WordPress-React Breakup: My Vue on P*react + WordPress Development!

Since I believe the community is moving in the right direction here — this issue is where one could share their thoughts about different JavaScript Frameworks for Gutenberg (that goes into the WordPress Core).

🚢 JavaScript Frameworks#

IMHO there are two prominent contenders here.

1. VueJS
2. Preact
3. Other options (Angular, Ember, Polymer, Aurelia, etc.)

Just to kick-start the discussion, here’re a few thoughts from the top of my head.

⚡️ VueJS:#

• PRO: Beginner friendly.
• PRO: Proven track-record of success with Laravel.
• PRO: Way more popular as compared to Preact with a great amount of community support.
• PRO: More contributors than Preact.
• CONS: Key person dependency.
• STATS: 133 Core Contributors on GitHub, 208075 Stargazers, and 209 Releases.
• MONETARY BACKING: At the time of writing, VueJS OpenCollective ($9,895/year — New campaign only four days old) and Evan You’s Patreon page ($8,815/month) monetary backing from the community. Sören in comments pointed out that OpenCollective of Vue is only four days old.

🎯 I truly believe that WordPress can do a lot better with VueJS. VueJS has a huge set of followers and it’s easier for beginners to adopt. This can also turn into a big win for WordPress if done right. I have used VueJS myself, in several projects, and I love it.

Also, a framework that’s used outside of WP (such as Vue and its integration with Laravel), allows developers to use their experience in WP projects and non-WP projects.

There’s already a large cross-over of Laravel/WP devs, so having the same js framework makes a lot of sense as those devs can contribute to help drive Laravel, Vue, and WP forward all at the same time. — Jason Bahl.

⚡️ PreactJS:#

• PRO: Easier transition.
• PRO: Evolving community with about the same amount of monetary support as of VueJS.
• PRO: A subset of React based libraries would still be well supported with Preact and with compat.
• CON: Transition could lead to messy code and confusion (for beginners).
• CONS: Key person dependency.
• STATS: 100 Core Contributors on GitHub, 36902 Stargazers, and 114 Releases.
• MONETARY BACKING: At the time of writing, Preact OpenCollective ($16,087) monetary backing from the community.

While PreactJS has its benefits, I am not the right person to ask for an opinion about it (since I have only slightly used Preact in two small projects). Though, it does look like that transitioning from React to Preact is very easy. That can motivate developers to chose Preact. I think this would be the wrong reason to chose it.

🤔 I think this would be the wrong reason to chose it. It will only confuse the developers trying to adapt to this whole new eco-system of JavaScript frameworks, node modules, Webpack, and now aliasing Preact over React? Which could also lead to the code smells. Messier code.

Resources:#

• My Twitter Poll for 48 hours.
• Facebook Thread: Advanced WordPress Fb Group’s Discussion & Poll.
• GitHub Issue: Choosing the JavaScript Framework for Gutenberg (~WordPress).

Which JavaScript Framework you think is the right choice? Comment below!#

Or you can Tweet your thoughts, share your explanation on Facebook, and drop by in this issue at Gutenberg’s GitHub repository.