Francesca Marano 7:37 pm on November 23, 2020
Tags:   

WordPress 5.7: What’s on your wishlist?

With the 5.6 release scheduled for December 8th, let’s start planning for 5.7!

We always aim to fix bugs, add new tools, and make WordPress better than ever for users. Components of Full Site Editing are still at the top of the WordPress goals list; what other tickets do you think need some attention in this release cycle?

Share Your Feedback!

  • What do you want to see included in 5.7?
  • What are the current UXUX User experience pain points?
  • What features can we add or iterate on?
  • Component Maintainers: what tickets do you think will be ready to ship by late January and need some review/feedback/approval/etc?

Note: Adding your ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. here won’t necessarily guarantee inclusion. But no one can fix things they can’t see, so bravely share your thoughts!

Deadline December 15, 2020

#5-7

Jonathan Desrosiers 5:38 pm on November 23, 2020
Tags: , , PHP 8.0   

WordPress and PHP 8.0

Update on November 24, 2020: Added a call out in the “Strict type/value validations for internal functions” section that there are still scenarios where WP CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. could potentially pass invalidinvalid A resolution on the bug tracker (and generally common in software development, sometimes also notabug) that indicates the ticket is not a bug, is a support request, or is generally invalid. types to PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 core functions, especially where values are passed through filters. Props @hellofromtonya.

PHP 8.0 is in the final stages of its release cycle. As of the publish date of this post, version 8.0 RC5 has been released, and the final release of PHP 8.0.0 is scheduled for November 26, 2020.

As the expected changes in PHP 8 were made known earlier this year, WordPress Core contributorsCore Contributors Core contributors are those who have worked on a release of WordPress, by creating the functions or finding and patching bugs. These contributions are done through Trac. https://core.trac.wordpress.org. worked to identify potential compatibility issues within the code base. This includes a call to test earlier in the release cycle.

WordPress Core aims to be compatible with PHP 8.0 in the 5.6 release (currently scheduled for December 8, 2020).

However, PHP 8.0 is a major version update with a large number of changes that break backwards compatibility, and many features that were deprecated within the PHP 7.x feature releases have been officially removed.

What does compatibility mean here?

Significant effort has been put towards making WordPress 5.6 compatible with PHP 8 on its own, but it is very likely that there are still undiscovered issues remaining.

Because of the nature of WordPress usage and the commitment to our user base, compatibility is to be considered in the eyes of those users. The goal is to elevate the broader ecosystem to a state that is compatible with PHP 8. That requires that the Core software not just be compatible on its own, but also provides defenses against common problems seen in the transition to PHP 8, while continuing to function on older versions of PHP.

It also should be acknowledged that WordPress is never used in isolation (without any theme or plugins), so WordPress itself being able to run on PHP 8 does not indicate “full” compatibility.

The state of PHP 8 support within the broader ecosystem (plugins, themes, etc.) is impossible to know. For that reason, WordPress 5.6 should be considered “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. compatible” with PHP 8.

“Beta compatibility”

Calling WordPress 5.6 “beta compatible” is a good first step. Doing so acknowledges the hard work that has been done to get WordPress running on PHP 8 without major issues and achieve passing PHPUnit tests. It also honors the project’s commitment to being compatible with the new versions of PHP when they are released.

At the same time Core cannot claim “full compatibility” because the process to achieve that state takes a larger amount of time within the greater ecosystem. That’s where WordPress Core needs help.

All pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party and theme developers, as well as hosting communities, are called on to make their code compatible with PHP 8. This will allow WordPress to attain truly “full compatibility” sooner, and without end users having to carry the burden.

It’s also worth noting that all known compatibility issues that were identified through automated testing or static analysis have been addressed, except those detailed further down in this post. Automated test coverage of WordPress Core needs much improvement, and some problems will require manual testing of WordPress on PHP 8 under varying conditions to discover.

For the reasons above, it is highly recommended that you thoroughly test your site before upgrading to PHP 8.

Below is a breakdown of why the PHP 8 update is a bit different than other more recent PHP updates, and the changes that directly affect WordPress in PHP 8.0 that developers need to be aware of.

PHP release types

The release process that the PHP project currently follows was proposed and established back in 2010. This process outlines strict guidelines around when certain types of changes can be made. The process is structured around the idea of “major releases”, and follows semantic versioning.

The current major release of PHP is 7. Over the last 5 years, there have been 4 feature releases for the PHP 7 major releasemajor release A release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope. (7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and 7.4), and over 130 security/bug fix releases to these feature releases.

Feature releases

Though new features and 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 are allowed in feature releases, backwards compatibility and 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. compatibility must be maintained. These rules dictating what types of changes are allowed, lower the likelihood that sites will break when upgrading to new feature releases within the same major release of PHP.

When older features are deprecated within these releases, they remain functional. It’s common practice for deprecated features to trigger errors (usually E_WARNING, E_NOTICE, or E_DEPRECATED level), informing developers that the feature is deprecated. Deprecated features can only be removed in a future major release.

Major releases

Like feature releases, bug fixes and new features can be added in major releases. However, old features can be removed entirely, maintaining backwards compatibility and API compatibility is not required.

As of PHP 8 RC4, there are 48 changes to core PHP that break backwards compatibility, and 166 throughout PHP 8 overall (extensions, libraries, etc.).

What this means for developers

Sites that are consistently updating to the latest versions of PHP and addressing issues with each feature release are usually less likely to experience problems when updating to a new major version.

New features in PHP 8 are not compatible with PHP 7 or PHP 5 and usually cause fatal errors.

While making your plugin or theme PHP 8 compatible is strongly encouraged, using features added in PHP 8 is not recommended in distributed plugins and themes unless Requires PHP is set to 8.0 in the headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes. section of the main file (plugins) or style.css file (themes).

Changes in PHP 8

Below is a non-exhaustive breakdown of select changes in PHP 8.0 that plugin and theme developers need to be aware of and should accommodate in their code.

