What’s new in Gutenberg 17.9 (13 March)

“What’s new 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/…” posts (labeled with the #gutenberg-new tag) are posted following every Gutenberg release on a biweekly basis, showcasing new features included in each release. As a reminder, here’s an overview of different ways to keep up with Gutenberg.

Text displaying: "What's new in Gutenberg 17.9?"

Gutenberg 17.9 has been released and is available for download!

As with Gutenberg 17.8, many contributors are still focused on polishing for the upcoming WordPress 6.5 release, so this Gutenberg release continues to prioritize stability and 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. fixes. Enhancements and new features are highlighted below.

As a reminder, with WordPress 6.5 now in the 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). phase, bug fixes from the Gutenberg 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 are backported for inclusion in 6.5 as needed. However, new features in Gutenberg 17.9 will not be included in WordPress 6.5.

Color and typography presets in Global Styles

Screenshot of colors and typography panels in global styles, with preset buttons available.

Color and typography presets that are defined in theme variations are now exposed within the color and typography sections of Global Styles. This new feature allows users to mix and match color presets or typography from different variations, offering greater flexibility for designs from a given theme. (56622)

Indenting List blockBlock 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. items via the tab key

The List block now supports indenting and outdenting when the selection is at the beginning of the List item. This improves the usability of the List block by allowing indenting via the keyboard, while still preserving existing tabbing behavior in the editor canvas when the selection is elsewhere within the block. (59199)

Shuffle option when choosing patterns

When a pattern is inserted and has categories defined, and where the pattern contains a single top-level block such as a Group block, a shuffle button is exposed in the block toolbar that allows a user to cycle through random patterns. This makes it easier to quickly browse through a variety of available patterns in specific scenarios. (59251)

Swap Template Parts in the Inspector

Screenshot of replace flow for template parts in the block inspector controls.

When selecting a Template Part in the site editor, the replace flow is now more discoverable with previews of alternate Template Parts available to select from the block inspector controls. This allows for a more at-a-glance approach to browsing different options for swapping out headers and footers. (55128)

Other Notable Highlights

  • Background images can now be set in the root of theme.json to provide site-wide background images (59354). There is currently no UIUI User interface for it in Global Styles, and this will be explored in future releases.
  • For container blocks that use allowedBlocks, insert before and after actions are now supported on child blocks (59162).
  • Use drag handles to set row and column span and see a dotted outline of block placement when the new “Grid interactivity” experiment is enabled (59052).

Changelog

Full changelog available

Enhancements

Data Views

  • Apply hover styles to filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. chip while being configured. (59236)
  • Display all checkboxes when a single item is selected. (59233)
  • Pages data view: Make ‘View’ button open a new tab. (59554)
  • Reposition pattern detail icon. (59363)
  • Update ‘Add filter’ button in data views. (59433)
  • Update empty/loading states. (59437)
  • Update filter control position. (59231)
  • Update page selector appearance. (59284)
  • Update pages dataview icons, add ‘drafts’ icon. (59285)
  • Update sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. titles for Template and Page management data views. (59011)

Global Styles

  • Add background image to top-level theme.jsonJSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML. styles. (59354)
  • Add color and typography presets to Global Styles. (56622)
  • Create a shared component for typography previews. (59503)
  • Enqueue block custom CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets. only when block renders on the page. (58991)
  • Style Book: Should persist when browsing global styles panels. (59261)

Block Library

  • Introduce the ‘useUploadMediaFromBlobURL’ utility hook. (59350)
  • Remove redundant copy from PanelBody titles. (59278)
  • Template Parts: Add a replace flow to the inspector controls. (55128)

Site Editor

  • Block Theme Previews: Remove “Looking for Template Parts?” hint. (59092)
  • Remove the site editor sidebar navigation edit button. (59335)
  • Scale the zoomed out mode to fit available space. (59342)
  • View full zoomed out mode canvas while inserting patterns. (59337)
  • Add: Shuffle button in zoom out mode. (59573)

Font Library

  • Add option to revoke access to Google Fonts. (59205)
  • Make font collection fields translatable. (59256)
  • Update the spacing in the font collection panel. (59357)

Post Editor

  • Editor: Standardize headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes. button size to 32px. (58532)
  • Tweak: Sidebar categories panel. (59495)

Patterns

  • Add Shuffle option to sections via pattern categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging.. (59251)
  • Use block naming for marking blocks as overridable in patterns. (59268)

