Customize API Changes in 4.6

This post contains a summary of the developer-oriented changes and additions to the customize APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. in WordPress 4.6. View all 4.6 customize tickets here. The biggest new customize developer feature in 4.6 is setting validation, which has a dedicated post with details:

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/07/05/customizer-apis-in-4-6-for-setting-validation-and-notifications/

Clean up CustomizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. Media Control CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets. (#30618)

When the customizer media controls were modernized in WordPress 4.1, timeline considerations required the improvements to ship with a confusing and untenable markup structure and the resulting requirement to use separate CSS selectors for each sub-control of WP_Customize_Media_Control.

In 4.6, the markup of the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. media controls has been simplified and the CSS completely refactored to allow media controls to share common CSS selectors. As a result, custom controls that use part of the core UIUI User interface and subclass WP_Customize_Media_Control no longer need to create their own CSS styles that duplicate core rules. Because the markup and styling has changed significantly, please test any custom controls, CSS, or 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/. that is related to media controls in the customizer.

Customize Value Hook Receives Context (#36452)

The customize_value_{$id_base} filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. now passes $this (the WP_Customize_Setting instance) as a second parameter, after the setting value. This provides access to all of the methods and parameters of the specific setting whose value is being filtered and brings this hook inline with the other hooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same. in WP_Customize_Setting.

Allow the Nav Menu Item Type Label (among other things) to be filtered (#35203)

The wp_setup_nav_menu_item filter is now applied consistently to all customizer settings representing nav menu items. The filter was previously used in WP_Customize_Nav_Menu_Item_Setting::value() but not in WP_Customize_Nav_Menu_Item_Setting::value_as_wp_post_nav_menu_item(), and is the same filter that’s used for the Menus screen in wp-adminadmin (and super admin).

Other Improvements

  • You can now use the Esc key to close the currently expanded section or panel (or widgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user./nav menu item control). See #22237.
  • The Custom Menu widget now includes a shortcut to edit a selected menu in the customizer. Navigating out of the nav menu section returns focus back to the Custom Menu widget where the shortcut button was clicked. See #32683.
  • When previewing a new theme in the customizer, clicking Activate will no longer result in being navigated out of the customizer and onto the frontend. See #35320.
  • The get_custom_logo filter now includes a blogblog (versus network, site) parameter. See #36639.
  • The menu locations section in the customizer now includes buttons to edit each selected menu. See #36795.
  • There is now a link to the widgets panel in the menu locations section description. See #36796.

#4-6, #customize, #dev-notes