Navigation Block Tracking Issue i2

[priethor]

Supersedes #27593

With most of the work in #27593 in place, it is a good time to revisit the Navigation block priorities with a near-future release in mind. Instead of mass-editing the existing issue, let's close it and leave it as a snapshot of a first iteration and focus here on the next round of improvements. Bugs should be reported with the [Type] Bug label and added directly to the Navigation Project Board.

High Priority

Setup interactions & placeholders

• A Lighter Navigation Block Experience #34041
• Blocks that link: Provide a split label/URL control and placeholder state #30170
• Navigation Block - improve placeholder flow #35818

Design customization & inner blocks

• Navigation Block: Allow Paragraph, Site Logo, Site Title, Site Tagline and perhaps more blocks #33278
• [Navigation Block] Add option to use the "responsive menu" at all times #34783
• Switch the Page List block to client-side rendering #35632
• Navigation Block: Consider having the responsive option on by default #34511
• Migrate buttons & navigation to flex layout #34872
• Navigation: Support gap via theme.json #34525
• Introduce "Browser" and surface main navigation UI #36667

IA

• Navigation: Add an API to retrieve content-only inner blocks #30674
• Navigation block - preserve navigation block data on theme switching #35750
• Navigation Block: save data to a custom post type #34612
• Explore storing a JSON representation of menus in the CPT #35868
• Fix controlled inner blocks parent block attributes updates #35827

General UI & Copy

• Copy - consider rewording 'overlay' color options in the navigation block #33640

Normal Priority

Setup interactions & placeholders

• Navigation Block: Make it clearer how to delete a Link Block without a link #30116
• Mark invalid menu items in Navigation editor and block #23573
• Navigation Block: Improve flow for deleting submenu items #30115
• Make the 'Insert Before' / 'Insert After' options work for block lists that don't allow the default block type #23603
• Improve experience of using social icons in the navigation block #35261
• Only show one + at a time on link adding #34962
• Enable rich previews for custom links in the Navigation Block and Editor #32555
• Navigation Block: Enhancement ideas for the empty placeholder #32373
• Add Post Type Archive variation to core/navigation-link block #31452

Design customization & inner blocks

• Home Link: Allow setting as icon-only #31688
• Navigation block: Add support for separators between menu items. #23293
• Page List: missing menu-item-home class for Home Page item #29423

Responsiveness & hamburger menu

• Responsive menu label #33985
• Navigation Block: Sidebar/Inspector control improvements & allow always-collapsed menu #30370
• Navigation block: Hide more than N items #27131

Backlog

• Spacer markup could be more flexible #33018
• Navigation block's responsive modal can't be customized #34514
• Navigation Block: Create Block Variant for a "Fullscreen" navigation menu #24604
• Navigation block: Make nested menus fully customizable (Megamenus) #23745
• Navigation block: allow extending the list of allowed inner blocks #31387
• Filter the nesting level of items in the navigation block #34611
• List block: allow transformation of text links lists into navigation blocks #31733

---

This issue aims to collect new features or enhancements that build towards a better Navigation Block experience or allow for richer designs, excluding requirements driven by compatibility with the Navigation Editor.

[carolinan]

I think this one is important to solve
#29401

[getdave]

There is currently an exploration underway regarding separating presentation from the underlying data (items) of a navigation. This is all to do with allowing navigations to be reused across a site.

We should check out Dan's PRs and provide feedback:

• Save Navigation Block data to a wp_navigation post type #35746
• Try using a template part in the navigation block #35418

Also related is this issue about Theme switching.

[draganescu]

Updated the issue with @talldan 's listed follow-ups.

[priethor]

I think this one is important to solve
#29401

Thanks for flagging that one, @carolinan! I've added it to the Navigation Block project board as a ToDo item. However, I would recommend not including bugs in tracking/overview issues, as they are more oriented to provide a feature roadmap, and including bugs makes it harder to grasp the overall progress of projects regarding their scope.

