Dev Chat Summary, January 24, 2024

Start of meeting on Slack facilitated by @webcommsat

This DevChat starts with an experiment to shift the chat to synchronize discussions on open coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. proposals and release issues rather than reproducing links highlighted in the curated agendas.

Discussion on open proposals in Core

Interactivity 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.

Link to post: Proposal: The Interactivity API – A better developer experience in building interactive blocks

Conversation start link

Comments:

  • The API is well beyond the proposal stage, with nothing actionable in discussion.

Actions:

  • The proposal should be considered “accepted”.

HTMLHTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. API: Introduce WP_HTML::tag() for safely creating HTML

Link to PR (draft): https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/5884

Conversation start link

Comments:

  • This PR was raised along with the question of how items should be added to the agenda. It was clarified that topics can be added as comments to the previous week’s chat summary, or to the current week’s agenda post (typically published on Tuesdays). And of course, any item can be raised during the open floor section of Dev Chat.
  • @dmsnell indicated that the PR for consideration is a scaled back version of a larger templating system proposal, which will not be ready for 6.5. The PR adds a helper utility, WP_HTML::tag(), to conveniently generate single HTML tags with attributes. The impetus for this feature is to provide Core and extenders a safer way to generate HTML tags, compared with reliance on proper usage of functions such as esc_attr(), which might be overlooked and introduce HTML injection vectors.
  • @jorbin would prefer that any new APIs be used by Core itself, and that there be accessory patches prepared that demonstrate how the function integrates and operates in Core. It was also suggested that a Make/Core proposal would help with gathering broader input.
  • @azaozz pointed out that enhancementenhancement Enhancements are simple improvements to WordPress, such as the addition of a hook, a new feature, or an improvement to an existing feature. tickets in TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. are another form of “proposal”, and can also result in healthy discussion. He suggested starting the discussion in Trac, and then utilizing a Make/Core proposal if the ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. isn’t sufficient to establish consensus.
  • There continued discussion around how Core generates HTML currently, which relies on proper use of esc_*() and echo(), as well as a broader discussion around safely generating HTML. Got feedback? Join the conversation in 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/., or leave a comment below.

Actions:

  • @dmsnell to create a Trac ticket and/or Make/Core proposal to discuss introduction of WP_HTML::tag().
  • @dmsnell to consider a future Make/Core proposal for the HTML API templating system, and continued discussion around generating safe HTML.

Forthcoming releases

6.4.3

Conversation start link

  • @jorbin shared the remaining open tickets for this milestone, which are scheduled for review and commit prior to a Thursday (Jan 25) 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).:
    • #60025 – This needs additional review and testing. Any help is appreciated
    • #59866 – @peterwilsoncc and I have been work on the one and I should have an update in the next 12 hours.
  • @joemcgill requested help reviewing the approach proposed in #5926 Cache locate template paths, which would address both #60025 and #60290.

6.5

Conversation start link

See this section in the agenda for updates, helpful links, and information for the 6.5 release.

Comments:

  • @oglekler pointed out that there are several early 6.5 tickets that need attention, asking for review as some might have the potential to be completed in time for 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..
  • @hellofromtonya indicated that the 6.5 cycle is past the “early part of alpha”, suggesting these may need to be punted if they truly require a long runway for soak time and discussion.
  • @azaozz agreed that the early keyword indicates a need for comprehensive testing, and possible reconsideration of the milestone if the testing hasn’t occurred. He also suggested that while not required, it might be preferable to fix old/known bugs during alpha, and allow beta testers to focus on “new” bugs introduced from Beta 1 and onward.
  • @jorbin suggested two interpretations of early; i.e. actually early in the alpha cycle, or just before Beta 1.
  • @hellofromtonya noted that since Beta 1 is the puntpunt Contributors sometimes use the verb "punt" when talking about a ticket. This means it is being pushed out to a future release. This typically occurs for lower priority tickets near the end of the release cycle that don't "make the cut." In this is colloquial usage of the word, it means to delay or equivocate. (It also describes a play in American football where a team essentially passes up on an opportunity, hoping to put themselves in a better position later to try again.) milestone for enhancements/features, that in her perspective, early should apply to early in the alpha cycle. She cited changes to WP_Query as an example where early would apply.
  • @afragen observed that it doesn’t seem that many early tickets are committed early in the cycle.

Open Floor

Props @hellofromTonya for peer review.

#6-4, #6-5, #core, #core-editor, #dev-chat, #meeting, #summary

Performance Chat Summary: 23 January 2024

Meeting agenda here and the full chat log is available beginning here on Slack.

Announcements

Priority Projects

Server Response Time

Notes from today’s call:

Database Optimization

Notes from today’s call:

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/. & CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets.

  • Link to roadmap project and link to the GitHub project board
  • Contributors: @mukesh27 @flixos90 @westonruter
  • Projects from the 2024 roadmap:
    • INP opportunities research
    • Interactivity 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.
    • Speculative prerendering

Notes from today’s call:

  • No updates this week

Images

Notes from today’s call:

  • @westonruter For Image Loading Optimization, the PR to preload the background-image for the LCP element just needs one more review to merge. Again, I found this change to reduce LCP-TTFB by ~9% when, for example, the LCP elemment is a Group 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. with a background image or a Cover block with parallax. Otherwise, I’ve been working with @thelovekesh on eliminating loading the web-vitals library from unpkg.
  • @adamsilverstein The PR to land AVIF is ready for testing; at this point I am waiting for support to land in Edge stable before committing, not sure that will in time for 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. cutoff though
  • @swissspidy For client side image compression I’m currently working on ways to make the performance impact more measurable and documenting that. In the meantime, my Media Experiments 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 can now be tested on WordPress Playground to familiarize oneself with how seamless it all is.
  • @joemcgill As mentioned earlier, the experimental plugin for supporting auto-sizes is now available. I’m tracking an issue that is effecting WP galleries when this is in use. Additional testing and feedback of this feature (requires Chrome 121+) would be appreciated.

