WordPress REST API React/Redux helpers

Over the past year +, I’ve been working in-depth with React at Automattic. I’ve also been trying to bring everything I’m learning there into WordPress themeing (since that’s a hobby of mine). Last year I posted about a simple theme, Anadama, which used the REST API plugin. With the REST API slated to be released with WordPress 4.7, I’ve been working on more theme tools for using React with the API.

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Local Development for WordCamp Websites

Note from 11/2019 ā€” this approach should still work, but the recommended WordCamp.org dev environment has shifted to use docker instead of the full VVV + meta environment setup. There are instructions in the .docker folder in the repo. Join us in #meta-wordcamp on slack if you have questions šŸ™‚

An important aspect of running a WordCamp is having a good website. Thatā€™s where all your attendees, speakers, sponsors, and volunteers will interact with you before and at the event. Weā€™re lucky to have a number of tools built into the WordCamp environment, but the ā€œlocked-downā€ nature of the sites can make it hard to customize.

Iā€™ve worked on the WordCamp Boston sites for the last 4 years: 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013. Each year, more tools are released, and I learn more about the WC environment. This year, everything came together to make it much easier to do development locally, and set up github so that anyone in the community could help out.

At the end of this walkthrough, you should have a local copy of WordCamp.org, a site for your WordCamp, and a github repo for your custom CSS. This will work best if you already have a live WordCamp.org site for your camp.

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Accessibility for WordCamps

If you’re coming here from a link I’ve shared, WordCamps areĀ conferences for WordPress. I’m very involved in the WordPress events community, so I wanted to highlight some ways for our events to be more accessible for people with disabilities.

[skip the intro, give me the tips!]

In the past year or so, web accessibility has finally been getting the attention it needs. Last year, afercia was granted commit to WordPress core based on his accessibility work. The WordPress Accessibility team has put together standards for core development to ensure future features are accessible. Almost every WordCamp had at least one presentation on why accessibility (or a11y) is important and how to get started.

I would love to see this same attention paid to accessibility at our WordCamps and meetups.

A quick story: At WordCamp US, I took refuge in the quiet area for a while one afternoon. While I was sitting there, a few other people came through and sat on the other side of the space. I never got their names, and for the most part didn’t pay any attention to them. As I was leaving, I caught a little of their conversation. They were talking about the event so far, and one woman mentioned that she was new to WordPress (or maybe new to development), but was hoping to learn a lot more here; that our industry would provide her new job opportunities, because she couldn’t move around very well, and with WordPress, she could get a job working from home.

Considering that the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is twice that for non-disabled people, the fact that our community can provide employment opportunities that work where “traditional” jobs fall short is great. However – if our events are inaccessible, how will new people learn about all the things they can do?

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