[getdave]

Update - 27th October 2021

• Following on from updates here and here some progress has been made on the architecture of the Nav block.
• The PR to get the block to save its "items" (data) to a wp_navigation post type has been merged. This allows the same navigation (items) to be used in multiple places on a site but with the potential for each one to have a different visual presentation.
• Work is underway on facilitating the ability to preserve navigations on Theme switch. Currently exploring utilising a custom wp_navigation_area taxonomy and modelling the ways that classic Menus currently work.
• Work has continued on the Lighter Navigation block experience:
  • transforms are being added to the Link UI when used in the Nav block Add featured transforms in Link Control for Navigation Link items. #35857
  • ability to modify link item text from the Link UI has been merged Split control for URL and Text within Link UI #33849.
• Following on from the Hallway Hangout, contributors are working hard to communicate the direction of the work as widely as possible to ensure the community are kept informed.

[jasmussen]

With the merger of #35857 (@tellthemachines 👏 ), I wonder if we shouldn't — for the sake of this tracking issue — check the box for #34041?

This will not preclude further enhancements to transforms, which is one of the most powerful aspects of the block, to the point that the feature could deserve its own tracking issue!

[getdave]

Update - 10th November 2021

• Work has continued on making Navigations reusable across a Site and between Themes.
• A Navigation Area block was added to facilitate the reuse of Navigations between Themes. You can now switch Themes and (if the target Theme is configured correctly) your Navigation will be preserved.
• This works somewhat similarly to Menu Locations in classic Themes:
  • you add a Nav Area block and configure it to be Primary, Secondary or Tertiary. These terms are provided by default and denote an approximate hierarchy of navigations on a site.
  • you then insert a Nav block inside the Nav Area block. This can be used to configure presentational properties of a given Menu and is ideal for Theme Developers. Note you do not need to add any nav items at this point.
  • you then optionally add items to your Navigation block.
  • when switching Theme, assuming the new Theme also has a Navigation Area block with a matching "area" (e.g. Primary, Secondary, Tertiary), then any nav items from matching Navigation Areas on your old Theme will automatically appear in the associated location in the new Theme.
  • the navigation -> area relationship is saved via site options is a format of { "primary": 794, "secondary": 112 } where the keys are the navigation areas and the values are the post IDs of Navigation post types.

• Lots of great work behind the scenes work on the REST API which has allowed all of the above to progress.
• Tweaks to the UI and UX of the block itself have been ongoing.

[getdave]

WP 5.9 "Must Haves"

Below is a collation of the Issues I'm aware of that are "Must Haves" for WP 5.9, for which the Gutenberg feature freeze is the 26th November.

⚠️ Update: the list of tasks has been moved to the 5.9 overview issue under Navigation block.

I've also added these to the WP 5.9 Must Haves board.

Please note: this intentionally does not cover any bugs as these can still be fixed during the Beta phase.

[mkaz]

If we want to take a harder line for "must have" I think both #36593 and #36722 could be moved if not ready.

For #36722, yes, the property name could be simplified, but there is also a reason we moved the name from menu to navigation, so personally I like the more descriptive property name, but even if we want to change later we can deprecate.

For #36593, it's a better user experience without the "Save as" button but nothing is functionally broken or an issue, so it would be good to have, but like above I wouldn't hold a release for it.

[noisysocks]

Thanks for summarising @getdave. I updated the "Navigation block" section in #36556 to be the same as your list in #35521 (comment). Let's try to use #36556 if we can as that's the issue that the 5.9 squad is referring to.

[getdave]

If we want to take a harder line for "must have" I think both #36593 and #36722 could be moved if not ready.

That's a good point. There are PRs underway to address those issues, but as you say if those aren't going to land then they could be dropped without compromising things.

[tellthemachines]

If we want to take a harder line for "must have" I think both #36593 and #36722 could be moved if not ready.

I was given to understand that removing the dialog that forces users to name their navigation block before saving is a must have for this release. #36593 is the only issue tracking that work, since #36575 was closed.

It is important at this stage that we're all super clear about what needs to be done for 5.9, so let's please not create further confusion by mentioning issue numbers instead of explicitly referring to the features themselves.

