>The current state of full site editing is rough. It&rsquo;s hard to tell a feature from a bug at times, but once you get familiar with navigating it you might consider joining the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/12/11/the-fse-outreach-program-is-officially-starting/">FSE Outreach Experiment</a>. This is an effort to test different aspects of site editing in order to ground the interface in real world feedback as it is developed. For the past few weeks, contributors have been testing the interaction between editing a post versus editing templates. </p>



<p>Anne McCarthy posted the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2020/12/23/fse-program-testing-call-1-template-editing/">first call for testing</a> to the&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/">Make Test</a>&nbsp;blog with instructions for participants. </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>This call for testing is designed to explore the interaction between the two editing experiences (post vs. template editing) to make sure it&rsquo;s clear when you&rsquo;re editing each, granular saving works properly, etc. Ultimately, being able to edit templates like index, single, or archive directly is a huge leap forward compared to what&rsquo;s been possible in the past! Unlocking this level of customization gives you far more control to build the site you want and this call for testing is to help ensure it&rsquo;s as intuitive as possible.</p></blockquote>



<p>The second testing challenge should be published soon. Anyone can contribute by following along with the test script and leaving comments on the post or <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues">logging them as issues on GitHub</a>. Participants are also invited to join the&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/fse-outreach-experiment/">#fse-outreach-experiment</a>&nbsp;channel on WordPress Slack for updates or questions regarding testing.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 15 Jan 2021 08:21:52 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:46;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:73:"WPTavern: Show and Hide Content via the Block Visibility WordPress Plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110411";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:191:"https://wptavern.com/show-and-hide-content-via-the-block-visibility-wordpress-plugin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=show-and-hide-content-via-the-block-visibility-wordpress-plugin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5736:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Nick Diego&rsquo;s <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/block-visibility/">Block Visibility</a> is not the only plugin to take on the challenge of controlling when blocks are visible on the front end. Other plugins like EditorsKit do a fine job of it. However, Block Visibility is a solution users should not overlook, even if they have already begun testing other options.</p>



<p>Diego first released the plugin in August 2020. Since then, he has added routine updates that have added value without shifting its focus.</p>



<p>One of the biggest reasons to use this plugin is that it is a standalone project. It is purely about doing one thing and doing it well. Its settings are all about giving users complete control over how they want to manage block visibility. From my experience with it, the plugin does its job better than alternatives.</p>



<p>It may not have a large number of installs, but if its five-star rating on WordPress.org is any indication, it at least has a happy user base.</p>



<p>Diego does have plans for a <a href="https://www.blockvisibilitywp.com/premium/">pro add-on</a>. The tentative release date is set for Spring 2021. He seems to be moving forward with that launch after adding some foundational code in the recent version 1.4 release.</p>



<p>&ldquo;As Block Visibility grows, there will be advanced and/or niche functionality that will be useful for certain users,&rdquo; wrote Diego in the <a href="https://www.blockvisibilitywp.com/whats-new-in-version-1-4/">1.4 release announcement</a>. &ldquo;Think integrations with other third-party plugins. There will always be a free version of the plugin but some of these additional features will ultimately be provided by a premium (paid) add-on called Block Visibility Pro.&rdquo;</p>



<p>In my previous job, one of my primary products focused on membership solutions. There is a seemingly endless number of possibilities that users dream up to control content visibility. I have little doubt that a pro add-on is necessary for catching all of the edge cases.</p>



<h2>How the Plugin Works</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Block Visibility is easy to use. End-users click a toggle switch, select from a date-picker, or tick a radio box. Their blocks are shown or hidden on the front end based on their selections. It does not get much simpler than that.</p>



<p>The plugin adds a new &ldquo;Visibility&rdquo; tab for each block, which displays the visibility controls. The exception to this is for inner blocks. For example, the Columns block has controls, but the inner Column blocks do not. However, this can be enabled for inner blocks via the &ldquo;Full Control Mode&rdquo; on the plugin&rsquo;s settings screen.</p>



<p>There are three primary types of options:</p>



<ul><li>Hide the block from everyone.</li><li>Time-based start and stop dates for displaying.</li><li>Visibility by user role.</li></ul>



<img />Block Visibility&rsquo;s controls in the inspector.



<p>Hiding the block from everyone might be useful for users who are testing on a page or for blocks that are a work in progress. Start and stop dates create the potential for drip or trial content on membership-based sites, especially when combined with the role-based visibility options.</p>



<p>These basic options will cover the majority of scenarios that the average user will need them for.</p>



<p>One of the nicer features of the plugin is that it adds a transparent gray overlay, dashed border, and icon to each block that has visibility options set. This is shown when the block is not selected in the editor. It is one of those small touches that make the plugin useful.</p>



<img />Overlay for blocks with visibility options.



