Performance Lab
Performance Lab plugin updates are released monthly on the third Monday of the month.
October’s release, v1.6.0, included an update to the WebP functionality to align the Performance Lab pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party with the intended coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. implementation by generating only WebP images by default. In addition, this release also added a checkbox to control if JPEGs should be generated in addition to WebP. Finally, the plugin’s minimum WordPress requirement has been bumped to 6.0.
Proposals and Discussion
Performance Team chats are held weekly on Tuesdays; check https://make.wordpress.org/meetings/ for current time.
The team recently voted to revamp its focus areas, which are now:
- Database – NEW
- Images
- JS & CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. – Renamed and refocused from solely 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/. to add CSS, as well
- Measurement
- Object Cache
This vote resulted in the removal of the Site Health focus area. While the team will continue to work on Site Health checks, these checks will be managed as part of the appropriate related focus area, e.g. the Database focus area for the proposed database performance health checks.
@aristath has completed a POC of a proposed SQLite module as a 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. test for possibly implementing SQLite into core. The team is testing and sharing feedback.
A POC for introducing the Server-Timing API into the plugin’s infrastructure is in progress by @flixos90 and open for review.
Finally, our new Core Performance Handbook is now available!
Tickets
In addition to Performance Lab, the Performance Team also works on performance-related tickets in core and holds a monthly Bug Bash on the first Wednesday of every month; check https://make.wordpress.org/meetings/ for current time.
Several performance improvements from the team will be included in the 6.1 release, as outlined in the Performance Field Guide for WordPress 6.1. We’re currently working to review priorities for 6.2.