The WordPress coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. development team builds WordPress! Follow this site for general updates, status reports, and the occasional code debate. There’s lots of ways to contribute:
Found a bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority.?Create a ticket in the bug tracker.
This guide outlines major developer features and breaking changes in 6.6 and is published in the Release Candidaterelease candidateOne of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). cycle to help inform WordPress extending developers, CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. developers, and others.
This release includes 392 enhancements, 462 bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. fixes, and 46 accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (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) improvements for the Block Editor (a.k.a. gutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/).
Below is the breakdown of the most important developer-related changes included in WordPress 6.6.
BlockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Editor
WordPress 6.6 brings 8 Gutenberg releases into core – 17.8, 17.9, 18.0, 18.1, 18.2, 18.3, 18.4, and 18.5. The Block Editor receives several improvements related to the ReactReactReact is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to reason about, construct, and maintain stateless and stateful user interfaces. https://reactjs.org/. library, the Block APIAPIAn API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways., Themes, and more.
React
A new version of React and the new JSX transform is available in WordPress 6.6.
WordPress 6.6 includes updates for the Interactivity API, such as new async directives, support for derived state props from PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher, integration with Preact Devtools, and new warning messages available when the SCRIPT_DEBUG configuration constant is enabled.
HTMLHTMLHyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. API
WordPress 6.6 includes a helpful maintenance release to the HTML API. This work includes a few new features and a major improvement to the HTML Processor’s usability. This continues the fast-paced development since WordPress 6.5.
There’s also a new data structure coming in WordPress 6.6 for the HTML API: the WP_Token_Map.
Several changes have been made to the Options API to support an optimization for the autoloading behavior, and to create a way to apply further optimizations going forward.
I18Ni18nInternationalization, 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.
One of the highlight features included in WordPress 6.6 is the automatic rollback of pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party auto-updates upon detecting PHP fatal errors.
New/Modified HooksHooksIn WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same.
Modified FilterFilterFilters 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. Hooks
This guide outlines major developer features and breaking changes in 6.5 and is published in the Release Candidaterelease candidateOne of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). cycle to help inform WordPress extending developers, CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. developers, and others.
GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ included in this release has 373 enhancements, 515 bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. fixes, and 65 accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (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) improvements.
Changes in 6.5 are spread across 40 Core components. Below is the breakdown of the most important ones.
Table of contents
Principal Changes
Minimum System Requirement
The minimum version of MySQLMySQLMySQL 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/. has been raised from v5.0 to v5.5.5. (#60036)
BlockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Editor
A new attribute $variation_callback has been introduced in WP_Block_Type. This limits the ability to modify variations by reference directly as was done previously.
WordPress 6.5 brings 10 Gutenberg releases into core – 16.8, 16.9, 17.0, 17.1, 17.2, 17.3, 17.4, 17.5, 17.6, and 17.7. You will find new features, APIs, and various improvements. Highlights include the Interactivity APIAPIAn API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways., Font Library, and Block Bindings API.
The Interactivity API gives you a simplified and standardized way of building interactive front-end experiences with Blocks while offering optimal performance. Previously, this can only be done with third-party libraries. You may use it in scenarios such as fetching search results instantly or letting visitors interact with content in real time.
The Block Bindings API gives you the ability to link Core Block attributes to the values of Custom Fields without needing to create custom Blocks. You can extend this capability further to connect Blocks to any dynamic content.
HTMLHTMLHyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. API
WordPress 6.5 brings significant updates to the HTML API. The tagtagA directory in Subversion. WordPress uses tags to store a single snapshot of a version (3.6, 3.6.1, etc.), the common convention of tags in version control systems. (Not to be confused with post tags.) processer has received a major overhaul and a further amount of the HTML specification is now supported. If you have been sub-classing WP_HTML_Tag_Processor, there are some specific changes you should pay attention to.
I18Ni18nInternationalization, 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.
The Performant Translations feature plugin has been merged into Core. The new translation system is much faster and uses less memory with the new .l10n.php format; it also continues to support all three existing translationtranslationThe process (or result) of changing text, words, and display formatting to support another language. Also see localization, internationalization. formats: .l10n.php, .mo, and .po files. Two new filters translation_file_format and load_translation_file are introduced.
AVIF support comes to 6.5. AVIF is a modern image format that can be up to 50% smaller than JPEGs while maintaining the same image quality. You can now upload/edit/resize/save AVIF images if supported by your hosting environment. The way you operate on AVIF images remains the same as with other existing image formats. If you run multisitemultisiteUsed 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, there is a FAQ just for you.
The Script Modules API brings native JavaScriptJavaScriptJavaScript 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/. Module support to 6.5 and provides two modules for use with the WordPress Interactivity API.
It is strongly recommended that developers currently utilizing JavaScript modules in their extensions migrate to the Script Modules API.
A pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party’s dependencies can be declared by using a new Requires Plugins headerHeaderThe header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes. in the dependent plugin’s main file. The header must contain a comma-separated list of WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe 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/-formatted slugs.
Example:
/** * Plugin Name: Bridge for Foo and Bar * Requires Plugins: foo, bar */
Dependency slug conditions:
Dependent plugins hosted on WordPress.org can only declare dependencies that are also hosted on WordPress.org.