Named parameters

PHP 8 introduces the ability to pass arguments to a function by the parameter name instead of the parameter position. This is advantageous in several ways, but to name a few:

  • The argument’s meaning becomes self documenting.
  • The arguments become order-independent.
  • Default values can be skipped arbitrarily.

As an example, let’s take a look at retrieving a term as an associative array using get_term().

<?php
// PHP < 8.0
$my_term = get_term( 1, '', ARRAY_A );

// PHP >= 8.0
$my_term = get_term( output: ARRAY_A, term: 1 );

Note that the arguments in the second example are defined out of order, and because the arguments are not processed in order, the optional parameters using the default value, are no longer required.

Named parameters also work with PHP’s internal functions.

<?php
// Using positional arguments:
array_fill( 0, 100, 50 );

// Using named arguments:
array_fill( start_index: 0, count: 100, value: 50 );

This is a very simplistic overview of the named parameters feature. Please read the full Request for Comments (RFC) on the PHP website for a complete breakdown, which details the impact on variadic functions, func_get_args() and related functions, as well as call_user_func_array() and related functions.

Named parameters and WordPress

The named parameter feature introduces a significant backwards compatibility consideration for all PHP code going forward. With the introduction of this feature, parameter names become a part of the API contract and any changes to their names in future WordPress releases will break backwards compatibility, causing a fatal error when code is invoking a function using an outdated parameter name.

An active review of the function signatures throughout WordPress Core has been proposed to ensure that all parameter names are descriptive, accurate, and do not use reserved keywords to avoid any potential for confusion, but it will not be a part of WordPress 5.6.

Using named parameters when calling WordPress functions and class methods is explicitly not supported and highly discouraged until this audit can be completed, as during the audit, parameter names are subject to change without notice. When this audit has been completed, it will be announced in a future developer note.

If you choose to take advantage of named parameters when using WordPress Core functions and classes before that time, you do so at your own risk.

Additionally, PHP Core has been reviewing their own parameter names in anticipation of the PHP 8 release. Because the PHP documentation has not yet been updated to reflect PHP 8 changes, some of the parameter names currently detailed in the documentation may also change.

To follow or contribute to this review, see #51553, and #50531 on TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress..

Strict type/value validations for internal functions

When support for scalar type declarations was added in PHP 7.0, a new (optional) per-file directive to enforce strict type checking was also added. Including declare( strict_types = 1 ); at the top of a file would ensure that strict type checking is performed on all arguments and return values where scalar types were declared.

When configured, strict type checking also extends to extensions and internal PHP functions invoked within the file. In strict mode, when the type of a value passed does not match the type expected, a Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError is triggered.

However, when strict type checking was not enabled, the behavior of internal functions when receiving an unexpected type was very inconsistent. Some threw a warning and returned NULL, some returned false and threw a TypeError with strict types on, and others generated a TypeError (even if strict_types was not declared).

Starting in PHP 8, a TypeError will be consistently thrown for all internal PHP functions when invalid parameter types are passed, even when strict type checking is not declared.

Additionally, some PHP core functions which did not have type declarations previously, now do. It’s likely that some TypeErrors will be thrown for functions which didn’t even give a warning in older PHP versions.

Type checking for user-defined functions will remain the same. Including declare( strict_types = 1 ); at the top of files is required to enforce strict type checking throughout the file. No WordPress Core code uses strict mode.

An effort to ensure defensive code practices are in place to avoid any potential for invalid types to be passed to WordPress Core function is underway in #51423. Until this is completed, it is possible that some code within WordPress could trigger a TypeError, especially if a value’s type is incorrectly changed through code hooked to a filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output..

Please read the full RFC on the PHP wiki for a complete breakdown of these changes. For more information on this as it relates to WordPress Core, see #51525 on Trac.

Stricter type checks for arithmetic and bitwise operators

In past versions of PHP, applying arithmetic and bitwise operators to arrays, non-overloaded objects, and resources was allowed. However, the behavior was sometimes inconsistent in different scenarios.

Starting in PHP 8, all arithmetic and bitwise operators will throw a TypeError when one of the operands is an array, non-overloaded object, or resource. An exception to this is array + array, which will remain unchanged.

Please read the full RFC on the PHP wiki for a complete breakdown of these changes. For more information on this as it relates to WordPress Core, see #51525 on Trac.

Saner numeric strings

Numeric string handling has been altered to be more intuitive and less
error-prone. Trailing white space is now allowed in numeric strings for
consistency with how leading white space is treated. This mostly affects:

  • The is_numeric() function
  • String-to-string comparisons
  • Type declarations
  • Increment and decrement operations

The concept of a “leading-numeric string” has been mostly dropped; the cases where this remains exist in order to ease migrationMigration Moving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies.. Strings which emitted an E_NOTICE “A non well-formed numeric value encountered” will now emit an E_WARNING “A non-numeric value encountered” and all strings which emitted an E_WARNING “A non-numeric value encountered” will now throw a TypeError. This mostly affects:

  • Arithmetic operations
  • Bitwise operations

This E_WARNING to TypeError change also affects the E_WARNING “Illegal string offset ‘string'” for illegal string offsets. The behavior of explicit casts to int/float from strings has not been changed.

Please read the full RFC on the PHP wiki for a complete breakdown of these changes.

Non-strict comparisons between numbers and non-numeric strings

Non-strict comparisons between numbers and non-numeric strings now work by casting the number to string and comparing the strings. Comparisons between numbers and numeric strings continue to work as before. Notably, this means that 0 == "not-a-number" is considered false now.

A few other code patterns that may be common in plugins and themes that will be affected:

  • '' < 0 is now considered true (see [48960]).
  • 'not-a-number' > 0 is also now considered true (see [49043]).

Error, warning, and notice changes

A large handful of preexisting errors have been reclassified. Here’s are some that may be commonly encountered:

Warnings converted to error exceptions

  • Attempting to write to a property of a non-object. Previously this
    implicitly created a stdClass object for null, false and empty strings.
  • Attempting to append an element to an array for which the PHP_INT_MAX key is already used.
  • Attempting to use an invalid type (array or object) as an array key or
    string offset.
  • Attempting to write to an array index of a scalar value.
  • Attempting to unpack a non-array/Traversable.

