Dev Chat Summary, October 18, 2023

The WordPress Developers Chat meeting took place on October 18, 2023 at 20:00 UTC in the core channel of Make WordPress Slack.

Key Links

Announcements

Highlighted Posts

  • WordPress 6.4 Release Candidate Phase: Learn or refresh your knowledge of what happens during RCrelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta).. Questions? Please post them in the comments.
  • 6.4 Dev Notes: It’s been a busy time in the Make/CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. blogblog (versus network, site)! Stay updated on the latest technical updates by checking out posts conveniently tagged with #dev-notes-6-4. Major props to dev notedev note Each important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase. authors and wranglers who have worked tirelessly to make this happen! 🎉
  • WordPress core is now using Playwright for all browser-based tests: e2e fans rejoice! This milestone promises improved test stability and better options for authoring tests. If you’ve been holding back while the migrationMigration Moving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies. from Puppeteer to Playwright has been underway, now is a great time to jump back in to improve Core e2e coverage.
  • What’s new in Gutenberg 16.8 (11 October): Check out updates to the Cover blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience., Font Library, and more in this roundup of the latest release.

Release Updates

WordPress 6.4

RC 2 is scheduled for next Tuesday, October 24, 2023.

Stay in the loopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. with 6.4 by following:

Additional release updates from the floor included:

  • A question was raised in #6-4-release-leads about removing some GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/-only packages from the next npm package update to Core.
  • Some 6.4 dev notesdev note Each important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase. drafts are still needed for a couple of areas, so a gentle reminder was raised to keep the official 6.4 Documentation Tracker updated with latest progress. Reach out on the Tracker for help or to the Documentation release group in the #6-4-release-leads channel.

WordPress 6.3.2

  • WordPress 6.3.2 – Maintenance and Security release: This follow-up to 6.3.1 introduces several bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. fixes and security updates. Make sure to update!
  • Keep tabs on the #6-3-release-leads channel for future updates.

Open Floor

Automated Welcome/Signposting for #core

@webcommsat asked if Core would consider utilizing an automated messaging/workflow tool similar to that used by Training. When users joined the channel, they would receive a private message from Slackbot that includes channel-specific info and links, such as the Dev Chat schedule, or orientation for new contributors and contributor days. Abha agreed to draft a proposal to seek broader input from Core and new contributors.

Use of noopener noreferrer in New Window/Tab Links

@presskopp had a question regarding use of rel="noopener noreferrer" in links with target="_blank", which were supposed to have been removed. To help resolve instances where this unneeded behavior remains (in Core and Gutenberg), contribute to TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. #53843: Remove adding of rel=”noopener” to links with target=”_blank”.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on October 25, 2023 at 20:00 UTC.

Are you interested in helping draft Dev Chat summaries? Volunteer at the start of the next meeting on the #core Slack channel.

Props @webcommsat for peer review of this post.

#6-3, #6-4, #dev-chat, #meeting, #summary

Dev Chat summary, October 11, 2023

Summary of the WordPress developers chat meeting in the CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel.

Key links

Start of the Dev Chat meeting on the Core Slack

Dev Chat agenda followed – thanks to @webcommsat for preparing.

Announcements

  • WordPress 6.4 Beta 3 is available: Please help test and make the release the best it can be! Thanks to everyone who contributed toward BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 3, as well as those who came and facilitated the release party on October 10. Note the Twenty Twenty Four images issue has been resolved, and the images are rendering correctly in Beta 3.
  • The WordPress 6.3.2 minor releaseMinor Release A set of releases or versions having the same minor version number may be collectively referred to as .x , for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.3, and all other versions in the 5.2 (five dot two) branch of that software. Minor Releases often make improvements to existing features and functionality. has moved to tomorrow, October 12, 2023 (more information under release updates to follow).

Highlighted Posts

  • Four Weeks in Core: Many thanks to @audrasjb for this update covering the amazing activity in TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. between September 4 and October 9, 2023:
    • 269 commits
    • 337 contributors
    • 295 tickets created
    • 43 tickets reopened
    • 277 tickets closed
  • Reminder: Hallway Hangout: Working session on consolidating various navigation modes: Taking place on November 15, 2023 at 16:00 UTC. This is part of efforts to improve accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) in the Site Editor.
  • The Dev Blog is looking for a writer for the following topic: How to add commands to the command palette. Please respond on the GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. if you are interested.

Release Updates

Next major releasemajor release A 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.: 6.4

Release Candidaterelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). 1 is scheduled for next Tuesday, October 17, 2023. 

This hallway hangout is happening tomorrow, October 12, 2023: What’s new for developers in WordPress 6.4

Stay in the loopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. with 6.4 by following:

6.4 tickets that need attention

@rajinsharwar highlighted #52529 and requested testing of the patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing. to see if they can replicate the errors mentioned.

Dev Notesdev note Each important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase.

@webcommsat for the release documentation group: A reminder that the Field GuideField guide The 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. is due to be published next week. This is so the link can be included in the release’s About Page. It would be great to have as many dev notes ready in draft as soon as possible, so they can have a final review and be published.

6.4 dev notes tracking project board for reviews and publishing is in progress.

GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ – Some Gutenberg tickets have already been labelled and clustered. There is a significant list that is being clustered and labelled, and these will then get added to the documentation tracker for 6.4. The tracker will show the edit, review and publish status of the dev notes – the view that will be most useful for this is ‘dev notes’. For Gutenberg, the wrangling and discussion on clustering and inclusions will happen in the Gutenberg tracker. Thanks to @bph who is going to be helping with this.

