Why Is The Content Blocks Limited To Just 12?

TomValentino
Tourist
3 0 7

Hello - 

Just wondering if anyone know's why all of the content blocks are limited to just 12 on the new 2.0 of Shopify?

We tried to increase it in the code, but it keeps on remaining limited at 12.

Does anyone know how to overcome this so we can add more? Or know if Shopify has any plans to increase this?

Thanks

 

Screenshot 2021-07-19 at 21.14.04.png

Replies 28 (28)

KetanKumar
Shopify Partner
36839 3635 11972

@TomValentino 

oh sorry for that one your have add more just change simple code 

change section code block limit or share section code son i will check and update

If helpful then please Like and Accept Solution.
Want to modify or custom changes on store Hire me.
- Feel free to contact me on bamaniyaketan.sky@gmail.com regarding any help
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PSD to Shopify | Shopify Design Changes | Shopify Custom Theme Development and Desing | Custom Modifications In to Shopify Theme | SEO & Digital Marketing
TomValentino
Tourist
3 0 7

Thanks for the reply.

We updated it to a max of 100, but then it's still limited to 12.

image (1).png

It used to work fine on the old theme, but then we updated it to Shopify 2.0 and the maximum we can now get is 12?

Is this part of the new 2.0? And if so, is it going to be like it forever/any way around it?

Thanks

TomValentino
Tourist
3 0 7
valenciab
Shopify Partner
2 0 1

Same issue in me, I try the codes in old theme and its working fine but in Shopify 2.0 it was only limited to 12 😞 

Do you guys have any workaround in the Shopify 2.0? 

sarahholden
Shopify Partner
9 1 12

Very frustrating! I hope this won't be the case forever. 

I'm creating an FAQ page for a site and there will be way more than 12 questions. The only workaround I've been able to figure out so far is to repeat that section after it has 12 blocks, but I already see holes in that solution for more advanced designs. 

KetanKumar
Shopify Partner
36839 3635 11972

@sarahholden 

sorry for that issue can you please share your code here so i will check and update

If helpful then please Like and Accept Solution.
Want to modify or custom changes on store Hire me.
- Feel free to contact me on bamaniyaketan.sky@gmail.com regarding any help
Shopify Partner | Skype : bamaniya.sky
PSD to Shopify | Shopify Design Changes | Shopify Custom Theme Development and Desing | Custom Modifications In to Shopify Theme | SEO & Digital Marketing
sarahholden
Shopify Partner
9 1 12

@KetanKumar The only workaround I could come up with for my site was to repeat the section by clicking the "Add Section" button, and adding another section of the same type. So, in Tom's case, adding another multicolumn section right after the first multicolumn section, and maxing out each section with 12 blocks. It's not ideal, but it's my temporary solve since I need this functionality now for a site I'm building.

For Tom's use case the only new code that might be needed would be to add an additional class to the multicolumn wrapper and use CSS to make sure there's no gap when two multicolumn sections are added to the page directly after one another. 

Also...I was able to add 16 blocks when I went to make this demo. I wonder if they changed the limit? That seems promising. Very strange! 

 

Screen Shot 2021-08-10 at 8.39.25 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-08-10 at 8.39.35 PM.png

  

thanos982
Tourist
6 0 3

Same problem here. When I actually update the data in the json file the limit increases to 16 but it's still not enough for my needs.

Anyone from the Shopify team that could respond to this?

Ninthony
Shopify Partner
2329 350 1023

Definitely weird, just took a look at Dawn theme. There's no max_blocks property in the schema so I have no idea why you wouldn't be able to add more. Oddly enough I am able to add 16 blocks... out of 12 apparently:

Ninthony_0-1629472784194.png

Thought that was funny. It would be nice for a member of Shopify staff to at least confirm that this is expected behavior. If so, why, and is it going to be rectified? 

 

If my solution helped you, please like it and accept it as the solution!
If you'd like to make any edits to your store, please send me a personal message and we can discuss what you'd like to accomplish 😄
bredowmax
Shopify Partner
86 1 126

So the limit was indeed reduced from 250(?) to only 12. Following the backlash, Shopify decided to up it to 16. However, I still cannot see 16 on my theme (I saw something like 16/16, then 16/12 as well, and now I cannot get any more than 12 anymore)

 

I really hope that Content update coming this winter will eliminate this (huge) bottleneck

Axel31
Tourist
5 0 0

Je rencontre ce meme problème actuellement, impossible de faire une FAQ correcte avec seulement 12 blocks. Une réponse de Shopify serait la bienvenue, si ce n'est pas une mise a jour, au moins nous donner un code pour débloquer cette situation ... 

