Gutenberg: Limit Block to Certain Post Type(s)

[timmyc]

During our local WordPress Meetup last night, a question was brought up around the ability to register a block type to only a certain Custom Post Type, or possibly multiple post types. I did not have the answer to that question off the top of my head so I did a bit of looking to see if this was part of the block API currently.

It appears that this functionality doesn't currently exist ( or I couldn't find it, which is very likely ) so I figured this issue would be a good place to track this question and discuss.

Somewhat related: #2457

[mtias]

See also https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/1654

[johnbillion]

This is definitely something I'd like to see. Post templates can be restricted by post type. It would be great to have the same functionality for blocks.

[youknowriad]

The handbook shows how to whitelist/blacklist blocks, A script could be loaded for a specific CPT to achieve this. I think this addresses this issue. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/handbook/extensibility/#removing-blocks

[johnbillion]

That does technically address the issue, but native support would be a better developer experience.

[youknowriad]

@johnbillion Not against reopening if you think it's crucial. But maybe we could wait for more requests. I think the block-templates and locking will drastically reduce the need for this API.

[johnbillion]

Let's re-open this for now and see if it picks up more interest.

[greatislander]

I think there’s a clear use case for this. If I register a custom post type and a block that must only be used within that post type, I shouldn’t have to load additional client-side JS to deregister that block in other places.

[youknowriad]

I shouldn’t have to load additional client-side JS to deregister that block in other places.

I'm not denying the use-case but you can register this client-side JS only for this CPT instead.

[greatislander]

To register the blocks but only for that post type? I hear you, but I still think it would be more intuitive to specify post types at the point of block registration rather than loading the block JS conditionally based on post type.

[bradyvercher]

Count me in the 👍 camp. Currently, if I want to register multiple blocks meant for different CPTs, I need to build separate bundles for each CPT instead of having a single entry point.

[ericnicolaas]

Just wanted to add my voice here to say this would be a very helpful feature. I'm working on a handful of blocks that should be limited to a specific CPT.

Considering that blocks are designed to be a replacement for some meta boxes, and meta boxes can be limited by CPT easily, extending the same capacity to blocks will help adoption. As a developer making the switch, it's something I expect to be available.

[gziolo]

6208 adds functionality which allows to filter allowed block types based on the post type or other properties. This will still load JS and CSS for all blocks registered on the server, but they won't show up in the inserter.

There are other efforts which should fix the issue with obsolete JS and CSS tackled separately to limit the number of assets downloaded by end-users.

[alexsanford]

@gziolo Could you demonstrate how this filter can be used to add a custom block type to a specific CPT? Since the value of $allowed_block_types is true, I'm struggling to conditionally _add_ my block to the list based on $post->post_type.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the intention of the filter? I believe my use case is the same as in the description of this issue.

[gziolo]

true - means that all block types are allowed. Ideally, it should contain the list of all registered blocks, but blocks can be registered on the client which makes it impossible to control on the server. What we support at the moment is providing a whitelist with explicitly listed blocks that are allowed for a given post type. We will have to find a better way to control it before Gutenberg land in WordPress core.

[emfluenceindia]

I agree with @ericnicolaas . We should have the ability to limit blocks per CPTs upfront. In other words, we should be able to define blocks for a CPT which we only want to be associated with it.

This will not only make developers' life easier but also allow us to keep the code clean and easy to maintain.

Since I am a late comer to this thread, just curious whether it is already available by now!