WordPress

My First Custom WordPress Block Pattern

Block Patterns are pre-defined groups of blocks curated by a WordPress theme or plugin developer and I have put off learning to build these for a few months until a case presented itself.

Previously I used WP_Query in a Child Theme to display posts of a special category to generate these call to action titles. It was cumbersome and whenever the client needed to update the page I’d have to edit the theme. Today, four years since the Block Editor arrived we can finally configure complex groups of blocks for our clients to drop any post. That’s significant workflow enhancement.

In a future release I expect users could build their own patterns within the editor itself and save them to a library just as we can with Reusable Blocks. I’m kinda curious why that ability doesn’t already exist.

I plan to post a build tutorial to joseph-dickson.com this weekend.

Creating smaller buttons for Gutenberg

Often I find WordPress’ default button blocks are too large for some situations. Fortunately, extending Gutenberg blocks isn’t too difficult. Following the Gutenberg Handbook I’ve created short video and code samples to create addtional smaller button options without relying on a plugin.

Continue reading “Creating smaller buttons for Gutenberg”

Using is_multisite to loop in a post from another blog

Multisite is a powerful feature that allows us to manage multiple blogs within a single WordPress installation. In this post I briefly describe how to post content from the main site to a sub-site.

// Check if WordPress is using multisite
if ( is_multisite() ) {

global $switched;

// Switch to another blog by ID number 1 for the first site
switch_to_blog( 1 );

// Get a WP_Query that loops in a post from the main site
get_template_part('template-parts/notice-wp-query');

// Switch back to current blog
restore_current_blog();

}

We can use any method you like to query a post from the main site. In this example I’m using WP_Query and Advanced Custom Fields to display a post using the notice category.

<?php
$current_post_ID = get_the_ID(); // the post's id is assigned to $current_post_ID


$args = array(
	'post_type'		=> 'post',
	'orderby'		=> 'date',
	'order'			=> 'DESC',
	'category_name'		=> 'notice',
);

// the query
$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );
?>

<?php if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : ?>

	<!-- pagination here -->
<div id="notice" class="row">
	<div class="small-12 columns">
	<!-- the loop -->
	<?php while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post(); ?> 
		<article>
		<div class="notice">
		<?php
			if ( function_exists( 'get_field' ) ) {  

				echo '<a href="' . get_field( 'redirect_to_url' ) . '">'; 
					echo '<h1 class="entry-title"><span class="dashicons dashicons-warning"></span>' . get_the_title() .'</h1>';
					echo '<div class="notice-content">';
						echo the_content();
					echo '</div>';
				echo '</a>';
			} else {
				echo '<a href="' . get_permalink() . '">'; 
					echo '<h1 class="entry-title"><span class="dashicons dashicons-warning"></span>' . get_the_title() .'</h1>';
					echo '<div class="notice-content">';
						echo the_content();
					echo '</div>';
				echo '</a>';
			}

		?>
		</div>
		</article>

	<?php endwhile; ?>
	<!-- end of the loop -->
	</div>
</div>
	<!-- pagination here -->
<?php endif; ?>

<?php wp_reset_postdata();

Allowing the site to post a custom message that links to another page for additional information. When the post isn’t available the blue box below will simply not appear on the page. I built this feature a long time ago but didn’t really have a practical use of until March when the pandemic required notification banners above everything on my 100+ site multisite.