Summary, Dev Chat, November 27, 2024

Startย of the meeting inย 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 @joemcgill. ๐Ÿ”— Agenda post.

As mentioned at the top of todayโ€™s agenda, from today forward, the weekly Dev Chat times will be back to 20:00 UTC.

Announcements

WordPress 6.7.1ย was released on November 21, 2024.

Forthcoming releases

Nextย major releasemajor release A 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

We are currently in theย WordPress 6.8 release cycle. You can review theย next major release milestone.
Theย call for volunteers for the 6.8 release squadย is open until Dec 6. A call for volunteers for the release squad has been published here.

Next maintenance release: 6.7.2

There is currently no release date planned for WordPress 6.7.2. You can review theย 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.

Nextย 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 โ€˜blocksโ€™ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ย release: 19.8

The next Gutenberg release will be 19.8, scheduled for December 4. It will includeย the following issues. Reading the release posts, likeย Whatโ€™s new in Gutenberg 19.7ย 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 toย @mikachanย or @joemcgill (the current CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Team Reps) directly.

Open Floor

@azaozz mentioned ticketticket Created 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 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. 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.

Props to @joemcgill for reviewing.

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

Summary, Dev Chat, November 20, 2024

Startย of the meeting inย 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 @joemcgill. ๐Ÿ”— Agenda post.

As mentioned at the top of todayโ€™s agenda, from today forward, the weekly Dev Chat times will be back to 20:00 UTC.

Announcements

WordPress 6.7.1 is now available! Thanks so much to everyone who helped prepare this release.

Forthcoming releases

Nextย major releasemajor release A 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

We are currently in theย WordPress 6.8 release cycle. You can review and give feedback on the proposed release schedule for 2025 onย this post. A call for volunteers for the release squad has been published here.

Next maintenance release: 6.7.1

We discussed the plan to release WP 6.7.1 on Thursday, November 21, at 13:30 UTC, according toย this schedule.

Nextย 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 โ€˜blocksโ€™ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ย release: 19.8

The next Gutenberg release will be 19.8, scheduled for December 4.

Discussion

@johnbillion mentioned doing some analysis of how often tickets are bumped from one major release to the next, as there are currently >200 tickets in the 6.8 milestone on Trac. @joemcgill suggested doing a scrub of the existing tickets and moving any that have been bumped more than one release to โ€œFuture Releaseโ€. We also discussed keeping an eye on how often tickets are bumped during the 6.8 cycle.

Open Floor

We started with a call for volunteers that @bph shared:

From the Developer Blogblog (versus network, site) content board we identified six approved topics that are looking for writers. Check out the issues and if you want to tackle a topic, comment on it.
For questions, join us in theย #core-dev-blogย channel or pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test itโ€™s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of โ€œPing me when the meeting starts.โ€ย @bphย (me) .

@remy mentioned ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. #51525, which proposes adding two new functions, apply_filters_single_type() and apply_filters_ref_array_single_type():

we have a separate repo where we are doing the changes and testing them live in our plugins, but we were waiting for feedbacks before merging the changes up to coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.

We discussed that it would be good to look at this soon and consider it for the 6.8 release.

#6-7-1, #6-8, #core, #dev-chat, #summary

Update on Phase 3: Collaboration efforts

Over the last year, Phase 3 of the 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 โ€˜blocksโ€™ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ roadmap has begun to take form and with it comes a need for an update around whatโ€™s been done, how to follow along, and what to expect going forward. This post seeks to provide answers at a high level view of these questions. As a reminder Phase 3 is centered around fostering seamless collaboration, tying together the user experience, and streamlining the content management flows to improve the way creators and teams work together within WordPress. As work progresses, feedback is needed and welcomed to ensure broader adoption.

Real-time collaboration

Over the last few months, Kevin Jahns, the author of Yjs, a popular framework for building collaborative applications has been sponsored by Automattic to work on real-time collaboration, after an initial experiment landed. He kicked off his efforts with some research and dialogue in this discussion issue. More recently, heโ€™s pulled together some prototypes ahead of sharing a full proposal for how to proceed. Right now, consider this work as being in a strong experimental stage without a final approach. The next step is to get the initial approach into a PR for folks to give feedback on and discuss openly.ย 

Below is a demo showing syncing content only relying on HTTPHTTP HTTP is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web and this protocol defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands. APIs with the autosave interval set to 3 seconds. Because it relies on HTTP APIs, this demo would work on all WordPress instances:

Going a step further, you can see more demos in a recent update including adding y-webrtc into the experience to show how real time collaboration would work for users who can establish a peer-to-peer WebRTC connection.

