WordPress moves from CMS to site builder

@tflight thank you so much for your comments. Why can’t it be both, doesn’t have to be CMS or Page builder. Some developer actually use WordPress for their headless implementation.

We hear about the problems for theme developer especially with the changes in 5.9.

I am wondering if you go the time to check out the new Theme.json Globel Styles and Block Settings that allows you to control the site editor including disabling some block settings like Drop Cap or custom colors.

Now that the framework for full-site editing is released there is also an overall Proposal on GitHub that could use your constructive input: Proposal: Standardized block markup, theme.json design tokens, and CSS classes to improve interoperability

As for CMS, nothing that you are accustomed to is going away: You can still create custom post types, themes, and plugins. As long as you don’t create a block theme, there isn’t much that will get in your way.

As for CMS, nothing that you are accustomed to is going away

But WordPress is saying it is going away by dropping support for the Classic Editor and Classic Widgets.

I appreciate your thoughtful response to my post.

WordPress could certainly be both a CMS and a page builder, you are correct. I hope that is the case. But official support for the Classic Editor (and Classic Blocks) was originally supposed to be gone by now. Even with the extension of support until “at least 2022”– we are now in 2022 so support could end tomorrow and the extension fulfilled.

I do have clients looking for a more site/page builder experience, and for them I will (and do) build on the block editor.

However I also have enterprise clients for whom tight controls (separation of presentation and content) is critical. And if support for the Classic Editor disappears tomorrow that would be a major headache.

Without official support of the Classic Editor and Classic Widgets, WordPress appears to be dropping support of the CMS experience.

But WordPress is saying it is going away by dropping support for the Classic Editor and Classic Widgets.

There might be misunderstanding of what the Classic Editor plugin does. It gives a user interface to have a site owner and content creator make choices toward the usage of the block editor.

It is basically a GUI using available block filters to disable the block editor. Here is the corresponding DevNote from the WordPress 5.0 release. AFAIK, there are no plans to discontinue these filters as they are also used by core to support, for instance, post types that set the “show_in_rest” to false. It then automatically loads the TinyMCE editor for the Edit screen of the post_type in WP-admin, even if the classic editor plugin is not installed.

Similarly, the Classic Widget plugin is also more meant to support #nocode site owners and site builders providing UI to core filters, agency developer could use directly in their theme’s functions php. The documentation is available her.
Furthermore, AFAIK, no efforts are contemplated to discontinue these filters. They are part of the backwards compatibility promise WordPress makes.

I hope this alleviates some uncertainty about the future viability of conventional themes and plugins.

As for disable features in the block-editor the theme.json can also be used in conventional themes to easy the control of the block editor. Here is a post on how this works by a Gutenberg contributor.

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by Birgit Pauli-Haack.
• This reply was modified 3 years ago by Birgit Pauli-Haack.

Hi @bph ,

Thanks again for your comments. I’m familiar with those filters and use them in themes I develop that are not using Gutenberg. I’m also familiar with how the Classic plugins are basically just a front to those filters.

In my brain I associate those plugins and the corresponding filters as one in the same. So my assumption, perhaps unwarranted, was that if the plugin would no longer be supported that the filters were likely going to be deprecated soon.

A firm statement somewhere that the filter will remain supported for at least x period of time would give me more comfort for myself and my clients that need a more tightly controlled CMS vs a site editing or page builder experience. This week I happen to be working on both.