Core – If you are a component maintainer, and have not already shared that you are working on a dev notedev note Each important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase. relating to a Core Trac ticket or cluster of tickets, please add a comment on this issue and link any google docs, and we will populate the tracker with this.

For End user and Core tickets, the labelling is continuing. As we are being advised of dev notes needed or in progress by maintainers, they are being added to the documentation tracker.

For performance dev notes, issues are being added to the documentation tracker once confirmed for reviews and publishing purposes. Wrangling and discussion of inclusion of tickets is happening on the Performance GitHub ticket.

Reviews – If any devs are able to assist with technical reviews of dev notes if needed, let @webcommsat know to update the list.

Next minor release: 6.3.2

  • *A note on the 6.3.2 release schedule change:* In order to accommodate the need for hosts to deal with an important curl 8.4.0 security release on Wednesday, the 6.3.2 final release has been moved to Thursday, October 12, 2023.
  • Thanks to everyone who led, supported, helped test, raised issues, and helped to fix tickets in these releases! 

Gutenberg

Gutenberg 16.8.0 shipped during dev chat. An update on this release will be published soon and will be findable on the tagtag A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses tags to store a single snapshot of a version (3.6, 3.6.1, etc.), the common convention of tags in version control systems. (Not to be confused with post tags.) #gutenberg-new on the Make/ Core blogblog (versus network, site).

Component Maintainers requests

@rajinsharwar highlighted Trac ticket #55335. Requested confirmation if it should be considered a bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority..

Open floor

No additional items were raised. A reminder of the Field Guide and dev notes was shared.

Props to @webcommsat for the agenda and summary, and to @ironprogrammer for facilitating the meeting and reviewing the summary.

#6-3, #6-4, #dev-chat, #meeting, #summary

Dev Chat Summary, September 20, 2023

The notes from the weekly WordPress developers chat which took place on September 20, 2023 at 20:00 UTC in the core channel of Make WordPress Slack.

Key Links

Announcements

No announcements were made this week.

Highlighted Posts

Hallway Hangout: Performance Improvements for WordPress 6.4: Make plans to talk Performance at this hangouts session planned for October 19, 2023 at 15:00 UTC.

Analyzing the Core Web Vitals performance impact of WordPress 6.3 in the field: Read this thorough breakdown from @felixarntz of how 6.3 performance improvements have been reflected on production sites using WordPress at scale. Feedback in invited on the post.

Community Summit Discussion Notes: Increasing contributor recognition and celebration: Join the discussion on how contributor impact can be better identified and highlighted. The discussion at the summit considered the system of props, credit outside of a release, badges, encouragement of contribution.

Evolving the FSE Outreach Program: A reminder to provide feedback on the next phase for the #fse-outreach-experiment: Deadline for feedback: Friday, September 22, 2023

Additional Highlighted Post on Interoperability under Open Floor.

Release Updates

Next major WordPress release: 6.4

The last bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. scrub before BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 1 will be on Monday, September 25, 2023 at 17:00 UTC.

More on 6.4 highlighted under Open Floor.

Beta 1 is scheduled for next Tuesday, September 26.

Stay in the loopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. with 6.4 by following:

GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/

Reminder: the revised release schedule for the next Gutenberg release is as follows:

  • Gutenberg 16.7 RC1: released September 20 (originally planned for September 13)
  • Gutenberg 16.7: September 27

Components & Tickets

Testing request following a recent bug scrub from @joedolson:

  • TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. #58912: Mobile: Adminadmin (and super admin) menu unexpectedly closes with Safari – after the patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing. is updated, this will be ready for testing
  • Trac ticket #58756: Media library improvements: UIUI User interface, Non-closing options, and Button select state issues in image editing – this is ready for testing
  • Trac ticket #40822: no longer requires further feedback and is ready for commit


From the tickets posted by @oglekler before dev chat, assistance is needed with the list of tickets left to tackle before Beta 1 (updated September 22, 2023):

  • Trac #55459: Change Login Label name
  • Trac #56886: Admin facing add site screen missing search engine visibility field
  • Trac #58703: wp-list-table: <label> is preceding <input> in the checkbox column – this ticket has a new patch, and further testing is requested
  • Trac #40762: Login: add canonical admin shorthand URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org for login.php

Open Floor

  • Call for WordPress developer proposals: Update from @adamsilverstein regarding Interop 2024 was added to the Highlighted Posts list by @webcommsat.
    Seeking proposals for Interop 2024. WordPress developers are asked to contribute their proposals for 2024 as on GitHub or as a comment on the proposals post. Interop aims to improve interoperability across the three major web browser engines (Chromium, WebKit and Gecko) in important areas as identified by web developers.
  • Call for assistance with 6.3.2: @joemcgill highlighted @mikeschroder‘s message about next steps for getting another bugfix out for 6.3, and if there were any contributors available to help lead the release.
    • @ironprogrammer raised that there may be many busy with beta 1 next week, and more hands may be raised after this
    • @jeffpaul thought the concern before WCUS was that something(s) milestoned for 6.3.2 might be worth getting out before 6.4 lands. He asked if people had interest and availability, could they share this in the #6-3-release-leads Slack channel as it would be very helpful.
  • ** A number of contributors highlighted the final stretch to 6.4 Beta 1, and the calls to help deal with as many bugs as possible, clear triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. queues, and review available content.
    @cbringmann reminded the meeting that contributions are for all and not restricted to just the release squad and cohort. She thanked everyone who is lending a hand to the 6.4 release.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on Wednesday September 27, 2023, at 20:00 UTC.