<p>There is one confusing piece of the UI. There are two instances where there is a &ldquo;public&rdquo; option. That label immediately makes me think that the block should be visible to everyone. However, reading the description is necessary. These options are for showing content to logged-out users only. I would rather see these two options renamed to &ldquo;logged out&rdquo; for clarity.</p>



<h2>A Promising Future</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">While Block Visibility is a solid plugin right now, we are barely scratching the surface of what will be possible in the long run. In version 1.4, released two weeks ago, Diego added preliminary compatibility with Full Site Editing. This means visibility options will no longer be confined to the post or page content.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Once every piece of content on a website is a &lsquo;block,&rsquo; you will be able to easily control the visibility of practically anything on a WordPress website,&rdquo; wrote Diego in the version 1.4 announcement post. &ldquo;From dynamic navigation menus to user specific headers and footers, the possibilities are endless!&rdquo;</p>



<p>Gutenberg&rsquo;s site editor is a beta feature right now, but the plugin&rsquo;s integration seems to already work well. I ran a quick test to show a custom nav menu to shop customers only. I had no problems on my end.</p>



<img />Setting visibility options for a menu in Gutenberg&rsquo;s site editor.



<p>Users will not be limited to such basic needs in the future. Imagine showing ads in a sidebar to logged-out users. Imagine adding a time-sensitive holiday sale banner in the header. Imagine designing a homepage template that displays different content to subscribers vs. visitors.</p>



<p>There are ways to do all of this today by piecing various plugins together, using custom shortcodes, or writing code. However, when an entire site is made of blocks, you only need one method to control anything&rsquo;s visibility. Literally.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 14 Jan 2021 22:23:03 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:47;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:74:"WPTavern: WordPress Proposal To Align Release Cycle With Industry Standard";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110354";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:193:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-proposal-to-align-release-cycle-with-industry-standard?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-proposal-to-align-release-cycle-with-industry-standard";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7102:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Yesterday, Francesca Marano opened a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/01/12/recap-and-proposal-align-the-wordpress-release-cycle-with-the-industry-standard/">proposal for changing the phases</a> of the core WordPress release cycle. It was a recap of a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/10/29/discussion-align-the-wordpress-release-cycle-with-the-industry-standard/">discussion</a> the began in October 2020. The goal is to align the platform&rsquo;s phases with the larger development industry standard.</p>



<p>Aside from naming, WordPress has mostly followed the software industry in how it tackles its release cycle. Following a well-known convention can make it easier for developers outside of the WordPress ecosystem to transition into it. It would also allow developers to follow cycles of other projects, many of which are WordPress dependencies. This sort of standardization is generally viewed as a good thing throughout the software development world.</p>



<p>Based on the ongoing discussions since October, there is a consensus on renaming the phases to align with the standard. The following table shows what each phase would be renamed to:</p>



<table class="has-subtle-pale-blue-background-color has-background"><thead><tr><th class="has-text-align-right text-right">Phase</th><th>Current Name</th><th>Proposed Name</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td class="has-text-align-right text-right"><strong>1</strong></td><td>Planning and securing team leads</td><td>Preliminary Planning</td></tr><tr><td class="has-text-align-right text-right"><strong>2</strong></td><td>Development work begins</td><td>Alpha</td></tr><tr><td class="has-text-align-right text-right"><strong>3</strong></td><td>Beta</td><td>Beta</td></tr><tr><td class="has-text-align-right text-right"><strong>4</strong></td><td>Release candidate</td><td>Release Candidate</td></tr><tr><td class="has-text-align-right text-right"><strong>5</strong></td><td>Launch</td><td>General release</td></tr></tbody></table>



<p>However, this is a two-part proposal. Simply renaming the phases does not change how the release cycle works. To follow the standard strictly, WordPress would need to change when code is committed too.</p>



<h2>How To Handle the Beta Phase</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">There is one point of contention with how to handle the Beta stage. The standard calls for no additional code changes other than new bug fixes introduced earlier in the cycle. For the WordPress project, this creates a problem.</p>



<p>WordPress will be 18 years old this year. Over the years, it has racked up a ton of older bugs. These are often fixed later in the cycle, sometimes during the Beta stage. These older bugs may not have been a part of the Preliminary Planning phase, but does that mean they should wait until the next release to go in? Strictly following the proposal, they should be put on hold.</p>



