At the last WordCamp Europe we couldn't ignore it: Gutenberg - the new way of creating and publishing messages that will be introduced soon. But what is Gutenberg? What are the advantages? And what are the consequences for your current or new wordpress site? Some answers to the most important questions.
What is Gutenberg?
WordPress Gutenberg is a new way of creating and publishing pages and posts. Over the years, many ways to insert content into posts have emerged in the back-end of WordPress. Think of shortcodes, featured images, excerpts and embeds of videos. This offers many possibilities for the user, but it also makes the whole thing a lot more complex to work with. This is mainly because all these ways of adding content have their own logic and method. That is not convenient and not user-friendly. That is why there is a new way of creating pages and messages that unites all these methods. You can add all kinds of content to your page in one and the same way with Gutenberg.
How does it work then?
By means of “blocks”. They are very similar to the blocks you might be familiar with from editors like Visual Composer. You create your page using blocks. These blocks all have their own function. For example, there is a text block, a photo block, a slider block, a featured image block and a video block. You can build a page from any blocks you want. This means that you are completely free in how you build your page and what you post there.
When is Gutenberg coming?
Gutenberg is released in version 5 of WordPress. And version 5 of WordPress will only be released when Gutenberg is working completely properly. And when that is, only the core developers of WordPress who are involved with this project know. At WordCamp Europe in Belgrade, Matt Mullenweg (founder of WordPress) talked about the possibility of Gutenberg appearing as early as August 2018. We don't know with 100% certainty whether it will be August, but it is clear that Gutenberg is close.
We expect it to be at least before the end of 2018.
Is my current website compatible with Gutenberg?
Gutenberg is a unique way of building templates that has never been done before in WordPress. Gutenberg has been available as a plugin for some time now so that users and developers can work and experiment with it. However, most developers have created websites in the “classic” way, i.e. via the regular WordPress interface with the beautiful white canvas. The good news is that WordPress 5 remains compatible with the old way of working. So your website has not suddenly become unusable and developers can continue to develop in the "old" way.
Should I switch to Gutenberg?
Of course, nothing is a must. However, the benefits for the user are obvious. It is a beautiful interface that makes all the “complicated” applications (such as shortcodes) easy. The success of Gutenberg remains to be seen, of course, and our WordPress experts therefore advise to wait and see for a while. Depending on a successful introduction, new WordPress websites in consultation with you WordPress developer will probably be built in Gutenberg by default.
Van Ons contacts all its customers to arrange a customized rollout of Gutenberg.
Can I see Gutenberg yet?
Yes, you can find more information on the WordPress Gutenberg page. You can also preview what Gutenberg looks like with this live editor. There you can see how the blocks work and what the interface will look like.