5.8 Pre-planning

Welcome!

The WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. development team builds WordPress! Follow this site for general updates, status reports, and the occasional code debate. There’s lots of ways to contribute:

Found a 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.? Create a ticket in the bug tracker.

Want to contribute? Get started quickly with tickets marked as good first bugs for new contributors or join a bug scrub. There’s more on the reports page, like patches needing testing, and on feature projects page.

Other questions? Here is a detailed handbook for contributors, complete with tutorials.

Following Josepha’s early thoughts on 5.8 planning, I am kicking off the pre-planning phase of WordPress version 5.8.

Full site editing in 5.8

The plan for WordPress 5.8 is to merge and release the minimum viable product (MVP) of full site editing (FSE). This makes this release particularly complex to handle. It’s a new, exciting change, and it needs the appropriate time to marinate in CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. for contributors with enough time to work on it.

Schedule

I would like to propose the following schedule.

Milestone	Date	Days from
Alpha	February 23, 2021
First FSE go/no go date	April 13, 2021
Second FSE go/no go date	April 27, 2021
(If go) FSE Merge	To be determined, but as soon as possible after being greenlighted
Feature freeze/Bug Fixes	May 25, 2021	91 days after Alpha
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	June 8, 2021	14 days after Feature Freeze
Release Candidaterelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). 1	June 29, 2021	21 days after Beta 1
General release	July 20, 2021	21 days after RC1

What’s this “Feature Freeze” step?

As previously discussed (first post, second post), mixing defect work and beta testing is not great for a number of reasons:

As a project, we want to respect the beta testers efforts by not introducing new bugs (defect work fixes) in areas they’ve already tested.
A mature software project has a beta period during which the focus is on testing changes made during alpha period to ensure its stability.
Having a separate deadline for enhancements/features and bugs is beneficial to allow developers to switch focus after the first deadline to address a slew of outstanding bugs.

Enter the “Feature Freeze” step: two weeks where contributors and committers can take care of the thousands of defect tickets in TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress..

This process should allow time to dedicate appropriate attention to those tickets, without taking attention and resources away from beta testing, which needs to be a priority, especially in this release.

Squad

With such a complex release, Core needs a group of experienced contributors leading the release. For this release, the ride-along/mentorship will pause so that the leads, with previous experience in releases, can focus on the process.

Pre WP5.8 Squad – Skeleton Crew

The period leading to the go/no go step, will need a minimal squad that will focus on:

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. hunting for WP5.7.x minor releases
triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. and group tickets into future milestones
test Core and FSE tickets and PRs

We are kicking off with a minimal squad of three roles:

Release Coordinator: @francina
Triage: @lukecarbis (EU/AU) @desrosj (AMER)
Communications: @chanthaboune

Full Squad

Once we’re past the go/no go dates the skeleton crew, together with the project leadership, will determine which skills are needed to successfully complete the cycle.

What about scope?

The focus of the release is full site editing. As suggested in the recent FSE FAQ, the specific scope is to merge the interface that allows for template interaction outside of content, as well as 20+ new blocks, and design tools. This part of the FSE merge will not be offered to users by default, but instead will be geared toward our extender community (theme authors, 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 developers, agencies, builders, etc) so that they can experiment with their users in mind.

As with other releases, it is possible to include more features, provided someone can spearhead them.

I will start a round of check-ins with component maintainers as soon as the timeline is confirmed.

#5-8, #planning

Bridget Willard 7:05 pm on March 30, 2021

That is awesome. I love the 21 day RCrelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). Window! I’ll update my blogblog (versus network, site) post.
Timothy Jacobs 7:43 pm on March 30, 2021

To clarify, does this include the new widgets and/or menus screens?
- Josepha 11:43 pm on March 30, 2021
  
  There’s been a lot of recent progress on the navigation/menus screen, so of the two that’s the one I think is most likely to make it to WP5.8.
  - Timothy Jacobs 5:33 pm on March 31, 2021
    
    👍 Thanks for the clarification!
  - Héctor Prieto 7:12 pm on March 31, 2021
    
    To add up, the Widgets Editor might be even more likely make it to 5.8. One of the main blockers for this editor to reach its full potential was the need to allow blocks in the 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., which has recently been achieved. Moreover, in the next weeks there is going to be a focus on fixing these Widgets Editor issues as well as on improving its design. Stay tuned to the April “What’s next 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/” post for more updates! 🙌
    - Josepha 7:24 pm on March 31, 2021
      
      So I had it backwards. I’m going to chalk up my error to “giddy optimism”. Thanks for the correction, Héctor!
Timothy Jacobs 10:41 pm on March 31, 2021

Sorry, another clarifying question. We’re coming up on the Go/No Go dates. Have those tests been determined and publicized? I understand project leadership will be ultimately making that decision, but is there going to be a comment period or make post of some kind?
Paul Jackson 8:13 am on April 16, 2021

Out of interest is the option to “Opt-Out” of FSE going to be possible, will it effectively be able to to be “enabled” and “disabled”?
- Jonathan Desrosiers 11:35 am on April 16, 2021
  
  FSE will not be enabled by default. Themes that support FSE will need to declare support in order to enable it.
tinaponting 11:23 am on June 30, 2021

Love the new editor:) Loves to write with it:)

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