[ad_1] WordPress 5.8 “Tatum,” named in honor of jazz pianist Art Tatum, landed earlier today. It is the second major release in 2021. It includes duotone media filters, block-based widgets, theme-related blocks, template editing, and theme JSON file support. The release also ships tons of other notable features, such as support for new Emoji and an Update URI field for plugin authors to offer custom updates. The latest update also drops support for IE11, saying goodbye to the era of Internet Explorer. Matt Mullenweg led the WordPress 5.8 release, which saw contributions from 530 volunteers. The entire release team closed 320 Trac tickets and over 1,500 GitHub pull requests. The official release squad members were: Release Co-Coordinator: Jeffrey Paul Release Co-Coordinator: Jonathan Desrosiers Editor Tech Lead: Riad Benguella Marketing and Communications Lead: Josepha Haden Chomphosy Documentation Lead: Milana Cap Test Lead: Piotrek Boniu Support Lead: Mary Job Duotone and Media Improvements Duotone filter + gradient overlay on a Cover block. The Image and Cover blocks received a new duotone feature. It is a filter that allows users to lay two colors over their media, creating unique effects. The colors overwrite the shadows and highlights of the image or video. Users can use WordPress’s defaults, theme-defined colors, or create their own mixes. WordPress 5.8 also introduces several upgrades to the media library. The development team replaced infinite scrolling with a “load more” button, improving the experience for screen-reader and keyboard users. End-users can now copy media file URLs from the Add New media screen. The latest release offers WebP image format support for the first time, and developers have a new image_editor_output_format filter hook to fine-tune the experience. Block Widgets Widgets screen with a Gallery block in the Footer sidebar. For the first time since the block system launched with WordPress 5.0 nearly three years ago, blocks are no longer confined to the post content editor. Users can now use them in any available sidebar. This is a stepping stone in the Full Site Editing experience that will eventually lead to block themes and the site editor. In the meantime, it is a way for users to begin trying out blocks in new ways. However, those experiences may vary, depending on the active theme. Some older projects may not hold up well with this system. Authors may need to opt-out of the feature. Users who do not want to use block widgets or run into trouble can install the Classic Widgets plugin. Query Loop and Theme Blocks Query Loop pattern inserter: carousel view. The power to create lists, grids, and other designs around a group of posts has long been solely in the wheelhouse of developers. Users had to rely on their themes or specialized plugins to make such changes. This is no longer the case. Users will have the power to create almost any type of post list they want from now and far into the future with the Query Loop block. And, this is just the beginning. WordPress 5.8’s new block is merely an introduction to what will eventually be one of the foundational elements to Full Site Editing in the coming years. As more and more blocks continue to mature, users and theme authors will continue building all sorts of layouts from this simple starting point. The Query Loop block will also be the first introduction of the pattern inserter to many users. This is a new tool that allows users to scroll through block patterns, choose one, and customize. In the future, it will become a more prominent feature. Inserting lists of posts is just scratching the surface. WordPress 5.8 ships a new “Theme” category of blocks for users to play around with. Many of these are primarily for use within the Query Loop, such as the Post* blocks. However, others like Site Title and Site Tagline will be handy in the template editor. Template Editor Creating a custom landing page template. The new template editor provides users with a method of creating reusable templates. And, they do not need a 100% block theme to do it. The feature opens an overlay from the content-editing screen for users to customize their page header, footer, and everything in between. This is essentially a scaled-back version of the upcoming site editor. With 5.8, its primary use case will be for creating custom landing pages. It is a lot of power in the hands of the average user. And, it helps WordPress inch closer to its goal of not only democratizing publishing but also design. The downside to this feature? It is currently opt-in. The active theme must declare support for users to access it. Many will not see it until developers submit updates. Developers: theme.json Support Real-world theme.json file. WordPress 5.8 lets theme authors begin tapping into global styles and settings configuration via the new theme.json system. In the coming years, this will be the foundation of how themers build their projects. Essentially, the new file is a bridge between themes, WordPress, and users, a standardized method of communication that puts them all on the same page. Theme authors define which settings it supports and its default styles. WordPress reflects these via the editing interfaces and on the front end. And, users can overwrite them on a per-block basis or, eventually, through the Global Styles feature. Right now, it is an opt-in feature that both traditional and block themes can utilize. Themers will want to start moving their projects over to using it now that WordPress 5.8 is on the doorstep. 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Continue readingMonthly Archives: July 2021