Please read the full RFC on the PHP wiki for more information on these changes.

Notices converted to warnings

  • Attempting to read an undefined variable.
  • Attempting to read an undefined property.
  • Attempting to read an undefined array key.
  • Attempting to read a property of a non-object.
  • Attempting to access an array index of a non-array.
  • Attempting to convert an array to string.
  • Attempting to use a resource as an array key.
  • Attempting to use null, a boolean, or a float as a string offset.
  • Attempting to read an out-of-bounds string offset.
  • Attempting to assign an empty string to a string offset.

Read the full RFC on the PHP wiki for more information.

Build & Test Tool Related Changes

Because WordPress supports PHP 5.6.20 or higher, running the WordPress Core PHPUnit test suite on PHP 8 is not straightforward.

  • PHPUnit >= 9.3 is the only version of PHPUnit that currently supports PHP 8.
  • PHPunit 5.7.x is the last version to include support for PHP 5.6.
  • PHPUnit 8.x changed several methods that do not return values to specify a void return type declaration. However, this return type is not available in PHP < 7.1.

In order to maintain the ability to run the test suite on PHP 5.6 while also allowing the tests to run on PHP 8, the changes to PHPUnit required have been backported into the WordPress Core test suite and Composer is used to manipulate the autoload process for PHPUnit 7.x.

To run the WordPress Core PHPUnit test suite on PHP 8, it is required to use Composer for installation and running.

To help make this easier, a new NPM script has been added to run the test suite within the local Docker environment using the Composer installed version of PHPUnit.

// Run within the local Docker container using version of
// PHPUnit installed within the container.
npm run test:php

// Run within the local Docker container using version of
// PHPUnit installed via Composer.
npm run test:php-composer

For more information on this new command, see #51456. For more information on making the test suite compatible with PHP 8/PHPUnit >= 8, see #46149, #50902, and #50913.

External Libraries

Several external libraries bundled with WordPress Core have been updated to fix PHP 8 compatibility issues. Pull requests have been opened where appropriate to ensure these changes are included in future releases of these libraries.

  • SimplePie has been updated from version 1.5.5 to 1.5.6 (see #51521). Additionally, the WP_Feed_Cache class has been deprecated and will only be loaded for backwards compatibility if SimplePie < 3 is loaded within a plugin (see #51629 and #29204).
  • sodium_compat was updated to avoid an error when attempting to access the MB_OVERLOAD_STRING constant, which has been removed in PHP 8 (see #51399).
  • Text_Diff was updated to fix a “Non-static method cannot be called statically” fatal error (see #51559).

Additional notes

  • create_function() has been removed. The final instance of this function in WordPress has been removed (see #50899).
  • The @ operator will no longer silence fatal errors. Care should be taken that error messages are not displayed in production environments, which can result in information leaks.
  • Following the hash comment operator # immediately with an opening bracket is not supported as a comment anymore since this syntax is now used for attributes.
  • libxml_disable_entity_loader() has been deprecated (see #50898).
  • Resource to object return type changes, including the introduction of the is_gd_image() function.
  • Changes to sorting: if any code relied on a certain sort order based on previous behavior, this may now fail.
  • The parameter/return types for various PHP functions have changed and may have an impact. Subtle changes like that substr() will now always return a string. Previously, this returned string|false.

Summary

As always, reading through the complete upgrade document is highly recommended.

Even as WordPress Core continues to expand its support for new versions of PHP, support for old versions will remain as is for the time being, staying at PHP 5.6.20 and higher until usage numbers show that the impact on users will be minimal.

There is a separate initiative to decrease the usage numbers for older versions of PHP being guided by the Core PHP team through the servehappy initiative. If you wish to help with this effort, please join the #core-php room in the Making WordPress Core Slack instance.

WordPress continues to encourage all users to run the latest and greatest versions of PHP. This includes PHP 8.0 upon its official release.

A full list of tickets related to PHP 8.0 support can be found on Trac.

Props @helen, @jrf, @jeffpaul, @sergeybiryukov, @andraganescu, @omarreiss, @hellofromtonya, and @chanthaboune for peer reviewing.

#5-6, #dev-notes, #php-8-0

Michele Butcher-Jones 8:25 pm on November 20, 2020
Tags: ,   

WordPress 5.6 Field Guide

Update on November 24, 2020: Added the newly published “Core major versions auto-updates UI changes in WordPress 5.6 – Correction” dev notedev note Each 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 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. the the Auto-updates (Security) section as an embed. – @audrasjb

Update on November 23, 2020: Added the newly published “WordPress & PHP 8” dev note to the PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 8 section as an embed. – @desrosj

WordPress 5.6 brings you the best features and enhancements to help end 2020 on a positive note! An all-women and non-binary release squad lead the development of new features and resolved defects that benefit users and developers alike. 👩🏻‍💻👩🏼‍💻👩‍💻👩🏽‍💻👩🏾‍💻👩🏿‍💻

As a user, you’ll see automatic updates for major coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. releases (opt-in), external authentication to the REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/. via newly introduced Application Passwords, PHP 8 support, the latest and greatest features in the blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor, and a new AAA-ready default theme. As a developer, you’ll see 85 enhancements and feature requests, 201 bug fixes, and more! Of course, all those improvements mean code changes, which could in turn require you to make updates to your site, 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, or theme.

Note that as of the publishing of this Field GuideField guide The 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. there are still two pending Dev Notesdev note Each 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 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. that will be published in the coming week. We will update this Field Guide with that content once it becomes available and will place a clear UPDATE note announcing the new content at the top of this Field Guide.

In this Field Guide, you’ll notice what’s relevant to you and your users among the many improvements coming in 5.6.

Application Passwords

Of the eight updates to the Login and Registration component, take notice of WordPress 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. improvements in the detailed integration guide. You can now make authenticated requests to various WordPress APIs via the newly-introduced, user-specific, application passwords.

