Blog

Nineteen 10uppers Contribute to WordPress 6.2 Release

On March 29, WordPress released its first major update of 2023, WordPress 6.2 (“Dolphy”), with major improvements to the site editor experience. “Dolphy” also marks a shift in WordPress’ trajectory, with future releases emphasizing authoring workflows and collaborative experiences instead of theme-level customization.

Some major updates to the site editor experience and workflow include:

  • A new sidebar experience that makes editing site navigation more efficient.
  • Block Settings are now split into settings and styles to make the UI easier to understand.
  • Add new blocks easier with drag and drop capabilities for media and a split view option so you can swiftly navigate categories and previews.
  • Search for free-use images on Openverse directly in the editor.
  • Write completely distraction-free by hiding panels and controls.
  • Copy and paste complete styles from one block to another.
  • Easily push style updates of a block to apply globally.

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WordPress VIP Names 10up 2022 Partner of the Year

We are honored to be named WordPress VIP’s 2022 Partner of the Year. This past year continued over a decade of close collaboration and formal partnership between 10up and WordPress VIP – and our shared success is evidence of the strength of open platforms like WordPress in the enterprise.

“As one of WordPress VIP’s longest-tenured partners, 10up understands the carefully-crafted architectures and strategies that drive success on the WordPress VIP platform. And how to deliver exceptional results for customers.” — WordPress VIP

We look forward to another year — and decade — of building a better web alongside WordPress VIP.

If you’re interested in learning more about how we work alongside partners like WordPress VIP to build finely crafted websites and tools on open source platforms like WordPress, reach out! We can’t wait to hear from you.

DE{CODE} 2023: A Free, Globally Virtual WordPress Developer Conference

Next week, WP Engine’s DE{CODE} conference kicks off — the largest WordPress developer event with insightful sessions aimed to educate developers on ways to build smarter, faster, and more securely with WordPress.

I will be participating in a panel along with four other industry experts, titled When is it worth investing in block-centric building in WordPress? The Q&A discussion explores when and how to best leverage WordPress’ Block Editor and Site Editor when building digital experiences.

The conference takes place on March 21 (Americas and APAC) and March 23 (EMEA) and is completely free to attend virtually. Learn more and register now.

ClassifAI Expands Capabilities, Using AI for Recommended Content Block

The latest 1.8 release of ClassifAI incorporates an innovative Recommended Content Block feature — giving sites the ability to recommend related content to users through the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

Built by 10up’s Open Source Practice, ClassifAI is a free WordPress plugin that augments sites, streamlines the editorial process, and increases audience engagement by utilizing AI and machine learning (ML). Since its launch, the plugin’s capabilities have grown to include automated content tagging and classification, AI-powered image tagging and descriptive alt text assignment, smart focal point cropping, and image / PDF optical character recognition (OCR).

The newly added Recommended Content Block recommends additional content to site visitors based on their behavior. For instance, after finishing an article or video, the Recommended Content Block will offer suggestions on what to read or watch next based on sitewide traffic history, encouraging the reader to extend their session by interacting with more content.

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Twenty-six 10uppers Contribute to WordPress 6.1 Release

Released last week, WordPress 6.1 (“Misha”) primarily delivers enhancements to the full site building experience in the Block Editor. The 6.1 release introduces a new default theme, Twenty Twenty-Three, and a suite of performance and usability improvements:

  • Introduction of new content templates that can accelerate page creation.
  • Block Template parts can now be defined in classic themes.
  • Performance improvements including caching `WP_Query` database queries, priming caches in `REST API` and multisite network options queries, as well as new Site Health checks for Persistent Object Cache and Page Cache.
  • Site Editor settings now sync across browsers and devices for each editor.
  • Improved ability to select partial paragraphs within a block.
  • The option to keep the list view of all blocks in a post on the left side as the default, as opposed to previously having to toggle it.

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10up publicly releases its Gutenberg Best Practices

In keeping with our mission to make a better web, 10up strives to strengthen and contribute back to the open-source technology ecosystem we build upon. We contribute thousands of hours each year and open source innovations like ElasticPress, which integrates Elastic and WordPress; ClassifAI, which brings AI and machine learning to WordPress; and Distributor, which solves for cross-site content reuse. We also share our Engineering Best Practices and Open Source Best Practices as public projects on GitHub.

In that same spirit, we have now publicly opened up – and open sourced – our WordPress Gutenberg Best Practices documentation.

The Gutenberg Best Practices project began as an internal onboarding and continuing education resource detailing the “10up Way” when it comes to the WordPress block editor and client editorial experience. In deciding to open up in beta as a public resource, our goal is to help developers learn about the WordPress block editor and extend it through the customization of core blocks and the carefully crafted development of custom blocks.

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Google and 10up Invite You To Join The Privacy Sandbox Community Group

In 2019, Google announced its intention to phase out support for third-party cookies in Chrome–an effort now scheduled for completion by late 2023.

Alongside this year’s edition of WordCamp Europe in Porto, Portugal, 10up, Google, and long-time 10up partner WP Engine hosted an inter-agency roundtable to explore how the upcoming changes will impact our clients and the web at large—laying the groundwork for the formation of a working group that provides feedback on all aspects of Google’s Privacy Sandbox Initiative.

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WordPress 6.0 Released, Led By 10up Core Tech Lead

Last week saw the release of WordPress 6.0 — a release that improves the block editor and full site editing experience through an upgraded user interface that simplifies page composition and content creation. Eleven 10uppers contributed to WordPress 6.0, with Senior Engineer Peter Wilson serving as Release Lead / Core Tech Lead, and myself credited as a Noteworthy Contributor.

WordPress 6.0 boasts more than 50 block editor accessibility enhancements alongside performance improvements that reduce the number of database queries WordPress makes on page requests, especially in the WordPress admin.

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10up and WP Engine Partner to Launch Enginet: WP Engine’s WordPress-Powered Intranet

WP Engine Intranet Example

Last year, 10up collaborated with one of its longtime platform partners, WP Engine, to conceptualize and implement Enginet – WP Engine’s new WordPress-powered intranet. With usability, utility, and brand harmony at the forefront, Enginet is the product of dozens of interviews and hundreds of survey responses representing a cross-section of WP Engine’s thousand-plus team.

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