Dev Chat Summary – 28 October 2020

The meeting was facilitated by @thewebprincess while @thelmachido took notes. Full meeting transcript on slack

Both groups followed the pre-prepared agenda and started the chat by celebrating the release of WordPress 5.6 Beta 2, please test and review the 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. version and share any bugs/issues.

Announcements

WP Version 5.5.2 is scheduled for release on October 29th

Highlighted Posts

@helen is running code review/commit office hours for 5.6, you can get more information about it here.

@chanthaboune outlined the rationale behind dropping the Widgets screen from 5.6 catch up on that and the plan going forward here.

Dark Mode for Twenty Twenty-One
Discussions are ongoing and the team has outlined some options that your input could help narrow down.

Calls for maintainers and focus leads

PHP 8 call for testing
@sergeybiryukov highlighted again that there is need for more testing on PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher 8, we have to expand test coverage and creat tickets for any issues found. A thorough report has been written by @omarreiss, @jrff, and @herregroen about the current state of PHP 8 and its compatibility with WP.

Build/Test Tools
Docker environment was updated to allow for using multiple PHP Unit versions, get more details on that here. (Note: this is currently temporarily reverted to investigate test failures) Also, some changes were made to account for the recently released Composer 2.0.

Upgrade/Install Component Update
@audrasjb is drafting on a dev notedev note Each important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase. for #50907. It should be ready for review by the Docs lead/cohort/mentor.

Open Floor

Take part in the 2020 WP English Survey, if you are interested to see 2019 survey results, or get links to the 2020 survey in French, German, Japanese, Russian, or Spanish, you can find all that here!

Block Pattern Directory Ideas and Discussion
@daisyo surfaced the post for feedback.

@audrasjb is working on a technical proposal for dropping support/security backports for very old versions of WordPress. He is going to publish a Make CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. post and open a ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. with a 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. proposal very soon. The topic should be ready for discussion during the next dev chat. Comments are welcome here. Follow the conversation on slack

Join the team for the next bug scrub on Friday

WP 5.6 Beta 3 is Scheduled for next Monday.

Next Dev Chat meetings

The next meetings will take place on Wednesday, November 4, 2020, 07:00 AM GMT+2 and Wednesday, November 4, 2020, 10:00 PM GMT+2 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. Please feel free to drop in with any updates or questions. If you have items to discuss but cannot make the meeting, please leave a comment on this post so that we can take them into account. 

#5-5, #5-5-1, #core, #dev-chat, #summary

Dev Chat Summary – 23 August 2020

Greetings! Here’s what happened in CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Wednesday, September 23, 2020, 07:00 AM GMT+2 and Wednesday, September 23, 2020, 10:00 PM GMT+2 on the #agenda.

0500 core devchat

@thewebprincess led the discussion in the meeting was a bit slow the team decided to run a 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. scrub. Find the full Slack archive here.

2000 core devchat

@laurora facilitated the chat and @thelmachido took notes. Find the Full Slack archive here.

Announcements

To see an overview of what’s happening keep an eye on make/updates, we’ve got quarterly updates from the team coming soon.

Highlighted blogblog (versus network, site) posts

Dual licensing Gutenberg under GPL v2.0 and MPL v2.0
We need to gather feedback on the proposal to dual-license GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ under GNU General Public License, v2 (GPLGPL GNU General Public License. Also see copyright license. v2) and the Mozilla Public License v2.0 (MPL v2.0). Please share your perspective on the proposal from Maxime by adding comments to the post.

Introducing the next WordPress default theme – Twenty Twenty One Weekly meetings on the theme will start on Monday 28 September at 15:00 in #core-themes. @chanthaboune clarified that the team will be shipping one theme, based on Seedlet, bundled with the release and they will be exploring a second FSE theme, after the first is stable, that is not bundled with the release. Besides what was discussed in 5.6 planning post, FSE will now be done in the Gutenberg 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 as 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. feature. See what the team said in the full slack discussion and another on-going discussion is going to be opened on make/core.

Proposal on REST API Authentication / Application Passwords
George Stephanis has put together a proposal for this, the hoped timeline for this proposal is version 5.6 but the team is not yet certain. There have been attempts to get other authentication mechanisms to a considerable state but none have been proposed for core as yet. See what the team contributed to the discussion 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/.. The discussion from here on out will be on #core-passwords even though they had temporarily been in #core-restapi. Feel free to join the discussion there.

