[meta] Unified Blocks and Layouts (SCOTCH+WSCCI+Spark+Field UI)

Created on 19 October 2012, about 12 years ago

Updated 16 June 2023, over 1 year ago

The Blocks and Layouts Initiative has come a long way since its initial inception, and there are a lot of people working in this space. We had a phone call together which is documented at https://docs.google.com/a/acquia.com/document/d/1sCAnSD6o7Q5sXo3H_cCRTyP.... Here's an updated roadmap that covers what each team is working on.

There are essentially five "prongs" of this initaitive, all working in parallel:

Underlying APIs: Take a request, turn it into a page with a layout and blocks.
Blocks Everywhere: Create the concept of "smart" blocks that are contextual, and ensure everything output on the page is a block.
Blocks/Layouts UI: UI for creating landing pages, assigning layouts to them, and placing blocks into layouts.
Spark Responsive Layout Builder: Dynamic layout creation using dynamic breakpoints, grids, and regions.
Improved Field UI: Leverage layouts and regions in field UI to make a more streamlined experience.

Here's what's entailed for each, and places where you can jump in to help!

Blockers for everything else

We need these two issues dealt with before we can move forward on the various sub-initiatives.

Displays: #1817044: Implement Display, a type of config for use by layouts, et. all → These are effectively the "contract" by which all of the sub-Layouts initiaitves will communicate what a layout entails. We need to establish this before we go off jaunting off in other directions.
Sample layouts: #1814520: Create 2 basic sample layouts: 1-col and 2-col → Need something concrete to play with in the other patches.

Sub-initiatives

None of these are specifically blocked on anything else unless they're so noted.

Fundamental Underlying APIs (EclipseGc + sdboyer)

These are what's required to take a request and serve it up as an HTML page, which in D8 means a display (layout instance) containing multiple block instances.

Displays: #1817044: Implement Display, a type of config for use by layouts, et. all → Defines what a layout entails.
Roles: #1816968: Introduce region 'types' to layout spec → Groups regions so that they can be used across layouts.
Controllers: #1812720: Implement the new panels-ish controller [it's a good purple] → : Renders out results of a display.

Blocks Everywhere (EclipseGc, naxoc, ???)

Blocks as Plugins: #1535868: Convert all blocks into plugins → This is necessary plumbing for multi-instance, configurable blocks. Blocked by 📌 Ensure multiple entity forms can be embedded into one form Active .
Conditions: #1743686: Condition Plugin System → Abstracts out block visibility to a general condition API that can be used for more than just page or role visibility. Blocked by #1535868: Convert all blocks into plugins →
Convert ALL THE THINGS (site name, logo, etc.) to blocks (post-feature freeze)
Block caching (post-feature freeze)
Block context injection (post-feature freeze): Hoping to leverage Entity Property API here.

Landing page / block assignment UI (Gábor, Bojhan)

Meta issue: 🌱 [META] Decouple layouts from themes Active
Prototype: http://groups.drupal.org/node/242403
Northstar designs: http://groups.drupal.org/node/259593

Includes:

Landing page creation: #1787942: Allow assigning layouts to pages → Allows assigning layouts to pages, which is the only way to actually see a layout do anything.
Assigning blocks to regions: #1787956: Make blocks relate to layout instances instead of themes → Now that we have layouts and regions, let's add blocks to them. Most likely blocked by #1535868: Convert all blocks into plugins → .

Spark responsive layout builder (Gábor)

Meta issue: 🌱 [META] Add editable responsive layouts to Drupal core Postponed
Prototype: http://drupal.org/project/layout
Northstar designs: https://projects.invisionapp.com/share/7M73WEBZ

Dynamic regions: #1813910: Add region module to Drupal core (for editable responsive layouts) →
Grid builder: #1816650: Add swappable (dynamic) grid systems to core →
Repsonsive layout builder: #1741492: Add a responsive layout designer to Drupal core →
Mobile preview bar: #1741498: Add a responsive preview bar to Drupal core →

Improved Field UI (Swentel, Stalski, zuuperman)

Meta issue: 📌 [META] Gradual changes to Field UI Closed: duplicate

Includes:

#1786198: Make consistent regions in code for fields UI overview screens → : Add region concept to field ui.
#367498: Introduce 'display' as a way to group and reuse instance and formatter settings. →
Potentially use of modal for configuring formatter settings - see #1667742: Add abstracted dialog to core (resolves accessibility bug) →
Use temp store - over at #1642062: Add TempStore for persistent, limited-term storage of non-cache data → - so we can kill 📌 Add a "changes not applied until saved" warning when changing widget/formatter settings Fixed
#552604: Adding new fields leads to a confusing "Field settings" form →

✨ Feature request

Status

Closed: outdated

Version

11.0 🔥

Component

Base →

Last updated 2 days ago

Maintained by
🇺🇸United States @effulgentsia
🇬🇧United Kingdom @catch
🇬🇧United Kingdom @alexpott
🇦🇺Australia @larowlan
🇺🇸United States @bnjmnm
🇫🇷France @nod_
🇪🇸Spain @ckrina
🇬🇧United Kingdom @justafish

Created by

🇨🇦Canada webchick Vancouver 🇨🇦

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Comment over 1 year ago →
🇺🇸United States smustgrave
Closing this out as outdated. Think the more active issue is over at https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/issues/3361359 🌱 [META] Layout builder editorial improvements Active

Also Block library has since been moved to under content and there's tons of changes being done as we speak for the field UI.
Comment over 1 year ago →
🇺🇸United States effulgentsia
I think the other issue besides the one in #28 that this meta was originally wanting to accomplish is ✨ Discuss using Layout Builder to control full site layout and replace Block UI Needs work . Adding both as related issues to this one.

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