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";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:1:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:16:"WordPress Planet";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:8:"language";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2:"en";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:47:"WordPress Planet - http://planet.wordpress.org/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"item";a:50:{i:0;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:81:"WPTavern: New Carbon Offset Plugin Aims to Make WordPress Sites More Eco-Friendly";s: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=100058";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:207:"https://wptavern.com/new-carbon-offset-plugin-aims-to-make-wordpress-sites-more-eco-friendly?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-carbon-offset-plugin-aims-to-make-wordpress-sites-more-eco-friendly";s: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:8114:"<img />photo credit: <a href="https://stocksnap.io/photo/087EFF0277">Valeriy Poltorak</a>



<p>As developers and internet users become increasingly aware of the CO2 footprint of their data usage, renewed interest in carbon offsetting programs has cropped up in recent years. These programs allow individuals and organizations to &ldquo;offset&rdquo; their carbon dioxide emissions by funding environmental endeavors, which range from planting trees to clean energy projects, with lots of variety in between.</p>



<p>Carbon offsetting schemes <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/the-biggest-problem-with-carbon-offsetting-is-that-it-doesnt-really-work/">remain controversial</a>, as they do not actually directly cancel out emissions. The programs allow corporations to appear &ldquo;environmentally friendly&rdquo; with their contributions while continuing to burn fossil fuels. Ideally, corporations will work on both reducing their emissions and &ldquo;neutralizing&rdquo; the damage done with projects that renew the earth. </p>



<p>For web developers, awareness of your product&rsquo;s CO2 footprint is the first step, and carbon offsetting programs are usually fine-tuned to make this data relatable. This awareness is especially critical if the software you are building is used on millions of devices. <a href="https://aristath.github.io/">Aris Stathopoulos</a>, a WordPress developer known best for authoring the <a href="https://w.org/plugins/kirki">Kirki Customizer Framework</a>, has created a plugin called <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/carbon-offset/">Carbon Offset</a> that calculates the greenhouse emissions from your website visits and integrates with the <a href="https://cloverly.com">Cloverly</a> API for offsets and payments.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The internet is a huge machine consuming vast amounts of energy,&rdquo; Stathopoulos said. &ldquo;The whole chain from server farms to ISPs to client devices are usually powered by non-renewable sources of power. What really rang the &lsquo;danger&rsquo; bell in my mind was reading <a href="https://internethealthreport.org/2018/the-internet-uses-more-electricity-than/">Mozilla&rsquo;s Internet-Health report</a> two years ago.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Since then I&rsquo;ve been trying to help make the web a bit more sustainable. Sometimes that means converting a script to vanilla JS, building a theme, or just talking to people about things they can do to make their site more performant and more eco-friendly/sustainable. Carbon Offset is my latest effort on that front.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The first version of the plugin includes a details page with the calculated impact of your site&rsquo;s carbon footprint, displayed next to the weight of the carbon offset. I could see this page evolving to be more visually compelling in the future. The settings page is where users can hook up their sites the Cloverly API.</p>



<img />



<p>Cloverly offers offsets on demand, which means that users fund clean energy for one of the <a href="https://dashboard.cloverly.com/offsets/">projects</a> the company has selected. These include initiatives that do things like capture fugitive gas emissions, improve forest management, and convert methane from manure into renewable energy.</p>



<p>Browsing the WordPress.org plugin repository, it seems the platform only has a handful of plugins designed to raise users&rsquo; awareness about carbon emissions. The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/website-carbon/">Website Carbon</a> plugin gives users a broad overview of the impact of their site&rsquo;s emissions, including reporting on if the data center the site is hosted in is powered by renewable energy. <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/co2ok-for-woocommerce/">CO2ok for WooCommerce</a> is another plugin that integrates with a service for purchasing offsets. </p>



<p>Stathopoulos wants to expand his plugin to integrate with additional services so that users have more choices in offsetting their websites&rsquo; carbon footprints.  He has no affiliation with Cloverly. He said the only reason he chose to integrate with it is because they have a great API that is easy to work with. He made his implementation extensible so that adding extra services will be easy when he finds another one with a good API.</p>



<h2>Breaking Website Owners Out of Complacency: Awareness Is the First Step Towards Reducing Emissions</h2>



<p> &ldquo;There are sites out there that <a href="https://www.websitecarbon.com/">measure a site&rsquo;s carbon footprint</a> and they give an idea of how much carbon is generated whenever someone visits a webpage,&rdquo; Stathopoulos said. &ldquo;If you start testing websites you see some good, some bad and some shockingly costly. Take for example w.org: Each visit produces 0.68g of carbon emissions, and that&rsquo;s one of the good sites. NYTimes.com generates 3.2grams of carbon every time someone visits their site.&rdquo;</p>



<p> Stathopoulos wants to use his plugin to raise awareness among WordPress site owners, since the software is so widely used but oftentimes weighed down by third-party extensions.</p>



<p>&ldquo;With WordPress powering 30%+ of the web, we&rsquo;re talking about millions of daily views,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In the unlikely optimistic scenario that all of them generate no more than 0.5g per page-load, WP sites generate no less than 500 metric tons of carbon/day. This has nothing to do with WordPress. Instead it&rsquo;s about the 5MB image that the user wants on their frontpage, the fancy wiggling JS animation that requires that extra 5kb of JS, developers insisting on using jQuery in their themes and plugins, the unused 300kb of CSS that a site has, the Facebook widget, social sharing buttons than use 100kb of JS, or the horrendous use of images of text instead of plain text.</p>



<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s all data that gets downloaded every single time and each time it does, the server runs a few milliseconds more, the browser takes a few more milliseconds to render. It all adds up to wasted energy, energy that took real resources to generate and in the process of doing that, it generated some more carbon emissions.&rdquo;</p>



<p>It&rsquo;s easy for anyone to get complacent when the data usage seems to run on magic and doesn&rsquo;t immediately impact the site owner. Plugins like Carbon Offset aim to make wasted resources more of a reality. Stathopoulos is currently working to add e-commerce support that will allow customers to offset the carbon footprint of their purchases&rsquo; delivery, or even allow shop owners to fund the offset instead. He said this will usually amount to a few cents per sale, but it can make a meaningful impact if done on a large scale.</p>



<p>&ldquo;One of my hopes is that it will help increase sensitivity and awareness,&rdquo; Stathopoulos said. &ldquo;Hopefully, some people will understand that their website is part of the problem. Hopefully, it will urge them to rethink how they build their sites and want to be part of the solution &ndash; ideally by striving to lower the carbon emissions of our websites.</p>



<p>&ldquo;But since for various reasons that is not always possible, the plugin will show how much our website costs the environment, and some may choose to give something back.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Stathopoulos said that purchasing offsets was &ldquo;surprisingly cheap.&rdquo; He purchased offsets for 50kg of CO2 for approximately $4, and his website &lsquo;burns&rsquo; 0.2g/visit. </p>



<p>&ldquo;This means I&rsquo;m good for the next 2.5 million visits,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If my site was as heavy as the NYTimes, then that would buy me 15k views worth of damage to the environment, which would be a pretty good indication that I have to change some things on my site. </p>



<p>&ldquo;The cost is not the point. The point is being conscious about what we build, how much damage we do, and helping undo that damage as much as possible. After all, a sustainable website is a lot faster and more performant than a non-sustainable one. Everyone wins.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 28 May 2020 01:48:29 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:1;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"WPTavern: Happy 17th, 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=100087";s: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:105:"https://wptavern.com/happy-17th-wordpress?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=happy-17th-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:4587:"<img />



<p class="has-drop-cap">Seventeen. It is almost a lost year between sweet 16 and the adulthood that comes along with 18. For many, 17 is a rebellious age when they feel like they have already reached grown-up status but still have some hard lessons to learn, some growing to do.  The past year of WordPress&rsquo;s life has felt much the same. Our community has worked and is still working through some rough patches. We are still learning. We are still growing. For better or worse, we are still coming together to build a better web.</p>



<p>By its next birthday, we should expect to see a much different WordPress. It will have grown from a simple blogging platform to nearly a full site builder. The community will likely stumble a few times as users and developers acquaint themselves with an evolving platform. With luck, we can work through most of the kinks before that day arrives. For now, we will need to suffer a bit through this messy teenage rebellion.</p>



<p>Teens often see the world differently than those of us well into adulthood do. We must be there to temper the worst ideas but encourage the hopes and dreams that accompany the vision of youth. It is this vision that will change the world. I expect no less from WordPress in the coming years.</p>



<p>Currently, WordPress powers <a href="https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-wordpress">36.7% of the top 10 million</a> websites. It has come a long way since its humble beginnings as the basic fork of B2/cafelog that Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little kick-started in 2003. It has brought online publishing to millions and provided careers for 1,000s &mdash; I have been blessed with a 12-year career thanks to WordPress.</p>



<p>The <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2003/05/wordpress-now-available/">first official release of WordPress</a> landed on May 27, 2003. The platform included texturize (<em>so good it&rsquo;ll make your quotes curl</em>), a link manager for building blogrolls, improved automatic line breaks, manual excerpts, XHTML 1.1, new default templates, and a fresh admin interface. Needless to say, the software has changed since its first release &mdash; <em>can we make blogrolls cool again?</em></p>



<p>Perhaps the saddest part of WordPress&rsquo;s 17th birthday is that most of us cannot celebrate it together in person. No slices of birthday cake will be passed to WordCamp attendees. We cannot share a hug or a handshake. We cannot clink our glasses together in a toast. However, we can still celebrate in spirit.</p>



<p>In <a href="https://ma.tt/2020/05/celebrate-seventeen/">Celebrate Seventeen</a>, Mullenweg urges the community to enjoy this day:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>If you&rsquo;d like to celebrate with me, put on some jazz, eat some BBQ, light a candle for the contributors who have passed on, help a friend or stranger less technical than you build a home online, and remember that technology is at its best when it brings people together.</p></blockquote>



<p>My addition to his list would be to hop over to your WordPress website and write a blog post. It can be anything. Write in celebration of WordPress turning 17. Write about your children, cats, or dogs. Share your feelings surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Whatever it is, just write. The best celebration of WordPress is to use the platform to do the one thing it was meant to do 17 years ago &mdash; publish something on the web.</p>



<p>Then, take a moment to appreciate the ability that we have to share our thoughts with the world. WordPress represents the most important, inalienable right that all humans share &mdash; freedom of expression. It has provided an avenue for people all over the world to share their thoughts for 17 years. That is not something to be taken lightly. So, let today be a celebration, despite the rough patch the world is going through. Let today be a celebration, regardless of our weekly arguments about the project&rsquo;s future. Let today be a celebration of the people from all walks of life who have come together to build this amazing piece of software.</p>



<p>Most of all, take time to appreciate that we have an even brighter future to look forward to. WordPress may be a bit of a dinosaur in this fast-paced world of technological advancement, but it is not done yet. It may be going through a huge transitional phase at the moment, but we are not to the halfway point. We are just getting to the good stuff.</p>



<p>Buckle up. Look for the next 17 years to be an even wilder ride. I welcome the adventure.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 27 May 2020 19:53:12 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:2;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:25:"Matt: Celebrate Seventeen";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=51577";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:42:"https://ma.tt/2020/05/celebrate-seventeen/";s: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:1158:"<p>May 27th, 17 years ago, the first release of WordPress was put into the world by Mike Little and myself. It did not have an installer, upgrades, WYSIWYG editor (or hardly any Javascript), comment spam protection, clean permalinks, caching, widgets, themes, plugins, business model, or any funding.</p>



<p><em>The main feedback we got at the time was that the blogging software market was saturated and there wasn’t room or need for anything new.</em></p>



<p>WordPress did have a philosophy, an active blog, a license that protected the freedom of its users and developers, a love of typography, a belief that code is poetry, fantastic support forums and mailing lists and IRC, and firm sense that building software is more fun when you do it together as a community.</p>



<p>We have relentlessly iterated across 38 major releases since then, and here we are.</p>



<p>If you’d like to celebrate with me, put on some jazz, eat some BBQ, light a candle for the contributors who have passed on, help a friend or stranger less technical than you build a home online, and remember that technology is at its best when it brings people together.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 27 May 2020 15:48:16 +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:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:3;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"HeroPress: How the WordPress community contributes to human development";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:56:"https://heropress.com/?post_type=heropress-essays&p=3149";s: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:194:"https://heropress.com/essays/how-the-wordpress-community-contributes-to-human-development/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-the-wordpress-community-contributes-to-human-development";s: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:9273:"<img width="960" height="480" src="https://s20094.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/052620-min.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="Pull Quote: WordPress and the open-source community in general seem to reflect the “ubuntu” ethics." /><p><i>In the beginning WordPress being an “</i><a href="https://www.wpbeginner.com/glossary/open-source/">open-source</a><i>” platform concept was only an idea by Matt Mullenweg that was supposed to gather people to contribute for free for a greater cause with no guaranteed success. The idea to gather people around a vague and non-profit cause would not have succeeded without the generosity of WordPress pioneers, believing in humanity and transferring their knowledge to others for free.</i></p>
<p><i>Nowadays, the WordPress community gathers millions of professionals worldwide. </i></p>
<p><b><i>WordPress enthusiasts have changed the world we live in and contributed to human development from many aspects.</i></b></p>
<p><i>In the later text we will explain how contributing to WordPress would be considered contributing to humanity development, similar to “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_philosophy">ubuntu</a>” African philosophy.</i></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>So, let’s start from the beginning.</p>
<p>Many socio-economic theorists condition the survival of humanity by their members’ regular contribution. So, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nnano.2015.317?error=cookies_not_supported&code=8c384729-1d47-488b-aa97-8908ba88d642">physicists or chemists work jointly</a> as professional communities contributing to overall science development. Farmers work closely with the agricultural industry in finding the solution to resolve the issue of hunger worldwide, etc.</p>
<p>All those community members contribute in many different forms; either by revealing their discoveries to other members, or testing their new hypotheses. Sustainability and survival of communities depend on the contribution of their members.</p>
<p>Thanks to Internet development and its ease of access, breakthroughs in human development are just a click away from us.</p>
<p>As such, web designers and developers play an important role in numerous web data systematizations and content design of each website, enabling a wider global audience to find relevant information and apply those new discoveries in their activities.</p>
<p>Sometimes one-click localization is required, or a plugin/theme code change. Very often those requests  are repetitive and come from different territories, and this is where the WordPress community jumps in with their skills relevant to resolving those requests.</p>
<p>Roughly there are <a href="https://www.infoplease.com/askeds/how-many-spoken-languages">6.500 different languages</a> in the world.  If there were no WP community efforts, each WordPress developer would have to localize or translate each plugin for themselves for instance. Just imagine the amount of time each of us would have had to spend in order to create a desired website.</p>
<p>WordPress group contributions save significant amount of time for #MakersOfTheWeb, assisting the global non-tech community to present their business or philanthropic achievements worldwide. Timely published information or findings could change people’s lives.</p>
<p>Deductive conclusion could be that efforts related to WordPress development are the direct assistance to human sustainable development.</p>
<h3>Time of crisis</h3>
<p>Nowadays more than ever, solidarity and compassion have become building blocks of humanity. One could say that hard times bring people together; or perhaps could bring out the best in them, consciously or subconsciously. The current world health crisis has surfaced many social and economic problems, but also has led us to understand new and, perhaps, some forgotten values.</p>
<p><b><i>Joining forces, creating new values or adding to the existing ones are critical to community sustainability in general, similar to the concept of “</i></b><a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/the-meaning-of-ubuntu-43307"><b>ubuntu</b></a><b><i>.” </i></b></p>
<h3>What is the digital “ubuntu” of WordPress?</h3>
<p>For all the tech geeks out there, the free, open-source Linux distribution is not the center of our pledge. The “ubuntu” concept, as said by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela">Nelson Mandela</a>, is the profound sense <a href="https://www.revolt.tv/2018/7/18/20822300/remembering-nelson-mandela-through-the-power-of-ubuntu-and-essential-quotes">“<b>that we are human only through the humanity of others</b></a>. If we are to accomplish anything in this world, it will in equal measure be due to the work and achievements of others”.</p>
<p>WordPress and the open-source community in general seem to reflect the “ubuntu” ethics.</p>
<p>The number of WordPress contributors have been increasing over the time, surging in the past couple of weeks, aiming at providing ease for groups or individuals worldwide in the time of crisis. Companies and individuals are joining forces to support each other in crisis time proving the postulate that humanity can only exist if individuals join forces.</p>
<h3>How can you contribute?</h3>
<p>Choose your own way.</p>
<ol>
<li>You might want to share knowledge, expertise or perhaps come up with new tech solutions and there are plenty of opportunities out there. Each WordCamp hosts a number of tracks which you could join; Polyglots, WPTV, Marketing, Community, Core, etc. Your contribution might look insignificant to you from the perspective of what should be done in general, but combined efforts do make change. After all, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome_wasn%27t_built_in_a_day">Rome was not built in a day</a>.</li>
<li>You might be creative enough and propose a new business model within a certain industry. Challenging times bring out the leaders with unconventional visions. As Roy. T Bennett said: &#8220;Never stop dreaming, never stop believing, never give up, never stop trying, and never stop learning.&#8221;</li>
<li>You might want to assist elderly in your neighborhood, or provide online support to vulnerable communities.</li>
<li>You might want to save strained animals, or feed those while searching for new owners.</li>
</ol>
<p>Everything you do, regardless of your intention has a much larger reach that you can even imagine.</p>
<p>Now is the time to adopt new habits and start understanding the consequence of our behavior and intentions. It&#8217;s about achieving “ubuntu”, and not getting the recognition for contribution or efforts made.</p>
<p>We found our “ubuntu” and we were not surprised when we learned that WordPress is all about it.</p>
<div class="rtsocial-container rtsocial-container-align-right rtsocial-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-twitter-horizontal-button"><a title="Tweet: How the WordPress community contributes to human development" class="rtsocial-twitter-button" href="https://twitter.com/share?text=How%20the%20WordPress%20community%20contributes%20to%20human%20development&via=heropress&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fhow-the-wordpress-community-contributes-to-human-development%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal fb-light"><div class="rtsocial-fb-horizontal-button"><a title="Like: How the WordPress community contributes to human development" class="rtsocial-fb-button rtsocial-fb-like-light" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fhow-the-wordpress-community-contributes-to-human-development%2F" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-linkedin-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-linkedin-button" href="https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fheropress.com%2Fessays%2Fhow-the-wordpress-community-contributes-to-human-development%2F&title=How+the+WordPress+community+contributes+to+human+development" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Share: How the WordPress community contributes to human development"></a></div></div><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal"><div class="rtsocial-pinterest-horizontal-button"><a class="rtsocial-pinterest-button" href="https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://heropress.com/essays/how-the-wordpress-community-contributes-to-human-development/&media=https://heropress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/052620-min-150x150.jpg&description=How the WordPress community contributes to human development" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Pin: How the WordPress community contributes to human development"></a></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="perma-link" href="https://heropress.com/essays/how-the-wordpress-community-contributes-to-human-development/" title="How the WordPress community contributes to human development"></a></div><p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com/essays/how-the-wordpress-community-contributes-to-human-development/">How the WordPress community contributes to human development</a> appeared first on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://heropress.com">HeroPress</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 27 May 2020 08:00:37 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:39:"Maja LoncarNoah PlumbPredrag Zdravkovic";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:4;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:54:"WPTavern: Diving Into Automattic’s Block Experiments";s: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=100061";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:147:"https://wptavern.com/diving-into-automattics-block-experiments?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=diving-into-automattics-block-experiments";s: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:5741:"<p class="has-drop-cap">One of the repositories I have been keeping an eye on over the past few months is <a href="https://github.com/Automattic/block-experiments">Block Experiments</a>. It is a <em>monorepo</em> of blocks in various stages of development from Automattic. In total, five of the team&rsquo;s block experiments are now available for download from the plugin directory. Three others seem to still be under development.</p>



<p>My interest was first piqued when I saw the company&rsquo;s <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/starscape/">Starscape Block</a> plugin. The plugin essentially did something that I had needed on a separate project more than a year ago. If it had existed at the time, it would have saved me from a headache or two, attempting to mix custom HTML into a page that was mostly made from blocks. Since then, I have taken a few moments to check in on what the team has been building.</p>



<p>Except for <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/bauhaus-centenary/">Bauhaus Centenary Block</a>, which is likely only of interest to designers as something fun, most of the block plugins should be useful for many users. </p>



<p>Surprisingly, the team has failed to add the &ldquo;block&rdquo; tag to all of its block plugins, so not all of these are listed in the official <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/browse/block/">block directory</a>. It is likely an oversight that will be corrected at some point. For now, it just makes it a little harder for those of us looking for standalone block plugins to find them.</p>



<h2>Starscape Block</h2>



<img />Configuring the Starscape block.



<p class="has-drop-cap">The <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/starscape/">Starscape Block</a> plugin creates a container with a background of moving stars. End-users can control the density and speed of the stars. The block provides two gradient background options (linear or radial) along with 12 predefined gradient colors to select from. Users can also control the color of the single text input it provides.</p>



<p>The biggest downside of this block at the moment is that it does not behave the same way as the core Cover or Group block. There is no way for users to add anything but a single line of text through a rich text field. If the team would open it up to allow for nested blocks, it would be far more useful.</p>



<p>There is a lot that is possible with this block if the team pushes the envelope a little more. For example, it would also be interesting to have the ability to layer the stars over an image background, such as a cityscape or forest.</p>



<h2>Waves Block</h2>



<img />Adding custom content within the Waves block.



<p class="has-drop-cap">Similar to Starscape Block, the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/waves/">Waves Block</a> plugin creates a container block with a moving background. Instead of stars, the background is made up of &mdash; you guessed it &mdash; waves. It is not a simple copy of a plugin that does the same thing. The Waves block is a more robust solution. It works almost the same as the core Cover block and allows other blocks nested inside.</p>



<p>End-users can control the complexity, mouse speed, and fluid speed of the waves. They can also set the minimum height of the container and choose the four colors that create the effect of flowing waves.</p>



<p>This block was fun to play around with. Users could create some interesting hero-style page headers with this plugin, especially when WordPress treats the post title/header area as a block container in the future.</p>



<h2>Event Block</h2>



<img />Setting up a custom event with the Event block.



<p class="has-drop-cap">More often than not, on most projects that I have worked on that posted events, it was typically a single event once in a while. Many of the event management plugins were overkill. Several times in the past, I have built a widget or a simple shortcode to output a basic event notice. For end-users who need a basic method of outputting an event notification on their sites, the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/event/">Event Block</a> plugin may be the best option.</p>



<p>It is a standalone block that allows users to enter an event title, date, location, description, and image. It is a simple, no-fuss solution.</p>



<p>One missing component I would like to see with this block is the ability to add both a start and end date. For multi-day events, users must provide that information in the description box, which would be acceptable for most use cases. However, the full event date would be better served via the &ldquo;when&rdquo; field.</p>



<h2>Layout Grid Block</h2>



<img />Creating a book section with the Layout Grid block.



<p class="has-drop-cap">We have previously covered the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/layout-grid">Layout Grid Block</a> plugin in a post on whether core <a href="https://wptavern.com/should-the-block-editor-have-a-grid-system">WordPress should include a grid system</a>. However, it is worth noting this block is a part of Automattic&rsquo;s experimental block repository. The plugin has also been updated and improved since the Tavern&rsquo;s last look. It worked well before, but some minor bug fixes have drastically improved its usability.</p>



<p>Layout Grid Block is quickly becoming one of my favorite plugins for creating columns. It is easy to set up between two and four columns of content and change how the content is displayed based on the screen size. Some of the other plugins I have tested are more powerful. However, some of those tend to be more complicated than what the average user may need. This plugin will likely fit the bill for many use cases.</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 May 2020 20:34:40 +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:5;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:109:"WPTavern: WordCamp Europe 2020 Announces Schedule, Plans to Debut Networking Rooms and Virtual Sponsor Booths";s: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=100013";s: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:261:"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-europe-2020-announces-schedule-plans-to-debut-networking-rooms-and-virtual-sponsor-booths?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordcamp-europe-2020-announces-schedule-plans-to-debut-networking-rooms-and-virtual-sponsor-booths";s: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:2328:"<p>The 8th annual <a href="https://2020.europe.wordcamp.org">WordCamp Europe</a> is only 9 days away and organizers have just announced the schedule. Friday and Saturday sessions are split into two tracks that will run 30-minute talks simultaneously. Each talk is followed by a 10-minute Q&amp;A. The schedule also mixes in a few 10-minute lightning talks, with 15-minute breaks every hour.</p>



<p>The WordCamp will feature a variety of topics of interest to WordPress professionals and enthusiasts, including freelancing, code review, art direction with Gutenberg, website security, growing communities, and the challenges of headless WordPress. The online <a href="https://2020.europe.wordcamp.org/schedule/">schedule</a> allows users to save their favorite sessions and then email them, share a link, or print the customized schedule.</p>



<img />



<p>In converting the event to be fully online, WCEU PR Team co-organizer Evangelia Pappa said they had to re-work some of their original plans for speakers. Not all previously scheduled speakers were available for an online session. The organizers also had to start from scratch in planning the event, determining the platforms and tools to use, as well as figuring out a new routine for working together from home.</p>



<p>For the first time in WCEU history, both the networking activities and sponsor booths are going virtual using Zoom. Organizers are planning to have two networking rooms, which can also be used for speakers who want to continue Q&amp;A times with attendees following their sessions. Sponsors will have their own schedule of activities and webinars, expanding the event to 3-4 total tracks.</p>



<p>Pappa said the organizing team was inspired by WordCamp Spain, which has so far been the largest online WordPress event. The camp used Zoom to support 5,515 online attendees. </p>



<p>More than 5,650 people have already registered for WCEU 2020. <a href="https://2020.europe.wordcamp.org/tickets/">Tickets</a> continue to be released in batches, and organizers say they have an unlimited number available. Tickets for the virtual Contributor Day, which precedes the<strong> </strong>camp on June 4, are also still available. Attendees can indicate interest by checking the box for Contributor Day during the regular ticket signup process.</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 May 2020 15:03:49 +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:6;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:68:"WPTavern: Shinobi Blocks WordPress Plugin Adds How-To and FAQ Blocks";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=100011";s: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:181:"https://wptavern.com/shinobi-blocks-wordpress-plugin-adds-how-to-and-faq-blocks?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=shinobi-blocks-wordpress-plugin-adds-how-to-and-faq-blocks";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4929:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Shinobi Works, a web development and illustration company based in Japan, released <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/shinobi-blocks">Shinobi Blocks</a> last week. It is the second plugin the team has added to the WordPress plugin directory. The plugin is a block collection that currently has two blocks for creating how-to and FAQ sections on a site.</p>



<p>Overall, the blocks work well. The developers also make sure to only load any scripts or styles on the front end when the blocks are in use, so it should not add any weight to page speed across the site.</p>



<p>The largest downside of the plugin is that neither of its blocks has wide or full alignment options. This is one feature that I am hoping more block developers begin to add support for. It takes <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/developers/block-api/block-registration/#supports-optional">minimal code</a> and would make blocks more flexible for end-users. The workaround is to wrap the blocks in a core Group block and add alignment to it.</p>



<p>As a user, I would like to see the How-To block split into its own, single-purpose block. It would be a nice addition to the official WordPress <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/browse/block">block directory</a> as a standalone solution for users.</p>



<p>Right now, there seems to be a bit of a mad race toward who can build the biggest block collection plugins. It is unclear what the future of Shinobi Blocks holds. Given that it is early in its life as a plugin, I would urge the plugin authors to consider building single-use blocks. This way, users can install only the blocks they need on their sites.</p>



<p>In this particular case, the How-To block would make a good option as a single block plugin. As for the FAQ block, users can find such blocks in several other plugins with more options.</p>



<h2>How-To Block</h2>



<ul><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img />Adding a how-to item.</li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img />How-to second step.</li></ul>Adding step-by-step instructions via the How-To block.



