Blockly v12: Core Updates, Refreshed Docs & Summit Details Inside
Blockly Team
May 2025 Update
Blockly v12.0.0 is here, and it's a big one! The team first started working on this release almost a year ago, so it's packed with new features and improvements. Our main goal with this release is to improve the accessibility of Blockly, in conjunction with our brand new keyboard-navigation plugin. Read more below!
Revamped focus and handling selected items to be compatible with browser focus and enable keyboard navigation. This is most likely to require your attention if you have custom elements that should be keyboard navigable or if you ever set tabstops manually on Blockly components
Added many new css classes (and changed a few pre-existing ones) to make styling of various Blockly components easier without having to use themes
Added support for arbitrary flyout contents with custom
FlyoutInflatersRemoved the
ASTNodeclass and some other pieces related to keyboard navigation. Check out the new experience in the keyboard-navigation experiment insteadAdded ability to register context menu items on basically any Blockly component that is selectable. Read more in our docs
Added support for
HTMLElements inFieldDropdownoptions. You can now create options that use both images and text, for example
Blockly v12 enables a new keyboard-accessible experience when coupled with our new keyboard-navigation plugin. The plugin is currently in beta in the blockly-keyboard-experimentation repo, and will be released as @blockly/keyboard-navigation v1.0.0 in a few weeks. We'll post an update on the blockly-announce group when it's released!
This also marks a major stepping stone toward screenreader-compatibility, which the team will continue working towards through Q2-Q3 of this year.
Our plugins have also been updated to be compatible with Blockly v12. As a reminder, all plugins also get a new major version when we update their minimum required version of Blockly. Be sure to update any plugins you use at the same time you update Blockly.
Over the past six months, we've reviewed and refactored the developer guides. We've added sections for design and programming considerations, rewritten complex topics like Localization and Block-code generators, added new topics like Anatomy of a block, split up overly large topics like Define blocks, and fixed many minor bugs.
If you find any problems with this release, please open an issue. If you try out the new keyboard-navigation experience and have feedback, consider joining our blockly-accessibility@ group to discuss. As always, we welcome PR contributions as well, especially on issues marked help wanted!
Join us in-person in Seattle at the Google South Lake Union Office on June 3-4 for technical talks, product demos, research insights and more.
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