JavaScript for WordPress Forums Gutenberg Development Content Requests Reply To: Content Requests

#37300
g01010
Participant

Thanks for this course. I’ve found it really useful and thorough on the whole.

The one question I’m left with at the end, though, is how to take what I’ve learned and apply it practically. For instance, though I feel quite happy about editing the demo files to modify the blocks, it’s more challenging to take the next step and create a new plugin from scratch for a Gutenberg block.

It was no problem to install Node and run this in the terminal while working through the course materials. However, if I wanted to create a new plugin, I’m not sure it’s clear where to start, e.g.:

– How to set up the config files like webpack.config.js and package.json
– What happens when I want to distribute a plugin? I didn’t see anywhere in the course that covered how to stop Node or how to remove the node_modules folder from the final version of the plugin

I appreciate that there’s some background to libraries and architecture but I still feel at a loss as to how to actually implement what I’ve learned. I think the content is generally pitched at more-or-less beginner level, but appears to assume prior knowledge of React and Node, which feels more advanced. The discussion in 03.03 was (rightly I think) trying to push users towards using modern JS, yet there’s little guidance as to how to implement this in a practical way.

What I think would be a really useful accompaniment to this course is a barebones plugin file that learners could use to implement their own blocks. This would need some pointers to explain how the config files are set up and how to publish a production-ready version of the plugin that could be distributed.

If I’ve missed any of this in the content, my apologies.