Welcome to the official home of the WordPress documentation team.
This team is responsible for coordinating all documentation initiatives around WordPress, including the Codex (moving to HelpHub and DevHub), handbooks, parts of developer.wordpress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/, admin help, inline docs, and other general wordsmithing across the WordPress project.
Want to get involved?
There are many ways in which you can help the Docs team. Every small contribution counts and helps! You can report an issue or typo you found in the docs, or even help us write new documentation for parts that are still missing. These are some helpful links to find out more about what we do and how to collaborate:
I’ve recently volunteered to be the GutenbergGutenbergThe 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/ developer documentation team repTeam RepA Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts..
Here are some aspects that I thought the team could focus its discussions and reflections to get started.
Where are we at now?
It is essential to have an overview of existing documentation. Both the one present on https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/developers, on GitHub (if there is any), and also those in progress. This is to avoid dispersing our efforts, and to take advantage of the work already done by other contributors and volunteers.
What should be included?
In my view, one of the first step would be to agree on what should be included in the new documentation. There are currently many concepts (CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. concepts, APIs, etc…) that can be useful for developers using the blockBlockBlock 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. Some of them are already present in the current documentation. Others are in the codebase on the project’s GitHubGitHubGitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ repository.
A new structure?
The current structure of Gutenberg’s developer documentation is one of the aspects that makes it not friendly at all. For example, the home page of the documentation starts with the chapter “Creating Blocks”. A beginner is like thrown into the cauldron without knowing the prerequisites. Several contributors also address the question on GitHub here https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/22151.
In this regard, I think we could learn from examples of documentation such as Gatsby.js https://www.gatsbyjs.org/docs (a quick start/tutorial, then a reference guide that discusses key concepts in a more or less defined order).
Cross-team collaboration
How do we want to collaborate with the different teams to make this happen? From here I see the core-editor team playing an important role, given their experience with the block editor development.
What’s next?
At this stage, we are only at the discussion stage, to see what is feasible and the best way to do it. If you are interested in helping with any of the steps, please feel free to comment. Also, if you have other points that you think are essential or need to be discussed in this plan, please feel free to mention them in your comments.
Season of Docs 2020
With the Season of Docs starting in a few weeks, I think this could be a great opportunity to move forward on that plan.
There are two projects in particular that could help:
Project #6 with @kenshino: Improve Existing Development Documentation and Handbooks and
Project #8 with @milana_cap: Extending Block Editor.
@atachibana made an update about the re-routing of Codex to Code Reference. 1054 of 1070 Function pages have already been completed. Also, @stevenlinx and @collinsmbaka are working on complexed cases with opened tickets. After it is released, WordPress 5.5 will merge the fixes on documents into the Code Reference.
@tacitonic mentionned that There is no update for the BEEDocs team for this week. This will be discussed in another meeting next monday.
@estelaris shared the progress on the categorization project and if is it chosen or not for Season of Docs. She proposed to include asif2bd’s pillar content proposals as part of the categorization proposal. The reason for that is the content can be included as part as categorization. Also, the marketing team is still giving some feedback on the related p2 post. This could help in having some guidelines in the naming for pillars and categories.
@themiked shared the current Plugins Handbook status. The pages organization proposed can be found here. He also expressed the interest to have a glossary that automatically finds and links terms that should be defined in the handbook.
External Linking Policy
@milana_cap mentionned that the team has now a new approach, that can be found in this document. Everyone is welcomed to add comments and feedbacks. This will be discussed again during the next meeting.
Milana is also requesting a correction in the latest Month of WordPress post as the docs team has not banned the use of commercial links in the documentation articles. This is a discussion that is still happening.
New Member Mentoring
@sukafia shared the new members in Docs team stats. For the month of July, 37 new members joined the #docs channel on Slack. These members were reached out to by the mentorship team. Only one member has already joined the channel for the month of August.
@sukafia linked to some nice pics from the last monthly coffee break. You can find them here and here. Many members also mentionned how useful this coffee break was; allowing to learn about people with which we are contributing.
