Opinion

  • Create and Manage Frequently Asked Questions With the Flexible FAQs Plugin

    Create and Manage Frequently Asked Questions With the Flexible FAQs Plugin

    David Gwyer released his Flexible FAQs plugin a year ago via his WPGO Plugins site. However, after a month of updates, the project seemed to fall off the radar, at least until earlier this week when he released a massive overhaul that integrates more with the block editor. The plugin creates a custom post type…

  • Designing Block-Based WordPress Child Themes With a Single JSON File

    Designing Block-Based WordPress Child Themes With a Single JSON File

    From the moment I opened my first theme shop back in 2008 to the present day as someone who merely tinkers, my plan has always been to build a single theme in the mold of CSS Zen Garden. This was a project that Dave Shea launched in the early 2000s to show how designers could…

  • Branded Social Images, a New Plugin for Generating Per-Post Open Graph Images

    Branded Social Images, a New Plugin for Generating Per-Post Open Graph Images

    Generated social images seem to be all the rage now. Automattic scooped up Daniel Post’s Social Image Generator last month for eventual inclusion in Jetpack. There is a proposal to dynamically generate them for plugins and themes hosted on WordPress.org. And, there is a new player in town: Branded Social Images. Admittedly, I have had…

  • Tidying the Media Library With WP Ninjas’ Remove Unused Media Plugin

    Tidying the Media Library With WP Ninjas’ Remove Unused Media Plugin

    A few weeks ago, WP Ninjas announced it was stepping into the media optimization plugin market. The team released its Remove Unused Media plugin as a commercial project for tidying storage space. I received a full copy of it and put it through the ropes. With so many commercial plugins, I am accustomed to the…

  • Build Notification Banners With ElmaStudio’s Latest Block Plugin

    Build Notification Banners With ElmaStudio’s Latest Block Plugin

    A friend and I were discussing the need for more one-off block plugins earlier today. He had mentioned that WordPress has this powerful block search feature that rarely turns up anything useful. Most are part of collections that do not appear in the results. This was part of a more wide-ranging conversation that I am…

  • Ask the Bartender: What Happens to the Customizer When a Block Theme Is Active?

    Ask the Bartender: What Happens to the Customizer When a Block Theme Is Active?

    Something on my radar right now is third-party plugins that have settings in the Customizer. What I gather of friends who are the devs working on Customizer and front-end stuff within a few plugin companies, global styles and block styles are not yet on their radar. So what happens if someone installs Twenty Twenty-Two or…

  • Take the Guesswork Out of Selecting Fonts With the Adrian WordPress Plugin

    Take the Guesswork Out of Selecting Fonts With the Adrian WordPress Plugin

    As usual, I am always on the lookout for plugins that allow users to have fun with their websites. I like to mix it up from time to time here on the Tavern and not be all-business-all-the-time. And, that is where the new Adrian plugin comes in. Its goal is to take all of the…

  • Dynamic Social Images for Plugins, Themes, and Patterns? Yes, Please

    Dynamic Social Images for Plugins, Themes, and Patterns? Yes, Please

    Things move fast on social media. You get mere seconds to impress those who happen upon your posts promoting your latest project. You must also pack a lot of information into a small window that would potentially draw in an array of different users. WordPress has not been doing any favors for plugin and theme…

  • Proposal for Themes To Highlight Block Patterns From the Directory

    Proposal for Themes To Highlight Block Patterns From the Directory

    Should developers bundle block patterns with their themes or submit them to the WordPress.org directory? That is the question that some will likely need to answer in the future. Currently, submissions are not open for the block pattern directory. However, that will change as the contributors eventually wrap up the pattern creation process. The milestone…

  • Contextually Display Content With the Block Injector Plugin

    Contextually Display Content With the Block Injector Plugin

    Jamie Marsland, the founder of Pootlepress, reached out a few weeks ago, asking for feedback on a beta version of Block Injector. It was a commercial plugin his team at Pootlepress was gearing up to launch. Earlier this week, they released an updated version that he said he was happy with as an initial release.…

  • The Next Web Publishes Storyblok-Sponsored Hit Piece on WordPress

    The Next Web Publishes Storyblok-Sponsored Hit Piece on WordPress

    Last week, under its news section, The Next Web published what could only be described as a hit piece: Developers hate WordPress — and so should marketers. The claim was that, despite its current 40% market share, folks should start looking at alternatives for a better experience. The first developer interviewed for this piece was…

  • Gutenberg 11.6 Improves the Global Styles UI, Adds Child Theme Support

    Gutenberg 11.6 Improves the Global Styles UI, Adds Child Theme Support

    Gutenberg 11.6 landed yesterday. Contributors added dozens of enhancements and bug fixes. Admittedly, there was not a whole lot that excited me as a user about this release. Typography options for the Post Title block. Nice. Cropping for the Site Logo. A necessary addition. Toolbar button for converting old Gallery blocks to the new —…