Hello @scott3,
Thanks a lot for your message, which will help us address a question that a lot of our users are probably asking.
I recognize that some developers with existing projects have been wondering how and when they can adopt Slice Machine for months, and some developers may have felt discouraged at times. I wish that we could have been more clear about this all along, but any messaging would likely have been misleading. Slice Machine is our most ambitious project since launching Prismic itself. We've worked to communicate clearly at every step, but this is a large project with many moving parts.
On the other hand, we're proud that Slice Machine is open source. We're developing Slice Machine in public, and we're committed to clear and open communication about Slice Machine's future. We're always happy to discuss Slice Machine and answer questions like yours. So thank you again for taking the time to articulate your thoughts.
First, what is Slice Machine, and what can you expect from it?
Slice Machine is now the default way to build websites with Prismic and Next or Nuxt. It’s a local tool that helps developers build their projects. This is done by:
- Putting the content model alongside the code so it can be versioned
- Integrating deeply with the framework with components and simplifying the connection with your project
- Making your codebase a source of truth that you use to bootstrap new projects
Second, what can't you expect from Slice Machine (yet)?
Eventually, Slice Machine will be feature-complete. But you are correct that this is not yet the case. Some features are still in development. For most missing features, we offer workarounds.
Here are the features still in development:
- Integration Fields. This is in development. For the moment, there is a workaround.
- Slice and Custom Type deletion. This is in development, and you can track it on our progress page.
- Mocks for some fields. Some fields, such as Content Relationship and Integration Fields, cannot yet generate mock data for the Slice Simulator.
For migration and support of your existing project
It is true that we don’t yet provide a way for all users to migrate to Slice Machine. That’s why today we recommend that all new Next.js and Nuxt repositories be created with Slice Machine while all existing projects continue to use the Legacy Builder.
We will continue to provide full support for the Legacy Builder until we have launched a full-featured, efficient way to migrate your project to Slice Machine with support for other technologies.
You should see some movement on that front in 2023 and you can follow this progress on our http://prismic.io/progress.
If you don’t want to wait for this integrated migration path and are on a platinum plan or higher, our Solutions Engineering team is able to ease your migration.
You can reach out to your Customer Success Manager for more information.
I hope I answered your questions.