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.
This is the agenda for the upcoming CSSCSSCascading Style Sheets. meeting scheduled for Thursday July 22 at 21:00PM UTC.
The meeting will be held in the #core-css channel in the Making WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..
Gutenberg 11.1 was released and so What’s new in Gutenberg 11.1.0 was posted today. Check it out for news about the new 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/ release.
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. based 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. Editor
As the project has landed in coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., there is now a new tracking issue set up for things identified by the community as great follow up work to improve on it.
Mobile Team
Shipping: Block picker search and first iteration of the embed block will be shipping in the next release.
In Progress: Scoping the next phase of Global Style Support work focusing on text-related styles.
I surfaced the widgets editor problem with 414 too long request uris on GitHubGitHubGitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/.
Cropping for the site logo needs reviewers PR: 31607.
Working on duotone enhancements we can discuss more during open floor PR: 33466.
Related 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. fix for cover block spacing ui PR: 33560.
Open Floor
A test file was added to WP Core in 5.6.0, but added incorrectly, which means that the tests effectively were never run. I’m trying to fix that, but am now finding that 7 out of the 20 tests are failing. Raised by @jrf
We need someone with good knowledge of global styles to help figuring out if the test’s problem is on the PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher or JSJSJavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors. side of the global styles.
This is probably a bug introduced by the recent work on the “select all” behavior in the block editor.
@ntsekouras surfaced a problem in PR: 1483 – It seems there will be the need for WP version check in patterns
The problem lies that patterns can have blocks with shape that is not supported in a WP version, but themes are also checked against WP version that are compatible. This isn’t the same WP version usually.
They drew inspiration from the https://wordpress.org/plugins/rollback-update-failure/pluginPluginA 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 tried to address a few tickets.
Add new arguments to hook_extra passed by plugin and theme updates to ensure we can rollback to the correct version.
After a plugin/theme is successfully downloaded and extracted, the old plugin/theme folder is moved to wp-content/upgrade/rollback/plugins/PLUGIN or wp-content/upgrade/themes/THEMEwp-content/upgrade/rollback/themes/THEME(thanks Paul Bigai for catching that)
If the plugin/theme was successfully installed, the backup of the previous version we kept in wp-content/upgrade/rollback/ is deleted.
If the plugin/theme was not successfully installed, then we cleanup any remnants of files in wp-content/plugins/PLUGIN (or the corresponding folder for themes), and then we move the backup we kept in the rollbacks folder back to its original location.
Adds info in the site-health screen, to make sure the rollback folder is writable (or can be created if it doesn’t exist)
That is the basic concept. The team ran some tests, helped by @peona as well and it seems to be working.
The main difference with the rollback-update-failure plugin is that this solution moves the plugin/theme folders instead of zipping/unzipping them. This change should help to make the implementation a bit lighter/safer on shared hosts with limited resources.
Before moving forward, I would like to ask the Upgrade/Install Maintainers to have a look at this and discuss together, in the comments of this post, if you agree with this change, if it works, etc…
I am not setting a deadline for the comments, but ideally, I would like to be able to write a merge proposal for 5.9 so I will review the post in mid-JulyAugust (thanks @meher for pointing out that we are at the end of July already 😂) and nudge a bit more 😉
WordPress 5.8 is already here, an exciting release marked by the inclusion of many Full Site Editing features that have been big-picture focuses in recent times. Because of this important achievement, in contrast to normal monthly updates, this post seeks to review the status of Full Site Editing and summarize the next high-level focuses within 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/ Phase 2.
Full Site Editing is the lighthouse goal for phase 2 of Gutenberg. As such, it’s good to remember it is a collection of projects that allow site editing with blocks, bringing powerful capabilities for a smooth editing experience.
WordPress 5.8 includes some of these Full Site Editing projects and features; while some of them will continue as ongoing focuses for subsequent Gutenberg releases (⚒️), others can be considered stable and enter a maintenance phase (✅)
Without further ado, let’s look at the current status of the milestones that have guided Full Site Editing work in the last months and the updated scope for Site Editing.
