What If Gutenberg for WordPress Doesn’t Work For Me?

GutenbergGutenberg is coming. Gutenberg is included in WordPress 5 which is slated for release on 6th December 2018. This is avoidable in the short term, by preventing WordPress upgrading or by upgrading and then installing the Classic Editor plugin, but this plugin has been announced as only supported until 31stDecember 2021. After this the Classic Editor will no longer be supported.

At this point you either need to switch to Gutenberg or find an alternative to WordPress.

That alternative might be another CMS, another blogging platform, or a WordPress fork.

I mention that last as a new WordPress fork called ClassicPress has been announced which I’ve been looking into and I think it has possibilities. I’ll have more posts soon on ClassicPress as I continue my investigation.

Stop WordPress Updating to Version 5

WordPressGutenberg is included in WordPress 5 which is slated for release on 6th Decmeber 2018. Hopefully you know what Gutenberg is and if it will work for you.

If Gutenberg won’t work for you, or you haven’t finished testing, then you have two options.

Unless you’re on a hosted WordPress, in which case you may only have one option.

The first, or possibly only option, is to revert to the Classic Editor by installing the plugin. This will allow you to keep the current editing experience (until the end of December 2021).

However, if you’re using self-hosted WordPress, or otherwise have access to your wp.config file, you can add a line which prevents all core updates:

define( 'WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', false );

One that line is added, WordPress will not update; this will allow you to remain on WordPress 4.9.x until such time as you have made a decision as to the route you’re going down.

Hands On With Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 R2 New Features: Display Vendor Hold Status

Microsoft Dynamics GPThis post is part of the Hands On With Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 R2 New Features series in which I am going hands on with the new features introduced in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 R2 (which was released on the 2nd October). I reblogged the new features as Microsoft announced them along with some commentary of how I thought they would be received by both my clients and I. In this series, I will be hands on with them giving feedback of how well they work in reality.

The third new feature is Display Vendor Hold Status. This makes the vendor hold status more visible to users both by displaying an icon, but also by confirming with the user that the want to proceed with entering a transaction.

The red hold icon will display next to the Vendor ID field in the following windows:

  • Vendor Inquiry
  • Transactions by Vendor
  • Purchasing All-in-One View
  • Payables Transaction Entry Zoom
  • Purchase Order Entry
  • Receivings Transaction Entry
  • Enter/Match Invoice

When the user enters a transaction and the creditor is on hold, they will be prompted as to whether they want to proceed:

Vendor XXXX is currently on hold. Do you want to continue?

Continue reading “Hands On With Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 R2 New Features: Display Vendor Hold Status”

WordPress 5 With Gutenberg Releases Thursday 6th December 2018

WordPressAfter pushing back the release date of WordPress 5 from 27th November to an unannounced date, the new release date has, early hours of today, been announced as Thursday 6th December 2018.

This is a very soon date which gives people little time to plan.

From feedback on the announcement page, it appears the majority think the date is driven by the WordCamp US conference. An event should never be the driver for software release; the driver should be that the software is ready and Gutenberg appears not to be ready.

You can edit your wp-config file to prevent an upgrade (if you host your own site) or can install the Classic Editor to get the old functionality back.

Is Gutenberg for WordPress Accessible?

GutenbergUnfortunately, the short answer is, no, Gutenberg is not really accessible.

This is my understanding from the Report on the accessibility status of Gutenberg post on wordpress.org.

For a new method of editing, it seems quite shocking that accessibility, in this day and age, has not been a major consideration from the start. Showing how dire the situation is, Rian Rietveld, the accessibility team lead, has resigned.

The only real recommendation is to revert back to the current standard experience, by installing the Classic Editor, but this has been announced as only supported until 31stDecember 2021. After this the Classic Editor will no longer be supported.

Microsoft Dynamics GP Workflow Third Edition Now Available as eBook (Paperback coming soon)

Microsoft Dynamics GPMy seventh book is now available to buy in eBook format from azurecurve Publishing (paperback and Kindle versions coming soon).

