v3.0 - `blocks-manifest.php`, v3.1 - ranking card by jkcox · Pull Request #255 · ASU-KE/UnityBlocks

jkcox · 2025-12-29T20:55:15Z

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/10/17/new-block-type-registration-apis-to-improve-performance-in-wordpress-6-7/

add manifest script
update block registration
Merge pull request v3.1 - ranking card #256

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR modernizes the block registration approach by implementing WordPress 6.7's new performance-optimized block registration API using a manifest file. The change consolidates individual register_block_type() calls into a single wp_register_block_types_from_metadata_collection() call that leverages a pre-generated blocks-manifest.php file.

Key Changes:

Updated minimum WordPress requirement from 6.1 to 6.8 and PHP from 7.0 to 7.4
Replaced multiple individual block registrations with manifest-based collection registration
Added build-blocks-manifest npm script and react-share dependency (v4.4.1)

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

File	Description
unityblocks.php	Updated requirements, version to 3.0.0, and replaced individual block registrations with manifest-based approach; commented out Pitchfork theme conditional logic pending new solution
package.json	Version bump to 3.0.0, added manifest build script and react-share dependency
package-lock.json	Updated version references and removed peer dependency flags for react-share and its dependencies (jsonp)
build/blocks-manifest.php	New auto-generated file containing metadata for all 9 blocks (anchor-menu, asu-careers, asu-events, events-grid, hero, image-gallery, news-grid, testimonial, wchm)

💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.

Copilot · 2025-12-29T20:58:12Z

+	//$theme_data = wp_get_theme();
+	//$pitchfork_theme = ('pitchfork' === $theme_data->get('TextDomain') || 'pitchfork' === $theme_data->get('Template'));

 	// Register these blocks only if not using Pitchfork
 	// Pitchfork already has these blocks
-	if (!$pitchfork_theme) {
-		register_block_type(__DIR__ . '/build/hero');
-	}
+	// if (!$pitchfork_theme) {
+	// 	register_block_type(__DIR__ . '/build/hero');
+	// } find new solution that works with block manifest


This code is commented out rather than removed, leaving a TODO note about finding a solution for conditional block registration with the manifest approach. Consider either implementing the solution before merging, or creating a tracking issue and removing the commented code. Leaving incomplete functionality commented out can lead to confusion and technical debt.

Copilot · 2025-12-29T20:58:13Z

+			'grid'
+		),
+		'icon' => 'grid-view',
+		'description' => 'Dsiplay a grid layout for ASU Events.',


Typo in the description: "Dsiplay" should be "Display".

Suggested change

'description' => 'Dsiplay a grid layout for ASU Events.',

'description' => 'Display a grid layout for ASU Events.',

This is an obvious typo, but I believe this blocks-manifest.php file is auto-generated, right? In that case, I don't think we'd want to commit this suggested change because wouldn't it just be overwritten the next time the build runs?

I think we need to make this correction in: build/asu-events/block.json instead

Copilot · 2025-12-29T20:58:13Z

+		'textdomain' => 'unityblocks',
+		'viewScript' => array(
+			'file:./frontend.js',
+			'unityblocks-careers-view-script'


The WCHM block is using 'unityblocks-careers-view-script' as its viewScript handle, which appears to be incorrect. It should use a WCHM-specific script handle like 'unityblocks-wchm-view-script' to match the pattern used by other blocks.

Suggested change

'unityblocks-careers-view-script'

'unityblocks-wchm-view-script'

Same as the above comment about the typo, this is a good catch from CoPilot but I can't tell if the suggestion it would be committing would be in the blocks-manifest.php file, or in the source file where the handle is actually declared: build/wchm/block.json

As always, the caveat is that I may be misunderstanding what Copilot is suggesting it is going to do.

if careers and wchm are on the same page there would likely be issues. this will be a fix in a separate pr as well

No worries there, then.

wmcconnell

I had no front-end issues adding the blocks to a test page (other than that the Careers block may not be functional, but that's not an issue related to registering the block itself).

I see that this technique requires WordPress 6.8, so I am going to suggest that we keep some backwards compatibility as described on this page (down the page under backwards compatibility) because we still have one high-profile site, Biodesign, running an older version of Wordpress.

The example code on that page looks like this:

if ( function_exists( 'wp_register_block_types_from_metadata_collection' ) ) {
    wp_register_block_types_from_metadata_collection( __DIR__ . '/build', __DIR__ . '/build/blocks-manifest.php' );
} else {
    if ( function_exists( 'wp_register_block_metadata_collection' ) ) {
        wp_register_block_metadata_collection( __DIR__ . '/build', __DIR__ . '/build/blocks-manifest.php' );
    }
    $manifest_data = require __DIR__ . '/build/blocks-manifest.php';
    foreach ( array_keys( $manifest_data ) as $block_type ) {
        register_block_type( __DIR__ . "/build/{$block_type}" );
    }
}

If I understand this code correctly, it will try the latest approach (6.8), before trying to fall back to the previous method (6.7) if possible, before resorting to looping through the folders and registering each block individually. It looks like we would still need the block manifest file for that last loop to work, as it draws the block/folder names from that. Regardless, I would not want to release a new version of this plugin that broke on a site like Biodesign which usually has a lot of eyes on it.

