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SherBlock

A WordPress admin helper for inspecting Gutenberg blocks and block-enabled content across your site.

by Taabeer Murtaza · github.com/taabeermurtaza/sherblock

★ 0stars

Install

Download source zip No release zip yet

This is the repository archive. It installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow.

Install straight from GitHub with WP-CLI:

wp plugin install https://github.com/taabeermurtaza/sherblock/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
No built-in updater. New versions won't appear under Dashboard → Updates. Install new releases yourself, or let Git Updater track the repository.
Readme github.com/taabeermurtaza/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

Dependency Version
WordPress 6.0+
PHP 8.0+

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

Provider ID Plugin Required
WordPress Core core None
Advanced Custom Fields acf ACF Pro
Carbon Fields carbon-fields Carbon Fields
Lazy Blocks lazy-blocks Lazy Blocks

REST API

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

Endpoint Description
GET /wp-json/sherblock/v1/blocks List all registered blocks
GET /wp-json/sherblock/v1/blocks/{name} Single block with usage count
GET /wp-json/sherblock/v1/blocks/{name}/usage Posts using a specific block
GET /wp-json/sherblock/v1/post-types Gutenberg-enabled post types
GET /wp-json/sherblock/v1/post-types/{slug}/blocks Block frequency for a post type
GET /wp-json/sherblock/v1/index/status Index health and stats

Development

Setup

cd wp-content/plugins/sherblock
composer install

Key directories

Directory Purpose
src/ All PHP application code (PSR-4: SherBlock\)
views/admin/ PHP view templates (presentation only)
assets/css/ Admin stylesheet
assets/js/ Admin JavaScript
tests/ PHPUnit tests

Author

Taabeer Murtaza — GitHub

License

GPL v2 or later.