Strive Content Calendar Review
[ad_1] The Strive Content Calendar for WordPress aims to solve a problem that any content publisher will undoubtedly be familiar with: Managing the entire process of preparing, creating, and scheduling content as simply as possible without having to manage multiple platforms, apps, or endless spreadsheets. Rather than having one tool for planning your content, another for managing deadlines and scheduling, and a third for actually getting that brand new post lined up in the publishing queue, Strive brings all of that -and more- together in a single tool that you can use from within WordPress itself. The intended goal is a much more streamlined and simplified process that is easier to manage, meaning fewer editorial headaches and more time to focus on growing your sites. Does it achieve that goal? Let’s find out in this comprehensive Strive Content Calendar review. Strive Content Calendar Review Strive is a relative newcomer to the world of WordPress, having first hit the market in June of this year and aiming to give other content scheduling tools such as WP Scheduled a serious run for their money. Speaking of money, that’s one of the first things that really attracted us to this tool. The whole thing is available for the fairly low cost of $7 per month all-in. Unlike other WordPress plugins, there’s no upselling, nor are there multiple pricing tiers to choose from. Article Continues Below If you’re anything like us and sometimes find yourself scratching your head as you spend a long time trying to work out which features -and thus, which pricing plan- you actually need, you’ll no doubt appreciate this all-inclusive, one-size-fits-all approach as much as we do. There’s also a free 30-day trial which gives you access to all the features with no need for a credit card to ensure you don’t accidentally forget to cancel and end up paying for something you don’t need. Again, if you’re used to other plugins which offer limited features with their free trials, this is likely to appeal to you. How to Use Strive – Setup and Features So far, so good, but we’ve talked a lot about Strive’s features without actually saying what they are or how the platform actually works, so let’s put it to work on one of our own sites and look at exactly what this new content calendar has to offer. Getting Started With Strive After heading to the pricing page, select ‘Start Free Trial’ and select the payment option you’d prefer if you later decide to go ahead and make Strive your new content calendar. As you’ll see, things get a little cheaper ($5.83 per month) if you opt to pay for a year’s subscription in advance, and even cheaper still if you opt for the $199-lifetime subscription. For those wondering, we did the math: $199 is the same as paying for 2 years and 4 months on the monthly subscription or 2 years and 10 months on the annual subscription. Either way, this isn’t the most important factor to begin with, as you don’t have to pay a penny to get started, and you can always contact Strive later if you change your mind about your payment commitment. With that done, simply enter a few basic contact details, choose whether you want them to send you security and feature updates (usually a good idea), and hit “Start Trial.” Installation When you’ve done that, check your email address, where you’ll find Strive has sent you a download link and activation key to get started. Article Continues Below The plugin downloads to your computer as a Zip file which you can then upload by going to your WordPress dashboard and carrying out the usual three-step process: Go to Plugins – Add new Click Upload plugin Select the plugin from your hard drive and install it. After activating the license key (included in your email) it’s time to get into all of Strive’s features. Strive Features Calendar View The first thing you encounter when you first open Strive is the calendar view which provides an at-a-glance look at all of your upcoming posts and their scheduled publishing date. This makes it infinitely easier to view your current publishing schedule than scrolling through WordPress’ own posts menu and checking the date of each post. Instead, you can immediately see when content is due to go out, giving you a much clearer picture. The best part is