PHP Meeting Recap – April 30th

This recap is a summary of our previous PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher meeting. It highlights the ideas and decisions which came up during that meeting, both as a means of documenting and to provide a quick overview for those who were unable to attend.

You can find this meeting’s chat log here.

Chat Summary

  • We first discussed whether we could have the current 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. implementation backported to the upcoming 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. 4.9.6. @desrosj was positive about doing this, but left it open for a final review and someone with the willingness to actually commit it. One benefit would be to include this with the privacy policy changes, which has translators already be aware that a portion of new text strings need to be translated. Also, getting it in as soon as possible will finally allow us to get real feedback on its reception and effectiveness.
  • The “Upgrade PHP” information page needs a visual overhaul. It currently is a pure wall of text, and any change in that regard will be an improvement at this point. @schlessera will work on changing the page for a few quick wins to make it more digestible, and the discussion with the #design team needs to be relaunched.
  • As the first two components of the “Servehappy” initiative are now in a usable state, it is time to focus on the third component: enforcing the “Requires PHP” 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 headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes. information.
  • There are several different mechanisms that need to be changed for enforcing the PHP version requirement, and we agreed to split the main ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. up into smaller subtasks so that blocking issues in one will not blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. progress in others.
    Here are tickets for the current subtasks:
    1. Disable “Install” (plugin) buttons – #43986
    2. Block updates to new plugin releases – #43987
    3. Allow filtering plugin searches by required PHP version – #43989
  • @afragen has already built a proof of concept that shows a basic implementation for blocking updates. This immediately points out a problem with the current 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., which can only serve the plugin information for the latest release of a plugin. If we need to cycle to prior versions to do something like “find the latest version that still runs on PHP 5.2”, we’ll have to work on infrastructure changes as well.
  • Blocking updates does have security implications. We want to block updates to new versions that would bump the required PHP version past a version the server provides, but at the same time, we still want to provide the possibility for plugin authors to push security updates.

Post-meeting update

  • The Servehappy nag widget was not included in 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. of release 4.9.6. We should work on getting it backported early in the 4.9.7 release cycle.

Next week’s meeting

  • Next meeting will take place on Monday, April 7th, 2018 at 15:00 UTC in #core-php.
  • Agenda: Discuss how best to relaunch the #design process and go over the individual tickets for enforcing the “Requires PHP” header.
  • If you have suggestions about this but cannot make the meeting, please leave a comment on this post so that we can take them into account.

#core-php, #php, #summary