Measurement

Notes from today’s call:

  • @joemcgill Still need to look into the failures on the 6.4 branchbranch A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses branches to store the latest development code for each major release (3.9, 4.0, etc.). Branches are then updated with code for any minor releases of that branch. Sometimes, a major version of WordPress and its minor versions are collectively referred to as a "branch", such as "the 4.0 branch". #60127

Ecosystem Tools

Notes from today’s call:

Open Floor

  • No updates today

Our next chat will be held on Tuesday, January 30, 2024 at 16:00 UTC in the #core-performance channel in Slack.

#core-performance, #performance, #performance-chat, #summary

Dev Chat summary, January 17, 2024

Start of meeting on Slack

This DevChat starts with an experiment to shift the chat to synchronize discussions and away from dropping of links.

Discussion on open proposals in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.

Default Theme Task Force for 2024

Link to the post: Proposal: Default Theme Task Force for 2024

Dev Chat slack link

Comments in Dev Chat focused:

  • positive feedback and highlighting that people can self-nominate their ability to help triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. those open default theme issues
  • promote the call to encourage people to be active in triaging and resolving those 436 Bundled Theme tickets

Latest position from @desrosj :

  • advised the idea has been accepted: t’s rallying a group of folks to get through and clean out the Bundled Theme component backlog on TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress.
  • three self nominations and more expected to be confirmed by end of the week
  • aim to start before the end of January 2024, currently 437 tickets in the Bundled Theme component
  • Jonathan will be leading the team as a mentor and someone with commit privileges, and other committers are welcome to help as well)
  • the week to week working arrangement will be depends on the team’s availability. Stay tuned! 
  • confirmed the new theme task force group will remain under core team purview. More detail on this in the comments section of the post. More contributors for the Themes team welcome to help out too. “It’s a balance though, My goal here was to allow those contributors to continue exploring what new themes look like while this team handles cleaning up some of our cruft and backlog for pre-existing ones.”
  • expecting ‘as a side effect, cleaning out the backlog also will effectively “retire” these themes in some ways, and going forward, the majority of the tickets will be 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. editor support related (hopefully).’ 

Actions:

  • more volunteers needed and will increase the speed can go through the outstanding tickets in the component
  • to assist, contact @desrosj on 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/. on in the comments for the post itself

Proposal to improve the editor tech workflow for major releases

Post link: Proposal

Dev Chat Slack link

Context: This proposal was started in 6.4. With 6.5 underway, thinking the learnings from 6.4 could be built upon for how to continue improving the Core merges 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/ during 6.5. Core Editor and Core chats are now combined into Dev Chat as an experiment.

Discussion:

  • @joemcgill raised the question of the right venue to push this forward. “In my opinion, the current status quo is error prone and unsustainable (as well as taking a lot of manual overhead from contributors).”
  • @jorbin: If we want to try early syncing for 6.4.3, https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/59828 just needs a second committers review and we can get all the updates into the 6.4.x nightly
  • @hellofromtonya: I’m not sure either what the “right venue for pushing this forward” is. Needs a discussion with both Core and Core Editor folks to figure out the needs and how to improve these workflows. Seems earlier the better as 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 is fast approaching
  • @jorbin suggested one way to mitigate the issue would be nominating the release team, or at least the editor tech, for the next release before the current release ships. An interim editor tech to help get the ball rolling while an official team has not been announced. @joemcgill agreed having an identified set of release leads for 6.5 to discuss how they want to handle things for this release would help. The Community Summit conversation was very helpful. A working group to continue that conversation and come back with concrete proposals would be helpful, if a release team is not the right venue. A working group had positive feedback in the dev chat discussions as these workflows are continuously improving and span more than one 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.. @jorbin suggested @tellthemachines should be given right of first refusal to continue leading the effort since she kicked off the proposal.
  • Ideas included: a proposal needed to address the identified set of problems, a hallway hangout similar to the ones @annezazu and others have done.

Actions:

Forthcoming releases

6.5

Slack discussion link

See this section in the agenda for updates, helpful links, and information for the 6.5 release.

Blockages/ items need discussion for progress:

  • Font Library:
    • Discussion:
      • As a follow-up from @joemcgill‘s questions last week, @hellofromtonya has added the Core merge criteria/expectations to its Trac ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.. The critieria is the same as in 6.4, except Tonya is suggesting returning to the expectation the feature is merged before or by Beta 1.
      • Query raised on the criteria aspect of “running on wp.com, and not being reliant on any specific host testing this. @hellofromtonya: The reason for wp.com is: it’s a normal workflow in Gutenberg as it gains a huge amount of sites running it. @jorbin
      • @annezazu suggested some of the contributors who have worked on this feature could comment. Also noted current timeline for the feature https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/59166#comment:21
      • Question: Is this anything beyond what we’d normally expect of a feature pluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins.? @hellofromtonya: Same expectations except for REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/. part of it , as I’m suggesting a maintainer needs to give a thumbs-up to its design.
      • jorbim: I don’t want to discourage that in any way, I just wonder if we would ever set a requirement like “Is running on Altis with no major issues”
    • Actions:
      • Update the criteria from the discussion. Done ✅
      • Gather expectations from the REST API maintainers and then update the criteria accordingly. Done ✅

How was the first experimental new DevChat?

