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.
Summary of the WordPress Developer Blogblog(versus network, site) meeting, which took place in the #core-dev-blog channel on the Make WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. Start of the meeting in Slack.
Congrats to @ajlendelende and @aljullu to receiving their Documentation Contributor badges for their contributions to the Developer Blog.
Call for contributors to take on What’s new for Developers roundup post for November? @greenshady@ndiego or I (@bph) will be right with you to guide you through the research as well as the writing part. If you want to take it on, come to the #core-dev-blog channel or DM either one of us.
Newly published posts since last meeting
Since the last meeting, we published the following articles
The project board for Developer Blog content is on 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/.
If you are interested in taking on a topic from this list or know someone who would be a good person to write about them, comment on the Issue or pingPingThe act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.”@bph in Slack either in the #core-dev-blog channel or in a DM.
The topic idea Modifying text with the HTML API in WordPress 6.7 needs to simmer some more to see if there will be more elaborate examples coming in the next major WordPress version. Justin will bring it back to the October meeting should the topic deemed mature enough for a blog post.
Open floor
@greenshady inquired about the possibility of translating the content of the Developer blog into other languages. Currently, there isn’t a formal proposal for a process and tools. It’s worth exploring, though. It was stated that it’s complicated for Rosetta sites, and it might not be easy to translate. It would be better if the translationtranslationThe process (or result) of changing text, words, and display formatting to support another language. Also see localization, internationalization. can be put right into the adminadmin(and super admin). If there is someone who translated an article, we could publish it on the Dev Blog under “other languages” and once we have a critical mass, we can create categories for Spanish, German etc. The bigger issue than the technological implementation is the recruiting and onboarding of translators to be contributors.
@bph is to reach out to the training team, to learn about their process, as they are a few steps ahead in working with translators.
@greenshady will open an issue, where we can follow up on discussion and progress.
Next meeting: October 3rd, 2024, at 13:00 UTC in the #core-dev-blog channel
In [58899]a .mailmap file was added to WordPress which instruct git and git-aware tooling to alias specific emails and names to a new identity. With this change it’s possible to combine multiple git identities into a single one as well as fix any identities which may be broken in history.
For example, there was a time commits were brought over from Subversion and the emails associated in the git commit followed the form <username@602fd350-edb4-49c9-b593-d223f7449a82>. For each of these users, there might be other commits referencing <username@git.wordpress.org>. Tools counting commits, history logs, annotations (blames), and others will make it seem as though the commits came from different people.
Further, committers change their names from time to time. Since git history is immutable there’s no easy way to update old names without rewriting the entire project. The .mailmap file provides the necessary mechanism to do this without interrupting that history.
Finally, committercommitterA developer with commit access. WordPress has five lead developers and four permanent core developers with commit access. Additionally, the project usually has a few guest or component committers - a developer receiving commit access, generally for a single release cycle (sometimes renewed) and/or for a specific component. names may be corrupted if they contain non-US-ASCII characters. This corruption can be resolved by adding an entry in the .mailmap file correcting the name. This was the motivating case for introducing this file.
Most git tools provide a way to see the underlying raw data, so to see the actual recorded names it’s usually possible to pass --no-use-mailmap.
Would you like to review your own contributions?
If you run git shortlog -ens from the wordpress-develop repo then it will show a listing of commits per committer. If you see any problem with your name, duplicate name/email pairs, or would prefer to update your name, you can add new entries in the .mailmap to make the appropriate adjustments.
# Review variations of my name before adding the .mailmap entry
git shortlog -ens | grep -iE 'dmsnell|dennis'
98 Dennis Snell <dmsnell@git.wordpress.org>
1 dmsnell <dmsnell@602fd350-edb4-49c9-b593-d223f7449a82>
echo "Dennis Snell <dmsnell@git.wordpres.org> dmsnell <dmsnell@602fd350-edb4-49c9-b593-d223f7449a82>" >> .mailmap
git shortlog -ens | grep -iE 'dmsnell|dennis'
99 Dennis Snell <dmsnell@git.wordpress.org>
Summary of the WordPress Developer Blogblog(versus network, site) meeting, which took place in the #core-dev-blog channel on the Make WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. Start of the meeting in Slack.
