


<p>Smith summarized the scope update for block-based Navigation in WordPress 5.9 and the changes to the block that are necessary for the project to move forward:</p>



<ul><li>specifically separating the navigation&rsquo;s presentation from its data in order to make navigations reusable. This serves both the Nav Editor project and the WordPress 5.9 release in general.</li><li>The Navigation Editor will ultimately focus on manipulating the&nbsp;<em>data</em>&nbsp;of a navigation which is why the above work is a prerequisite for the project&rsquo;s success.</li><li>Work on the Nav Editor will resume after WordPress 5.9. We will continue to focus on backwards compatibility whilst looking ahead to the world of blocks.</li><li>It&rsquo;s unlikely that we will pursue a new &ldquo;Classic Menu&rdquo; block. Rather focusing on the Navigation block (or its data).</li></ul>



<p>As part of the effort to separate the navigation&rsquo;s presentation from its data, contributors are considering two important PR&rsquo;s that explore different approaches:</p>



<ul><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35746">Save Navigation Block data to a wp_navigation post type&nbsp;#35746</a></li><li><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35418">Try using a template part in the navigation block&nbsp;#35418</a></li></ul>



<p>Discussion on the the merits and detriments of both approaches will continue before contributors select one to embrace moving forward. Smith identified the following goals as being important factors for the architectural decision:</p>



<ul><li>Allow navigations to be used in different locations within the same template/site.</li><li>Allow reuse of the same navigation&nbsp;<em>data</em>&nbsp;but with different&nbsp;<em>presentational</em>&nbsp;treatments.</li><li>Retain ability to quickly build new navigations.</li><li>Separate presentation and data in order to afford editing navigation data in isolation (e.g. Nav Editor project).</li><li>Allow reuse of navigations across themes.</li></ul>



<p>Although having a complete Navigation Editor would be ideal for launching alongside WordPress 5.9&rsquo;s other full-site editing features, it makes sense that contributors are taking their time deliberating the architectural approach that will define menus in WordPress for the foreseeable future. Anyone with strong opinions on the future of Navigation in WordPress should test the PR&rsquo;s and weigh in on the discussion.</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 Oct 2021 04:09:17 +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: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: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:78:"WPTavern: Designing Block-Based WordPress Child Themes With a Single JSON File";s: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=124768";s: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/designing-block-based-wordpress-child-themes-with-a-single-json-file?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=designing-block-based-wordpress-child-themes-with-a-single-json-file";s: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:7504:"<p class="has-drop-cap">From the moment I opened my first theme shop back in 2008 to the present day as someone who merely tinkers, my plan has always been to build a single theme in the mold of <a href="http://www.csszengarden.com/">CSS Zen Garden</a>. This was a project that Dave Shea launched in the early 2000s to show how designers could manipulate a site through CSS alone. The HTML would stay the same, but the design could be anything.</p>



<p>I have achieved that goal multiple times with several projects. Technically, all I ever needed was architecturally sound markup in a WordPress theme and custom CSS in a child theme.</p>



<p>The concept was simple, but over time, my vision changed. I wanted to create something that made designing these types of child themes even easier. Therefore, I built custom systems to work around WordPress&rsquo;s lack of tools in the theme design realm. Not to boast too much, but I felt like I had created some handy methods. They allowed child theme designers to plug values into config files, such as font-family names and color codes. Most of these could also be overwritten by end-users via the customizer.</p>



<p>By 2018, I was already hard at work on what would be my magnum opus, the best WordPress theme I had ever built. I had also planned on it being my last. I had been considering getting out of the game for a while. But, this was a project that I had to see through.</p>



<p>Then, the new block editor blew everything up. I had worked with it for months before it launched, but I knew theme development would never be the same. The Gutenberg project would continue maturing and reshape WordPress&rsquo;s future.</p>



<p>I eventually launched my theme. It was one of the earliest commercial products that supported the new block system. However, I was also deflated.</p>



<p>These were the early block editor days. No one really knew what we would be looking at in three or more years, but if you were paying even a modicum of attention, you could see that theming would evolve into something far different than it was at the time. I spent over a year building a theming system that would become irrelevant in short order &mdash; granted, I thought we would have arrived at this destination much sooner.</p>



<p><a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-9-go-no-go-update-all-proposed-features-are-moving-forward">WordPress 5.9 will ship</a> the final sub-components of Full Site Editing. This will include support for block themes under the hood. Users who install them can customize them through the site editor and the global styles interface.</p>



<p>What excites me the most is still the thing that woke me up every morning 13 years ago: child themes.</p>



<p>Block child themes have partially worked in the Gutenberg plugin for months. However, the feature that I was looking forward to the most was not ready until a week ago. A new patch <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/35459">allows a child theme to overwrite</a> single values of its parent&rsquo;s <code>theme.json</code> file. Essentially, the two files are merged, with the child taking precedence.</p>



<p><em>Why was I so excited about this feature?</em> Because it was the same system I had built in years past &mdash; but better.</p>



<p>After seeing this land in the development version of Gutenberg, the first thing I did was load up a custom theme I have been dabbling with. It is a project that I have been building for fun and my own edification.</p>



<img />Single post view of parent theme.



<p>Then, I created a new project in my code editor. I added the required <code>style.css</code> file and plugged in the appropriate header fields. I would not need it beyond that. My child theme&rsquo;s design would rely on another feature altogether.</p>



<p>I added a <code>theme.json</code> at the child theme&rsquo;s root level and began having more fun than I have had with theming in a long while.</p>



<p>I picked out a couple of autumn colors and a fun heading font. Within a few minutes, I had a new coat of paint splashed across my test install. The design was not revolutionary or anything of the sort. I was just amazed at how easy it was to transform my design by plugging in a few values.</p>



<img />Single post view of child theme.



<p>This is the type of child theming I have always longed for. I want the power to switch my theme&rsquo;s design elements around for various seasons and holidays. And I want to be able to share these child themes with others.</p>



<p>As I said, I had built such methods of child theming before (I used PHP instead of JSON). However, this is much more powerful because it relies on the standard block system and not something custom that only a handful of people would ever use.</p>



<p>Some of you may ask why I did not make these changes via the site editor instead of creating a child theme. Rich Tabor posed, essentially, <a href="https://twitter.com/richard_tabor/status/1452611152089862160">the same question on Twitter</a> earlier today. &ldquo;If a theme consists of JSON and block templates that can both be modified via Global Styles, then what are child themes for?&rdquo;</p>



<p>Let us say that I have installed a block theme and made a few color adjustments. Now, pretend that I want to mix this up when Christmas rolls around &mdash; throw in a few colors and find a festive holiday font. When I make these changes, my old design will no longer be there when the season ends because user customizations are stored based on the active theme. I could, of course, make a note of all my old settings and change them all back later. However, doing it via a child theme means that I can merely switch themes at any time. My old settings would remain intact.</p>



<p>Perhaps this is very much an edge case. <em>Who is making seasonal changes to their design these days, right?</em></p>



<p>The exciting part is that I can share child themes built with a single JSON file with others.</p>



<p>Child theming has been a passion of mine since the feature landed in WordPress. In some respects, it has not changed much. Themers can still overwrite templates from the parent. They can continue adding custom CSS if they want to. But now, they can configure any part of the design from a single standardized file. That is something worth putting my developer&rsquo;s cap back on for and building one more theme.</p>



<p>I also see a child-theme-less future that still has the same benefits of sharing design elements.</p>



<p>The block pattern directory already provides layouts that should work with any well-built WordPress theme. However, there are other components of design that we could break apart in the future.</p>



<p>I imagine a future where WordPress could have installable color palettes like what <a href="https://www.colourlovers.com/">Colour Lovers</a> offers. Just browse a directory, install, and change your color scheme without finding a new theme. Something similar to the recent <a href="https://wptavern.com/take-the-guesswork-out-of-selecting-fonts-with-the-adrian-wordpress-plugin">Adrian plugin</a> could serve the same purpose for fonts. These are things the community may want to consider down the road. No ideas should be off the table at this point.</p>



<p>For now, I am happy to have the full power of child theming at my disposal. The change should land in Gutenberg 11.8 this week and WordPress 5.9 later this year.</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 Oct 2021 00:29:55 +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: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:116:"Gutenberg Times: How to convert classic widgets to block widgets, What is a Universal theme? – Weekend Edition 190";s: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:35:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/?p=19377";s: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:164:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/how-to-convert-classic-widgets-to-block-widgets-block-patterns-to-speed-up-site-builds-and-what-is-a-universal-theme-weekend-edition-190/";s: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:19402:"<p>Howdy, </p>



<p>Some people in the community are worried about that WordPress 5.9  will change &#8220;everything&#8221;.  Of Full site- editing, all you will see in 5.9 is a sneak preview of what will be, in an impressive way. But that doesn&#8217;t change anything, if you don&#8217;t want it to. There won&#8217;t be an overnight automatic update of your site, and you don&#8217;t know how to handle it. I understand the fear, though.</p>



<p>The last five years, there was  plenty of doomsday amplification. That&#8217;s what social networks depend on for advertising. People coming back in outrage. It might also happen in WordPress groups on Facebook and other places. </p>



<p>WordPress changes are not sudden. You are in control. You got this. </p>



<p>The web follows wabi-sabi, a Japanese philosophy, appreciating beauty that is &#8220;imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete&#8221; in nature. Or as I phrase it &#8211; nothing&#8217;s perfect, nothing lasts and nothing is ever finished. There is beauty in it and there is peace in it. And there is exciting creative and brilliant work being done on all the WordPress teams. </p>



<p>I am very happy that you are here, so I can tell you about it. And please, let me know what grabs you. What are you working on? </p>



<p>Yours, 💕<br />Birgit</p>



<p><em>PS: And if you have <strong>questions about Full-site editing</strong>, you can <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/13/submit-full-site-editing-questions-by-oct-27th/">send in your question to the FSE outreach program by October 27, 2021</a>. </em></p>



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<p class="has-large-font-size">New fabulous patterns by Tammie Lister</p>



