Jeffrey Paul 3:19 am on May 4, 2017
Tags: 4.8 ( 31 ), core ( 561 ), dev chat ( 714 ), summary ( 819 )

Dev Chat Summary: May 3rd (4.8 week 1)

This post summarizes the dev chat meeting from May 3rd (agenda, Slack archive).

4.8 Timing

4.8 schedule page has been published
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. 1 is next Friday, May 12th; Release Candidaterelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). is Thursday, May 25th; target launch is Thursday, June 8th; and WCEU quickly follows June 15-17
WordPress 4.8 will be the first “major” release of 2017 and ideally includes the TinyMCE inline element / link boundaries, new media widgets, WYSIWYGWhat You See Is What You Get What You See Is What You Get. Most commonly used in relation to editors, where changes made in edit mode reflect exactly as they will translate to the published page. in text 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., and the WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. / meetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. dashboard upgrade to the “news” section
Assuming all goes as currently planned, we have just over a week to commit any new enhancements or feature requests
Concerns were raised to the compressed timeline for 4.8 and the stresses of getting a major releasemajor release A release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope. out in ~5 weeks
Recommendations were made to the effect of allowing 4.8 to progress more gradually and target a July/August timeframe for launch
Update since devchat: Confirmed existing 4.8 timeline with @matt, plan is to proceed with the enhancements that are ready now, anything that’s not ready will wait for an upcoming release

4.8 Bug Scrubs

Will publish times for upcoming scrubs to review items in the 4.7.5 and 4.8 milestones in a separate Make/CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. post
@jbpaul17 & @desrosj will run general scrubs, @flixos90 will deal with 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 tickets in the multisite-specific bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority.-scrub next Monday
Please reach out to @jbpaul17 if you have availability to run a general or focused scrub on tickets in the 4.7.5/4.8 milestones over the next wee

4.8 Dev Notesdev note Each important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase. / Field GuideField guide The field guide is a type of blogpost published on Make/Core during the release candidate phase of the WordPress release cycle. The field guide generally lists all the dev notes published during the beta cycle. This guide is linked in the about page of the corresponding version of WordPress, in the release post and in the HelpHub version page.

Regardless of final decision on 4.8 timeline, we need to get started on creating Dev Notes and assembling the Field Guide
Several comments were made about potential improvements to the Dev Notes / Field Guide during the 4.7 Retrospective
In summary: have more than one person own the Field Guide coordination and Dev Notes creation; more Dev Notes are better than less; create component-specific Dev Notes where feasible
Updated listing of Dev Notes needed and those responsible:
- 1) Editor: TinyMCE inline element / link boundaries – @iseulde & @azaozz
- 2) Editor: TinyMCE version 4.6 – @iseulde & @azaozz
- 3) Editor: Edge fixes – @iseulde & @azaozz
- 4) Customize: Media widgets (#32417)
- 5) Customize: Visual text widget (#35243)
- 6) Customize: Dynamically-resized controls pane (#32296)
- 7) WordCamp / meetup dashboard upgrade to the “news” section
If you can help write one of the unassigned Dev Notes above or have others that you feel should be written, please comment on this post or let @jbpaul17 know
Per the Releasing Major Versions page, we should aim for Dev Notes around Beta 1 and the Field Guide by the Release Candidate; so please get started writing those Dev Notes, thanks!

Multisite Update

Discussed yesterday the idea of introducing ms-site.php and ms-network.php files for the real site/networknetwork (versus site, blog) APIs we’ve been introducing over the past couple releases (and will continue to introduce further functions)
All functions currently reside in ms-blogs.php which is getting rather cluttered
We propose introducing those two files and moving some functions in there and are looking for concerns from the team
Another question was whether they would need to be included from ms-blogs.php (for backwards compatibility) or whether we’re fine including them in wp-settings.php
Relates to: #40647 (Introduce ms-site.php and ms-network.php files)
Feedback would ideally be left on the ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. above

#4-8, #core, #dev-chat, #summary

Mike Schroder 4:00 am on May 4, 2017

Update since devchat: Confirmed existing 4.8 timeline with @matt, plan is to proceed with the enhancements that are ready now, anything that’s not ready will wait for an upcoming release

I don’t see any of the problems we talked about addressed in this post.

I think it’d be a good idea to chat about this timeline/plan in a meeting with @matt present, so that we can walk through the issues raised during the dev meeting this week with both him and the necessary contributors present.
- Matt Mullenweg 4:47 pm on May 4, 2017
  
  I think people are thinking of this as a normal release, a train leaving the station that a bunch of stuff (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! 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.!) has to get on to make it in. I agree that needs a much longer timeframe.
  
  What is really going on is that we have a few simple, already working as 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 enhancements that add a few files, and we want to get those in the hands of users sooner rather than later. We already update TinyMCE all the time. Potential breakage or compatibility should be limited to things that interact with the text 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. or the news dashboard module.
  
  (Also re: WCEU or WCUS: few-day event with a few thousand people should not determine the priorities or timeline of WordPress. I would be happy to personally skip it it were going to negatively impact a release.)
  - Jeremy Felt 5:55 pm on May 4, 2017
    
    At 218 tickets closed so far, 4.8 still looks like a normal release covering many components. It is a lot smaller than most major releases, which is helpful. The 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. period / dev notedev note Each important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase. period should be easier.
    
