The WordPress coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. development team builds WordPress! Follow this site for general updates, status reports, and the occasional code debate. There’s lots of ways to contribute:
Found a bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority.?Create a ticket in the bug tracker.
WordPress 6.8 | BetaBetaA pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 3 is now available 🥳
The Beta 3 release of WordPress 6.8 is now available! A heartfelt thank you to everyone who joined the Release Party. We appreciate your testing and feedback.
Help Test 6.8 Beta version 🧪
The Test-Team has written two helpful guides for people interested in testing:
Next GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ version: 20.5
Gutenberg 20.5 is scheduled for release on Wednesday, March 19th. This will be the first version of Gutenberg to be merged into WordPress 6.9.
Release Candidaterelease candidateOne of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). 1 of 6.8: March 25th
The Release Candidate 1 release of WordPress 6.8 will be available on Tuesday, March 25th.
A detailed overview of the release schedule for WordPress 6.8 can be found here. The article also includes information about the individuals assigned to each release party.
Next major releasemajor releaseA release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope.: 6.8
To avoid listing the topics here twice, all the necessary links and information can be found in the agenda. This section now includes a few additions.
Release Support Needed
@jeffpaul provided an update: only a few dev notesdev noteEach important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase. remain to be drafted and will be published this week. A Miscellaneous Dev Notedev noteEach important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase. will be updated and released by RCrelease candidateOne of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). 1. The Field GuideField guideThe field guide is a type of blogpost published on Make/Core during the release candidate phase of the WordPress release cycle. The field guide generally lists all the dev notes published during the beta cycle. This guide is linked in the about page of the corresponding version of WordPress, in the release post and in the HelpHub version page. draft will be shared later this week as more dev notes are completed. The PluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party Author email will likely go out next week due to current priorities.
Critical Issues Before RC 1
@joemcgill stated it’s the last week of beta and critical issues need prioritizing. @audrasjb mentioned 17 tickets are left before RC1, with no major issues, though #63122 is annoying. @joemcgill is tracking new tickets and ensuring regressions in 6.8 are added to the milestone. He also requested non-release prep tasks be resolved this week for a clean RC.
Open Floor 💬
There were no significant topics that we would list in the summary.
WordPress 6.8 | BetaBetaA pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 2 is now available 🥳
The Beta 2 release of WordPress 6.8 is now available! A heartfelt thank you to everyone who joined the Release Party. We appreciate your testing and feedback.
Help Test 6.8 Beta version 🧪
The Test-Team has written two helpful guides for people interested in testing:
Thanks @ankit-k-gupt and @krupajnanda for your contribution!
Forthcoming releases 🚀
Next GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ version: 20.5
Gutenberg 20.5 is scheduled for release on Wednesday, March 19th. This will be the first version of Gutenberg to be merged into WordPress 6.9.
Next Beta 3 of 6.8: March 18th
The Beta 3 release of WordPress 6.8 will be available on Tuesday, March 18th.
A detailed overview of the release schedule for WordPress 6.8 can be found here. The article also includes information about the individuals assigned to each release party.
Next major releasemajor releaseA release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope.: 6.8
We have only two weeks until RCrelease candidateOne of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). 1. Dev notes should be in progress. Please check @jeffpaul‘s message on Slack for details.
Editor Updates 🔄
Stay tuned for weekly updates to keep you informed about the latest in WordPress editor development. Whether you’re a developer, designer, or content creator, these updates will keep you in the loopLoopThe Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. on all the key changes.
Don’t miss out — check out the weekly update and get ready for more!
Discussion 🤔
Finalizing the About Page for WordPress 6.8
Jeff Paul requested help reviewing and finalizing the About page text.
Deadline: March 25 (RC1), but earlier completion is preferred.