Site Editing Infrastructure and UIUIUser interface
The Site Editing Infrastructure and UI provide foundational work for the rest of FSE projects, mainly in the Site/Template Editor, Template parts, and the numerous APIs that support work around Full Site Editing.
The first two iterations of the site editor milestone introduced editing 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. themes and all their template files. The ongoing third one offers the possibility of creating custom block templates in classic themes and is available in WordPress 5.8 for those themes that opt-in to the site editing experience. Work will continue to finalize the Site Editor naming and placement: the current Site Editor as we know it in the Gutenberg pluginPluginA 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 may evolve for better navigation flows and interactions.
Thanks to feedback from different FSE Outreach Program testing rounds, the next focus for site experience and tooling improvement include:
Global Styles comprises two major areas that fall underneath the global styles umbrella: centralized theme configuration and an interface for manipulating visual aspects of blocks globally.
Theme configuration absorbs things like declaring color palettes, presets, different supports and settings, and toggle on or off the available block design tools (typography, colors, dimensions, etc.). All of this can be managed through the theme.jsonJSONJSON, 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. configuration file and is one of the key features available in WordPress 5.8. After a few iterations and open testing, this feature is considered stable and moved to a maintenance phase.
The other major part of global styles is the user interface to make edits to blocks globally. With theme.json in place, the next release cycle will have the Global Styles UI as one of its main focuses, allowing users to tweak the theme easily. Color handling will be an important focus, not only to better theme switch but also to seamlessly integrate color palettes with patterns.
To support the theme building needs outside of the template and template parts infrastructure, there was a need to create many new blocks centered around theme functions. WordPress 5.8 brings several of these blocks, from Site Title, Site Tagline, and Site Logo that allow users to configure site settings with blocks, to the post-related blocks such as Post Title and Post Date, to be used inside a Query LoopLoopThe Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. to display post data.
Although new theme blocks may be added as the need arises and the existing ones will receive incremental upgrades, the basics of this milestone are complete.
Among the theme blocks, the Query Loop Block has been a significant area of the site editing focus in the past months, deserving its own milestone. Taking some of the block APIAPIAn 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. infrastructures to the limit, such a powerful block has proven challenging to expose at a user level. As a result of the feedback collected in the FSE Outreach Program, the block has been renamed to clear confusion, and usability enhancements have been implemented before launching it in WordPress 5.8.
With the Query Loop foundations in place, the next iterations will seek to ease the user interactions and flows, even more, thanks to two fundamental Gutenberg tools – block patterns and block variations. The former will continue to help set the inner block structure and content. In contrast, the latter will present the powerful Query Loop’s features in the form of preconfigured blocks and consolidate similar blocks to use the Query Loop Block as their underlying mechanism.
Along with the Query Loop Block, the Navigation Block is another theme block that stands out as a project in its own right. This block has seen great improvements in the last few months, from improved overlays to responsive menus. New blocks are available as well, such as the Home Link block. Shortly, we will see the Navigation block house whole new kinds of blocks thanks to the recent frontend markup adjustments that allow blocks other than links in an accessible way.
Full Site Editing represents a new paradigm in site and theme building in the well-established WordPress ecosystem, and as such, providing the right tools is key to gradual adoption. Tools like the Widgets Editor and Navigation Editor bring block editing capabilities to traditional features that can’t take full advantage of their native block counterpart implementation.
WordPress 5.8 brings the power of blocks to both the Block Widgets Editor and the 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.. Users will be able to add blocks in 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. areas, add widgets and blocks with live preview, and schedule and share directly from the Customizer.
On the other hand, the Navigation Editor has also seen its share of iterative improvements in the last months. Together with the Navigation Block, it will remain an ongoing focus for the next WordPress release cycle.
As mentioned with regards to Query and Navigation blocks, the complexity of the editor increases as site editing capabilities are introduced with advanced block structures and customization options. This highlights the need to expand our APIs and interactions — which are well suited for simple block structures — to better support container blocks.
