WoodMart 8.0-alpha – Gutenberg

We are thrilled to announce that we are working on the most significant update in WoodMart’s history! This upcoming 8.0-alpha release will mark the introduction of Gutenberg support, bringing a whole new level of flexibility and functionality to our theme. With Gutenberg’s powerful block editor, you’ll be able to create stunning, highly customizable pages with ease, taking full advantage of its seamless integration with WoodMart.

Join our alpha testers team.

We are now ready to release the alpha version and invite you to join our alpha test team. This is an exciting opportunity for you to get an exclusive first look at the new features, provide valuable feedback, and help us ensure that the final release meets the highest standards of quality and performance. By participating in the alpha testing, you will play a crucial role in shaping the future of WoodMart and making it even better for the entire community. Join us in this journey and be a part of the innovation!

Why is Gutenberg a good choice as a page builder?

Gutenberg, introduced as the main editor for WordPress some time ago, initially faced mixed reactions from users. However, the WordPress team has consistently focused on improving Gutenberg, dedicating significant resources to its development and enhancement. With each update, Gutenberg has become more powerful, user-friendly, and reliable. Today, it stands as a robust and intuitive editor, offering a seamless experience for creating and customizing content. The continuous improvements have addressed early concerns, making Gutenberg a bug-free and efficient tool that aligns perfectly with the needs of modern WordPress users.

One of the main benefits of integrating Gutenberg as a supported page builder in the WoodMart theme is that it offers a native WordPress solution alongside Elementor and WPBakery. While both Elementor and WPBakery are still excellent and widely used builders, Gutenberg stands out by being built directly into WordPress, eliminating the need for extra plugins. This not only streamlines your website’s setup but also reduces potential conflicts and improves overall performance. With Gutenberg, you can leverage the same powerful capabilities, and in some cases, even more options than other builders provide, all while maintaining a lightweight and efficient site. This native integration ensures a more seamless and optimized experience, empowering you to create stunning, customized pages with ease.

Alpha version features

It’s important to understand that an alpha release is not ready for production use. We highly recommend testing the 8.0-alpha version on a staging website only. At this stage, some elements are not available yet, and the custom layouts functionality is still in development. Additionally, the dummy content includes a limited number of prebuilt demo websites.

Please note that future updates may contain breaking changes, so creating your production website content now could result in broken markup in the final release. However, this alpha version contains all the main blocks to demonstrate the concept of using Gutenberg as a primary page builder. You will find structural elements like rows, columns, and containers, as well as all the necessary components to display WooCommerce entities such as products and categories. The alpha also includes functionality for element backgrounds, colors, responsive settings, margins, padding, animations, and more. This comprehensive set of features will give you a solid understanding of how Gutenberg can be utilized within the WoodMart theme.

What about performance?

When it comes to performance, Gutenberg offers significant advantages compared to using Elementor and WPBakery page builders. By utilizing Gutenberg, we ensure that only necessary blocks are loaded and their CSS and JS code optimized to be as light as possible. Additionally, Gutenberg-generated pages contain fewer DOM elements, making them lighter and faster on average than similar pages built with Elementor or WPBakery.

Your pages will only include the code necessary for the elements used, resulting in more efficient and streamlined content. Furthermore, most elements added to your page with Gutenberg are simple static HTML markup that does not require running any PHP code. This includes basic blocks like rows, columns, text, and images, contributing to faster load times and improved overall performance. By choosing Gutenberg with WoodMart, you can create a more efficient, high-performing website.

How to join the alpha test

To join the alpha test, simply follow the Download (Need to log in) link we provide to download the 8.0-alpha version and update it as usual. Additionally, you can access the draft of our documentation through this link, which offers basic information on how to use Gutenberg within our theme. If you encounter any issues, have questions, or suggestions, please create a topic on our support forum and mention [GUTENBERG] in the subject line of your support request. We highly value your feedback and look forward to your contributions in refining this major update.

You may install this alpha version on a fresh WordPress installation or update your website as usual. To update the theme to just need to upload the alpha package via Appearance -> Themes -> Add new.

1. If you install the theme from scratch, you will need to select Gutenberg editor during the setup wizard. This will enable all necessary options to load all blocks on your website and mark Gutenberg as a primary page builder.

2. If you update from previous version you will need to enable Gutenberg in Theme Settings -> Other -> Current builder. Also turn on Gutenberg blocks option in Theme Settings -> Other.

Now you should be able to see all theme blocks in the Gutenberg editor and import the dummy content.

Roadmap

Other changes

In version 8.0, we also made several improvements that do not directly relate to the Gutenberg editor but will overall enhance the appearance and speed of the site, including:

1. Removing the Bootstrap grid because it added a lot of unused CSS to the page. The layout structure has been redesigned and optimized accordingly. The structure was changed in the footer and in areas where content is displayed with a sidebar. The following classes are no longer used in the WoodMart theme: row, wd-spacing-, no-gutters, col, col-, col-auto, col-sm-, col-sm, col-sm-auto, col-md-, col-md, col-md-auto, col-lg-, col-lg, col-lg-auto, col-xl-, col-xl, col-xl-auto, align-items-start.
2. Off-canvas sidebar now can be added on desktop and tablet devices, whereas previously it was only possible on mobile.
3. The social share buttons element underwent a refactoring process. The CSS classes were changed from cons-design- to wd-style-, icons-size- to wd-size-, and social-form- to wd-shape-.
4. Refactoring of breadcrumb navigation. Previously, breadcrumbs had different styles and structures for the shop and blog pages. Now, the structure and classes are consistent.
5. Tooltips changes. Before, there were two types of tooltips: some were added via JavaScript, while others were directly in HTML. We refactored those in HTML, reducing the number of tags on the page and CSS size by 30%.

Full changelog

• NEW FEATURE: WoodMart Gutenberg blocks.
• ADDED: Six prebuild websites made via Gutenberg blocks.
• ADDED: Size option for accordion item opener.
• ADDED: Start value for Animated counter element.
• ADDED: Skype social link.
• ADDED: Button color option to Contact form 7 element.
• ADDED: Off-canvas sidebar for desktop and tablet devices to all pages.
• REFACTORED: Bootstrap grid replaced with own grid layout.
• REFACTORED: Accordion element styles.
• REFACTORED: Hint tooltip styles.
• REFACTORED: Social icons’ element.
• REFACTORED: Theme buttons styles.
• REFACTORED: Off-canvas sidebar.
• REFACTORED: Breadcrumbs on shop and blog pages.
• REMOVED: Bootstrap grid styles and layout structure.