[ad_1] Gutenberg 11.5 landed earlier today. It is a hefty release that includes extensive changes to the Navigation block, a new way for grouping widgets, and more block gap feature integration. I have had mixed reactions to the features that made it into the latest release. At some points, I thought to myself, finally, this made it in. At other moments, I rendered my best version of Jean-Luc Picard’s famous facepalm. But, the wheel keeps turning, and the developers who put their time and effort into the project continue to improve it. One quick note is that everyone not running a theme that supports the block editor should check that their backend styles are not out of place. Gutenberg automatically outputs some default editor styles if the user’s active theme does not register its own or have a theme.json file present. This should be bundled in point release such as WordPress 5.8.2 so that users are not waiting for it until 5.9. Navigation Block Changes With nav menus still being a pain point in site editing, Gutenberg has added new levels of complexity. The Site Title and Site Logo blocks are allowed inside of the Navigation container. As Joen Asmussen shared in the original ticket, some complex layouts would benefit from allowing more inner elements within the Navigation block: Navigation block patterns. This could open a world of layout possibilities for theme authors through custom patterns. I have no issue with Gutenberg tackling the foundation for these more advanced layouts. However, we have yet to smooth out the basics of navigation. The experience of searching for and inserting in-site links is lackluster at best, requiring multiple mouse clicks. There is an open ticket for a lighter navigation experience, and that should be the focus. Theme authors should also note that the Navigation block now relies on the CSS gap property for spacing instead of margin. I almost missed this since I customized this for my own projects months ago — welcome to 2021, where we no longer need to rely on hacky margin solutions for simple spacing. This change could impact existing theme designs. FSE Admin Notice Limited to Themes Screen The lone FSE theme admin notice. There are plenty of gripes to be had with the Gutenberg plugin as its features are constantly in flux. However, the most annoying thing about running the plugin has been its persistent, non-dismissible admin notice when a user is running a block theme. In previous versions of the plugin, this notice has appeared on every screen in the backend. Now, it only appears on the Themes/Appearance page. Over the past few months, I have kept the Toolbelt plugin by Ben Gillbanks active for the sole purpose of hiding this notice. Good riddance. Farewell. Widget Group Block Editing a Widget Group block title. While I generally believe the Gutenberg plugin developers and core WordPress make good use of feedback, the block-based widgets system has been one area where the project has dropped the ball. As I have been repeating since September 2020, the feature was fundamentally broken. The goal was to allow end-users to add blocks in more places, but it was never compatible with classic theme markup and styles. I proposed using patterns, but the team went with a Widget Group block. The end result is similar but not exactly the same. The good news is that it fixes what should have been a blocker for the feature landing in core. The better news is that this is likely to land in WordPress 5.8.2 instead of the 5.9 release later this year. I would not go as far as calling it a perfect solution. The experience does not make it immediately clear how to add a widget title. Users must first add a block. Once a block is added, they can then click on the heading/title placeholder that appears. Then, the UI switches to a field for typing the title. The following video shows how the Widget Group block works: I would rather have a bit of a janky experience than no solution at all. At least users now do not have to manually create widget wrappers. Some could even deactivate the Classic Widgets plugin if this issue was a holdup. “Row” Group Variation and Flex Layouts Adding a post meta (byline) section with the Row block variation. To begin testing the new flex layout system introduced in Gutenberg 11.2, the development team has added a variation on the Group block named Row. This allows users to align inner blocks side by side instead of on top of each other in the default “flow” layout. There are tons of use cases for the feature. One of the primary scenarios for theme authors will be aligning post and comment metadata bocks next to each other. Previously, this required use of the Columns block or custom styles, neither of which are ideal. The experience is rough around the edges. I often found it hard to click in the right spot to edit a block, and the appender button did not always appear for adding new ones. The Social Icons block also uses the new flex layout. However, there is currently no way to switch it to flow mode for vertical social links. More Block Gap Integration Gap between each Column block. The Columns block now uses the gap feature introduced in Gutenberg 11.4 for handling the spacing between individual Column blocks. There is no UI for end-users to control this yet, but it is likely to land in a future release as the feature evolves. Gutenberg 11.5 has now added a bottom margin to the post title in the editor. For whatever reason, the development team has made a leap and assumed its current handling of the block gap feature needed this. It is a complex problem to solve. In the meantime, some users might see more whitespace than they are accustomed to between their title and content in the editor. Lots of extra
