A hybrid WordPress theme uses theme.json to define styles and customize the block editor while also using traditional PHP template files. Hybrid themes leverage the block editor for content but not for building the theme itself. Block themes use the new Site Editor for building and customizing the theme directly in the block editor. BE Starter is a free starter theme to help you build hybrid WordPress themes. At CultivateWP we’ve built hybrid themes since before the block editor officially shipped in WordPress 5.0, and have built hundreds of hybrid themes for clients. We have an internal sta ..read more

ACF 6.0 includes a major improvement to the way blocks are built. It now supports using block.json, which aligns with WordPress core’s preferred method for block registration. Why is this important? As WordPress ships new features for blocks, you can start using them right away. Blocks are registered “the WordPress way” so support all WP core features. You don’t have to wait for ACF to add support for a new feature. What does this mean for my older blocks? Blocks built using acf_register_block_type() will continue working exactly as expected, and there’s no need to go back and update older co ..read more

The core WordPress blocks like button and group all share a global color palette. This saves a lot of time because you don’t have to style many variations of each block – every block with a class of .has-secondary-background-color will have the same background color. If you’re using theme.json, this becomes even more powerful because you can customize the color palette on a per-block-type level. At CultivateWP we build a lot of custom blocks with ACF. In the past, when we needed the global color palette we would either wrap our custom block in a group block that had the color styling, or ..read more

When you upload a favicon image in the WordPress customizer, it provides a helpful preview to see how your favicon will appear in browsers using light or dark mode. When the favicon color doesn’t work well with dark mode, a common fix is to replace the transparent PNG with a JPG that has a white background, but then you end up with a white square in dark mode. Alternatively, you can use an SVG for the favicon and modify the favicon styling based on the color scheme. You can see this in use in the recent NerdPress redesign we just launched. Create SVG favicon Create a square SVG with your des ..read more

My favorite new feature in Advanced Custom Fields 5.9 is support for InnerBlocks. This allows you to insert any block (core or custom) inside your ACF block. Rather than having to create your own fields for Title, Content, and Button in your custom block, you can simply insert <InnerBlocks /> and use the block editor to build the content inside the block. Table of Contents How to use InnerBlocks Default value for InnerBlocks Limit the blocks available in InnerBlocks Template lock with InnerBlocks How to use InnerBlocks When registering your ACF block, include 'jsx' => true&n ..read more

While I try to support all the core blocks in the themes I build, sometimes it makes sense to remove a few. Typically it’s because I built a custom block that’s similar to a core block while addressing the design and functional requirements of the theme. Most of my themes include a “Content and Image” block that’s similar to the “Media & Text” block but it uses the theme’s grid layout. Sometimes I’ll unregister the “Search” block and create my own that uses the searchform.php file in the theme, ensuring the Search block matches the design and functionality of the search form used ever ..read more

How often do you write print_r( $something ) to see what’s in the variable? This works great, except it appears inline right where your code is executing. My ea_pp() function works the same way, but outputs it in a console-like box attached to the right side of the screen. Example I was looking to see which attributes are included in the core/gallery block, so I added the following code to functions.php: add_action( 'wp_footer', function() { global $post; $blocks = parse_blocks( $post->post_content ); foreach( $blocks as $block ) { if( 'core/gallery' === $block['blockName ..read more

I’m searching for a WordPress Developer to help us build custom WordPress themes and support our clients. This is the perfect role for a WordPress developer with limited freelance work experience. In addition to mastering our development approach, you’ll learn our sales process, participate in client calls, and receive personal coaching from me. I’ll consider both part-time and full-time applicants, and we’d start working together in August or September. About Us We are a collective of independent designers and developers working together to help publishers grow and thrive. We’re currently a t ..read more

A custom honeypot is a simple and effective way to eliminate spam. If a hidden field in your form is filled in, you can be fairly confident the submission is spam. WPForms does include a built-in honeypot, but now that the plugin is used on millions of sites, most spam bots have been updated to identify and skip the WPForms field with a name of hp. Your custom honeypot is different. It’s unique to your form and looks like any other field to a bot. I have pretty much eliminated spam on my contact form with a custom honeypot. First, come up with a unique CSS class name you’ll use to identi ..read more

SpinupWP is a modern cloud-based server control panel. It gives you the features of a managed WordPress host on your own low-cost and scalable Digital Ocean servers. It’s a great choice for production sites, and I host many of my personal sites there. It also makes an excellent development environment. My development server requirements are: Blazing fast. Most of my clients hire me to make their site faster, so my dev server should be optimized for speed. Scalable. I can easily scale up and down the size of the server based on my current needs. Reasonably priced. I want to keep m ..read more