Block management

Almost every visible piece of an Open Intranet page outside the main content area — the header bar, the sidebar widgets, the footer columns, the search box, the “My last bookmarks” widget — is a block placed in a region. This page explains the moving parts and shows the most common admin tasks. For deep mechanics, follow the links to drupal.org.

Mental model

• Region — a slot defined by the active theme (sidebar, header, footer, primary menu, content, …). Each theme defines its own.
• Block — a piece of UI placed in a region. A block can be a Drupal-provided thing (“Site branding”), a Views display, or a custom Block-Content entity authored in the admin UI.
• Block layout — the page at /admin/structure/block where you see every region of the active theme and the blocks placed in each.
• Visibility — every block has rules deciding on which pages it should appear (URL path, content type, role, language, custom block visibility group). Two blocks with different visibility can share a region without colliding.

Open Intranet runs two themes that are configured separately:

• openintranet_theme — the front-end theme end users see.
• gin — the admin theme (what authors and admins see while editing content).

When you open Block layout you are always editing one theme at a time — switch via the theme tabs at the top. Most front-end work happens in openintranet_theme; gin is rarely customised.

Regions in the Open Intranet front-end theme

The front-end theme openintranet_theme defines 24 regions. Roughly grouped:

Group	Regions
Top header	top_header_logo, top_header_user_actions, top_header, top_header_form
Header	header, header_form
Navigation	primary_menu, secondary_menu
Above content	page_top, highlighted, featured_top, breadcrumb
Main	content, sidebar_first, sidebar_second
Below content	featured_bottom_first, featured_bottom_second, featured_bottom_third
Footer	footer_first, footer_second, footer_third, footer_fourth, footer_fifth
Page bottom	page_bottom

You can see them visually by visiting /admin/structure/block/demo/openintranet_theme — Drupal renders each region with its name overlaid, so you know exactly where a block will appear before placing it.

What is already placed by default

Open Intranet ships with a sensible default block layout. A few highlights from openintranet_theme:

Block	Region	What it does
Site branding	top_header_logo	Logo + site name in the top bar
Search form (wide)	top_header_form	Global search input
Help Desk	header_form	Help / contact link
Main navigation	primary_menu	Top-level menu
Dropdown Language	top_header_user_actions	Language switcher
User Notifications	top_header_user_actions	Bell icon with mention / kudos / must-read counts
User account menu	top_header_user_actions	Profile / sign-out dropdown
New office banner	featured_top	Site-wide announcement banner
Knowledge Base book	sidebar_first	KB navigation when on a KB page
My Last Bookmarks	sidebar_first	User-specific bookmarks widget
Your last pages	sidebar_first	Recently-read content widget
Highlighted links	sidebar_first	Quick links curated by admins
Events Main Block	sidebar_second	Upcoming events
Example Block	sidebar_first, sidebar_second	Placeholder for editors to replace
Latest user comments	content	Activity stream entry
Information	footer_first	Company info column
Quick Links	footer_fourth	Footer navigation column
Legal & Compliance	footer_third	Privacy / terms / cookie links
Footer Info	footer_fifth	Address / branding

You can rename, move, hide or remove any of these from /admin/structure/block. The defaults are a starting point — most production sites end up swapping at least the “Example Block” placeholders, the Highlighted links and the footer columns.

Common tasks

Place an existing block in a region

This describes how you place an existing block (already created or provided by a Drupal module) in a region.

1. Go to Structure → Block layout (/admin/structure/block).
2. Pick the region you want, click Place block at the right.
3. Search by block name (e.g. “Recently read content” or “Powered by Drupal”).
4. Click Place block.
5. Configure visibility: which pages, content types, roles, languages should see it. Leave empty to show on every page.
6. Save.

Create a custom block (reusable content snippet)

Use a custom block when you want to author HTML once and reuse it across multiple regions or pages — banner with announcements, contact info, image + paragraph teaser.

1. Structure → Block layout → Custom block library (/admin/structure/block-content).

2. Add custom block, pick the type (Basic block by default), enter title and body, save.

   This creates a reusable Block-Content entity — it does not place it on the page yet.

3. Go to Block layout, find your block under “Place block” → Custom blocks, place it in the region you want.

4. Editing the block content later updates it everywhere it is placed.

Place a Views block (data-driven)

Most “what’s new” / “popular” / “my X” widgets in Open Intranet are Views blocks — generated from a View configured in the admin UI. Examples already on the site include views_block:bookmarks-block_1 (“My Last Bookmarks”) and views_block:events_blocks-block_1 (“Events Main Block”).

To add your own:

1. Structure → Views (/admin/structure/views), open or create a View.
2. Add a Block display under Displays.
3. Configure the query (filters, sort, fields, format), save.
4. Now go to Block layout and place it like any other block. It appears under the View’s name with the display ID as suffix.

Views blocks are the right tool whenever the content of the widget should be dynamic (the latest 5 events filtered by department, the top 10 most-read KB pages this week, all open Ideas tagged “innovation”…). For static HTML, prefer custom blocks.

Group blocks by visibility (Block Visibility Groups)

Open Intranet ships block_visibility_groups↗. It lets you define a group with shared visibility rules (e.g. “show only on KB pages, only for the Editor role”) and assign multiple blocks to that group at once. Useful when you have 5–10 blocks that should appear together on a context.

1. Structure → Block visibility groups, create a group with the rules you want.
2. When placing a block, pick the group from the “Block Visibility Group” setting in addition to (or instead of) per-block visibility rules.

Move or remove a block

Drag-and-drop in /admin/structure/block to reorder within a region or move between regions. Set region to None (or click Disable) to hide the block without deleting its configuration — useful for blocks you may want back later.

Visibility — what to use when

You want the block to appear…	Use this rule
On specific URL paths	Pages condition (e.g. /news/*, <front> for the homepage)
Only on certain content types	Content type condition
Only for certain roles	Role condition
Only in a specific language	Language condition
On a recurring set of pages used by many blocks	A Block Visibility Group
On dynamic / complex conditions	A custom condition plugin in your own module

Layout Builder vs. Block layout

Drupal core also ships Layout Builder, a separate page-building tool. The two coexist in Open Intranet:

• Block layout (the topic of this page) controls site-wide chrome — header, footer, sidebars and any cross-page widget.
• Layout Builder is opt-in per content type and lets you compose the body of a single piece of content out of Drupal blocks, custom layouts and inline content.

For the global page frame, stick with Block layout. For richly-laid-out landing pages or content-type-specific layouts, enable Layout Builder on that bundle.

Where to learn more

• Drupal Block module documentation↗ — full reference for the Block system
• Working with blocks in the Drupal admin UI↗ — beginner-friendly walkthrough in the official user guide
• Block visibility↗ — every visibility condition Drupal core supports
• Block Visibility Groups↗ — module page with full configuration docs
• Layout Builder documentation↗ — when Block layout is not enough
• Create a custom bloc programatically↗