Dev Chat Summary – April 27, 2016

This post summarizes the dev chat meeting from April 27.

4.5.1 / 4.5.2

  • Released April 26, 2016.
  • Exact time of release wasn’t announced, which left places like #forums on 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/. and hosts in the dark. Going forward an exact timeframe should be announced, the handbook will be updated to be more clear on this requirement.
  • Two proposals about 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. leads came forth. One being that a set of “maintainers” be established to be on top of minor releases, the other being @ocean90 and @voldemortensen do 4.5.2 as a dry-run for 4.6.0. No decision has been made at this time.

Status of the wish-list post

There are currently 124 tickets, 4 of which are complete with about 15 in progress.

Feature pluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins./project proposals for 4.6

  • Contributors to the proposed projects should attend the feature plugins/projects meetings. The next one will be held on May 3, 2016 15:00 UTC.
  • Parts of the Shiny Updates v2 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 ready for coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. and have been proposed for merge. This fits in with the goals of the 4.6 release cycle.
  • Any one who would like to try the Shiny Updates plugin can find it here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/shiny-updates/
  • The Fields 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. team would like to propose their changes to register_meta() and a datalayer for metadata 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/. endpoints.
  • @helen is looking at #32678 (Audit toolbar links and content) for items that can be brought into 4.6.0. No meetings are currently being held, but times are being considered.
  • @westonruter proposed #34923 (Introduce basic content authorship 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 site’s appearance settings.) and #30937 (Add Customizer transactions). Anyone who has questions or is looking to contribute should join #core-customize on Slack.

Triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. of tickets with the “early” keyword

  • There are currently 12 tickets which are marked as early. Let’s try to get this report empty by next week. : https://core.trac.wordpress.org/query?status=!closed&keywords=~early&milestone=4.6

Component Maintainer Updates/Reminders

  • Please post notes from weekly meetings 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. scrubs on make/core. Release leads will try get weekly posts on upcoming meetings.
  • Weekly meeting times can be found here: https://make.wordpress.org/meetings/
  • Components which should definitely have a bug scrub soon: Posts, Post Types; Comments, TaxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies., Themes, and Widgets.

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

  • Had a kick-off meeting last Thursday and published notes: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/04/25/multisite-kickoff-for-4-6-chat-summary/
  • Had the first weekly chat of the cycle yesterday…and published notes: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/04/27/multisite-office-hours-recap-april-26-2016/
  • Great progress has been made on `WP_Site_Query`, check it out. #35791
  • If you use multisite for anything, also checkout (and test) #34941.
  • A casual bug scrub will happen on April 28, 2016 at 20:00 UTC in #core-multisite.
  • Weekly office hours are Tuesdays at 16:00 UTC.

Editor

  • @iseulde has started working on using the TinyMCE APIs for wpView and inline toolbars
  • @azaozz is still chasing after couple of rare editor bugs and will start on the wishlist (https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/04/12/editor-wish-list-4-6/) probably by the end of the week.
  • If somebody have questions or like to get involved/help, please join us at the regular editor chats on Wednesday two hours before this chat in #core-editor

Pings and Trackbacks

  • @dshanske is a new maintainer. He closed/consolidated several tickets however reading the code caused him to open some more. 🙂

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.

  • First bug scrub was this Tuesday, next scrub is May 3, 2016 at 18:00 UTC.
  • The roadmap for 4.6: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/04/22/i18n-kickoff-for-4-6-chat-summary/
  • Meetings happen in #core-i18n.

Customizer

  • The Customizer Transactions patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing. got a refresh for 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..

Comments

  • Bug scrub time will be announced next week.

a11yAccessibility 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)

  • Just a reminder that any new feature landing in core (see feature projects/plugins) should be in line with the accessibility coding standards found here: https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/best-practices/coding-standards/accessibility-coding-standards/

RevisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision.

