The WordPress coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. development team builds WordPress! Follow this site for general updates, status reports, and the occasional code debate. There’s lots of ways to contribute:
Found a bugbugA 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.?Create a ticket in the bug tracker.
As a follow-up to the release calendar proposal for 2025, let’s gather interest in being part of the release squad for the next major releasemajor releaseA release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope., WordPress 6.8.
Proposed WordPress 6.8 tentative schedule
Based on that calendar proposal for next year, the WordPress 6.8 tentative schedule is as follows:
Milestone
Date
Alpha (trunktrunkA directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision. open for 6.8 release)
October 22, 2024
BetaBetaA 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. 1
March 4 2025
Beta 2
March 11, 2025
Beta 3
March 18, 2025
Release Candidaterelease candidateOne 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). 1
March 25, 2025
Release Candidate 2
April 1, 2025
Release Candidate 3
April 8, 2025
Dry Run
April 14, 2025
WordPress 6.8 General Release
April 15, 2025
According to the schedule above and the GutenbergGutenbergThe 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/ release cadence, WordPress 6.8 would include up to Gutenberg 20.4 for a maximum of 11 releases, depending on the end-of-year Gutenberg release adjustments (according to an unaltered schedule, Gutenberg 20.0 RCrelease candidateOne 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). and stable would land on December 25th and January 1st, respectively).
Release Leads call for volunteers
Following the release squad structure from the last release, except for the default theme role, as WordPress 6.8 won’t deliver a new default theme, these are the minimum roles that need filling:
Release Coordinator(s)
CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Tech Lead(s)
Editor Tech Lead(s)
Core TriagetriageThe act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. Lead(s)
All release decisions will ultimately be this release team’s to make and communicate, while gathering input from the community, including finalizing the release schedule.
If you are interested in participating in WordPress 6.8’s release squad as a lead, please show interest in the comments below, clearly specifying your desired role, by December 6th.
With WordPress 6.7 out the door, it’s time to plan for next year’s releases. The following dates try to account for flagship events and major international holidays:
6.8 – BetaBetaA 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. 1 on March 4, stable release on April 15 (Beta 1 ten days after WC Asia)
6.9 – Beta 1 on June 24, stable release on August 5 (WCEU in early June)
7.0 – Beta 1 on September 30, stable release on November 11 (no flagship events nearby)
The release cadence is similar to past years, with a longer initial release cycle, including the end-of-year festivities and ~4-month ones. Please leave your feedback below or through a SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. DM by November 29.
Although the 6.8 dates aren’t final yet, they are close to final enough to let contributors know their availability around that time. If you want to participate in the WordPress 6.8 release, stay tuned for an upcoming post with the call for volunteers.
Props to @jeffpaul for reviewing the proposed dates and this post.
Summary of the WordPress Developer Blogblog(versus network, site) meeting, which took place in the #core-dev-blog channel on the Make WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. Start of the meeting in Slack.
Last month’s disrupted GitHubGitHubGitHub 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/ process is fixed again
Reminder: The January meeting to Jan. 9th, 2025 at 13:00 UTC, due to Holiday season.
Newly published posts since last meeting
Since the last meeting, we published the following articles
How to build a theme demo with WP Playground blueprints (blocked by a bugbugA 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.)
Congratulations to all who helped make WordPress 6.7! Now that it has launched, you’re invited to reflect and share your thoughts on the release process and squad to learn, iterate, and improve for future releases.
Whether you led, contributed, tested, followed along—whatever your role, even if you didn’t have one—you are welcome to participate in this retrospective. So please take a moment to complete the form or leave public feedback in the comments below.
Please note: the survey is not anonymous. That’s in case a relevant person wants to reach you for further clarification. But your email address will not be shared publicly, and nobody is going to use it for any other purpose.
The form and comments will be open until January 13, 2025. Shortly thereafter, you’ll see a follow-up post with collected, anonymized results.
Again, thank you for your contributions to 6.7 “Rollins,” and for taking the time to help make future releases even better!
At a high level, we will go through quick intros (what each person does/focuses on) before reviewing the major landings of the Performance team in 2024 and a look ahead to 2025.
As a reminder, hallway hangouts are meant to be casual and collaborative so come prepared with a kind, curious mind along with any questions or items you want to discuss around this important area of the project, especially since the agenda is intentionally loose to allow for it.
As mentioned at the top of today’s agenda, the weekly Dev Chat times have gone back to 20:00 UTC.
Announcements
The WordPress 6.8 call for volunteers is open until December 6. You can find out more and volunteer for any of the roles here.
Also, GutenbergGutenbergThe 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/ 19.8 was released earlier today 🎉. What’s new in Gutenberg 19.8?
Next major releasemajor releaseA release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope.: 6.8
There is currently no release date planned for WordPress 6.7.2. You can review the next minor release milestone. @desrosj suggested that mid to late January is a good ballpark at the moment, as there are no urgent issues after 6.7.1.
@azaozz expressed his hope that every Gutenberg release can be merged to coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. during alpha. Would probably reduce the final pressure during betaBetaA 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. and RCrelease candidateOne 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)..
