Allow Group block to transform to the Row variation

[richtabor]

What problem does this address?

While uncovering ways to improve the Group block editing experience, I found that transforming between the standard vertical-oriented Group block, to the Row variant, is still a bit convoluted.

This made be lean in to ask, should variation transforms be treated any differently than block transforms in the UI?

Is there a reason to not include the "Row" variant as an option in the typical transforms UI — instead of having a separate variation UI?

What is your proposed solution?

Consider allowing block variants within the transform UI, so that variants are more easily surfaced in existing UI patterns (instead of replying solely on a separate control to "Transform to variation".

The Group block's row variation omitted from primary transform interaction

Transform to variation UI (should this be treated differently than standard transforms?)

[skorasaurus]

Thanks for continuing the conversation; @youknowriad mentions it at #36202 (comment)

[richtabor]

Thanks for continuing the conversation; @youknowriad mentions it at #36202 (comment)

Yes, that exactly!

[jasmussen]

Good ticket. There's a potentially largish design exploration possible here.

The transforms interface — the dropdown you get by clicking the block icon — has huge potential, and can become the go-to destination to check when inserting a new block, or looking for layout changes or options on an existing block:

• It could surface variations or alternate styles or layouts
• It could surface different block or pattern transforms (with previews) that can accomplish an interesting layout didn't think of
• It could potentially hold locking options (On Locking and TemplateLocking #29864)

In addition to this, as is also discussed here, there are currently multiple different interfaces that all feel related to transforming blocks. It'd be good to look at unifying these.

Exploring a holistic vision for a lovely singular card with a full range of transforms could be a fun task with a big mockup and prototype. That's not to say it needs to block smaller iterations; but it would be a good north star to keep in mind!

[mtias]

We could also consider exposing these in the group block toolbar directly, like we do for multi-select: