Post Formats UI is exiting core, will live as a plugin

This is a hard decision. I’ve been talking to a lot of WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. developers and contributors, and the overwhelming consensus is that Post Formats UIUI User interface is not ready for WordPress core, and that it would be a mistake to ship it as it currently exists. We’re going to pull it out, and let it continue development as a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party, much like MP6.

I fought hard for it, and a lot of people put a lot of effort into it. But the result just isn’t compelling, or obvious, or any of the things that it should be. It’s not just a matter of polish, it seems to be a fundamental issue with the concept. The release can’t be held up any longer for this. It needs to come out. I should have made this decision earlier. That’s on me. But letting it ride would be the worse mistake.

Here is the proposed plan for extracting it, and for dealing with other tangentially related or other release-related items:

Post Format Things to Move to the Plugin

• The posts screen UI, including icons in H2 #24452 #24502
• Enabling all formats by default #24452
• The custom screen options (go back to what we had before) #24452
• The content/excerptExcerpt An excerpt is the description of the blog post or page that will by default show on the blog archive page, in search results (SERPs), and on social media. With an SEO plugin, the excerpt may also be in that plugin’s metabox./title necessity modifications in wp_insert_post() #24503
• Content area size changes #24452
• structured-post-formats support and post_formats_compat() #24453 #24454
• Revisioning of the post format and post format metadata keys #24455

Post Format Things to Keep in Core

• Icons on edit.php (perhaps adding them to the radio format chooser to sync that context) #24519
• post-new.php?format= shortcut
• aside/status auto title generation (when blank)
• URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org extraction function (renamed from get_content_url() to get_url_from_post_content())
• Post Format previewing #24483

Upgrade Path for BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. Dogfooders

• Consider rolling upgrade that pieces together post_content based on existing metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. keys
• Alternatively, include this as a tool in the post formats plugin
• Perhaps a WP-CLIWP-CLI WP-CLI is the Command Line Interface for WordPress, used to do administrative and development tasks in a programmatic way. The project page is http://wp-cli.org/ https://make.wordpress.org/cli/ component to the post formats plugin, so those upgrades can be done on the command line, once

Strategy for Media

• Leave most of wp-includes/media.php — keep audio/video support
• Call functions directly rather than calling do_shortcode() #24505
• Have wp_get_(audio|video)_extensions() wrap wp_get_mime_types( $type = null ) if feasible #24504 (NOPE)
• Remove or make sane attachment_url_to_postid() #24458
• For A/V shortcodes, include the attachment ID, instead of just the URL (makes attachment_url_to_postid() unnecessary) #24458
• Transition those IDs on import #24458
• Consistency: embed shortcodeShortcode A shortcode is a placeholder used within a WordPress post, page, or widget to insert a form or function generated by a plugin in a specific location on your site. takes URL as its content, but a/v ones take an attribute — make both for both? #24456

Shortcodes

• Keep shortcode_exists() and has_shortcode()

What Else?

Did I miss anything? Is there something that doesn’t seem like the right path forward to you? Let’s hash this out so we can move on it.