<p>In Weekend Edition 189, I  mentioned the <a href="http://patternspiration.com/"><strong>Patternspiration</strong></a> site.  This week, I went back to check out the new patterns. This one intrigued me to no end. <a href="http://patternspiration.com/">Check it our for yourself! </a></p>
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<h2>Gutenberg Development and Design </h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">In his post <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/22/site-editing-ia-concepts-part-2/"><strong>Site Editing iA concepts –&nbsp;Part 2</strong></a>, <strong>James Koster</strong> picks up where <strong>Kelly Hoffman</strong> ended <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/15/site-editing-ia-concepts-how-to-surface-and-access-new-features/">her explorations</a> last week. Koster tested both ideas on real life examples &#8220;to see how they handle complex plugins that add custom post types&#8221;. <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/design/2021/10/22/site-editing-ia-concepts-part-2/">Read the post</a> and find out about his recommendation.</p>



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<p><strong>Anne McCarthy</strong> published the <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/10/21/fse-program-pattern-party-summary/">FSE Program Pattern Party Summary</a>. Apart from providing important feedback to the developers and designers of Gutenberg, McCarthy also highlighted encouraging quotes from the comments: </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p><em>While some things are still not totally intuitive to new users, I feel that&nbsp;Gutenberg&nbsp;made more big steps ahead in just a few months. I enjoy creating content in it and some of the things I have in mind are easier to achieve.</em></p><cite>Piermario</cite></blockquote>



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<p>In the post, <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/10/20/hallway-hangout-5-9-go-no-go-site-editor-ia-and-more/"><strong>Hallway Hangout: 5.9 Go/No Go, Site Editor IA, and more</strong></a>, Anne McCarthy summarizes a impromptu online hangout with community and team members to talk through the various aspects what features will land in WordPress 5.9. They also looked at Tammie Lister&#8217;s Block Patterns, the locking API for blocks and the Navigation block. A fast paced run down of what&#8217;s going on among friends. </p>




<p><strong>&nbsp;<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/references/keeping-up-with-gutenberg-index/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&#8220;Keeping up with Gutenberg &#8211; Index 2021&#8221;</a>&nbsp;</strong><br />A chronological list of the WordPress Make Blog posts from various teams involved in Gutenberg development: Design, Theme Review Team, Core Editor, Core JS, Core CSS, Test and Meta team from Jan. 2021 on. Updated by yours truly.  </p>




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<p>In yesterday&#8217;s post by <strong><a href="https://twitter.com/justinferriman">Justin Ferriman</a></strong>, former Learndash, wrote about what works and doesn&#8217;t work in <a href="https://justinferriman.com/matts-page-builder"><strong>Matt&#8217;s Page Builder</strong></a>.  Once you look past the ClickBait headline and the expression of personal frustrations, there isn&#8217;t much you can argue with Ferriman. He is right. Gutenberg is not a page builder. Yet.</p>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Only with WordPress 5.9, will we see the <strong>first </strong>version of site editing, template, template parts and a user interface to change some global designs. Built in the open, the full-site editing part in the next version, will only give users an idea what Gutenberg can become in terms of page building. It will not hold comparisons with page builders that have many years of development in their own universe. Elementor is in its fifth year, Beaver Builder in it&#8217;s seventh year. Gutenberg full-site editing? Not yet.</p>



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<p class="has-drop-cap">If you want to see what is possible at the moment, watch <strong>Anne McCarthy </strong>demostrating in this five minute video: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPU-sT96f2g"><strong>Using duotone in theme.json to customize your image blocks</strong></a>. See how it works for Cover Image, Feature Image in Query Block and stand alone image block. </p>



<img /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPU-sT96f2g">Still images from the video</a>



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<p>In this post <strong><a href="https://www.godaddy.com/garage/using-block-patterns-to-speed-up-site-builds/">Using Block Patterns to speed up site builds</a></strong>, &nbsp;<strong>Courtney Robertson</strong> walks you through the steps to adopt page sections with Block patters from your Theme or Block Directory. Roberston answered the questions on why you should use them, how you use them and where to learn more. </p>



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<p><strong><a href="https://twitter.com/jcasabona">Joe Casabona</a></strong> just published his new course on LinkedIN Learning: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/learning/creating-block-patterns-in-wordpress"><strong>Creating Block Patterns with WordPress.</strong></a> &#8220;In this course, experienced course developer Joe Casabona shows you how to take advantage of block patterns to create more flexible WordPress without needing to know code.&#8221; read the course description. Casabona <a href="https://twitter.com/jcasabona/status/1451665848469532672">tweeted</a>: &#8220;It’s a cookbook style course that shows you how to make all sorts of patterns!&#8221; </p>



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<p>There is new hope for the Gutenberg Forms plugin, the only Forms plugin with a Gutenberg-first approach. <strong>Justin Tadlock</strong> wrote about the plugin&#8217;s Odysee in his article: <a href="https://wptavern.com/wpchill-takes-over-gutenberg-forms-plans-to-shake-up-the-free-forms-market"><strong>WPChill Takes Over Gutenberg Forms, Plans To Shake Up the Free Forms Market</strong></a></p>



<h2>Developing Custom Blocks for WordPress</h2>



<p id="4-a-href-https-us-02-web-zoom-us-webinar-register-1016333846354-wn-v-e-xlr-fa-rcab-gz-78-jgj-8-ca-converting-classic-widgets-to-blocks-a">Next Week! Don&#8217;t miss it! <a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1016333846354/WN_v-EXlrFaRcabGz78jgj8CA">Join us on October 28th at 12 pm EDT / 16:00 UTC</a> <br /><strong>Gutenberg Times Live Q &amp; A: <a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1016333846354/WN_v-EXlrFaRcabGz78jgj8CA">Converting classic widgets to blocks</a> </strong><br />Learn from the BuddyPress team members, <strong>Mathieu Viet</strong>, <strong>David Cavins</strong>, <strong>Varun Dubey</strong>.</p>



<a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1016333846354/WN_v-EXlrFaRcabGz78jgj8CA"><img /></a>



<p></p>



<p>In this week&#8217;s Twitch stream, Ryan Welcher can be watched <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1182869425"><strong>Building a pre-publish checklist plugin for Gutenberg.</strong></a></p>



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<p><a href="https://twitter.com/carlodaniele"><strong>Carlo Daniele</strong></a> created this comprehensive tutorial for <a href="https://kinsta.com/blog/gutenberg-blocks/"><strong>Building Custom Gutenberg Blocks</strong> </a>on the Kinsta blog. It&#8217;s meant to bring Beginners up to speed. Daniele covers the set-up and the scaffolding tool <code>@wordpress/create-block</code>, explains in depth the folder and file structure, and this also includes the handling of the built-in local web environment <code>wp-env</code>. The example Block is a Call to action (CTA) for affiliates, something quite useful and a nice change to the basic hello-world example.  </p>



<p class="has-drop-cap">What I am missing and what would probably be a nice follow-up is a discussion on when you have to build your blocks. There are other ways to provide content creators with great experience by adoption existing blocks: be it by creating  Block Patterns, augment the Block Styles, or build Block Variations. All options are much less involved, then going all in on Custom Blocks, that need to be maintained separately.   </p>



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<p class="has-drop-cap">And if you want to dive deeper into block development, <strong><a href="http://twitter.com/ryanwelcher">Ryan Welcher</a></strong> got you covered. He updated the <strong><a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg-examples">Example Blocks repository</a></strong> on GitHub. Welcher wrote in <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/10/20/check-out-contribute-to-the-updated-gutenberg-examples/">his Make post</a>: &#8220;These examples can be used in many ways. You can read through them to learn how to create blocks, check out the repository and modify them to see how they work, or use them as a starting point for your own blocks.&#8221; He asked &#8220;Please consider opening an&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg-examples/issues">issue</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg-examples/pulls">pull request</a>&nbsp;with your example suggestion.&#8221;</p>



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<p><strong>WPCampus</strong> has released their video recordings. Here are three that covered developing for Gutenberg and blocks: </p>



<ul><li><strong><a href="https://2021.wpcampus.org/schedule/making-gutenberg-viable-with-real-world-strategies/demand">Making Gutenberg viable with real world strategies</a></strong> with Jesse Janowiak</li><li><a href="https://2021.wpcampus.org/schedule/dynamic-blocks-ftw-customize-gutenberg-without-living-in-fear-of-validation-errors/demand"><strong>Dynamic blocks FTW!: Customize Gutenberg without living in fear of validation errors</strong></a> with Joni Halabi</li><li>Panel Discussion: <a href="https://2021.wpcampus.org/schedule/what-ive-learned-from-using-gutenberg"><strong>What I&#8217;ve learned from using Gutenberg</strong></a> with Brian DeConinck, Amy Grace Wells, Jesse Janowiak and Travis Cook</li></ul>



<p>All their recordings are linked from <a href="https://2021.wpcampus.org/schedule"><em>their schedule.</em></a> It&#8217;s a treasure trove for sure! </p>



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<p class="has-drop-cap">Speaking for recording: Video and Slidedeck of my page builder summit talk is now online: <strong><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/gutenberg-adoption-levels-1-5-page-builder-summit-october-2021/">Gutenberg Adoption: Levels One through Five</a></strong>. The Google Slides have all the links to the resources shared. I covered these topics and shared a ton of links and resources. </p>



<ul><li><strong>Level 1: Style and Control&nbsp;</strong></li><li><strong>Level 2: Create Block Patterns&nbsp;</strong></li><li>Level 3: Adding Block Styles and Variations</li><li>Level 4: Create Custom Blocks with ACF</li><li>Level 5: Create Custom Blocks with ReactJS</li></ul>



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<p><strong><a href="https://gutenbergtimes.com/need-a-zip-from-master/">Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg&#8217;s main (trunk) branch?</a></strong><br />Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review. <br />Have you been using it? Hit reply and let me know.</p>



<p><img alt="GitHub all releases" src="https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/bph/gutenberg/total" /></p>




<h2>What is a Universal theme?</h2>



<p>The theme team at Automattic has now five Universal themes in the WordPress repository. </p>



<ul><li><a target="_blank" href="https://blockbasetheme.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Blockbase</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://wordpress.org/themes/quadrat/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Quadrat</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://wordpress.org/themes/geologist/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Geologist</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://wordpress.org/themes/seedlet-blocks/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Seedlet Blocks</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://wordpress.org/themes/mayland-blocks/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mayland Blocks</a></li></ul>



