Prevent specific block from removing

[woorise]

I'm inserting a block programmatically and I want to prevent users from removing it. Is there any way to disable the "Remove Block" option for a specific block?

[noisysocks]

Hey @woorise! There's no API that lets third parties disable the Remove Block option for a specific block.

There is, however, Templates which lets you specify which blocks should be in a post by default and lock them down so that the user can't add/remove any further blocks.

Does that cover your use case? If not, could you go into some detail on what you're trying to accomplish?

[woorise]

I tried the Templates and more specifically the PHP locking snippet with the "insert" option to lock a specific block but it doesn't allow me to insert any other block (different type).

Is this the default behavior?

[noisysocks]

Yes that's right, template locking prevents both insertion and deletion.

I don't think it makes sense to allow one without the other. For example, if a user can insert blocks but not delete them, how can they remove blocks that are accidentally inserted?

Could you go into some detail on what you're trying to accomplish?

[woorise]

Template locking prevents insertion and deletion for a specific block or for all blocks?

These are my requirements:

• A specific block will be added programmatically
• Users will be able to move this block but not remove it
• Users will be able to insert other blocks (I mean other types of blocks not the one that we have locked)

[noisysocks]

Thanks for the extra info, @woorise!

Right now a developer can prevent the user from inserting and deleting all blocks using template locking, but it is not possible to disable inserting and deleting a specific block.

Potentially we could do this by adding supports.remove to the block configuration. This would mirror supports.inserter.

[woorise]

Great! This would be a highly welcomed addition.

[pwkip]

If you want to make sure that you can't remove a specific block (myplugin/important-block), you could do something like this:

const getBlockList = () => wp.data.select( 'core/block-editor' ).getBlocks();
let blockList = getBlockList();
wp.data.subscribe( () => {
  const newBlockList = getBlockList();
  if (
    newBlockList.length < blockList.length
    && blockList.some( block => block.name === 'myplugin/important-block' ) )
    && newBlockList.every( block => block.name !== 'myplugin/important-block' )
  ) {
    wp.data.dispatch( 'core/block-editor' ).resetBlocks( blockList );
  }
  blockList = newBlockList;
} );

This code will make sure that at least one block with the name myplugin/important-block will be present in the editor.

Also check: https://bdwm.be/gutenberg-prevent-specific-block-from-being-removable/

[costasovo]

@pwkip Thanks for the workaround. But still, it would be nice to have some officially supported block setting for that.

Btw I think that in your fix might be an issue with nested blocks. Some block (e.g. core/columns OR core/column) may carry other blocks on innerBlocks property. blockList.some and blockList.every check only the top level so you may miss the myplugin/important-block if it is inside a column or some other block that support nested blocks.

You can use this function for searching for a block.

const findBlock = (blocks, name) => (
  blocks.reduce((result, block) => {
    if (result) {
      return result;
    }
    if (block.name === name) {
      return block;
    }
    if (Array.isArray(block.innerBlocks) && block.innerBlocks.length) {
      return findBlock(block.innerBlocks, name);
    }
    return null;
  }, null)
);

[RajanLamaFuse]

Hello support team,
I have disabled the block to be removed by using lock but it only remove the button, and specific block can be remove but copy and paste other block and replace it. Do you have any solution? Highly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[annezazu]

Hey folks! I'm coming to the party late on this issue but with some good news. A few releases ago the ability to lock blocks was implemented (locking for both removal and movement): https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/curating-the-editor-experience/block-locking/ This is your best bet for implementing this. This allows other blocks to be implemented and, depending on how you set it up, allows for movement of the block even if you can't delete.

I'm going to close this out as a result but, if I've gotten anything wrong here or if anything is missing, please let me know and we can reopen to continue the discussion.