Can the index.asset.php file be used with the enqueue_block_editor_assets action?

Question

I'm developing a plugin that registers a PluginDocumentSettingPanel in Gutenberg. As this is not a block, I cannot use the register_block_type function to add its assets, so I have to employ the enqueue_block_editor_assets action in its place.

function my_enqueue_block_editor_assets() {

    $dir = dirname( __FILE__ );
    $script_asset_path = "$dir/build/index.asset.php";
    if ( ! file_exists( $script_asset_path ) ) {
        throw new Error(
            'You need to run `npm start` or `npm run build` for the block first.'
        );
    }
    $script_asset = require( $script_asset_path );

    wp_enqueue_script(
        'my-gutenberg-plugin',
        plugins_url( 'build/index.js', __FILE__ ),
        $script_asset['dependencies'],
        filemtime( plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) . 'build/index.js' )
    );

}
add_action( 'enqueue_block_editor_assets', 'my_enqueue_block_editor_assets' );

But, using this approach it seems that I cannot use the generated index.asset.php file to load the script dependencies, as I'm getting multiple wp.editor is undefined / wp.coreData is undefined / etc... errors. If I explicitly state ALL the script dependencies using array( 'wp-editor', 'wp-data', etc... ), there are no errors.

Is there a way to use the index.asset.php file with enqueue_block_editor_assets? If so, how?

Answer 1

Yes you can use the index.asset.php file in the 'enqueue_block_editor_assets' action. I guess you missed to npm install the dependencies you want to use and import them in your script. That's how @wordpress/scripts generates your asset.php file. If you do not import the dependencies in your JavaScript files the dependency management of asset.php wont work.

For example:

npm install @wordpress/api-fetch --save

In your script:

import apiFetch from '@wordpress/api-fetch;

For more information have a look here: https://medium.com/write-better-wordpress-code/properly-add-modern-javascript-to-gutenberg-14bde8679d83