that if you’re not happy with the way your schedule is set up, you can simply drag and drop posts around the calendar to a time that’s better suited to you, which is a far easier approach than opening up each post and manually editing the publishing date. Adding New Content If there’s a free date you wish to add content to, doing so is as simple as hoving over that date in the calendar, clicking on the ‘+’ icon, which shows up in the top-left hand corner, and then selecting to either create a brand new post from scratch or take one of your pre-written drafts and schedule it. Editing Posts If you need to make quick edits such as changing the title, slug, or editorial status or adding categories, doing so is as simple as clicking on the post to bring up the quick edit menu. If you need to make edits to the content itself, that’s as simple as hovering over the scheduled post and clicking the edit icon, which appears in the top-right corner. This highly visual style makes managing your entire content schedule much more straightforward, but it’s far from the only feature you’ll find with Strive. Article Continues Below Color Coding Another aspect of the calendar that we love is that each post is color-coded according to its publishing status as follows: Red – Not Started Orange – Currently writing Yellow – Editing Green – completed and ready to go. If you’re managing lots of content and need to be able to quickly see whether or not
Continue readingMakers of TinyMCE Acquire Setka – WP Tavern
[ad_1] Tiny, the makers of TinyMCE, have acquired Setka, a content design and editing platform, for an undisclosed amount. Founders Katya Bazilevskaya, Alexey Ametov, Vasily Esmanov, Roman Khudonogov, and the rest of the Setka team will join Tiny as part of the agreement. Tiny has been tracking an increasing developer demand for rich text editing components, citing 8.1 million TinyMCE downloads (up 77%) and 106 million downloads of rich text editing components in general from NPM in the last 12 months (up 53% YoY). “TinyMCE has typically focused on the average business user or knowledge worker; someone familiar with Microsoft Word or Google Docs,” Tiny founder and CEO Andrew Roberts said. “With Setka, we can now serve professional content creators and designers who want more advanced options.” TinyMCE is used by millions of WordPress users, most visibly in the Classic Editor plugin as well as the Advanced Editor Tools plugin, previously known as TinyMCE Advanced. Advanced Editor Tools adds a “Classic Paragraph” block to the block editor that gives access to the TinyMCE editor with configurable rows and buttons. It provides a stepping stone for those who are not quite ready to switch to the block editor. While Tiny is a widely recognized leader in rich text editing, Setka allows for more interactive content creation with design capabilities for arranging text, images, and other visual elements. It allows users to create and save post templates and easily reuse design elements throughout the WYSIWYG design process. Tiny plans to merge TinyMCE and Setka for a combined platform that will offer more than either product alone. “Modern day content creators are much more ambitious, and Setka allows us to meet more demanding use cases,” Roberts said. “Over time, we envisage a combined editor platform that is both easy to use and powerful.” Setka currently offers integrations for several CMS’s, document management tools, and CRMs, including WordPress, Drupal, Magento, Ghost, Microsoft Sharepoint, and Hubspot. The Setka WordPress plugin integrates with the block editor and provides its own content block that can work together with other blocks on the page. Former CEO Kate Bazilevskaya, who will be assuming the role of director of business development and partnerships at Tiny, said the team intends to focus on the CMS space. “Through an array of integrations, we hope to make this visual building technology more accessible to businesses who already have a CMS in place, yet want more power in their editing tools,” Bazilevskaya said. Like this: Like Loading… [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingWP Engine vs SiteGround for WordPress Hosting: An Honest Comparison
[ad_1] Trying to choose between WP Engine vs SiteGround to host your WordPress site? WP Engine and SiteGround are two of the bigger names in the WordPress hosting space and both offer quality hosting products. However, they do so at different price points and with slightly different features, so you’ll want to make sure you’re picking the right host for your situation. That’s what we’ll help you understand in this post – both hosts can be a good pick; it’s just about matching the right host to your needs and budget. Keep reading to learn whether SiteGround or WP Engine is better for you… WP Engine vs SiteGround Comparison Summary If you’re in a rush, here are the basic conclusions of our comparison: Taking price out of the equation, WP Engine is the overall