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

Dev Chat Summary, May 17, 2023

The WordPress Developers Chat meeting took place on 2023-05-17 at 20:00 UTC in the core channel of Make WordPress Slack.

Key Links

Announcements

Highlighted Posts

  • Proposal: Retiring Older Default Themes: This post summarizes the current state of bundled themes in WordPress before proposes new support states for bundled themes. It also raises two potential ways to decrease the total number of themes receiving regular updates. Thanks to @desrosj and everyone who contributed to this post.
  • Command Center: Request for feedback: Check it out and give your feedback on the UXUX User experience and 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. for this feature.

Release Updates

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. is 6.3.

6.2.1 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. Discussion

@audrasjb provided a summary of the recent 6.2.1 release, which included security patches from 4.1.x through 6.2. One fix in particular led to an issue with utilizing shortcodes in templates. The problem was being actively discussed by the Security Editor team, who began plans for a quick follow-up 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 address the issue. See this related ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.: #58333: WordPress 6.2.1 Shortcodes some shortcode no longer works!.

@nekojonez indicated that the issue only happens with FSE themes, confirming that their non-FSE themes were unaffected. @audrasjb agreed that it only affected template blocks [used in FSE themes]. @pbiron added that shortcodeShortcode A shortcode is a placeholder used within a WordPress post, page, or widget to insert a form or function generated by a plugin in a specific location on your site. blocks used in 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. theme template parts remained functional.

@nekojonez also mentioned concern that the new issue may cause users and members of the WordPress community to get the impression that shortcodes would no longer be supported, and referenced a discussion in #forums that could be taken out of context in support of this misunderstanding.

@ipstenu provided a link to the discussion, and indicated that this was a breaking change that did not include a notification to users beforehand. She suggested that the release post could have been more clear as to why shortcode support in block templates was removed. @nekojonez expressed agreement about wishing for more clarity in the post.

@nekojonez noted that workarounds existed for the issue, and might be shared with clear “use as your own risk” language. @pbiron explained that one of the options was to move the shortcode block into a template part, and for the template part to replace the original shortcode block used in the template. He added a comment to the ticket explaining this. @webcommsat asked @audrasjb if the post could be updated with information about the workaround.

@azaozz asked if the workarounds “revert” the security fix, and @audrasjb confirmed that yes, they rewrite the logic and re-introduce the security issuesecurity issue A security issue is a type of bug that can affect the security of WordPress installations. Specifically, it is a report of a bug that you have found in the WordPress core code, and that you have determined can be used to gain some level of access to a site running WordPress that you should not have..

@psdtohtmlguru indicated that 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-based workaround impacted performance on complex templates, and asked for a link to the security fix ticket. @audrasjb shared a link to the commit, but pointed out the ticket was in Hackerone and not visible to the public. @francina also noted that security fixes are not disclosed publicly, and JB provided a supporting link to the Core Handbook’s security FAQ.

@nekojonez expressed worry that not knowing details of the security flaw may put into question the safety of non-FSE theme shortcode use, and asked for more communication on it. @pbiron added that it was strange the vulnerability would affect shortcode usage directly in a template, but not in a template part of post content. @ndiego asked if anyone could share why shortcodes behaved differently between these usages, and @timothyblynjacobs suggested the discussion was getting too deep for now.

@psdtohtmlguru asked for confirmation that shortcodes in templates don’t work, but that shortcodes in post content would continue to work. @nekojonez indicated the need to await further updates from the security and editor teams, suggesting a clarification post in the meantime. @timothyblynjacobs and @audrasjb agreed, with Timothy suggesting the post primarily clarify that the security team is aware of and discussing solutions to the issue.

@azaozz recommended that shortcodes should not be used in templates, due to performance issues on top of the security concerns. Several attendees responded in the thread explaining that shortcodes were beneficial for numerous reasons, and @asafm7 shared their particular use case. [Editor’s Summary: From this long thread the impression is that regardless of security or performance implications, shortcodes are currently a valuable content mechanism that does not yet have a clear replacement for all use cases.]

6.4 Q&A

@francina asked for an informal Q&A session around WordPress 6.4, details of which can be found in this Slack thread. @karmatosed asked if there was a list of questions for the call, to provide preparation time to address them. @estelaris responded with a link to the spreadsheet (see comment) where more questions could be added. Francesca clarified that the Q&A would be informal and occur on Zoom. @jeffpaul asked about the possibility of two sessions to accommodate timezone differences, the idea which was seconded by Tammie. Francesca agreed to make the calls more formal, and to post about it in make/coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress..