  • @adamsilverstein is working dilligently on resolving tickets including #20564 (Framework for storing revisions of Post MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress.), #27244 (Restore This Autosave’ immediately updates a published post), #30679 (Clicking “Restore this Revision” publishes immediately) and #20299 (Preview changes on a published post makes all post meta “live”).
  • Work on #20564 is mainly happening on https://github.com/adamsilverstein/wp-post-meta-revisions and can be tested here https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-post-meta-revisions/

Open Discussion

The REST API team is seeking direction and clarity on the path forward. A more in depth summary will be posted separately. Read the conversation here: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/core/p1461791901002328

@tfrommen would really love to see (more) feedback on #36335, especially by (but of course not restricted to) Core Committers. Both targeted at the ticket’s core (i.e., a central autoloader) and the parts directly related to WordPress (e.g., split up files with multiple classes, or classes and functions, etc.). Things that might be tackled in the scope of WordPress 4.6, or in general, some day/release. https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/core/p1461795636002501

The full dev chat logs can be found here: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/core/p1461787203002129

#4-5-1, #4-5-2, #4-6, #dev-chat, #summary

4.5.1 Release Candidate

A Release Candidate for WordPress 4.5.1 is now available. This maintenance release fixes 11 issues reported against 4.5 and is scheduled for final release next Tuesday, April 26.

Thus far WordPress 4.5 has been downloaded nearly 5 million times since its release on April 12. Please help us by testing this 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). to ensure 4.5.1 fixes the reported issues and doesn’t introduce any new ones.

Notable Bug Fixes

As noted in the previous post about 4.5.1, there are  two more severe bugs fixed in this release:

  • #36545 – WordPress TinyMCE toolbar/tabs unresponsive in Chrome Version 50.0.2661.75 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.-m (64-bit) and
  • #36510 – Twenty eleven page templates with widgets incorrectly styled.

All Changes

Only a few components received changes. Here’s a list of all closed tickets, sorted by component:

Build/Test Tools

  • #36498 Shrinkwrap npm dependencies for 4.5

Bundled Theme

  • #36510 Twenty eleven page templates with widgets incorrectly styled

Customize

  • #36457 CustomizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. Device Preview: Use px units for tablet preview size

Database

  • #36629 Database connect functions can cause un-catchable warnings

Editor

  • #36458 Fix support for Safari + VoiceOver when editing inline links

Emoji

  • #36604 Emoji skin tone support test incorrectly passing in Chrome

Feeds

  • #36620 Feeds using an rss-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. content type are now served as application/octet-stream

Media

  • #36501 Fatal error: Undefined class constant 'ALPHACHANNEL_UNDEFINED'
  • #36578 wp_ajax_send_attachment_to_editor() 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.
  • #36621 Don’t cache the results of wp_mkdir_p() in a persistent cache

Rewrite Rules

  • #36506 Duplicate directives in web.config after WordPress 4.5 installation on Windows

TinyMCE

  • #36545 WordPress TinyMCE toolbar/tabs unresponsive in Chrome Version 50.0.2661.75 beta-m (64-bit)

Update: We’ve released 4.5.1-RC2, which includes the fix for #36629.

#4-5-1, #maintenance, #release

4.5.1 Release Candidate Tomorrow, April 21st

We are planning a 4.5.1 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). tomorrow, April 21st, then shipping 4.5.1 next Monday or Tuesday. One goal of doing a release candidate is to let the TinyMCE update get wider testing (see below).

There are two (fixed in 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.) bugs that prompted us to want to release 4.5.1 as soon as possible:

  • #36545 – WordPress TinyMCE toolbar/tabs unresponsive in Chrome Version 50.0.2661.75 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.-m (64-bit) and
  • #36510 – Twenty eleven page templates with widgets incorrectly styled.

We could use help testing TinyMCE for #36545.  #36545 is a TinyMCE 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. with certain versions of Chrome, and is now fixed in TinyMCE upstream. Details on the ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker..

In #36510 we added a singular class for singular items; so did some existing themes – including Twentyeleven – leading to unexpected results.

We held a bug scrub yesterday and went thru all the tickets in the 4.5.1 milestone. From that original list #36506 and #36578 still need commits/backporting. Since yesterday, a couple of new tickets have been added to the milestone. If the new tickets can’t be resolved satisfactorily by tomorrow they will likely be punted.

