Transitioning to a block based editor in a pre-Gutenberg world

View this talk on my blog here: https://wp.me/p2F3oW-1FV

How do we move towards a block-based admin UI in a pre-Gutenberg WordPress?

With the rise of page builders and ‘block-based’ layouts, and the imminent arrival of Gutenberg – WordPress’ new block-based editor – we needed a solution for transitioning towards this new way of editing content while sticking with the mature and stable technology stack that we know and love.

We, therefore, set out to find another solution and this led to the development of the HD ACF Blocks plugin that we use on most sites today.

This talk introduces the plugin, how we built it, how it works, and how it provides value to our clients and our business.

This talk is aimed at developers who are looking to move towards building sites with blocks. Perhaps those that have looked at Gutenberg and had little success and looking for something different.

Transcript

1. Transitioning to a block based editor in a pre- Gutenberg world Mark Wilkinson Co-founder & developer at Highrise Digital https://highrise.digital @wpmark
2. We are not anti-Gutenberg Neither is this talk
3. Designs have changed
4. (Maybe) A more traditional site design
5. Header Menus
6. Content The Editor
7. Sidebar Widgets
8. Footer Widgets?
9. A more modern design
10. A more modern design
11. Page built up of blocks of content
12. Page built up of blocks of content
13. The problem
14. wp_nav_menu() the_content() Sidebar widgets Footer widgets or wp_nav_menu()
17. Attempted solutions
18. [my_shortcode]
21. Page Builders
23. Our solution
24. Advanced Custom Fields Flexible Content Field
25. Groups of fields - blocks Add multiple groups Drag and drop the order
26. HD ACF Blocks plugin
27. Content Hero Feature row Call to action Videos Quotes Image(s) Accordion Documents Locations Heading Separator Statistics Recent content Gravity form Pricing
30. Extensible development Template overrides Filterable fields Extensive actions and filters Lots of helper classes
31. Challenges
32. Interface/styling
34. Interface/styling
35. Everything is post meta Not searchable - by default Reusable blocks
36. ACF Blocks for Gutenberg From Advanced Custom Fields https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/blog/acf-5-8- introducing-acf-blocks-for-gutenberg/
37. Mark Wilkinson Co-owner of Highrise Digital WordPress dev @wpmark
38. We’re hiring! WordPress developer https://highrise.digital/hiring/