Are you interested in helping draft Dev Chat summaries? Volunteer at the start of the next meeting on the #core Slack channel.

Props to @ironprogrammer for hosting the meeting,
@webcommsat and @zunaid321 for the notes,
and to @marybaum and @oglekler for reviews and updates on tickets.

#6-3, #6-4, #dev-chat, #meeting, #summary

Analyzing the Core Web Vitals performance impact of WordPress 6.3 in the field

As highlighted in the WordPress 6.3 performance summary post, the 6.3 release included numerous performance enhancements. Based on the lab benchmarks cited in that post, the test sites used with WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. were loading 27% faster for blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. themes and 18% faster for classic themes based on the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) metric.

While lab benchmarks are great to estimate the projected performance impact of a release, the tests are not representative of the average WordPress site and real-world traffic. Therefore, it is crucial to further review and attempt to validate the impact in the field, i.e. on actual production sites using WordPress, at scale. Last week, three analyses were conducted to assess the performance impact of WordPress 6.3, using the public data sets from HTTP Archive and the Chrome User Experience Report.

Highlights of the WordPress 6.3 performance analysis findings

Before diving into the results, the term “passing rate” should be briefly explained here. It denotes the percentage of sites in a dataset for which a specific Web Vitals metric performs better than the threshold value that is considered “good”. For LCP, that encompasses all sites in the dataset that load faster than 2.5 seconds in total per the LCP metric. For example, if 600,000 out of 1,000,000 URLs have an LCP faster or equal to 2.5 seconds, the LCP passing rate is 60%.

The results from the analyses indicate that WordPress 6.3 is indeed a great success from a performance perspective, as indicated by the lab benchmarks. Some notable findings to highlight include:

  • Looking at all applicable sites in the dataset, the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) passing rate has improved by 5.6% for classic theme sites and by 2.7% for block theme sites for mobile viewports. In terms of the absolute LCP passing rate, for classic theme sites this means a bump from 31.3% to 33%, while for block theme sites it means a bump from 42.8% to 44%. For desktop viewports, the improvements are not as pronounced, yet they are still positive. See the source for overall LCP passing rate changes.
  • When segmenting between sites that use the emoji loader script and the sites that have disabled it, the impact of the improvements to the emoji loader script are clearly visible. The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) boost for classic theme sites using the emoji loader script is 3.4% to 7% higher than for those that don’t use it, and for block themes it’s 0.7% to 4.5% better as well. To outline the numbers behind that more clearly, classic theme sites using the emoji loader script see a relative LCP boost of 8.4% on phone and 2.4% on desktop, compared to only 1.4% and -0.8% for those that don’t use the emoji loader script. Similarly, for block theme sites using the emoji loader script the relative LCP boost amounts to 4.2% on phone and 0.8% on desktop, compared to only -0.3% and 0.1% for those that don’t use the emoji loader script. See the source for LCP passing rate differences between sites using vs not using the emoji loader script.
  • When looking at the impact of more accurate lazy-loading heuristics and support for fetchpriority="high", segmentation is especially important, since the enhancements themselves have a varying degree of accuracy. As a reminder, the LCP image of a URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org should not be lazy-loaded, but it should have fetchpriority="high". When looking at only the sites where that is the case and which were still lazy-loading the LCP image with WordPress 6.2, the LCP performance impact amounts to a massive 16% to 21% improvement for mobile viewports and 6% to 9% on desktop. Even in absolute LCP passing rate numbers, this is a jump of 4.3% for classic theme sites and 8% for block theme sites, which is nothing short of amazing. See the source for LCP passing rate changes for sites that no longer lazy-load LCP image and use fetchpriority correctly.
  • Of course this only applies to a subset of sites, however the accuracy of the lazy-loading heuristics has notably improved as well: In WordPress 6.3, only 9–10% of sites still lazy-load their LCP image for classic theme sites (down from 27–28% in 6.2) while for block theme sites it’s 5–8% (down from 17–29% in 6.2), so this multiplies the above LCP improvements horizontally. See the source for the accuracy comparison of how many sites (correctly) no longer lazy-load their LCP image.

Explaining the metrics

Tooling used

HTTP Archive is an open-source project that runs a pipeline across millions of URLs every month to monitor the state of the web, recording aspects like which technologies are used, how specific web features are being leveraged, how many HTMLHTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. tags or attributes of a specific kind are present on pages, and much more. The Core Performance Team has been heavily relying on this tool to measure success of specific features or enhancements in WordPress core releases. In fact, HTTP Archive even monitors a few specific metrics that are specific to WordPress.

The Chrome User Experience Report (short “CrUX”) exposes Core Web Vitals (CWV) performance data for millions of URLs, based on how real-world Chrome users experience visiting those URLs. While the tool can be used for individual sites to monitor their Web Vitals (e.g. via PageSpeed Insights), the data can also be aggregated at a larger lens. While CrUX does not contain much data other than the actual Web Vitals metrics, intersecting its dataset with that of HTTPHTTP HTTP is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web and this protocol defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands. Archive allows gathering valuable insights. For example, it becomes possible to group sites into specific segments (such as all sites that use WordPress) and measure their CWV passing rates.

Both HTTP Archive and CrUX expose data aggregated on a monthly basis.

