Gutenberg Phase Two: Updates on Customization and Entire Site Layouts

WordPress 5.0 was released on 6th December 2018 with the new Gutenberg editor merged into the core. As announced by the Matt Mullenweg on October 5, the Gutenberg phase two will now focus on the customization and entire site layouts. The second phase will be led by Alexis Llyod and Riad Benguella.

While the initial phase, Phase One was all about upgrading the writing and editing experience, the Gutenberg phase two is going to emphasize on the post and page customization allowing Gutenberg to handle entire-site layouts. This process also aims to eliminate the complex obstacles users have to find their way through like multiple layers of abstraction and navigation. The second phase mainly aims to reduce the amount of technical knowledge required to customize the overall appearance and functionality of their site.

The overall development process includes the replacement of widgets with blocks, so you can use any block in any registered “sidebar” for legacy themes. Also, the developers will upgrade “menus” to a navigation block.

First Step of Gutenberg Phase Two

The first step of Gutenberg Phase Two will bring blocks into the Customizer to create a more consistent user experience and help developers upgrade themes to Gutenberg easily. In the long run development process, the current Gutenberg post and page editor will focus on expanding a full-fledged site editor—everything together into a unified, modern product experience.

Another enhancement in the first step of Gutenberg phase two includes upgrading the widgets UI to a modern block editor. The upgrade will be consistent with how you edit pages and posts in Gutenberg to create a clear and smooth editing experience across different areas of your site.

Mel Choyce updated in his post that once the developers convert widgets and other elements into blocks, the phase 3 or 2+ will bring all of those elements together into a full site editor, where we won’t have to look for controls in the customizer menu. Instead, we can simply edit blocks like menus and widgets and add them wherever you want to.

All of these development process (short and long term) focuses on making the web fully editable in a way that is easily accessible by everyone, even the beginners.

The early version of phase two will be available in the plugin, so go ahead and activate it if you haven’t already.

Source: Make WordPress Core

 

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