<p>What is a Universal theme? You might ask: &#8220;A Universal Theme is a block theme that can use the Site editor but can also be configured in a more classic way.&#8221; &#8211; Or that&#8217;s the idea. For the themes to work, you would need minimum WordPress 5.8 (for the theme.json) and the Gutenberg plugin (for the site editor) . </p>



<p>The team also published on the site Themeshaper a few articles for developers exploring Universal themes in more depth. </p>



<ul><li><a target="_blank" href="https://themeshaper.com/2021/10/06/universal-themes/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Universal Themes</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://themeshaper.com/2021/07/12/universal-themes-customization/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Universal Themes: Customization</a></li><li><a href="https://themeshaper.com/2021/06/23/universal-themes-some-ideas/">Universal Themes some Ideas</a></li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://themeshaper.com/2021/05/27/blockbase-a-parent-theme-for-block-themes/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Blockbase: A parent theme for block&nbsp;themes</a></li></ul>



<p>We will need to see how far the idea can be pushed with WordPress 5.9. We&#8217;ll start testing with the alpha version, as soon as 11.9 is merged into core. </p>



<p>You can help testing by using the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-beta-tester/">WordPress Beta Tester plugin</a> and select the <em>bleeding edge </em>channel and the <em>nightlies</em> stream from the settings page.</p>



<h2>WordPress Events</h2>



<p><strong>October 28, 2021 &#8211; 1 pm EDT /  17:00 UTC </strong><br /><strong><a href="https://bit.ly/3p6b0ir">Post Status: Headless WordPress Webinar </a></strong></p>



<p>With Experts from WebDevStudios</p>



<ul><li>Brad Williams, CEO and Co-Founder</li><li>Lisa Sabin-Wilson, COO and Co-Founder</li><li>Greg Rickaby, Director of Engineering</li><li>Amor Kumar, Frontend Engineer</li></ul>



<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide" />



<p><strong>November 4th, 2021</strong>,  <br /><a href="https://events.wpengine.com/event/965784e1-7d9f-4ca4-b5c7-3186a468e125/websitePage:5bbe0ca6-fd0c-4e77-b99b-de21baff9062"><strong>WPEngine Summit 2021</strong></a> (EMEA)<br />starts at 10 am UTC / 6am EDT</p>



<p>With many fantastic speakers, among them CEO Heather Brunner, Chris Weigman, Rob Stinson, Hashim Warren, Grace&nbsp;Erixon, and Brian Gardner</p>



<ul><li><a href="https://events.wpengine.com/event/965784e1-7d9f-4ca4-b5c7-3186a468e125/websitePage:645d57e4-75eb-4769-b2c0-f201a0bfc6ce">Schedule</a></li><li><a href="https://events.wpengine.com/event/965784e1-7d9f-4ca4-b5c7-3186a468e125/regProcessStep1">Tickets</a></li></ul>



<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide" />



<p class="has-drop-cap">On the<a href="https://wpcalendar.io/online/">&nbsp;<strong>Calendar for WordPress Online Events</strong>&nbsp;</a>site, you can browse a list of the upcoming WordPress Events, around the world, including WordCamps,  WooCommerce, Elementor, Divi Builder and Beaver Builder meetups.</p>




<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide" />



<p class="has-text-align-center"><strong>Don&#8217;t want to miss the next Weekend Edition? </strong></p>



<form class="wp-block-newsletterglue-form ngl-form ngl-portrait" action="https://gutenbergtimes.com/feed/" method="post"><div class="ngl-form-container"><div class="ngl-form-field"><label class="ngl-form-label" for="ngl_email">Type in your Email address to subscribe.</label><div class="ngl-form-input"><input type="email" class="ngl-form-input-text" name="ngl_email" id="ngl_email" /></div></div><button class="ngl-form-button">Subscribe</button><p class="ngl-form-text">We hate spam, too and won&#8217;t give your email address to anyone except Mailchimp to send out our Weekend Edition</p></div><div class="ngl-message-overlay"><div class="ngl-message-svg-wrap"></div><div class="ngl-message-overlay-text">Thanks for subscribing.</div></div><input type="hidden" name="ngl_list_id" id="ngl_list_id" value="26f81bd8ae" /><input type="hidden" name="ngl_double_optin" id="ngl_double_optin" value="yes" /></form>



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<p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/13998657@N02/18526571462" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"></a><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/51035555243@N01/38744499" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&#8220;Blocks on a Wood Floor&#8221;</a>&nbsp;by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/51035555243@N01" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Thomas Hawk</a>&nbsp;is licensed under&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CC BY-NC 2.0</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:"Sat, 23 Oct 2021 04:45:00 +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:18:"Birgit Pauli-Haack";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:85:"WPTavern: WPChill Takes Over Gutenberg Forms, Plans To Shake Up the Free Forms Market";s: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=124575";s: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:213:"https://wptavern.com/wpchill-takes-over-gutenberg-forms-plans-to-shake-up-the-free-forms-market?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wpchill-takes-over-gutenberg-forms-plans-to-shake-up-the-free-forms-market";s: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:4675:"<p class="has-drop-cap">WPChill is now the owner of <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/forms-gutenberg/">Gutenberg Forms</a>, a project created by Munir Kamal. While still <a href="https://wptavern.com/build-forms-via-the-block-editor-with-gutenberg-forms">rough around the edges</a> a year ago, the plugin was updated regularly and was something to at least keep an eye on as it matured. <a href="https://wptavern.com/extendify-acquires-editor-plus-introduces-commercial-templates-in-its-plan-to-improve-block-editing">Extendify acquired it</a> alongside Kamal&rsquo;s Editor Plus and Gutenberg Hub at the end of 2020.</p>



<p>Then, Gutenberg Forms seemed to stall. Since Extendify took over the project, outside of bug fixes, most of the changes revolved around the addition of its commercial template and pattern library. However, the plugin still racked up over 1,000 active installs and a 4.6-star rating.</p>



<p>Cristian Raiber, the CEO of <a href="https://wpchill.com/">WPChill</a>, said he had discussed acquiring the plugin early on. However, he backed out before closing the deal because his company already owned <a href="https://kaliforms.com/">Kali Forms</a>, a commercial forms solution.</p>



<p>&ldquo;After a while of not gaining enough market share with Kali Forms, we circled back, and luckily, this time around, Chris Lubkert, the CEO of Extendify, was actually looking for someone to take over the project (adopt it) and keep it going,&rdquo; he said.</p>



<p>There are no plans to merge the two form solutions. Both plugins serve different markets.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Kali Forms is a more complex and complete solution whereas Gutenberg Forms just focuses on simpler forms, which also makes it limited in functionality but also in scope,&rdquo; said Raiber. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a market for people who just need a basic form solution built into Gutenberg, and we just happen to be the new owners of that solution.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Gutenberg Forms is still in its infancy, and there are many paths the new development team could take. Given enough time and resources, WPChill could shake up the free forms market.</p>



<img />Building a simple contact form with Gutenberg Forms.



<p>The first order of business will be clearing the backlog of issues, according to Raiber. Then, his team will focus on new features as requested by users.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Features such as the ability to build Quizzes or even more field types that will unlock even more powerful form types,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s also quite a bit of overlap with our existing plugins. A bunch of our plugins are already providing a form functionality that&rsquo;s&hellip;well, kind of limited and hard to maintain at the same time. A goal I&rsquo;d see us pursuing is removing those form components from our existing plugins and instead recommending Gutenberg Forms as a one-click install module.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Such a solution would allow his team to focus its efforts on a single code base. Then, they can extend their other plugins without recreating bits and pieces across each project.</p>



<p>&ldquo;For our Strong Testimonials plugin, we&rsquo;ve had people ask several times if the form collection plugin could be used for something else as well,&rdquo; said Raiber. &ldquo;Right now, that&rsquo;s not possible, unfortunately. We&rsquo;ve got a knowledge base + help desk plugin as well that could benefit from an enhanced form solution, such as Gutenberg Forms.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Currently, his team is about halfway through migrating all of their plugins into the block system. He said they are fully committed and on board with being a &ldquo;Gutenberg-first&rdquo; plugin shop.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The market&rsquo;s full of form plugins, and they&rsquo;re all competing on features, pricing, and really complex scenarios,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But what happens to those people that just need a simpler solution for free? My really long-term goal here is to be able to keep Gutenberg Forms 100% free and maybe become a worthy alternative to the aging Contact Form 7, a form solution that&rsquo;s got a really huge technical debt and has been poised with a lot of bugs. And that&rsquo;s normal for a plugin that&rsquo;s grown that big and has been around for that long without a team around it.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Raiber wanted to point out that they are not looking to compete with popular commercial solutions with Gutenberg Forms. A paid version is not even on the roadmap.</p>



<p>Commercially, they plan to integrate with their other projects and get users to jump on their other pro plugins. The goal is to disrupt the free forms market.</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:"Sat, 23 Oct 2021 00:13:01 +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: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:78:"Post Status: Post Status Excerpt (No. 29) — Better Ways To Support Customers";s: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:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=88157";s: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:34:"https://poststatus.com/excerpt/29/";s: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:4341:"<h2>&#8220;If you're a founder of a company go through your own customer experience yourself — with your own eyes.&#8221;</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">In this episode of Post Status Excerpt, Cory and David talk about their best and worst support experiences as customers. If you are a freelancer or small agency and your ability to deal with support issues from customers isn't working, then that's a sign of something broken in your workflow. Companies should try to be more proactive and helpful to customers even if they can't help them immediately or solve all their problems.</p>



<p><strong>Also don't forget: </strong>We're encouraging listeners to check out the &#8220;<a href="https://poststatus.com/make-wordpress/">Week at WordPress.org</a>&#8221; — get the feed <a href="https://poststatus.com/make-wordpress/feed/">here</a>) — and <a href="https://poststatus.com/submit-2021-black-friday-cyber-monday-deals/">submit your Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals</a> to us at Post Status.</p>







