{"id":757,"date":"2025-09-02T14:34:27","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T14:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/icelandconsulateghana.com\/gutenberg-times-why-wordpress-core-needs-more-blocks\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T14:34:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T14:34:27","slug":"gutenberg-times-why-wordpress-core-needs-more-blocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icelandconsulateghana.com\/is\/gutenberg-times-why-wordpress-core-needs-more-blocks\/","title":{"rendered":"Gutenberg Times: Why WordPress Core needs more blocks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the years, I have been an ardent supporter of keeping WordPress lean and letting plugins and themes do all the fun, custom stuff. But the block paradigm shifted everything. And moreso, it shifted everything about building WordPress themes.<\/p>\n

Today, my perspective has changed, and I\u2019ve nestled into the camp of those calling for more blocks in WordPress.<\/p>\n

Let me explain why.<\/p>\n

A journey<\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s jump back in time for a moment. Three and a half years ago, just before the release of WordPress 5.9, themers were in complete control of the front-end output of WordPress sites. <\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s a bit of a stretch. They were actually in control of everything but the content. Of that, they mostly had styling control. It was much like the previous 18 years where you would have the freedom and flexibility to build whatever you wanted. <\/p>\n

But in the few years leading up to that point, the landscape had begun changing. Themes had to be compatible with new types of output beyond the basic paragraphs, headings, lists, and media. The Block Editor had been on the scene for a while before WordPress 5.9, but theme authors still exercised almost all the control they had in the past.<\/p>\n

Once you started building block themes, suddenly what was possible shrank very, very quickly.<\/p>\n

Want to include breadcrumbs?<\/em> You need to add support for a breadcrumbs block<\/a>, but which one?<\/p>\n

Need an accordion?<\/em> Maybe you could manipulate the Details block, but that may not be an accessible approach<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How about including SVG icons?<\/em> You guessed it; you need an icon block<\/a> for that.<\/p>\n

And have you ever experienced what the UI looks like when a user doesn\u2019t have a supported block installed?<\/p>\n

\"WordPress<\/figure>\n

Eeeek!<\/em><\/p>\n

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I\u2019d also like to take this moment to point out that you are not allowed to bundle custom blocks in themes submitted to the official WordPress theme directory. There are very<\/em> good reasons for this that I won\u2019t dive into. I\u2019m including this side note merely for context.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Gone were the days where you could just include anything and everything. It\u2019s like painting on a canvas with a limited color palette and set of brushes when you previously had every tool at your disposal.<\/p>\n

Now, truly great artists can make magic happen regardless of the tools. Things like the Block Bindings API<\/a> can fill in some of the gaps. But some features are just darn hard without a dedicated block.<\/p>\n

Before block themes, theme authors enjoyed loads of new features over the years, but how and what you could build mostly remained static, the only limitation being the technology of the day. Block themes created the potential for more people to take that first step into the world of theming without knowing any code whatsoever. And they introduced the standards that so many of the inner community had called on for so long, created better interoperability with plugins, and brought contemporary technologies to WordPress.<\/p>\n

But the cost was a limited toolset that required new ways of thinking from us old timers who\u2019d been merrily doing our own thing for so long.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an exciting world, but it could be more exciting in the next stage of this journey.<\/p>\n

The case for more Core blocks<\/h2>\n

I am a developer. I love tinkering with anything and everything. I even dabble in creating custom plugins, but my true passion is creating WordPress themes. I\u2019ve probably written just as much on the subject as anyone over the years. It\u2019s safe to say that I know the technical limitations of block theming as much as anyone can reasonably be expected to (though I\u2019m still learning new things all the time).<\/p>\n

So when Mat\u00edas Ventura, the Project Architect of Gutenberg, opened a ticket calling for more niche blocks<\/a> in WordPress, it piqued my interest. The list of potential blocks were:<\/p>\n