@jorbin said: “I think one of the most productive meetings in a while”

@afragen shared there was no extra time to raise other tickets for discussion.

What to change?

Next week, reserve 10-15 minutes for open forum / floor discussion.

Props @hellofromTonya for peer review.

#6-4, #6-5, #core, #core-editor, #dev-chat, #meeting, #summary

Dev Chat Summary, January 10, 2024

The WordPress Developers Chat meeting took place on  10 January 2024 at 20:00 UTC  in core on Make WordPress Slack.

Key info

Chat Summary

Nominations for 2024 Core Team Reps:

@desrosj reminded Gutenberg and Core development contributors to update their local Node.js/npm as:

.. the versions of Node.js and npm required for WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. development are now 20.x and 10.x.

In order to continue contributing to WordPress through wordpress-develop or WordPress/Gutenberg, you’ll need to upgrade the version of Node.js installed on your machine to one that’s greater than or equal to 20.10.0 (currently the most recent generally available version 20.x version). This should also update npm to the correct, expected version appropriately (10.2.3 or higher is required).

Release Updates

Next 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.: 6.4.3

@jorbin shared an update:

  • Timeline coming before next devchat.
  • No pressing issues – okay to wait “a few weeks for the next minor.”
  • Reminder to “milestone any tickets” needing addressing.

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.: 6.5

  • Release squad: call to join the squad ended Jan 12th.
  • Current: in Alpha.
  • Next milestone: 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 is Feb 13th.

Tickets / Issues that need assistance

  • #60227 @jonsurrell asked for feedback to use an external library for testing the HTMLHTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. 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..
  • #60025 @jorbin requested help (it’s in the 6.4.3 milestone) and noted:

Joe did a great job of summerizing and shared some paths forward that I think could be good to explore

Open Floor

Discussion of changing DevChat

@jorbin opened the discussion for changing DevChat, i.e. to get to the important things to chat about (rather than half or more of the meeting dropping links):

As we are now 43 minutes into the meeting and it’s been almost all link sharing thus far, I wonder if perhaps 2024 should be the year we explore some alternatives for this meeting? I’m not sure that a link dump is doing it

The discussion summary:

socializing to folks leading/working on feature projects or specific items targeted in a current major release that devchat is a good place to come and share blocks/problems/areas for feedback they have.  Chatting through those things synchronously can help find alternate paths forward for those things that are of importance to the project.

advance those conversations towards an acceptance or finding iterative ways to improve those proposals.

When to start? Experiment starts next meeting.

Call for Volunteers to review the open proposals on Make/Core and create a list of unresolved ones to discuss during the DevChat meeting.

Font Library – avoid merge roadblocks

@joemcgill asked for Font Library update and plan to avoid the roadblocks experienced during 6.4. See the discussion in the Slack thread which includes Core merge criteria.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on 17 January 2024 at 20:00 UTC . This DevChat will experiment with a new approach

Are you interested in helping draft DevChat summaries? Volunteer at the next meeting!

Props @webcommsat for peer review.

#6-4, #6-5, #core, #core-editor, #dev-chat, #meeting, #summary

Performance Chat Summary: 16 January 2024

Meeting agenda here and the full chat log is available beginning here on Slack.

Announcements

  • Welcome to our new members of #core-performance
  • Performance Lab 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 today for version 2.8.0

Priority Projects

Server Response Time

Notes from today’s call:

  • @thekt12 I was exploring use of transient for sites that don’t have persistent cache.
    https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/60120#comment:8
    However I have paused the above for a while and started with #59532 as this is a bit similar to https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/5718.
    Also, https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/5718 is ready for mostly final review
  • @joemcgill #59969 seems to be very close on the CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. side, just needing a couple of changes to the PR. Can we get that sorted soon @thekt12 or are you waiting on some additional feedback?
    • I think that blocks the supporting work you’ve started in the GB repo at present
    • @flixos90 Yeah it’s tricky and somewhat clunky to figure out the sequencing there
    • @flixos90 If the core change needs to come first, let’s commit that very soon and then update  and merge 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/ change and aim for a back port not too far away
    • I reviewed @swissspidy‘s performant translations PR yesterday, and it looks great to me. It would be great if a few more folks here could take a look too since it’s a big change
  • @swissspidy The performant translations PR is close to be mergeable, it‘s in very good shape already
  • @joemcgill Also, for #60120, @spacedmonkey are you planning on continuing the PR you started, or is your intent for someone else to pick up that work? Either is fine, just wasn’t sure
    • Almost ready for commit

Database Optimization

Notes from today’s call:

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/. & CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets.

