Open Block Field

The Squarespace system provides a large number of blocks that can be added (using the CMS) to Pages, Blog Posts, and Open Block Fields present in a template. All system blocks have default templates that render the contents of the block.

Squarespace Block Field Tag

Open Block Fields are open areas in a template (provided by a developer) into which a user can add any system block, and use the same LayoutEngine grid-based layout system that is used in Pages and Blog Posts. Open Block Fields are ideal for site footers and blog sidebars.

To specify an Open Block Field in a template, use the Squarespace Block Field tag:

<squarespace:block-field id="blockField1" columns="12"/>

Each block field must have a unique id. The columns attribute can be set to either 1 or 12. It is usually best to set this to 12, but you can set it to 1 when you want to limit the field to only a single column of blocks (in a sidebar for example).

Locking the Layout

A locked layout allows developers to place system blocks on a site without giving front-end users the ability to add additional blocks or change the layout of the open block field. Front-end users still have to ability to edit the content of a locked block.

Adding the lock-layout="true" attribute to an open block field will lock the layout. It's important to note that you should only lock the layout of an open block once you've already added the blocks with example content using the CMS. Otherwise, you will inadvertently lock yourself out of the open block.

<squarespace:block-field id="blockField1" columns="12" lock-layout="true"/>

Customizing Blocks

We currently do not support customizing the HTML markup of our system blocks.