Blocks

What are blocks?

Blocks are single units of content within a page, document or canvas which have ‘types’ that determine how they display data.

For example, a block may be a ‘table’, ‘kanban board’, ‘gantt chart’, or anything else that the application which contains it supports.

While the type of a block can be changed, the underlying data remains the same. This separation of 'view' and 'data' allows the representation of information referenced by a block to be changed (e.g. a table converted into a kanban board, and back again) without risking loss, corruption or inadvertent modification of the underlying data in the process.

Blocks typically allow end-users to input, edit, and delete the data within them -- but can also be rendered in ‘view-only’ modes. Typically when in an editing context, blocks can be flexibly composed and arranged.

Blocks enable the creation of modular, composable documents and interfaces.

Block instances

A single individual block can be referred to as an ‘instance of a block’, or a ‘block instance’.

The Block Protocol

The Block Protocol is an open standard for developing blocks, and block-based applications. It defines the methods by which blocks may communicate and interact with the applications that embed them (“embedding applications”).

Using blocks

Blocks are most prominently used within HASH in pages. You can learn more about using blocks within pages in the HASH user guide.