10 March 2023

Snippets. You know them, you love them. And even if you don't know about them yet, you'll love them by the end of this email. With the newest version of Wagtail, the list of things you can do with Snippets got even longer.

Snippet workflows: Your new friend

If you're unfamiliar with snippets, or the word snippet makes you think of some adorable, big-eyed character on a children's show, you may want to pop over to our user guide and read at least the first couple paragraphs.

Okay, so now you have the definition of a snippet in your head. What do snippets really do in Wagtail though? What do they tend to look like?

The answer is...it depends. Some common uses for snippets include managing bits of content that need to appear in multiple places like author profiles or location information but they can be creative solutions for other types of content as well.

One helpful snippet upgrade we added in Wagtail 4.2 was the addition of snippet workflows. You might be familiar with using workflows in Wagtail pages to add any additional steps to your page workflows that you need (things legal review or a step dedicated to quashing the Oxford comma because it bugs you). Now you can use many of the same workflow features with snippets. Features like:

• Creating drafts
• Adding review and approval steps
• Locking content to prevent editing

Okay, so what are some practical things you can do with these new options? Here are three ideas.

1. Profile management: If your organisation manages a lot of employee bios, author pages, or donor profiles, workflows can definitely help you add critical review steps that help make them look their best before publication.
2. Advertisement review: Many organisations are strongly invested in the look and feel of their brand. With snippet workflows and the snippet previews feature, you could set up a review process that lets advertisers get a preview of their ad and make sure they're happy with it.
3. Managing small bits of code: If you trust your content creators to handle code or want to free up some of your developers to focus on tougher things, you could use snippet workflows to manage frequently changing bits of code. You'll definitely want to have someone who is security-minded look at your tasks for this one though.

Those are just some inspiring thoughts on what you can do with the new snippet workflow features. We look forward to seeing what you come up with too. 😊

Click HERE to grab code and build your own workflows

See more features in action at What's New in Wagtail

If snippet workflows are making your brain hum with creativity, then you're going to love some of the other things Torchbox and friends have to share at What's New in Wagtail.

The same session is being held at two different times, so select the date that works best for you.

Sign up HERE for 14th March at 10:00 GMT

Sign up HERE for 15th March at 17:00 GMT

Wagtail at Python Web Conference

Meagen Voss and Jacob Topp-Mugglestone from Torchbox are teaching a tutorial called Parlez-vous Wagtail? Internationalization for Python/Django Developers at Python Web Conference on March 15th at 15:00 GMT. Definitely come by and say hi if you're going to be at the conference. 👋

Click HERE to get a ticket

Stimulus + Wagtail: How you can contribute

If you missed Loveth's fabulous webinar on how Stimulus is being incorporated to Wagtail, then you'll definitely want to catch the recording on YouTube.

Loveth walks through what Stimulus is and shows you some practical examples of how to use it. If you've been looking for some opportunities to contribute to Wagtail, definitely watch this. 👀

Click HERE to watch the Stimulus webinar

Latest Chirps

• Outreachy contribution period tips: If you're thinking of participating in the contribution round for Outreachy, Loveth, one of our fabulous Outreachy interns, is hosting this Twitter Space event to share some tips for how you can stand out
• Wagtail AI: See how Wagtail and AI can work together in this project created by developer and sysadmin wizard Tom Usher
• Spotlight on technical content creation: Outreachy intern Damilola shared his thoughts on creating documentation in this interview with Everything Technical Writing
  

Package releases

wagtailmenus: Now supports Wagtail 4.2 🙌

Until next time, thank you for reading! If you have a news item to contribute or a package release to report, please reach out to us through our Slack community or email us.

Need help with Wagtail? Find it here.