Title: Devchat meeting summary &#8211; February 3, 2021
Author: Abha Thakor
Published: February 4, 2021
Last modified: December 16, 2021

---

 [  ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/) [Abha Thakor](https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/)
6:48 pm _on_ February 4, 2021     
Tags: [5.6.1 ( 14 )](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/5-6-1/),
[5.7 ( 67 )](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/5-7/), [dev chat ( 932 )](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/dev-chat/),
[FSE ( 5 )](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/fse/), plugin/theme rollback   

# Devchat meeting summary – February 3, 2021

[Agenda](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/02/02/dev-chat-agenda-for-february-3rd-2021/)
for the two meetings. Thanks to [@thewebprincess](https://profiles.wordpress.org/thewebprincess/)
and [@hellofromtonya](https://profiles.wordpress.org/hellofromtonya/) for leading
the 05:00 and 20:00 UTC devchats respectively.

[Link to 05:00 UTC devchat meeting on the core channel on Slack](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1612328427193000)

[Link to 20:00 UTC devchat meeting on the core channel on Slack](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1612382421237000)

### Announcements and news

[WordPress 5.7 Beta 1](https://wordpress.org/news/2021/02/wordpress-5-7-beta-1/)
is out and available for testing.

[WordPress 5.6.1](https://wordpress.org/news/2021/02/wordpress-5-6-1-maintenance-release/)
landed after devchat.

[Month in WordPress for January 2021](https://wordpress.org/news/2021/02/the-month-in-wordpress-january-2021/)(
published 3 February 2021)**[Reminder from Marketing, [@webcommsat](https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/): we
start our marketing planning well in advance, so if you are working on something
for later in the year or that could be in the Questions and Answers on 5.7 or 5.6.1,
please let [@webcommsat](https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/), [@yvettesonneveld](https://profiles.wordpress.org/yvettesonneveld/), and[@
meher](https://profiles.wordpress.org/meher/) know. 

[Week in Core – edition 1 February 2021](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/02/02/a-week-in-core-february-1-2021/)

[What’s next in Gutenberg?](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/02/01/whats-next-in-gutenberg-february-2021/)
**
Full Site Editing (FSE)**

 * [Open call to send in your questions on Full Site Editing (FSE)](https://make.wordpress.org/test/2021/02/02/fse-program-bring-your-questions/)–
   reminder from [@annezazu](https://profiles.wordpress.org/annezazu/) that you 
   can submit questions, no matter who you are. The call closes 15 February 2021.
   You can also ask your questions on this [form](https://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/fse-outreach-program-submit-fse-questions)
   or in a comment on the post too. This is part of the collaboration in [#fse-outreach-experiment](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C015GUFFC00).
 * More information on the [milestones, vision of minimum viable product for FSE](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/02/01/full-site-editing-and-themes-where-things-are/),
   challenges, and timeline for Full Site Editing and Themes

## Component maintainers and committers update

Post from [@chanthaboune](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/) on encouraging
and recognizing committers and maintainers following on from discussions – [Committers, Maintainers and Emeriti](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/02/03/committers-maintainers-and-emeriti/).
This will also help show which areas need support in coreCore Core is the set of
software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress..

 * Discussion during the meeting:
    - making it easier for people to see how they can become committers
    - using official emeritus status outside core for particular roles
 * Specific comments:
    - [@hellofromtonya](https://profiles.wordpress.org/hellofromtonya/): Any concerns
      with deactivating their commit status with a path to reactivate when/if they
      become active again? No one in the meeting raised any concerns on this.
    - [@sergey](https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergey/): A place to mentor potential
      new committercommitter A developer with commit access. WordPress has five 
      lead developers and four permanent core developers with commit access. Additionally,
      the project usually has a few guest or component committers - a developer 
      receiving commit access, generally for a single release cycle (sometimes renewed)
      and/or for a specific component..
    - [@webcommsat](https://profiles.wordpress.org/webcommsat/): This would help
      so much with the recruitment and longer term contribution of committers too.
    - [@nalininonstopnewsuk](https://profiles.wordpress.org/nalininonstopnewsuk/):
      Suggested more promotion on what skills and computer facilities potential 
      committers would need. Supports the emeritus idea.
 * [@annezazu](https://profiles.wordpress.org/annezazu/) and [@hellofromtonya](https://profiles.wordpress.org/hellofromtonya/)
   are interested in discussing a mentorship program.

### Updates from component maintainers

#### 󠀁[@sergey](https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergey/)󠁿

Build/Test Tools: The Sass implementation that Grunt uses has switched from node-
sass to Dart Sass. That’s because LibSass and node-sass have been deprecated. Ticketticket
Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. [#51763](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/51763)
for more details.

 * General: The get_home_url() function now consistently returns an httpsHTTPS HTTPS
   is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure. HTTPS is the secure version
   of HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website
   that you are connected to. The 'S' at the end of HTTPS stands for 'Secure'. It
   means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted. 
   This is especially helpful for protecting sensitive data like banking information.
   URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such 
   as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org if the current request is already https,
   both for the adminadmin (and super admin) and front end. This fixes a previous
   inconsistency between the admin and front end URLs. See ticket [#52421](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/52421)
   for more details.
 * Date/Time, I18Ni18n Internationalization, or the act of writing and preparing
   code to be fully translatable into other languages. Also see [localization](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/02/04/devchat-notes-3-february-2021/?output_format=md#l10n).
   Often written with a lowercase i so it is not confused with a lowercase L or 
   the numeral 1. Often an acquired skill., Permalinks: No major news this week 

#### 󠀁[@audrasjb](https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/)󠁿

**Upgrade/Install**, **Menus** & **Widgets**: no major new this week, except that
all our enhancements and features were finally committed before 5.7 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.

