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 our bug tracker.
We use Slack for real-time communication. Contributors live all over the world, so there are discussions happening at all hours of the day.
Our core development meetings are every Wednesday at 05:00 UTC and 20:00 UTC in the #core channel on Slack. Anyone can join and participate or listen in!
WordPress 5.7 brings you the best features and enhancements to help start 2021 on a positive note! A small and experienced release squad lead the development of new features and resolved defects that benefit users and developers alike.
As a user, you’ll see a refined 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 UIUIUser interface, lazy-loading iframes, streamlined migrationMigrationMoving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies. from 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. to HTTPSHTTPSHTTPS is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure. HTTPS is the secure version of HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website that you are connected to. The 'S' at the end of HTTPS stands for 'Secure'. It means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted. This is especially helpful for protecting sensitive data like banking information., standardized colors in WP Adminadmin(and super admin) to a single palette, and a new Robots 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. and media search engine visibility setting. As a developer, you’ll see 66 enhancements and feature requests, 127 bug fixes, and more! Of particular interest for developers will be the ongoing cleanup after the update to jQuery 3.5.1 as step 3 on our upgrade process of eventually removing jQuery Migrate.
In 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., you’ll notice what’s relevant to you and your users among the many improvements coming in 5.7.
The block editor continues its rapid iteration. 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/ version 9.9 is bundled with WordPress 5.7; that’s seven Gutenberg releases (versions 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.6, 9.7, 9.8, and 9.9) all bundled into this release (and as noted in the related Gutenberg handbook page)! Bug fixes and performance improvements from Gutenberg versions 10.0 and 10.1 are also part of 5.7.
The WordPress 5.7 Beta 1 post highlights many new features and improvements to the block editor. There is drag and drop from the inserter into the post canvas, full height alignment for blocks to fill the entire viewport, block variations shown in the block inspector, enhancements to the usability and stability of reusable blocks, vertical alignments and width percentages for buttons block, ability to change size of icons in the Social Icons block, and ability to change the font size in the List and Code blocks.
Included below are details on the new dynamic hook (render_block_{$this->name}) to 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. the content of a single block,
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/.
There are even more goodies in 5.7! Read through the 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
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 to see details on additional changes coming in 5.7 within Login and Registration, and Post Types.
5.7 offers so much more! Over 127 bugs, 66 enhancements and feature requests, and 29 blessed tasks have been marked as fixed in WordPress 5.7. Here are a few that haven’t been highlighted in the dev notes above:
Editor: Support filtering arguments in block type registration from metadata (#52138).
Menus: Add sticky footer to avoid duplicate save buttons (#51631).
Upgrade/Install: Display version number in update-core.php Re-install Now button (#51774).
Upgrade/Install: Add development as accepted value for WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE (#51978).
Please, test your code. Fixing issues that your code has with WordPress coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. helps you and millions of WordPress sites.
Update on November 24, 2020: Added the newly published “Core major versions auto-updates UI changes in WordPress 5.6 – Correction” 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
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. the the Auto-updates (Security) section as an embed. – @audrasjb
Update on November 23, 2020: Added the newly published “WordPress & PHP 8” dev note to the PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher 8 section as an embed. – @desrosj
WordPress 5.6 brings you the best features and enhancements to help end 2020 on a positive note! An all-women and non-binary release squad lead the development of new features and resolved defects that benefit users and developers alike. 👩🏻💻👩🏼💻👩💻👩🏽💻👩🏾💻👩🏿💻
As a user, you’ll see automatic updates for major coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. releases (opt-in), external authentication to the 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/. via newly introduced Application Passwords, PHP 8 support, the latest and greatest features in the blockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor, and a new AAA-ready default theme. As a developer, you’ll see 85 enhancements and feature requests, 201 bug fixes, and more! Of course, all those improvements mean code changes, which could in turn require you to make updates to your site, 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, or theme.
Note that as of the publishing of 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. there are still two pending 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
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. that will be published in the coming week. We will update this Field Guide with that content once it becomes available and will place a clear UPDATE note announcing the new content at the top of this Field Guide.
In this Field Guide, you’ll notice what’s relevant to you and your users among the many improvements coming in 5.6.
Application Passwords
Of the eight updates to the Login and Registration component, take notice of WordPress 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. improvements in the detailed integration guide. You can now make authenticated requests to various WordPress APIs via the newly-introduced, user-specific, application passwords.
The integration guide includes the application password format, the application password data store, how to generate credentials manually or programmatically through the REST API, and how to use those credentials with the REST API or XML-RPC API. Additionally, you’ll notice highlights on future developments for the REST API.
