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Just a word of warning: WordPress 5.9 will be released in late January, and it represents the results of a year or two plan for a major change in the direction of WordPress. This is the biggest change since the introduction of the Customizer!
While it does seem to retain backward compatibility, it is clear that traditional themes like Weaver Xtreme are on their way out. Perhaps you recall when themes supported options through the Legacy option interface. Then along came the Customizer, and support for the Legacy Interface was phased out and only the Customizer was allowed for themes (while still allowing legacy support via plugins.)
Looks like the Customizer is now on that path. Instead, there will be block oriented themes that are based on the block editor block concept. There seems to be a new “Editor” that seems to allow major design changes to block themes using that new editor. I haven’t really checked it out yet, but it surely seems on the same sort of pathway. Eventually the Customizer will become extinct, and any new themes will have to fit the new block theme design.
Guess products need to keep modernizing, but this no doubt will require a steep learning curve for existing site builders using WP, and require ever more professional talent to build a web site using WP.
I guess that’s progress?
What will happen when we need to go into an old site and make changes? If we don’t learn the new process?
WordPress when I first discovered it… easy to use…. Do not need any coding ability… yadda yadda. Very soon, will need a professional to get WP to do anything. Exactly what they want. $$$$$$$$ Cha ching cha ching.
Someone else will fill the need being vacated by WP.
WP has for many many years maintained backward compatibility, so there should not be an issue with going back to old sites. I see the main issue is that it is likely that many existing great themes will be unable to make the HUGE changes to become a “Block Theme”, and eventually just have the support die out. Past history shows that this will likely take maybe 3 to 5 years to play out. There are very few themes left that do not support the Customizer, but it seems clear that the current crop of WP developers would like to see that go away. This is most clearly demonstrated by how the new Twenty Twenty Two theme works. I doubt that it will work with WP 5.8.
This is another message telling me it’s time to pass the baton on to someone else who has the time and energy to learn/do new stuff.
It’s not broken the way it is, but each “feature”, while personally providing no new enhancements for me, break what I have. Same thing happened with Gravity Forms.
Classic Editor, Classic Widgets, Disable Gutenberg are all patches to avoid these blocks. But from what I’m reading it’s just a matter of time before the block concept will be the norm.
I just find it terrible how they rolled it out so abruptly. So many websites were broken as a result. There are millions of downloads for the classic editor. I still read complaints about Gutenberg. I don’t mind learning new things as long as the new technology doesn’t destroy my site. Many people use their websites to earn a living, so I understand how they feel. They could’ve developed Gutenberg as a separate project and let people choose what they wanted to use.
There’s a platform out called ClassicPress which preserves WordPress before Gutenberg came on the scene. Maybe @weaver would be interested in supporting that or something like it down the road. I don’t know how much work that would be or if it is worth it.
When WordPress 5.9 rolls out, does anyone know if we have to download another plugin to avoid the block features like classic editor and classic widgets?
So far, it seems that there is a new type of theme called a Block Theme. None of the new features are actually used with a block theme, of which the 2022 theme is so far the primary example. Weaver Xtreme seems to work fine with the WP 5.9 beta release.
I just hope they’re producing great, easy to understand tutorials for using a Block Theme because I couldn’t even get a glimmer of what the “Editor” command for the 2022 theme was supposed to do.
How the evolution of WordPress will influence the evolution of the Weaver theme? Could we expect to use it in 10 years from now?
I don’t know the lifetime of Weaver Xtreme. From what I’ve read, it is essentially impossible to convert a traditional theme to a new block theme. So it depends on how WP evolves, but it is unlikely there will be an equivalent block theme.
It must be maddening, the time and energy you have in this theme and someone’s new idea (blocks?) destroys it. This theme has so much, just a shame
But there are many many other themes in the same boat. It is likely that there will be legacy support for many years to come since there are so many existing sites using the current theme technology. There are not many left supporting only the legacy interface (which means they support only the 5 or 6 standard WP customizer options), but they still run. No doubt Customizer based themes will continue to work for a long time. But all the emphasis of the WP crew will be to support the new block type themes.
While the current core WP development seem to have little respect for existing themes, as well as little respect for the “amateur” web site builder, and are really only interested in the new things (which they do believe will make WP better), they do understand that they support a huge percentage of all websites in the world, so will keep supporting the legacy codebase.
On the subject of the customizer and WordPress 5.9, an interesting blog post and comments on WordPress Tavern. It seems that the idea to stop supporting the customizer is no even an idea : )
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