FSE Program: Answers about restricting access & functionality

This post is part of a series that provides answers to questions gathered in early February. Thank you to everyone who submitted a question so our knowledge can grow together! Each post will help provide foundational knowledge for future documentation efforts, and future calls for questions in the coming months. 

All posts in this series:

The focus of this post:

This post focuses on restricting access to parts of the new features FSE introduces, including how to limit user access and limit the availability of certain blocks.


1) How easy will it be to lock down FSE? How can I set it up my site so specific users can only be allowed to edit certain pages? 

To help answer this question, I want to quote Matias Ventura from the Status Check: Site Editing and Customization post:

“For all the following items, keep in mind that they tend to illustrate the maximum amount of customization options — the ability to lock down templates, capabilities, design tools, etc, is still a prime focus to account for the different needs of different sites.” 

This is very much an important part to get right, as this work progresses, and it’s intentional that the options feel very open right now. There is work underway to begin mapping out access and ensuring the UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing. reflects permission levels.

2) How can I limit external embeds to certain providers, like only youtube & twitter embeds allowed?

Typically, you can manage any 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. using the Block Manager. Recently though, the underlying embed block functionality changed so that, for example, a YouTube embed is now a variation of the overall embed block. This means that you only have an overall option to allow or disallow the embed block without more granular options to allow one type of embed over another. This problem along with various ideas for a solution are being discussed currently in this issue.  

3) How can I limit available blocks per user role?

This is part of the customization work that has yet to be done but is being discussed in issues like this. I encourage you to join in there!

4) How can I limit editing only of parts of a layout for a user role?

Similar to the previous question, this has yet to be done but is being discussed in various issues including this one. I encourage you to join in there!

5) How can I limit the number of categories or tags which can be set per post?

This is best to do with a 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

6) How do I limit available settings like color, fontsize, font type in one go for all available blocks?

These are options that theme authors can set within the theme.jsonJSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML. to align with the Global Styles system to present defined presets for users. Here’s a great article that goes in depth for how to get started with setting this up!

7) How can I limit FSE to post types which support it? How can I limit FSE to certain selected posts of one post type?

Right now, this isn’t possible to answer as the approach for doing this will depend on the outcome of efforts to create a hybrid approach like this one. In the meantime, @kjellr opened an issue to track the idea so it can be explored further when the time comes. 

8) How can I exclude parts of FSE content from search term results?

You won’t need to exclude parts of FSE content as the content should align as search results normally do (pages, post, etc). As a result, if you wanted to exclude content you can follow the same approach you would normally in the past. 

#fse-answers, #fse-outreach-program