<p class="has-drop-cap">The plugin&rsquo;s How-To block is what drew me in. Its purpose is to allow end-users to provide step-by-step instructions with both a text block and an image for each step. It is a pattern that is common on sites such as wikiHow and other tutorial websites.</p>



<p>The design of the block is well thought out and easy to use. For more complex tutorials, users can split their how-to into multiple sections, each with their own steps. In tests against several themes, I ran into no issues inputting custom content in the editor and it appearing correctly on the front end.</p>



<p>The plugin provides an option to change the <em>dot type</em>, which is the number for each step. Users can choose between displaying numbers or using an icon for individual steps. The available icons are from the core WordPress Dashicons set. The color of the dot type can also be customized. By default, it displays a gradient, but the user can select a solid color if preferred.</p>



<p>The downside of the available color options is the block does not make use of the active theme&rsquo;s color palette if registered. Using this would help the block better blend into the user&rsquo;s current site design.</p>



<p>One option that I would add is to allow the user to input optional, additional text below the image while using the main text as a sort of headline. This would provide more flexibility for how-to instructions that need more information. However, it would also add an extra layer of complexity that may not be desired.</p>



<h2>FAQ Block</h2>



<img />FAQ block accordion on the front end.



<p class="has-drop-cap">The FAQ block almost feels like an afterthought. It does not have the level of detail that was put into the How-To block. There are no color or other options for changing the design. It is basically a bare-bones tabbed accordion. The block works well enough for what it needs to do. Nevertheless, it still feels like a letdown after tinkering with the plugin&rsquo;s first block.</p>



<p>Inputting content on the admin side is simple. Both the question and answer inputs are rich text fields, which allow the same formatting as a standard Paragraph block.</p>



<p>Each inner block for the FAQ block offers a single option that allows users to choose whether to display the tab in an open state. One issue I ran into with disabling this option is that it closes the tab in the editor, which essentially disabled editing the answer&rsquo;s content for the item, at least until I re-ticked the checkbox.</p>



<p>It is not a poorly-designed block. For the most part, I would rather see the How-To and FAQ blocks split into separate, standalone block plugins. They serve two different purposes and would allow users to install just the pieces that they need.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 25 May 2020 20:34:39 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:7;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:63:"WPTavern: Local Brings Back Support for Apache and Site Cloning";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99924";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:171:"https://wptavern.com/local-brings-back-support-for-apache-and-site-cloning?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=local-brings-back-support-for-apache-and-site-cloning";s: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:2899:"<p>Flywheel&rsquo;s <a href="https://localwp.com/">Local development app</a> has received several major updates during the past month. The most recent release brings back support for Apache as a web server choice (version 5.5.1), in response to user feedback. This was the <a href="https://feedback.localwp.com/feature-requests/p/apache-web-server-option">most highly requested feature</a> on the app&rsquo;s community voting board. </p>



<p>Although nginx is the leader in <a href="https://www.similartech.com/compare/apache-vs-nginx">web server market share</a> for the top 10k, top 100k, and top 1M sites, Apache is still used by more of the web. Lack of support for Apache was a deal breaker for many Local users who support clients on shared hosting, which often runs Apache and MySQL. It was also a blocker for potential new users switching from MAMP. Having the option to choose the web server on a per-site basis makes Local much more flexible.</p>



<img />



<p>Site cloning is another highly requested feature that was brought back in <a href="https://localwp.com/community/t/local-5-3-3/19132">version 5.3.3</a> at the end of April. Users can now right-click on a site in Local&rsquo;s sites sidebar and click on &ldquo;Clone Site.&rdquo; This feature is useful for using one site as a jumping off point or even for setting up a &ldquo;blueprint&rdquo; for future sites to use. </p>



<p>Flywheel is gradually adding back a list of features after rebuilding Local&rsquo;s core architecture in 2019. The <a href="https://wptavern.com/local-lightning-now-in-public-beta-with-major-performance-improvements">&ldquo;Local Lightning&rdquo; update</a> moved the app away from virtualization in favor of native, system-level software for running WordPress locally.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Feature parity with Local Classic is the top item for us in our Q2 roadmap,&rdquo; Local creator Clay Griffiths said. So far his team has already brought back 64-bit PHP binaries for Windows, site cloning, and Apache support as part of this process.</p>



<p>The app has become an indispensable development tool for many WordPress developers. In February, WP Engine <a href="https://wptavern.com/after-the-acquisition-flywheel-in-the-new-year">reported</a> that Local is used by more than 50,000 developers. The company has a long-term roadmap that aims to make it easier for users to customize their development environments. </p>



<p>Local has a fairly transparent development process with community feature requests highly prioritized. The app&rsquo;s <a href="https://feedback.localwp.com/">community feedback site</a> gives users an overview of all the features that are currently planned, in progress, and complete. Updates currently in progress include a setting for a default browser and improvements to the Live Link feature. The team is also exploring a Local CLI as part of the Q2 roadmap.</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 May 2020 22:21:34 +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:8;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:66:"WPTavern: Should WordPress Provide an API for Third-Party Editors?";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=99970";s: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:175:"https://wptavern.com/should-wordpress-provide-an-api-for-third-party-editors?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=should-wordpress-provide-an-api-for-third-party-editors";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6858:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Imagine a future where you log into your website&rsquo;s admin. You head over to the editor. This particular editor has all the tools and features in place that make you more efficient at producing whatever content you put out for the world to see. You immediately start tapping keys or dragging your mouse around the screen, satisfied with what the software you&rsquo;re using has to offer.</p>



<p>Today, that editor may be the default block editor for WordPress. Some may be running the Classic Editor plugin for a familiar writing experience. Others will be crafting beautiful layouts with the Elementor page builder.</p>



<p>As of this week, people are finding themselves at home with <a href="https://wptavern.com/new-iceberg-plugin-brings-a-distraction-free-writing-experience-to-wordpress">Iceberg</a>, an interface built on top of the block editor for folks who prefer a minimalist environment and love Markdown.</p>



<p>Some bloggers post by email. Others use apps from their phone. And, an entire class of people works in third-party, offline editors such as Microsoft Word, Atom, and plain ol&rsquo; Notepad.</p>



<p>If there is one thing I have come to realize over the years it is that editing environments are as varied as the people who use them. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. The experience I am looking for is not necessarily the same experience you need.</p>



<p>Given the freedom to choose, most people would rearrange their desk, use a different notepad, and opt for a different writing utensil than their neighbor. Even if starting with the same tools, we eventually make tweaks to accommodate our personal tastes.</p>



<p>Throughout most of its history, WordPress has had a single editor that its users shared. It has changed over time &mdash; even the addition of TinyMCE was once controversial. However, the default editor has never been sufficient for every user. Personally, I abhorred the classic editing experience. It led me to write in various Markdown editors over the years for efficiency and a true distraction-free experience. It has also led to developers taking on the challenge of creating alternative experiences for large swaths of end-users.</p>



<p>As much as many people love the classic WordPress editor, it was a pain for many others. Otherwise, all of the tools that have cropped up over the years would have been unnecessary.</p>



<p>In much the same way, the block editor is often a love-it-or-hate-it experience. It is the ideal editing environment for many users. For others, it is a roadblock at best.  At worst, it is worthy of a gasoline soaking and a book of matches.</p>



<p>The promise of WordPress is to provide an editing experience that allows people from all walks of life to publish their content on the web. The promise is to make that experience as pain-free as possible and to continue iterating toward that unattainable-but-worthwhile-goal of perfecting the publishing process.</p>



<p>WordPress &mdash; any publishing platform for that matter &mdash; is only as good as its editor.</p>



<p>It is a predicament. There is no way to make the ideal editor for all people.</p>



<p><em>What&rsquo;s the next move?</em></p>



<h2>An Editors Registry and API</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">In the comments of the Tavern&rsquo;s Iceberg editor coverage, Phil Johnston <a href="https://wptavern.com/new-iceberg-plugin-brings-a-distraction-free-writing-experience-to-wordpress#comment-328746">proposed a solution</a> for WordPress going forward. &ldquo;With all of the amazing publishing experiences coming out, I wonder if it&rsquo;s time for WP to include the concept of &lsquo;Editors,'&rdquo;, he wrote. &ldquo;Like an official registry of installed Editors.&rdquo;</p>



<p>He later created a <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/50214">feature request</a> that called for an API that would make it easier for plugin authors to create new editing experiences on top of WordPress. The proposal is a high-level idea about how the editing screen could allow users to choose their preferred editor.</p>



<p>Potentially, users could install and use various editors, depending on what type of content they are building. A user may want something akin to a Markdown editor for blog posts but switch over to a page builder for their site&rsquo;s pages. eCommerce plugins might have custom editing interfaces that are ideal for shop owners. Ultimately, the possibilities are endless. But, it all starts down at the WordPress level.</p>



<p>The idea is not about dropping the default WordPress editor. It is about creating a flexible framework for plugin developers to cater to more users&rsquo; needs. Additional methods of editing content would make WordPress a stronger CMS, drawing in users who would otherwise prefer a different experience, regardless of the type of site they are building.</p>



<p>It is possible to do this now. However, what could WordPress be doing to improve this process for developers?</p>



<p>Jeffrey Carandang, co-creator of Iceberg, believes that core could open the editing space to more third-party solutions. &ldquo;Creating our own editor mode was challenging but a super exciting experience overall,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Gutenberg is still far from being extensible compared to other parts of WordPress, but we managed to hack on some areas that needed to work.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Carandang identified a few hurdles his team had to overcome when building the Iceberg editor:</p>



<ul><li>Limited hooks and filters outside of block development, such as the top and bottom areas of the editor and wrappers.</li><li>Little-to-no options to remove editor components, relying on CSS hacks to hide them.</li><li>The core editor&rsquo;s reliance on <code>localStorage</code>.</li></ul>



<p>In addition to the primary issues, his team had to develop against multiple versions of the block editor to ensure a seamless experience for users. Despite the issues, he still believes in a future where the block editor project can open up &ldquo;potential innovations&rdquo; in the space.</p>



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



<p>Today, I am composing this post in an offline Markdown editor. I will copy and paste my second or third draft into the block editor, which does a great job of converting Markdown into blocks, before final edits. On other days, I work directly in WordPress, depending on my mood. However, my preferred writing experience is as simple as it gets and often happens in Atom. It is what I am accustomed to.</p>



<p>I wonder if there will one day be an editor that will convert me to writing full time from within WordPress. I eagerly await the plugin developers who will make the attempt. My hope is that WordPress cultivates these ideas without standing in the way.</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 May 2020 19:05:07 +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:9;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:54:"WPTavern: Molly Burke on the Power of Universal Design";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99949";s: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:153:"https://wptavern.com/molly-burke-on-the-power-of-universal-design?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=molly-burke-on-the-power-of-universal-design";s: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:1814:"<p>In a 2017 speech titled &ldquo;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kIfwE4vJrI">Stop trying to fix disability</a>,&rdquo; YouTube and motivational speaker Molly Burke says, &ldquo;I live in a world that wasn&rsquo;t built for me, but what if it was?&rdquo; Burke was born with a rare, genetic eye disease that caused her to go blind. In this short but moving 8 minute video, she contends that making the world accessible helps everyone. She introduces the concept of universal design to her audience in simple terms: </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>&ldquo;Universal design [is] designing and building everything to be accessed, enjoyed, and understood to its fullest extent by everyone, regardless of their size, their age, their ability, or their perceived disability.&rdquo; </p></blockquote>



<p>Burke identified Apple as one company that <a href="http://apple.com/accessibility/">exemplifies universal design</a>.  </p>



<p>&ldquo;Every product they release, I could buy at a store, open up, and use on my own independently, with no extra cost and no assistance needed,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I ask you to imagine how liberating, how empowering it is to be shown by a company that they view you as belonging to their customers, when so many others tell you the exact opposite.&rdquo;</p>



<p>In honor of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Accessibility_Awareness_Day">Global Accessibility Awareness Day</a>, I wanted to highlight this video that tells just one person&rsquo;s story on the powerful impact of technology that is built with everyone in mind. Burke&rsquo;s speech is a poignant reminder of how designers and builders can extend a sense of belonging to their customers by making their products accessible.</p>



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

</div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 21 May 2020 23:03:30 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:10;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"Matt: Gradually, Then Suddenly";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22:"https://ma.tt/?p=51510";s: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:46:"https://ma.tt/2020/05/gradually-then-suddenly/";s: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:4676:"<img />



<p>The two main theses of my professional career have been that <a href="https://distributed.blog/">distributed is the future of work</a>, and that open source is the future of technology and innovation. I&#8217;ve built <a href="https://automattic.com/">Automattic</a> and <a href="https://wordpress.org/">WordPress</a> around these, and it&#8217;s also informed my investments and hobbies. Just today, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/21/automattic-pumps-4-6m-into-new-vector-to-help-grow-matrix-an-open-decentralized-comms-ecosystem/">we announced an investment into a distributed, open source, and encrypted communication company called New Vector</a>.</p>



<p>On the distributed front, the future of work has been arriving quickly. This week, a wave of companies representing over $800B in market capitalization announced they&#8217;re embracing distributed work beyond what&#8217;s required by the pandemic:</p>



<ul><li><a href="https://blog.coinbase.com/post-covid-19-coinbase-will-be-a-remote-first-company-cdac6e621df7">Coinbase is going remote-first</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/21/21265780/facebook-remote-work-mark-zuckerberg-interview-wfh">Facebook wants to be &#8220;the most forward-leaning on remote work.&#8221;</a></li><li><a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alexkantrowitz/twitter-will-allow-employees-to-work-at-home-forever">Twitter has allowed permanent work-from-home</a>.</li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/tobi/status/1263483496087064579">Shopify is now a &#8220;digital by default&#8221; company</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/18/21261798/square-employees-work-from-home-remote-premanent-policy-ceo">Square has indefinitely extended remote work</a>.</li><li><a href="https://variety.com/2020/music/news/spotify-employees-work-from-home-1234613095/">Spotify is allowing work-from-home through 2021</a>.</li></ul>



<p>Change happens slowly, then all at once. </p>



<p>The forces that enable working in a distributed fashion have been in motion for decades, and if you talk to anyone who was working in technology in the &#8217;60s and &#8217;70s they expected this to happen much sooner. <a href="https://distributed.blog/2019/10/03/turning-ideas-into-real-things/">Stephan Wolfram has been a remote CEO for 28 years</a>. Automattic has been distributed-first for 15 years.</p>



<p>What&#8217;s been holding us back is fear of the unknown, and attachment to the familiar. I can&#8217;t tell you how many of the investors I see espousing distributed work once told me that Automattic would never scale past a few dozen people unless we brought everyone into an office. Or the CEOs who said this would never work for them, now proclaiming their company hasn&#8217;t missed a beat as tens of thousands of people started working from home.</p>



<p>What&#8217;s going to be newsworthy by the end of the year is not technology companies saying they&#8217;re embracing distributed work, but those that aren&#8217;t. Those who thought this couldn&#8217;t work have been forced by the pandemic to do it anyway, and they&#8217;ve now seen that it&#8217;s possible.</p>



<p>It was probably terrible at first, but now two or three months in it&#8217;s gotten better. We&#8217;ve learned and adapted, and will continue to do so. Necessity breeds invention. <strong>I promise you if you stick with it, <a href="https://ma.tt/2020/04/five-levels-of-autonomy/">you&#8217;ll progress through the levels of distributed autonomy</a>.</strong> Over time people will be able to move houses, tweak furniture, buy equipment, upgrade their internet, and otherwise adapt to being more productive in a distributed environment than they ever could be in an office. Products and services are being developed all around the world that will make it even better. I&#8217;m so excited about how a majority of the economy going distributed will improve people&#8217;s quality of life, and unlock incredible creativity and innovation at work. (They go hand in hand.)</p>



<p>At some point, we&#8217;ll break bread with our colleagues again, and that will be glorious. I can&#8217;t wait. But along the way we&#8217;ll discover that things we thought were impossible were just hard at first, and got easier the more we did it. Some will return to physically co-working with strangers, and some employers trapped in the past will force people to go to offices, but <strong>the illusion that the office was about work</strong> will be shattered forever, and companies that hold on to that legacy will be replaced by companies who embrace the antifragile nature of distributed organizations.</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 May 2020 20:28:47 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4:"Matt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:11;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:59:"WPTavern: PHP and WordPress Version Checks Coming to Themes";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=99928";s: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:163:"https://wptavern.com/php-and-wordpress-version-checks-coming-to-themes?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=php-and-wordpress-version-checks-coming-to-themes";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4753:"<p class="has-drop-cap">PHP and WordPress version checks are coming to the WordPress theme system &mdash; finally. The feature was <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/47819">pulled into core WordPress</a> three days ago. It will prevent end-users from installing or activating a theme that is incompatible with their current version of PHP or WordPress. The change is slated to land in WordPress 5.5.</p>



<p>This feature has long been on many theme authors&rsquo; wish lists, particularly PHP version checking. Plugins authors gained the ability to support specific PHP versions starting with WordPress 5.2. However, theme authors were left feeling like the second-class citizens they usually are when it comes to the addition of core features, waiting patiently as plugin authors received the new and shiny tools they were looking forward to.</p>



<p>Previously, the code for manually handling version checking within individual themes was more complex than in plugins. Theme authors needed to run compatibility checks after theme switch and block theme previews in the customizer using two different methods, depending on the user&rsquo;s WordPress version. That is assuming theme authors were covering all their bases.</p>



<p>Users had no real way of knowing whether a theme would work on their site before installing and attempting to activate it. It was a poor user experience, even when a theme gracefully failed for the end-user.</p>



<p>This user experience has also held back some theme authors from transitioning to newer versions of PHP. For years, many were supporting PHP 5.2. Slowly, some of these same authors are now making the move toward newer features up to PHP 5.6, which is now the minimum that WordPress supports. However, not many have made the jump to PHP 7 and newer.</p>



<p>Until now, there has been no mechanism for letting the user know they need to upgrade their PHP to use a particular theme.</p>



<p>Some theme authors may choose to continue supporting older versions of PHP, such as 5.6, for a potentially wider user base. However, developers who want to switch to newer features can now do so with the support of the core platform.</p>



<h2>Changes for Users</h2>



<img />New WordPress and PHP versions added to Twenty Twenty theme.



<p class="has-drop-cap">Users who are browsing the WordPress theme directory may begin to notice new information available for some themes. Similar to plugins, visitors should see a WordPress Version and PHP Version listed for some themes. For example, the <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/twentytwenty/">Twenty Twenty</a> theme now lists the following minimum requirements:</p>



<ul><li><strong>WordPress Version:</strong> 4.7 or higher</li><li><strong>PHP Version:</strong> 5.2.4 or higher</li></ul>



<p>Not all themes will have these numbers listed yet. It will take some time before older themes are updated with the data required to populate these fields.</p>



<p>In WordPress 5.5, the admin interface for themes will change.  When attempting to install or activate a theme, WordPress will prevent such actions. If a user searches for a theme that has an incompatible WordPress or PHP version, the normal installation button will be replaced with a disabled button that reads &ldquo;Cannot Install.&rdquo; If a theme is installed but not activated, the activation link will similarly be replaced with a disabled &ldquo;Cannot Activate&rdquo; button. Users will also not be allowed to live preview incompatible themes.</p>



<img />Cannot activate Twenty Twenty theme with incompatible PHP version.



<p>The feature works the same from within the customizer interface as it does via the themes screen in the WordPress admin.</p>



<h2>Changes for Theme Authors</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The WordPress Themes Team recently announced two new <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2020/05/14/new-required-header-fields-for-style-css/">required headers for theme authors</a> to place in their <code>style.css</code> files. The first required field is <code>Tested up to</code>, which is the latest version of WordPress the theme has been tested against. The second is a <code>Requires PHP</code> field, which is the minimum PHP version the theme supports.</p>



<p>It is unclear is why the team decided to require those two fields but not the <code>Requires at least</code> field, which represents the minimum WordPress version needed. Most likely, theme authors will want to place all three headers in their themes.</p>



<p>Theme authors who will still support versions of WordPress earlier than 5.5 will want to continue using their old compatibility checks. However, this is the first step in phasing such code 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:"Thu, 21 May 2020 19:57:03 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:12;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:80:"WPTavern: WordCamp Kent Online Features Business and Marketing Tracks, May 30-31";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99897";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:203:"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-kent-online-features-business-and-marketing-tracks-may-30-31?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordcamp-kent-online-features-business-and-marketing-tracks-may-30-31";s: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:2315:"<p>One of the exciting things about WordCamps going virtual is the community gaining access to more events and presentations than ever before, from anywhere in the world. Even in this new online-only format, local camps still retain their unique character as they feature speakers from their respective communities. </p>



<p><a href="http://2020.kent.wordcamp.org">WordCamp Kent</a> (Ohio) is one of these upcoming events that has been forced online by the pandemic. Organizers will be broadcasting all sessions on the weekend of May 30-31, and <a href="https://2020.kent.wordcamp.org/tickets/">tickets</a> are free for anyone who wants to attend. </p>



<p>The schedule for this particular event runs heavy on the business and marketing side of working with WordPress, with very few talks geared towards developers. If you are a freelancer, run an agency, or have a WordPress product business, you will find WordCamp Kent&rsquo;s program more tailored to topics that help you improve client services. </p>



<p>The <a href="https://2020.kent.wordcamp.org/schedule/">schedule</a> on the first day of the event is divided into two tracks: Freelance/Business and User/Marketing. These sessions will run alongside live Q&amp;A and a Help Desk managed by volunteers in the&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://app.slack.com/client/T0AST04HG/C011U4S0LKW" target="_blank">#wp-help-desk channel</a>&nbsp;in the NEO WordPress Slack workspace. The second day of the event will be also be split into two tracks: Freelance/Business/Developer and WordPress 101/User. </p>



<p>Topics include designing websites for generating leads, improving your business model for freelancers and small businesses, client consultations, content marketing, and customer support. </p>



<p>This Kent, Ohio, WordCamp may not have made it on your radar in the past, but the pandemic has opened up events in some ways. It forces a greater number of camps online and allows attendees to join any event without the travel expenses that would ordinarily be prohibitive. In the past, many people who were not local would simply opt to save their money for the bigger camps. The WordPress community has a greater potential to accelerate their learning opportunities, as more smaller camps gain a global audience online.</p>



<p></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 May 2020 17:19:17 +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:13;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:103:"WPTavern: CampusPress Releases Accessible Content Plugin in Time for Global Accessibility Awareness Day";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99804";s: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:251:"https://wptavern.com/campuspress-releases-accessible-content-plugin-in-time-for-global-accessibility-awareness-day?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=campuspress-releases-accessible-content-plugin-in-time-for-global-accessibility-awareness-day";s: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:10213:"<p class="has-drop-cap">While it is still Wednesday here in the U.S., some parts of the world are already awakening to the third Thursday in May, which is <a href="https://globalaccessibilityawarenessday.org/">Global Accessibility Awareness Day</a> (GAAD). The purpose of the event is to get more people discussing, learning, and addressing issues related to the inclusion of people with disabilities in the digital world. That is what CampusPress hopes to do with its new plugin.</p>



<p>The CampusPress team <a href="https://campuspress.com/free-accessibility-plugins-themes-for-wordpress/">announced its Accessible Content plugin</a> for WordPress last week. The goal of the plugin is to help end-users address accessibility issues on their sites. Many tools are built for developers and designers, but the team wanted something to put into the hands of users to allow them to take the extra steps necessary in creating an accessible website.</p>



<p>The plugin is currently <a href="https://github.com/campuspress/accessible-content">available through GitHub</a>, but the team plans to submit it to the official WordPress plugin repository soon. The developers are gathering user feedback from customers and the community first.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Our Accessible Content plugin was developed specifically to help with training and putting real-time information into the hands of those creating WordPress pages and posts,&rdquo; said Ronnie Burt, General Manager at CampusPress. &ldquo;There are a ton of site checker tools out there, and many work quite well. But all of them will spit out false positives and list issues on a page that have nothing to do with the content (navigation issues and the like). So as a bit of a disclaimer, by design, this plugin will not find or help with all potential accessibility issues on a site. But if used over time, it will help train content creators to understand many of the best practices that they should be following and avoid mistakes.&rdquo;</p>



<p>CampusPress is a managed WordPress hosting and service provider for organizations in the educational sector. It is a sister service to Edublogs.org, which originally launched 15 years ago.</p>



<p>&ldquo;In that time, we&rsquo;ve been quietly catering to the unique needs of schools and universities that use WordPress in various ways,&rdquo; said Burt. &ldquo;Historically, that was more on the blogging and learning side, but as WordPress has grown into the CMS of choice, we&rsquo;ve moved along with it to high-level main websites too.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Development of the Accessible Content plugin will help the CampusPress team&rsquo;s customers in education, particularly when diving into the world of accessibility guidelines.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Overall, awareness around accessibility has improved considerably in recent years, but for many, the topic is overwhelming,&rdquo; said Burt. &ldquo;In our case, school administrators know they need a &lsquo;compliant&rsquo; site, but when you go to read the compliance standards, some are subjective and, at best, really complex. The biggest hurdle that we see is that we are still in a place where accessibility expertise is left up to specialists or tools that are usually brought in after the fact or at the end of a project. In an ideal world, we&rsquo;ll get to where the expertise is shared by all developers, content creators, and anyone else working on the site. This is because accessibility is so much better and easier when it is built-in and thought about from the beginning and continuously.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The team is releasing this plugin not only to its customer base but as a free tool for all WordPress users.</p>



<h2>How the Plugin Works</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The plugin is simple enough for most people to use. When previewing a post, it labels and points out issues that need attention. The goal is not to focus on larger accessibility issues that may be coming from the theme. Instead, the plugin lists issues directly with the post content.</p>



<p>The interface on the post preview screen is simple enough to understand without documentation. Preview a post and the plugin provides buttons on the sides of the screen to navigate through each issue found. At the bottom of the screen, it leaves a full description of the problem.  Users can also access this feature via the toolbar on the site front end when viewing a post.</p>



<img />Accessible Content plugin&rsquo;s output on post preview.



