Newspack Lite Site
The news, even when the connection isn't on your side.
- WordPress
- PHP
- React
- TypeScript
Lite Sites is an open-source WordPress plugin from Newspack. It gives a site a text-only version that still loads when the connection is bad.
I wrote the plugin's initial implementation.
What went into it
- Text-only archive and article templates under a path like
/lite/ - Image placeholders, so the reader decides which images to load
- Styles for liveblog posts in the text-only view
- React settings screens for appearance, categories, and tags
- An RSS importer that turns entries from another feed into posts
I really enjoyed building this and learned a lot along the way. The Newspack developers and team were great to work with and always happy to help.
The plugin is maintained by Newspack and released under the GPL-3.0 license. Its README covers the background and how to try it.