The next Monthly Coffee Break will take place at the end of August, hopefully in Asia friendly time. The team is also open to rotating the time to make it favourable to people in different time zone to attend.
Google Season of Docs 2020
@timohaver said that all the Season of Docs proposals were scored by the mentors last week. The top three proposals have been submitted to Google.
Open Floor
@joyously asked if all the references to Codex URLs have already changed to the new format. She is wondering about links external to the Codex that point to it, because there were a bunch in code and are not elsewhere on wordpress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/.
BlockBlockBlock 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 Documentation (BEEDocs):
@collinsmbaka: Published issuu, crowdsignal, and reverbnation blocks & reviewed the TrelloTrelloProject 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.
@tacitonic: Arranged the task list spreadsheet priority-wise, got in touch with the contributors who have claimed blocks but are not worked upon.
@bph: Started looking at WordPress.comWordPress.comAn online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/ documentation to see what can be ‘harvested’, reviewed contributors documents, in the works and already published, with @atachibana worked on Block Directory documentation, started on a third worksheet in our spreadsheet with WordPress 5.5 and more task listing: BlockPattern, Image Editing, Block Directory.
@milana_cap reported that she didn’t manage to do anything new on this agenda. But she’ll be sharing Google docs soon with this so we all can comment and join the discussion. She also mentioned that the team is trying to change the strategy because it’s impossible to label websites as “commercial” and “personal” only. So they’ll focus on the license, which has to be compatible with GPLGPLGPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples. 2+.
The July Coffee Break is set for this Thursday (July 30) at 1500 UTC.
Google Season of Docs 2020
@kenshino reported that they’re still evaluating proposals. The deadline for evaluating the proposals is 28th July.
Open Floor
@bph mentioned that the next Block Editor Enduser documentation team meeting will be on August 10.
@themiked mentioned that he’s concerned about the way of doing the ‘keep the content promotion free’ part. He also mentioned that defining content and promotion is going to be a challenge and he’s looking forward to seeing the first draft.
Please feel welcome to suggest revisionsRevisionsThe 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. in the comments.
Meeting MetaMetaMeta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress.
@chaion07 promised there will be a Doodle up soon with APAC-friendly options for choosing a day and time. He estimated that the next Coffee Break will happen in the last week of July.
Please feel welcome to suggest revisionsRevisionsThe 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. in the comments.
*this is a cumulative doc/proposal from the Docs Onboard Team
Purpose
To create an area away from the high traffic active postings in the main channel that new and existing Contributors can go for assistance and support. Members can also ask a quick question in the new channel. This would declutter the existing #docs channel from error reports and questions, while distinguishing it exclusively for docs related discussions.
At this point, we’ve been direct messaging people and working with them one on one to get started, but this would allow us to have a hub to do so, while information supplied to others could also be of benefit as reference.
Presently, we’ve noticed (especially in the case of new contributors), they tend to get overwhelmed and also intimidated by asking for information in the channel. We’re also duplicating quite a bit of human effort in the case where we have potential solutions to make this process more efficient.
@atachibana reported that for the migrationMigrationMoving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies. and re-routing of Codex to Code Reference for Functions, 1033 of 1070 (96.5% <- 95.5%) pages have been completed. He thanked @stevenlinx for the contribution with open tickets. He also mentioned that we have to wait until version 5.5 release and enhancement of document fixes to Code Reference for 100%.
@makewebbetter offered to volunteer for working on migrating hooksHooksIn 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..
@bph updated on the Bee-Docs (BlockBlockBlock 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):
@tacitonic has been reviewing posts with new contributors.
We are looking at WordPress.comWordPress.comAn online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/ to fill gaps in WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ documentation
The TrelloTrelloProject 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 finds more usage now that we have more team members on board.
@collinsmbaka will connect with the coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.-editors regarding plans for Hulu and Photobucket embeds blocks, if they are abandoned or if we should file issues for them.
