Weston Ruter

Vladimir Jimenez

This plugin extends the Code block in WordPress core to add syntax highlighting which is rendered on the server. Pre-existing Code blocks on a site are automatically extended to include syntax highlighting. Doing server-side syntax highlighting eliminates the need to enqueue any JavaScript on the frontend (e.g. Highlight.js or Prism.js) and this ensures there is no flash of unhighlighted code (FOUC?). Reducing script on the frontend improves frontend performance, and it also allows for the syntax highlighted code to appear properly in AMP pages as rendered by the <a href="https://amp-wp.org" rel="nofollow ugc">official AMP plugin</a> (see also <a href="https://github.com/ampproject/amp-wp/issues/972" rel="nofollow ugc">ampproject/amp-wp#972</a>) or when JavaScript is turned off in the browser.
This extended Code block uses language auto-detection to add syntax highlighting, but you can override the language in the block’s settings sidebar. (There is currently no syntax highlighting of the Code block in the editor, but see <a href="https://github.com/westonruter/syntax-highlighting-code-block/issues/8" rel="nofollow ugc">#8</a>.) The plugin supports all <a href="https://highlightjs.org/static/demo/" rel="nofollow ugc">programming languages</a> that <a href="https://github.com/scrivo/highlight.php" rel="nofollow ugc">highlight.php</a> supports (being a port of <a href="https://highlightjs.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">highlight.js</a>). The Code block also is extended to support specifying lines to highlight which get marked up with <code>mark</code> elements (including in RSS feeds). There is also a checkbox for whether to show line numbers on the frontend (with the numbers being non-selectable). Lastly, given inconsistencies across themes regarding whether lines in a Code block should be wrapped, this plugin adds styling to force them to no-wrap by default, with a checkbox to opt in to wrapping when desired.
For advanced usage, please see the <a href="https://github.com/westonruter/syntax-highlighting-code-block/wiki" rel="nofollow ugc">plugin wiki</a>.
This plugin is <a href="https://github.com/westonruter/syntax-highlighting-code-block" rel="nofollow ugc">developed on GitHub</a>. See <a href="https://github.com/westonruter/syntax-highlighting-code-block/issues" rel="nofollow ugc">list of current issues</a> with the plugin. Please feel free to file any additional issues or requests that you may come across. <a href="https://github.com/westonruter/syntax-highlighting-code-block/pulls" rel="nofollow ugc">Pull requests</a> are welcome. See <a href="https://github.com/westonruter/syntax-highlighting-code-block/wiki/Contributing" rel="nofollow ugc">contributing information</a>.
<h4>Credits</h4>
This is a fork of <a href="https://github.com/mkaz/code-syntax-block" rel="nofollow ugc">Code Syntax Block</a> by <a href="https://mkaz.blog/" rel="nofollow ugc">Marcus Kazmierczak</a> (mkaz), which is also <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/code-syntax-block/" rel="ugc">available on WordPress.org</a>. Copyright (c) 2018 Marcus Kazmierczak. Licensed under GPL 2.0 or later.
<a href="https://github.com/scrivo/highlight.php" rel="nofollow ugc">highlight.php</a> is released under the BSD 3-Clause License. Copyright © 2006-2013, Ivan Sagalaev (maniac@softwaremaniacs.org), highlight.js (original author). Copyright © 2013, Geert Bergman (geert@scrivo.nl), highlight.php

Syntax-highlighting Code Block (with Server-side Rendering)

I love that this is baked into the core code block without having to resort to a third-party integration that may or may not work.

Well done on this one.

Just a heads up though, which may require more testing. The latest Gutenberg release and this plugin do not appear to play well together. I had to disable the Gutenberg plugin, which invalidated the code blocks, and I had to recover each one.

One feature request: Please add a rel attribute so I can display the language.

Thanks again,

Ronald Huereca

This Plugin is Amazing

This plugin is the best syntax highlighting plugin that I have used, thanks for all the hard work in developing it. One recommendation though...

