Should max_blocks apply to sub-blocks?

[gideonb]

I am building an "image with text" section. I only want two blocks at the top level of my section, but I want both of those blocks to be able to nest children.

Typically I would reach for max_blocks in this scenario but it does not work how I expected:

The max_blocks tool is a powerful way to prevent cases where a known layout will break if it has too many items. One, two, and three column layouts have different needs. I typically write purpose-built settings around those needs. Some layouts, like a mosaic, might break if there are too many images but can accept 1-5 images.

I want to limit the sibling blocks, but I don't care how many children each sibling block has.

Ideally I could apply max_blocks at both the section and group level. The limit would apply to siblings at that one level, not their children at deeper levels.

I can get a similar result with static blocks, locking the section to a two or three column layout. This pattern breaks down in the mosaic case. I want to allow 1-5 images in well-defined mosaic layouts with different types of content in each sibling block. Those sibling mosaic images should be able to define child blocks containing captions, badges, links, etc. Static blocks cannot mix siblings of different block-types, and they cannot be removed - only hidden.

[stephanie-shopify]

Thank you for the use case example. This is a limitation a few developers have brought up. The team is taking in this feedback

[MatthewRCrigger]

I think it's a little weird and partially unreasonable that the block level limit property wasn't included in this feature release. Shouldn't this be the block system we have now, but more? Surely we have some more, but we also have some less. It seems like maybe it was a compromise the team had to make, but I think for a compromise like that it would be something you have clear as day in the release notes.

This keeps theme blocks as unusable to the client shops I work with.

[clauderic]

Hey all, just to provide an update here, we've fixed a bug that was counting nested blocks towards the max_blocks limit of sections. Now only direct descendants of the section are counted towards the max_blocks limit.

As for introducing the max_blocks property on theme blocks, this is something we are taking under consideration.

[sarussss]

Hi @clauderic.
I think the limit for theme blocks is necessary to avoid unnecessary problems, for example when we use theme blocks to make product pages, we need to limit so that users can only add 1 time with price, variant picker, product title, etc.
Instead of the current situation where customers can add many times, is that really reasonable?