4.9.6 Beta Delayed: Two Days

The release of 4.9.6 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. is being delayed by two days. The new 4.9.6 beta release day is Thursday, May 3, 2018. The rest of the schedule will remain unchanged.

In a typical release cycle, when the beta date approaches, tickets deemed not ready are punted (or moved) to the next milestone so they can be given more attention. 4.9.6 is a unique release, in that some of the features slated for this release are time sensitive and cannot be punted.

The primary focus of 4.9.6 is delivering a set of tools for controlling and managing private information in a GDPR compliant manner. With GDPR going into effect on May 25th, 2018, this will be the last minor releaseMinor Release A set of releases or versions having the same minor version number may be collectively referred to as .x , for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.3, and all other versions in the 5.2 (five dot two) branch of that software. Minor Releases often make improvements to existing features and functionality. before the new laws go into effect.

With this in mind, @allendav and myself have made the decision to delay the beta release by two days to allow for enough time to properly commit and backportbackport A port is when code from one branch (or trunk) is merged into another branch or trunk. Some changes in WordPress point releases are the result of backporting code from trunk to the release branch. all features required for these tools.

#4-9-6