best host out of these two. However, SiteGround is still a good bit cheaper than WP Engine (though some recent changes have made the gap smaller). Because of its lower prices (and still quality service), SiteGround is probably still the better option for most “regular” WordPress sites including low-traffic blogs, portfolio sites, brochure websites, etc. SiteGround is also better if you’re just launching your first WordPress site because you’ll get everything you need for a cheaper price. For “serious” websites like high-traffic blogs, eCommerce stores, or membership sites, then WP Engine is probably the better choice because it can better stand up to resource-heavy sites and offers useful features that SiteGround doesn’t. Detailed WP Engine vs SiteGround Comparison Now, let’s go more in-depth by comparing SiteGround vs WP Engine in five key areas: Customer satisfaction Features Performance Support Pricing 😊 Customer Satisfaction Let’s kick things off with a basic question – which host has more satisfied customers? When in doubt, the wisdom of the crowds is usually a pretty good starting point. To get a good understanding of how people feel about a host, we aggregated reviews from several different platforms/surveys including Trustpilot, WhoIsHostingThis, CodeinWP’s hosting survey, and Review Signal. We then averaged out the overall rating from each site (this data is current as of April 2021). The idea is to get an overall picture of how people feel about each host. Here’s the overall satisfaction for each host, standardized to a score of 100: Overall ⭐ CodeinWP WhoIsHosting Trustpilot Review Signal WP Engine 84 ⭐ 89 82 88 77 SiteGround 86 ⭐ 86 96 94 68 Overall, that’s pretty dang close, and you can see that customers are about equally as satisfied with WP Engine as they are with SiteGround. The scores are also pretty good in general, which shows that customers at both hosts are pretty happy. Interestingly, though, the scores are moving in opposite directions from when we first collected this data in early 2020. That is, WP Engine has improved from its older 75% while SiteGround has dropped a bit from its older 89% (perhaps because of its pricing changes). ⚙️ Features Now, let’s compare some key features in a table: Feature WP Engine SiteGround Custom hosting dashboard ✅ ✅ WordPress autoinstaller ✅ ✅ Automatic WordPress core updates ✅ ✅ Server-level caching ✅ ✅ Free SSL certificates ✅ ✅ Staging ✅ ✅ Email hosting ❌ ✅ Automatic daily backups ✅ ✅ On-demand backups ✅ ✅ Built-in CDN ✅ ❌ (has a Cloudflare integration) Free migrations ✅ ✅ Safe automatic plugin updates ✅ (higher-tier plans) ❌ Elasticsearch ✅ (eCommerce plans) ❌ Multisite support ✅ (higher-tier plans) ✅ Local development tool ✅ ❌ Pre-installed WP-CLI ✅ ✅ As you can see, the main “feature” advantage that SiteGround has over WP Engine is that SiteGround offers free and unlimited email hosting (e.g. create a you@yoursite.com email address). WP Engine does not offer email hosting, so you’d need to use a third-party service like Google Workspace or MXroute to add email hosting, which is a small added fee. Other than that, WP Engine is the winner in terms of advanced features because it has some useful options such as: A built-in CDN (SiteGround advertises a CDN, but it’s really just a Cloudflare integration). AI-powered safe plugin updates with automatic rollbacks. Elasticsearch, which is great for WooCommerce stores or other search-heavy sites. Multiple staging environments (Staging & Development). Easy local development and push to live hosting with Local. * Not all of these features are available on the entry-level WP Engine plan – more on pricing later. Additionally, one thing that I didn’t add above is that all WP Engine customers get free access to the Genesis Framework and all StudioPress child themes, which is a nice little bonus. 🏎️ Performance To assess a host’s performance, we like to rely on Review Signal’s performance benchmarks as they implement rigorous testing in several different areas. SiteGround is a regular participant in the benchmarks, but WP Engine has unfortunately not participated in the past couple of years. In the 2020 benchmarks, Siteground earned Top Tier status (the highest designation) in both the <$25 and $25-$50 per month tiers. WP Engine last participated in 2018 and only with its enterprise plan, but it also earned Top Tier status in the 2018 benchmarks. Anecdotally, I’ve also tested these hosts several times myself and found that SiteGround offers excellent performance for the money, but WP Engine holds up better in load test situations. Based on their prices, this is kind of what you’d expect. So I would sum it up like this: SiteGround offers good performance for its price and will be plenty fast for most “regular” WordPress sites. For example, low-traffic blogs, portfolio websites, simple brochure websites, etc…all of those will load fast on SiteGround and you won’t benefit that much from WP Engine. WP Engine is better for high-traffic and/or high-resource sites. For example, high-traffic blogs, eCommerce stores, membership sites, etc. 💬 Support Both WP Engine and SiteGround offer 24/7 support on all plans. For WP Engine, you can get support via: Live chat and ticket on all plans. Phone support on the Professional plan and above. SiteGround
