Dev Chat Summary: May 23rd (4.9.7 week 1)

This post summarizes the dev chat meeting from May 23rd (agenda, Slack archive).

4.9.6 feedback

  • 4.9.6 was released on Thursday, May 17th thanks to the leadership from @desrosj and @allendav, heavy assists from @sergeybiryukov, @azaozz, and everyone over in #gdpr-compliance 🎉
  • Important developer and site owner topics included in 4.9.6 (New PHP Polyfills and Changes that Affect Theme Authors) all included within the 4.9.6 Update Guide
  • Auto updates were initially left off for 4.9.6 for about one day to evaluate incoming support requests and make sure there were no issues with the more than “normal” amount of code introduced
  • Initially some reports of users seeing a white screen on their sites, tracked to a small handful of plugins that were hooking into one of the new Privacy features using `init` instead of `admin_init`, and this was causing a very edgy edge case on some installs (see #44142)
  • Thus, auto updates have remained off for 4.9.6 to avoid more potential issues, documentation in the PluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party Handbook was updated with a notice describing that using `init` would potentially introduce problems on sites, and @ipstenu reached out to each plugin that was using this hook to inform them of the issue
  • Currently no plugins in the .org directory that implement the new privacy features incorrectly
  • As of devchat, auto updates have not been enabled and we need to plan when 4.9.7 should be released, and what it should contain
  • @matt reiterated that we’re going to put enhancements, new features, notices, and anything else we need into 4.9.x while we work on GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/
  • Discussion on enabling auto-updates lead to agreement to do so; note that @pento enabled auto-updates ~4 hours after devchat

4.9.7 planning

  • Potential focuses: GDPR fixes, TinyMCE update
  • Leads: @sergeybiryukov able to help as deputy (e.g., committing, backporting); @danieltj, @desrosj, and @tristangemus open to help contribute during 4.9.7
  • Please comment on this post, pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” @jeffpaul, or comment during the next dev chat for nominations (self or otherwise) for release leads on 4.9.7

Updates from focus leads and component maintainers

  • The Gutenberg team continues to iterate and shipped v2.9 on Friday, May 18th; check the release post for more details
  • The PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher team posted a summary from their meeting last week and welcome everyone to join their next meeting on Monday at 15:00 UTC when they’ll discuss whether there’s updates on the “Upgrade PHP” design review and discuss “Requires PHP” enforcement details

General announcements

  • @clorith: When making changes to twenty-themes we should note somewhere that we made changes to them in a release. Not everyone was happy about a theme update in 4.9.6 as well that added output to their footers. (related #44202)
  • @danieltj has also begun a proposal draft for Dark Mode on 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/ and is open to help, so please review if you’re interested/available

Next meeting

The next meeting will take place on May 30, 2018 at 20:00 UTC / May 30, 2018 at 20:00 UTC in the #core SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel. Please feel free to drop in with any updates or questions. If you have items to discuss but cannot make the meeting, please leave a comment on this post so that we can take them into account.

#4-9-6, #4-9-7, #core, #core-php, #core-themes, #dev-chat, #gdpr-compliance, #gutenberg, #summary, #tinymce

Fixes to Text widget and introduction of Custom HTML widget in 4.8.1

The 4.8 release caused issues for many sites that had custom HTMLHTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. in Text widgets, which until now had been common practice. So we’ve been working hard on fixes in the 4.8.1 release which aim to simultaneously serve the needs of novice users and advanced users alike: the rich Text widgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. (introduced in 4.8), a legacy mode for the Text widget, and a Custom HTML widget.

For more background on the changes in 4.8, see Addition of TinyMCE to the Text Widget. To review, the Text widget in 4.8 includes TinyMCE—the same visual editor used for writing post content—and it looks like:

Text Widget Legacy Mode

The issues with the introduction of TinyMCE to the Text widget revolve around the ways that TinyMCE attempts to clean up HTML code by deleting empty elements (such as those for dashicons) and dropping attributes it may not recognize (such as HTML5 Microdata attributes). Also with the 4.8’s removal of the “automatically add paragraphs” checkbox, there were also issues related to paragraphs and line breaks being added incorrectly.

Note that the Text widget was already designed to preserve the old behavior of the widget until it was modified and thus upgraded, so there are many instances of Text widgets in the wild today that could very well begin to break upon being modified. For this reason the issues were not reported right away and instead started to trickle in steadily after the release.

