File: README.md
Gutenberg
Welcome to the development hub for the WordPress Gutenberg project!
"Gutenberg" is a codename for a whole new paradigm in WordPress site building and publishing that aims to revolutionize the entire publishing experience as much as Gutenberg did the printed word. Right now, the project is in the second phase of a four-phase process that will touch every piece of WordPress -- Editing, Customization, Collaboration (which includes Real-time collaboration, Asynchronous collaboration, Publishing flows, Post revisions interface, Admin design, Library), and Multilingual -- and is focused on a new editing experience, the block editor.
The block editor introduces a modular approach to pages and posts: each piece of content in the editor, from a paragraph to an image gallery to a headline, is its own block. And just like physical blocks, WordPress blocks can be added, arranged, and rearranged, allowing WordPress users to create media-rich pages in a visually intuitive way -- and without workarounds like shortcodes or custom HTML.
The block editor first became available in December 2018, and we're still hard at work refining the experience, creating more and better blocks, and laying the groundwork for the next three phases of work. The Gutenberg plugin gives you the latest version of the block editor, so you can join us in testing bleeding-edge features, start playing with blocks, and maybe get inspired to build your own.
Check out the Keeping up with Gutenberg Index.
Getting Started
Get hands-on: check out the block editor live demo to play with a test instance of the editor.
Using Gutenberg
Download: To use the latest release of the Gutenberg plugin on your WordPress site: install from the plugins page in wp-admin, or download from the WordPress.org plugins repository.
User Documentation: See the WordPress Editor documentation for detailed docs on using the editor as an author creating posts and pages.
User Support: If you have run into an issue, you should check the Support Forums first. The forums are a great place to get help. If you have a bug to report, please submit it to the Gutenberg repository. Please search prior to creating a new bug to confirm it's not a duplicate.
Developing for Gutenberg
Extending and customizing is at the heart of the WordPress platform, this is no different for the Gutenberg project. The editor and future products can be extended by third-party developers using plugins.
Review the Quick Start Guide for the fastest way to get started extending the block editor. See the Block Editor Handbook for extensive tutorials, documentation, and API references. Also, check the WordPress Developer Blog for great articles about block development, among other topics.
Contribute to Gutenberg
Gutenberg is an open-source project and welcomes all contributors from code to design, and from documentation to triage. The project is built by many contributors and volunteers, and we'd love your help building it.
See the Contributors Handbook for all the details on how you can contribute.
To get up and running quickly with code contribution, see Getting Started With Code Contribution. Also check out the other resources available on the Code Contributions page.
In whichever way you wish to contribute, please be sure to read the Contributing Guidelines first.
As with all WordPress projects, we want to ensure a welcoming environment for everyone. With that in mind, all contributors are expected to follow our Code of Conduct.
Get Involved
You can join us in the #core-editor channel in Slack, see the WordPress Slack page for signup information; it is free to join.
License
WordPress is free software, and is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 or (at your option) any later version. See LICENSE.md for complete license.
File: docs/README.md
Block Editor Handbook
Welcome to the Block Editor Handbook.
The Block Editor is a modern paradigm for WordPress site building and publishing. It uses a modular system of blocks to compose and format content and is designed to create rich and flexible layouts for websites and digital products.
The Block Editor consists of several primary elements, as shown in the following figure:
The elements highlighted are:
- Inserter: A panel for inserting blocks into the content canvas
- Content canvas: The content editor, which holds content created with blocks
- Settings Panel: A panel for configuring a block’s settings when selected or the settings of the post
Through the Block Editor, you create content modularly using blocks. Many blocks are available in WordPress by default, and you can also create your own.
A block is a discrete element such as a Paragraph, Heading, Media, or Embed. Each block is treated as a separate element with individual editing and format controls. When all these components are pieced together, they make up the content of the page or post, which is then stored in the WordPress database.
The Block Editor is the result of the work done on the Gutenberg project, which aims to revolutionize the WordPress editing experience.
Besides offering an enhanced editing experience through visual content creation tools, the Block Editor is also a powerful developer platform with a rich feature set of APIs that allow it to be manipulated and extended in countless ways.
Navigating this handbook
This handbook is focused on block development and is divided into five major sections.
Getting Started: For those just starting out with block development, this is where you can get set up with a development environment and learn the fundamentals of block development. Its Quick Start Guide and Tutorial: Build your first block are great places to start learning block development.
How-to Guides: Here, you can build on what you learned in the Getting Started section and learn how to solve particular problems. You will also find tutorials and example code to reuse in your own projects, such as working with WordPress data or Curating the Editor Experience.
Reference Guides: This section is the heart of the handbook and is where you can get down to the nitty-gritty and look up the details of the particular API you’re working with or need information on. Among other things, the Block API Reference covers most of what you will want to do with a block, and each component and package is also documented here. Components are also documented via Storybook.
Explanations: This section enables you to go deeper and reinforce your practical knowledge with a theoretical understanding of the Architecture of the Block Editor.
Contributor Guide: Gutenberg is open-source software, and everyone is welcome to contribute to the project. This section details how to contribute, whether with code, design, documentation, or in some other way.
Further resources
This handbook should be considered the canonical resource for all things related to block development. However, there are other resources that can help you.
- WordPress Developer Blog: An ever-growing resource of technical articles covering specific topics related to block development and a wide variety of use cases. The blog is also an excellent way to keep up with the latest developments in WordPress.
- Learn WordPress: The WordPress hub for learning resources where you can find courses like Introduction to Block Development: Build your first custom block, Converting a Shortcode to a Block, or Using the WordPress Data Layer.
- WordPress.tv: A hub of WordPress-related videos (from talks at WordCamps to recordings of online workshops) curated and moderated by the WordPress community. You’re sure to find something to aid your learning about block development or the Block Editor here.
- Gutenberg repository: Development of the Block Editor takes place on GitHub. The repository contains the code of interesting packages such as
block-library(core blocks) orcomponents(common UI elements). The block-development-examples repository is another useful reference. - End User Documentation: This documentation site is targeted to the end user (not developers), where you can also find documentation about the Block Editor and working with blocks.
Are you in the right place?
The Block Editor Handbook is designed for those looking to create and develop for the Block Editor. However, it's important to note that there are multiple other handbooks available within the Developer Resources that you may find beneficial: