Term Query Loop Block

[tomjn]

What problem does this address?

Currently you can create a tag cloud, and there's a post term list, but these options are limited, and come in 2 versions ( one for the current post, and one that's just general ). If I need to build anything that deviates from this I'm forced to build a new block.

E.g. if I want to display terms with their term descriptions, or add a graphic next to each tag, sort terms into columns, etc, I can't do that with core blocks. Or even spread terms out in a row the same way a group/row block can.

e.g. creating this type of category list automatically is not possible with the core blocks:

Politics

News articles about politics

Sports

The latest sports news

What is your proposed solution?

Instead, A term query block similar to the post query block would be very useful, with term title, term description etc blocks.

This way the existing core blocks could be constructed in any shape form or layout by the users choice without writing code. E.g. using headings for tags with descriptions, custom term featured image blocks in plugins, adding icons, etc

Variants of the block could be registered for each taxonomy too:

Proposed Plan

We have a couple of working examples of how these blocks could work (Terms Query plugin and a draft PR). However, as this work introduces multiple new blocks, it will be easier to work on and review if the work is split up.

We can use the first container block PR as a base feature branch, and then split the work up as follows:

• Terms Query container block: Add Terms Query container block #70720
• Terms Template block: Add Term Template block #70747
• Terms Name block (either as a new inner block or a block binding on an existing block)
• Terms Count block (either as a new inner block or a block binding on an existing block)

Other features that could be follow-up PRs:

• Modify the term description block to render the preview
• Add variation picker and multiple layout variations
• 'Show only child terms' option
• Allow inheriting the terms query from the current template

[MaggieCabrera]

+1 on this. It's a very common pattern for themes that we can't really work around right now. A good example is the section By Topic on Blue Note, a community theme currently in development: WordPress/community-themes#5

[scruffian]

The query look actually allows for this already. You can filter the query loop based on a tag or a category:

[tomjn]

@scruffian you've misunderstood, this issue is not about displaying posts in a term, it's about displaying the terms themselves!

E.g. it would not produce a post list, it could produce a tag list like this:

Or more complex items, e.g. a heading with a read more button underneath with a term description

[scruffian]

Ah thanks, I thought I must be missing something!

[huubl]

+1 this! Are there any updates/decisions made about adding this new block?

[scruffian]

+1 this! Are there any updates/decisions made about adding this new block?

We want it, we just need someone to build it!

[tomjn]

Noting that this will need scoping out by an engineer to figure out exactly what needs to be done, it's not as simple as asking for it to be done then someone doing it.

For example, issues for at least these blocks would need to be created:

• Term Loop
  • category and tag variants with the taxonomy preset
  • term template block
  • no terms block
  • term name/title block
  • term description block

People can probably think of more such as a term slug block but these seem to be the MVP, and each of those will require its own issue and dependencies.

I can also see API changes being desirable re: variations. Afterall if you use a category loop you don't expect a term template, you expect a category template, and a category name/title, making those blocks dependent.

There's also the possibility that because the terms are different entities that it might require taxonomy specific blocks be registered or variants for each taxonomy so that they know which entity type to access and can display the right information.

For those versed in agile, this is more like a spike than an implementation ticket, help/contributions needed for specification

[tomjn]

+1 this! Are there any updates/decisions made about adding this new block?

This is pretty straight forward to answer. Unless you see PRs mentioned here then there has been no work done to build this. If you can't see any decision making then that means no decision making took place.

If there were a place were decisions were made related to this that didn't filter down it'd be the public weekly editor meetings, but someone would have to raise it on the agenda, and it's highly unlikely the info wouldn't filter over to here. Unless someone made another issue and that one got traction instead.