WordPress 5.5 is coming fast now. GutenbergGutenbergThe 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/pluginPluginA 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 versions 8.5 and lower will come to core. Including the import button for external images. So we can keep drafting and collaborating on Google Docs and copy/paste for publishing. The button appears on each image block, and just needs click to get the image into the media library of wordpress.org
Also shared the betaBetaA 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.-tester plugin with the team in case they want to do some peek preview. We’ll keep and eye out for the denotes, too.
good news/bad news: We ran out of tasks for new contributors:
Homework for next week for all: thinking about new tasks for new contributors early wins.
The Bee-Docs team meets each Monday at 14:00 UTC in the #meta-helphub channel over Slack.
@Prubhtej_9 reported that he completed the Scribd block editor documentation earlier that week & thanked @tacitonic for reviewing the doc.
@christiano.zanca reported that @glorialchemica started testing italian helphub translation. The Italian Team is providing support to this ticket to onboard more contributors.
Categorization Project
@estelaris reminded that we can still leave comments on the p2 post and this agenda item will be on hold until the finalization of Technical Writers for this project on the Season of Docs.
@bph suggested that we might need to review how block editor end user documentation is presented. It’s kind of buried, and probably needs a separate entrance and TOC.
External Linking Policy
We’ve witnessed vivid discussion on this agenda item.
Anyone with a WordPress.org username can propose the link (as equivalent to anyone with a WordPress.org account can edit Codex). We could have a Google form or airtable or something similar. They need to fill out following fields (all mandatory):
External link
Placement link at wp.org (where this external link should be added to)
Short description (why this link is a good fit)
WordPress.org username
Consent (“I read the external linking policy rules…” checkbox)
If the proposed domain name appears to not follow the rules 3 times, the domain name gets on the “banned” list.
Review Process:
To make the review process less confusing, we can prepare the set of questions to which all answers have to be “yes” in order to allow a link.
3 members of docs team completes a review (to avoid bias)
The review results are published on #docs team blog
domain name gets 5 links approved get the “trusted” status and we add them to the public list of trusted resources
If one allowed external link gets changed after being approved in a way that is against the rules, all links from that domain get removed, domain name loses its “trusted” status (with possibility to land on “banned” list perhaps?)
The Rules: (Brainstorming Ideas)
The content (article/tutorial) must not include any plugin, theme, service (hosting and similar) that is not bundled with WordPress clean install (which can be downloaded at WordPress.org)
The content, in its entirety or parts, must not be behind the payment or any sort of compensation from the reader (like, share etc)
The page where the content is can not contain visible ads for paid products and services (link in menu is OK but banners are not)
@kenshino suggested When people submit links, one of 2 things can happen
The link is added directly
The content is copied because it’s really good and they get attributed
The discussion centered from trusted links to commercial blogs, tutorials, promoting products, banners, attribution and even GPLGPLGPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples. licensing.
We request input from everyone. There are many aspects to policy making. Please join the conversation on the respective p2 post on commercial blogs and trusted sources.
New Member Mentor Training
@Prubhtej_9 reported that for the month of July 22 new members had joined & 13 new members had joined #docs in the past week.
Due to the unavailability of @sukafia & @tomf the discussion on #docs-help channel was postponed to next week.
Monthly coffee break
@chaion07 reported that he’s still in the process of writing a p2 post, which he had volunteered for. @sukafia is assisting with the p2 post.
Google Season of Docs
@Kenshino(jon) suggested that the ‘Documentation Team’ badge be given to the selected Technical Writers and Mentors for Google Season of Docs. He also mentioned that @ChloéBringmann along with the Mentors are finalizing the selection of the Technical Writers which needs to be reviewed by Google as well.
Open Floor
@tacitonic reported that @Lucila Stancatohad contacted him regarding the following matter:https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RP4WU5/p1594123868113500
@chaion07 offered to make a specific Meeting Summary and Meeting Agenda Document Template in Google Docs so that anyone as a New Contributor can find a direct guideline to assist with the Note taking process & requested to write a p2 post for the same.
@kenshino(jon) also reported that he had shut down the wp-helphub.com server.