“Source of Truth” Document
@poena asked for updates on the “Source of Truth” document, which provides extenders with details about the WordPress 6.8 release. Currently, no one is actively working on it due to limited capacity. @joemcgill suggested prioritizing the Field GuideField guideThe field guide is a type of blogpost published on Make/Core during the release candidate phase of the WordPress release cycle. The field guide generally lists all the dev notes published during the beta cycle. This guide is linked in the about page of the corresponding version of WordPress, in the release post and in the HelpHub version page. instead, as it serves a similar purpose and is officially published. Stevenlinx may have a draft of the Field Guide, and a request was made to share it for collaboration. If no one takes on the “Source of Truth” document, it will likely not be created for this release.
Unused Code in WordPress CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.
@zodiac1978 reported unused constants in WordPress Core and created TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress.ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.#63017 to address the issue. He asked whether their deprecation had been officially documented. @joemcgill suggested verifying if their removal was intentional or if they are still needed. @desrosj pointed out that some plugins might still rely on these constants, making their removal risky. @joedolson agreed, emphasizing that plugins could use them in ways not immediately visible in Core. @zodiac1978 plans to investigate further in the pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party directory and update the ticket with his findings.
Open Floor 💬
There were no further topics to discuss today.
Thanks to @francinafor helping review this summary.
The full chat log is available beginning here on Slack.
WordPress Performance TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. tickets
@johnbillion RE #63026, this is an issue with the performance of the tests due to the high number of user fixtures, all of which generate and hash a password for the user with each fixture. The regular performance tests are not indicatiny any general performance regressionregressionA software bug that breaks or degrades something that previously worked. Regressions are often treated as critical bugs or blockers. Recent regressions may be given higher priorities. A "3.6 regression" would be a bug in 3.6 that worked as intended in 3.5.. I think we can therefore remove the performance focus unless there’s an objection.
@westonruter Let’s start with the upcoming set of Performance Lab releases which is due March 17th.
@westonruter As noted by @flixos90, this release won’t actually include any update to the Performance Lab pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party itself. Instead there will be updates to Optimization Detective, Image Prioritizer, Embed Optimizer, Speculative Loading, and Modern Image Formats. Therefore, he suggests that we take this as an opportunity move away from using the PL’s version for the release tags. In reality this should have been done long ago when we split up the plugin into standalone plugins. So instead of the release branchbranchA 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". being release/4.0.0 it could instead be release/20250317. The title of the release then I suppose would be 2025-03-17 as well.
@mukesh27 Does the release triggered manually as we didn’t release PL plugin?
@westonruter The GHA workflow doesn’t depend on releasing the PL plugin anymore, right? I mean, ever since the plugin was split into standalone plugins, I don’t think this was the case
@flixos90 It would feel a bit odd to have a release called 2025-03-17 in the GitHubGitHubGitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ releases page, but I’d argue that’s only because of the previous releases using the PL version number. It’s already odd now in that each release is labelled by the PL version number, but actually includes multiple releases using different versions. So I think that would be fine.
@westonruter We can include a note in the release description that explains the naming convention change.
@mukesh27 What happens in the future if we find ourselves in the same situation? Will we use the release date again?
@westonruter Yeah, I think we’ll use dates from now on.
@flixos90 Are you saying we should use dates for the release branches and GH releases going forward even when PL is among the released plugins? If we are going to do that, we should modify the documentation in the CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Performance Handbook.
@westonruter Yes, I think we should use dates going forward.
@swissspidy Agreed. Would be even more confusing otherwise.
@westonruter Looks like Modern Image Formats primarily just needs a couple tweaks prior to merging one PR. It looks like the other PR will need to get bumped.
@westonruter I can do it. I typically tweak the handbook after going through the release based on how it went.
@mukesh27 I have to share update on the accurate sizes project: I picked it up and started working on it this week. The PR #1795 adds the ancestor blockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. context and is ready for review.
GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ version 20.4 was released!
Gutenberg version 20.4 was officially released today! This update brings a variety of enhancements and improvements to the blockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor. This version is the final release to be merged into WordPress 6.8.
A detailed changelog article will follow shortly, providing an in-depth look at the features and changes in this version.
Forthcoming releases 🚀
Next major releasemajor releaseA release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope.: 6.8 – BetaBetaA pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 2
The Beta 2 release of WordPress 6.8 will be available on Tuesday, March 11th. Join the Release Party to test new features and provide feedback!