The other solution, of course, is to update Biodesign; it's being held back because of issues we had with displaying profiles due to the old in-house plugin not working on later versions of WordPress. Progress on updating that site has been slow, however.

wmcconnell · 2025-12-30T21:20:32Z

I should say, now that it's too late, that we could always merge this the way it is, since it's only going into develop, and then make the backwards compatibility change. I didn't think of that until after I clicked the button :(

Refactor block registration to support WP version checks and use block manifest.

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.

Co-authored-by: Copilot <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

wmcconnell · 2026-01-05T17:44:23Z

@jkcox I did some testing on Wednesday by downgrading my local site to version 6.5.7 (to match Biodesign) and everything worked except the Unity Hero. I go the standard message about my site "not having support" for that block. I see logic in there to skip registering that block if we're using Pitchfork, but I'm certainly not using Pitchfork.

I'm going to run that test again just to make sure I remember things correctly and verify the version/branch information. It was the Wednesday before a holiday and I was not fully paying attention.

Co-authored-by: jkcox <8856538+jkcox@users.noreply.github.com>

Update ranking-card block to match unity-react-core RankingCard API

wmcconnell · 2026-01-08T22:54:44Z

Another long comment on a rainy day:

TL/DR: Unity Heroes will stop working on any site running WordPress 6.5 or earlier. Biodesign is being held on 6.5.7 to allow our old iSearch plugin to continue working. Therefore, updating Unity Blocks on Biodesign may break heroes. And when I say break, they will stop rendering on the front end, and not be editable in the editor. It's only dumb luck that the plugin does not currently automatically update on the Biodesign production site.. This issue is not related to this pull request, but something I discovered while testing. I was concerned about things failing on Biodesign and asked John to apply some code from WordPress to maintain backwards compatibility, but it turns that that code only goes backwards until v6.6 of WordPress. When I rolled my local back to 6.5.7 to match Biodesign, I noticed that heroes stopped working.

Unity Blocks now requires v.6.6, or higher, of WordPress.

First off, so as not to bury the lede, I am planning on approving this pull request. I just wanted to put down for the record what I found in my testing.

First, the history...

In WordPress 6.6, a change was made to some associated build tools to allow the use of a better JSX transformer (whatever that is) in React. One of the affected tools was @wordpress/scripts, which I believe we are using in this project
However, it is not a backwards-compatible change, and this article points out that to maintain compatibility with WordPress versions before 6.6, you should avoid bumping the version of @wordpress/scripts above v28
We, however, have already bumped up our version of @wordpress/scripts to 30, or something like that. This has already happened and is not a part of this pull request, buy the way.
Then, in WordPress 6.8, a new method for registering blocks, called the block manifest, was introduced. That is what we are implementing here. As far as I can tell in my testing on 6.6 or higher, the new block manifest approach is working as expected.

This only matters because...

One of our high-profile sites, if not our most high-profile, is Biodesign
Biodesign is currently being held back on WordPress 6.5.7 in order to keep an old iSearch profile plugin working
If we install a plugin that is using a more recent version of the @wordpress/scripts tool, as this plugin is now doing, the Unity Hero block fails to render because it has a specific dependency on something called the react-jsx-runtime that is likely no longer around after we bumped up the version of @wordpress/scripts
I tested this by rolling back my local version of WordPress and noticing that all the heroes stopped appearing, and the editor told me I did not have support for that block. Errors in Query Monitor looked like this:

By dumb luck, it appears, we have never installed Git Updater on the production Biodesign site, and this plugin never got automatically updated, or all Unity Heroes would stop working.
I have talked with Itzel about updating Biodesign; that will break the profiles in the various research centers. We will need to do some outreach and test on QA before we do anything on production.

wmcconnell

Can we update unityblocks.php to change line 6 to indicate that the new minimum requirement is 6.6. I think that is the case now (see my crazy long comment for more).

v3.1 - ranking card

wmcconnell

Approved. Since the JSX dependency issue I discovered while testing this is not actually tied to this particular PR, and we've bumped the required WordPress version to 6.6, there are no issues.

jkcox · 2026-01-14T17:42:24Z

fixed merge conflicts, just need another approval to merge

Copilot

Copilot encountered an error and was unable to review this pull request. You can try again by re-requesting a review.

wmcconnell

Because I have it on good authority that this is just resolving merge conflicts. Approved.

