Release Planning – Nov 2025

A wizard sitting in front of a monitor and keyboard, drawn in a comic book style. The monitor says "release planning Nov 2025." (Image generated by ChatGPT.)

The November release for Pitchfork and Pitchfork Blocks adds content sections to the pattern library, adds secondary colors to the default color palette and updates the innovation footer graphic.

The November releases for the Pitchfork theme and for Pitchfork Blocks provides several small updates and bug fixes to WordPress builders using our products. This is concurrent release of the block plugin and theme files; users should plan to update both products to the levels listed below for best compatibility.

Updates

Package version list

  • unity-bootstrap-theme updated from 1.25.0 ➡️ 1.30.3 (latest)
  • component-header-footer updated from 1.0.9 ➡️ 1.1.1 (latest)

Things to know

Global footer innovation graphic

The Pitchfork theme now includes the latest “30+ lists” innovation graphic from the component-header-footer package within UDS.

New content patterns

The theme now includes three new block patterns that express different content sections found within the Unity Design System. The new patterns are listed below.

Image and text block pattern
Found within the Pitchfork: Content pattern category within the block picker
Uses the native core/media-text block to reproduce the design from UDS
Be sure to set appropriate margins around the element within the page or post.
Inset content box
Found within the Pitchfork: Content pattern category within the block picker
Uses the Pitchfork Blocks background-section block to set the background color or texture
Includes settings to maintain the proper indention of the content area. (1 column on either side.)
Inset card on image
Found within the Pitchfork: Card Layout pattern category within the block picker
Also uses the Pitchfork Blocks background-section block to set the background image as needed.
Settings within the two core/group blocks control the width and position of the included card.

UDS secondary colors

The newest secondary colors from the ASU color palette have been added to the default palette within theme.json. This makes ASU Copper (#Af674B), ASU Turquiose (#4AB7C4) and ASU Pink (#E74973) available to blocks that rely on included theme colors.

Block enhancements

  • Border controls for core/media-text, core/columns, core/column and core/group blocks have been enabled for more design flexibility.
  • The acf/card-foldable block now allows for core/group and core/button elements as inner blocks.
  • Pitchfork blocks now includes better default styling for acf/accordion elements including margins between each foldable card container.

Query loop buttons

Previously, users were unable to add a repeated call to action button within a standard query loop. This was because the href of the button was unable to be set to the link of the looped post. To address this, theme now has a bindable data source attribute called pitchfork/current-permalink available for content editors creating post loops.

A working example of a button with this bound attribute was added to the existing Card layout: 3 Across with Query Loop pattern.

Advanced Custom Fields support

The v2.6 theme release removes support for the ASU Engineering custom unique ID field as an available field definition within ACF. This field was once used by the accordion block found within Pitchfork Blocks but is no longer utilized as of the concurrent Pitchfork Blocks release (v2.4).

Removal of this field definition has the added benefit of preventing a possible PHP fatal error that can arise when the theme is activated before the ACF Pro plugin is activated or is available.

Accessibility audit from Enterprise Technology

The v2.6.0 release of the Pitchfork theme addresses one critical bug captured as a part of our ongoing accessibility audit of the Pitchfork product line. Any remaining issues from that audit have either been addressed or ticketed for action in upstream code repositories like unity-bootstrap-theme.

WordPress 6.9 preparation

At the time of this release post, WordPress v6.9 is scheduled for release in early December 2025. In preparation for the latest core update, we have tested theme against Beta 1 and Beta 2 and have noted the following:

  • The default block editor now includes 4 additional blocks, all of which work out of the box with the theme.
  • We have chosen to blacklist the new core/accordion block within the Pitchfork theme in favor of the accordion and foldable-card blocks included in Pitchfork Blocks. This reduces the need to remediate existing blocks and should ensure that accordion content will continue to be modeled on the design and functionality within UDS.
    • Child theme developers wishing to “un-blacklist” these blocks can use the pitchfork_unregister_native_blocks hook to override the default parent theme settings.
  • The Terms Query, Math block and Time to Read blocks remain untouched and will be ready to be used as needed.
  • Other improvements in the upcoming core release include the introduction of the block notes system for better editorial workflows and the native ability to temporarily hide a block from the editor and front end of the site.
  • The beta-1 announcement on WordPress.org has plenty more details if needed.

Miscellaneous

Work has begun on an additional plugin in the Pitchfork ecosystem of plugins and themes. Pitchfork Glide will be the preferred destination for any UDS element that utilizes glide.js to provide movement or user interaction. The initial proof-of-concept version of the plugin ships with one block – the image carousel.

Other blocks that are scheduled for construction and inclusion within Pitchfork Glide are:

In response to an accessibility ticket which identified an issue with the initial formatting of the UDS display list element, we also developed a general purpose plugin which adds description list HTML elements (<dl>, <dt> and <dd>) to the native WordPress block experience. The plugin is called The Description List and can be installed directly from Github via Git Updater or WP Pusher if needed.