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

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

@jcasabona Washington knew the importance of effective communication

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

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

@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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@jcasabona

Talking to Your Clients

@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.

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

@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

@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

@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

Options for Your Clients

@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.

@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

@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.

@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

FAQs from Clients

@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?

Testing Gutenberg

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

@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!

@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

@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.

@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

Developer, Educator, Podcaster @jcasabona
 casabona.org/wclv18 Joe Casabona