There were various solutions that were considered, but the one that had the consensus among contributors was:

[Check if the Text widget] was previously saved from an older version of WordPress before TinyMCE was added to the Text widget. If it is such a pre-existing Text widget instance, then use heuristics to detect if TinyMCE would negatively impact the contents of the widget, including the auto-p checkbox being unchecked, whether there are empty tags, and whether there are spandivscript, or style tags. When the Text widget is in this legacy mode, it can have a notice that informs users of the new HTML Code widget and that it should be used going forward. Likewise, in the new mode when TinyMCE is present, when the Text (HTML) tab is selected, there can be a note (perhaps an adminadmin (and super admin) pointer) that encourages users to use the HTML Code widget instead. By implementing this, novice users with basic content in their widgets win, and advanced users with custom HTML content in their widgets will cease from being negatively impacted.

The Text widget in legacy mode looks the same as the Text widget before 4.8, but with the addition of a new notice:

The legacy mode will only be presented for widgets created prior to 4.8.0 that have instance data which match the logic in the WP_Widget_Text::is_legacy_instance() method. The legacy mode will not be presented to newly created Text widgets. Once a Text widget is opened and saved in legacy mode, it will permanently stay in legacy mode. There is a new instance property called “visual” which will be set to false when a widget is saved in legacy mode. When a new Text widget is created, it is opened in the default visual mode and the new instance will get saved with visual=true.

Text Widget Filters

There is a change in how the filter instance property was used in 4.8.0: in that release, when a Text widget was modified, the fact that it had been upgraded was stored by overloading the filter boolean property to also have the value of "content", indicating that the widget gets content filters applied like a post does. Since this string is a truthy value, I reasoned it would normally work the same in filters that check ! empty( $instance['filter'] ), but it would fail in cases where a 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 tried true === $instance['filter']. So 4.8.1 reverts the overloading of the filter property to again be a boolean, and this should improve compatibility for widget_text filters. Whenever a Text widget is modified with the default visual mode (with TinyMCE) it will get both visual=true and filter=true saved in its instance. When a Text widget is modified in the legacy mode, it will always get visual=false and its filter property will reflect the checked state of the auto-paragraph checkbox.

Another note on filters: special consideration was made for shortcodes in the Text widget given the frequency of plugins and themes adding shortcodeShortcode A shortcode is a placeholder used within a WordPress post, page, or widget to insert a form or function generated by a plugin in a specific location on your site. support (since the widget does not recognized them by default in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.). Plugins and themes have done add_filter( 'widget_text', 'do_shortcode' ) to add support. Since the widget_text 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. applies before the new widget_text_content filter (as of 4.8), it will apply before wpautop will have applied, resulting in the possibility of extra line breaks being added undesirably if the shortcode output has new line characters. So to help prevent that from happening, the Text widget will temporarily move the do_shortcode handler from widget_text to widget_text_content just in time while the filters are being applied. See the relevant logic.

Help Pointers

For users who are accustomed to pasting HTML into the Text widget, when an attempt is made to paste markup into the visual editor a pointer will be displayed informing them that they should paste it into the Text tab instead, or to alternatively use the new Custom HTML widget (see section below):

Likewise, when a user opens the Text tab, it will also open a pointer to inform them of the Custom HTML widget:

While pointers are normally displayed on upgrades, these pointers will be displayed even on new installs since they reflect changes to long-standing behavior for the Text widget that users have become accustomed to. Any tutorials that instruct users to use the Text widget for pasting in arbitrary HTML should be updated to instruct the users to select the Custom HTML widget instead.

Custom HTML Widget

For advanced users or for any use case where arbitrary HTML needs to be displayed in a widget (such as a signup form or a 3rd party 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/. widget), there is now a dedicated “Custom HTML” widget that is specifically for this purpose. It looks very similar to the classic Text widget, except it has a monospace font and it lacks the auto-paragraph checkbox:

Since users are prompted (per the pointers above) to try using the Custom HTML widget instead of the Text widget for some use cases, it is important that the widget content be able to be freely copied between the Text widget and the Custom HTML widget. For this reason, the Custom HTML widget retains the application of the widget_text filters like the Text widget does. The type of widget for which the filter is applying can be determined by looking at the type of the WP_Widget instance being passed as the last filter argument. When the widget_text filter is applied, it will pass the second $instance parameter in the same format as the Text widget, with title, text (instead of content), and filter and visual properties that are always both set to false (as if the instance was in legacy non-visual mode). In addition to re-applying the widget_text filter, the Custom HTML widget has a dedicated widget_custom_html_content filter whereas the the Text widget has a dedicated widget_text_content filter.

