Writing documentation for WordPress release

WordPress is currently in Feature freeze/Bug Fixes period of 5.8 release cycle, with BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 1 coming up on Tuesday, 8th June. In previous releases Documentation team wasn’t much involved, if at all, into release cycles which resulted in some parts of documentation being out of date or even missing. 

This has to change and in this release we want to bring release changes to the Documentation team and help keep all parts of WordPress documentation as much up to date as possible.

Each release introduces a number of changes that should be documented for both end user and developer documentation. This means that we will have to update HelpHub and DevHub respectively. 

All 5.8 tickets that are marked for some sort of documentation can be found in this document, in All marked for docs sheet. 

HelpHub updates

Tickets that hold user facing changes can be found in Docs for HelpHub sheet. These changes do not include blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor changes as block editor end user documentation is managed separately. 

DevHub changes

Most of the changes will affect the Plugin Developer Handbook and can be found in Docs for DevHub sheet.

Block editor end user changes

Block editor end user documentation is listed in this document while the progress is managed in Trello board. Please note that NOT all changes from WordPress 5.6 and 5.7 are published yet.

Block editor developer changes

Changes for block editor developer documentation are monitored by @mkaz and listed in the Dev Block Editor sheet.

All these changes should be documented and ready for updating existing documentation on the day of the release, 20th July 2021.

What about Dev Notes?

All tickets that should end up in dev notes are listed in the Dev Notes sheet. We are starting to work on them when Beta 1 begins, on Tuesday 8th June. All of them, together with Field Guide should be published by 29th June, with Release candidateRelease Candidate A beta version of software with the potential to be a final product, which is ready to release unless significant bugs emerge. 1.

Is that all?

No. I need your help. As part of this experiment to involve the Documentation team into WordPress release, my hope is to bring everyone halfway. I need help with following tasks:

  • Volunteers to prepare existing and/or new HelpHub pages for 5.8 changes – this involves finding the HelpHub article that should be updated, preparing screenshots (if needed) and content to be added and/or removed. Person in charge of HelpHub content is @atachibana.  
  • Volunteers to prepare existing and/or new DevHub pages for 5.8 changes – this involves finding the DevHub page that should be updated, preparing code examples (if needed) and content to be added and/or removed. There are several people in charge of different parts of DevHub.
  • Volunteers to take over managing block editor end user documentation (as our wonderful @bph had to step down) – this involves monitoring GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ releases for end user changes, monitoring TrelloTrello Project management system using the concepts of boards and cards to organize tasks in a sane way. This is what the make.wordpress.com/marketing team uses for example: https://trello.com/b/8UGHVBu8/wp-marketing. board tickets and managing and onboarding contributors. This doesn’t have to be a one person role. The more the merrier.  
  • Volunteers to prepare existing and/or new articles in block editor end user documentation for 5.8 changes – this involves finding the HelpHub article that should be updated, preparing screenshots (if needed) and content to be added and/or removed. At the moment we don’t have a person in charge so I’ll jump in until someone volunteers.
  • Volunteers to prepare existing and/or new pages in block editor developer documentation for 5.8 changes – this involves finding the page that should be updated, preparing code examples (if needed) and content to be added and/or removed. Person in charge of block editor developer documentation is @justinahinon and person monitoring changes in 5.8 release is @mkaz.

Site Health documentation

Site Health is not a new feature in 5.8 release but we don’t have any kind of documentation for it. We need volunteers for both end user and developer documentation.

If you are interested in helping out do not hesitate to pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” me (username: zzap) or any other mentioned project rep at SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. You can also express your interest in the comments below. 

We hope to start a new workflow with 5.8 release which will bring CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. and Documentation teams to work more closely, especially during release cycles.

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Agenda for Documentation Team Meeting 8 June 2021

The next meeting is scheduled with the following details:

When: Tuesday, June 8, 2021, 14:00 UTC

Where: #docs channel on Slack.

Meeting Agenda:

  1. Project Updates
  2. New Member Mentoring
  3. Theme Handbook changes
  4. An Audit Tool (proposed by the Training Team)
  5. A tighter partnership between CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. & Docs (as proposed by @milana_cap and @mkaz)
  6. We need a new BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Editor User Docs Project Lead!
  7. Open Floor

Please feel free to suggest agenda items by commenting on this post or by raising it during Open Floor.

Thank you!