<p class="has-background">Every week <strong><a href="https://poststatus.com/podcast/the-excerpt/">Post Status Excerpt</a></strong> will brief you on important WordPress news — in about 15 minutes or less! Learn what's new in WordPress in a flash. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/26a1.png" alt="⚡" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><br />You can listen to <a href="https://poststatus.com/podcast/the-excerpt/">past episodes</a> of <strong>The Excerpt</strong>, <a href="https://poststatus.com/category/post-status-podcasts/">browse all our podcasts</a>, and don’t forget to subscribe on <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/1m3xwXbe0MG5BzFVPtB0A7">Spotify</a>, Amazon Music, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS8ySkU5c2M4UA">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/post-status-draft-wordpress/id976403008">iTunes</a>, <a href="https://castro.fm/podcast/c53552c6-1ee0-4fc4-9de4-08ed6bf1ee4d">Castro</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/PostStatus">YouTube</a>, <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/krogsgard/post-status-draft-wordpress-podcast">Stitcher</a>, <a href="https://player.fm/series/wordpress-post-status-podcasts">Player.fm</a>, <a href="https://pca.st/05rR">Pocket Casts</a>, <a href="https://wordpress-post-status-draft-podcast.simplecast.com/">Simplecast</a>, or by <a href="https://feeds.simplecast.com/2JE9sc8P">RSS</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f3a7.png" alt="🎧" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<h3 id="h-mentioned-in-the-show"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f517.png" alt="🔗" class="wp-smiley" /> Mentioned in the show:</h3>



<ul><li><a href="https://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html">SuperDuper!</a></li><li><a target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://jenniferbourn.com/profitable-project-plan/">Profitable Project Plan | Business Training For Web Designers</a></li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About-ebook/dp/B000RO9VJK/ref[%E2%80%A6]8350250%2CB00HTJR0NU%2CB00OH76SJE%2C0060938404&srpt=ABIS_BOOK">The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It</a></li><li><a href="https://poststatus.com/submit-2021-black-friday-cyber-monday-deals/">Share Black Friday / Cyber Monday Deals With Post Status</a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/dimensionmedia" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">David Bisset (Twitter)</a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/corymiller303" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cory Miller (Twitter)</a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/post_status" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Post Status (Twitter)</a></li></ul>



<h3><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f64f.png" alt="🙏" class="wp-smiley" /> Sponsor: <a href="https://poststat.us/ithemes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener sponsored nofollow">Yoast SEO</a></h3>



<p><strong>Yoast</strong> is SEO for everyone. Yoast SEO Premium gives you 24/7 support and extra features like internal linking, social previews, a redirect manager, tutorial videos, and integration with Google Webmaster Tools. Get on board today with the premiere SEO plugin for WordPress — <strong>Yoast</strong>.</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 Oct 2021 03:41:25 +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:"David Bisset";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:87:"WPTavern: Branded Social Images, a New Plugin for Generating Per-Post Open Graph Images";s: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=124633";s: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:217:"https://wptavern.com/branded-social-images-a-new-plugin-for-generating-per-post-open-graph-images?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=branded-social-images-a-new-plugin-for-generating-per-post-open-graph-images";s: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:5138:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Generated social images seem to be all the rage now. <a href="https://wptavern.com/automattic-acquires-social-image-generator-plugin-plans-to-integrate-with-jetpack">Automattic scooped up</a> Daniel Post&rsquo;s Social Image Generator last month for eventual inclusion in Jetpack. There is a <a href="https://wptavern.com/dynamic-social-images-for-plugins-themes-and-patterns-yes-please">proposal to dynamically generate them</a> for plugins and themes hosted on WordPress.org. And, there is a new player in town: <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/branded-social-images/">Branded Social Images</a>.</p>



<p>Admittedly, I have had a mild obsession lately with the concept, and I would like to see the Tavern use dynamically-generated social images at some point. Because we already use Jetpack, I will wait to see where its development team takes the feature.</p>



<p>Branded Social Images is a solid addition to the WordPress plugin directory for those who want a solution now. It is not as featured-filled as Social Image Generator, which is no longer available for purchase. However, it is an introduction to the concept for those trying it out for the first time. And, it may just prove well-rounded enough for many users.</p>



<p>The plugin was <a href="https://www.clearsite.nl/branded-social-images/">released by Internetbureau Clearsite</a>, a web development and design agency. Branded Social Images is the team&rsquo;s first extension on WordPress.org.</p>



<p>My favorite feature from this plugin is that it allows users to upload any TTF or OTF font file for the social image&rsquo;s text. I tested it with the Oleo Script Swash Caps and Rampart One font families to see how it worked.</p>



<ul><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li></ul>Testing custom font families.



<p>Well, I tested with several more than that, but I had to stop myself before going too far. I have a font addiction and am easily sucked into hours of tinkering with them. The goal was to test this plugin feature, and it worked as it was supposed to.</p>



<p>The plugin already packages a reasonable set of 10 font families to choose from out of the box. If nothing suits your fancy, just snag one from Google Fonts or another site of your choosing and upload the <code>.ttf</code> or <code>.otf</code> file.</p>



<p>Branded Social Images is straightforward to use. Its settings screen has a preview image at the top and two boxes with settings. One for the social image text. The other is for the background image and logo.</p>



<p>Where it fails to live up to the competition is that it does not have any pre-built templates. This is not necessarily a make-or-break feature, but it also does not have the design options to recreate many of the layouts of something like Social Image Generator.</p>



<p>Essentially, the layout options boil down to positioning a logo and text atop a background image via a three-by-three grid.</p>



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



<p>However, its scaled-back interface with minimal options could be seen as a feature in and of itself. Not everyone needs or desires a swath of settings when a few baseline customizations will do.</p>



<p>I did have some trouble understanding whether the placeholder logo could be removed. After some testing, I realized it was limited to the settings screen unless I explicitly uploaded a custom one. I would also like to see an option to use the site title instead &mdash; not every site has a logo but might still want to show their brand name.</p>



<p>Users can also modify the social image on a per-post basis. The plugin adds a meta box with four options on the post-editing screen for:</p>



<ul><li>Disabling the social image.</li><li>Editing the text.</li><li>Disabling the text.</li><li>Adding a custom image.</li></ul>



<img />Per-post social image options.



<p>By default, the text will be the post&rsquo;s document title. It should work with most SEO plugins, such as Yoast SEO. The featured image will also be swapped in for the background if a custom one is not added.</p>



<p>After three years of using the current WordPress post editor, it still catches me off-guard when a plugin puts a meta box at the bottom of the screen instead of the sidebar. It always looks out of place. In this case, it takes up a ton of real estate for four options, and there is no need for it. If I could wave a magic wand and change one thing about the plugin, this would be it.</p>



<p>The plugin also breaks the cardinal rule of not adding a top-level admin menu item for a single screen. WordPress literally allows for sub-menu items under Settings. <em>So, maybe I need that magic wand for two things.</em></p>



<p>Outside of a few issues, I love what the plugin team has created thus far. It is a little rough around the edges, but that is OK for a version 1.x. Software is meant to be iterated and improved upon, and Branded Social Images has the foundation for becoming even better.</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 Oct 2021 00:35:45 +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: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: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:75:"WPTavern: Jetpack Launches Commercial Backup Feature as a Standalone 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=124622";s: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:195:"https://wptavern.com/jetpack-launches-commercial-backup-feature-as-a-standalone-plugin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jetpack-launches-commercial-backup-feature-as-a-standalone-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:3577:"<p>Jetpack is splitting out its <a href="https://cloud.jetpack.com/pricing">commercial Backup feature</a> into a standalone plugin that can be used without installing the core Jetpack plugin. </p>



<p>The commercial product includes automated daily or real-time backups with one-click restores, even for sites that are offline. Backups include all WordPress database, theme, and plugin files, which are stored on WordPress.com&rsquo;s infrastructure with redundant copies on multiple servers. The product was built with WooCommerce in mind and can restore a site to any past state while keeping current orders and products in place. </p>



<p>Jetpack representative Rob Pugh <a href="https://jetpack.com/2021/10/21/meet-jetpack-backup-now-as-a-standalone-plugin/">said</a> the product was split out of the core plugin because &ldquo;many developers and site owners asked for the flexibility to use specific components of Jetpack as part of their own, custom-built &lsquo;tech stack&rsquo; of plugins.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The standalone plugin is available on WordPress.org and requires a user connection to WordPress.com. It is essentially a shell for connecting the commercial product, as the plugin doesn&rsquo;t have a free tier or perform any function unless you click &ldquo;Upgrade Now.&rdquo; </p>



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



<p>The plugin&rsquo;s description on WordPress.org is somewhat misleading, as it isn&rsquo;t explicit that this is a commercial-only product. The &ldquo;Get Started&rdquo; section states, &ldquo;Installation is free, quick, and easy. It only takes a few minutes to install Jetpack Backup.&rdquo; The fact that it&rsquo;s a paid product isn&rsquo;t evident unless you dig into the accordion FAQ section about how to create a backup: &ldquo;As soon as you purchase Jetpack Backup, it will be activated, and the first backup will be completed.&rdquo; </p>



<p>The launch of the new standalone plugin should not affect current Jetpack customers using the backup services.</p>



