remove and avoid HTML generation outside of view fiels

[gondo]

few examples:
app/code/Magento/Core/Block/Text/TextList/Link.php
app/code/Magento/CatalogSearch/Block/Autocomplete.php
and many many other places.
html should sit and be constructed purely in view files, so it can be overwritten and customized by front end devs.

[verklov]

@gondo ,
Thank you for reporting this issue! We have created a ticket in our internal bug tracker and placed it to the product backlog.

[brendanfalkowski]

Agree with this. Any part of a CMS' frontend output that could have markup in it should be part of the templating system. This is a problem in Magento 1.x that requires frontend devs to write module overrides to cleanly change (not great).

[SchumacherFM]

Or if you insist to use HTML inside a block class then at least implement a specific event for that.

[bobbyshaw]

Agreed. Similarly for app/code/Magento/Catalog/Block/Navigation.php and category navigation.

[verklov]

@gondo , the team has looked at the issue. Unfortunately there are lots of placed in the code like you described. In some cases the system was constructed this way intentionally. Rendering menu in the backend is one of the examples. With the current framework implementation, the team sees no difference between extending from blocks or overriding templates. Extending blocks appears to be more flexible than overriding templates. Nevertheless, we will consider making the global change throughout the system. Thank you again for reporting this to us!

[bobbyshaw]

It comes down to separation of skills. A frontend developer should be able to change a template to adapt markup. They should not require block rewrite knowledge.

Moving it to a template still allows for rewriting a block when you want to.

Thanks for keeping it mind.

[brendanfalkowski]

@verklov said:

With the current framework implementation, the team sees no difference between extending from blocks or overriding templates. Extending blocks appears to be more flexible than overriding templates

There is a difference: it matters who actually needs to modify that code. For anything that renders as markup that person is a frontend developer, and by forcing markup out of templates a frontend dev will require a backend dev to write an override for them.

Additionally, rendering markup in block classes can severely restrict a frontend dev's freedom to implement the best UI (ex: wishlist table). In a template, it's viable to completely re-arrange the structure and attributes of markup (as needed for responsive design). In block classes, you have to override not only the markup, but also the generation methods and execution flow. This is drastically inefficient and harder to maintain.

This architectural choice impairs a frontend dev's ability to prototype quickly and work efficiently.

I haven't seen any technical/workflow reasons why generating markup in block classes is better — only that it's one less thing for Magento to do. I hope that you'll reconsider that value of designing the frontend architecture for its users: frontend developers.

[tmotyl]

+1 for @brendanf

[verklov]

Thank you for your opinions and clarifications! Just want to be sure we are on the same page :) we are considering making this change to the system. However, this is a big piece of pie while we'd like to deliver more when the product is released. Thus, we will create a story and place it into the product backlog. After that, everything depends on priorities, you know.

[benmarks]

@verklov, perhaps this is something which the community can help with at an upcoming hackathon or as a community initiative?

[riconeitzel]

👍 @brendanf and @bobbyshaw