In addition to filter compatibility, the Custom HTML widget also tries to retain theme styling compatibility by using the same widget_text CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets. class name on the outer widget wrapper and textwidget on the inner wrapper around the content itself. For any themes that wish to style the Custom HTML widget alone, there are the widget_custom_html and custom-html-widget class names used on the outer and inner wrapper elements respectively. For themes that wish to style the Text widget alone and exclude the Custom HTML widget, the :not() pseudo selector can be used, for example .widget_text:not(.widget_custom_html) and .textwidget:not(.custom-html-widget) for the outer and inner wrappers, respectively.

The markup generated by a Custom HTML widget on the frontend will look like:

<section id="custom_html-6" class="widget_text widget widget_custom_html">
  <h2 class="widget-title">My Title</h2>
  <div class="textwidget custom-html-widget">My Content</div>
</section>

This same Custom HTML widget’s instance data will look like:

{
  "title": "My Title",
  "content": "My Content"
}

For more specifics on the Custom HTML widget, refer to the subclass: WP_Widget_Custom_HTML.

Here is a list of tickets related to the Text widget and Custom HTML widget which are closed in the 4.8.1 release:

  • #40907: Introduce widget dedicated for HTML code
  • #40951: New Text Widget – Switching Between Visual/Text Editor Strips Out Code
  • #40960: Set `’filter’ => ‘content’` on starter content “business info” widget
  • #40960: Widgets: The Text widget should respect the “Disable the visual editor when writing” setting
  • #40972: TinyMCE editor in Text widget does not have RTL contents
  • #40974: Updated text widget do not save text (when using paste)
  • #40986: Widgets: text widget and media widgets cannot be edited in 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) mode
  • #41021: Text widget does not show Title field or TinyMCE editor
  • #41158:  Increase tinymce panel z-index
  • #41361: Text widget can raise JSJS JavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors. error if customize-base is enqueued on widgets admin screen
  • #41386: Text Widget – Wording – Legacy Mode 4.8.1 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.
  • #41392: Theme styles for Text widget do not apply to Custom HTML widget
  • #41394: Text widget: Rename legacy mode to visual mode and improve back-compat for widget_text filters

 

#4-8-1, #dev-notes, #tinymce, #widgets

Editor API changes in 4.8

A new editor 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. was added in #35760. It makes it possible to dynamically instantiate the editor from JSJS JavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors.. There are two parts to it:

  • All editor related scripts and stylesheets have to be enqueued from PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher by using wp_enqueue_editor().
  • Initialization is left for the script that is adding the editor instance. It requires the textarea that will become the Text editor tab to be already created and not hidden in the DOM. Filtering of the settings is done on adding the editor instance from JS.

There are three new methods added to the wp.editor namespace:

  • wp.editor.initialize()
  • wp.editor.remove()
  • wp.editor.getContent()

(See wp-admin/js/editor.js for more info.)

The default WordPress settings are passed to the initialize() method automatically, and can be overridden by passing a settings object on initialization, similarly to using wp_editor() in PHP.

In addition there are several custom jQuery events that are fired at different stages during initialization:

  • wp-before-tinymce-init is fired before initialization and can be used to set or change any editor setting. It passes the settings object.
  • tinymce-editor-setup is fired after initialization has started but before the UIUI User interface is constructed. It passes the editor instance object.
  • tinymce-editor-init is fired when the TinyMCE instance is ready (same as the init event in TinyMCE).

Here’s an example of how to add few of the default TinyMCE buttons to the toolbar:

jQuery( document ).on( 'tinymce-editor-setup', function( event, editor ) {
	editor.settings.toolbar1 += ',alignleft,aligncenter,alignright';
});

Here is another example of how to add a custom button:

jQuery( document ).on( 'tinymce-editor-setup', function( event, editor ) {
	editor.settings.toolbar1 += ',mybutton';

	editor.addButton( 'mybutton', {
		text: 'My button2',
		icon: false,
		onclick: function () {
			editor.insertContent("It's my button!");
		}
	});
});

For more information please see the TinyMCE documentation.

Update: there were four “private event hacks” in the default imagepluginPlugin 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 left over from the initial TinyMCE 4.0 implementation back in WordPress 3.9. These hacks were also removed as that plugin has changed significantly in the latest TinyMCE version.

#4-8, #editor, #tinymce

Editor changes in 4.7

There are a few noteworthy changes to the editor in WordPress 4.7.

Some of the toolbar buttons have been rearranged to make them easier to access and to encourage proper use of the HTMLHTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. elements they insert.  The headings drop down is now moved to the top row, and the strike-through and horizontal rule button are moved down. This also reflects their usage.