Merci par avance. 

maxrfinch
Shopify Partner
30 1 40

With the legacy theme I was able to build a complicated "ingredients" section, with images for each ingredient of our teas. I used blocks for each ingredient, complete with an image, link to a collection of teas with that ingredient, and a blurb about that ingredient. 

Now with only 16 blocks, this is impossible to do. What the heck Shopify? Why??

John_Biggs
Tourist
8 0 4

This is so screwed up. We have so many pages with over 16 categories. Are we supposed to change our entire website structure because of this? Create BS subcategories? At the very least they could have a "category list addition" that is designed to snug up to the regular one and make it appear as a single unit to users.

HamishD
Visitor
1 0 1

This seems to have been done for load speeds but really screws a lot of people, and their store designs, over - is there a way around if really needed, Shopify?

maxrfinch
Shopify Partner
30 1 40

It possibly was to "improve load speeds", but that option should have been left to the theme developer to adjust – not Shopify. Some things make sense on Shopify's end, like removing SCSS, but a one size fits all "16 block limit" really messes up with stores like ours where we have a reason for the excess blocks.

I've contacted Shopify+ and created another thread on this topic, they don't seem too keen on providing an explanation or fix for this. We've resorted to looking for an app developer to build a custom app for our needs, which isn't a viable option for many other businesses.

Shaunumb
Tourist
3 0 1

I've been away from Shopify for a number of years and now I've come back I'm delighted by Sections etc, but confused and somewhat frustrated about limitations of other development decisions. 

There are many scenarios why a website owner would require more than 16 repeatable Blocks in a section. It seems somewhat backward to have to include two or three sections to fulfil this need and wouldn't seem to speed anything up on either the Shopify admin or the client/developer side of things. 

At the moment I'm attempting to create a collapsible accordion for an FAQ section with around 25 items; which is a fairly standard thing to do. With the 16 block limitation I would have to create two separate accordions in two sections; and then I would have to do something inefficient in the section liquid file like create a 'top of accordion' option and a 'bottom of accordion' option to ensure I can 'stitch' these two sections together at the front-end. This also makes these things more confusing than they need to be for the client. 

There may be a good reason why 16 has been chosen as a limit – I wait to be educated by someone more knowledgable than myself!

Shaunumb
Tourist
3 0 1

Just found that having options for 'top of accordion' and 'bottom of accordion' wouldn't work as a <section> DIV is always included between sections! 

So now, the only solution I can see to create an accordion of more than 16 items is to add the content 'flat' via the WYSIWIG on a Page with a <div class="accordion"> wrapped around the content, then include the Page as a Section and use some JS to wrap appropriate DIVs around the the content areas by looking at the Headings (H3s) ... seems complex for what I thought was going to be an easy task!

maxrfinch
Shopify Partner
30 1 40

Perhaps another idea would be to break your FAQ's into different sections based on topics. Ours is broken into sections including "About Us", "Orders and Shipping", "Matcha FAQ", and "Loose Leaf Tea FAQ".

Of course, if one of these sections have more than 16, you'll want to refine that more or be SOL.

 

Another option, since it seems you understand how to code, would be to build it out in your meta as a JSON object and then use liquid to display that. You could go even a step further and write it in as JSON-LD so web crawlers can easily pick it up for SEO purposes. You can use this website to easily generate your FAQ, then use liquid to parse through all objects within "mainEntity". Then at the end of the FAQ section, just output this object as is within a script tag with type "type="application/ld+json"

https://saijogeorge.com/json-ld-schema-generator/faq/

Shaunumb
Tourist
3 0 1

Another option, since it seems you understand how to code, would be to build it out in your meta as a JSON object and then use liquid to display that

Oh, that would be interesting – are there any links to examples that you know of? Thanks for the suggestion @maxrfinch.

I've got a bit of a hack-job going on now with two sections and the JS just looks for the block items and headings and ignores the wrapping DIVs between sections. Styling feels a bit 'hacky' too. Happy to post code here if anyone requests or needs it, but it seems a little off-topic from the OP's question. 

maxrfinch
Shopify Partner
30 1 40

@Shaunumb You can try the following instructions. I've confirmed this does output correct JSON-LD for Google to crawl.

 

1) Start by finding your preferred metafields app. I use airfields for their repeater block (and the demo will be for this app), but others will work for your use case. After you find one you like, create a JSON metafield object for pages.

Screen Shot 2021-10-25 at 2.02.20 PM.png

2) Create your FAQ on this website: https://saijogeorge.com/json-ld-schema-generator/faq/ – then copy the JSON portion only.