Maintainers: Component Help Requests

wp.zip Domain

@francina proposed that the https://wp.zip domain redirect to the latest WordPress release ZIP file — @sergeybiryukov asked if https://wordpress.org/latest.zip was the suggestion — rather than the 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/ homepage where it currently leads. @pbiron suggested opening a ticket in Meta Trac, and proposed that https://wordpress.org/download/ might be preferable to avoid user confusion/concern that might result from a link leading to an automatic download. @webcommsat agreed that avoiding automatic downloads would be better for 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).

6.3 Tickets

@oglekler shared two tickets that could be moved into the 6.3 milestone, which had been tested:

@webcommsat called for help testing the patches, and reiterated adding test results to tickets for visibility.

Open Floor

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

@webcommsat called for updating Core and Core Test information for 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/., thanking @estelaris for gathering the info. Estela emphasized the need to email the info to first-time contributors by Friday, 19 May.

@webcommsat also asked for volunteers to facilitate the Core tables at the event. Both @oglekler and @sergeybiryukov expressed interest.

@webcommsat asked @estelaris if there was to be a table to assist contributors in setting up local environments, noting that a dedicated table has worked well before. Estela confirmed there would be a table, but that emails to first-time contributors could help ensure they are better prepared, particularly with software downloads. @webcommsat also noted the emails could include the date/time for upcoming new contributor meetings.

@webcommsat said they were reviewing Contributor Day info from WC Asia that should be added to the Core Handbook, noting that it was also being added to the Make Teams introduction document (link provided by @estelaris).

@webcommsat asked that Contributor Day attendees share in this post’s comments if they would be able to help at a Core table. @estelaris indicated that there would be approximately six tables dedicated to the Core team, and @desrosj asked which Core focus area had been identified for each table. Estela referred to the introduction document, and that nothing in particular had been mentioned. Jonathan would review the document and try to find other teams to collaborate with.

Finally, @webcommsat noted that tickets were still available for both the conference and Contributor Day.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on May 24, 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 @ironprogrammer for co-authoring and @audrasjb for peer review of this summary.

#6-3, #6-4, #6-2-1, #dev-chat, #meeting, #summary, #wceu

Dev Chat Summary, May 10, 2023

The WordPress Developers Chat meeting took place on May 10, 2023 at 20:00 UTC in the core channel of Make WordPress Slack.

Key Links

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 1 and May 8, 2023:

  • 24 commits
  • 56 contributors
  • 46 tickets created
  • 9 tickets reopened
  • 49 tickets closed
  • and 5 new contributors in this period 🎉 Welcome!
  • What’s new for developers? (May 2023): Check out this nifty guide to some of the latest WordPress updates, especially suited for extenders or contributors who would like to learn more about developing with WordPress.
  • WP Briefing: Episode 55: Happy Anniversary, WordPress!: Take a look back on the past 20 years and how the open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. community has grown WordPress into what it is today.
  • What’s new in Gutenberg 15.7? (03 May): This is of the best places to see what’s new in 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, as well as what’s in store for the future of CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress..
  • @webcommsat shared: It is day two of the “#WP20 From Blogs to Blocks” campaign. We have had a request from #marketing to highlight this in #core and encourage more devs to take part too: https://github.com/WordPress/Marketing-Team/issues/220.

Release Updates

  • WordPress 6.2.1 RC1 is now available: Help test this first 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. candidate (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).) for 6.2 before next week’s final release. See the post for details on what’s been fixed, and watch the #6-2-release-leads channel for additional updates.
  • And a reminder, for those who haven’t submitted feedback for the WP 6.2 release retrospective — @priethor has noted that the original survey deadline has been extended, so please make sure to take this opportunity to help improve future releases!

Maintainers: Component Help Requests

@oglekler indicated a draft 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. was ready, and requested contributor involvement with #23348: Add a “Contribute” tab to the about page. @audrasjb agreed with the proposed update, but had a question about some of the languages included in the language options. Olga clarified that those were included in mobile apps, but that clarity was needed to avoid this appearing as a mistake.