The integration guide includes the application password format, the application password data store, how to generate credentials manually or programmatically through the REST API, and how to use those credentials with the REST API or XML-RPC API. Additionally, you’ll notice highlights on future developments for the REST API.

Application Passwords: Integration Guide

Auto-updates (Security)

The #core-auto-updates team introduces a new UIUI User interface allowing website administrators to opt-in to major version automatic updates. Read on to learn more about the new user interface to opt-in to automatic updates for major versions looks, how the user interface works, and how you can extend the core major versions auto-updates feature.

Core major versions auto-updates UI changes in WordPress 5.6 – Correction

Block Editor

The block editor continues its rapid iteration. 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/ version 9.2 is bundled with WordPress 5.6; that’s seven Gutenberg releases (versions 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.9, 9.0, 9.1, and 9.2) all bundled into this release (and as noted in the related Gutenberg handbook page)! Bug fixes and performance improvements from Gutenberg versions 9.3 and 9.4 are also part of 5.6.

The WordPress 5.6 Beta 1 post highlights many new features and improvements. There is improved support for video positioning in cover blocks, enhancements to Block Patterns including translatable strings, character counts in the information panel, improved keyboard navigation, and improved UI for drag and drop functionality.

Included below are details on a new Block API version that enables blocks to render their own block wrapper element, and a new createBlocksFromInnerBlocksTemplate Block API to create blocks from the InnerBlocks template. You’ll notice new block supports and abilities for dynamic blocks to use the new block supports, 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 small screen user experience enhancements to editor styling, extraction of reusable blocks from @wordpress/editor to @wordpress/reusable-blocks so they are available in other editors, and changes to Toolbar components.

Block API version 2
New createBlocksFromInnerBlocksTemplate Block API
Block Supports In WordPress 5.6
Editor styling changes in WordPress 5.6
Reusable Blocks extracted into a separate package
Changes to Toolbar components in WordPress 5.6

jQuery

WordPress 5.6 includes part 2 of the 3-step plan for upgrading the version of jQuery bundled with core. The 3-step plan updates the bundled jQuery version to 3.5.1 and jQuery Migrate to 3.3.1. The dev note below includes details on part 2 of the plan, and more. Part 3 of the plan removes jQuery Migrate. That’s because jQuery Migrate is tentatively planned to be removed in WordPress 5.7 or later depending on testing. As 5.6 includes a major upgrade to the jQuery library, please ensure you test your plugins and themes as thoroughly as possible before the release of WordPress 5.6 to avoid any preventable breakage.

Updating core jQuery to version 3 – part 2

PHP 8

The next major version release of PHP, 8.0.0, is scheduled a few days prior to WordPress 5.6. The WordPress project has a long history of being compatible with new versions of PHP as soon as possible, and this release is no different. Because PHP 8 is a major version release, changes that break backward compatibility or compatibility for various APIs are allowed. While all of the detectable issues in WordPress can be fixed, you will need to verify that all of your plugins and themes are also compatible with PHP 8 prior to upgrading. Read on for more detailed information about what to look for.

WordPress and PHP 8.0

REST API

Of the 28 REST API updates, pay attention to the new framework for making a series of REST API calls in one request to the server and the new wp_after_insert_post action that allows theme and plugin developers to run custom code after a post, its terms, metaMeta Meta 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. data has been updated. Read the respective dev notes below to learn more about these two new additions to the WordPress REST API.

REST API Batch Framework in WordPress 5.6
New action wp_after_insert_post in WordPress 5.6.

Site Health

There are 11 Site Health updates in 5.6. You’ll want to particularly notice enhancements to the way the Site Health component handles and validates health checks. The dev note below includes details on changes to the Site Health component.

Site Health Check changes in 5.6

Themes

This release continues a tradition of including a new default theme, this year with the AAA-ready Twenty Twenty-One theme. The post below includes background on Twenty Twenty-One and the design decisions made in its planning. You’ll also notice the benefit in consulting our community of a11yAccessibility 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) experts from the beginning, the joy in testing the AAA-ready default theme, and the pleasure of activating and using the new theme.

Introducing Twenty Twenty-One

Other Developer Updates

There are even more goodies in 5.6! Read through the dev note below to see details on additional changes coming in 5.6 within the Administration, Build/Test Tools, Database, Media, Networks and Sites, Pings/Trackbacks, Quick/Bulk Edit, Site Health, TaxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies., Users, Upgrade/Install, and Widgets components and with PHP, JSONJSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML., and error handling.

Miscellaneous developer focused changes in WordPress 5.6

But Wait, There is More!

5.6 offers so much more! Over 197 bugs, 85 enhancements and feature requests, and 39 blessed tasks have been marked as fixed in WordPress 5.6.

Here are a few that haven’t been highlighted:

  • Bundled Theme: Added block patterns for Twenty Twenty (#51098) and Twenty Nineteen (#51099) themes.
  • Bundled Theme: Added theme support for navigation-widgets (see #51445).
  • Build/Test Tools: Update akismet from 4.1.6 to 4.1.7 (#51610).
  • Build/Test Tools: Composer 2.0 Support (#51624).
  • Emoji: Update twemoji from 13.0.0 to 13.0.1 (#51356).
  • External Libraries: Update lodash from 4.17.15 to 4.17.19 (#51505).
  • External Libraries: Update react and react-dom from 16.9.0 to 16.13.1 (#51505).
  • Media: Added indicator to image details for images attached to a site option (#42063).
  • REST API: Fixed incorrect slashes in the URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org if the parent is empty for REST API (see #44745).
  • Site Health: Added better handling of unexpected values in Site Health (#50145).
  • Site Health: Added a test to Site Health to verify that the Authorization headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes. is working as expected for Application Passwords (see #51638).
  • And much, much more!

Please, test your code. Fixing issues helps you and millions of WordPress sites.

Props to @jeffpaul, @desrosj, @planningwrite, @isabel_brison, @audrasjb, @annezazu, @cbringmann, and @chanthaboune for contributing to this guide.

