[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #34923: Introduce basic page/post authorship in the Customizer

[WordPress Trac]

#34923: Introduce basic page/post authorship in the Customizer
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 Reporter:  westonruter  |       Owner:
     Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |   Milestone:  4.5
Component:  Customize    |     Version:
 Severity:  normal       |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  needs-patch  |     Focuses:  javascript
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Description changed by westonruter:

Old description:

> Upon first installing WordPress, new users may find themselves in the
> Customizer to set up their site, given the big blue Customizer button on
> the Dashboard. The new user experience (NUX) is one area highlighted in
> the [https://make.wordpress.org/core/2015/09/23/outlining-a-possible-
> roadmap-for-the-customizer/ roadmap]. One thing that has been discussed
> is that the number of things the user can do in the Customizer is largely
> a subset of what they can do in the WP admin. Most notably, one of the
> first things that a user would likely want to do is add pages to their
> site. I understand that new users to WordPress do not understand the nav
> menu item vs page distinction, and in the Customizer I am guessing that
> many users would expect to be able to add nav menu items for all of the
> pages they want to be on their site, whether they exist yet or not. This
> is not currently possible in the Customizer, meaning that users would
> have to exit the Customizer to create the pages and then come back into
> the Customizer to then create the nav menu items. This is a poor
> experience.
>
> So I propose that the UI for selecting an item to add a nav menu item
> should be extended with a button to add a new instance of the item type
> right there in the Customizer. If wanting to add a new page, then an
> editor overlay can appear over the preview which allows the user to
> supply the standard post/page fields such as the title and content via a
> TinyMCE editor (also allowing the setting of the featured image and page
> template would be useful, since these cannot be previewed via Post
> Preview either). This could serve as a first step toward a full post
> editor experience in the Customizer in a UI similar to Calypso on
> WordPress.com, but starting with just the title and content we can get
> our feet wet. Perhaps we could even fully re-use the post editor in
> Calypso.
>
> Note that I am not suggesting to add a post editor to the Customizer
> pane, due to lack of space. Note also that nothing would be removed from
> the post editor in the WP admin. The WP admin editor is where all of the
> plugin metaboxes would be accessible. Upon a new post in the Customizer,
> the user can be provided links to continue editing the newly added posts
> in the WP admin to flesh out the basic content they added in the
> Customizer.
>
> If adding a page in the Customizer via a nav menu item, it could also
> default the `post_parent` and `menu_order` to correspond to the location
> of the nav menu item when possible so that the page hierarchy could
> roughly correspond to the nav menu item hierarchy.
>
> (To be clear, being in the Customizer, all manipulation of post/page
> content would be previewed: no changes would be written to the DB until
> hitting Save & Publish.)
>
> The same editor interface could also be used to edit existing posts and
> pages. There could also be a top-level panel for “Content” with sections
> for “Posts” and “Pages” which would allow editing any post/page that
> currently appears in the preview. The [https://wordpress.org/plugins
> /customize-posts/ Customize Posts] feature plugin has been developed
> which implements a proof of concept for this.

New description:

 Upon first installing WordPress, new users may find themselves in the
 Customizer to set up their site, given the big blue Customizer button on
 the Dashboard. The new user experience (NUX) is one area highlighted in
 the [https://make.wordpress.org/core/2015/09/23/outlining-a-possible-
 roadmap-for-the-customizer/ roadmap]. One thing that has been discussed is
 that the number of things the user can do in the Customizer is largely a
 subset of what they can do in the WP admin. Most notably, one of the first
 things that a user would likely want to do is add pages to their site. I
 understand that new users to WordPress do not understand the nav menu item
 vs page distinction, and in the Customizer I am guessing that many users
 would expect to be able to add nav menu items for all of the pages they
 want to be on their site, whether they exist yet or not. This is not
 currently possible in the Customizer, meaning that users would have to
 exit the Customizer to create the pages and then come back into the
 Customizer to then create the nav menu items. This is a poor experience.

 So I propose that the UI for selecting an item to add a nav menu item
 should be extended with a button to add a new instance of the item type
 right there in the Customizer. If wanting to add a new page, then an
 editor overlay can appear over the preview which allows the user to supply
 the standard post/page fields such as the title and content via a TinyMCE
 editor (also allowing the setting of the featured image and page template
 would be useful, since these cannot be previewed via Post Preview either).
 This could serve as a first step toward a full post editor experience in
 the Customizer in a UI similar to
 [https://developer.wordpress.com/2015/11/23/the-story-behind-the-new-
 wordpress-com/ Calypso] on WordPress.com, but starting with just the title
 and content we can get our feet wet. Perhaps we could even fully re-use
 the [https://github.com/Automattic/wp-calypso/tree/master/client/post-
 editor post-editor] in Calypso.

 Note that I am not suggesting to add a post editor to the Customizer pane,
 due to lack of space. Note also that nothing would be removed from the
 post editor in the WP admin. The WP admin editor is where all of the
 plugin metaboxes would be accessible. Upon a new post in the Customizer,
 the user can be provided links to continue editing the newly added posts
 in the WP admin to flesh out the basic content they added in the
 Customizer.

 If adding a page in the Customizer via a nav menu item, it could also
 default the `post_parent` and `menu_order` to correspond to the location
 of the nav menu item when possible so that the page hierarchy could
 roughly correspond to the nav menu item hierarchy.

 (To be clear, being in the Customizer, all manipulation of post/page
 content would be previewed: no changes would be written to the DB until
 hitting Save & Publish.)

 The same editor interface could also be used to edit existing posts and
 pages. There could also be a top-level panel for “Content” with sections
 for “Posts” and “Pages” which would allow editing any post/page that
 currently appears in the preview. The [https://wordpress.org/plugins
 /customize-posts/ Customize Posts] feature plugin has been developed which
 implements a proof of concept for this.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/34923#comment:4>
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