WordPress 3.7 organization

With WordPress 3.7 and 3.8, we’re a project in major transition. Version 3.7 aims to solve for a lot of things that are weighing us down. (See the initial kickoff post.) What do you want to do? In terms of process, here is what is being worked on for 3.7:

Processes, Tools, Workflows

  • New development tools — develop.svn.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ — run by @koop. If you are interested in Grunt, unit testing (including JSJS JavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors. testing), and how we can streamline and modernize our workflows, this is for you.
  • Code reference — inline documentation efforts — run by @rzen, @ericlewis, and @drewapicture. If you are interested in inline documentation, this is for you. See this post to get started.
  • Process changes (including improvements to TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. and how we organize around components). If you want to write some Python for Trac, this is for you. If you’re just interested in helping with component reorganization, stay tuned here — there will be a post soon outlining a new component tree.

Security, Stability, and Updates

We have a few other focuses that all deal with a general theme of security and stability.

  • Passwords. We are aiming to improve the adoption of best security practices by assisting with password generation. #24633@duck_ is also working on some changes to strengthen cookies. #20276. If you are interested in security, this is for you.
  • Updates. @dd32 and @pento will be heading up automatic updates for minor releases, as well as improving the trustworthiness of our upgrader. If you love updates and stability, this is for you.
  • Language packs. We need to separate language files from plugins, themes, and coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., allowing them to be maintained and updated independently (and, ideally, automatically). #18200. If you want to help WordPress’ global reach, hook up with me, @dd32, and @markoheijnen.

General Triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors.

Finally, we have 3,800 (already only 3,600) open tickets on Trac. There are dozens of components with many, many tickets. Already, there have been a few components with a strong base of contributors working on them, including:

  • Multisitemultisite Used to describe a WordPress installation with a network of multiple blogs, grouped by sites. This installation type has shared users tables, and creates separate database tables for each blog (wp_posts becomes wp_0_posts). See also network, blog, site, currently being smashed by @jeremyfelt and others. If you like multisite and want to make it better and more stable, this is for you. There are currently 122 open tickets.
  • JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/.. A number of you have expressed interest on working on JavaScript in core. Whether that is shoring up the stability of existing features, improving existing JS, or working on a JS testing framework, this should be a great working group. @carldanley, @adamsilverstein, @nbachiyski, @kadamwhite, and others expressed interest.
  • Query and TaxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies.. These two advanced areas of core kind of go hand-in-hand, not in the least because @wonderboymusic smashes query tickets with his left hand and taxonomy tickets with his right. If you’re interested in bringing down these tickets (68 and 93 open), this is for you.
  • General triage. Folks like @c3mdigital and @avryl have been already going through old tickets either closing them out or finding diamonds in the rough. Or maybe you find that one of the many open components catches your interest. (Go here and choose any component from the drop-down to see all open tickets.) We’ll be coordinating efforts to work together both in IRCIRC Internet Relay Chat, a network where users can have conversations online. IRC channels are used widely by open source projects, and by WordPress. The primary WordPress channels are #wordpress and #wordpress-dev, on irc.freenode.net. (especially during the weekly meetings) and here on make/core.
  • Components with a lot of open tickets: General (376 tickets), Administration (302 tickets), Media (221 tickets), Template (161 tickets), Comments (135 tickets), Users (107 tickets), Themes (105 tickets), Formatting (98 tickets), Menus (96 tickets), Widgets (90 tickets), Plugins (90 tickets), Editor (85 tickets), Upgrade/Install (84 tickets), Import (70 tickets). If you want to do general triage, General and Administration in particular need a lot of work!

Today during the weekly meeting, we’ll be talking about ongoing efforts, rallying the troops and helping to assemble working groups, and setting up some times for regular triage meetings.

So, what do you want to work on? Let’s start coordinating in the comments.

#3-7