Author: Robert

  • WordSaaS 3: A frontend interface block

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    Robert

    One thing I need for the particular SaaS I’m building is a block that let’s subscribers edit question and answer sets when they log into their accounts. They are in essence configuring the behavior of blocks on their own site, but when on the SaaS site they are not editing on the back end. They…

  • WordSaas 2: A SaaS Architecture

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    Robert

    Let’s talk about what it might look like to build a SaaS on WordPress. For this article, let’s talk about the broad outlines of what we’re likely to need, how that might map onto WordPress and some potentially relevant plugins, and the choices that I’m planning on using in my own case. As mentioned when…

  • WordPress SaaS confidential

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    Robert

    Clearly, there are at least a few people who consider WordPress as a platform on which to build a SaaS website—if you google for “WordPress SaaS” you’ll see them popping up in places like Reddit and in blog posts. There aren’t as many SaaS launchers looking at WordPress as I might have expected, though, and…

  • Using the WordPress editor modal component

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    Robert

    There are a few React components that show up over and over again when you’re developing custom block types—things like TextComponent and CheckboxControl. One that doesn’t get much of a workout (and, indeed, I hadn’t ever used it until I started contemplating a block that would have a significant amount of text (code, actually) associated…

  • The Builder Backlash

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    Robert

    Even as someone who has thrown in their lot with Gutenberg, I have had my moments where I might have been tempted to tweet, as Ari Stathopoulos did a few days ago on Twitter, that “I can’t understand our code anymore and it keeps getting more and more complex instead of simpler.” Stathopoulos is a…

  • WCPHX 2024 Slide Deck

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    Robert

    It was a blast to be in Phoenix in 2023 and it was twice the fun this time around. This is an embedded Microsoft Office presentation, powered by Office.

  • The Real Gutenberg Blocks Win: You Can Mix and Match

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    Robert

    As more folks are using the WordPress block editor, I’m seeing more than the occasional Twitter poll asking which set of blocks web builders prefer. It’s a question that makes sense, I suppose. You want to figure which set of building blocks is going to form your baseline toolset. A lot of people like the…

  • Best WordPress Blocks Plugins to Push Your Gutenberg Imagination

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    Robert

    Gutenberg arrived on the WordPress scene five years ago by now, but plugins that implement more-than-basic blocks were relatively slow in coming. Still, five years: so you might think everyone would have it all figured out by now. But no. And plugins that implement more-than-basic blocks were relatively slow in coming. For one thing, there’s…

  • How to display blueprints

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    Robert

    What PeakZebra offers is more than a theme. Actually it’s a lot more, but the “lot more” actually is varies from one blueprint scenario to the next. And a given blueprint could actually look a lot of different ways. Yes, what you’d normally call the “theme” is tied pretty closely to what the site does,…

  • The first LiveTheme goes live

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    Robert

    I’ve gone back and forth a ridiculous number of times about what, exactly, PeakZebra should be. What was the offer? What was PeakZebra going to sell and how was it going to sell it. I’ve had to learn a lot of self discipline when it comes to avoiding the distractions of new shiny ideas and…