News

18 Jan 2022

The future of editing in Wagtail

A key part of our vision for Wagtail is creating the best editing experience of any enterprise CMS, and in 2022 we will be making big strides towards achieving this.

phil dexter

Phil Dexter

Product Manager

2022 was a big year for Wagtail. NASA JPL launched on Wagtail. We set out a vision for Wagtail for 2023. We got new Wagtail sponsors on board. We launched new packages like Wagtail Localize and features like Commenting. And next year is going to be even bigger. We're rebuilding Wagtail's Page Editor!

We spent the second half of 2021 designing, testing, and iterating Wagtail's new page editor. We've had significant input from the Wagtail community, and we showcased the designs at our What’s new in Wagtail webinar in November. We are planning to start the building in January 2022, with a release later this year.

Highlights of the new page editor

Our topline summary of benefits:

  • The simplified UI will make it easier for new editors to use Wagtail (live preview, autosave)
  • Editors will be able to collaborate within the CMS, reducing the need for workarounds and simplifying the content production workflow (commenting, autosave)
  • Live preview will speed up content production and reduce errors (live preview)
  • It will be easier to navigate longer pages or those with nested streamfields (clearer hierarchy, page index)
  • Editors will experience faster page loading and any lag on saving or publishing will be less disruptive to the editor. (React, autosave)
  • Inline writer coaching and SEO guidance will lead to more effective, accessible content being produced (content guidance)

Funding & sponsorship 

We’re delighted to announce Google is helping to fund the development effort for the first release. This will go a long way to getting these features into core, but we’re on the look out for more funding so we can include more of these great features! If you’re a big Wagtail user, please get involved! (If you need convincing, check out Tim White’s awesome blog on Why you should pay for open source). 

Keep up to date with the project 

Get involved and see the very latest updates here.