The #core-auto-updates team introduces a new UIUIUser interface allowing website administrators to opt-in to major version automatic updates. Read on to learn more about the new user interface to opt-in to automatic updates for major versions looks, how the user interface works, and how you can extend the core major versions auto-updates feature.
The block editor continues its rapid iteration. 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/ version 9.2 is bundled with WordPress 5.6; that’s seven Gutenberg releases (versions 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.9, 9.0, 9.1, and 9.2) all bundled into this release (and as noted in the related Gutenberg handbook page)! Bug fixes and performance improvements from Gutenberg versions 9.3 and 9.4 are also part of 5.6.
The WordPress 5.6 Beta 1 post highlights many new features and improvements. There is improved support for video positioning in cover blocks, enhancements to Block Patterns including translatable strings, character counts in the information panel, improved keyboard navigation, and improved UI for drag and drop functionality.
Included below are details on a new Block API version that enables blocks to render their own block wrapper element, and a new createBlocksFromInnerBlocksTemplate Block API to create blocks from the InnerBlocks template. You’ll notice new block supports and abilities for dynamic blocks to use the new block supports, 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) and small screen user experience enhancements to editor styling, extraction of reusable blocks from @wordpress/editor to @wordpress/reusable-blocks so they are available in other editors, and changes to Toolbar components.
WordPress 5.6 includes part 2 of the 3-step plan for upgrading the version of jQuery bundled with core. The 3-step plan updates the bundled jQuery version to 3.5.1 and jQuery Migrate to 3.3.1. The dev note below includes details on part 2 of the plan, and more. Part 3 of the plan removes jQuery Migrate. That’s because jQuery Migrate is tentatively planned to be removed in WordPress 5.7 or later depending on testing. As 5.6 includes a major upgrade to the jQuery library, please ensure you test your plugins and themes as thoroughly as possible before the release of WordPress 5.6 to avoid any preventable breakage.
The next major version release of PHP, 8.0.0, is scheduled a few days prior to WordPress 5.6. The WordPress project has a long history of being compatible with new versions of PHP as soon as possible, and this release is no different. Because PHP 8 is a major version release, changes that break backward compatibility or compatibility for various APIs are allowed. While all of the detectable issues in WordPress can be fixed, you will need to verify that all of your plugins and themes are also compatible with PHP 8 prior to upgrading. Read on for more detailed information about what to look for.
Of the 28 REST API updates, pay attention to the new framework for making a series of REST API calls in one request to the server and the new wp_after_insert_post action that allows theme and plugin developers to run custom code after a post, its terms, 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. data has been updated. Read the respective dev notes below to learn more about these two new additions to the WordPress REST API.
There are 11 Site Health updates in 5.6. You’ll want to particularly notice enhancements to the way the Site Health component handles and validates health checks. The dev note below includes details on changes to the Site Health component.
This release continues a tradition of including a new default theme, this year with the AAA-ready Twenty Twenty-One theme. The post below includes background on Twenty Twenty-One and the design decisions made in its planning. You’ll also notice the benefit in consulting our community of a11yAccessibilityAccessibility (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) experts from the beginning, the joy in testing the AAA-ready default theme, and the pleasure of activating and using the new theme.
There are even more goodies in 5.6! Read through the dev note below to see details on additional changes coming in 5.6 within the Administration, Build/Test Tools, Database, Media, Networks and Sites, Pings/Trackbacks, Quick/Bulk Edit, Site Health, 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., Users, Upgrade/Install, and Widgets components and with PHP, 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., and error handling.
Emoji: Update twemoji from 13.0.0 to 13.0.1 (#51356).
External Libraries: Update lodash from 4.17.15 to 4.17.19 (#51505).
External Libraries: Update react and react-dom from 16.9.0 to 16.13.1 (#51505).
Media: Added indicator to image details for images attached to a site option (#42063).
REST API: Fixed incorrect slashes in the URLURLA specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org if the parent is empty for REST API (see #44745).
Site Health: Added better handling of unexpected values in Site Health (#50145).
Site Health: Added a test to Site Health to verify that the AuthorizationheaderHeaderThe 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. is working as expected for Application Passwords (see #51638).
And much, much more!
Please, test your code. Fixing issues helps you and millions of WordPress sites.
Update on 08 August 2020: Added “CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Editor 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” and “New editor preview options”
Update on 06 August 2020: Added the “Registering default values for 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. data” section.