Dependent plugins not hosted on WordPress.org can declare dependencies whether hosted on WordPress.org or elsewhere.
Declaring a plugin dependency places the following requirements:
Requirements on dependent plugins:
Cannot be installed until its dependencies are installed.
Cannot be activated until its dependencies are activated.
Requirements on dependency plugins:
Cannot be deactivated while its dependents are activated.
Cannot be deleted while its dependents are installed.
The following features are not currently supported:
Version management
Must-Use plugins as dependencies
Themes that require plugins
Automatic deactivation of dependent plugins
A new filterFilterFilters 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.wp_plugin_dependencies_slug has been introduced to allow for alterations to dependency slugs.
A new class WP_Plugin_Dependencies has been introduced with public API methods available.
The UIUIUser interface of the plugin row the plugin row has been changed to reflect a plugin’s dependencies/dependents. The UI of dependent plugin cards has been changed to reflect its dependencies, with modal links to install and activate them first.
Automatic redirection from Plugins > Add New is no longer performed upon activation of a plugin.
Props to @cosdev for review.
Additional Changes
External Libraries
The following libraries were updated to the latest versions:
wordpress/scripts version 17 has dropped official support for unmaintained Node.js versions. The oldest supported Node.js version is now Node.js 18. (Misc Editor Dev Changes)
Classic themes can now opt in to appearance tools support. (#60118)
Media
Control of jpeg progressive image output has been enabled. A new image_save_progressive filter has been added, which controls whether intermediate image sizes are saved in a progressive format (when available). By default, progressive image output is disabled, matching the current behavior. (#21668)
Permalinks
Caddy web server: support pretty permalinks when Caddy web server is detected. (#41877)
Rest APIREST APIThe 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/.
A featured_media field for featured imageFeatured imageA featured image is the main image used on your blog archive page and is pulled when the post or page is shared on social media. The image can be used to display in widget areas on your site or in a summary list of posts. (also known as a poster image) has been added to the REST API wp/v2/media attachments endpoint. (#41692)
Site Health
Site ID has been included in the debug data on multisite installations. (#60081)
Upgrade/Install
During bulk upgrades, a theme upgrade is now checked for satisfying the minimum WordPress version or the server PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher version. This was previously done for plugins, but not themes. (#59758)
New/Modified HooksHooksIn WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same.
This guide shares more in-depth changes that you will find in 6.4 and is published in the Release Candidaterelease candidateOne of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). cycle to help inform WordPress developers, extenders, and others. The release squad and many contributors across the global project have worked to bring these changes, and you can follow this work and add to the contribution using the ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. systems in Trac and GitHubGitHubGitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/.
Some fascinating stats! TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. has about 268 tickets, 113 of which are enhancements and feature requests, 134 bug fixes, and 21 other tasks. This time, there are more than 64 tickets with a focus on performance, 17 for accessibility, and 16 for modernizing code and applying coding standards. GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/’s GitHub repo brings more than 1,400 updates/changes, providing to coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. more than 420 enhancements, 445 bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. fixes, and 42 accessibility improvements.
Changes in 6.4 are spread across about 45 core components. Below is the breakdown of the most important ones.
You can also find all Developer Notes relating to 6.4 as they continue to be published until the release goes live. You can follow them using this tag.
BlockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor
WordPress 6.4 is bringing six Gutenberg releases into the core – 16.2, 16.3, 16.4, 16.5, 16.6, 16.7. You will find Block HooksHooksIn WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same., the ability to register their own media categories, changes to the @wordpress/components package, updates for the user interface components, and many other changes.
WordPress 6.4 introduces Block Hooks (#53987), a feature that provides an extensibility mechanism for Block Themes. This is the first step in emulating WordPress’ Hooks concept that allows developers to extend Classic Themes using filters and actions.
There are a number of other changes, including a new background image block support, fluid typography, disabled layout controls globally or on a block basis by theme.json, Stabilized APIs for InnerBlocks, and much more.
New dev notedev noteEach 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. (November 13, 2023) – For singular content, the output of block templates, for example, (single.html or page.html) will be automatically wrapped in the main query loopLoopThe Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop..
Two new functions abstract the HTMLHTMLHyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. markup generation to reduce the maintenance burden, encourage consistency, and enable argument and message filtering for all admin notices used widely in WordPress Core and the extender community.
A developer note will be added later on the following change:
Introduce wp_trigger_error() to complement _doing_it_wrong()#57686
HTML APIAPIAn API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways.
WordPress 6.4 includes continued development of the HTML API, including the introduction of a minimal HTML Processor with the concept of breadcrumbs, and makes it possible to, for example, search for images that are direct children of a DIV.
Also included in 6.4, is the addition of a couple of CSSCSSCascading Style Sheets./class helpers in the Tag Processor, which will make it possible to search for a tagtagA directory in Subversion. WordPress uses tags to store a single snapshot of a version (3.6, 3.6.1, etc.), the common convention of tags in version control systems. (Not to be confused with post tags.) containing more than one class name, or to search for a tag not containing a given class name.