  • Link to roadmap project and link to the GitHub project board
  • Contributors: @mukesh27 @flixos90 @westonruter
  • Projects from the 2024 roadmap:
    • INP opportunities research
    • Interactivity 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.
    • Speculative prerendering

Notes from today’s call:

  • @flixos90 I opened pull requests for most of the remaining work for the first Speculation Rules plugin MVPMinimum Viable Product "A minimum viable product (MVP) is a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers, and to provide feedback for future product development." - WikiPedia yesterday, see https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues/908 (everything linked from there)

Images

Notes from today’s call:

  • @joemcgill I submitted the plugin for auto-sizes last week and already heard back on some feedback to address. I’ll get that sorted and hopefully will be available soon. In the mean time, it’s ready to be merged to the Performance Lab after 2.8.0 is released later today.
  • @flixos90 I plan to commit the PR for https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/59352 shortly
  • @westonruter For Image Loading Optimization, the tests PR has been merged. I have the pull request for optimizing the loading of background images ready for review. In some quick testing I found this to reduce LCP-TTFB by ~9% when a 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. has parallax and is the LCP element: https://github.com/WordPress/performance/pull/914
  • @swissspidy Regarding client-side image compression a new blogblog (versus network, site) post just got published about it: https://www.codeinwp.com/blog/pascal-birchler-interview-wordpress-media-experiements/

Measurement

Notes from today’s call:

  • @joemcgill The main thing that is on my mind is that we need to fix the performance tests that are failing in the 6.4 branchbranch A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses branches to store the latest development code for each major release (3.9, 4.0, etc.). Branches are then updated with code for any minor releases of that branch. Sometimes, a major version of WordPress and its minor versions are collectively referred to as a "branch", such as "the 4.0 branch". #60127. This would be good to get fixed before the next 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., which is being organized for the next few weeks

Ecosystem Tools

Notes from today’s call:

Open Floor

  • @pbearne I am thinking of tackling Improving the calculation of image sizes attributes#760 but would like a quick chat/call to agree on the approach before I start. Could we plan that?
    • @joemcgill I’ve got an ongoing project internally where I’ve been working on that, @pbearne. Probably best to wait on more definition before diving into anything.
    • @joemcgill Would be happy to have you collaborate though. I most likely won’t have anything ready to share this week though
  • @flixos90 Just a reminder that the Performance Lab 2.8.0 release party will be in a good 1 hour from now, at 18:00 UTC. Please stop by and help out if you’re available!

Our next chat will be held on Tuesday, January 23, 2024 at 16:00 UTC in the #core-performance channel in Slack.

#core-performance, #performance, #performance-chat, #summary

Performance Chat Summary: 9 January 2024

Meeting agenda here and the full chat log is available beginning here on Slack.

Announcements

  • Welcome to our new members of #core-performance
  • Request for reviewers of the draft 2024 Performance Roadmap document please
    • @clarkeemily We are aiming to receive feedback on the above document by the end of this week please – we would greatly appreciate everyone’s feedback and input into shaping 2024
    • You will notice in this document that the Priority Projects have changed shape to being:
      • WordPress interactivity performance
      • WordPress load time performance
      • Ecosystem activation
      • Performance measurement
    • I’d be interested in opinions as to whether we structure the sections of this meeting aligned to those projects from next week onwards?

Priority Projects

Server Response Time

Link to roadmap projects and link to the GitHub project board

Contributors: @joemcgill @swissspidy @thekt12 @mukesh27 @pereirinha

  • @swissspidy For performance translations I just pinged some folks for code review again now that the holiday break is over
  • @pbearne can add an issue to create PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher-based translationtranslation The process (or result) of changing text, words, and display formatting to support another language. Also see localization, internationalization. files in the build tools?
  • @thekt12 Working on final bits of #59969 PR#5718 addressing review changes, unit testunit test Code written to test a small piece of code or functionality within a larger application. Everything from themes to WordPress core have a series of unit tests. Also see regression. and updating corresponding Guttenberg PR.
  • @thekt12 Also, started working on #60120 I’ll give it for first review this week
  • @joemcgill At the end of this meeting last week, @flixos90 @spacedmonkey and I had a useful conversation about improving our caching strategy 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. theme files (#59719), which has unblocked #60120. Jonny already created a PR for that issue which is ready for review.
  • @joemcgill @pereirinha also updated the PR for #59595, and I left some feedback yesterday. I think this is close save for a few details.

Database Optimization

Link to roadmap projects and link to the GitHub project board

Contributors: @mukesh27 @thekt12

  • @pbearne I updated the options autoload 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. follow the term changes

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/. & CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets.

Link to roadmap project and link to the GitHub project board

Contributors: @mukesh27 @flixos90 @westonruter

  • No updates this week

Images

Link to roadmap projects and link to the GitHub project board

Contributors: @flixos90 @adamsilverstein @joemcgill @pereirinha @westonruter

  • @adamsilverstein I have an update on AVIF image support – Microsoft has added support for AVIF in Edge, since version 1.121, (release data Jan 7, 2024) – see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/microsoft-edge-relnote-beta-channel#feature-update
    • I also confirmed this manually be opening test AVIF images in Edge (Canary) and everything worked as expected.
    • Assuming this lands in stable, we should be able to add support for AVIF to coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., see #51228
    • @mukesh27 Like WebP do we needs to make a module first for testing then merge into core?
    • @flixos90 I think to merely add support for the format, we could work directly against core. That was done the same way with WebP. Only if we wanted to make it a default or something, we’d need a module IMO. Although at some point we may just ditch WebP and try to progress with AVIF only, depending on browser support
    • @adamsilverstein Support can already be tested with https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/4612, note you need a server that supports AVIF for it to work, typically PHP 8.1+ or Imagick built with AVIF support
    • @flixos90 mentioned @swissspidy your client-side image efforts would be super useful for this too, as it would unlock AVIF support for a lot more sites
  • @joemcgill An initial module for implementing auto-sizes for lazy-loaded images is ready in the Performance Lab 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. This web feature is already in Chrome Betas, and will likely roll out in the next few weeks, so I’d like to get this out for people to start testing. See: https://github.com/WordPress/performance/pull/904
  • @swissspidy For client-side image compression aka media experiments I’m working on a PRD and trying things out in my media experiments plugin