Joining data from HTTP Archive with data from CrUX is the foundation for tools like the Core Web Vitals Technology Report, which displays CWV passing rates for numerous technologies over time. The dashboard also includes WordPress-specific passing rates, which can be helpful to look at for a quick overview of how WordPress sites are performing on the web at a glance. However, it should be noted that those numbers are quite broad, since the passing rates are based on all WordPress sites in the dataset, regardless of the version used or any other factors. Therefore, in order to assess the impact of a specific WordPress release such as 6.3, a more granular approach is needed.

Methodology

The WordPress 6.3 performance summary post highlighted two client-side performance enhancements as the main sources for the improved LCP performance, which are the optimizations of the emoji loader script (see #58472) and the lazy-loading fixes plus the newly added support for the fetchpriority attribute, which are closely related (see the WordPress 6.3 image performance enhancements post). To assess whether those enhancements resulted in the anticipated LCP improvement, two analyses were conducted specific to those efforts.

Additionally, a broader analysis was conducted to compare the LCP performance of WordPress 6.3 and WordPress 6.2 sites overall, as well as their Time to First Byte (TTFB) performance, which directly impacts LCP as well. While with broader analyses like this one it is impossible to directly connect it to specific enhancements or fixes that launched as part of that release, it is crucial to look at the performance impact as a whole as well to get an idea how successful the release is at scale, regardless of how a specific feature is being used.

The analyses were conducted by running various BigQuery queries against the intersection of HTTP Archive and CrUX datasets, specifically zooming in on only the sites that were using WordPress 6.2 in July 2023 and WordPress 6.3 in August 2023. To present the approach, queries, and results transparently, the research tool Colab was used.

The links below point to the three Colabs with the analyses. They are quite detailed, so for a quick summary you may want to continue reading this post first. Please feel free to dive into the individual Colabs and their details, which you can also use to validate the summary below. Potentially you will find other notable metrics to highlight, or additional conclusions to draw.

It should be noted that any field metrics need to be interpreted carefully as they always contain some degree of noise. Websites change over time in many ways, and it is impossible to eliminate external factors from the data. For example, a WordPress site may be slower with WordPress 6.3 than it was in 6.2 simply because it activated a new pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party in the meantime that impacts performance. Such scenarios cannot be reliably detected and are therefore part of the metrics as well. Fortunately, the number of WordPress sites in the dataset is quite large: Looking at only the WordPress sites in the dataset that match the aforementioned criteria, we are looking at more than 500,000 WordPress home page URLs. This means that such specific side effects of individual sites usually have only negligible impact when looking at the overall data. Still, this is something to keep in mind: While field data is the closest there is available to assess the actual performance impact of a change, field data cannot be used to confidently claim that something is true or false — it has to be interpreted.

Conclusion

The large positive LCP impact confirms that the 6.3 release is an important milestone for WordPress performance. The numbers are particularly impressive on the sites for which the lazy-loading behavior was fixed and where fetchpriority support was correctly added. This shows the potential vertical impact that a few specific changes like that can have. Of course the overall LCP improvements are not as high, but it confirms this is a large opportunity: By further improving the heuristics so that they apply correctly to more WordPress sites, the horizontal impact of the change can be increased so that in the future the large LCP benefits may scale to even more sites.

Another metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. observation worth noting is that the LCP passing rate improvements in WordPress 6.3 compared to 6.2 for the correct behavior above (16-21% higher LCP passing rate) is actually not too far off from the lab benchmarks measured for 6.3 a few months ago (18-27% faster LCP). This makes sense, given that for lab benchmarks the test site was a simulated scenario where lazy-loading and fetchpriority were behaving correctly. It is great to know that the lab benchmarks carry some weight even when compared to the field impact.

Last but not least, there are also two points to be highlighted which show that there is still room for improvement:

  • The accuracy with which fetchpriority="high" is applied to the LCP image is only around 50% across all scenarios. While this is okay for the newly added support of the attribute, it is clearly something to follow up on. Getting the heuristics for applying fetchpriority right is even more challenging than not lazy-loading the LCP image especially since the LCP image may differ between different viewports, but it’s safe to say there should be more that WordPress core can do in that area. At least, it is relieving to see that the negative LCP impact of adding fetchpriority="high" to the wrong image is fairly low, compared to the negative LCP impact of lazy-loading the LCP image. See the source for fetchpriority accuracy against the LCP image and the source for LCP passing rate changes for sites that no longer lazy-load LCP image but use fetchpriority incorrectly.
  • At a higher level, the Time to First Byte (TTFB) passing rate is not seeing much of an improvement and in parts is even regressing: For mobile viewports, the TTFB passing rate is improving between 1.6-1.7%, while for desktop viewports it is regressing by ~4.9% for classic theme sites and ~9% for block theme sites. It’s impossible to connect that to specific changes that landed in WordPress 6.3, and as mentioned before it could be affected by external factors, but it clarifies that server-side performance needs to continue to be a point of focus. See the source for overall TTFB passing rate changes.

Please feel free to take a closer look at the analyses and leave your feedback as comments on this post. Additional thoughts, observations and questions are much appreciated.

Props @joemcgill @westonruter for proofreading.

#6-3, #analysis, #performance, #summary

Dev Chat Summary, August 16, 2023

The WordPress Developers Chat meeting took place on August 2, 2023 at 20:00 UTC in the core channel of Make WordPress Slack.

