The Gutenberg Editor is here with its updated version, Gutenberg 2.8. The new version was released on 4th of May 2018 with several updates, enhancements, and tweaks along with it.
About the new Gutenberg 2.8, most of the work is focused around polishing, getting things ready for merge, and tightening existing APIs. Gutenberg 2.8 has made many refinements and has improved the capabilities of the Block and Plugin APIs. It has added a new ‘spacer’ block for generating visual space. The color palette component in the new Gutenberg 2.8 has been improved to be based on classes instead of inline styles and has included some important accessibility improvements like naming the color.
The new version has introduced a new paste schema in raw content handling. It simplifies whitelisting and reduces the number of filters run. It enables block authors to register more schemas. It improves reliability, clarity, markdown conversion, and usage in blocks.
To create empty areas, Spacer block has been included. The ‘spacer block’ adds arbitrary space between blocks. The new Server Side Render component helps for dynamic blocks which enable server-side rendering in Gutenberg editor.
With the support of nested settings mechanism with a template configuration and allowedBlocks blocks logic, we can merge the logic changes without changing UI and UX (for the time being). This enhancement makes it easier to set settings that configure how a given nested area behaves. ‘allowedBlocks’ and ‘template’ has been implemented. ‘allowedBlocks’ restricts what blocks we can nest inside a nesting area likewise, ‘template’ defines a set of blocks that are prefilled inside a nesting area, using the same syntax of CPT templates.
Improvements in ColorPalette:
- Implement the mechanism to use classes for configured colors instead of inline styles. Use it in Button block as well.
- Use color name in ColorPalette aria-label for making color selection more accessible.
- Improve accessibility of PanelColor by announcing currently set color by name.
- Hide color pickers in paragraph and button if no colors are available.
Here are a few more notable changes that came along with a long list of enhancements in Gutenberg 2.8 this time:
- Add a format prop to allow HTML string values to be used in RichText component. This should be a useful API addition for plugin developers.
- Use IconButton on breadcrumbs to increase consistency and accessibility.
- Avoid duplicate save request in the shared block which could cause race conditions.
- Add section about translating the plugin to the contributing doc.
- Improve the make gallery modal and allow it to use the correct mode when editing.
- Make sure to create InnerBlockList. Never update when passed using context.
- Introduce initial “entities” data model abstraction to automatically build state selectors.
- Use support: align API in Columns block, fixes issue with alignment.
- Add a RichText Content component to be used in conjunction with RichText.
- Extend BlockEdit context with name and use it for auto completers.
The Gutenberg Editor is getting better with each updated version. The developers are slowly implementing new features to make it as easier as possible for users. If you haven’t tested it yet, we suggest you give it a try. If you find something that bugs you, you’re always welcome to patch things you don’t like in WordPress.
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