SherBlock

A WordPress admin tool for inspecting, auditing, and tracking Gutenberg block usage across your site.

Overview

SherBlock gives developers and site builders a single dashboard to discover registered blocks, track where they're used, and understand how content is composed across post types.

Features

Dashboard

• Overview stats: total blocks, indexed posts, active providers, Gutenberg post types
• Most used blocks chart (CSS-only, no external dependencies)
• Provider status indicators
• Recently indexed content feed
• One-click re-index with AJAX progress bar

Block Discovery

• Automatic discovery from WordPress core, ACF, Carbon Fields, and Lazy Blocks
• Pluggable provider system — add new sources by implementing BlockProviderInterface
• Searchable, filterable block list by category and provider

Usage Indexing

• Custom database table for fast block-to-post queries
• Auto-indexes on post save (configurable)
• Full site re-index with batched AJAX processing
• Recursive innerBlocks parsing

Admin Pages

• Block List — Browse all registered blocks with search, category/provider filters, pagination
• Block Detail — View block metadata and every post that uses it, with status badges
• Post Types — List all Gutenberg-enabled post types
• Post Type Detail — Block frequency breakdown per post type
• Unused Blocks — Find registered blocks with zero usage
• Settings — Configure auto-indexing, batch size, debug logging

Premium Features (via Freemius)

• REST API endpoints for programmatic access to all block data
• CSV export of block usage data
• Block usage trends over time
• Bulk re-index by post type
• Orphaned index cleanup
• Multisite support

Requirements

Installation

1. Copy the sherblock folder into wp-content/plugins/.
2. Run composer install inside the plugin directory.
3. Activate SherBlock in Plugins → Installed Plugins.
4. Open the SherBlock menu in the WordPress admin.

Architecture

SherBlock follows a layered, WordPress-native architecture:

Admin Pages (controllers) → Views (PHP templates)
       ↓
Repositories & Finders (data access)
       ↓
Services (Indexer, ProviderManager, BlockSupportChecker)
       ↓
Value Objects (Block, PostType, PostBlockUsage)
       ↓
Providers (pluggable block discovery)
       ↓
WordPress APIs / $wpdb

Key design decisions:

• Immutable value objects — Block, PostType, PostBlockUsage are typed, readonly objects
• Repository pattern — Interfaces at all persistence boundaries
• Manual DI — All wiring in Plugin::registerServices(), no container
• WordPress-native — Uses add_action, admin_menu, dbDelta, $wpdb, transients
• declare(strict_types=1) on every PHP file

Block Providers

REST API

SherBlock provides a REST API for programmatic access (premium):

Development

Setup

cd wp-content/plugins/sherblock
composer install

Key directories

Author

Taabeer Murtaza — GitHub

License

GPL v2 or later.