How do I make a block that pulls the current node content?

Question

Ok, so I know blocks in Drupal 8 have these things called "contexts" which allow Core to clear cache on a fine-grained basis. I can't find any decent explanation of how they work, or how to get page variables from them or whatever.

My goal is to have a block type that renders fields or a display mode of the current node into the block content. I have seen elsewhere how one would get the current node, but I don't entirely understand how it's supposed to feed back into cache contexts. I know #cache on render arrays exist, but there's also a bunch of methods from ContextAwarePluginInterface that I'm not sure what they do. Is there some documentation I'm missing?

Answer 1

There are two completely different kinds of contexts.

Cache contexts, which have nothing to do with this. They're not used to invalidate something, but vary by something (e.g. cache differently for different user permissions). Cache tags are for invalidation.

What you mean are plugin contexts. And yes, blocks are able to use them since a short while (They always could, but the block.module didn't support it properly). As @larowlan said, core uses them mostly for visibility conditions but it works the same for blocks.

One such example that you can look at is the NodeType condition. What you need to do is add the context annotation and then you can use it as $this->getContextValue('node'). The advantage of this is that your block is more flexible and doesn't need to know where the node is coming from exactly, that's up to the user configuring it.

Note that this is not visible in the UI currently unless there is actually more than one node to chose from.

Answer 2

For using node in block, i use context. For example: this block display links for edition and deleting current node:

<?php
    
    /**
     * @file
     * Contains \Drupal\my_module\Plugin\Block\NodeMenuBlock.
     */
    
    namespace Drupal\my_module\Plugin\Block;
    
    use Drupal\Core\Block\BlockBase;
    use Drupal\Core\Link;
    use Drupal\Core\Url;
    
    /**
     * @Block(
     *   id = "node_menu_block",
     *   admin_label = @Translation("Node Menu Block"),
     *   category = @Translation("My Group"),
     *   context_definitions = {
     *     "node" = @ContextDefinition(
     *       "entity:node",
     *       label = @Translation("Current Node")
     *     )
     *   }
     * )
     */
    class NodeMenuBlock extends BlockBase {
      
      /**
       * {@inheritdoc}
       */
      public function build() {
        $node = $this->getContextValue('node');
        $nid_fld = $node->nid->getValue();
        $nid = $nid_fld[0]['value'];
    
        $markup = '';
        $links = ['entity.node.edit_form' => 'Edit', 'entity.node.delete_form' => 'Delete', ];
        foreach($links as $rout=>$text) {
          $url = Url::fromRoute($rout, array('node' => $nid));
          $link = Link::fromTextAndUrl(t($text), $url)->toRenderable();
          $link['#attributes'] = array('class' => array('button', 'button-action'));
          $markup .= render($link).' ';
        }
    
        $block = [
          '#type' => 'markup',
          '#markup' => $markup,
        ];
        return $block;
      }
    
    }

More information on drupal.org

Answer 3

The context aware plugin stuff is mainly used by block visibility conditions. E.g see the node condition which takes the current node. I'm not sure if blocks per-se can hook into this. I can say for certain that you can use the route match service and get the current node, should it exist, from that.

Answer 4

Check out the Block node contrib module: https://www.drupal.org/project/block_node

Introduction

This module provides a block which can display either the current node or a specified node in a given view mode.

Possible uses

I want to display a specific node in a sidebar region using a teaser view mode. I want to display a list of teaser nodes referenced by an entity reference field on the current node.

Installation

Install as usual, ideally with composer. Enable the module.

Configuration

Place the block using the block layout page as you normally would to place any block.

Configuration options:

Use current node

• When checked the current node will be displayed in the block if the block is placed on a node page.

Node to display

• Search for a node to display. When selected this node will be displayed in the block.

View mode

• Choose the view mode from the available options. The node displayed in the block will be displayed in this view mode.
• Other settings are the standard block settings.

Answer 5

For showing a specific field from the current node in a block, https://www.drupal.org/project/fieldblock