<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the same engine that powers the backup solution that&rsquo;s part of the full Jetpack plugin and we&rsquo;ve developed loaders to only load the engine once&mdash;whether you have only Jetpack, only this, or both,&rdquo; Jetpack engineer Brandon Kraft <a href="https://twitter.com/Kraft/status/1428101956879454210">said</a>. &ldquo;If you have Jetpack already, this adds some UI for you, but the same service.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The loader tech is the same that ensures the connection code only loads once between this, Jetpack, Boost, WooCommerce Payments, etc and ensure the latest version is running. [You] don&rsquo;t have to load into memory more than you need.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Jetpack is often criticized for being &ldquo;bloated&rdquo; and bundling too many features. In 2019, the Jetpack team began <a href="https://wptavern.com/jetpack-is-promoting-paid-upgrades-on-plugin-search-screen-wordpress-plugin-team-says-it-may-be-a-violation-of-directory-guidelines">promoting feature suggestions on the plugin search screen</a> in an attempt to solve a discovery problem, where users are quite often not familiar with the plugin&rsquo;s dozens of modules and end up installing plugins to perform functionality that Jetpack already includes. Splitting the backup feature out into its own plugin should be helpful on this front and is part of a long-term plan to make Jetpack more modular. Jetpack Backup joins Jetpack CRM and Jetpack Boost, two features already available as standalone plugins outside of the core 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 Oct 2021 22:56:46 +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:52:"Post Status: Membership and Courses with Sean McCabe";s: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:31:"https://poststatus.com/?p=88020";s: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:80:"https://poststatus.com/post-status-live-membership-and-courses-with-sean-mccabe/";s: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:3578:"<h2>&#8220;It's easier to sell courses today&#8230; what hasn't changed is HOW you sell and the validation of what you're selling.&#8221;</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap"><strong>Cory Miller</strong> talks with <strong>Sean McCabe</strong>, CEO of <strong>Seanwes Media</strong>. While it’s likely never been easier to sell courses for an audience (especially if you are using a system like WordPress), what hasn’t changed — according to Sean — is the marketing and the validation of what you are marketing, how you are marketing it, and how you are pricing it. Sean shares his perspectives on these permanent problems, outlining what has and hasn’t worked for him. Sean also shares his thoughts on what comes first — the community, the courses, or both. This is a must-listen for anyone with a membership course or learning site, or anyone who is thinking of starting one.</p>



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

</div>







<p class="has-background">Every week <strong><a href="https://poststatus.com/podcast/the-excerpt/">Post Status Live</a></strong> will brief you on important WordPress news — in about 15 minutes or less! Learn what's new in WordPress in a flash. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/26a1.png" alt="⚡" class="wp-smiley" /><br /><br />You can listen to <a href="https://poststatus.com/podcast/the-excerpt/">past episodes</a> of <strong>Post Status Live</strong>, <a href="https://poststatus.com/category/post-status-podcasts/">browse all our podcasts</a>, and don’t forget to subscribe on <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/1m3xwXbe0MG5BzFVPtB0A7">Spotify</a>, Amazon Music, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS8ySkU5c2M4UA">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/post-status-draft-wordpress/id976403008">iTunes</a>, <a href="https://castro.fm/podcast/c53552c6-1ee0-4fc4-9de4-08ed6bf1ee4d">Castro</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/PostStatus">YouTube</a>, <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/krogsgard/post-status-draft-wordpress-podcast">Stitcher</a>, <a href="https://player.fm/series/wordpress-post-status-podcasts">Player.fm</a>, <a href="https://pca.st/05rR">Pocket Casts</a>, <a href="https://wordpress-post-status-draft-podcast.simplecast.com/">Simplecast</a>, or by <a href="https://feeds.simplecast.com/2JE9sc8P">RSS</a>. <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f3a7.png" alt="🎧" class="wp-smiley" /></p>



<h3 id="h-mentioned-in-the-show"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f517.png" alt="🔗" class="wp-smiley" /> Mentioned in the show:</h3>



<ul><li><a href="https://seanwes.com/courses/presale-profits/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><a href="https://seanwes.com/courses/presale-profits/">Seanwes.com on presale profits</a></a><a href="https://twitter.com/corymiller303" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cory Miller (Twitter)</a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/post_status" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Post Status (Twitter)</a></li></ul>



<h3><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/72x72/1f64f.png" alt="🙏" class="wp-smiley" /> Sponsor: <a href="https://poststat.us/ithemes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener sponsored nofollow">Pagely</a></h3>



<p>You need durable Managed WordPress Hosting for all your mission-critical sites.&nbsp;Pagely offers managed DevOps and a flexible stack with the same enterprise-level support to all its customers. Peace of mind starts with Pagely. Try it today!</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 Oct 2021 16:57:19 +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:"David Bisset";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:97:"WPTavern: The HeroPress Network Launches Find It WP, a Cooperative Resource Archive for 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:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=124587";s: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/the-heropress-network-launches-find-it-wp-a-cooperative-resource-archive-for-wordpress?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-heropress-network-launches-find-it-wp-a-cooperative-resource-archive-for-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:6301:"<img />



<p class="has-drop-cap">Two weeks ago, Cate and Topher DeRosia <a href="https://wptavern.com/the-heropress-network-launches-as-a-multi-project-portal">launched the HeroPress Network</a>, a centralized website that would host various projects for helping people with WordPress. Today, the duo announced the opening of <a href="https://finditwp.com/">Find It WP</a>, a new site that is part of the collective. It will serve as a database or archive of all things WordPress.</p>



<p>The goal is ambitious, and it is powered by submissions from the community. The site is open to anyone who wants to share a WordPress-related resource. &ldquo;Resources&rdquo; in this sense is literally anything. It can be a plugin, agency, podcast, theme shop, or even more. And, if there is not a category available, submitters can recommend a new one.</p>



<p>&ldquo;This new way to search WordPress resources helps both veteran and beginner users by saving them time and frustration as they try to find what they need,&rdquo; wrote Cate DeRosia in the <a href="https://heropressnetwork.com/a-new-wordpress-resource-archive-find-it-wp/">announcement post</a>. &ldquo;Often, I&rsquo;ve seen someone tweet out that they&rsquo;re looking for a WooCommerce specialist or have a friend ask me if I know of a plugin that does x. Now everyone has a new place to start: Find It WP.&rdquo;</p>



<p>All of the submissions are manually approved to make sure the content is appropriate. This will add to the team&rsquo;s workload. DeRosia jokingly said her role has become &ldquo;Chief Approval Officer.&rdquo;</p>



<img />Partial view of the resource submission form.



<p>&ldquo;And this really highlights the reason we&rsquo;ll be reaching out for funding,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot to maintain with the new additions to the HeroPress Network, resources that seem like they&rsquo;ll be a real asset to the growth of the WordPress community. Instead of each company trying to do this on their own, let&rsquo;s pool our resources and support it together.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The current plan is to open some funding options for the HeroPress Network on October 24. DeRosia said in an <a href="https://heropressnetwork.com/introducing-the-heropress-network/">earlier announcement</a> that this would be similar to Patreon, where users could fund the mission. However, they will also have a corporate sponsorship program for WordPress businesses.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I think of it like the local library,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Not everyone needs to be in there checking out books and shelving things, but somebody does, and they have to buy groceries, too.&rdquo;</p>



<p>DeRosia believes this will benefit individuals as well as smaller and larger agencies.</p>



<p>&ldquo;You never know where a customer is going to come from or what up and coming agency could give you unexpected competition, so this is a simple way to see what all is going on in the WordPress ecosystem,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s also an ideal opportunity to find smaller products and business larger companies may want to acquire.&rdquo;</p>



<p>I asked her whether including plugins and themes was worth it because there are already dedicated directories and marketplaces for those types of resources.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We had the same thoughts as you about whether it was worth including plugins and themes, particularly free ones,&rdquo; she responded. She listed four primary reasons they thought it was worth doing:</p>



<ul><li>If it&rsquo;s for &ldquo;all things WordPress,&rdquo; we need to include all things WordPress.</li><li>We liked that free and paid plugins were searchable alongside each other.</li><li>The WordPress repositories don&rsquo;t have our advanced searching. We&rsquo;re not a replacement for them, just an additional option.</li><li>Reviews can negatively impact products that don&rsquo;t always deserve them. We wanted to level the playing field there.</li></ul>



<p>DeRosia said the idea for this project and <a href="https://wppodcasts.com/">WP Podcasts</a> came along at about the same time (note: the WP Tavern podcast is <a href="https://wppodcasts.com/podcast/wp-tavern/">listed on the site</a>). The latter was less ambitious in scope, so they launched it first as a case study.</p>



<p>&ldquo;From the beginning, the driving force behind the HeroPress expansion was to create bridges between the various WordPress communities, and Find It WP seemed like a natural element to that,&rdquo; said DeRosia. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really difficult to be successful and stay on top of an ever-growing ecosystem like WordPress. With Find It WP, we can simplify it all, for both searchers and those looking to be found.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve spent the last 18 months looking at ways people can get visibility in the WordPress Community, and it&rsquo;s nearly impossible. It&rsquo;s so large and spread out that, even if you have the most amazing new product, it&rsquo;s hard to get noticed. Find It WP simplifies all of that and provides equitable opportunities for anyone.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Equity is a a crucial part of this project, leveling the playing field for creators regardless of their size. There is no special attention given to major players. The resources are simply there for people to search for and find what they are looking for.</p>



<p>At the moment, there are currently 42 listings spread across multiple categories. DeRosia said she was getting back to approving more as we ended our chat. As the site grows, it should offer opportunities for more businesses and people to connect.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The idea for Find It WP did come out of our experiences with HeroPress and expanding into the HeroPress Network,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve needed help along the way and have been thrilled by the talent we&rsquo;ve come across. If we hadn&rsquo;t been looking or had the connections we had, we wouldn&rsquo;t have found them. We didn&rsquo;t want to keep that to ourselves. We want everyone to be able to experience the benefits that come from working together as a community.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Topher DeRosia also published a <a href="https://heropress.com/a-new-heropress-family-member/">Find It WP announcement</a> on the HeroPress blog.</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 Oct 2021 21:58:59 +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:46;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:11:"
	
	
	
	
	