The project board for Developer Blog content is on 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/.
If you are interested in taking on a topic from this list or know someone who would be a good person to write about them, comment on the Issue or pingPingThe act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.”@bph in Slack either in the #core-dev-blog channel or in a DM.
The latter is part of the roll-out of video content type for the Developer Blog, proposed and approved during a meeting on July 4th, 2024: “The next step is that Ryan will submit an overview of all directives of 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. and provide an example of the first video. It will also be the test drive of the suggested process from which we can iterate afterward.“
Next meeting: September 5, 2024, at 13:00 UTC in the #core-dev-blog channel
Summary of the WordPress Developer Blogblog(versus network, site) meeting, which took place in the #core-dev-blog channel on the Make WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. Start of the meeting in Slack.
We now have a 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/ team set up for Developer Blog Contributors. Every writer and reviewer will be part of it. That way, contributors can label issues, move them forward on the Project board and check off items from a Checklist, like the publishing checklist. We roll this out gradually, one contributor at a time.
The design team is also working on creating Figma templates for featured images for the blog, which will help standardize and simplify the process of creating featured images.
Newly published post since the last meeting:
Since the last meeting, we published four articles.
Since the last meeting, we published the following articles
If you are interested in taking on a topic from this list or know someone who would be a good person to write about them, comment on the Issue or pingPingThe act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.”@bph in slack either in the #core-dev-blog channel or in a DM.
The proposal to introduce video content was also discussed in more depth.
The production process is slightly different from the blog post process, as outlined in the proposal. That is also to make sure that an author doesn’t go through the production of a video and then have it not approved. The danger can be minimized by a multistep approval process of scrip and storyboard before production begins. A new creator could be asked to record a short section for review before going into full production, with opportunity to provide further feedback.
We won’t be able to provide video editing services, but other teams have some great guidelines and tips for creating videos, we can share with future video bloggers.
The proposal also outlines the need for branded assets for thumbnails, lower thirds and outro. We certainly collaborate with the design team, once there is bandwidth available.
The next step is that Ryan will submit an overview of all directives of 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. and provide an example of the first video. It will also be the test drive of the suggested process from which we can iterate afterward.
To summarize: Video content is approved in principle, the details need to be ironed out. Thank you to Ryan for the great work on the proposal and volunteering to be the first video blogger.
Next meeting: August 1, 2024, at 13:00 UTC in the #core-dev-blog channel
Summary of the WordPress Developer Blogblog(versus network, site) meeting, which took place in the #core-dev-blog channel on the Make WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. Start of the meeting in Slack.
The site has passed the first 1,000 subscribers Don’t want to miss the next blog post? Subscribe. And please share the links with your networknetwork(versus site, blog) as well. @webcommsat volunteered to submit an amplification request to the WordPress marketing team to celebrate the milestone with the community.
Newly published post since the last meeting:
Since the last meeting, we published four articles.
The project board for Developer Blog content is on 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/.
If you are interested in taking on a topic from this list or know someone who would be a good person to write about them, comment on the Issue or pingPingThe act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.”@bph in slack either in the #core-dev-blog channel or in a DM.
The WordPress Developer Survey – A regular survey could give “the whole project a lot of useful data” There were concerns about logistical challenges and needs further discussion with coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., the marketing team in its new media focus, and with Learn WP. The next step as identified as “to define the purpose of the survey, and what questions would be included/not included.” The discussion continues on GitHub
Open Floor
@webcommsat Inquired about topics schedule around the WordPress 6.6 release. There are a few posts already on the list or were just approved. As almost all topics are assigned to writers. Contributor’s bandwidth will determine the publishing timeline.
@colorful-tones has slightly changed the topic of his post he has been working on. It was originally thought to be an 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. tutorial, but as you can read in the issue he went a different route. It was concluded that “it’s still a valuable post for the Dev Blog”, “the new focus is still really useful” and “the underlying method doesn’t need to be the same as the originally proposed method”
Next meeting: July 4, 2024, at 13:00 UTC in the #core-dev-blog channel
Summary of the WordPress Developer Blogblog(versus network, site) meeting, which took place in the #core-dev-blog channel on the Make WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. Start of the meeting in Slack.
