Parameterised Patterns

[tomjn]

What problem does this address?

I've found while building themes that I regularly have block patterns where the main difference is a category or a page, and after inserting I then need to change a heading, and a query filter, then a button to link to an archive. Then I have to redo the whole thing again when I insert the next sections pattern, it gets tedious.

Sure after inserting you can click on each block and change things manually, but what if you have to type a name out 5 times, or update a name of a term multiple times? It gets tedious.

E.g. adding this as a block pattern would be frustratingly repetitive, modifying query blocks and titles and links etc

I could create a version of the pattern for every single category but I've seen this problem before.

What is your proposed solution?

In Factorio you can create blueprints for stamping down patterns of buildings quickly, and v2 introduced parameterised blueprints

https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-392

When you create a blueprint you put in some placeholders, and then when the user/player tries to insert the blueprint it asks them what should go in those placeholders and fills in the gaps.

fff-392-parameters-on-the-go.mp4

So why not the same with block patterns?

What if inserting a pattern could generate something like this?

[tomjn]

I'd expect an implementation would share a lot in common with block bindings, in particular pattern overrides except that instead of allowing a user to replace something in a pattern that's already there, the user is prompted to fill it in on insertion with no prior content to override.

[talldan]

I think this is essentially the idea of pattern overrides (and/or using block bindings with patterns if the parameterized data is external).

At the moment though you can't adjust things like 'Number of columns', there isn't support for it (being able to template the columns would be a nice feature too). There's a gradual journey to increase the range of blocks and attributes that bindings can support, which would unlock things like this. I think recent support was added for dynamic blocks, so that's a good step - #64870.

Coincidentally there's also work underway to make patterns support DataForms (edit: this will be available as an experiment called 'Block Fields' in the next gutenberg release). At the moment a form is added to the sidebar with the idea to make filling in a pattern easier, but it would still work the same in that it'd have default values from the pattern:

The modal with a form is also an interesting idea.