Follow along in this dedicated GitHub issue and/or in the #feature-realtime-collaboration 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/ channel.

Async collaboration: In-line comments

An initial experiment for block-level inline comments landed with Gutenberg 19.6, breaking ground on the first of many async collaboration upgrades. At this point, another iteration on this initial feature is already planned and underway to refine the current experience further. If youโ€™d like to help test and shape the feature further, stay tuned for a dedicated call for testing or start testing today with this WordPress Playground instance and open issues in the Gutenberg GitHubGitHub 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 โ€˜pull requestโ€™ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged by the repository owner. https://github.com/ repository. The aim is to get early feedback and quickly iterate in order to land this new feature in an upcoming major WordPress release. Below is a look at the near term design slated to be shipped next with visuals for adding a comment, leaving a comment, toggling to see resolved comments, and the resulting view when looking at resolved comments:

Follow along in this dedicated GitHub issue.ย 

Adminadmin (and super admin) redesign: DataView & DataForm

DataViews is the foundational component of the initial overall admin design efforts. By design, these views are being built out only in the Site Editor, with a few efforts branching out including an experiment for a new, separate Posts experience using Data Views and an early Media Library powered by Data Views proof of concept.ย ย 

As a next step of the initial development of DataViews, the more recent DataForm API was later introduced in Gutenberg 18.8 with the aim to reduce expected duplication to create forms in Data Views. Work has continued progressively from there with DataViews and DataForm components influencing each otherโ€™s development. You can view each in their respective Storybook views: DataViews and DataForm.

Both of these components have been created with extensibility at the heart of everything being built! For now, 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. and agency developers can already start using the DataViews component for their WordPress customizations with two different Developer Blogblog (versus network, site) tutorials to get you started: Using Data Views to display and interact with data in plugins and Actions from Data Views: Adding images to the Media Library. If you want to go on a deeper dive, watch a recent hallway hangout that goes through both of these components with folks actively working on them. Expect a continual focus on extensibility as these components evolve. Below is a look at how DataViews comes together with the DataForm work with an easy option to quick edit within oneโ€™s pages:

Follow along in this dedicated DataViews component issue and this DataForm component issue. For early design work in this area and beyond, check out the biweekly design updates.


Thanks to @priethor @youknowriad @4thhubbard @matveb for reviewing this post and for @joen and @jameskoster for the design assets.

#gutenberg, #phase-3

WordPress 6.8 Call for Volunteers

As a follow-up to the release calendar proposal for 2025, letโ€™s gather interest in being part of the release squad for the next major releasemajor release A 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:

MilestoneDate
Alpha (trunktrunk A 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.ย open for 6.8 release)October 22, 2024
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. 1March 4 2025
Beta 2March 11, 2025
Beta 3March 18, 2025
Release Candidaterelease 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).ย 1March 25, 2025
Release Candidate 2April 1, 2025
Release Candidate 3April 8, 2025
Dry RunApril 14, 2025
WordPress 6.8 General ReleaseApril 15, 2025

According to the schedule above and theย 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 โ€˜blocksโ€™ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ย 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 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). 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 wonโ€™t deliver a new default theme, these are the minimum roles that need filling:

  • Release Coordinator(s)
  • CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.ย Tech Lead(s)
  • Editor Tech Lead(s)
  • Core Triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors.ย Lead(s)
  • Editor Triage Lead(s)
  • Documentation Lead(s)
  • Test Lead(s)
  • Design Lead(s)
  • Performance Lead(s)

Itโ€™s worth noting that WordPress 6.7 experimented with not having an explicit Marketing Lead; depending on feedback from the last release, the 6.8 squad might add back that role or other missing ones. As usual, the Release LeadRelease Lead The community member ultimately responsible for the Release. role will be filled by project leadership. Check the Core Handbook to learn more about theย release teamโ€™s roles and responsibilities.

All release decisions will ultimately be this release teamโ€™s to make and communicate, while gathering input from the community, including finalizing the release schedule.

If you are interested in participating in WordPress 6.8โ€™sย release squadย as a lead, please show interest in the comments below, clearly specifying your desired role, by December 6th.


Thanks to @aaroncampbell and @jeffpaul for reviewing this post.