A first look at the Interactivity API by Magdalena Paciorek, reviewed by Birgit Pauli-Haack, Luis Herranz, Carlos Bravo, Jon Surrell, Ryan Welcher, and Justin Tadlock
The project board for Developer Blog content is on 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/.
If you are interested in taking on a topic from this list or know someone who would be a good person to write about them, comment on the Issue or pingPingThe act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.”@bph in slack either in the #core-dev-blog channel or in a DM.
Topics closed
Learnings from two Site Migrations After consulting Jasmine, it was clear that her idea wasn’t suitable for the developer blog. I offered to assist her to publish some place else.
There were no clear approval signals, and it seems the topics still need to narrow down the proposal to clear problem statements and suggested solutions. The discussions continue.
Open Floor
Next meeting: Jun 6, 2024, at 13:00 UTC in the #core-dev-blog channel
Summary of the WordPress Developer Blogblog(versus network, site) meeting, which took place in the #core-dev-blog channel on the Make WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. Start of the meeting in Slack.
Authors reported a few hiccups with the code 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.. As soon as you wanted to attach a programming language for color coding, extraneous <br> tags appeared and rendered the code block useless. @ndiego, @greenshady and the #meta team are working on it to get this fixed asap.
Newly published post since the last meeting:
Since the last meeting, we published quite a list of articles, and we onboarded new writers and received support from more reviewers. Three first time writers with @meszarosrob, @jsnajdr and @beafialho Thank you! 🎉
If you are interested in taking on a topic from this list or know someone who would be a good person to writer about them, comment on the Issue or pingPingThe act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.”@bph in slack either in the #core-dev-blog channel or in a DM.
There were no clear approval signals and seems the topic still needs clarification and will be revisited for next meeting.
Open Floor
Some clarification on the Playground articles/topics:
We originally had the topic approved:How to build a theme demo with WP Playground blueprints Ronny took it on and wrote a fabulous Introduction/Overview of WordPress Playground. There was some discussion on how to proceed next. The consensus was that the Introduction post was a great post to have on the Developer Blog as each subsequent Playground tutorial could refer to it and doesn’t have to cover the basics anymore. Quite a few people from the Editorial group chimed in on the discussion and agreed to have it published. (note: the post is live now)
Creating a 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/ team for contributors to provide early feedback on features through calls for testing.
During the discussion the problem came up how to connect developer working on WordPress features with extenders or agency developers. One suggested way is to create a new subteam in the WordPress GitHub organization called “Outreach”. This team is public and allows anyone on GitHub to use the @wordpress/outreach handle to pingPingThe act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” the people in the listed there and ask them for feedback or testing. Similar groups are already available for “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. Themers” “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)”. If you are interested in being part of the group, notice that in the comment and share your GitHub account.
This handle should be used to raise any issues or pull requests where someone is looking for feedback / testing. So if you are working on a feature and are hoping to get so me additional insights from a diverse set of users from different backgrounds, please don’t hesitate to ping this group.
Working with the testing team to organize smaller, more manageable calls for testing.
The two test team reps, @webtechpooja and @ankit-k-gupta will add a discussion to their next meeting of the test team on Feb 27, at 11 UTC. If you are a contributor interested in putting user call for testings together, you might want to join in the meeting.
Encouraging engineers to use the Outreach channel for feedback on new features earlier in development.
Contributors felt that sometimes soliciting input before a feature is fully merged and pushed to a major releasemajor releaseA release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope., it could use additional feedback from extenders and agencies. As example: Pattern overrides that don’t have a theme component and don’t alleviate the pain point that there is no way for theme developers to bundle synch patterns with overrides with their themes.
The information around new features or enhancements is not always easy accessible. There is a need to have an ongoing exchange between the engineering teams, test team and outreach contributors to determine the right timing for calls for testing.
Creating a wishlist for each upcoming release to gather input on user priorities.
This is referring to a post made before WordPress 6.4 WordPress 6.4: What’s on your wishlist? More research is required. It also overlaps with the Extensibility Issues Triage initiative that meets once a month to look at issues that concern extensibility and could be pushed forward. Next meeting March 14, 2024, at 12:00 UTC in #core-editor channel
The goal is to make the outreach program more accessible and sustainable, improve collaboration across teams, and help guide WordPress development through early and ongoing user and contributor input.