#### 󠀁[@hellofromtonya](https://profiles.wordpress.org/hellofromtonya/)󠁿:

 * 5.7 Beta 1 is out in the wild and ready for you to test and give feedback
 * It includes 143 tickets with 68 new features and enhancements 
 * Now the focus shifts to defects as well as supporting your feedback on the beta
   releases
 * There are currently 118 tickets open in 5.7 [ [listing](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=accepted&status=assigned&status=new&status=reopened&status=reviewing&milestone=5.7&col=id&col=summary&col=status&col=keywords&col=changetime&order=changetime)].
   Please help get as many as we can into the release during the beta cycle.

#### Update on WordPress 5.6.1 from 󠀁[@audrasjb](https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/)󠁿:

 * [About page](https://wordpress.org/news/2021/02/wordpress-5-6-1-maintenance-release/)
   and HelpHub version page published (later in the meeting)
 * [Download WordPress 5.6.1 directly](https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.6.1.zip)
 * [Documentation for WordPress 5.6.1](https://wordpress.org/support/wordpress-version/version-5-6-1/)

#### Update and discussion on 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/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/)󠁿 or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party./Theme Rollback

 * [GitHub details on the plugin/ theme rollback update](https://github.com/afragen/rollback-update-failure)
 * [@hellofromtonya](https://profiles.wordpress.org/hellofromtonya/): We had planned
   to include plugin/theme rollback in WordPress 5.7, but it will become a feature
   pluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually
   being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See [Features as Plugins](https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/about/release-cycle/features-as-plugins/)
   first. [@afragen](https://wordpress.slack.com/team/U02RQU03T) is doing the building,
   and it’s almost ready to submit to WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site
   where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can
   download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the
   central location for community conversations and organization. [https://wordpress.org/](https://wordpress.org/).
 * [@ipstenu](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ipstenu/) will flag it as an official
   beta for review
 * [@davidbaumwald](https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidbaumwald/): is that plugin
   slated to roll over to the WordPress GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers
   online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and
   modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories
   require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’
   where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed
   before being merged by the repository owner. [https://github.com/](https://github.com/)
   account, or is it a gap-filler that doesn’t require that? [@afragen](https://profiles.wordpress.org/afragen/):
   not sure it needs lots more actual work. But whatever the usual process is will
   be fine.
 * [@hellofromtonya](https://profiles.wordpress.org/hellofromtonya/): currently,
   it’s set for feedback to validate if there are performance issues that could 
   cause additional update failures.
 * Question: should it remain as a separate plugin repo (not on the WordPress GitHub)
   until we know more? Thoughts invited. [@afragen](https://profiles.wordpress.org/afragen/):
   It will also be very difficult to evaluate that, but I’m open to saying if there’s
   a server timeout it could be related.
    - some support for moving it to WordPress GitHub account
    - [@davidb](https://profiles.wordpress.org/davidb/) suggested gaining more visibility
      would help and following view of the maintainers. Agreement from the meeting
      of the benefits of extra visibility. [@audrasjb](https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/)
      shared how promoting visibility had helped a lot for plugins and themes auto-
      updates, and he will share what was done for that feature plugin
 *  - [@hellofromtonya](https://profiles.wordpress.org/hellofromtonya/): Getting
      more on it will also help us to further improve plugin and theme updates. 
      Hoping to collect more information on the root causes for update failures
    - [@sergeybiryukov](https://profiles.wordpress.org/sergeybiryukov/): My concern
      is that the plugin in its current state doesn’t seem to follow the direction
      outlined in comment 56[ on the ticket](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/51857#comment:56).
      More discussion planned for the next [#core-auto-updates](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/CULBN711P)
      meeting.
    - **[#51857: Add rollback for failed plugin/theme updates](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/51857)**–
      I don’t think that comment was as much about rollback as making the update
      process more robust. I think that was suggested as an alternative to rollback
      that would have fewer performance concerns. We could probably have both.
    - [@hellofromtonya](https://profiles.wordpress.org/hellofromtonya/): improving
      the update process itself is important! If we get robust enough, it negates
      the need to rollback when a failure happens. That assumes though that failures
      will never happen, which not sure if that’s a reasonable assumption.

**Next steps:**

 * more discussion to take place in core and come back to it in next week’s devchat
 * [@audrasjb](https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/): the Update-Rollback feature
   plugin next steps will be on the agenda at the next [#core-auto-updates](https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/CULBN711P)
   team meeting, on [Tuesday February 9, 2021 at 18:00 UTC](https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20210209T1800)
 * Look for a post on the P2P2 A [free theme for WordPress](http://p2theme.com/),
   known for front-end posting, used by WordPress for development updates and project
   management. See our [main development blog](https://make.wordpress.org/core/)
   and [other workgroup blogs](https://make.wordpress.org/). (blogblog (versus network,
   site)) on the feature plugin

## Open Floor

Who is moderating feedback on the Code Reference? [@audrasjb](https://profiles.wordpress.org/audrasjb/)
once a week and [@crstauf](https://profiles.wordpress.org/crstauf/) more regularly.
This is part of the Docs Team’s work.

[#5-6-1](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/5-6-1/), [#5-7](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/5-7/),
[#dev-chat](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/dev-chat/), [#fse](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/fse/),
[#plugin-theme-rollback](https://make.wordpress.org/core/tag/plugin-theme-rollback/)

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# Post navigation

[← Notification of formal WP Notify Planning Meeting – Monday, February 8, 2021](https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/02/04/wp-notify-meeting-february-8-2021/)

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