Developer Hours: Do you really need a custom block? Let’s explore alternatives

Building custom blocks is a key aspect of WordPress development, but it's not always the best solution. With the recent enhancements in WordPress 6.5 and 6.6, you can often avoid creating blocks from scratch by leveraging new features alongside core WordPress blocks. It's all about selecting the right tool for the right task.

In this Developer Hours session, we explored several scenarios often addressed with custom blocks and discussed alternative approaches, especially those that leverage block patterns and Editor extensions. Key highlights include:

- How to add new functionality to core blocks
- How to use content-only editing and the allowedBlocks attribute in patterns
- How to integrate block bindings and block variations
- How to effectively use block locking and naming
- How to create overrides in synced patterns

---

[goatcheeta]

NIck and JuanMa, Thanks to both of you for a very valuable session . In some circumstances, I wished a core block had certain properties that another one had (like borders, shadows). This provided some ways to do it though it will take me some time to digest. The documentation is much appreciated. Ben