Key Links

Highlighted Posts

Here’s an overview of what’s happened in TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. between July 31 and August 14, 2023:

  • 40 commits
  • 50 contributors
  • 164 tickets created
  • 15 tickets reopened
  • 138 tickets closed
  • and 5 new contributors in this period ❤️
  • Status update on the Interactivity API: Get the latest updates on this proposal and where to track its progress. This post also includes info on valuable learning resources so you can dive in and explore the APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways.’s possibilities.
  • What’s new for developers? (August 2023): Do “new shiny objects”, “bag of goodies”, and “kid in a toy shop” spark your interest? Thought so! Check out the newest stuff in 6.3 and GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ in this latest post on WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/’s own Developer Blogblog (versus network, site).
  • What’s new in Gutenberg 16.4: Inside: A new progress bar component, updates to the Command Palette and Footnotes blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience., and auto-inserting blocks are highlighted in the latest pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party release.
  • ⏰ Reminder: Share your comments on the ticket ownership discussion by September 1, 2023.

Release Updates

WordPress 6.3

  • See the WordPress 6.3 developer notes. The Field GuideField guide The 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. has had 6,500 views since it was published on July 18!

WordPress 6.3.1

  • There are some urgent fixes that have been identified for a quick turnaround 6.3.1 release, but as of this writing, timing is still being decided. For the latest updates, follow discussions in the #6-3-release-leads channel.

WordPress 6.4

Stay in the loopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. with 6.4 by checking out:

Maintainers: Component Help Requests

Rollback Auto Updates – Part 3

The Rollback Update Failure plugin has received several recent updates, and is awaiting security audit and additional feedback.

Plugin Dependencies

Plugin dependencies (Trac #22316) has been updated with the latest round of feedback, and is ready for commit consideration. Trac #59112 has been created to encompass remaining design input for this feature, which could be incorporated during the feature’s merge to CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress..

Open Floor

WCUS 2023 Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/.

Make/Core Post

WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. US Contributor Day is next week! There is a Core blog draft underway that aims to promote and provide info to new contributors ahead of the event. The post is to be finalized after Dev Chat, and it is requested that Core community members provide feedback in the #core channel. Core Team RepTeam Rep A 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. @webcommsat is collating details for the event.

Volunteers Needed

Volunteers are needed to help facilitate in person at tables and remotely on Slack during Contributor Day. Contributors are asked to raise their hand in Slack, or add their name and level of participation in the post comments.

A handful of chat attendees raised their hands to help attend to Core tables throughout the day, as well as help remote attendees in Slack, but there are still no clear Core table leads.

Ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. Focus

There was a question about whether “ancient” Trac tickets should be a point of focus during Contributor Day, and there was general agreement that good-first-bug tickets were likely better candidates to focus on, given the limited time and resources available at the event.

New contributors to Core are encouraged to set up their local environments in advance of WCUS, and to join the next New Core Contributor meeting on 2023-08-23 at 19:00 UTC in the #core channel.

Fields API

A status update was provided for the WordPress Fields API, with a Make/Core post to come later this week. Those interested in this project are invited to help with project research, stop on by and chat with @sc0ttkclark at WCUS, and to join the conversation over in the #core-fields channel.

6.4 Scrub Schedule

The bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. scrub schedule is still being finalized, but the first session is to take place on 2023-08-17 at 17:00 UTC in #core. All are welcome to join the scrub!

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on August 23, 2023 at 20:00 UTC.

Are you interested in helping draft Dev Chat summaries? Volunteer at the start of the next meeting on the #core Slack channel.

Props @afragen for peer review of this post.

#6-3, #6-4, #dev-chat, #meeting, #summary

Dev Chat Summary, August 2, 2023

The WordPress Developers Chat meeting took place on August 2, 2023 at 20:00 UTC in the core channel of Make WordPress Slack.

Key Links

Announcements

Highlighted Posts

Here’s an overview of updates in TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. between July 24 and July 31, 2023:

  • 21 commits
  • 40 contributors
  • 64 tickets created
  • 12 tickets reopened
  • 39 tickets closed
  • Synced Patterns: The Evolution of Reusable Blocks: New pattern functionality with WordPress 6.3.
  • Whose ticket is it, anyway?: Follow-up post to last week’s DevChat discussion about ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. ownership. Share your thoughts and opinions by September 1, 2023.
  • Proposal: improve the editor tech workflow for major releases: Ideas for improvements to ease the pain points of merging code from GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ into CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., particularly before BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 1. This proposal has already generated a lot of favorable consensus to experiment with this approach in the 6.4 cycle.
  • This proposal has been adopted: Proposal: Criteria for Removing “Beta Support” from Each PHP 8+ Version. Involved contributors are currently in the process of:
    • working through the action items list.
    • evaluating the list of incompatibilities for PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher 8.0 and 8.1 for WordPress 6.3.

Release Updates

WordPress 6.3

@hellofromtonya asked if Trac #58940 – site-health.php page Fatal error on version: 6.3-RC2 would require another RCrelease candidate One of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). release. It was confirmed that the ticket was opened before RC 3, but not fixed in that release. @jeffpaul and @audrasjb agreed that another RC may be warranted, and would check other tickets that remain in the 6.3 milestone (or same query grouped by workflow).

WordPress 6.4

@hellofromtonya indicated that work was underway on 6.4 early tickets.

@chanthaboune noted that wishlist items were being gathered, and that 6.4 release coordinators would be able to triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. these earlier than is typical, since the 6.4 release cycle is shorter than normal. Of particular note was consideration of items requiring additional dev, design, or a11yAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) attention before committing them to the release.

