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Blog post from Joel Spolsky introducing this. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2022/01/27/making-the-web-better-with-blocks/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2022/

by slyall 5y ago

Blog post from Joel Spolsky introducing this. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2022/01/27/making-the-web-better-with-blocks/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2022/01/27/making-the-web-bet...

jrochkind1 5y ago
This explains it a lot better than the OP. (At first I was wondering if it had to do with "blockchain", because of the word "block" and the OP seeming like the kind of "solution in search of a problem" I associate with blockchain). But now I get it. Standardized content plugins across apps, basically? Sure, makes sense. I wish I thought any of the platforms involved were interested in making any investment at all in interoperability.
- DavidWilkinson 5y ago
  Various are interested in making their platforms more extensible (the flip side of content interop).
open-source-ux 5y ago
Interesting idea but more questions than answers... The 'block' idea makes sense in the context of WordPress, but WordPress 'blocks' include layout blocks as well as content blocks. You could argue HTML is already a universal language that includes semantic 'blocks'. Is the block protocol a collection of HTML elements grouped together to form higher-level blocks? Will content 'blocks' be separated from style? What role will CSS component frameworks take in styling content blocks? We have embedded content from third-party parties already e.g. a tweet 'block', a YouTube video, an Instragram post, etc. The result is embedded 'blocks' stitched together to make a slow-loading page with a mess of HTML and CSS code (and a host of third-party cookies). How can the block protocol avoid this? As I said, interesting idea but many questions remaining at this early stage.
- ciaranmn 5y ago
  > You could argue HTML is already a universal language that includes semantic 'blocks'. Is the block protocol a collection of HTML elements grouped together to form higher-level blocks? That's part of how blocks are implemented, but we already have higher-level blocks made from HTML elements in the form of Web Components, and various JS libraries. The protocol is aimed at building on this to standardise how those higher-level blocks communicate with the applications using them. > Will content 'blocks' be separated from style? What role will CSS component frameworks take in styling content blocks? This is an area of the spec we need to develop - the goal is a light-touch way of blocks appearing visually consistent with the application around them, while leaving the rest up to the block. The current proposal is some kind of theme variables the application can pass to the block for use, but needs more thinking - https://blockprotocol.org/spec/block-types#styling https://blockprotocol.org/spec/block-types#styling - and we appreciate any thoughts. How can the block protocol avoid [issues with current embeds]? Partly by focusing on standardising how you pass data back and forth between the block and the application: blocks which aren't of the application, and don't need to know about it, but allow users to edit data that lives in the application. Agree that slow loading is an issue to address, which is easier to deal with when you control all the source code, less so when you're pulling in blocks from elsewhere - the first step in this is for blocks to be able to leave the provision of common libraries to the embedding application, so that each block isn't shipping React (or whatever).
pdonis 5y ago
This is, as others have commented, a much better explanation than the article at the top of this thread. But I'm not sure it's quite as simple as Joel makes it seem here: > If you work on any kind of editor—be it a blogging tool, a note-taking app, a content management system, or anything like that—you should allow your users to embed blocks that conform to the Block Protocol. This way you can write the embedding code once and immediately make your editor able to embed a rich variety of block types with no extra work on your part. I don't see how this would work. Sure, the data would be embeddable anywhere, but how does the editor know how to display it to the user and let the user interact with it? That's not just "embedding code". And later on: > Want to create a block that shows the Great Circle routing for a flight between two airports? Write the code for the block once and it can be embedded anywhere. Again, how does the application it's being embedded in know how to display it to the user? That seems like it requires more than just "embedding code". Each new kind of block requires each application to add code to use the block. I agree the data exchange interoperability part is nice, but I'm not sure about the code reduction that seems to be implied here.
- tadfisher 5y ago
  I imagine there will be some JS libraries you can drop in to render various block types. I don't think that will solve all problems, but it makes it so the protocol doesn't need to specify a presentation layer. Otherwise you may as well use iframes...
  - ciaranmn 5y ago
    We will be providing these, yes - we want to minimise the amount of work embedding applications have to do in setting themselves up to render blocks, as well as making it easier for block authors to write them.
- URSpider94 5y ago
  Reading The Fine Manual here : (https://blockprotocol.org/spec https://blockprotocol.org/spec) - blocks are expected to include code to render the block information in a displayable format. So, a block isn't just the data model, it's also the view layer. Some options suggested in the spec include React, vanilla HTML, and Web Components. This part feels a little mushy at the moment, since there's no proposal yet for how a Block identifies which rendering context it expects.
moberley 5y ago
This blog post refers to block in WordPress but I don't quite understand whether there is expected to be an actual connection. Is there a process that would lead to a Block Protocol block being usable in the WordPress editor?
- DavidWilkinson 5y ago
  Yes, as a first step we’re planning a WP plugin: https://hash.ai/blog/open-sourcing-hash https://hash.ai/blog/open-sourcing-hash Further downstream we hope to be able to work with the Gutenberg team and to contribute more directly.

by slyall 5y ago

Blog post from Joel Spolsky introducing this. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2022/01/27/making-the-web-better-with-blocks/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2022/01/27/making-the-web-bet...

jrochkind1 5y ago

This explains it a lot better than the OP. (At first I was wondering if it had to do with "blockchain", because of the word "block" and the OP seeming like the kind of "solution in search of a problem" I associate with blockchain). But now I get it. Standardized content plugins across apps, basically? Sure, makes sense. I wish I thought any of the platforms involved were interested in making any investment at all in interoperability.