Stay tuned for weekly updates to keep you informed about the latest in WordPress editor development. Whether you’re a developer, designer, or content creator, these updates will keep you in the loopLoopThe Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. on all the key changes.
Don’t miss out — check out the weekly update and get ready for more!
Discussion 🤔
To avoid listing the topics here twice, all the necessary links and information can be found in the agenda. This section now includes a few additions.
6.8 – Beta 1 | Current update issue with versions older than 5.1 ⚠️
A bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. was found preventing updates for versions older than 5.1 in Beta 1, with ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.#63052 created. @joemcgill mentioned that @johnbillion will handle it when he’s back this week, and it shouldn’t affect Beta 2. 🥳
6.8 | Preparing Documentation for the 6.8 Release
@jeffpaul mentioned that the document is intended for the Helphub page, similar to the 6.7 release. Additionally, @milana_cap shared details on docs-related topics here.
Call for the Security Role for the upcoming 6.8 release parties
@desrosj mentioned that he can take on the security role, as it involves running the security test suite. He is open to involving more team members if anyone is interested, but he’s fine handling it on his own.
Open Floor 💬
6.8 Beta 1 | Feedback
After the Beta 1 release, a ticket was created for an issue (#63055) regarding missing template parts, related to #62574. @jeffpaul confirmed that changes from #62574won’t be included in 6.8 as is, but updates will resolve the gaps.
Thanks to @francinafor helping review this summary.
GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ version 20.3 was released!
Gutenberg Version 20.3 was officially released last week! This new update brings a variety of enhancements and improvements to the blockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor.
A detailed changelog article will follow shortly, providing an in-depth look at the features and changes in this version.
Forthcoming releases 🚀
Next major releasemajor releaseA release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope.: 6.8 – BetaBetaA pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 1
The Beta 1 release of WordPress 6.8 will be available on Tuesday, March 4th. Join the Release Party to test new features and provide feedback!
Next Gutenberg version: 20.4
Gutenberg 20.4 is scheduled for release on Wednesday, March 5th. This will be the final release to be merged into WordPress 6.8.
Stay tuned for weekly updates to keep you informed about the latest in WordPress editor development. Whether you’re a developer, designer, or content creator, these updates will keep you in the loopLoopThe Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. on all the key changes.
Clarifying our PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher support for 6.8
The discussion focused on PHP compatibility for WordPress 6.8. @joemcgill mentioned that @johnbillion was exploring moving ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.#58320 to the 6.8 milestone, as the PHP compatibility page needs an update. It was suggested to review and potentially update the criteria for removing labels.
Over 40% of WordPress sites run PHP 8.0 or newer, so labeling PHP 8.0 as “beta” is unclear. It was clarified that “beta” support now applies to PHP 8.3 and 8.4, while 8.0, 8.1, and 8.2 are “compatible with exceptions.”
REST APIREST APIThe REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/. | Template Parts
For ticket #62574, the goal is to align on where to expose data in the REST API, coming from the GB pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. The current plan is to add it to the index for logged-in users, likely merging this for Beta 1 unless a better alternative arises. Feedback is encouraged as a decision will need to be made soon. Mamaduka is open to following up on the PR/patchpatchA 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. based on feedback before or after Beta 1. @jorbin supported the idea of adding it only for logged-in users.
Style Book for Classic themes
The discussion focused on ticket #62509, which proposes making the Style Book available to classic themes in WordPress. This feature is being carried over from Gutenberg. The current plan is to commit the feature by Beta 1, though it may need refinement before RC1. There was a PR under review that modifies how the Style Book is shown based on theme support, which would be a change to the adminadmin(and super admin) menu. It was noted that while the Style Book would be available for all classic themes, adjustments to the UIUIUser interface and an opt-out strategy still need to be worked on.
The team discussed whether the feature should be committed for Beta 1 and whether testers were available to test both the Gutenberg and coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. PRs before the deadline. The consensus was that tickets close to landing could be included before Beta 1, but anything not ready should be punted to a later stage.