";s: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:40:"HeroPress: A New HeroPress Family Member";s: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:29:"https://heropress.com/?p=4190";s: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:125:"https://heropress.com/a-new-heropress-family-member/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-new-heropress-family-member";s: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:2398:"<img width="1024" height="683" src="https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2121/10/marten-newhall-uAFjFsMS3YY-unsplash-scaled-1-1024x683.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" /><p>Last summer when Cate and I were on our anniversary trip we were brainstorming about new things we could bring to the WordPress community that would really help people. Cate came up with the idea of a site that lists every single WordPress resource in the entire world. I was a little dubious at first, but she pitched it well, and I came around. We&#8217;ve spent months planning, building, starting over, and dreaming about it at night, and today we released <a href="http://FindItWP.com">FindItWP.com</a> as part of the <a href="https://heropressnetwork.com">HeroPress Network</a>.</p>
<h3>So What Is It?</h3>
<p>Imagine a list of every WordPress resource in the world. Every podcast, every email newsletter, every plugin, every theme, every agency for hire, every news outlet, every training site, etc. Then imagine you can search and filter it, to find exactly what you&#8217;re looking for.</p>
<p>Now also imagine you&#8217;re a small plugin or theme shop selling a product, struggling to get visibility an overwhelming world. You can get your item listed on an equal platform as places that have far more marketing resources.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s <a href="https://finditwp.com">FindItWP.com</a>.</p>
<h3>Who Is It For?</h3>
<p>Anyone who wants to find something, and anyone who wants to be found.</p>
<h3>Can I Help?</h3>
<p>Yes! The entire foundation of Find It WP is the community entering all the resources.&nbsp; There&#8217;s no way a single person, or even a large group could handle it.&nbsp; It has to be all of us or it won&#8217;t really work. Anyone can enter any resource, even if it&#8217;s not theirs. Then if the owner wants to take over the listed we&#8217;ll facilitate that. So literally EVERYONE can help, and be entering content!</p>
<p>So if you&#8217;re ready to be on the team, <a href="https://finditwp.com/add-new-resource/">start adding resources</a>!</p>
<h3>Where Can I Learn More?</h3>
<p>Cate did a <a href="https://heropressnetwork.com/a-new-wordpress-resource-archive-find-it-wp/">wonderful post</a> over on the HeroPress Network site, and it has TONS more information about it than I&#8217;ve written here.&nbsp; I highly recommend checking it out!</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 Oct 2021 20:36:30 +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:"";}}}}}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:88:"WPTavern: Software Freedom Conservancy Takes On Vizio in Lawsuit Alleging GPL Violations";s: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=124497";s: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:221:"https://wptavern.com/software-freedom-conservancy-takes-on-vizio-in-lawsuit-alleging-gpl-violations?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=software-freedom-conservancy-takes-on-vizio-in-lawsuit-alleging-gpl-violations";s: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:7277:"<img /><p>Inside of a Vizio TV &ndash; Model V435-J01 &ndash; photo credit: Software Freedom Conservancy</p>
" data-medium-file="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Screen-Shot-2021-10-20-at-1.14.16-PM-300x218.png" data-large-file="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Screen-Shot-2021-10-20-at-1.14.16-PM-500x363.png" loading="lazy" width="880" height="638" src="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Screen-Shot-2021-10-20-at-1.14.16-PM.png" alt="" class="wp-image-124577" srcset="https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Screen-Shot-2021-10-20-at-1.14.16-PM.png 880w, https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Screen-Shot-2021-10-20-at-1.14.16-PM-300x218.png 300w, https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Screen-Shot-2021-10-20-at-1.14.16-PM-500x363.png 500w, https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Screen-Shot-2021-10-20-at-1.14.16-PM-768x557.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 880px) 100vw, 880px" />Inside of a Vizio TV &ndash; Model V435-J01 &ndash; photo credit: Software Freedom Conservancy



<p>The Software Freedom Conservancy <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/vizio.html">announced</a> that it is suing Vizio, an American TV manufacturer, for what it alleges are &ldquo;repeated failures to fulfill even the basic requirements of the General Public License (GPL).&rdquo; </p>



<p>The 501(c)(3) charity organization is a non-profit that provides infrastructure support for free and open source software projects, defending users&rsquo; rights under copyleft licenses and the GPL. A few of its member projects include BusyBox, Git, Homebrew, OpenWrt, and phpMyAdmin. As part of its mission, the Conservancy assists member projects in enforcing the terms of FLOSS licenses, including through litigation.</p>



<p>The Software Freedom Conservancy contends that Vizio&rsquo;s TV products contain software with copyleft licenses but the company refused to provide the source code after multiple attempts at contact since 2018. Vizio also did not inform its customers about the rights included with the software it was bundling.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We filed suit as a purchaser of TVs to stand up for copyleft,&rdquo; Software Freedom Conservancy Executive Director Karen Sandler said. &ldquo;There was no source or offer for source even after we&rsquo;d been working with them for a long time on older products. Copyleft can help us take control of our tech in a meaningful way, it&rsquo;s a huge benefit to consumers.&rdquo;</p>



<p>In a new twist on GPL enforcement, the organization is presenting this lawsuit on behalf of individual consumers, as opposed to the traditional path of defending copyright holders of the GPL code in question.</p>



<p>The Software Freedom Conservancy contends that Vizio&rsquo;s alleged noncompliance prevents consumers from being able to repair their devices, improve and control them, as well as curtail surveillance and ads through modifications. The <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/docs/conservancy-v-vizio-original-complaint-2021-10-19.pdf">full text of the complaint</a> includes examples of how consumers might benefit from having access to the source code:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Vizio is unlikely to unilaterally implement features that prevent the collection of such user data, as such user data is valuable to Vizio. Access to the Source Code of the Linux kernel, the other SmartCast Programs at Issue, and for the Library Linking Programs, as used on Vizio smart TVs, would enable software developers to preserve useful but obsolete features. It would also allow software developers to maintain and update the operating system should Vizio or its successor ever decide to abandon it or go out of business. In these ways, purchasers of Vizio smart TVs can be confident that their devices would not suffer from software-induced obsolescence, planned or otherwise.</p></blockquote>



<p>In the organization&rsquo;s announcement of the lawsuit, Sandler highlighted the environmental impact of denying consumers access to the code.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The global supply chain shortages that have affected everything from cars to consumer electronics underscore one of the reasons why it is important to be able to repair products we already own,&rdquo; says Sandler. &ldquo;Even without supply chain challenges, the forced obsolescence of devices like TVs isn&rsquo;t in the best interest of the consumer or even the planet. This is another aspect of what we mean by &lsquo;ethical technology.&rsquo; Throwing away a TV because its software is no longer supported by its manufacturer is not only wasteful, it has dire environmental consequences. Consumers should have more control over this, and they would if companies like Vizio played by the rules.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The complaint alleges that Vizio is in breach of the GPLv2 and the LGPLv2.1 every time they distribute a smart TV without the source code or a written offer to provide it. It claims that none of the smart TVs Vizio has introduced in the US market in the past four years have been accompanied by the source code. </p>



<p>Open source leaders from affiliate organizations commented on the unique approach of this lawsuit, where the Conservancy is acting on behalf of consumers as the plaintiff, as opposed to prevailing upon the copyright holder to defend its users. The complaint states:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>No one other than the purchaser has both the information and motive to enforce the Source Code Provision. Purchasers will both know whether the Source Code Provision has been honored and have a desire to examine and further develop the corresponding source code.</p></blockquote>



<p>&ldquo;If this consumer-rights-based approach succeeds, the main excuse for copyright assignments to organizations like the FSF will be gone and we can unambiguously treat a CLA as a red flag,&rdquo; Open Source Initiative Director of Standards/Policy Simon Phipps said.</p>



<p>The complaint states that the &ldquo;Plaintiff and other members of the class of persons intended to benefit from the GPLv2 and LGPLv2.1 have been damaged in an amount that cannot be readily determined.&rdquo; Vizio&rsquo;s alleged noncompliance has effectively stunted the source code&rsquo;s potential for improvements from consumers for years. It has also robbed consumers of the control of their electronics and given Vizio an unfair advantage that protects their corporate interests at the expense of users&rsquo; freedoms. The Conservancy is not seeking an exact amount for damages but rather leaving it to the judgment of the court. </p>



<p>&ldquo;This lawsuit has the potential to empower many consumers, radically changing the landscape of consumer technology,&rdquo; Open Source Initiative Executive Director Stefano Maffulli said.</p>



<p>The Conservancy&rsquo;s case will be an important one to watch, as its decision could set a precedent for GPL enforcement in the future. If nothing else, it should signal to companies benefiting from GPL-licensed code that they must also respect consumers&rsquo; rights. If consumers are the intended third-party beneficiaries of the license agreement, then they have a right to the source code. </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 Oct 2021 20:07:16 +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: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: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:80:"WPTavern: Tidying the Media Library With WP Ninjas’ Remove Unused Media 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=124177";s: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/tidying-the-media-library-with-wp-ninjas-remove-unused-media-plugin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tidying-the-media-library-with-wp-ninjas-remove-unused-media-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:6172:"<p class="has-drop-cap">A few weeks ago, <a href="https://wp-ninjas.de/remove-unused-media">WP Ninjas announced</a> it was stepping into the media optimization plugin market. The team released its <a href="https://remove-unused-media.com/en">Remove Unused Media</a> plugin as a commercial project for tidying storage space. I received a full copy of it and put it through the ropes.</p>



<p>With so many commercial plugins, I am accustomed to the developers creating an entirely new menu item, taking up precious admin real estate. This happens even with those that just have a single screen too. However, I was happy to see the WP Ninjas team tucked everything neatly under &ldquo;Media&rdquo; as a sub-menu. We were off to a good start, and things only got better.</p>



<p>When I review plugins, there is one thing that I consistently preach: simplicity. That begins with following the core WordPress UI and sticking as closely to it as the plugin&rsquo;s features will allow. In essence, <em>don&rsquo;t make me think</em> about how to use your plugin.</p>



<p>For the most part, Remove Unused Media got the user experience right.</p>



<p>I could nitpick a few design choices with the interface, such as modifying the list table with rounded corners and extra padding. The &ldquo;filter&rdquo; sub-navigation also deviates from the standard. And, the &ldquo;last analysis&rdquo; message should receive the WordPress admin notice treatment so that it stands out.</p>



<p>These are all core UI elements with unnecessary customizations. However, they did not diminish the experience on the whole. The plugin mostly stuck with the WordPress standard.</p>



<p>The real question is whether the plugin does what it says on the tin. <em>What is the experience of removing unused media like?</em></p>



<p>It was easy. Users merely need to click the &ldquo;Start Analysis&rdquo; button and wait a few seconds. The plugin then has three tabs:</p>



<ul><li>Unused Media</li><li>Used Media</li><li>Ignored</li></ul>



<p>The Unused Media tab presents an overview of all media that the plugin could not find used on the site. There is a possibility that it missed something. However, I only found one old-school scenario where this happened, which I will dive into later.</p>



<img />Unused media screen.