How gather updates from component maintainers & focus leads
Go through the post and share your opinion on the best way to gather updates as we are getting closer to release. Please share your perspective by commenting on the post by Wednesday 30 September.

Facebook embeds being deprecated
How will cached embed look after the deprecation date?. There is need to test and collect data on how the JSJS JavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors. scripts included in the embed will look after deprecation. How will the marketing crew share this information and more broadly with users as a whole?. These are some of the discussions that will be wrapped up in the comment section of the post.

Component maintainers

Build/Test Tools
Continued work on PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher 8 support. With quite a few fixes to unit tests and some fixes to core, this brings the tests from 87 errors and 331 failures on PHP 8 a couple of weeks ago (when the work has just started) to only 5 errors and 17 failures now (still to be addressed). Ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. #50913 includes most of the progress on this, some work was also done in other related tickets here.

For 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. component one change was committed this week. The Default Language networknetwork (versus site, blog) option in 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 now has a language icon next to it. View ticket #51359.

Menus & Widgets have a couple of tickets that are waiting for committers to have a look at them.

Upgrades & Install the first 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. for Major Core auto-updates ticket has been added, also there are a couple of tickets that are waiting for committers to have a look at them.

Additional eyes needed on testing and review for backlog on the Privacy component.

No updates of note this week from Date/Time, Permalinks or Site Health.

Open Floor

@ramiy put together a Post & Infographic on WordPress release facts & stats.

@enricocarraro is working towards making WordPress Strict CSP-compatible. Inline scripts refactoring #39941 and Inline event handlers and JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. URIs refactoring #32067. If anyone could review his PR that would be greatly appreciated.

Next Dev Chat meetings

The next meetings will take place on Wednesday, September 30, 2020, 07:00 AM GMT+2 and Wednesday, September 30, 2020, 20:00 PM GMT+2 in the #core Slack channel. Please feel free to drop in with any updates or questions. If you have items to discuss but cannot make the meeting, please leave a comment on this post so that we can take them into account. 

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

Dev Chat Summary: (5.6 Week 4)

Greetings! Here’s what happened in CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Wednesday, September 9, 2020, 07:00 AM GMT+2 and Wednesday, September 9, 2020, 10:00 PM GMT+2 on the agenda.

0500 core devchat

@thewebprincess led the meeting and took notes. Find the full 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/. archive here.

2000 core devchat

@laurora led the chat; @thelmachido took notes. Here’s the full archive.

Both groups followed this agenda: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/09/08/dev-chat-agenda-september-9th-2020/

Announcements

We started by celebrating WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Ogijima in Japan over the weekend! 

@thewebprincess also highlighted a post by Shinichi Nishikawa about how they set up the tech and will share the link when she finds it.

Highlighted blogblog (versus network, site) posts

Timezones and Daylight savings:

After some discussion across timezones, the two dev chats have agreed to pin meeting times to UTC and let people adjust calendars locally. If the changes mean fewer people at meetings or involved in the project, several folks noted we can also change back.

The version 5.5 release team is still looking for feedback

Please share your perspective on the process — especially what people and teams can do to make future releases smoother for everyone. Please comment by Saturday at 8:00 UTC.

What’s next in Gutenberg

@annezazu updates the community once a month on all things 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.. It’s a great way to stay informed (planning your 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 or theme roadmap?) and get involved!

A comment on the agenda post:

 @pbearne asked for feedback this ticket. @peterwilsoncc answered and will give him  design feedback.

Component maintainers

Upgrade/Install 

Will explore adding some UIUI User interface elements to manage email notifications on plugin and theme auto-updates.

Privacy 

@carike reported in: “We have been receiving a lot of feedback, for which we are very grateful. Will update tickets over the next few days with more details on the proposed application design.” 

No updates of note this week from 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, Options/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., Roles, Menus & Widgets, Build/Test Tools or Customize.

What if a component maintainer can’t make devchat?

After some discussion, this request from the group: Please add your updates as a comments on the Agenda post. 

Open Floor

@thewebprincess asked the people represented to call out the areas they’re focusing on. 
That morphed into a conversation about people’s desire to dig into contributing to E2E testing. At first, it looked imperative to wait for progress from the working group mentioned here – but the group decided there’s no real block to diving in now.