New WordPress installations will now have attachment pages fully disabled for new sites. This will benefit SEO by avoiding attachment pages created by default, which were indexed by search engines and could have led to bad results for users and site owners. The change introduces a wp_attachment_pages_enabled database option to control the attachment pages’ behavior. In the dev note, there is information on how to update existing sites.
A significant part of the 6.4 release brings performance improvements and greater efficiency to WordPress. An overview post on performance improvements in 6.4 is also available.
New functions get_options(), wp_prime_option_caches(), and wp_set_option_autoload_values() allow an enhanced performance of retrieving options from the database.
Performance gains have been achieved by introducing caching using an object cache in a new method called WP_Theme::get_block_patterns().
Unnecessary checks were removed if a theme file existed in the theme functions that enhanced efficiency and performance. These improvements in the Themes API mean the current theme’s stylesheet directory is checked to ensure it matches the template directory, before further file existence checks are done. Improvements are also in the performance of get_block_theme_folders(). This is through a new method, WP_Theme::get_block_template_folders(), and improved error handling. The result is a quicker and more efficient lookup of block template folders within themes. WordPress developers and users can anticipate improved performance, reduced I/O overhead, and a smoother experience when working with block themes.
Improved image loading
Several enhancements to the wp_get_loading_optimization_attributes() function, which provides a central place to manage loading optimization attributes, specifically for images and iframes.
In WordPress 6.4, script loading strategies are now employed for frontend scripts in core and bundled themes. For the most part, the defer loading strategy is used since it is more consistent in its loading behavior, in that a defer script always executes once the DOM has loaded; a script with async may actually block rendering if it is already cached. Additionally, loading with defer has been moved from the footer to the head so that they are discovered earlier while the document is loading and can execute sooner once the document is loaded.
This dev note highlights the changes made in WordPress 6.4 to style loading. The main focus of the changes was to replace manually created style tags printed at the wp_head action with calls to wp_add_inline_style().
TaxonomyTaxonomyA 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.: The double sanitization in the get_term function has been stopped. This will prevent the unnecessary calls to sanitize_term, which was detrimental to performance. Trac ticket #58329.
Themes: The TEMPLATEPATH and STYLESHEETPATH constants have been deprecated. get_template_directory() and get_stylesheet_directory() should be used instead. Trac ticket #18298
And there’s more!
Some of the additional changes in 6.4 to highlight.
External libraries
jQuery has been updated to version 3.7.1. This release fixes a regressionregressionA 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. from jQuery 3.6.0 that resulted in rounded dimensions for elements in Chrome and Safari. Also, a (mostly) internal Sizzle method, jQuery.find.tokenize that was on the jQuery object was accidentally removed when they removed Sizzle in jQuery 3.7.0. That method has been restored.
WordPress 6.4 brings a number of key improvements to the HTML markup of the wp-login.php page to make its structure more optimal and allow developers to have more customized individual styling flexibility. #30685
Clarify the “Add New” links in the Admin for better accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (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)
In WordPress 6.4, the default values for the add_new label changed to include the type of content. This matches add_new_item and provides more context for better accessibility. The default value is ‘Add New Type’ for both hierarchical and non-hierarchical types. If you’ve previously used a label such as:
Props to @jrf for the information for this dev note.
HTTPHTTPHTTP 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. API
HTTP API: WP_Http_Curl and WP_Http_Streams classes and filters have been deprecated as these classes have not been used in WordPress Core since the introduction of the Requests library. Trac ticket #58705
RevisionsRevisionsThe 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.
Revisions are now supported for post metaMetaMeta 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. on an opt-in basis. Trac ticket #20564
Props to @costdev, @bph, @nalininonstopnewsuk, @codente, @spacedmonkey, @desrosj, @flixos90 for input on this Field GuideField guideThe field guide is a type of blogpost published on Make/Core during the release candidate phase of the WordPress release cycle. The field guide generally lists all the dev notes published during the beta cycle. This guide is linked in the about page of the corresponding version of WordPress, in the release post and in the HelpHub version page., and @joemcgill, @clarkeemily, @cbringmann, @akshaya, @611shabnam, and @priethor for peer review. Thank you to all those involved in collating, writing, and editing developer notes relating to 6.4.
This guide shares more of the in-depth changes that you will find in 6.3 and is published with Release Candidaterelease candidateOne of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). 1 to help inform WordPress developers, extenders, and others.
GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ included in this release has 1737 pull requests: 307 enhancements, 481 bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. fixes, and 55 accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (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) improvements.
Changes in 6.3 are spread across 43 core components. Below is the breakdown of the most important ones.
BlockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Editor
WordPress 6.3 is bringing 10 Gutenberg releases into the core – 15.2, 15.3, 15.4, 15.5, 15.6, 15.7, 15.8, 15.9, 16.0, and 16.1. You will find new Block APIs, Block properties, Block editing mode, Block layout support, color classes, Command Palette, Reusable Blocks renamed to Synced Patterns, and many other changes in these 10 pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party releases.
Bundled default themes have dropped support for Internet Explorer scripts and styles, which also removed skip-link focus fix script for navigating by keyboard in Internet Explorer and old versions of Chrome.
In addition, special stylesheets and HTML5 Shiv scripts are not enqueued or included in the header.php template for the following themes: Twenty Thirteen (its conditional code is also removed), Twenty Fifteen, and Twenty Seventeen. (#56699)
Theme developers who wish to continue to support IE can add code snippets to their themes that restore the functionalities.
