Advance Your WordPress Full Site Editing (FSE) Skills With theme.json

Do you want to take your WordPress web design game to the next level? WordPress Full Site Editing (FSE) is your answer!

FSE makes site building more accessible and intuitive. It offers a unified, block-based approach that will enable you to edit your entire site using blocks – the same way you’ve been editing posts and pages with the Gutenberg editor. 

Whether you’re adjusting the typography on your homepage, redesigning your footer, or creating a unique post layout, it’s all done through a visual, drag-and-drop interface.

But wait, there’s more that you could do when it comes to FSE! In this guide, we’ll tap into the theme.json file to go beyond the basics of tweaking themes or nudging blocks around, bringing your creative visions to life!

Transitioning to FSE: Enhanced WordPress website design

In the beginning, WordPress editing started with a simple, user-friendly platform that revolutionized the way we create content online. But as the digital space grew more complex, so did the needs of WordPress users.

Enter the Gutenberg project, a shift from the classic editor to a block-based system. It laid the groundwork for FSE, boosting WordPress’s design and customization capabilities. You can:

• See your changes in real time, making the design process more intuitive and less abstract.
• Create a design element (reusable blocks) once and use it everywhere, ensuring consistency and saving time.
• Unify your design vision across every page with site-wide editing, making global changes easily.

How FSE works

FSE works by extending the block-based approach of Gutenberg across your entire website. Imagine taking the flexibility of block editing from your posts and pages and applying it to your site’s entire layout. This means your headers, footers, and sidebars can all be crafted with the same ease and agility as crafting a blog post.

The key components of FSE are:

• Block-based themes: Unlike traditional themes, block-based themes are built entirely out of blocks. This means you can edit and customize every part of your site directly.
• Site editor: The site editor is your new control room. Here, you can tweak templates and template parts, giving you control over the structure and design of your entire site.
• Global styles and settings: These allow you to manage site-wide settings like colors, typography, and layout directly from the editor, ensuring a consistent look and feel across all pages.
• Patterns and templates: Think of these as building blocks and blueprints. Patterns are pre-designed block arrangements, while templates define the structure of different page types on your site.

But there is even more to FSE, which is where theme.json comes in. 

In-depth analysis of theme.json

theme.json is a configuration file used in block-based WordPress themes. It’s written in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format that’s easy to understand for both humans and machines. 

Similar to a master control panel for your website’s design and functionality, the theme.json file allows developers and designers to:

• Define universal styles for your site, including colors, fonts, and layout settings, ensuring consistency across all pages and blocks.
• Customize the appearance and settings of individual blocks for detailed and unique designs.
• Control which features and settings are available in the WordPress editor, tailoring the editing experience to suit specific needs.

By using this file, you can:

• Ensure consistency: Apply consistent styling across your site without the need to tweak individual blocks or pages.
• Save time: Define styles and settings once and have them automatically apply across your site, eliminating repetitive work.
• Boost flexibility: Easily update styles and settings in one place, allowing for quick and efficient design changes or updates.

Site editor vs. theme.json: Choosing the right tool for WordPress customization

Both the site editor and theme.json file are important in shaping the look and feel of WordPress websites, yet they serve different purposes and offer unique capabilities. Understanding when and how to use each tool is key to unlocking their full potential.

Let’s take a closer look:

In practice, a combination of both tools often gives the best results. But there are situations where you’ll need more than just what the site editor offers.

Use cases where you’ll need to use theme.json

Setting different color palettes for different blocks

While the site editor allows you to change the colors of blocks, it does so on a case-by-case basis. This means you’d need to manually set colors each time you add a new block, which is time-consuming and can lead to inconsistencies in design if not meticulously managed.

theme.json allows you to predefine color schemes and apply them across specific blocks throughout the site. 

You can edit the theme.json file to define a global color palette that you want to be available across your entire site like so:

{
  "settings": {
    "color": {
      "palette": [
        { "name": "Strong Blue", "slug": "strong-blue", "color": "#0000FF" },
        { "name": "Light Green", "slug": "light-green", "color": "#00FF00" }
        // ... other colors
      ]
    }
  }
}

After setting up a global palette, you can assign specific colors to different blocks by specifying settings under the blocks’ properties in theme.json. For each block type (like core/paragraph or core/heading), you can set default colors for text, background, and gradients. For example:

{
  "settings": {
    "color": {
      "palette": [
        { "name": "Strong Blue", "slug": "strong-blue", "color": "#0000FF" },
        { "name": "Vibrant Yellow", "slug": "vibrant-yellow", "color": "#FFFF00" }
        // ... other colors
      ]
    },
    "blocks": {
      "core/paragraph": {
        "color": {
          "text": "strong-blue",
          "background": "vibrant-yellow"
        }
      },
      "core/heading": {
        "color": {
          "text": "vibrant-yellow"
          // no background defined for headings
        }
      }
      // ... settings for other blocks
    }
  }
}

This ensures that whenever a particular block type is used, it automatically inherits these predefined colors. This level of granular control and consistency is hard to achieve manually for each instance of a block.

Disabling features for specific block types

The site editor doesn’t offer a way to globally disable certain features for specific blocks. Any restrictions or feature limitations would need to be applied individually to each block, which is not feasible for larger websites or for ensuring uniformity across all content.