@joemcgill agreed, stating, “It is currently not ideal that nightly WordPress releases aren’t really available to test features that are ready until after the first sync of the cycle”.
@priethor asked, “What’s preventing us from doing that from the core side?”
Consensus from those in attendance was that there wasn’t any specific blockers to doing this, so it may be worth giving this a try in 6.8 once a release squad is identified.
@mikachan asked if we could automate a lot of the process, perhaps open a wordpress-develop PR from a GH action when a new Gutenberg release is out, and then the majority of the work would be testing and committing.
@johnbillion identified a couple of tickets on TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. for automation that could use help moving forward: #60967 and #60966.
Open Floor
@annezazu shared the following update prior to the meeting:
This post is a follow up to Feature Plugin Proposal: WP Consent API from 2020, which as part of the Core Privacy Roadmap, proposed a framework to allow extenders to coordinate user consent signals and help websites honor user privacy preferences.
Objective of this proposal
The legal and moral implications around respect for user consent and tracking have evolved steadily since the original proposal was published in 2020. Powering over 40% of the web, WordPress is in a position to lead by example and provide site operators built-in and extensibleExtensibleThis is the ability to add additional functionality to the code. Plugins extend the WordPress core software. means to address these concerns. This proposal seeks to gather consensus around adopting the WP Consent APIAPIAn 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. for inclusion in CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress..
A brief history of the API
In early 2020, the WP Consent APIfeature pluginFeature PluginA plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins. was announced. It enables the setting and retrieval of user consent preferences, made accessible to plugins that register with the API. It was designed to be lean and unobtrusive, opt-in only, and with no UIUIUser interface.
Rather than try to enforce cookie-setting compliance itself, the API lets opted-in plugins verify consent before placing cookies. It also allows consent categories to be defined and user choices set and stored by consent management providers (CMPs) and other extenders, where the technical and legal details around the various flavors of consent can be managed outside of WordPress.
In December 2020 the Consent API feature was swept up along with other features during a clean up of the features list, and marked as “Closed”. However, subsequent discussions in #core-privacy in following months were incognizant of the change, and there was confusion that it had been marked closed when attempts were made to move the pluginPluginA 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 to the WordPress GitHubGitHubGitHub 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/ org.
In March 2024, enforcement of the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) began, and adoption of the plugin has since grown from under 1,000 to over 100,000 active installations. Uptake of the plugin can largely be attributed to consent-requiring plugins such as Google Site Kit, WooCommerce, and WP Statistics, which use the API to support site analytics, advertising, marketing, and tagtagA 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.) management.
Beyond the DMA, there are numerous other privacy-focused regulations around the world that over the past few years have come into effect, or will soon. User consent is a key theme to achieving many of these protections, and WordPress can provide the foundation on which consent plugins interact.
Considerations for Core adoption
The API has remained largely unchanged since its introduction, so would likely require refreshing to meet today’s Core merge expectations. There may also be features that need to be revisited, such as how non-consent-related plugins appear in Site Health recommendations.
Along with the API, Core could implement a default cookie “popup” or blockBlockBlock 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. that could be activated similar to the built-in Privacy Policy feature. This would give site owners a simple mechanism to request and track consent (cookie-based), and be customizable without requiring an additional plugin.
A sample use would be to request “statistics” consent through the popup, styled through a theme, and wrap client-side tracking code inside a wp_has_consent() check. Extenders can take things further by expanding the default categories and storage mechanism for more advanced integrations, as current adopters of the API do today.
Considering the original intent that this feature be merged to Core, agreement from Rogier that it remain available to the community, and the API’s adoption by other vendors, officially bringing the plugin into the WordPress org would send a clear signal to site owners and extenders that this is a community-built and supported standard.
What do you think about WordPress paving the way for easier integration of consent-based privacy controls? Please comment below, especially if you have dealt with implementing consent management in WordPress.
“What’s new in GutenbergGutenbergThe 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 and the Editor.
The latest release of the Gutenberg pluginPluginA 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 entails a myriad of user experience improvements for selecting section styles, image manipulation and font handling. The DataViews layouts also received important improvements.
In zoom-out mode, users can now apply different sections styles and designs directly from the toolbar, cycling through them and inspecting them in the context of the rest of the page. This enhancementenhancementEnhancements are simple improvements to WordPress, such as the addition of a hook, a new feature, or an improvement to an existing feature. streamlines the decision-making and production process. (#67140)
Font family preview in dropdown
Another user experience improvement can be found in the list of fonts: Each font family is now previewed in the font picker dropdown and gives users a better indication as to what the font will look like. (67118)
Success notices for image editing with Undo link
The outcome of the Image manipulation methods are now better communicated in the blockBlockBlock 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. editor. The success notices are now displayed at the bottom of the editor. The notices also come with a handy Undo link to revert to the original if necessary. (67314)(67312)
Other Notable Highlights
DataViews improvements
This release also contains some Data View improvements. For instance, the table layout received density options: A user can modify the amount of whitespace that is displayed per row on three levels: comfortable, balanced and compact. (67170) Developers working with the Dataviews can now make use of a new APIAPIAn 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. to programmatically register and unregister fields for the various display methods. (67175).
