WordPress 5.0 is currently scheduled for release on Thursday, December 6th. This date has changed several times already, but I believe that this date will actually happen. The new content editor, Gutenberg, will be included in the release.

The user interface has been considered stable for all of 8 days.

I’ve talked a fair amount recently about the accessibility of Gutenberg and what the user experience will be like for users of assistive technology – but this post isn’t about that. I’ll follow up on that topic separately.

As an author of numerous WordPress plugins, my readiness for a totally new editing experience is important. I have not had the time to thoroughly update and test all of my plugins within the latest version of the Gutenberg editor, as my primary business (accessibility consulting and custom development) has been busy during this period with a lot of end-of-year audits and deadlines.

The primary thing I’ve hoped for in the scheduling of WordPress 5.0 was a definite release schedule that allowed time for testing the final UI of the release candidate. This did not happen, and my plugins are not ready.

Based on the testing I’ve done in earlier versions, the plugins mostly work as expected, but there are definitely going to be issues. I welcome GitHub issues reporting Gutenberg conflicts; but I am not officially supporting Gutenberg at this time.

Plugin Update Planning

Will not be updated

I do not intend to update some of my plugins for Gutenberg. WP Post Styling, My Content Management, and Content Progress are plugins that have specific interactions with the content editor and will not be updated. If you are using these plugins, you will need to either find a new solution or install the Classic Editor plugin.

Already done or no update required

Access Monitor has already been configured to disable Gutenberg if you have content auditing enabled, as that feature is not compatible with Gutenberg. Given the number of known users of Access Monitor (currently around 600), I do not currently plan on adapting it for Gutenberg; but that could change if I get funding to do so.

My Content Glossary and Contact Form 7: Accessible Defaults have no interactions with the editor.

To do

My Calendar has very little dependency on the editor, although My Calendar Pro has a number of additional features that interact with the editor. These will be updated to offer support as Gutenberg blocks in the future.

My Tickets does depend on the editor in part, and needs testing to ensure complete functionality. It will be updated to offer support in Gutenberg blocks in the future.

WP to Twitter is highly dependent on the editor, and needs testing to ensure complete functionality. It will be updated to offer support in Gutenberg blocks in the future.

WP Accessibility has some usage of the editor, and many of those features may not work in Gutenberg. It will require testing. Most likely, WP Accessibility will get a separate and different set of features specific to Gutenberg rather than adapting existing features, since the needs of the two editors are significantly different.

Plugin Update Priorities

My top priorites for updating are My Tickets, My Calendar Pro, and WP to Twitter, in that order. I anticipate it will take somewhere around six to eight weeks to get these done, assuming I have no other major issues to resolve.