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Block Library: Add Description List block - #81728
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Hey 👋 I wanted to give you a heads-up since this pull request adds new files containing JSX. #80123 enables an ESLint rule that requires that files containing JSX must use the What you'll need to do: You'll need to rename any new files containing JSX to use the This comment is automated, based on pull requests with recent activity that contain affected |
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Status update:
All GitHub checks are passing. 🎉 I believe the functional implementation is ready for review. All three elements of the typical description list are represented by individual blocks. The term and details blocks are flexible and can be arranged in any order. A keyboard transform was also included for a convenient way to toggle between There are still a couple of visual questions that I expect may benefit from design feedback:
I'm not much of a designer, but I'd be happy to try to address either of those in this PR if they are considered important to the initial block experience. For now, I wanted to keep this first pass focused on something lightweight that provided a good authoring experience. Whenever someone has an opportunity, I’d appreciate a review of the implementation and guidance on whether or how to connect this effort with additional design or other block-editor processes as we carry it forward. |
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@t-hamano @carolinan @Mamaduka tagging you all in case there's any interest here in getting this across the line! |
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ellatrix
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I think this is nice and we should add the block. My biggest request is adding e2e tests and removing all the unit tests. They will test the actual user experience rather than implementation details.
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Should this block have raw transforms so pasting DL elements from the web works?
| "$schema": "https://schemas.wp.org/trunk/block.json", | ||
| "apiVersion": 3, | ||
| "name": "core/description-detail", | ||
| "title": "Description Detail", |
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As far as I can tell, the HTML Standard doesn't define an official name for dd. So it might be fine to keep the current name.
Source: https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/grouping-content.html#the-dd-element
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After manually testing: I'd sort of expect Enter to create term/definition entries in an altering way. When you press Enter at the end of a term, shouldn't it create a definition description block? And at the end of that block, a new term block? |
📝 Walkthrough
Merge Risk: 🟡 Moderate · up to
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Actionable comments posted: 3
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Inline comments:
In `@packages/block-library/src/description-detail/README.md`:
- Line 66: Update the source-file list template in generate-block-docs.mjs to
stop adding index.php, then regenerate both description block README files using
the existing docs:blocks-detail workflow so the generated documentation reflects
the template.
In `@packages/block-library/src/description-term/use-keyboard-transform.js`:
- Around line 70-71: Update the selectionChange call in the keyboard
transformation logic to preserve non-collapsed selections: obtain the selection
end via getSelectionEnd() and pass its offset as the endOffset argument, while
retaining selectionStart.offset for the start. Add a test covering a selected
range and verifying both bounds are preserved.
- Around line 64-65: Update the keyboard transformation flow around createBlock
and replaceBlock so the term-to-detail path requires a previous sibling and the
detail-to-term path requires a next sibling before replacing the block;
otherwise leave the boundary block unchanged. Add regression tests covering Tab
on the first core/description-term and Shift+Tab on the last
core/description-detail.
