The second release candidate for WordPress 5.8 is now available! 🎉
WordPress 5.8 is slated for release on July 20, 2021, and we need your help to get there—if you have not tried 5.8 yet, now is the time!
You can test the WordPress 5.8 release candidate 2 in any of these three ways:
Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the Bleeding edge channel and then Beta/RC Only stream)
Directly download the release candidate version (zip)
Use WP-CLI to test: wp core update --version=5.8-RC2
Thank you to all of the contributors who tested the Beta/RC releases and gave feedback. Testing for bugs is a critical part of polishing every release and a great way to contribute to WordPress.
Plugin and Theme Developers
Please test your plugins and themes against WordPress 5.8 and update the Tested up to version in the readme file to 5.8. If you find compatibility problems, please be sure to post to the support forums, so they can get ready for the final release.
For a more detailed breakdown of the changes included in WordPress 5.8, check out the WordPress 5.8 beta 1 post. The WordPress 5.8 Field Guide, which is particularly useful for developers, has all the info and further links to help you get comfortable with the major changes.
If you think you have found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We would love to hear from you! If you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.
In this episode, Josepha Haden Chomphosy talks about WordPress – In Person! The WordPress events that provide the dark matter of connection that helps sustain the open source project.
Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@wordpress.org, either written or as a voice recording.
Once you step into contribution time, your main concern is the users of WordPress, or new contributors, or the health of the WordPress ecosystem as a whole or the WordPress project. So you get all this subject matter expertise from competitive forces, collaborating in a very “us versus the problem” way. And when you do that, you’re always going to find a great solution.
In the “WordCamp Europe 2021 in Review” episode of the WP Briefing podcast, Josepha Haden talks about the importance of collaboration, which is vital in building WordPress. This edition of The Month in WordPress covers exciting updates that exemplify this philosophy.
We said hello to Gutenberg version 10.8 and version 10.9 this month. Version 10.8 adds rich URL previews, enhancements to the list view, and an updated block manager. Version 10.9 offers several performance enhancements, along with more block design tools and template editor enhancements.
The first major BuddyPress release of 2021, version 8.0 “Alfano,” came out on June 6. The short-cycle release offers features such as the ability to recruit new members, an improved registration experience, and profile field types. Download it from the WordPress.org plugin directory or check it out from its Subversion repository.
Further reading
WordCamp Japan 2021 was held from June 20- 26. The weeklong event, which had two session days followed by five contributor days, sold 1300+ tickets, with 45 speakers and 23 sponsors. Catch the event recording on YouTube!
The Core Team added block patterns and improvements to all legacy default themes. The team also shared a feature request that will allow developers to modify and extend the Site Health feature in Core.
The Design Team shared an update on the block pattern directory; the team is continuing to review suggestions and has offered some guidelines in this post.
Ujwal Thapa – co-founder of the Nepal WordPress community passed away due to COVID-19. Our community deeply mourns his loss and is thankful for his contributions.
The first release candidate for WordPress 5.8 is now available! 🎉
Please join us in celebrating this very important milestone in the community’s progress towards the final release of WordPress 5.8!
“Release Candidate” means the new version is ready for release, but with thousands of plugins and themes and differences in how the millions of people use WordPress, it is possible something was missed. WordPress 5.8 is slated for release on July 20, 2021, but your help is needed to get there—if you have not tried 5.8 yet, now is the time!
You can test the WordPress 5.8 release candidate in three ways:
Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the Bleeding edge channel and then Beta/RC Only stream)
Directly download the release candidate version (zip)
Using WP-CLI to test: wp core update --version=5.8-RC1
Thank you to all of the contributors who tested the Beta releases and gave feedback. Testing for bugs is a critical part of polishing every release and a great way to contribute to WordPress.
What is in WordPress 5.8?
The second release of 2021 continues to progress on the block editor towards the promised future of full site editing with these updates:
WordPress 5.8 also has lots of refinements to enhance the developer experience. To learn more, subscribe to the Make WordPress Core blog and pay special attention to the developer notes tag for updates on those and other changes that could affect your products.
Plugin and Theme Developers
Please test your plugins and themes against WordPress 5.8 and update the Tested up to version in the readme file to 5.8. If you find compatibility problems, please be sure to post to the support forums, so those can be figured out before the final release.
The WordPress 5.8 Field Guide, due to be published very shortly, will give you a deeper dive into the major changes.
If you think you have found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We would love to hear from you! If you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.
WordPress 5.8 Beta 4 is now available for testing!
This software is still in development, so it is not recommended to run this version on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with it.
You can test the WordPress 5.8 Beta 4 in three ways:
Install/activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the Bleeding edge channel and the Beta/RC Only stream).
Using WP-CLI to test: wp core update --version=5.8-beta4
The current target for the final release is July 20, 2021. That’s less than four weeks away, so we need your help to make sure the final release is as good as it can be.
Some Highlights
Since Beta 3, 18 bugs have been fixed. Most tickets focused on polishing existing default themes, fixing bugs in the new block Widget screen, and squashing Editor bugs collected during beta.
Testing for bugs is a vital part of polishing the release during the beta stage and a great way to contribute. ✨
If you think you’ve found a bug, please post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We would love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac. That’s also where you can find a list of known bugs.
WordPress 5.8 Beta 3 is now available for testing!
This software is still in development, so it is not recommended to run this version on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with it.
You can test the WordPress 5.8 Beta 3 in three ways:
Install/activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the Bleeding edge channel and the Beta/RC Only stream).
Using WP-CLI to test: wp core update --version=5.8-beta3
The current target for the final release is July 20, 2021. That’s just four weeks away, so we need your help to make the final release is as good as it can be.
