Ok so now the dust has settled a tiny bit after WordPress dropped version 5 last week, here’s a quick update on where Fast Member sits in this next era of WordPress.
For one we are excited at the thought of the new Block Editor and what this means for controling your site content in easier more intuitive ways.
We’ve already created a block control plugin (naturally called Fast Block Control) which will give you full control over ANY WordPress block.
(think like Fast Member’s powerful Content Chunks – without shortcodes – more on this later)
What about Fast Member itself?
We’re happy to say we’ve found no problems with Fast Member and WordPress version 5.
Infact we’ve been testing for months with the various Gutenberg and WP5 beta releases to make sure there were no nasty issues.
Sometime ago we added a fix for the Fast Member meta box which drips and protects pages and posts and we will soon be transitioning this into the new Gutenberg panel format.
We’ll also be improving how the on page and post protection works, creating a more user friendly interface for the product selection.
There will also be a whole range of new blocks coming to FastMember which will replace the shortcodes. I wont say much else on this right now, but this will be a huge shift in the way you interact with Fast Member (and definitley a shift for the better)
For now (and the future) shortcodes will remain fully functional, but we will slowly transition to the blocks while still keeping shortcodes fully working.
As of right now, with the latest version of Fast Member 1.3.3 (which is available through the WordPress dashboard updates, you will get full WordPress 5 compatibility.
If you have taken the leap and still need to access the Fast Member shortcodes, then it’s as easy as selecting the Classic Block.
This is a WordPress 5 block which behaves exactly like the classic post editor, so you can still use the Fast Member shortcode buttons directly inside your WordPress 5 posts.
If you are not ready to take the leap with Gutenberg, then you can always install the Classic Editor plugin and your site will function completely as normal.
Stay tuned for more on Fast Block Control and a lot of other plugins and integrations we’ve been working on.