Continue readingWhat’s New in WordPress 5.8 • WPShout
[ad_1] Another version of WordPress, 5.8 is about to drop. Like literally it is scheduled to come out tomorrow. You’ve probably seen at least a few headlines about it if you follow WordPress news. And it’s a big one! What particular caught my eyes was this big (and maybe overwhelming) summary of the whole thing over at Kinsta by Carlo Daniele. Unlike the usual “Field Guide” on WordPress.org (this time done very well by Milana Cap), he included lots and lots of screenshots. Which I think is really helpful, because all the recent changes to widgets (make them actually block areas) and the first time we’ll have “Full-Site Editing” features in WordPress core requires a great deal of visual summary. While it’s hardly as consequential as Full-Site Editing for most non-technical people’s real attention, I’m also pretty into the fact that WebP is coming to WordPress. Anyway, give it a look and you’ll be less surprised when you upgrade 😎 Visit kinsta.com → [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingWPBeginner Releases a Comment Moderator Solution Often Needed for Large Teams – WP Tavern
[ad_1] Last week, WPBeginner released Comment Moderation Role to the WordPress plugin directory. The plugin does a simple job of creating a single user role that can only moderate comments. The most common use case for such a role — named “WPB Comment Moderator” in the admin — is for larger teams that need a separate user account to tackle moderation. WordPress has no built-in way of handling this. For one of the most extendable CMSs on the planet, this is one area where it has always fallen short. It almost feels like yesterday. In reality, it was 10 years ago when I stumbled upon a (then) year-old ticket for a bug that was a breaking point in a project I was working on. I needed to grant specific users on a WordPress site permission to moderate comments but not allow them to edit other things in the admin. Some of you may be thinking that the moderate_comments capability should allow that. And, you would be correct in thinking that it should. However, that is not how it works at all. For users to edit comments, they must also be able to edit posts. It is a bit of a convoluted mess if you do a deep dive into the core code only to find hard-coded permissions checks that are impossible to override without rewriting large chunks of code. I would run into the same issue multiple times in the years since. I have built a few hacky, one-off workarounds for specific projects, but they were never ideal. And, I was never interested in maintaining a plugin that solved this problem because I knew it had the potential to be a bit of a pain. While I have seen a few other solutions, each fundamentally flawed, I am happy to see someone tackling this without exposing permissions issues. WPBeginner’s Comment Moderation Role plugin works in the same way that I think such a plugin should work, at least with the roadblocks that WordPress currently puts in the way. Site administrators can add WPB Comment Moderator to any account via the user management admin screen. The process is the same as adding or removing any other role in WordPress. Granting the WPB Comment Moderator role to a user. After adding the role to a user, that user can access the Comments admin screen. They can also see both the Dashboard and their own Profile in the admin. Except in the cases where they have another role added via a different plugin, they will not have permission to access other screens. Comments admin screen for user with the WPB Comment Moderator role Because of core WordPress’s hard-coded permissions check, the plugin must create its own comments management screen. Most users will not notice this because it is all under the hood. The plugin only adds it when necessary, and it does not look or function any differently than the default screen. It is just a lot of code work and duplication to fix an 11-year-old reported bug in WordPress. Until the foundational issue is addressed in core WordPress, Comment Moderation Role is the best plugin for this job. After extensive testing, I can now say that it is now nestled firmly in my toolbox, ready to pull out when needed for a project. Like this: Like Loading… [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingHow to Add a Timestamp in WordPress