Maintainers: Component Help Requests

@craigfrancis asked for attention on Trac #54042 – Extending wpdb::prepare() to support IN() operator, and consideration for 6.4 early designation. He asked for review and thoughts/suggestions on improving the existing patches.

Open Floor

Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. Core/Core-* Tables

@desrosj related questions he’d received regarding how Core tables are often spread out at Contributor Day, which can be confusing for both new and experienced Core contributorsCore Contributors Core contributors are those who have worked on a release of WordPress, by creating the functions or finding and patching bugs. These contributions are done through Trac. https://core.trac.wordpress.org. who wish to move between tables, especially for collaboration with other focus teams. @webcommsat agreed that it would be beneficial to locate them closely together, to avoid the issue of contributors getting confused and dropping out of the event.

@desrosj also asked if there were any volunteers from the #core-performance and #core-editor channels who would be willing to lead their respective tables at WCUS. @hellofromtonya suggested posing the question to each team’s Slack channel. @joemcgill raised his hand for helping at the Core Performance table.

PHP 8.3

@hellofromtonya shared that initial impressions concerning PHP 8.3 are that it would have a low impact to Core. PHP 8.3’s release date is scheduled for November 23, 2023.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on August 9, 2023 at 20:00 UTC.

Are you interested in helping draft Dev Chat summaries? Volunteer at the start of the next meeting on the #core Slack channel.

#6-3, #6-4, #dev-chat, #meeting, #summary

Dev Chat Summary: June 21, 2023

The notes from the weekly WordPress developers chat which took place on Wednesday June 21, 2023 in the core channel of Make WordPress Slack.

Key links

Announcements

Proposal: Criteria for Removing “Beta Support” from Each PHP 8+ Version: This proposal published on June 20 sets criteria for determining when WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. has reached compatibility with a specific PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher version that WordPress supports, and a phased process for removal of the “betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. support” label and beyond. A big Thanks to the contributors who have been working on this proposal. Community feedback can be added to the post comments.

@ironprogrammer: This is a big deal, and open for community discussion.

Highlighted posts

A Week in Core – June 19, 2023 – Props to @audrasjb for pulling this together! Changes on TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. between June 12 and June 19, 2023:

  • 41 commits
  • 61 contributors
  • 66 tickets created
  • 7 tickets reopened
  • 40 tickets closed
  • and 9 new contributors in this period!

What’s new in Gutenberg 16.0? (14 June): Gutenberg 16.0 is now available for download from the plugins repository.

FSE Program Testing Call #24: Momery Makeover: Join in on this #fse-outreach-experiment, which will be closed for additional comments on June 28, 2023.

What’s new for developers? (June 2023) from the Developer Blogblog (versus network, site). The latest updates are focused around 6.3.

Updates on forthcoming releases

WordPress 6.3 — next major releasemajor release A 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.

Upcoming: Beta 1 for the 6.3 release is next Tuesday, June 27, 2023 (updated, this will be June 28, 2023).

Update from @francina and @priethor, release coordinators for WordPress 6.3. Francesca shared:

  • tasks looking at for week leading to Beta 1
  • the moving parts are being coordinated in the #6-3-release-leads channel
  • two discussions in the 6.3 release leads channel in the last couple of weeks:
    • one is about “blessing” to merge from GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ to Core. Start from Slack message. In the threads there are multiple conversations happening, also related to the Beta tester pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party stats. She encourages everyone to read and as @jeffpaul suggested a proposal on the Make/Core blog is always a great conversation starter to have a wider diversity of opinions.
    • the other one is about Trac Ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. #12009
  • we are approaching Beta 1, which means now is the time to make hard decisions that in some cases might be disappointing for some. It’s part of the process. Francesca encouraged people to read about the items and find out about how decisions are made or not in the open transparent process WordPress follows.

6.3 dev notes tracking issue is out. If you can help docs in the release, do let them know.

6.3 Editor tasks board on GitHub – contact @ndiego to take one of these 6.3 tasks from the board.

Bug scrub schedule for 6.3

Stay in the loopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. on 6.3 with:

6.4

WordPress 6.4 Development Cycle

Help requests on tickets/ Components

@oglekler encouraged contributors to view and comment on tickets updated at WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Europe 2023 Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/., especially by first time contributors. She suggested using the filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. modified between 8th and 9th of June 2023. She suggested exploring adding a mark, keyword or creating a list of such tickets at future Contributor Days.

@presskopp added encouragement for good first bugs and highlighted discussion on Slack on releases focused on fixing bugs.

Open Floor

No further items.

#6-3, #dev-chat, #summary

Dev Chat Summary, June 14, 2023

The notes from the weekly WordPress developers chat which took place on June 14, 2023 at 20:00 UTC in the core channel of Make WordPress Slack.

Key links

Announcements

A proposal is ready and will be published soon on setting the criteria for removing “betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. support” from each PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher 8+ version. It includes seeing the criteria in action for WordPress 6.3 which could possibly mean removing “beta support” label from PHP 8.0 and 8.1 – maybe. @hellofromtonya: it is just waiting for one additional contributors.

What’s new in Gutenberg 16.0. This latest pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party release has a preview of many editor enhancements and features in store for WordPress 6.3.

Highlighted posts

A Week in Core – June 12, 2023 – courtesy of @audrasjb. Seven new contributors last week on TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress..
Changes on Trac between June 5 and June 12, 2023:

  • 30 commits
  • 48 contributors
  • 67 tickets created
  • 3 tickets reopened
  • 44 tickets closed

20 years of WordPress at WordCamp Europe. This summary of WCEU 2023 touches on high points from the event and two highlight videos.


