Performance team meeting summary 3 May 2022

Meeting agenda here and the full chat log is available beginning here on Slack.

Focus group updates

Images

@adamsilverstein @mikeschroder

GitHub project

• @adamsilverstein: @mehulkaklotar is working on Introduce filter to use a custom mechanism to create additional mime images #307 and Introduce filter to use a custom logic to find additional mime types images #311. Research continues on Research: Impact of additional WebP images on upload #289 and Research: WebP compatibility #290. The proposal for Regenerate existing images #24 has been updated and discussion is happening in the linked Google doc. Work has started on API to facilitate more accurate sizes #140.
• @pbearne: Code for Add low quality image placeholders #19 is in review

Feedback requested

• Needs Discussion (8 issues)
• Needs Review (5 issues)

Object Cache

@tillkruess @spacedmonkey

GitHub project

• @spacedmonkey: Several 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/ PRs ready for review
  • https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/40571
  • https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/40572
  • https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/40752
• @spacedmonkey: Posted dev notesdev 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. for several recent updates
  • https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/04/28/taxonomy-performance-improvements-in-wordpress-6-0/
  • https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/05/02/performance-increase-for-sites-with-large-user-counts-now-also-available-on-single-site/
  • https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/05/02/media-storing-file-size-as-part-of-metadata/
  • https://make.wordpress.org/core/2022/04/29/caching-improvements-in-wordpress-6-0/
• @spacedmonkey: Planning to work on REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/. and full site editing next; some examples:
  • https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/55592
  • https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/55620
  • https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/55593
• @spacedmonkey: XWP team posted about the plugin and its impacts

Feedback requested

• Needs Discussion (2 issues)
• Needs Review (3 issues)

Site Health

N/A

GitHub project

• We’re seeking 1-2 POCs for this group; if you’re interested, please comment here or pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” in SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.
• @furi3r: PR for Site Health test for full page caching is still open; would love another review to get into the next release@flixos90 will take another look
• @flixos90: Is there any update on the work to refine the two existing experimental Site Health modules to make them non-experimental and eventually merge to coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.?
  • @furi3r: We should go over them again and take another look
• @spacedmonkey: Should we use next week’s meeting to decide what we want to get merged into 6.1
  • @flixos90: Great idea, as well as looking owners for whatever we decide on

Feedback requested

• Needs Discussion (4 issues)
• Needs Review (2 issues)

Measurement

N/A

GitHub project

• We’re seeking 1-2 POCs for this group; if you’re interested, please comment here or ping in Slack
• No updates

Feedback requested

• Measurement overview doc
• Capturing front-end performance metrics in WordPress doc (for #s 63/64)
• Needs Discussion (5 issues)
• Needs Review (1 issue)

JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/.

@aristath @sergiomdgomes

GitHub project

• No updates

Feedback requested

• Needs Discussion (2 issues)
• Needs Review (3 issues)

Infrastructure

@flixos90

GitHub project

• @flixos90: Decision has been made to follow WP core’s versioning approach for our 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 based on the vote in Define plugin versioning approach #300, so next release will be 1.1.0.
• @flixos90: The other decision we need to make is about release cadence in Define plugin release cadence #320.
  • Before 1.0.0, we published every two weeks, which is the minimum but requires some additional maintenance and overhead, so a timeline of four weeks or more is probably better. At the same time, we don’t want to go too long and lose momentum.
  • @adamsilverstein: Monthly feels straightforward to keep track of; longer gets more difficult
  • @pbearne: A 4 week cycle feels right to me
  • @eugenemanuliov: Yes, 4 weeks seems to be most appropriate
  • @jeffpaul: 10up open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. team checks what’s releasable on the first day of the month and determines if it requires a major, minor, or no release. If there’s a release, it’s done in a subsequent week that month.
  • @flixos90: Could also do monthly, e.g. third Monday of the month. Will add to the options in the issue.
  • Vote is open here until next Monday

Feedback requested

• Needs Discussion (5 issues)
• Needs Decision (1 issue)

Open floor

• @jb510: Research: Impact of additional WebP images on upload #289 focuses on the file system impact of WebP. But when an image is uploaded to a post, there is the time it takes the original to upload, but then the user has to wait while additional image sizes are generated and the progress bar for that action completes. We should then consider the impact of WebP generation has on that already sometimes frustrating delay between generating JPEG only vs JPEG+WebP. Want to make sure this is being considered. I recommend moving this to the background.
  • @jeffpaul: Agreed, that UXUX User experience is quite painful
  • @adamsilverstein: Moving to the background would make sense, as that image generation is slow and can break if you navigate away from the editor. Related Gutenberg issue.
  • @adamsilverstein: Note that the progress bar only shows upload progress, not processing progress
  • @pbearne: Once WP has the image, we should be able to release the editor and do the processing in a new thread
  • @jb510: For scope, consider 1) measuring impact of additional processing/completion time due to WebP and 2) finding a way to move that out of blocking the user from continuing with what they wanted to be doing

Help wanted

• All issues labeled Needs Discussion
• All issues labeled Needs Decision
• All issues labeled Needs Dev
• All issues labeled Needs Review
• All issues labeled Needs Testing

#core-js, #core-media, #performance, #performance-chat, #summary