Author Profile Blocks is a WordPress plugin for showcasing author profiles and team members using four Gutenberg blocks, four shortcodes, and a classic widget. It supports two data sources: standard WordPress Users and an optional Team Member custom post type (apbl_team_member).

Four Block Types

Author Profile — Single author showcase with full control over layout order, avatar shape, typography, and social links. Four content order variants: image-content, content-image, image-top, content-top.

Author Grid — Responsive grid of multiple authors. Supports 1–4 columns with five style presets: card, minimal, bordered, shadow, mosaic.

Author List — Vertical author list with three display styles: compact (image + summary), detailed (full two-column layout), and minimal (name + position only). Supports ordered or unordered lists.

Author Carousel — Interactive slider built on Slick. Seven style presets including modern cards, classic carousel, elegant profile, and creative gradient layout. Configurable slides, autoplay, dots, and arrows.

Shortcodes

Four shortcodes are available for classic themes or page builders:

[apbl_profile] — single author card
[apbl_grid] — responsive author grid
[apbl_list] — author list
[apbl_carousel] — author carousel with autoplay

All shortcodes accept id, source (user or team_member), style, number, and display toggle attributes.

Classic Widget

The Author Profile Widget lets you add a single author card to any widget area. Choose the author, display style, and whether to show social links and bio.

Team Member CPT

Activate the built-in apbl_team_member custom post type to manage team members separately from WordPress users. Supports title, bio, featured image, and menu order. Each team member has position and social profile meta fields. Organise members by department using the hierarchical apbl_department taxonomy.

Design System

Every block ships with a refined indigo editorial design — distinctive typography, layered shadows, smooth cubic-bezier transitions, and an indigo accent system with animated hover reveals. All visual properties are overridable via CSS custom properties.

Customization Options

Avatar: circle, square, rounded, or custom border-radius; configurable size and border
Typography: name size, weight, color, alignment, letter-spacing; position shown as uppercase indigo badge
Layout presets: choose from registered style variations (card, minimal, bordered, shadow, and more) per block
Animations: 7 entrance animation types — fadeIn, slideUp, slideDown, slideLeft, slideRight, scaleIn, bounce
Hover effects: lift, glow, scale, rotate, shadow — applied to items or the block wrapper
Social icons: square pill shape with indigo fill on hover; supports Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, website
Colors: background, border, text, gradient — all configurable via the inspector
Spacing: section spacing, padding, item spacing, container width
Advanced: CSS filters (brightness, contrast, saturation), transform (scale, rotate), box shadow, custom CSS class, Google Font support

User Profile Extensions

The plugin adds extra fields to the standard WordPress user profile screen:

Position / job title
Extended bio
Social media URLs: Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram, personal website
Custom “Member since” label
Department
Skills
Location
Phone
Availability
Website label

Performance

Server-side rendering with PHP template caching
Configurable cache duration
Lazy loading for author avatars
No unnecessary JavaScript on the frontend

Developer-Friendly

Clean PHP template hierarchy — override any template from your theme
Extensive CSS custom properties for runtime styling
WordPress filter hooks on every rendered block and shortcode
Modern SCSS source with @use/@forward module system and sass:color functions
apbl- namespaced CSS classes throughout
PSR-4 autoloaded, WordPress Coding Standards compliant
Full developer documentation on GitHub

Author Profile Blocks – Author Box & Team Members for Gutenberg