Open Floor 💬
WordPress 6.8 | TriagetriageThe act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. update
@audrasjb shared updated stats for the upcoming WordPress Release 6.8 release with detailed information.
Ticket Status
On the 354 tickets in the milestone:
about 30 tickets have been moved to Future Release or 6.9 since last week
194 tickets are closed as fixed (+19 compared to previous week)
160 tickets are still open (-17 compared to previous week)
Ticket Types
On the 160 still opentickets in the milestone:
99 are bugfixes
43 are enhancements
18 are blessed tasks
2 are feature requests
Misc infos:
We have 0 ‘high’ (or higher) priority ticket (-1):
On the 160 open tickets, 7 have the ‘commit’ keyword (+1)
On the 160 open tickets, 3 have the ‘early’ keyword (-3)
WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe 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/APIAPIAn API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. Connections to a Different Location
@clorith is requesting feedback on the implementation in ticket #62132 and its viability for WordPress 6.8. The response can be found in the first comment from @jorbin.
Thanks to @audrasjbfor helping review this summary.
WordPress 6.8BetaBetaA 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 next Tuesday, Mar 4. Therefore any feature or enhancementenhancementEnhancements are simple improvements to WordPress, such as the addition of a hook, a new feature, or an improvement to an existing feature. tickets must be completed or punted by Monday.
WordPress Performance TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. tickets
Discussion of performance tickets for the upcoming 6.8 release:
@flixos90: #43258 seems like a pretty big change to start working on this late in the cycle. It looks like there’s no PR yet?
@westonruter: No PR yet, but it has been in GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ (client-side navigation experiment) for awhile now, and in Optimization Detective as well. The patchpatchA 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. would be small.
@flixos90: Since WordPress CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. has never included an output buffer (whether for good reasons or not), I think this requires more discussion that would not be possible to have in just a few days.
@westonruter: I’ll open a PR and we can discuss. If no consensus then we’ll puntpuntContributors 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.).
@flixos90: Some PRs like the one on #62124may be ready, but they haven’t had any reviews from committers yet. So depending on bandwidth, they may not make it
@flixos90: It looks like most of the 6.8 performance enhancements have had some updates in the last few days, so hopefully they’re moving along. I’m going to check in on the ones without recent updates later, and can do another last-minute scrub to either commit or punt on Monday.
@joemcgill is curious about #58001 and #57496, which are both close, but the deadline for Beta 1 is coming very quickly. #58001 was marked early and is at risk of getting punted this week without follow-up.
@spacedmonkey: I need to add unit tests right? Is there anything else needed?
@joemcgill: @flixos90 left feedback on the PR that is not resolved, but once you two are happy with it being committed, it seems good to go
@flixos90: Beyond my feedback that hasn’t been addressed yet, the #58001 PR needs a review by someone else. I explicitly mentioned that the metadata lazyloader changes that are part of it fall outside my domain too much so I wouldn’t be comfortable approving those changes. Alternatively, the PR could be split into two pieces, as I’m happy and more confident to review the WP_User changes
@joemcgill: Oh right. I’ll look again, but it seemed ok to me. Could be good to get @peterwilsoncc‘s feedback given he’s also looking at #57496.
Performance Lab PluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party (and other performance plugins)
@flixos90 opened https://github.com/WordPress/performance/pull/1883 yesterday to use the now merged WP Core APIAPIAn API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. for Speculative Loading conditionally if available
Open Floor
@westonruter: From doing performance audits at WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. Asia (and previous WordCamps), something I’ve been seeing more and more being the performance bottleneck is render-blocking stylesheets in the HEAD. This often shows up as a render delay when the LCP element is text, e.g. a paragraph or heading. I started investigating further and I found that Twenty Twenty-Two and Twenty Twenty-Five are not inlining their style.css files when they should be, so I opened this ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. with a patch to implement: #63007
@westonruter: When all stylesheets are inclined a dramatic reduction in LCP(-TTFB) results when I tested with a Slow 3G networknetwork(versus site, blog) condition: 4196.1 ms (poor) down to 2230.8 ms (good). Related to that, I found that no stylesheets in core themes are getting minified, so I opened #63012 to address that.
