BlaBlaBlocks Slider Block: Updates

While rebuilding parts of our website, we needed to create several image sliders. That was when a small frustration became hard to ignore. To build a slider, we had to add a slide, open it, choose an image, and repeat the same steps for every image. It was not difficult, but the more images we added, the more it felt like something the block should handle for us.

We ran into the same problem with existing content. Some pages already had a Gallery block, while others had several Image blocks or a Columns layout that we wanted to turn into a slider. The content was already there, but we still had to rebuild it slide by slide. Instead of continuing with that workaround, we improved the block around how we were actually using it.

With Slider Block 1.3.0, the Image Slider variation now lets you select multiple images at once. The block automatically creates a separate slide for each image. Existing Gallery, Image, and Columns blocks can also be transformed directly into sliders.

Responsive layouts brought another challenge. Some sliders worked better with a fixed number of visible slides, while others needed to size themselves around the content. We added Auto and Custom slides-per-view options, with separate values for different screen sizes.

Navigation arrows and pagination can now use colours from the active WordPress theme palette, with custom colours available when needed. We also addressed a few smaller issues, including allowing the autoplay delay to be set to 0 and expanding unit and end-to-end test coverage.

This release came from using the block on our own site and noticing where the experience slowed us down. We fixed those friction points for ourselves first, then brought the same improvements back into the plugin for everyone else.

WP Frappe Data Store: Connecting Frappe and WordPress

This month, we released our WordPress data store for Frappe.

We had been using WordPress and Frappe together across a few internal and client projects. WordPress made sense for the interface because teams were already comfortable with it, while Frappe was the better place for structured data, workflows, permissions, and business logic.

Instead of writing the same integration glue again, we turned it into a reusable package.

The data store is now published on NPM and open source on GitHub. It helps WordPress interfaces read and work with Frappe data through its API, making it easier to build admin screens, plugin interfaces, or standalone experiences with Frappe as the backend.

We have also added a demo app, starter plugin, and docs so others can explore and build on top of it.

It started as something we needed ourselves, and now it is something we can share back with the community.

Frappe Vault: Bringing Secrets Management Closer to Our Workflow

As Frappe continues to power more of our internal and client operations, we have also been looking at the smaller gaps that show up when a team starts depending on it more deeply. One such gap for us was credentials and access management.

Across projects, we deal with passwords, API keys, SSH keys, certificates, client access notes, and handover details. Over time, this information can easily get scattered across tools, documents, teams, and client-side systems. The bigger issue is not just storage, but visibility. Knowing what access exists, who has it, and what needs to be handed over becomes harder than it should be.

To solve this, we built Frappe Vault, an open-source secrets and password management app for Frappe. It gives us a centralized place to manage sensitive project information within the same ecosystem where our projects, clients, users, and workflows already live.

We are currently using Frappe Vault internally and shaping it around real needs as they emerge. The app is open source and available on GitHub for anyone to fork, customize, use, or contribute to.

Frappe Local: Becoming Our Everyday Workbench

We released the alpha version of Frappe Local earlier this year and began using it internally across the team. Since then, we have shipped several beta releases, each shaped by feedback from real client work, experiments, and internal projects.

That cycle of using, noticing friction, and improving has helped turn Frappe Local into a practical local workbench. We overhauled the UI and UX, simplified common flows, and polished the smaller interactions that matter during everyday development.

The goal is not only to make Frappe easier to set up. We want developers to explore apps, mount custom apps, test customisations, switch between projects, and work with local sites without constantly managing the environment around them.

Frappe Local is now becoming the starting point for our team when prototyping ideas, validating client workflows, or building and testing custom apps.

Every release and improvement is documented on GitHub, where the community can follow the progress, try the app, report issues, and help shape what comes next.

What started as an internal experiment is steadily becoming the local development experience we wished existed when we began working more deeply with Frappe.

What We’re Learning and Applying

Each month, we take a step back and look at what’s happening around the industry and ecosystem, picking a few ideas and tools that we can learn from and bring into our own work.

A few things stood out this month:

• OpenAI introduced GPT-Live, GPT-5.6, ChatGPT Work, and Presence show AI moving beyond isolated prompts into longer, connected workflows. What interests us is how these systems are becoming more practical for real work while keeping people involved in sensitive decisions.
• Anthropic’s Claude Opus 5 continues in a similar direction, with a stronger focus on judgement, coding, and long-running work. The more useful question now is not which model writes code fastest, but which one understands the wider problem and stays reliable with less guidance.
• Laravel’s first-party image processing support brings common work such as resizing, cropping, converting, and optimising images into a more consistent Laravel workflow. It is a small addition that could simplify a lot of repeated work across the products we build.
• WordPress 7.1 Beta 1 adds responsive block styling, better media handling, inline image cropping, and editor refinements. The responsive controls stood out because they address some of the same layout challenges we are solving in our own blocks.
• We also came across Product Design Psychology, a thoughtful collection by Wouter de Bres about how psychology shapes the products we design. It looks beyond individual interface patterns and explores the minds of designers, users, and the organisations behind the work. It was a useful reminder that design decisions are rarely driven by usability alone. Our assumptions, habits, incentives, and internal processes often shape the final product just as much.