Hi Marvin, I broke down a bunch of stuff related to this in hashnode.com/ama/with-zurb-foundation-cj4ad29vl00…

The long and short of it is - Webpack is better (and faster) for JavaScript, but slower for SCSS (we've seen almost 2x slower on SCSS building). So if you're doing more of a static site that is mostly html & scss without tons and tons of JavaScript, it's probably still going to be better to use gulp for the scss. If you're heavy on the JS, there's advantages to moving completely to Webpack.

Most folks are using foundation-zurb-template for more static sites and prototyping, so we'll probably stick with gulp for that... at least until Webpack gets a faster scss compile. :)

Hey Bryan - We've closed the Yeti Launch project to focus on the core framework and the ZURB Stack, along with future versions of Foundation like 7. You can follow the roadmap for Foundation here: github.com/zurb/foundation-sites/wiki/Project-Roa…

The newest CLI that shipped with Foundation 6 is easier to install than ever and we found that most developers were using the command line anyways (GitHub). The CLI is the best way to get started!

If you're looking for tools like that, check out Codekit or Koala App

• Rafi

Hi Norm, There's kind of three different sub-pieces of this, the build system we're using within the framework to build it, the build systems we ship in our templates, and the build systems you can use in your project.

For the build systems within the framework, we have no immediate plans to move away from gulp (gulp-scss continues to be faster than webpack for building scss, and the framework has way more scss than JS).

For the build system in the templates, we're also currently planning to stick with gulp for scss, though that may change. The reason is these templates are primarily used for static sites and prototyping where the amount of JS is small relative to the SCSS, so the gains we'd get on the JS side from moving to e.g. webpack-dev-server would probably be overwhelmed by the slowdown we'd see by moving scss into webpack.

All that said - Foundation works cleanly with a range of build systems. If you're using a gulp-based workflow, you can continue to use one. If you use a grunt-based workflow, you should be able to do that as well. If you have a full-on webpack build system, as of 6.4 Foundation should be easy to set up in there. If you're using Rails, we work in the asset pipeline (though I do gotta say... the new ZURB.com is build using Rails 5 and we moved ALL of our assets into webpack for that... so much nicer...). The build system we use internally shouldn't limit your ability to use other build systems for your project.

Hi Steven, That's a great idea, but not something we have on the immediate roadmap. If you'd be interested in helping make something like this happen, email me at kball (at) zurb.com - we haven't open sourced that page but there's no reason we shouldn't, so we could do that and make this happen.

Hi Chester, These should not have changed, so it sounds like you might have encountered a bug in the downloader - I will take a look as soon as I get off this AMA, but if you could file an issue on github at http://github.com/zurb/foundation-sites with exactly which download options you used, that would be helpful.

Hi Lester, The XY Grid was built particularly with production in mind - it was inspired by CSS Grid but built using Flexbox to give browser support back to IE10. I certainly hope you don't have to support any further back than that... but if you do, you can still fall back to the float-based grid instead of the XY Grid. That option will remain throughout the Foundation 6 series, though with 7 we will officially drop support for IE9.

This is absolutely something we're interested in, and we're attempting to improve the migration process, both by having more guided migration notes with every release and keeping more things backwards compatible with a deprecation warning as we change them over.

We're also going to start adding a migration section to the docs - there's one in progress right now.

Building a full-on tool would be a pretty big challenge, as there are so many different ways people are using Foundation out there (especially when you layer in all of the scss mixins), but if you know of anyone who's done something like that really well that we could use an example, definitely point it out.

Hi Mark, Depending on exactly how you set it up, it could be pretty simple or it could be a bit more work.

If you're not trying to do a deep customization on the JavaScript, you should be able to just point your JS to the new distfiles and have that work fine - the underlying architecture change won't stop that, and we put a ton of work into making sure that the old "drop in your javascript" approach would continue to function. That said, if you want to move your project more into ES2016 land and use something like webpack, there might be a bit more work... you can see an example of how one of our Yetinauts, Brett Mason, tackled this linked from this github issue: github.com/zurb/foundation-sites/issues/10199

On the SCSS side, we worked hard to maintain backwards compatibility, so if you want to keep using the older grids you can, simply leave your @imports the same as they were. If you are ready to move to the XY grid (and I hope you do... it's super powerful and really opens a ton of new layout possibilities), you can change your import over to import that grid with @import foundation-xy-grid-classes; If you do, you'll need to update your templates to use the new grid classes.

