Block themes and PHP

Block themes in WordPress are a more recent approach to building websites using the WordPress block editor (Gutenberg). With block themes, the entire website’s design and layout are built using a combination of blocks, allowing for more flexible and visual content creation.
When you open a block theme in a code editor, you’ll notice that the theme’s files and structure may be different from classic themes. Block themes rely heavily on the block editor and introduce new concepts, such as block templates and block styles. Here’s an overview of how block themes work and how you can handle common tasks like displaying posts, pages, and custom database queries:
Block Editor and Block Themes:
The block editor is a visual content editor in WordPress that uses blocks to create and structure content. Each block represents a specific element, such as paragraphs, images, headings, galleries, etc. Block themes embrace this approach by designing templates using blocks, which provides users with more intuitive control over the content layout.
Block Templates:
Block themes use block templates to define the layout of various sections of the site, including headers, footers, sidebars, and content areas. These templates are defined in a JSON file named block-templates.json in the theme’s root directory. Each template can contain multiple blocks and block configurations, making it easy to create complex page layouts.
Displaying Posts and Pages:
In block themes, the display of posts and pages is handled using block patterns and reusable blocks. Block patterns are predefined sets of blocks that can be inserted into a post or page to create a specific layout. Reusable blocks are custom blocks that can be saved and used across multiple posts or pages.
To display posts and pages in a block theme, you would typically create a template with the desired blocks and patterns. For example, you might have a template for displaying a list of recent posts or a template for individual blog posts.
Custom Database Queries:
In block themes, custom database queries are typically handled using server-side rendering (SSR). This means that some blocks can fetch data from the server and render it on the client-side. To implement SSR, you’ll need to create custom block types with server-side logic to fetch the required data from the database.
Writing custom database queries in block themes is similar to writing custom queries in classic themes. However, the way data is rendered and displayed might differ due to the block-based nature of the theme.
Learning Resources:
If you’re new to block themes and the block editor, you can find helpful resources in the official WordPress Developer Handbook and the Gutenberg Developer Documentation. There are also various tutorials and courses available online that can guide you through building block themes.
Keep in mind that while block themes offer more design flexibility and user-friendly content creation, classic themes with PHP files like functions.php, single.php, and page.php are still widely used and offer a more traditional development approach. Choosing between block themes and classic themes depends on your specific project requirements and your familiarity with each approach.