<p>From this point, end-users can manually delete individual media attachments or use the bulk-delete option. Before doing so, the plugin recommends making a backup of the site &mdash; solid advice for any such plugin.</p>



<p>My favorite feature of the plugin was not its primary feature of deleting media. It was actually the &ldquo;Used Media&rdquo; screen. Its &ldquo;Where?&rdquo; and &ldquo;How?&rdquo; columns break down where images, videos, and other files are used and in what context.</p>



<img />Used media screen.



<p>It reminded me of the &ldquo;instances&rdquo; screen for the WordPress <a href="https://wptavern.com/version-1-prototype-of-the-wordpress-admin-block-directory-announced">admin block directory proposal</a> from 2019. The concept showed where specific blocks were used across the site. Remove Unused Media does the same thing for media files.</p>



<p>The &ldquo;Ignore&rdquo; tab for the plugin keeps track of media files that should not be deleted, even if they are unused. Users can click a link from the other screens to add them to the list. This persists after running a new analysis too.</p>



<p>The plugin scans several third-party plugins like Elementor, Beaver Builder, ACF, and Yoast SEO. Some store media instances outside of the post content, such as in custom post meta, and Remove Unused Media searches those specific fields.</p>



<p><a href="https://remove-unused-media.com/en/pricing/">Pricing</a> starts at 39&euro; ($45.38 at today&rsquo;s exchange rate) for one year of support and updates for a single site. It also has a five-site option at 149&euro; and a 100-site tier at 299&euro;.</p>



<p>For the first version, the user experience felt solid. However, it does not have much in the way of customizability. That could be a sticking point for users who are looking for a more flexible premium option.</p>



<h2>Exploring Alternatives</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The plugin is not the first of its kind. The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/media-cleaner/">Media Cleaner</a> plugin by Meow Apps is free, routinely updated, and has over 40,000 active installations. It also has a commercial version with more features, such as third-party plugin integration, WP-CLI support, filesystem scan, and live-site analysis.</p>



<img />Media Cleaner plugin results.



<p>The UI for Remove Unused Media feels more like WordPress. Its &ldquo;Used&rdquo; tab also shows where (i.e., what posts) and how (e.g., content, featured image) specific media files are used across the site. This feature alone makes it worthwhile for me.</p>



<p>One area where Media Cleaner shines is its option for ignoring (not deleting) attached media. This is a vital feature if users have ever added the old <code>gallery</code> shortcode. At one point, WordPress simply displayed all attached images as a gallery. Eventually, it specified the IDs in the shortcode. However, for those older instances, this was not the case. Without enabling this option, those media items might get queued up for deletion.</p>



<p>The Remove Unused Media plugin does not have such an option. Attached images that are not explicitly used are considered unused. This may not be an issue for most users, but those with old gallery shortcodes should be aware of potential problems.</p>



<p>The baseline features for both are similar. Remove Unused Media gets the edge in its default user interface and experience. However, Media Cleaner has many more options for customizing how the plugin works. Plus, users who cannot afford an upgrade can always run the free version.</p>



<p>This is not to say either is better or worse than the other. Both were solid options in my tests. I just want to merge the best features from each, snagging the interface from Remove Unused Media and the configurability of Media Cleaner.</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 Oct 2021 01:31:40 +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: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:98:"Gutenberg Times: Gutenberg Adoption: Levels One through Five — Page Builder Summit, October 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://gutenbergtimes.com/?page_id=19119";s: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:90:"https://gutenbergtimes.com/gutenberg-adoption-levels-1-5-page-builder-summit-october-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:21135:"<p class="has-large-font-size">Thank you for attending my talk at the Page Builder Summit! 💕</p>



<p>Follow-up from the Page Builder Summit October 18 &#8211; 22, 2021 and the presentation: &#8220;<strong>Customizing WordPress Block Editor for Client Projects</strong>&#8221; by Birgit Pauli-Haack </p>







<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<div class="toolbelt-video-wrapper"></div>
</div>



<p class="has-large-font-size">Transcript</p>



<p> </p>



<p><em>Birgit Pauli-Haack</em>: Well, hello everybody. Thank you all for inviting me to the Page Builder Summit. I&#8217;m honored to be here, and I can only hope that today&#8217;s topic will be valuable to you.&nbsp;</p>



<p>My talk is about how you as an agency or freelancer can start adopting working with the block editor and provide your customers, content creators, a true what you see is what you get experience.</p>



<p>I know we have been promised true vis-a-vig for the last 25 years. We have come closer and closer every five years. The tools and modern software development have really advanced. And I talk to many site owners, freelancers and consultants in the WebPress community, and there have been plenty of sites that still rely on the classic editor for a myriad of reasons. And 80% of our customer sites are still on the classic editor. So don&#8217;t feel bad, but it&#8217;s also always good to figure out what would I do if a customer would come and want to start using the block editor.</p>



<p>So should you consider migrating your building block enable site? You don&#8217;t need to know it all. You can start introducing only some features of the block editor without having to know ReactJS or even build a block. There are quite a few levels of expertise that I will show you where you don&#8217;t need any of the React or modern JavaScript to be successful.</p>



<p>So I call them levels of expertise. So level one is style and control. Level two is create block patterns. Level three is adding block styles and variations. And then level four is creating custom blocks with ACF or other tools like genesis blocks or lazy blocks plugin. And then level five is create native customs, static or dynamic blocks.</p>



<p>So this talk was inspired by a conversation that I had with Victoria Ramirez on the Gutenberg Times YouTube channel about a year ago. And I modified it a little bit with adding a few things. And I have for all five levels I show you examples and resources, so you can kind of jump in wherever you think it&#8217;s possible for you. But I will also go a bit deeper into level one and level two, to give you a head start.</p>



<p>We won&#8217;t have time for the rest. But I&#8217;ll share the resources because quite a few developers have gone the path before you, and they share very generously what they learned and what they found. So let&#8217;s dive in.</p>



<p>So out of a box we heard in 2018 that any theme works with a block editor. And that is mostly still true today. Mid-2019 two client project managers within a few months of each other came to me and said, &#8220;Let&#8217;s just enable the block editor and see what happens our contact readers will figure it out. And we&#8217;ll just ask you to restrict the color selections to our brand colors.&#8221;</p>



<p>And you might know that there is actually a custom color option and one client wanted it to be removed and the other said, &#8220;Well, let&#8217;s see if it&#8217;s a problem first.&#8221; So those are the two different approaches. But they all said, okay, let&#8217;s just kind of keep the theme, adopt some brand colors and see where the block editor takes us.</p>



<p>So the first step that we did was to, is the theme actually the theme block editor compatible. And for that, we developed a test that&#8217;s not rocket science. We create a page with all the blocks and see how they look. And then we evaluate the amount of styling that is needed. And we share our test site as code in the gist that&#8217;s kind of linked in the slides. There are also linked to the instructions if you need more of them. And yeah, just so the bit.ly/pagebuilder1021 is actually the link to the slide deck if you want to follow along or use other links that I share.</p>



<p>So with this, we tested our theme. The theme just looks something like this. Yeah. With some blocks in there. And also some additional attributes. But I&#8217;m going to show you how that looked in just a normal theme. First, I just tested it in the starter theme underscore. And so that&#8217;s graded by automatic and has been a starter theme for many, many classic themes in this space. And I&#8217;m click you on that video and it gives you&#8230; So it&#8217;s a sample test and we scroll through.</p>



<p>We have added the test page and then we scroll through and see how things work or how things don&#8217;t work. And for this one, it seems fairly well adoptable. So if you, as freelancers have used underscore and didn&#8217;t change a whole lot, except the styling of course, and added a few things you should be fine with the block editor out of the box.</p>



<p>Well, I also tested it with the Naked WordPress starter theme by Josh Beckman. It&#8217;s a little bit dated, but it has a few more opinionated stylings already. So when we click on the same video again, you see, okay, the page looks a little bit different but in essence, and we see there are some line height issues that we would need to change. There are also some justification issues. But nothing really that is earth shattering or that would take a lot of time to fix. Well the drop caps there, you could disable that if you wanted to. And that even though the table with the stripes came through.</p>



<p>So that was easy. Well, let&#8217;s test one more. I had a client recently, he approached us because their are mobile ranking is very, very bad. So I tested the theme and that&#8217;s a theme from 2007. That&#8217;s 14 years old. And I just created a page with my blocks and you see it has some line height issues here but we can take care of that. Even the quote comes through with the background image, the buttons have round the corners and the columns look nice. We have a few distance issues there. They&#8217;re not as generous with white spaces, other themes are. But nothing earth shattering even there. So that should get you started and make your clients and yourself feel much better about using the block editor on an existing site and not have to do too many adjustments.</p>



<p>So if you want to add a custom color palette then you would need to do two things depending on which version of WordPress you are on. So having a color palette, that means the colors that are in the side bar of the block editor for maybe a paragraph block or the background image and the text color that&#8217;s where your custom palette would go.</p>



<p>So depending on which version on WordPress you are. For WordPress 5.7 or older, 5.6, 5.5, you had a two step there. One is to put in the functions, PHP, add the theme support for editor color palette, and add an array of your colors with the name, the slug and the hexadecimal representation of the color. And then you will need to go to your style sheet and add for each color two more classes like has black color and has black background color.</p>



<p>So you had three places to when you want to change your color, for instance here to modify. Starting with WebPress 5.8 or higher there&#8217;s&#8230; You probably heard that the theme json file was introduced and there was actually introduced for themes that prepare for full-site editing. But guess what? The theme json works also for classic themes. And you could use all the advantages of that for your classic themes when you start out and have it all in one configuration file. So there, you only would need to put in the json file, the settings and then the color, and then the palette with names, slogan, the color and hexadecimal, but you would not need to do the updates in your style sheet because the block editor is styling that out of the box. So you only need to set the palette and then the rest will be handled automatically.</p>



<p>Now, there was this one little thing where you have colors for background and text color. You also have these custom color link that opens up a little window where your user could change any color or add any color that is in that color picker. If you want your, or the customer decides to adhere just to the brand colors. You can remove that either by theme support and disable underscore custom, underscore colors. Or in the theme json you have the settings and then the color and the set the custom to false. So these are few for the custom colors.</p>



