Editor not working on block theme that has no index.html

[MaggieCabrera]

Right now we are relying on the existence of an index.html template for a theme to be defined as a block theme, but I've encountered the following case now:

A block theme that has

• a home.html template
• archive.html
• 404.html
• search.html
• page.html
• single.html

According to https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/basics/template-hierarchy/ this covers all the possibilities and having an index.html file is redundant and the template is never used, but if we don't include it, then the theme doesn't work.

The workaround is having an index.html template that functions as an archive template and that feels kind of wrong to me.

/cc @WordPress/block-themers

[justintadlock]

I've ran into this issue, too. See: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/54910#comment:34

My suggestion was that we have the following flag in theme.json to let WP know that "Hey, this is a block theme."

"isBlockTheme": true

A style.css header would work too.

[scruffian]

@youknowriad curious what you think about this one.

[youknowriad]

Now that index.php is not mandatory anymore as well, maybe we could add something like || ! "index.php" in the check?

[scruffian]

People might still want to include an index.php for security reasons...

[jordesign]

Hey folks - is this still relevant, or have we managed to work around it otherwise?

[scruffian]

I think it's still relevant.

[spencerfinnell]

After (trying) to wrap my head around handling of front-page.html, home.html, index.html, etc I came up with a system that didn't require index.html as a template and ran in to this issue.

It might make more sense (and give this more of a priority) if this is considered alongside other discussions about dealing with a static homepage and blog page vs. just "a file check".

i.e #56244