Role of React going forward

[PeterKnight]

I want to know if part of the vision of the Gutenberg project is a WordPress editor where if you want to build custom functionality for it you have to work with React?

[aduth]

What do you have in mind when you say custom functionality? As it stands, yes, blocks registered to the Gutenberg editor must use React to describe its editor form and content to be saved; or more accurately using a React abstraction, though this abstraction may not live for much longer (#876). This is, of course, subject to change as the project evolves.

The role of React or another framework in WordPress generally has been the topic of weekly JavaScript Chats in Slack, which you'd be encouraged to attend if you're interested in weighing in on the discussion. See also recent summaries:

• 2017-05-23
• 2017-05-16
• 2017-05-09

Edit: I should have clarified that there is a way to register and "render" block's exclusively server-side (#586), but the use-cases for these sorts of blocks typically lean toward dynamic functionality (content which can only be known at runtime) vs. static content.

[PeterKnight]

Thank you for the very informative reply @aduth, I've add some thoughts underneath the latest chat :)

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2017/05/24/javascript-chat-summary-for-may-23rd/

[youknowriad]

Should we close this issue since the discussion is happening broadly in the make/core post and the weekly meetings?

[jasmussen]

Yep, let's close this in favor of the core posts, and the weekly meetings. It also addressed the question.