<p>In some cases, such as missing image alt text, the plugin provides a link to directly add the alt text in the admin. This is done through a custom Alt Text sub-menu under the Media screen in the WordPress admin. Users can also use this screen at any time to manage alt text for images used throughout the site in one location.</p>



<img />



<p>Burt said the original spec for the plugin had all of the accessibility checks and information within the block editor interface. However, the team hit a couple of roadblocks and ended up moving the plugin&rsquo;s interface to the post preview screen as a result.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Gutenberg is still in flux at a pretty rapid pace,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Just as we were getting our first proof of concept working on the image block, there was a change and it all broke. No fun! But moving to the previewer had some nice unintended consequences. Namely, the plugin works just as well with Classic Editor and with most page builders. The trade-off is that the warnings and helpful text aren&rsquo;t quite in as real-time as I hope to get them to someday.&rdquo;</p>



<p>In the long term, the team still plans on integrating directly with the block editor. For now, the plugin works well as part of the previewer. However, instant feedback in the editor would be a huge boost to fixing accessibility issues as they arise.</p>



<h2>Community Accessibility Improvements</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Burt was not shy about sharing his thoughts about what the WordPress community can be doing to improve accessibility around the web. He praised some of the work that the WordPress project has done thus far. He also shared some concerns.</p>



<p>&ldquo;One thing I&rsquo;m worried about &mdash; there&rsquo;s a trend out there with a few WordPress plugins and a growing number of third-party tools to add a little &lsquo;accessibility&rsquo; icon to the corner of your website,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When clicked, these icons open up options for fonts, contrast ratios, and may give an alternative way of navigating the site. I&rsquo;ve noticed them on bank websites, government sites, and now the schools we work with are buying into them too because it can be tempting to just add a few snippets of embed code to a site and call it a day. To me, this sorta lets all of us that work on websites off the hook to not be responsible for accessible design and development, which really should be our ultimate goal.&rdquo;</p>



<p>He stressed that using quality themes and plugins as a good step for most users along with being mindful of the content we create. Taking these simple steps should make for a more accessible user experience overall.</p>



<p>&ldquo;There is lots of good news when it comes to WordPress and accessibility that we should be shouting from the rooftops,&rdquo; said Burt. &ldquo;For one, while there&rsquo;s still a bit of work to be done, the majority of the issues identified in the WPCampus sponsored audit of Gutenberg have been resolved. That was a great example of the higher-ed community leading the charge to impact change. Without the change, simply put, schools, universities, and government agencies may be forced or encouraged to drop their adoption of WordPress.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The <a href="https://wptavern.com/wpcampus-gutenberg-accessibility-audit-finds-significant-and-pervasive-accessibility-problems">WPCampus-sponsored audit</a> in 2019 resulted in a 329-page technical analysis by Tenon, LLC. It covered user-based testing that included people with various disabilities. Since then, the Gutenberg project has worked to overcome issues identified by the audit.</p>



<p>&ldquo;As I use Gutenberg more and more, there are some nice little accessibility Easter eggs for content creators, such as warnings about contrast ratios and the Headings block won&rsquo;t show you the option for H1 by default,&rdquo; said Burt. &ldquo;I love it! If our community can just continue to highlight these improvements whenever possible, it will make a big difference. I&rsquo;m also hopeful that some of our checks from this plugin can eventually not be needed as future improvements to blocks and the editor are made.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Burt described the best thing the community can do is to be responsive and treat all accessibility issues as a major bug or even a release blocker before plugins or themes go live. In part, it is about being open to communicating and resolving issues that users bring up.</p>



<p>&ldquo;With so many competing priorities, it can be tempting to just write off a complaint or suggestion as coming from one user,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But really this is how we continue to make the most progress on all of our tools and services. Feedback from users on barriers and problems they face in using our stuff is pure gold and useful to help ensure we don&rsquo;t repeat those same mistakes.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Burt listed some key questions he believes the community should continue having conversations around:</p>



<ul><li>Should all new themes to WordPress.org be required to meet the &lsquo;accessibility-ready&rsquo; standards?</li><li>Are there similar standards and checks we could add to plugins? How can plugin authors declare if their plugin may impact accessibility?</li><li>Is a separate &lsquo;Accessibility&rsquo; team for WordPress core still the best way? How do we improve accessible design and development earlier on in practice? It is usually much harder to fix accessibility issues than it is to prevent them to begin with.</li></ul>



<p>These are definitely worth discussing further. For now, his team is trying to do its small part with the Accessible Content 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:"Wed, 20 May 2020 19:39:25 +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: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:14;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:86:"WPTavern: New Iceberg Plugin Brings a Distraction-Free Writing Experience to 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:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=99062";s: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/new-iceberg-plugin-brings-a-distraction-free-writing-experience-to-wordpress?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-iceberg-plugin-brings-a-distraction-free-writing-experience-to-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:8656:"<p>Ever on the hunt for a more beautiful, simplified writing experience inside WordPress, I jumped at the chance to beta test the new<a href="https://useiceberg.com/"> Iceberg</a> plugin. Rich Tabor and Jeffrey Caradang, the same team behind CoBlocks, have created a new markdown editor built on top of Gutenberg that provides the best writing experience for WordPress since core&rsquo;s retired <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-zen-mode-5-compelling-reasons-to-turn-on-distraction-free-writing">Distraction Free Writing</a> mode.</p>



<img />



<p>Iceberg features a minimalist editor with four color themes, the ability to create a custom theme, and a set of typography controls. In switching to Iceberg, there is not much missing much from the default block editor that would be necessary for writing. Users can drag and drop media into Iceberg and the backslash command works to trigger the block inserter. It also includes a Table of Contents, word and character counts, reading time, keyboard shortcuts, and support for emoji.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Iceberg was brought to fruition out of an experiment to make WordPress look and feel more like my favorite writing applications,&rdquo; Tabor said. &ldquo;My personal publishing flow was to write in an external application, paste it all into the block editor, followed by fixing/adjusting/resizing everything&ndash;honestly not fun. You see, writing with blocks is just &lsquo;ok&rsquo; &ndash; and doesn&rsquo;t feel natural.</p>



<p>&ldquo;After chatting with others, I realized a lot of folks shared the same sentiment and that such a small number of folks I talked to actually composed articles within WordPress. And although I appreciate how far the block editor has come over the years as a site editor and page builder, I wanted to morph the experience to better support publishing.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The Iceberg name is a nod towards Guten &ldquo;berg.&rdquo; Tabor said he wanted the project to seem more approachable, without being tied to WordPress or emphasizing blocks.</p>



<p>Tabor said he was inspired by dedicated writing applications like Bear, Ulysses, Dropbox Paper, and Google Docs. What he loves most about Iceberg is that its design is centered around the writer&rsquo;s preferences. </p>



<p>&ldquo;The editor themes that sit at the core of Iceberg&rsquo;s design language empower each writer to define their flavor of the editor,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Every color variable is auto-generated based on the editor theme and applied throughout the interface as necessary.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Gutenberg was also a strong inspiration for the design principles that guided Tabor in creating Iceberg.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Gutenberg itself is undergoing quite a transformation with what&rsquo;s being dubbed as &lsquo;G2&rsquo; &ndash; a new design system geared towards improved contrast, modern lines and an overall cleaner look,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I knew I wanted to push Iceberg in that direction, bringing a clean and modern look to the writing environment.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Under the hood, Iceberg is simply an extension of the block editor that de-emphasizes blocks to better enable writers. Since the plugin manipulates the editor itself, users&rsquo; content remains intact even if it is deactivated. </p>



<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a clever combination of React components, styles, CSS custom variables and UX that is centered entirely around the art of writing,&rdquo; Tabor said. &ldquo;In short, if folks are familiar with Gutenberg development, they&rsquo;ll find Iceberg similarly structured.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Tabor said he wants to keep the plugin simple while also exploring where he can push the writing experience further forward. Possible features coming to the roadmap include goal setting, readability analysis, an improved pre-publish checklist, and better post previews/live previewing.</p>



<h2>Iceberg Gets Positive Reviews at Launch, Fills a Gap in the Block Editor&rsquo;s Support for Writers</h2>



<p>Iceberg is launching as a commercial product, priced at $39 for a single site or<strong> </strong>$99 for unlimited sites. The product seems to have filled a gap in the market, covering Gutenberg&rsquo;s long-standing deficiency in supporting writers. Community feedback during the beta and on Twitter and Product Hunt has so far been overwhelmingly positive.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Iceberg is like a noise-cancellation for the WordPress editor,&rdquo; Rajendra Zore <a href="https://twitter.com/rajendrazore/status/1262798934252023808">said</a>. </p>



<p>Nick Hamze offered feedback in a Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/NickHamze/status/1262749430844801030">thread</a>, saying he was excited to see a product that can &ldquo;take markdown back from developers.&rdquo; He views Iceberg as a positive development in the WordPress product space, and urged the community to support these kinds of innovations:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>The fun thing about Iceberg is it&rsquo;s an enhancement of the block editor not a replacement. No editor can be everything to everyone. Iceberg takes all the parts that are great for writers and emphasizes them while moving everything else into the background.</p><p>It&rsquo;s not a criticism of the block editor but a celebration of it. Even if you aren&rsquo;t a writer I think you should buy a copy. As a community we need to support people who are doing stuff like this. They&rsquo;re never going to stop making cool stuff but they might stop making it for WP.</p></blockquote>



<p>After beta testing the plugin I found that it provides the kind of writing experience that I have been missing in the block editor. Iceberg removes the cumbersome feeling of forcing your writing into blocks. More than anything, I want to see something like this land in WordPress core someday.</p>



<p>It&rsquo;s somewhat bittersweet to see a better writing experience arrive as a commercial plugin, instead of from core improvements. I desperately want WordPress to be home to the best tools for writers, because it is a publishing platform that is so powerful in nearly every other way. This is not to say that core developers cannot adopt something similar. That&rsquo;s the beauty of open source software &ndash; products inspiring new and improved solutions in a never-ending cycle.</p>



<p>Gutenberg designers and engineers have been <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-contributors-considering-a-focus-mode-for-writing">working for the past two years</a> to bring the writing experience in the editor to a functional place that meets the needs of those who use WordPress primarily for writing. So far the block editor&rsquo;s <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-for-writers-how-to-configure-the-editor-for-fewer-distractions">Fullscreen mode</a> is incapable of producing the kind of zen writing experience that most writers crave when turning to third-party writing apps.</p>



<p>Iceberg is GPL-licensed and is even <a href="https://github.com/useIceberg/iceberg-editor">available on GitHub</a> for download and collaboration. I asked Tabor what he planned to do if someone proposed that some version of Iceberg be added to core.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Honestly, I think it would be great if WordPress adopted the same high level of support for writers as Iceberg does,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Sure it may not be completely ideal economically, but Iceberg is built on an editor built by thousands of hands. If Iceberg is deemed a clever enough solution to be a part of core, then that&rsquo;s ok. Although I&rsquo;m positive there&rsquo;s room to continue experimenting within the realm of empowering writers.&rdquo;</p>



<p>As WordPress continues to move full steam ahead on the site building aspects of the editor, a truly distraction-free writing experience is not likely to become a high priority anytime soon. Tabor sees this as an opportunity for products that can transform the editor for different types of users who may not be focused on building websites.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re in such a transformative period of WordPress right now,&rdquo; Tabor said. &ldquo;The editing experience we&rsquo;re building with the block editor is much more focused on designing and publishing websites &ndash; not writing posts. Consequently, there&rsquo;s been much more focus on the<em> site building</em> experience, in lieu of the <em>writing</em> experience. That&rsquo;s not to say I don&rsquo;t love the direction WordPress is heading&ndash;I absolutely do. But rather that I feel there&rsquo;s room for a tool to improve the writing experience within the block editor.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 19 May 2020 23:16:17 +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:15;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:100:"WPTavern: WooCommerce Payments Allows Shop Owners to Manage Payments Without Leaving WordPress Admin";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99776";s: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:245:"https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-payments-allows-shop-owners-to-manage-payments-without-leaving-wordpress-admin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=woocommerce-payments-allows-shop-owners-to-manage-payments-without-leaving-wordpress-admin";s: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:5670:"<img />



<p class="has-drop-cap">Automattic-owned eCommerce platform WooCommerce <a href="https://woocommerce.com/posts/woocommerce-payments/">launched its new WooCommerce Payments</a> feature today. The company seeks to make it easier for plugin users to manage the entirety of their shop from a single location. For users based in the U.S. with WordPress.com-connected accounts, they can begin managing payments directly from their WordPress admin.</p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/woocommerce-payments/">WooCommerce Payments</a> is available as a free download via the WordPress plugin directory. Any costs associated with the plugin are on a per-transaction basis. Fees start at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for cards issued in the U.S. An additional 1% fee is tacked on for cards outside the U.S.</p>



<p>Under the hood, payments are handled through <a href="https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/payments/powered-by-stripe/">Stripe Express</a>. The WooCommerce team developed the front-end so that it would match the look and feel of WooCommerce, making it function like a native part of the plugin. Stripe handles the processing from the backend.</p>



<p>The team began work on the system in 2019 and launched an invitational beta in late February 2020. Since then, it has seen over 1,000 accounts connect to WooCommerce Payments.</p>



<p>&ldquo;New users have been able to add it to their stores in onboarding,&rdquo; said Paul Maiorana, General Manager of WooCommerce. &ldquo;Current customers have heard about it through either our newsletter or virtual community meetups. Through this period, we&rsquo;ve learned what store owners like about WooCommerce Payments &mdash; managing their store and payments in one place; intuitive dashboard views; &lsquo;flow&rsquo; and &lsquo;ease.&rsquo; We&rsquo;ve also heard their questions, which are mostly related to features we&rsquo;ve got planned and are working hard to make available as soon as possible.&rdquo;</p>



<p>WooCommerce Payments creates an integrated payments dashboard in the WordPress admin. It allows shop owners to manage charges, deposits, refunds, and disputes without leaving their store. By not having to toggle between the store and third-party payment processors, administrators should be able to enjoy a more seamless experience.</p>



<p>The following are some screenshots from a demo install of the WooCommerce Payments plugin:</p>



<ul><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img />Transaction Details</li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img />Dispute Overview</li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img />Challenge Dispute</li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img />Deposits</li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img />Transactions</li></ul>



<p>On the customer end, the experience should also be more convenient for shoppers. Instead of being redirected to a processor like PayPal, customers can make payments directly on the site. This may also help curb cart abandonment, which can often happen when shoppers are redirected.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Now that we&rsquo;re announcing general availability in the U.S. and putting focused marketing effort behind it, we&rsquo;re hoping to draw more store owners to join us on the journey,&rdquo; said Maiorana.</p>



<p>New account holders will need to wait for seven business days before receiving their first deposit from sales. Afterward, the payments system will bundle daily revenue into a single deposit and automatically transfer it to the users&rsquo; bank accounts. This also cuts out the process of logging into an account with a payment processor to manually deposit earnings.</p>



<h2>On the Roadmap</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Currently, WooCommerce Payments is only available to U.S.-based shops. However, the team expects to begin rolling out support for more countries and local payment methods in 2020.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re launching in the U.S. to start to manage scope, but WooCommerce is a global platform and global support for WooCommerce Payments is a priority for us,&rdquo; said Maiorana. &ldquo;Payments is obviously a complex and highly-regulated space. We have a three-year roadmap for WooCommerce Payments that includes feature and geographical expansion. Our legal and business teams are investing the appropriate time and resources to lay a strong foundation for future growth.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Upcoming releases of the WooCommerce Payments plugin are slated to receive support for subscriptions, saved cards, wallets, and instant deposits.</p>



<p>The WooCommerce team also has no plans of stopping with online sales. It is already taking some steps toward moving into the physical world. &ldquo;WooCommerce&rsquo;s mission is to democratize commerce &mdash; not only eCommerce &mdash; so yes, we&rsquo;re thinking a lot about how to bring this great payment experience offline to point-of-sale devices too,&rdquo; said Maiorana.</p>



<p>It would be interesting to see small store owners with physical locations &mdash; from a fruit stand to a collectibles shop to a mom-and-pop restaurant &mdash; be able to manage payments from a central location, all backed with WooCommerce and the WordPress platform.</p>



<p>The new system does not currently support CBD merchants. <a href="https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-partners-with-square-to-expand-services-for-cbd-merchants">WooCommerce has a partnership with Square</a>, and shop owners who are selling CBD-derived products can still use that particular payment processor for the time being. This is likely tied to Stripe&rsquo;s policies on <a href="https://stripe.com/restricted-businesses">restricted businesses</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:"Tue, 19 May 2020 17:39:18 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:16;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"WPTavern: BuddyPress 6.0.0 Released with New Group and Members Blocks";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=99784";s: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:183:"https://wptavern.com/buddypress-6-0-0-released-with-new-group-and-members-blocks?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=buddypress-6-0-0-released-with-new-group-and-members-blocks";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:4395:"<p>BuddyPress has entered the world of blocks with the release of <a href="https://buddypress.org/2020/05/buddypress-6-0-0/">version 6.0</a>, the latest major update that has been in development since November 2019. The release, code-named &ldquo;iovine&rsquo;s&rdquo; for a favorite pizza restaurant in Paris,   introduces blocks for Groups and Members. It also marks the completion of the BP Rest API, adding the final remaining endpoints for Blogs, Blog avatar, Friends, Group Cover Image, Member Cover Image, and User Signups.</p>



<p>The first set of blocks allow community site owners to insert a specific Member or Group from the editor into any WordPress post or page. More<a href="https://bpdevel.wordpress.com/2020/03/30/welcome-to-the-first-buddypress-blocks/#advanced-customizations"> advanced customizations</a> are available to developers who want to make blocks available to (or restricted from) specific custom post types. Developers can also override block output using new filters, disable blocks, and specify a custom stylesheet for a block.</p>



<img />New BP Blocks in action



<p>In a previous WP Tavern review of the 6.0 beta, Justin Tadlock noted that the block settings had each setting is placed within its own tabbed section, which increased the number of clicks required. This feedback was incorporated six weeks ago in a <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/8271">patch</a> from BuddyPress core developer Mathieu Viet, which places all settings into one panel until such a time as more panels become necessary.</p>



<h2>Next Up for BuddyPress: Block Versions of Existing Widgets and Community-Requested Blocks </h2>



<p>The BuddyPress community has a unique opportunity to shape the future of block development for the plugin. The next blocks are not yet set in stone but Viet said contributors will probably start by adding block versions of the existing widgets, followed by block requests based on community feedback.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The <a href="https://poll.fm/10425422">poll</a> we made about BuddyPress blocks showed there were expectations about a block to share a post or a page into the Activity Stream, so l think we should include such a block,&rdquo; Viet said. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;re are very open to new ideas or contributions to the <a href="https://github.com/buddypress/bp-blocks">GitHub repository</a> we use to develop them.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The poll results indicated that in addition to a block to share a post or a page via the Activity Stream, the community is also strongly interested a block to list the recently published posts from across a network, followed by a block to display Sitewide Notices posted by the site administrator.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Viet said core contributors have not yet set a roadmap but are working in small steps and carefully following the Gutenberg project to see how they can incorporate it more into community features. A block-based activity posting form is one feature they are considering. </p>



<p>Now is an important time for BuddyPress site owners to give input on the future of the project, whether through block recommendations or via the new <a href="https://mercime.survey.fm/2020-buddypress-survey">2020 BuddyPress Survey</a>. It includes 17 questions, which take approximately 7-10 minutes to complete. Most of the questions are centered around how you are using BuddyPress on production sites, but one interesting question asks about the prospect of breaking up the plugin&rsquo;s features to make it more modular:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>BuddyPress is a large plugin with optional components (3MB zipped). There&rsquo;s a proposal to reconstitute BuddyPress as core + members only and improved upon with new functionalities and API&rsquo;s among others for new BP plugins to hook into. The current optional components like groups, friends, private messaging, etc. can be migrated into separate plugins which can be activated as needed. What do you think?</p><p></p></blockquote>



<p>Survey respondents have the opportunity to choose between keeping BuddyPress as is with core + members and optional components, or break it down to put the components into BP plugins. Feedback on this proposal and other important survey questions will help the BP core team know how to prioritize features for the next release and long-term roadmap.</p>



<p></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 18 May 2020 22:06:11 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:17;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:71:"WPTavern: WordPress Theme Review Team Changes Name, Now the Themes Team";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99570";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:185:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-theme-review-team-changes-name-now-the-themes-team?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-theme-review-team-changes-name-now-the-themes-team";s: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:6243:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Last week, the official Theme Review Team (TRT) <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2020/05/12/meeting-notes-tuesday-12-may-2020/">decided to change its name</a>. The re-branding was mostly about fixing a naming mistake for a team with multiple responsibilities outside of reviews. The hope is that it also shifts the public perception about what the team does.</p>



<p>The idea isn&rsquo;t new. The team has tossed the concept of a name change around for a few years. It was always going to become the Themes Team unless another naming idea came around and stole the spotlight.</p>



<p>The original concept of changing the name was about inviting others in. To most, the team had been little more than the gatekeepers to the theme directory. However, its members and the work they do for the community reach beyond that scope. Few know or recognize its role outside of reviewing themes, which makes it tougher to bring people on board.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We realized that we are doing all these theme-related things &mdash; work on Twenty Twenty, coding standards, meta stuff, reviews, helping out with full-site editing in any capacity we can, etc. &mdash; that being just the Theme Review Team just didn&rsquo;t make any sense,&rdquo; said Denis &#381;oljom, the team&rsquo;s automation representative. &ldquo;So we discussed that idea with Josepha [Haden]. In principle, she had nothing against it, so we decided to just go ahead and do the name change.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The team is in the process of renaming some things, such as its <a href="https://github.com/WPTRT/">GitHub organization</a>. It will take a little time to get everything in order.</p>



<p>The Themes Team&rsquo;s primary mission is not changing in terms of reviewing themes. They will continue taking on that role of making sure themes meet coding and security standards, which is a vital and oftentimes thankless task.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We are reviewing themes as usual, but we are more experimenting with full-site editing,&rdquo; said &#381;oljom. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m playing with Gutenberg outside of the editor context in my own projects, so that also gives me a perspective to see what things will change. We are still maintaining the <a href="https://github.com/WPTRT/WPThemeReview">WPThemeReview</a>. <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/theme-check">Theme Check</a> has seen tons of improvements by Carolina [Nymark], which should be merged on .ORG soon. Ari [Stathopoulos] is working on some Gutenberg-related projects. I have the <a href="https://wptavern.com/proposal-to-move-wordpress-theme-review-process-to-github">GitHub review flow</a> that I&rsquo;d like to explore soon.&rdquo;</p>



<p>&#381;oljom recently dropped the <a href="https://github.com/WPTRT/theme-sniffer">Theme Sniffer</a> plugin, which was a useful tool for theme authors to check their theme against the WPThemeReview coding standards. He did not have the help from the larger theme developer community to continue working on it. Developers can still use the CLI to check their themes. The plugin was a nice stepping stone for theme authors who are less savvy at typing commands, but projects live and die based on participation.</p>



<p>The team representatives want to bring new contributors to the team. &ldquo;Reviewing themes is an exhausting and complicated process,&rdquo; said &#381;oljom, &ldquo;and, unfortunately, most people give up very fast.&rdquo; The team also needs fresh blood so that it can rotate through reps. Few people have the necessary experience to fill this role, and the current reps will eventually burn out.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We want to work on more interesting projects that will bring new people who are willing to help with them,&rdquo; said &#381;oljom. &ldquo;Especially around full-site editing that is coming to core soon. It&rsquo;s a big change, and the more contributors we have to help and test things the better.&rdquo;</p>



<h2>The Evolving Team</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Ari Stathopoulos, the theme packages representative, pointed out the elephant in the room. The name of the team represented a public perception issue. In part, the team name did not make an appealing case for a newcomer to join the team. On the other side of the aisle, it meant the team was sometimes left out on the .ORG side of things, such as not being brought in on key decisions that affect themes.</p>



<p>&ldquo;People don&rsquo;t know that we do all the things we do,&rdquo; said Stathopoulos. &ldquo;They believe that all this team does is reviews because that&rsquo;s what the name of the team was. The truth is that if something has to do with themes, we work on it. There are cases that we don&rsquo;t, but that&rsquo;s usually because of miscommunication. People don&rsquo;t think of consulting with &lsquo;reviewers&rsquo; before making changes that have an impact on themes. Hopefully, this re-branding of the team will eventually lead to better communication and understanding. It may take some time, but we&rsquo;ll get there.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The Themes Team is beginning to take on even more responsibility. It has been holding <a href="https://wptavern.com/key-takeaways-from-the-first-future-of-themes-meeting">block-based themes meetings</a> every two weeks in an attempt to keep everyone updated with the rapid theme-related changes happening in the Gutenberg project. The Make Themes blog will also be <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2020/05/15/gutenberg-themes-week-of-may-11-2020/">receiving weekly updates</a> to help those who are unable to attend the meetings and offer another line of communication.</p>



<p>Arguably, the Themes Team will become one of the most important teams over the next year or so. It must bring in new volunteers to help the community transition to a different theme development experience.</p>



<p>&ldquo;There is a definite shift of focus, and future themes should be easier to review, leaving this team more time and energy to focus on actions that will have more impact for the community,&rdquo; said Stathopoulos. &ldquo;So changing the name was not only correcting an old mistake but also paving the way for future actions we want to take.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 18 May 2020 19:29:50 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:18;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:85:"WPTavern: iA Writer Adds Expanded Support for IndieWeb Tools and WordPress Publishing";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99636";s: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:215:"https://wptavern.com/ia-writer-adds-expanded-support-for-indieweb-tools-and-wordpress-publishing?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ia-writer-adds-expanded-support-for-indieweb-tools-and-wordpress-publishing";s: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:2360:"<img />



<p><a href="https://ia.net/">iA Writer</a> has been delighting users with its minimal writing experience for nearly a decade, racking up more than 3 million downloads. The most recent <a href="https://ia.net/writer/blog/new-pdf-preview-better-web-publishing-improved-editing">version 5.5</a> release for Mac and iOS moves the bar higher for competing writing apps with new support for previewing PDFs and improved support for publishing to self-hosted WordPress sites.</p>



<p>In 2019, MacStories selected iA Writer as <a href="https://www.macstories.net/stories/macstories-selects-2019-recognizing-the-best-apps-of-the-year/">App of the Year</a>, describing it as &ldquo;a case study on how to build a desktop-class iOS/iPadOS app in 2019 that understands the traits of each platform while offering an opinionated, sophisticated design at the same time.&rdquo; MacStories&rsquo; writeup details many reasons why the app continues to find success in 2020.</p>



<p>This week&rsquo;s update introduces support for Micropub, which allows users to publish to Micro.blog and other IndieWeb tools. It also expands the availability of the the IndieAuth system for publishing to WordPress. Users are no longer limited to using Jetpack to authenticate their self-hosted sites. </p>



<p>iA Writer users can now use the more lightweight <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/indieauth/">IndieAuth plugin</a> to publish to their self-hosted sites. The plugin acts as an extension to OAuth, allowing the user&rsquo;s website to be their own OAuth server. This option is helpful for iA Writer users who were <a href="https://steven.brokaw.org/posts/ulysses-vs-ia-writer">reluctant to install Jetpack</a> just to hook up their accounts for publishing. </p>



<p>Continued support for WordPress publishing comes as no surprise, not just because of its ubiquity on the web, but also because the <a href="https://ia.net/">iA company website</a> and blog rely on WordPress. </p>



<p>iA Writer 5.5 also improves account management for connected services, allowing for the use and reordering of multiple accounts for WordPress, Medium, Ghost and Micropub. Check out the <a href="https://ia.net/writer/blog/new-pdf-preview-better-web-publishing-improved-editing">release</a> post for a more detailed look at the Mac and iOS-specific updates in this release.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 15 May 2020 21:46:19 +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: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:19;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:92:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 8.1 Includes Block Copying, Testimonials Pattern, and Patterns UI Update";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=99703";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:225:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-8-1-includes-block-copying-testimonials-pattern-and-patterns-ui-update?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gutenberg-8-1-includes-block-copying-testimonials-pattern-and-patterns-ui-update";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6337:"<p class="has-drop-cap">On Wednesday, the Gutenberg team <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/05/13/whats-new-in-gutenberg-13-may/">released version 8.1.0</a> of the plugin. The update includes a new block-copying feature, block pattern search, testimonials pattern, and API changes. The new version does not add a lot of major user-facing changes but improves the experience overall.</p>



<p>The update included two dozen bug fixes and nearly as many enhancements. This release feels more like a solid update that addresses many minor items and nit-picks, such as the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/22082">addition of black and white colors</a> for the default color palette.  The ability to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/21758">paste a document into the post title input</a>, which gets transformed into proper blocks, works great too.</p>



<p>One nice improvement is the ability to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/21779">transform the HTML block to the Code block</a> and vice versa. File this one under <em>why has this not already been possible?</em></p>



<p>If you are following along with the Gutenberg plugin, there are some definite improvements to look forward to in this release, particularly around the block patterns feature.</p>



<h2>Copy Blocks with Ease</h2>



<img />Copying a pullquote block.