Cache APIAPIAn API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways.
The Cache API has undergone several improvements: introducing new cache groups specific to queries and offering developers greater control over the handling of objects within these groups.
You can now set the expiration time for a cache group, clear specific cache groups, set last changed value for a cache group, and declare specific cache groups as non-persistent. With these changes, you can implement your own custom cache invalidation strategies, allowing you to invalidate an entire cache group programmatically.
Other improvements include improved validation, ensuring that only an array of unique integers are passed as input.
Hidden (. prefixed) files can now be included in list_files() with a new optional $include_hidden parameter. Defaults to false for backward compatibility. (#53659)
General
A new constant WP_DEVELOPMENT_MODE is introduced to signify context-specific development mode. The constant can have the value “core“, “plugin“, “theme“, “all“, or an empty string. The latter of which means no development mode, which is also the default.
Two new helper functions wp_is_development_mode( $mode ) and wp_get_development_mode() are introduced as the recommended ways to interact with this new configuration value.
The different development modes affect specific caching functionality; for example, caching is only bypassed during theme development, but not during core development. (#57487)
The current value of the WP_DEVELOPMENT_MODE constant is also accessible under Tools > Site Health > Info, in the WordPress Constants section. (#58646)
WP_DEVELOPMENT_MODE serves as an addition to existing debugging constants: WP_DEBUG, SCRIPT_DEBUG, and WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE.
I18Ni18nInternationalization, 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.
Improvements include the ability to short-circuit load_textdomainfilterFilterFilters 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. and reducing loading time for just-in-time translationtranslationThe process (or result) of changing text, words, and display formatting to support another language. Also see localization, internationalization..
The media component has been updated with several enhancements that improve load time performance for content with images. WordPress now automatically adds the fetchpriority attribute with a value of “high” to the image that it determines most likely to be the “LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) image”. Other enhancements have been implemented to improve the automatic handling of lazy-loading via the loading attribute to more reliably detect when to omit the attribute from some images.
Metadata API has undergone significant improvement in the area of lazy loading capabilities for term, comment, and site metadata. Lazy loading refers to a technique where data is loaded only when it is actually needed. This reduces unnecessary database queries or cache lookups and improves overall performance.
The function get_pages() has been revised to utilize WP_Query internally. This improvement significantly reduces the complexity of the get_pages() function by offloading the burden of querying databases and handling the cache to WP_Query. (#55806 and #12821)
Support for HTMLHTMLHyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. 5 “async” and “defer” attributes has been added, which allows developers to register scripts with a loading strategy. The loading strategy can be enabled by overloading the $in_footer parameter as an array that contains the loading strategy to the wp_register_script() and wp_enqueue_script() functions. If present, the loading strategy attribute will be added to the script tagtagA directory in Subversion. WordPress uses tags to store a single snapshot of a version (3.6, 3.6.1, etc.), the common convention of tags in version control systems. (Not to be confused with post tags.).
The intended loading strategy that you pass via the $args parameter may not be the final (chosen) strategy since the script’s dependency tree (its dependencies and/or dependents) is taken into account, but it will never be detrimental to (or stricter than) the intended strategy.
The rollback feature will automatically restore the previously installed plugin/theme version if the manual update process fails. This enhancementenhancementEnhancements are simple improvements to WordPress, such as the addition of a hook, a new feature, or an improvement to an existing feature. makes the update process more reliable and ensures that if a plugin or theme update fails, the previous version can be safely restored and the website remains available to its users.
When updating a plugin or theme, the old version is moved to a temporary backup directory:
wp-content/upgrade-temp-backup/plugins/[plugin-slug] for plugins
wp-content/upgrade-temp-backup/themes/[theme-slug] for themes.
If the update fails, then the backup kept in the temporary backup directory is restored to its original location.
If the update succeeds, the temporary backup is deleted.
To further help troubleshoot plugin and theme updates, two new checks were added to the Site Health screen:
Check to make sure the upgrade-temp-backup directory is writable.
Check there is enough disk-space available to safely perform updates.
Please take note, the rollback feature cannot be used to “roll back” a plugin/theme to a previous version after a successful update (the feature is only applicable to failed manualupdates).
An enhancement has been made to the caching of database queries in WP_User_Query class, the only remaining query class lacking this caching capability.
All calls to WP_User_Query will be automatically cached by default, unless setting the relevant parameters otherwise. You can also globally disable caching by using a filter.
A new global cache group named ‘user-queries‘ is introduced to store the results of queries. Caching will be disabled for user queries that utilize the field parameter and request more than 3 fields.
Finally, plugins utilizing the users_pre_query hook to modify the returned values will bypass caching and the behaviors will remain the same as before.
The cron memory limit has been increased to WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT (256MB by default) during cron event processing if the default memory limit is lower than this value. Note that this will not affect external means of processing cron events, such as the wp cron command in WP-CLIWP-CLIWP-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/, server-level crontab events, or any other cron event processing mechanism that bypasses wp-cron.php.