Open Floor

PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher 8.x Compatibility

@xavivars asked about PHP supported versions, and documentation surrounding it. He pointed out misconceptions that WordPress wouldn’t work under PHP 8.x due to its “beta support” label, and has only upgraded his sites from PHP 7.4 recently due to this misunderstanding. He then posed these questions (paraphrased):

  1. How can the PHP versions documentation page better convey that WordPress does work under PHP 8.x without major issues?
  2. What are the tickets that can help move PHP 8.x support forward, and allow 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” 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.)?
  3. Do others think this is a problem?

@oglekler related the numerous PHP notices encountered when trying out WooCommerce and PHP 8.2, noting that even if WordPress was almost ready, plugins and themes still posed a challenge. @azaozz agreed that Core functions pretty well up to 8.2, and that plugins were the main reason behind the lack of full support. @clorith added that while Core should not have fatal errors, that the deprecation notices it might throw would be indiscernible from plugin errors to most users.

@sergeybiryukov shared two relevant discussions from last month:

@joemcgill asked if the proposal mentioned in the second link was ever published, and if there was enough support to help make it happen. While not published yet, @hellofromtonya confirmed the post is still planned, and that support for the compatibility strategy has been positive. She also noted that lifting PHP 8.0’s “beta support” label was a target for WordPress 6.3. @clorith suggested that the best place to continue discussion would be the #core-php channel.

@azaozz noted that the PHP Compatibility Checker plugin only supports up to PHP 7.4, and questioned if it could be upgraded to support newer PHP versions. @sergeybiryukov mentioned the relevance of the Tide project, and @jeffpaul confirmed that Tide powers the recently updated PHP Compatibility Checker plugin. He added, however, that Tide in turn relies on PHPCompatibilityWP, which does not yet support PHP 8.x, and shared a discussion link toward adding PHP 8.x support.

To help address @xavivars‘s second question, @ironprogrammer shared links to PHP 8 items in the 6.3 milestone:

@ironprogrammer also pointed at a related topic that might help move PHP support-related discussions forward: #57345: Bump the minimum required PHP version to 7.2. @webcommsat indicated a possible need for #marketing team support to facilitate this work, which was confirmed by @sereedmedia.

Update Error Messages

@pbiron raised the following ticket, #57999: Don’t show error message when there is nothing to update, requesting patch testing and design feedback. He asked if the idea of the ticket was sound, and which of the proposed patches would be preferred.

@oglekler suggested adding screenshots for the proposed patches. @presskopp added screenshots of existing Core behavior, and @pbiron additionally requested before/after shots for each of the patches. @ironprogrammer also suggested pinging the #design channel for awareness.

Screen Options and Help Panel Modernization

@oglekler asked for attention to be drawn to #21583: Improve discoverability and visual design of Screen Options and Help Panels, and remarked that modernizing these panels would also benefit 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).

@ironprogrammer referred to @joedolson previously suggesting some shared UI relevance between this ticket and WP Features Notifications, and asked if there had been any discussion about this. @oglekler asked how these were related. Brian provided the link to a recent Notifications feature post, noting that the maintainers should be able to help answer questions. Joe further clarified that the Notifications feature is looking to add another panel in the same vicinity as Screen Options/Help, and called for holistic consideration of how each of these are implemented.

Before moving to the next item, @ironprogrammer pointed out that because Design Team time is often limited, addressing these related WP adminadmin (and super admin) UIUI User interface concerns at the same time could be a worthwhile collaboration.

“Roll Back” UI String

@kebbet requested feedback and 6.3 milestone consideration for ticket #58282: Change wording where `roll back` is used, asking if more user-friendly terms should be considered. There were several positive emoji reactions to the ticket, and @audrasjb swiftly added it to the 6.3 milestone.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on May 17, 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 @xavivars for peer review of this summary, and to everyone who participated in the Dev Chat.

#6-3, #6-2, #dev-chat, #meeting, #php-8-0, #summary

Dev Chat Summary, May 3, 2023

The WordPress Developers Chat meeting took place on May 3, 2023 at 20:00 UTC in the core channel of Make WordPress Slack.

Key Links

Highlighted Posts

Here is an overview of changes in TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. between April 24 and May 1, 2023:

  • 7 commits
  • 21 contributors
  • 50 tickets created
  • 3 tickets reopened
  • 38 tickets closed

Release Updates

6.3 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.

@ironprogrammer noted that the 6.3 squad was being composed over in #6-3-release-leads, with the team and dates to be finalized by the end of the week.

6.2.1 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.