<p class="has-drop-cap">Admittedly, this is quickly becoming one of my favorite features of Gutenberg 8.1. The editor toolbar now has a copy button, which allows end-users to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/22214">copy one or more blocks</a> at the click of a button. It is tucked under the &ldquo;more rich text controls&rdquo; dropdown menu.</p>



<p>To use the new copy feature, simply select the block or blocks you want to copy. Then, click the copy button. From that point, the block can be pasted back into the editor.</p>



<p>For theme authors, plugin developers, or anyone who wants to share the code for a block, copying a block also produces the HTML that can be pasted into a text editor. No more switching to the code view of the editor and hunting down the HTML you want to copy. For example, the pullquote copied from the post in the above screenshot produced the following HTML when pasting into my text editor:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>&lt;!-- wp:pullquote {"align":"wide"} --&gt;
&lt;figure class="wp-block-pullquote alignwide"&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class="rtex-highlighter-0"&gt;What has the Duke of Devonshire? The only great instance that I have ever known of the enjoyment of wealth was, that of Jamaica Dawkins...&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/figure&gt;
&lt;!-- /wp:pullquote --&gt;</code></pre>



<p>This should make it easy for developers to copy the code of their custom block patterns.</p>



<h2>Testimonials Pattern</h2>



<img />New pattern for testimonials.



<p class="has-drop-cap">The team added to its growing collection of block patterns with the addition of the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/20894">Testimonials pattern</a>. The new pattern brings the library to eight in total. It is unclear which patterns will launch when the feature lands in WordPress core. It is still under heavy development and is experimental.</p>



<p>The Testimonials pattern is one of the more complex patterns the team has introduced. It is a mix of groups, columns, images, and paragraphs. At points, the blocks are six levels deep.</p>



<p>Overall, it worked well among the various themes I tested it against with custom block styles. Visually, it is not inspiring, at least in comparison to what a good designer can do with a testimonials section, but it is a solid stepping stone on the way to more interesting layouts.</p>



<h2>Inserter UI Adds Search and Titles</h2>



<img />Search for block patterns via the inserter section.



<p class="has-drop-cap">Crossing off two out of three big wish list items from my <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-8-0-merges-block-and-pattern-inserter-adds-inline-formats-and-updates-code-editor">Gutenberg 8.0</a> post, the team added search functionality and reintroduced the pattern titles below each pattern in the inserter. These are major improvements. The only item left on my list is for the team to introduce a categorization system for patterns.</p>



<p>The search box switches from searching for blocks to patterns once clicking on the patterns tab. The one issue is the search label and placeholder reads &ldquo;Search for a block&rdquo; in both instances. Instead, it should read &ldquo;Search for a pattern&rdquo; when searching patterns.</p>



<p>With my wish list nearly fulfilled for block patterns, I have one more item to add. I would like to see the team introduce slash commands to insert patterns. Typing <code>/testimonials</code> should provide users the option to insert the new Testimonials pattern without clicking the inserter button.</p>



<h2>Developers: Block Patterns API Changes</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The Block Patterns API methods of <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/21970">registering and unregistering patterns</a> have changed. In previous versions, developers used the <code>register_pattern()</code> and <code>unregister_pattern()</code> functions. These have been deprecated. Beginning with 8.1.0, developers should update their code to use the <code>register_block_pattern()</code> and <code>unregister_block_pattern()</code> functions.</p>



<p>This API change is welcome. It is needed for clarity. However, this sort of API change, even on an experimental feature, is one of the many things that <a href="https://wptavern.com/where-gutenberg-went-wrong-theme-developer-edition">frustrates developers</a> who are attempting to keep up with the project. It is especially frustrating when the discussion was originally opened when the feature was <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/21074">first merged</a>. Naming things is hard. It is one of the hardest things to do in programming, but good naming schemes can also be the difference between great software and poor software. There should be more careful thought and thorough explanations when these issues pop up in tickets.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 15 May 2020 20:04:15 +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:20;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:66:"WPTavern: Google Patches Critical Vulnerability in Site Kit 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:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=99654";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:177:"https://wptavern.com/google-patches-critical-vulnerability-in-site-kit-plugin?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=google-patches-critical-vulnerability-in-site-kit-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:2865:"<p>In late April Wordfence discovered a critical vulnerability in <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/google-site-kit/">Google&rsquo;s Site Kit plugin for WordPress</a> that would make it possible for any user on the site to gain full access to the Google Search Console without verifying ownership. Google patched the vulnerability and released the fix in version 1.8.0 on May 7, 2020.</p>



<p>Wordfence <a href="https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2020/05/vulnerability-in-google-wordpress-plugin-grants-attacker-search-console-access/">published</a> a timeline of the vulnerability, describing it as a proxySetupURL disclosure: </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>In order to establish the first connection with Site Kit and Google Search Console, the plugin generates a proxySetupURL that is used to redirect a site&rsquo;s administrator to Google OAuth and run the site owner verification process through a proxy. Due to the lack of capability checks on the admin_enqueue_scripts action, the proxySetupURL was displayed as part of the HTML source code of admin pages to any authenticated user accessing the /wp-admin dashboard.</p></blockquote>



<p>The other aspect of the vulnerability is related to the site ownership verification request, which used a registered admin action that was missing capability checks. As a result, any authenticated WordPress user was capable of initiating the request. </p>



<p>Wordfence identified several ways a malicious attacker might use this vulnerability to the detriment of the site&rsquo;s ranking and reputation, including manipulating search engine results, requesting removal of a competitor&rsquo;s URLs from the search engine, modifying sitemaps, viewing performance data, and more.</p>



<p>The security fixes are not detailed in the plugin&rsquo;s <a href="https://github.com/google/site-kit-wp/releases/tag/1.8.0">changelog on GitHub</a>. It does, however, include a note at the top that states, &ldquo;This release includes security fixes. An update is strongly recommended.&rdquo; Google has not published a post to notify users on the <a href="https://sitekit.withgoogle.com/news/">news</a> section of the plugin&rsquo;s official website. Without Wordfence&rsquo;s public disclosure, users may not know about the importance of the update.</p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/google-site-kit/">Google&rsquo;s Site Kit plugin</a> has more than 400,000 active installs, according to WordPress.org. Details of the 1.8.0 update are not available to users in the admin, since the plugin&rsquo;s changelog is hosted on GitHub. There is no way for users to know that the update includes security fixes without clicking through to research. Due to the great deal of sensitive information to which attackers could gain access, users are advised to update the plugin as soon as possible. </p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 14 May 2020 22:39:24 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:21;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:65:"WPTavern: Envato Launches Template Kits Marketplace for Elementor";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99632";s: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:175:"https://wptavern.com/envato-launches-template-kits-marketplace-for-elementor?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=envato-launches-template-kits-marketplace-for-elementor";s: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:6906:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Watch out <a href="https://wptavern.com/block-patterns-will-change-everything">block patterns</a>. There is an old player in town making the hard sell before you have even rolled out of bed. Envato just <a href="https://envato.com/template-kits/">dropped a massive library of template kits</a> for Elementor in your front yard.</p>



<p>Not to worry, the company plans to open things up for the block editor in the future. The <a href="http://elementor.com/">Elementor page builder</a> just makes the most sense right now. It was the first to market. It is mature and has a backing of <a href="https://twitter.com/elemntor/status/1260168009378934785">5 million users</a>, many of whom will be accustomed to commercial upsells, and <a href="https://wptavern.com/elementor-raises-15-million-plans-to-invest-in-the-team-product-and-community">$15 million in recent funding</a>. Financially, it is the smart play. The company can also test the waters of this new category of products before opening it to other page builders and the block editor in a proven market.</p>



<p>Envato, the company behind ThemeForest and other marketplaces for creators, <a href="https://envato.com/blog/template-kits-wordpress-envato/">launched over 200 template kits today</a> to its large audience of end-users and site builders. The kits cover a wide range of niches. Everything from book authors to medical practices to restaurants is covered.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Launching template kits is our latest response to the growing demand for page builders and customers looking for design inspiration that is simple and easy to apply to their website,&rdquo; said Cameron Gough, General Manager of Envato&rsquo;s Content team.</p>



<p>While this is not an official partnership between Envato and Elementor, at least not on paper, it further broadens the appeal of the Elementor page builder. It is sure to spur massive growth beyond its current 5 million users. If there is one thing Envato knows how to do and do well, it is selling products. When we questioned <a href="https://wptavern.com/will-page-builders-remain-competitive-in-the-block-era">whether page builders would be able to compete</a> in the long term with the block editor, the largest third-party theme marketplace is betting at least this one particular page builder can.</p>



<p>The marketplace is completely open. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re encouraging new and existing authors in the Envato community to create their own template kits and upload them,&rdquo; said Gough. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great way to break into this market, especially at this early point.&rdquo;</p>



<p>For site designers who have worked with Elementor, now is a great opportunity to submit a kit. You can set your own price &mdash; most kits range between $15-$30. The great thing is that designers are not responsible for building a full WordPress theme from scratch. Instead, they can essentially create multiple templates with a page builder, bundle them via the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/template-kit-export/">Template Kit &ndash; Export</a> plugin, and cash in.</p>



<p>The interesting aspect here is that people with an eye for design and the skillset to build those designs in Elementor can sell their creations without learning to code.</p>



<h2>What Are Template Kits?</h2>



<div>

</div>Template kits walk-through.



<p>&ldquo;A template kit is a collection of page and block templates or layouts, each with a similar visual style and typically focused on a particular niche,&rdquo; said Gough. &ldquo;See some of the examples in our launch collection like a restaurant, or a gym, or a web/design agency. You could liken it sort of the demo content layer that you can find in some premium themes.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Currently, end-users must have a theme installed that integrates with the Elementor page builder for these template kits to work. After purchasing and downloading a kit, users can simply upload templates to their sites via the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/template-kit-import/">Template Kit &ndash; Import</a> plugin.</p>



<p>Kits are merely a starting point. Users will need to fill in their custom content. They also have the power to change the design through Elementor&rsquo;s built-in tools.</p>



<p>Envato launched the <a href="https://themeforest.net/category/template-kits/elementor">template kits marketplace</a> on its ThemeForest website. The current 200+ kits are broken down into 22 categories, the most popular of which are Business Services, Food and Drink, and Technology Apps.</p>



<ul><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /></li></ul>Example template kit screenshots.



<p>Sales are already starting to roll in on launch day. There are no clear favorites at the moment with the top sellers hitting only two sales thus far. This should change in the coming days and weeks. The highest-priced kits tend to contain dozens of templates. Some kits, like <a href="https://themeforest.net/item/spring-watercolor-and-floral-template-kit/25853973">Spring Watercolor and Floral</a>, contain over 100 in the collection.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We know many WordPress professionals that want a pre-packaged, fully functional website template may continue to favor our existing collection of WordPress themes,&rdquo; said Gough. &ldquo;But we increasingly see customers wanting to develop websites from a page builder foundation rather than a full WordPress theme. For these customers, template kits provide a leg up on design, and it&rsquo;s important we continue to support those changing needs.&rdquo;</p>



<p>For the launch, there is at least one free template kit called <a href="https://themeforest.net/item/saasy-saas-app-landing-page-template-kit/26027930">SaaSy</a>. It is a SaaS and app landing page kit that includes 10 page templates and 26 block templates. It will be available for free until May 31.</p>



<img />SaaSy Template Kit &ndash; <a href="https://themeforest.net/item/saasy-saas-app-landing-page-template-kit/full_screen_preview/26027930">Live Preview</a>



<p>&ldquo;We know that the WordPress world continues to evolve and respond exceptionally well to the changing needs of the wider web design industry, and you only have to look at Gutenberg as one example of how the platform is evolving to meet the increasing demand for easier tools that provide a leg up on website design,&rdquo; said Gough.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Couple this with the strength of page builders such as Elementor and others, plus a vibrant and active community of developers, hosting providers, and more, we think there&rsquo;s never been a better time to provide a new and easier way to bring WordPress websites to life.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 14 May 2020 20:03:10 +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:22;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:114:"WPTavern: WordPress Contributor Andy Fragen Shares His Experience as a Trauma Surgeon During the COVID-19 Pandemic";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99619";s: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:273:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-contributor-andy-fragen-shares-his-experience-as-a-trauma-surgeon-during-the-covid-19-pandemic?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-contributor-andy-fragen-shares-his-experience-as-a-trauma-surgeon-during-the-covid-19-pandemic";s: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:3546:"<img />



<p>Last weekend I had the opportunity to interview <a href="https://thefragens.com/">Andy Fragen</a>, a longtime member of the WordPress community and core contributor. He is also the author of the <a href="https://github.com/afragen/github-updater">GitHub Updater</a> plugin, which allows developers to enable automatic updates to their GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, or Gitea hosted WordPress plugins, themes, and language packs. In the video below, Fragen gives us a window into his world on the frontlines as an acute care surgeon.</p>



<p>After working his shifts at the hospital, Fragen returns home and voluntarily keeps himself in semi-isolation from his wife and kids. He spends his time <a href="https://thefragens.com/plugins/">working on his plugins</a> and contributing to WordPress. In addition to improving GitHub Updater, he also recently became a maintainer for the core Site Health component and the WordPress Beta Tester plugin.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I look at computer programming and stuff like that as puzzle solving,&rdquo; Fragen said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an interesting way to occupy time and figure out something to do. We have a little aphorism in surgery: the enemy of good is better. I don&rsquo;t necessarily stick to that in plugin development, because otherwise we&rsquo;d be at a standstill. Things would never get better and never improve.&rdquo;</p>



<p>During normal times when there isn&rsquo;t a pandemic going on, Fragen enjoys attending local WordCamps in LA, Orange County, Riverside, San Diego, and Phoenix. When he first started getting involved with WordPress he decided if he was ever going to meet any of the people who make the software, he would have to get involved in some community events. He started sponsoring WordCamps so he could have the opportunity to meet the speakers and contributors, and then he was hooked. </p>



<p>When he&rsquo;s not stitching people back together, Fragen can be sometimes be found leading the the core Site Health meeting. He tries to pop into the core development meeting when his schedule permits. </p>



<p>Durning our interview Fragen offered some good tips on navigating the many claims and conspiracy theories that are swirling around with the pandemic. The rampant misinformation campaigns have so far not affected his outlook as a healthcare worker.</p>



<p>&ldquo;For the most part, when we&rsquo;re working, we&rsquo;re working, and we don&rsquo;t necessarily pay attention to all the extraneous things that are going on around,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re in the moment and doing what you need to do to get the work done and take care of the patient.&rdquo;</p>



<p>It has been months since he has been able to hug his wife and kids, but Fragen is maintaining a sense of normal by continuing his hobbies in isolation. Despite the increased requirements for PPE and vigilance at work, he said his training has prepared him for this time.  </p>



<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s amazing what you can get used to,&rdquo; Fragen said. &ldquo;A lot of these things affect people in different ways. For better or for worse, some of these things never bothered me. The training is hard enough. Because of that, you learn to adapt a little bit better, I guess. When there are things happening, as I like to say, &lsquo;If I&rsquo;m having a bad day, someone else is having a worse one.&rsquo; You are there to take care of them and to fix them as best they can be fixed, if they can be fixed.&rdquo;</p>



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

</div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 14 May 2020 05:11:19 +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:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:23;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:64:"Post Status: On static WordPress, with Miriam Schwab of Strattic";s: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=78861";s: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:40:"https://poststatus.com/static-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:1112:"<p>Miriam Schwab is co-founder and CEO of <a href="https://www.strattic.com/">Strattic</a>, a business making a big bet on the future of WordPress — and in particular for using it to create static websites.</p>



<p>They recently <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/26/strattic-raises-6-5m-to-bring-static-wordpress-to-the-masses/">raised </a>$6.5 million dollars in an oversubscribed round. Strattic aims to enable the power and flexibility of a dynamic WordPress website like we all know, with the security and speed of a completely static website.</p>



<p>In this interview, Cory Miller talks to Miriam about her journey to this moment, the Strattic product, raising money, and more.</p>







<h3>Partner: <a href="https://poststatus.com/yoast">Yoast</a></h3>



<p>This episode is brought to you by Yoast, the best WordPress SEO solution, hands down. You can upgrade to Yoast SEO premium, or take advantage of their great bundles that include outstanding training resources so you can fully take advantage of all the awesome tools <a href="https://poststatus.com/yoast">Yoast SEO</a> provides.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 13 May 2020 23:16:43 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:15:"Brian Krogsgard";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:24;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:61:"WPTavern: Where Gutenberg Went Wrong: Theme Developer Edition";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99568";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:165:"https://wptavern.com/where-gutenberg-went-wrong-theme-developer-edition?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=where-gutenberg-went-wrong-theme-developer-edition";s: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:9283:"<img />Themes with block editor styles on WordPress.org.



<p class="has-drop-cap">With full-site editing just around the bend, it is a fair question to ask whether the WordPress ecosystem is prepared for such a transition, particularly on the theme development side of things.</p>



<p>It is no secret that theme developers have struggled to keep up with the barrage of changes between Gutenberg plugin updates and, ultimately, major WordPress versions. It is also a fair question to ask who is steering the ship. Where are the site developers, theme authors, and other designers who spend every day crafting the front end of the web? Where are the forward-thinking solutions that make sure the project maintains backward compatibility?</p>



<p>There have been some efforts to mend the broken divide between the Gutenberg project and theme developers such as the fortnightly <a href="https://wptavern.com/key-takeaways-from-the-first-future-of-themes-meeting">block-based themes meetings</a>. However, those meetings, by and large, are general updates on things the Gutenberg team has already developed or will ship soon. Those meetings are a good stepping stone toward better communication, but the project needs a project planner with both the vision of the future landscape and a sense of the day-to-day issues that theme authors contend with.</p>



<p>The reality is that there are only 132 themes out of 7,455 that list <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/tags/block-styles/">block editor styles</a> as a feature in the official repository. We are a year and a half into the lifespan of the block editor officially merging into WordPress, yet the face of the platform is made up mostly of themes that have shoehorned some basic block styles into mediocre designs. The themes that truly stand out with full block-editor support are few and far between. Many of those are also bidding heavily on Elementor or other page builders.</p>



<p>Whether you like the block editor is of little consequence when there is no buy-in from theme authors. Every week, I check the theme directory for new themes, hoping to find a hidden gem. Every week, I am disappointed to see new themes dropping in 2020 with no support for the block editor. There is an entire segment of users who might enjoy the editor if only they had something more than <a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/twentytwenty/">Twenty Twenty</a> to play around with &mdash; it is a fine theme but is not everyone&rsquo;s <em>cup of tea</em>.</p>



<img />ThemeForest&rsquo;s listing of block-styled themes.



<p>ThemeForest sellers are besting free WordPress.org theme authors 18 to 1 in terms of support with over 2,300 themes listed as <a href="https://themeforest.net/attributes/gutenberg-optimized/yes">Gutenberg-optimized</a>. Granted, themes from the massive marketplace are known to have every feature they can in an attempt to one-up the competition. Also, many of them either have built-in page builders or support third-party solutions.</p>



<p>Still, for the flagship feature of the platform, end-users should expect something more from the official theme directory.  A third-party marketplace should not be the only game in town.  At the moment, much of the offerings on WordPress.org feel lackluster at best. The handful that go the extra mile, such as the <a href="https://wptavern.com/rosa-2-restaurant-theme-provides-a-frustrating-and-satisfying-experience">Rosa 2</a> and <a href="https://wptavern.com/godaddys-go-wordpress-theme-offers-a-page-building-experience-via-the-block-editor">Go</a> themes, have mature businesses funding the effort.</p>



<ul><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /><a href="https://wptavern.com/rosa-2-restaurant-theme-provides-a-frustrating-and-satisfying-experience">Rosa 2 Theme</a></li><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><img /><a href="https://wptavern.com/godaddys-go-wordpress-theme-offers-a-page-building-experience-via-the-block-editor">Go Theme</a></li></ul>



<p>There is some broken trust between theme authors and WordPress at the moment. Some shout it loudly (as folks can attest from WP Tavern comments section). Others are more quietly trying to figure all this out.</p>



<p>Even Carolina Nymark, one of the representatives for the official Themes Team, shared some concern. &ldquo;How do all of you theme authors keep up with the changes to Gutenberg?&rdquo; she <a href="https://twitter.com/carolinapoena/status/1255324873137762306">asked in a tweet</a>. When the team leads are not up to speed, it is not good for the project as a whole.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t,&rdquo; <a href="https://twitter.com/andersnoren/status/1256535507426856960">replied Anders Nor&eacute;n</a>, the primary developer behind Twenty Twenty, to Nymark&rsquo;s question. &ldquo;I wait until something breaks (in the beta releases) and try to fix it then. Trying to support changes in the Gutenberg plugin while maintaining support for the block editor in Core is bad for your health.&rdquo;</p>



<p>There is a major concern from theme authors about the future. It is hard to get excited about the current possibilities when there is uncertainty over what theme development will look like in 12 months. There is no clear and detailed roadmap about how things will work, and many theme designers feel like they are playing catchup from week to week. Instead, they should be able to more clearly look ahead and push early ideas into play.</p>



<p>My ultimate fear is that the Themes Team will one day flip the switch and require all themes going into the directory to support the block editor like it had to do with the <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-org-now-requires-theme-authors-to-use-the-customizer-to-build-theme-options">customizer in 2015</a>. If theme authors do not organically make the transition such a day may come. The team will be stuck as the <em>bad guys</em> in the middle.</p>



<h2>Where Do We Go from Here?</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">It is easy to identify some of the major pain points for theme authors. Changes between updates will inevitably break something with the theme design.</p>



<p>Breaking HTML changes.</p>



<p>Breaking CSS changes.</p>



<p>Missing class names.</p>



<p>Different methods of handling alignment, depending on the block.</p>



<p>Dealing with inline styles after years of being taught to avoid them.</p>



<p>All of these issues are roadblocks for theme authors. And, when things get in the way of theme authors doing their jobs, they trickle down to end-users.</p>



<p>This is not the WordPress of the last decade. The WordPress that promised to not break things with updates. The WordPress where a one-off theme by a non-professional designer still worked four months later.</p>



<p>The Gutenberg project is still in its infancy. It can be fun to play with, but it can also be messy. I am as much of an evangelist for the block editor as anyone, but I can recognize when there is a clear and present issue of trust between theme authors and the developers of the project.</p>



<p>Currently, theme authors who are attempting to cover all of their bases are designing for at least a couple of versions of WordPress, multiple versions of Gutenberg, and the classic editor plugin. It is a dizzying array of testing for one theme. Those with a dozen or more themes&hellip;well, it is not an ideal situation.</p>



<p>A holistic approach needs to be taken toward theme and site design. Theme authors need to see the details of the roadmap and contribute to it, carving the features they see as relevant into stone for the coming years. They need to know that the buttons block design they sweated over for hours this past week will <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/21923">continue working next week</a>.</p>



<p>It all starts at the project management level.</p>



<p>If a breaking HTML change needs to happen, theme authors need more than, &ldquo;X change needs to happen for Y feature to work.&rdquo; They need to see ownership of the mistake in the initial planning phase for X, backward-compatible code solutions, and a path toward fewer of the same mistakes happening.</p>



<p>Theme designers still need some sort of <a href="https://wptavern.com/themes-of-the-future-a-design-framework-and-a-master-theme">design framework</a>. The current utility classes are like a poor man&rsquo;s version of <a href="https://tailwindcss.com/">Tailwind</a> that is being pieced together as the project adds new features without the foresight to look at the future landscape. Maybe the upcoming Global Styles feature can tackle that on a larger scale that provides compatibility across themes.</p>



