Event Notes | DE{CODE} US 2023

⚠️ Note: these generally are unrefined notes taken on-the-fly while watching the event.

• I claim no ownership over any screenshots taken of the presentations or reproduced text– and only use them for my own learning and notes.
• These “notes” posts are not search-engine-indexed and only appear on my site for my own archiving purposes.

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• 11:00am – Opening Remarks
• 11:10am – How technology has shaped the power dynamics between designers, developers, and marketers
  • An entire justification for the Block Editor and JS/React.
    • “Don’t worry– developers retain power because JS/React”
    • “…and devs JUST have to learn new languages sometimes, that’s the way it is. Of course you can be a COBOL developer, har har.”
• 11:40am – Go beyond with Headless powered by Atlas
  • An entire pitch for Atlas.
  • Faust.js is headless, but “brings back” template hierarchy support, plugins, blocks, and a headless toolbar. 🤔
• 12:10pm – Privacy sandbox for web: the changing privacy landscape and impact to your sites
  • Browser APIs act on behalf of the user with privacy in mind. Privacy Sandbox.
  • APIs, tested in Android and Chrome (w/flags):
    • Topics – high-level interest categories
    • Fledge – Remarketing and custom audiences
    • Attribution Reporting – advertising conversion measurement
• 1:00pm – Mastering migrations–faster, easier, and safer ways to move your site from A to B
  • WP Migrate plugin “full site export” on prod + import to Local
  • Local can import that .zip
  • “Local Connect” lets you push up to your prod site
  • Workflows can be set up to selectively export/import content/media/etc.
• 1:30pm – 7 things you didn’t know you could do with Advanced Custom Fields
  • ACF Builder Package – PHP API for defining fields, a la CMB2.
  • ACF Extended Plugin – for bi-directional relationships.
  • ACF has headless / API support: WP Rest API & WPGraphQL
  • Creating custom Blocks with ACF.

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• 2:00pm – Cutting edge pattern management and creation
  • “Making patterns yourself is too hard.” 🤔
  • “So here’s a WPEngine Pattern Manager plugin to make it easier.”
  • — It definitely does make some things easier, like choosing the pattern’s meta: pattern categories, applicable post types, block inserter/modal visibility, and transforms (other block types to transform into/from).

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• 2:40pm – When is it worth investing in block-centric building in WordPress? (panel)
  • How much control to give clients?
    • What is the clients’ aptitude vs potential for bad decisions/chaos?
    • Block editor, yes– but site editor, no.
    • Site editor for us (agency) but not for the client.
  • What are your favorite features of “modern WP” (or upcoming in 6.2)?
    • Responsive typography.
    • Block patterns.
    • theme.json w/ design tokens; and translate everywhere.
  • What are the block editor shortcomings?
    • Flexibility on things 《around》 the block editor.
    • Accessibility around the block editor, even when using assistive tech to insert blocks.
  • What are some false perceptions around WP / the block editor?
    • Native block editor isn’t performant.
      • Frontend is very performant, backend maybe not yet.
    • Block editor is WYSIWYG
      • It’s more like “What you see is what you mean”
    • Learning the block editor takes too much time.
      • While this may take an initial investment, the long-term is way faster and a better experience.
  • Product ideas?
    • Personalization plugin?
    • More for Developer Experience. Creating libraries, esp around “bespoke blocks.”
• 3:20pm – Fireside chat with Matt Mullenweg and Matías Ventura: The super future of WordPress
  • “Maybe one day Gutenberg will be bigger than WordPress!”
  • Check out the “Museum of Block Art”
  • How can we utilize AI to give back creativity to people?