New directory names for block-based (FSE) themes

TL;DR:
As of the currently available WordPress 5.9 BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 1 release the directory names in 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.-based (FSEFSE Short for Full Site Editing, a project for the Gutenberg plugin and the editor where a full page layout is created using only blocks.) themes are changing. The name for the directory containing template files will be templates, and the name for the directory containing template part files will be parts.

WordPress 5.9 will be released on 25 January 2022 (see the current release schedule here) and marks the arrival of block-based themes, also known as full-site editing (FSE).

Developers who have already experimented with creating block-based themes during the run-up to the release of 5.9 should note that the directory names for templates and template parts are being changed.

Previously the names for the directories containing template files and template part files were:

• block-templates
• block-template-parts

With the release of 5.9 these will instead be:

• templates
• parts

This change is detailed in PR #36647. The documentation in the Block Theme Overview and Create a block theme pages has been updated to reflect this.

The rationale behind this change is that it creates a cleaner and clearer directory naming paradigm that will simplify the addition of further directories in the future, such as styles and patterns , should they be needed.

For more insight into the rationale underlying this change please see issues #34550 and #36548.

This change is backwards compatible and the old names will still continue to work, but note that the old and new directory names are mutually exclusive and cannot be combined. You cannot call one directory block-templates and the other parts, for example.

This change is already implemented in the currently available Beta 1 release of WordPress 5.9.

#block-based-themes, #theme-documentation