FAQ

Does Gutenberg work with all themes? 

Yes. But: the output is limited to the content area, so you might have to remove a sidebar etc. As for styling, blocks come with some styling, but your theme might override those. Furthermore, some blocks use text and image alignment and color palettes. These need to be supported by the theme. 

Admin themes

Gutenberg is fully supported out-of-the-box by Seven admin theme and Claro/Gin admin themes. If using any other admin theme or the frontend theme for editing content, those themes must be adapted to Gutenberg.

Recommended admin theme: Seven, Claro or Gin

Do I have to learn React to build blocks?

Not really. You can use the create-cloud-block scaffolding tool and get going with basic JS skills. Actually, people say it is a good way to start learning React - since the scaffolding tool give you the right starting point for your work. 

Also note: You don’t need React to render the frontend. 

How does Gutenberg fit into recent similar initiatives in Drupal?

There is an initiative called Admin UI & JavaScript Modernization. We’re sure the projects can learn from each other, and we are very interested in talking. Also, keep in mind that Gutenberg handles a very small part of the admin experience. You can think of it as a flexible replacement for CKEditor - not really taking over the full node edit form.

Gutenberg seems very non-Drupal in UI and architecture?

Yes and yes. However, the future admin UI might be even more decoupled. Still, we aim to keep it as close to native Drupal as possible. We want a consistent UI.

How is the data stored? Is there a way to keep the data structured? 

By default, the content is just HTML inside a body field. There are some HTML comments tags, but other than that, the markup is really clean. You can also use Drupal's field system to store block content, making the content fully structured. See how to do that on the Page layout and Field mapping documentation pages.

What will happen to my content when deactivating or uninstalling?

Not much! The actual content provided by the content authors will not be changed with the uninstallation. 

(NOTE: At a first glance when turning off Gutenberg nodes will look empty in the frontend. This is because the Gutenberg text format needs to be removed to uninstall Gutenberg. By setting a new text format on the node body field (for example "Basic HTML") your content will be back.)

Also keep in mind that the layout might look slightly different after turning off Gutenberg. This is because the frontend will now not get the styling from the Gutenberg blocks anymore. You could now extend your theme with that same styling to get the exact same frontend as you had with Gutenberg activated.

If you however want to install Gutenberg module later your layout will be back.

Does it support Paragraphs?

No, not currently. While flexible, the editing experience feels a bit decoupled from the end result. We think Paragraph types could be exposed as Gutenberg blocks. It’s very doable, but we're not sure how much you win, compared to creating the blocks from scratch.

We are also working on a way to convert nodes from Paragraphs module to Gutenberg. The idea is to create a helper tool to ease the transition for the content maintainer. More info and separate documentation pages will be built in the time ahead.

Are the blocks/pages translatable?

Yes, like any Drupal fields - even nested Gutenberg blocks can easily be translated.

Scalability / Performance?

The performance is very high, and the content is easily cached out of the box. 

Can I add local custom blocks?

You can add your custom blocks into a specified folder, and they will just work.