Related Posts Block: make the block available even when the module is disabled

[jeherve]

Fixes #11861

Proposed changes:

This PR changes the behavior of the Related Posts block when the feature is not available.

Current behavior

On WordPress.com Simple

On simple, you're able to disable the Related Posts feature via the enabled option of the relatedposts Jetpack option. This setting is available under Settings > Reading:

https://yourdotcomsimplesite.com/wp-admin/options-reading.php

When this happens, the block is still available in the editor but will not work properly, as outlined in #11861.

On self-hosted sites

On self-hosted sites (WoA and Jetpack), you can disable the Related Posts module, under Jetpack > Settings > Traffic

In this scenario, the block isn't registered in the editor.

Future behavior

On both environments, the Related Posts block will remain registered and available. When the feature or the module will be disabled:

• We do not display anything on the frontend.
• In the block and site editors, we display a placeholder with a button inviting you to activate the feature. The placeholder contents and the support links should be a bit different whether you're on WordPress.com simple or self-hosted.

• When the feature is enabled (either the module or the option), we display the block contents just like before.

Other information:

• Have you written new tests for your changes, if applicable?
• Have you checked the E2E test CI results, and verified that your changes do not break them?
• Have you tested your changes on WordPress.com, if applicable (if so, you'll see a generated comment below with a script to run)?

Jetpack product discussion

• See Block discoverability: allow a block to be inserted even when its associated module is disabled #32401

Does this pull request change what data or activity we track or use?

• This PR introduces new Tracks events when the placeholder is displayed, and when one enables the feature via the placeholder button.

Testing instructions:

This needs to be tested on simple and on self-hosted. To test this, it's best if you use a site with a lot of existing content, so related posts can be displayed.

On WordPress.com Simple

Note
You will need to apply this diff, as well as D121657-code to bring in the new endpoint.

1. Start a new post in the block editor, and add a 'Related Posts' block.
2. Publish and view the post to verify that the block is present on the frontend.
3. At https://wordpress.com/settings/traffic/, disable the Related Posts toggle
4. Reload the published posts, and verify that the Related Posts block is no longer visible
5. Edit the post again ; the block should be there, but with a placeholder content.
6. Click on the button to enable related posts back.
7. Verify that the related posts appear again on the frontend.

On self-hosted

1. Go to Jetpack > Settings > Traffic
2. Disable the Related Posts module
3. Go to Posts > Add New
4. Add some content and save your draft.
5. Add a Related Posts Block
6. See the placeholder content
7. Enable the module from the button.
8. Publish and verify that you can see the related posts on the frontend.

[github-actions]

Are you an Automattician? Please test your changes on all WordPress.com environments to help mitigate accidental explosions.

• To test on WoA, go to the Plugins menu on a WordPress.com Simple site. Click on the "Upload" button and follow the upgrade flow to be able to upload, install, and activate the Jetpack Beta plugin. Once the plugin is active, go to Jetpack > Jetpack Beta > Jetpack and enable the update/related-posts-availability branch.

• To test on Simple, run the following command on your sandbox:

  bin/jetpack-downloader test jetpack update/related-posts-availability
  

Interested in more tips and information?

• In your local development environment, use the jetpack rsync command to sync your changes to a WoA dev blog.
• Read more about our development workflow here: PCYsg-eg0-p2
• Figure out when your changes will be shipped to customers here: PCYsg-eg5-p2

[github-actions]

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Jetpack plugin:

• Next scheduled release: October 3, 2023.
• Scheduled code freeze: September 25, 2023.

[anomiex]

Seems to work in self-hosted.

On Simple, when adding the block with the feature enabled I get a flash of "You'll need to activate the Related Posts feature" before it switches over to displaying the block. I think your new useRelatedPostsStatus needs to differentiate "loading status" from "changing status" like useModuleStatus does, so you can use the "loading status" indicator at

jetpack/projects/plugins/jetpack/extensions/blocks/related-posts/edit.js

Line 182 in ad77b19

if ( isLoadingModules ) {

along with that one from useModuleStatus.

[jeherve]

On Simple, when adding the block with the feature enabled I get a flash of "You'll need to activate the Related Posts feature" before it switches over to displaying the block.

ah that's a good point, thank you! I just committed 4fda28d to help with that.

[anomiex]

Seems to work.

I addressed feedback.

[sajmes]

On several simple sites, I am seeing the prompt to activate the related posts block in the editor, even when the setting in yoursimplesite.com/wp-admin/options-reading.php for related posts is enabled.

Clicking the activate option in the editor does nothing.

A user reported this across three sites, and I can replicate on a test site. All previously added related posts blocks are no longer working on their site.

I'm not sure if this is related to this, but it seems possible @jeherve

Ticket: 7012332-zd-a8c

[github-actions]

Support References

This comment is automatically generated. Please do not edit it.

• 7012332-zen

[jeherve]

@sajmes Thanks for letting me know. Could you try on your test sites and on the customer's site again? It should work now.

[sajmes]

@jeherve - I checked this and it appears that for existing related post blocks to work, the block needs to be activated from any post on the site. On one of the user's sites, I activated this and the block is displaying related posts on their existing posts.

On their other site, I did not click the activate option on the related posts block, and the site is still not displaying related posts on posts where that block was previously added.

Can you replicate that?

Is this something we can automatically activate for existing blocks if so?

[jeherve]

As discussed in Slack, I'm thinking that this may happen for all the folks who had added Related Posts blocks to their site without fully activating the feature in Settings > Reading.

To fix this issue, one would have to do the following:

1. Go to Settings > Reading
2. If the Related Posts are set to be displayed, set them to be hidden, and then save changes.
3. When the settings reload, mark the related posts to be displayed again.
4. Save your changes.

That should hopefully fix things.

[renata-franco]

Is this issue related to this change?

[jeherve]

@renata-franco No, this isn't related. You'll see this grayed out block whenever the block has already been inserted elsewhere on the page, and when the block has a restriction of one block per page.

[renata-franco]

@renata-franco No, this isn't related. You'll see this grayed out block whenever the block has already been inserted elsewhere on the page, and when the block has a restriction of one block per page.

Thank you, Jeremy! Fixed.