[ad_1] The concept of evergreen content is a sound one. Though, there are lots of times you’ll want to date your content. Not only this, but comments and other site elements can benefit too. If you want to add a timestamp in WordPress, the process can be simple to implement. The WordProof plugin for WordPress let you add the functionality to timestamp your content using the power of the ‘blockchain’. This is bleeding-edge technology, refined into a powerful way to protect your content and build user trust. In this post, we’ll show you how to use the WordProof plugin to add a timestamp in WordPress. Before this, let’s break down the whole concept of WordProof, timestamping, and the blockchain. What a Timestamp Is (And Why You’d Want to Add Them to WordPress) In its fundamental form, a timestamp is a way to tie a specific time and date to a piece of content. It’s not unique to WordPress, but you see this in a rudimentary form with comments and post dates: Note that we’re talking about the core concept here. This is because timestamping can get complex, as we’ll see. At a base level, it’s a way to attach a time and date to content. It’s helpful and valuable for a few reasons: You can give readers an idea of when content was first published. This might help when deciding if content will apply to a current situation. Expanding on this, you can show readers if content has been updated, and when. For comments, you can gauge a timeline of events. This is helpful if a product has previously had issues, and you’re trying to decide if they’re resolved. WordPress, of course, has its own way of timestamping content, but it’s a basic implementation. For the majority of users, this is fine. Some even decide to remove timestamping from their sites. Though, there’s a more complex version of timestamping that we can use a plugin to implement. Let’s get into this subject next. Introducing WordProof Given that WordPress already has timestamping included in its core code, you’d be forgiven for thinking why you’d need a plugin to help. This is because adding a timestamp to WordPress can take different forms. Rather than offer a date of publishing, you can use a plugin such as WordProof to embed a timestamp to offer verification of content. This lets you connect your site’s content to any EOSIO blockchain. The great news is that you don’t need any prior experience of the blockchain to use WordProof. It’s a ‘plug-and-play’ solution, which means you don’t need to lift a finger to use the plugin. Apart from letting you auto-timestamp your content, you can also display a certificate that verifies your content, and lets the reader see how and when your content has changed. This is much like a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate. As for why you’d want to do this, there are a few reasons: You can offer transparency to users, which will increase trust and authenticity. There could be Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefits down the line. You’re able to prepare for future data protection regulations, especially within the European Union (EU), which has lead the way over the past few years. You can help protect the copyright of your content, through third-party verification. It’s this last point that makes WordProof so interesting. It harnesses the power of the blockchain to add a timestamp in WordPress, which gives your content protection. We’ll talk about this next. Explaining the Blockchain The blockchain is something that has become more prominent over the last couple of years or so, with the advent of cryptocurrency. While this isn’t the focus here, cryptocurrency is a digital payment method that is verified using the blockchain. In simple terms, think of the blockchain as a list of records in a database, each one linked using cryptographic methods. For every ‘block’ that exists, you’ll find transaction data of some description, a cryptographic hash of the previous block in the chain (hence the name), and a timestamp. It’s used for a lot of other applications besides currency. For example, supply chains, healthcare, and energy companies like the decentralized openness of the blockchain. You may be starting to understand how the blockchain can help you add a timestamp to WordPress, but we can help fill in the blanks a bit more. How the Blockchain and WordProof Helps You Protect Your Content and Build User Trust Because the blockchain encrypts every included block, it’s a secure system. As such, the data you see related to a block can’t be changed without amending every other block in that chain. For all practical purposes, it’s not possible. This means the data you see is ‘the truth’. There are a lot of plus points in using something so secure to timestamp your content: For content that requires a high degree of trust, such as medical or financial information, a verified timestamp is a signal to the reader. You’re also able to offer proof that an article is accurate, especially when it comes to time-sensitive information. Consider information surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic as case in point. If you set things up in the right way, you have an element to help you win copyright cases. This is going to matter if you offer content that, if stolen, affects your income. A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) would be a good example. By this point, you might be onboard with using a solution such as WordProof to add a timestamp in WordPress. The final step for you is to figure out how to implement them. How to Add a Timestamp in WordPress (In 3 Steps) The good news is it’s straightforward to add a timestamp in WordPress. In fact, there are three steps you need to take. Let’s go over them in brief: Install the WordProof plugin on your WordPress website. Go through the WordProof setup wizard and sign up for an account. Begin timestamping your content within WordPress. Most