Updates on forthcoming releases

Beta 1 for the 6.3 release will be on Tuesday June 27, 2023

WordPress 6.3 will be the next major releasemajor release A 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.. Stay in the loopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. by checking out:

Tickets/ Component maintainers blockers/ updates

Tickets relating to 6.3 were prioritized.

@joemcgill raised a potential concern about ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. #12009. Full discussion starts at this Slack thread.

A Performance Team’s priority for the 6.3 release is to enhance the APIs for script registration to support async and defer attributes. After initial implementation, a final decision is needed about support for inline scripts. Urgent action: more views requested from someone familiar with this APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. in the next few days.

Open floor

a) WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Europe Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. tables updates

During Contributor Day, these were the core numbers from Trac:

  • 14 tickets created (Trac only)
  • 181 ticket updates
  • 68 unique tickets updated.
  • 4 change commits
  • 13 new GH pull requests
  • 15 patches uploaded.

GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ specific numbers during Contributor Day are being collated.

A big thanks to all involved in Contributor Day, those attending especially first-time contributors. Special thanks to @desrosj, @sergeybiryukov, @oglekler, @webcommsat and everyone else who helped on the day and with preparation, and those who assisted with setting up local environments and encouraging new contributors.

Thank you to @jorbin @swissspidy @ocean90 and @joedolson for getting some attendee contributions committed during the event as well!

Are you interested in helping draft Dev Chat summaries? Volunteer at the start of the next meeting on the #core Slack channel.

Props to @webcommsat and @ironprogrammer for items relating to this meeting.

#6-3, #dev-chat, #summary

Dev Chat Summary, June 7, 2023

The WordPress Developers Chat meeting took place on June 7, 2023 at 20:00 UTC in the core channel of Make WordPress Slack.

Key Links

Announcements

  • WordPress 6.4 Development Cycle: The third planned major releasemajor release A 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. for 2023 is taking shape! Check out the release team and supporting cohort, the release schedule, and learn how you can get involved with 6.4.
  • Gutenberg 15.9.1 available: This minor releaseMinor Release A set of releases or versions having the same minor version number may be collectively referred to as .x , for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.3, and all other versions in the 5.2 (five dot two) branch of that software. Minor Releases often make improvements to existing features and functionality. provides two fixes: custom fonts are again visible on the editor, and social icon colors now correctly reflect changes in Global Styles. Thanks to everyone involved in this release.

Highlighted posts

Here’s an overview of updates in TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. between May 22 and June 5, 2023:

  • 37 commits
  • 63 contributors
  • 91 tickets created
  • 9 tickets reopened
  • 71 tickets closed
  • and 10 new contributors in this period ♥️
  • Contribute to Core at WordCamp Europe Contributor Day 2023: Are you preparing to join the WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Europe 2023 CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. tables on Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/.? Check out this helpful post to get started, and to set up a local environment in advance of the event. Note: there are no more tickets for Contributor Day, the additional attendee tickets have now all gone.
    For those people who want to get started contributing to core, but were unable to get tickets, the links below are a good start:
  • June 2023 Developer Blog Editorial Meeting: Update from @webcommsat for the Editorial Group – If you are looking to contribute through writing blogblog (versus network, site) posts, check out the summary from this most recent Developer Blog editorial meeting for a list of articles under discussion or in need of a writer. There are editors who support the posts through the process of being published, so don’t worry if you have not contributed to the Developer Blog previously.
    • Have an idea for a post? Great! You can also suggest posts that you would like to read or contribute to the blog. Or do you just want to read excellent content geared toward WordPress developers? Got you covered there, too: check out the latest posts.
    • The Editorial Group wants is encouraging developers to come along and contribute on topics that are approved and suggest new ones, including on how to use new features in a release etc. Please do chat with people at WCEU who might be interested. There is a lot of support available.

Release updates

WordPress 6.3 will be the next major release. Stay in the loopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. by checking out:

  • Roadmap to 6.3
  • WordPress 6.3 Planning Roundup
  • and following along in the #6-3-release-leads channel
  • with 6.3 BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 1 less than 3 weeks away are there any enhancements or feature requests milestoned there that need help with patches, testing, review, or committing?

Query on Fonts-APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways.

  • @joemcgill raised during the performance ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. scrub earlier, a few contributors were wondering about the Fonts-API and whether any support was needed to test that feature since it’s being developed in the GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ repo. 
  • @hellofromtonya: Help is always appreciated! Always! There are a number of issues / enhancements being worked on that can use some testing reports and code help.
    • The Fonts API project board on GitHub.
    • The Ongoing Roadmap which has a list of “required for Core introduction” items.
    • In addition to those tickets/items, general testing to try and break it are appreciated.
    • When it’s moved out of “experimental” (note, the API is still experimental and will be until all of the required items are done and released in Gutenberg), then it’ll be a single PR to test and commit.
    • Why single PR? Because it’s been well-tested in Gutenberg over many months. Once it’s ready, it should be fully ready for Core introduction.
    • What is keeping it in “experimental”?
      The biggest reason is: the interaction between Theme JSONJSON JSON, 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 Fonts API for populating typography pickers in editors (not including the Site Editor). This issue. The scope of this will change with the introduction of the Font Library.
    • What’s the Font Library?

Tickets/ Component Maintainers help requests

To start, there were a couple of requests for help in the open floor section of the #core-editor meeting on May 31, 2023, including:

No comments were raised during the live meeting on these two areas.