As a user, you’ll see automatic updates for plugins and themes, a 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. directory, XML sitemaps, lazy-loading images, and the latest and greatest featured in the block editor. As a developer, you’ll see 157 enhancements and feature requests, 307 bug fixes, and more! Of course, all those improvements mean code changes, which could in turn require you to make updates to your site, 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, or theme.
So take a look through 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 see what’s relevant to you and your users, among the many improvements coming in 5.5…
Accessibility
Of the 34 various accessibility updates, Theme developers are highly encouraged to utilize the opt-in navigation-widgets feature to improve the semantics and accessibility of widgets with lists of links in themes. When support is declared, all default widgets included in WordPress Core that produce lists of links will be output wrapped in the <nav> element and an aria-label attribute is automatically generated based on the widgetWidgetA WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user.’s title field and added to the nav element. Read the following 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
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. to learn which widgets are affected, how to declare support, and other details behind this update.
On the 6 security updates, the new core-auto-updates team worked on introducing a new UIUIUser interface to manage Plugins and Themes automatic updates. Learn more about controlling this new UI, email notifications, site health screen, and if you’re a plugin developer, ensure your plugin is ready for the new auto-updates system.
Of the seven updates to the Customize component, Theme developers will want to take notice of changes to how the custom logo is linked on the homepage and a new logo image attributes 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..
The block editor has continued its rapid iteration since WordPress 5.0. Now it has 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/ version 8.5 bundled with WordPress 5.5; that’s ten releases all bundled into this release (versions 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, and 8.5)! Bug fixes and performance improvements from Gutenberg versions 8.6 and 8.7 will also be part of 5.5.
The WordPress 5.5 Beta 1 post highlights a lot of new features and improvements across these releases, though you’ll also want to note inline image editing, block patterns, device previews, block directory, among many other improvements bringing forth a better, smoother editing experience.
Below you’ll find details on updates to various Block APIs, how to register a block pattern, how themes can opt-out from core bundled block patterns, image editing via the 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/. and how edited images are saved as a new attachment, custom line heights and custom units as new block tools, changes to the BlockPreview, URLInput, and Popover ReactReactReact is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to reason about, construct, and maintain stateless and stateful user interfaces. https://reactjs.org/. components, and how to add your block plugin directly to the Block Directory.
There are 26 updates to the Media component, including the core merge of the Lazy Loading featured plugin that now sees images lazy-loaded by default. Read on to learn more about reduced layout shifting as a prerequisite, how to customize lazy-loading, and browser compatibility.
36 updates to the REST API with particular interest pointed to new and modified endpoints, parameter and 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. schema changes, discoverable REST resource links, new APIAPIAn API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. functions, CORS changes, the new register_theme_feature() function and its arguments, and other miscellaneous updates.
The new Sitemaps component and its 13 items in WordPress 5.5 comes from the XML sitemaps feature project merge. Read on to learn more about adding custom sitemaps, removing certain sitemaps, adding additional tags to sitemap entries, excluding a single post from the sitemap, completely disabling sitemaps functionality, and the new classes, functions, 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 filters.
This release sees the introduction of a Theme Field Guide! You’ll find a few theme related changes that were not large enough for their own developer note included here, as well as links to the other 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
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. above that are theme related.
There are even more goodies in 5.5! Here are a few:
Update a plugin or theme by uploading a ZIP file
Default categories for custom post types
Support for default terms in custom taxonomies
Enforcing a default comment_type value
Updates to the PHPMailer, SimplePie, Twemoji, Masonry, imagesLoaded, getID3, Moment.js, and clipboard.js external libraries
Template loading functions now allow additional arguments to be passed through to the matched template file using a new $args parameter
WordPress now attempts to invalidate PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher files when Core, Plugins, or Themes are updated via wp_opcache_invalidate()
How theme authors can filter archive page headings
The new createInterpolateElement and wp_get_environment_type() functions
Better control of the redirect_guess_404_permalink() function
New CSSCSSCascading Style Sheets. styles for buttons with disabled state
The final update to the Dashicons icon font as focus now shifts to the new Icon component
Various PHP-related improvements and changes
So much much more!
Read through the dev notes below to see details on all these changes coming in 5.5.