Continue readingIdentify and Select Blocks via the Wayfinder WordPress Plugin – WP Tavern
[ad_1] Christopher John, a Seattle-based designer and UX engineer, released his first project to the plugin directory yesterday. Announced via Twitter to high praise, Wayfinder is a block outline solution for the WordPress editor. Like similar plugins, the goal is to make it easier for end-users to select nested blocks, which can sometimes be tough to pin down. Wayfinder outlines each block in the editor on hover. It then displays the block name at the upper left of the box. My favorite feature that you will not find elsewhere is the addition of each block’s classes at the bottom right of the box. This makes it easy for designers or users who want to quickly find a class for styling. Outline of a Heading block. Users can also enable or disable the pieces of the UI they want to appear via the plugin’s setting screen. However, any changes affect all of the site’s user experiences. Currently, there are no per-user settings. At first glance, the plugin seemed to work great. The hover outline experience felt smooth, and I did not need to change the default options. Wayfinder almost seemed to be everything one might look for in a block-outline solution. It was besting existing plugins in nearly every way. However, things soon began rolling downhill when writing a typical blog post with nothing other than Heading, Paragraph, and Image blocks. I first noticed that I could not type the same number of words as usual on one line. My perfectly-tuned typography was breaking sooner than it should have. Spacing between paragraphs seemed a bit too large. My wide-aligned images were just a little smaller than usual. The user experience still felt good until this point, but the little oddities were stacking up. Something was not right. The plugin had been showered with praise on Twitter and already received three five-star reviews in its first 24 hours. Maybe my custom theme was the issue. However, similar problems arose when testing several others, such as Twenty Twenty-One, Nutmeg, and Eksell — each a well-rounded theme catered to the block editor. As clean as the plugin’s UI is, it more often than not wrecks the theme’s default block spacing. This becomes more noticeable as users begin adding nested layers of blocks. The problem is the plugin adds 18 pixels of padding around every block via its stylesheet. .wp-block:not(.block-list-appender) { position: relative; outline: 1px dashed transparent; padding: 18px; overflow: visible !important; } To the untrained eye, this may not be a visible issue in many cases. It will affect each site differently, but 18 pixels of extra padding on every block will undoubtedly mess things up to some degree unless the theme itself uses that exact same spacing in its design. The more noticeable issues are seen with blocks like Social Icons: Holy moly! Those are some gigantic social icons! But, even something as basic as a List block can be misaligned: List block shifted out of alignment. Theme authors can write custom CSS to overrule the plugin’s padding. However, the last thing the WordPress community needs is a specificity war between themes and plugins. Themers already have to do this enough to wrangle blocks now. Removing that one padding rule from the plugin’s editor-style.css killed 99% of its issues. Afterward, things were running like a well-oiled machine. As a developer, I would explore outline-offset for spacing between the block and its outline, maybe cutting that 18px down a bit. Because outlines are not a part of the CSS box model, it would not affect spacing. Adjustments may be necessary on a per-block basis, especially when those blocks are nested or small (e.g., Social Icons, Navigation). It would carry its own challenges but should be a less destructive course. To a lesser extent, the plugin’s overflow rule breaks the theme design from time to time. Its position and outline rules could overrule some edge-case block styles too, but they are necessary for the plugin to actually do its job. In particular, I could see positioning being problematic with sticky headers as we get into site editing. The only other issue might be themes that use ::before and ::after pseudo-elements on blocks, but the plugin also needs to overwrite those