Reminder: Performance team roadmap for 2023 https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues/631 If you’re actively contributing to the WordPress Performance Team or plan to do so this year, please share your priorities for 2023 as a comment on this issue before end of day Wednesday February 15, 2023
Team rep nomination reminder, please add your nominations for Performance Team RepTeam RepA Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. by Friday, February 24 2023
@joegrainger making good progress on 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 Checker. We’re starting to finalise the infrastructure and should have a working plugin running some initial checks by end of the month. You can track progress on the GitHub repo and leave any thoughts/ideas you may have. The repo will be moved to the WordPress organisation when ready
Issues that completed and merged in feature/automated-performance-testing-mvpbranchbranchA directory in Subversion. WordPress uses branches to store the latest development code for each major release (3.9, 4.0, etc.). Branches are then updated with code for any minor releases of that branch. Sometimes, a major version of WordPress and its minor versions are collectively referred to as a "branch", such as "the 4.0 branch"..
We will open a PR against the WordPress 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. once the initial version is complete. Feel free to take a look at the issues and leave any thoughts or ideas you may have.
@joemcgill Additionally, I’ve been starting to work on an experimental implementation of XHProf with wp-env to help make it easier for folks to do general performance profiling tasks. See: https://github.com/joemcgill/gutenberg/pull/1 as a starting point.
@10upsimon updates on Enhancing the Scripts 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. with a loading strategy
Documentation approved, although there was a comment added post approval that I have addressed. It does not change the work, but it does result in the need to confirm that the blocking strategy is not to be confused with the blockingscript attribute itself.
GitHub issues have been finalized and broken down into 4x milestones in a separate sheet, estimates are present for all issues in the sheet, although not all issues are in GH yet.
GH Issues and AC’s have been added to the project board for Milestones 1, 2 and 3 and have been assigned to @joemcgill for review. It looks like all except for one have been approved (at the time of writing) as they’ve been moved to the backlog
I’m in the process of breaking down issues for Milestone 4
TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress.ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. to be posted by Friday, I see no risks thereto.
Engineering will commence next week on Milestones 1, 2 and 3
JSJSJavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors. & CSSCSSCascading Style Sheets.
@olliejones I’ve been hammering on the low end persistent object cache, looks good.
@aristath These past couple of weeks I continued working on the SQLite database implementation. There’s a lot of work to do, but things are looking good. Started collaborating with @zieladam as well in an effort to improve some things and make the implementation more stable.
@flixos90 Reminder that the PL 2.0.0 release is going to be on February 20 (as usual, the 3rd Monday of the month)
@flixos90 There are still 2 PRs in the milestone that haven’t seen any updates in a while: https://github.com/WordPress/performance/pulls?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Apr+milestone%3A2.0.0 Friendly pingPingThe act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.”@aristath and @adamsilverstein to please follow up if we want to get them into the 2.0.0 release
@flixos90 update on Unbundling the Performance Lab plugin
Separately, there are already a few engineering efforts which we can start, regardless of the exact outcome in the above discussions. I opened a number of issues and started to add proposed requirements:
Please take a look, it would be great to get more feedback on the engineering approach for unbundling
We can keep discussing the approach on the issues, but preferably we should begin working on code for at least the first issue next week, to not have this stagnate
@flixos90 Just sharing here that I discovered (probably?) a major performance 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. in 6.2 for classic themes: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/57648
I’m going to follow up on that ticket shortly to collaborate with @oandregal as he is seeing slightly different results. Of course there is a chance that something specifically in my analysis went wrong, but we will have to validate that data
Performance team roadmap for 2023 https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues/631 If you’re actively contributing to the WordPress Performance Team or plan to do so this year, please share your priorities for 2023 as a comment on this issue!
@flixos90 Anyone that is more or less regularly contributing to the team is asked to think about and share their priorities for this year, if possible
@spacedmonkey There is also SQLite database and object cache that are in play
@flixos90 I think SQLite is clearly a focus. What is on the issue right now is not at all a complete roadmap. The idea is that anyone can post comments with what they would like to prioritize
@olliejones It’s my impression that almost nothing, except @flixos90 contributions, are on the priority list yet. So, it’s up to the rest of us.
