Custom Gutenberg Blocks with ACF

Josh Lee

  • Developer since ~2006
  • WordPress developer since ~2010
  • Co-organizer for the Burlington WordPress Meetup
  • Co-founder at Zana Digital

Find Me

blog.joshuamlee.com

@joshleecreates

 

The Burlington WordPress Meetup*

@burlingtonwp

What is Gutenberg?

What is Gutenberg?

  • The new editor experience for WordPress, released in late 2018.
  • Also called “The Block Editor”
  • Replaces TinyMCE with a drag-and-drop “block” system
  • Includes over 40 built-in block types (e.g. Paragraph, Heading, Media)

What is a Gutenberg Block?

  • Each block type has a specific admin (“editor”) experience powered by Javascript.
  • Block content is “rendered” into post content as a combination of structured data and plain HTML.
  • Block types can be re-used by admins throughout the site*.

Don't Reinvent the Wheel

Block Libraries

  • Many recent themes and plugins include their own libraries of block types.
  • My favorite is Atomic Blocks
  • Try not to go too crazy here...

DIY: Creating your own Block Types

DIY: Custom Block Types

  • Under the hood, the Gutenberg editor experience uses React.js
  • WordPress provides new Javascript APIs for registering block types and integrating them with the editor

DIY: Custom Block Types

Learn more about this at a future talk...

Stepping back: Why Custom?

  • Integration with existing brand site or style guide
  • Dynamic blocks based on custom post types

Advanced
Custom
Fields

What is Advanced Custom Fields?

A drag-and-drop editor to create “Field Groups” — sets of form fields that appear within specific areas of the WordPress Admin

Field Group Editor

Author Experience

Using your fields

  • Custom field data is stored as post meta
  • Use `the_field()` and `get_field()` functions in template files

Template w/ Custom Fields

<?php
// e.g. /wp-content/themes/my-custom-theme/single.php

if ( have_posts() ) : 
    while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); 
        the_title();
        the_content();
        the_field( 'my-custom-field-slug' );
    endwhile; 
endif; 
?>

What about Gutenberg?

Register a Custom ACF Block Type

<?php
//e.g. wp-content/themes/my-theme/functions.php
acf_register_block_type(array(
  'name'              => 'my-block',
  'title'             => __('My Block'),
  'description'       => __('A custom block type.'),
  'render_template'   => 'hello.php',
));
<?php
//e.g. wp-content/themes/my-theme/hello.php
echo '<h1>Hello</h1>';

Create a Field Group

Use your fields

<?php
//e.g. wp-content/themes/my-theme/hello.php
echo '<h1>Hello ' . get_field( 'person' ) . '</h1>';

Block Type Options

Block Type Options

  • `supports` - enable built-in editor features such as alignment options.
  • `category` - sort blocks into existing categories, or create your own
  • `enqueue_script` / `enqueue_style` / `enqueue_assets`
  • More...

Block Type Options

<?php
acf_register_block_type(array(
    'name'              => 'custom-block',
    'title'             => __('Custom Block'),
    'description'       => __('A custom block.'),
    'category'          => 'layout',
    'icon'              => 'slides',
    'keywords'          => array( 'slide' ),
    'align'             => 'full',
    'supports'          => array(
      'align' => array( 'center', 'wide', 'full' ),
    )
));

Tips & Tricks

Using a Render Callback

  • Define your own function used to render custom blocks.
  • Useful for any functionality shared between blocks, especially "wrapper" or "container" markup.

Using a Render Callback

<?php
acf_register_block_type(array(
  'name'              => 'custom-block',
  'title'             => __('Custom Block'),
  'description'       => __('A custom block.'),
  'render_callback'   => 'my_render_function',
));

function my_render_function($block, $content = '', $is_preview = false) {
  $block_name = explode('/', $block['name'])[1];
  echo '<div class="wp-block wp-block-' . $block_name . '">';
  include( __DIR__ . 'template-parts/blocks/' . $block_name . '.php' );
  echo '</div>';
}

Enqueue Editor Assets

  • Got custom styles or Javascript only needed for the editor?
  • Use the `enqueue_block_editor_assets` hook.
function my_enqueue_editor_assets() {
  wp_enqueue_style( 'editor-styles', get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/editor.css' );
}
add_action( 'enqueue_block_editor_assets', 'my_enqueue_editor_assets' );

Fetch Blocks for a Page

  • Useful if you need to modify a page template based on the content of the page or specific blocks.
<?php
global $post
$blocks = parse_blocks( $post->post_content );
$table_of_contents = array();
foreach($blocks as $block) {
 $table_of_contents[] = $block['blockName'];
}

Advanced ACF Tricks

JSON/PHP Export

WP-CLI Plugin

Repeater Fields

Clone Fields

Custom Field Types

Custom Gutenberg Blocks with ACF

By Josh Lee

Made with Slides.com

Custom Gutenberg Blocks with ACF

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