Help Test the Widgets Editor for WordPress 5.8

Sorry for the last-minute change of days and topics, but our original June speaker had to reschedule for August. Since that means doing something besides Contributor Day in August, I thought we could do a little contributing in June, instead.

The block based Widgets Editor is an upgrade to the widget areas provided by WordPress through themes, that enables users to add blocks right next to widgets to their headers, footers, sidebars and other widget areas.

The most important addition since the last call for testing is that the Customizer now supports editing blocks and widgets in widget areas with live preview. Compared to the first iteration of this project, where the widget areas in the Customizer were read only, now you can add widgets and blocks with live preview, scheduling and sharing right from the Customizer.

The main benefit of upgrading the widgets functionality to blocks comes from the ability to directly edit widgets using the familiar block interaction that you use when editing a page or post on your site. Being able to use blocks opens up tons of new creative possibilities, from no-code mini layouts to tapping into the vast library of core and 3rd party blocks to create content.

You can set up your own testing environment or watch me test via screen sharing. If you're setting up your own environment, you'll need the latest version of the Gutenberg Plugin and a theme that supports sidebars.

More about how to test and what to look for: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/05/12/help-test-the-widgets-editor-for-wordpress-5-8/

Create a free sandbox site: https://wpsandbox.net or https://qsandbox.com/app/ or (trial of) https://spinupwp.com.