  • Should there be a 5.5.2? 
  •  Ever thought about being a committercommitter A developer with commit access. WordPress has five lead developers and four permanent core developers with commit access. Additionally, the project usually has a few guest or component committers - a developer receiving commit access, generally for a single release cycle (sometimes renewed) and/or for a specific component.? Here’s how you get there.
  • How can we help someone new — or even just watching from the sidelines —  find their place, or is it trial and error? See what people said in the full discussion.
  • One of those quizzes you get on social media all the time, “find your WordPress spirit animal”  led us to this tool, which the WCEU team used for contributor days. How could people use this — or a version — inside teams?

Next Dev Chat meetings

The next meetings will take place on Wednesday, September 9, 2020, 07:00 AM GMT+2 and Wednesday, September 9, 2020, 10:00 PM GMT+2 on the agenda.

 in the #core Slack channel. Please feel free to drop in with any updates or questions. If you have items to discuss but cannot make the meeting, please leave a comment on this post so that we can take them into account. 

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

Dev Chat Summary: (5.6 Week 3)

This post summarizes this week’s meetings happening on Wednesday, September 2, 2020, 07:00 AM GMT+2 and Wednesday, September 2, 2020, 10:00 PM GMT+2 on the agenda.

0500 coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. devchat

0500 Full meeting transcript 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/.: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1599022834165200

@thewebprincess facilitated the meeting and took notes.

2000 core devchat

The meeting was facilitated by @thewebprincess while @thelmachido took notes. Full meeting transcript on slack

Both groups followed the pre-prepared agenda and started the chat by acknowledging the adjustment to the new timing of the chat having moved it a day earlier.

Announcements

The group was excited about the release of version 5.5.1. @audrasjb thanked everyone who contributed to the release, specifically @winstina and @hauwaabashiya who hosted their first release parties.

Highlighted blogblog (versus network, site) posts

  • The discussion then turned to how best to accommodate Daylight Savings time changes – whether to shift the meeting or keep it at the UTC times which means time changes for participants.
    “ … how do we adjust for daylight savings?” see  @thewebprincess post. In recent years, the switch was made after all countries shifted to DST. What’s being proposed is that we switch that in favour of consistency with UTC. There’s a loosely described process on the matter in the handbook Daylight Saving Time (DST), however, given the more diverse geography attending dev chat, it may be time to reassess the process.
    We need to decide and document it in time for the first change due to take place on September 27 when NZ adjusts their clocks. The group agreed that the decision will be made next week in the meantime if you have something to add to help inform that decision, please leave comments on the post.

Then in the open time, two issues were discussed.

  • Then this issue https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/06/29/updating-jquery-version-shipped-with-wordpress/ was raised by @markparnell, asking the question ” what’s the feeling about this given the volume of jQuery issues after 5.5? are we ready to take the next step, or should we take things a little more slowly?” After some discussion, the conclusion was made that it’s too early yet for a decision and that timing of that point would be best before the 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. release (@pwcc) so the group will revisit in a couple of weeks. View slack archive.
    Afterwards, @timothyblynjacobs made a comment on the ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. “If we upgrade to jQuery 3.0 do we anticipate using any jQuery 3.0 features? Or if WordPress Core won’t be reliant on jQuery Migrate, … follow the conversation on Update jQuery step two ticket.
  • Awareness was raised on  Writing Developer Notes handbook for all contributors interested in writing dev-notes for future releases. Also, view the handbook on Leading Bug Scrubs that was based off a post during version 4.7 it was published recently.

Component maintainers

There is nothing of note from Build/Test Tools this week, but if anyone is interested in helping out with adding end to end / functional tests to the core then check out the post from a couple of weeks ago by @francina.

The Site Health team is assessing focuses for version 5.6 in their meeting next week.

@whyisjake – “While the release team is wrapping up the 5.5 processes, they want to reach out to the wider community for perspectives on the process and what could be done in the future to make releases smoother for everyone. Comments can be publicly shared directly on the post that is to come later, or as part of this form. All responses will be catalogued and then shared.”

Closing Remarks 

GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ 8.9 was released yesterday by @jorgefilipecosta! Of note, the new widgets screen was moved out of experimental. There will be more to come in the “What’s New” post for the release. A call for testing will be published on 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/ after some design changes are done.

@sergey This is for anyone working on unit tests in core, stricter type checking by using assertSame() should generally be preferred now to assertEquals() where appropriate, to make the tests more reliable. This is helpful in the ongoing work on PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher 8 support. See ticket for more details.

