BDN Story Summary Block

WordPress plugin that adds a bdn/story-summary Gutenberg block to the block editor. The block displays a concise "In brief" bullet-point summary at the top of a story, generated on demand using the Nota key-points API. Editors review and edit the bullets before publishing.

What it does

• Registers the bdn/story-summary block in the Gutenberg editor
• In the empty state: shows a "Generate summary" button — one click calls Nota's key-points API and populates 3–4 editable bullet points
• In the populated state: each bullet is independently editable, with add/remove controls (min 2, max 6) and a Regenerate button in the block toolbar
• On the frontend: renders a styled "In brief" box with bullets and an AI attribution line that links to the newsroom's AI policy page
• The block is inserted automatically at the top of every imported story by the bdn-metadata plugin

Requirements

• WordPress 6.4+
• PHP 8.1+
• Nota plugin — already installed and configured with nota_api_key and nota_api_url options (this plugin reads those directly; no new credentials needed)
• Node.js 18+ and npm (only needed to rebuild JavaScript from source)

Installation

The build/ directory is committed to this repo, so no local build step is required on the server.

1. Upload the bdn-summary-block folder to wp-content/plugins/
2. Activate the plugin in Plugins → Installed Plugins
3. Go to Settings → BDN Summary Block and set the AI policy URL

Configuration

Settings → BDN Summary Block

Nota API credentials are read automatically from the options set by the Nota plugin (nota_api_key, nota_api_url). No additional configuration is needed.

Editor workflow

1. Open a post in the block editor. If imported via Docs-to-WordPress with bdn-metadata active, the block is already inserted at the top. Otherwise, add it from the block inserter under Text → Story Summary.
2. Click Generate summary. A spinner appears while the Nota API processes the story content. The block populates with 3–4 bullet points.
3. Review and edit the bullets as needed. Each bullet is a free-text field. You can add bullets (up to 6) or remove them (down to 2) using the inline controls.
4. To regenerate from scratch, click the Regenerate summary button in the block toolbar.
5. Publish. The "In brief" box and attribution line appear on the frontend automatically.

The block can be deleted from any post where a summary isn't appropriate.

Frontend output

┌─ In brief ─────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                                 │
│  • Bullet one                                   │
│  • Bullet two                                   │
│  • Bullet three                                 │
│                                                 │
│  ─────────────────────────────────────────────  │
│  Generated with the help of AI.                 │
│  Read our AI policy.  [link]                    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Styled with a light gray background, a blue left border, and a small-caps "In brief" label. The attribution line is italic, smaller text — present but unobtrusive, similar to a photo credit.

Development

To modify the JavaScript or SCSS, rebuild with:

npm install
npm run build

Commit the build/ directory along with your source changes. The build output must be committed so the plugin works on servers without Node.

npm run lint:js     # ESLint

Running tests

PHP tests use wp-phpunit/wp-phpunit:

composer install
WP_TESTS_DIR=vendor/wp-phpunit/wp-phpunit vendor/bin/phpunit

File structure

bdn-summary-block/
├── bdn-summary-block.php          ← Plugin entry point, autoloader, hook registration
├── includes/
│   ├── class-summary-settings.php ← Settings page (AI policy URL)
│   └── class-summary-ajax.php     ← AJAX handler, Nota API call, block data localization
├── src/
│   ├── block.json                 ← Block metadata and attribute schema
│   ├── index.js                   ← Block registration
│   ├── edit.js                    ← Editor UI (empty state + populated state)
│   ├── save.js                    ← Returns null (dynamic block, PHP renders frontend)
│   ├── render.php                 ← Server-side frontend render
│   └── style.scss                 ← Frontend + editor styles
├── build/                         ← Compiled output (committed; do not edit directly)
├── tests/
│   ├── bootstrap.php
│   ├── test-summary-settings.php
│   └── test-summary-ajax.php
├── composer.json
├── package.json
└── phpunit.xml.dist

Related plugins

• bdn-metadata — automatically inserts the empty bdn/story-summary block at the top of every imported story. Not required to use the block manually, but needed for the auto-insert workflow.