Block supports from experimental to stable.
📣 Plugin authors and Theme builders might appreciate the stabilization of certain block support settings and functions. A separate make blogblog(versus network, site) post will explain the ins and outs. For now, you can read about it in two GitHubGitHubGitHub 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/ PRs: (67018) (66918).
Next Performance Lab release has been moved from December 2 to December 16
Upcoming Performance Weekly Chats in December:
No meeting on Tuesday December 24
No meeting on Tuesday December 31
Meetings will resume again on Tuesday January 7, 2025
End of year Performance Hallway Hangout
Priority Items
WordPress performance TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. tickets
Performance Lab pluginPluginA 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 (and other performance plugins)
@joemcgill While it’s not a performance ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.. #62046 is the one that I’ve been looking at most recently, as it could have implications on how we approach improving sizes attribute calculation.
Performance Lab Plugin (and other Performance Plugins)
@joemcgill my question would be whether working on adding dominant color backgrounds in the media modal to the plugin has any real performance benefit that would lead this to be a priority at this point?
@pbearne it is not a priority but it would nice to finish it now i have worked out how to add it to media model. Adding ThumbHash should be left to @swissspidy client side image code
@joemcgill yes, as long as the plugin is still a part of the performance lab repo, I think it’s free for contribution if there is something you’ve already got going.
@pbearne will add some cleaner code. But would like someone better at JSJSJavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors. to look at the replace
@joemcgill Sure. I’ll respond to the issue and am happy to review a PR once you’ve got something together
@mukesh27 The PR 1683 for Bump minimum required WordPress version to 6.6 is ready for review. I will work on issue 1557 in the coming week it’s quick one.
@mukesh27 I’m exploring how we can pass the context for Column blockBlockBlock 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. as it’s more complex then other parent blocks
Enable Client Side Modern Image Generation
No updates this week
Open Floor
@joemcgill discuss having an end of year Hallway Hangout for the Performance team in the next couple of weeks
We could even possibly just use this current meeting slot, but should confirm with @flixos90 what will work for him. I suspect he wants to put together some end of year data, similar to last year, that could be shared on the call.
Next Performance Lab release has been moved from December 2 to December 16
Upcoming Performance Weekly Chats in December:
No meeting on Tuesday December 24
No meeting on Tuesday December 31
Meetings will resume again on Tuesday January 7, 2025
End of year Performance Hallway Hangout
Priority items
WordPress performance TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. tickets
Performance Lab pluginPluginA 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 (and other performance plugins) including:
The live meeting will focus on the discussion for upcoming releases, and have an open floor section.
Additional items will be referred to in the various curated agenda sections below. If you have ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. requests for help, please continue to post details in the comments section at the end of this agenda.
Announcements
There are no major announcements from the past week.
Forthcoming releases
Next major releasemajor releaseA release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope.: 6.8
Next GutenbergGutenbergThe 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/ release: 19.8
The next Gutenberg release will be 19.8, scheduled for December 4. It will include the following issues.
Discussions
The discussion section of the agenda is to provide a place to discuss important topics affecting the upcoming release or larger initiatives that impact the CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Team.
If you want to nominate a topic for discussion, please leave a comment on this agenda with a summary of the topic, any relevant links that will help people get context for the discussion, and what kind of feedback you are looking for from others participating in the discussion.
You can keep up to date with the major Editor features that are currently in progress by viewing these Iteration issues.
Open floor
Any topic can be raised for discussion in the comments, as well as requests for assistance on tickets. Tickets in the milestone for the next major or maintenance release will be prioritized.
Please include details of tickets / PRs and the links in the comments, and if you intend to be available during the meeting for discussion or if you will be async.
Next major releasemajor releaseA release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope.: 6.8
There is currently no release date planned for WordPress 6.7.2. You can review the next minor release milestone. @desrosj suggested that mid to late January is a good ballpark at the moment, as there are no urgent issues after 6.7.1.
Next GutenbergGutenbergThe 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/ release: 19.8
The next Gutenberg release will be 19.8, scheduled for December 4. It will include the following issues. Reading the release posts, like What’s new in Gutenberg 19.7 is a great way to see what is being worked on for the next major release.
Discussion
There were no topics proposed for this week. As a reminder, anyone can propose discussion topics for these meetings by commenting on the agenda posts each week or reach out to @mikachan or @joemcgill (the current CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Team Reps) directly.
Open Floor
@azaozz mentioned ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.#62504, which seems somewhat common judging by the number of duplicate tickets.
Was wondering if having just a hotfix pluginPluginA 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 will be sufficient until 6.7.2 considering it would probably be released next year.
A current workaround for folks is to update the Classic Editor plugin. The same issue affects any plugins that still use the old Edit Posts screen to edit custom post types, and we recommended that these plugins apply the hotfix to work around the issue until the fix is backported to 6.7.2.
Reminder: The January meeting to Jan. 9th, 2025 at 13:00 UTC, due to Holiday season.
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