Over 307 bugs, 157 enhancements and feature requests, and 31 blessed tasks have been marked as fixed in WordPress 5.5. Some additional ones to highlight include:
Comments: The proper comment counts and page numbers for unapproved comments are now calculated correctly. (#8973)
Comments: get_comment_count() now returns integers for all counts of all statuses returned (#48093)
Customize: The CustomizerCustomizerTool 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. UI is now themed correctly based on the selected adminadmin(and super admin) theme (#50547)
Internationalization: Domain-specific 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. filter hooks have been added. (#49518)
Media: sanitize_file_name() now correctly sanitizes filenames, removing accents (#22363)
Menus: Menu Settings are now provided when creating a new menu (#44286)
Menus: Empty 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. terms now show up in searches when adding items to menus (#45298)
Widgets: Widgets with custom image sizes now correctly display captions (#50160)
Please, test your code. Fixing issues helps you and helps millions of WordPress sites.
WordPress 5.4 is shaping up to be the best WordPress 2020 has seen!
As a user, you’ll see new blocks and enhancements in the blockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor, new embeds, and improvements in the WordPress Adminadmin(and super admin) experience.
As a developer, you’ll see 122 enhancements and feature requests, 210bugbugA 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 more! Of course, all those improvements mean code changes, which could in turn require you to make updates to your site, 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, or theme.
So take a look through 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 see what’s relevant to you and your users, among the many improvements coming in 5.4…
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)
On the 14 updates related to Accessibility in 5.4, you’ll want to particularly note changes to the WordPress Admin Bar, to the calendar and recent comments widgets, on the Menu screen, and bugs reported by the WPCampus accessibility report.
Block Editor
The block editor has continued its rapid iteration since WordPress 5.0. Now it has 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/ version 7.5 bundled with WordPress 5.4; that’s ten releases all bundled into WordPress 5.4 (versions 6.6, 6.7, 6.8, 6.9, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4 and 7.5)! Bug fixes and performance improvements from Gutenberg versions 7.6 will also be part of 5.4.
The WordPress 5.4 Beta 1 post highlights a lot of new features and improvements across these releases, though you’ll also want to note the impressive achievement of 14% loading-time reduction and 51% time-to-type reduction (for a particularly long post of ~36,000 words, ~1,000 blocks) since WordPress 5.3.
Below you’ll find details on two new blocks, button component updates, block collections, default fullscreen mode for new installs/devices, custom keyboard shortcuts, general block editor 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. updates, new block variations API, a new gradient theme API, markup and style-related changes, and a new @wordpress/create-block package for block scaffolding.
CustomizerCustomizerTool 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.
On the 14 updates of the Customizer component, WordPress 5.4 improves accessibility of focused elements as a follow-up to WordPress 5.3 Admin CSSCSSCascading Style Sheets. changes, adds documentation of existing Customizer functions and 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., removes apple-touch-icon-precomposed deprecated 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. tags, and improves Menu items selection logic.
Please note that some unused Customizer classes are now formally deprecated:
On the 5 updates in the Menus component, WordPress 5.4 improves keyboard accessibility of the Menu items selection tab panel and streamlines the user interface.
If your plugins add custom fields to menu items, you’ll want to update your code to use the new wp_nav_menu_item_custom_fields hook:
On the 15 updates in the Privacy component, you will want to specifically note:
Personal Data Export now includes Session Tokens, Community Events Location and Custom User Meta.
Personal Data Exports now include a 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. file and a Table of Contents
New filters for the headers of all Privacy-related emails
The privacy tables are improved for a cleaner interface
wp_get_user_request_data() function was replaced with wp_get_user_request() for better clarity
All those changes are in this 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
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.:
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/.
On the 22 updates related to the REST API, WordPress 5.4 now supports “OR” 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. relation parameter in Post Controller, adds selective link embedding and introduces some changes in the WP_REST_Server method. Read below for more details on these updates:
On the 3 updates to the Shortcodes component, WordPress 5.4 introduces documentation improvements and a new function: apply_shortcodes. This function is an alias of do_shortcode, which is still supported.
On the 9 updates to the Widgets component, WordPress 5.4 introduces accessibility and user interface enhancements on the Widgets Admin screen and changes in the Recent Comments and Calendar Widgets HTMLHTMLHyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. markup.
There are even more goodies in 5.4, like the new wp-env (a zero config tool for painless local WordPress environments), enhancements to favicon handling, better information about errors in wp_login_failed, a new site ID 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’s newblog_notify_siteadminfilterFilterFilters 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., a new TikTok video embed and removal of the CollegeHumor embed, storing the original URLURLA specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org of media attachments in _source_url post meta, improved accessibility by loading the Admin Bar with wp_body_open, avoiding duplicate IDs in the Recent Comments widgetWidgetA WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user., a new parameter in the lostpassword_post action in retrieve_password(), theme headers supporting “Requires at least” and “Requires PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher” declarations, and the delete_posts capability won’t trigger PHP notices for custom post types. Read through the 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
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 to see details on all these changes coming in 5.4.
