14 April 2023

Ever wonder why we made so many changes to the Wagtail page editor over the past year? We got some answers for you.

How and why the page editor is evolving

If you haven't met Ben Enright yet, he's the Lead Product Designer for Wagtail and responsible for a lot of the neat things you've seen with our Wagtail logo. This week, Ben shared his thoughts on the redesign Wagtail went through when Google helped sponsor an upgrade of the Page editor.

Honestly, we can't say it much better than Ben himself, so we're going to share the beginning of his blog. Definitely click through to read the rest and see some cool before and after shots of the designs.

Here's Ben:

A page editor is the heart of a content management system (CMS). As a designer, I know just how how important it is to have tools that make it easier for creativity to flow rather than getting in the way. That's why I was excited, and maybe a bit nervous, when Google helped us fund an update of the Wagtail page editor.

A lot of work went into redesigning the page editor. So much that I wish I had kept a journal of all the different things we tried. As I went back through my notes and thought about everything we did to improve the page editor, these were the parts of that journey that stood out to me.

Click HERE to read the rest of Ben's blog

Wagtail selected for Google Season of Docs

We're happy to share the Wagtail was one of only thirteen projects selected to participate in Google Season of Docs. The Google Season of Docs provides funds for open source projects to collaborate with technical writers on improving a key part of their documentation.

Our project for Wagtail will focus on creating and expanding our Getting Started tutorial into a series that will cover more of Wagtail's features and cover more topics that will help people learn to build a deployable demo site.

There is an expression of interest form for people who would like to work with us. The deadline is April 15, but a bit more time can be provided if you're keen to apply.

Click HERE to read our full project proposal

Latest chirps

• My first CVE: Community member Jake Howard shared how he found a vulnerability in Wagtail and wrote a patch for it.
• Things to know before getting started with Wagtail: A nice short technical explanation of how Wagtail and Django work together.

Random Fun

• Why Wagtails really wag their tails: We don't think serious ornithologists would agree with this cartoonist, but we definitely do. 🤣
• Wagtail Pokemon card: Yes, this is a thing that exists. Thank you Internet.

Package Updates

• wagtail-tenants

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.