SB Children block – my first Single Block plugin

Today I delivered my first Single Block ( SB ) plugin to wordpress.org. It’s called SB Children block and it’s in the Block Directory.

I’ve written up some notes about the plugin. Suffice it to say there were a few challenges along the way. But I’ve left the details of these in the GitHub issues.

About the SB Children block plugin

The plugin is called SB Children block – sb-children-block.
It delivers a block called Children.
Which “lists children of the current content as links”.
The core function it uses is wp_list_pages.
The internal block name is oik-sb/children.

The block is a rather simple Server Side Rendered (SSR) block that uses core WordPress logic to create the list, which can be shown to display various levels of descendent content, based on a Depth parameter.

Usage scenarios

When you want to create a simple list of child pages for the current page.
When you want to show the full hierarchy of descendants for the current page.
When you want to do this for other hierarchical post types.
To replace some shortcodes:
- I’ll use the block to replace some instances of my [bw_tree] and/or [bw_list] shortcodes.
- Other people may choose to switch from the shortcodes they’re using.

Finding and installing the Children block

Searching for sb-children-block v1.0.0

The Block Directory search will be delivered in WordPress 5.5. If you already have the latest version of Gutenberg or a Release Candidate of WordPress 5.5 installed then Block Directory search will be enabled.

You can therefore search for and install the Children block while using the editor.

In my local development environment I have Gutenberg 8.7.0

Search	Results
c	Quite a few results including Audio, File, Group and several others that don’t appear to have a `c` in them
ch	Words with `ch` in them such as Search and Archives and Yoast SEO’s blocks that use the keyword Schema
chi	Archives and Calendar, which has a keyword of Archive.
chil	Goes away to search and returns “No blocks found in your library”.
child	Finds Cornell Note, SB Children block and Paypal Donation Block. It’s not at all obvious why it found the other two.
childr	Goes away to search and returns “No blocks found in your library”.
childre	As above for `chil` and `childr`
children	TADA!

Searching for the Children block v1.0.0

Why it found the other blocks

Cornell Notes Gutenberg Block contains the following text in the readme.txt file.

Cornell Notes contains a second block – an Idea block – this block is only made available as a child of the Cornell Note block – and enables you to add as many ideas (key ideas and long-form notes) you require.

Paypal Donation Block contains the following text in the readme.txt file.

[paypal_donation_block email ='yourpaypalemail@example.com' amount ='10' currency='USD' purpose='Charity for Child Health Care' ]

Searching for sb-children-block v1.0.1

In response to bobbingwide/sb-children-block#11 I updated the readme.txt file. I added the substrings of children. This table summarises the new results performing the same searches.

Search	Results	Compare vs 1.0.0
c	Quite a few results including Audio, File, Group and several others that don’t appear to have a `c` in them	Same
ch	Words with `ch` in them such as Search and Archives and Yoast SEO’s blocks that use the keyword Schema	Same
chi	Archives and Calendar, which has a keyword of Archive.	Same
chil	Goes away to search and returns SB Children block	TADA!
child	Finds Cornell Note, SB Children block and Paypal Donation Block. We now know why it found the other two	Same
childr	Finds SB Children block	TADA!
childre	Finds SB Children block	TADA!
children	Finds SB Children block	TADA!

Searching for the Children block v1.0.1

Searching in other languages

In v1.0.1 I also added translations of children to the readme.txt file.This table summarises the results of performing the search in different languages.

Language	Search	Results
French	Enfants	TADA!
German	Kinder	TADA!
Dutch	Kinderen	TADA!
Italian	prole	TADA!
Spanish	ninas or niñas, ninos or niños	TADA!

Searching for the Children block v1.0.1 in other languages

These results suggest that we can search for any string in the readme.txt file to get a result.

Searching for any old bollocks in the readme.txt

Let’s try some unexpected searches for strings in the readme.txt file for v1.0.1.

Search	Results
5.5-RC2	TADA!
SB	TADA!
Installation	10 blocks but not SB Children block
page-attributes	SB Children block and WooCommerce Product Table

Some technical details

The plugin is a Single Block plugin initially created using the WordPress create-block package ( @wordpress/create-block ).

cd \apache\htdocs\wordpress\wp-content\plugins
npx @wordpress/create-block

I then changed the generated code:

To deliver a Server Side Rendered block.
To internationalise the build for both the block editor and the server side code.
To localise the language files into:
- UK English ( en_GB locale )
- and my i18n test language bbboing ( bb_BB locale ).
and I added a custom webpack.config.js for peaceful coexistence with other single block plugins generated using the same tool.

Some of the source files

Configuration files

block.json

The block.json file describes the block in a computer readable form.

{

        "name": "oik-sb/children",

        "title": "Children",

        "category": "widgets",

        "icon": "list-view",

        "description": "List children of the current content as links.",

        "textdomain": "sb-children-block",

        "supports": {

                "html": false

        },

        "editorScript": "file:./build/index.js",

        "editorStyle": "file:./build/index.css",

        "style": "file:./build/style-index.css"

}

wordpress.org uses this, and other information from the plugin, to determine that it’s a single block plugin.
This file is not currently used by the plugin code.
The structure of this file is documented in an almost impossible to find block registration RFC.
It’s partially explained as Block Type Metadata in block-metadata.md
See https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/23832 and https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/16209

package.json

The package.json file is used to control the build, using npm ( Node Package Manager).