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Termly Responds to Feedback, Updates Its Cookie Consent Banner Limits – WP Tavern
[ad_1] In July, Termly announced its acquisition of the GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner plugin. The new direction was an overhaul of the WordPress extension, turning what was once a free offering into, essentially, a commercial SaaS product. Users could run the service for up to 100 visitors. After that, the cheapest tier would cost $180 per year. Despite multiple notices that changes were coming and making sure auto-updates were disable so that users would find no surprises, the move has not sat well with many people. Since the plugin update, users have taken to the WordPress.org review system. Across the board, they have left nothing but one-star ratings in the past month and a half. The free tier limit of 100 monthly visitors did not feel free at all to many. By the middle of August, the Termly team had responded after listening to this feedback and making some changes. The company bumped the limit to 10,000 unique visitors, making it a free solution for far more users. Termly is also dedicating more team members to responding to questions on the WordPress forums. “Termly has offered a consent management solution for years, and our pricing structure has been this way for 1,000s of existing customers,” said Raffaele Riconosciuto, Director of Marketing at Termly, when asked whether the 100-visitor limit came up in discussions before launch. “In all honesty, we simply did not consider it since our new customers view our pricing structure favorably. In hindsight, the structure is less favorable for people who are currently getting something for free, and thus why we made the changes as quickly as we could.” A 10,000 visitor limit on the free tier is likely to be a much more reasonable limit for the average website. Beyond that, site owners will need to account for a monthly or yearly fee. Some users may still have issues with the plugin being rolled into a SaaS offering, needing to sign up for a third-party service. However, Riconosciuto said Termly needed to go in this direction. “The SaaS structure we’ve adopted is ubiquitous for most consent management platforms (CMPs) today,” he said. “Given that data privacy laws are constantly evolving, as are mechanisms for tracking users on the web, CMPs require a high degree of maintenance and upkeep just to keep their users meeting base legal requirements. We are also continuing to develop new functionality to make the process more painless and robust. Hence why we charge a recurring subscription cost to our more advanced users, who subsidize the always-free tier.” Termly already had a robust platform in place that serves customers inside and outside of the WordPress ecosystem. It did not make sense to rebuild the entire platform within the plugin and maintain them separately. It would have created duplicate development work without a need to do so. Users can still install the cookie consent banner without leaving the WordPress admin panel, but further customizations happen via the Termly dashboard. Riconosciuto said the team may extend the UI integration between the plugin and service in the future if that is where user feedback leads them, pulling more functionality into WordPress. The other side of this is that previous plugin versions were not compliant with several data privacy laws, including the GDPR and ePrivacy Directive. “The GDPR and ePrivacy Directive are the main EU legislation governing the use of cookies and similar tracking technologies,” said Riconosciuto. “In the context of cookie consent management and cookie banners, the most important takeaway is that a business must obtain consent from an end-user before they serve them non-essential cookies. Consent must be free, specific, informed, and unambiguous. The old banner does not block cookies or contain the information required to ensure when an individual interacts with the banner, they have provided consent to the satisfaction of these legal requirements.” Of the legal mazes businesses must navigate, Riconosciuto said that each EU member state had “transposed the ePrivacy Directive into local cookie laws.” Termly looks at the guidance issued from each of these member state regulators when determining how to implement the cookie banner. “Why does following the law and related guidance matter?” asked Riconosciuto. “Recently, we have seen regulators in these regions taking enforcement action against entities that fail to comply with the guidance they have provided for how to comply with the cookie