Getting Started
Edit
Welcome! Let’s get started building with blocks. Blocks are at the core of extending WordPress. You can create custom blocks, your own block patterns, or combine them together to build a block theme. At a high level, here are a few ways to begin your journey but read on to explore more:
- Learn more about where this work is going by reviewing the long term roadmap.
- Explore the GitHub repo to see the latest issues and PRs folks are working on, especially Good First Issues.
- Join the Slack community to join meetings, ongoing conversations, and more.
- Take courses on how to use the block editor and more on Learn WordPress.
- Expand your knowledge by reviewing more developer docs at the overall developer.wordpress.org resource.
- Subscribe to updates on Make Core, the main site where ongoing project updates happen.
Tutorials
Development Environment – A guide to setup your local environment for JavaScript development for creating plugins, themes, and the tools you will need to extend WordPress or contribute to the block editor.
Create a Block Tutorial – Learn how to create your first block for the WordPress block editor.
Learn WordPress Courses
At Learn WordPress, you can find tutorials, courses, and online workshops to learn more about developing for the Block Editor. Here is a selection of current offerings.
- Intro to Block Development: Build Your First Custom Block
- Converting a Shortcode to a Block
- Using the WordPress Data Layer
- Registering Block Patterns
- Intro to Gutenberg Block Development
- Intro to Publishing with the Block Editor
Ways to Stay Informed
New features and changes are important to keep up to date on as the Gutenberg project continues. Each person will have their own unique needs in keeping up with a project of this scale. What follows is more of a catalogue of ways to keep up rather than a recommendation for how to do so.
Yearly:
The WordPress.org Roadmap with Four Phases of Gutenberg updated by project leadership. This is the highest level overview of the changes coming to WordPress.
Quarterly:
Quarterly Updates from Contribution Teams. These updates give an overview on what each team is working on, struggling with, and how to get involved.
Monthly:
“What’s Next In Gutenberg?” posts. These updates are wrangled by the Core Editor team and highlight areas of work aligned with the Gutenberg roadmap for contributors to help, how to get involved, and more.
Block Based Themes Meeting. These meetings are currently wrangled in the #themereview Slack channel and are dedicated to sharing FSE changes that will specifically impact themes. Agendas and summaries are shared on the Make Themes blog.
Biweekly:
“What’s New In Gutenberg?” release posts. These updates are wrangled by the Core Editor team and focus on what’s been released in each biweekly Gutenberg release. They include the most relevant features released and a full changelog.
Weekly:
Core Editor meetings. These meetings are wrangled by volunteer members in the #core-editor Slack channel. Agendas and summaries are shared on the Make Core blog. They focus on task coordination and relevant discussions around Gutenberg releases. There is an Open Floor period in each chat where people can suggest topics to discuss.
Weekly Theme Related Gutenberg Updates. These posts are focused on themes, including everything from current discussions to recent changes, as well as helpful resources for theme authors.
Daily:
Checking in on issues and PRs on GitHub. This will give you a nearly real-time understanding of what’s being worked on by the developers and designers.