Some Highlights
Since Beta 2, 38 bugs have been fixed. Here is a summary of some of the included changes:
Block Editor: Move caching to endpoint for unique responses. (#53435)
Bundled Themes: Improve display of blocks in widget areas. (#53422)
Coding Standards: Bring some consistency to HTML formatting in wp-admin/comment.php. (#52627)
Editor: Include Cover block in the list of block types registered using metadata files. (#53440)
Editor: Include Cover block in the list of block types registered using metadata files. (#53440)
Media: Add new functions to return the previous/next attachment links. (#45708)
Media: Improve upload page media item layout on smaller screens. (#51754)
Media: Update total attachment count when media added or removed. (#53171)
REST API: Decode single and double quote entities in widget names and descriptions. (#53407)
Twenty Nineteen: Update margins on full- and wide-aligned blocks in the editor. (#53428)
Widgets: Add editor styles to the widgets block editor. (#53344)
Testing for bugs is a vital part of polishing the release during the beta stage and a great way to contribute. ✨
If you think you’ve found a bug, please post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We would love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac. That’s also where you can find a list of known bugs.
In this episode, Josepha Haden Chomphosy does a mini deep dive into WordCamp Europe 2021, specifically the conversation between the project’s co-founder, Matt Mullenweg, and Brian Krogsgard formerly of PostStatus. Tune in to hear her take and for this episode’s small list of big things.
Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@wordpress.org, either written or as a voice recording.
WordPress 5.8 Beta 2 is now available for testing!
This software is still in development, so it’s not recommended to run this version on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with it.
You can test the WordPress 5.8 Beta 2 in two ways:
Install/activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the Bleeding edge channel and the Beta/RC Only stream)
The current target for the final release is July 20, 2021. That’s just five weeks away, so your help is vital to ensure that the final release is as good as it can be.
Some Highlights
Since Beta 1, 26 bugs have been fixed. Here is a summary of some of the included changes:
Block Editor: Remove bundled block patterns and support the patterns directory. (#53246)
Block Editor: Add a type property to allow Core to identify the source of the editor styles. (#53175)
Build/Test Tools: Adds some tests for Quick Draft section in Dashboard. (#52905)
Build/Test Tools: Replaced @babel/polyfill with core-js/stable. (#52941)
Coding Standards: Further update the code for bulk menu items deletion to better follow WordPress coding standards. (#21603)
External Libraries: Update Underscore to version 1.13.1. (#45785)
General: A number of block editor, template mode and widget screen related fixes. (#51149)
Login and Registration: Improve the unknown username error message. (#52915)
Media: Restore AJAX response data shape in media library. (#50105)
Site Health: Display a list of file formats supported by the GD library. (#53022)
Testing for bugs is a vital part of polishing the release during the beta stage and a great way to contribute. ✨
If you think you’ve found a bug, please post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We would love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac. That’s also where you can find a list of known bugs.
During WordCamp Europe this past Wednesday Matt and I gathered to discuss the latest developments of Gutenberg and to share a video with some of the current and upcoming highlights. The video is wonderfully narrated by @beafialho and it was a great opportunity to celebrate all the incredible work that contributors are doing around the globe to improve the editing and customization experience of WordPress. For those that weren’t able to attend live it’s now available for watching online.
Matt also opened a thread for questions on his blog, so be sure to chime in there if you have any!
WordPress 5.8 Beta 1 is now available for testing!
This software is still in development, so it is not recommended to run this version on a production site. Instead, we recommend that you run this on a test site to play with the new version.
You can test the WordPress 5.8 Beta 1 in two ways:
Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).
The current target for the final release is July 20, 2021. This is just six weeks away, so your help is vital to ensure this release is tested properly and as good as it can be.
So what’s new in this 5.8? Let’s start with some highlights.
Highlights
Powerful Blocks
Discover several new blocks and expressive tools, including blocks for Page Lists, Site Title, Logo, and Tagline. A powerful Query Loop block offers multiple ways for displaying lists of posts and comes with new block patterns that take advantage of its flexibility and creative possibilities.
Interacting with nested blocks has been made easier with a permanent toolbar button for selecting a parent. Block outlines are shown when hovering or focusing on the different block type buttons. Block handles are now also present for drag and drop when in “select” mode.
Introduces the List View, a panel that can be toggled and helps navigate complex blocks and patterns.
Reusable blocks have an improved creation flow and support for history revisions.
A cool new duotone block adds images effects which can be used in media blocks or supported in third-party blocks. Color presets can also be customized by the theme.
Handpicked Patterns
Patterns can now also be recommended and selected during block setup, offering powerful new flows. Pattern transformations are also possible and allow converting a block or a collection of blocks into different patterns.
New collection of Patterns and an initial integration with the upcoming Pattern Directory on WordPress.org.
Better Tools
New template editor that allows creating new custom templates for a page using blocks.
Themes can now control and configure styling with a theme.json file, including layout configuration, block supports, color palettes, and more.
New design tools and enhancements to existing blocks, including more color, typography, and spacing options, drag and drop for Cover backgrounds, additions to block transformation options, ability to embed PDFs within the File block, and more.
Includes improvements to how the editor is rendered to more accurately resemble the frontend.
Internet Explorer 11
Support for Internet Explorer 11 is ending in WordPress this year. In this release, most of those changes are being merged so use the Beta and RC periods to test!
Blocks in Widgets Area
You can now use any block in your theme’s widget areas using the all new Widgets screen and updated Customizer.
Looking for a change and can’t find it? There are more improvements listed after the break.
How You Can Help
Do some testing!
Testing for bugs is an important part of polishing the release during the beta stage and a great way to contribute.
If you think you’ve found a bug, please post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We would love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac. That’s also where you can find a list of known bugs.
Want to follow the code? There’s a development P2 blog and you can track active development in the Trac timeline that often has 20–30 updates per day.
