feat: add featured image caption block by chickenn00dle · Pull Request #415 · Automattic/newspack-block-theme

chickenn00dle · 2026-02-18T16:59:03Z

All Submissions:

Have you followed the Newspack Contributing guideline?
Does your code follow the WordPress' coding standards and VIP Go coding standards?
Have you checked to ensure there aren't other open Pull Requests for the same update/change?

Changes proposed in this Pull Request:

Closes https://linear.app/a8c/issue/NPPD-1187/captioncredit-block-for-featured-images

This PR adds the featured image caption block to various templates across the theme

How to test the changes in this Pull Request:

To test, be sure to also checkout Automattic/newspack-plugin#4519

View the following templates in the site editor and confirm the new featured image caption block is added:

archive
author
home
search
single
single/50-50-image
single/full-width-image
single/large-image
single/sidebar-layout
single/wide-image

Other information:

Have you added an explanation of what your changes do and why you'd like us to include them?
Have you written new tests for your changes, as applicable?
Have you successfully ran tests with your changes locally?

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR adds a new custom block for displaying featured image captions with optional media credit information. The block integrates with the Newspack Image Credits plugin to automatically display caption and credit metadata, while also allowing users to override with custom caption text.

Changes:

Added a new newspack-block-theme/featured-image-caption block with editor UI and server-side rendering
Integrated the block into all post and archive templates that display featured images
Implemented support for automatic caption/credit display from media metadata with custom override capability

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 17 out of 17 changed files in this pull request and generated 7 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
includes/blocks/featured-image-caption/class-featured-image-caption.php	PHP class for block registration and server-side rendering
includes/blocks/featured-image-caption/block.json	Block metadata and configuration
includes/blocks/featured-image-caption/edit.js	React component for block editor UI
includes/blocks/featured-image-caption/editor.js	Block registration entry point
includes/blocks/featured-image-caption/style.scss	Styles for placeholder text in editor
includes/blocks/index.php	Added require statement to load new block class
src/scss/blocks/_blocks.scss	Added import for block styles
templates/single/*.html	Added featured-image-caption block to all single post templates
templates/archive.html	Added featured-image-caption block to archive template
templates/author.html	Added featured-image-caption block to author template
templates/home.html	Added featured-image-caption block to home template
templates/search.html	Added featured-image-caption block to search template

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includes/blocks/featured-image-caption/class-featured-image-caption.php

src/scss/blocks/_blocks.scss

includes/blocks/featured-image-caption/edit.js

templates/single.html

templates/archive.html

includes/blocks/featured-image-caption/class-featured-image-caption.php

laurelfulford

This is awesome, @chickenn00dle! I added some feedback ahead of splitting this out into the Newspack Plugin repo. I totally get if it's a pain to have that here, so let me know if I should just copy things over after it's been moved 🙂

This is a bit of an edge case, but when I add a featured image block + caption block to a post's/page's content, the placeholder for the caption is empty in the editor:

The correct caption displays in the published page/post.

If the caption has been customized, the customized text will appear, but the credit no longer shows with it.

laurelfulford · 2026-02-24T22:45:31Z

includes/blocks/featured-image-caption/edit.js

+		return (
+			<figcaption { ...blockProps }>
+				<span className="featured-image-caption-placeholder">
+					{ __( 'Select a featured image or add a featured image block to add a caption.', 'newspack-block-theme' ) }


This is probably a good one to get @thomasguillot's eyes on, but I think the placeholder should be non-italicized, to match how other text placeholders are in the blocks.

I'm not entirely sure about the placeholder text -- it shows this in the Site Editor even when there's a Featured Image already there. It's not as helpful outside of the Site Editor, but maybe just "Featured image caption"? (Also open to feedback on that!)

I removed the italics and updated the caption placeholder text when moving this to Automattic/newspack-plugin#4519

laurelfulford · 2026-02-24T22:51:48Z

includes/blocks/featured-image-caption/block.json

+		"typography": {
+			"fontSize": true,
+			"lineHeight": true,
+			"textAlign": true


I think it might be good (in theory at least!) to support changing fonts/font styles where we can. It'd be a little weird for one-offs, but it could be handy for changes in the Site Editor/in specific templates:

Suggested change

"textAlign": true

"textAlign": true,

"__experimentalFontFamily": true,

"__experimentalFontWeight": true,

"__experimentalFontStyle": true,

"__experimentalTextTransform": true,

"__experimentalTextDecoration": true,

"__experimentalLetterSpacing": true,

"__experimentalDefaultControls": {

"fontSize": true,

"fontAppearance": true

}

Good call! Added in the new PR Automattic/newspack-plugin#4519

laurelfulford · 2026-02-24T22:56:33Z

templates/single.html

 	<!-- wp:group {"metadata":{"name":"Post Image"},"align":"full","className":"post-image","style":{"spacing":{"margin":{"top":"var:preset|spacing|80","bottom":"var:preset|spacing|80"}}},"layout":{"type":"constrained"}} -->
 	<div class="wp-block-group alignfull post-image" style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--80);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--80)">
 		<!-- wp:post-featured-image /-->
+		<!-- wp:newspack-block-theme/featured-image-caption /-->