DavidWilkinson 5y ago
Various are interested in making their platforms more extensible (the flip side of content interop).

open-source-ux 5y ago

Interesting idea but more questions than answers... The 'block' idea makes sense in the context of WordPress, but WordPress 'blocks' include layout blocks as well as content blocks. You could argue HTML is already a universal language that includes semantic 'blocks'. Is the block protocol a collection of HTML elements grouped together to form higher-level blocks? Will content 'blocks' be separated from style? What role will CSS component frameworks take in styling content blocks? We have embedded content from third-party parties already e.g. a tweet 'block', a YouTube video, an Instragram post, etc. The result is embedded 'blocks' stitched together to make a slow-loading page with a mess of HTML and CSS code (and a host of third-party cookies). How can the block protocol avoid this? As I said, interesting idea but many questions remaining at this early stage.

ciaranmn 5y ago
> You could argue HTML is already a universal language that includes semantic 'blocks'. Is the block protocol a collection of HTML elements grouped together to form higher-level blocks? That's part of how blocks are implemented, but we already have higher-level blocks made from HTML elements in the form of Web Components, and various JS libraries. The protocol is aimed at building on this to standardise how those higher-level blocks communicate with the applications using them. > Will content 'blocks' be separated from style? What role will CSS component frameworks take in styling content blocks? This is an area of the spec we need to develop - the goal is a light-touch way of blocks appearing visually consistent with the application around them, while leaving the rest up to the block. The current proposal is some kind of theme variables the application can pass to the block for use, but needs more thinking - https://blockprotocol.org/spec/block-types#styling https://blockprotocol.org/spec/block-types#styling - and we appreciate any thoughts. How can the block protocol avoid [issues with current embeds]? Partly by focusing on standardising how you pass data back and forth between the block and the application: blocks which aren't of the application, and don't need to know about it, but allow users to edit data that lives in the application. Agree that slow loading is an issue to address, which is easier to deal with when you control all the source code, less so when you're pulling in blocks from elsewhere - the first step in this is for blocks to be able to leave the provision of common libraries to the embedding application, so that each block isn't shipping React (or whatever).

pdonis 5y ago

This is, as others have commented, a much better explanation than the article at the top of this thread. But I'm not sure it's quite as simple as Joel makes it seem here: > If you work on any kind of editor—be it a blogging tool, a note-taking app, a content management system, or anything like that—you should allow your users to embed blocks that conform to the Block Protocol. This way you can write the embedding code once and immediately make your editor able to embed a rich variety of block types with no extra work on your part. I don't see how this would work. Sure, the data would be embeddable anywhere, but how does the editor know how to display it to the user and let the user interact with it? That's not just "embedding code". And later on: > Want to create a block that shows the Great Circle routing for a flight between two airports? Write the code for the block once and it can be embedded anywhere. Again, how does the application it's being embedded in know how to display it to the user? That seems like it requires more than just "embedding code". Each new kind of block requires each application to add code to use the block. I agree the data exchange interoperability part is nice, but I'm not sure about the code reduction that seems to be implied here.

tadfisher 5y ago
I imagine there will be some JS libraries you can drop in to render various block types. I don't think that will solve all problems, but it makes it so the protocol doesn't need to specify a presentation layer. Otherwise you may as well use iframes...
- ciaranmn 5y ago
  We will be providing these, yes - we want to minimise the amount of work embedding applications have to do in setting themselves up to render blocks, as well as making it easier for block authors to write them.
URSpider94 5y ago
Reading The Fine Manual here : (https://blockprotocol.org/spec https://blockprotocol.org/spec) - blocks are expected to include code to render the block information in a displayable format. So, a block isn't just the data model, it's also the view layer. Some options suggested in the spec include React, vanilla HTML, and Web Components. This part feels a little mushy at the moment, since there's no proposal yet for how a Block identifies which rendering context it expects.

moberley 5y ago

This blog post refers to block in WordPress but I don't quite understand whether there is expected to be an actual connection. Is there a process that would lead to a Block Protocol block being usable in the WordPress editor?

DavidWilkinson 5y ago
Yes, as a first step we’re planning a WP plugin: https://hash.ai/blog/open-sourcing-hash https://hash.ai/blog/open-sourcing-hash Further downstream we hope to be able to work with the Gutenberg team and to contribute more directly.