How to insert a block into a node or template in Drupal 7?

Question

In Drupal 6, it was easy to insert a block into a template with the following code:

$block = module_invoke(\'views\', \'block\', \'view\', \'block_name\');
print         


        

Answer 1

This appears to be the solution for inserting blocks into templates for Drupal 7, but it seems a bit clunky and I have no idea about impact on performance:

$block = block_load('views', 'block_name');      
$output = drupal_render(_block_get_renderable_array(_block_render_blocks(array($block))));        
print $output;

If anyone has a better procedure, please do add.