The underline and justify buttons have been removed from the bottom row. Underlining is a bad practice as readers can confuse it with links (bad 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 it does not insert a semantic element. Justifying has uneven browser implementation, and in many cases is bad for readability. Keyboard shortcuts for both will keep working.

For more information see #27159 that also has links to the discussions 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/..

Labels for keyboard shortcuts have been added to the tooltips for buttons and inside drop downs to make them easier to discover.

As always, feedback is welcome.

Ella and Andrew

#4-7, #dev-notes, #editor, #tinymce

Editor changes in 4.6

In WordPress 4.6 TinyMCE is upgraded from version 4.3.10 to 4.4.1. There are numerous bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. fixes and several new features, most notably a new inline theme (changelog).

The wpview editor 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 (that is responsible for showing gallery, video, audio, and oEmbed previews) was updated to use the TinyMCE APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. for non-editable elements. This brought some small changes and improvements in the UIUI User interface, for example “views” are draggable now. On the back-end the wp-mce-view-unbind event was removed as it doesn’t exist in the API. It was intended for cleanup/unloading but was never very reliable. If a plugin needs to unload instance dependent scripts, it can use mutation observer to monitor when the view node is deleted. See #36434 for more information.

wpview remains an experimental API, though with each iteration it is getting closer to being finalized. As an experimental API, breaking changes are expected. As always, please test your plugin now if it modifies or depends on the editor, especially if you use experimental features like wpview.

#4-6, #dev-notes, #editor, #media, #tinymce

Editor changes in WordPress 4.3

The editor initialization was updated. The main change is that the content for both Visual and Text editors is prepared/escaped the same. We used to run the content through the PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher wpautop() when the default editor was TinyMCE. This is no longer needed as we run the textarea content through the 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/. wpautop() before initializing TinyMCE.

In that terms wp_richedit_pre() and wp_htmledit_pre() were deprecated together with the richedit_pre and htmledit_pre filters. They were replaced by format_for_editor() and the format_for_editor 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.. For more information see #32425.

Another change is the complete removal of the code for the old Distraction Free Writing mode. This code was disabled and has been unused since WordPress 4.1. We left it in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. so the authors of plugins that were using it would have plenty of time to update.

If this is essential for some plugins, the files from WordPress 4.2 can be reused. For more information see #30949.

If you are the author of a 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 that uses any of the deprecated functions or filters, please update it now. If your plugin uses wp_editor(), please test it in the latest 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..

As always, feedback is very welcome.

#4-3, #dev-notes, #editor, #tinymce

Plupload 2.x in WordPress 3.9

Plupload is the library that powers most of the file upload interfaces in WordPress, and in 3.9 we’ve updated the bundled library to version 2.1.1 (#25663). Here are some of things that have changed, which may affect WordPress plugins and themes.

If you’re using direct references to Plupload’s runtime .js files, such as plupload.html5.js, note that these files are now gone. The following script handles were removed: plupload-html5, plupload-flash, plupload-silverlight and plupload-html4. If you need to enqueue the Plupload library, just use the plupload handle.

If you’re constructing your own Plupload settings array vs. using wp_plupload_default_settings() and/or the _wpPluploadSettings object, note that some of the arguments have changed, most notably:

  • flash_swf_url should point to the new Moxie.swf file (See update)
  • Similarly, silverlight_xap_url should use the new Moxie.xap (See update)
  • The multiple_queues argument is no longer used
  • The max_file_size key has been moved to the filters array
  • The filters array now supports multiple keys, and the list of file types array has been moved to its mime_types key

To illustrate that with code:

$settings = array(
    // ...
    'flash_swf_url' => includes_url( 'js/plupload/plupload.flash.swf' ), // Unchanged
    'silverlight_xap_url' => includes_url( 'js/plupload/plupload.silverlight.xap' ), // Unchanged
    'filters' => array( 
        'max_file_size' => $max_upload_size . 'b', 
    ),
);

Plupload version 2.1.1 has also added some exciting new options and methods, which you can find in the updated documentation.

As a result of this update in WordPress 3.9 we were able to add drag and drop upload support directly to our TinyMCE editor (#19845), and we’ve also added a new boolean flag to wp_editor(), which you can use to enable drag and drop upload support in your own instance of the editor (#27465):

wp_editor( '', 'my-editor', array(
    // ...
    'drag_drop_upload' => true,
) );

If you run into any problems with this update in 3.9, please leave a comment on this post and we’ll be happy to help you out!