A new filter cron_memory_limit has been introduced to adjust this value if necessary. (#56628)
Editor
A new source attribute is added to Block patterns allowing them to be filtered by that source. (#58622)
Embeds
Anghami has been added as a trusted oEmbed provider. (#49850)
Support for TikTok creator profiles has been added. (#55784)
Formatting
Added aria content attributes aria-controls, aria-expanded, and aria-current to allowed attributes in KSES. (#55370)
CSSCSSCascading Style Sheets.repeat() function support has been added for KSES. (#58551)
General
In KSES, the safecss_filter_attr() function has been revised to allow the filter property to accept a URLURLA specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org, as a reference to an SVG filter element. (#57780)
Replacing strpos() and substr() for code modernization (note: for PHP versions lower than v8.0, the three replacement functions have been polyfilled since WP v5.9):
The usage of 0 === strpos() or 0 !== strpos() has been replaced with str_starts_with().
The usage of false === strpos() or false !== strpos() has been replaced with str_contains().
The usage of $needle === substr( $string, 0, $length ) has been replaced with str_starts_with( $haystack, $needle ). The value of $length should be the length of $needle.
The usage of $needle === substr( $string, $offset ) where $offset is negative has been replaced with str_ends_with( $haystack, $needle ). The absolute value of $offset should be the length of $needle. (#58012, #58206, #58220)
Performance
In the WP_Comments_List_Table class, when the function get_comments() is called, the parameter update_comment_post_cache is passed with a value of true. This primes all the related posts for the displayed comments and improves performance. (#57802)
The _wp_array_get() function is the most called function on the front end of a site, up to ~23k times on each page-load when using a block theme. A few minor performance optimizations have been introduced, which adds up to a noticeable improvement. (#58376)
Quick/Bulk Edit
A new bulk_edit_posts action hook is introduced, which triggers after processing the post data for bulk edit and before it returns its results. For example, it allows developers to save additional data without having to perform any .ajax() call. (#28112)
REST APIREST APIThe 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/.
The Themes REST API can now indicate whether a theme supports the Site Editor by adding an is_block_theme property to each theme in the wp/v2/themes API response. (#58123)
A revisionsRevisionsThe 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. endpoint for global styles, /wp/v2/global-styles/revisions, has been added to the REST API. (#58524)
WP_REST_Templates_Controller has a new modified field for template and template part objects that returns post modified datetime for Templates. (#58540)
Revisions
When a post is saved with an unchanged autosave, the existing autosave will be returned, instead of returning an error. (#58739)
Themes
A new public function wp_get_remote_theme_patterns() has been added to query the patterns datum from theme.json and substitutes current usage of private APIs. (#58460)
New Action HooksHooksIn WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same.
rest_allowed_cors_headers (#57752) and rest_exposed_cors_headers (#57752)
edit_custom_thumbnail_sizes has been deprecated and replaced with image_edit_thumbnails_separately (#57685)
Deprecated Files
The wp-admin/media.php file has been deprecated. Users visiting the file will be redirected to the media library wp-admin/upload.php. A user-facing warning will be displayed when the media library is reached via a deprecated link. (#57612)
External Library Updates
The following libraries were updated to the latest versions:
This guide shares more of the in-depth changes that you will find in 6.2 and is published with Release Candidaterelease candidateOne of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). 1 to help inform WordPress developers, extenders and others.
In TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress., there are almost 300 tickets: 110 of which are enhancements and feature requests, 166 bug fixes, and 20 other blessed tasks. This time there are 28 tickets with a focus on performance, 15 for accessibility, and 18 for modernizing code and applying coding standards. GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/’s GitHubGitHubGitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ repo brings 1645 pull requests: 292 enhancements, 354 bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. fixes and 30 accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (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) improvements.
Changes in 6.2 is spread across 44 coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. components. Below is the breakdown of the most important ones.
BlockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Editor
Twenty Twelve to Twenty Seventeen now includes font files in the theme folder instead of loading fonts from a remote source (Google Fonts). This update ensures that the themes follow current recommendations for fonts from a privacy perspective.
In WordPress 6.2, the I18ni18nInternationalization, 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 gets a new wrapper function and it will, also, be easier to switch to a user’s localeLocaleA locale is a combination of language and regional dialect. Usually locales correspond to countries, as is the case with Portuguese (Portugal) and Portuguese (Brazil). Other examples of locales include Canadian English and U.S. English., to name just a couple of improvements. Find the rest in the dedicated dev notedev noteEach 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..
Filesystem APIAPIAn API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways.
If you’ve been using the copy_dir() function for moving directories, you will be happy to find a new, move_dir(), function that comes with WordPress 6.2.
wp_opcache_invalidate() invalidates the OPcache for individual PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher files after overwriting. In #57375wp_opcache_invalidate_directory() was added to recursively invalidate the OPcache for PHP files after overwriting. The function accepts a single argument, (string) $dir, pointing to the directory containing PHP files for which OPcache is to be invalidated.
Changes in WP_Filesystem_Direct::move() function
In #57375WP_Filesystem_Direct::move() had directory support added to make it consistent with ::move() methods in WP_Filesystem_FTPext, WP_Filesystem_ftpsockets and WP_Filesystem_SSH2.
To make sure you get the proper results when searching for a page, or any other post type, by the title, WordPress 6.2 is deprecating the get_page_by_title() function in favour of WP_Query.