Summary for Docs Team Meeting June 1st, 2021

Attendance

@zzap, @atachibana, @mkaz, @DaisyO, @clorith, @tacitonic, @estelaris, @ashiquzzaman

Housekeeping

Where: #docs channel on Slack
Find the complete Transcript of the meeting on Slack.

Meeting Facilitator: @kenshino
Note Taker: @nahidsharifkomol
Note Reviewer: @ashiquzzaman
Next Meeting Facilitator: @kenshino

Project Updates

@tacitonic is currently writing the article for D. He has completed 24/28 articles in the final section remaining, that is the word list.

@zzap didn’t check all the tickets yet but so far this is what we’ll have, But the blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor end-user and dev docs excluded. 

HelpHub updates:

– Remove the “Featured” tab in the Add Themes screen

– Rename “Summary” to “ExcerptExcerpt An excerpt is the description of the blog post or page that will by default show on the blog archive page, in search results (SERPs), and on social media. With an SEO plugin, the excerpt may also be in that plugin’s metabox.” in Reading Settings

– Remove IE11 from the list of supported browsers

– Twenty Fifteen, Twenty Fourteen, Twenty Thirteen, Twenty Twelve: Add Block Patterns

– Customize: Bulk delete widgets

– Add a copy-link button at the media upload page

– Add ability to delete multiple menu items

– Enable revisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision. for the reusable block custom post typeCustom Post Type WordPress can hold and display many different types of content. A single item of such a content is generally called a post, although post is also a specific post type. Custom Post Types gives your site the ability to have templated posts, to simplify the concept. 

DevHub updates:

– Ability to mark the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party as unmanaged

– Remove IE11 from the list of supported browsers

– Add new actions to Site Health navigation

– Remove the “Featured” tab in the Add Themes screen

– Add capability to set the default format for image sub-sizes.

– Standardise the terminology used for hooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same., actions, and filters in documentation

Anyone who wants to get involved with her, you can pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” her through this doc. Once she has all the list of updates completed she’ll publish p2 with kind words and cookies, begging for help. But the shocking news is, there are no docs whatsoever about Site Health and that should be changed, regardless of the release.

@mkaz basically the block editor and FSE updates for 5.8 reaching a finalized state, and he’ll work on updating the dev docs for those parts in the spreadsheet.

@kenshino agreed to @zzap and said when he tried to look for “What the hell is the endpoint for Site Health” and couldn’t find any official information

@zzap talked to @clorith about it. Apparently, they asked for dedicated space, didn’t move further with the request, and gave up

No new block editor update

@clorith wasn’t sure with an ingrained knowledge of that issue, but so far we’ve been very good about documenting filters and actions that it has, as well as dev notes with releases under the site-health tag on make/coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. at least

@zzap wasn’t sure whether folks within here are tickets for the end-user as well. Here is the link for the tickets

@kenshino it looked like they can at least have an easy page created that kinda says “We have a Sitehealth piece” and this is what you can do

New Member Mentoring

No updates so far

Theme Handbook Changes

No updates so far

Open Floor

@kenshino was talking about @Courtney’s proposal and @zzap has been talking to @mkaz about this and he thinks it could be a good thing to propose once we get the team-reps channel. The doc team thinks that core dev should be paired with someone from docs as soon as the new feature is started developing. Or perhaps each component should have someone from docs looking after it and working with devs. Of course, we don’t have enough people but I’m thinking that this might actually attract more contributors due to close work with devs.

#meeting-minutes, #taking-notes, #updates

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Summary for Docs Team Meeting May 25 2021

Attendance:

@crstauf, @kmhazari, @bph, @milana_cap, @deadpool76, @tacitonic, @atachibana, @piermario, @audrasjb, @ashiquzzaman, @atiktonmoy, @chaion07, @thisisyeasin,

Housekeeping:

Where#docs channel on Slack.
Find the complete Transcript of the meeting on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..

When: Tuesday, 25 May 2021, 20:00 GMT+6

Meeting Facilitator: @milana_cap
Note Taker: @atachibana
Next Meeting Facilitator: @kenshino

Project Updates:

@tacitonic For the Style Guide, he’s completed 24/28 articles in the Word list. In the last week he’s completed the article on E, and this week working on D.

@bph and @milana_cap spend some time thinking through the process on how to collect enough information to gauge scope for documentation needs for a new WordPress version regarding End User Documentation for the BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Editor. Thank you to TimoShaver for putting up the recording on WordPress.tv -Next Steps: Update TrelloTrello Project management system using the concepts of boards and cards to organize tasks in a sane way. This is what the make.wordpress.com/marketing team uses for example: https://trello.com/b/8UGHVBu8/wp-marketing. Board with the information and then rally the troops.