This'll need to be fine-tuned per template (and is something that could use @thomasguillot's eyes), but I think the image + caption should be wrapped in a 'stack' block, and have the block spacing adjusted:

Something like this:

Happy to change this later based on feedback, but for now added the stacks in github.com//pull/415/commits/ffd17797bf8a3a891541c3e4656def647265bebd

laurelfulford · 2026-02-24T23:09:58Z

includes/blocks/index.php

 defined( 'ABSPATH' ) || exit;

 require_once NEWSPACK_BLOCK_THEME_FILE_PATH . '/includes/blocks/subtitle-block/class-subtitle-block.php';
+require_once NEWSPACK_BLOCK_THEME_FILE_PATH . '/includes/blocks/featured-image-caption/class-featured-image-caption.php';


There will be an established pattern in the Newspack Plugin to follow for this, but we've been restricting these new blocks to just block themes, since they make less sense to use with the classic theme.

Suggested change

require_once NEWSPACK_BLOCK_THEME_FILE_PATH . '/includes/blocks/featured-image-caption/class-featured-image-caption.php';

if ( wp_is_block_theme() ) {

require_once NEWSPACK_BLOCK_THEME_FILE_PATH . '/includes/blocks/featured-image-caption/class-featured-image-caption.php';

}

Thanks! This check was actually not required when the block lived in this repo since it would only be available when the block theme was active, but I made sure to move this behind this check in the plugin PR after moving it there: Automattic/newspack-plugin#4519

chickenn00dle · 2026-02-26T17:53:58Z

Thanks for the review @laurelfulford! I moved the block over to the plugin repo and applied your feedback there: Automattic/newspack-plugin#4519

This PR should now just contain changes to the block theme templates.

laurelfulford

Thanks @chickenn00dle! All the placements look good!

# [1.26.0-alpha.1](v1.25.0...v1.26.0-alpha.1) (2026-03-05) ### Features * add AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md; update README.md ([#420](#420)) ([7494928](7494928)) * add featured image caption block to templates ([#415](#415)) ([7db45fe](7db45fe)) * add new styles ([#416](#416)) ([37e82db](37e82db)) * remove newspack-grid, newspack-grid-small, newspack-grid-sidebar ([#417](#417)) ([86b8292](86b8292)) * use dynamic copyright date block in footer patterns ([#414](#414)) ([22c9bc8](22c9bc8))

github-actions · 2026-03-05T19:50:11Z

🎉 This PR is included in version 1.26.0-alpha.1 🎉

The release is available on GitHub release

Your semantic-release bot 📦🚀

chickenn00dle marked this pull request as ready for review February 18, 2026 21:29

chickenn00dle requested a review from a team as a code owner February 18, 2026 21:29

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings February 18, 2026 21:29

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of chickenn00dle February 18, 2026 21:30 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Feb 18, 2026

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chickenn00dle force-pushed the feat/add-featured-image-caption-block branch from c175571 to d78c2f4 Compare February 18, 2026 21:57

chickenn00dle added the [Status] Needs review label Feb 18, 2026

laurelfulford requested changes Feb 24, 2026

View reviewed changes

github-actions bot added the [Status] Needs changes or feedback label Feb 24, 2026

chickenn00dle force-pushed the feat/add-featured-image-caption-block branch 2 times, most recently from 4696d21 to ffd1779 Compare February 26, 2026 17:38

chickenn00dle requested a review from laurelfulford February 26, 2026 18:03

chickenn00dle removed the [Status] Needs changes or feedback label Feb 26, 2026

laurelfulford approved these changes Feb 27, 2026

View reviewed changes

github-actions bot added [Status] Approved and removed [Status] Needs review labels Feb 27, 2026

chickenn00dle added 8 commits March 3, 2026 10:15

feat: add featured image caption block

89aefa1

fix: add text-align and update placeholder

ac97dbb

fix: update credit text

dba5de2

fix: update credit text and add to templates

4319aa9

fix: used preferred enqueue_block_assets

9da2451

fix: copilot feedback

b8ec2dc

fix: remove block

8801fb1

fix: stack featured images and captions

78f44f6

chickenn00dle force-pushed the feat/add-featured-image-caption-block branch from ffd1779 to 78f44f6 Compare March 3, 2026 15:52

chickenn00dle merged commit 7db45fe into trunk Mar 3, 2026
5 checks passed

chickenn00dle deleted the feat/add-featured-image-caption-block branch March 3, 2026 16:02

github-actions bot added the released on @alpha label Mar 5, 2026

-			"textAlign": true
+			"textAlign": true,
+			"__experimentalFontFamily": true,
+			"__experimentalFontWeight": true,
+			"__experimentalFontStyle": true,
+			"__experimentalTextTransform": true,
+			"__experimentalTextDecoration": true,
+			"__experimentalLetterSpacing": true,
+			"__experimentalDefaultControls": {
+				"fontSize": true,
+				"fontAppearance": true
+			}

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chickenn00dle commented Feb 18, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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chickenn00dle commented Feb 26, 2026

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chickenn00dle commented Feb 18, 2026 •

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