WordPress 6.2 brings some major performance wins to WordPress core, visible in the benchmarks for both Web Vitals and Server Timing metrics. Performance is further improved for block themes performance with ~20% faster TTFB and ~14% faster LCP. On pages with hero images, the LCP improvements are even greater at ~19%.
The new filterFilterFilters 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.pre_wp_load_alloptions allows short-circuiting the loading of WordPress’s autoloaded options with custom logic. View ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.#56045.
The results of the get_adjacent_post() function are now being cached. View ticket #41131.
Cache keys for WP_Term_Query are now based on SQL without placeholders so that they can actually result in cache hits. View ticket #57298.
WP_Query is now no longer priming post caches twice. View ticket #57373.
Lazy-loading term metadata from the cache is now faster due to using wp_cache_get_multiple(). View ticket #57150.
The results of wp_get_global_settings() are now cached within a single request, resulting in a faster response time of ~8% for WordPress core. View ticket #57502.
Themes
The Themes component brings some new options for theme authors, performance improvements as well as feature removals.
The “Style Variations” tagtagA directory in Subversion. WordPress uses tags to store a single snapshot of a version (3.6, 3.6.1, etc.), the common convention of tags in version control systems. (Not to be confused with post tags.) is added to the list of WordPress theme features. View ticket #56869.
theme.json supports additional link-related pseudo classes, such as :link and :any-link. View ticket #57053.
Account for a numeric theme directory in WP_Theme::__construct() to allow a numeric theme name. View ticket #54645.
Improve performance of _add_block_template_part_area_info and _add_block_template_info functions which result in hitting an existing cache and in much fewer calls to get_option. View ticket #57077.
Caching is added to WP_Theme::is_block_theme(). View ticket #57114.
External libraries
Significant and long-time-awaited changes come in the Requests library: namespaces, minimum PHP version, PHP 8.x compatibility, stricter input validation and others.
More hooksHooksIn WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same., new and renamed, and other notable changes can be found in miscellaneous dev note.
Allow HTTPHTTPHTTP 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. URLs for application password responses when using a local environment type. View ticket #52617.
Bootstrap/Load
Check that either mysqli_connect() or mysql_connect() is available. This resolves a fatal error and displays an actionable message if the mysqli PHP extension is missing. View ticket #51988.
Comments
Allow passing $comment_ID parameter to get_comment_time() and comment_time(). This brings consistency with get_comment_date() and comment_date(). View ticket #52322.
External libraries
The following libraries were updated to the latest versions:
By optimizing the low-level function wp_kses_bad_protocol() for the by far most common scenarios, the performance of esc_url() is improved. View ticket #22951.
General
If you’ve been following the progress of improvements to allow for named parameters, massive work has been done on that field in 6.2. View ticket #56788.
Mail
Allow custom attachment filenames in wp_mail() by passing an associative $attachments array, where the key strings will be used as filenames instead. View ticket #28407.
Media
It is now possible to explicitly provide a decoding value of e.g. boolean false in the $attr parameter of the wp_get_attachment_image() function, to ensure the attribute decoding is omitted. View ticket #57086.
Enhance logic to determine LCP image in block themes and avoid lazy-loading it. Additionally, this changeset uses the benefits of block template parts to avoid lazy-loading images in the header block template part, making the lazy-loading heuristics even more accurate for sites using a block theme. A test with a block theme page with an image shows a notable ~19% LCP improvement in 6.2. View tickets #56930 and #57490.
REST APIREST APIThe 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/.
Support non-Latin characters in template route regex. Non-Latin characters are URLURLA specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org-encoded (e.g. %cf%84%ce%b5%cf%83%cf%84). Matching % in the route ensures templates with non-Latin titles can be properly saved. View ticket #57329.
Users
Add the new wp_set_password action hook, triggered after a password is set for a given user. As several plugins are calling wp_set_password() directly, adding an action to the end of the function will help pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party authors to catch all instances of password setting. View ticket #57436.
Thanks to @flixos90, @poena, @costdev, @bph for collaborating on this field guideField guideThe field guide is a type of blogpost published on Make/Core during the release candidate phase of the WordPress release cycle. The field guide generally lists all the dev notes published during the beta cycle. This guide is linked in the about page of the corresponding version of WordPress, in the release post and in the HelpHub version page. and @webcommsat, @audrasjb, @annezazu, @mukesh27, and @sabernhardt for peer review.
WordPress 6.1 Release Candidaterelease candidateOne of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). 1 is out and it’s time to take a look at what changes we can expect. Release squad and many contributors worked hard on both TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. and GitHubGitHubGitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/; with more than 120 enhancements and feature requests, 241 bug fixes, 42 other blessed tasks, which makes it over 400 tickets in Trac; and 50 Trac pull requests bringing GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ changes into coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. In Gutenberg repo there were 1684 pull requests of which 425 new features and enhancements and 428 bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. fixes, while the rest is tooling, testings, documentation, and code quality.
New release comes with massive performance improvements, accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (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) enhancements, first default blockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. based themes marked as accessibility ready, new hooksHooksIn WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same. and functions, private functions being open for public use and many more.
