Contributors: wpengine, ryankienstra, mikeday, dreamwhisper, mmcalister, johnstonphilip Donate link: https://wpengine.com Tags: pattern, patterns, pattern design, pattern builder, block patterns Requires at least: 6.1 Tested up to: 6.3 Stable tag: 0.3.2 Requires PHP: 7.4 License: GPLv2 or later License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
Manage your theme's pattern PHP files the easy way, with Pattern Manager by WP Engine.
Note: Pattern Manager is currently in beta.
When you design beautiful block patterns for your theme, Pattern Manager by WP Engine will automatically push them into PHP files for you, every time you save. With a dedicated studio to design and build block patterns you can 10x your ability to work effectively with theme patterns.
Pattern Manager is designed to be used by theme developers and is not intended to create patterns on production sites. Please review our FAQ below.
- A dedicated place to build and design Block Patterns.
- Save (and generate) pattern files directly to disk in your theme (no exporting needed).
- Patterns available come from your theme on the disk, allowing for easy collaboration with git.
- Images used in patterns are auto-copied into your theme and referenced in the PHP pattern file.
- No more copying and pasting code to files.
- No more copying and pasting images to your theme.
- Browse all your patterns by their preview thumbnails.
- Create patterns and edit them later.
- Easy discovery and use of hidden WordPress core pattern features.
- Create a pattern with a click.
- Duplicate a pattern.
- Delete a pattern.
- Rename a pattern.
- Utilize hidden WordPress core pattern features.
- Save a pattern to a php file in your theme.
Hidden WP core pattern features you can unlock with Pattern Manager:
- When a user makes a new page or post, auto-show a modal with your patterns, available to be used.
- Make your pattern available in the block inserter, or choose to hide it from the inserter.
- Allow users to transform any block into your pattern.
- Create/update the pattern PHP file on your disk, in your theme.
- Find and replace all local image urls with the correct PHP tag.
- Find and copy all image files used into your theme.
Once you've built a lot of patterns, it makes sense to quickly combine them in various ways to make full-page patterns. An example of this might be a "Home Page" or "Landing Page" pattern that includes a call-to-action area, features area, testimonials, links, and more. Instead of re-creating each of those patterns inside your "Home Page" pattern, you can simply re-use them with the "Pattern Block".
Here's an example of how you'd make that "Full Page" pattern:
- Step 1: In Pattern Manager, click "Create New Pattern".
- Step 2: Add the "Pattern Block" (note: this block is exclusively available in the Pattern Manager editor).
- Step 3: Choose a pattern you've already made (like testimonials, features, call-to-actions, etc).
- Step 4. Once inserted, repeat steps 2-3 until you have a "Full Page" pattern you like.
The best part about using the "Pattern Block" is maintaining your patterns. If you ever need to make a change to a pattern, you can update it in one place and it will be updated anywhere you used the Pattern Block, dynamically.
When one of your theme's users inserts that "Full Page" pattern, because it's using WordPress core's pattern block, WordPress will automatically pull the separate patterns together into the Block Editor, ready for them to modify, just like any other pattern.
This plugin can be installed directly from your site.
- Log in and navigate to Plugins → Add New.
- Type "Pattern Manager" into the Search and hit Enter.
- Locate the Pattern Manager plugin in the list of search results and click Install Now.
- Once installed, click the Activate link.
It can also be installed manually.
- Download the Pattern Manager plugin from WordPress.org.
- Unzip the package and move to your plugins directory.
- Log into WordPress and navigate to the Plugins screen.
- Locate Pattern Manager in the list and click the *Activate * link.
No. WordPress core naturally imports patterns located in any theme's "patterns" directory. In keeping with that WordPress standard, Pattern Manager only saves pattern files to that location at this time.
Yes. Pattern Manager is designed to be used by theme creators, ideally in a local environment like https://localwp.com. If you are not building a theme, it is recommended that you create a child theme and install it so that updates do not wipe out your pattern files.
While Pattern Manager will add patterns to any theme, it is recommended that you own and control the code of that theme. If you do not control the code of your theme, it is recommended that you create a child theme and install it so that updates do not wipe out your pattern files.
Ideally, no. It is recommended that you develop your patterns on a locally hosted website. You can easily set up a local development WordPress on your computer using https://localwp.com
Yes, you will need to have WordPress 6.1 or later installed to take advantage of Pattern Manager.
- A dedicated interface to browse, design, build, and save WordPress pattern files.
- Easily assign pattern categories, keywords, descriptions, and more.
- Pattern Manager now uses its own update mechanism from WP Engine servers.
- Fix a minor security issue.
- Allow adding new categories in Editor UI.
- Add 'Pattern Block' to render a pattern in a pattern.
- Fix some issues with block pattern previews.
- Fix a bug with editing pre-existing patterns.
- Add a link to the GitHub repo.
- Readme file changes.
- Initial release.