<p>It would also introduce a hard freeze on any enhancements set for the release but incomplete.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I worry that we aren&rsquo;t allowing space for older bugs that aren&rsquo;t specific to the planned features in the release,&rdquo; wrote Josepha Haden in a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/10/29/discussion-align-the-wordpress-release-cycle-with-the-industry-standard/#comment-40391">comment on the initial discussion</a>. &ldquo;I also worry that by calling hard freeze earlier in the process we narrow the window for feature inclusion too much. I don&rsquo;t like limiting ourselves to feature specific bugs right now, since that excludes so many of our volunteer contributors. It&rsquo;s harder to work on features since they are complex and fast-moving, and older bugs present more opportunities for casual contributors.&rdquo;</p>



<p>On the flip side, there is potential that a bug fix could introduce new, unforeseen bugs. The later it is added during Beta, the less likely such bugs are noticed before the General Release phase. Waiting for the next cycle provides more time for testing.</p>



<p>One of the benefits of this system is that almost no new bugs would be created during Beta. This would allow volunteers to shift more efforts to testing and fixing issues that emerged in Alpha.</p>



<p>WordPress has always marched to the beat of its own drum. It can more closely follow standards while breaking free from strict confines when it makes sense to do so for the project. Beta-stage bug fixes not intended for a particular release could be handled on a case-by-case basis. We have people in leadership positions who are capable of making these calls when they arise. With automatic updates for minor releases, I am less concerned about late-stage bugs.</p>



<p>Tonya Mork <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/10/29/discussion-align-the-wordpress-release-cycle-with-the-industry-standard/#comment-40380">proposed two solutions</a> for defect work to continue in and around the release cycle. Both would require that WordPress branch off at Beta, providing contributors an avenue to push forward fixing bugs.</p>



<p>The first proposal calls for an earlier feature freeze, providing two or three weeks before Beta 1. This period at the end of the Alpha phase would be solely dedicated to defect work.</p>



<p>The second solution moves this defect work to overlap the previous release&rsquo;s Beta and Release Candidate. This allows work to continue during the time between major releases. It could also shorten the overall major release cycle.</p>



<p>This second solution is also consistent with Joost de Valk&rsquo;s thoughts on handling defect work. &ldquo;I think we should just branch off earlier, and keep trunk open for normal business,&rdquo; <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/10/29/discussion-align-the-wordpress-release-cycle-with-the-industry-standard/#comment-40393">he said on the proposal</a>. &ldquo;That way, <em>everything</em> can be worked on all the time, but it won&rsquo;t be included in the next release depending on when you commit it. That&rsquo;s fine, every piece of open source software I know in the world works like that, except for WordPress.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Many plugin and theme developers already find it tough to keep up when changes drop in the Beta or Release Candidate phases. Having a clear and defined point where changes land will benefit the extension ecosystem, also helping end-users in the long run. This second solution would do that.</p>



<p>There is nothing wrong with combining both solutions either.  Since the plan would be to branch off at the Beta phase, the second solution is already in place by the act of branching.  The real discussion is over whether the project should dedicate a block of time during its Alpha stage that focuses purely on bug fixes.</p>



<p>Comments on the proposal are open through January 20 before moving toward a final decision.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator" />



<p>The next proposal: <a href="https://semver.org/">semantic versioning</a>, anyone? <em>Anyone? Is this thing on?</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 13 Jan 2021 21:52:52 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:48;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:97:"WPTavern: WPScan Can Now Assign CVE Numbers for WordPress Core, Plugin, and Theme Vulnerabilities";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110347";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:235:"https://wptavern.com/wpscan-can-now-assign-cve-numbers-for-wordpress-core-plugin-and-theme-vulnerabilities?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wpscan-can-now-assign-cve-numbers-for-wordpress-core-plugin-and-theme-vulnerabilities";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:3148:"<p><a href="https://wpscan.com/">WPScan</a>, a security company that maintains a database of WordPress vulnerabilities, has been officially designated as a CVE (Common Vulnerability and Exposures) Numbering Authority (CNA). The company joins <a href="https://cve.mitre.org/cve/request_id.html#cna_participants">151</a>&nbsp;organizations from&nbsp;<a href="https://cve.mitre.org/cve/cna.html#cnas_growth">25</a>&nbsp;countries that participate in the <a href="https://cve.mitre.org/">CVE Program</a> as CNAs. These organizations are authorized to assign&nbsp;<a href="https://cve.mitre.org/about/terminology.html#cve_id">CVE Identifiers (CVE IDs)</a>&nbsp;to vulnerabilities within their own distinct scopes of work, contributing to CVE&rsquo;s <a href="https://cve.mitre.org/cve/">list</a>&nbsp;of records for publicly known security vulnerabilities.</p>



<p>WPScan&rsquo;s scope includes WordPress core, plugin, and theme vulnerabilities. The company has catalogued more than 21,905 vulnerabilities since 2014 in its database, which it makes available to the community through an API. That API is also used by the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpscan/">WPScan Security Scanner</a> plugin, which is installed on 5,000+ websites. </p>