Measurement

Link to roadmap projects and link to the GitHub project board

Contributors: @adamsilverstein @joemcgill @mukesh27 @swissspidy @flixos90

  • @joemcgill Nothing new this week, but wanted to flag that the Performance Tests started failing in the 6.4 branchbranch A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses branches to store the latest development code for each major release (3.9, 4.0, etc.). Branches are then updated with code for any minor releases of that branch. Sometimes, a major version of WordPress and its minor versions are collectively referred to as a "branch", such as "the 4.0 branch". recently, in case anyone has time to dig into it later this week: #60127

Ecosystem Tools

Link to roadmap projects and link to the GitHub repo for Plugin Checker

Contributors: @mukesh27 @swissspidy

  • @mukesh27 For the Plugin Check, I’ve been providing support by conducting code reviews for open PRs. Additionally, I’ve raised an issue regarding Behat test issue in PHP 8.0 for investigation
  • @flixos90 Several PRs have landed in the plugin checker repo last week from I believe a new contributor? I’m not sure what their 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/. user name is, but that effort definitely deserves recognition! @rabmalin thanks!
  • @joemcgill It also looks like @foosantos left some feedback on https://github.com/WordPress/plugin-check/issues/283#issuecomment-1882241470 regarding steps to releasing 1.0.0 of the plugin. It sounds like the Plugin Review team have several new blockers that need to be handled prior to that release, though I’m not sure where all of that is being coordinated. One of us should respond and see if we can get some visibility into issues @bordoni has been working on and whether we can support in order to relieve some pressure from their team. @flixos90 I’m happy to take this on if you don’t have time, but will defer to you, given you started that convo. @pbearne also offered to help.
  • @flixos90 It would definitely be great to find ways to better collaborate on both efforts. I don’t understand the problems at this point since I have no insight in the discussions that are happening. We could also actively support addressing their blockers which I think would be good for everyone
    • @clarkeemily asked @bordini how can we help here, and also get visibility into the behind the scenes planning that was mentioned in the comment above?

Creating Standalone Plugins

Link to GitHub overview issue

Contributors: @flixos90 @mukesh27

  • @mukesh27 We have successfully completed the Milestone 2a tasks and their respective follow-up PRs for the Creating Standalone Plugins feature. This is set to be released in the upcoming version 2.8.0.

Open Floor

Our next chat will be held on Tuesday, January 16, 2024 at 16:00 UTC in the #core-performance channel in Slack.

#core-performance, #performance, #performance-chat, #summary

Phase 3 Agency Outreach Recap, December 2023

Phase 3’s focus on collaboration, 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. and workflow takes 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/ further into enterprise territory. Inspired by @annezazu’s earlier outreach exercise, and following up on my own proposal, I took the opportunity of availability during December 2023 to reach out to WordPress agencies specialising in enterprise projects, inviting them to a series of informal show-and-tell sessions.

The aim was to gain an insight into enterprise clients’ requirements, and how agencies currently address them. Sessions were offered on a semi-confidential ‘Chatham House Rule’ basis, to avoid any concerns around client confidentiality; but I committed to publishing a summary of what we saw and learned.

Take-up was disappointing.

Invites were sent via several different outreach channels, chosen primarily based on the personal connections of the people involved: WordPress VIP’s partner networknetwork (versus site, blog), the Enterprise channel in 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/., and the News Nerdery community. This ought to have touched around 100 enterprise-centric agencies. I scheduled 9 one-hour sessions over a 10-day period, at times to suit all timezones. There was capacity for around 40 agencies to participate; but in the end, fewer than 5 agencies signed up. A few others indicated an interest, but did not get round to signing up.

There are many possible explanations. Perhaps December was simply poor timing. Our call for presentations was kept deliberately open and vague; perhaps it should have been more specific. Informal walkthroughs were requested, to minimise the burden of planning and preparation, but perhaps folks would have been more comfortable giving formal presentations.

What is clear is that Core currently lacks warm and clear communication channels with the agency ecosystem – at a time when such channels would be particularly useful for both parties.

It also follows that the following observations are based on a smaller snapshot of enterprise usage than was hoped for. 

Enterprise development practice moves slowly.

Agencies and their clients now seem comfortable with blocks, as delivered in Phase 1: this is largely backed up by data in the recent SOEWP survey.

But we saw no examples yet of Phase 2-style ‘site customisation’: agencies are still sticking with familiar models based on site metadata and Settings pages, even when Phase 2 functionality would probably deliver a better outcome.

