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Docemnents of Drupal 8

The document discusses improvements to the block system in Drupal 8. Key points include: - Custom blocks can now be used multiple times and block titles are now checkboxes instead of <none>. - The block user interface is easier to use with a sidebar for filtering and adding new blocks. - Block configurations and layouts are now defined in code. - A new "Custom block library" allows defining block types and fields similar to content types. - Comments discuss debates around blocks vs panels and performance differences between the two approaches.

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Docemnents of Drupal 8

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Docemnents of drupal 8

https://drupalize.me/blog/201403/block-system-finally-useful-drupal-8

https://drupalize.me/system/files/video/companion_files/d8_whats_new_blocks.pdf

https://drupalize.me/blog/201403/block-system-finally-useful-drupal-8

The Block System is Finally Useful in Drupal

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Kyle Hofmeyer

One of my favorite parts about this blog series, Learning through Trial and Error, is the ability to just
poke around Drupal 8 and see what is new. I decided it was time to give the block system
another go without any helper modules in place. Wow, blocks are now a contender in Drupal 8!
Before we take a video tour of the new block system, here is a list of new things I have
discovered:

 Custom blocks, and blocks in general, can be used more than once
 A block title is now an on/off check box instead of having to use <none>
 The UI is easier to use with new blocks now in a sidebar instead of at the bottom
 This sidebar UI allows for dynamic filtering to make it even easier to find a block
 Configurations of block types and layout are now in code!!!
 Permissions are still very limited
 Site builders will still probably want something like Context in D8

One of the biggest changes you'll see is a a new tab in the block configuration page for "Custom
block library." This library is used to display all your custom blocks that were created via the
blocks module. It contains two sub-tabs: "Types" and "Blocks." Types is like content types for
blocks. You can define standard kinds of blocks and each block type can have its own fields attached—
even images. The fields on your block types use the new form and view modes, which gives you a lot
of flexibility in terms of how your block fields are displayed. You can set view modes per block
location, which means you could have a block with an image field, and that one image field will display
differently depending on the location of the block.

Here's a sneak peak of the new block layout UI:

Take a look at the video to get a tour of the new block system, I am getting really excited
because if things like the block system got this kind of attention, Drupal 8 is gonna be a great
CMS and one to look out for.

Posted on Tuesday, March 25, 2014 - 8:16pm by KEN

Thanks for the tour of Blocks in Drupal 8. Like always, your teams' operations are a ace in the
hold.

 reply

Posted on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - 6:48am by Kyle Skrinak

What are your thoughts on the blocks + context versus panels everywhere debate?

 reply

Posted on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - 11:21am by Kyle Hofmeyer

I don't really feel it is much of a debate. I feel they both have different purposes with some-what
of a similar outcome. For some panels is overkill, for others context/blocks is too limiting.
Panels sometimes gets a bad rap because of the code bloat, but it can do some really powerful
stuff once you dig in. But that power has use cases, so if your site needs panels, you will know
it. That is not necessarily the "panels everywhere" concept though. I have played around with
the panopoly distribution and it is very cool, but again has it's own use cases. So basically, use
what works with your current needs and you will be better off.

 reply

Posted on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - 2:46pm by Kyle Skrinak

Thank you for the well-written response. Do you believe that performance-wise, it's a draw?

 reply

Posted on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - 3:06pm by Kyle Hofmeyer

If panels is used responsibly, then yes a draw. Panels has some heavy caching abilities. With
that said, it can certainly be taxing if caching is not possible or setup incorrectly. In reality, there
is alot more you can do with Panels than with Context and Blocks alone.

 reply

Posted on Monday, March 31, 2014 - 1:22am by EclipseGc

It's worth mentioning that the slowest thing about panels is actually views. If you toss a bunch of
uncached views into a single panel, then you're going to incur some penalties. Always keep that
in mind, and plan accordingly.

I personally NEVER use context for block placement, and would argue against it in practically
all cases. A panels-everywhere approach is far superior, and while we didn't get D8 to that point,
I think that, just as there were a lot of improvements in the block system that is going to ship in
8.0.0 we could go further and do more and I intend to continue to push on that in future releases.

That said, thanks for the kind words on this Kyle, a lot of people put in a lot of time and it's
encouraging to see it come together as much as it has.

Eclipse

 reply

Posted on Friday, June 26, 2015 - 6:39am by noita

Hi, I would like to know. What do you use to manage some page.
In drupal 7, I use panels with ctools and then variant but in Drupal 8, I don't found so much
solution to have a simple way to manage this...

Because you don't go to add all your block into the same page with condition... That's gonna be
unmanageable.

Thx for your answers.

 reply

Posted on Friday, June 26, 2015 - 9:19am by Anonymous

The contributed module ecosphere for Drupal 8 is still a work-in-progress, but I think it's safe to
say that our favorite D7 solutions like panels, context, page manager, etc. will all get ported to
Drupal 8. Once Drupal 8 is completed though I'm sure this will all shake out.

 reply

Posted on Thursday, November 5, 2015 - 3:09pm by Dean Myerson

I didn't have time to watch the video, but wanted to point out a minor change that took me a
while to figure out. When assigning a block to specific pages, you need a leading slash now.

 reply