Next Dev Chat meetings

The next meetings will take place on Wednesday, September 9, 2020, 07:00 AM GMT+2 and Wednesday, September 2, 2020, 10:00 PM GMT+2 in the #core Slack channel. Please feel free to drop in with any updates or questions. If you have items to discuss but cannot make the meeting, please leave a comment on this post so that we can take them into account. 

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

Deprecated JavaScript globals

In WordPress 5.5 the global JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. objects listed below were removed without being deprecated. WordPress 5.5.1 adds a backfill for these globals so they no longer cause JavaScript errors. The following objects were removed:

  • adminCommentsL10n
  • attachMediaBoxL10n
  • authcheckL10n
  • commentL10n
  • commonL10n
  • inlineEditL10n
  • navMenuL10n
  • postL10n
  • plugininstallL10n
  • privacyToolsL10n
  • setPostThumbnailL10n
  • tagsl10n
  • tagsSuggestL10n
  • userProfileL10n
  • wp.themePluginEditor.l10n
  • wp.updates.l10n
  • wpColorPickerL10n
  • wpPointerL10n
  • wpWidgets.l10n

This means that referencing these objects would result in a JavaScript error and would thus halt JavaScript execution. Some of these objects were being used in very popular plugins & themes. @omarreiss and I researched where these were used. This Google sheet shows the impact.

If we only count plugins or themes with more than 100k installs or more, some of these already have an incredible impact. Which is why we decided to 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. this as fast possible.

What will change?

WordPress now redeclares these globals, and they now fail silently: they return an empty string and throw a console error. This makes sure that JavaScript doesn’t break, and also makes clear to 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 developers that they need to adapt. Their code still needs to be updated to fix the translations, preferably using wp.i18n, but the problem no longer blocks JavaScript execution.

What if you already patched this?

If you’d already patched this, which we’ve seen in several plugins and themes, the new patch on coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. will return your reinstated object. We will however still throw a deprecation warning in the console. Please switch to using wp.i18n.

Deprecation policy

The plan is to remove this fallback code in two major versions, so this will be deleted in WordPress 5.7. This gives plugin and theme developers ample time to remove the conflicting code and switch to using wp.i18n.

Props @sergeybiryukov for reviewing.

#5-5-1, #dev-notes

WordPress 5.5.1 RC2

WordPress 5.5.1 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). 2 (RC2) is available for you to test!

Here are two ways to test WordPress 5.5.1 RC2:

  • Use the WordPress Beta Tester 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 (select the 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. nightlies option)
  • Download the release candidate here (zip)

What’s in this release candidate?

In addition to everything included in RC1, 5.5.1-RC2 fixes 7 additional issues:

  • #51184: get_the_date() checks $format only for empty variable and fails on false boolean
  • #51182: Theme_Installer_skin::do_overwrite does not work on a Windows server
  • #38009: #reply-title.comment-reply-title not updating when replying to an individual
  • #51123: commonL10n and other JSJS JavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors. globals removed without backwards compatibility
  • #50848: Clarify the usage of null for auto_update_{$type} filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output.
  • #51081: Fatal Error – Undefined get_page_templates() in 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.
  • #51154: sitemaps should be initialized before each test is run

Note for translationtranslation The process (or result) of changing text, words, and display formatting to support another language. Also see localization, internationalization. teams

An additional change is also planned for 5.5.1:

  • #51028: Dot should be out of the quotes

This is a very small change, but making this change before 5.5.1 is released would have resulted in the string being untranslated on the 5.5 About page. To limit the amount of time this string may be displayed as untranslated, this change will be made just prior to 5.5.1 being officially released.

Polyglot teams should note that this string won’t be available for translations before 5.5.1 is released, but best efforts should be made to translate the string after.

What’s next?

The dev-reviewed workflow (double committercommitter A developer with commit access. WordPress has five lead developers and four permanent core developers with commit access. Additionally, the project usually has a few guest or component committers - a developer receiving commit access, generally for a single release cycle (sometimes renewed) and/or for a specific component. sign-off) is still in effect when making any changes to the 5.5 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"..

As per the proposed WordPress 5.5.1 schedule, the final release is expected for Tuesday September 1, 2020 at 18:00 UTC. Please note that this date/time can change depending on any issues discovered while testing RC2.

The 5.5.1 release is being lead by @audrasjb, @azhiyadev, @davidbaumwald, @desrosj, @johnbillion, @planningwrite, @sergeybiryukov and @whyisjake.

