WordPress Foundation: Recognizing the 2025 WordCamp Asia Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship Recipients
November 21, 2025Matt: Friday Links
November 22, 2025
Hi there,
Munich got hit with the first snow for this Winter. It started slowly on Friday morning, and by the afternoon the flakes got larger and the white started to cover tree branches, roofs and cars. It might all be gone by tomorrow, though, as the weather forecast shows -7 °C (19.4 °F) with sunshine.
I am still a Floridian Weather whimp, but I like the snow covering the overcast gray of an Autumn day. I just won’t go outside if I can help it.
WordPress 6.9 is almost there. If you need a full run down of the changes in the block editor, I’ve got you covered with the WordPress 6.9 Source of Truth, with screenshot and videos. It clocks in at 5,200+ words. The table of contents as well as the in-post tags will help you navigate it. And I am always here to answer your questions.
But wait there is more below,
Have a fabulous weekend, and if you are in the Northern Hemisphere, stay warm.
Yours, 
Birgit
Developing Gutenberg and WordPress
First-time release lead Jonathan Bossenger worked on the Gutenberg 22.1. version. In his release post What’s new in Gutenberg 22.1? (18 November, 2025) he highlighted two major block updates and a performance improvement for the image block.
WordPress 6.9 Release Candidate 2 was released this week. December 2 will be here soon enough for the final release.
Joe Dolson published a list of all the Accessibility Improvements in WordPress 6.9. More Dev Notes can be perused on the Make Blog
Sarim Javaid, Digital Ocean posted WordPress 6.9: What’s new, release date, features, and why it is important for your site on the Cloudways blog. “You’ll get faster load times, more streamlined site management, and new developer tools like APIs and automation features. Also, teams will benefit from block-level commenting for better collaboration” he wrote.
In this week’s stream, Jonathan Bossenger dives into testing WordPress 6.9, specifically focusing on the DataViews functionality. He starts by setting up his live stream, organizing processes, and installing necessary updates. Then, he explores the JavaScript packages involved, particularly the React components that power admin pages. Join him as he fumbles around, copy-pastes examples, and strives to get a basic implementation of DataViews working. If you enjoy watching someone learn through trial and error, give this video a like and subscribe.
JuanMa Garrido livestreamed about What’s new for Devs in Wp 6.9: Interactivity API
Upcoming WordPress 6.9 events
Maruti Mohanty plans a Workshop for November 27 at 10am UTC on How to Prepare Your WordPress Site for WordPress 6.9? via Learn WordPress meetup.
Also on November 27 at 12:00 UTC, JuanMa Garrido and Jonathan Bossenger invite you to the Developer Hours: WordPress 6.9 Developer Updates. A second edition, covering updates to Block Bindings and Interactivity API.
If you missed the first edition, it’s now available on WordPressTV: Developer Hours: WordPress 6.9 DataViews/DataForm & Abilities API.
The State of the Word, Matt Mullenweg‘s annual keynote will be live streamed from San Francisco on December 2 at 8pm UTC. For the first time, we are celebrating SOTW alongside the official release of WordPress 6.9 on the same day. Expect demos, and even get an early preview of the future beyond for WordPress. All followed by a Q & A with Matt Mullenweg.
The latest episode is Gutenberg Changelog #124 – Gutenberg 22.0 and WordPress 6.9 with Ellen Bauer, project lead at Automattic.
Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners
Justin Tadlock just dropped his awesome new Media Data WordPress Plugin, which is all about pulling in embedded metadata from your uploaded media files—think EXIF data, ID3 tags, camera settings, dimensions, and a lot more. The plugin comes with two blocks: one to hold everything together and others to showcase specific bits of metadata. Plus, it works seamlessly with WordPress 6.9’s block bindings, so you can easily make custom connections between blocks. It’s up on GitHub while waiting for approval in the directory.
Core contributors are getting ready to move the Post Editor into an iframe in WordPress 7.0. This change is all about giving the editing experience a fresh, modern vibe and cutting down on distractions from admin styles and those third-party scripts. Aki Hamano, a core committer, laid out the plans last week in a developer note: Preparing the Post Editor for Full iframe Integration
Rae Morey, The Repository, reports on the various concerns from other contributors in Core Contributors Prepare to iframe the Post Editor in 7.0, Prompting Backward-Compatibility Concerns.
As a follow-up, Aki Hamano started a discussion on GitHub on Documentation to help with the migration to Block API version 3 #73138, with comments from Ella van Durpe and Riad Benguella with ideas on how to navigate the migration.
In her post Introducing Accelerate: Redefining Experimentation in WordPress, Gianna Legate, Head of Content at Human Made, explores how the new Accelerate platform bridges WordPress and modern marketing. The plugin enables marketers to run A/B tests, personalize content by geography, and promote high-performing blocks directly within the editor, shifting WordPress from content-centric publishing toward data-driven customer engagement without requiring external tools or custom development work. The premium plugin is free for up to one million monthly page views.
Hans-Gerd Gerhards announced an update to his plugin Dynamic Header & Navigation for Block Themes, a lightweight WordPress plugin developed specifically as a navigation solution for most Block Themes. “I am very pleased that my plugin now has more than 100 active installations.” he wrote on LinkedIn.
Johanne Courtright published her The Complete Guide to Groundworx Carousel Block. She walks through setting up responsive carousels using Splide.js and Gutenberg, exploring nine professional templates and eight responsive breakpoints for precise control. The guide covers styling via theme.json, creating custom templates using CSS Grid, and building reusable block variations for your team’s consistent configurations across WordPress projects. The plugin is available in the WordPress repository: Groundworx Carousel v 2.0 was released last week after a complete redesign.
Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks
Ellen Bauer‘s talk at WordCamp Kansai is now available on WordPressTV: Building a WooCommerce Store Using Block Themes and AI Site Building. In this hands-on session, you’ll learn how to use a lightweight starter block theme and AI site-building tools to create a fully editable WooCommerce store design that you can refine directly in the WordPress editor.
Rich Tabor continues his explorations. The second post is all about the Application Menu. “An application menu would act as a consistent anchor—an always-present spot where you can see the full range of available actions. Not a replacement for other controls, and not a move to strip the interface down.” he wrote.
Ryan Welcher livestreamed part 3 of his quest to use every Interactivity API feature in one site
Questions? Suggestions? Ideas?
Don’t hesitate to send them via email or
send me a message on WordPress Slack or Twitter @bph.
For questions to be answered on the Gutenberg Changelog,
send them to changelog@gutenbergtimes.com
