How to Test FSE

Overview

Full Site Editing (FSE) is a major focus of Gutenberg’s Phase Two work and for 2021 goals. The Full Site Editing Outreach Program was created as an experiment to get feedback early and often from the community about this feature. While calls for testing are shared as frequently as possible, there are times when there isn’t an active call for testing but that doesn’t mean you can’t help test this feature. This guide aims to give you everything you need to start testing Full Site Editing. 

What’s the minimum viable productMinimum Viable Product "A minimum viable product (MVP) is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers, and to provide feedback for future product development." - WikiPedia (MVPMinimum Viable Product "A minimum viable product (MVP) is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers, and to provide feedback for future product development." - WikiPedia)?

Currently, the minimum viable product should make it possible to replicate the major functional elements of the Twenty Twenty-One theme, using only blocks, without any coding knowledge. You can read more about this MVP and the timeline here. 

Why should I help test Full Site Editing? 

Following open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. philosophy, “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow”. For this feature to be a success for as many people as possible across as many situations as possible, it’s important to get this work to people early to improve future iterations. Think of this as a great way to help create the future of WordPress!

Step 1: Setup your site

Before you can begin to test, you need to have a site that can allow you to use this experimental feature. Please do not test on a production siteProduction Site A production site is a live site online meant to be viewed by your visitors, as opposed to a site that is staged for development or testing.. You can follow these instructions to set up a local installLocal Install A local install of WordPress is a way to create a staging environment by installing a LAMP or LEMP stack on your local computer. or you can use a tool like this to set up a development site. 

  • Use the latest version of WordPress or at least WordPress 5.7.1 (downloadable here).
  • Use the TT1 Blocks Theme. This is 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. version of the Twenty Twenty-One theme. 
  • Use the latest version of 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/ or at least Gutenberg 10.4+ (latest version). 

Once you have all of these items in place, you should now see a navigation item titled “Site Editor (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.)”. Here’s a screenshot of what you should see:

If you don’t see that in your WordPress admin, you aren’t properly using the Site Editing experiment. If you need help, please ask in the #fse-outreach-experiment channel in WordPress.org slack. 

Step 2: Explore and test different features

While you’re welcome to test any aspect of the experience, it sometimes can help to know where to start. Here are some options below inspired by the Site Editing Milestones to help you get started.

Anyone:

  • Follow instructions for former calls for testing.
  • Use different Full Site Editing specific blocks like the Posts Lists Block, Site Title Block, Template Part Block, Site Logo Block, Navigation Block, and more. 
  • Explore Global Styles (screenshot of where to find this option). Try changing settings for blocks globally. 
  • Edit Templates like the 404 Page Template or Single Page Template. 
  • Explore the various browsing options between your content and Templates.
  • Try building a site. 
  • Try using a Theme other than TT1 from the theme experiments repository.

Theme authors:

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 authors: Create a Block by following this tutorial. If your current plugins impact Navigation or Widgets, review the respective projects underway to add block functionality to those experiences. Both of those projects help pave the way to Full Site Editing.

Step 3: Share feedback

For feedback that relates to the TT1 theme, please open issues in the Theme Experiment’s GitHub repository.

For feedback that relates to the Full Site Editing experience, please open issues on Gutenberg’s GitHub repository. Of note, as you can, please file issues either as Bug Reports or Feature Requests.

If feedback you have doesn’t fit into either option, you are welcome to open a blank issue using the option shown below at the bottom of the New Issue page:

If you do this, please make sure to still include what version of Gutenberg and WordPress you’re using.

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