#5-5, #5-5-1, #minor-releases, #releases

WordPress 5.5.1 RC1

WordPress 5.5.1 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). 1 (RC1) is available for you to test!

Here are two ways to test WordPress 5.5.1 RC1:

  • Use the WordPress Beta Tester 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 (select the 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. nightlies option)
  • Download the release candidate here (zip)

What’s in this release candidate?

5.5.1 Release Candidate 1 features 28 bug fixes and 4 enhancements, as well as 5 bug fixes for 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. editor.

WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. changes on TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress.:

  • #50882 – Administration: WP 5.5: Cannot attribute content when deleting users
  • #50998 – Quick/Bulk Edit: Editing posts using bottom “Bulk actions” dropdown menu doesn’t work
  • #38009 – Comments: #reply-title.comment-reply-title not updating when replying to an individual
  • #50845 – Editor: Block patterns: Fix translatable strings (take 2)
  • #50858 – Site Health: Check PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher notices with site_status_tests filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output.
  • #50887 – Site Health: Add site environment to debug information
  • #50892 – Editor: Some block patterns have text contrast issues with dark themes
  • #50910 – Sitemaps: 5.5 Sitemap URLs are incorrectly paginated
  • #50912 – Site Health: flags define WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE value as an error
  • #50919 – Script Loader: Change the jquery handle back to an alias for jquery-core
  • #50933 – Media: Lazy loading in 5.5 causes flashing of custom logo in Firefox
  • #50945 – Site Health: don’t give a warning when upload_max_size is lower than max_post_size
  • #50988 – Upgrade/Install: Pass details about the specific plugin and theme updates attempted to filters
  • #50992 – Bootstrap/Load: Remove the ability to alter the list of environment types in wp_get_environment_type()
  • #50999 – Script Loader: Disable concatenation for scripts with translations to ensure they are printed in the right order
  • #51011 – Upgrade/Install: Empty string comparison on home option during DB upgrades is invalidinvalid A resolution on the bug tracker (and generally common in software development, sometimes also notabug) that indicates the ticket is not a bug, is a support request, or is generally invalid.
  • #51018 – Editor: PHP Notice thrown when searching for certain terms via 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 ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ block directory
  • #51151 – Editor: Packages update
  • #51021REST 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/.: Permit uniqueItems keyword in endpoint args
  • #51146 – REST API: Fix multi-type schemas with integer fields
  • #51029 – Filesystem 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.: Typo in variable name causes warning from fclose()
  • #51042 – Post: missing excerptExcerpt An excerpt is the description of the blog post or page that will by default show on the blog archive page, in search results (SERPs), and on social media. With an SEO plugin, the excerpt may also be in that plugin’s metabox.
  • #51050 – Docs: Add docblockdocblock (phpdoc, xref, inline docs) for get_the_archive_title() filter
  • #51052 – Administration: Undefined index: update-supported
  • #51060 – Docs: Update register_rest_route docblock to reflect additions since 5.5
  • #51064 – Bootstrap/Load: Consider adding “local” as environment on WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE
  • #51073 – Administration: Extra padding below the adminadmin (and super admin) bar
  • #51075 – Docs: Update docs for custom logo functions
  • #51122 – Docs: add a mention about the use of loading attribute in wp_get_attachment_image function
  • #51127UIUI User interface/CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets.: Remove non-color related styling from Modern color scheme
  • #51129 – Upgrade/Install: Only display the auto-update links on the Networknetwork (versus site, blog) Admin > Themes screen for themes that support the feature
  • #51337 – Template: wp_terms_checklist not checking selected 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. items with selected_cats option

Block editor changes from 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 ‘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/:

  • PR24609 – Fix missing selected block highlighting in list view
  • PR24599 – Fix specificity for buttons with outline style and background colors
  • PR24533 – Fix incorrect aria description in List View
  • PR24516 – Fix regressionregression A software bug that breaks or degrades something that previously worked. Regressions are often treated as critical bugs or blockers. Recent regressions may be given higher priorities. A "3.6 regression" would be a bug in 3.6 that worked as intended in 3.5. 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. for categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. select in QueryControls component
  • PR24478 – Fix tiny editor preview when using Mobile or Tablet options with metaboxes enabled

What’s next?

The dev-reviewed workflow (double committercommitter A developer with commit access. WordPress has five lead developers and four permanent core developers with commit access. Additionally, the project usually has a few guest or component committers - a developer receiving commit access, generally for a single release cycle (sometimes renewed) and/or for a specific component. sign-off) is now in effect when making any changes to the 5.5 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"..