Components

  • Storybook: Add mechanism to redirect moved stories. (59181)

Nested / Inner Blocks

  • InnerBlocks: Support insert before/after block actions when using allowedBlocks. (59162)

Plugin

  • Update cherry pick script to add Backported to WP Core label for backports. (58970)

Bug Fixes

Block Library

  • Columns: Correctly recalculate column widths when the column count is increased by more than 2 at once. (59301)
  • Group: Fix alignment of Group block placeholder text. (59271)
  • Query LoopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop.: Don’t show publicly non-queryable taxonomies. (59458)
  • Image: Remove scrolling of empty image blocks. (59305)
  • Search: Use font size for search icon. (59159)
  • Site Logo: Update URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org for site icon settings with fallback for WP coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. versions earlier than 6.5. (59485)
  • Site Logo: Update capitalization of Use as Site Icon toggle. (59383)
  • Title & Featured ImageFeatured image A featured image is the main image used on your blog archive page and is pulled when the post or page is shared on social media. The image can be used to display in widget areas on your site or in a summary list of posts.: Hide non content controls when block editing mode is ‘contentOnly’. (59295)

Font Library

  • Avoid creating font families without font faces. (59436)
  • Avoid loading theme fonts twice and assume they were already resolved by the font face resolver. (59421)
  • Changed installFont to installFonts so that multiple font families can be installed at once. (59451)
  • Fixed the font family modal to open in state when a font is already selected. (59379)
  • Font collection pagination: Add min height to avoid infinite number. (59241)
  • Hide UI elements when user lacks permissions. (59332)
  • Load/Unload the font face in browser when toggling the variants. (59066)
  • Use SearchControl component for search input. (59589)

Interactivity APIAPI 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.

  • Fix navigate() issues related to initial state merges. (57134)
  • Fix context object proxy references. (59553)
  • Improve context merges using proxies. (59187)
  • Navigation: Add missing empty space to print out valid HTMLHTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers.. (59255)
  • Prevent unwanted subscriptions to inherited context props. (59273)
  • Rename data_wp_context function. (59465)

Components

  • Button: Fix focus outline in disabled primary variant. (59391)
  • Button: Place children before the icon when iconPosition is “right”. (59489)
  • Fix tooltip font. (59307)
  • HStack, VStack: Stop passing invalidinvalid A resolution on the bug tracker (and generally common in software development, sometimes also notabug) that indicates the ticket is not a bug, is a support request, or is generally invalid. props. (59416)
  • URLPopover: Restore min-width style. (59274)

Block Editor

  • Fix Navigation link control overlapping issue. (59065)
  • Fix: Re-render toolbar when parent block changes. (59234)
  • List: Copy wrapper when multi selecting items. (59460)
  • Refactor: UseBlockTools hook. (58979)
  • Rich text: Fix typing into empty flex element. (59473)
  • URLPopover: Fix a problem with the layout of link settings. (58906)
  • Fix issue with appender jumping when creating a new pattern. (59582)
  • Allow event bubbling even if keydown is passed. (59474)

Custom Fields

  • Block Bindings: Fix console error when selecting a bound block. (59598)
  • Change default “Connected to a custom fieldCustom Field Custom Field, also referred to as post meta, is a feature in WordPress. It allows users to add additional information when writing a post, eg contributors’ names, auth. WordPress stores this information as metadata. Users can display this meta data by using template tags in their WordPress themes.” message in bindings. (59434)
  • Fix inserting button block when pressing enter in a block with bound text attribute. (59361)
  • Fix query loop with block bindings not working in the editor as expected. (59283)

Data Views

  • DataViews: Don’t use combobox when there are few available options. (59341)
  • DataViews: Set color for primary field/a element when focused. (58814)
  • Dataviews: Fix sticky table headers. (59467)

Site Editor

  • Ensure ResizableFrame does not force Cover blocks within the editor to show drag handles. (59262)
  • Iframeiframe iFrame is an acronym for an inline frame. An iFrame is used inside a webpage to load another HTML document and render it. This HTML document may also contain JavaScript and/or CSS which is loaded at the time when iframe tag is parsed by the user’s browser.: Scale html instead of iframe element for zoomed out mode. (59334)
  • Zoom out mode: Only apply grey background for mode. (59377)
  • Site Editor: Fix Global Styles outdated output. (59628)
  • Fix site editor crashing when not fully loaded. (59658)

Global Styles

  • Dynamically set border panel label based on the controls available. (59358)
  • Shadow: Fix layout collapse when indicator is selected. (59309)
  • Theme JSON: Check for null values to cater for blockGap. (59258)
  • Remove the extra unneeded color variations panel. (59718)

Post Editor

  • Command Palette: Prevent mode switching if only one editor mode is available. (59299)
  • Editor: Fix post type check in isEditingTemplate selector. (59105)
  • Top Toolbar: Fix ‘collapsed’ state synchronization. (59267)

Block hooksHooks 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.

