Summary, Dev Chat, June 18, 2025

Start of the meeting 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/., facilitated by @audrasjb. 🔗 Agenda post.

Announcements 📢

Forthcoming releases 🚀

WordPress 6.8.2 and beyond

A release squad was announced for 6.8.2: @audrasjb, @estelaris and @zunaid321 will lead this version. The detailed 6.8.2 schedule is available.

Discussion 💬

Discussion on Old Dependencies

#47218 (Update TinyMCE to 5.x or 6.x) and #48277 (Update plupload library) were discussed due to frequent security audit flags. While the plupload ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. is closed as WordPress already the last license-compatible version, updating TinyMCE is technically very difficult. Instead, better documentation explaining the current status and reasons for keeping older versions (and how the CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. team ensures their security) is planned, for example as a page in the developer handbook.

PHPStan Integration in Core Development

#61175 covers how to handle PHPStan errors in the core development process. The team is deciding which errors to ignore, baseline, or fix. Help with fixing these errors is welcomed.

Errors from Direct File Execution

#62722 (Fix all ABSPATH direct access errors) and #63316 address warnings caused by direct file execution. Some think this should be handled at the server level, but it was suggested to review and fix security-relevant cases individually.

Improving Testing Processes

The need to revive structured user testing and better use of 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. plugins was discussed. The goal is closer collaboration between Core and Test teams to improve test quality and timing. Ideas include live usability tests at WordCamps and providing easy testing environments like Playgrounds.

Props to @audrasjb for review.

#6-8, #core, #dev-chat, #summary