WordPress: Classic PHP Themes vs Block Themes
WordPress Theme developers are probably already familiar with Classic PHP Themes. But there's a new kid on the block, Block Themes (sorry, no pun intended 😏).
Benefits of Block Themes
Block themes improve scalability and performance.
- Block themes enhance loading performance by loading styles only for rendered blocks on a page.
- Block themes are not required to manually enqueue stylesheets for both front-end and editors.
- Theme.json handles all aspects of add_theme_support().
- Accessibility features such as Skip to content, keyboard navigation, and landmarks are generated automatically without adding additional code.
- With a block theme, the user can edit ALL parts of their website without code.
- By using the Styles interface, users can customize colors and typography for the website and for the blocks
In a standard HTML file, you would include an HTML tag, <head> and <body>.
In block themes, these HTML elements are added for you. Necessary PHP hooks that you would add to a classic theme, including wp_head(), wp_body_open(), and wp_footer(), are also added automatically. The markup that is inside the template file is printed between the opening and closing body tags.
Differences & Similarities between Classic PHP Themes & Block Themes (see chart below).
What is a Theme JSON?
Theme.json is a configuration file for theme styles and block settings. Theme.json can be added to ANY theme. It works with both classic PHP-based themes as well as block themes. However Theme.json does not work with the classic editor.
https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/advanced-topics/theme-json/
Creating New Themes with Full Site Editing (FSE only works with Block Themes)
https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/block-themes/creating-new-themes-using-the-site-editor/
Block Themes may not be everyone's cup of tea so WordPress will continue supporting Classic PHP Themes. But if you're looking for full site editing, faster performance or a streamlined site without baked-in widgets, Block Themes could be your golden ticket.
Astra - https://wpastra.com/
Neve - https://themeisle.com/themes/neve/
Ultra - https://themify.me/themes/ultra/
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