Bookmarked Jan’s Blog — Yes! My IndieBlocks plugin is now up on … by Jan BoddezJan Boddez (jan.boddez.net)
Yes! My IndieBlocks plugin is now up on WP.org. Current version offers a single “Context” block, and, optionally, (1) some custom post types, and (2) the ability to add microformats2 to block-based (!) themes. More is on the way. https://wordpress.org/plugins/indieblocks/ Tested it on a nearly e...

This looks as if it might be a way forward for WordPress and the indieWeb. I currently use the post kinds plugin for replying etc. I wonder what would happen if I switched approaches. Can the two plug-ins work together?

RSS Via Shortcode for Page & Post

I’ve been using this plugin on several pages on this site for a while. Recently I’ve seen errors on some of the pages and occasionally on other posts pointing to this plugin. I checked and it has not been updated for 7 years, so decided to pull the plug.

Rather than find a new plugin I just changed the pages to use the new Blocks editor and add feeds using some blocks.

For some I used the Display Remote Posts Block – WordPress plugin. This I discovered & installed through the add block interface & found later that it has installed a plugin. On others I used the built in RSS & podcast player blocks. All three seem to do the job.

Examples: RSS block, Podcast Block & Display Remote Posts.

I am not ready for the Block editor full time on this blog. I’ve been exploring it a little on Glow Blogs. But I’ve got a few things here that are incompatible (eg. Post Kinds plugin) and for my blog the classic editor, is usually more than enough.

Bookmarked Art Direction and the New WordPress Editor by Mel ChoyceMel Choyce (24ways.org)
This is the foundation of the new WordPress editor. Take atomic pieces, and combine them to make whole sections and layouts. Best yet, no fumbling with floats if you want to put some text next to an image!

A nice example of what Gutenberg can do. I am not using it here, the old editor suits me and supports all of the IndieWeb plugins.  It will answer some of the requests we have on Glow Blogs when it arrive there.

The new WordPress editor is now official. It comes with a new editor Gutenberg. I’ve tested Gutenberg on and off for a while, mostly worrying about iOS in particular iPads. That has improved steadily.

My concern is pupils using Glow Blogs will find the new editor more complicated.

I am somewhat relived that pasting from Apple Notes on an iPad works fine in the blocks editor, paragraphs generating new blocks. Adding images above or below a particular block seems a little footery but nothing pupils will not handle 1.

Now WordPress 5 is out I need to think about my own use. I don’t usually write in the web editor, preferring to either cut and paste from a text editor or post via micro.blog or xml-rpc. TextMate has a lovely blogging bundle, and I use drafts and shortcuts on iOS.

I’ve installed WordPress 5 on a couple of other sites, and had a quick play. Posting from TextMate, via xml-rpc put the content in a classic block if Gutenberg is enabled.

I’ve also enabled the classic editor plugin on these sites and this one. The ability to toggle back and forward between editors seems like a good idea, but on the sites I’ve tried it has mostly failed 2. This would be a good way to introduce the editor to Glow Blogs users, start with the classic editor, add in the ability to toggle to Gutenberg. I do worry that having two editors will lead to folk having problems or getting confused. I am not looking forward to updating the Glow Blogs help. This is probably a bit in the future as we should wait and see how Gutenberg is going on multi-sites before upgrading.

My other personal worry is that at the moment the indieweb post_kinds plugin is not compatible with Gutenberg. This is compounded by the fact I can’t update that plugin on this site at the moment. I am presuming that things will get shaken out and improve over the next year or two.

My plan is now to upgrade this blog to WP 5 but use the classic editor, waiting to see how the indieweb plugins evolve. I’ll continue writing in TextMate, drafts and the like while I keep half an eye on developments.

  1. I was pleasantly surprised watching a pupil happily collapsing meta-boxes to get her e-portfolio tags the other day. I had at some point shown the class how to expand them after they accidentally collapsed them, but not talked about it in any depth. I suspect pupils will adapt to new interfaces easier that I will.
  2. I will test this a bit more and try to see if it is something I can report. Update version 1.2 of the classic Editor has fixed this for me.

WordPress 5.0 could be as soon as August with hundreds of thousands of sites using Gutenberg before release.

Source: Update on Gutenberg — WordPress

Although GlowBlogs will not be getting this until later in the year and after much testing I am still watching and occasionally testing Gutenberg.

From a selfish POV (my class uses iPads) I am still seeing some of the same issue on iPad as I mentioned before: Gutenberg on iPad. A lot better now, but the active text still goes behind the keyboard on occasion. I hope to do a bit more testing over the summer break.

I’ve been testing the new Gutenberg editor for WordPress a little. I just sent the url to this short video in the feedback form.

I am finding using the editor a little tricky on iOS. It is a lot better in portrait mode. I can see that many folk will like Gutenberg and it has some interesting features.

I really hope that the experience on iOS can get better before we get this in Glow Blogs. Just from a selfish point of view, my class use iPads to post to their e-portfolios. Having said that I alway get them to write in the Notes app first. Pasting multi-lne text in to Gutenberg seems to be handled nicely, the double/treble returns my pupil like to type gets stripped out sensibly.