{

        "name": "sb-children-block",

        "version": "1.0.0",

        "description": "List children of the current content as links.",

        "author": "bobbingwide",

        "license": "GPL-2.0-or-later",

        "main": "build/index.js",

        "scripts": {

                "build": "wp-scripts build",

                "format:js": "wp-scripts format-js",

                "lint:css": "wp-scripts lint-style",

                "lint:js": "wp-scripts lint-js",

                "start": "wp-scripts start",

                "dev": "wp-scripts start",

                "packages-update": "wp-scripts packages-update",

                "makepot": "wp i18n make-pot . languages/sb-children-block.pot --exclude=node_modules,vendor,src",

                "makejson": "wp i18n make-json languages --no-purge",

                "l10n": "l10n sb-children-block"

        },

        "devDependencies": {

                "@wordpress/scripts": "^12.1.1"

        },

        "dependencies": {}

}

I added steps to run makepot, l10n and makejson.
- makepot uses a WP-CLI command to extract text strings for translation
- l10n automatically translates these strings into UK English and bbboing
- makejson uses a WP-CLI command to produce the translation files required in the editor.
I also added dev as an alias of start
I haven’t used the other npm run commands

webpack.config.js

After many battles ( documented in a number of GitHub issues ), I added a special webpack configuration file to set a custom jsonpFunction. Without this logic multiple single block plugin blocks which have been built using npm run build do not coexist peacefully.

const config = require( '@wordpress/scripts/config/webpack.config' );
/**

 * Because the block and the package have their own webpack configuration,

 * they must provide a unique name for the global scope (which is used to lazy-load chunks),

 * otherwise it throws a JS error when loading blocks compiled with `npm run build`

 * @see https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/23607

 * @see https://webpack.js.org/configuration/output/#outputjsonpfunction

 * @see https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/24321

 */

// ------------------------------------------------------

config.output.jsonpFunction = 'sb-children-block';

// ------------------------------------------------------

module.exports = config;

JSX source files

index.js, edit.js and save.js contain the JavaScript source of the block.

index.js does the block registration for the editor
edit.js defines the editor interface
save.js just returns null; the block is Server Side Rendered by PHP code.

In each of these files WordPress components are imported from @wordpress/component-name where component-name was often a best guess.

PHP files

The runtime PHP code is in build/index.asset.php and sb-children-block.php.

build/index.asset.php

<?php return array('dependencies' => array('wp-block-editor', 'wp-blocks', 'wp-components', 'wp-editor', 'wp-element', 'wp-i18n', 'wp-polyfill'), 'version' => '7b0281db299adf72321e4f16c36f3025');

This file is generated by the wp-scripts routine which is invoked by npm start or npm run build. It’s used by the logic in the main plugin file to automatically determine the block’s dependencies and its version.

If it doesn’t exist then your site crashes.

sb-children-block.php

The main plugin file registers scripts and styles needed for the block the registers the block itself.

register_block_type( 'oik-sb/children', array(

                'editor_script' => 'sb-children-block-block-editor',

                'editor_style'  => 'sb-children-block-block-editor',

                'style'         => 'sb-children-block-block',

                'render_callback'=>'sb_children_block_dynamic_block',

                'attributes' => [

                        'depth' => [ 'type' => 'string'],

                        'className' => [ 'type' => 'string'],

                ]

        ) );

Most of the plugins’ logic is done by sb_children_block_block_init in response to the init hook. The code for localization of the block in the editor, that was missing from the generated plugin file is:

/*

 * Localise the script by loading the required strings for the build/index.js file

 * from the locale specific .json file in the languages folder

 */

$ok = wp_set_script_translations( 'sb-children-block-block-editor', 'sb-children-block' , $dir .'/languages' );

I was able to defer the logic to load the translation files to the actual logic that gets called to render the block

function sb_children_block_dynamic_block( $attributes ) {

        load_plugin_textdomain( 'sb-children-block', false, 'sb-children-block/languages' );

        $className = isset( $attributes['className']) ? $attributes['className'] : 'wp-block-oik-sb-children';

        $depth = isset( $attributes['depth']) ? $attributes['depth'] : 0;

        $post = get_post();

        $args = [ 'child_of' => $post->ID, 'echo' => false, 'title_li' => null, 'depth' => $depth ];

        $html = '<ul class="'. $className . '">';

        $html .= wp_list_pages( $args );

        $html .= '</ul>';

        return $html;

}

Submitting a plugin to the block directory

Apart from step 1., sharing your Block with the World is now a lot easier than it used to be.

Develop your plugin, on GitHub.
Run the Block Plugin Checker. https://wordpress.org/plugins/developers/block-plugin-validator/
When it works package it up into a .zip file.
Submit your plugin’s .zip file at Add Your Plugin https://wordpress.org/plugins/developers/add/
When it’s approved publish it on wordpress.org using SVN
Wait a while and you’ll receive an email to say that your plugin has been added to the Block Directory. Here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/browse/block/.

Some child pages plugins

Here’s a subset of plugins on wordpress.org that can be used to list child pages.

Plugin name and description	Plugin links	Version, total downloads, last update, tested
SB Children block List children of the current content as links.	sb-children-block home	1.1.0 936 October 20, 2020 5.5.6
oik lazy smart shortcodes for your WordPress website	oik	4.4.0 September 14, 2021 5.8
CC Child Pages Adds a responsive shortcode to list child and sibling pages. Pre-styled or specify your own CSS class for custom styling. Includes child pages widget.	cc-child-pages home	1.40 81,030 May 12, 2021 5.7.3
SB Child List The total in-page navigation solution for Wordpress. Using the shortcodes and widgets provided you can display navigation between your parent, child a …	sb-child-list home	4.5 36,163 May 13, 2019
Page-list [pagelist], [subpages], [siblings] and [pagelist_ext] shortcodes	page-list home	5.2 295,995 September 5, 2020 5.5.6

Notes:

The oik plugin provides a number of shortcodes that can be used to list child content in a variety of forms.
I wasn’t aware of sb-child-list until after I’d submitted my plugin.

herb miller