  • Display toggle for hooked blocks added via filter. (59396)
  • Navigation Block: Fix erroneous escaping of ampersands. (59561)

Patterns

  • Disable image caption if part of synced pattern. (58916)
  • Disable selection checkbox if no bulk actions are eligible. (58950)

Block bindings

  • Fix Enter on disabled rich text. (59320)

Page Content Focus

  • Fix DisableNonPageContentBlocks behavior. (59297)

Design Tools

  • Cover block: Clear aspect ratio value when toggling full height. (59296)
  • Disable core shadow presets by default, let themes opt-in. (58766)

Layout

  • Fix MarginVisualizer and PaddingVisualizer. (59227)

Block Conversion

  • Preserve bindings metadata in block transforms. (59179)

Typography

  • Fluid typography: Pass theme.json settings to override merged theme data. (58362)

Data Layer

  • Ignore HTML Elements in ReduxDevTools. (57497)

AccessibilityAccessibility 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)

Data Views

  • Conditionally display filter reset button. (59432)
  • Use aria-disabled on disabled checkboxes and add tooltips. (59364)

Design Tools

  • Shadows: Improve accessibility of shadows dropdown. (58828)

Block Editor

  • Fix canvas iframe button accessibility and silent tab stops. (59317)
  • Fix: Disable ‘Open save panel’ when there are no changes to save, while navigating with keyboard. (59543)

Block Library

  • List block: Allow tab to indent/outdent at selection start. (59199)

Custom Fields

  • Add visual indicator if a block is connected to block binding source. (59185)

Performance

Block Editor

  • Block Bindings: Do not use useSource hook conditionally. (59403)
  • Block Preview: Optimize default additional styles. (59556)

Experiments

Layout

  • Add Grid interactivity experiment to allow canvas interaction with grid layout. (59052)

Components

  • Tabs: Rename initialTabId prop to defaultTabId. (59035)

Font Library

  • Fix infinite loop when calling wp_get_upload_dir in a function that’s used to filter font_dir. (58839)

Documentation

  • Add hyperlink to media-upload documentation. (57170)
  • Add title and link for data-wp-each-child. (59505)
  • Adds import statement to code usage example. (59327)
  • Core Block Reference: Add allowedBlocks field. (59424)
  • Core Block Reference: Add ancestor status and refactor generation logic. (59390)
  • Create block interactivity: Fix minimum versions. (59375)
  • Docs: Fix typo in Tutorial. (59581)
  • Docs: Fix typo in blocks attributes guide. (59571)
  • Docs: Remove TOC, update formatting, and fix grammar in Interactivity API reference. (59406)
  • Fix @wordpress/interactivity module ID in documentation. (59419)
  • Fix: Multi line comment format on footnotes block. (59312)
  • Format PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher inline comments correctly. (59452)
  • Interactivity API Docs: Add async actions documentation. (59401)
  • Interactivity API Docs: Add initial version of getContext and getElement. (59293)
  • Interactivity API Docs: Add server functions documentation. (59373)
  • Interactivity API Docs: Add withScope description. (59542)
  • Interactivity API Docs: Fix code not closing. (59395)
  • Interactivity API Docs: Update image with WordPress Make Core source. (59281)
  • Interactivity API Docs: Merge Interactivity documentation to keep consistency with other packages. (59270)
  • Fix comma in block-registration.md. (57248)
  • Update Gutenberg versions in WP for 6.5. (59446)
  • theme.json schema: Fix styles.background definition. (59595)
  • theme.json schema: Update appearanceTools description. (59499)