This is a new update to the Workflow book I’ve written a couple of prior editions over the last few years. This edition includes coverage of the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018, and four additional chapters on customizing the workflow notification emails and securing web services, and some chapters and sections have been rewritten to either expand or make clearer the topics being covered.

eBook

Continue reading “Microsoft Dynamics GP Workflow Third Edition Now Available as eBook (Paperback coming soon)”

Hands On With Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 R2 New Features: Sales Transaction Approval Workflow

Microsoft Dynamics GPThis post is part of the Hands On With Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 R2 New Features series in which I am going hands on with the new features introduced in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 R2 (which was released on the 2nd October). I reblogged the new features as Microsoft announced them along with some commentary of how I thought they would be received by both my clients and I. In this series, I will be hands on with them giving feedback of how well they work in reality.

The second new feature is Sales Transaction Approval Workflow. This new feature allows approval workflows to be created for all Sales Order Processing Transaction Types; credit limit checks can be included in the approvals created:

Workflow Condition Editor

I am a big fan of workflow and this feature is one I like a lot. Not just because it is an extra workflow, but because it is one that I have been asked for repeatedly by clients and prospects alike over the last few years.

Click to show/hide the Hands On With Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 R2 New Features Series Index

What Happens To My Existing Posts When I Upgrade Gutenberg for WordPress?

GutenbergUpgrading to Gutenberg is not necessarily a choice that users of WordPress will make for themselves. If you’re hosted on WordPress.com or deployed your site via a web host, you will have little to zero say about when you upgrade.

Your existing posts will be editable via Gutenberg, and will show with the entire post in a single block; be very cautious about allowing Gutenberg to migrate them to blocks, as in my testing I have found this usually corrupts the post (this may be due to how I’ve created my posts, but the conversion appears to hate any styling.

You can revert to the standard experience, by installing the Classic Editor, but any migrated posts will remain changed. The Classic Editor will remain available via a plugin, but it has already been announced that it will only be supported until 31stDecember 2021. After this the Classic Editor will no longer be supported.

What Are Gutenberg for WordPress Blocks?

GutenbergIn the last post, I mentioned blocks a fair bit, but maybe didn’t explain blocks well enough. WordPress has an FAQ which describes blocks:

What are “blocks” and why are we using them?
The current WordPress editor is an open text window–it’s always been a wonderful blank canvas for writing, but when it comes to building posts and pages with images, multimedia, embedded content from social media, polls, and other elements, it required a mix of different approaches that were not always intuitive:

  • Media library/HTML for images, multimedia and approved files.
  • Pasted links for embeds.
  • Shortcodes for specialized assets from plugins.
  • Featured images for the image at the top of a post or page.
  • Excerpts for subheadings.
  • Widgets for content on the side of a page.
  • As we thought about these uses and how to make them obvious and consistent, we began to embrace the concept of “blocks.” All of the above items could be blocks: easy to search and understand, and easy to dynamically shift around the page. The block concept is very powerful, and if designed thoughtfully, can offer an outstanding editing and publishing experience.

Basically, every section of a post is a block; headings, paragraphs, images, lists, galleries are all separate blocks. WordPress also recommend that all meta field and shortcodes are upgraded to blocks (this last is more one for plugin developers).

Unfortunately, blocks, unlike current standard plugins, are not created with PHP, but Javascript and a framework such as React JS (which Gutenberg itself uses).

This massively decreases the accessibility of creating extensions for WordPress as PHP is easier to learn than Javascript. Whether you think this is a good or bad thing depends on your view of the world. People often deride PHP, but it has meant a proliferation of plugins available so almost any requirements you might have can be met by an existing plugin. Unfortunately, not all of these plugins are high quality, so some care must be taken with the plugins used.

The bar has been raised for accessibility in that Javascript is harder to learn than PHP, so some of the poorer developers may drop out, but it also means that the slightly better developers will be writing bad Javascript blocks, so the overall quality may not change at all.

What you’re likely to have is less plugins providing blocks.