[getdave]

Update 24th November 2021

• A list of "Must Haves" for the Navigation block for WP 5.9 were published.
• We're tracking these items on the main 5.9 overview issue.
• Navigation Areas (including the block itself) are not going to be in 5.9. In fact they are now deprecated due to concerns and lack of community consensus around the UX.
• Reusable Navigations (via the wp_navigation Custom Post) will be shipping in 5.9.
• The final experience we are targeting for the Nav block for 5.9 will be:
  • Navigation Menus will be saved to a Custom Post and thus be reusable between Themes.
  • on Theme switch your Navigation Menu will not be automatically carried across to the Navigation block in the new Theme.
  • instead you will have to manually visit the Navigation block and select the Menu you wish to display there.
  • if no Menu is assigned to a given Navigation block, then the block will render an appropriate fallback on the front of the site. This mirrors the behaviour of wp_nav_menu for classic Themes.
  • bear in mind that when you switch Themes it is likely that a Navigation block will already exist in the new Theme. This will be preconfigured with presentation attributes. Therefore for the user, the Theme switch process will simply be a matter of assigning an existing Menu (wp_navigation Post) to the existing Navigation block.
• We recognise this is not perfect and we fully intend to iterate and improve upon this process in WordPress 6.0. However, our priority is to land a stable experience in 5.9.

[getdave]

Update for 5.9 merge day (26th Nov 2021)

Thanks to all the hard work we’re down to the last couple of items on the “Must Haves” list.

We’d really appreciate any help with reviewing and/or coding on the following PRs/items:

• Remove Navigation Area endpoints and utility functions - should be good to merge but I just want to check that the block will be gone from Core once this is merged.
• Bug with Nav block editing the wrong entity - needs review.
• Allow filtering of Nav block fallback - needs review.
• Removing attribute from Nav block - needs review.
• Avoid rendering unstable location if block has data - needs review.

Also, tangentially related in that no editor = no nav block:

• Fallback template resolution mechanism in /templates API endpoint - needs review.

If anyone is aware of any other critical items that impact on the "Must Haves" please feel free to edit this list.

Thank you 🙇

[getdave]

Update for 1st December 2021

• All of the "Must Have" items for Nav block were merged in time for WP 5.9 Beta 1.
• We now switch focus to resolving the [Type] Bug issues.
• Please do pop into #feature-navigation-block-editor on Core Slack if you have a question or wish to contribute.
• Feel free to raise an Issue to report a bug. Be sure to label it with the Block: Navigation label.

[getdave]

Update for 14th December 2021

• A number of bugs have been discovered during the Beta period. These must be resolved asap as the RC is on 4 January 2022.
• Many of the bugs have already been fixed 🥳 🎉 But...there's more work to do:
• Feedback and reviews required for several proposed solutions for mitigating the problems with lower permission users interacting with the Navigation block:
  • Navigation block: Use inherit and a parent for navigation posts. #37302
  • Show a UI warning when user does not have permission to update/edit an existing Navigation block #37286
  • Show UI warning to users with insufficient permissions when trying to create a new Navigation  #37289
• A regression was discovered which effects usage of Patterns which urgently needs fixing.
• It's now possible to filter the conversion of classic Menus to block based Navigation Menus.

[getdave]

Update 17th Jan 2022

• Team are refocusing back onto work landing in the Gutenberg Plugin as opposed to WP 5.9.
• There's a question about how best to handle editing of Navigation Menus in isolation.
• We're asking how we can/might need to save Nav blocks to the post under certain circumstances.
• Otherwise the team are working on bugs and extensibility.

[getdave]

Update 26th Jan 2022

• We're absorbing and collating feedback from WordPress 5.9 release.
• Work underway to refine the placeholder state in Navigation: Try removing "Add all pages" from placeholder. #36775 and Navigation: Remove blobs that look like a loading state #37099.
• We've started refactoring to make the block more internally consistent.
• Exploring an idea to allow users to "revert" the submenu block to a link via the block toolbar.

[getdave]

As discussed with @priethor and noted in the #feature-navigation-block Slack channel I'm closing this Issue in favour of a new Tracking Issue over at #38275.