Riad Benguella

Where can I find great-looking demo content for WordPress sites using only default block themes (no plugins)?

The Theme Unit Test Data feels… uninspired. Surely there’s something better out there? 🙏

The team and @neel.sh have been working on this tirelessly and they're just getting started. Give it a try and build your sites in seconds.

It's still very capable but there's a lot more to come as well.

🤖

Studio: Add Custom Domains and HTTPS Support to Your Local WordPress Development WordPress Studio 1.3.9 introduces custom domains and HTTPS support for enhanced local development flexibility.

I've been going a bit outside my comfort zone, exploring new areas in the Automattic/WordPress ecosystem. I've recently worked on WordPress Studio implementing custom domains and SSL. Check them out wordpress.com/blog/2025/03...

Studio is improving a lot lately. A lot to do still.

Just do stuff. Most discuss and talk for ages, but that's not the goal. Just do stuff, it has never been easier.

For this exact reason, I use it as my default browser. As otherwise very few devs test their PRs with it.

You should let our AI overlords write TypeScript for you and don't worry too much about it haha :)

Two blockers prevent developers from using AI:

Financial: It's still expensive. Some don't have the luxury to expense their tools.

Psychological: A mindset shift from writing code to directing an AI and reviewing its output. (loss of control)

Don't let that second aspect stop you, start today 🤖

I picked a real feature in a real project—one I had little experience with. I had gaps in the skillset needed, but after 2h30 with Claude Code, it’s done. Needs some polish, but wow.

Vibe Coding is real. I don’t like being alarming, but if you’re a developer and not jumping on the AI train yet, you’re in trouble.

Today, for the first time, I really felt a 10x boost in my own productivity.

Just wrapped up my self-rehearsal for my talk on DataViews & DataForm at #WCAsia! Excited to share and discuss tomorrow.

How about you, do you rehearse your talks, or do you prefer to go with the flow?

#WordPress

Discover André's first side quest in Gutenberg oandre.gal/my-first-sid...

What was yours?

Mastering the side quests Modern video games, especially the open world games all share similar mechanics around the game’s scenario. The player has a main quest to achieve in order to finish the game, but in parallel…

Building software is like playing an open-world RPG.🎮

The main quest is shipping features. The side quests are fixing debt, improving performance and tooling. Ignore them, progress slows. Obsess over them, you forget the goal. Balance is key.

Here’s how I approach it ⬇️

riad.blog/2025/02/07/m...

real people.

it's not about abstract personas or analytics.

it's about understanding how real people use the tools we build and helping them focus on their mission—not wrestle with technology.

The new Woo: A revitalized brand for a new commerce landscape A new look and stronger vision: Discover our refreshed brand identity designed to reflect our values and vision for the future of open source ecommerce.

Today, @woocommerce.com launched a snazzy new look to match the exciting changes we’re making to our product strategy.

This new era of Woo will touch everything: from core WooCommerce architecture to user experience to our brand identity.

Read more about it: woocommerce.com/posts/introd...

Agreed, do you have any system that helps with that. How do you balance "shipping" with "great quality". Some tradeoffs seem necessary at times.

Building and scaling a great engineering culture is hard. Balancing quality and velocity? Even harder.

I’d love to learn from you all—what tools, principles, and best practices have made the biggest impact in your teams? Reply and share your insights! 🚀

Hey nice :) Looks like we're on the same page ✌️

Haha nice, yeah maybe it's a sign that you might care a lot about this subject.

Good luck. Quality is often better than quantity.

The anatomy of a CMS I like to tell my developer friends that everyone should build an editor at least once as it’s central to many applications. Similarly, building a CMS is a rite of passage for devel…

Every dev should build an editor at least once—but what about a full CMS?

I break down the 4 core modules of a modern CMS, why they matter, and how they shape platforms like WordPress and others.

📝 Read more: riad.blog/2025/01/31/t...

#WebDev #CMS #WordPress

There are days where you feel like the king of the world, and other days where you feel miserable because of a small flu, then you get better and realize the importance of being in a good health.

Courage to everyone facing health issues.

Building an Editor: Part 1 I started experimenting with building a text editor over the weekend, guided by curiosity without any rigid constraints. It's keyboard-driven, built on…

check it out: rich.blog/building-an...

Try a new modern navigation menu and admin bar by youknowriad · Pull Request #20 · WordPress/design-experiments This is largely incomplete, still buggy a little bit and missing a lot of styles but it gives you an idea on how we can achieve this and put us on track if this is something we want to tackle.

Nice exploration. It reminds me of a very old exploration of mine github.com/WordPress/de...

It predates the site editor though, so it's a slightly different direction but similar goals.

Did you actually read what I wrote? Or maybe you replied to the wrong one?

Hey developers, you care too much about your tools, code style and your perfect IDE plugins/setup. Please focus on the product you're shipping more. 🤺

I've actually never stopped doing this. It doesn't replace the socials entirely but it's a very different way of consuming content. More qualitative.

I can agree with you but I'm not an expert in the area. I just wanted to point this out. you may also want to share feedback here github.com/WordPress/gu...

I think that style variation probably breaks an a11y rule that says: visual order should match DOM order.

Hey WordPress, anyone built anything interesting with DataViews or DataForm so far?

Indeed I’m still not ready to accept the detachment there though 😆