This plugin hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress.

Block Pattern Builder

Description

Block Pattern Builder is a simple plugin that allows end-users to create custom block patterns within the WordPress plugin directory. The plugin currently requires Gutenberg 7.8+. Block patterns will be a part of core WordPress in the future. For now, Gutenberg is a hard requirement.

More information on block patterns can be found via the following links:

How to Use the Plugin

After installing and activating the plugin, you should see a new “Block Patterns” menu item in your WordPress admin. From that point, you can create a new pattern just like you would any post or page. The process is the same.

The idea with patterns is to create a reusable pattern or section of blocks that you will use later. Once you publish a pattern, it will be available within the pattern library.

Now, go to any post or page. Click on the pattern icon. At the time of writing, that icon is in the top right corner of the block editor, but this will surely change in future versions of Gutenberg and WordPress. After clicking on the icon, you should see your custom pattern in the pattern library/list. Click on it. It will be inserted into your post.

As of version 1.1.0, users can create a block pattern directly from the editor. Click on the “more options” button (ellipsis icon) in the editor toolbar with at least one block selected. Then, click the “Add to Block Patterns” option.

Screenshots

  • Block Patterns management screen.
  • Creating a custom block pattern.
  • Inserting a block pattern into the post editor.

FAQ

Why was this plugin created?

I thought it would be fun to build block patterns from the admin instead of writing code for them.

Block pattern is invalid. What should I do?

If this happens, something is off in the pattern. See if you can resolve the issue. Currently, block patterns are very early in development, so there is a distinct possibility of breakage.

Can I use this to build patterns for my theme?

Yes, certainly. You can build the patterns via the admin. Then, go to the code editor and copy the code version of the pattern. Then, register in your theme’s functions.php via the register_pattern() function. This way, you can ship your custom patterns directly to your theme users.

Reviews

Januari 11, 2022
This is a clean and simple, but very helpful plugin to create your own block patterns. If it had the option to manage block pattern categories as well, I’d consider even a 5 star rating… 😉
Disambor 23, 2020
The Block Pattern Builder allows me to quickly use blocks over and over again, which is really essential to create content quickly and consistently. The only issue I have right now is that the patterns in the bottom of my list of 13 patterns are not listed when I search for them in the Gutenberg editor. If I have two patterns with “h2” in their name, it only shows the to one, for example. Not sure what is causing that? I hope a future version allows to change the saved pattern and apply the changes site wide (structure and design, not the content obviously). That would make maintenance so much more efficient. But I think it’s a WordPress limitation at the moment, rather than a plugin limitation.
Disambor 3, 2020 2 replies
I REALLY like this plugin, but it is conflicting with Gutenberg Plugin v9.1.1 When inserting Block > choosing Browse All > then selecting Patterns …… It gets an error The editor has encountered an unexpected error. Just respond that you got this …. then it goes back to 5 Stars! Thanks, looking forward to using. ————————————- Due to “Bianca (@bianca205)”, putting this to 5 Stars … I hope she will forward this to the right people.
Novambor 26, 2020
Thanks Justin for creating such a useful nifty plugin. I does not seem perfect in the way of finding and inserting the patterns in posts, but I am sure you will solve that.
Read all 13 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Block Pattern Builder” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“Block Pattern Builder” has been translated into 2 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Block Pattern Builder” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

The change log is located in the changelog.md file in the plugin folder. You may also view the change log online.