Open floor

Two items:

  • WordCamp Europe attendees were encouraged to ask any questions during the meeting or in the contributor-channel/ core channel relating to Core contribution.
  • @hellofromtonya: A proposal is drafted and will be published before next week’s dev chat. The proposal is for setting criteria for removing “beta support” from each PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher 8+ version. It includes seeing the criteria in action for WordPress 6.3 which could possibly mean removing “beta support” label from PHP 8.0 and 8.1 – maybe.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on June 14, 2023 at 20:00 UTC.

Are you interested in helping draft Dev Chat summaries? Volunteer at the start of the next meeting on the #core Slack channel.

Props to @ironprogrammer and @webcommsat for the summary, and @hellofromtonya for peer review.

#6-3, #6-4, #dev-chat, #meeting, #summary

Dev Chat Summary, May 24, 2023

The WordPress Developers Chat meeting took place on May 24, 2023 at 20:00 UTC in the core channel of Make WordPress Slack.

Key Links

Announcements

  • WordPress 6.2.2 Security Release: This rapid-response security release addresses a shortcodes regressionregression A software bug that breaks or degrades something that previously worked. Regressions are often treated as critical bugs or blockers. Recent regressions may be given higher priorities. A "3.6 regression" would be a bug in 3.6 that worked as intended in 3.5. from 6.2.1, and further improves security around this feature.
  • What’s new in Gutenberg 15.8: Get the latest scoop on what’s recently shipped in GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/. Posted by @fabiankaegy 🎉
  • …which means that Gutenberg 15.8 is available for download.

Highlighted Posts

Here’s an overview of updates in TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. between May 8 and May 22, 2023 — yep, that’s “Two Weeks in CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.”:

  • 48 commits
  • 87 contributors
  • 108 tickets created
  • 10 tickets reopened
  • 79 tickets closed
  • 🥁 and 5 new contributors in this period 🎉
  • WP Briefing: Episode 56: What to Know About WordPress Playground: Learn more about experiments surrounding the ever-growing WordPress Playground, and what coding and testing accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) opportunities this exciting project is making possible.
  • Core Editor Improvement: Smoother Site Editing: See some of the latest updates to the editor, including revisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision. history for styles, templates, and template parts.

Release Updates

  • WordPress 6.3 Planning Roundup: Please take a moment to review the latest plans for the next major releasemajor release A 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.. And give a round of applause to the new release squad! (You can find them and follow along over in #6-3-release-leads, too!)
  • @audrasjb indicated that the full 6.3 bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. scrub schedule was almost ready to publish. The schedule includes at least 2 scrubs per week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and alternatively at 05:00, 06:00, 14:00, and 17:00 UTC. Everyone is welcome to join the first scrub on 25 May at 14:00 UTC.
  • @karmatosed wished to bring awareness to a proposal to include #design triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. as part of 6.3 #core and #core-editor triages, rather than as separate design-only meetings. The objective is to draw greater designer focus to these release-specific meetings, and encourage better collaboration and alignment between teams. It is planned to record some of these sessions as learning resources. Tammie asked for feedback on this idea and how the Design team can be helpful in the release, with the first meeting plan soon to be posted on make/design. She also called on other contributors to highlight tickets that needed Design team input, so that they could be amplified in #design.
  • @francina also gave a reminder that the #6-3-release-leads channel was a good place to follow along with release coordination efforts, in particular encouraging contributors with interest in helping on the 6.4 release to join the channel and ask questions.

Maintainers: Component Help Requests

@afragen called for additional help in testing the PluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party Dependencies feature pluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins., and requested Design team feedback. @karmatosed proposed some options for helping move designer involvement forward.

@oglekler highlighted #11856: URL for 1st comments page is not canonical, indicating it would need a careful approach to resolution.

Open Floor

WP Adminadmin (and super admin) Help Panel

@studionashvegas shared #55342: If the contextual help panel is open and then I scroll, I have to click on help twice to close the panel, asking for review of the patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing., which addresses a visual bug in WP admin. @audrasjb assigned the ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. to the 6.3 milestone, and marked for needs-testing.

Special Focus Triage Sessions

@oglekler asked if there were plans for additional “old ticket” triage sessions, and @karmatosed suggested that holding even one session per release would be a good beginning.

@oglekler also wondered if all tickets marked as critical could be triaged, with the belief that many may be mis-classified. She suggested that the critical severityseverity The seriousness of the ticket in the eyes of the reporter. Generally, severity is a judgment of how bad a bug is, while priority is its relationship to other bugs. is most useful when applied correctly. @ironprogrammer asked if reviewing these tickets was part of release scrubs, and @audrasjb indicated that scheduling dedicated scrubs for these tickets would be best, but that it was ultimately up to release Triage co-leads to decide.

@ironprogrammer then asked for volunteers to help facilitate these scrubs, suggesting there could be other interested contributors, and included a link to the Core Handbook’s bug scrub tutorial. @davidbaumwald added a reminder that scrubs could happen any time by anyone. He also indicated agreement that existing critical tickets were mostly normal severity, and could be cleaned up quickly without requiring a meeting. Contributors can request “Bug Gardener” Trac access in the #core channel if they wish to conduct triage.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on May 31, 2023 at 20:00 UTC.

Are you interested in helping draft Dev Chat summaries? Volunteer at the start of the next meeting on the #core Slack channel.

Props @audrasjb and @pbiron for peer review of this summary.

#6-3, #6-2-2, #dev-chat, #meeting, #summary