Sidebar Controls & Component System

“What is G2?” It was a codename for the block toolbar redesign that happened as part of WordPress 5.5, and it’s also been the codename for a followup effort to evolve the design language of block controls. This post is meant to give visibility to the effort since the question came up yesterday.

The initial effort is focused on bringing systematization to 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. controls in the editor 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.. Here’s a specific example of what the effort is trying to solve for:

Typography tools, concretely, have been expanding with different blocks requiring a slightly different subset (with or without line height, with or without font weight, etc). These groups of controls need flexibility and clarity. Both themes and blocks need to be able to specify which elements are configurable by the user and the interface needs to be able to accommodate different configurations in a pleasing and consistent manner.

That means there are two complementary goals with this effort: an improved design system and more functional control typologies that neatly organize the complexity of information and actions. We can start with some of the basic and most recurrent panels that can provide a baseline for others.

Please feel free to read the full ticket and participate directly on 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/.