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📒 Files selected for processing (52)
docs/manifest.jsondocs/reference-guides/core-blocks/README.mddocs/reference-guides/core-blocks/category-text.mdpackages/block-library/CHANGELOG.mdpackages/block-library/src/description-detail/README.mdpackages/block-library/src/description-detail/block.jsonpackages/block-library/src/description-detail/edit.tsxpackages/block-library/src/description-detail/index.jspackages/block-library/src/description-detail/init.jspackages/block-library/src/description-detail/save.tsxpackages/block-library/src/description-detail/test/transforms.jsdom.test.jspackages/block-library/src/description-detail/transforms.jspackages/block-library/src/description-list/README.mdpackages/block-library/src/description-list/block.jsonpackages/block-library/src/description-list/edit.tsxpackages/block-library/src/description-list/index.jspackages/block-library/src/description-list/init.jspackages/block-library/src/description-list/save.tsxpackages/block-library/src/description-list/style.scsspackages/block-library/src/description-term/README.mdpackages/block-library/src/description-term/block.jsonpackages/block-library/src/description-term/edit.tsxpackages/block-library/src/description-term/index.jspackages/block-library/src/description-term/init.jspackages/block-library/src/description-term/save.tsxpackages/block-library/src/description-term/test/keyboard-transform.jsdom.test.jspackages/block-library/src/description-term/test/transforms.jsdom.test.jspackages/block-library/src/description-term/transforms.jspackages/block-library/src/description-term/use-keyboard-transform.d.tspackages/block-library/src/description-term/use-keyboard-transform.jspackages/block-library/src/index.jsxtest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-detail.htmltest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-detail.jsontest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-detail.parsed.jsontest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-detail.serialized.htmltest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-list.htmltest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-list.jsontest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-list.parsed.jsontest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-list.serialized.htmltest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-list__multiple-details.htmltest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-list__multiple-details.jsontest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-list__multiple-details.parsed.jsontest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-list__multiple-details.serialized.htmltest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-list__multiple-terms.htmltest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-list__multiple-terms.jsontest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-list__multiple-terms.parsed.jsontest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-list__multiple-terms.serialized.htmltest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-term.htmltest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-term.jsontest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-term.parsed.jsontest/integration/fixtures/blocks/core__description-term.serialized.htmltest/unit/test-migration.json
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@SteveRyan-ASU hey there! Are you able to see this block through with some additional changes? For context, the cut off for new features is coming up very soon with WordPress beta 1 on Oct 20th. At this point, we might be cutting it too close to make it. It would still be great to land whether for 7.2 or for the next release. Cc @Mamaduka & @peterwilsoncc |
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Picking this back up to hopefully move it over the line. (Sorry for the delay!) The branch is rebased onto current trunk and an adjustment has been made following the feedback from @ellatrix.
The focused Playwright suite passes all 13 tests after the rebase, including typing after navigation/insertion, atomic Undo, restricted insertion, Tab/Shift+Tab focus, Escape, splitting, toolbar transforms, and persistence. The production build also passes after the rebase. This addresses the keyboard authoring workflow. Handling invalid boundaries introduced through manual reordering, deletion, or toolbar transforms is the next item to address. CC: @annezazu |
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Thanks for picking this back up, @SteveRyan-ASU! I pushed two commits:
Remaining / needs decision:
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Building on @Mamaduka’s recent fixes. Thanks for those improvements! Latest commit from me here adds warnings when the structure of the inner blocks represents invalid HTML. This adds the warning suggested in @t-hamano’s content-model feedback. A single warning for the whole
Multiple consecutive terms and descriptions remain supported when the outer boundaries are valid. The warning appears under “Description List structure” in the block settings sidebar when selecting the parent or any of its direct children. Its wording reflects the invalid boundary and updates or clears immediately as the structure is repaired. It does not rearrange content or interrupt typing. It currently does not prevent saving.
Details about the placement of the warning:
Manual testing confirmed selection between valid and invalid lists, partial and complete repair, sidebar reopening, persistence, and continued typing without focus disruption. The updated Playwright suite passes 21 tests, with one existing skipped test for the separately discussed keyboard-exit behavior. |
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@Mamaduka I looked into the keyboard-exit behavior a little further, comparing the existing List, Quote, and Buttons implementations and testing them in wp-env. (AI assisted analysis, using Codex.) All three use Enter in an empty final child to exit into a new paragraph after the container, before any existing following block. I think we can follow that convention here, with a little accommodation for the term/description structure:
This keeps the existing Enter sequence: after completing a description, Enter creates the next pair, another Enter moves from the empty term into its description, and another exits. Existing malformed content would be preserved rather than repaired during exit. Insertion/removal restrictions would still apply, and pair removal plus paragraph insertion should undo together. If outside insertion isn't permitted, leave the content and focus unchanged. Does that sound like a reasonable direction? I haven't changed the exit behavior yet. |
t-hamano
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- Re @t-hamano's side-by-side layout: I think we can do this without
divwrappers. CSS grid on thedl(grid-template-columns: max-content 1frwithdt/ddpinned to columns) covers it, and it could ship as a block style. Wrappers change the saved content and the block structure, so I'd only revisit them if we really need to style pairs as a unit.
You're right, a side-by-side layout can be achieved with a grid layout without using div wrappers. Since few users would want to style each pair as a single unit, I think it's fine to handle the side-by-side layout in a follow-up if neccesarry.