#5-6, #field-guide

Daisy Olsen 4:57 pm on November 20, 2020
Tags: ,   

Miscellaneous developer focused changes in WordPress 5.6

WordPress 5.6 includes several small, developer-focused, changes. Here’s a summary of what you can expect.

General: Replace older-style PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 type conversion functions with type casts

PHP’s intval(), strval(), floatval(), and boolval() typecasting functions are artifacts in the WordPress code base from the PHP 4 days. In PHP 5 and later direct type casting is available, which is often many times more performant than their function predecessors.

In WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., over 250 remaining occurrences of typecasting functions were removed in favor of direct typecasting. This improves performance, readability, and consistency throughout Core.

  • intval() → (int)
  • strval() → (string)
  • floatval() → (float)

For more information, check out the related ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. on TracTrac An open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress.: #42918.

General: Introduce the ability to merge multiple WP_Error objects into one another, and to store more than one item of data for an error

The WP_Error class is used throughout WordPress to indicate an error has occurred with some more specific details (an error code, message, etc.). While this class supports storing multiple error messages and codes in a single instance, it’s not currently possible to merge two WP_Error instances into one without doing so manually.

In WordPress 5.6, three new methods have been added to the WP_Error class to help with these scenarios. 

<?php
$error_1 = new WP_Error(
    'code1',
    'This is my first error message.',
    'Error_Data'
);

$error_2 = new WP_Error(
    'code2',
    'This is my second error message.',
    'Error_Data2'
);

// Merge from another WP_Error.
$error_1->merge_from( $error_2 );

// Retrieve all error data, optionally for a specific error code.
$error_1->get_all_error_data( 'code2' );

// Export to another WP_Error
$error_1->export_to( $error_2 );

For more information, check out the related ticket on Trac: #38777.

Pings/Trackbacks: Split do_all_pings() into several functions

The do_all_pings() function is responsible for performing pingbacks, trackbacks, enclosures, and updates for a site. However, in its current state, it’s impossible to disable just one of those services.

In WordPress 5.6, each service has been split out into its own function.

  • do_all_pingbacks()
  • do_all_enclosures()
  • do_all_trackbacks()
  • generic_ping() has existed since WordPress 1.2

The do_all_pings() function will remain in order to prevent changing the behavior configured by any 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 currently unhooking do_all_pings() from the do_pings action. do_all_pings() will now fire a new action, do_all_pings, with the four functions above attached.

As an example, let’s say you wish to disable only trackbacks. The following snippet would unhook the trackbacks function, preventing trackbacks from being performed.

 <?php
 remove_action( ‘do_all_pings’, ‘do_all_trackbacks’ );

For more information, check out the related ticket on Trac: #36576.

TaxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies.: Allow for wp_count_terms( $args ) signature, making passing a taxonomy optional

In WordPress 4.3, the concept of shared taxonomy terms was eliminated. This paved the road for many taxonomy related features and improvements in the following years, including the WP_Term class (#14162) and term metaMeta Meta 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. (#10142) in WordPress 4.4, and making the $taxonomy parameter optional when calling get_terms() (see #35495).

In WordPress 5.6, the wp_count_terms() function signature has been updated for consistency and now matches that of get_terms(). This also makes it more apparent that wp_count_terms() can be used to count all terms, and not just ones from a certain taxonomy.

Similar to the change previously made to get_terms(), no deprecation warnings are triggered when using the legacy function signature.

For more information, check out the related ticket on Trac: #36399.

Build/Test Tools: Fix code coverage generation

The phpunit.xml.dist file that configures the PHPUnit test suite was incorrectly configuring the code coverage setup to generate a code coverage report from the src directory. Because the WP_RUN_CORE_TESTS constant is also defined as 1 in the ruleset, the codebase is run from the build directory. This was resulting in an empty and inaccurate coverage report.

This makes the coverage setup consistent with other parts of the test suite when the WP_RUN_CORE_TESTS constant is set to 1.

Note: If you have a local phpunit.xml file that changes the WP_RUN_CORE_TESTS constant to 0, you should also – in the same file – change the code coverage setup to use the src directory instead.

For more information, check out the related ticket on Trac: #50267.

Networks and Sites: New filters and actions

In WordPress 5.6, two new filters have been introduced to provide more control over the email sent out to administrators when a new site is created.

First, the new_site_email_filter has been added to allow developers to alter the following parts of this email: to, subject, message, and headers.

Second, the send_new_site_email has been added to allow developers to disable this email entirely. Returning false to this 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. will prevent the email from being sent at all.

For more information on these filters, check out the related ticket on Trac: #42134.

Additionally, the network_site_info_form action has been added in the site info form within the networknetwork (versus site, blog) adminadmin (and super admin). This action hook allows developers to add additional fields to the form.

For more information, check out the related ticket on Trac: #50704.

Database: Deprecated post_category column removed

In WordPress 2.8, the posts.post_category database column was dropped from the database schema and, it will no longer be added to new sites. However, the column was never removed from sites created with WordPress 2.7 or earlier.

Upon upgrading to WordPress 5.6, the posts.post-category column will be removed from the posts table if present in the database.

For more information, check out the related ticket on Trac: #51288.

General: Add $options parameter to JSONJSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML. response functions

WordPress has several utility functions for sending proper JSON responses to requests. Eventually, they all call wp_json_encode(), which accepts an $options parameter. This gets passed to the PHP internal json_encode() function as the $flags argument.

The following functions now accept an $options parameter:

  • wp_send_json()
  • wp_send_json_success()
  • wp_send_json_error()

For more information, check out the related ticket on Trac: #51293.