Performance
With 45 Trac tickets for 6.1, 19 components got various performance improvements. The most significant improvements arrived in WP_Query and REST APIREST APIThe 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/., which will impact a large portion of your next page load.
If there is one thing you take from performance updates, let it be caching queries in WP_Query. It’s been a long dream for many developers and, once you test it, it will be all that you hoped for. REST API is richer for several priming caches and lighter for prepare_links (if you want it). Site Health will check your Persistent Object Cache and Page Cache, while several private Cache APIAPIAn API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. functions are now public. You’ll also be able to flush cache by group, declare supported cache features, validate cache keys and more.
Besides Query, REST API, Site Health, and Cache API, performance improvements can be found in MultisitemultisiteUsed 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, Bootstrap, Media, Post (Post Types), Editor, Database and many other components. There are too many changes to mention them all here, but you are invited to read the Field guideField guideThe field guide is a type of blogpost published on Make/Core during the release candidate phase of the WordPress release cycle. The field guide generally lists all the dev notes published during the beta cycle. This guide is linked in the about page of the corresponding version of WordPress, in the release post and in the HelpHub version page. on performance improvements in WordPress 6.1.
Posts, Post Types – Post title should not be translatable in get_user_data_from_wp_global_styles method. #55392
Quick/Bulk Edit – Check the show_in_quick_edittaxonomyTaxonomyA 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. property when processing the data for bulk edited posts. #42474
RevisionsRevisionsThe 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. – Use latest_id as the array key for the latest revision ID. #55857
Accessibility
Similar to performance, accessibility improvements arrive in 28 Trac tickets, spread over 13 components. We have first block-based bundled themes marked with accessibility readytagtagA directory in Subversion. WordPress uses tags to store a single snapshot of a version (3.6, 3.6.1, etc.), the common convention of tags in version control systems. (Not to be confused with post tags.), Twenty Twenty-Three and Twenty Twenty-Two. Forms, site/template and block editors, administration screens and many more accessibility improvements are coming in with 6.1 release.
Among many changes in these 10 releases of the pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party, a lot of effort was made in making blocks and other Gutenberg features more available in classic themes, which will ensure easier transition to hybrid and block-based themes.
New ways to extend various parts of block editor tools which were very much needed in everyday development, such as scaffolding block variants with create-block tool, content locking updates, filtering theme.json data, extending Query block, Style Engine, new ReactReactReact is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to reason about, construct, and maintain stateless and stateful user interfaces. https://reactjs.org/. hooks for easier data access, and many more.
Themes are getting more control over styling elements, layout, and navigation while classic themes also get control over block-based template parts and theme.json. Read all about these in dev notesdev noteEach 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. below.
Updated Settings and Styles in Theme.jsonJSONJSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML.
New server-side filters in WordPress 6.1 will allow hooking into theme.json data (see 56467 and 54251 for more info).
REST API gets nice improvements for /search endpoint as well as pretty-printing JSON responses, which can be added as query parameter but also controlled via rest_json_encode_optionsfilterFilterFilters 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..
Changes in #54788 allow for the muted property to be used in video elements, which solves for content that wishes to autoPlay when a page is viewed.
Database
A file containing the wpdb class is renamed from wp-includes/wp-db.php to wp-includes/class-wpdb.php to conform to the coding standards. If you’ve been including this file directly, do not worry – a new wp-db.php file is created and it’s loading the old, now renamed file. Read more in #56268.
MariaDB 10.2 has reached EOL (end of life). The minimum version of MariaDB supported is now 10.3 (see #55791).
Other developer updates
As mentioned above, WordPress 6.1 comes with a serious number of new hooks and functions, which will make Miscellaneous dev notedev noteEach 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. very useful for theme and plugin developers.
Normalize to Unicode NFC encoding before converting accent characters in remove_accents(). #35951
Cron API
Modify _get_cron_array() to always return an array. #53940
Editor
Universalize functions for checking block editor status. #51819
Clarify that get_page_template() doesn’t work on block themes. #56394
Block Patterns: Add new Footers categoryCategoryThe 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging.#56416
Spacer block: color control (only text color) #43660 (background in next version)
Several external libraries have been updated to their latest versions. These include PHPMailer, GetID3, Moment, Sodium Compat, jQuery, jQuery UIUIUser interface, MediaElement.js, Clipboard.js, and Underscore
Add support for WebP images in the Thickbox library. #55786
Normalize to Unicode NFC encoding before converting accent characters in remove_accents()#24661
Replace all esc_url_raw() calls in core with sanitize_url(). #55852
Allow min(), max(), minmax(), and clamp() values to be used in inline CSSCSSCascading Style Sheets.. #55966
KSES: Allow more layout-related CSS properties. #56122
KSES: Allow assigning values to CSS variables. #56353
General
Formatting: Add support for Enums in is_serialized(). #53299
Replace phpversion() function calls with PHP_VERSION constant. #55680
Blocks: Remove duplicate use of realpath() in register_block_style_handle(). #56636
Block Editor: Remove repetitive calls to file_get_contents() in block editor settings. #56637
General: Remove file_exists() checks after calling realpath(). #56654
Blocks: Remove extra get_theme_file_path() calls in register_block_style_handle(). #56666
General: Ensure wp_rand() returns 0 when $min and $max values are equal to 0. #55194
I18Ni18nInternationalization, 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.