laws. Unlike the GDPR, ePrivacy directive, and France’s cookie law, guidance, and recommendations from an EU regulator is considered ‘soft law’ and not binding. However, the guidance typically explains how a regulator will determine if a business is violating a local cookie law (i.e., how they will enforce the cookie law). That means if your business’s cookie practices fail to satisfy the requirements laid out in regulator guidance, you are likely violating cookie law and may be subject to enforcement action. Even more, organizations in the EU like NYOB are relying on these laws and soft guidance to determine whether they will file draft complaints with regulators against businesses in violation of these laws.” Riconosciuto mentioned several areas where the older versions of the plugin did not comply with the laws. However, the updated plugin and service take care of these issues. The following is a non-exhaustive list: The solution must actually block cookies and tracking. Cookie consent banners must honor user choices. The language must adequately notify users of what they are agreeing to before consenting. Consent banners must allow the granular selection of cookies by category (e.g., performance and functionality, advertising, analytics, social networking, etc.). Provide clean and easily accessible information and options for accepting or rejecting at the first level without being deceptive (e.g., all buttons should be the same size and format). The banner must generate and save an audit log of consent interactions. These may need to be presented to regulators. While users may continue using an older version of the plugin, Termly does not recommend it because it is non-compliant. The company has no plans to restore any parts
Continue readingRevisions Extended Plugin Lets Users Schedule Updates to Published Posts – WP Tavern
[ad_1] WordPress has long had the ability to schedule content to be published in the future, but it can only make immediate changes to posts that are already published. If you want to schedule changes to published content, a plugin is necessary. Corey McKrill, a full-time sponsored contributor to the WordPress.org Meta team, has developed a plugin, with the help of contributor Steven Dufresnethat, which is now in use on WordPress.org. Revisions Extended allows users to schedule revisions, or updates, for posts that have already been published. It extends WordPress’ revision system to include a “future” post status as a revision post type. McKrill recorded a gif to demonstrate the UI: https://cloudup.com/cOHLm_77ECk Although there are existing plugins which already perform this functionality, McKrill said they were either inadequate for WordPress.org’s needs or add extra functionality that they don’t need. Revisions Extended supports the following for any post type that supports revisions: From the block editor, make changes to an already-published post and schedule those changes to go live at a later date. In the block editor UI as well as other admin screens, indicate when a post has a scheduled update. View a list of all scheduled updates Delete a scheduled update or trash/unpublish a post with a scheduled update Edit scheduled updates, including the content and the future publish date. Compare scheduled update content to the current published content. The ability to schedule updates is especially useful for ensuring that software documentation is updated when a new release is available or when API changes go into effect. The plugin entered the testing phase in March and is now used on multiple sites across the WordPress.org network. It makes it easier to schedule updates to lesson plans on the Learn WordPress site after a new version of WordPress is released. It also makes updates to HelpHub and DevHub more efficient. “If you need to schedule updates for published WordPress post/page/CPT without changing what’s already published (nor switching to draft), this is something we recently started using at the WordPress Docs Team and it’s a game changer,” contributor Milana Cap said. Revisions Extended is currently being developed on GitHub. McKrill said it may be be submitted to the official plugin directory someday when it is more ready for that level of exposure. “It’s a possibility,” McKrill said. “There’s a bit more functionality I think should be added first, namely the ability to create updates in a ‘draft or ‘pending’ status to go alongside the current ‘future’ status. Adding it to the plugin directory would allow a lot more people to try it out and give feedback, but it might also greatly increase the support and maintenance burden. So that has to be part of the calculation when deciding if/when to add it.” McKrill believes Revisions Extended could be a useful addition to core but there is not currently an active plan to bring it into WordPress. “Something like this might get traction during Gutenberg Phase 3, which will focus on collaboration tools,” McKrill said. For now, those who are interested to use Revisions Extended can download it and/or contribute to its development on GitHub. Like this: Like Loading… [ad_2] Source link
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