I just stumbled upon the ability to change the color scheme in the Customizer. This is an awesome feature, but not one that is highlighted in the description of the plugin or in the screenshots. Of course it is mentioned in the Advanced Usage wiki, but I have been using the plugin for months and definitely overlooked that 😉. A brief mention in the main description and a screenshot of the different theme options would definitely help unobservant users like myself.

Thanks again!

Awesome plugin

Excelente plugin

Just found this gem of a plugin when looking for code syntax highlighting plugins. No hassle at all to get working, just install and activate and it formats and styles existing code blocks in posts.

Could not be happier with this plugin. Wlldone!

Great plugin with no setup needed

I confess, I've been a happy user of Code Syntax Block for quite a while — a plugin which the author, Weston Router, clearly states that Syntax Highlighting (Code Block) is based upon.

Alas, however, all the pages I had with the older plugin would suffer from an inevitable rendering slowdown — there is so much Javascript on web pages these days that such a slowdown is inevitable, and this is especially true to those scripts that attempt to recognise the language automatically — something that will consume plenty of CPU cycles on the browser. Parsing the language is also no mean feature by itself (I know, I've been doing some experiments for some code editors, and, believe me, it's tough!).

So why force the end-user to bear the burden of all that work? It makes much more sense to pre-render everything on the server, and then let the web server send the already-parsed HTML from its cache. That way, the end-user will already have everything on their browser, no need to wait for parsing!

Also, if you 'forget' to set the language that your code is in (it happens...), the auto-detecting feature will only run on the server, and just once, when you save the post you're writing. Even if it takes a fraction of a second more to save, think of how much time all those users will save when they get the already-rendered page!

So, this plugin is definitely recommended. As a bonus: if you are already using some sort of code block on your WP setup, once you turn off whatever plugin you were using, Syntax Highlighting (Code Block) will immediately pick it up and start its magic (you might need to open and save all the pages you've got code on, though — I'm not quite sure if that's really the case). That means zero effort (beyond saving) — what you already had will continue to work. And, naturally enough, when you disable this plugin, your code block will just revert to the internal WP code block instead — nothing will be 'lost' that way!

If you're still hesitant and reading this to the end... while you wasted your time here, think of how many of your users would have saved their time if you already had this plugin installed :)

It's time to switch to get more performance!

Nice plugin, thank you !

This works nicely.


missed just a download and/or copy button.



also for theme, maybe is best to update "usage instruction"! only after some search I understood can be changed via customized menu.



anyway, looks so good.



ty.


Very good job!


no one wants to conduct a real study to see how many of use hate the code block.


code block is not 100% of wp users bro

Extending the Code block with syntax highlighting rendered on the server, thus being AMP-compatible and having faster frontend performance.

Jeremy Herve

eclev91

Marcus Kazmierczak

memuller

Jaz White

Code Syntax Block extends the WordPress block editor by adding syntax highlighting support to the core code block using the Prism syntax highlighter.
The Prism syntax highlighter runs JavaScript loaded on the front-end to parse code blocks and apply syntax markup. A CSS file specifies the color and style to apply to that markup. See <a href="https://prismjs.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Prism syntax highlighter</a> for full details.
Primary development and issues tracked on Github at: <a href="https://github.com/mkaz/code-syntax-block" rel="nofollow ugc">https://github.com/mkaz/code-syntax-block</a>

Code Syntax Block

Nice plugin for syntax highlighting!

Thanks to Marcus for making this kind of useful plugin.

Awesome Plugin

Light, customizable and works. In one word, perfect. Thank you :)

Simply perfect


Why nothing for the Classic editor? 



How about half of Wordpress user base?


You forgot about half your wp user base


The main thing is that it extends the standard gutenberg block by adding themes. It might be worth adding a button to copy content to clipboard. Good work!


Great plugin, just what I need.


Add color and joy to your posts with code -> it's a must! Yuo need this one if you hace a developer site.


A must for a developer site

Code Syntax Block plugin extends the block editor by adding syntax highlighting to the core code block.

Syntax-highlighting Code Block (with Server-side Rendering) vs Code Syntax Block