@westonruter: Additionally, I think we should investigate increasing the styles_inline_size_limit from 20,000 bytes to maybe 50,000 bytes. I intend to do some benchmarks to show the performance tradeoff of inlining versus having a cached stylesheet for repeat visits. Relatedly, the landing of Speculative Loading means additional byte size of documents with inclined CSSCSSCascading Style Sheets. will now result in less of an impact due to prefetching.
@flixos90: I think the concern is related to blockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. themes specifically, since end users are more in touch with them than they were with classic themes, e.g. you can export a theme etc. from making changes in the UIUIUser interface. So the lines between end user and developer territory blur. I’m not sure about whether that should block us from implementing minification, but all I’m saying is the implications differ between block themes and classic themes.
@westonruter: But with block themes users don’t edit any CSS file in the Site Editor, right? It’s separate from Global Styles.
@flixos90: Worth highlighting https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/58519#comment:2 too (and other comments of similar nature) that highlight that before we allow inlining default theme CSS, we should minify the files to avoid more HTMLHTMLHyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. bloat. So potentially #63007 should depend on #63012.
There are no major announcements from the past week.
Forthcoming releases 🚀
Next major releasemajor releaseA release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope.: 6.8
Next GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ release: 20.3
The next Gutenberg release will be 20.3. It is scheduled for today, February 19 and will include the following issues.
Discussion 🤔
Added speculative loading support
@joemcgill mentioned that Speculative Loading was implemented yesterday and encouraged people to test the feature and provide feedback to help address any bugs before the major release. Further information on this can be found here: #62503
WordPress 6.8 Feedback
@jeffpaul asked if anyone sees an enhancementenhancementEnhancements are simple improvements to WordPress, such as the addition of a hook, a new feature, or an improvement to an existing feature. or other priority topic that requires attention before BetaBetaA pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process.1 on March 4th, which is less than two weeks away.
Decision Needed on REST APIREST APIThe REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/. Template Exposition
@joemcgill mentioned that a decision is needed on how to resolve the issue in #62574 regarding where to expose default template types or template part areas in the REST API.
Editor Updates 🔄
In the future, the Editor Update News will be published separately as individual posts.
Let’s take a quick look at what has been happening with the Gutenberg Editor. See here.
Thank you @krupaly2k for the detailed listing and efforts based on the current development status.
Open Floor 💬
WordPress 6.8 | TriagetriageThe act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. update
@audrasjb shared updated stats for the upcoming WordPress Release 6.8 release with detailed information.
TicketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. Status
On the 352 tickets in the milestone:
about 25 tickets have been moved to Future Release or 6.9 last week
175 tickets are closed as fixed (+15 compared to previous week)
177 tickets are still open (-24 compared to previous week)
Ticket Types
On the 352 tickets in the milestone:
191 are bugfixes (-3)
127 are enhancements (-5)
23 are blessed tasks (-1)
11 are feature requests (=)
Please note that 6.8 tries to limit the number of new features. As we are approaching Beta 1, we’re starting to puntpuntContributors 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.) almost all tickets marked early, feature request and enhancement.
Misc infos:
We have 0 ‘high’ priority ticket (-1):
On the 177 open tickets, 6 have the ‘commit’ keyword (-3)
On the 177 open tickets, 6 have the ‘early’ keyword (-1)
To committers working on 6.8: feel free to commit any tickets that are ready to ship! Here’s the Trac report for those tickets.
For people working on early tickets, especially committers: please note that we’ve started moving some tickets to milestone 6.9 or Future Release. Here’s a useful Trac report.
The next scheduled scrub is tomorrow, February 20th, at 20:00 UTC.
WordPress 6.8 | Feature discussion
@krupajnanda is seeking clarification on whether the Zoom out to compose with patterns feature will be included in the WordPress 6.8 release and what its current status is.
Benjamin Zekavica is joining as a Core Team RepTeam RepA Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. for the first time, and along with Francesca Marano and Jean-Baptiste Audras. He aims to get up to speed, gain new experiences, and strengthen the Core Team together.
