The WordPress coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. development team builds WordPress! Follow this site for general updates, status reports, and the occasional code debate. There’s lots of ways to contribute:
Found a bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority.?Create a ticket in our bug tracker.
We use Slack for real-time communication. Contributors live all over the world, so there are discussions happening at all hours of the day.
Our core development meetings are every Wednesday at 05:00 UTC and 20:00 UTC in the #core channel on Slack. Anyone can join and participate or listen in!
WordPress 5.6 will be the third and final major release of 2020 and aims to include nav menu blockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience., automatic updates for major coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. releases, widgetWidgetA 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. editing and CustomizerCustomizerTool 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, PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 8 support, and update GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ to the latest release version as we continue to focus in 2020 on full site editing via Gutenberg. Josepha Haden is the Release LeadRelease LeadThe community member ultimately responsible for the Release., Dee Teal is the Release Coordinator, Tonya Mork is the TriagetriageThe act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. Lead, Helen Hou-Sandì is the Core Tech Lead, Isabel Brison is the Editor Tech Lead, Ellen Bauer and Tammie Lister are the Design Leads, Shital Marakana is the Design Tech Lead, Sarah Ricker is the AccessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) Lead, Yvette Sonneveld is the Marketing Lead, the Documentation Wrangler is Shawntelle Coker, Michele Butcher-Jones is the Documentation Review Lead, Mel Choyce-Dwan is the Default Theme Design Lead, Carolina Nymark is the Default Theme Development Lead, Jessica Lyschik is the Default Theme Wrangler, Monika Rao is the Test Lead, and Bet Hannon is the Support Lead. This group of release leads is supported by various cohort groups. All release decisions will ultimately be this release teams’ to make and communicate while gathering input from the community. There will be a new bundled theme included in 5.6.
Beta 1, begin writing Dev Notesdev noteEach important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include:
a description of the change;
the decision that led to this change
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. and About page, and last chance to merge feature projects. (Slack archive, Zip download)
From this point on, no more commits for any new enhancements or feature requests in this release cycle, only bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. fixes and inline documentation. Work can continue on enhancements/feature requests not completed and committed by this point, and can be picked up for commit again at the start of the WordPress 5.7 development cycle.
Beta 2, continue writing Dev Notes and About page. (Slack archive, Zip download) Note the additional week here allows for not releasing BetaBetaA pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 2 during WordCamp US.
Release candidate 1, publish Field GuideField guideThe field guide is a type of blogpost published on Make/Core during the release candidate phase of the WordPress release cycle. The field guide generally lists all the dev notes published during the beta cycle. This guide is linked in the about page of the corresponding version of WordPress, in the release post and in the HelpHub version page. with Dev Notes, commit About page, begin drafting release post, and hard string freeze. (Slack archive, Zip download)
1 December 2020 (+2w)
Release candidaterelease candidateOne of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). 2, update About page images, and continue drafting release post. (SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. archive, Zip download) Note the additional week here allows for not releasing RC2 during US Thanksgiving week when some of the release lead team may be offline.
7 December 2020 (+6d)
Dry run for release of WordPress 5.6 and 24 hour code freeze. (Slack archive)
8 December 2020 (+1d)
Target date for release of WordPress 5.6. 🎉
To get involved in WordPress core development, head on over to TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. and pick a 5.6 ticket. Need help? Check out the Core Contributor Handbook. Get your patches done and submitted as soon as possible, then help find people to test the patches and leave feedback on the ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker.. Patches for enhancements will not be committed after the dates posted above, so that we can all focus on squashing bugs and deliver the most bug-free WordPress ever.
If you want to dive deeper into 5.6, development is discussed at a weekly meeting in the #core Slack channel and occurs next at Wednesday at 20:00 UTC. Wish us luck!