Additional developer changes

  • Administration: Restore alternative admin menu position for menu items with the same position value as an existing menu item (see #42918).
    Comments: Adds a comments_template_top_level_query_args filter for top level comments query arguments in comments_template() (see  #38074).
  • Media: sanitize_file_name() now removes accents, making it more consistent with sanitize_title() and sanitize_user() (see #22363).
  • Media: The image_sideload_extensions filter has been added to the list of allowed file extensions when sideloading an image from a URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org (see #50695).
  • Media: Stream wrappers are now supported by the WP_Image_Editor_Imagick image editing class (see #42663).
  • Media: The wp_get_attachment_image filter has been introduced within wp_get_attachment_image() to filter the HTMLHTML HyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. output (see #50801).
  • Multisitemultisite Used to describe a WordPress installation with a network of multiple blogs, grouped by sites. This installation type has shared users tables, and creates separate database tables for each blog (wp_posts becomes wp_0_posts). See also network, blog, site: get_dirsize() now has a more contextual cache, storing sizes by directory resulting in a performance improvement (see #19879).
  • Quick/Bulk Edit: The quick_edit_dropdown_authors_args filter has been introduced to allow the authors dropdown within the Quick Edit interface to be modified (see #47685).
  • Site Health: The recovery_mode_email filter has been updated to support attachments. This adds the ability for developers to add attachments to pass to wp_mail() (see #51276).
  • Users: Introduce email_exists filter, to complement username_exists (see #51379).
  • Users: Introduce the invited_user_email filter for filtering the contents of the email sent when an existing user is invited to a site on Multisite (see #42132).
  • Upgrade/Install: Introduce the wp_installed_email filter for filtering the contents of the email sent when WordPress is installed, without needing to override the wp_new_blog_notification() pluggable function (see #42133).
  • Widgets: When support for the HTML5 navigation-widgets is declared, the tagtag A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses tags to store a single snapshot of a version (3.6, 3.6.1, etc.), the common convention of tags in version control systems. (Not to be confused with post tags.) cloud 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. is now properly wrapped in a <nav> element to improve semantics and accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) (see #51455).

Props @desrosj and @newyorkerlaura for helping to draft/review.

#5-6, #dev-notes

Timothy Jacobs 4:37 pm on November 20, 2020
Tags: , ,   

REST API Batch Framework in WordPress 5.6

WordPress 5.6 introduces a framework for making a series of REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/. calls in one request to the server. At its simplest, this is a helpful performance optimization when a large number of write operations need to be made. It also optionally offers basic concurrency controls.

Registration

In order to be used in a batch request, routes must first declare support for the feature during their registration. For example:

register_rest_route( 'my-ns/v1', 'my-route', array(
	'methods'             => WP_REST_Server::CREATABLE,
	'callback'            => 'my_callback',
	'permission_callback' => 'my_permission_callback',
	'allow_batch'         => array( 'v1' => true ),
) );

If the REST API route was implemented using best practices, declaring support should be sufficient for the route to be writable via the batch endpoint. Specifically, these are the things to look out for:

  1. Routes must use the WP_REST_Request object to get all request data. In other words, it shouldn’t access the $_GET, $_POST or $_SERVER variables to get parameters or headers.
  2. Routes must return data. This could be a WP_REST_Response object, a WP_Error object or any kind of JSONJSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML. serializable data. This means the route must not directly echo the response and die(). For example by using wp_send_json() or wp_die().
  3. Routes must be re-entrant. Be prepared for the same route to be called multiple times in a batch.

Making a Request

To send a batch, make a POST request to https://yoursite.test/wp-json/batch/v1 with an array of the desired requests. For example, the simplest batch request looks like this.

{
  "requests": [
    {
      "path": "/my-ns/v1/route"
    }
  ]
}

Request Format

Each request is an object that can accept the following properties.

{
  "method": "PUT",
  "path": "/my-ns/v1/route/1?query=param",
  "headers": {
    "My-Header": "my-value",
    "Multi": [ "v1", "v2" ]
  },
  "body": {
    "project": "Gutenberg"
  }
}
  • method is the HTTPHTTP HTTP is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web and this protocol defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands. method to use for the request. If omitted, the POST method is used.
  • path is the REST API route to call. Query parameters can be included. This property is required.
  • headers is an object of headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes. names to a header values. If the header has multiple values, it can be passed as an array.
  • body is the parameters to pass to the route. It is filled in the POST parameter type.

Discovering Max Requests

By default, the REST API accepts up to 25 requests in a single batch. However, this value is filterable so it can be scaled up or down based on server resources.

function my_prefix_rest_get_max_batch_size() {
	return 50;
}

add_filter( 'rest_get_max_batch_size', 'my_prefix_rest_get_max_batch_size' );

As such, clients are strongly encouraged to make a preflight request to discover the limit. For example, making an OPTIONS request to batch/v1 will return the following response.

{
  "namespace": "",
  "methods": [ "POST" ],
  "endpoints": [
    {
      "methods": [ "POST" ],
      "args": {
        "validation": {
          "type": "string",
          "enum": [ "require-all-validate", "normal" ],
          "default": "normal",
          "required": false
        },
        "requests": {
          "type": "array",
          "maxItems": 25,
          "items": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
              "method": {
                "type": "string",
                "enum": [ "POST", "PUT", "PATCH", "DELETE" ],
                "default": "POST"
              },
              "path": {
                "type": "string",
                "required": true
              },
              "body": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": [],
                "additionalProperties": true
              },
              "headers": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": [],
                "additionalProperties": {
                  "type": [ "string", "array" ],
                  "items": {
                    "type": "string"
                  }
                }
              }
            }
          },
          "required": true
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "_links": {
    "self": [
      {
        "href": "http://trunk.test/wp-json/batch/v1"
      }
    ]
  }
}

The limit is specified in the endpoints[0].args.requests.maxItems property.

Response Format

The batch endpoint will return a 207 status code and the responses of each request in the same order as they were requested. For example:

{
  "responses": [
    {
      "body": {
        "id": 1,
        "_links": {
          "self": [
            {
              "href": "http://trunk.test/wp-json/my-ns/v1/route/1"
            }
          ]
        }
      },
      "status": 201,
      "headers": {
        "Location": "http://trunk.test/wp-json/my-n1/v1/route/1",
        "Allow": "GET, POST"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Internally, the REST API envelopes each response before including it in the responses array.