Forthcoming releases 🚀
New maintenance release: 6.7.2
The maintenance release WordPress 6.7.2 was officially released on February 11 and is now available for download. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this release and helped with testing at the release party!
Next major releasemajor releaseA release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope.: 6.8
Next GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ release: 20.3
Gutenberg 20.3 is due for release on February 19, 2025. For more insights into the latest version, here is a detailed overview of all the changes and new features in the Gutenberg release.
Discussion 🤔
Improving Unit Testunit testCode 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.TicketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. visibility
@desrosj shared a proposal to improve the visibility of unit test-related tickets. See more here: #7907. A new tests focus has been added in MetaMetaMeta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress.TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. to highlight tickets where tests need to be added or improved. @joemcgill clarified that this focus is specifically for tickets where new tests are being added or enhanced, not for tickets that already include tests as part of feature work.
@jorbin discussed that Task (blessed) tickets should only be handled by the release squad. If this is not the case, the categoryCategoryThe 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. should likely be re-evaluated.
Open Floor 💬
WordPress 6.8 | TriagetriageThe act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. update
@audrasjb shared updated stats for the upcoming WordPress Release 6.8 release with detailed information.
Ticket Status
On the 361 tickets in the milestone:
160 tickets are closed as fixed
201 tickets are still open (14 of them were reopened for further fixes)
@audrasjb encourages committers involved in version 6.8 to commit tickets that are ready. A Trac report for commit-ready tickets has been shared. Starting tomorrow, tickets with the early keyword will be moved to milestone 6.9, and a Trac report for those tickets is also available. A milestone for WordPress 6.9 was created on February 11, during the latest accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) scrub.
Gutenberg Packages update status
@joemcgill mentioned that the initial sync of Gutenberg (GB) packages was completed last week, allowing features to be tested directly in trunktrunkA directory in Subversion containing the latest development code in preparation for the next major release cycle. If you are running "trunk", then you are on the latest revision.. Ongoing syncs will continue after upcoming Gutenberg releases and as needed for bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. fixes. There are several pending pull requests (PRs) to port PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 7.4 or higher functionality to trunk, which still require review and merging. These PRs are tagged with the gutenberg-merge keyword in Trac. See #62887
Recommended PHP version information
@Mdxfr raised a question about the recommended PHP version for WordPress 6.8, particularly for performance and pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party compatibility. While WordPress is compatible with PHP 8.3, full compatibility is still being assessed. This will be discussed further in the next Dev Chat, where a Core Team representative will gather additional information from the Hosting Team.
Thanks to @francinafor helping review this summary.
The full chat log is available beginning here on Slack.
WordPress Performance TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. tickets
Discussion of performance tickets for the upcoming 6.8 release:
#39242 (Add caching to count_user_posts()) – Jonny Harris plans to commit
#62503 (Add speculative loading support) is now waiting for follow up reviews
Performance Lab PluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party (and other performance plugins)
A reminder that the next version of the Performance Lab plugin will be this Thursday.
The release branchbranchA 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". has been cut and the PR to prep the release has been opened.
Needs testing and then we’re good to go for Thursday.
Next major releasemajor releaseA release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope.: 6.8
Next GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ release: 20.2
Gutenberg 20.2.0 was released on February 5. It included the following issues. For the last several releases, the “What’s new in Gutenberg” posts have been paused due to the team’s capacity. If anyone is interested in helping with these posts, please contact @mamaduka.
The PR is ready for another review. There is an issue causing the wp-polyfill script being bundled but is not a blockerblockerA bug which is so severe that it blocks a release. for the sync.
WordPress 6.8 Roadmap
@krupaly2k was still working on this with support from @jeffpaul and feedback from release squad members.
The Roadmap to 6.8 post was published following the meeting.
REST APIREST APIThe REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/. feedback needed
There was discussion about whether this should be fixed on the server side or in the client.
@jorbin suggested trying to get some tests written that show the bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. in the server in order to help drive a fix.
@joemcgill said that fixing server side is a good idea, but if a client side fix could resolve a user issue then we should pursue that as well.
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