Preparing Your Clients for Gutenberg

As WordPress 5.0 comes closer to launch, it’s important to start thinking about how we’re going to train and prepare out clients – both new and current – on the new editor. In this talk, we’ll go over how to communicate the changes to your clients, a test plan, and some things to look out for when prepping your theme.

Transcript

1. Preparing Your Clients for Gutenberg
   Joe Casabona
   casabona.org/wclv18
   

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5. @jcasabona
   Washington knew that
   getting information as
   early as possible would
   best serve the Revolution
   

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6. @jcasabona
   Washington knew the
   importance of effective
   communication
   

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7. With Gutenberg, using it as early as
   possible lets you effectively
   communicate with your clients about
   their websites.
   

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8. @jcasabona
   Outline
   • What is Gutenberg?
   • Talking to Your Clients
   • Coming up with a Plan
   • Updating Your Themes / Plugins
   

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9. @jcasabona
   Current State of Gutenberg
   • 3.6.1 Came out yesterday
   • It is “feature complete” - bug fixes only now.
   • There is an call to action in the latest version of
   WordPress
   • Gutenberg downloads have exploded since 4.9.8
   

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12. @jcasabona
    

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13. Talking to Your
    Clients
    

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14. @jcasabona
    About Your Clients
    • They’ll need to be re-trained on how to use
    WordPress
    • They’ll need to be prepped on why it’s important to
    upgrade.
    • They will have specific questions about their site
    and what to expect.
    

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15. @jcasabona
    Types of Clients
    • New to WordPress
    • Clients you’re currently working with
    • Clients you’ve launched sites for / maintain sites for
    

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16. @jcasabona
    New to WordPress
    • These are the easiest!
    • You’re starting with a blank canvas
    • With both the site and the client
    • You should start working with Gutenberg for new
    clients
    

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17. @jcasabona
    Clients You've Launched Sites for
    • Could be tough, based on timeline
    • Since there’s no active development, you could use
    explain options
    • Classic Editor would work best here, for a short
    time
    • Encourage them to upgrade as soon as they can
    

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18. @jcasabona
    Current Clients
    • Toughest - project is in development
    • Tell them what’s happening and give them their
    options
    • Be honest and try to help mitigate
    • Try to encourage upgrade, fallback to Classic Editor
    • Encourage them to upgrade as soon as they can
    

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19. Options for Your Clients
    

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20. @jcasabona
    Upgrade Options
    1. Continue on 4.x and don’t upgrade to 5.0.
    2. Start the upgrade to 5.0.
    3. Upgrade to 5.0 and use the Classic Editor plugin,
    which disables Gutenberg.
    

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21. @jcasabona
    Pros of Upgrading
    • Continued support for years to come
    • Security and Maintenance updates right when they come
    out
    • A more powerful editor to create fantastic content
    • You’re using the system that will be adopted in other areas
    of WordPress in the coming years
    • The ability (potentially) to drop premium plugins that can be
    accomplished in 5.0 thanks to Gutenberg
    

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22. @jcasabona
    Cons of Upgrading
    • There is cost involved with upgrading - both time and
    money
    • Your site could break - content, theme, and other
    plugins
    • Many plugins will not be compatible on the day 5.0
    comes out
    • •Many plugins will likely turn Gutenberg off for a short
    period.
    

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23. @jcasabona
    What Should You Do?
    • This will be on a case by case basis
    • For smaller sites - perhaps straight blogs or informational sites -
    you’ll be able to upgrade to 5.0 more quickly.
    • If you have a page builder, are a large amount of different types
    of content, you’ll likely want to recommend upgrading, but can
    use the Classic Editor for a small amount of time.
    • Let Your Clients take it for a spin!
    • Setup a WordPress install with Gutenberg or send them to a
    service like Frontenberg
    

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24. FAQs from Clients
    

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25. @jcasabona
    What Should You Do?
    • What happens to my current content?
    • Will Plugin I Love work?
    • Do I have to upgrade to 5.0?
    • What happens to my theme?
    • Can’t I just use the Classic Editor plugin forever?
    

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26. Testing Gutenberg
    

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27. @jcasabona
    Review of What Can Break
    • Current Content
    • Content Generated from Plugins
    • Customized Editors / Page Builders
    • Your Theme
    

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28. @jcasabona
    Test Plan
    • 1. Create a Staging Site on your host
    • 2. Install the Gutenberg Plugin
    • 3. Install any betas of important plugins that add Gutenberg Support
    • 4. Inventory Content
    • 5. Create a Kitchen Sink Page
    • 6. Conduct Tests
    • 7. Document Everything
    • 8. Offer Feedback
    • 9. Fix what you can!
    

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29. @jcasabona
    What About my Theme/Plugin?
    • New types of content with minimal styles that affect
    frontend
    • Ex: Cover Image, Columns
    • Editor Styles
    • Page Templates that are / are not full-width
    

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30. @jcasabona
    What About my Theme/Plugin?
    • If you’re doing things that affect the frontend, you’ll
    have the same issues you see in the themes.
    • If you add meta boxes or shortcodes, you might
    consider adding block support for those.
    • If you have a Custom Post Type, you’ll need to
    make sure REST support is enabled with
    'show_in_rest' => true.
    

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31. @jcasabona
    What You Can Do
    • For Themes
    • Add CSS to support new blocks
    • Add some generic classes that can be added to blocks
    • Add theme support (link in Resources section for this)
    • Test every template.
    • For your plugin:
    • Test it as much as possible
    • Take stock of all the functionality, particularly anything that affects the
    frontend or the editor
    

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32. Developer, Educator, Podcaster
    @jcasabona

    casabona.org/wclv18
    Joe Casabona
    

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