Validation Modes

By default, each request is processed in isolation. This means that a batch response can contain some requests that were successful, and some that failed. Sometimes it’s desired to only process a batch if all the requests are valid. For instance, in GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ we don’t want to save some menu items, ideally all would be saved or none would.

To accomplish this, the REST API allows for passing a validation mode of require-all-validate. When this is set, the REST API will first check that each request is valid according to WP_REST_Request::has_valid_params() and WP_REST_Request::sanitize_params(). If any request fails validation, then the entire batch is rejected.

In this example, a batch of two requests is made and the second one has failed validation. Since the order of responses is still the same as the order of requests, null is used to indicate that the request didn’t fail validation.

{
  "failed": "validation",
  "responses": [
    null,
    {
      "body": {
        "code": "error_code",
        "message": "Invalid request data",
        "data": { "status": 400 }
      },
      "status": 400,
      "headers": {}
    }
  ]
}

Note: Using require-all-validate is not a guarantee that all requests will be successful. A route callback may still return an error.

Validate Callback

Those WP_REST_Request methods use the validate_callback and sanitize_callback specified for each parameter when the route is registered. In most cases, this will mean the schema based validation.

Any validation done inside the route, for instance in the prepare_item_for_database method, will not cause the batch to be rejected. If this is a concern, it is recommended to move as much validation as possible into the validate_callback for each individual parameter. This can be built on top of the existing schema based validation, for instance.

'post' => array(
	'type'        => 'integer',
	'minimum'     => 1,
	'required'    => true,
	'arg_options' => array(
		'validate_callback' => function ( $value, $request, $param ) {
			$valid = rest_validate_request_arg( $value, $request, $param );

			if ( is_wp_error( $valid ) ) {
				return $valid;
			}

			if ( ! get_post( $value ) || ! current_user_can( 'read_post', $value ) ) {
				return new WP_Error( 'invalid_post', __( 'That post does not exist.' ) );
			}

			return true;
		}
	)
)

Sometimes when performing validation, the full context of the request is needed. Typically, this validation would have been done in prepare_item_for_database, but WordPress 5.6 introduces an alternative. When registering a route, a top-level validate_callback can now be specified. It will receive the full WP_REST_Request object and can return a WP_Error instance or false. The callback won’t be executed if parameter-level validation did not succeed.

register_rest_route( 'my-ns/v1', 'route', array(
	'callback'            => '__return_empty_array',
	'permission_callback' => '__return_true',
	'validate_callback'   => function( $request ) {
		if ( $request['pass1'] !== $request['pass2'] ) {
			return new WP_Error(
				'passwords_must_match',
				__( 'Passwords must match.' ),
				array( 'status' => 400 )
			);
		}

		return true;
	}
) );

Note: Request validation happens before permission checks take place. Keep this in mind when considering whether to moving logic to a validate_callback.

Limitations

No built-in routes currently allow batching. This will be added in a future release, most likely starting immediately with WordPress 5.7.

GET requests are not supported. Developers are instead encouraged to use linking and embedding or utilize parallel requests for the time being.

Further Reading

See #50244, [49252], [48947], [48945].

Props @kadamwhite, @m_butcher, @jeffmatson for reviewing.

#5-6, #dev-notes, #rest-api

Dan Farrow 2:13 pm on November 20, 2020
Tags: ,   

CSS Chat Summary: 19 November 2020

Full meeting transcript here on slack. @notlaura facilitated the meeting & @danfarrow wrote up this summary.

Housekeeping

@kburgoine made a proposal that the CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets. 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. scrubs could target tickets other than those specifically related to the next release, in order to give them some needed attention & to keep things interesting for the scrub attendees.

@notlaura suggested a 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/-specific scrub which @ryelle & @kburgoine seconded. @ryelle also suggested focusing on awaiting review tickets.

CSS Audit (#49582)

@notlaura is working on some improvements in the config PR per @ryelle’s feedback. @danfarrow has started to make sense of the twig templating hierarchy, and has made progress on the styling side of things.

The next step is for @danfarrow to submit a PR to be merged with the UIUI User interface updates. We can then add a direct link to the !important audit section into the related ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. (#26350) as previously discussed.

Both @notlaura & @danfarrow are hoping to have more progress ready to share at next week’s meeting.

Color Scheming (#49999)

There was no progress to report here but @danfarrow is ready to run the visual regressionregression A 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. tool on the updated adminadmin (and super admin) colour scheme prior to next week’s meeting.

CSS links share + open floor

@danfarrow has improved his confidence with flexbox by playing the Flexbox Zombies game he mentioned last week. @notlaura mentioned CSS Grid Garden, a similar game for mastering grid.

@danfarrow also mentioned Service Workies, a game by the same author for learning about Service Workers.

Related to this, @notlaura mentioned wanting to read Jeremy Keith’s book Going Offline.

And with that the meeting itself went offline. Thanks everybody!

#core-css, #summary

Francesca Marano 1:09 pm on November 20, 2020
Tags: ,   

Test scrub for WordPress 5.6 RC1 and office hours

As part of the 5.6 release, we’ll be hosting a Release Candidaterelease 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). 1 focused test scrub on 11/20/2020 13:30 UTC in the #core channel on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..

In particular, we will focus on user testing. Since there are no use-cases listed, we will take the opportunity also to start writing down common actions users perform, so we can build up testing scenarions.

Please join us and share your valuable feedback.

You can read more about Release Candidate 1 on its announcement post.

WordPress 5.6 Release Candidate

What you need

  • Test website
  • WordPress 5.6 RC 1:
    • Try the WordPress Beta Tester 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 (choose the “Bleeding edgebleeding edge The latest revision of the software, generally in development and often unstable. Also known as trunk.” channel and 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./RC Only” stream options)
    • Or download the release candidate here (zip).

Looking forward to testing with you!

#test, #testing
Peter Wilson 4:42 am on November 20, 2020
Tags: ,   

New action wp_after_insert_post in WordPress 5.6.