An enterprise may only revisit its tech stack every 3 or 4 years, with no reason to fix what isn’t broken. Agencies are probably working on multiple enterprise contracts simultaneously, theoretically giving them more opportunities to embrace new possibilities; but with a decade of pre-Gutenberg ‘muscle memory’, they have a commercial incentive to stick with what they know until proven otherwise.

Collaboration will inevitably happen outside WordPress.

Enterprise employees spend their entire day in office suites like Google Docs or Microsoft 365; social media planning solutions; general collaboration platforms like Jira or Asana; industry specific tools like Desk-Net for newsrooms; technical platforms like 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/.

If businesses already have these tools, integrated into their company-wide workflow, for tasks beyond website management, it’s a bigger challenge for WordPress to force its way into the picture.

Collaboration also happens before WordPress arrives on the scene, in the definition of a ‘house style’, or page templates, which are then hard-coded into the WordPress workflow. Web content creators get limited flexibility, or perhaps none at all, simply filling in boxes. This may seem like the antithesis of user empowerment. But:

  • The business gets predictable, consistent results, always on-brand, delivered efficiently.
  • Employees’ main concern is to get the job done quickly, and move on to their next task.
  • Agencies can tailor UIUI User interface and UXUX User experience to very specific outcomes, minimising the support burden.

Real-time content collaboration is not a current user priority.

We saw no ‘cowpaths to be paved’ when it comes to real-time collaboration on normal content.

The closest we have come has been from an agency working with large news organisations: they described multiple people swarming on a single piece of content, but working on different aspects of it. There would only be one author writing in ‘the content area’: but they would be supported by a picture editor, an SEO manager, a headline manager, a ‘homepage manager’ deciding where it will appear. (This is broadly in line with @annezazu’s earlier findings.)

But some content types are, by definition, real-time and multi-author. One agency brought up the example of ‘live blogs’. If a news site runs ‘live blogs’, typically for major ‘breaking news’ events or sports coverage, these will usually be among their most popular articles of the day. (Source: Press Gazette, 2023.)

Publishers dislike ‘live blogblog (versus network, site)’ solutions embedded from third-party platforms, which do not deliver search-engine benefits. We saw one custom WP-based solution running in the back end, which suffered from the current inability to have multiple authors on the same edit screen. We also know of front-end based, Gutenberg-compatible liveblogs which allow for multiple authors and more creative content entry methods.

We certainly heard a desire for multiple users to collaborate around a single content item. But ‘Google Docs in the editor component’ is not the only possible meaning of collaborative creation… and may not even be the main one.

Revisions need work.

The current implementation of Revisions predates blocks, and is barely usable given the amount of code now held in post_content.

One agency demonstrated work they have done for a major European newspaper, refined over several years, which offers 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.-compatible WYSIWYGWhat You See Is What You Get What You See Is What You Get. Most commonly used in relation to editors, where changes made in edit mode reflect exactly as they will translate to the published page. comparison, with red and green highlighting of changes. They are open to the idea of sharing their code with Core; and are investigating how this might happen.

It was noted that collaborative editing may have unintended consequences for the current Revisions model. Right now, when only one user can edit and save at any one time, we know exactly who made each change, and when. This can be important for corporations in regulated industries. We lose that simple attribution to an individual, if multiple users are editing simultaneously. (Also noted in @leogermani‘s GitHub discussion thread.)

In conclusion

  • Core currently lacks channels for communicating and engaging with the agency ecosystem.
  • Collaboration on aspects of the website often happens away from the website, and involves people who never touch the website.
  • WordPress cannot realistically be the sole collaboration space for many enterprises and publishers, even as relates to a WordPress-based publishing workflow.
  • The ability to collaborate across different components of a post is currently a greater priority than collaborating within the post_content itself.
  • Beware of unintended consequences – for example, collaborative editing breaking our current Revisions model.

Where next?

Outside of immediate steps I can take, like supporting the agency mentioned to package its work on revisions for Core or arranging future sessions with agencies who expressed interest, we wanted to open the floor to hear from others around ways to improve uptake for enterprise agencies.

  • What do you think would help?
  • What should we try next to spark these conversations and bring feedback into this next phase?

My thanks to @annezazu and various members of the Core team for participating in this initiative; and to enterprise agency Big Bite for sponsoring my time in organising and running these sessions.

#feedback, #phase-3, #summary

Performance Chat Summary: 2 January 2024

Meeting agenda here and the full chat log is available beginning here on Slack.

Announcements

  • Welcome to our new members of #core-performance
  • Call for 2024 roadmap priorities https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues/903 – the issue will remain open for project priorities until January 5, 2024

Priority Projects

Server Response Time

Link to roadmap projects and link to the GitHub project board

Contributors: @joemcgill @swissspidy @thekt12 @mukesh27 @pereirinha

  • @mukesh27 plan to review Jonny’s Lazy load varients PR
  • @joemcgill Just getting back into things after the long holiday break. Left a review on @spacedmonkey PR on #59969, which @thekt12 has also been working on. I think we’re close to having something there, just need to align on some details of the approach, I think
    • @spacedmonkey I think we need to consider b/c I think adding a new parameter of variations callback is the only way forward. We need to think about how we are going to implement this 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/ as well. We have to support 2 versions back of WP coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. The 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. PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher code is in Gutenberg.
    • @joemcgill agreed. If you can outline those concerns in the PR or ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker., that would be helpful. I left you some feedback just about 30 min ago there
  • @pereirinha I plan to circle back this week to #59595

Database Optimization

Link to roadmap projects and link to the GitHub project board

Contributors: @mukesh27 @thekt12

  • No updates this week

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/. & CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets.

