It feels like the end of an era. Last week, core contributors merged a patch that removed PHP variables named $pee and $tinkle from the WordPress codebase. Yes, the software that powers 43% of the web has pee-pee jokes in its code. I know how it sounds. I felt silly writing that sentence. My job as a writer for WP …
WordPress Multisite Is Still a Valuable and Often Necessary Tool
Rob Howard rocked the boat last week in calling for the deprecation of WordPress multisite in the latest MasterWP newsletter. He argued that “the brave and noble add-on is no longer necessary or valuable to developers.” The responses via Twitter were swift and in disagreement. Before WordPress 3.0, multisite was an entirely separate system called WPMU (WordPress MultiUser). It was …
FSE Outreach Round #12: Building a Site Header With Blocks
On Wednesday, Anne McCarthy announced Round #12 of the FSE Outreach Program. As always, everyone is free to join by testing features and providing direct feedback on problem areas with the design tools in WordPress. Anyone interested should respond by March 16. For this round, volunteers are tasked with testing some oldies but goodies. Early in the program’s history, anyone …
The Case for a Shared CSS Toolkit in WordPress
Earlier today, Mark Root-Wiley published an in-depth proposal around standardized design tokens and CSS for WordPress. The goal is to create a consistent, customizable, and interoperable system around the design tools in core. Essentially, he is proposing a standardized design framework or, as he refers to it, a “shared CSS toolkit” that WordPress, themes, and plugins can rely on. The …
QuickPost Plugin Allows Users To Create New or Duplicate Posts from the WordPress Content Editor
There is not much I miss about the classic editor. It was dead to me when the block system became the new normal. However, there might be a feature or two that I miss. The biggest of those features? The “Add New” button at the top of the post editor. “Add New” button in the classic editor. So, when Aurooba …
Unearthing Hidden Treasures in the Wabi WordPress Block Theme
After being involved in web design for almost 19 years now, there are grinding days where nothing feels fresh. However, there are also moments where you look at another web developer’s approach to problems and feel like there is a whole world of possibilities that you have yet to step into. And, it is rarely something complicated. The best developers …
Clarity Ad Blocker for WordPress Announced, Receives Mixed Reactions
Stanislav Khromov announced Clarity, a plugin for hiding obtrusive banners, via Twitter and the Advanced WordPress (AWP) Facebook group today. It was first pushed to WordPress.org around a year ago, but the developer seems to be just now publicizing it. The Clarity website describes its mission as: “Ads, upsells, and analytics banners have been running rampant in our WordPress dashboards …
Miniblock OOAK and Outside-the-Box Ideas in the Theme Directory
I have been fascinated by the concept of Carolina Nymark’s Miniblock OOAK theme for a couple of weeks now. It has served as inspiration for a design idea I have been working on, and I am happy to see Nymark pushing boundaries in a space where few pioneers are left. Her design style always dares to take the road less …
Creating Content Dividers With the Wavy Divider WordPress Plugin
Kevin Batdorf, the Project Lead Developer at Extendify, released the Wavy Divider plugin earlier this week. It is described as “a colorful, fun, lightweight divider block to energize your website with character and pizazz.” As someone who believes every Friday should be officially titled “Fun Friday,” how could I not install and activate it? I have not seen many block …
Nesting and Grids: Super List Block Supercharges Lists in WordPress
Freelance WordPress developer Aurooba Ahmed released the Super List Block plugin earlier today. Essentially, it is like the core WordPress List block — just supercharged. It is her first publicly-released extension on WordPress.org. The primary use case for the plugin is adding other blocks within the list items. However, its options allow users to take it further by supporting grid-based …