Dev Chat Summary: June 21st (4.8.1 week 1)

This post summarizes the dev chat meeting from June 21st (agendaSlack archive).

4.9 ideas and brainstorm

  • No immediate 4.9 timeframe, but the planned timing for 4.9 will come shortly after we confirm the major focuses of 4.9 and will be closer to 3 months than 9 months in duration
  • @jorbin: Scheduled 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. changesets going live could be a big win
  • @westonruter: adding statuses for changesets: being able to draft a changeset to come back to later, and then to be able to schedule it to go live.
  • @youknowriad: We have some REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/. needs in 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/:
    • Retrieving The permalink using the 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. (making more things available from wp-json/wp/v2/settings)
    • An API endpoint to save/get random settings (we’d use it to save some layout options)
  • @androb: Expanding link boundary behavior in TinyMCE to other inline elements
  • @androb: TinyMCE has a new mobile-optimized UXUX User experience that will also result in a responsive toolbar, this should land in the 4.9 time frame
  • @androd: tweak the TinyMCE UIUI User interface to be closer to Gutenberg (e.g. toolbar color, default font) to get users used to the Gutenberg UI before releasing that in WordPress 5.0
  • @saracannon: look at customizer revisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision. in a way that we might want to look at Gutenberg revisions in the future from a visual standpoint and start making progress there (@melchoyce: see mockup for customizer revisions on #21666)
  • @melchoyce: code editing improvements across coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets. editing, the 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/theme code editor, etc. Making it better to use and harder to mess up and break your site (see #31779)
    • @clorith: As soon as we do this, we need to handle the issue of lacking forked plugins, lacking child theming etc
    • @westonruter: add a warning to encourage people to be aware of the dangers of editing code without version controlversion control A version control system keeps track of the source code and revisions to the source code. WordPress uses Subversion (SVN) for version control, with Git mirrors for most repositories. (see #41078)
  • @melchoyce: evisions for everything – Customizer revisions, page/post revisions, code editor revisions…
  • @hugobaeta: reduce the amount of declared colors (namely shades of gray) in the adminadmin (and super admin), more info on codepen and a little backstory on this flash talk at WCUS last year
  • @melchoyce: some in-progress tickets for improving theme switching: #39692, #39693
  • @melchoyce: also Customizer menu improvement – #40104
  • @melchoyce: automated testing in place for theme switching (@netweb to work on this)
  • @melchoyce: making “page on front” less confusing (again)
    • @westonruter: harmonizing with menus and page hierarchies. Merging those concepts together
  • @melchoyce: finish the gallery widget (@m1tk00 to work on this)

4.8.1 agenda

  • @westonruter: resolve 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. removing code issue (see #40951) alongside implementing HTMLHTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. code widget (see #40907), three options proposed, one recommended
  • a11yAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) 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 will happen next Monday, will focus on 4.8.1 milestoned tickets
  • approaching 4.8.1 tickets as more traditional regressionregression A software bug that breaks or degrades something that previously worked. Regressions are often treated as critical bugs or blockers. Recent regressions may be given higher priorities. A "3.6 regression" would be a bug in 3.6 that worked as intended in 3.5. types of issues
  • Tentative timeline for 4.8.1 last week of July

#4-8-1, #core, #dev-chat, #summary