What’s the big hype about WordPress 5.0?
Who is this Gutenberg guy?
(We’re not talking about the one who was 1 of 3 men with a baby.)
Here is the skinny on the update everyone is buzzing about.
Every WP update can be a harrowing experience. Plugins could be incompatible or even worse, your theme isn’t compatible. Any WP theme developer worth his or her salt has been prepping for this particular update for at least 10 months now. However, if you’re not sure about your possibility of success, we’ve put together some tips to guide you through the process and we are also offering an update service. Click here to sign up.
What is Gutenberg first of all?
In efforts to compete with services like Squarespace, WordPress has been developing a native drag-and-drop editor built right into the WordPress core. Previously, you had to install a plugin such as WP Bakery or use the classic editor. Gutenberg uses “blocks” to help the user create beautifully designed pages “with ease.” {insert giggle}
The question of whether Gutenberg is a better editor than WP Bakery or any other plugin solution is really not up for debate here. What we want to get across is the issue with updating without understanding that you will have to make some slight to major changes to your WP setup depending on the compatibility of your plugins and themes.
DOs
- Have a recent backup of your website (ideally you have a development site that you can test this entire process on).
We recommend HELIX Advanced WP Hosting. (all MOKA sites are powered by HELIX) - Research your WordPress theme and it’s compatibility with WordPress 5.0
- Research your plugins and their compatibility with WordPress 5.0
- Follow any directions you see on upgrade tips
- Research Gutenberg and decide if you’re willing to give it a go or if it’s just not for you
- Do your update either through the WP backend or via FTP
- Navigate through your website to see if anything looks different or broken
- Login to your site and make sure the WP admin looks normal
- If you want to disable Gutenberg, follow the steps you found in your research to turn it off
- If you’ve done this on a development site and it worked seamlessly you can promote the site to live
DONTs
- fly by the seat of your pants and hope for the best and click the update button
- not do any updates at all. They are necessary for security purposes and help keep your site healthy.
- expect it to fix itself. You will have a heck of a time editing your site if you go on auto-pilot and do nothing.
