Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted

Gutenberg How a WordPress studio adapted By David Darke Gutenberg
| How a WordPress studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 1

Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted - David Darke
| atomicsmash.co.uk 2

How we started Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted
- David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 3

When we began, we used... Gutenberg | How a WordPress
studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 6

... a custom CMS !"#$%& Gutenberg | How a WordPress

How about... WordPress? Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted

WordPress delivered: — Simple and reliable content delivery — Clear
page hierarchy / URL structure — Simple menu system — Basic media library Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 10

There were limitations Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted

ACF allowed us — Easily create robust ﬁeldsets — Build
post to post relationships — Fashion basic event system / queries — Build a block / page building system Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 15

Next challenge: Build a more ﬂexible content editor Gutenberg |
How a WordPress studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 16

This was great, but keeping ﬁelds in sync between development
and production was PAINFUL! Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 19

Then ACF Pro added JSON support Gutenberg | How a
WordPress studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 20

Why is that feature so important? Gutenberg | How a

This was the foundation of our internal development framework Gutenberg
| How a WordPress studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 22

Then... Gutenberg was announced Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio
adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 23

— Initial commit 3rd Feb 2017. — Months rolled past.
— Beta versions and release candidates appeared. — Sounded great, but we were worried about the impact on our day-to-day. Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 24

The pitch Gutenberg looks at the editor as more than
a content ﬁeld, revisiting a layout that has been largely unchanged for almost a decade. This allows us to holistically design a modern editing experience and build a foundation for things to come. !!!!!!!!!!!! Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 25

The reception... !!!!!!!!!!!! Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted

But why? Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted -
David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 27

Initial problems and some loss of conﬁdence — Releases were
buggy — A sense of this change being forced on a community — No real clarity around the classic editor plugin and even how reliable it would be — The negative voices outweighed positive Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 28

Deeper reasons Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted -

Technical changes Widely used frameworks would be affected Gutenberg |

Another reason, Client relationships — How to discuss this big
change to their precious website? — Some clients will like the update, some won't. — Will there be problems? — How long will it take to sort? Clients want a solid plan. Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 35

First steps for Atomic Smash — Composer helped us... A
LOT — It allowed us to ﬁx the core version and pre-load the classic editor — Pre Xmas 2018 we updated a couple of sites to 5.0 (with classic editor installed) — Released December 6th, 2018 (Atomic Smash holiday started on the 19th) Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 36

Studio is closed for two weeks at Xmas... ! atomicsmash.co.uk/jobs
Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 37

What we did at Atomic Smash — Composer helped us...
ALOT — Pre Xmas 2018 we updated a couple of sites — Post Xmas 2018 we updated the rest Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 38

Next, future planning - Review on a case by case
basis whether the client needs/wants the update - All new project will use Gutenberg Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 39

Next, future planning - Review on a case by case
basis whether the client needs/wants the update - All new project will use Gutenberg Our next new project... our own site! ! Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 40

Know what Gutenberg blocks can and can't do in its
current state Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 41

Coping with data structure changes Gutenberg | How a WordPress

<figure />  Gutenberg |

Content in one place Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio
adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 47

Prepping for a new testing process Gutenberg | How a

Block Unit Test for Gutenberg https://wordpress.org/plugins/block-unit-test/ Gutenberg | How a

ACF is helping again, in the form of ACF blocks
Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 50

In Summary — We entirely believe Gutenberg is the future
of WordPress — But for right now, that doesn't mean it's for everyone — The ecosystem around it is growing — Stay ﬂexible Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted - David Darke | atomicsmash.co.uk 51

THANKS! Follow me: @david_darke Follow the studio: @atomicsmash Gutenberg |

Any questions? Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted -

Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted

Gutenberg | How a WordPress studio adapted

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