Happy Saturday! It’s been a while since I wrote anything here, but I have been busy digging into all things WordPress. Last month I appeared on the WP Builds podcast talking about the WP Feature Notifications project– an attempt to clean up your admin notices and alerts once and for all. It’s my first attempt at contributing to WordPress and it’s been an… interesting education in open source development.
More recently, my focus has been on the future– what will WordPress 6.1 (coming early November) bring to the table? What are the new modern tools coming out of WordPress? Are the trade-offs we’re making in order to build this no-code experience worth it? Here’s a few things I’ve published:
First up, I dig into some of the crazy new JavaScript tools that are available for developers interested in extending WordPress in WordPress’ Secret World of Javascript . This introduces the new “WordPress Data Layer” inside WordPress core. The way I describe it: imagine having a complete UI framework of WordPress components- then combining that with a complete React.js/Redux JavaScript framework hand-tailored to the WordPress REST API.
I then test out an example of those new tools in Recreating the Quick Draft dashboard widget using the WordPress Data Layer . Overall I’m very excited about the potential here, but I’m also realizing that I really need to brush up on my React skills. Wes Bos courses here I come!
Full Site Editing in another area ripe for experimentation. I quickly hit a few roadblocks and documented them in my post Writing a tiny full site editing plugin . That led to a number of interesting conversations in the WordPress community and me writing this longer editorial over on MasterWP: Can WordPress avoid the pitfalls of the no-code revolution?
Finally I’ll be hosting a workshop with Topher DeRosia on Tuesday over at MasterWP titled The Power of WP-CLI . I’ll be giving a beginner’s view of the WordPress command line- based on my own experience as someone who as always a little afraid of the command line . Even if you’re not a WP power-user, there’s probably something in it for you. Hope to see you there!
A few quick links before I go:
- Introducing Ollie, a hub for the next generation of WordPress – Ollie is a thoughtful new blog on modern WordPress block and site editing.
- Cameron Jones shares my pain when he writes Adding A Custom Icon To The Social Links Block Should Not Be This Hard
- Matt Mullenweg talks about the Tumblr’s adult content decisions in Why “Go Nuts, Show Nuts” Doesn’t Work in 2022 . I’d love to see the BDFL of WordPress put that many words together when he makes a controversial decision for WordPress , but alas.
- Gutenberg.10up.com – I think the URL says it all.
- One of my posts was featured in the Tech Roundup for the Week of October 17 from Post Status, but it was the other links that really stuck out.
- Torque Social Hour: Why WordPress devs should use Full Site Editing is a great conversation that brings up a lot of the important questions around the direction of full site editing.
That’s all for now. Have a great week and reach out here or on Twitter to talk about all things WordPress.