@audrasjb provided a minor release update:

  • On Trac, there are 22 tickets in milestone, 11 are closed as fixed, and 2 others are awaiting backportbackport A port is when code from one branch (or trunk) is merged into another branch or trunk. Some changes in WordPress point releases are the result of backporting code from trunk to the release branch. to 6.2.
  • On 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/, there are 15 issues/PRs in the milestone, with 8 of them fixed and merged to core. @mamaduka is leading the Gutenberg work.

@audrasjb will run a 6.2.1 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 on May 4, 2023 at 15:00 UTC.

@audrasjb also shared a proposed schedule for the minor release, and asked for input:

If no feedback is provided regarding the schedule, @audrasjb will publish the release planning post to Make/Core later today.

Maintainers: Component Help Requests

@afragen requested further feedback on Trac #22316 (PR 3032) and 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., noting a desire to see it land in 6.3. @ironprogrammer noted that testing could be performed using the plugin or Core 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.. Andy suggested that a simple way to test would be to start with a clean installation, install/activate the Plugin Dependencies feature plugin (if not using the PR), and install and activate The Events Calendar CategoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. Colors plugin, which includes the necessary headers to trigger the dependencies feature. There are additional test plugins within the feature plugin directory.

Open Floor

Comments from the agenda provided the first couple of topics for discussion:

@pskli requested that Trac 57300 be reviewed, which deals with fatals related to parse_tax_query(). Neither @audrasjb nor @oglekler could reproduce the issue, and agreed that clear reproduction steps were required to move it forward. Olga agreed to update the ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. and request this information.

@margolisj requested that the following E2E test package prerelease be prioritized: https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/43998. @ironprogrammer summarized that the PR was stalled due to a lack of input related to versioning the prerelease package @wordpress/e2e-test-utils-playwright. Brian requested comment from editor package maintainers, noting there were numerous requests for the package’s release in the PR.

@oglekler drew attention to two tickets that might remove clutter from WP adminadmin (and super admin), and adopt a more modern look and improved UXUX User experience:

#51006: Add a mechanism for accessible tooltips in core@joedolson was confident about providing/validating 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) for the ticket, but indicated a desire to collaborate with a JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. developer to help ensure that scripting best practices were met. @oglekler, @audrasjb, and Joe shared example tooltip patterns/libraries to consider, and agreed that it might be simpler to work from the good parts of prior examples and develop a custom solution well suited for WordPress. Joe agreed to add requirements to the ticket to help move this work forward.

#21583: Improve discoverability and visual design of Screen Options and Help Panels — The clock ran out for Dev Chat, so this ticket was not discussed during the meeting. @oglekler asked that this ticket be raised during the next Dev Chat, and due to its importance, suggested it be scheduled for the 6.4 release.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on May 10, 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 @pbiron and @audrasjb for peer review of this summary, and to everyone who participated in the Dev Chat.

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

Dev Chat Summary, April 26, 2023

The WordPress Developers Chat meeting took place on April 26, 2023 at 20:00 UTC in the core channel of Make WordPress Slack.

Key Links

Highlighted Posts

Here’s the awesome activity seen in TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. between April 17 and April 24, 2023:

  • 27 commits
  • 36 contributors
  • 51 tickets created
  • 6 tickets reopened
  • 53 tickets closed
  • and 4 new contributors 🎉
  • The benefits of prioritizing and measuring performance in WordPress 6.2: Read about the collaborative planning and work that contributed to the performance gains brought with WordPress 6.2.
  • WP Feature Notifications: 2023 Status Update: This update explains recent progress toward a CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.-targeted modern WordPress user notification system, its interplay with 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/ Phase 3, and how you can get involved.
  • WP Briefing: Episode 54: A Bill of Rights for the Open Web: Listen as Josepha explores the four freedoms of open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL., which have been referred to as a “Bill of Rights” for the open web.

Release Updates

6.3 Planning

@ironprogrammer shared a reminder that the WordPress 6.3 Planning Proposal & Call for Volunteers is open for release squad members and mentors through this Sunday, April 30.

6.2.1 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.

@audrasjb provided a WP 6.2 triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. update:

@ironprogrammer asked for confirmation that a small squad is still needed to run the 6.2.1 release, which @audrasjb confirmed. JB then added that an active Gutenberg contributor should ideally help shepherd the related issues/PRs/tasks; and that someone would be needed to help build packages, suggesting that @sergeybiryukov might help with Mission Control.

@ironprogrammer suggested sharing the needs for Gutenberg contributor involvement in the #core-editor channel, which @audrasjb confirmed he would follow up.