@flixos90 Exactly, I just posted 2 things that we already have proposal posts for, as a starting point. So yes, it’s explicitly a call for anyone involved in the team to contribute to this roadmap
@spacedmonkey One thing I have not discussed publicly, but want to look into lazy loading meta data in core. We have a problem that more and more WP_Queries are being run per page and lots of post meta is being loaded when not needed https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/57496
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/ team recently added TTFB measurement to their repo, which is being collected in the code health dashboard here: https://codehealth.vercel.app/project/1. It’s making visible the performance 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. in 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. theme rendering when compared with classic themes for a simple “hello world” page. As a team, we would like to make sure we’re properly prioritizing the tickets we have for 6.2 that would positively impact this metric—particularly anything that we need to land before the betaBetaA pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 1 milestone next week.
@joemcgill I think much of the work for 6.2 that was focused on improving server response times for block themes has already been merged, but I’m mindful of the beta milestone coming next week and want to help prioritize helping land anything that I can that is still in the air.
@spacedmonkey me and @flixos90 have worked a lot on block theme performance. Any questions on what I am working on, please feel free to pingPingThe act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” me
@joemcgill Main thing is whether there are any enhancements that still need to land that you’re waiting on review for?
@clarkeemily we also have the Bug Scrub tomorrow at 16:00 UTC time where we can talk through other 6.2 performance items
@mukesh27 Is anyone on the Gutenberg team checking those regressions, or do we have to?
@joemcgill Good question. I think they are, but there’s no reason we shouldn’t take a look every so often. Really, it would be nice to do something similar for CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.
@mukesh27 Are those changes incorporated into the core of WordPress?
@johnbillion I’d love to do something similar for core, the main problem is how to avoid variance so the reporting over time is accurate
@flixos90 We have talked about it before in that recent hallway hangout earlier in January. In fact @adamsilversteinis working on a Make post that should go out this week
@spacedmonkey I would also have some way of query count per page load.
@joemcgill I think long term variance is a concern, but maybe not a blockerblockerA bug which is so severe that it blocks a release. as long as the short term trends are instructive/useful.
Plan to have quick-fire focus area updates (15m) so we can focus the remainder of todays chat on Next steps for Unbundling the Performance Lab 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 (proposal)
@joegrainger Still making good progress on the Plugin Checker, starting to approach the remaining issues on the infrastructure so will soon be in a position to run some of the initial checks and do some testing. Feel free to track progress on the GitHub repo and leave any thoughts/ideas on issues. The repo will be eventually moved to the WordPress organisation when ready.
JSJSJavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors. & CSSCSSCascading Style Sheets.
TL:DR; the team are in agreement to proceed with working towards splitting out standalone plugins and keeping the Performance Lab plugin as it is for now
Detailed conversation below:
@flixos90 We are still waiting to get feedback from Matt on the 3 alternative options that we have outlined and discussed earlier in January. However, I think it would be unwise to just wait and do nothing until we hear back, for which we don’t have a timeline. Therefore my proposal is to work towards simply splitting out standalone plugins and keeping the Performance Lab plugin as is for now
A bit more context on the reasoning behind that proposal: The “for now” here is important, as that would likely be a temporary solution. Doing so is effectively our option 1 that we voted for in https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues/618#issuecomment-1377598692, but the main reason I’m proposing to already work towards it here is that that option is the least disruptive and the least effort, and even if we eventually go with option 2 or 3, we would need to implement the same changes as part of that
It is also the most natural transition, for example @aristath‘s SQLite standalone plugin has already been broken out as a standalone plugin
The idea is that with the above we would work in the right direction no matter what the eventual final outcome should be. And in any case we would not be wasting time doing work that would potentially not be needed
@joemcgill So, if I’m understanding properly, you’re proposing that the performance lab plugin would still include the modules that have been split out. Correct?
@joemcgill What other plugins need to be split out that aren’t already?
@flixos90 I think that we need to discuss. But first I wanted to get feedback on the general idea I shared above. Is that a reasonable next step, as a temporary measure to work in the right direction?
