What’s new in Gutenberg? (26 February)

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/ 7.6 brings considerable progress on the full-site editing (FSE) front, including four new FSE blocks:

  • Post Featured ImageFeatured image A featured image is the main image used on your blog archive page and is pulled when the post or page is shared on social media. The image can be used to display in widget areas on your site or in a summary list of posts.
  • Post Tags
  • Comments Count
  • Comments Form

In addition, this release includes many enhancements and fixes to existing blocks and features.

Any help testing FSE work is much appreciated. So, if possible, please enable FSE in your testing environments and share your feedback.

Gutenberg 7.6 also brings a rotating list of tips that appear in the 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. Inserter to provide useful information to users:

The release also comes with developer-focused enhancements to wp-env and wp-scripts, thus improving the experience of building with WordPress.

Last but not least, this release cycle has prioritized bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. fixing, and as a result this release brings numerous fixes that were also included in Betas 2 and 3 of WordPress 5.4.

Read on for the full change log.

7.6 🇱🇹

Features

  • Add a rotating list of tips to the inserter help panel 20163

Experimental

  • New blocks:
    • Post Featured Image. 19875
    • Comments Count block. 19953
    • Comments Form block. 19954
    • Post Tags block. 19580
  • Add new features to the Post ExcerptExcerpt An excerpt is the description of the blog post or page that will by default show on the blog archive page, in search results (SERPs), and on social media. With an SEO plugin, the excerpt may also be in that plugin’s metabox. block. 19715
  • Allow changing Site Title block heading level. 20361
  • Render the post comments form properly 20279
  • Add new features to the Post Date block. 19857
  • Add multiple template loading 19141
  • Show error when resolved block template is empty 20239

Enhancements

  • Improve find-ability for social/video embeds 20224

New APIs

  • Ensure packages-update wp-scripts command works with missing dependencies 20408
  • Add new option in dependencies webpack 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 to combine assets files into one file 20330
  • Environment:
    • Add custom port numbers to .wp-env.jsonJSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML. 20158
    • Add support for local override files. 20341
    • Add debug mode. 20348

Bug Fixes

  • Overflowing LinkControl block editor component. 20154
  • Broken gallery to image transform and inconsistent types used in the gallery block 20084
  • Missing label on heading toolbar. 20248
  • SidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. jumpiness. 20355
  • Fix wrong imports in PluginBlockSettingsMenuItem 20356
  • Color formatter appears when color choosing is not possible 20222
  • Crash when updating a post with the latest post block 20289
  • Inconsistency on Import from JSON button look 20416
  • Inline image width pop-up ‘wanders’ down page 20232
  • Styling problem on vertically aligned blocks 20368
  • Remove unnecessary aria-label from link formatter 18742
  • Make navigation button expand to fit longer nav link text 20230
  • Flow for gallery creation and editing 20287
  • Fix background color for dark themes on the spacer block 20296
  • Show metaboxes peeking in even on tiny screens. 20262
  • Add an edit state to media frames to fix an issue when opening a new tab. 17642

Documentation

Various

  • Create block: Add support for format:js to ESNext template 20335
  • Add check for minimum system requirements on create block 20398
  • Conditionally apply Editor Skeleton htmlHTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. element styles 20245
  • Environment:
    • Check for legacy installs and provide the option to delete them. 20340
    • Fix testsPath on local sources 20353
    • Use user with UID=33 to run WP CLICLI Command Line Interface. Terminal (Bash) in Mac, Command Prompt in Windows, or WP-CLI for WordPress. commands 20403
    • Fix issue where docker & wp had different URLs 20228
    • No longer show error message twice 20157
    • Support wp-config.php overrides. 20352
    • Support overwriting generated file directory with an environment variable 20253

Performance Benchmark

The following benchmark compares performance for a particularly sizeable post (~ 36000 words, ~ 1000 blocks) over the last releases. Such a large post isn’t representative of the average editing experience but is adequate for spotting variations in performance.

VersionLoading TimeKeyPress event (typing)
Gutenberg 7.6.07.7s48.59ms
Gutenberg 7.5.08.5s55.45ms
WordPress 5.37.9s77.23ms

#core-editor, #editor, #gutenberg, #gutenberg-new