Screen Shot 2021-10-25 at 2.01.06 PM.png

3) Paste the copied JSON into your FAQ page's meta

Screen Shot 2021-10-25 at 2.03.14 PM.png

4) You'll then use the following code to output this. Note, this is super simple. You'll need to add your themes styling to make this look pretty.

{% assign faq = page.metafields.airf.faq %} <!-- Replace page.metafields.airf.faq with your FAQ key -->

<!-- We check to see if faq has a value, then continue -->
{% if faq and faq != blank %}
<!-- Assign the list of questions to questions -->
{% assign questions = faq.mainEntity %}
<!-- Loop through each question, displaying the question and answer -->
{% for q_a in questions %}
<h3>Question: <span>{{q_a.name}}</span></h3>
<p>Answer: {{q_a.acceptedAnswer.text}}</p>
{% endfor %}

<!-- Lastly we output the raw JSON from the FAQ meta for Google and others to crawl -->
<script type="application/ld+json">
{{faq | json}}
</script>

{% endif %}

{% schema %}
  {
    "name": "Page FAQ",
    "settings": []
  }
{% endschema %}

 

5) Save and check your FAQ page, it should have some sort of output. It should also be acceptable markup according to Google's rich results tester.

Screen Shot 2021-10-25 at 2.13.08 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-10-25 at 2.13.21 PM.png

JMilutinovic
New Member
5 0 0

Shopify is forcing us to buy apps from their app store, they are becoming pretty greedy. People will start looking for other e-commerce services sooner or later.

ChoosiZon
Shopify Partner
416 66 111

I am just blind meddling. In theme editor max limit is 16 blocks.

But in code editor you can add in as many as you like.

So theme editor is for those who are not adept in coding, and hopefully not mess up the site.

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JMilutinovic
New Member
5 0 0

ChoosiZon, we are talking about themes based on 2.0 JSON templates. It doesn't matter if you are using CLI or Theme editor or theme customizer, you are facing the limit of 16 blocks per section.

PaulNewton
Shopify Partner
6274 573 1319

@JMilutinovic wrote:

Shopify is forcing us to buy apps from their app store, they are becoming pretty greedy. People will start looking for other e-commerce services sooner or later.


rofl, sure that's why they've spent all that effort to put the new JSON system in place that increases theme flexibility. 

Shopify is an ecommerce company not a WSYWYG company if you need full control where your responsible for the limits and problems of scaling go headless and use the storefront api along with a visual site builder CMS like sanity.io .

 

 

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PaulNewton
Shopify Partner
6274 573 1319

In related news, not for blocks but JSON templates ,  Shopify's rolled out an increase in JSON template limits for more theme flexibility. Which the insightful will notice translates to 16,000 total blocks per theme with 1 section 1 block 1 template. Even if you only care about per template layout block limit , this is obviously part of the "why " such a limit exists currently.

 

JSON template limit has been raised to 1,000 from 50

https://shopify.dev/changelog/json-templates-now-have-limit-of-1000-per-theme 

 

Remember this is a limit, not a goal , architect theme layouts properly to avoid increasing maintenance burdens for short term convenience.

Such as restricting blocks to be used for dynamic repositioned content, for static positioned content use simpler boolean settings/flags.

Use metafields as per resource flags,data to dynamically display content elements.

Don't use themes to store resource based data that could be on an object itself i.e. a variant description, product specs list, etc.

Make sections smarter for specific uses freeing up blocks within them

Make alternative layouts with preset elements freeing up blocks.

 

Related thread  https://community.shopify.com/c/online-store-2-0/16-block-limit-is-too-restrictive-online-store-2-0/...

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JMilutinovic
New Member
5 0 0

PaulNewton, what are you talking about, people just want to create faq or team members section, with 20-30 blocks, you can't just hardcore everything or use metafields for simple things like these. 16 is just not enough. I would be fine with 50 at least. P.S. keep your "rofl" to your mum or sister, I am not your buddy.

PaulNewton
Shopify Partner
6274 573 1319




 It never ends with just 50 , I want more blocks too why wouldn't I , would be great I could have used more than 16 today to solve an issue in a quarter of the time.

But I'm certainly not gonna present it as some conspiratorial cash grab to justify a sense of feature entitlement; rofl.

 

As for faqs, etc it's still a waiting game to see what the CMS changes bring as the core issue here is if they just give more blocks that just encourages people to take an easy route and bake content into themes which is a trap shopify wants to help merchants & devs avoid.

Until then Pages and linklists can go much further in building FAQs while also avoiding trapping content in theme settings.

 

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JMilutinovic
New Member
5 0 0

If you can't offer a solution for this issue, just go troll somewhere else.