Creating custom Gutenberg blocks with React

Gutenberg blocks are just React components with a WordPress-flavored lifecycle. The key is to keep the block UI predictable, store the right attributes, and ship it in a plugin structure that's easy to maintain.

Block anatomy (what I always start with)

• block.json: block name, title, category, attributes, editorScript/style.
• Edit component: editor-only UI (controls, previews, placeholders).
• Save function: front-end markup output (or use dynamic/PHP render when needed).
• Attributes: store the minimum data needed to reproduce the output.

{
  "apiVersion": 2,
  "name": "my-plugin/feature-card",
  "title": "Feature Card",
  "category": "widgets",
  "attributes": {
    "title": { "type": "string", "default": "" },
    "description": { "type": "string", "default": "" }
  },
  "supports": { "html": false }
}

Reusable UI patterns

For real projects, you don't want every block to re-implement the same inspector controls, field components, or layout helpers. I typically extract small UI components (inputs, toggles, color pickers) and keep block-specific logic in the block folder.

• Create small UI primitives (TextControl wrappers, ToggleControl wrappers).
• Share utility hooks (e.g., safe attribute updates, debounced input).
• Keep markup and styling consistent across blocks.
• Plan attributes carefully so saved content remains stable over time.

Shipping inside a plugin

In production, the most important part is maintainability: clear folder structure, versioned builds, and predictable registration. Once you do that, scaling from 1 block to 20 blocks becomes a tooling problem—not a code mess.