Come together with the global Drupal community in Rotterdam, 28 Sept – 1 Oct 2026. Sessions, contribution, connection, and Early Bird savings until 8 June.Layout builder is a great tool, but out of the box there is a number of issues that can make it difficult for editors to use. Especially when the editors are not familiar with Drupal terms. Most of these issues can be resolved by contrib modules, but are valid inclusions to core.
The list of available blocks in Layout Builder is overwhelming
- #3040348: Remove blocks that are not useful within Layout Builder
- #2977587: Improve block listing in Layout Builder by hiding uncommon block plugins
- #3351758: Provide a way to opt-out of inline blocks in layout builder based on context
- Investigate if we need a subset of Layout Builder Restrictions in core
- See if we need something similar to layout builder browser to allow site builders to rename blocks and their groups
The options provided for blocks are not well understood by editors
Placing fields is difficult for editors because they don't know what formatter settings or other very Drupal-centric configuration are.
- #3365551: Add the notion of a 'configured layout builder block' to solve a number of content-editor and performance pain points
- #3257671: Allow an opt out of specific fields from the layout builder UI
- #3043330: Reduce the number of field blocks created for entities (possibly to zero) - This is suggesting adding a approach similar to Layout Builder Browser to core.
Editorial UX challenges
Editors are not satisfied with the current UIs used for selecting and editing blocks:
- Add extra width to the off-canvas when placing blocks inside Layout Builder. Currently the form is quite small and difficult to edit especially with WYSIWYG fields. #2951547: Modify Layout Builder's use of the off-canvas tray to improve UX of larger block forms
Navigating between the two UIs (Edit and Layout) is confusing:
Moving sections requires recreating them and moving blocks between them:
Changins sections requires recreating them and moving blocks between them:
It is hard to understand what is behind each of the blocks:
For example, if there is a textfield without a label, the user would "just have to know" what field it is because the UI does not display what type of block it is.
Comments
Comment #2
danielvezaComment #3
danielvezaComment #4
larowlanComment #5
penyaskitoAdded #3351758: Provide a way to opt-out of inline blocks in layout builder based on context as I think it fits the purpose of this epic.
Comment #6
larowlanComment #7
larowlanComment #8
lauriiiI started moving some things around in the issue summary to group them based on the challenge that we are trying to solve.
Comment #9
lauriiiComment #10
johnpitcairn commentedI get asked "Why can't I just place and edit this field in layout mode? Why do I have to switch tabs?".
Being able to work with individual entity fields entirely from layout builder would be a considerable improvement. The edit tab could be optional.
Related to that is #3121372: Use layout builder for content add/edit form
Comment #11
larowlan@John Pitcairn when we use Layout builder, we only put the title (And maybe some meta fields) on the node-type. Everything else is in block-types that map to components in the design system.
We also redirect from node create (which is just adding a title) to the Layout tab
And in some cases we auto add a hero component based on the title.
We use entity editor tabs module to rename the tabs to 'Edit metadata' (normal edit form) and 'Edit content' which is LB.
Comment #12
johnpitcairn commentedSure, but that places a considerable restriction on the entity architecture, right? For example, you get to jump through additional hoops to make a simple view of entities if the entity no longer has fields - not much fun as a site builder.
Comment #13
larowlanRight, we limit to landing pages. We might have a title, 'teaser text' and 'teaser image' field on just the 'edit metadata' tab, and use those for listing pages.
Comment #14
johnpitcairn commentedAh. Ideally I'd want this on any public-facing "page" but with restrictions on how the layout can be modified per entity bundle - so it's a very consistent wysiwyg editorial experience, in the front end theme. But with Drupal's strong storage architecture, linked to components, and neither a body field junk pile or deeply nested entity relationships. Ha.
Comment #15
larowlanComment #16
smustgrave commentedShould this be added to the Meta? #3172957: Olivero: Media library within Layout Builder modal is unstyled or some what to use media library without needing a dozen templates?