If you run into questions, don't hesitate to reach out on github (chiming in on the issue linked above might be a good place to start), via the Foundation slack channel, or in the Forum. We've got a number of folks who are building wordpress themes who can help you out.

Hi Jason Glad you're loving Foundation and congrats on your overhaul! For Carousels with lots of features, Slick and Owl are both excellent choices. Orbit was ultimately deprecated in Foundation 5 but resurrected in Foundation 6 are a more streamlined carousel with a focused feature set.

We believe there are use cases for carousels still, and that Foundation can cover the most common needs for them. When you need a full featured carousel, Slick and Owl are our goto's.

Sounds like you're already deep into your overhaul - hope the new video tutorial on each docs page help you out!

• Rafi

Hi Yamen - Foundation is now Flex first (version 6.4 released today)! With the latest 6.4 release the new XY Grid is the default along with Flexbox based UI components. Foundation 6 always had a flexbox grid but this new XY grid is killer because it does vertical and horizontal along with margin-padding control. You can learn more about it and join a free webinar to learn it here: zurb.com/blog/foundation-6-4-a-new-grid-javascrip…

We're SUPER excited about CSS Grid and have already started using it. Foundation 7 will be released November of this year so we think the browser support may not be there for CSS Grid by then (Foundation is moving fast). We have already built some of our Grid with CSS Grid and experimented with it's potential: http://zurb.com/playground/css-grid-examples

Foundation 7 roadmap is coming soon so watch the Blog and Follow us on Youtube for that!

Hey Bryan, I think that would make a great Building Block!

For those who don't know, we've got a great set of more advanced components that folks have built from ZURB and the whole Foundation community over at http://foundation.zurb.com/building-blocks/

It's all open source, so you can jump in and submit updates, ask for new building blocks using issues (Bryan do you want to add a request for the video one?), etc all in the github repo here: https://github.com/zurb/building-blocks/

There are many Foundation integrations depending on the framework or backend.

The React one: https://react.foundation/ The Angular one: circlingthesun.github.io/angular-foundation-6

Regarding the statement - this is part of the greater plan for the JS architecture work going into Foundation 7. @kball detailed it well here: hashnode.com/ama/with-zurb-foundation-cj4ad29vl00…

Essentially doing so will allow more and better integration into the future!

Hi David - You might have noticed that throughout Foundation 6's life cycle, there have been progressive enhancements made that are leading toward Foundation 7. This makes migration more gradual and easier for all of you. Since Foundation 3, the grid classes have largely remained unchanged. Flexbox offers more possibilities and it seems wrong to hamstring it with old classnames that restrict or confuse it's use.

The latest XY Grid released today with 6.4 does use new class names to better utilize the X-direction and Y-direction capabilities that Flexbox gives us. Thinking into the future, we purposely used the new class names because they work well with CSS Grid as well.

So going back to the first point, you are likely to see these classnames introduced today with 6.4 cary over into 7 to make a simpler migration.

• Rafi

Hi @gpspake, This is exactly the challenge we're working on with the planned Foundation 7 JavaScript architecture. Without going into too great a detail as it's still early days and may change, our approach is to encapsulate state and "ui logic" in a core component, and then provide simple clean interfaces for implementation in different frameworks.

Essentially the idea is to make the 'glue' piece much thinner, making it much easier to support integrations in every JS Framework, and keeping the internal logic consistent without requiring folks to rebuild it.

Our early proof of concept has implementations both in vanilla JavaScript and React, and we're optimistic we can get the interface well enough defined that building these out for every framework will be quick. Exactly how that ends up playing out into project structure is still TBD. If you (or anyone else reading this) is interested in getting involved in making this a reality, hit me up by email at kball (at) zurb.com

Hi George, There's a couple pieces here that I answer in more detail in hashnode.com/ama/with-zurb-foundation-cj4ad29vl00… for gulp and hashnode.com/ama/with-zurb-foundation-cj4ad29vl00… for javascript, but the high level is

1. gulp is enough faster for scss we're unlikely to drop it for our own builds, but you're welcome to drop it in yours
2. Foundation 6 will continue to depend on jQuery, but Foundation 7 will have a vanilla es6 implementation at its root

Hey there Chukwuemeka! Thanks so much for joining us here on Hashnode! Version 6.4 is not the same as 7. Foundation 7 is going to be released in the fall. The ZURB Foundation team always has our eyes fixed firmly forward, looking well beyond the present to figure out where we can take frontend development forward. It's the reason why we're the world's most advanced frontend framework. Foundation has changed the way we design and build the web in lots of ways, you can read a few of them here: zurb.com/blog/happy-birthday-foundation-five-year…

So while we have a strong vision and a solid roadmap for Foundation 7 in mind, we're also working tirelessly on point releases for 6, always looking for ways we can add new features, improve it, and fix bugs. Unlike other frameworks and open source projects, we don't want our users to be stuck in limbo. We want them to get a steady stream of solid, feature packed updates that give them the edge.

