The WordPress get_posts function lets you retrieve posts, pages, and custom post types based on given parameters. It works by filtering the posts based on criteria like date, author, type, permission, or meta key. WordPress site owners can use this function to show relevant content to users quickly. For example, they can display lists of […]
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Building and nurturing customer relationships is crucial for any eCommerce business. Luckily, using the right WooCommerce Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool eases the task. This tool helps online store owners gather critical consumer data, boost sales, and improve customer experience through better relationships. With this in mind, we’ll look at 10 top WooCommerce customer management […]
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If you are a Hostgator user wanting to switch to another web hosting provider, Hostinger can be a great alternative. We offer various hosting services suitable for different users, including total beginners, business owners, and web developers. This article will explain why Hostinger is an excellent Hostgator alternative. We will review Hostinger’s features and benefits […]
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In today’s digital era, agencies must keep up with the latest trends and business strategies. One of the best ways to stay informed and gain valuable insights is by tuning in to agency podcasts. In this article, we’ve compiled a list of 10 agency podcasts that offer insights, actionable tips, and interviews with influential marketing […]
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One of the best qualities of website builders is that they help users build websites with no learning curve. Those without technical skills and experience can still launch their sites using builder tools without needing to type a single line of code. However, there are some situations where you need a code-based website builder that […]
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If you ask someone in the WordPress community what’s the best place to learn about the Block Editor, they will probably suggest the Gutenberg Times. The site presents a dose of news and opinion pieces from the WordPress community about the Gutenberg Block Editor.
The mastermind behind this platform is Birgit Pauli-Haack, a WordPress Core Contributor. She personally curates the site content with inclusivity and diversity of perspective in mind. By doing so, she hopes everyone can benefit from it, no matter their background and knowledge level.
We are lucky to write about Birgit and her project in our first WordPress Expert article series edition. Today, we will cover the genesis of Gutenberg Times, how she runs it, and the importance of knowledge sharing in open-source projects.
Birgit got fascinated by Gutenberg the moment it was introduced at WordCamp Europe 2017 – just six years ago.
She felt like she saw a raw diamond. “I believed it would make content production so much easier and richer. Truly WYSIWYG. I could see once it was merged into the core software, content creators would love it,” she says.
But the main reason why Birgit was so interested in Gutenberg was that it allowed users to create or modify templates right from their WordPress site without any code. This means that you no longer need programming skills to tweak your site. As for Birgit, it simplifies content management for her digital agency clients.
“When we worked with clients, we often were asked to change how posts look on various pages. For example, adding categories or removing the author. It was fast for us to do as we worked with code, but it was hard for site owners. The change is now very easy to do via the Block Editor,” explains Birgit.
On top of that, Gutenberg can lock certain design features, like the color scheme and typography. This way, you won’t inadvertently ruin the overall design carefully crafted by the design team.
Birgit also discovered that agency developers could use block themes for prototyping the overall design and information flow with their clients. This is great for designers who are not developers, too. Meanwhile, seasoned developers who are used to developing with classic themes can easily adapt to the block themes as they follow the same template hierarchy as the classic ones.
However, like many people new to WordPress, Birgit needed help understanding this new technology. So, in June 2017, she started curating tweets and blog posts about Gutenberg, as she wanted to learn all about it and what other people do with it. She collected them in a social networking site, aiming to make it available to all WordPress enthusiasts.
After all, an open-source project can only move forward if there is plenty of publicly available information.
Half a year later, Birgit decided to create the Gutenberg Times website, so she could have a dedicated space for the information she had collected. Having a website enables her to organize her content as she wants.
On top of that, Birgit started getting more organic traffic –people can find her site when searching for Gutenberg-specific information in search engines.
Also, people kept asking her if she had a newsletter, which ensured her even more game up her publishing game.
This wasn’t the end of her journey – now, Birgit also hosts the weekly Gutenberg Changelog podcast, where she discusses the latest Gutenberg releases with WordPress enthusiasts and experts.
“We don’t just talk about what is in the release log – our goal is to go a little deeper into that. Kind of being up to date and on the cutting edge of things. This is because Gutenberg is the beta version of what will come with the next release,” Birgit explains.
