The actual author is Christiana Mohr.
Editing by folks including @valentinbora, @amykamala and @marybaum.
Announcements
5.4 RC1
WordPress 5.4 Release Candidate 1 landed yesterday, March 3, as scheduled.
Thank you for your hard work making this happen!
Two ways to test:
- Try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin 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 (choose the “bleeding edge The latest revision of the software, generally in development and often unstable. Also known as trunk. nightlies” option)
- Or download the release candidate here (zip).
A full list of closed 5.4 tickets is here.
There’s a new beta 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. dashboard plugin widget 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. with info on what to test!
Highlighted Blog (versus network, site) Posts
@audrasjb noted he’ll add a field 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. link to the beta-tester dashboard widget. He might also link to important dev notes 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. directly. (Ed. note: The Guide already links do every dev 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. from the 5.4 cycle, so if you bookmark it, you’ll have one-click access to them all from there.)
Simple Local Environments for WordPress is here. Questions? As always, let’s have a lively discussion in the comments.
Upcoming Releases – 5.4 and 5.5
We are now in alpha for 5.5!
@peterwilsoncc branched trunk 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. as soon as RC1 landed, meaning we are officially in alpha for 5.5!
If you have a ticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. or a feature, or anything you’d like to see land in WordPress 5.5, please get busy now. By the time we start discussing 5.5 in devchat later this year, we’ll be on the countdown to beta — four weeks from Beta 1, which is the hard feature freeze.
At the same time, please keep testing 5.4.
Auto-updates feature plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins. has a new home on Slack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.
#core-auto-updates is the new Slack channel for conversations about the new auto-updates feature plugin!
You may recall that auto-updates is a goal for 2020 and was originally slated for 5.4—but a consensus formed around the idea that the feature needed more testing and feedback.
5.4 RC2 lands Tuesday, March 10
As of RC1, we have a hard string freeze. Plus, all commits need peer review. That said, you can always contribute to inline documentation and build- tooling changes.
Components Check-In
The Components page is getting some revisions 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., so it’s out of sight temporarily.
The Core Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Privacy Focus for 5.5 will be on multisite 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. Also, look for a kickoff post for the Consent API 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. before it becomes an official beta plugin.
Open Floor
Daylight Savings Time comes to the US this weekend and to Europe in three weeks. The question: whether and when to adjust the chat time? Some folks recommended keeping the time at 21:00 UTC, Daylight Time or not. But as @davidbaumwald pointed out, the Contributor’s handbook mandates a time change. So look for that change in the next several weeks.
Ticket #49518 is an enhancement Enhancements are simple improvements to WordPress, such as the addition of a hook, a new feature, or an improvement to an existing feature. to add four i18n Internationalization, or the act of writing and preparing code to be fully translatable into other languages. Also see localization. Often written with a lowercase i so it is not confused with a lowercase L or the numeral 1. Often an acquired skill. hooks 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.. @pbiron explained that enhancements need to land before beta, so the ticket might land in 5.5.
