My Rant about DealerInspire.

[Rick Buffkin]

@Dan Sayer, I was more-less frustrated at the fact that I felt like I was given a handsaw to build a house with and theres an entire truckload of power tools available to help do the job. I just didn't have access to them or anyone that I called really didn't have access either But, everyone knows there're available. Ya know! Everyone wanted to roll it over to a developer. Something as simple as a shortcode. I will give Bruce with DI some props. He did call this morning and helped me out.

As far as DDC. You need to have access to "Advanced Composer" if you don't already have it. With AC, you can insert JS and custom CSS site wide or on specific pages. The amount of customization widgets thats available with AC basically quadruples. You do have to sign off on a release saying that if you break it, you own it. Basically, they'll revert it back to its original state minus all of your changes. But, it's def worth it. You won't have to be on the phone as much with support for simple generic changes. At least that was my experience.

 

[Bruce E]

Glad I could help you out @Rick Buffkin ! Keep that email I sent you handy as it's got everything you need, including my contact info in the event I can help you further.

 

[Dan Sayer]

@Dan Sayer, I was more-less frustrated at the fact that I felt like I was given a handsaw to build a house with and theres an entire truckload of power tools available to help do the job. I just didn't have access to them or anyone that I called really didn't have access either But, everyone knows there're available. Ya know! Everyone wanted to roll it over to a developer. Something as simple as a shortcode. I will give Bruce with DI some props. He did call this morning and helped me out.

As far as DDC. You need to have access to "Advanced Composer" if you don't already have it. With AC, you can insert JS and custom CSS site wide or on specific pages. The amount of customization widgets thats available with AC basically quadruples. You do have to sign off on a release saying that if you break it, you own it. Basically, they'll revert it back to its original state minus all of your changes. But, it's def worth it. You won't have to be on the phone as much with support for simple generic changes. At least that was my experience.

I didn't know that about DDC, thanks for pointing that out. Still wish Ford/Lincoln would've added DI...

 

[Alexander Lau]

I guess this helps DI and the other auto platforms built on WP.

WordPress finally gets the security features a third of the Internet deserves
https://www.zdnet.com/article/wordp...ty-features-a-third-of-the-internet-deserves/

 

[AWNick]

What do you guys dislike about Gutenberg?

We modify Gutenberg and create/disable blocks on a dealer-to-dealer basis so that it's more capable and easy for the dealers to use.

 

[Alexander Lau]

What do you guys dislike about Gutenberg?

We modify Gutenberg and create/disable blocks on a dealer-to-dealer basis so that it's more capable and easy for the dealers to use.

To be fair, it really depends on the end user and their dependency on a "builder." Let's face it, most dealers do not have the internal resources to properly commandeer a WYSIWYG WIKI editor or maintain large sets of content-rich pages, so a builder sounds great in theory. However, knowing that lot they'll find a way to screw it up and break pages (unless those blocks are unbreakable).

I can't speak for @craigh, but I can guess and say that those of us with front-end programming experience see it as clunky, intrusive and just not worth the time, when those same components can be applied via the Classic Editor. Plus, there are plenty of great page builders out there such as https://wpbakery.com (which is commonplace in most decently built WordPress themes), so why not license it or something similar that is widely accepted and supported?

Although, I do see popular / successful 3rd parties creating plugins supporting it, such as https://wordpress.org/plugins/blocks-builder, so I'm guessing Gutenberg itself is limited to a certain extent.

I think it's worth mentioning, the amount of downloads on "Gutenberg Disable" and "Classic Editor" plugins are quite high.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/disable-gutenberg/
https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/

 

[AWNick]

To be fair, it really depends on the end user and their dependency on a "builder." Let's face it, most dealers do not have the internal resources to properly commandeer a WYSIWYG WIKI editor or maintain large sets of content-rich pages, so a builder sounds great in theory. However, knowing that lot they'll find a way to screw it up and break pages (unless those blocks are unbreakable).

I can't speak for @craigh, but I can guess and say that those of us with front-end programming experience see it as clunky, intrusive and just not worth the time, when those same components can be applied via the Classic Editor. Plus, there are plenty of great page builders out there such as https://wpbakery.com (which is commonplace in most decently built WordPress themes), so why not license it or something similar that is widely accepted and supported?

Although, I do see popular / successful 3rd parties creating plugins supporting it, such as https://wordpress.org/plugins/blocks-builder, so I'm guessing Gutenberg itself is limited to a certain extent.

I think it's worth mentioning, the amount of downloads on "Gutenberg Disable" and "Classic Editor" plugins are quite high.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/disable-gutenberg/
https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/

Thanks for the feedback. I understand not wanting to have to work within the constraints of a builder. I would rather build every page through PHP templates, but that's not realistic for everyone. When it comes to our websites, we build custom Gutenberg blocks on a dealer-to-dealer level with custom-styles to make sure that less-experienced users can build pages that match their site. They also have the ability to use a Classic block for full freedom.

I would like to note that our websites are custom, and we can setup and customize whichever builder a customer wants onto their website.

I'd like to hear more on what people dislike about Gutenberg so we can work around that.

 

[Alexander Lau]

Thanks for the feedback. I understand not wanting to have to work within the constraints of a builder. I would rather build every page through PHP templates, but that's not realistic for everyone. When it comes to our websites, we build custom Gutenberg blocks on a dealer-to-dealer level with custom-styles to make sure that less-experienced users can build pages that match their site. They also have the ability to use a Classic block for full freedom.

I would like to note that our websites are custom, and we can setup and customize whichever builder a customer wants onto their website.

I'd like to hear more on what people dislike about Gutenberg so we can work around that.

If you're adding a unique, proprietary plugin or component, have you thought about investing in a 3rd party for user experience testing? I would think low-rung would suffice. That's who's going to be using it. Don't look at it the way you look at it or how techies look at it; look at it through the eyes of low-rung users.

 

[Alex Snyder]

I'd like to hear more on what people dislike about Gutenberg so we can work around that.

Ours (DealerRefresh) is a theme issue, so not really relevant to what you're doing. Gutenberg is pushing DealerRefresh to get a refresh.

 

[AWNick]

If you're adding a unique, proprietary plugin or component, have you thought about investing in a 3rd party for user experience testing? I would think low-rung would suffice. That's who's going to be using it. Don't look at it the way you look at it or how techies look at it; look at it through the eyes of low-rung users.

We only have a few clients and they all have us manage basically everything on their websites. The few that do manage their own pages have been happy (so far!). We just try to avoid the use of plugins as much as we can. We want to minimize dependencies, extra fluff, and load times.

I think if we had a client that was gung-ho on building their own pages out, I'd have to do a lot of testing on different builders. Maybe I should start that now.

Do you have any that you recommend?