Another challenging editing experience with the increased number of container and inner blocks is adjusting parent block settings when editing a child block. Users often need to switch between different child and parent blocks to change settings like layout or positioning. In turn, it is necessary to explore Toolbar absorption mechanisms that allow parent blocks to expose their toolbar on their children.
Patterns everywhere
At this stage, it is no secret that block patterns represent considerable potential for users to add many blocks with different preset layouts and settings easily. By using patterns, users don’t need to individually add blocks to achieve rich representations in headers, columns, or Query blocks, as patterns act as a jumpstart blueprint that can be tweaked and adjusted to the user’s needs.
An example of the improved interaction block patterns is demonstrated by the Query block, which allows users to select block patterns in its placeholder state. This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the ways patterns can leverage the editing experience, and as such, efforts will continue improving pattern insertion capabilities.
Thanks to the recently released Block Pattern Directory, patterns can be copied and pasted into the block editor; upcoming Gutenberg iterations will connect and retrieve patterns from this directory, allowing users to choose from huge amounts of beautiful patterns without leaving the editor. Both to ease navigating the big number of patterns users will be able to choose from and accommodate increased pattern complexity and richness, such as in Query or HeaderHeaderThe 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. patterns, revisiting the pattern insertion UI will be an ongoing focus in the months to come.
Several design tools are needed to ensure a wide range of exquisitely crafted patterns can support powerful settings and rich block customizations. These encompass all tools related to the appearance of blocks and range from colors, typography, alignments, and positioning to filters like duotone, cropping, and background media and will need to integrate seamlessly with theme.json mechanics.
Going further, controls like font size, even if exposed as single values to users in the UI, are built behind the scenes to accommodate different viewport ranges. Apart from providing access to the underlying mechanisms through theme.json, responsive-previewing and device-specific editing will be necessary to support this.
To support the ever-increasing number of tools, the sidebarSidebarA sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme., while secondary in some regards to the block canvas and toolbar, will need to accommodate many of these tools, whereas the Component System will provide a shared design language between all these controls.
While the above items are our focuses, don’t forget that you can always help with triage, testing issues, good first issues, and reviewing PRs. In particular, if you’re interested in helping with triagetriageThe act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. but don’t know where to start, there’s a course on Learn WordPress for how to do triage on GitHub! Check it out and join us.
If there’s anything we can do to make contributing easier, let us know in the comments or #core-editor chats. While we can’t promise to fix everything, we’d appreciate being aware of any blockers.
Two weeks have passed since the last 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/ release, which means a new version is available! Gutenberg 11.1 adds the ability to edit a 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. border easily, enables drag and drop support for the List View component, and includes many 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 centered around the Widgets Editor and Block Library.
Block supports: border
Take an early look at custom block borders! When borders are enabled in a theme.json file, and a block declares that it supports it with the block supportsAPIAPIAn 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., a new block panel is available that lets us change the border radius, width, style, color, and border units.
Adminadmin(and super admin) panel available as PWA. (33102, 33310)
Block Breadcrumbs: Small chevron icon for breadcrumb separators. (33042)
Block Library:
Columns Block:
Add stack on mobile setting to allow for columns without mobile breakpoints. (31816)
Add the percent unit to the default units in CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. (33468)
Latest posts: Remove grey color for dark themes. (33325)
List Block: Add link color control to list block. (33185)
Post Terms Block: Add a “separator” attribute to post-terms block. (32812)
Set border style none when border width zero. (32080)
Link Editing: Add Unlink button to LinkControl popover. (32541)
List View: Enable drag and drop in List View. (33320)
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. Editor: Adds auxiliary class names for editor styles. (33388)
General UI:
Block Settings Menu: Don’t render ‘Move to’ if there is only one block. (33158)
Disable ‘Post Publish’ button if saving non-post entities. (33140)
Preferences: Polish labels and consolidate options in preferences. (33133)