@johnbillion Does that duplicate any work or is there a handy build/deployment step for publishing the separate plugins?
@flixos90 We would have a build step that simply replaces module headers with plugin headers and deploys those as individual plugins. All modules already work standalone, so there’s no extra work involved in that regard. The main work would be to implement the build and deployDeployLaunching code from a local development environment to the production web server, so that it's available to visitors. step.
@joemcgill At least the SQLite integration plugin is already moved to a separate repo, so it’s a bit clunky to have some of these modules in a mono-repo and some not. It would be nice to align on a development approach.
@flixos90 Absolutely; if we go with this approach, we would likely move the SQLite repo back into the PL repo (just for development, the plugin repos on .org would of course remain separate)
@johnbillion +1 on a monorepo otherwise we introduce more 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. problems maintaining separate repos
No other thoughts on the above from todays meeting, @flixos90 based on the feedback above I think it’s reasonable to proceed with this option for now, to work in the right direction. What we should discuss then though is our approach on how to break out modules as standalone plugins (which we already started talking about a few weeks back)
@joemcgill My initial question is whether all modules should be standalone plugins, or if some of them are better suited to stay as part of central infrastructure or smaller experiments as “core modules” of the performance plugin?
@flixos90 Exactly, I would outline these alternative ways to go about it:
Every module becomes a plugin?
Some modules are grouped together into “focus” plugins?
Only some modules get broken out as a plugin?
@olliejones Specifically, does it make sense to have a standalone “Enhanced Site Health” plugin containing the various site health modules?
@flixos90 Potentially. Though my personal take is that we should avoid grouping modules as then we are still going the slippery slope of not having individual plugins for individual features. FWIW, we used to have plugins like https://github.com/audrasjb/site-health-audit-enqueued-assets, and I think that’s the most appropriate approach, even if those plugins are extremely niche
@joemcgill Personally, I would keep things like audits, health checks, and small feature experiments like fetchpriority in the main plugin, and break out larger feature plugins.
@flixos90 If we do this, we won’t fully address the request of having individual plugins for individual features. What if someone just wants to test fetchpriority? Yes, it’s much simpler than e.g. WebP, but I’m not sure that justifies going a different route for the two
@joemcgill That may have been a bad example, and also the part that I’m least confident about, but seems it would be nice for us to have a place to experiment with smaller changes that we are thinking of proposing as enhancementenhancementEnhancements are simple improvements to WordPress, such as the addition of a hook, a new feature, or an improvement to an existing feature. in core and not have to spin each one out to a separate plugin until/unless it matures to the point where it’s warranted.
@flixos90 Ah okay, that idea sounds interesting. Certain things could start out as a module in the PL plugin and only become plugins as they mature?
@olliejones So, PL contains stuff that’s bound to be included in core, AND stuff that’s bound for standalone plugins? Is that right? Or is the criterion for putting a module into PL still that it is bound for core?
@joemcgill Right, or if they’re a large enough feature that it makes sense being its own thing. I would say the SQLite persistent cache fits that qualification for me
@flixos90 All of that would be things to be included in core. Whether it’s a module in the PL plugin or a standalone plugin is just different ways to “test-drive”. So if we did that, we would still have a mapping that a module can be mapped directly to a standalone plugin, but we would decide for each module whether/when to do that on a case by case basis?
@olliejones Is that too limiting? Is Matt thinking along the lines of Drupal’s Core Modules? Is that the direction his “canonical plugins” want to go? Should this team stay away from doing stuff UNLESS it’s bound for core? That’s what I mean. There’s plenty of perf work that only applies to some installs, not all. Like the persistent object caches. Maybe like webp.
@flixos90 we can totally work on things that are not for core; for example the plugin checker project we’re working on. It’s just that the scope of the Performance Lab plugin has been for features targeted for WordPress core. Of course it can always happen that a feature is never deemed eligible or ready. But features in the PL plugin should have the intent to land in core eventually
Conclusions: @flixos90 I think we are converging on the approach of “decide on a case by case basis for each module whether/when it becomes a standalone plugin”, but it’s been only a short conversation with few voices heard, so maybe we can defer a hard decision until next week; I’ll summarize in https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues/618 and we can keep discussing there
(published already ) 
