Daniel Bachhuber 3:00 pm on March 1, 2018

Introducing the Gutenberg Plugin Compatibility Database

Ideally, the majority of WordPress users should be able to use GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ on the day WordPress 5.0 is released. They'll hit "Update WordPress", navigate back to the editor, and continue publishing in Gutenberg with all of the functionality they expect in the Classic Editor.

But plugins! If any one of their active plugins are incompatible with Gutenberg, the WordPress user is likely to experience pain, misery, and bad fortune. Many WordPress installations have a dozen or more active plugins, so WordPress plugins are a significant risk vector for Gutenberg incompatibility.

Enter the Gutenberg Plugin Compatibility Database. The goal for this crowdsourcing tool is to identify whether or not WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ plugins are compatible with Gutenberg. With this data set, we'll be able to:

Know the most likely causes of incompatibility.
Focus developer outreach on the highest impact problems.
Proactively educate WordPress users on whether or not their WordPress installation is ready for Gutenberg.

The only gotcha: we need lots and lots of person-hours for testing. If each pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party takes roughly 1 minute to test, we'll need ~75 person-hours to get through the remaining ~4500 plugins in the database.

Check out the project README.md for a more complete introduction to what's involved. This includes a definition for "Gutenberg-compatible", explanation for why only 5000 plugins are in the database, and other design decisions.

Do you or someone you know have access to lots of person-hours (e.g. WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. contributor dayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/., hosting support team, etc.)? I'd love to chat! Feel free to leave a comment, pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” me on WordPress.org SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. (I'm 'danielbachhuber'), or get in touch however most convenient.

jakeparis 3:11 pm on March 1, 2018

Is there any kind of list of likely sources of incompatibilities (in terms of functions, filters, actions hooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same., etc)?

In our organization we have nearly 100 plugins built in-house and it’d be nice to get on top of potential issues long before WP 5.0 is near.
- Daniel Bachhuber 3:36 pm on March 1, 2018
  
  Is there any kind of list of likely sources of incompatibilities (in terms of functions, filters, actions hooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same., etc)?
  
  For now, this GitHub comment is the most concise list I’m aware of. I expect there will be an official list + migrationMigration Moving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies. guide at some point in the future.
  
  In our organization we have nearly 100 plugins built in-house and it’d be nice to get on top of potential issues long before WP 5.0 is near.
  
  Certainly! One way you can start today is by installing GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ in your staging environmentStaging Environment A staging environment is a non-production copy of your site. This is a private place to build the site -- design, copy, and code -- until your client approves it for production or live. Sometimes used in addition to, or as a Development Environment. and doing a quick review of whether or not your plugins already work. For custom plugins, it will be difficult to produce an automated way of determining Gutenberg compatibility; there’s likely going to be some level of effort comparing your codebase to how Gutenberg changes the editor experience.
Maxime Culea 3:20 pm on March 1, 2018
It is what was missing to GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ to be welcome with open arms from the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party’s community.

Maybe an official tagtag A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses tags to store a single snapshot of a version (3.6, 3.6.1, etc.), the common convention of tags in version control systems. (Not to be confused with post tags.) into plugin repo could be given:
- to easily filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. compatible plugins
- from adminadmin (and super admin)’s plugins list, to warn users about which plugins will be compatible or will be broken
It’s a really good idea anyway ! +1
- Daniel Bachhuber 3:38 pm on March 1, 2018
  
  Thanks! Once we have the compatibility data and feel confident in its reliability, we’ll assess the different ways we can educate various demographics of WordPress users. For now, the goal for the database is purely research — not to blame plugins for being incompatible, etc.
Tatiane Pires 5:07 pm on March 1, 2018

I noticed that GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ takes over on edit post/page screen. This is a huge problem when there is any composer pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party active.

Several themes used on websites made for customers use Visual Composer or a composer built by the theme developers: TagDiv Composer for Newspaper, Fusion Builder for Avada, and so on. Static pages on these websites will continue to use these builders, I think Gutenberg should not get in the way.

These composer plugins don’t take over the edit screen until you click a button to enable them on each page. I think Gutenberg should be more polite in this matter and let users choose on a post/page basis.
- Daniel Bachhuber 5:47 pm on March 1, 2018
  
  Noted, thanks for the feedback!
- Tatiane Pires 7:17 pm on March 1, 2018
  
  Perhaps GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ could detect if any of the major builder plugins are present and active, then offer a button over the content textbox to let users choose whatever they like. it probably won’t detect every builder pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party out there though.
  
  Gutenberg could detect all the registered post types, and add a setting to /wp-adminadmin (and super admin)/options-writing.php where users could then enable/disable Gutenberg site wide to posts, pages, and each one of the CPTs.
  
  I see the following use case happening on the websites I build: users will continue using whatever builder that is in place for static pages, but it would be interesting to let them use Gutenberg on regular posts.
  
  The current state of things on Gutenberg, as far as I have tested, the editor is working in an all or nothing way.
Mark-k 5:41 pm on March 1, 2018

The idea is overly premature. As the author of a relatively popular pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party, I can not even guess if the plugin will work or not because gutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ do not feel stable at all. With 616 issues open, 130 of them marked as actual bugs, I am not going to bother and even look and test against it before it will have a merge proposal.
- Daniel Bachhuber 5:46 pm on March 1, 2018
  
  No worries! We’re doing the best we can to prepare supporting documentation to help pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party authors make their plugins GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/-compatible. We’d like to make the process as straightforward as possible.
binarymoon 6:48 pm on March 1, 2018

Have you considered letting developers tagtag A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses tags to store a single snapshot of a version (3.6, 3.6.1, etc.), the common convention of tags in version control systems. (Not to be confused with post tags.) whether their own plugins are compatible?

I can tell you now which of my plugins will work with it and which won’t.
- Daniel Bachhuber 6:51 pm on March 1, 2018
  
  Yep! At this point, we’d ideally like to work with people who want to test dozens of plugins. In terms of sheer numbers, it’s much easier to work with a few people who will test lots of plugins than lots of developers who have just a few plugins.
  
  Figuring out a reporting workflow for pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party authors is on my radar though.
Ahmad Awais 7:29 pm on March 1, 2018

This is 💯on point.
Wish all of the workflow could be handled over at GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ — I mean the dev part only.
Weston Ruter 7:34 pm on March 1, 2018

It would be nice if the database changes made while configuring the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party could somehow be captured and then made available. Running automated tests on plugins in the directory depends in large part on having the plugins be configured so they actually do something (e.g. add a shortcodeShortcode A shortcode is a placeholder used within a WordPress post, page, or widget to insert a form or function generated by a plugin in a specific location on your site. to a post).
- Daniel Bachhuber 8:13 pm on March 1, 2018
  
  It would be nice if the database changes made while configuring the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party could somehow be captured and then made available.
  
  This actually wouldn’t be too technically difficult if someone wanted to put together a harness for it. I’m not sure how meaningful the data would be, though. Plugins can change their data structure, etc.
bobbingwide 3:00 pm on March 2, 2018

I’m afraid you’re viewing it from the wrong direction. It’s GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ (i.e. WordPress 5.0) that needs to be compatible with the plugins and themes. For any case where the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party or theme no longer operates correctly due to Gutenberg’s changes then this needs to be documented either as a backward compatibility issue or a breaking change and a recommended solution or workaround offered. If none can be found then, in my book, WordPress is broken.
- Daniel Bachhuber 3:08 pm on March 2, 2018
  
  Noted, thanks for the feedback!

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Introducing the Gutenberg Plugin Compatibility Database

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