New APIs
REST APIREST APIThe 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/.: Block editor settings endpoint. (33128)
UI Components: Add a SearchControl component and reuse across the UI. (32935)
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)
Improve high contrast mode rendering of icon buttons. (33062)
Bug Fixes
Block Breadcrumbs: Fix breadcrumbs htmlHTMLHyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. structure and ReactReactReact is a JavaScript library that makes it easy to reason about, construct, and maintain stateless and stateful user interfaces. https://reactjs.org/. warnings. (33159)
Block Editor:
Move layout styles to document head (instead of rendering inline). (32083)
Warn only in edit implementation when using useBlockProps. (33380)
IframeiframeiFrame is an acronym for an inline frame. An iFrame is used inside a webpage to load another HTML document and render it. This HTML document may also contain JavaScript and/or CSS which is loaded at the time when iframe tag is parsed by the user’s browser.: Remove reset styles. (33204)
Block Library:
Buttons Block: Remove green background color in button preview. (33116)
Embed Block: Include missing attributes when upgrading embed block. (33235)
Query LoopLoopThe Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. Block:
Prevent entering invalidinvalidA 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. values in the Query Loop block configuration. (33285)
Update getTermsInfo() to workaround parsing issue for translatable strings. (33341)
Search Block:
Fix search block button position dropdown accessibility/UXUXUser experience issues. (33376)
Update search block to handle per corner border radii. (33023)
Site Title: Decode entities in site title. (33323)
Post Except: Fix excerpt_morefilterFilterFilters 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.conflictconflictA conflict occurs when a patch changes code that was modified after the patch was created. These patches are considered stale, and will require a refresh of the changes before it can be applied, or the conflicts will need to be resolved. and remove wordCount attribute. (33366)
Design Tools:
Color: Prevent color panel from showing as empty. (33369)
Duotone:
Avoid rendering duplicate stylesheet and SVG. (33233)
Theme.jsonJSONJSON, 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.
Allow themes to provide empty values for color.duotone and spacing.units. (33280)
Specify what settings can be part of settings.layout. (33303)
Site Editor: Close navigation sidebarSidebarA sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. when all posts clicked. (33393)
Fix moving inner blocks in the Widgets 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.. (33243)
Fix inserter size on Widgets Editor headerHeaderThe 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.. (33118)
Merge conflicting wp.editor objects into a single, non-conflicting module. (33228)
Retrieve latest widgets before loading sidebars. (32997)
Apply enhancements included in WordPress 5.8. (33252)
Clarify the type of apiVersion in block metadata. (33249)
Fixes a typo in the documentation for block supports. (33247)
Block Editor API: Changes to support multiple admin screens in WP 5.8. (33262)
Custom Block Editor: Fixed bad image syntax and bold text. (32897)
Fix API documentation for data reference guides. (33384)
PluginPluginA 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 Release: Update Gutenberg release documentation to clarify release post workflow. (33328)
theme.json:
Add examples and highlight backward compatibility. (33421)
Update theme.json documentation for WordPress 5.8. (33131)
Fix codetabs syntax in theme.json documentation. (33417)
Use markdown headings instead of links for API declarations. (33381)
Update documentation for link color in WordPress 5.8. (33162)
NPM Packages: Introduce release types to npm publishing script. (33329)
Plugin: Introduce tools folder with configuration files. (33281)
Workflows:
Release Workflow: Remove “experimental” status from WP 5.8 stable items. (33214)
Re-enable manually triggered workflows on forks. (32821)
Use NPM caching built into action/setup-node. (33190)
Performance Benchmark
The following benchmark compares performance for a particularly sizeable post (~36,000 words, ~1,000 blocks) over the last releases. Such a large post isn’t representative of the average editing experience but is adequate for spotting variations in performance.
Version
Loading Time
KeyPress Event (typing)
Gutenberg 11.1
6.38s
26.12ms
Gutenberg 11.0
6.06s
29.55ms
WordPress 5.7
8.52s
36.26ms
Kudos to all the contributors that helped with the release! 👏
Do you have something to propose for the agenda, or a specific item relevant to the usual agenda items above?
Please leave a comment, and say whether or not you’ll be in the chat, so the group can either give you the floor or bring up your topic for you accordingly.
This meeting happens in the #core channel. To join the meeting, you’ll need an account on the Making WordPress Slack.
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. based 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. Editor.
Navigation Block & Navigation Editor.