<p>Let&#8217;s look at the text fonts. You could also do a custom font sizes. Right now the topography selection for paragraph has font sizes with small, medium, large, huge. And in the theme json you can set the pixel sizes for that, but with the custom font size the content creator could change. If you don&#8217;t want that, if you want to disable that you just use in the theme json typography, and then custom font size and set that to false.</p>



<p>So that&#8217;s kind of a glimpse into how you can just change the configuration of the block editor, add custom colors, add custom font sizes to it and add some styling. And you are golden there. You haven&#8217;t touched any JavaScript, maybe just a little bit your functions PHP. But that wouldn&#8217;t be the first time that you tweak the theme with through functions and filters in the functions PHP.</p>



<p>The next level I want to discuss with you is our block patterns. They are a complete game changer for Gutenberg now that they&#8217;re introduced. They help content creators to use a set combination of core blocks and reproduce a wanted design and section over and over. That could be testimonials or a price list or a header pattern. So you could check out the pattern directory at wordpress.org/pattern.</p>



<p>So sometimes I get the question because some of the early users of the block editor were very taken by the concept of reusable blocks and have used reusable blocks actually like block pattern, because there was nothing available with that. But block patterns are the opposite of reusable blocks. So reusable block is you will use on various places the identical block including the content and you could use it on every page or on 15 blog posts. And when you change the content, it changes every single instance of the block. And so you only have to change it once.</p>



<p>Now, block pattern is, as I said, the collection of core blocks that you can add to your candles and then adjust to your needs. But the previous instances of the black pattern stay the same. So just because you modify a black pattern, now the tenth, you will not change previous instances of that. The block pattern directory is right now in version one, one where you can copy paste of patterns from the directory into your editor. Soon there is also a way to submit that&#8217;s designers submit patterns to the directory. Right now they are 84 that are with a design team together and outside designers of course. But they tested also how to translate them and how it all functions.</p>



<p>So version two is coming soon. I just wanted to show you a few more examples of the block patterns that you find in the directory, because it also shows what you can do with them. So the next one. This is a team page kind of pattern, where you have your team member with a profile picture, the name, and the title. And underneath if you want a group of social links and that is repeated in a three-column layout. That&#8217;s just beautiful and depending on how the images are that you use for the profile, you can switch out every part of that once you put it into your block editor. Then also a testimonial is there with a little picture there, the testimonial and then the name of the person who said it. And then there is another beautiful header pattern. So check it out. It&#8217;s wordpress.org/pattern.</p>



<p>The next part is that you could actually create custom block patterns if you have sections in your new website or an existing website that needs to have the same layout over and over. We have that on our website that called impact stories. We have media and text pattern, one with a picture on the left and the other one with the picture on the right. And then we have a header, a paragraph, and a smaller citation, which organization that is. But there were also some attributes with the media text where we said okay, adopt the size of the picture, apply that background and apply it completely and have these kind of spaces left and right around the text. You can register a category and then register a block pattern that fits into the category. You don&#8217;t have to have a certain category. But you see it&#8217;s only a four attributes kind of array. It&#8217;s in PHP so it goes into your function, PHP.</p>



<p>You need a title, you need a description, the category is optional, and then the content. And when you see the content it&#8217;s not quite displayed here well. But you see it starts with a block comment with the attributes in the curly brackets. And that is so you can&#8230; And when you grab a pattern from the directory and click the copy and paste that into here, then it would be a new register block pattern for your site. It&#8217;s quite interesting to do that.</p>



<p>So there are also plugins available for content creators to create custom patterns without using code. So Marcus Kazmierczak created one just recently called templates, which allows you to actually store your block pattern as a custom post type and then bring it in into your block editor. Jean Baptist Audras also added a block pattern featured to his reusable block, extended plugin, and in EditorsKit by Extendify, that was first built by Jeffrey Carandang and then taken over by Extendify a few months ago. There is a huge selection of patterns and page layouts that you can use.</p>



<p>And if you don&#8217;t have enough creative inspiration, there are also quite a few themes now that offer a great selection of block pattern. I think Anders Noren tweeted the other day and said, &#8220;When is it enough to ship the theme after 40 block patterns?&#8221; So his full-site editing so you can&#8217;t just install it as a classic theme. But if you put it up on a test site and add the Gutenberg plugin to it, you can test his theme Tove. That&#8217;s the new one. And Ellen Bauer from Elma Studio also has a new theme, it&#8217;s called Aino. And Carolina Nymark and the Theme team build the Twenty Twenty One theme also as a block-based theme. And they also have quite a few block patterns that you want to consult and see how they work. So you can replicate something for your clients there.</p>



<p>Here is the resource list for block patterns. There&#8217;s a big resource list on the Gutenberg Times. Then there is developer handbook docs on&#8230; Sorry, the developer handbook on patterns. And then Justin Tadlock on WPTavern has a post on block patterns will change everything. And so that concludes our level two of&#8230; And see how far you already have come without touching any code but still create custom designs for your clients.</p>



<p>And then on level three. Get to a little bit into more code. The level three is add block styles and variations. Adding block styles means there&#8217;s a few you more choices in the sidebar for a block, and can also be selected as a default style and variations show up a bit more elaborate in creation and can be found in core for instance for the social icons block or layout elements for different buttons that&#8217;s from one of the tutorials out there.</p>



<p>And with the documented block filters you can also add custom attribution and additional functionality that how plugins extend the core blocks. So here are a few more block styles that I found in the wild. Here are two for columns where there&#8217;s a style not to use any gutters or horizontal separators. And this is a style for the for list block here with check marks and then block styles for an image where you can&#8230; The rounded is coming with core but then one plugin also had the bottom wave and the top wave for the images.</p>



<p>To dive in a little bit deeper into block variations. So they&#8217;re more elaborate rather than just styling. There&#8217;s also additional functionality in there. Like for the block variations for the core columns, you see for instance a two-column variation. A two column with a 50/50 split and a two column with a 30/70 split either way left or right. And then a three-column split with the same size or 25, 50. Those are variation that come in with the block into your site.</p>



<p>Here is an example from one of the tutorials where they had a one block that has some additional information about a portfolio. Like a page intro where they identify the client and the role of the organization with the freelancer on that particular project. And so they don&#8217;t have to design it every time when they add that to a block. They just can use their block variations for that. And you see in that little box here, that&#8217;s also coming through the inserter of the block here.</p>



<p>So on the next slide, I have a few articles that dive deeper in those topics. As I said, we don&#8217;t have enough time here. But you will be able to kind of follow along on those. Yeah. With add custom size, a White Pixel is a great site to visit about Gutenberg blocks and development. Then there is the dev note when the block variations API was introduced into WordPress, then how to use block variation WordPress at the CSS-Trick site, extending Gutenberg blocks with custom attributes and controls by Jeffrey Carandang. And then the reference guide and a crash course on WebPress filters. So that should get you all started and successful on block styles, variation, and block filters. And that concludes the level three.</p>



<p>The next level is&#8230; Okay. So we needed to add data to it, like in a ACF and advanced custom fields or other plugins. We also not only manage content, but also data. If you think you need custom blocks and you&#8217;re not comfortable with ReactJS and modern JavaScript. These three plugins help you out in building custom blocks.</p>



<p>Nowadays, there&#8217;s also the parts framework, which just came out with version 2.8 with a block integration. There&#8217;s also a tool set that helps you create blocks. But the Advanced Custom Fields Pro, Genesis Custom Blocks, prior to that, it was called Block Lab, and the Lazy Blocks. I wrote an intro kind of comparison article for the WPTavern quite a while ago by might still get you started, or at least thinking of how to select which plugin to select and to work with it. If you are already a customer of Advanced Custom Fields, get the pro version and so you get also the building of the custom blocks.</p>



<p>And then level five is creating custom blocks with ReactJS. There&#8217;s plenty of getting started information available. The official scaffolding script create block creates everything that you need for a plugin with a single block and Ali Alaa and has a course on Udemy on Gutenberg blocks for WordPress and react developers.</p>



<p>There is certainly also a build block series. Marcus Kazimierczak also has a short series. I think it&#8217;s seven steps or seven block posts. A White Pixel also has a tutorial series to create Gutenberg blocks to follow along. And then the Udemy block.</p>



<p>And we&#8217;re coming right about to the end of the talk. I just wanted to point out there is a Gutenberg Times live Q&amp;A happening on October 28th at 1600 UTC. That&#8217;s noon Eastern US. We call it case study for converting classic widgets to blocks for BuddyPress. So we will have a discussion with the team members of BuddyPress Mathieu Viet, David Cavins, and Varun Dubey will tell us how they transformed in very fast succession dozens of classic widgets in two blocks for the WordPress 5.8 release. They also will be there to answer your questions. Link is in the slide of course.</p>



<p>So that&#8217;s all I have for you today. You can certainly stay in touch with me on the WordPress Slack or on Twitter with BPH. My DMs are open, or you can reach me via email at <a href="mailto:pauli@gutenbergtimes.com">pauli@gutenbergtimes.com</a>.</p>



<p>Check out our YouTube channel, youtube.com/gutenbergtimes where we posted all our previous live Q&amp;A over the last two years. And then every Saturday I send out a weekend edition of hand curated links from the community and from the Gutenberg development team. So you can keep up with Gutenberg. The slides, as I said, are available under https:/bit.ly.ay/pagebuilder1028. And that&#8217;s it. Thank you very much. And I&#8217;ll see you around the internet and in the community. Bye-bye.</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 Oct 2021 15:15:08 +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:18:"Birgit Pauli-Haack";s: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:"Tue, 09 Nov 2021 10:16:25 GMT";s:12:"content-type";s:8:"text/xml";s:4:"vary";s:15:"Accept-Encoding";s:13:"last-modified";s:29:"Tue, 09 Nov 2021 10:00:08 GMT";s:15:"x-frame-options";s:10:"SAMEORIGIN";s:4:"x-nc";s:9:"HIT ord 2";s:16:"content-encoding";s:4:"gzip";}}s:5:"build";s:14:"20201214085727";}