After reading several pages on the forums I have realized that my mod uses several bad practices including IHasModel and a weird convoluted way of registering blocks and items it is very confusing to try to fix without a point of reference so I was wondering if anyone could point me to a good example of block and item registration.

Create the registry event.

Create your items/blocks/biomes/whatever in it.

Register them.

Is there somewhere where I could find sample code of this.

39 minutes ago, Eilux said:

Is there somewhere where I could find sample code of this.

Probably all over github. But it is as simple as draco said. You should already have a registry event if you are using a modern version. So step one complete. Step two is to only call new BlahItem in the Item Registry Event, and likewise for Blocks. Then you need to register those items and blocks in the event.

 

Now if you need to have access to those values use the ObjectHolder annotation. 

Is it necessary to make a new class for every block or item added or is it acceptable to make a generic block class that takes in parameters the one that i had been using previously was this.

package mod.eilux.mcge.blocks;

import mod.eilux.mcge.McGE;
import mod.eilux.mcge.init.ModBlocks;
import mod.eilux.mcge.init.ModItems;
import mod.eilux.mcge.util.IHasModel;
import net.minecraft.block.Block;
import net.minecraft.block.SoundType;
import net.minecraft.block.material.Material;
import net.minecraft.creativetab.CreativeTabs;
import net.minecraft.item.Item;
import net.minecraft.item.ItemBlock;

import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

public class BlockBase extends Block implements IHasModel {
    private static final Map<String, SoundType> soundIndex;
    private static final Map<String,CreativeTabs> tabIndex;


    static {
        Map<String, SoundType> tempSoundIndex = new HashMap<>();
        tempSoundIndex.put("metal", SoundType.METAL);
        tempSoundIndex.put("stone", SoundType.STONE);
        tempSoundIndex.put("anvil", SoundType.ANVIL);
        tempSoundIndex.put("cloth", SoundType.CLOTH);
        tempSoundIndex.put("glass", SoundType.GLASS);
        tempSoundIndex.put("ground", SoundType.GROUND);
        tempSoundIndex.put("ladder", SoundType.LADDER);
        tempSoundIndex.put("plant", SoundType.PLANT);
        tempSoundIndex.put("sand", SoundType.SAND);
        tempSoundIndex.put("slime", SoundType.SLIME);
        tempSoundIndex.put("snow", SoundType.SNOW);
        tempSoundIndex.put("wood", SoundType.WOOD);

        soundIndex = Collections.unmodifiableMap(tempSoundIndex);

        Map<String, CreativeTabs> tempTabIndex = new HashMap<>();
        tempTabIndex.put("misc", CreativeTabs.MISC);
        tempTabIndex.put("brewing", CreativeTabs.BREWING);
        tempTabIndex.put("building_blocks", CreativeTabs.BUILDING_BLOCKS);
        tempTabIndex.put("combat", CreativeTabs.COMBAT);
        tempTabIndex.put("decorations", CreativeTabs.DECORATIONS);
        tempTabIndex.put("food", CreativeTabs.FOOD);
        tempTabIndex.put("redstone", CreativeTabs.REDSTONE);
        tempTabIndex.put("tools", CreativeTabs.TOOLS);
        tempTabIndex.put("transportation", CreativeTabs.TRANSPORTATION);

        tabIndex = Collections.unmodifiableMap(tempTabIndex);
    }

    public BlockBase(String name, Material material, String tab, String soundType, Float hardness, Float blastRes, String harvestTool, int harvestLevel, Float lightLevel, int opacity){

        super(material);




        setTranslationKey(name);
        setRegistryName(name);
        setCreativeTab(tabIndex.get(tab));
        setSoundType(soundIndex.get(soundType));
        setHardness(hardness);
        setResistance(blastRes);
        setHarvestLevel(harvestTool,harvestLevel);
        setLightLevel(lightLevel);
        setLightOpacity(opacity);




        ModBlocks.BLOCKS.add(this);
        ModItems.ITEMS.add(new ItemBlock(this).setRegistryName(this.getRegistryName()));
    }


    @Override
    public void registerModels() {
        McGE.proxy.registerItemRenderer(Item.getItemFromBlock(this),0,"inventory");

    }
}

*I am still in the process of removing IHasModel

17 minutes ago, Eilux said:

Is it necessary to make a new class for every block or item added or is it acceptable to make a generic block class that takes in parameters

You just described the Block and Item class. You should not make a "base" class for your mod because it already exists. You only need a new class if your block needs custom behavior(right click, a te, etc). 

whenever I add .setHarvestLevel() to the Block class it gives me an incompatible type error: expected: Block, got: void

8 minutes ago, Eilux said:

whenever I add .setHarvestLevel() to the Block class it gives me an incompatible type error: expected: Block, got: void

Show your code.

                new Block(Material.IRON).setRegistryName("ruby_block").setCreativeTab(CreativeTabs.BUILDING_BLOCKS).setHardness(5.0F).setResistance(10.0F).setHarvestLevel("pickaxe",2);

 

If you're on 1.14 its two methods. harvestTool and harvestLevel

https://github.com/Draco18s/ReasonableRealism/blob/1.14.4/src/main/java/com/draco18s/harderores/HarderOres.java#L112