Block Visibility Edge Cache

A WordPress plugin that integrates the Block Visibility plugin with WordPress.com VIP edge caching. It ensures that edge caches are automatically purged at the exact moment a block's visibility is scheduled to change.

How it Works

When using edge caching, page content is cached at the "edge" (servers closer to the user). Traditional "Date/Time" visibility rules in the Block Visibility plugin usually rely on PHP executing during the page load to decide whether to show or hide a block. With edge caching, PHP might not run for every request, leading to stale content being served even after a visibility transition should have occurred.

This plugin solves this by:

1. Parsing the blocks in a post when it is saved or published.
2. Calculating all future "transition" timestamps (when a block should appear or disappear) based on the Date/Time settings.
3. Scheduling background tasks using Action Scheduler to purge the post's edge cache at those specific timestamps.

Requirements

• PHP 8.4+
• WordPress 6.0+
• Block Visibility plugin
• Action Scheduler (bundled with the plugin or available via WooCommerce)

Installation

Via Composer (Recommended)

composer require xwp/block-visibility-edge-cache

Manual

1. Upload the plugin folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress.
3. Ensure the Block Visibility plugin is also active.

Supported Visibility Controls

To maintain compatibility with edge caching, only time-based visibility controls are supported:

• Date Range: Specific start and end dates/times.
• Seasonal: Recurring date ranges every year.
• Day of Week: Showing/hiding blocks on specific days.
• Time of Day: Showing/hiding blocks during specific hours.

Disabled Controls

The following controls are automatically disabled because they depend on dynamic request data (visitor-specific) which is incompatible with static edge caching:

• Browser / Device
• Cookie
• Location
• Role / User
• Screen Size
• URL Path / Query String
• Referral Source
• WooCommerce / EDD / WP Fusion integration
• ACF fields

Developer Hooks

xwp_block_visibility_edge_cache_purged

Triggered after a post's edge cache has been purged. Useful for adding custom purging logic for other cache layers.

add_action( 'xwp_block_visibility_edge_cache_purged', function( $post_id ) {
    // Custom purging logic here.
} );

Local Development & Testing

Installation

composer install
pnpm install

Running Tests

The project includes a comprehensive test suite using PHPUnit via wp-env.

# Start the WordPress environment
pnpm wp-env start

# Run PHPUnit tests
pnpm test:php

# Run PHP Code Sniffer
composer lint

# Run PHPStan
composer phpstan

License

GPLv2 or later.