Full Site Editing Breakdown

[youknowriad]

This is an overview of the concrete tasks needed to proceed with the project scope of Full Site Editing (FSE).

Part 1

Framework (Infrastructure)

• Replace EntityProvider’s and useEntity* hooks with the Block Context API. Server Side Rendering Parent Attributes Context #19685 @aduth
• Theme local assets Block Based Themes: Dynamic values in static HTML theme files #20966
• Fix template parts saving behavior Template parts saving behavior is confusing #21512 @epiqueras Template Parts: Improve resolution and saving behavior. #21766
• Support separate entity "block controllers" in the block-editor @noahtallen FSE: Compute the block state of different entities separately #21368. (Fixes various issues with undo & dirty state caused by the block-editor store thinking that everything belongs to the same entity.)

Edit Site Interface

• Show the current theme template and hierarchy in the template selector Edit Site: Display current theme template and template hierarchy selection #19252 Iterate on "Update Design" Flow #20421
  • Show the current theme name and preview Theme name in Template Selector #20469
    • Show the current theme name Template Switcher: Add current theme #21578 @ockham
    • Show the theme preview on hover Template Switcher: Add theme preview #21768 @ockham
  • Show template parts in flyout menu Show Template Parts in Flyout Menu (or similar) #20470 RFC: Improve Popover Positioning API #21275
• Template parts popover menu and preview Edit Site: Isolate template parts for editing #19253
  • Add device preview option Site Editor: add preview options component #21309 @vindl
  • Template parts popover menu
• Load a specific context depending on the template (single post, category) in order to « fill » the placeholders Edit Site: Loading a specific context on a dynamic template #19257
• UI to create variations of existing templates Edit Site: Spinning up a variation on any given template #19259 The "Update" flow for entities and templates should allow creating variations #20474
• Improving loading time and loading behavior of the Edit Site screen. Preload the edited template to avoid the white page effect before the screen loads #21214 @youknowriad
• Iterate on the saving flow Iterate on "Update Design" Flow #20421 @Addison-Stavlo
• Show preview for templates and template parts Show Preview of Templates and template Parts #20478 @youknowriad
• Show template part name in the navigator Show template part name in the navigator #21104 FSE: Use slug for template part display label #21161 @noahtallen
• Load the editor styles. Apply the editor styles to the Site Editor page #20982 @youknowriad
• Close button extensibility Site Editor: make close button replaceable #22001 Site Editor: refactor close button slot #22179 @vindl
• Add a "Revert to default" option for templates and template parts Edit Site: Add a "Revert to default" option for templates and template parts. #23421
• UI Parity Site Editing: UI Parity #21245
  • Add block inserter in the header
  • Undo / Redo. Add undo-redo UI to edit-site and edit-widgets #21955 @jorgefilipecosta
  • Ability to toggle and dismiss Inspector
  • Full screen mode Site Editor: add Fullscreen mode #20691 Site Editor: add fullscreen close button #20989 Site Editor: add more menu and fullscreen toggle #21006 @vindl
  • Spotlight mode FSE: Add focus mode and top toolbar modes #22537 @noahtallen
  • Block toolbar in header FSE: Add focus mode and top toolbar modes #22537 @noahtallen
  • Add Patterns Use the inserter panel for the edit-site screen #22413 @youknowriad
  • Add code editor
  • Add Tools section with keyboard shortcuts, etc.
  • Add Preview (and devices). Site Editor: add preview options component #21309 @vindl

Small Enhancements

• Allow creating pages from the « Add Template » flow Theme name in Template Selector #20469
• Show a home page indicator Site Editing: home page indicator #20788 @epiqueras Edit Site: Add home icon to template switcher. #22004
• Export the wp_templates as a theme Edit Site: Export all templates from wp_templates #19260 (previous PR: Edit Site: Add theme exporter. #21958) @epiqueras Edit Site: Add theme exporter. #22922
• Improve the template part UI (Document tab for the template part info) Allow blocks to render semantic tags for full-site editing #20200

Site and Post Blocks

• Suite of post blocks Suite of Post Blocks #15623
  • Post Author New Block: Post Author #19696 Block Library: enhance the author block #19894
  • Categories Post Hierarchical Terms Block #24091
  • Post Comments
    • Stub Block Library: Add a Post Comments block. #19581 Use the default post comments template for the post comments listing #21012
    • Full implementation for frontend parity Post Comments Block: Implementation Notes #24101
• Better design for placeholder blocks Edit Site: Present "placeholder" blocks clearly #19256
• More customisation options to FSE blocks Add styling attributes to Site Title, Site Description, and Post Title Blocks #19491
• Support htmlTag attribute on the Group block Allow blocks to render semantic tags for full-site editing #20200 @gziolo @youknowriad
• Add a Query block Create Query Block #20106
• Template Parts with HTML tags: Template Parts should allow setting HTML tag #20997
• Feature parity with regular blocks Feature parity between FSE Blocks and regular blocks #21087

Part 2

Framework (Infrastructure)

• Load the appropriate FSE template on the post / page editor Load the appropriate FSE template on the post / page editor #21086

Interface

• Rethinking the "Current Document" display and settings Rethinking the "Current Document" display and settings #20877
• Mosaic View of Theme Templates Mosaic View of Theme Templates #20477
• Add link to templates and template parts listing in site editor Add link to templates and template parts listing in site editor #21246

Blocks

• Add a Grid block and use it as a starting point for blank templates Edit Site: Creating a new template from scratch #19254 Block Editor: Implement a responsive grid mode for InnerBlocks and a basic grid block that leverages it 2. #20000

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Global Styles

Refer to this issue instead #20331

[mtias]

Moved the Grid block to the second wave so we can focus a bit better on the initial pass.

[Addison-Stavlo]

@youknowriad @mtias - has anything related to #21218 / #21219 been discussed / triaged towards work here yet? I have noticed these problems and they seem important, but I hadn't noticed anything discussed about them yet so I opened the issues noted above.

[mtias]

It was meant to be covered by #19254, though that issue took a spin towards the grid block that wasn't the intention. It's useful to break it apart anyways.

[epiqueras]

This is an excellent prioritization of tasks. I am excited to start drilling through!

[epiqueras]

Two issues/tasks stand out to me the most here because they are very foundational and require material framework changes.

Theme local assets #20966

The scope here is a lot broader than it first seems. Things like localization will have the same issue that dynamic URLs have, that our level of granularity for defining dynamic content areas is too coarse, it's entire blocks. I wrote about a possible solution here, inline "blocks". Ideally, we arrive at a solution that paves the ground for the next phases of Gutenberg.

Add a Query block #20106

The Query block will be the block editor counterpart of writing a WP_Query and rendering "the loop" in PHP. This is a foundational part of the majority of layouts and especially important because all templates should essentially be rendered under an implicit Query block computed from the current URL.

We also need to pay a lot of attention to pagination as it should be easy to separate sibling Query blocks by static content and have one continue the other's loop.