The new action wp_after_insert_post has been added to WordPress 5.6 to allow theme and 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 developers to run custom code after a post and its terms and metaMeta Meta 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. data has been updated.

The save_post and related actions have commonly been used for this purpose but these hooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same. can fire before terms and meta data are updated outside of the classic editor. (For example in the REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/., within the 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. and when an auto-draft is created.)

The new action sends up to three parameters:

  • $post_id The post ID has been updated, an integer.
  • $post The full post object in its updated form, a WP_Post object.
  • $updated Whether the post has been updated or not, a boolean.

By default WordPress fires this hook at the end of wp_insert_post(). A third parameter has been added to the function to allow developers to prevent the hook from firing automatically:

  • $fire_after_hooks Whether to fire the after insert hooks, a boolean. Optional, default true.

The same parameter has been added to wp_update_post() as the third parameter and wp_insert_attachment() as the fifth parameter.

In the event a developer calls any of these functions and prevents the hook from firing, it is expected they will manually call the new function wp_after_insert_post() to trigger the new action. This new function requires two parameters:

  • $post The post ID or object that has been saved, ether an integer or WP_Post object
  • $update Whether the post has been updated (true) or inserted (false).

For the history of this change, see ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. #45114. The changes were committed in [49172]. A discussion on the approach took place in Slack during a dev chat.

An example when inserting a post.

In the event you are calling wp_insert_post() or one of the related functions listed above, if you are then updating the post’s terms or meta data separately it is recommended you prevent the hook from running and call it manually. For example:

$post_id = wp_insert_post(
    array(
        'post_title'   => 'My post title',
        'post_content' => 'My post content',
        'post_type'    => 'my_cpt',
    ),
    false,
    false
);

add_post_meta( $post_id, 'my_meta_key', 'my meta value' );

wp_after_insert_post( $post_id, false );
// Second parameter is true for an updated post.

Props to @planningwrite, @timothyblynjacobs and @chrisvanpatten for reviewing this dev notedev note Each 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 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..

#5-6, #dev-notes

Laura Nelson 4:34 pm on November 19, 2020
Tags: , ,   

Dev Chat Summary: November 18 2020

Hello! Here’s what happened in the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. dev chat on Wednesday, November 18, 2020, 05:00 UTC and Wednesday, November 4, 2020, 20:00 UTC, following this agenda.

05:00 UTC core dev chat

@thewebprincess facilitated the meeting and took notes. Find the full Slack archive here.

20:00 UTC core dev chat

@thelmachido facilitated the meeting and @laurora took notes. The full Slack archive can be viewed here.

Both groups followed this agenda: https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/11/04/dev-chat-agenda-october-4th-november-2020/

Announcements

RC1 of 5.6 has been released! The team would love you to help by testing the release candidaterelease 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)., and/or by offering any translationtranslation The process (or result) of changing text, words, and display formatting to support another language. Also see localization, internationalization. skills. More information can be found in the Release Candidate post.

@helen shared that the theme previewer site [wp-themes.com] is now showing starter content for the demos for Twenty Twenty One, Twenty Twenty, and Twenty Seventeen, thanks to some help from @dinhtungdu and @dd32. Helen noted that it is not yet available for themes at large; the reasons for which she’ll be sharing in a post that’ll be published soon.

Highlighted Posts

A Week in Core – November 16, 2020

Site Health Check changes in 5.6

Dev Notesdev note Each 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 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. are starting to show up ready for final release, here’s the latest dev-notes 5.6

Updates from Component Maintainers/Focus Leads

General:
@sergeybiryukov shared that PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 8 release is scheduled for November 26. For WordPress 5.6, the current plan is to declare it as “betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. compatible with PHP 8”. A post on make/core is coming soon, but you can see the reasoning behind this in the following 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/. conversations:
https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1605646136362600
https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1605646630372100

@desrosj added that the dev notedev note Each 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 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. for this is almost complete, and will be added tomorrow [November 19].

Open Floor

@isabel_brison flagged that there are still a number of outstanding issues in relation to the editor. If you think you might be able to help out in clearing these, please take a look at the to-do column on the Gutenberg project board on GitHub.

@webcommsat shared that the Marketing Team is working on questions and answers for 5.6 for the HelpHub and working with the Training Team. The team will add the latest version to the Marketing Team GitHub at the end of this week, for those who are interested in helping with this.

@desrosj apologized for the delay in publishing the Field GuideField guide The 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. – this will be published by the end of the week.

@francina has started recapping the comments to the post about aligning the WP release cycle to industry standards. Right now there are very few voices, and despite the deadline for feedback stated has now passed, she would still love to hear from more people. Please review the post and share your feedback.

@whyisjake asked when the planning for the 5.7 release cycle (team etc) is going to start. @francina suspects @chanthaboune has a plan, but stressed that it would be great to see 5.6 squad members back again, and encourages anyone who has any questions about being part of the release squad to reach out to her or @audrasjb. Francesca will be adding a list of release squad roles and more information on how you can get involved in the handbook soon.

Next Dev Chat meetings

The next meetings will take place on Wednesday, November 25, 2020, 05:00 UTC and Wednesday, November 25, 2020, 20:00 UTC in the #core Slack channel. Please feel free to drop in with any updates or questions.

#5-6, #dev-chat, #summary

Lara Schenck 3:26 pm on November 19, 2020
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CSS Chat Agenda: 19 November 2020

Note: 1 hr before the meeting, at 4:00pm EST @kburgoine will lead the CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets. CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Triagetriage The act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors.!

This is the agenda for the upcoming CSS meeting scheduled for Thursday, November 5, at 5:00 PM EST. This meeting will be held in the #core-css channel in the Making WordPress SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..

If there’s any topic you’d like to discuss, please leave a comment below!

  • Housekeeping
  • Updates
    • CSS Audit (#49582)
    • Color Scheming (#49999) – Visual Regressionregression A 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. Testing (#49606)
  • Open floor + CSS link share

#agenda, #core-css