Block Visibility is a free plugin for applying conditional display rules to Gutenberg blocks. It used to have a free and a pro version, but the author decided to add the pro features now to the free version. It includes support for Advanced Custom Fields. The video provides a brief tour of the plugin’s features.
Block Visibility Types of Conditional Display Rules
The plugin currently supports display rules based on:
- Hide blocks from all users.
- Start and end date/time.
- Display blocks based on screen size (Desktop, Tablet, Mobile, and more)
- Based on whether the user is logged in or logged out.
- Based on specific roles.
- Only show blocks only for specific users.
- Based on the URL query strings.
- Show or hide blocks based on their location, such as their post type, taxonomy, archive, etc.
- Display blocks based on a website visitor’s domain referral source.
- Support for post and user metadata (custom fields).
- Based on cookies.
- Control the visibility of blocks based on ACF fields.
- Use Block Visibility with WP Fusion to conditionally show or hide content based on data tags.
Block Visibility Overview and Admin Settings
Block Visibility is available for free from the WordPress plugin directory. The plugin has more than 9,000 active installs and 43 five star reviews. Version 3.0 and above has the pro features rolled in.
There is a website for the plugin that has a knowledgebase with a number of help articles.
When you install and activate the plugin you get admin screens under the Settings menu: General Settings, Visibility Controls, and Block Manager.
There are a number of settings under General Settings. One group is for which user roles will be allowed to use the plugins settings.
The Visibility Controls allow you to remove from the Gutenberg editor and of the display condition types that you are not going to use.
The Block Manager area allows you to add or remove the blocks where options for conditional display will be shown. Visibility settings and Block Manager settings are for streamlining the editor experience.
Block Visibility in with Gutenberg Editor
When editing content in Gutenberg, there is a panel added to the right options area for visibility settings. Here you can hide a block of use visibility presets.
The main panel has a hotdog menu in the upper right. When you click on it then you get a list of all of the types of display conditions. If you click on one then the controls for that display condition are added to the main panel.
If you click the icon to the right of Visibility Conditions then the presets popup opens. Note that this also has a hotdog menu and that is where you delete a preset, if you need to. The center of the popup is where you specify the presets control sets. Once you’ve created a preset then it shows up in the dropdown on the main panel.
Conclusions
Block Visibility is not perfect, but it encompasses a large group of display rule options. The fact that it also works with ACF is a boon for those building dynamic websites. I appreciate the contribution of Nick Diego in making this plugin available.