Over 198 bugs, 121 enhancements and feature requests, and 8 blessed tasks have been marked as fixed in WordPress 5.4. Some additional ones to highlight include:
Bootstrap/Load: EnhancementenhancementEnhancements are simple improvements to WordPress, such as the addition of a hook, a new feature, or an improvement to an existing feature. to favicon handling (#47398)
Bundled Theme: Twenty Twenty: Add social icon for WhatsApp (#49098)
Comments: Add “In response to …” before threaded comments in comment feed (#43429)
Update on 18 October 2019: Added the “Noteworthy Adminadmin(and super admin)CSSCSSCascading Style Sheets. changes in WordPress 5.3” 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
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. to the Accessibility section
WordPress 5.3 is shaping up to be the best WordPress yet! Users will see new blocks, more intuitive 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 interactions, improved media handling, improved 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), and the new Twenty Twenty default theme. Among many goodies in 5.3, developers will love the date/time component improvements, PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher 7.4 compatibility, and will also be able to take advantage of 157 enhancements and feature requests, 366bugbugA 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 more! Let’s look at the many improvements coming in 5.3…
Accessibility
Of the 50 updates related to Accessibility in 5.3, you’ll want to particularly note the changes to Admin CSS, improvements of all the media views form controls and changes to explicit labeling, how coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. will now programmatically add aria-current="page" attributes to certain widgets, and programmatically add specific aria-label parameter for navigation menus. Read the 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
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 for more details on the Accessibility focus.
The block editor has continued its rapid iteration since WordPress 5.0, and now has 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/ version 6.5 bundled with WordPress 5.3; that’s TWELVE releases all bundled into 5.3 (versions 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5)! Bug fixes and performance improvements from Gutenberg versions 6.6 and 6.7 will also be part of 5.3. The Beta 1 post highlights many of the new features and improvements across these releases, but I’ll specifically pull out the reduction in 1.5 seconds of loading time for a particularly sizeable post (~ 36,000 words, ~ 1,000 blocks) as an impressive achievement given all that has otherwise been added to the block editor. The dev notes below also highlight new server-side block style variations 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., a new block example API, the Group block, reduced block styles specificity, using class names for text alignment, Columns block classnames, color support for the separator block, an updates to Table and Gallery blocks markup.
Of the 42 updates for Media in 5.3, you’ll want to particularly note the new way to manage big images by detecting them and generating a “web-optimized maximum size” of them as well as saving of image metadata while creating intermediate sizes. Read the dev notes below for more details on the Media component.
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
Of the 15 updates for Multisite in 5.3, you’ll want to particularly note changes to the database, changes to WP_MS_Sites_List_Table, return for short circuits for multisite classes, and improved performance for site and networknetwork(versus site, blog) lookups by ID. Read the dev note below for more details on the Multisite component.
The great news continues. WordPress 5.3 supports PHP 7.4, which is scheduled for release at the end of November! Contributors worked with several external libraries to ensure that all 5 tickets addressing compatibility issues for PHP 7.4 were addressed in time for WordPress 5.3.
In addition to ensuring 5.3 supports PHP 7.4, a handful of updates occurred as a result of the continued coding standards and code modernization efforts. Most notably, the spread operator is now in use where appropriate, and the native PHP 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. extension is now required to run WordPress.
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 developers are encouraged to read the following detailed dev notes to fully understand the changes coming and how their code should be updated!
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/.
Of the 33 updates for the REST API in 5.3, you’ll want to particularly note register array and object metadata, nested response filtering with _fields query parameter, how to set drafts back to “floating date” status, and possibly best of all up to a 30-40% performance increase in large API responses. Read the dev note below for more details on the REST API component.
Of the 31 updates for Site Health in 5.3, you’ll want to particularly note changes to the grading indicator, recovery email enhancements, filters for completed Site Health status tests, and a new Admin email verification screen. Read the dev notes below for more details on the Site Health component.
There are even more goodies in 5.3 like much–needed fixes and a set of improvements to the Date/Time component, changes to prevent search engines indexing sites, new default for links in comments and comment author URLs to use the rel="nofollow ugc" attribute, changes on Twenty Nineteen HTMLHTMLHyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. structure, changes to wp_die() HTML output, expansion of the options available to compare_key so that developers have access to 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.-key comparison operators similar to those available for meta values, updates related to bumping the Backbone version bundled with WordPress from v1.3.3 to v1.4.0 and other external library updates, dropping support for integer menu slugs, addition of a “Show” button next to the password field on the login screen, passing arrays to supports argument when registering post types, HTML5 support for script and style arguments, recording additional information for saved queries, unit-less CSS line-height values, updates to cores’ build/test tools, and more! Read through the dev notes below to see what else is coming in 5.3.
