I’ve used Pinegrow WP several times for building simple bespoke themes with low level of editability, and moderate use of Advanced Custom Fields. This time I’d like provide more flexibility to my tech-savvy client though.
I’ve a strong backgrund in Perch CMS development: In Perch there’re Blocks, with that you can build admin screens in a very flexible way. Most advanced CMSs have these options: There’s a great overview of how different CMSs manage this task here: How Different CMS's Handle Content Blocks | CSS-Tricks
In my understanding, in a theme creation process powered by Pinegrow WP and ACF Pro there’re not only one, but basically two ways to implement this: You can use either ACF Blocks, or ACF Flexible Content (please correct me, if I’m wrong). I understand how they work, how to implement them, and also their differences. However, I’d be very interested – I’m asking pro users here – which way do you suggest to use?
These are my considerations, by priority:
Easy implementation and maintenance.
High level of flexibility (Show Posts actions within blocks, etc.).
User interface display in admin is less important (I wouldn’t style Gutenberg blocks in the editor etc.).
The themes I’m working on are usually not ‘generic’ all-purpose WP themes, but rather completely unique, and specific themes created for my clients, accordingly to bespoke website designs.
Hi @martonlente, it appears that you have a ACF Pro license available. In such case I would go with ACF Blocks, because they are nicely supported by PG WP builder:
Just let me ask two more questions in the light of the above:
Does it basically mean, that ACF Pro’s Flexible Content method is somewhat obsolete, now that Gutenberg Blocks are available, and last year Pinegrow also introduced it to its users? Or do you see any use-case, where you’d prefer using ACF Pro Flexible Content instead?
Well, I guess this will remain your own choice.
You can use the new blocks system (with ACF blocks), the classic editor or use ACF to create a fully customized interface.
It will depend on your customer’s expectations, the time you wish to devote to the project etc…
It is not useless to master all the solutions, if only to have the choice.
Thanks @Emmanuel for the tips! I’ll likely go the ‘ACF Flexible Content way’ this time then, and will discover working with Gutenberg blocks on a later project.
Just maybe one question, which may be difficult to judge without experience: What do you think requires less time of the two to build a flexible admin screen with (if the admin-styling of Gutenberg blocks isn’t in consideration, and all ‘blocks’ would be fully custom, section-like parts of the page)?
I’m the author of the post about Flexible content on the Pinegrow documentation site and it’s a subject I experimented well a few years ago because it’s great and it allowed me to do exactly what I wanted, without depending on a page builder plugin.
But then again, no one has to depend on trends, and as long as WordPress doesn’t remove features that are necessary for ACF’s historical functionality to work, all is well.
It was a very useful reference, and – in my opinion – still is the best option to maximize flexibility for content editing in bespoke theme development (even though we already have ACF Block, and Gutenberg support in PG). Do you plan to make the article available again? If you think it’s already obsolete, do you have a reference in PG documentation on the best way to implement ACF Flexible Content in recent versions of Pinegrow?
– which way do you suggest to use?
