September 14, 2023 — In this casual conversation, we discuss block variations and how you can use them to enhance the editing experience in WordPress. An often overlooked feature, variations are a great way to extend existing blocks and can be as simple or complex as you like. Many WordPress Core blocks you use daily are variations!

To kick off the discussion, we provide a brief overview of what variations are and how they work. Ryan Welcher then shares how he built the Advanced Query Loop plugin and why he opted for a variation of the Query block instead of building a custom block from scratch.

September 14, 2023 — In order to extend WordPress, a developer needs to have a foundational understanding of the WordPress database as well as knowledge of how to interact with and manipulate the data stored there. In this session, we’ll take a high-level overview of the WordPress database, review the default ways to interact with the core schema and data, as well as learn how to add and use custom tables for additional functionality.

September 14, 2023 — The WordPress HTTP Request API allows you to make requests to external services to fetch and send data between a WordPress site and the external service. This is very useful if you need to interact with external APIs. In this session, we’ll look at the helper functions that the HTTP Request API provides, and how to use them.

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September 12, 2023 — In this session, we will differentiate between synced and non-synced patterns and explore how to create and add them within the post editor and site editor.

September 12, 2023 — The Navigation block is used to display a menu of links to help visitors navigate around your website. This session will discuss using, managing, and customizing your navigation menus.

September 11, 2023 — If you’re the type of person who likes to help others, then one of the least complicated ways you can contribute to WordPress is helping out in the support forums. Every day WordPress users from all over the world post questions in the WordPress support forums, with topics ranging from first time installation problems all the way to plugin and theme errors. All you need to help out in the forums, is a local WordPress installation to test out the problem, and a WordPress.org profile in order to be able to reply to the forum thread. In this online workshop, we’ll take a look at how the support forums work, how to find topics to reply to, and maybe even help troubleshoot and reply to a few forum threads.

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September 10, 2023

September 10, 2023 — Growth and sustaining a product or service always come back to solving customer problems. Doing this well isn’t just a contest of technology or talent. It’s often about who is doing a better job of listening to their customers. Some call this “strategic empathy.” This can become a challenge as businesses grow, and as markets quickly change. So if you want to build a successful product or service, understanding your customer is paramount. In this talk, we will explore the ways that we can make data-informed decisions, and use design thinking tools to better understand our current customers and our future customers. And you don’t have to be a designer to use design thinking tools and techniques. We’ll see some real-world examples from companies like Ancestry.com, Bluehost, and others. And we’ll be sure to leave some time for a discussion on how this kind of thinking might help your business scale its ability to listen.

September 10, 2023 — We build websites and web applications so we can deliver value. In most cases, value is measured by conversion rates. A fast website is essential for a good user experience, which leads to a good conversion rate. But making a performant website is not the only thing we need to give a good user experience. Let’s dive into the world of Core Web Vitals, understand their origins, their implementation and what actions can we take to improve our websites for a better user experience.

September 10, 2023 — An overview of business models in the WordPress ecosystem, focused on product companies. We’ll review the benefits and tradeoffs of each model and then discuss improvements to each of the models to better reflect the value and market size of the WordPress ecosystem.