Blockbase: Add a way to create a theme #4862

scruffian · 2021-10-18T19:50:52Z

Changes proposed in this Pull Request:

This is a proposal for a mechanism to create Blockbase child themes.

The way it works is like this:

Switch to a Blockbase theme that you want to clone
Make any changes you want to see to the block templates or theme.json settings. You can do this using Global Styles or using the customizer
Go to the "Create theme" in the menu, and fill in the details:

4. When you click "Create theme" a zip will be generated containing all your theme files. 5. You can install this like any other theme

This works without #4807 but it assumes we are taking that approach for Blockbase children, so that PR will need to be merged before this one is usable.

The logic is built on top of a REST API endpoint in core. I think eventually this should be part of core.

scruffian · 2021-10-18T19:52:28Z

blockbase/inc/create-theme.php

+ */
+
+function gutenberg_edit_site_get_theme_json_for_export() {
+	$child_theme_json = json_decode( file_get_contents( get_stylesheet_directory() . '/theme.json' ), true );


In Blockbase this is currently a generated file, but once #4807 is merged this will make more sense.

scruffian · 2021-10-18T19:52:56Z

blockbase/inc/create-theme.php

+}
+
+function blockbase_get_theme_css( $theme ) {
+	return file_get_contents( get_stylesheet_directory() . '/assets/theme.css' );


Ideally this should output all enqueued CSS for the theme.

scruffian · 2021-10-18T19:53:18Z

blockbase/inc/create-theme.php

+		gutenberg_edit_site_export_theme( $_GET['theme'] );
+	}
+}
+add_action( 'init', 'blockbase_save_theme');


This is way too heavy handed, but it works for now.

pbking · 2021-10-18T20:27:25Z

This is brilliant! Per your comment this pairs really nice with the removal of child-theme.json and makes a nice, compact theme.json.

I haven't gone through the resulting theme carefully yet but as to the concept I believe it's a great looking tool.

alaczek · 2021-10-19T04:00:28Z

This is awesome!

Would it be possible to create a child theme not from an existing child (Geologist > Zoologist), but directly from Blockbase? I think that would be the most useful in the context of the work I'm doing now.

Also, I expected was to get child-theme.json starter file and it wasn't there in the generated theme.

Lastly, I thought the generated theme would include package.json?

pbking · 2021-10-19T13:34:46Z

child-theme.json is ABOUT to go away, and that whole part of the build step too. Since there's also no scss in the generated theme there's also no css build step for these themes so the result is pretty simple.

I just tested building straight from Blockbase and it looks like it will need a few tweaks to do so efficiently (It creates a working theme, but with more stuff than needed). But no reason that wouldn't also work.

MaggieCabrera · 2021-10-19T14:15:22Z

I love this! in fact, I like it so much that I think it should be the theme generator we were thinking about for https://blockbasetheme.com/

scruffian · 2021-10-19T14:28:44Z

Would it be possible to create a child theme not from an existing child (Geologist > Zoologist), but directly from Blockbase? I think that would be the most useful in the context of the work I'm doing now.

Yes that should work fine.

Also, I expected was to get child-theme.json starter file and it wasn't there in the generated theme.

This is because we are getting rid of child-theme.json (see #4807)

Lastly, I thought the generated theme would include package.json?

Again, because we don't need the build step anymore we shouldn't need a package.json. I'm curious what @MaggieCabrera and @pbking think about this, since we might still want to build SASS in these child themes...

MaggieCabrera · 2021-10-19T14:34:02Z

Again, because we don't need the build step anymore we shouldn't need a package.json. I'm curious what @MaggieCabrera and @pbking think about this, since we might still want to build SASS in these child themes...

I think it depends! Generally, I don't want to get rid of SASS for Blockbase at all for our own benefit. Thinks like the Buttons stylesheet using mixins and stuff would be very ugly to do using only CSS. But I agree that if the theme is based on Blockbase and it's only adding some theme.json changes, there's no point to do any kind of build process, and the extra CSS can be added without SASS. If you are basing on Quadrat, however, you are loading the extra import for the outlined buttons for example. That requires SASS unless we are refactoring Blockbase

pbking · 2021-10-19T14:41:54Z

Again, because we don't need the build step anymore we shouldn't need a package.json. I'm curious what @MaggieCabrera and @pbking think about this, since we might still want to build SASS in these child themes...

Don't build it 'till ya' need it.

If a generated theme advances such that it needs a sass build step then that's a decision for the future.

Ideally a theme based on Blockbase wouldn't HAVE any css either which is indeed the best scenario; when changes come down the pipe the child theme gets them without need of alteration whereas if it were build from something like Quadrat and pulls that theme's CSS in there may be reason for that CSS to change in the future based on changes to Gutenberg. Ideally most of that kind of stuff happens in Blockbase, that's the idea.

Definitely agree with Maggie though that we can't lose SCSS for Blockbase itself.

