Summary from the weekly WordPress developers chat that took place on 2023-10-04 at 20:00 UTC in the core channel of Make WordPress Slack.
Key items
Start of the Dev Chat on Slack
Summary of where to post items for discussion, shared by @hellofromtonya:
- from last week’s discussions, an effort is underway to move all source code discussions / decision making out of the release channel to happen here in #core
- if there’s source code or tickets to be discussed, please post them into the Core Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. channel of 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/., not in the #6-4-release-leads channel
- if the release squad needs a heads up, it’s okay to post in the #6-4-release-leads channel. It’s helpful to share a link to where the discussion is happening in #core
Announcements
WordPress 6.4 Beta 2 is available – please help test and thanks to everyone who contributed and took part in the release party.
In the #core-editor channel, a change in the Gutenberg 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/ 16.8 release was discussed and agreed:
- shift the Gutenberg 16.8 final release to Monday, October 9 (instead of Wed), ahead of the 6.4 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. 3 release
- if more changes happen for the Font Library, do another Release 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). release before 16.8 final release
The change is to provide additional time to review and test requested changes to the Font Library’s REST 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/. before Beta 3.
Highlighted posts
- Hallway Hangout – working session on consolidating modes. November 15, 2023. This is part of efforts to improve accessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) of the Site Editor.
- The 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 checker repo is now in the WordPress organization on GitHub 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 be the repository owner. https://github.com/. https://github.com/WordPress/plugin-check.
- Benchmark results on 6.4 Beta 1 from the Performance Team can be read on its meeting summary.
Forthcoming release updates
Next major WordPress release: 6.4
Reminder: WordPress 6.4 Beta 3 is scheduled for October 10, 2023 – the last scheduled beta before RC1.
Update from the release squad
- No additional major updates than the items covered.
- Calls/Action: Note that anyone can test or file bugs they find and do not need to wait for a scrub etc.
- Highlighted 6.4 is a shorter release cycle than recent ones, and encouraged folk to help.
- Commit freeze experiment: no commits starting 1 hour before the release party start time seemed to work well, and will be continued throughout the rest of the cycle
- Still lots of bugfix tickets in the milestone that need help to further.
Calls: You can help with:
@hellofromtonya confirmed if needed an unscheduled beta can (and often does if more commits come in) happen before RC1.
Calls relating to specific 6.4 tickets
About Page for 6.4
- Call for feedback on the first draft of the About Page for 6.4. @estelaris has asked for comments to be left either on the Trac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. ticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. #59289 or in Figma.
- Confirmation: core developers will be able to build/commit the About Page. Request to share in the core channel when the different stages of the page are ready before each release milestone. Any additional help offers, please comment in the 6.4 release leads channel on Slack.
56922 Template/ Template Part 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.
- @spacedmonkey and @antonvlasenko asked for assistance to take forward a Pull Request on Trac Ticket #56922 to try and get it into 6.4. The ticket allows the Gutenberg team to make revisions for template / templates parts in the editor. There is a GitHub PR 3533. More information on the call in Slack.
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.
Docs release team update via @webcommsat
- In the Docs release team, we are working on collating dev notes for 6.4.
- Reaching out to component maintainers as part of this and appreciate replies and input. Those involved with or writing dev notes will be able to update the GitHub project board for tracking 6.4 docs (link will be shared when ready).
- Request to not publish dev notes as the team will be doing a final review and publish these to avoid swamping core and the RSS feed RSS is an acronym for Real Simple Syndication which is a type of web feed which allows users to access updates to online content in a standardized, computer-readable format. This is the feed. with too many at the same time.
More 6.4 discussion areas
Not all of these were highlighted individually during the meeting due to time. The full list in the agenda was highlighted and is listed below to help people keep in the know.
Call to Contributors: Can you help with any of these items?
- Discussion in release leads/ core has been on Trac ticket #59526 issue relating to fixing image assets with the Twenty Twenty Four theme identified during 6.4 beta 2 release party. Discussion in core. Update in Dev Chat: this has now been fixed.
- Discussion on the issue of non-block 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. themes access to the site editor’s pattern page, Trac ticket #58827.
- Update on the Font Library and 6.4 beta 2 from the core Slack
- Trac Ticket #59443 opened on performance regression A software bug that breaks or degrades something that previously worked. Regressions are often treated as critical bugs or blockers. Recent regressions may be given higher priorities. A "3.6 regression" would be a bug in 3.6 that worked as intended in 3.5. by @spacedmonkey during testing WP 6.4 beta 2. Aim is to fix is before Beta 3. The Slack message in core.
- Note in the Beta 2 release post there is a reference to testing beta releases using Local environment: Use
wp-now to set up a Node.js-based WordPress 6.4 Beta 2 install locally. Learn more in this guide. This was discussed in core to include as it is an experimental option.
- Discussion on Trac Ticket #58827 that exposes the Patterns menu to classic themes. Ticket was moved to 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.. Reasoning is on the ticket comment. The ticket has been punted to 6.5.
- Discussion on a request to allow #59131 to be committed as part of 6.4 Beta 2. Discussion thread that took place in core Slack this last week and links to previous messages on the reasoning.
Font Library update
Shared by @hellofromtonya
- The REST API part of it:
- works and has been working well. But its design is doing it wrong.
- it’s in the process of a redesign in collaboration with the Core REST API maintainers
- @timothyblynjacobs @spacedmonkey@swissspidyhave been providing feedback and guidance
- if the redesign can get done before next Monday, then it will ship in Gutenberg 16.8
- changes are being done in Gutenberg and the Core PR to keep them in sync.
- It did not ship in 6.4 Beta 2 because of this redesign.
- When could it committed into Core?
- Expectations: Redesign gets done, ships (in the plugin), and is approved by one of the Core REST API maintainers.
- Once all of these expectations are met, a public discussion will be opened in #core in preparation for Beta 3.
- Only bugfixes in GB 16.8 would come into Core. Not new features or enhancements, as the editor board was cleared of those at Beta 1.
- Font Library testing instructions were included in 6.4 Beta 2 announcement post.
Existing 6.4 useful links
Next WordPress minor 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.: 6.3.2
Following Dev Chat, the discussion continued regarding timing for the 6.3.2 and 6.4 Beta 3 releases. These may be discussed further in #core, but keep an eye on the #6-3-release-leads and #6-4-release-leads channels for final timings.
Help requests: Components maintainers & Tickets
No other tickets were raised in the agenda comments or after Dev Chat.
Open Floor
There was not enough time for open floor discussion today.
Next meeting
The next meeting will be on 2023-10-11 at 20:00 UTC .
Props to: @hellofromtonya for facilitating the meeting,
@webcommsat for the agenda & summary, and to @ironprogrammer for review.
#6-4, #dev-chat, #summary