Open Floor

During open floor, @presskopp raised visibility on the following Trac tickets:

#33073: Some strings need “no HTML entities” translator comments@ironprogrammer proposed that the ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. be milestoned for 6.3, as it had suggestions on how it might be addressed. @sergeybiryukov assigned the milestone to move the ticket forward.

#57999: Don’t show error message when there is nothing to update@audrasjb suggested moving the ticket to 6.3; @pbiron agreed by setting the milestone and self-assigning the ticket. @ironprogrammer suggested that example reproduction flows be added to the ticket in order to help during testing.

#53682: tags (keywords) with umlauts don’t get saved in German locale@audrasjb noted that this ticket still needed a patchpatch A special text file that describes changes to code, by identifying the files and lines which are added, removed, and altered. It may also be referred to as a diff. A patch can be applied to a codebase for testing. to move it forward.

#54836: Huge error logs filled with “WordPress database error Illegal mix of collations” errors caused by spammers@ironprogrammer agreed with @audrasjb‘s in-ticket assessment, and that a Database component maintainer should review the ticket, so pinged @craigfrancis. @pbiron asked if the issue was due to different collations in the DB, or if the collation differed from the spam text encoding, and Brian asked for reproduction steps to better understand what triggers the errors.

#50081: orderby datetime field@audrasjb identified this as a Docs (DevHub) issue, and updated the ticket. @leogermani and @sergeybiryukov responded and provided context for when the code example was last updated. JB updated the sample code in DevHub and closed the ticket. 🎉

#39645: If user “admin” doesn’t exist (renamed admin account) users can create a user with username admin — this last ticket mention occurred after Dev Chat wrapped up, and there was no further discussion on it.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on May 3, 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 @costdev for peer review of this summary, and to everyone who participated in the Dev Chat.

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

Dev Chat Summary, April 19, 2023

The WordPress Developers Chat meeting took place on April 19, 2023 at 20:00 UTC in the core channel of Make WordPress Slack.

Key Links

Announcements

  • What’s new in Gutenberg 15.6? (19 April): Check out the post for details on what’s new in this latest 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/ release.

Highlighted Posts

Here’s the activity in TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. between April 10 and April 17, 2023:

  • 13 commits
  • 33 contributors
  • 39 tickets created
  • 4 tickets reopened
  • 27 tickets closed
  • and 6 new contributors 🎉

Maintainers: Component Help Requests

For the Upgrade/Install component, @costdev provided the following updates:

  • Rollback: Waiting on confirmation from @azaozz that there are no blockers for alpha commit.
  • 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: Waiting on @dd32 / @otto42 to confirm that the current PR for Plugin Dependencies contains nothing of concern for 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/, and that Plugin Dependencies Part 2 is the bit that still needs more discussion/investigation.

Open Floor

6.2.1 Planning

@jeffpaul asked if there had been discussion on timing and focus for the 6.2.1 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.. @costdev provided a couple of links (1, 2) from the #6-2-release-leads channel that called for a small squad of volunteers to lead the release. In the comment, @audrasjb suggested 6.2.1 RC1 on May 9, followed by final release on May 16, and asked for input. @ironprogrammer directed volunteers to reply in the #6-2-release-leads channel.

There were no further topics raised, so the meeting wrapped up early.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on April 26, 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 @costdev for peer review of this summary, and to everyone who contributed in today’s Dev Chat.

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

Dev Chat Summary, April 5, 2023

The WordPress Developers Chat meeting took place on April 5, 2023 at 20:00 UTC in the core channel of Make WordPress Slack.

Key Links

Announcements

  • WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy” was released last week: https://wordpress.org/news/2023/03/dolphy/
  • Gutenberg 15.5 was released today: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/04/05/whats-new-in-gutenberg-15-5-05-april/

Highlighted Posts

Between March 20 and April 3, 2023, work in TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. included:

  • 38 commits
  • 76 contributors
  • 120 tickets created
  • 19 tickets reopened
  • 86 tickets closed
  • and 8 new contributors! 🎉
  • Preferred Languages: Help test the latest version: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/04/03/preferred-languages-help-test-the-latest-version/
  • WordPress 6.2 Performance improvements for all themes: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/04/05/wordpress-6-2-performance-improvements-for-all-themes/
  • Proposal: The Interactivity API – A better developer experience in building interactive blocks: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/03/30/proposal-the-interactivity-api-a-better-developer-experience-in-building-interactive-blocks/

