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Genesis WordPress Themes

WordPress 5.0: The Gutenberg Editor and the Promise of A New Way to Edit

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By now you’ve likely heard about WordPress Gutenberg, the new post editor that will be rolled out with the 5.0 release of WordPress (scheduled for tomorrow 12/6). The new editor has been under development for almost two years!

“Gutenberg is more than an editor. While the editor is the focus right now, the project will ultimately impact the entire publishing experience including customization.”
The Gutenberg Team

That’s pretty exciting news. There have been some rumblings (both positive and negative) around Gutenberg, though, and I’d like to address a few.

WordPress Gutenberg + Existing Themes = Oh no?

As far as we can see, there’s no need for alarm. Gutenberg appears to be solid, and most themes will “just work” with it. The sky won’t fall, and it’s doubtful that things will “just break” for anyone upon upgrading. But the caveat is that — like with any new application — there are no hard and fast guarantees with Gutenberg.

We have tested all our actively supported themes on WordPress 5.0.  As far as your 9seeds Genesis Child theme is concerned you can safely update to WordPress 5.0 and start using the fancy new block-based editor.

If you want to stay locked into the old editor, there’s a plugin called Classic Editor for that too.  Install that plugin first, then update to WordPress 5.0 and you won’t even see the new editor.

Gutenberg Uncertainties

If it seems like most people are hedging where Gutenberg support is concerned. That is because there’s still a lot of grey area when it comes to plugins.

Most major plugins have updated, like WordPress SEO and Advacned Custom Fields. However, it’s up to you to find out if all your plugins are compatible, most will be, it’s just those that modify or augment the editor screen you really need to check on.

Where Things Stand Right Now

The good news is that Gutenberg is a much better writing experience than the old TinyMCE based editor.  Further, the possibility for new even more amazing customizations to the editor are now possible. The new editor is the foundation of a dynamic change to the way that WordPress websites get built.

You might have seen a lot of negative reviews of Gutenberg early on: our team was simultaneously critical of and excited by it in the early days. The Gutenberg editor has turned the corner and reached the first handoff in what is an existing relay race.

“The editor will create a new page- and post-building experience that makes writing rich posts effortless, and has “blocks” to make it easy what today might take shortcodes, custom HTML, or ‘mystery meat’ embed discovery.”
Matt Mullenweg

So Where Does That Leave 9seeds Theme Support?

The most important thing to keep in mind is that Gutenberg isn’t going to break our existing themes.

There are things we can do to enhance our themes to work better with WordPress Gutenberg, but the list of those things still isn’t definitive. We have already begun to update the latest and most popular of our child themes with this level of enhancement, and there is much more to come.

Rest assured we are actively working with Gutenberg and not just adding basic support to existing themes, but building exciting new themes with the new functionality. 

WP Engine and StudioPress logos

WP Engine Acquires StudioPress: The Future of Genesis Themes Is Stronger Than Ever

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There’s big news in the WordPress ecosystem this week! Our favorite WordPress web host has acquired our favorite WordPress theme shop — besides us, of course — and its cornerstone framework Genesis.

“If a company with greater resources than ours could demonstrate that they understand the multi-faceted value and go-forward potential of StudioPress and Genesis, it was worth considering. More importantly, any suitable successor to the brands needed to grasp the worth of the people within the vibrant community of designers and developers who have built businesses around Genesis, the broader StudioPress customer base, and our StudioPress team.”
Brian Gardner, StudioPress founder

That’s right, WP Engine, “the WordPress digital experience platform,” purchased StudioPress and their “themes and tools that make WordPress easier.” VP of Web Strategy David Vogelpohl says WP Engine is “investing heavily in Nathan [Rice] and the engineering team, and they’re excited for the next evolution of Genesis and the SP themes.”

That means the de facto community of businesses and sites who have built on and around Genesis aren’t going anywhere, 9seeds included.

We all go way back

To give you an idea of how far, we started this agency almost a decade ago. For that entire time, the Genesis framework has ridden shotgun on our journey. It’s been a core component of a vast majority of the bespoke custom sites we’ve built.

We benefit by bringing back what we learn from other frameworks and integrating it into our build process. So along the way we’ve dabbled with other frameworks, from _s to the latest compelling framework WP Rig. In the end, however, we always return to Genesis. We’re wiser for having taken the detour but get pulled back by the simple fact that Genesis is the hands-down fastest and most powerful framework for doing what we do.

9seeds hasn’t just been WP Engine customers since their inception. We’ve also been WP Engine agency partners since the very beginning. Over the years that program has given us a lot of inside access to WP Engine. It also offers insight into what’s coming and the ability to help shape some of that. I’ve been sincerely impressed by the resources WP Engine pumps into engineering and development.

While I occasionally drop the “I remember when WP Engine had five employees and I knew them all personally” line, when I visited their Austin offices last September it was hard to find someone I recognized to show me around. At that point, I think they were over 300 people occupying three floors. These days it’s 500+. That growth didn’t come at the cost of their service, either. We’ve interacted with WP Engine support hundreds (maybe even thousands) of times over the years, and they’re consistently great.

“There are many founding moments in a company.”

Two of 9seeds’ best friends getting hitched is awesome news. This is a landmark “founding moment,” and we look forward to seeing what it gives rise to.

Genesis has long been the much-favored and most robust framework for building WordPress sites. In recent years, there have been conversations within the WP Genesis community regarding the slow pace of Genesis development. Our team has often been appreciative of the deliberate, keep-it-simple methodology StudioPress practices. But there’s some legitimate concern about keeping pace with increasingly critical features like web accessibility guidelines, Google AMP, and that hot topic everyone’s talking about: Gutenberg.

So what now, then?

Brian Gardner addressed ongoing Genesis development, saying, “WP Engine has committed time, resources, and money toward the development of the framework and those who build around it.”

WP Engine leadership has been quick to assure the public that Genesis development and support will continue well into the future. They’ve also made it clear via social media channels that they’ll be honoring all existing customer commitments. Continued lifetime support, documentation, and upgrades for Genesis and StudioPress child themes were specifically mentioned. Pro Plus users will still have access to the full StudioPress catalog.

“I would characterize our attitude as ‘Genesis Community First.'”
Jason Cohen, WP Engine founder

As many of you know, we sell the Jessica theme both in our shop and via the StudioPress marketplace. WP Engine has confirmed that there’s no plan to change any existing third-party Genesis developer agreements, so Jessica will remain available in both places. You can also rest assured that (just like Genesis) we’ll continue supporting Jessica for a long time to come.