I hope you get a chance to check out Foundation 6.4 today, and it would be absolutely incredible for you to help contribute to 7! Check out our Github page to see the roadmap and get involved! https://github.com/zurb/foundation-sites

It's pretty simple - just jump in on github (https://github.com/zurb/foundation-sites/) and start contributing!

One of our all-star Yetinauts, Harry Manchanda, who was one of the biggest contributors to the 6.4 release, started out by filing an issue with a request for a feature. (well, actually around 10 different issues for features, he's pretty excitable... ;D) We thought one of the features was a good idea, and asked if he wanted to try to build it. He wasn't sure how, but we walked him through, and got him to his first PRs... quality was... not great... but he was open to feedback and so after some back and forth (and back and forth and back and forth - some of his early PRs have 100s of comments) he got it merged and got his start.

It is helpful if you're open to feedback and learning, but we try to be pretty nice too - no Linus Torvalds in this project. :P

For a little more breakdown of things to do to get started, some notes from Harry himself:

• Fork the repo, Clone the repository. npm install and then npm start to start the repo’s docs locally.
• Start with with ideas you have that you think foundation doesn’t have and will be great to have within the framework. New Features are what make the framework great
• Help us with fixing bugs => https://git.io/vQGf5
• Engage other folks and help them solve the issues they are facing
• Help us in visual tests https://git.io/vQGTB

Hey there Phil! Thanks so much for joining us here on this AMA :) ZURB's been around since 1998, and our purpose is to change the way people design connected product and services. We do this through our consulting work, our products (like Foundation), and our training. You can read up about our purpose and mission here: http://zurb.com/blog/change-the-way-people-design

In our design work, we've been able to consistently surface what we call Design Insights, breakthroughs that reveal behavior patterns and drive bold decisions. They shape the way we approach problems, point us in new and better directions, and help us build unstoppable momentum!

We hope to help other people and team learn how to harness the power of Design Insights to build amazing new products and services. Foundation is one the biggest ways we're able to reach millions of people and get them thinking differently about common design problems. It's really incredible to see how millions of designers and hundreds of thousands of brands be able to use it to accomplish great things! http://foundation.zurb.com/showcase/brands

Hi John! First off - initial answer is yes, we've just updated the templates that the CLI pulls from along with the release, so new projects with the CLI should immediately start pulling in the new version.

Secondly, I do want to highlight one of our new Yetinauts, Christopher Ramos, is giving the CLI a lot of love right now, so we should be rolling out some great updates soon.

Welcome Brad! The new XY Grid is a huge leap forward for grids in general so we're excited that you are excited!

There are many Foundation WordPress starter projects available and two of our favorites come to mind: JointsWP - http://jointswp.com/ FoundationPress - https://foundationpress.olefredrik.com/

Both are similar and well made. Both are maintained by Foundation certified developers. I would start here as they are already integrated and include Walker themes for navigation and such.

You'll find written tutorials for FoundationPress here: foundationpress.olefredrik.com/category/posts

You'll find video tutorials here: youtube.com/results

Looking forward to following your progress on Foundation!

Hi @BernhardWStudio, We're making big changes, so there will definitely be refactors that are required, however we're making a big effort to release things with a migration path, and to do it in pieces so you can upgrade a step at a time. For example, 6.4 is shipping with the XY-Grid, but you can still use the older grids, and in fact you can even use the older grid in conjunction with XY for while you migrate.

We definitely feel like we flubbed the migration path from 5 to 6, and we're putting in a ton of time to make sure that the 6 to 7 migration is less painful.

Hi Dimitri, We're SUPER excited about CSS Grid and want to use it as soon possible. Given the timeline for Foundation 7 (November of this year) we think it is unlikely that we'll be able to only use CSS Grid, as we doubt that browser support will have gotten to the point that all of our audience can use it.