<p>Being designated as a CNA helps WPScan better manage WordPress vulnerabilities by assigning them unique IDs that are recognized across the industry.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Asking MITRE to assign CVEs for each of our vulnerabilities would have been too time consuming in the past,&rdquo; WPScan founder and CEO Ryan Dewhurst said. &ldquo;Although some security researchers will go through this process directly with MITRE, we didn&rsquo;t due to the volume of vulnerabilities we have to manage. And security researchers only requested them themselves very rarely. The new process means that we ourselves can assign CVE numbers directly to vulnerabilities. This will result in many more WordPress related vulnerabilities being assigned CVE numbers.&rdquo;</p>



<p>WPScan is a team of three security researchers who come from penetration testing backgrounds and have worked within security consulting for the past 10 to 15 years. The company started with a simple Ruby script in 2011, which identified vulnerabilities in self-hosted WordPress sites. For the past two years, Automattic has sponsored the company&rsquo;s efforts in maintaining the database, as WPScan has transitioned to become a sustainable business by selling access to its API.</p>



<p>Dewhurst said the company&rsquo;s customers include &ldquo;some of the biggest security plugins and hosting companies in the world,&rdquo; but many of them don&rsquo;t advertise the fact that use a third-party to source the vulnerabilities. Most of WPScan&rsquo;s enterprise customers are security plugins, companies, and hosts that integrate data from the vulnerability database into their own products and services.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Our business is doing well,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Right now we are trying to find the right balance between being a business and making money, while also benefiting the community as much as possible.&rdquo; </p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 13 Jan 2021 20:52:12 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:49;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:73:"WPTavern: Google Introduces Performance Report for Google News Publishers";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=110267";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:191:"https://wptavern.com/google-introduces-performance-report-for-google-news-publishers?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=google-introduces-performance-report-for-google-news-publishers";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2915:"<p>Google has <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2021/01/google-news-performance-report">launched</a> a new Search Console performance report for sites that appear in Google News. Publishers can now track clicks, impressions, and CTR for traffic coming from <a href="https://news.google.com/">news.google.com</a> and the Google News apps for Android and iOS.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>The report helps publishers see how often their articles appear to users in Google News and which ones performed the best. It also includes breakdowns for countries, devices, and dates to give publishers a better overall understanding of how visitors are interacting with their content through Google News. Although the date period defaults to the last three months, the data only goes as far back as December 15, 2020.</p>



<p>In the past, publishers had to submit their sites to be eligible for inclusion in Google News but the policy <a href="https://support.google.com/news/publisher-center/answer/9607025">changed in 2019</a>. Sites are now automatically considered for Top stories or the News tab of Search as long as they &ldquo;produce high-quality content and comply with Google News content policies.&rdquo; </p>



<p>This new report does not include stats from the News tab on Google Search. That information was added in July 2020, when Google updated the Performance report section of its Search Console to allow publishers to filter by News. This screen also lets users compare different traffic sources, i.e. Web vs News to see the impact of articles showing up under the News tab.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>The new report can be grouped by dimensions to get more specific information with different combinations of date ranges, reader locations, devices, and pages. For example, you can get a detailed look at clicks, impressions, and average CTR on a per country basis. This can also be filtered for one certain article to explore more narrow branches of the content&rsquo;s reach.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><img /></div>



<p>Publishers who are using AMP will want to note that this new report includes data from the canonical URL. If you have multiple versions for different devices, the report contains data for both:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Data will only be shown in the property that contains the canonical URL. Therefore, if you have both&nbsp;AMP and desktop versions of a page, the desktop property (which is usually the canonical property) will contain all the data for both AMP and desktop clicks, impressions, and CTR.</p></blockquote>



<p>Google has published a <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/10083653?hl=en&ref_topic=9384513">help document</a> with more information on configuring the report, data discrepancies, and how to filter and compare data across groups.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 13 Jan 2021 03:54:38 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}s:4:"type";i:128;s:7:"headers";O:42:"Requests_Utility_CaseInsensitiveDictionary":1:{s:7:"*data";a:8:{s:6:"server";s:5:"nginx";s:4:"date";s:29:"Sat, 06 Feb 2021 06:45:21 GMT";s:12:"content-type";s:8:"text/xml";s:4:"vary";s:15:"Accept-Encoding";s:13:"last-modified";s:29:"Sat, 06 Feb 2021 06:30:15 GMT";s:15:"x-frame-options";s:10:"SAMEORIGIN";s:4:"x-nc";s:9:"HIT ord 2";s:16:"content-encoding";s:2:"br";}}s:5:"build";s:14:"20200502025608";}