<p>Ultimately, there needs to be more communication between the Gutenberg team and theme authors who are building themes for the official WordPress theme directory. Perhaps there should even be a new team or sub-team formed focused solely on theming in the block era and working directly with Gutenberg developers to identify pain points. Whatever happens, someone needs to inspire the next generation of themes into being. Until then, most theme authors are stuck wondering what they will need to fix next.</p>



<p><em>Up next: block/plugin development edition?</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 13 May 2020 20:19:28 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:25;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"WPTavern: GitHub Adds Account Successors Feature";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99556";s: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:141:"https://wptavern.com/github-adds-account-successors-feature?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=github-adds-account-successors-feature";s: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:2635:"<p>Yesterday, GitHub added a new setting to user-owned repositories called &ldquo;<a href="https://help.github.com/en/github/setting-up-and-managing-your-github-user-account/maintaining-ownership-continuity-of-your-user-accounts-repositories">Account Successors</a>.&rdquo; It allows users to designate repository access to another user to maintain ownership continuity in the event of any kind of personal disruption.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Open source maintainers, you can now invite a trusted user to manage your open source projects in the event that you are unable to do so yourself,&rdquo; GitHub Senior Product Manager Ben Balter said in an announcement on Twitter. &ldquo;Help ensure the future of your work (and the work of others) by inviting an account successor today.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The new feature can be found under the Settings &raquo; Account &raquo; Successor Settings menu in GitHub.  Successors will not be given the ability to log into accounts but will have the following permissions:  </p>



<ul><li>Archive your public repositories.</li><li>Transfer your public repositories to their own user owned account.</li><li>Transfer your public repositories to an organization where they can create repositories.</li></ul>



<p>Successors cannot be set on a per-project or per-organization basis yet, but Balter said that is something GitHub would like to build.</p>



<p>This new setting complements <a href="https://help.github.com/en/github/site-policy/github-deceased-user-policy">GitHub&rsquo;s Deceased User Policy</a>, in which the company will work with the deceased person&rsquo;s next of kin, a pre-designated successor, or other authorized individual to determine the future of the account.</p>



<p>GitHub began testing the Account Successors feature last week, taking suggestions from the greater community. Public <a href="https://twitter.com/benbalter/status/1258832842857029633">feedback from testers</a> has been positive so far. Users hope not to need the feature anytime soon, though some said it is a real worry they have regarding their projects on GitHub. Setting up a successor is now the easy part, where identifying a trusted individual may prove more difficult for some.</p>



<p>Account Successors is a timely addition to the platform, as the pandemic continues to sweep the globe, although the feature can be useful for many other types of scenarios.  Given the high fevers that can accompany COVID-19 and the rapid decline often associated with the worst outcomes, identifying a successor while still feeling healthy is an important precaution to ensure the continuity of your project.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 12 May 2020 22:51:27 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:26;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:77:"WPTavern: Highlight, Underline, and Control Font Size with RichText Extension";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99566";s: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/highlight-underline-and-control-font-size-with-richtext-extension?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=highlight-underline-and-control-font-size-with-richtext-extension";s: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:3560:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Last week, Tetsuaki Hamano contributed his first plugin to the official WordPress plugin repository. <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/richtext-extension/">RichText Extension</a> grants additional options for inline text in the block editor.</p>



<p>RichText is a component in the editor that allows end-users to add and edit text. Typically, users may think of this component when dealing with paragraphs. However, it also applies to headings, lists, quotes, image captions, and any other area where textual content can be added.</p>



<p>Many plugins add settings on the block level. This means when you apply a particular style, it applies to the entire block. Inline text refers to the individual characters and words within the block. By default, WordPress allows end-users to control inline text by adding links, creating italic or bold characters, changing the text color, and more. <a href="https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-8-0-merges-block-and-pattern-inserter-adds-inline-formats-and-updates-code-editor">Superscript and subscript inline options</a> have already landed in the Gutenberg plugin, which should ship with WordPress 5.5.</p>



<p>RichText Extension extends the editor toolbar to add new options for highlighting, underlining, and changing the font size of inline text. It also adds an option to clear all formatting.</p>



<p>Overall, the plugin is a solid outing for a first-time contributor to the plugin directory. With luck, we will get to see more of Hamano&rsquo;s work in the future.</p>



<h2>Plugin Features</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The primary feature of RichText Extension is its highlighter option, which allows users to highlight text. The plugin adds a paintbrush icon to the toolbar. Once clicked, it opens four highlighting options. By default, users can add a red or yellow marker effect or background directly behind a piece of text. This feature can be useful for adding a bit of flair to make specific words or characters to stand out.</p>



<img />Using the marker highlight in a pullquote.



<p>The plugin also adds a font size option to the toolbar. I am unsure how useful changing the font size for inline text is for the average end-user. Typically, this is best left to the block level. However, there may be some edge cases that others will want to use it for.</p>



<p>Along with the core editor&rsquo;s inline options in the toolbar&rsquo;s dropdown menu, RichText extension adds Clear Format and Underline options. The former allows users to clear all inline formatting. The latter underlines text.</p>



<p>Each of the plugin&rsquo;s features can be configured via the plugin&rsquo;s settings screen. Users can change the highlight colors, their thickness, and transparency. The four available font sizes can be adjusted. It also allows users to enable or disable each feature.</p>



<img />RichText Extension&rsquo;s settings screen.



<p>It would be nice to see the plugin&rsquo;s highlighting and font-size features use the theme-defined color palette and font sizes, respectively. The plugin could further allow users to define custom colors and sizes outside of those added by the theme.</p>



<p>More than anything, I would like to see a fully-featured plugin tackle every conceivable inline text option with the ability to enable or disable each.  This would give end-users ultimate flexibility over how they write their content.  Perhaps RichText Extension can be that plugin in the future.  Otherwise, another developer may step in and do the job.</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, 12 May 2020 19:51:51 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:27;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:83:"WPTavern: WordPress Accessibility Team to Host 24-Hour Online Event October 2, 2020";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99528";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:209:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-accessibility-team-to-host-24-hour-online-event-october-2-2020?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-accessibility-team-to-host-24-hour-online-event-october-2-2020";s: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:2464:"<img />



<p>The WordPress Accessibility Team is organizing a new online event called <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2020/05/07/announcing-the-first-wordpress-accessibility-day/">WP Accessibility Day</a> that will take place on October 2, 2020. The event will feature 24 hours of educational sessions that focus on the intersection between WordPress and web accessibility. </p>



<p>Inspired by the Polyglots&rsquo; Global Translation Day, which greatly <a href="https://wptavern.com/polyglots-team-experiences-record-annual-growth-expands-wordpress-reach-to-millions-with-new-translations">expanded the team&rsquo;s base of contributors</a> and fueled a record number of translations, the Accessibility Team aims to raise awareness about its work. Organizers will be featuring a variety of topics, including theme and plugin accessibility, writing accessible content, accessibility testing, current standards, and more from a diverse group of global speakers.</p>



<p>Accessibility consultant and WordPress contributor Joe Dolson proposed the event use a model similar to the <a href="https://inclusivedesign24.org/2019/">ID24</a> (Inclusive Design 24) conference, with one 30-40 minute talk per hour. This format merges aspects of virtual WordCamps and WordSesh, running a single-track of sessions over the span of 24 hours with live emcees to manage interviews and Q&amp;A segments.</p>



<p>Even though many events are going virtual due to the pandemic, accessibility contributors have been evaluating the possibility of hosting an online-only event <a href="https://wptavern.com/wordpress-contributors-explore-the-possibility-of-a-global-accessibility-event">since mid-2019</a> and have been planning this one since December. The small size of the team and the travel expenses associated with larger WordCamps made it nearly impossible to scale the in-person collaboration happening at events.</p>



<p><a href="https://wpaccessibilityday.org/">WP Accessibility Day</a> has its own website where those who are interested can sign up to be notified about the call for speakers, sponsors, and other news. Organizers and volunteers are meeting in the #accessibility-events channel on WordPress&rsquo;Slack.  They will be discussing the event, along with other accessibility topics, during an online panel on Thursday, May 21st, 2020, for <a href="https://globalaccessibilityawarenessday.org/">Global Accessibility Awareness Day</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:"Mon, 11 May 2020 20:17:04 +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:28;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:66:"WPTavern: Simple Photoblogging with the Instapress WordPress Theme";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99532";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:177:"https://wptavern.com/simple-photoblogging-with-the-instapress-wordpress-theme?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=simple-photoblogging-with-the-instapress-wordpress-theme";s: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:4059:"<p class="has-drop-cap">It is not often that I come across a free WordPress theme that instantly impresses me. Far too often, I spend half an hour or more just getting to know a theme, checking its options, and figuring out how long it will take to recreate something that looks remotely like the demo. However, every now and then I come across one of those diamonds in the rough that makes me a taker a deeper look.</p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/themes/instapress/">Instapress</a> is one of those themes. It is yet another reason I am in favor of a <a href="https://wptavern.com/curated-list-of-featured-themes-coming-to-the-theme-directory">curated featured themes list</a>. These types of unique themes tend to get lost in the crowd, and without the backing of a major company to market them, they usually go unnoticed by most WordPress users.</p>



<p>What drew me to Instapress was its take on presenting posts on the front end. It is a photoblogging theme that is mostly good at showing individual photos but little else. It also has some of the old-school simplicity from the early WordPress theme era.</p>



<p>Instapress is the first and only theme that Anton Lukin has submitted to the official WordPress theme directory. He runs the theme on his <a href="https://lukin.blog/">personal blog</a>, in which he shares photos from the places he travels.</p>



<h2>Beautiful Simplicity</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The theme is truly a photoblogging-only theme. It is not ideal for long-form, textual content or many other types of sites. Fair warning: if your plan is to do anything other than post photos, you should look elsewhere.</p>



<p>This narrow design is what makes the theme stand out. On the blog page and other archive-type pages, the theme presents the featured image with an interesting JSON-style output of the post metadata such as the date, title, and author.</p>



<img />Posts page display from Instapress.



<p>Instapress has a few customizer options. Along with a custom footer description, end-users can decide whether to show the post author and any custom meta in post summaries on blog and archive pages. Custom meta in this sense means all public custom fields, which may not be desirable for everyone, depending on what metadata is assigned to the post. However, it can be useful for photobloggers who include location data, such as latitude and longitude for their posts.</p>



<p>As shown in the following screenshot, Lukin includes the coordinates on his post (<code>latlng</code>):</p>



<img />Custom metadata from <a href="https://lukin.blog/baikal/">Baikal post</a>.



<p>Themes rarely get much simpler than Instapress. It is intentionally lightweight. The stylesheet comes in under 20 kb, which is what any photoblogger should look for in a theme. The theme should not be the bottleneck for page speed on image-heavy websites.</p>



<h2>Areas to Improve</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">While being a fan of the theme, some small things could drastically improve its appeal to end-users. I would not want the theme to add too many extra options. Its simplicity is part of its charm. However, a couple of home/archive views that offer a wider photo layout or grid would add a nice touch without bloating the theme.</p>



<p>Typically, I would deduct massive points for a theme that has no block editor styles, particularly in 2020. It is such a huge user base to leave out. But, the biggest loss for this theme is not taking advantage of the built-in, image-related blocks. They provide theme authors with a ton of design freedom. Throw in a few custom styles and you can do something special for photoblogs. Even just supporting wide and full-width alignment goes a long way in providing users better options for photos.</p>



<p>The other missing piece of the puzzle for this theme is that it has no site title output. End-users can shoehorn it into the nav menu or customizable footer description, but it would be nice to see it as part of the theme header, even if disabled by default.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 11 May 2020 19:52:03 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:29;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:132:"WPTavern: WordCamp Spain 2020 Q&amp;A: Matt Mullenweg Discusses Virtual Events, Decoupled WordPress, and the Future of Page Builders";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99452";s: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:293:"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-spain-2020-qa-matt-mullenweg-discusses-virtual-events-decoupled-wordpress-and-the-future-of-page-builders?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordcamp-spain-2020-qa-matt-mullenweg-discusses-virtual-events-decoupled-wordpress-and-the-future-of-page-builders";s: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:6424:"<p>Matt Mullenweg joined Mat&iacute;as Ventura at WordCamp Spain yesterday for a lively Q&amp;A session. The virtual event drew 5,000 registered users, and attendees came prepared with some thought-provoking questions about the future of WordPress. Here are a few highlights on some recent topics of interest.</p>



<p>WordCamps around the globe have been going virtual, embracing the challenge of keeping communities connected through the screen. Mullenweg shared thoughts on how WordCamps have changed during the pandemic and what might be worthwhile to maintain after things go back to normal:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>WordCamps were always exclusionary. If you couldn&rsquo;t make it to be in a physical point at a physical time, you couldn&rsquo;t be there. Tickets were cheap but travel and other costs could be expensive. To our mission of democratizing publishing, if we could radically open up some of the value of WordCamps, not just the talks because the talks you could always watch later online, but some of that person-to-person connection and relationship-building that would happen at WordCamps &ndash; if we can recreate that online I feel like that could be something that would be amazing for the WordPress community.  I feel like we used our in-person events as a crutch, actually. Because they were so good, and I love them, we overweighted towards them. This time allows us to reflect and also try new things that we might not have been pushed to otherwise. I hope that we don&rsquo;t stop any of these new things. I hope there are more WordCamp events in every language.</p></blockquote>



<p>Large regional events like WordCamp Europe and WordCamp US will be going virtual in the coming months and it will be interesting to see how they work to reproduce the intimate, in-person connections that are often forged at these events. </p>



<p>One of the first questions was regarding <a href="https://wptavern.com/frontity-raises-e1m-with-automattic-and-k-fund">Automattic&rsquo;s recent investment in Frontity</a>.  Does Automattic&rsquo;s interest mean that React might be implemented in the public part of WordPress? Mullenweg highlighted a few of the positive and negative aspects of decoupled WordPress setups but also confirmed that a React frontend is not on the roadmap for core:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>I&rsquo;m excited to be able to support Frontity. Automattic tries to support as many of the WordPress ecosystem companies as possible. If there is a company doing something interesting in WordPress, we would love to invest and support it. In terms of a React theme in default WordPress, I think that to me that stays in plugin and theme territory for the foreseeable future. The downside of that approach is that you lose all the capabilities of the decades of WordPress plugins and themes and integrations and everything when you move to that more decoupled React frontend. I don&rsquo;t know if what you gain is that much better for a normal content website. In fact, so many single page applications in React when they get to version 2 or 3 usually work on server side rendering. We have server side rendering by default, and it&rsquo;s really fast and really good, especially when you layer in AMP or some other things that can speed it up. It can actually be probably the best possible thing for content driven sites, the best practice, versus application driven sites where something like React might be better. If you take a really optimized PHP-served AMP page, performance-wise versus the same thing going through React, it&rsquo;s hard for me to imagine the React page being faster. In fact, I think it would be much slower. That&rsquo;s how I think about the defaults. But for people who are building more advanced applications or have some sort of constraint on their website where they need the React frontend, I think the decoupled use case of WordPress is stronger than ever. I don&rsquo;t know why anyone would use a proprietary backend, like Contentful or something like that, when you have all the open source security, scalability, and robustness of WordPress available in a decoupled infrastructure as well.</p></blockquote>



<p>Ventura noted that just because WordPress uses these technologies in the backend, doesn&rsquo;t mean it has to be used on the frontend as well. Based on these comments, it doesn&rsquo;t seem likely that WordPress will be adopting a React-based default theme anytime in the near future.</p>



<p>The fate of page builders in the Gutenberg era is always a popular topic during Q&amp;A sessions and WordCamp Spain was no exception. The general concern is whether Gutenberg&rsquo;s full site editing capabilities will make these plugins obsolete, but Mullenweg seemed optimistic about WordPress leaving page builders a piece of the market:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>I&rsquo;m really excited for the future of page builders. Before every single page builder would have to do a fair amount of work to recreate their version of blocks. There was a lot of wasted effort with many talented and great developers all over the world essentially rebuilding the wheel or recreating the block over and over. Now that we have these rails in the core of this block infrastructure, it&rsquo;s been widely adopted and implemented with thousands of blocks being created and many more to come, they don&rsquo;t have to create that core fundamental infrastructure and can instead innovate on top of it, because there are so many cool things you can do in page builders that are out of scope of where we want to take Gutenberg.</p></blockquote>



<p>Mullenweg also said he anticipates that page builders that are not built with Gutenberg in mind will likely be used less and less over time. However, it should be reassuring that there will still be a place in the WordPress ecosystem for products that build on top of the core standard.</p>



<p>The Q&amp;A session included many more questions on topics of interest, including when multi-language is coming to core, the future of themes, the present and future of the WP REST API, and what new business options may be coming to the WordPress ecosystem. Check out the recorded session embedded below to find out what Matt and Mat&iacute;as would improve in WordPress if they had a magic wand. </p>



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

</div>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 08 May 2020 22:41:48 +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:30;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:51:"WPTavern: Drag and Drop Nav Menu Items in 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:29:"https://wptavern.com/?p=99477";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:147:"https://wptavern.com/drag-and-drop-nav-menu-items-in-wordpress?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=drag-and-drop-nav-menu-items-in-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:2941:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Earlier this week, Sajjad Hossain Sagor released the first version of his <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/drag-drop-menu-items/">Drag &amp; Drop Menu Items</a> plugin in the WordPress plugin repository. The plugin is a one-off, single-use plugin that does exactly what its name describes &mdash; it allows end-users to drag menu items from the meta boxes on the nav menu screen to the menu they are currently editing.</p>



<p>Sagor is a freelance web developer from Bangladesh. Drag &amp; Drop Menu Items is the latest of his 18 contributions to the free plugin directory.</p>



<p>The plugin is simple in nature and does its one job well. To use it, users merely need to open the Appearance &gt; Menus screen in the WordPress admin. Menu items from the meta boxes under the &ldquo;Add menu items&rdquo; section can then be dragged into the menu under the &ldquo;Menu structure&rdquo; section.</p>



<img />Dragging an item into a custom menu.



<p>When dragging a menu item over, a drop-box appears between each of the existing items in the menu. It is worth noting that you cannot drag items into a sub-menu slot directly from the meta boxes. This is on par with the default functionality and could be a limitation of WordPress. However, sub-menu organization works as usual.</p>



<p>The Drag &amp; Drop Menu Items plugin is limited to the Menus screen in the WordPress admin. It does not work in the customizer, which sports a different interface and method of adding menu items.</p>



<p>The plugin code is minimal and does not appear to have any issues. The additional JavaScript, at less than 4 kb, should not add much weight to the page either.</p>



<p>By default, WordPress requires two mouse clicks to add an item to a menu: one click to tick the checkbox and a button click to add the item. However, the default method also allows users to append multiple items at once.</p>



<p>On the whole, the plugin is a good option for users who prefer the drag-and-drop method of adding items or those who prefer to have both methods at their disposal. It adds a nice touch that would make sense as an existing part of WordPress.</p>



<h2>An Uncertain Future</h2>



<img />Experimental Navigation screen from the Gutenberg plugin.



<p class="has-drop-cap">Eventually, Drag &amp; Drop Menu Items may no longer function. The Gutenberg plugin team has already built an early experimental version of a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/21036">new Navigation screen</a> in the admin. The plan is to incorporate this new screen into core WordPress in the future.</p>



<p>The new screen will work within the block system and likely use the work that has gone into the existing Navigation block. This will provide consistency in how menus are added across the site.</p>



<p>For now, if you would like the ability to drag and drop menu items, this plugin is a solid solution.</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, 08 May 2020 19:15:45 +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:31;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"WPTavern: Bringing Back Blogs in the Age of Social Media Censorship";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99380";s: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:179:"https://wptavern.com/bringing-back-blogs-in-the-age-of-social-media-censorship?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bringing-back-blogs-in-the-age-of-social-media-censorship";s: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:8292:"<p class="is-style-default">You&rsquo;ve probably never heard of Robert B. Strassler. That&rsquo;s OK, you&rsquo;re not alone.</p>



<p>Early in his career, Strassler worked in oil fields, but he always had an interest in&nbsp;<em>the classics</em>&nbsp;(the formal designation for the studies of ancient Greek and Roman civilizations). Eventually, Strassler&rsquo;s hobby became an obsession. He went so far as to author his own translation of Thucydides, the Athenian historian of the Peloponnesian War.</p>



<p>The problem was nobody wanted to read Strassler&rsquo;s book. This was in the 1990s.  It was more difficult to publish to the web and there was no social media. Strassler approached every Ivy League institution he could find. Nobody was interested in reading a manuscript about Thucydides penned by an oilman with no formal credentials. That was the situation until Strassler contacted Victor Davis Hanson, a classicist professor in Fresno, California. Hanson agreed to look at the manuscript and was astounded by Strassler&rsquo;s work: a brilliant, highly readable translation of Thucydides including maps, diagrams, and charts. Hanson helped the disconnected oilman get in touch with a literary agent. Strassler&rsquo;s landmark edition became the standard translation of Thucydides. Still read today, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.amazon.com/Landmark-Thucydides-Comprehensive-Guide-Peloponnesian/dp/0684827905/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=strassler&qid=1588787709&sr=8-4" target="_blank"><em>The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War</em></a> is as successful as any book on the classics can be&mdash;in the age of Twitter.</p>



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



<p>Those of us who take the idea of democratic publishing seriously rejoice at how the field has opened to include anyone who has something to say and is willing to write it down. That&rsquo;s why we should be more alarmed when we see social media companies crowd the spaces once occupied by blogs and do-it-yourself content creators. We see a decline in diverse opinions as the web quickly becomes less free and more autocratic.</p>



<p>How many Robert B. Strasslers are being stifled today by biased algorithms and arbitrary &ldquo;community guidelines&rdquo;?</p>



<p>In March, as COVID-19 exploded into a worldwide panic, the web gatekeepers we&rsquo;ve come to rely on quickly massed around a singular interpretation of events and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/controlling-the-virus-narrative-11584899715">stifled dissenting voices</a>&mdash;even mild ones.</p>



<p>YouTube, the second largest search engine in the world, demonetized all videos that mentioned &ldquo;COVID-19,&rdquo; &ldquo;Coronavirus,&rdquo; or any term related to the pandemic, and herded viewers away from content creators and toward the Center for Disease Control (CDC) &mdash; the same&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/04/01/coronavirus-surgeon-general-says-cdc-asked-review-mask-guidance/5101884002/">CDC that first advised&nbsp;<em>against</em>&nbsp;wearing masks</a>. Even medical practitioners who deviated slightly from the prevailing vision&nbsp;<a href="https://www.turnto23.com/news/coronavirus/video-interview-with-dr-dan-erickson-and-dr-artin-massihi-taken-down-from-youtube">were removed from the platform</a>&nbsp;after gaining millions of views.</p>



<p>Experienced journalists who questioned official decrees (surely, the role journalists are expected to perform) were targeted with hit pieces and character assassination by their own peers.</p>



<p>As author/professor Cal Newport noted in an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-expert-twitter-only-goes-so-far-bring-back-blogs/">op-ed for&nbsp;<em>Wired</em></a>, much of the dissenting viewpoints and on-the-ground data have become part of the mainstream conversation even after being suppressed by a small group of decision-makers: </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>We don&rsquo;t necessarily want to trust engineers at one company to make the decisions about what topics the public should and should not be able to read about.</p></blockquote>



<p>How many times have you clicked on a link in a tweet and received a message as shown in the following screenshot?</p>



<img />Twitter unsafe link warning.



<p>Adults should be trusted to determine what kind of content is harmful (if such a thing exists) without the assistance of Twitter employees and their &ldquo;partners.&rdquo; And, are these warnings actually meant to protect people or simply to shield Twitter from corporate liability? I think we can guess what the answer is.</p>



<p>It&rsquo;s not only those without official-sounding credentials who are being barred from sharing content. Creators who clearly have experience in their fields of study are also facing arbitrary censorship.</p>



<p><a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/" target="_blank">The Great Courses Plus</a>, a streaming service that produces college-level video courses taught by actual professors, was threatened with a ban from Google if they did not remove COVID-19-related content from their app. In an email to subscribers, the team wrote:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Google informed us they would ban The Great Courses apps if we continued to make [Covid-19] in-app content available. We are working with Google to ensure that they understand our content is factual, expert-led, and thoroughly vetted, so that we can remedy this misunderstanding as soon as possible.</p></blockquote>



<p>The videos in question included content from Dr. Roy Benaroch, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Emory University School of Medicine; Dr. David Kung, Professor of Mathematics at St. Mary&rsquo;s College of Maryland; and Dr. Kevin Ahern, Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Oregon State University. How or why these scholars were found unworthy of Google&rsquo;s imprimatur is a mystery. As the public does not presume to give Google programming advice, perhaps Google could return the favor by not pretending to be experts on epidemiology, immunology, and virology.</p>



<p>The only way to see these offending videos is on the <a href="https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Great Courses website</a>, where Google&rsquo;s authority is not absolute. <em>It happens to be a WordPress-powered site.</em> For intellectuals and laymen who value free expression, having your own website is becoming the only way to make sure you can keep it.</p>



<p><strong>The problem of pitting credentials against experience in a zero-sum conflict is fixable, and WordPress is a big part of the solution.</strong></p>



<p>WordPress allows capable scientists, economists, and medical professionals in other fields to write at length about their ideas without fear of being blocked by arbitrary restrictions. Also, the five-minute install (which does take a little more than five minutes for many people) imposes enough of a barrier to entry to discourage cranks. </p>



<p>We like to think of the internet as a true egalitarian system, where every voice is given equal consideration, but deep down we know that&rsquo;s not exactly how it works. Network effects tend to form hubs of concentrated influence around a handful of websites. This isn&rsquo;t always a bad thing. A recipe blog with poor taste and no pictures deserves fewer readers than a blog with great-tasting recipes and high-resolution images.</p>



<p>There is still room enough in the network for certain nodes to grow in size and influence based on the quality of their content. A node with enough backlinks, good organic search rankings, and high-quality content will gain an audience, and be able to keep it, without fear of corporate reprisals or aggressive algorithm updates.</p>



<p>If we really care about democratizing publishing, we won&rsquo;t always like what we read. There will be disagreements, but democracy requires a literate population eager for debate. We can challenge, discuss, and learn.</p>



<p>There are a lot of Robert B. Strasslers out there in the network, waiting patiently to be heard.</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, 08 May 2020 15:41:24 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Chris Maiorana";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:32;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:89:"WPTavern: WP Engine Launches Genesis Pro Add-On for Customers, More Features in the Works";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99440";s: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/wp-engine-launches-genesis-pro-add-on-for-customers-more-features-in-the-works?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wp-engine-launches-genesis-pro-add-on-for-customers-more-features-in-the-works";s: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:6549:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Managed web hosting company WP Engine launched the new <a href="https://studiopress.blog/announcing-genesis-pro/">Genesis Pro add-on</a> for customers of its hosting service today. The add-on brings additional block editor features for users who are using a Genesis-based WordPress theme.</p>



<p>Genesis is a parent theme developed by StudioPress. WP Engine <a href="https://wptavern.com/wp-engine-acquires-studiopress">acquired the theme development company</a> in 2018. Later that year, the company took the first steps toward <a href="https://wptavern.com/genesis-framework-and-studiopress-themes-add-gutenberg-compatibility-more-gutenberg-features-coming-soon">adding compatibility with the block editor</a> for Genesis customers, becoming an early adopter of the new editing experience.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Beyond just being &lsquo;compatible,&rsquo; Genesis will play a big role in being Gutenberg-First,&rdquo; Jason Cohen, CTO of WP Engine, said of future plans nearly two years ago. &ldquo;That means not only supporting the software and ideals of Gutenberg but using them for new features. In doing so, it&rsquo;s our intention to light the way for the countless agencies and developers who use WordPress to fuel incredible digital experiences that are made even easier with Gutenberg.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Today&rsquo;s <a href="https://wpengine.com/genesis-pro">Genesis Pro</a> launch is another step on that journey. WP Engine is currently rolling out the add-on as part of its managed hosting service. The cost is $30/month ($360/year) for an unlimited number of sites.</p>



<p>The current plan is to also make the Genesis Pro plugin available via the StudioPress website in the early summer. The company is not formally committing to that timeframe yet, but users not on WP Engine&rsquo;s hosting service should expect it this year. The price for Genesis Pro will be available for $360/year, which is at the same rate as the hosting add-on.</p>



<p>The reason behind the early launch for web hosting clients seems to be twofold based on the announcement post. David Vogelpohl, VP of Web Strategy for WP Engine, said the company could launch the product faster and increment with the launch for its hosting customers. They are also able to make sure the payment system scales, which StudioPress now uses.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Genesis Pro&rsquo;s capabilities are expressed in a single plugin today, but may be provided in multiple plugins, WP adjacent services, or other means in the future based on architectural decisions of any particular feature,&rdquo; said Vogelpohl.</p>



<p>Watch a quick video on Genesis Pro:</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<div class="embed-vimeo"></div>
</div>



<h2>Genesis Pro Features</h2>



<img />Example layout from the Genesis Pro add-on.