#4-5-1

Dev Chat Summary, April 20th 2016

This post summarizes the dev chat meeting from April 20.

Update on WordPress 4.5.1

  • #36510 and #36545 are large bugs that are prompting an earlier release than was anticipated.
  • #36510: a ‘singular’ class was added for singular items, but some existing themes -including Twentyeleven – already used ‘singular’ in a different way leading to unexpected result.
  • #36545: is a potentially bad TinyMCE 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. with chrome vs. 50 (now stable) is fixed in TinyMCE upstream; although testers have been unable to reproduce this bug, the point upgrade MCE squashes some known bugs and seems worthwhile to include.

Other items remaining

  • #26506: Press This: “Add Photos” box doesn’t have enough height
  • #36578: wp_ajax_send_attachment_to_editor() bug

Discussion about release date

Several people raised concerns about rushing out an early point 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.. In an effort to encourage testing before release, 4.5.1-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). will be tagged either today or tomorrow (April 20th, 2016 or April 21st, 2016). A make/coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. post about changes in 4.5.1 will also be posted.

Announcements

  • All committers will have their commit access renewed.
  • @voldemortensen will be the release deputy for 4.6.
  • @ebinnion, @rockwell15, and @grantpalin will continue their superb Week in Core posts.
  • WordPress 4.6 will focus on fixing bugs and refining existing features.
  • Other goals include increasing collaboration between features/components, increasing communication via make/core, and give user testing and UXUX User experience a bigger focus.

Release Schedule

  • Target release date is August 16, 2016. As a reminder, deadlines are not arbitrary.
  • Full release schedule can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/core/version-4-6-project-schedule/
  • It was proposed that the Major ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. report has zero tickets at 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. 4 instead of RC to avoid last minute rushing.

Community Wish List

  • @helen gave an update on feature projects (https://make.wordpress.org/core/features/). Feature projects have a bi-weekly meeting (every two weeks) at variable times to allow more contributors to attend. Next meeting is on May 3, 15:00 UTC in the #core 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. More feature projects will be added to the page as their statements of purpose are refined.
  • @ocean90 and @voldemortensen will be tracking the wish list of tickets for 4.6 and providing updates here: https://make.wordpress.org/core/4-6/. (Component maintainers can help up by updating the list as well.)

Component Maintainers

  • Just a reminder to component maintainers, write more posts on make/core to improve communication. Don’t forget to post on weekly meetings either. There is a handbook post on writing make/core updates. https://make.wordpress.org/core/handbook/best-practices/post-comment-guidelines/
  • If you would like to volunteer to be a component maintainer, please reach out to @ocean90 or @jorbin.

General Discussion

  • The Two-Factor feature pluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins. needs a UX designer. Please reach out to @georgestephanis directly or in #core-passwords on Slack if interested.
  • #34941 (Make the main bootstrap process in ms-settings.php testable) needs some eyes. Please leave comments on the ticket or in #core-multisite if you have questions, comments, or concerns.
  • PHPMailer has decided to drop support for anything lower than PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher 5.5. Security updates will be backported, but there will be no new feature development. Reference.

Full meeting logs: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/core/p1461182382001002

#4-5-1, #4-6, #dev-chat, #summary

Bug Scrub for 4.5.1

We will be meeting today, Tuesday 19 April , 20:00 UTC (at the usual coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. dev chat time) in #core to scrub bugs milestoned for 4.5.1.

Although only a few bugs have been milestoned for 4.5.1, there are two bugs of particular concern that potentially effect many users and will likely result in a point 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. sooner rather than later:

  • Twenty eleven page templates with widgets incorrectly styled (#36510) which affects sites using Twentyeleven or otherwise already using on the singular body class; the proposed fix is to revert the original change introduced in [36112].
  • WordPress TinyMCE toolbar/tabs unresponsive in Chrome Version 50.0.2661.75 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.-m (64-bit)
    (#36545) which breaks TinyMCE in current beta (and soon stable) versions of Chrome. The fix is an update to TinyMCE  to version 4.3.10; changelog. Testing help in particular needed for this ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker..

Please join us to help fix these bugs and get some patches committed!

#4-5-1, #bug-scrub