#planning #6-8

Whatโ€™s new in Gutenberg 19.7? (20 November)

โ€œWhatโ€™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 โ€˜blocksโ€™ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/โ€ฆโ€ 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, hereโ€™s an overview of different ways to keep up with Gutenberg and the Editor.



Gutenberg 19.7 has been released and is available for download!

  1. Global Styles available on the main site editor sidebar
  2. Swifter hiding & showing the template
  3. Set image blocks as featured image
  4. Changelog
  5. First-time contributors
  6. Contributors

Global Styles available on the main site editor 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.

The site editor sidebar is getting increasingly powerful, serving as the entry point to manage all-things your site. Up until this version, the styles panel offered limited style settings, focusing on style variations, color palettes, and typographies. Gutenberg 19.7 changes this by introducing a full-fledged Global Styles panel in its place, giving users site-wide granular control on styles at the top level.

Swifter hiding & showing the template

Switching between editing your site templates and content pages should be as smooth and seamless as possible; sometimes, you need to focus on the post content and hide the rest of the template. This was previously possible in the post settings, but now it is much easier thanks to the `Show template` toggle directly on the preview dropdown in the top toolbar.

Featured images offer a nice touch in external previews, making them more attractive to potential readers. However, it can be easy to forget to set one! To help set featured images more easily, image blocks now offer a dropdown action to directly set them as the featured image of the post or page containing the 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..

Continue reading โ†’

#gutenberg, #gutenberg-new

Proposal: Major releases for 2025

With WordPress 6.7 out the door, itโ€™s time to plan for next yearโ€™s releases. The following dates try to account for flagship events and major international holidays:

  • 6.8 โ€“ 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. 1 on March 4, stable release on April 15 (Beta 1 ten days after WC Asia)
  • 6.9 โ€“ Beta 1 on June 24, stable release on August 5 (WCEU in early June)
  • 7.0 โ€“ Beta 1 onย  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 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/ DM by November 29.

Although the 6.8 dates arenโ€™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.

#planning

#6-8, #6-9, #7-0

WordPress 6.7.1 Release Schedule

Since WordPress 6.7 was released last week, contributors have kept a close eye on incoming reports to the WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ Support Forums, TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress., and the 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 โ€˜blocksโ€™ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ repository on GitHubGitHub 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 โ€˜pull requestโ€™ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged by the repository owner. https://github.com/. Though volume has not been meaningfully higher than normal after a major releasemajor release A 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., most reports are describing a small set of issues that should be addressed expeditiously.

Schedule

WordPress 6.7.1 will be targeted for release on Thursday, November 21, 2024 with a very specific focus of only fixing bugs there were introduced in the 6.7 release. The goal is to deliver a small handful of high-impact 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 for added stability prior to the busy online commerce holiday week consisting of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday.

The release will be lead by myself (@desrosj) and @cbravobernal. If youโ€™re interested in volunteering, please comment below or drop a message in the #6-7-release-squad channel 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/.

Date/TimeEvent
Tuesday, November 19, 2024Continued triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors., testing, and committing/backporting fixes.
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 at 13:00PM UTCGutenberg package updates released/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. update released (if necessary).
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 at 17:00PM UTCWordPress 6.7.1 RC1
Thursday, November 21, 2024 at 13:30PM UTCWordPress 6.7.1 General Release

Targeted Fixes

The following are the high priority items that cumulatively make a fast-follow release necessary:

  • sizes=autoย causing images to show smaller than they should (#62413)
  • Translations not being applied properly (#62337)
  • Patterns without categories break the editor when browsing uncategorized patterns (GB-66944/GB-66888)
  • Zoom in doesnโ€™t focus on the right area of the screen based on selected item (a few PRs issues for this)
  • Zoom out button goes missing when plugins register toolbar items (GB-66884)

The following are bugs that should be included if ready, but as understood now are not affecting as many people or are less problematic:

  • Using the Upload button in image-based blocks in Safari unexpectedly converts images to HEIC with a temporary file name (#62447)
  • CategoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. management in the Classic Editor is broken (#62440)
  • CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets. targets changed on the login screen affecting custom logos (#62410)

Finally, the following are minor bug fixes introduced in 6.7 that should also be considered:

  • Horizontal scroll bar in the CustomizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your siteโ€™s appearance settings. (#62313)
  • Undefined key warning inย wp_salt()ย (#62424)
  • Untranslatable strings inย nav-menu.jsย (#62402)

There is currently only one ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. that does not represent a bug introduced during 6.7 being considered: #62331. This is a pretty significant performance problem for sites using GD for image editing that should be considered. It was only discovered 2 weeks ago, too late to be considered for 6.7.