<p class="has-drop-cap">The add-on includes a robust set of options that are primarily aimed at helping users build their webpages with custom blocks and designs. The following features are the foundation of the add-on:</p>



<ul><li><strong>Block Library:</strong> Includes 17 custom blocks, such as a testimonial and pricing block.</li><li><strong>Page Layouts:</strong> Offers 22 full layouts for product, portfolio, team, and other pages.</li><li><strong>Content Sections:</strong> Adds 38 customizable content sections.</li><li><strong>Permissions System:</strong> Allows admins to set editing permissions on a per-block basis.</li><li><strong>Customization:</strong> Users can create and share custom sections and layouts with content creators.</li></ul>



<p>Most of the options seem to be under a pop-up modal on the post-editing screen that should allow users to insert blocks directly into their post or page content. More blocks, sections, layouts, and other content-creation tools are currently in the works.</p>



<img />Layout selector from the Genesis Pro add-on.



<p>The add-on features are mostly standard fare in comparison to many of the block libraries and suites available throughout the WordPress ecosystem. Of course, these will have the StudioPress spin on them and likely be of high quality based if past work is any indication. With the launch out of the way and the foundation in place, it should be much easier for the team to churn out more customization options for end-users.</p>



<p>The most unique feature is probably around the block permissions system, which few companies have truly tackled. For site administrators who work with multiple creators, setting up editing permissions for individual blocks can be useful. If the user experience for this system works well, it will be a huge selling point for some site owners.</p>



<img />Block permissions settings for Genesis Pro.



<h2>Genesis X</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Vogelpohl teased another project the team has been working on titled &ldquo;Genesis X,&rdquo; which is separate from the Genesis Pro project. It is an experimental plugin version of Genesis that will be available to StudioPress customers at no additional charge. The work thus far has centered on what Genesis will look like in a world where full-site editing is available through WordPress itself.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The current version of Genesis X focuses on helping site creators easily manage global styles across their site, customize and manage blocks, as well as other capabilities to help users win with full-site editing in WordPress core,&rdquo; said Vogelpohl. &ldquo;Genesis X is being built core-adjacent and is not a replacement for the block editor. It is designed to work with the block editor.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Vogelpohl said the first objective of the project is to provide analogs for features in Genesis that would not work in a parent theme structure within the full-site editing context. &ldquo;After achieving that parity in ways that make sense, we will be focused on the advanced block capabilities as well as other features currently on our roadmap,&rdquo; he said.</p>



<p>The company is putting a lot of weight and resources behind the transition from pre-block WordPress and the upcoming features that WordPress will offer via the block system. Right now, they have a team of 15 employees working on solutions with Genesis.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The overarching theme is that Genesis X is being architected not to just help the Genesis community adapt to full-site editing in core, but for any user of WordPress to adopt full-site editing in a way that sets them up for the best chance of success,&rdquo; said Vogelpohl.</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, 07 May 2020 20:52:20 +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:33;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:74:"WPTavern: GitHub Introduces Codespaces IDE, Discussions, and Code Scanning";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99374";s: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:189:"https://wptavern.com/github-introduces-codespaces-ide-discussions-and-code-scanning?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=github-introduces-codespaces-ide-discussions-and-code-scanning";s: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:4529:"<p><a href="https://githubsatellite.com/">GitHub Satellite</a>, the company&rsquo;s annual product and community event, went virtual this year for the first time but marched forward with the usual major product announcements.  GitHub is ramping up its offerings with <a href="https://github.blog/2020-05-06-new-from-satellite-2020-github-codespaces-github-discussions-securing-code-in-private-repositories-and-more/">four new products</a>: an IDE, a discussion platform, code scanning, and private instances. </p>



<p><a href="https://github.com/features/codespaces/">Codespaces</a> is the platform&rsquo;s new built-in IDE that lets users code in the browser with minimal setup. The product is based on the VS Code editor and includes terminal access, support for code completion, and extensions: </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Codespaces can be configured to load your code and dependencies, developer tools, extensions, and dotfiles. Switching between environments is simple&mdash;you can navigate away at any time, and when you switch back, your codespace is automatically reopened.</p></blockquote>



<p>The IDE was created to facilitate contribution but it also enables better development on mobile devices. GitHub design lead Joel Califa shared a demo of how he uses Codespaces on his iPad:</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">People have been asking about using Codespaces on the iPad. Here's what it looks like: <a href="https://t.co/5UQHtzMwZh">pic.twitter.com/5UQHtzMwZh</a></p>&mdash; Joel Califa (@notdetails) <a href="https://twitter.com/notdetails/status/1258120708212785154?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 6, 2020</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>GitHub plans to implement a pay-as-you-go pricing model for Codespaces, but it will be free during the limited beta. This product should complement the recent launch of <a href="https://github.com/mobile/">GitHub&rsquo;s mobile apps for iOS and Android</a> in March, which allows users to manage projects, tasks, feedback, and pull requests.</p>



<p>Discussions is a new feature that stands to have a more meaningful impact on open source communities. GitHub issues and pull requests have long been the home of most conversations, but oftentimes this type of collaboration would be better served with features more tailored to a knowledge base. Discussions offer a threaded format where questions can be marked as answered. Participation in discussions counts towards users&rsquo; contribution graphs. GitHub plans to put the feature into beta for public repositories soon.</p>



<img />



<p>GitHub also announced code scanning, powered by CodeQL, a semantic analysis engine trained to find vulnerabilities. When code scanning is enabled, every `git push` is inspected by CodeQL for potential vulnerabilities and the results are displayed in the pull request. Code scanning is free for open source software. </p>



<p>Secret scanning, which has been enabled on public repositories since 2018, is now available for private repositories. It scans code for known secret formats and notifies developers upon finding something. At the beginning. of 2019, GitHub announced that it was giving free users access to <a href="https://wptavern.com/github-announces-free-unlimited-private-repositories">unlimited private repositories</a>.  Adding secret scanning to private repositories is the next natural step, as these have likely grown in number after being added to the free tier.</p>



<p>While many of GitHub&rsquo;s new features are aimed at free users and open source communities, this week&rsquo;s announcements also include a new enterprise product called Private Instances:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Today we introduced our plans for GitHub Private Instances, a new, fully-managed option for our enterprise customers. Private Instances provides enhanced security, compliance, and policy features including bring-your-own-key encryption, backup archiving, and compliance with regional data sovereignty requirements.&nbsp;</p></blockquote>



<p>After Microsoft acquired GitHub for $7.5 billion in 2018, the company has aggressively worked to make its product more compelling in the highly competitive space of code sharing platforms, starting with the free tier. Pricing has not yet been finalized for any of the revenue-generating products announced this week, as GitHub may be testing the waters to gauge the community&rsquo;s reaction before launch.</p>



<p></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, 07 May 2020 14:42:59 +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:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:34;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"WPTavern: Apply to Speak at the JavaScript for WordPress Conference";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99026";s: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:179:"https://wptavern.com/apply-to-speak-at-the-javascript-for-wordpress-conference?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=apply-to-speak-at-the-javascript-for-wordpress-conference";s: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:2066:"<p>The third annual <a href="https://javascriptforwp.com/conference/">JavaScript for WordPress Conference</a> is gearing up for three days of online talks and workshops on July 8-10, 2020. The event is free to attend and organizer Zac Gordon is working to put together a diverse speaker lineup.</p>



<p>Day 1 will be devoted to workshops that help beginners get up and running with JavaScript and React. Day 2 will focus on building Gutenberg blocks and block-based themes. Day 3 will include topics and projects that use WordPress as a Headless CMS.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Last year we did 4 tracks all at once.&rdquo; Gordon said. &ldquo;That was a lot. So this year we&rsquo;re doing two days, one track each day. We decided on Blocks and Headless as our two tracks, because that seems to be where most of the JavaScript development is happening at the moment in the WordPress space.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Previous editions of the conference have pulled in approximately 1,000 viewers, similar to the size of a large WordCamp. Gordon said the event is open for all JavaScript-related topics related to WordPress beyond Gutenberg and headless setups and they are trying to encourage new speakers.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Each year we&rsquo;re trying to do more to have the conference reflect a range of speakers, and this year we&rsquo;re hoping that a few of the brilliant and industrious younger folks coding or building with WordPress might speak,&rdquo; he said.</p>



<p><a href="https://javascriptforwp.com/conference/register/">Registration is free</a> on the event website and <a href="https://javascriptforwp.com/conference/apply-to-speak/">applications for speakers</a> will be open until June 1. </p>



<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure how many speakers we will do exactly, but we will have a few folks leading workshops day one and then maybe 5-8 speakers the two other days,&rdquo; Gordon said. &ldquo;It will be fewer speakers than last year, but hopefully still a lot of quality focused talks. The applications we&rsquo;ve seen come in so far are exciting.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 06 May 2020 21:43:21 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:35;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:88:"WPTavern: ACF Blocks Provides Assortment of Blocks Built from Advanced Custom Fields Pro";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99376";s: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/acf-blocks-provides-assortment-of-blocks-built-from-advanced-custom-fields-pro?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=acf-blocks-provides-assortment-of-blocks-built-from-advanced-custom-fields-pro";s: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:8487:"<p class="has-drop-cap">Over the weekend, Munir Kamal released version 2.0 of his <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/acf-blocks/">ACF Blocks plugin</a>, a project that creates a suite of blocks for the editor. The plugin offers 18 custom blocks in its free version and 15 more in the <a href="https://www.acfblocks.com/pro/">pro upgrade</a>. It is built on top of <a href="https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/pro/">Advanced Custom Fields Pro</a> (ACF Pro).</p>



<p>The latest update of the plugin added support for typography, including options for using various Google Fonts for in-block text. Kamal also included base styling options for design features like margin and padding for every block in the plugin.</p>



<p>With ACF Pro as a hard dependency, it limits the audience of ACF Blocks. In large part, this plugin will be useful for agencies and freelancers who need to quickly build features for clients within their budget. For that purpose, the plugin does a solid job.</p>



<p>The tight coupling with ACF Pro hurts the user experience for the plugin. However, the ideas behind ACF Blocks and its custom options make up for the shortcomings of relying on its dependent parent plugin. Decoupling the two is unlikely, but it would make for a smoother experience and open the plugin to a wider audience.</p>



<p>Kamal took inspiration for the plugin from ACF and its pro version. He described the process of building blocks with the framework &ldquo;super easy,&rdquo; even for an intermediate-level developer. &ldquo;It has been such an amazing WordPress framework for years to create custom fields,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And when [Elliot Condon] announced the block creation feature in ACF, that quickly triggered me to build this collection of ready-to-use ACF Blocks.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The biggest technical limitation is that Kamal cannot build nested blocks, which is a current limitation of ACF. &ldquo;I have already discussed it with [Condon], and he is already working on bringing that functionality hopefully soon,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Once that comes to ACF, we may create more amazing and powerful Gutenberg Blocks.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Watch a short walkthrough of how the plugin works:</p>



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

</div>



<h2>Useful Assortment of Blocks</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">While primarily testing the free version of ACF Blocks, I found that it has several useful blocks that could immediately address common needs for end-users. With 18 free blocks available, users have plenty to work with before deciding whether they want to move along the upgrade path to the pro version.</p>



<p>One of the best blocks in the collection is the Photo Collage block. It is ACF Blocks&rsquo; answer to the core Gallery block. The grid options for this block alone make this plugin worth checking out. The block offers between 2 and 15 grid layouts, depending on the grid option the user selects.</p>



<img />Setting the grid for the Photo Collage block.



<p>My second favorite of the assortment is the Testimonial block. Coupled with the typography options, which are available for all blocks, you can have a lot of fun designing a testimonial section.</p>



<img />Tinkering with Google Fonts in the Testimonial block.



<p>This is a small sampling of what the plugin can do. The Price List block can help restaurant sites set up their menu. The Pricing Box block, particularly when nested into the core Columns block, makes it easy to set up a pricing section with multiple product options. And, the Team block makes it simple to create profile sections on a company&rsquo;s team/about page.</p>



<p>The following blocks are available in the free version (with several more in the pro version):</p>



<ol><li>Scrollable Image Block</li><li>Tab Block</li><li>Toggle Block</li><li>Accordion Block</li><li>Image Slider Block</li><li>Social Sharing Block</li><li>Photo Collage Block</li><li>Posts Block</li><li>Testimonial Block</li><li>Team Block</li><li>Multi Buttons Block</li><li>Pricing Box Block</li><li>Price List Block</li><li>Start Rating Block</li><li>Progress Bar Block</li><li>Counter Number Block</li><li>Click to tweet Block</li><li>Business Hours Block</li></ol>



<p>Kamal&rsquo;s favorite blocks from the overall suite are Image Hotspot, which allows users to set an image background with &ldquo;pointers&rdquo; to pop up content; Before After Image, which lets users compare two images using a sliding bar; and Photo Collage, the plugin&rsquo;s grid-based gallery block. The first two are available only in the pro version of the plugin. The plugin creator said he thinks all the blocks are useful but these were the most fun to build.</p>



<h2>Room for Improvement</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">ACF Blocks is a nice concept. It gets a lot of things right. However, there are minor issues that dampen the experience of working with its blocks. These issues are not insurmountable, and I expect Kamal will address them in upcoming versions based on familiarity with his past work and drive toward building great products for users.</p>



<p>The most immediate issue and likely the simplest to fix is the plugin&rsquo;s styles for left and right margins on every block. The plugin resets these margins to <code>0</code> by default. Depending on the active theme on a site, this could shift the blocks to the edge of the screen instead of the content area on the front end. Some themes use left/right margins to align content. This is not an issue with only ACF Blocks. It is prevalent among plugins with front-end output.</p>



<p>One quick solution for the margin issue is to wrap any of the plugin&rsquo;s blocks within the core Group block. This will put margins back under the theme&rsquo;s control.</p>



<p>Editing block content happens in the block options panel instead of directly in the block. I am unsure if this is a limitation of using the ACF Pro framework or a design decision on Kamal&rsquo;s part. It feels odd to jump between editing content in the content area to editing content in the sidebar.</p>



<p>One example of my confusion with block content was with the Photo Collage block. I clicked on the block, hoping to have the media library appear for uploading. Nothing happened. I clicked again because, well, maybe I did not get a good click in that first time. Nothing happened. I eventually found the image upload button under the block&rsquo;s option panel on the right.</p>



<p>Setting block options can feel a little sluggish at times with the block output in the editor not reflecting changes immediately. This is primarily because ACF Blocks relies on the server-side rendering capabilities of ACF Pro. It is unlikely this can be addressed in the blocks plugin. Some users may find the delayed rendering to be tedious when editing multiple options.</p>



<h2>Final Thoughts</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Kamal has put together a useful set of blocks that will help many end-users build sections of content they cannot create out of the box. Between the free and pro versions, there is a total of 33 blocks. The creator is committed to adding more blocks over time based on user feedback. In the immediate future, he plans to keep hacking away at bug fixes and improving the code.</p>



<p>I still feel like how ACF Pro works is a hindrance to how good this plugin could be if built from scratch. With that said, the framework helped make Kamal&rsquo;s plugin a reality. ACF Blocks is a showcase in what is possible via ACF Pro, which should inspire other developers who are looking for solutions built on top of one of the most widely-used frameworks in the WordPress ecosystem.</p>



<p>Kamal understands that some ACF Pro users may try their hands at creating similar blocks but feels like his team&rsquo;s knowledge and dedication to offering support are the most important parts of the equation. &ldquo;ACF Blocks saves time and effort for creating blocks yourself for the most common web design elements,&rdquo; he said.</p>



<p class="is-style-highlight has-white-color has-blue-700-background-color has-text-color has-background text-white bg-blue-700">Note:  this plugin review and feedback were requested by the plugin author. Read our post about <a href="https://wptavern.com/product-reviews-in-the-wordpress-ecosystem-honesty-and-genuine-experiences">honest feedback based on genuine experiences</a> for more information on how reviews are handled.</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, 06 May 2020 20:36:46 +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:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:36;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:51:"WPTavern: Jetpack 8.5 Adds New Podcast Player Block";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99327";s: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:145:"https://wptavern.com/jetack-8-5-adds-new-podcast-player-block?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jetack-8-5-adds-new-podcast-player-block";s: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:3066:"<p><a href="https://jetpack.com/2020/05/05/jetpack-8-5-new-podcast-block/">Jetpack 8.5</a> was released today with a new podcast player block for sharing audio content. Configuring the block is as simple as entering the podcast RSS feed URL. This will automatically bring in the cover art and recent episodes. Block options allow for further customization of the display, including the number of episodes, colors, and the ability to show/hide cover art and episode descriptions. </p>



<img />



<p>Jetpack&rsquo;s new podcast player has arrived just in time, as podcasting has gotten a little boost in recent months due to the large numbers of people under stay-at-home orders. iHeartRadio, an American audio company with more than 350 podcasts, reports that <a href="https://www.iheartmedia.com/press/new-iheartpodcast-insights-show-increase-listening-more-americans-quarantine-during-covid-19">listenership for its podcasting network is up 6%</a> month-over-month, with California and New York jumping 13% and 8% respectively.  iHeartRadio&rsquo;s insights also showed that certain genres are more popular than others:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>During a time of economic uncertainty, Americans are listening to more business and finance podcasts &ndash; for which downloads and streams are up 78 percent week-over-week among the iHeartRadio Original podcasts. Listeners are also turning to music, entertainment and comedy during this time, where iHeartPodcasts have shown an increase in listening as well.</p></blockquote>



<p>Selling ads and marketing a new podcast may be more of a struggle during this economic downturn, but those with extra time on their hands may have an easier time producing and publishing episodes. Jetpack&rsquo;s new block makes it easy to share your own episodes or podcasts you enjoy from other websites.</p>



<p>The 8.5 release also includes significant improvements to the <a href="https://jetpack.com/2020/04/07/re-introducing-jetpack-search-for-wordpress-sites/">new Search feature</a>, which is powered by Elasticsearch, to provide better indexing and a simpler onboarding experience. </p>



<p>Automattic developer Brandon Kraft published a post today that <a href="https://kraft.blog/2020/05/jetpacks-publicize-now-uses-twitter-cards/">details recent changes to the Publicize feature</a>. In the past, Publicize would attach an image from the post when sending out its automatic tweet to Twitter. This has now been changed for Jetpack and WordPress.com sites so that Publicize no longer attaches a picture but defaults to allowing Twitter to display its Twitter card instead. Developers can use a filter to return the plugin to its previous behavior, if necessary.</p>



<p>Jetpack 8.5 also makes more widgets and embed tools AMP-compatible, expands options for the Revue block, and fixes layout issues with several other blocks. Check out the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/jetpack/#developers">changelog on WordPress.org</a> for a full list of the enhancements and bug fixes.</p>



<p></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, 05 May 2020 23:09:36 +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:37;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:52:"WPTavern: Need to Smile Today? Stay WordPress Strong";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99333";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:147:"https://wptavern.com/need-to-smile-today-stay-wordpress-strong?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=need-to-smile-today-stay-wordpress-strong";s: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:5173:"<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">

</div><strong>Lyrics:</strong> Zack Katz, Jonathan Mann | <strong>Music:</strong> Jonathan Mann<br />Video licensed under&nbsp;<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/">Creative Commons &ndash; Attribution</a>



<p class="has-drop-cap">For the first time, at least 19 people from the WordPress community can literally call themselves WordPress rock stars without it sounding like an outdated marketing gimmick.</p>



<p><a href="https://gravityview.co/">GravityView</a> dropped a community music video and website named <a href="https://wpstrong.org/">WordPress Strong</a> earlier today. It is fun. It is inspirational. It will leave a smile on your face. The video features a wide range of faces, voices, and musical talent from around the planet.</p>



<p>Much of the world is looking for small ways to cope with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Each day is about finding the things we should be thankful for while waiting for life to feel like normal. The WordPress community has been a beacon of hope for many. It has continued providing purpose to people despite their daily lives being upended. This project is one more way to show the strength of our community.</p>



<p>&ldquo;People were scrambling to adjust to the new reality of living in a pandemic, and there was a rush of uncertainty,&rdquo; said Zack Katz, the creator of GravityView, on starting the project. &ldquo;In the middle of all that uncertainty, I felt lucky to be part of the WordPress community: doing what we do, working on an open and thriving platform, with a culture of people who are kind to each other and support each other.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Many GravityView customers began using the plugin to enable COVID-19 responses, such as sites like <a href="https://supportredditch.net/">Support Redditch</a>, which coordinates relief efforts. &ldquo;I sensed a movement of coming together to help each other, and I wanted to get the word out: if you need help, ask the community,&rdquo; said Katz. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re here for you. We&rsquo;ll get through this together.&rdquo;</p>



<p>A total of 19 volunteers contributed to the music video, including WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg. However, the true star of the group was Tracy Apps, the owner of <a href="http://tracyappsdesign.com/">tracy apps design</a>, who laid down the beat on the drums.</p>



<p>&ldquo;It involved asking a lot of people!&rdquo; said Katz of finding willing subjects. &ldquo;I get why people are reluctant. I even waited until the last minute to record my video! Something special happens when people are invited to go beyond their comfort zone, especially when it comes to creative endeavors. It was moving to have the emails come in with their videos. People were willing to share a different part of themselves.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WordPressStrong">#WordPressStrong</a> hashtag is open for anyone to contribute to on Twitter. The project is calling for volunteers to join in on the fun. If you can sing, play an instrument, or dance &mdash; or if you can&rsquo;t &mdash; you can be a part of this movement for our community to become stronger. If nothing else, it will give you something to do to pass the time. Tag yourself doing something and share it. I am certain it will brighten at least one person&rsquo;s day.</p>



<h2>The WordPress Strong Project</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Katz began the project in March. He shared some initial lyric ideas with <a href="https://www.jonathanmann.net/">Jonathan Mann</a> who then wrote and recorded WordPress Strong. The GravityView team reached out to members of the WordPress community and asked them to lend their voices.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I deeply respect [Mann] as a musician and how he exposes himself through his music,&rdquo; said Katz. &ldquo;His album <em>I Used to Love My Body</em> was my soundtrack for last year.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Mann is the voice of the GravityView brand and has previously created a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmUWfA56TqA">song for the product</a>. Katz and Mann also worked on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqdDo_W8CVE">WordPress Wiggle</a> song in 2017.</p>



<p>&ldquo;When creating WordPress Strong, I shared a poem with [Mann] and expressed the tone that I wanted to convey,&rdquo; said Katz. &ldquo;The email had the subject line &lsquo;WordPress Hope Song.&rsquo; He wrote and recorded WordPress Strong, and I think you agree, it&rsquo;s a great WordPress Hope Song.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The plan for the WordPress Strong website goes beyond releasing a song. Katz wants to expand the site to be a place where people from the community can ask and receive help during the pandemic. The team is currently working on a part of the site where community members can request assistance or offer help anonymously.</p>



<p>&ldquo;I was hoping artists of all stripes would be interested in sharing their work on the WordPress Strong website,&rdquo; said Katz. &ldquo;Sharing creativity together empowers us to be vulnerable in our despair as well as our hope. I would like to help foster that.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Tue, 05 May 2020 20:36:58 +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: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:56:"Mark Jaquith: WordPress/Jetpack Driver for Laravel Valet";s: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:40:"http://markjaquith.wordpress.com/?p=7213";s: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:88:"https://markjaquith.wordpress.com/2020/05/05/wordpress-jetpack-driver-for-laravel-valet/";s: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:1082:"<p>Recently I&#8217;ve found myself using <a href="https://laravel.com/docs/valet">Laravel Valet</a> for local PHP development on my Mac. I love how fast and low-maintenance it is.</p>



<p>One thing that is a little tricky about Valet is that you can&#8217;t really write custom Nginx configs. That means that I couldn&#8217;t use my favorite technique of routing missing images to the production site, via Jetpack&#8217;s Site Accelerator (formerly &#8220;Photon&#8221;) CDN.</p>



<p>Normally, when doing local development on a WordPress site, you need three things: the codebase, a copy of the database, and the <code>wp-content/uploads</code> directory. But if you just redirect missing image files to your production site, you don&#8217;t need to laboriously copy all those files and clutter up your local machine.</p>