The current icons are serviceable, but more purpose-specific icons may better communicate the parent and child blocks in the inserter.
I definitely think each block needs its own dedicated icon. Since the initial icons might change in the future, I suggest inlining the icon data rather than including them in the icons package. cc @WordPress/gutenberg-design
Another important question is whether the Description Detail block should support inner blocks. Personally, I think it should, and I believe many users would want it. It might be worth considering InnerBlocks support in the initial implementation.
| "$schema": "https://schemas.wp.org/trunk/block.json", | ||
| "apiVersion": 3, | ||
| "name": "core/description-detail", | ||
| "title": "Description Detail", |
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As far as I can tell, the HTML Standard doesn't define an official name for dd. So it might be fine to keep the current name.
Source: https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/grouping-content.html#the-dd-element
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@t-hamano Thanks for raising InnerBlocks support for Description Detail. I can see the value in allowing richer descriptions, but my preference would be to keep the initial implementation focused on a single RichText field and consider InnerBlocks in a follow-up. Supporting nested blocks would need some further decisions around Enter/exit behavior and transforms between terms and descriptions, particularly when a description contains more than text. With the approaching feature cutoff, I'd rather give those interactions their own design and testing pass than expand the scope of this PR now. I understand that adding InnerBlocks after this version ships would require a deprecation/migration path for existing content—for example, moving the current RichText content into a Paragraph block while preserving inline formatting. That's additional work we'd be accepting by deferring it, but it seems like a manageable tradeoff to land the initial semantic blocks first. Would you be comfortable treating richer description content as a follow-up? |
Indentation seems fine, provided it's applied in a way the user can customise or remove it via design tools. |
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I pushed some code quality improvements:
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I think this PR is in good shape. Should we ship it in WordPress 7.2? As far as I can see, these are the remaining issues and concerns:
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@t-hamano Thanks for the improvements here! The TypeScript cleanup, consolidated fixtures, and raw HTML transform are all welcome additions. I’ve also manually verified that pasting description-list content produces the expected blocks, alongside the automated import coverage. I’ve pushed the keyboard follow-up:
For description indentation, my preference is to retain the current 2em default. It scales with the text size, remains overridable through CSS, and I’ve confirmed that the block’s margin controls can reset it to zero. |
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A note about the icon request: I’d welcome help from the design team with dedicated icons for the three blocks. That’s outside my expertise, and I’d prefer to follow their direction rather than introduce an AI-generated icon proposal. |
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With these changes, I think the implementation is ready for another review, I’d be happy to see it move forward for whichever release the team considers appropriate. Thanks again for helping get it to this point! |



What?
Adds native semantic Description List support to the block library through three static blocks:
core/description-listserializes to<dl>.core/description-termserializes to<dt>.core/description-detailserializes to<dd>.The parent Description List block starts with one term and one detail, and allows flexible valid sequences of terms and details rather than enforcing one-to-one pairing.
Why?
WordPress does not currently provide a native way to author semantic description list markup, even though
<dl>,<dt>, and<dd>are appropriate for glossaries, metadata, specifications, and other term/description relationships.Fixes #4880.
This supersedes the implementation explored in #20760, updating the block architecture to current Gutenberg APIs and conventions.
How?
<div>-grouped terms and descriptions, flattening those groups into direct child blocks.Testing Instructions
<dl>,<dt>, and<dd>.Screenshots
Use of AI Tools
OpenAI and Codex assisted with investigation, implementation, tests, and PR preparation; the implementation was manually reviewed and tested in wp-env.
Scope / Follow-ups
This initial PR intentionally does not include arbitrary InnerBlocks inside
<dd>, editable<div>grouping inside<dl>, decorative description-list styles, block-to-block transforms for the parent list, PHP rendering, or frontend JavaScript.Pasting HTML description lists is supported, including valid
<div>-grouped terms and descriptions. Those wrappers are flattened into ordered term/detail child blocks; preserving them as editable groups remains a possible follow-up.Keyboard merges preserve valid outer boundaries but do not automatically repair lists that were already structurally invalid. Structural warnings remain advisory.
(Creation/maintenance of descriptive text assisted by Codex.)