Release Updates

  • 6.3 alpha is underway, with a focus on early tickets.
    • 6.3 development cycle: https://make.wordpress.org/core/6-3/
    • early tickets report: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/early
  • 6.2.1 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. timing discussions are happening in the #6-2-release-leads channel.
    • Trac tickets in this minor milestone are at https://core.trac.wordpress.org/tickets/minor/workflow
    • Also see Gutenberg’s “Punted to 6.2.1” column: https://github.com/orgs/WordPress/projects/63

Maintainers: Component Help Requests

@afragen shared the Call for Testing for Plugin Dependencies. @pbiron mentioned that feedback about the UXUX User experience is mostly needed and should be added to the post, but that non-UX feedback should be added to ticket #22316.

Open Floor

6.3 early Tickets

@hellofromtonya referred to the handful of current 6.3 early tickets, and asked that anyone with time consider contributing to these.

@howdy_mcgee asked about Trac tickets #24142 and #18408, which relate to WP_Query updates, and if they should be considered early. @hellofromtonya agreed and added the early keyword to both, explaining WP_Query changes should be done early to allow sufficient time for feedback and testing. @howdy_mcgee expressed interest in writing tests for 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. in #18408 and asked others to DM with suggestions on where to start.

About Page: “Get Involved” Improvements

@oglekler raised Trac ticket #23348, which could add a new menu item and/or tab that better represents each Make WordPress team and opportunities to contribute. @hellofromtonya suggested adding the needs-design keyword to start with the design phase, and after a design was established, code work could start. @oglekler added that Marketing could contribute toward the content. Both agreed that this update could be a starting point for new contributors to get involved. @hellofromtonya also suggested that due to the age of the ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker., updating the current proposal could help move it forward.

Promoting WordPress Mobile Apps

@oglekler also brought attention to Trac ticket #56277, which would promote the WordPress Mobile app from the adminadmin (and super admin) dashboard. @oglekler noted that the #mobile channel recently agreed to author a new post explaining the current status of WordPress’s mobile apps and how the widgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. could help promote them. In response, @hellofromtonya suggested getting feedback on the idea first, and then design proposals would follow.

WordPress PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher 8+ “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”

@ipajen asked if there had been any discussion about removing the beta support for PHP 8.x in WordPress. @hellofromtonya noted that she and @jrf had a recent call about it, and proposed laying out what’s needed to remove the “beta” compatible label for each PHP 8.x version. @hellofromtonya mentioned that very low code coverage and a low percentage of sites running on these PHP versions makes it difficult to know whether WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. itself is fully compatible or not.

@hellofromtonya shared that some other criteria, like having at least 10% of sites running on PHP 8.x, with all reported issues on that version fixed, could be a method to determine removal of the “beta support” label. Current stats show only PHP 8.0’s usage exceeds that threshold (PHP 8.0 reflects 12.5% usage). @hellofromtonya shared a link to open PHP 8.x tickets in Trac, as there are additional compatibilities to be discussed and solved, including named parameters, magic methods and dynamic properties, type validation, etc.

[Editor’s Note] This topic went into “overtime” following the official Dev Chat time constraints, and that dialog is provided here:

@ipajen expressed hopes that PHP 8.0 could be officially supported soon, and asked if WordPress Tide should be considered under the compatibility criteria for WordPress. @hellofromtonya pointed out that Tide is separate from WordPress Core, so is not a blockerblocker A bug which is so severe that it blocks a release. toward removing the “beta support” label, but agreed that it would be great for Tide to add support for PHP 8.1 and 8.2.

@hellofromtonya further shared her opinion that the beta label could be removed once there was consensus on the previously mentioned criteria and named parameters discussions, and that further dialog on these should be conducted on Trac or in a Make/Core post.

@pbiron asked @hellofromtonya if Trac tickets marked php8 applied to all PHP 8+ items, or were specific to version 8.0. Further discussion involving @sergeybiryukov and @ipajen lead to consensus that renaming php8 to php80 would disambiguate the keyword’s use, as it has until this point been used specifically for PHP 8.0. @ipajen further suggested that with this change in place, issues affecting multiple PHP 8 versions could be tagged with each version impacted, presumably for easier searching/filtering in Trac.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on April 12, 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 @davidbaumwald, @costdev, and @hellofromtonya for peer review of this summary, and to everyone who contributed in today’s Dev Chat.

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