Over 362 bugs, 157 enhancements and feature requests, and 36 blessed tasks have been marked as fixed in WordPress 5.3. Some additional ones to highlight include:
General: Use ** operator to replacepow() function calls (#48083)
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.: Text length should be localizable (#44541)
Menus: Replace 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. with httpsHTTPSHTTPS is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure. HTTPS is the secure version of HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website that you are connected to. The 'S' at the end of HTTPS stands for 'Secure'. It means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted. This is especially helpful for protecting sensitive data like banking information. in custom links menu item (#46312)
Networks and Sites: Redundant blog_versions table (#19755)
Networks and Sites: Save database version in site meta (#41685)
Site Health: Provide simple debug data in WSOD emails (#48090)
Widgets: Replace http with https in the link placeholder widgetWidgetA WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. image (#46320)
Please, test your code. Fixing issues helps you and helps millions of WordPress sites.
WordPress 5.2 is officially the best WordPress 2019 has seen that rhymes with wp_nav_menu()! Users will see new coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. blocks available, and an added ability to enable or disable blocks within the blockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. inserter, along with a multitude of other block editor updates.
There are also new features to protect sites from the dreaded “White Screen of Death“, a new area for users to view, copy, and share important debug information, improvements to 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) and theming Privacy Policy pages. Developers will love the various new filters and functions, and will also be able to take advantage of 62 enhancements and feature requests, 228bugbugA 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 more! Let’s look at the many improvements coming in 5.2…
Site Health and WSOD Protections
WordPress 5.2 includes portions of the Site Health and Servehappy projects. A new Site Health page nested under the “Tools” menu will run a series of tests on a site pointing out potential issues that site owner should be aware of. Plugins and themes may add their own tests, or modify/remove existing ones using filters. More debugging and support information is displayed within an “Info” tab in the same area of the adminadmin(and super admin). This information can help developers troubleshoot user issues.
From the Servehappy project comes the addition that allows administrators to fix or mitigate fatal errors on their site that would previously have been impossible to address without developer interference and modifying the codebase. This includes five ways that developers can integrate with the new recovery mode features.
The block editor has continued its rapid iteration since WordPress 5.0, and now has 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/ version 5.4 bundled with WordPress 5.2. The most significant change in core is the addition of a a reusable block-editor module to expand the usage of the Block Editor in a context independent from the post editor without any dependency to the post object (e.g., to other WordPress admin pages like the widgets screen).
A new asynchronous mode for block rendering has also been added, new RSS and Amazon Kindle embed blocks were added, and a block management modal with the ability to enable/disable blocks from the block inserter. Improvements to the end-to-end tests have been made (including support for aXe Accessibility testing), as well as improvements to the accuracy of WP_Screen::is_block_editor(). Core blocks (aside from the Classic block) are also no longer using TinyMCE under the hood.
Accessibility updates in 5.2 include improvements to markup for Admin tabs, to post formats in list tables, to Admin Bar submenu link markup, and to the Archive WidgetWidgetA WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. dropdown all to help assistive technologies.
The Privacy component has been enhanced with the addition of four new features to make customizing and designing the Privacy Policy page easier. Tag restrictions for User Data Exports have also been relaxed.
Note the shim provided for plugins and themes wanting to support the is_privacy_policy() function in older versions of WordPress
Security
5.2 includes several security-related updates like protection against supply-chain attacks and modern cryptography for WordPress plugins; read below for details and examples.
There are even more goodies in 5.2 like the addition of 13 Dashicons and the WOFF 2.0 file format, the addition of short circuit filters to WP_Site_Query and WP_Network_Query, the addition of the wp_body_open() function to trigger a wp_body_open action, the addition of the category_list_link_attributesfilterFilterFilters 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. to Walker_Category, the addition of the users_have_additional_content filter, the update to @wordpress/scripts package to include webpack and Babel configurations, and more!