I18N: Introduce WP_Textdomain_Registry to store text domains and their language directory paths. #39210
Login and Registration
Required fields in networknetwork(versus site, blog) registration. #54344
Explicitly associate errors with input fields. #54483
WordPress 6.1 introduces a number of important performance improvements which will have impact in all aspects. The most significant improvements are done in caching WP_Query as well as REST APIREST APIThe 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/..
Improvements to WP_Query
Database queries in WP_Query being cached is a long wanted feature for many developers and finally a dream come true in WordPress 6.1. A couple of new functions will ensure that users cache and linked objects for menu items are now primed while get_page_by_title function will from now on use WP_Query and take the full advantage of all these improvements.
TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. tickets holding these changes: #22176, #55716, #55620, #36905.
Improvements to REST API
Priming caches in a single query will significantly improve Posts controller with several new helper functions but that’s not all. User and comments controller will benefit in a similar way while taxonomyTaxonomyA 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. and post type controllers are now going to prepare_links only when needed. This control over prepare_links method will be available for custom controllers as well.
WordPress 6.1 will have two new Site Health checks – Persistent Object Cache and Page Cache, along with a number of new filters. Find out more in dedicated Dev notedev noteEach 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..
Trac tickets holding these changes: #56040, #56041.
Improvements to multisitemultisiteUsed 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
In WordPress 6.1 the networknetwork(versus site, blog) options functions have been updated to be consistent with other metadata types, support for register_meta is added, prime caching network options in a single query, string main site ID in network options and more.
Trac tickets holding these changes: #37181, #55802.
Bootstrap/Load
The order of action hooksHooksIn WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same. is slightly changed in order to gain more control over caching behavior, preloading assets and conditionally executing redirects.
Trac ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. holding these changes: #56068.
Improvements to Cache APIAPIAn API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways.
Cache API improvements bring validating cache keys in WP_Object_Cache methods, deleting cache by group and making a number of private cache priming functions public, and thus, available for usage in plugins and themes.
A valid cache key must be either an integer number or a non-empty string. This will prevent silent failing in wp_cache_*() functions, done by a quick type check and adding a _doing_it_wrong() message if the string is empty, false, or null. Also, a check in update_user_caches() and clean_user_cache() will make sure that the email is not empty before being cached or removed from cache. Read more in #56198.
Several private cache priming functions for various object types are now public and pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party and theme authors are encouraged to use these functions to improve the performance of their code by reducing the number of database queries. These functions are:
If you wanted to delete cached item with wp_cache_delete you had to specify the item’s ID, or you had to flush the entire cache with wp_cache_flush. WordPress 6.1 introduces a new plugable function called wp_cache_flush_group which removes all cache items in a group, if the object cache implementation supports it.
Introducing wp_cache_supports() function
Developers can now detect if their current implementation of an object cache supports flushing by group, by calling wp_cache_supports( $feature ) which returns true if the feature is supported. Third-party object cache plugins can declare a wp_cache_supports() function and correctly list their supported features:
add_multiple
set_multiple
get_multiple
delete_multiple
flush_runtime
flush_group
Note: The wp_cache_supports() function replaces and supersedes the wp_cache_supports_group_flush() function added in #4476.
WordPress 6.1 will add decoding="async" to image attributes, along with new wp_img_tag_add_decoding_attr() function and wp_img_tag_add_decoding_attrfilterFilterFilters 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.. Read more in #53232.
Query-attachments AJAX endpoint now caches the parent post objects. Read more in #56037.
WP_Media_List_Table class will call update_post_parent_caches function in order to prime parent caches in a single database request. Read more in #56036.
Added caching to wp_count_attachments() for better consistency with wp_count_posts(). Read more in #55227.
Avoid duplicated query when retrieving empty posts collections. Read more in #55677.
Post, Post Types improvements
In WordPress 6.1 WP_Posts_List_Table class will call update_post_author_caches function in order to prime post author caches in a single database request. Read more in #56100.
A new filter post_class_taxonomies will allow developers to reduce the number of taxonomies for which classes term classes are generated. Read more in #37114.
Sites running persistent object caching will have result of database queries in _find_post_by_old_slug and _find_post_by_old_date functions, cached. Read more in #36723.
Editor
Additional build task copy:block-json will convert and store all block.json files in a single blocks-json.php which will prevent all of this from happening for every blockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. on each page load.
Identifiers (such as Table and Field names) are escaped with the %i placeholder which will prevent SQL Injection Vulnerabilities and provide a small performance improvement.
Performance of WP_List_Table::get_column_info() is improved by adding the primary column to the cached headerHeaderThe header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes. values (#34564).
Cron API
In 6.1 wp-cron will be non-blocking for LiteSpeed LSAPI (#54668).
Taxonomy
Retain default term option when unregistering taxonomies and adjustments to handling default terms for custom taxonomies (#54472).
Themes
Two new actions are wrapping the process of loading a template file (load_template) – wp_before_load_template and wp_after_load_template (#54541).
Script loader
New filter wp_preload_resources enables resource preloading with rel='preload' (#42438).
Users
Prime user metaMetaMeta 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. in WP_User_Query (#55594).
