Template Bugs (specifically when locking blocks)

[jasonbahl]

Hello!

I'm using Gutenberg 2.3.0 on WordPress 4.9.4 and I'm trying to work with Gutenberg templates and I'm running into issues/bugs.

I recorded a video of my experience which you can see here for reference (https://youtu.be/09vukEJn8kc), but I'll also outline my experience below.

My goal was to move some pieces of the editing experience from Meta Boxes to Blocks, and I thought Templates would help with that quite a bit by having some "fixed" blocks, then some "flexible" blocks, then some more "fixed" blocks, to provide a more cohesive experience for editing the page (much like what @mtias demoed at WordCamp US).

This screenshot captures my goal. Where the grey blocks would all be "locked" in place, but the blue block would be a container block allowing for flexible input of other blocks.

To do this, I used some code I found on the documentation site, with some changes to get the blocks I was after:

function myplugin_register_book_post_type() {
	$args = array(
		'public' => true,
		'label'  => 'Books',
		'show_in_rest' => true,
		'template' => array(
			array( 'core/paragraph', array(
				'placeholder' => 'Article Description',
			) ),
			array( 'core/heading', array(
				'placeholder' => 'Author Name',
			) ),
			array( 'core/paragraph', array(
				'placeholder' => 'Author Email',
			) ),

			array( 'core/columns', array(), array(
				array( 'core/image', array( 'layout' => 'column-1' ) ),
				array( 'core/paragraph', array(
					'placeholder' => 'Add a inner paragraph',
					'layout' => 'column-1'
				) ),
			) ),
			array( 'core/heading', array(
				'placeholder' => 'Call to Action',
			) ),
			array( 'core/button', array(
				'placeholder' => 'Action Link',
			) ),
			array( 'core/heading', array(
				'placeholder' => 'Author Name',
			) ),
			array( 'core/paragraph', array(
				'placeholder' => 'Author Bio',
			) ),
		),
		'template_lock' => 'all'
	);
	register_post_type( 'book', $args );
}
add_action( 'init', 'myplugin_register_book_post_type' );

At first, this appears to provide more or less what I was after. I wasn't able to figure out how to make the "columns" default to 1 column (just be a regular container?), and I couldn't figure out how to define what blocks should be allowed to be added to that container 🤔 (just incomplete docs? or possibly an in-progress feature?)

The real weird stuff seems to be around locking blocks. With blocks locked, there are places in the whitespace that can be clicked to add a new paragraph block that cannot be removed if blocks are locked. I show that pretty well in the video starting at ~4:40.

I think there's a lot of potential with templates and nested blocks. Hoping to see this stuff worked out!

Screenshots / Video

https://youtu.be/09vukEJn8kc

[jasonbahl]

Sounds like #5574 might fix the primary issue here (inserting blocks when the template is locked).

I'm still curious how to go about defining a list of components that can be added to a container component (is this possible, just not documented, or not yet possible?)

And also curious if it's possible to have a single-column container - I've seen #4900 which is essentially what I'm looking for. . .not sure if there's a way to do that yet or not.

[youknowriad]

Templates went through several iterations and I'm not certain what's left actionable in this issue. Would you mind clarifying?

[jasonbahl]

@youknowriad I'll check things out and report back. Thanks!

[designsimply]

Closing while we wait for more info. @jasonbahl can you please re-open if there are still actionable issues here or please feel free to open new issues if that will be easier. Thank you!