Gutenberg custom blocks php render issue

Question

I'm creating some custom dynamic blocks for WordPress Gutenberg editor (following this link ).

I use the PHP render for these blocks, meaning I have this code on save:

save: function( props ) {
    // Rendering in PHP
      return;

},

The render function is called via this callback:

register_block_type( 'my-plugin/latest-post', array(
    'render_callback' => 'my_plugin_render_block_latest_post',
) );

I'm not gonna post the function code since is irrelevant in this case. (I do a WP_Query and display some custom post data and return a html code),

My problem is that WP Gutenberg takes the output from the function and adds <p> and <br> tags (classic wpautop behaviour).

My question is: How can I disable that only for custom blocks? I could use this:

remove_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop' );

but I don't want to alter the default behaviour.

Some additional findings. The php function use for block rendering use get_the_excerpt(). Once this function is used (and i assume is happening for get_the_content() ) the wpautop filter is applied and the html markup of the block gets messed up.

I don't know if this is a bug or the expected behavior but is there any simple solution to this that does not involve removing the filter ? ( For ex on themeforest removing this filter is not allowed.)

Answer 1

We have by default:

add_filter( 'the_content', 'do_blocks', 9 );
add_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop' );
add_filter( 'the_excerpt', 'wpautop' );
...

I skimmed through the do_blocks() (src) and if I understand correctly it removes the wpautop filtering if the content contains any blocks, but restores the filter for any subsequent the_content() usage.

I wonder if your render block callback contains any such subsequent usage, as you mentioned a WP_Query loop.

One could e.g. try:

$block_content = '';

remove_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop' ); // Remove the filter on the content.
remove_filter( 'the_excerpt', 'wpautop' ); // Remove the filter on the excerpt.

... code in callback ...

add_filter( 'the_content', 'wpautop' );    // Restore the filter on the content.
add_filter( 'the_excerpt', 'wpautop' );    // Restore the filter on the excerpt.

return $block_content;

within your my_plugin_render_block_latest_post() callback code.