A full list of tickets being considered for 6.7.x minor releases can be found on Trac and the WordPress 6.7.x project board on GitHub.

Props @joemcgill for review.

#6-7, #6-7-1, #6-7-x, #minor-releases

Summary, Dev Chat, November 13, 2024

Startย of the meeting inย 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 @joemcgill. ๐Ÿ”— Agenda post.

Announcements

WordPress 6.7 โ€œRollinsโ€ย was released on November 12, 2024. A big thank you to everyone who contributed to this release!

To quote the release post:

WordPress 6.7 reflects the tireless efforts and passion of more than 780 contributors in countries all over the world. This release also welcomed over 230 first-time contributors!

Forthcoming releases

Nextย major releasemajor release A 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

We are currently in theย WordPress 6.8 release cycle.

Next maintenance release

There are no maintenance releases planned at this time.

Nextย 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 โ€˜blocksโ€™ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ย release: 19.7

The next Gutenberg release will be 19.7, scheduled for November 20.

Discussion

There were two main topics today:

  1. Immediate issues that need to be addressed following the release
  2. Confirming volunteers to coordinate upcoming maintenance releases following 6.7

There are currently no immediate issues requiring a quick minor releaseMinor 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., so the first minor will likely be released in around 30 days.

@azaozz mentioned #62401 as something that may need addressing soon, but it is from 6.6 rather than 6.7.

@oglekler also raised #62413 for potential inclusion in the next minor release.

We also discussed the need to start to identify volunteers who are willing to help with minor releases as they are ready. We already have a list of 21 issues (1 fixed) set to the 6.7.1 release milestone. @joemcgill suggested we do a call for volunteers if needed next week.

Props toย @joemcgill for proofreading.

#6-7, #core, #dev-chat, #summary

WordPress 6.7 Release Day Process

Preparation for the WordPress 6.7 release is underway.

This post shares the release process, including the timeline and how you can help.

Release Timeline Overview


24-Hour Code Freezeย 

A mandatory 24-hour code freeze is now in effect for the 6.7 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"..

What does this mean?

No source code for 6.7.0 (i.e., in the 6.7 branch) can be changed during these 24 hours.

What happens if a critical 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. is reported during this period?

The release squad will meet with committers and maintainers to determine if the issue is a blockerblocker A bug which is so severe that it blocks a release..

  • If yes, another 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). release happens, and the release process restarts (meaning the dry run is repeated, and then the 24-hour code freeze clock restarts).
  • If not, then the bug is targeted for 6.7.1.

The Release Party ๐Ÿ“…

The WordPress 6.7 Release Party will start on Tuesday, November 12, 2024, at 20:00 UTC in the ย #core Slack channel.

The release party walks through the steps in the Major Version Release process for anyone who wants to follow along.

Please note releasing a major version requires more time than releasing a 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. or release candidaterelease 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).. There are more steps in the process. If any last-minute issues need addressing, more time will be needed.

How You Can Help

A key part of the release process is checking that the ZIP packages work on all the available server configurations. If you have some of the less commonly used servers available for testing (IIS, in particular), that would be super helpful. Servers running older versions of PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher and MySQLMySQL MySQL is a relational database management system. A database is a structured collection of data where content, configuration and other options are stored. https://www.mysql.com will also need testing.

You can start this early by running the WordPress 6.7 RC5 packages, which are built using the same method as the final packages.

During the release party, options will be provided on how to help test the release package.

Tips on What to Test

In particular, testing the following types of installs and updates would be much appreciated:

  • Does a new WordPress install work correctly? This includes running through the manual install process, as well as WP-CLIWP-CLI WP-CLI is the Command Line Interface for WordPress, used to do administrative and development tasks in a programmatic way. The project page is http://wp-cli.org/ https://make.wordpress.org/cli/ or one-click installers.
  • Test upgrading from various versions.
  • Remove the wp-config.php file and test a fresh install.
  • Test single site and multisitemultisite Used to describe a WordPress installation with a network of multiple blogs, grouped by sites. This installation type has shared users tables, and creates separate database tables for each blog (wp_posts becomes wp_0_posts). See also network, blog, site/networknetwork (versus site, blog) (both subdirectory and subdomain) installations.
  • Does it upgrade correctly? Are the files listed in $_old_files removed when you upgrade?
  • Does multisite upgrade properly?