Code Quality

  • Add @global to PHP doc comments. (59522 and 59287)
  • ESLint: Enable react/jsx-boolean-value for the Gutenberg codebase and fix. (59557)
  • Editor: Remove MoreDropdownMenuComponent. (59096)
  • Interface: Remove unused MoreMenuFeatureToggle component. (59095)
  • Remove old templates list code. (59558)
  • Replace Navigator isSmall prop. (59304)
  • Theme JSON Tests: Refactor base styles to a static variable. (58975)
  • Update: Simplify code and use capture events instead of pointer-events hack. (59565)
  • l10nL10n Localization, or the act of translating code into one's own language. Also see internationalization. Often written with an uppercase L so it is not confused with the capital letter i or the numeral 1. WordPress has a capable and dynamic group of polyglots who take WordPress to more than 70 different locales.: Unify terminology to screen size. (59456)

Block Library

  • BlockPopover: Remove __unstableCoverTarget and __unstableRefreshSize in favour of BlockPopoverCover. (59228)
  • Blocks: Refactor deletion warnings dialog. (58952)
  • Navigation Block: Remove unnecessary @param annotation. (59559)
  • Site Title Block: Rename and move edit file. (56357)

Font Library

  • Replace deprecated isSmall prop with size="small" prop. (59530)
  • Update font collection JSON schema to accommodate the changes made in wp_register_font_collection. (59314)
  • Use NavigatorProvider in Font Library Modal. (59036)

Components

  • CustomSelectControlV2: Remove legacy adapter layer. (59420)
  • Remove unused useLatestRef() hook. (59471)
  • SnackbarList, Snackbar: Add unit testunit test Code written to test a small piece of code or functionality within a larger application. Everything from themes to WordPress core have a series of unit tests. Also see regression.. (59157)

Global Styles

  • Create a style preview component. (59498)
  • Global styles variations: Refactor directory structure. (59491)

Post Editor

  • Editor: Use hooks instead of HoCs in DocumentOutline. (59209)
  • EditorInitialization: Fix ESLint warnings for internal hooks. (59118)

Block Editor

  • getDirectInsertBlock: Remove ‘directInsert’ as a callback handler. (59172)
  • mergeBlocks: Remove unused MERGE_BLOCKS action. (59125)

Typography

  • Remove Gutenberg font face tests. (59402)

Site Editor

  • Global styles: Rename typography elements file. (59355)

Synced Patterns

  • Remove unneeded pattern overrides translationtranslation The process (or result) of changing text, words, and display formatting to support another language. Also see localization, internationalization. strings. (59269)
  • Revert removal of Nav fallback auto embed. (59220)

Tools

Testing

  • Add a fixture for the wp/block pattern block current version with overrides. (59492)
  • E2E: Refactor setup method to support class inheritance in RequestUtils. (59362)
  • Migrate ‘autosave’ end-to-end tests to Playwright. (58171)
  • Playwright: Pass the payload to createPost in data instead of query params to avoid URI too long errors. (59463)
  • Restore patterns end-to-end tests. (59024)
  • Rich text: Run end-to-end tests in Firefox and Webkit. (56030)
  • Writing flow: Add multi select end-to-end test for firefox and webkit. (53513)

Build Tooling

  • Project: Update the ‘.git-blame-ignore-revs’ list. (59615)

Security

Custom Fields

  • Block Bindings: Don’t show protected fields that are bound to blocks. (59326)

First-time contributors

The following PRs were merged by first-time contributors:

Contributors

The following contributors merged PRs in this release:

@afercia @ajlende @alanjacobmathew @andrewserong @annezazu @arthur791004 @bacoords @c4rl0sbr4v0 @carolinan @chad1008 @creativecoder @DAreRodz @dcalhoun @desrosj @draganescu @ellatrix @fluiddot @getdave @glendaviesnz @huzaifaalmesbah @inc2734 @jameskoster @jasmussen @jeryj @jorgefilipecosta @jsnajdr @juanfra @kevin940726 @madhusudhand @Mamaduka @matiasbenedetto @mattgrshaw @michalczaplinski @mikachan @mirka @ndiego @noisysocks @ntsekouras @oandregal @ockham @peterwilsoncc @pbking @ramonjd @retrofox @samueljseay @SantosGuillamot @scruffian @shail-mehta @SiobhyB @sirreal @sunil25393 @t-hamano @talldan @tellthemachines @TeresaGobble @torounit @tyxla @WunderBart @youknowriad

Props to @joen for visual assets and to @annezazu and @aaronrobertshaw for reviewing this post before publishing.

#block-editor, #core-editor, #gutenberg, #gutenberg-new