Update: Progress on Goals

At the end of last year, I posted an update on the goals we had for 2019. While I mentioned that most of those goals will continue into 2020, I didn’t have a full concept of what we should target and when. I have a better idea now that everyone has started working on things.

WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.

I’ve organized our remaining projects around our remaining releases for the year. In each group below, there are three different states of readiness: Feature PluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins. for things that are still in testing, Complete for things that are stable and ready to merge, Ship for things that are final and being packed in the release.

These are educated guesses. For most of them the sooner we can get them ready for testing the better!

WP5.4 – March Release

Feature Plugin: Automatic updates for plugins and themes.
Complete: Functionality for navigation block behind experimental flag 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.
Complete: Block directory in testing behind experimental flag in the plugin.
Complete: Convert the Customizer to support blocks.
Ship: Update WordPress Core to include current releases of 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/ plugin.

WP5.5 – August Release

Feature Plugin: Automatic updates functionality for major WordPress Core releases (opt-in).
Complete: Convert the widgets-editing areas complete.
Complete: Functionality for full site editing complete behind experimental flag in the plugin.
Complete: Global styles behind experimental flag in the plugin.
Ship: Update WordPress Core to include current releases of the Gutenberg plugin.
Ship: Navigation menus 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. in Core.
Ship: Automatic updates for plugins and themes in Core.
Ship: Block directory in Core.
Ship: XML Sitemaps
Ship: Lazy Loading

WP5.6 – December Release

Ship: Automatic updates for major WordPress Core releases (opt-in).
Ship: Update WordPress Core to include current releases of the Gutenberg plugin.
Ship: Widgets-editing and CustomizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. support in Core.
Ship: Full site editing in Core.
Ship: Global styles in Core.
Ship: Default theme.

WordPress Programs

These goals don’t depend on the Core release cycle, so it’s harder to assign dates to them. My best guess is around our major regional events, but I’m open to suggestions.

Contributor Experience

Reduce number of open issues in TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/..
Updates to the theme directory.
Speaker feedback tool.
SEO updates to WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. network.

User Experience

Block patterns
Block-based themes

Where We Collaborate

Coordination of work on WordPress Core can be found in #core and #core-editor (though there are a lot of feature-specific channels as well). Much of the contributor experience coordination is done in #meta and #meta-wordcamp. User experience coodrination happens in #design and #themes. All contributor teams document their efforts on their team sites. 🙂

For a concept of the long term roadmap, keep an eye on the Roadmap page; it’s updated frequently.

#planning #goals #updates

Gabriel Mays 1:52 am on March 7, 2020

Love this! Great progress and exciting stuff coming–thanks for the update!
Thierry Muller 9:01 am on March 11, 2020

Thanks for summarizing the roadmap Josepha, exciting times ahead! In addition to the items in this post, XML Sitemaps and Lazy Loading additions to CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. are on track for 5.5 (thanks to the folks working hard on these to game changing upcoming features).
- Josepha 3:22 pm on March 11, 2020
  
  Excellent news! I will add those both to the plan. 🙂
Aaron D. Campbell 12:46 pm on March 11, 2020

Thanks for this Josepha, it’s really great to have this all in one place!

I don’t see the required PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php. version bump to 7+ on there. Is that still in the plan for this year?
- Josepha 10:59 pm on March 16, 2020
  
  I think it’s unlikely that we will be able to get this done in 2020. I know it’s a big undertaking, and right now I don’t really have a team ready to do that heavy lifting.
  
  This is a great thing to keep in mind for 2021, I think, especially if there is a squad of people who want to help!
  - Sergey Biryukov 4:19 am on April 16, 2020
    
    Glad this came up, I’ve been thinking about it for a while. Given that we’ve removed PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php. 5.2.x support in WordPress 5.2, it seems fitting to remove PHP 5.6.x support in WordPress 5.6 🙂
    
    Now that the necessary 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. and Site Health infrastructure is in place (version checks on update, dashboard 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., PHP update instructions, WSOD protection, etc.), this seems to be mostly a matter of making the decision. I can bring it up in upcoming dev chats to get some feedback.
    - Josepha 10:41 pm on April 22, 2020
      
      I think that would be great, Sergey!
Francesca Marano 1:31 pm on October 27, 2020

Hello! @chanthaboune are you planning a similar update for 5.7 and 5.7 + different programs?
It would help immensely 🙂
Thanks!
- Josepha 6:26 pm on October 27, 2020
  
  Yes, ma’am! I just added it to my list for December (and hopefully more frequently over the course of the year as well).