Creating a custom External Template for the @wordpress/create-block package

[bph]

Discussed in #161

^{Originally posted by ryanwelcher August 28, 2023}
External Templates are a very powerful tool to allow complete customization of block structure that is not widely known.

The article will focus on the technical steps of creating a template but from the use-case of an extender wanting to add more blocks to an existing plugin with pre-set values.

At the end of the article, I'd like to add a call for templates to allow the extender community to share their templates.

[ryanwelcher]

Draft is ready for first review - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1elbSquxQC5yNE-asPeN_l65QWMQfrCxRp4PYtSqtkzM/edit

[bph]

Great article. Of course, I had a few comments. 🧐

[justintadlock]

@ryanwelcher - This looks like it's had two reviews or is the second review still in progress? I'm not 100% sure, but I'd like to get the ticket status updated.

[ryanwelcher]

I'd say the first review is complete. I'll move it into the post next and then ping for a second review via the preview.

[ryanwelcher]

I moved the post into a preview -https://developer.wordpress.org/news/?p=3420&preview=1&_ppp=7b6492b0c6

There seems to be some issues with the code block that I'll tackle on Monday

[bph]

@ryanwelcher yes, sorry about that. Nick is on it, though. WordPress/wporg-developer-blog#61

[justintadlock]

Running through the second review now.

[justintadlock]

Good work, @ryanwelcher! The second review is in, which is mostly grammar and punctuation changes.

[ryanwelcher]

I've updated the post, adding an excerpt and featured image.

Preview: https://developer.wordpress.org/news/?p=3420&preview=1&_ppp=dadf4f97be

Social Media Post:

The create-block package is a fantastic time-saving tool that allows you to quickly and consistently create custom blocks for your projects with a single command. With External Project Templates you can take full control of create-block to customize how you build your blocks.

[ryanwelcher]

cc @bph @justintadlock

[bph]

Howdy @ryanwelcher Awesome article.
If that's ok with you, we schedule the article for next week on Tuesday (4/16) for publishing

Just for convenience, here again the checklists:

Pre-publishing checklist: (updated 1/29/2024)

• Post Title and subheaders in sentence case
• Are Category or Categories selected?
• Are Tags identifies?
• Is there an explicit Excerpt?
• Are all images files uploaded to the media library
• Do all images have an alt-text?
• For TOC us the Pattern under Developer Blog > Table of contents
• Assign or upload a featured image
• Props added? (See Guidelines)
• add copy for a social post as comment to this issue (example)
  🙌 Publish! 📗

Post-publishing checklist

• add Props for reviews to #props channel in WP Slack (Example) (use Slack handles)
• close the issue with a comment to link to the published post
• close the accompanying discussion with the link to the published post.

[bph]

What's missing is the Social post (unless that's what you call 'post excerpt'?

[ryanwelcher]

What's missing is the Social post (unless that's what you call 'post excerpt'?

Yes, that's what I called it.

[ryanwelcher]

I've changed the title of the post to Creating an external project template for create-block - FYI

Props @greenshady, @bph and @dansoschin for providing feedback and reviewing this post.

[ryanwelcher]

If that's ok with you, we schedule the article for next week on Tuesday (4/16) for publishing

Totally fine with me! Should I schedule it WP or just hit publish then?

[ryanwelcher]

I've scheduled it in WP

[ryanwelcher]

Post is live - https://developer.wordpress.org/news/2024/04/16/creating-an-external-project-template-for-create-block/

[juanmaguitar]

Social scheduled for May 7th

[flexseth]

Just wanted to raise awareness about some semantics around using the webpackConfig file

• Block not working when using cutom webpack gutenberg#44010

Not sure if it's mentioned in the post, but might be a good idea to test the code in the post to make sure it is working. Disclaimer: I have not tested, but it's been reported twice via the post above