WP Owlcast #1: Contributing to WordPress

I met last week with Birgit Pauli-Haack and the host Maciej Palmowski on the brand new WP Owlcast podcast to talk about contributing to WordPress. We discussed a variety of topics, including different ways to get involved in the community, how to encourage people to give back, how COVID affected contributors, and other challenges in the WordPress ecosystem.

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My WordPress Origin Story

I created my account on WordPress.com in July 2007, but I hadn’t used it much until 2015, when I joined Automattic as a JavaScript Wrangler. 2015 was also when I migrated my website to WordPress from my CMS of choice back then – Drupal. I must admit that I had a lot of experience developing with Drupal at that point, but almost none with WordPress integrations. Well, I think I helped to build two or three simple websites with WordPress.

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Gutenberg Changelog Podcast #43: Gutenberg 10.5

In the 43rd episode of the Gutenberg Changelog podcast, Birgit Pauli-Haack and I discuss the Gutenberg plugin 10.5 release. We also talk about progress on the block editor changes integration with the WordPress 5.8 release scheduled for July. In addition to that, you can learn more about the development of the Block Patterns Direction project and a new collection of patterns added to Gutenberg.

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Do the Woo Podcast #118: WordPress Core and Blocks

Do the Woo podcast continues to dive into some conversations with those who work on WordPress core. It is the latest addition to their regular program focused on building WooCommerce sites. Over a week ago, I met with BobWP and his co-host Mendel Kurlan to discuss my contributions to WordPress core and the block editor in particular. We caught up with what’s happening with blocks and how WooCommerce fits into the bigger picture.

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Gutenberg Changelog Podcast #42: FSE Scope for WordPress 5.8, Gutenberg 10.4

In the 42nd episode of the Gutenberg Changelog podcast, Birgit Pauli-Haack and I discuss the Full-Site Editing scope for WordPress 5.8, Gutenberg’s 10.4 release, the Query Quest, and Gallery block refactor.

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Gutenberg Changelog Podcast #41: Gutenberg 10.3

I’m thrilled to share that I joined Birgit Pauli-Hack to co-host the Gutenberg Changelog podcast! It’s going to be a real challenge to replace Mark Uraine, who did a remarkable job in 40 previous episodes.

In the 41st episode, Birgit and I discussed Gutenberg 10.3, updates on Full-site Editing MVP, and Block Patterns.

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WordSesh APAC 2020

It’s been a while since I gave a talk at the WordSesh APAC online conference in March 2020. Initially, I had nearly the same presentation prepared to deliver on the stage at the first-ever WordCamp Asia event a few weeks earlier. Unfortunately, the conference got canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic concerns, and I didn’t have a chance to visit Bangkok, Thailand.

I presented how the JavaScript ecosystem has flourished in recent years, creating a wide range of opportunities for contributors working on the Gutenberg project. I also explained many of the architectural decisions made to ensure the transition is as smooth as possible for those familiar with developing WordPress products and services.

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WordCamp India 2021

My lighting talk from the WordCamp India online event is now available on YouTube. I presented how to make the most of the scaffolding command, which will let you save hours when building the first block. I also talked about the set of WordPress block development tools from the team behind Gutenberg that was designed to make the whole experience more streamlined.

The presentation was largely inspired by an article published on my blog two months ago. If you prefer reading, check out the How to Start Block Development with Scaffolding post.

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How to Start Block Development with Scaffolding

Can you believe that it’s been two years already when Gutenberg got included in the WordPress core? In the meantime, the block editor has matured significantly. Using blocks steadily remains the primary approach to enrich the way users create content with WordPress. Some new exciting options let you defer the decision to build custom blocks. Those are among others  Block Directory, block patterns, or the preexisting reusable block feature. Indeed, they speed up the process of publishing posts and pages. However, I don’t plan to discuss here these types of capabilities.

Instead, I want to focus on the case when you decide to build a block. You might ask, why would you want to do it? Before anything else, it can be just for fun or to learn what the block editor has to offer. Later, it usually doesn’t take much time to discover that the WordPress core is missing a service integration you want or a layout element you often use. In the future, possibilities will become endless when the block-based full site editing rolls out.

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WPBlockTalk April 2020

A first WPBlockTalk live event happened two weeks ago, and it was a blast! You could see speakers from all across the WordPress community, from theme designers to plugin developers to the people who’ve been key to designing and developing the block editor itself. I played my role in it, and you can already watch two talks where I appeared.

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