    I think exploring this new release cycle is a good thing and I’m trying to be cognizant of any personal overreactions to the change in a process that I’m used to. All in all, I don’t think a quick release will harm anything and we’ll learn some things from it.
    
    At the same time, I don’t think we’ve talked much about process and how it’s changing in general. It’d be helpful to do that. In particular, I think it’d be helpful to start discussing different branching / project tracking strategies so that dropping in a few simple enhancements and shipping a major releasemajor release A release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope. is really that easy of a process.
    
    It’s not that we’re clamoring for a bunch of 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, 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., etc… stuff to get in. It’s that we’ve been making improvements throughout the cycle and they’ve been sitting in trunktrunk A directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision. waiting for 4.8. If that’s the wrong approach, we need to adjust our workflows.
    - Matt Mullenweg 5:55 am on May 5, 2017
      
      I’ve read through those, I don’t think the # really speaks to the depth of the tickets or changes. Are there any that stand out as being potentially trouble or that we should back out from trunktrunk A directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision.?
  - Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 5:57 pm on May 4, 2017
    
    Skipping WCEU and the community summit would reflect poorly on us all, especially after commitments have been promised by many of the team reps.
    
    I don’t think thinks takes into consideration the mammoth amount of work that goes in to a release after it’s dropped (support, plugins, themes, web hosts … basically everyone who isn’t 100% on coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.).
    - Matt Mullenweg 5:59 am on May 5, 2017
      
      I wasn’t saying anyone else should or should not attend, just making the point that the Summit exists to further our goal of making WP as widely used and accessible as possible, not as an end in and of itself. If there’s anything we can solve without needing to be physically co-located, we should do so before we get there. This year is a bit of an experiment anyway, both having it in EU and to see if the productivity and outcomes outweigh the downsides of an inherently exclusionary event.
      - Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 2:45 pm on May 5, 2017
        
        And I’m making the point that there is a large overlap of people who have volunteered to be responsible for the pre and post release days are already committed to being at the summit, which is immediately after the planned release.
        
        I don’t know how else to tell you that the planned date will make life very stressful for those people, for what feels like an arbitrary deadline.
- Peter Wilson 4:14 am on May 6, 2017
  
  I also have a number of concerns with the schedule as published.
  
  With nine days between kick-off and 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., there is no time for bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. fixes and closing off features. As expected, there was a bit of closing required for both Twenty-Seventeen and the REST-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. after they were merged into coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. during the 4.7 cycle.
  
  @matt mentioned feature projects ready for merge above. In 4.7 the merge window for feature projects closed two months out (it moved to 6 weeks, IIRC) from beta 1 as earlier cycles had shown a later merge to be problematic.
  
  Four hours notice for a kick-off meeting the release leadRelease Lead The community member ultimately responsible for the Release. does not attend is problematic for a number of reasons. It makes the release look unplanned – which is not unfair given the number of frequent contributors asking questions – and random, which is not good look for WordPress.
  
  As @mikeschroder said, it would be good to chat about this with @matt present at the next dev-chat. If nothing else, it would give recent release leads the opportunity to offer feedback.
  
  At WCUS the new release schedule was announced with the goal of focusing on features and releasing when ready. An eight day merge window does not align with the stated goal, there is no time to ensure readiness.
programmin 7:13 pm on May 4, 2017

With 4.8-alpha-40569 I don’t see “inline element / link boundaries, new media widgets”, or wysiwygWhat You See Is What You Get What You See Is What You Get. Most commonly used in relation to editors, where changes made in edit mode reflect exactly as they will translate to the published page. textwidget. Is there a constant to enable this?
Morten Rand-Hendriksen 7:44 pm on May 5, 2017

Where can I find more info on the proposed “TinyMCE inline element / link boundaries” elements that are slated for inclusion? This will be a major update immediately visible to all users, and it’s important to document exactly what is being included and how these new elements will operate well in advance of the release.
- Johan Falk 8:14 pm on May 5, 2017
  
  I think this is part of TinyMCE version 4.6 released yesterday (https://www.ephox.com/blog/tinymce-4-6-update-looks-to-the-future-of-rich-text-editing/).
  - programmin 5:22 pm on May 8, 2017
    
    If that’s the change it doesn’t seem to be working, at least not in Version 59.0.3071.36 (Official Build) 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. (64-bit), WP Version 4.8-alpha-40581
Matt Mullenweg 11:13 pm on May 9, 2017

I’m glad people are sharing concerns, it allows us to plan and hopefully anticipate and avoid potential roadblocks. It’s also true that we haven’t done anything like this in a long time.

If we are successful, then we’ll get some great improvements in the hands of users quickly, and can return focus back to GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ (which is coming along swimmingly). The impact on meetups and WordCamps is potentially a pretty large one.

If as we approach the release it’s not testing well or ready, we’ll have learned what worked and what didn’t, and we’ll delay. I think we’ll have a much clearer idea by the 17th and can make a more informed call then. There’s no downside to the three things mentioned coming into trunktrunk A directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision. this week, as that would need to happen anyway and it’ll get a lot more eyes on everything.

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Welcome!

Communication

Dev Chat Summary: May 3rd (4.8 week 1)

4.8 Timing

4.8 Bug Scrubs

Multisite Update

Welcome!

Communication

4.8 Timing

4.8 Bug Scrubs

Multisite Update

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