Link to roadmap project and link to the GitHub project board

Contributors: @mukesh27 @flixos90 @westonruter

Images

Link to roadmap projects and link to the GitHub project board

Contributors: @flixos90 @adamsilverstein @joemcgill @pereirinha @westonruter

  • @joemcgill I think the Performance Lab module proposal for lazy sizes is about ready. @flixos90 do you have any timing considerations before that is merged? https://github.com/WordPress/performance/pull/904
    • @flixos90 I’m not sure we should merge it right now given we’re in the last bits of unbundling 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, and it would introduce a new module that ideally should be a standalone plugin. Potentially we could still merge it, but IMO the more pressing point would be to submit it to the .org directory. So that it can go to the review chain. Since it’s a community feature pluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins., potentially we could request to expedite
    • @joemcgill Makes sense. I do think we’ll end up wanting it to be in the PL plugin while we await the review, though, so we can get some early testing and feedback on the approach prior to potentially getting this into core during this cycle
    • @flixos90 I think my proposal at the end of https://github.com/WordPress/performance/issues/911#issuecomment-1866602771 would allow for that. Curious what y’all think about this. It would allow us long-term to start anything as a module, then make it a plugin once it’s approved in the directory
    • @joemcgill I like the idea. I would prefer we work towards a clean code separation between modules and plugins, so it’s obvious which are which.
    • @flixos90 There would still be a transition involved though. For instance, if we merge this now, it would go into the modules folder, as only those are actually included and loaded in PL.
      Once it would be approved on .org, we could then move the code to the plugins folder, with (probably) the only code change being the module headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes. turning into the plugin header

Measurement

Link to roadmap projects and link to the GitHub project board

Contributors: @adamsilverstein @joemcgill @mukesh27 @swissspidy @flixos90

  • No updates this week

Ecosystem Tools

Link to roadmap projects and link to the GitHub repo for Plugin Checker

Contributors: @mukesh27 @swissspidy

Creating Standalone Plugins

Link to GitHub overview issue

Contributors: @flixos90 @mukesh27

Open Floor

  • Discuss #60120 
    • @spacedmonkey I don’t think this ticket should be blocked by other ticket. That ticket might take a long time to resolve. This issue can’t be resolved by the next release. The only thing to decide is if we make the cache group global.
    • @joemcgill I would hope to have an approach for #59719 (the blocking ticket) resolved very shortly and I agree that #60120 should be resolved in this release cycle.
    • @spacedmonkey With theme data, most of it should be global caches in multisitemultisite Used to describe a WordPress installation with a network of multiple blogs, grouped by sites. This installation type has shared users tables, and creates separate database tables for each blog (wp_posts becomes wp_0_posts). See also network, blog, site context
    • @flixos90 I completely agree that this should receive a cache group. I’m curious though why that is urgent. What are the actual problems of having this in the global cache group?
    • @spacedmonkey The default cache group isn’t a global cache group. Not being in a cache group, means that the cache group can not be cleared.
    • @joemcgill By “default cache group” I assume you are talking about the “themes” cache group. That group is also not persistent without a 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., so one of the questions is whether we need to introduce a new cache group, or revisit the way theme data is cached.
    • @spacedmonkey The default cache group is that, a group called default which is where is stored if no group is defined, as current.
    • @pbearne I would be happy to make the changes as needed
    • @joemcgill Thanks for clarifying what you meant by default. What do you mean by “global”
      • @flixos90 Global groups apply to an entire multisite
    • @flixos90 Makes sense that it’s probably not optimal to use a non-global cache group. But we shouldn’t just use themes, that’s the tricky part. Surely we could just make up a new group name for a new global group and fix this issue, but I think then it could be that group name would need to be changed based on the decision from #59719
    • @spacedmonkey Cache groups can be local to a site like posts or global in multisite like networknetwork (versus site, blog) or user
    • @flixos90 To be fair, even the themes group is only global if it’s set to persistently cache. Since we probably want the data here to be persistently cached, it would make sense to make that group (whatever it would be called) global
    • The rest of this discussion continues in Slack from here https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02KGN5K076/p1704215017254669

Our next chat will be held on Tuesday, January 9, 2024 at 16:00 UTC in the #core-performance channel in Slack.

#core-performance, #performance, #performance-chat, #summary

Dev Chat seasonal break, highlighted posts December 2023

(Updated post Dec 23, 2023 with volunteer call for 2024 releases; Dec 28, to add ‘WordPress end of year post’)

It was agreed at the Dev Chat that there would be a break for a few weeks, from and including December 20, 2023, and restarting on January 10, 2024. During this period, I will be publishing a list of new posts and reminders that come up in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. If there are any others, please do add them in the comments.

Highlighted posts

End of Year WordPress celebration post from @chanthaboune, with some of the highlights by Make team.

Volunteer call for 2024 WordPress releases (December 22, 2023) – thanks to @priethor for the update, which also includes the proposed schedule for releases. If you are interested, please leave a comment on that post by January 12, 2024.

What’s new in Gutenberg 17.3? (December 20, 2023). 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/ 17.3 has been released and is available for download! This update incorporates numerous enhancements, 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, improvements in performance and 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), and ongoing development of Phase 3 features.

