Building from Source

Building from Source

The Gutenberg block editor scripts are written in JSX and compiled with webpack. The PHP source requires no build step — it's loaded directly via the autoloader.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or later
• npm (included with Node.js)

Setup

git clone https://github.com/victoraigbeghian/intercessor.git
cd intercessor
npm install

Build Commands

Command	Description
npm run build	Compile block scripts for production (minified)
npm run start	Watch mode — recompiles on file changes during development
npm run package	Build + create a distribution .zip for WordPress.org
npm run zip	Create the .zip without rebuilding (uses existing compiled assets)

What Gets Built

The webpack build compiles three Gutenberg block entry points:

Source	Output
src/blocks/prayer-form/index.js	assets/js/blocks/prayer-form/index.js
src/blocks/prayer-wall/index.js	assets/js/blocks/prayer-wall/index.js
src/blocks/prayer-history/index.js	assets/js/blocks/prayer-history/index.js

Each output directory also receives a copy of its block.json (via copy-webpack-plugin) and an index.asset.php (via @wordpress/dependency-extraction-webpack-plugin) that declares WordPress script dependencies.

Build Stack

Tool	Purpose
webpack	Module bundler
Babel	JSX/ES6+ transpilation
@wordpress/dependency-extraction-webpack-plugin	Externalizes @wordpress/* packages so they're loaded from WordPress core at runtime
copy-webpack-plugin	Copies block.json files into the output directories
cross-env	Cross-platform NODE_ENV setting

Packaging for Distribution

Running npm run package creates dist/intercessor-{version}.zip (version is read from intercessor.php). The distribution zip includes only runtime files:

Included: intercessor.php, index.php, uninstall.php, readme.txt, CHANGELOG.md, LICENSE, src/ (PHP + block source), assets/, templates/, languages/

Excluded: node_modules/, tests/, .github/, build config files (webpack.config.js, package.json, phpcs.xml, composer.json, etc.)

Linting

npm run lint:js     # ESLint on block source

For PHP coding standards, the project includes a phpcs.xml configuration for use with PHP_CodeSniffer and the WordPress Coding Standards.