The Block Registration RFC and the Gutenberg RFC process

Welcome!

The WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. development team builds WordPress! Follow this site for general updates, status reports, and the occasional code debate. There’s lots of ways to contribute:

Found a bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority.? Create a ticket in the bug tracker.

Want to contribute? Get started quickly with tickets marked as good first bugs for new contributors or join a bug scrub. There’s more on the reports page, like patches needing testing, and on feature projects page.

Other questions? Here is a detailed handbook for contributors, complete with tutorials.

While SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. is a critical tool for keeping in sync for project status and priorities, it has proven to be an ineffective platform to engage in detailed, long-lived discourse around complex engineering problems.

Inspired by other open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. projects like React, Yarn, Rust… we started experimenting with a new RFC (Request For Comments) process in the GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ repository in order to propose, discuss and adopt technical solutions for these big features or complex technical challenges.

The BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. registration RFC

The first open RFC in the Gutenberg repository concerns the Block Registration APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. and intends to address the server-side awareness of blocks and simplify the block discovery for the block directory project.

The block registration API is the most important API in the block editor with a lot of technical challenges. Its implementation should fulfill a number of requirements:

A block type registration should be declarative and context-agnostic. Any runtime (PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher, JSJS JavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors., or other) should be able to interpret the basics of a block type (see “Block API” in the sections below) and should be able to fetch or retrieve the definitions of the context-specific implementation details. The following things should be made possible:
- Fetching the available block types through REST APIs.
- Fetching block objects from posts through REST APIs.
- This API should be backward compatible with what we have at the moment.
- It should be possible to statically analyze a block type in order to support advanced use-cases like the block discovery required by the Block Directory project.
It should not require a build tool compilation step (e.g. Babel, Webpack) to author code which would be referenced in a block type definition.
It should allow to dynamically load (“lazy-load”) block types, or parts of block type definitions. In practical terms, it means that the editor should be able to be loaded without enqueuing all the assets (scripts and styles) of all block types. What it needs is the basic metadata (title, description, category, icon, etc…) to start with. It should be fine to defer loading all other code (edit, save, transforms, and other JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. implementations) until it is explicitly used (inserted into the post content).

This RFC has already received a lot of feedback and technical explorations already started to clarify feasibility already started but I’d like to encourage everyone to chime-in and share thoughts.

What type of features/problems should be submitted as RFCs

All ideas/PRs/proposals require discussions before moving to implementation. When the proposed changes are small then a GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ issue is fine but in addition to the block registration API, all the features and technical problems with impact across different areas of the code base, new patterns for extensibility APIs, technical problems that are hard to solve without making compromises are good candidates for RFCs.

Some examples for the Gutenberg project include:

The Block Registration API.
The Block Invalidation and Deprecation handling.
Block areas storage mechanism and widgets migrationMigration Moving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies..
Block Bahaviour reuse (colors, alignments…).
Responsive Image Handling and Block Alignment awareness in nested contexts.
Editor Styles.

The RFC workflow

The flow to propose a new RFC is the following:

Create a RFC document for your proposal.
Submit a pull request to the Gutenberg repository (markdown file added to the `docs/rfc` folder).
Discuss and incorporate feedback into the PR
After discussions in the weekly meetings, RFCs may or may not be accepted.
If the RFC is accepted, the PR is merged.

Accepted RFCs means the proposed feature is approved for implementation. Once implemented, the RFC becomes the de-facto documentation for it.

What makes a good RFC document

A good RFC document can be broken into the following sections:

Description of the problems solved by the RFC
Current status and previous attempts
Solution Proposal
Unsolved Problems

Who can submit an RFC

Anyone can submit an RFC.

We’re looking forward to start receiving RFC proposals!

#core-editor, #gutenberg, #meta

Per Andre Rønsen 11:00 am on April 3, 2019

Great approach. Coming from the outside, this makes the process transparent and easy to follow (and to chime in).
gravnetic 2:08 pm on April 3, 2019

Seems like what GitGit Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. Git is easy to learn and has a tiny footprint with lightning fast performance. Most modern plugin and theme development is being done with this version control system. https://git-scm.com/. issues is for…add, edit, delete, merge, notify, etc?!?
- Riad Benguella 3:22 pm on April 3, 2019
  
  The difference is that in GithubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ issues, these discussions often involves multiple issues, multiple comments and it’s very hard for contributors to understand properly the problems being solved, how they relate together and what’s the “current state of the consensus”.
  
  The RFC helps clarifies the problem, the requirements, pros/cons/tradeoffs and a solution all in one coherent document. This document will also serve as documentation.
DanYork 8:44 pm on April 3, 2019

Riad,
I very much like the initiative and process. I think it could be very worthwhile and greatly help people who have not been involved with the pull request / issue understand the current status.

My only concern is the “RFC” name. While I realize you are building off of similar “RFC” processes from ReactReact React is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to reason about, construct, and maintain stateless and stateful user interfaces. https://reactjs.org/., Yarn, and Rust, I do wonder about the potential collision with the formal RFCs defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), particularly because WordPress interacts so much with HTTPHTTP HTTP is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web and this protocol defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands. and other Internet protocols.

For instance, I’m currently going through the process of checking that all of my employer’s websites are running over HTTP/2, defined in RFC 7540. As another example, the Yoast pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party implements the error code 451, defined in RFC 7725.

I realize you are not defining potential standards with this WordPress RFC process – you are just truly seeking comments before a PR is merged. And I don’t have a great alternative name right now. I would just suggest being careful to avoid any collisions with IETF RFCs, so that there isn’t confusion among developers. (For example, not starting to use a number with them like “RFC 23”.)

Again, thanks for starting this initiative,
Dan
- Paul Gilzow 5:22 pm on April 4, 2019
  
  +1
Tor-Bjorn Fjellner 4:07 pm on April 17, 2019

Does RFC mean anything particular?
I’m taking for granted that we’re not talking about some “Rugby-Football Club”. But only within the computing and internet domain Wikipedia suggests three possible meanings:
• Request for Comments
• Request for change
• Remote Function Call
- Riad Benguella 8:15 am on April 18, 2019
  
  Hi there! It’s already mentioned on the post, it means to “Request For Comments”.
Damon Cook 4:10 pm on April 17, 2019

Riad,
It sounds like the RFC process differs from Features As Plugins, as opposed to inheriting or extending the process of Features As plugins.

Is the RFC process unique to GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/? I’m wondering how it affects the idea and process of Features As Plugins. It seems there may need to be an update to the Handbook. Thanks!
- Riad Benguella 8:21 am on April 18, 2019
  
  Hi Damon!
  
  Thanks for raising this question, the RFC process doesn’t have the ambition to change the “Features As Plugins” process. It’s a solution to a specific problem we noticed on the GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ Repository that discussions around highly technical subjects, that often have multiple requirements, multiple possible solutions with pros and cons are hard to follow. We often end up with several issues talking about things that are slightly different but highly connected and dependent from each other.
  
  To solve this issue, we’re going to use the RFC proposals where we’ll have a proposal for a solution to these technical issues and the RFC document allows us to address and mention the impacts/tradeoffs of the solution properly in a single coherent document.
  
  It’s now specific to the Gutenberg Repository and the CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Editor Team. Other WordPress teams could decide to adopt something similar if needed.

Comments are closed.

Welcome!

Communication

What type of features/problems should be submitted as RFCs

The RFC workflow

What makes a good RFC document

Who can submit an RFC

Share this: