Héctor Prieto 3:38 pm on July 18, 2025
Tags: , , ,   

What’s new in Gutenberg 21.2? (16 July)

“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 tagtag A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses tags to store a single snapshot of a version (3.6, 3.6.1, etc.), the common convention of tags in version control systems. (Not to be confused with post tags.)) 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 and the Editor.

What’s New In
Gutenberg 21.2?

Gutenberg 21.2 has been released and is available for download!

This release focuses on improvements to the DataViews and other components, as well as inspector 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. enhancements. Below is a curated summary of the most notable changes in this release.

A small but handy change, the Navigation Link 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. now provides a toggle in the inspector sidebar to open the link in a new tab, bringing it together with the rest of the link options.

DataViews and new components

Gutenberg 21.2 introduces numerous DataViews enhancements and new features. For starters, there are new media, boolean, email, and array field type definitions. Moreover, field type definitions can define a default sorting and rendering function. 

You can even break down the DataViews themselves and make different compositions, as the DataViews component now exports its subcomponents independently. There are many new features and some breaking changes; for a comprehensive list, please refer to the full list of changes.

Aside from DataViews, this release introduces the DateCalendar and DateRangeCalendar components as well.

ToolsPanel refactoring continues

Similarly to recent releases, more blocks have had their settings panels updated to a newer UIUI User interface. This time, it’s the turn for the Gallery block, and wrapping up the efforts from the last release, the remaining options of the Site Logo block.

Changelog

Enhancements

  • DataViews: Introduce perPageSizes to control the available sizes of the items per page. (70604)
  • ESLint: Enforce stricter translator comment placeholder matching. (70458)
  • Format Library: Improve inline image replacement workflow. (70598)
  • I18Ni18n Internationalization, or the act of writing and preparing code to be fully translatable into other languages. Also see localization. Often written with a lowercase i so it is not confused with a lowercase L or the numeral 1. Often an acquired skill.: Use @tannin/sprintf. (70434)

Block Library

  • Gallery: Refactor “Settings” panel of Gallery block to use ToolsPanel instead of PanelBody. (67904)
  • Navigation Link: Add “Open in new tab” toggle to navigation block sidebar. (67262)
  • Site Logo: Refactor the media panel to use ToolsPanel. (70599)

Icons

  • Update circle icons to have a unified footprint. (70581)
  • Update icons: Help, PlusCircle, Typography. (70299)

Block Editor

  • Use consistent sizing for the block locking modal. (70593)

Post Editor

  • Editor: Allow replacing the ‘PostLockedModal’ component. (70586)

Components

  • Add DateCalendar and DateRangeCalendar components. (70578)

DataViews

  • More fields, controls and operators. (70567)

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.

  • iAPI Router: Prioritize custom click event handlers when full-page navigation is enabled. (70566)

Templates API

  • Site Editor: Sort post types alphabetically within the Add Template modal. (70562)

Bug Fixes

  • iAPI Router: Preserve media attribute on intial style sheets after client-side navigation (#70668)

Block Library

  • Cover: Fixed resetAll to return image resolution to default value. (70608)
  • 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.: Fixed resetAll to return image resolution to default value. (70514)
  • Fix submenu border visibility in Navigation block. (70520)
  • Image Block: Preserve line breaks in media caption. (70476)
  • RSS Block: Decode HTMLHTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. entities in feed titles before display. (70491)

Icons

  • Fix plusCircleFilled size. (70650)

DataViews

  • Correct padding for empty-state elements when is in a . (70638)

Components

  • Remove the extra font-size override for the select control on medium layouts. (70619)

Style Book

  • Enable support for showing individual block variations. (70448)

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)

Components

  • FormTokenField: Fix focus lost on tab when __experimentalExpandOnFocus is set. (70591)

Performance

  • usePostActions: Avoid fetching all templates (unbound request). (70535)
  • Block Editor: Avoid unbound requests in inserter selectors (#66817)

Block Library

  • Post Author: Optimize and improve user control queries. (70510)

Documentation

  • Add isPostAutosavingLocked example to doc block. (70640)
  • Docs: Update Locking interface example image. (70590)
  • Media Upload: Correct wrapper reference in docstring. (70651)
  • RawHTML: Clarify the wrapper ‘div’ element behavior. (70527)
  • ServerSideRender: Remove the ‘POST’ method shim example. (70577)
  • Update nested-blocks-inner-blocks.md. (70587)
  • Updated support for MS Word Images. (70564)

Code Quality

  • I18n: Use more descriptive type arguments in i18n package. (70606)
  • ServerSideRender: Remove unnecessary props for default loading placeholder. (70576)
  • ServerSideRender: Use data 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. instead of HoC. (70529)
  • wp-env: Fix Docker build errors with Debian Buster repositories (#70718)

Block Editor

  • Background panel: Remove unused props. (70573)
  • Background panel: Remove unused style. (70556)

Block Library

  • List Block: Remove unused __unstableMultilineWrapperTags field from block.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.. (70209)

Components

  • Fix Floating UI packages dependencies. (70553)

Tools

Testing

  • CodeVitals: Use a different SHA for the base branchbranch A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses branches to store the latest development code for each major release (3.9, 4.0, etc.). Branches are then updated with code for any minor releases of that branch. Sometimes, a major version of WordPress and its minor versions are collectively referred to as a "branch", such as "the 4.0 branch".. (70565)
  • Fix 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. for flaky filterSortAndPaginate function. (70582)
  • e2e: Re-enable skipped end-to-end tests related to the settings 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/.. (70551)

First-time contributors

The following PRs were merged by first-time contributors:

Contributors

The following contributors merged PRs in this release:

@Adi-ty @arthur791004 @BugReportOnWeb @chihsuan @coderGtm @DAreRodz @ellatrix @himanshupathak95 @Infinite-Null @jameskoster @jasmussen @Lovor01 @Mamaduka @mecskyverse @p-jackson @R1shabh-Gupta @sejas @shimotmk @sirreal @Sukhendu2002 @swissspidy @t-hamano @USERSATOSHI @yogeshbhutkar @youknowriad

Props to @karmatosed for design support and to @bph for the peer review.

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