Recently, Hostinger’s resident WordPress Content Strategist Leonardus Nugraha, was invited to the 81st podcast to talk about WordPress 6.2.
Birgit also holds live Q&As from time to time. Their format is a panel discussion where people can register and ask questions.
Since Gutenberg’s early days, there has been a prominent debate about Classic Editor vs Gutenberg. It’s one of the biggest changes happening to WordPress this decade. Gutenberg has been constantly iterated, and not everyone is keen to learn the new interface.
Birgit then found that the resources about Gutenberg she encountered online were most likely talking about the controversy rather than about what people could really do with it. That’s when she decided to solely focus her knowledge-collecting effort on Gutenberg: so that she and her readers could learn how to use Gutenberg to solve their problems.
Birgit aims to make Gutenberg Times’ content as inclusive as possible, so readers with skill levels can learn what they need. Because of that, each Gutenberg Times’ content category has its own target audience.
Those categories include:
As for the Gutenberg Changelog podcast, it caters to people who want to be up to date with every Gutenberg release.
Maintaining a website with multiple types of content with different target audiences is a lot of work. Still, Birgit sees it as an essential task, especially for open-source projects like WordPress.
Besides visionaries and geniuses, open-source projects can only be successful if someone explains to other users how to use and build on the technology.
“The exchange of ideas, problems, and solutions is essential for an open-source community as it speeds up growth and software quality,” she says. “There are things I would not have known until I tried. When I finally know how to do it, I want everybody else to know how. So when you share it, you help everybody else in the project to become better.”
On top of that, Birgit finds that explaining tech problems and solution to others helps her as well.
“My website is a public place, but it’s also a place I can return to. For example, “How can I get a JSON file into Excel?†I have to look it up every time, but because I wrote it, I can come back to it anytime, and that’s very time-saving.”
So far, Gutenberg Times has been solely run by Birgit herself. She’s been a full-time WordPress contributor sponsored by Automattic since 2021, and running the Gutenberg Times is now part of her day job.
“Starting out, I would not have dared to dream that after five years of Gutenberg Times, I would be able to continue to publish as part of my work, full-time, in the open-source project.” She’s grateful to all supporters who subscribed, listened, and, most importantly, shared their own ideas and suggestions.
When asked about the struggle of running a website alone, Birgit admits it’s challenging to find some quiet time to put everything together. “Everything is just so fascinating! Sometimes there’s just too much to do.”
However, Birgit doesn’t see that as a struggle after all.
“I think the struggle probably will come when every WordPress outlet and all the talks on WordCamps are all about the block editor,” she reckons.
Birgit recalled when her friend questioned whether the Gutenberg Times would be obsolete once Gutenberg merged with WordPress’s core software. She believes the Gutenberg Times will stay relevant as long as it evolves.
Well, WordPress is 20 years old, and Gutenberg is still five years in development. Looks like it’s nowhere near obsolescence.
So how does Birgit keep on top of all her tasks – creating various types of content in a streamlined way? Gutenberg has a new version released every two weeks, so that must be a lot of stuff to review and update the website.
“I make an effort to check in on what’s merged in Gutenberg’s GitHub repository every other day,” Birgit explains.
She also keeps a habit of immediately creating notes when future publication ideas pop up. For example, she always works on the weekly Weekend Edition articles since the previous week, collecting ideas day by day.
“When I have an idea fresh in my mind, I note it and decide whether it goes into the podcast or write it as an article.”
Birgit points out that if you make it a daily habit, it will feel like a small piece of work. Then, schedule when you will process that certain set of ideas. “The Weekend Edition is published every Saturday, so I will check my notes on Friday afternoon and see what I have flagged for this week’s edition, and then I’ll assemble it.â€
Sorting her ideas like that especially helps since Birgit also works on some other Gutenberg-related documentation. For example, she co-edits the What’s New for Developers monthly roundup for the WordPress Developer Blog, and edits the Keeping up with Gutenberg Index in the Core Handbook every week.
She also funneled the material from the official documentation into the Gutenberg Times’ Weekend Edition and Gutenberg Changelog podcast. This way, she kills two birds with one stone as she adapts the same information for various channels.
