WordPress Classic Theme vs Block Theme Development, 5 reasons to invest in block theme development! 

Thank you 🙏

Yeah sure, in the Site Editor, you can go to Global Styles > Typography > Links then set the Decoration to None, this will set all the link decorations for the whole site though, if you want to target a specific block you'll need to use something like wp_enqueue_block_style on the action "after_setup_theme" or something similar.

Absolutely, my suggestion would be: if you have a low-functionality, low-traffic personal site, why not convert it to a block theme to see how you get on? Choose something that you won't get too hung up on, just to dip your toe in. That's what I did. Anything more complex will require adding custom code, so try to keep it simple to start with. Don't stress yourself with a fully functional client site build until you are completely comfortable with FSE. Hope that helps 👍

​@@elliottrichmondwpthanks for the answer! My problem with block themes is that I haven't found a good guide or starter template for custom development. Like if you look at classic theme files, you can see the logic behind it. But with block themes, the code and the project structure is so unintuitive that I don't even know where to start, not saying about making styles consistent, scaling the project etc. I have tried making custom blocks with React, but it looks like an overhead comparing to classic theme, unless you want to make a reusable theme or plugin for sale. My next stop will be Acf blocks, as there have been some good reviews about this workflow, hopefully it works out😅

You can’t inject a php script at top of a .html template 😬 that makes it more secure in my opinion, granted you probably can in a pattern file but as a developer you make that choice to use .php or not 🤓

@@elliottrichmondwp Those HTML files are included into PHP and rendered back out. Are you convinced that PHP inside couldn't be injected? Don't rely on a file extension for security!

But even if we accepted your argument, that hasn't improved anything other then the bad actor injects somewhere else. If they can access the theme, its almost certain they can inject anywhere else. If anything injecting into the theme is harder then a plugin. I'm pro our block future, I like the fact theme developers are not going to have to learn PHP. That would have been the big security win from my perspective , taking function away from design meaning a designer doesn't have to be a PHP developer, learn a load of code and introduce security issues via copy and paste.

I would disagree but I’m not saying core is more secure, I’m saying the Block Theme is, wouldn’t you agree?

​@@elliottrichmondwp What you actually said was Block theme is mostly made of HTML meaning there is less processing on the server thus improving security. Block themes are mostly made up of HTML ✅ - Totally and this is fantastic thank you for highlighting this, I actually think people don't realise blocks (and block themes) render down to HTML. Meaning there is less processing ❌ - It's a different type of processing, but that HTML in a block theme html file is processed just like the old PHP files were and acted on, and attacks are still possible within them, the browser doesn't load the files in your theme, WordPress does. thus improving security ❌ - Other aspects do but the reduced processing statement is wrong and thus doesn't improve security Are block themes more secure? 🤷sort off! The best thing about block themes from a security point of view are they are simple, they are single purpose, they have separated concerns. They will make things better, and a site using blocks themes will have a better security posture going forward. - Stopping theme devs being well devs is a huge win! - Getting stuff out of functions.php brilliant - Getting code out of themes (Which I think was your intended point) is good, themes should just do design (non block themes can do this, but block themes make this a feature, not something you have to fight to acheieve) So if you *had* said block themes are more secure I would have been onboard.

Can you add some context, not ready for what?

Well that’s 1, how about the other 19 🤔😂 If you’re expecting user to switch JS off then you probably should stick to traditional print media rather than having a website 😬

Blocks on the front end render to HTML, so the bots see the HTML just like your non-block theme. Only if the theme is meant to have some sort of Javascript functionality would it render with Javascript. If anything compared to a lot of other "page builders" blocks are generally doing a better job of mininimizing Javascript on the front end. Now the admin experience you might have a point, but then with the classic editor you still had JS in the editing page.

@@elliottrichmondwp I don't care about traditional print media, but I do care about SEO and Google rankings. Any SPA will be faster than a website on blocking WP, but in order for it to be properly indexed, you will have to do double work with SSR... sooo

​@@Black1991Star I sense there's a possibility for us to veer off the main topic. Originally, my video aimed to explore the nuances between Classic and Block Theme Development, highlighting their respective benefits. However, for the sake of fostering engagement, could you elaborate on your assertion regarding the SEO indexing of a WordPress site utilising a Block Theme? I've been a WordPress user for quite some time, and I can't recall encountering such an issue unless I've consciously configured specific authentication protocols or implemented blockers in my robots.txt file. Clearly a single page application is always going to be easier to fully crawl over a framework that has a large amount of content, you use the tools for the purpose of the goals :)

For example, I still don't know how to make responsivity for blocks for different break points...