<p>I found myself really missing that technique today, so I wrote a driver for Laravel Valet that handles it!</p>



<p>You can get it here: <a href="https://github.com/markjaquith/WordPress-Jetpack-Valet-Driver">WordPress Jetpack Valet Driver</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:"Tue, 05 May 2020 19:11:43 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:12:"Mark Jaquith";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:75:"WPTavern: Find My Blocks Plugin Shows All Blocks in Use on a WordPress Site";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=98953";s: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/find-my-blocks-plugin-shows-all-blocks-in-use-on-a-wordpress-site?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=find-my-blocks-plugin-shows-all-blocks-in-use-on-a-wordpress-site";s: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:3144:"<p>How do you know what blocks are in use on a WordPress site?  I recently saw a tweet asking this question in regards to knowing whether it is safe to turn off a plugin. This seems like it could become a common question, especially for those who have hundreds or thousands of blog posts as well as those using WordPress as a CMS.</p>



<div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">How hard would it be to create a plugin that let's me know how many and which blocks I'm using site wide? Sometimes I wonder if I can deactivate a block plugin but I don't know if I'm using a block it provides.</p>&mdash; Nick Hamze (@NickHamze) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickHamze/status/1253343502316064771?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 23, 2020</a></blockquote>
</div>



<p>When looking at content in the editor, it isn&rsquo;t immediately evident which blocks are in use. You can click on the block navigation at the top of the editor, but that will only show you the blocks in use on that particular page. If you have a lot of plugins installed and many pages of content to wade through, figuring out if it&rsquo;s safe to remove a plugin can be a time-consuming process.</p>



<p>Fortunately, there is already a plugin that will give you a quick overview of where blocks are being used on your site. <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/find-my-blocks/">Find My Blocks</a> is the one that was suggested to Nick Hamze in response to the question in his tweet. I had not heard of it before, so I took it for a test drive today. </p>



<p>Find My Blocks is basically a utility plugin that lists the blocks being used on your WordPress site, along with the posts/pages where they are in use. It includes core blocks and blocks from third-party plugins. The plugin&rsquo;s settings also give the option to sort the block menu display alphabetically or by most/least popular.</p>



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



<p>Frontend developer <a href="https://eddysims.com/">Eddy Sims</a> created Find My Blocks to solve one of his own problems and released it on WordPress.org in January. </p>



<p>&ldquo;I was working on a site that required a few custom Gutenberg blocks,&rdquo; Sims said. &ldquo;After a week, updating became a hassle. I didn&rsquo;t know where the blocks were used. Find My Blocks is a plugin I created to hopefully help someone else with this issue.&rdquo; So far it has received several five-star reviews in the plugin directory. </p>



<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been using this plugin to help us figure out where we&rsquo;ve used blocks on pages so we can deprecate them and replace them with shiny new blocks!&rdquo; WordPress developer Tammy Lee said. &ldquo;This plugin makes tracking down blocks really easy! I don&rsquo;t want to think about how much time it would have taken us, otherwise.&rdquo;</p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/find-my-blocks/">Find My Blocks</a> is a plugin you may want to add to your favorites on WordPress.org for the next time you inherit a site that you didn&rsquo;t build, or for cleaning out your own installed plugins.   </p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 04 May 2020 22:54:44 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:40;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"WPTavern: The Future of WordPress: The Block Editor Is Here to Stay";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99271";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:177:"https://wptavern.com/the-future-of-wordpress-the-block-editor-is-here-to-stay?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-future-of-wordpress-the-block-editor-is-here-to-stay";s: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:6577:"<p class="has-drop-cap">It is inevitable that when we publish a story on the Tavern that is remotely related to the block editor or the Gutenberg project, we receive negative comments. Despite sprinting along in its second year as part of core WordPress, there are still those who liken posts on the editor to <em>Soviet-style mind manipulation</em> and <em>propaganda</em> for certain unnamed companies.</p>



<p>It is not all negative. Far more comments are from people who are ecstatic about the current editor and the upcoming features that will expand the block system to other areas of WordPress.</p>



<p>However, I felt the need to address a recent request that we stop covering the block editor. While I cannot speak for our entire staff, there are two simple truths about why I write about blocks.</p>



<h2>Truth #1: Blocks are Here to Stay</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">The block system is not going anywhere. WordPress has moved beyond the point where we should consider the block editor as a separate entity. It is an integral part of WordPress and will eventually touch more and more areas outside of the editing screen.</p>



<p>Frankly, it would be poor journalism to <em>not</em> cover stories related to blocks.</p>



<p>Some of the most exciting things happening in the WordPress ecosystem is around what developers are doing with blocks. Whether it is a <a href="https://wptavern.com/block-a-saurus-embeds-a-side-scrolling-t-rex-game-via-the-block-editor">fun T-rex game</a>, a <a href="https://wptavern.com/godaddys-go-wordpress-theme-offers-a-page-building-experience-via-the-block-editor">block-ready theme</a>, or a team of block developers being <a href="https://wptavern.com/block-lab-team-joins-wp-engine-looks-to-the-future-of-block-building">hired by a major company</a>, there is always something interesting happening in the world of blocks.</p>



<p>Every day, more users are embracing the block editor. Even the percentage of holdouts still running WordPress 4.9, which was the last version without the block editor, is decreasing. Currently, only 12.8% of <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/stats/">WordPress installs</a> are on 4.9.  Nearly 73% are running WordPress 5.0 or newer.  Some of those users are running plugins like Classic Editor, which has maintained a steady growth rate in the neighborhood of 0.5% &ndash; 1.0% in recent months.  Currently, the plugin has over 5 millions installs, which is a drop in the ocean in comparison to total WordPress sites.</p>



<p>At the moment, WordPress.com and self-hosted Jetpack users are creating content via blocks on 44.5 million WordPress sites. Yesterday, those users <a href="https://gutenstats.blog/">wrote 302,000 posts</a> in the block editor.</p>



<p>Blocks are the future of the platform. What we need to do as a community is avoid putting our heads in the sand or railing against the powers-that-be. Instead, we should ask ourselves what we could do to continue improving the system. <em>How can we move forward? How can we present our ideas, even dislikes, in a constructive manner? How can we create better software?</em></p>



<p>Criticism of the editor is fair. Make it constructive so we can dissect and address that criticism. That is an essential part of building great software.</p>



<h2>Truth #2: Love of Blocks</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Believe it or not, I actually love blocks. While I may criticize some decisions about the editor, summoning an internal facepalm emoji at times, this is the most excited I have been about WordPress in years. But, it is not about me. I have enough familiarity with dozens of editors that I can live with even the most mediocre of experiences. And, if I am not satisfied, I can build my own.</p>



<p>What it is about is seeing the face of an inexperienced WordPress user light up for the first time because they <em>get it</em>.</p>



<p>For years, I helped an older family member run an outdoors site. I had no interest in hunting, fishing, or most other topics covered on the blog. However, he was passionate about what he was doing. I wanted to help fuel that passion in any way I could. <em>The problem?</em> He simply never learned how WordPress worked. He never had that lightbulb moment. His face never glowed when he finally figured out how to lay out his content in the editor.</p>



<p>He had big ideas and no way to accomplish them.</p>



<p>At the time, most page builders were little more than shortcode soup, which I knew would eventually mean I would be the one to clean up the mess. There were few options other than the classic editor. My older cousin stuck it out for longer than most. After a few years, he finally let the site go.</p>



<p>Even some of what I would consider the most basic of things were too frustrating for him. It was also frustrating for me because I could not understand why he could never learn what I was teaching.</p>



<p>However, the block editor changed things. He was thinking of starting a new site but was asking about non-WordPress platforms. I spun up a demo install and a basic block-ready theme for him not long ago. Suddenly, this guy who routinely broke links and accidentally made all of his blog post content bold &mdash; twice &mdash; was piecing together media-filled content with few issues. That initial passion that he had all those years ago seemed to come back. Maybe, just maybe, WordPress might now be the CMS for him.</p>



<p>I am fully aware that this is not everyone&rsquo;s experience. However, what I have found working with new and less-than-tech-savvy users is that the block editor is a stepping stone toward them being able to create the sites they want more easily. Right now, those users have far more control over their content than ever before. In the future, they will have that control over their entire site.</p>



<p>When I share a story about blocks, it is because I am excited about them. More so, I want to share that excitement with others who are on this journey. Whether they want something on the <a href="https://wptavern.com/the-wacky-world-of-sorta-brilliants-sorta-fun-block-plugins">wacky and weird</a> side of things or want to <a href="https://wptavern.com/create-custom-patterns-with-the-block-pattern-builder-plugin">build custom patterns</a> for reuse in their posts, I want them to find those tools.</p>



<p>If I am a bit optimistic about the future at times, I will not apologize for that. I look forward to the next block-related story that we have the opportunity to cover here at the Tavern.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 04 May 2020 20:52:38 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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:54:"WordPress.org blog: The Month in WordPress: April 2020";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=8571";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:69:"https://wordpress.org/news/2020/05/the-month-in-wordpress-april-2020/";s: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:8157:"<p>April continued to be a challenging time for the WordPress community, with many under stay-at-home recommendations. However, it was also an exciting month in which we created new ways to connect with and inspire each other! This month, amazing contributors moved more WordCamps online and shipped new releases for WordPress and Gutenberg. For the latest, read on. </p>



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



<h2>WordPress 5.4.1 released</h2>



<p>On April 24th,&nbsp; <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/04/24/wordpress-5-4-1-rc1/">WordPress 5.4.1 Release Candidate 1</a> (RC1) was released for testing, quickly followed by the official <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2020/04/wordpress-5-4-1/">release of WordPress 5.4.1</a> on April 29th. This security release features 17 bug fixes and seven security fixes, so we recommend updating your sites immediately. To download WordPress 5.4.1, visit your Dashboard, click on Updates, then Update Now, or download the latest version directly from WordPress.org. For more information, visit <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2020/04/wordpress-5-4-1/">this post</a>, review the <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?milestone=5.4.1&group=component&col=id&col=summary&col=milestone&col=owner&col=type&col=status&col=priority&order=priority">full list of changes on Trac</a>, or check out the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/wordpress-version/version-5-4-1/">version 5.4.1 HelpHub documentation page</a>.</p>



<p>Want to get involved in building WordPress Core? Follow<a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/"> the Core team blog</a>, and join the #core channel in <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/">the Making WordPress Slack group</a>.</p>



<h2>Gutenberg 7.9 and 8.0 released</h2>



<p>It was another exciting month for Gutenberg, with the release of <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/04/15/whats-new-in-gutenberg-15-april/">7.9</a> and <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/04/29/whats-new-in-gutenberg-29-april/">8.0</a>! Version 7.9 brought new block design tools, three new patterns, and improved block markup. Gutenberg 8.0 continued to refine the new block patterns feature, with additional options for inline formatting, and extending the functionality of the Code Editor. In addition to these new features, both releases included new enhancements and APIs, along with a number of bug fixes, performance improvements, some experiments, and more! You can read all the details about the latest Gutenberg releases in the announcement posts for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/04/15/whats-new-in-gutenberg-15-april/">7.9</a> and <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/04/29/whats-new-in-gutenberg-29-april/">8.0</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Want to get involved in building Gutenberg? Follow <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/">the Core team blog</a>, contribute to <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/">Gutenberg on GitHub</a>, and join the #core-editor channel in <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/chat/">the Making WordPress Slack group</a>.</p>



<h2>BuddyPress 6.0.0</h2>



<p><a href="https://buddypress.org/2020/04/buddypress-6-0-0-beta2/">BuddyPress 6.0.0-beta2</a> was released for testing in mid-April, leading to the <a href="https://buddypress.org/2020/04/buddypress-6-0-0-release-candidate/">BuddyPress 6.0.0 Release Candidate</a>, announced on April 29. This is an important step before&nbsp; the final release of BuddyPress 6.0.0, which is slated for Thursday, May 14. Changes and new features in this release include moving the profile photo and user cover image under the BP Members component, and a new BP Rest API. Additionally, this release will introduce the first round of BuddyPress Blocks! Last, but not least, BuddyPress 6.0.0 will require at least PHP 5.6 and WordPress 4.8.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Want to get involved? <a href="https://buddypress.org/2020/04/buddypress-6-0-0-release-candidate/">Test the 6.0.0-RC here</a>! You can also help by <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/buddypress/dev/">translating BuddyPress into another language</a>, or let the team know of any issues you find, either in <a href="https://buddypress.org/support">the support forums</a> and/or in their <a href="https://buddypress.trac.wordpress.org/">development tracker</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<h2>WordCamp US goes online, apply to speak!</h2>



<p>WordCamp US will <a href="https://2020.us.wordcamp.org/2020/04/30/wordcamp-us-will-be-virtually-awesome/">take place online due to the COVID-19 pandemic</a>. The event still runs from October 27-29, 2020, and will be free to anyone who wishes to attend. The team plans to offer&nbsp; what WCUS has historically brought to the community in person: sessions and workshops, Contributor Day, a hallway track, and of course, State of the Word.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Interested in speaking at WCUS? The <a href="https://2020.us.wordcamp.org/2020/03/16/call-for-speakers-is-now-open/">Call for Speakers</a> is still open! You can apply to speak on the <a href="https://2020.wcus-speakers.org/">speaker application site</a> until May 31, 2020 at 11:59 pm CDT (UTC-5).&nbsp;</p>



<p>Additionally, the <a href="https://2020.us.wordcamp.org/2020/03/23/call-for-cities-for-wcus-2021-2022/">Call for Cities is also open</a>. If your community is interested in hosting WordCamp US in 2021 &amp; 2022, please <a href="https://wordcampcentral.survey.fm/wcus-2021-2022">fill out this application</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<p>For the latest information about WordCamp US, sign up for updates on the <a href="https://2020.us.wordcamp.org/">website</a>, or follow <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WordCampUSA/">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/WordCampUS">Twitter</a>, or <a href="https://www.instagram.com/wordcampus/?hl=en">Instagram</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<h2>WordCamp Europe 2020 goes virtual&nbsp;</h2>



<p>Last month, WordCamp Europe decided to postpone its Porto event to 2021. This April, the WCEU organizing team announced that the <a href="https://2020.europe.wordcamp.org/2020/04/06/wordcamp-europe-2020-is-moving-online/">2020 WordCamp will be online</a>! WordCamp Europe 2020 Online will take place from June 4-6, 2020, and tickets will be free. There will be a <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2020/04/15/wordcamp-europe-2020-contributor-day-update/">virtual Contributor Day</a> on June 4, and then two half days of live-streamed talks and workshops. To participate, get your free ticket <a href="https://2020.europe.wordcamp.org/tickets/">here</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<p>To get the latest news for WordCamp Europe 2020 Online, follow on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WCEurope/">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/wceurope?lang=en">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/wordcampeurope/">LinkedIn</a>, or on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/wceurope/?hl=en">Instagram</a>.&nbsp;</p>



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



<h2>Further Reading</h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/04/08/wordpress-5-5-call-for-tickets/">The WordPress 5.5 release cycle has officially been kicked off with a Call for Tickets</a>.</li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/themes/2020/04/03/proposal-github-theme-review/">Read the proposal for a new GitHub Theme review process.</a>.</li><li><a href="https://wordpress.tv/event/wpblocktalk-april-2020/">Did you miss WPBlockTalk, or want to watch that really interesting session again? All talks are available on WordPress.tv!</a></li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/04/01/feature-plugin-proposal-wp-consent-api/">The Core team has introduced a proposal for a new Consent API as a feature plugin</a>.</li><li><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/updates/2020/04/30/quarterly-updates-q1-2020/">All WordPress contribution teams have reported on their recent work in the first quarterly update of 2020</a>.</li></ul>



<p><em>Have a story that we should include in the next “Month in WordPress” post? Please </em><a href="https://make.wordpress.org/community/month-in-wordpress-submissions/"><em>submit it here</em></a><em>.</em></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 04 May 2020 09:31:22 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:10:"Angela Jin";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:99:"WPTavern: FOSS Responders Group Brings Financial Help to Open Source Ecosystem Affected by COVID-19";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99213";s: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:243:"https://wptavern.com/foss-responders-group-brings-financial-help-to-open-source-ecosystem-affected-by-covid-19?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=foss-responders-group-brings-financial-help-to-open-source-ecosystem-affected-by-covid-19";s: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:2003:"<p>The pandemic has caused economic hardships and upheaval in nearly every industry. Open source communities and contributors have been affected in a myriad of ways &ndash; whether it&rsquo;s a loss of donations, the burden of nonrefundable travel expenses for canceled conferences, or severely diminished business and fundraising opportunities. </p>



<p><a href="https://fossresponders.com/">FOSS Responders</a> is a working group of volunteers that aims to future-proof the open source infrastructure we rely on by helping sustain those who maintain the software. The group&rsquo;s website allows those in need to apply for emergency funds. FOSS Responders is <a href="https://opencollective.com/foss-responders">raising money on Open Collective</a> and 100% of donations go to open source technologists in need. So far the group has an estimated annual budget of $8,145.05. Open Collective is also waiving its platform fees on COVID-19 solidarity collectives until the end of June.</p>



<p>On May 22, FOSS Responders plans to host a <a href="https://opencollective.com/foss-responders/events/virtual-funding-event-q2-2020-4edd1e3a">virtual funding event</a> to provide financial support for organizations affected by the profound economic disruptions caused by the pandemic. Organizers have a $5,000 goal for ticket revenue from general event ticket sales.</p>



<p>In addition to providing emergency funds, the FOSS Responders group is aiming to address non-financial needs. Open source projects that relied heavily on events for fundraising need help amplifying their projects and recruiting volunteers. FOSS Responders is also creating a Resource Center for projects to find tips and tricks on how to manage fully virtual community interactions and events. Anyone with a skill or service to volunteer can get in touch on the <a href="https://fossresponders.com/">FOSS Responders website</a> and the team will work as matchmakers to connect experts with projects that need help.</p>



<p></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, 01 May 2020 23:04:29 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:79:"WPTavern: Block Lab Team Joins WP Engine, Looks to the Future of Block Building";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=98935";s: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/block-lab-team-joins-wp-engine-looks-to-the-future-of-block-building?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=block-lab-team-joins-wp-engine-looks-to-the-future-of-block-building";s: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:5636:"<p class="has-drop-cap is-style-default">The three-person Block Lab team of Luke Carbis, Ryan Kienstra, and Rob Stinson is <a href="https://getblocklab.com/the-block-lab-team-are-joining-wp-engine/">joining WP Engine</a> to work on the company&rsquo;s block editor projects. WP Engine approached the team members after seeing how successful the <a href="https://getblocklab.com/">Block Lab project</a> had grown and made them an offer.  The team will be able to continue building projects with solid financial backing.</p>



<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/block-lab/">Block Lab</a> is a plugin that was created to allow other developers to build blocks without needing to wade through the depths of complex JavaScript programming. It is a way to get your feet wet in the block development pool without diving in head first. The plugin has built a solid reputation based on user reviews. Out of 39 submissions, it has received 38 five-star ratings.</p>



<p>&ldquo;From the start, Block Lab has been our answer to the question of &lsquo;how can I lower the barrier to entry for creating custom blocks,'&rdquo; said Stinson. He said the plugin has done two important things for developers. It has given them an easy-to-use admin interface to work from and a simplified templating experience that is aligned with traditional workflows. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s helped folk who haven&rsquo;t had the time to summit the JS-all-the-things mountain or simply provide those that are looking for a standardized system that does a lot of the heavy lifting for them.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The Block Lab plugin is being phased out, but the team assures that the plugin&rsquo;s current users will not be left in the dust. The plan is to continue supporting the plugin through bug and compatibility fixes for the next year. Pro users will also receive the same support until their license expires. In the long term outlook, the team plans to build a migration path to the new tools they will be building under the WP Engine banner.</p>



<p>Stinson said that the plugin should work well for a long time to come because it was built by Carbis and Kienstra, two of the best engineers he has worked with. However, he stresses that the work they will be doing with WP Engine will exceed anything they have done with Block Lab.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll be working on technology there that is focused on the Block Editor though, and a part of that will be taking what we&rsquo;ve done with Block Lab and introducing the feature set to the WP Engine suite of products,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The alignment will be close and will offer existing Block Lab users an easy migration experience.&rdquo;</p>



<p>While the Block Lab plugin will see an end, the features the team has worked on will live on in some form.</p>



<h2>A New Beginning</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Before taking on roles with WP Engine, each member of the Block Lab team was paying the bills through agency and freelance work. Block Lab was merely a side project they were handling in their free time, but it was slowly growing both in scale and financially.</p>



<p>&ldquo;Getting to a place where we could give it full-time focus was easily two to three years away though,&rdquo; said Stinson, &ldquo;and we have always been incredibly conscious of the things we wanted to be doing with it and how much the time factor was a limitation. With WP Engine, we&rsquo;re equipped to take the product vision we had for Block Lab and basically strap a rocket to it. Not only are we able to devote our full attention, but we also have the incredible support and resources of WP Engine behind us.&rdquo;</p>



<p>Stinson is looking forward to the transition within the state of the current WordPress ecosystem. The team can walk into a fresh beginning with the full weight of a major company behind them. &ldquo;Between the classic way of building with WordPress and this new block-first frontier, being set up right now to build and contribute is incredible!&rdquo; he said.</p>



<p>The team had an existing roadmap and backlog of features they wanted to develop. However, with Block Lab being only a side project, it meant those features would have taken much longer to build. They can now pursue them full time.</p>



<p>&ldquo;We saw what Block Lab has currently as a necessary baseline for a plugin that equipped folks to create custom blocks, but what we have planned and are dreaming about goes so much further,&rdquo; said Stinson. &ldquo;Joining WP Engine unleashes us to chase down that work faster and with more focus. Another really exciting piece of this is that with our focus we are better positioned to offer insights and contribution to the larger block editor project through core and community contributions.&rdquo;</p>



<p>The team now has the opportunity to be a pioneer in the years to come. They have proved they can build a useful tool on top of the block editor. The next step is seeing where they take it and whether they can get more developers to join them into a world of building blocks.</p>



<p>&ldquo;The shift in thinking around how a website is structured towards one that is powered by &lsquo;blocks&rsquo; is a journey that the majority of the WP community is still on,&rdquo; said Stinson. &ldquo;A big part of my vision is having a larger portion of the community up to speed and onboard with this. With more people operating within that zone, more great work and tooling will be produced. By lowering the barrier to entry through Block Lab and what we have planned at WP Engine, it will help to get more people in that zone.&rdquo;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 01 May 2020 17:16:06 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s: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: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:63:"WPTavern: WordCamp US 2020 Goes Online, Cancels In-Person Event";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99149";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:169:"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-us-2020-goes-online-cancels-in-person-event?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordcamp-us-2020-goes-online-cancels-in-person-event";s: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:3758:"<p>WordCamp US 2020 organizers have <a href="https://2020.us.wordcamp.org/2020/04/30/wordcamp-us-will-be-virtually-awesome/">cancelled the in-person event</a> in favor of hosting it as an online-only conference. With more than a million confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. today, 63,000+ deaths, and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/30/health/us-coronavirus-thursday/index.html">31 states set to partially reopen</a> this weekend, the pandemic&rsquo;s trajectory throughout the country has become increasingly uncertain. </p>



<p>Many statewide stay-at-home orders are expiring tomorrow, despite <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/guidelines-call-14-day-drop-cases-reopen-no-state-has-n1194191">no state having met the federal guidelines for reopening</a>. Some businesses are opting to reopen in a limited capacity, but the general populace is still wary of returning to their previous way of life. In the state of Missouri, where WordCamp US was to be hosted in 2020, there will be no limitations on social gatherings as of May 4, as long as individuals maintain social distancing. It&rsquo;s not yet possible to predict what will be happening in the area in October or how it might impact an event with international attendees. </p>



<p>After organizers extended the WCUS speaker application deadline for another 1.5 months on April 17,  it seemed the general disinclination towards traveling and gathering in large groups had already taken hold. Booking hotels and travel arrangements five months in advance is still too much of a gamble for speakers and attendees. </p>



<p>The WCUS organizing team emphasized the longterm health and safety of the WordPress community as their primary concern in today&rsquo;s <a href="https://2020.us.wordcamp.org/2020/04/30/wordcamp-us-will-be-virtually-awesome/">announcement</a> about moving to an online-only event:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>The WCUS organizing team has been working with WordCamp Central and local health authorities to try to make sense of the current COVID-19 pandemic and what it means for our event in St. Louis this October. Throughout this, we have held the longterm health and safety of the WordPress community as the highest priority of our event. To move forward in a way that honors what is best for our community &ndash; both locally and globally &ndash; we have made the hard choice to convert WordCamp US 2020 to an online only event.&nbsp;</p></blockquote>



<p>WCUS will still happen on the originally scheduled dates, October 27th &ndash; 29th. Organizers plan to run sessions, workshops, and a virtual Contributor Day, along with the annual State of the Word address from Matt Mullenweg. They are also putting together a hallway track, some form of swag, and creative ways for attendees to connect, which will be announced at a later date. </p>



<p>WCUS is now free for anyone who wants to attend. Without the necessity to rent a venue, provide lunches, and other physical aspects of the event, sponsorships are easily able to cover the cost of streaming to an unlimited number of attendees. </p>



<p>The <a href="https://2020.wcus-speakers.org/">call for speakers</a> is open until May 31, 2020 at 11:59 pm CDT. WCUS is still accepting sponsorships and will be publishing a set of unique sponsorship packages for the virtual event. Organizers plan to put out a call for volunteers in the near future.  </p>



<p>WordCamp US follows other major regional WordCamps in Asia and Europe that have canceled in-person events due to the pandemic. Several other upcoming WordCamps, including events in Spain, Kent, Denver, and Minneapolis / Saint Paul,&nbsp;have also announced that they are transitioning to online-only events.</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, 30 Apr 2020 22:49:16 +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: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:103:"WPTavern: Gutenberg 8.0 Merges Block and Pattern Inserter, Adds Inline Formats, and Updates Code Editor";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99130";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:247:"https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-8-0-merges-block-and-pattern-inserter-adds-inline-formats-and-updates-code-editor?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=gutenberg-8-0-merges-block-and-pattern-inserter-adds-inline-formats-and-updates-code-editor";s: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:5033:"<p class="has-drop-cap">The team behind the Gutenberg plugin <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/04/29/whats-new-in-gutenberg-29-april/">shipped version 8.0 yesterday</a>. The update adds some nice user-facing changes, including a merged block and pattern inserter, new inline formatting options, and visual changes to the code editor. Over two dozen bug fixes were included in the release, along with several enhancements.</p>



<p>Designers on the project <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/21515">updated the welcome box illustrations</a> to match the current UI. Because the welcome modal should already be dismissed for current users, only new users should see these changes.</p>



<p>For theme authors, the post title and placeholder paragraph text for the block appender will <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/21749">inherit body font styles</a>. Previously, they had specific styles attached to them in the editor. The current downside is that the post title is not an <code>&lt;h1&gt;</code> element so it cannot automatically inherit styles for that element. However, that will change once the post title becomes a true block in the editor.</p>



<p>The editor also now <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/21608">clears centered blocks</a> following a floated block. This is an opinionated design change, but it should not negatively affect most themes. However, theme authors should double-check their theme styles to be sure.</p>



<h2>Updated Block and Pattern Inserter</h2>



<img />Patterns available in the inserter.



