Block Themes tracking issue

[scruffian]

This is an overview issue, tracking what features we are missing from block themes.

High impact issues

• Navigation Overlay customisation via Template Parts #43852
• Ability to customise Navigation block "mobile" overlay  #39142
• Add Button Hover Color options on Button Block #4543
• Ability to style current menu item #42299
• Group Block - add support for Background Images #14744

Beyond this there are different areas which need addressing:

Global Styles

By expanding the scope of Global Styles we make more tools available to themes through theme.json. This means that we can create more interesting themes without using CSS. The approach here is to add support for new features via the theme.json mechanism. Adding a UI for these settings is an additional step that should happen later:

• Design Tools Overview #33447
• Global Styles Typography #38534
• Global Styles: Elements support tracking issue #40966
• theme.json: whether or not to allow targetting settings that are specific to the block #35114
• Global Styles: Allow themes to opt out of core theme.json #40181
• Post content block - layout: disable alignments #38862
• Continuation of Block Style Variations #7551
• Global Styles: an input for custom CSS #30142
• Consider adding more options to textDecoration property #42319
• Visual font management - Global Styles Typography #38534
• Theme.json: Core blocks should also be defined without the core keyword #42298
• Link Color inheritance mismatch between editor and frontend. #37582
• Styles: Allow using “refs” in the UI for colors #49279
• Allow use of ref in theme.json settings, as is possible with styles #57286
• We need block previews for block type customization
• More integration and guidelines for plugins

Blocks

Block themes are limited by the abilities of the blocks they are composed of. By adding more features to blocks we can expand the scope of features in all themes. The navigation block is the most complex of all blocks - by pushing this block forward we can open possibilities for all blocks.

• Navigation Project Tracking Issue #38275
• Search: Block should provide default styles #36444
• Consider overlap tool for text and images #40762
• Add load more button in Query block #31446
• Author block: enhancement ideas #24952
• Consider adding the ability to have multiple background images #38796
• Query Loop block: Add the following panels - Dimensions and Border #39380
• Search Block: Style variation #42296
• Featured image: height set is not being inherited correctly on the frontend #42322
• Site Title: Impossible to override theme.json setting with an instance of the block. #42330
• Post Comment Form: Low contrast on dark backgrounds #42332
• Search block: Borders: Setting applies to container element #42339
• Query Pagination: Control the layout when next/previous buttons are not displayed #34997
• Categories block has incorrect name in block editor tooltip #42416
• Navigation: styles for textDecoration on nav links are too specific #42444
• Introduce parser for dynamic token system #42015
• Add support to style individual parts of mixed blocks such as Tag cloud, Search, Rating #49249
• Site Title block: Not able to remove underline #30701

Templates

Templates should be portable between themes. Using templates from one theme in a different theme greatly expands the number of themes that can be created, through these combinations.

• Templates: Retain custom templates when switching themes #31954
• Remove coupling of templates, parts, and patterns when switching themes #25071
• Expand the types of templates that can be added in the Site Editor #37407
• When creating a template in the post editor, ask the user whether it should be $custom or specific (page-$slug) #41257
• Consider allowing users to import templates #38413
• Edit Site: Creating a new template from scratch #19254
• Template editing: List existing template parts in the Inserter Patterns tab #41399
• Template Part replacement modal – make results searchable #40791
• Template editing: convert semantic patterns to template parts upon insertion #41397
• Consider not auto-publishing new templates #42130
• Block Template creation is using empty content instead of the appropiate fallback #36648
• Template definitions don't belong in theme.json #42732

Site Editor

The site editor is still immature compared to the Post Editor. We should add some of the same features that exist in the Post Editor to make it more powerful.

• Placeholder states for blocks Edit Site: Present "placeholder" blocks clearly #19256
• Bug in the site editor in configurations with multiple theme directories #39556
• Multi-entity Saving: Allow the ability to Save Draft and Schedule changes #29575
• Site Editor - 'Preview Site' feature. #29398
• Site Editing: Hide page / post title #28564
• contentSize in theme.json is applied differently in the editor and in the frontend #42290
• Site Editor: Add a link to view the site #42316
• Improve drop indicator within the List view #39068
• Padding visualizers do not work properly in the Site Editor #41823
• Canvas height in focus mode should wrap document contents #42226

Theme switching

• Theme switching flows tracking issue #39324

Patterns

• Block patterns: Allow themes to show their patterns first #39500
• Add Layout Patterns for building new sites #42734

Theme creation

• Add the $schema key to theme.json create-block-theme#81
• Consider adding empty templates for the Start blank option create-block-theme#80
• Theme Building: Create a new theme #39196
• Theme Export: Strip out site specific details #42730

We have a separate issue that tracks missing block supports:
#41113

Complete!

Remove CSS from block themes

The immediate priority should be to make it possible to create workable themes without relying on CSS. The following issues need to be resolved to allow us to remove this CSS from Twenty Twenty Two:

• Consider a standardized way to modify hover/focus/active states for blocks #27075
• Consider a root-level site padding solution that still lets some items go full-width #35607