@milana_cap:

We’ve entered feature freeze for 5.8 today. This means that we can start working on dev notes and other docs. I’m going to post p2 about what’s happening, when and where. Anyone can help and I’m definitely going to need volunteers for updating existing docs.Until p2 happens, here’s the main docs with useful 5.8 links:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LytzpR0wowMKalsK8cmodrqc6MBlgIK_OxL2QdsJgI8/edit#

Here’s spreadsheet where we started tracking issues and tickets:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RS0BEwy8pNNHR7P_nZ3yKcgWKVABbEn9RMjja-wkJwY/edit#gid=0

I already have @mkaz following dev block editor issues, @bph end user block editor issues, @audrasjb writing dev note and @nidhijain volunteered to help (still unassigned).

If you want to get involved just pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” me

@bph:

The Document is on Google Docs We have new Features, updates to existing Feature pages and update to Blocks

New Member Mentoring:

6 new members have joined the #docs team since the last meeting on May 18, 2021. Let us all welcome  @Ben Lamb@zodiac1978@Igor Redaelli@Mike Murphy@Kaudaj and @nosolosw

Agenda for Docs Team Meeting 25 May 2021

The next meeting is scheduled with the following details:

When: Tuesday, May 25, 2021, 14:00 UTC

Where: #docs channel on Slack.

Meeting Agenda:

  1. Project Updates
  2. New Member Mentoring
  3. Doc Licensing
  4. Open Floor

Please feel free to suggest agenda items by commenting on this post or by raising it during Open Floor.

Thank you!

Summary for Docs Team Meeting May 18 2021

Attendance:

@crstauf@chaion07 , @tacitonic, @bph @kmhazari, @ashiquzzaman@milana_cap@kenshino, @atachibana , @mkaz@piermario,  @clorith,  @stefanocassone , @kmhazari,

Housekeeping:

Where#docs channel on Slack.
Find the complete Transcript of the meeting on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..

When: Tuesday, 18 May 2021, 20:00 GMT+6

Meeting Facilitator: @milana_cap
Note Taker: @ashiquzzaman

New Member Mentoring:

10 new members have joined the #docs team since the last meeting on May 11, 2021. Let us all welcome @piermario@dineshjain2911@satsilem@colind@Gegham Hakobyan@Grogou@Paul Bigai@Plenet@Kevin Cunningham

Project Updates:

@atachibana from content side there are no major works, though he’s working personally to translate GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ documents to Japanese.

@tacitonic For the Style Guide, he’s completed 23/28 articles in the Word list. In the last week he’s completed the article on I, and this week working on E.

@bph The Docs team is invited on May 20th Gutenberg release notes and identify user facing features and enhancement for existing and new pages. The time is – 2 pm EDT / 20 UTC – it’ll be a live working session and @zzap will join as doc lead for 5.8.

If anyone would like to help with 5.8 End user documentation for Full Site Editing and the blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor you should participate in the Test #6.

@zzap is populating spreadsheet with tickets that need dev notes and docs, @audrasjb already volunteered to do one dev note for For 5.8 release update. Anyone who wants to help with either dev notes or docs for dev or end user, Feel free to pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” @zzap on slack.

Moving Docs from Codex to DevHub:

@kenshino highlighted few tickets 1645 and 5738 and the team is working on a way to from away from Codex to DevHub. The team is thinking of implementing a feedback box telling people to go to forums for support instead of HelpHub. The team is looking for volunteer to look through the comments that come in for HelpHub. @zzap will publish a P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/. blog about it for vounteer.

#meeting-notes

Agenda for Docs Team Meeting May 11, 2021

The next meeting is scheduled with the following details:

When: Tuesday, May 11, 2021, 14:00 UTC

Where: #docs channel on Slack.

Meeting Agenda:

  1. ‘Meeting Day’
  2. Project Updates
  3. New Member Mentoring
  4. Unified Doc License
  5. Author Attribution to docs
  6. Continued Discussion: Process gap between dev notes release stage and docs team writing about a feature
  7. May 2021 Coffee Break
  8. Open Floor

Please feel free to suggest agenda items by commenting on this post or by raising it during Open Floor.

Thank you!

#agenda, #meeting-agenda, #meetings

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