As per the proposed WordPress 5.5.1 schedule, the final release is expected for Tuesday September 1, 2020 at 18:00 UTC. Please note that this date/time can change depending on possible issues after RC1 is released)

The 5.5.1 release is being lead by @audrasjb, @azhiyadev, @davidbaumwald, @desrosj, @johnbillion, @planningwrite, @sergeybiryukov and @whyisjake.

#5-5, #5-5-1, #minor-releases, #releases

WordPress environment types

In WordPress 5.5 we introduced the new wp_get_environment_type function which allows retrieving the type of environment the current system is. We originally allowed changing the environment types, which we’ve decided is a mistake. It makes it so that plugins and themes can’t rely on any given environment being one of a limited and known list of types, and thus can’t rely on the feature.

For this reason, as of WordPress 5.5.1 it will no longer be possible to override the list of possible environment types.

Which environment types do we have?

The following environment types will be supported as of 5.5.1:

  • production – this is the default. A site that is running live, connected to the internet and reachable on the internet.
  • staging – this is what you would use for staging environments, probably both connected to and reachable on the internet.
  • development – this is what you would use for development environments that are reachable on the internet, we automatically enable WP_DEBUG on environments where this is the environment type.
  • local – added in 5.5.1, this (usually development) environment can reach the internet but is not be reachable from the internet.

By limiting the set of environment types in this way, WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., plugins, and themes can change their behavior depending on this setting.

What happens if you changed the setting?

If you’d already set an environment variable to allow changing the environment types, this will no longer function. If you’d set the WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE constant to something else than one of the four allowed environment types, it will reset to production.

Props @johnbillion, @audrasjb, and @sergeybiryukov for reviewing.

#5-5-1, #dev-notes

Dev Chat Summary: August 26 (5.6 Week 2)

This post summarizes the dev chat meeting from August 26th facilitated by @thewebprincess on this agenda.

Full meeting transcript on slack

General Announcements

See @audrasjb post for details on the scheduled maintenance release for WordPress 5.5.1 after a handful of bugs were identified on WordPress 5.5 “Eckstine”. The first 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). is planned to be on Thursday, August 27, 2020, and the Final release planned to be on Tuesday, September 1st, 2020 estimated time 20:00–21:00 UTC or later depending on work to be done on the remaining tickets.

Highlighted blogblog (versus network, site) posts

Components check-in and status updates

The first CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets. triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. is being hosted today at 4pm EDT in the #core-css channel. One hour before the weekly Core CSS chat.  

@carikee flagged milestone tickets for privacy initiatives that still open and need to be looked at #51092, #51110 & 51144.

There is nothing of note from the Build/Test Tools component at the moment other than the before mentioned post about PHP updates.

Open Floor

The meeting pivoted into a 5.5.1 pre-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). scrub run

Ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. #50910 has had some testing but could use some more tests.  It is hopefully going to land for 5.5.1-RC1, so the more eyes the better similarly for #51129.  

@carikee asked committers for their input on whether to use the 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/. to expose user consent on the front-end. Also, the need to add the extra 10KB or so to expose wp.data to the front end.

@audrasjb flagged  5.5.1 milestones that need to be cleared and @pbiron also flagged 5.5.1 tickets that are still open.  

The meeting continued as a 5.5.1 pre-RC scrub run by @desrosj.

Next Dev Chat meeting 

The next meeting will take place on Wednesday, September 3, 2020, 10:00 PM GMT+2 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. Please feel free to drop in with any updates or questions. If you have items to discuss but cannot make the meeting, please leave a comment on this post so that we can take them into account. 

#5-5, #5-5-1, #5-6, #core, #summary

WordPress 5.5.1 maintenance release schedule

Shortly after WordPress 5.5 “Eckstine” was released, a small handful of tickets were opened reporting identified bugs. Because a few of them are particularly inconvenient, 5.5.1 will be a short-cycle release so that they can be addressed more quickly.

After two 5.5.1 focused bug scrubs, the following release schedule is being proposed:

The full list of the tickets targeted for this maintenance release is available on the 5.5.1 tickets report on Trac.

The 5.5.1 release is being lead by @audrasjb, @azhiyadev, @davidbaumwald, @desrosj, @johnbillion, @planningwrite, @sergeybiryukov, @whyisjake.

#5-5, #5-5-1