<p class="has-drop-cap">The development team <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/20951">added patterns to the existing inserter</a>. Now, both blocks and patterns have an individual tab within a unified interface. This is yet another step in the evolution of the pattern system that should land in core WordPress this year.</p>



<p>Right now, the experience is a two-steps-forward-one-step-back deal. The inserter&rsquo;s behavior has improved and it is great to see patterns merged into it. However, all blocks and patterns are within long lists that require scrolling to dig through. Block categories are no longer tabbed in version 8.0, which is a regression from previous versions. I am certain this will be resolved soon enough, but it is a little frustrating locating a block in the list at the moment.</p>



<p>Merging patterns into the inserter is an ongoing process. There is still a lot of work to do before the final product is polished and included in core WordPress.</p>



<p>The following are some key items that need to be addressed in upcoming versions of Gutenberg:</p>



<ul><li>Patterns should be categorized the same as blocks.</li><li>The block search box should switch to a pattern search box when viewing patterns.</li><li>Pattern titles should be reintroduced in the interface (removed in 8.0).</li></ul>



<p>Of course, there is a host of other minor and major issues the team will need to cover to nail down the user experience. For now, the interface for patterns continues to improve.</p>



<h2>Subscript and Superscript Formats</h2>



<img />Adding superscript text to the editor.



<p class="has-drop-cap">Gutenberg developers added <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/21819">two new inline formatting options</a> to the editor toolbar: subscript and superscript. These options allow users to add text such as X<sub>2</sub> and X<sup>2</sup>.  They work the same as bold, italic, inline code, and other options.</p>



<p>The two formatting options represent their respective inline HTML tags, <code>&lt;sub&gt;</code> for subscript and <code>&lt;sup&gt;</code> for superscript. With the addition of the elements, the toolbar now covers most of the widely-used inline HTML tags. The only other tags that are low on my wish list are <code>&lt;abbr&gt;</code>, <code>&lt;del&gt;</code>, and <code>&lt;ins&gt;</code>, but I could live with those remaining firmly in plugin territory.</p>



<h2>Improved Code Editor</h2>



<img />Updated code-editing view.



<p class="has-drop-cap">The code editor <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/21643">received a much-needed overhaul</a> in the 8.0 update. Everything from the post title to the content is set in a monospace font, and the width of the code editing box spans the editing area. It should be a welcome change for those who need to switch to code view once in a while.</p>



<p>The next step to polishing the code editor (and the HTML block) would be to add syntax highlighting. In the current version, the HTML output is plain text. Given the extra markup that the block editor produces, it can be a bit of a jumbled mess to wade through. Basic syntax highlighting would improve the experience several times over. There is a <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/10423">GitHub ticket</a> for adding the feature, but it has not seen any movement in several months.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 30 Apr 2020 19:48:34 +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:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:76:"WPTavern: WordPress 5.4.1 Addresses 7 Security Issues and Fixes Several Bugs";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=99123";s: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:197:"https://wptavern.com/wordpress-5-4-1-addresses-7-security-issues-and-fixes-several-bugs?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wordpress-5-4-1-addresses-7-security-issues-and-fixes-several-bugs";s: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:5888:"<p class="has-drop-cap">WordPress 5.4.1, <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2020/04/wordpress-5-4-1/">a security and maintenance release</a>, dropped today. The release addresses seven security issues, which were all responsibly disclosed to the WordPress security team. Core developers also included several fixes for code regressions in the previous version 5.4 release and ported bug fixes to the block editor from the Gutenberg plugin.</p>



<p>End-users with automatic updates enabled should begin seeing their sites updated shortly. Other users should update as soon as possible to make sure they are running a version of WordPress with the latest security fixes.</p>



<p>The WordPress support team has published the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/wordpress-version/version-5-4-1/">full release documentation</a> for those who wish to view it.</p>



<p>Security fixes were added to every major version of WordPress from 5.4 back to 3.7.  The following vulnerabilities were addressed:</p>



<ul><li>Password reset tokens were not correctly invalidated.</li><li>Some private posts could be viewed without authentication.</li><li>Two cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities in the customizer.</li><li>XSS issue in the search block.</li><li>XSS issue in the WordPress object cache.</li><li>XSS issue with file uploads.</li><li>XSS issue in the block editor for WordPress 5.4 Release Candidates 1 and 2 (fixed in 5.4 RC5).</li></ul>



<h2>Block Editor Updates</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Several fixes were high priority enough from the Gutenberg plugin to port to the WordPress 5.4.1 release. The biggest user-facing issues were a broken block duplication keyboard shortcut, misaligned buttons blocks, and odd scrolling behavior when attempting to edit text in a long block.</p>



<p>The following is a full list of the issues the development team addressed:</p>



<ul><li>Fixed the <code>Ctrl</code> + <code>Shift</code> + <code>D</code> keyboard shortcut for duplicating a block, which no longer throws an error.</li><li>Adds correct margins when aligning the buttons block left or right.</li><li>Prevents the editor from scrolling to the top when clicking to edit a large block, such as a long list.</li><li>No longer hides the toolbar for plugins that have text inputs in the toolbar.</li><li>Stops a JavaScript crash with the latest posts block when an image has missing dimensions.</li><li>Escapes the HTML class for the RSS and search blocks to prevent malformed markup.</li></ul>



<p>To review the code changes to the block editor in-depth, see the <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pulls?q=is%3Apr+sort%3Aupdated-desc+label%3A%22Backport+to+WP+Core%22+is%3Aclosed">full ticket list</a>.</p>



<h2>Other Core WordPress Changes</h2>



<p class="has-drop-cap">Users who run their browsers in dark mode can rejoice if they also use the core WordPress favicon. The team <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/49798">introduced an updated favicon</a> with a light background so that it no longer washes out. It is a minor fix but makes the famed WordPress logo look more professional.</p>



<p>The heading level, which was previously set to <code>&lt;h3&gt;</code>, has been <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/49838">bumped up one level</a> on the WordPress admin freedoms screen (<code>wp-admin/freedoms.php</code>). This change provides the proper heading level and should help screen-reading users better navigate the page.</p>



<p>For users on the Edge or iOS Safari browsers who <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/49753">could not select files in the media library</a>, it was due to a CSS issue that hid the input. This should no longer be an issue in the new update.</p>



<p>WordPress 5.4.1 addressed some regressions from the previous version. One revolves around posting by email when no post title was added. In that scenario, the <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/49853">email subject should have been used as the title</a>, but this was broken by a code change in WordPress 5.4. For developers, the <code>category_link</code> and <code>tag_link</code> filter hooks were <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/49759">mistakenly deprecated</a> previously and are now once again good to use without throwing a notice.</p>



<p>Plugin developers have a few bug fixes to look forward to. The <code>WP_Site_Health</code> object is now instantiated after the <code>plugins_loaded</code> and <code>after_setup_theme</code> hooks, which means they can perform necessary actions <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/49824">before the site health is checked</a>. The deprecated <code>wp_get_user_request_data()</code> function is now <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/49802">correctly loaded on the front end</a>, which was causing errors with plugins such as BuddyPress.</p>



<p>In a larger design change, plugin authors who <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/49772">add custom content to the privacy policy guide</a> can use more HTML elements. In WordPress 5.4, the guide design was updated to add a white background behind the suggested text. However, the new code only applied to paragraphs. Now, the design supports tables, lists, and other elements that are commonly used. Unordered lists also have bullet points to distinguish them from paragraphs.</p>



<p>The development team fixed two issues with the REST API. The first <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/49645">corrected an issue</a> with the <code>get_item</code> permissions check. The second fixed the <code>_fields</code> filtering. The core code now uses the <code>rest_is_field_included()</code> function to <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/49648">determine which fields to include</a> to permit filtering by nested field properties.</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, 29 Apr 2020 20:39:42 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Justin Tadlock";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i: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:35:"WordPress.org blog: WordPress 5.4.1";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:34:"https://wordpress.org/news/?p=8553";s: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:51:"https://wordpress.org/news/2020/04/wordpress-5-4-1/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:6919:"<p>WordPress 5.4.1 is now available!</p>



<p>This security and maintenance release features 17 <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?milestone=5.4.1&group=component&col=id&col=summary&col=milestone&col=owner&col=type&col=status&col=priority&order=priorityhttps://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?milestone=5.4.1&group=component&col=id&col=summary&col=milestone&col=owner&col=type&col=status&col=priority&order=priority">bug fixes</a> in addition to 7 security fixes. Because this is a <strong>security release</strong>, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. All versions since WordPress 3.7 have also been updated.</p>



<p>WordPress 5.4.1 is a short-cycle security and maintenance release. The next major release will be version 5.5.</p>



<p>You can download WordPress 5.4.1 by downloading from WordPress.org, or visit your Dashboard → Updates and click Update Now.</p>



<p>If you have sites that support automatic background updates, they’ve already started the update process.</p>



<h3>Security Updates</h3>



<p>Seven security issues affect WordPress versions 5.4 and earlier. If you haven’t yet updated to 5.4, all WordPress versions since 3.7 have also been updated to fix the following security issues:</p>



<ul><li>Props to <a href="https://hackerone.com/hijibiji">Muaz Bin Abdus Sattar</a> and <a href="https://hackerone.com/dyennez">Jannes</a> who both independently reported an issue where password reset tokens were not properly invalidated.</li><li>Props to <a href="https://github.com/ka1n4t">ka1n4t</a> for finding an issue where certain private posts can be viewed unauthenticated.</li><li>Props to <a href="https://evanricafort.com/">Evan Ricafort</a> for discovering an XSS issue in the Customizer</li><li>Props to Ben Bidner from the WordPress Security Team who discovered an XSS issue in the search block.</li><li>Props to Nick Daugherty from <a href="https://wpvip.com">WordPress VIP</a> / WordPress Security Team who discovered an XSS issue in <code>wp-object-cache</code>.</li><li>Props to Ronnie Goodrich (<a href="https://hackerone.com/kahoots">Kahoots</a>) and <a href="http://pentestusa.com/">Jason Medeiros</a> who independently reported an XSS issue in file uploads.</li><li>Props to <a href="https://weston.ruter.net/">Weston Ruter</a> for fixing a stored XSS vulnerability in the WordPress customizer.</li><li>Additionally, an authenticated XSS issue in the block editor was discovered by Nguyen The Duc (<a href="https://twitter.com/ducnt_">ducnt</a>) in WordPress 5.4 RC1 and RC2. It was fixed in 5.4 RC5. We wanted to be sure to give credit and thank them for all of their work in making WordPress more secure.</li></ul>



<p>Thank you to all of the reporters for <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/testing/reporting-security-vulnerabilities/">privately disclosing the vulnerabilities</a>. This gave the security team time to fix the vulnerabilities before WordPress sites could be attacked.</p>



<p>For more information, browse the <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?milestone=5.4.1&group=component&col=id&col=summary&col=milestone&col=owner&col=type&col=status&col=priority&order=priority">full list of changes</a> on Trac, or check out the <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/wordpress-version/version-5-4-1/">version 5.4.1 HelpHub documentation page</a>.</p>



<p>In addition to the security researchers mentioned above, thank you to everyone who helped make WordPress 5.4.1 happen:</p>



<p><a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/xknown/">Alex Concha</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/afercia/">Andrea Fercia</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/aduth/">Andrew Duthie</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/azaozz/">Andrew Ozz</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/afragen/">Andy Fragen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/apeatling/">Andy Peatling</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/arnaudbroes/">arnaudbroes</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/chrisvanpatten/">Chris Van Patten</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/talldanwp/">Daniel Richards</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dhrrob/">DhrRob</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dono12/">Dono12</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/dudo/">dudo</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ehtis/">Ehtisham Siddiqui</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ellatrix/">Ella van Durpe</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/garrett-eclipse/">Garrett Hyder</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ianbelanger/">Ian Belanger</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ipstenu/">Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/whyisjake/">Jake Spurlock</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/">Jb Audras</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnbillion/">John Blackbourn</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/johnjamesjacoby/">John James Jacoby</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/desrosj/">Jonathan Desrosiers</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/jorgefilipecosta/">Jorge Costa</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/kadamwhite/">K. Adam White</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/ryelle/">Kelly Choyce-Dwan</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/markrh/">MarkRH</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mattyrob/">mattyrob</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mcsf/">Miguel Fonseca</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/batmoo/">Mohammad Jangda</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/mukesh27/">Mukesh Panchal</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/nickdaugherty/">Nick Daugherty</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/noahtallen/">noahtallen</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pbiron/">Paul Biron</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/westi/">Peter Westwood</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/peterwilsoncc/">Peter Wilson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/pikamander2/">pikamander2</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/r-a-y/">r-a-y</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/youknowriad/">Riad Benguella</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/noisysocks/">Robert Anderson</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/otto42/">Samuel Wood (Otto)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergeybiryukov/">Sergey Biryukov</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sorenbronsted/">Søren Brønsted</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/sstoqnov/">Stanimir Stoyanov</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/isabel_brison/">tellthemachines</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/timothyblynjacobs/">Timothy Jacobs</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/toro_unit/">Toro_Unit (Hiroshi Urabe)</a>, <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/treecutter/">treecutter</a>, and <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/yohannp/">yohannp</a>.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 29 Apr 2020 19:56:47 +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:"Jake Spurlock";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:71:"Akismet: Version 4.1.5 of the Akismet WordPress Plugin is Now Available";s: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:"http://blog.akismet.com/?p=2068";s: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:99:"https://blog.akismet.com/2020/04/29/version-4-1-5-of-the-akismet-wordpress-plugin-is-now-available/";s: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:1339:"Version 4.1.5 of <a href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/akismet/">the Akismet plugin for WordPress</a> is now available. It contains the following changes:

<!-- /wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:list -->
<ul>
 	<li>Based on user feedback, we have dropped the in-admin notice explaining the availability of the &#8220;privacy notice&#8221; option in the AKismet settings screen. The option itself is available, but after displaying the notice for the last 2 years, it is now considered a known fact.</li>
 	<li>Updated the &#8220;Requires at least&#8221; to WP 4.6, based on recommendations from <a href="https://wp-info.org/tools/checkplugini18n.php?slug=akismet" rel="nofollow">https://wp-info.org/tools/checkplugini18n.php?slug=akismet</a></li>
 	<li>Moved older changelog entries to a separate file to keep the size of this readme reasonable, also based on recommendations from <a href="https://wp-info.org/tools/checkplugini18n.php?slug=akismet" rel="nofollow">https://wp-info.org/tools/checkplugini18n.php?slug=akismet</a></li>
</ul>
<!-- /wp:list --><!-- wp:paragraph -->

To upgrade, visit the Updates page of your WordPress dashboard and follow the instructions. If you need to download the plugin zip file directly, links to all versions are available in <a href="http://wordpress.org/plugins/akismet/">the WordPress plugins directory</a>.";s: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, 29 Apr 2020 13:12:48 +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:"Stephane Daury";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:108:"WPTavern: Tectonic Shifts in Retail Industry are Creating Unprecedented Opportunities for Independent Stores";s: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://wptavern.com/?p=98957";s: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:261:"https://wptavern.com/tectonic-shifts-in-retail-industry-are-creating-unprecedented-opportunities-for-independent-stores?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tectonic-shifts-in-retail-industry-are-creating-unprecedented-opportunities-for-independent-stores";s: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:12689:"<p>Major retailers that are part of the critical infrastructure for distributing household essentials, healthcare items, and shelf-stable food, are raking in the cash during this pandemic. While consumer spending at bars, restaurants, and places of entertainment has dropped precipitously, spending at Amazon and Walmart has increased considerably in the past few weeks. The companies cannot hire workers fast enough to meet consumer demand.</p>



<p>According to a report from <a href="https://first.facteus.com/">Facteus,</a> a firm that provides data from billions of transactions from over 1,000 financial services companies, Amazon and Walmart&rsquo;s year-over-year growth recently hit 80% and 18%, respectively in the past few weeks.</p>



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



<p>The pandemic has worked as a catalyst for pre-existing trends, &ldquo;accelerating the retail reckoning,&rdquo; as Derek Thompson predicts in his recent article on how <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/how-pandemic-will-change-face-retail/610738/">The Pandemic Will Change American Retail Forever</a>. Brick and mortar storefronts are rapidly becoming obsolete in a world that is forcibly consigned to shopping from home.</p>



<p>There are still many uncertainties about <em>SARS</em>&ndash;<em>CoV-2</em> and how humanity will safely find its way out of lockdown. Recovery from the virus may not confer long-term immunity and a vaccine may be more than a year away, likely pushing social distancing measures into 2021. Consumer behavior may be forever altered by this experience, as many people may continue to avoid in-person browsing at stores long after the worst is over. </p>



<p class="is-style-highlight">While it might seem like the retail titans are still uncontested in their domination, there are tectonic shifts happening in the retail industry that are giving smaller, independent stores an unprecedented opportunity to gain new customers online. Merchants that can adapt and excel at getting products to a homebound population stand to be the most resilient during this pandemic.</p>



<p>In order to keep up with demand, Amazon has had to delay shipments of non-essential items by up to a month in some cases, prioritizing household basics and medical supplies. Major grocery retailers are <a href="https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/article/coronavirus-impact-online-retail/">competing against one another to hire furloughed workers</a> in order to keep up with the demand for groceries with so many people eating at home. Independent stores that can be found online have the opportunity to step up and fill in the gaps where major retailers cannot meet the demand fast enough.</p>



<p>People are more inclined to support small businesses right now in light of current circumstances. Amazon&rsquo;s severely strained relationship with buyers, sellers, affiliates, and employees is also contributing to consumers&rsquo; eagerness to support independent stores.</p>



<p>On April 21, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/14/amazon-slashes-commission-rates-for-affiliate-program.html">Amazon slashed commission rates</a> nearly in half for most product categories, negatively impacting media companies and publishers that have not diversified their affiliate revenue sources.</p>



<p>Amazon&rsquo;s essential workers are planning to join others from Instacart, Whole Foods, Walmart, Target, and FedEx in <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/04/28/coronavirus-may-1-strike-sickout-amazon-target-whole-foods/">a strike on Friday</a>. They are protesting their employers&rsquo; record corporate profits which they say have come at the expense of workers&rsquo; health and safety. Many consumers have already grappled with a question of conscience in continuing to shop on Amazon after hearing reports of grueling labor conditions for years.</p>



<p>Another major development in the retail industry has come to light as the result of a recent Wall Street Journal investigation, which revealed that <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-scooped-up-data-from-its-own-sellers-to-launch-competing-products-11587650015">Amazon is using data from its sellers to launch competing products</a>. Merchants selling successfully on Amazon are not safe from having their products copied and their businesses effectively cannibalized.</p>



<p>Documents obtained by the WSJ, along with interviews from more than 20 former employees of Amazon&rsquo;s private-label business, described how the marketplace operator uses third-party sellers&rsquo; data to gain a competitive advantage: </p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>In one instance, Amazon employees accessed documents and data about a bestselling car-trunk organizer sold by a third-party vendor. The information included total sales, how much the vendor paid Amazon for marketing and shipping, and how much Amazon made on each sale. Amazon&rsquo;s private-label arm later introduced its own car-trunk organizers.</p></blockquote>



<p>The WSJ expos&eacute; details the great pressure that Amazon executives are under to deliver successful private-label products:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Former executives said they were told frequently by management that Amazon brands should make up more than 10% of retail sales by 2022.&nbsp;Managers of different private-label product categories have been told to create $1 billion businesses for their segments, they said.</p></blockquote>



<p>This practice of launching competing products with access to third-party sellers&rsquo; data has been happening for years but is an especially hostile tactic to employ in a time when Amazon&rsquo;s revenue is skyrocketing and small businesses are struggling to stay afloat. It is a sobering reminder of the value of hosting your own online store and the importance of owning your own data.</p>



<p>There are some positive developments in the industry that should give small business owners confidence in maintaining independence from the dominant forces in online retail. </p>



<p>Wired published an article this week titled <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/coronavirus-book-sales-indie/">The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Changing How People Buy Books</a> by Kate Knibbs. She describes how one indie bookseller&rsquo;s e-commerce startup has found unlikely success in positioning itself as &ldquo;an easy way to buy books online without further enriching Jeff Bezos:&rdquo;</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>Bookshop went from a well-intentioned startup facing an uphill battle to one of the most popular ways to buy books online in a matter of weeks.&nbsp;<em>The</em>&nbsp;<em>New York Times</em>, BuzzFeed, Vox, and&nbsp;<em>The New Republic</em>&nbsp;are all affiliate partners now. Its headcount has doubled in size. Hunter expects to hit $6 million in sales by May, eons ahead of its loftiest projections from January. If the company&rsquo;s performance holds steady, it could do $60 million in sales a year, although Hunter is assuming post-quarantine life will be different. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure that when things open back up, our sales will drop, maybe even cut in half,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;But even then, we&rsquo;re still one of the top 10 bookstores in the US.&rdquo;</p></blockquote>



<p>Yesterday, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/28/shopify-launches-shop-a-new-mobile-shopping-app/">Shopify launched its new Shop app</a>, touting modularized, distributed marketplaces as the future of e-commerce. The app allows shoppers to browse local merchants and make purchases. It provides a new vehicle of exposure for the company&rsquo;s 1m+ merchants on its platform. Businesses do not have to pay to have access to the app, nor do they pay commissions on the sales it generates.</p>



<p>Google is also making it easier for smaller stores to be found on the web by <a href="https://wptavern.com/google-shopping-is-now-open-to-free-product-listings">opening up the Shopping tab to free listings</a> and partnering with WooCommerce, Shopify, and BigCommerce. This essentially gives more free traffic to small businesses whose listings will break up the longstanding dominance of major online retailers in the Shopping tab. </p>



<p>WordPress developers with e-commerce experience have the opportunity to build products and stores that will help traditional brick-and-mortar businesses&nbsp;start selling online quickly, so they can continue to find success in. the brave new world of online-first retail. WordPress has a plethora of plugin options for making e-commerce accessible to store owners, no matter how simple or complex the store&rsquo;s requirements.</p>



<h2>Independent WooCommerce Stores Are Booming</h2>



<p>One user in the WooCommerce community&rsquo;s Facebook group <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/advanced.woocommerce/permalink/3429259367088458/">asked</a> how the coronavirus is impacting members&rsquo; e-commerce stores. Responses were varied based on the types of products that the merchants were selling, but the vast majority of responses from store owners and developers were positive reports of increased sales: </p>



<ul><li>&ldquo;I have a client selling cleaning products. He got several pallets of hand sanitizer in and sold out in a week. He was doing about $2000 in sales a day.&rdquo;</li><li>&ldquo;My client does fruit and veg online. Went from &pound;4k a month trickling along as a side part of his business, to &pound;150k last month and the heading for the same this month.&rdquo;</li><li>&ldquo;We are selling plumbing and home improvement tools and items sales have quadrupled.&rdquo;</li><li>&ldquo;Positive impact. Highest sales for me on my indoor activities niche (puzzles, board games).&rdquo;</li><li>&ldquo;Sales are up more than 1000% &ndash; natural supplements&rdquo;</li><li>&ldquo;Built a cake delivery service to sell slices of cake locally&hellip;&hellip; &pound;4K in a day and sold out. It&rsquo;s crazy.&rdquo;</li><li>&ldquo;800% increase on a niche plant site I host&rdquo;</li><li>&ldquo;Compared to same month last year, up approx 250% (garden products)&rdquo;</li><li>&ldquo;3000% increase during the last month compared to monthly average over the last year. Natural health products&rdquo;</li><li>&ldquo;Our canvas printing site is up 20%&rdquo;</li><li>&ldquo;We are selling more Glass Bongs than ever. People are staying home and getting stoned.&rdquo;</li></ul>



<p>Saad Munir, the CEO of an e-commerce marketing agency, manages 28 stores for their clients with $30-$500k sales per month in various niches. </p>



<p>&ldquo;Some of them are popular brands of their niche,&rdquo; Munir said. &ldquo;We have seen a drop in sales of up to 80% in non-essential and medium luxury products, and a 400% increase in essential products. However, now non-essential and daily-use products have also started getting good sales since everyone is home and sticking to their devices during this social distancing. We also have clients of furniture e-commerce stores. This means high-ticket items. They have even seen increased sales in bedsets, sofas, etc. So, for sure online sales are increasing. We also on-boarded several new clients and most of these stores are in WooCommerce.&rdquo;</p>



<p>In the WooCommerce Help &amp; Share group, one member <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/woohelp/permalink/3028955177330917/">asked for help collating all his orders into one list</a> after his artisan cheese business increased exponentially overnight. Another member <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/woohelp/permalink/3024332674459834/">asked for help optimizing his client&rsquo;s store</a> after their pre-COVID-19 revenue went from less than &pound;1k/month to almost &pound;2k sales per day.</p>



<p>If independent self-hosted stores are able to perform well during this crisis, they have the opportunity to earn customers&rsquo; loyalty for continued business long after social distancing requirements are no longer necessary. It&rsquo;s a unique opportunity that may not have been possible on such an accelerated timeline without this exact set of circumstances.</p>



<p>These recent shifts in online retail are the first cracks in the ice towards a web that is more friendly for smaller, independent stores. The trend towards buying all of life&rsquo;s necessities online has evolved overnight to include a wider spectrum of consumer demographics than ever before. Diverse independent stores are crucial for meeting this demand without losing the unique and varied shopping landscape that the pandemic has forced to be temporarily closed.</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, 29 Apr 2020 08:17:04 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:13:"Sarah Gooding";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}s:4:"type";i:128;s:7:"headers";O:42:"Requests_Utility_CaseInsensitiveDictionary":1:{s:7:"*data";a:8:{s:6:"server";s:5:"nginx";s:4:"date";s:29:"Thu, 28 May 2020 06:53:35 GMT";s:12:"content-type";s:8:"text/xml";s:4:"vary";s:15:"Accept-Encoding";s:13:"last-modified";s:29:"Thu, 28 May 2020 06:30:07 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:"20160220201326";}