Since its first release in 2018, the Gutenberg project has undergone several phases. Phase 1 was the birth of the Block Editor, Phase 2 was all about merging full site editing into WordPress. Now in 2023, it’s time for Phase 3, which will focus on collaborative editing.
At its beginning, Gutenberg might look like ‘just’ an option available to give WordPress users more creative freedom. But as time goes by, it becomes quite clear that the Block Editor, blocks, and new interfaces will sooner or later take over the current WordPress in various aspects.
“It can still take a few years until it all comes to pass. It’s a gradual change, but they will come. And for many years, the Classic Editor will not go away.” says Birgit. “If you’re in the web-building business, change is the only constant in your life.”
Birgit also emphasizes that WordPress won’t just take out the Classic themes. WordPress will always have backward compatibility for its features, plus the Block Themes actually follow the same template hierarchy as the Classic ones.
However, she suggests developers should adapt and familiarize themselves with this Gutenberg-powered website creation to push the boundaries of what’s possible.
The Block Editor also opens up vast possibilities for everybody with a creative streak, even if they don’t have a technical background, to create Block Themes with a plugin. “They can do it right in the editor, export it, and then you have a theme. You don’t need to code,” Birgit underlines the no-code future that is now opened more inclusively.
And for Gutenberg enthusiasts out there who also want to share their knowledge with the community but are still determining where they will share it, there are several alternatives. One of Birgit’s suggestions is to contribute to the open-source project by filing bug reports from Gutenberg’s GitHub repository.
This is an important task because sometimes users experience a feature differently than the developers.
“There are various ways to handle certain features, and we need to figure out all the different ways people use things,” – Birgit says. This way, community members can build on each other’s knowledge and improve both their skills and WordPress development.
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Learn and Be Curious is one of the principles guiding us through daily decisions at Hostinger. For over three years, we have relied on an external coaching program as a valuable learning and development initiative for our employees. So far, more than 130 of them have experienced the CoachHub program’s benefits and have had over 1,200 sessions.
According to GabrielÄ— ZakaitienÄ—, our People Partner, a good leader has to understand and practice coaching. There is no better way to learn how to be a great coach than to have one. Coaching is about guiding individuals to find their approaches and solutions, not just giving answers.
“In a rapidly growing organization like ours, traditional development methods may not be enough to become a skillful leader. The CoachHub program helps employees to reflect on their leadership journey, enabling them to unlock their team’s strengths. Hostinger fully finances participation in this program to ensure our employees reach the maximum leader potential and have access to experienced coaches worldwide,“ highlights Gabrielė.
Integral to Hostinger’s culture is the belief in employee freedom and responsibility. As such, there is no interference from the company in employees’ conversations with coaches, fostering an environment of trust. This approach empowers employees to solve work-related issues, tackle daily challenges, self-reflect, and see the bigger picture.
Gabrielė recognizes the benefits Hostinger reaps through this coaching program – external coaching enhances self-awareness and accountability and fosters leadership development. It also helps leaders to become more diagnostic in the decision-making process and allows them to manage teams more effectively. The program offers employees valuable tools for finding innovative solutions, identifying strengths, developing a positive mindset, and building resilience.
Monika Å akytÄ—, Head of Pricing and Commercial Insights, shares her experience as a participant in the coaching program. After the first sessions, she realized it was a great way to develop people, especially those prone to self-reflection and situational analysis, looking for answers and wanting to grow through change.
“During the coaching sessions, you can come up with either questions or a broader topic you would like to focus on and analyze. Coaching has helped me realize that you often have the answers to difficult questions. The person who asks you the right questions allows you to see those answers. When I was working with a coach, I had some very specific questions that I found difficult, and I left with a clear idea of what to do next or a clear picture of the situation,†Monika reveals.
As the new six-month coaching program kicks off at the end of August, Gabrielė Zakaitienė reminds us that all Hostinger employees can apply. Participants are selected based on specific criteria and standards, like the developmental stage the leader is in, whether they’ve already finished fundamentals training, how many people they’re leading, and how many stakeholders they have to interact with.