Update: I opened #27763 to address some of the compatibility issues around the update. We might be renaming the swf/xap files for backwards compatibility.

Update, April 13: The original swf/xap filenames were restored.

#3-9, #dev-notes, #editor, #tinymce

TinyMCE 4.0 requires text/css for editor style files

As of TinyMCE 4.0, the visual editor iframeiframe iFrame is an acronym for an inline frame. An iFrame is used inside a webpage to load another HTML document and render it. This HTML document may also contain JavaScript and/or CSS which is loaded at the time when iframe tag is parsed by the user’s browser. now has an HTML5 document type (<!DOCTYPE html>). In this scenario, CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets. files must be served with the text/css content type. A server will serve a *.css file with the proper content type, but if you’re using a PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher file for an editor style file, you need to be the one to do it. It’s as simple as leading with:

<?php
header( 'Content-Type: text/css; charset=UTF-8' );

So if you’re doing something particularly crazy with the editor and your styles aren’t loading in WordPress 3.9, you may just need a content type. Also, Chrome (and probably other browsers) throw a console warning when this happens.

(via #27288)

#3-9, #dev-notes, #editor, #tinymce

TinyMCE 4.0 is in core

This is a major upgrade for the WordPress editor. There are many changes in 4.0:

  • New UIUI User interface and UI 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..
  • New theme.
  • Revamped events system/API.
  • Better code quality, readability and build process.
  • Lots of (inline) documentation.
  • And generally many improvements everywhere.

All default TinyMCE plugins have been upgraded. The WordPress implementation custom plugins  were upgraded too. Looking in the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party repository, there are a lot of WordPress plugins  that add a TinyMCE plugin. Because of all the API changes, most of these plugins would need an update too. If you are the author of such plugin, please test it in trunktrunk A 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. now.

Generally there are three groups of TinyMCE plugins added by WordPress plugins:

  • Custom plugin created specifically for the WordPress plugin. If you’ve developed this kind of plugin, please see the 3.x to 4.0 migration guide and the 4.0 API documentation.
  • WordPress plugins that add third-party or default TinyMCE plugins would (of course) need to be updated to include the 4.0 version of the plugin. The PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher global $tinymce_version can be used to determine which plugin to load.
  • Mini-plugins that only add a button to the toolbar. This works pretty much the same. It is advisable to update to use the ‘dashicons’ icon font instead of image icon.

TinyMCE 4.0 includes a ‘compat3x’ plugin that should prevent all fatal errors caused by old plugins and adds compatibility for most of the 3.x API methods. If there are any editor related 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/. errors while running trunk, please open a tracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. quoting the first error from the browser console.

#3-9, #dev-notes, #editor, #tinymce

WordPress 3.5 RC6 is out Please if you…

WordPress 3.5 RC6 is out. Please, if you can (and earlier the better), hammer on TinyMCE with the most ridiculous object and embed tags you can find, and anything HTML5. (Here’s a zip for the nightly build.)

What’s important in RC6? After a good first attempt last week (#22790), we took another stab (#22842) at fixing TinyMCE’s handling of, well, ridiculous object and embed tags. Our goal right now is to ensure that nothing breaks in 3.5 that worked in 3.4.2. So, go find your best embed spaghetti* and make sure nothing breaks.**

  • Very easy to test: Go to the “Text “tab, paste something in, head to the Visual tab, confirm things don’t look broken, head back to the “Text” tab, see if it looks mangled, head back to Visual, confirm things don’t look broken. Remember, we are looking for regressions, so also check 3.4.2 to see if it occurs there.

** Breaks means the embed disappears in whole or part, or there’s a JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. error, or your computer starts smoking. Whitespace and other HTMLHTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. changes do/will happen (contents may settle during shipping). Of course, your content should never be damaged, as that’s just no fun.

What happened to the last two RCs? We generally try to do a “soft” or “silent” 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). at the very end of a cycle. We’re confident we’ve gotten the testing it needs, but we’d like to enter a 24-hour period where there are no more changes to trunktrunk A 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.. Having a cleaner version number provides for a good line in the sand, and can help in case some blockerblocker A bug which is so severe that it blocks a release. 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. report comes in. Of course this time, we’ve stuttered a few times. TinyMCE hell was RC4. A few final changes on Friday (after we decided to not release) resulted in RC5. And the second round of TinyMCE hell is RC6.

This also means our new target is Tuesday, December 11. We’ll again convene at 10 a.m. Eastern to see if the winds are blowing in our direction. (Even NASA needs good weather.)

And hey, on the bright side:

#3-5, #tinymce