WordPress Monthly Dev Digest #014
Tags: wordpress, webdev, php, tutorial
Published: 2020-01-31 20:05:04

---
title: WordPress Monthly Dev Digest #014
published: true
description: A curated list of WordPress development related news articles, tutorials and other resources written or updated in January 2020.
canonical_url: https://since1979.dev/wordpress-monthly-dev-digest-014/
cover_image: https://since1979.dev/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/wordpress-monthly-dev-digest-014.jpg
tags: wordpress, webdev, php, tutorial
---
[Originally posted on my website on January 31th 2020](https://since1979.dev/wordpress-monthly-dev-digest-014/)

### WordPress January in short.

In January there were two new releases of the Gutenberg editor. Besides a lot of bug fixes and enhancements [Version 7.2](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/01/09/whats-new-in-gutenberg-8-january/) included a [new Button block](https://github.com/wordpress/gutenberg/pull/17352) that can now have multiple buttons side by side, [Links for images in media and text blocks](https://github.com/wordpress/gutenberg/pull/18139), [Image size selector for the Gallery block](https://github.com/wordpress/gutenberg/pull/18139) and [font sizes for the navigation block](https://github.com/wordpress/gutenberg/pull/19127).

[Version 7.3](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/01/22/whats-new-in-gutenberg-22-january/) included [text and background colors for the navigation block](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/19108) and some new Api's like [the ability to add block collections](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/17609).

Besides new Gutenberg versions there were also two Feature plugin releases for [XML Sitemaps](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/01/27/feature-plugin-xml-sitemaps/) and [native lazy-loading of images](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/01/29/lazy-loading-images-in-wordpress-core/) in core.

### WordPress:

-   Video: [Faster AJAX calls with the WordPress rewrite API](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWuLanCPoF0&feature=youtu.be) by [Alex Young](https://twitter.com/_WPCasts_tv_).
-   [Flynt](https://flyntwp.com/): The component based WordPress starter theme for developers by [Bleech](https://twitter.com/bleechberlin).
-   [How does Url rewriting work internally in WordPress](https://pramodjodhani.com/2019/05/05/how-does-wordpress-url-rewriting-works-internally/) by [Pramod Jodhani](https://twitter.com/pramodjodhani).
-   [How to use the starter content in WordPress themes](https://www.ibenic.com/create-starter-content-wordpress-themes/?utm_source=ReviveOldPost&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ReviveOldPost) by [Igor Benić](https://twitter.com/igorbenic).
-   [Lumberjack](https://lumberjack.rareloop.com/) is a powerful Mvc framework for the modern WordPress developer by [Rareloop](https://twitter.com/rareloop).
-   [Building a blog using Frontity and WordPress](https://dev.to/frontity/building-a-blog-using-frontity-and-wordpress-8oc) by [Reyes Martínez](https://twitter.com/r_martinezduque).
-   Video: [How to eliminate render-blocking resources in WordPress](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=600&v=PlTG5I6Qi-o&feature=emb_logo) by [Alex Young](https://twitter.com/_WPCasts_tv_).
-   [Headless WordPress: React router pagination](https://www.ibenic.com/headless-wordpress-react-router-pagination/) by [Igor Benić](https://twitter.com/igorbenic).
-   [Controlling the block editor](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/01/23/controlling-the-block-editor/) by [Riad Benguella](https://twitter.com/riadbenguella).
-   [Embrace the modularity](https://riad.blog/2020/01/28/embrace-the-modularity/) by [Riad Benguella](https://twitter.com/riadbenguella).
-   [A complete guide to WordPress multisite](https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2020/01/complete-guide-wordpress-multisite/) by [Manish Dudharejia](https://twitter.com/Manish_Analyst).
-   WordPress snippet [#001](https://since1979.dev/snippet-001-adding-custom-images-sizes/), [#002](https://since1979.dev/wp-snippet-002-changing-the-gutenberg-color-palette/), [#003](https://since1979.dev/snippet-003-adding-menus-to-your-theme/) by [Stephan Nijman](https://twitter.com/Vanaf1979).

### Php

-   [PHP in 2020](https://stitcher.io/blog/php-in-2020) by [Brent](https://twitter.com/brendt_gd).
-   [New in PHP 8](https://stitcher.io/blog/new-in-php-8) by [Brent](https://twitter.com/brendt_gd).

### Javascript:

-   [Sal.js](https://mciastek.github.io/sal/) a lightweight scroll animation library.
-   [Headroom.js](https://wicky.nillia.ms/headroom.js/) Hide your header until you need it by [Nick Williams](https://twitter.com/WickyNilliams).
-   Video: [Ternary Operators in JavaScript](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=smO6fFjpcv4&feature=emb_logo) by [Nick Scialli](https://twitter.com/nas5w).
-   Video: [An introduction to test-driven development in JavaScript](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbKPgaRZsxA) by [Nick Scialli](https://twitter.com/nas5w).
-   [The React cheatsheet for 2020 + real-world examples](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/the-react-cheatsheet-for-2020/) by [Code Artistry.](https://twitter.com/codeartistryio)
-   [The differences between forEach() and map() that every developer should know](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/4-main-differences-between-foreach-and-map/) by [Ibrahima Ndaw](https://twitter.com/ibrahima92_).
-   [24 modern ES6 code snippets to solve practical JS problems](https://dev.to/madarsbiss/20-modern-es6-snippets-to-solve-practical-js-problems-3n83) by [Madza](https://dev.to/madarsbiss).
-   [5 best practices to write quality arrow functions](https://dmitripavlutin.com/javascript-arrow-functions-best-practices/) by [Dmitri Pavlutin](https://twitter.com/panzerdp).
-   [How to (unit) test in React](https://itnext.io/how-to-unit-test-in-react-72e911e2b8d) by [Onoufrios Malikkides](https://itnext.io/@onoufriosm).

### Css:

-   [Min and max width/height in Css](https://ishadeed.com/article/min-max-css/?ref=dailydevlinks.com) by [Ahmad Shadeed](https://twitter.com/shadeed9).
-   [Dynamic dark themes with Css](https://dev.to/coryrylan/dynamic-dark-themes-with-css-n3a) by [Cory Rylan](https://twitter.com/coryrylan),
-   [Why you should choose HTML5 Article over Section](https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2020/01/html5-article-section/) by [Bruce Lawson](https://twitter.com/brucel).
-   [How to understand and work with Css margins](https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/css-margins/) by [Kevin Powell](https://twitter.com/kevinjpowell).
-   [Understanding the "Initial", "Inherit" and "Unset" Css keywords](https://medium.com/@elad/understanding-the-initial-inherit-and-unset-css-keywords-2d70b7121695) by [Elad Shechter](https://twitter.com/eladsc).
-   [300 CSS properties with examples](https://www.web4college.com/css-play/index.php).

### Misc:

-   [Cook](https://github.com/eykrehbein/cook): A CLI tool to create universal boilerplates by [Eyk](https://dev.to/eykrehbein).
-   [Web accessibility basics for web developers](https://owlypixel.com/web-accessibility-basics/) by [Master Owl](https://twitter.com/owlypixel).

### Suggestions?

**I**f you have any suggestions for good article please do let me know! Follow me on twitter [@Vanaf1979](https://twitter.com/Vanaf1979) or on Dev.to [@Vanaf1979](https://dev.to/vanaf1979) to be notified about the next article in this series, and other WordPress development related stuff.

Have a great February.