Using the theme.json file, you can globally disable specific features for certain block types, like disabling custom font sizes for all paragraph blocks, as per the example below: 

{
  "version": 1,
  "settings": {
    "blocks": {
      "core/paragraph": {
        "typography": {
          "customFontSize": false
        }
      }
      // ... settings for other blocks
    }
  }
}

🔏Cracking the code: The “customFontSize”: false disables the ability to set custom font sizes for paragraph blocks. Similarly, you can disable other features like custom colors, gradients, and more by setting their respective flags to false under the specific block types.

Layout and spacing control

Changing the layout using the site editor is typically done per block or per page, which can be challenging to apply across your entire site, as each block or page would need individual adjustments.

With theme.json, you can define global settings for layout and spacing – like content width, padding, and margins – to ensure a cohesive look and feel across your site. For example, setting a standard content width helps maintain a uniform layout throughout your website:

{
  "version": 1,
  "settings": {
    "layout": {
      "contentSize": "800px",
      "wideSize": "1200px"
    },
    "spacing": {
      "padding": {
        "top": "20px",
        "bottom": "20px",
        "left": "20px",
        "right": "20px"
      },
      "blockGap": "20px"
    }
  }
}

🔏Cracking the code: “contentSize”: “800px” and “wideSize”: “1200px” control the standard widths for content. “padding” sets global padding, and “blockGap”: “20px” controls the space between blocks.

These examples highlight the powerful capabilities of theme.json in providing comprehensive, site-wide control over design elements in WordPress that is challenging to achieve with the site editor alone.

WordPress FSE theme migration

Migrating an existing WordPress site to a block-based theme involves ensuring compatibility, retaining the site’s look and feel, and rethinking layouts to fit the block model.

Here’s an outline of the essential steps for migrating to FSE (you’ll need to tailor this blueprint to match your specific needs and setup):

1. Back up your website: Always start with a full backup of your site to guarantee that you have a fail-safe in case anything goes awry during the migration process.
2. Audit your current theme: Evaluate your current theme’s functionalities and design elements. Identify what needs to be retained, modified, or enhanced in the FSE environment.
3. Choose the right approach: Decide whether to modify your existing theme to be FSE-compatible or start fresh with a new FSE theme. The choice depends on how closely your current theme aligns with FSE principles.
4. Migrating content and design elements: Carefully migrate your content, ensuring that it aligns with the block-based layout of FSE. Pay attention to the transfer of design elements like colors, fonts, and layouts, making adjustments as necessary to fit the FSE model.
5. Utilizing theme.json: Leverage the power of theme.json to control the global styles and settings of your site as we’ve explained previously.
6. Testing and modifying: Migrating to FSE isn’t a one-and-done deal. Test your site extensively, making tweaks and adjustments to ensure optimal performance and design coherence.

🧐 Tip: To make things easier, you can use a plugin like Create Block Theme.

This plugin is designed for those who want to build a new theme from scratch or convert existing ones into FSE-compatible themes.

Why hiring a developer for your theme migration is ideal

The technical shift from classic to block-based themes may involve dealing with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which can be overwhelming. Hiring a professional developer can simplify this process, ensuring a smooth transition and a professionally optimized website. Here’s how: 

• A developer can migrate your theme, and customize and optimize your new theme to better suit your needs. This includes custom coding to add or modify features, optimizing the site for speed and SEO, and ensuring that the theme is responsive and mobile-friendly.
• A skilled developer can quickly identify and solve these problems, ensuring that your website remains functional and accessible throughout the migration process.
• Hiring a developer frees you up to focus on your business or content creation, rather than spending hours learning how to migrate a theme and troubleshoot potential issues.
• Developers can ensure that your site remains secure during and after the migration.

Why Codeable?

• Expertise beyond the ordinary: When you hire a Codeable developer, you’re not just getting any developer; you’re gaining access to a network of highly vetted professionals who excel in WordPress customization and FSE migration. These experts have a deep understanding of the WordPress ecosystem, and they’ve honed their skills through years of hands-on experience.
• Tailored solutions: Codeable developers specialize in crafting bespoke solutions tailored to your unique needs. Whether it’s fine-tuning your existing theme for FSE compatibility or building a brand-new FSE-ready theme from the ground up, they have the expertise to make it happen.
• Collaboration and communication: Codeable prioritizes clear and effective communication throughout the development process. You’ll have the opportunity to discuss your project with your chosen developer, ensuring that your vision is not only understood but brought to life in the most effective way possible.
• Focus on quality: Quality is non-negotiable for Codeable developers. They adhere to the highest standards of coding practices and design principles, delivering a final product that not only meets but often exceeds your expectations.

By partnering with a Codeable developer, you simply save time, guarantee compatibility, and optimize performance.

Embracing the Future of WordPress and FSE

The transition to FSE represents a significant step forward from traditional WordPress editing. Harnessing the power of a block-based system makes real-time design changes, global style management, and consistent, site-wide customization not just possible but intuitive and efficient. 

Both the site editor and the theme.json file are at the heart of this evolution, offering a dual approach to site customization for:

• Maintaining a cohesive design across your website.
• Implementing specific styles and functionalities for various block types.

Looking toward the future, WordPress FSE is not just a trend; it’s the new standard for website design and development. 

You don’t have to start this journey alone. Codeable is here to be your trusted partner in navigating the complexities of FSE – from migrating an existing site to FSE and optimizing your current FSE setup to building a new, fully customized WordPress site.

Ready to elevate your WordPress site? Submit your project on Codeable today and embrace the future of WordPress customization!

Dream It

Build It

Build a WordPress site you’ve always dreamed of

Join our newsletter Dream It, Build It for insights on how to get the most out of WordPress

Name:

Email:

Subscribe