Ever find yourself wishing you could tweak your WordPress blocks just a little bit more? Maybe you want to show a specific promotion only to users who haven’t signed up for your newsletter, or perhaps you need to display a special message on mobile devices. While plugins offer incredible flexibility, sometimes their default settings just don’t cut it. That’s where customization comes in, but it can often feel like diving into a coding abyss. In this article, we’ll show you how to customize Block Visibility — Conditional Visibility Control for the Block Editor, and how AI can make the process surprisingly straightforward.

What is Block Visibility — Conditional Visibility Control for the Block Editor?

Block Visibility — Conditional Visibility Control for the Block Editor is a WordPress plugin that gives you fine-grained control over which blocks are visible to your website visitors. Think of it as a powerful set of switches and dials for your content. Instead of every block being visible to everyone, you can tailor the experience based on user roles, screen sizes, date and time, and much more. For example, you could show a block only to logged-in users, or hide a large image on mobile devices to improve page load speed.

Key features include the ability to schedule block visibility (perfect for promotions), restrict blocks to specific user roles (ideal for membership sites), and target blocks based on the post type or taxonomy. With a stellar 4.9/5 stars based on 99 reviews and over 40,000 active installations, it’s a trusted tool for WordPress users seeking more control over their content. The plugin allows you to create a more personalized and effective user experience, all without touching a line of code (in its basic form!).

For more information about the plugin, visit the official plugin page on WordPress.org.

Why Customize it?

While this tool offers a lot of built-in functionality, sometimes the default settings just aren’t enough. Maybe you need to integrate it with a very specific third-party service, or you want to create a custom workflow that’s unique to your website’s needs. That’s where customization comes in. Think of the plugin as a great foundation – customization lets you build the house of your dreams on top of it.

Customizing the system offers numerous benefits. You can tailor the plugin to perfectly match your specific requirements, streamline your workflows, and enhance the user experience. For instance, imagine a website selling online courses. The plugin can control content visibility for logged-in members, but by customizing it, you could create a custom condition that checks if a user has completed a specific course before showing them the “Advanced Course” block. That’s a level of control the default settings simply can’t provide. Or consider a scenario where you want to show a block ONLY when a user comes from a specific social media campaign. By customizing it, you could pull campaign data from the URL and conditionally display blocks based on this data.

Ultimately, customization is worth it when it solves a specific problem or unlocks a new level of functionality that isn’t available out-of-the-box. It’s about making the tool work exactly how you need it to, creating a more efficient and effective website.

Common Customization Scenarios

Extending Core Functionality

Sometimes, the built-in features of a plugin are almost perfect, but you need just a little bit more. You might want to add a new visibility condition that’s not included in the standard options. This is where extending core functionality comes in.

Through customization, you can create new visibility rules based on almost anything. For example, imagine you want to show a block only to users who have a specific number of comments on your website. The plugin doesn’t offer this out of the box, but you can customize it to check the user’s comment count and conditionally display the block.

Example: A forum website wants to reward active members with exclusive content. They customize the tool to show a special “VIP Content” block only to users with more than 100 comments.

AI can help by generating the code needed to check the user’s comment count and integrate it with the plugin’s visibility logic. Instead of manually writing complex PHP code, you can use AI to create the necessary functionality with simple instructions.

Integrating with Third-Party Services

Many websites rely on a variety of third-party services, such as marketing automation platforms, CRM systems, and e-commerce platforms. Integrating the plugin with these services can unlock powerful new possibilities.

You can use customization to display blocks based on data from these external services. For example, you could show a personalized welcome message to users who are identified as “high-value customers” in your CRM. Or, you could display a special offer to users who are subscribed to a specific email list.

Example: An e-commerce store uses a marketing automation platform to track customer behavior. They customize this tool to display a personalized product recommendation block to users who have previously viewed similar items.

AI can help by generating the code needed to connect to the third-party service’s API and retrieve the necessary data. It can also help you map the data to the plugin’s visibility conditions, making the integration seamless.

Creating Custom Workflows

Every website has its own unique workflow for creating and managing content. Customizing the plugin can help you streamline these workflows and make them more efficient.

You can create custom visibility rules that are specific to your workflow. For example, you could create a rule that automatically hides a block after a certain date, or that only shows a block to users who are assigned a specific role in your content creation process.

Example: A news website uses a multi-stage editorial process. They customize this tool to show a “Draft” block only to editors who are responsible for reviewing the article, and then automatically hide it once the article is published.

AI can help by generating the code needed to automate these workflow-specific visibility rules. You can simply describe your desired workflow, and AI can create the necessary code to implement it within the plugin.

Building Admin Interface Enhancements

The plugin’s settings are user-friendly, but sometimes you need to provide a tailored admin experience for your clients or team members. You might want to simplify the interface, add custom help text, or restrict access to certain settings.

Customization allows you to modify the plugin’s admin interface to meet your specific needs. For example, you could create a custom settings page that only displays the options that are relevant to a particular user role. Or, you could add help text to explain the purpose of each setting.

Example: A web design agency wants to simplify the plugin’s settings for their clients. They customize it to create a custom settings page with only the most essential options, and add help text to explain each option in plain language.

AI can assist by generating the code required to customize the admin interface. You can describe the desired changes, and AI can generate the necessary HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to implement them.

Adding API Endpoints

For advanced users, adding API endpoints can provide even greater control and flexibility. This allows you to interact with the plugin programmatically, enabling you to automate tasks and integrate it with other systems.

With custom API endpoints, you can control block visibility from external applications, create custom dashboards, and build advanced reporting tools. For example, you could use an API endpoint to automatically hide a block when a product goes out of stock in your e-commerce system.

Example: A large website uses a custom content management system. They add an API endpoint to this tool to allow their CMS to automatically control block visibility based on data from their internal systems.

AI can help by generating the code needed to create custom API endpoints. You can define the desired functionality of the endpoint, and AI can generate the necessary PHP code to handle the requests and responses.