jkcox added 3 commits December 29, 2025 13:48

v3.0 - block manifest, build and dev update

4d04de8

v3 - update requirements, register via block manifest

f4e438d

manifest init

9546754

jkcox requested a review from Copilot December 29, 2025 20:55

jkcox self-assigned this Dec 29, 2025

jkcox added [Type] Maintenance Minor file cleanup and organization tasks [Type] Gutenberg Issues/PRs related to the current version of the Gutenberg plugin labels Dec 29, 2025

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of jkcox December 29, 2025 20:55 View session

jkcox requested review from wmcconnell and zainabD December 29, 2025 20:56

Copilot AI reviewed Dec 29, 2025

View reviewed changes

wmcconnell requested changes Dec 30, 2025

View reviewed changes

Update block registration logic for compatibility

a4d7db2

Refactor block registration to support WP version checks and use block manifest.

jkcox requested a review from Copilot December 30, 2025 21:51

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of jkcox December 30, 2025 21:52 View session

jkcox requested a review from wmcconnell December 30, 2025 21:52

jkcox changed the title ~~blocks-manifest.php~~ v3.0 - blocks-manifest.php Dec 30, 2025

Copilot AI reviewed Dec 30, 2025

View reviewed changes

Comment thread unityblocks.php Outdated

Comment thread unityblocks.php Outdated

Comment thread unityblocks.php Outdated

Comment thread unityblocks.php Outdated

jkcox and others added 5 commits December 30, 2025 14:56

Update required WordPress version to 6.1

a6a2e53

Update unityblocks.php

d3f71d9

Co-authored-by: Copilot <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

v3.1 ranking card

8e1d450

npm i asu/react-core

a921e69

init ranking card

271fb37

Copilot AI and others added 5 commits January 6, 2026 17:50

Initial plan

f0d84bc

Update ranking-card block with correct props from unity-react-core

9f4da9f

Co-authored-by: jkcox <8856538+jkcox@users.noreply.github.com>

import update esm component

5d327dd

Fix DOM error when changing image size by removing conditional PanelRow

c3a28d3

Co-authored-by: jkcox <8856538+jkcox@users.noreply.github.com>

Add key prop to RankingCard to force remount on imageSize change

13d6b9e

Co-authored-by: jkcox <8856538+jkcox@users.noreply.github.com>

jkcox added 3 commits January 6, 2026 15:07

Merge pull request #259 from ASU-KE/copilot/sub-pr-256

0715db8

Update ranking-card block to match unity-react-core RankingCard API

build v1.0 ranking card

5b7cdaf

manifest v3.1 - ranking card

72c8a94

wmcconnell requested changes Jan 8, 2026

View reviewed changes

Update required WordPress version to 6.6

d9b496b

jkcox requested a review from wmcconnell January 9, 2026 20:37

Merge pull request #256 from ASU-KE/jcox-ranking-card

85b4a13

v3.1 - ranking card

jkcox changed the title ~~v3.0 - blocks-manifest.php~~ v3.0 - blocks-manifest.php, v3.1 - ranking card Jan 9, 2026

wmcconnell previously approved these changes Jan 9, 2026

View reviewed changes

Merge branch 'develop' into jcox-manifest

01edd6f

jkcox dismissed wmcconnell’s stale review via 01edd6f January 14, 2026 17:40

fix merge conflict

551ff2c

jkcox requested a review from wmcconnell January 14, 2026 17:42

jkcox requested a review from Copilot January 14, 2026 17:45

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of jkcox January 14, 2026 17:45 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jan 14, 2026

View reviewed changes

wmcconnell approved these changes Jan 14, 2026

View reviewed changes

jkcox merged commit 7fa1fda into develop Jan 14, 2026
6 checks passed

jkcox deleted the jcox-manifest branch January 14, 2026 18:22

	'description' => 'Dsiplay a grid layout for ASU Events.',
	'description' => 'Display a grid layout for ASU Events.',

	'unityblocks-careers-view-script'
	'unityblocks-wchm-view-script'

Conversation

jkcox commented Dec 29, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Pull request overview

Reviewed changes

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Dec 29, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Dec 29, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

wmcconnell Dec 30, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Dec 29, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

wmcconnell Dec 30, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

jkcox Dec 30, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

wmcconnell Dec 30, 2025

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

wmcconnell left a comment • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

wmcconnell commented Dec 30, 2025

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Pull request overview

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

wmcconnell commented Jan 5, 2026

Uh oh!

wmcconnell commented Jan 8, 2026

Uh oh!

wmcconnell left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

wmcconnell left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

jkcox commented Jan 14, 2026

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

wmcconnell left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

4 participants

jkcox commented Dec 29, 2025 •

edited

Loading

wmcconnell Dec 30, 2025 •

edited

Loading

wmcconnell left a comment •

edited

Loading