to display the block name and classes list. This is likely another edge case. Despite the issues, the plugin is ahead of the pack at this point. Gutenberg Editor Full Width Blocks Border (a bit of a mouthful), another recent plugin to offer similar functionality, breaks custom theme design across the board. It does accomplish the job of making blocks easier to select, but the sacrifice of a WYSIWYG is not worth it. The Editor Block Outline plugin has been my go-to recommendation for a while. It has a few design issues of its own, but some of those are adjustable on a per-user basis. However, as of late, it has made the editor feel sluggish. Plus, its misuse of the WordPress admin notice system for Twitter followers makes it something I’d prefer to steer clear of. EditorsKit has a similar “block guidelines” feature that uses a box-shadow instead of padding and an outline. It does not muck up most theme layouts with that technique. However, I have hit other style conflicts with the plugin. Plus, EditorsKit is overkill for users who simply want just one feature. That leaves us with Wayfinder. Warts and all, it is the best standalone option right now. Maybe that’s not saying much, but it is saying something. This is a feature that is hard to nail down. I do not envy the developers who are trying to make miracles happen. It is sure to please many who have been on the lookout for a block outline solution. It is in a position to pull farther ahead of the competition with its relatively solid first outing. With more thorough theme testing and a bit of adjustment to its approach, it could be even better. I am eager to test
Continue readingAutomattic Acquires Pocket Casts – WP Tavern
[ad_1] Automattic has acquired Pocket Casts, a popular podcast listening, search, and discovery app for Android and iOS. Australian co-founders Russell Ivanovic and Philip Simpson are staying on to continue leading Pocket Casts as a part of the acquisition. The app allows users to keep all of their podcast subscriptions together in one place and sync between platforms. Previously a commercial-only app, Pocket Casts has been free since it switched to the freemium model in September 2019. Its creators have been monetizing the app through its Pocket Cast Plus tier, which gives users access to desktop apps, cloud storage, watch playback, and themes and icons for $9.99/year. In May 2018, Pocket Casts was acquired by public media organizations NPR, WNYC Studios, WBEZ Chicago, and This American Life. BBC Studios also held a small ownership stake in the platform prior to Automattic’s acquisition. Despite being widely regarded as one of the best podcasting apps available, NPR’s financial statements and auditor’s report from 2020 shows a net loss of more than $800K. The board governing the company met in December 2020 and agreed to sell Pocket Casts. No financial details of the acquisition were disclosed but Automattic may have gotten a bargain on Pocket Casts if its other owners were also losing money. After acquiring Tumblr and Day One, Automattic is starting to gain a reputation for buying up apps that people love to use and giving them a fighting chance at financial stability and longevity. The company has also demonstrated a growing interest in podcasting-related technologies with its recent investment in Castos and partnership with Spotify’s Anchor podcast creation platform. Acquisition announcements often include assurances of no changes for current customers but Automattic’s post made no promises and did not share many details regarding its plans for Pocket Casts. Integration with WordPress.com may be on the horizon but it’s currently in the exploration stage. “As part of Automattic, Pocket Casts will continue to provide you with the features needed to enjoy your favorite podcasts (or find something new),” Automattic’s Head of Apps Eli Budelli said. “We will explore building deep integrations with WordPress.com and Pocket Casts, making it easier to distribute and listen to podcasts. We’re thrilled that we can continue to give our users a multitude of ways to tell and engage with stories that matter.” Like this: Like Loading… [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingResources, Week of 11 July 2021
[ad_1] Here’s a list of resources for the previous week including things for PHP, JavaScript, and other articles and tools. I also talk a little bit about where else I am and may start posting content. Week of 11 July 2021 Resources PHP Articles JavaScript Tools I didn’t publish any articles of my own on this blog this week but: I’ve recently gotten into Reels on Instagram (I’m a big fan of the Remix feature with other guitarists though I’ve admittedly not done much publicly yet), And I’m looking at maybe doing a bit more personal publishing on Hey World (I wrote one post a few months ago). So if you’re into any of that, let me know. Until next week. 👋🏻 [ad_2] Source link
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