Overflow questions from the State of the Word 2023 post.

Reminder: core team rep nominations and elections. Note: The nomination period was extended until January 12, 2024 at 23:59 UTC, to give more time for 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. to consider and nominate other contributors and/or themselves.

Proposal to add company icons to sponsored contributors @pbiron is suggesting this approach to encourage companies to support WordPress more and so user can see where the support is coming from.

Updating WordPress to use more modern versions of Node.js/npm: Part 2 @desrosj sets out the actions contributors to core will need to take to upgrade the version of Node.js installed locally to be able to contribute to WordPress through wordpress-develop or WordPress/Gutenberg.

WordPress performance impact on Core Web Vitals in 2023, December 19, 2023

From the Developer Blogblog (versus network, site), Extending plugins using custom Slot Fills. Other new posts on the Blog.

Call for volunteers for the Dev Blog – posts in need of writers and reviewers are listed in the last Dev Blog editorial meeting from December 14, 2023.

For information, in the #fse-outreach-experiment, there was an opportunity for developers to share their theme building workflow with contributors working on theme tooling. Similar opportunities will be promoted in the future. Join the channel to keep up to date with developments.

Bug scrubs and tickets

Last bug scrub link in Slack

New bug scrubs will be added to the Bug Scrub schedule for 6.5. Could you help run a scrub or have tickets you would like to progress? Find out more about bug gardening in the Core Handbook.

@pbiron would like people to carry out unit tests that he is adding for TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. tickets. By mid-December, there were nearly 100 ready to go. Pick up the testing challenge by following this Trac query

Update from core-editor

Props to @annezazu for preparing this update.

For information

6.5 related updates

Next major WordPress release: 6.5

For information, existing links:

Next meeting

The next dev chat will be on January 10, 2024 at 20:00 UTC.

Catch up with Dev Chats and summaries from other core meetings at this link.

#dev-chat, #summary

Performance Chat Summary: 19 December 2023

Meeting agenda here and the full chat log is available beginning here on Slack.

Announcements

Priority Projects

Server Response Time

Link to roadmap projects and link to the GitHub project board

Contributors: @joemcgill @swissspidy @thekt12 @mukesh27 @pereirinha

Database Optimization

Link to roadmap projects and link to the GitHub project board

Contributors: @mukesh27 @thekt12

  • No updates this week

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/. & CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets.

Link to roadmap project and link to the GitHub project board

Contributors: @mukesh27 @flixos90 @westonruter

  • @flixos90 No real update, just that I’m currently experimenting with the Interactivity 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., specifically to use it in classic default themes to replace more manual custom JSJS JavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors.. Partly to familiarize myself with the API, partly for a first prototype of something we could potentially do in the future. Should have a first draft PR up for later today. Really for reference more than anything

Images

Link to roadmap projects and link to the GitHub project board

Contributors: @flixos90 @adamsilverstein @joemcgill @pereirinha @westonruter

  • @joemcgill Last week I put together a small experiment to see how the new auto-sizes for lazy-loaded images feature is working now that it’s being implemented in browsers. Based on that exploration, I put together an initial module implementation that can already be used for testing. I plan to update the PR this week.
    • Related – I also opened a new issue to discuss how we want to handle new modules once the unbundling project is complete. Feedback would be appreciated.

Measurement

Link to roadmap projects and link to the GitHub project board

Contributors: @adamsilverstein @joemcgill @mukesh27 @swissspidy @flixos90

  • No updates this week

Ecosystem Tools

Link to roadmap projects and link to the GitHub repo for 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 Checker

Contributors: @mukesh27 @swissspidy

  • @mukesh27 For the Plugin Check, I have been addressing issue 342 and have opened PR 347, which is now ready for review and I also supported in code review process. Moreover, there is positive news that some community contributors are actively working on several issues and have raised corresponding PRs for them. 

Creating Standalone Plugins

Link to GitHub overview issue

Contributors: @flixos90 @mukesh27

Open Floor

  • @desrosj I noticed that the performance tests started failing in some older branches while working on some E2E test related changes. Well, it only seems to be happening for the 6.4 branchbranch A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses branches to store the latest development code for each major release (3.9, 4.0, etc.). Branches are then updated with code for any minor releases of that branch. Sometimes, a major version of WordPress and its minor versions are collectively referred to as a "branch", such as "the 4.0 branch". currently. But I’m wondering if the needed conditions just haven’t been met for the other branches.
    • @joemcgill I’m only seeing the latest commit fail according to this list. Am I looking at the wrong thing?
    • @desrosj That’s accurate. I was confusing the additional E2E failures with something (potentially) unrelated that I’ve fixed separately. #60095 is what I was working on. The step that is failing seems to be checking 6.1.1 for a baseline if I’m reading it correctly.
    • @joemcgill I’m going to try rerunning that one, since the same commit to the 6.3 branch worked fine.
    • @desrosj
    • FWIW, I committed the fix for 60095 in the 6.1 branch this morning, and this workflow was from yesterday. Maybe the re-run does not include changes for the other branch because they were not there when this change was made? Started a manual run for 6.4 to try and rule that out.

Our next chat will be held on Tuesday, January 2, 2024 at 16:00 UTC in the #core-performance channel in Slack.

#core-performance, #performance, #performance-chat, #summary