BlockBridge WP

WordPress plugin that serializes Gutenberg blocks into a structured JSON tree, exposed via the REST API. Pairs with blockbridge-react to render WordPress content as React components in headless applications.

How It Works

BlockBridge WP adds a serializedBlocks field to every post type that supports the block editor. When a headless front end fetches a post via the REST API, it receives the block tree alongside the standard post fields — no custom endpoint required.

WordPress REST API /wp-json/wp/v2/posts/{id}
  → serializedBlocks: [
      { name: "core/paragraph", _key: "...", content: "Hello world", attributes: {} },
      { name: "core/image", _key: "...", attributes: { url: "...", alt: "..." } },
      ...
    ]

Installation

1. Download or clone this repo into wp-content/plugins/blockbridge-wp/
2. Activate the plugin in Plugins → Installed Plugins

The plugin is currently distributed via GitHub only. WP CLI:

wp plugin install https://github.com/iwritec0de/blockbridge-wp/archive/refs/heads/main.zip --activate

Usage

Install and activate the plugin, then fetch any post or page from the REST API:

curl https://your-site.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/1

The response will include a serializedBlocks array alongside standard post fields. Pass it to BlockContent from blockbridge-react:

import { BlockContent } from '@iwritec0de/blockbridge-react';

export default function Post({ post }) {
  return <BlockContent blocks={post.serializedBlocks} />;
}

Filter Hooks

blockbridge_ignore_list

Filter the list of block names the plugin will skip during serialization.

add_filter( 'blockbridge_ignore_list', function( array $ignored ): array {
    $ignored[] = 'core/shortcode';
    $ignored[] = 'core/legacy-widget';
    return $ignored;
} );

blockbridge_block

Filter any block's schema immediately after it is generated. Runs for every block.

Parameters:

• $schema (array) — The generated schema for this block. Shape: { name, _key, content, attributes, children }.
• $block (array) — The raw block array from parse_blocks(). Contains blockName, attrs, innerHTML, innerBlocks.

add_filter( 'blockbridge_block', function( array $schema, array $block ): array {
    // Add a custom attribute to every block.
    $schema['attributes']['myCustomField'] = get_post_meta(
        get_the_ID(),
        '_my_custom_field',
        true
    );
    return $schema;
}, 10, 2 );

blockbridge_block_{blockName}

Filter the schema for a specific block type. The block name is normalized (slashes and hyphens become underscores), so core/image becomes blockbridge_block_core/image.

// Add srcset data to image blocks.
add_filter( 'blockbridge_block_core/image', function( array $schema ): array {
    $id = $schema['attributes']['id'] ?? 0;
    if ( $id ) {
        $schema['attributes']['srcset'] = wp_get_attachment_image_srcset( $id, 'full' );
    }
    return $schema;
} );

// Suppress heading blocks above level 2.
add_filter( 'blockbridge_block_core/heading', function( array $schema ): array {
    if ( ( $schema['attributes']['level'] ?? 2 ) === 1 ) {
        return []; // Returning empty array removes the block from output.
    }
    return $schema;
} );

Supported Block Types

The plugin serializes all block types. Built-in types receive structured attribute extraction; any unknown block falls back to passing through its raw innerHTML via the content field.

Built-in structured types:

Development

Install dependencies

composer install

Run tests

composer test

Tests use PHPUnit 9 with Brain\Monkey for WordPress function mocking. No WordPress installation or database is required.

Lint

composer lint