What’s New in Gutenberg? (20th March)

This is the last 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/ release that will be entirely included in WordPress 5.2 and it’s an exciting one.

First, it introduces a 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. management modal with the ability to enable/disable blocks from the block inserter.

Block Management Modal

The release also includes the possibility to nest different kind of blocks in a Cover Block container.

Title, paragraph and buttons nested in a Cover Block.

The journey to improve different parts of the editor UIUI User interface is continuing as well with improvements to the hover and selected block states with better a11yAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) and less distraction.

Hover and selected block outlines

5.3 🇵🇹

Features

  • Add the block management modal: Ability to hide/show blocks in the inserter.
  • Support nested blocks for the Cover Block.
  • Add an experimental Legacy Widget Block (enabled only in the 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 for the moment).

Enhancements

Bug Fixes

Documentation

Various

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 5.3.017.19 s42.57 ms
Gutenberg 5.2.016.79 s
41.85 ms
Gutenberg 4.8 (WordPress 5.1)23.43 s82.75 ms
Gutenberg 4.7 (WordPress 5.0)27.60 s99.13 ms

👏 Kudos to all the contributors. Thank you.

#core-editor, #editor, #gutenberg