There has been a new release on Glow Blogs, making some changes, dealing with some issues and updating themes and plugins.
Changes
Site Creation
This will have no effect on existing sites.
We have changed the default site created to use the block editor and the Twenty Twenty Five five theme, a block theme.
In the Blog creation form there are two choices: Classic or Blocks
- Choosing Classic leads to the site being created with the Twenty Fourteen Theme and the Classic Editor being set.
- Choosing Blocks leads to the site being created with the Twenty Twenty Five theme and the block editor being set.
You can have the same choice as before but the default has changed.
You can choose Classic if you wish. You can also change Editors and theme at any time so you can use the block editor with a classic theme after the site is created.
Theme Switch
We have changed the default theme when you choose Blocks from Twenty Twenty Three to Twenty Twenty Five. The Twenty Twenty Five theme is a lot less opinionated than the Twenty Twenty Three theme. The Twenty Twenty Three theme came with a fair amount of ‘boilerplate’ that is not suitable and over complex for the bulk of the type of sites typically created in Glow Blogs. Until recently we have been ‘protected’ from this problem by a bug with templates that our developers have just fixed.
The Twenty Twenty Five theme is the fastest and most efficient on the front end, loading less style sheets and other dependencies.
You can of course switch to Twenty Twenty Three or any other theme at any time. We have more information on themes and switching on the Themes Glow Blog Help page.
Quick Start Videos
We have added two Quick Start Videos to the Site Editor page. These show how to get started quickly with the site editor. One for simple blog type sites that consist in a series of posts, the other a school site that will be made up mostly of pages and organised hierarchically.
Editors
You can also change editors whenever you wish. You can also allow the switching of editors so posts can be made with either editor on the same site.
The Block editor was introduced in 2018 and to Glow Blogs in 2021. We would advise activating the block editor. If you are very familiar with the classic editor it is quite different so it would be a good idea to try it out. More information.
We have quite a few resources to help with the block editor, including a screencast demonstrating how to quickly create a school website using the site editor. We will be expanding that help over the next few weeks.
Fixes
Slow Menus problem
The problem with sites with a very large (>50) menus items having a problem with the menu editor has been fixed.
Missing Shortcode block
The problem with the shortcode block not being available on sites with a classic theme and using the block editor has been fixed.
Pupils Display Name
The problem with pupils not being able to set their display name to anything other than their first name has been fixed.
We would recommend that staff advise pupils either to stay with that option or to set a nickname.
Updates
Plugins
The Following plugins have been updated, mostly small bug and security fixes.
- Draw Attention
- H5P
- WP Accessibility
- Post Ratings
Themes
The Make theme has been updated to support more recent versions of WordPress. We would still advise thinking carefully about using the Make theme. It uses its own editing system. content created may not convert if the theme is changed. Skills learnt in the Make editor are not transferable to the classic or block editors.