“The program offers flexibility, allowing participants to change coaches, manage sessions, and pause membership if necessary. The program utilizes an AI-enabled technology platform, facilitating personalized communication between coaches and participants, ensuring a seamless coaching journey,†Gabrielė explains.
While personal achievement and improvement are crucial aspects of the program, building a community is equally as vital. That’s why we’ve ensured Hostinger employees have access to channels where they can discuss their experiences and newly-acquired knowledge with other program participants.
If you’re thirsty for knowledge and would like to enroll in the CoachHub program, contact your People Partner to express your interest and discuss the developmental ideas you want to focus on. They’ll let you know the precise timelines of upcoming batches and the application process.
Don’t miss your chance to embark on a journey to unlocking top leadership skills!
The post Investing in Growth: How Coaching Unlocks the Leader Within Managers appeared first on Hostinger Blog.
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of questions that might arise when using a virtual private server (VPS). Hostinger’s VPS team has harnessed the power of Artificial intelligence (AI) to make our VPS platform experience as smooth as possible.
Which operating system is the best for your VPS? How to set it up? How to solve an error you encounter in your VPS? How to create a WordPress website on VPS hosting? How to set up the best firewall rules for your VPS?
The list could go on and on. Unlike web or cloud hosting, VPS hosting is a bit more complicated. To fully utilize the advantages of VPS hosting, technical expertise is a must.Â
We strive to make everything easier – we provide a user-friendly dashboard that helps simplify server management and have an extensive list of tutorials for VPS clients. In addition, our Customer Success team is ready to answer any questions 24/7.
And now we are stepping up the game with our VPS AI Assistant. Instead of browsing through hundreds of FAQs and manuals and seeking help on internet forums, you can ask AI for help.
For example, the assistant can make a step-by-step guide on how to install certain services on your VPS and provide all the necessary commands – all you need to do is copy and paste the provided code. Or you can ask the AI Assistant for pointers and support with your VPS.
The VPS AI Assistant works best in English but also understands other languages.
Like many other awesome features from Hostinger, the AI Assistant is available for all our VPS customers for free. Using it is as easy as chatting with a friend, only this friend is an experienced VPS professional.
To try it out, log in to your account, select the VPS dashboard, choose your server, and you will find the AI Assistant on the panel on the left. Enter your question, and the AI Assistant will provide you with the most accurate answer possible.
The AI Assistant from Hostinger is currently being beta tested. You can also help its development by leaving your feedback directly from your Hostinger profile. We’re grateful for any notes and comments you may have – so go ahead and try the VPS AI assistant out!
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GoDaddy is considered one of the leading web hosting providers that offer a straightforward account creation process. However, closing a GoDaddy account can be tricky. To help you out, we will guide you through the step-by-step process of closing and permanently deleting your GoDaddy account. Although daunting, we understand how important this decision is for […]
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The development of WordPress 6.3 is in full swing – the beta version is undergoing rigorous testing, and the Release Candidate is anticipated later this month. WordPress 6.3 introduces many enhancements to the editor by integrating Gutenberg versions 15.2 to 16.1 into the WordPress core.
In this article, we’ll explore the upcoming features of WordPress 6.3 and explain how you can test it prior to the final release. Let’s delve into what you can anticipate in the next version.
The aim is to perfect the Site Editor before shifting the focus to Phase 3 of the Gutenberg project. Therefore, it’s no surprise that many of this release’s enhancements are centered around the interface and workflow of the Site Editor.
Two notable changes in WordPress 6.3 are the renaming of reusable blocks to patterns and the introduction of synced and unsynced pattern options. Although it sounds complicated, it essentially merges reusable blocks and patterns for better customizability and ease of use.
Up until now, creating custom patterns in WordPress was limited to three methods – utilizing the WordPress pattern directory, using a pattern management plugin, or adding pattern PHP files in the installation folder. None of these methods currently allow the creation of patterns via the Site Editor.
WordPress 6.3 streamlines pattern creation, mirroring the process of creating a reusable block. You can customize a block or group of blocks and select Create pattern from the block toolbar menu.
Once the pattern creation pop-up appears, you’ll find the Keep all pattern instances in sync toggle option. It determines whether the pattern will be synced or unsynced.
