Status Update: Porting Widgets to Blocks

Per 9 Projects for 2019, all widgets will be ported over 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/ blocks. I went through and audited how close we are to completing this goal:

✅ Completed

  • Audio [2299]
  • Archives [7949]
  • Categories [2102]
  • Custom HTMLHTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. [1391]
  • Image [379]
  • Latest Comments [7941]
  • Latest Posts [870]
  • Text
  • Video

✏️ Work in Progress

🖼 Has Design

  • Calendar [1462]
  • Classic Widgets [4770]
    • Any existing widgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. will work by using the Classic Widget blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience..
  • Navigation MenuNavigation Menu A theme feature introduced with Version 3.0. WordPress includes an easy to use mechanism for giving various control options to get users to click from one place to another on a site. [1466]
    • This has a bunch of design ideas, but not a finished design. This block design is still a WIP.
    • Note: This is also its own 2019 project.

Additionally, the following completed widget blocks have v2 designs:

⌨️ Has PR

🙅🏽‍♀️ Deprecate?

There’s a couple widgets that I personally think can be deprecated:

  • MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress.: Feels anachronistic and out-of-place in modern WordPress.
  • Pages: Should be replaceable with a navigation menu block.

Next Steps

Given this list, I think our top priorities are:

  1. Reopen, finish up, and merge existing widget block PRs.
  2. Create a PR for Calendar — maybe two: one following the original design, and one following the more complex v2. The original can likely be completed and merged quickly, which would put us in a great place in terms of widget support.
  3. Review the Classic Widget block design to ensure it matches current Gutenberg patterns, and create a PR.
  4. Create v2 PRs for Archives, Calendar, Recent Comments, and Recent Posts. Having a working PR can help us establish whether or not the designs are feasible, and a better experience.

Navigation Menu, as a broader block that extends beyond just widgets, should be tackled separately from this effort.

@karmatosed has created a new 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/ project we can use to track progress: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/projects/20.

#blocks, #gutenberg, #widgets