Exportable and Fieldable Blocks in Drupal 7

Question

I have a project where I have two competing requirements for blocks.

First, I'd like to have blocks be fieldable. There are blocks on the site that contain static content but should have the block title as a link, and have an icon associated with the block.

Secondly, although these blocks are not "configuration" per-se, the client would certainly say that their site was broken if they didn't exist. Because of this, I'd like to be able to export the blocks using Features so that they can be included in version control.

I've looked into both the Bean and Boxes modules. Bean supports making the blocks fieldable by defining new block types. Unfortunately, while the block type is exportable with Bean, the block itself isn't.

I've also looked into Boxes. Boxes supports exporting blocks, but isn't fieldable by itself. If I add the Entity Box module to Box, I get fieldable boxes, but those new boxes aren't exportable.

Help! Is it even possible to do what I'm trying to do here? Is there some way other than creating Features exportables to easily synchronize small pieces of content so that all of the developers are working on a consistent version of the site?

Answer 1

The answer is simpler than you could possibly imagine: check out the Bean module, it does exactly what you want! :)

Answer 2

If you need custom blocks that need to be exportable, I would install the Panels module. First of all, all the custom content types in Panels (panel nodes, Pages, mini-panels) are all exported, and can be saved as a file, or bundled with Features. (To save as just a file, you just "export" the code for the piece of content.)

Also, the mini-panel content type that you can create in Panels functions essentially just like a block. So, it might meet your needs.

Answer 3

You want the Node Block module.

It's fieldable and node blocks created can be exported.

This module allows you to specify content type(s) as being a block. This allows the content managers of the site to edit the block text and title without having to access the block administration page. Users only need edit access to that node in order to edit it.