Synced patterns, akin to reusable blocks, apply changes site-wide and are housed under the Synced patterns tab on the block inserter panel.
On the other hand, unsynced patterns can be inserted and edited on any page or post independently without affecting the same patterns used elsewhere. They appear under the My patterns category on the block inserter panel.
The Site Editor will receive a substantial makeover in WordPress 6.3. If you use the Gutenberg plugin, you have probably noticed the incremental appearance of alterations since version 15.2. If you haven’t, the revamped Site Editor promises a more efficient, user-friendly experience.
Updated Navigation Sidebar
The existing navigation sidebar, which currently consists of Templates and Template Parts, will be expanded in WordPress 6.3 to streamline navigation between editor components.
Here’s a brief overview of the newly designed menus:
Command Palette
Introduced as the experimental Command Center in Gutenberg, Command Palette provides a quicker way to navigate between templates, open specific panels, or create a new post or page.
This feature is located at the top of Site Editor, where you can see the name of the template you’re viewing. Alternatively, use the CTRL+K keyboard shortcut to open it. Once you’re in the command palette, simply search for the panel you want to open or the task you want to do.
For example, if you’re editing the home template and want to quickly go to a page and edit it, just type the page name on the command palette and click on it – this will take you to the page.
Style Revision
WordPress 6.3 introduces a handy style revision panel, which lets you revert global style changes. Accessible through the ellipsis icon on the global styles panel, this feature presents a list of available revisions, time stamps, and users who made the changes. Simply select the version you wish to revert to and click Apply.
Switching Between Page Editing and Template Editing
We’ve mentioned that you can edit pages directly via the Site Editor. But what if you want to edit the template to adjust its layout?
You don’t have to use the navigation sidebar or command palette to open the template. Simply open the Settings panel, and you will see the Edit template option at the bottom of the Page tab.
Reducing Distractions in the Site Editor
There are a couple of improvements to reduce the distraction in the Site Editor so that you can work more efficiently.
The first is the availability of the distraction-free mode. This is currently only available on the page and post editor for content creation. In WordPress 6.3, it will be available for the Site Editor too.
In case you’re not familiar with it, the distraction-free mode essentially hides all side and top panels and disables the block toolbar so you can focus on editing the content.
The second improvement is made to the Top toolbar feature. Instead of adding the block toolbar on an additional level at the top, making it take up more space, in WordPress 6.3, the block toolbar will be placed at the same, single top panel.
As with any significant update, WordPress 6.3 will introduce improvements to blocks, including the addition of three new blocks:
In addition to these new blocks, WordPress 6.3 offers new customization options, including caption styling for the image block. Accessible through the styles panel, this feature lets you tailor the font, size, and appearance of the caption text.
WordPress has supported PHP version 5.6.20 since 2019. However, with only 3.9% of monitored installations currently using PHP 5.6, the Core Team has decided to drop support for PHP 5.6.20 and elevate the minimum supported version to 7.0.0. Note that the recommended PHP version remains the same – 7.4 or greater.
Using newer versions of PHP has many benefits, including better performance and security. If you still use PHP 5.6, you can easily change the PHP version settings via hPanel.
Right now, WordPress 6.3 is still being beta tested. The first Release Candidate is set to launch on July 18, 2023, with the final release scheduled for August 8, 2023.
We encourage you to test the development version, especially once the Release Candidate is released. By doing so, you can preemptively identify any compatibility issues, especially if your website contains custom code or utilizes various plugins and themes.
If you are a theme or plugin developer, testing the development version is crucial to ensuring your product is compatible with the new version upon release.
Always perform testing on a staging site. The staging environment feature is available with select Hostinger hosting plans. Read our WordPress staging tutorial on how to set up a test environment.
There are two easy ways to get the development version. You can use the WordPress Beta Tester plugin. Choose the Bleeding Edge channel and the Beta/RC Only stream from the plugin’s settings panel. Once set, you’ll be able to update your test site to the development version.
Alternatively, you can manually download and install the development version. While it’s perfectly fine to experiment with the new version on a blank WordPress website, this method can be difficult if you want to test it with a copy of your site.
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