Note the shim provided for themes wanting to utilize the wp_body_open() function in older versions of WordPress and prevent fatal errors from the undefined function
Embeds: YouTube embeds lack title attribute (#40245)
Export: Issue with WP Export – adding spaces to .xml file (#46575)
Feeds: Feeds now respect the Last-Modified headers (#4575)
General: Add sodium_compat — a libsodium-compatible cryptography APIAPIAn API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. for PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher <7.2 (#45806)
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 Personal Data Erasure Fulfillment email is now in the Users 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. (#44721)
I18N: The Personal Data Export email is now in the Users Locale (#46056)
Networks and Sites: Introduces the ms_user_list_site_class filter (#41146)
Networks and Sites: Introduces the populate_site_meta filter (#46437)
Privacy: The ‘Download Personal Data’ admin action no longer triggers a completion of the request (#44644)
Privacy: Users are now able to make additional requests when identical previous requests are in a complete or archived state (#44707)
UPDATE on 7 May 2019: Added “Changes to post globals setup and usage in get_the_content() and related functions in WordPress 5.2″ 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
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. to the Other Developer Updates section.
UPDATE #2 on 17 May 2019: Added “Security in 5.2” dev note to the newly created Security section.
WordPress 5.1 is officially the best WordPress 2019 has seen yet! Users will see 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 improvements while developers will see PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher version upgrade notices and will be able to take advantage of 165 enhancements and features added. Let’s look at the many improvements coming in 5.1…
Site Health 💻🏥
WordPress 5.1 includes portions of the Servehappy and Site Health projects. Notices will start being displayed to administrators of sites that run on long outdated PHP versions. WordPress will also start honoring 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 PHP version requirements.
The block editor continued its rapid iteration since WordPress 5.0 and now has version 4.8 of the GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ plugin bundled with WordPress 5.1. Most significantly, this includes performance improvements within the editor, a Getting Started with JavaScript tutorial, improvements to the design guidelines to build blocks, and high-quality README files for the UIUIUser interface components.
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 Metadata 🏘️🗂️
5.1 brings with it a new database table to store metadata associated with sites, which allows for the storage of arbitrary site data relevant in a multisite / networknetwork(versus site, blog) context.
Cron 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 5.1 includes a change in behavior for cron spawning on servers running FastCGI and PHP versions 7.0.16 and above. It also includes a change to the Cron API that updates the return values for functions used to modify scheduled tasks, it includes two new functions to assist with returning data (one to retrieve cron jobs ready to be run and another to retrieve a scheduled event), and it includes new filters for modifying cron storage.
New JSJSJavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors. Build Process 🇯🇸🏭
The 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/. code reorganization has been in `trunktrunkA directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision. since April 2018 and the new JavaScript build process will ship with WordPress 5.1.
Read below to learn about how the adminadmin(and super admin) table pagination links have had their CSSCSSCascading Style Sheets. styling modified to improve 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) and how 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. Managers with commit access on the /dist repository will need to manually translate and deployDeployLaunching code from a local development environment to the production web server, so that it's available to visitors. changes to files that cannot use gettext.
There are even more goodies in 5.1 like updates to values allowed for the WP_DEBUG_LOG constant, new test config file constant in the test suite, new plugin 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., short circuit filters for wp_unique_post_slug() and WP_User_Query and count_users(), a new human_readable_duration function, improved 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.metaboxMetaboxA post metabox is a draggable box shown on the post editing screen. Its purpose is to allow the user to select or enter information in addition to the main post content. This information should be related to the post in some way. sanitization, limited LIKE support for 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. keys when using WP_Meta_Query, a new “doing it wrong” notice when registering 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/. endpoints, and more!
There are also a few additional changes that will receive a dev note shortly:
Object Caching can now degrade gracefully (#22661)
New parameter for the wp_check_filetype_and_extfilterFilterFilters 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. (#45707)
New filter for filtering and overriding block attributes (#45451)
Bootstrap/Load: WSODs protection returns incorrect content type for 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. Requests (#45933)
Cache API: Allow object caches to degrade gracefully (#22661)
Customize: Improve browser compatibility of X-Frame-Options and Content-Security-Policy headers for window in preview iframeiframeiFrame is an acronym for an inline frame. An iFrame is used inside a webpage to load another HTML document and render it. This HTML document may also contain JavaScript and/or CSS which is loaded at the time when iframe tag is parsed by the user’s browser. (#40020)
Customize: Use iframe sandbox attribute to restrict browsing in CustomizerCustomizerTool 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. preview instead of attempting to rely on JS to intercept top navigation (#42341)
Customize: Fix counting of sections for widgetWidgetA WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. sidebars, allowing non-sidebarSidebarA sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. sections to not interfere (#43556)
Customize: Prevent wp_targeted_link_rel() from corrupting Customizer changeset data (#45292)
Media: Parse the creation date out of uploaded audio files (#42017)
Media: No placeholder for ico file in list view of Media Library (#43458)
Media: media_handle_sideload() may unexpectedly return 0 on error (#44303)
Menus: Improve headings and instructions for better accessibility (#43397)
Menus: Show an appropriate message when no menus exist (#45155)
Networks and Sites: Improve site creation in multisite (#40364)
Networks and Sites: Introduce ms-site.php and ms-network.php files (#40647)
Networks and Sites: Implement wp_initialize_site() and wp_uninitialize_site() (#41333)
Plugins: Disable “Install Plugin” button for PHP required version mismatch (#43986)
Privacy: Show the comment / awaiting moderation message even without opt-in (#43857)
Query: post__in orderby not working when passed in an array to orderby (#38034)
REST API: Allow to filter the query in the search controller (#45454)
Users: New filter to short circuit WP_User_Query results (#44169)
Widgets: Make the Widgets screen “Enable accessibility mode” link more discoverable (#42778)
Widgets: Fix Gallery Widget preview after an image is deleted (#43139)
Widgets: Fix custom HTMLHTMLHyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. widget editor content not updating after save (#43657)
Please, test your code. Fixing issues helps you and helps millions of WordPress sites.