Testing the following user flows on both desktop and mobile would be great to validate each function as expected:

  • Publish a post, including a variety of different blocks.
  • Comment on the post.
  • Install a new 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./theme, or upgrade an existing one.
  • Change the site language.
  • If youโ€™re a plugin developer, or if there are complex plugins you depend upon, test that theyโ€™re working correctly.

For a more in-depth list of what features to test, make sure to check the Help Test WordPress 6.7 post.

#6-7, #dry-run

WordPress 6.7 Release Candidate 5

The fifth release candidaterelease 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). (RC5) for WordPress 6.7 is ready for download and testing!

This version of the WordPress software is under development. Please do not install, run, or test this version of WordPress on production or mission-critical websites. Instead, itโ€™s recommended that you evaluate RC5 on a test server and site.

Reaching this phase of the release cycle is an important milestone. While release candidates are considered ready for release, testing remains crucial to ensure that everything in WordPress 6.7 is the best it can be.

You can test WordPress 6.7 RC5 in four ways:

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.Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin on a WordPress install. (Select the โ€œBleeding edgebleeding edge The latest revision of the software, generally in development and often unstable. Also known as trunk.โ€ channel and โ€œBetaBeta 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./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). Onlyโ€ stream).
Direct DownloadDownload the RC5 version (zip) and install it on a WordPress website.
Command LineUse the following WP-CLI command:
wp core update --version=6.7-RC5
WordPress PlaygroundUse the 6.7 RC5 WordPress Playground instance (available within 35 minutes after the release is ready) to test the software directly in your browser without the need for a separate site or setup.

The current target for the WordPress 6.7 release is November 12, 2024. Get an overview of the 6.7 release cycle, and check the Make WordPress Core blog for 6.7-related posts in the coming weeks for further details.

Whatโ€™s in WordPress 6.7 RC5?

Get a recap of WordPress 6.7โ€™s highlighted features in the Beta 1 announcement. For more technical information related to issues addressed since RC4, you can browse the following links:

  • [59383] Feeds: Avoid fatal error with emptyย blog_charsetย value.
  • [59381] Media: Remove dimension suffix from full size converted HEIC images.

How you can contribute

WordPress is open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. software made possible by a passionate community of people collaborating on and contributing to its development. The resources below outline various ways you can help the worldโ€™s most popular open source web platform, regardless of your technical expertise.

Get involved in testing

Testing for issues is critical to ensuring WordPress is performant and stable. Itโ€™s also a meaningful way for anyone to contribute. This detailed guide will walk you through testing features in WordPress 6.7. For those new to testing, follow this general testing guide for more details on getting set up.

If you encounter an issue, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area of the support forums or directly to WordPress Trac if you are comfortable writing a reproducible 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. report. You can also check your issue against a list of known bugs.

Curious about testing releases in general? Follow along with the testing initiatives in Make Core and join the #core-test channel on Making WordPress Slack.

Search for vulnerabilities

From now until the final release of WordPress 6.7 (scheduled for November 12, 2024), the monetary reward for reporting new, unreleased security vulnerabilities is doubled. Please follow responsible disclosure practices as detailed in the projectโ€™s security practices and policies outlined on the HackerOne page and in the security white paper.

Update your theme or plugin

For plugin and theme authors, your products play an integral role in extending the functionality and value of WordPress for all users.ย 

Thanks for continuing to test your themes and plugins with the WordPress 6.7 beta releases. With RC5, youโ€™ll want to conclude your testing and update the โ€œTested up toโ€ version in your pluginโ€™s readme file to 6.7.

If you find compatibility issues, please post detailed information to the support forum.

Help translate WordPress

Do you speak a language other than English? ยฟEspaรฑol? Franรงais? ะ ัƒััะบะธะน? ๆ—ฅๆœฌ? เคนเคฟเคจเฅเคฆเฅ€? เฆฌเฆพเฆ‚เฆฒเฆพ? You can help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages.

Release the haiku

RC5 arrives,
Final release dawns tomorrow,
Codeโ€™s last breath awaits.

Thank you to the following contributors for collaborating on this post: @jorbin.

#6-7, #development, #releases