RTC: Respect WP_ALLOW_COLLABORATION in Gutenberg for activation hook

[ingeniumed]

What?

Ensures real-time collaboration (RTC) is only enabled by default when collaboration is allowed at the host level.

Why?

In WordPress core, we have a config WP_ALLOW_COLLABORATION that ensures that hosts can disallow collaboration at the core level. Gutenberg should be respecting that always.

How?

Add in a check via the wp_is_collaboration_allowed into the activation hook to ensure that the config is respected when flipping the option.

Testing Instructions

1. Fresh install: Start wp-env, go to Settings > Writing. The collaboration checkbox should be checked.
2. Explicit disable: Uncheck the checkbox, save. Reload — it should stay unchecked.
3. Re-enable: Check the checkbox, save. Reload — it should stay checked.
4. WP_ALLOW_COLLABORATION = false: Add "config": { "WP_ALLOW_COLLABORATION": false } to .wp-env.override.json, restart wp-env. The checkbox should not appear; a "disabled" notice is shown instead. The migration and hooks should not force-enable the option.

Use of AI Tools

This PR was authored with assistance from Claude Code (Claude Opus 4.6).

[github-actions]

The following accounts have interacted with this PR and/or linked issues. I will continue to update these lists as activity occurs. You can also manually ask me to refresh this list by adding the props-bot label.

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Co-authored-by: ingeniumed <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: alecgeatches <[email protected]>

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[github-actions]

Flaky tests detected in 11a8d72.
Some tests passed with failed attempts. The failures may not be related to this commit but are still reported for visibility. See the documentation for more information.

🔍 Workflow run URL: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/actions/runs/24106507263
📝 Reported issues:

• [Flaky Test] Actions are reachable via RIGHT/LEFT arrow keys #76012 in /test/e2e/specs/site-editor/dataviews-list-layout-keyboard.spec.js
• [Flaky Test] post title and content are editable and blocks can be inserted #76524 in /test/e2e/specs/editor/various/post-content-focus-mode.spec.js
• [Flaky Test] should show correct homepage actions based on current homepage or posts page #68892 in /test/e2e/specs/site-editor/homepage-settings.spec.js

[alecgeatches]

@ingeniumed I thought RTC was already enabled in the plugin. I tried a couple of tests:

1. I did a fresh clone with wp-env with no further configuration:

   git clone [email protected]:Automattic/gutenberg.git
   cd gutenberg && npm install && npm run build
   npx wp-env start 

   The fresh clone has working RTC enabled by default.

2. I tried to look at our Playwright tests to ensure collaboration tests were running, but the output is pretty sparse. In #77109 I added some more logging and RTC tests appear to be running in https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/actions/runs/24094195068/job/70288276233:

   ✓   98 [chromium] › specs/editor/collaboration/collaboration-awareness-cursor-position.spec.ts:7:6 › Collaboration - Awareness Cursor Position › awareness cursor tracks all positions through a bolded word without sticking at formatting boundaries (39.3s)
   ✓   99 [chromium] › specs/editor/collaboration/collaboration-block-gauntlet.spec.ts:24:6 › Collaboration - Block Gauntlet › Text blocks sync modifications between users (16.3s)
   ✓  100 [chromium] › specs/editor/collaboration/collaboration-block-gauntlet.spec.ts:224:6 › Collaboration - Block Gauntlet › Container blocks sync modifications between users (14.9s)
   # ...
   ✓  132 [chromium] › specs/editor/collaboration/collaboration-undo-redo.spec.ts:7:6 › Collaboration - Undo/Redo › User A undo only affects their own changes, not User B changes (14.8s)
   ✓  133 [chromium] › specs/editor/collaboration/collaboration-undo-redo.spec.ts:85:6 › Collaboration - Undo/Redo › Redo restores the undone change (10.9s)

   Collaboration tests appear to run in the CI environment by default.

In the issue description, you mention

Previously, the option could end up disabled if it was stored as 0 in the database before the plugin was activated

Doesn't the existing activation hook handle that situation?

---

I think it would be helpful to be more specific on what exact situations this PR addresses, because it seems like RTC is enabled by default for most intents and purposes at present.

[ingeniumed]

I've updated the PR to just target the activation hook so that it respects the WP_ALLOW_COLLABORATION config. The other changes were unnecessary after further testing, as wp-env was not properly destroying and re-creating the env with the default options. Once the install path was changed RTC was enabled by default.

[alecgeatches]

Thank you for scoping this down! Looks good to me.

[github-actions]

There was a conflict while trying to cherry-pick the commit to the wp/7.0 branch. Please resolve the conflict manually and create a PR to the wp/7.0 branch.

PRs to wp/7.0 are similar to PRs to trunk, but you should base your PR on the wp/7.0 branch instead of trunk.

# Checkout the wp/7.0 branch instead of trunk.
git checkout wp/7.0

# Create a new branch for your PR.
git checkout -b my-branch

# Cherry-pick the commit.
git cherry-pick beff5b197d9c8aa7692cc70ab84daba20e900b88

# Check which files have conflicts.
git status

# Resolve the conflict...
# Add the resolved files to the staging area.
git status
git add .
git cherry-pick --continue

# Push the branch to the repository
git push origin my-branch

# Create a PR and set the base to the wp/7.0 branch.
# See https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/proposing-changes-to-your-work-with-pull-requests/changing-the-base-branch-of-a-pull-request.

[ingeniumed]

I added the backport label accidentally, this isn't needed as it's only for when the GB plugin is activated. The conflict can be ignored.