WordPress 5.0 is officially the best WordPress 2018 has seen! Users will be empowered with new and exciting tools to create to create truly unique sites while developers can to take advantage of 10 enhancements and features added. Let’s look at the many improvements coming in 5.0…
Heard of 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/?
Not much has changed since 4.9.8, except this thing we lovingly call Gutenberg. The Gutes. Guten-all-the-things. The BlockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Editor. Want to build Gutenblocks? We’ve got details on filters in the new block editor. We’ve got compatibility flags you can set when adding a 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. box to load the block editor or to fall back to the classic editor. There is also designer and developer documentation in the handbook.
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/. 🌐 and 🗣️
We’re bringing the internationalization capabilities that have existed in PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher for years to the world of JavaScript. You can also translate strings in JavaScript files and distribute them via https://translate.wordpress.org. The long-wished-for JavaScript actions and filters are now also available in core.
With all the excitement of the new block editor there is some exciting news on the default themes front. First, WordPress 5.0 welcomes the newest default theme to the family, Twenty Nineteen.
But, preexisting default themes have not been left behind! All preexisting default themes have been updated to be fully compatible with the new editor.
Media WYSIWYGWhat You See Is What You GetWhat You See Is What You Get. Most commonly used in relation to editors, where changes made in edit mode reflect exactly as they will translate to the published page.
5.0 brings a new way to interact with media within the editor, getting us to the world of a truly “what you see is what you getWhat You See Is What You GetWhat You See Is What You Get. Most commonly used in relation to editors, where changes made in edit mode reflect exactly as they will translate to the published page.” experience. Some things have moved around, some new methods have been added, and new features abound; read below for details.
Five additional labels have been made available for custom post types, but you’ll have to click through below to learn more. I dare you, click through. Do it.
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 5.0 release brings a handful of great new REST API endpoints with it to power the new block editor. In addition to the new endpoints, there are a handful of other REST API changes to be aware of.
Over 26 bugs, 8 enhancements, 2 feature requests, and 6 blessed tasks have been marked as fixed in WordPress 5.0. Some additional ones to highlight include:
Add CSSCSSCascading Style Sheets.URLURLA specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org sanitization to kses (#45067): Authors & Contributors can now use CSS in the post_content with a URL value, such as background-image. Used to get stripped out.
Please, test your code. Fixing issues helps you and helps millions of WordPress sites.
Included in WordPress 4.9.6 are several new functions and tools that you should be aware of. Here is a brief breakdown of resources to help you become acquainted with WordPress 4.9.6.
Attention: Theme Authors
4.9.6 adds several new privacy related features, one of which may require a small styling adjustment. These are detailed in the following 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
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..
WordPress 4.9.6 introduces some new tools related to data privacy. This includes a tool for users to request an export of all the stored data associated with them on the site. It also includes a tool for users to request erasure of that same data. Both tools include adminadmin(and super admin) workflows to fulfill those requests.
To 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 and theme authors integrate with these new tools, several new pages in the Handbook have been created.
New PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher Polyfills
To help WordPress CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., plugins, and themes with forward compatibility, a polyfill for each of these functions has been added in 4.9.6. When a site is not running a version of PHP that includes these functions, WordPress will automatically load these polyfills.
TinyMCE has been updated from version 4.6.7 to version 4.7.11. This update provides a large number of 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. For more information, see #43862.
A full list of bugs and enhancements in 4.9.6 can be found on TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress..