If you are basing on Quadrat, however, you are loading the extra import for the outlined buttons for example. That requires SASS unless we are refactoring Blockbase

I do think that if it's based on Quadrat then the Quadrat CSS is needed (for the types of reasons you state @MaggieCabrera ) , but I don't think it needs to have the SASS source come along for the ride. Though... if it were a child of QUADRAT instead then there's no need to include that CSS in the bundle either... Grandchildren Block Themes? 🤔

alaczek · 2021-10-20T03:47:07Z

No build process sounds great to me! :)

This is because we are getting rid of child-theme.json

Oh ok, I wasn't aware of that. What does that mean to themes I'm currently developing from Blockbase - do I keep using child-theme.json?

scruffian · 2021-10-20T08:06:07Z

Oh ok, I wasn't aware of that. What does that mean to themes I'm currently developing from Blockbase - do I keep using child-theme.json?

Yeah for now that's fine. We'll migrate all the themes over to the new process when the time comes, just make sure its in the list of child themes in rebuild-child-themes.js

jeffikus · 2021-10-25T18:54:07Z

@scruffian was thinking about this "The logic is built on top of a REST API endpoint in core. I think eventually this should be part of core." - should we place it under the "Tools" menu item perhaps then? Or "Appearance"?

MaggieCabrera · 2021-10-27T15:15:50Z

I'm thinking we may want to hide this for dotcom users if we ever merge this, and this kind of thing is probably not allowed on .org either as part of the theme

MaggieCabrera · 2021-10-29T09:22:53Z

blockbase/inc/create-theme.php

+License URI: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Automattic/themes/trunk/LICENSE
+Template: blockbase
+Text Domain: {$slug}
+Tags:


can we pre populate this with Blockbase's tags? We never really change them for child themes. At most you would had a "photography", "blogging", etc tag that would talk about the content, but most children will have the same functionalities as the parent

one issue is that our tags contain wpcom specific tags, which would be annoying for dotorg users.

well, we can leave those for now and add them manually, but I think adding the blockbase ones is better than leaving it empty

scruffian · 2021-10-29T12:42:42Z

I moved this to a plugin: https://github.com/Automattic/create-blockbase-theme

scruffian added the [Theme] Blockbase label Oct 18, 2021

scruffian requested review from alaczek and a team October 18, 2021 19:50

scruffian self-assigned this Oct 18, 2021

scruffian commented Oct 18, 2021

View reviewed changes

scruffian added 2 commits October 29, 2021 09:48

Blockbase: Add a way to create a theme

059028f

add missing file

43a40aa

scruffian force-pushed the add/create-theme branch from e1cdf7d to 43a40aa Compare October 29, 2021 08:48

MaggieCabrera reviewed Oct 29, 2021

View reviewed changes

scruffian closed this Oct 29, 2021

scruffian deleted the add/create-theme branch October 29, 2021 12:43

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Blockbase: Add a way to create a theme #4862

Blockbase: Add a way to create a theme #4862

scruffian commented Oct 18, 2021 •

edited

Loading

scruffian Oct 18, 2021

scruffian Oct 18, 2021

scruffian Oct 18, 2021

pbking commented Oct 18, 2021

alaczek commented Oct 19, 2021

pbking commented Oct 19, 2021

MaggieCabrera commented Oct 19, 2021

scruffian commented Oct 19, 2021

MaggieCabrera commented Oct 19, 2021 •

edited

Loading

pbking commented Oct 19, 2021

alaczek commented Oct 20, 2021

scruffian commented Oct 20, 2021

jeffikus commented Oct 25, 2021

MaggieCabrera commented Oct 27, 2021

MaggieCabrera Oct 29, 2021

scruffian Oct 29, 2021

MaggieCabrera Oct 29, 2021

scruffian commented Oct 29, 2021

Blockbase: Add a way to create a theme #4862

Blockbase: Add a way to create a theme #4862

Conversation

scruffian commented Oct 18, 2021 • edited Loading

Changes proposed in this Pull Request:

scruffian Oct 18, 2021

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

scruffian Oct 18, 2021

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

scruffian Oct 18, 2021

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

pbking commented Oct 18, 2021

alaczek commented Oct 19, 2021

pbking commented Oct 19, 2021

MaggieCabrera commented Oct 19, 2021

scruffian commented Oct 19, 2021

MaggieCabrera commented Oct 19, 2021 • edited Loading

pbking commented Oct 19, 2021

alaczek commented Oct 20, 2021

scruffian commented Oct 20, 2021

jeffikus commented Oct 25, 2021

MaggieCabrera commented Oct 27, 2021

MaggieCabrera Oct 29, 2021

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

scruffian Oct 29, 2021

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

MaggieCabrera Oct 29, 2021

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

scruffian commented Oct 29, 2021

scruffian commented Oct 18, 2021 •

edited

Loading

MaggieCabrera commented Oct 19, 2021 •

edited

Loading