Phase 2, Finale

The end of Phase 2 of the 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/ project is approaching! As we prepare to ship and wrap the final touches, I want to remind us all that this doesn’t mean work on customization is complete. In the same way the post editor continued to evolve after WordPress 5.0, there’s plenty that will get better through refinements and further feedback. However, the overall scope and product experience is coming into place and out of its betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. state. 🌟

The goal is to approach this final episode in the next two major releases of WordPress, 6.2 and 6.3. For the upcoming 6.2 release, these are some of the major highlights that will get covered:

• Updated Inserter that provides better navigation for patterns and introduces a Media tab with access to Openverse.
• Add the ability to “Browse” between pages and templates without leaving the editor and allow editing the main site navigation from a high-level perspective without having to edit specific templates.
• Overhauled navigation block with easier list-based editing, better fallbacks, and the ability to show dynamic page lists for subpages.
• Improve the default patterns and their categories to better reflect their purpose; reintroduce Query patterns as Posts. 
• Improve the clarity of the interface by splitting block tools between “settings” and “appearance”, coloring template parts and reusable blocks, and combining document information, outline, and list view tools.
• Expand layout tools with sticky positioning of containers (like headers); a setup state for Group to assist in picking a starting point; and the ability to set the width of blocks within a Row.
• Big updates to Global Styles with the introduction of a mini-preview for each block type; a new Style Book to visualize customizations across the entire 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. library; design tools for editing box shadows; ability to push local block styles to global block styles; custom CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets. support for the whole site and per-block; allow copying (and pasting) block styles between blocks.
• Provide support for migrating widgets to block template parts.
• New distraction free editing that works both for writing and customization.
• Ability to set aspect ratio on image blocks for masking that is respected when a user uploads their own.
• Dropping the beta label.

That’s on top of hundreds of 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. fixes, refinements, APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. improvements, UIUI User interface component work, and performance enhancements across the board. We’ll follow up with a more in depth review of what’s to come in 6.2 shortly.

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This work still leaves out a few important items that are being worked on but are not quite ready to make it into the 6.2 release and will instead move to 6.3 later in the year:

• Introduce flows that clarify the Template / Content relationship.
• Built-in font management interface leveraging local assets.
• Creation flows for New Page and New Template that focuses on patterns.
• Exposing revisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision. across the full spectrum of tools (templates, parts, patterns, styles).
• Access to high level settings (posts per page on relevant blogblog (versus network, site) templates; home page static page; and quick template switching).
• Creating and classifying your own pattern library alongside reusable blocks.
• Patterns where the content is configurable on a per-instance case but the design and layout is shared and can be globally updated.
• Revamp the Top Toolbar design to support access to parent blocks.
• Quick search for jumping to other pages or templates in the editor.

These items look at deeply connecting several of the customization flows laid out so far and pave the way for what’s to come in Phase 3.

#gutenberg