Template editor.
Patterns.
Styling.
Mobile Team.
Task Coordination.
Open Floor.
If you are not able to attend the meeting, you are encouraged to share anything relevant for the discussion:
If you have anything to share for the Task Coordination section, please leave it as a comment on this post.
If you have anything to propose for the agenda or other specific items related to those listed above, please leave a comment below.
Welcome back to a new issue of Week in CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. Let’s take a look at what changed on TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress. between July 12 and July 19, 2021.
37 commits
35 contributors
53 tickets created
15 tickets reopened
51 tickets closed
Please note that WordPress 5.8 will be released tomorrow on Tuesday July 20, 2021 🌟
TicketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. numbers are based on the Trac timeline for the period above. The following is a summary of commits, organized by component and/or focus.
Code changes
Application Passwords
Improve various user-facing and developer-facing terminology – #53503, #53691
Build/Test Tools
Update the caniuse browser data and regenerate CSSCSSCascading Style Sheets. – #53277
Clean up skipping conditions and requirements for various tests – #53009
Correct the test for autosaving a post with Ajax – #53363
Replace assertContains() with assertStringContainsString() when used with strings – #53363, #46149
Require the WP_REST_Test_Controller class in WP_REST_Controller tests – #53363
Reset $current_screen global between tests to avoid cross-test interdependencies – #53431
Use more appropriate assertions in rest_sanitize_request_arg() tests – #53363
Use more appropriate assertions in various tests – #53123, #53363
Use more appropriate assertions in various tests – #53363
Use more appropriate assertions in various tests – #53363
Use more appropriate assertions in various tests – #53363
Use more appropriate assertions in various tests – #53363
Use more appropriate assertions in various tests – #53363
Use more appropriate assertions in various tests – #53363
Use more appropriate assertions in various tests – #53363
Bundled Themes
Revert the [51372] update to 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. patterns in bundled themes – #53617
Use the correct formatting for multi-line comments
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.
Don’t always set normalizedTransitionendEventName to null – #53562
Documentation
Correct documentation for wp_get_post_parent_id() – #53399
Synchronize the $post_id argument description for some post and attachment functions – #53399
Various documentation fixes following [51129] – #44314
Editor
Second round of package updates ahead of RC3
BackportbackportA port is when code from one branch (or trunk) is merged into another branch or trunk. Some changes in WordPress point releases are the result of backporting code from trunk to the release branch. fixes targetted for WordPress 5.8 RC4 – #53397
Include the fixes targetted for WordPress 5.8 RC3 – #53397
Document edge cases with the new image_editor_output_formatfilterFilterFilters 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. – #5366, #53668, #35725
Fix JSJSJavaScript, a web scripting language typically executed in the browser. Often used for advanced user interfaces and behaviors. error in Media Library when infinite scroll enabled – #53672
When resizing WebP images set the compression to “lossy” by default. Fixes 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. where the compression was set to “lossless” when the uploaded WebP images have extended file format (VP8X) – #53653
Privacy
Ensure the copy button actually copies the suggested privacy policy text – #53652, #52891
Upgrade/Install
Add additional files to $_old_files for 5.8 – #53367
Widgets
Prevent widgets unintentionally being moved to the inactive sidebarSidebarA sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. – #53657
Replace wp.editor references in the legacy text 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. – #53437
Use wp_sidebar_description() to retrieve a sidebar’s description – #53646
Validate HTMLHTMLHyperText Markup Language. The semantic scripting language primarily used for outputting content in web browsers. before saving block widgets
The major version release process can take a bit more time than the Betas or Release Candidates do, particularly if we run into any last minute issues that need to be addressed.
A key part of the release process is checking that the ZIP packages work on all the different server configurations available. If you have some of the less commonly used servers available for testing (IIS, in particular), that would be super helpful. Servers running older versions of PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher and MySQLMySQLMySQL is a relational database management system. A database is a structured collection of data where content, configuration and other options are stored. https://www.mysql.com/. will also need testing.
There are two ways to help test the package:
Use WP-CLIWP-CLIWP-CLI is the Command Line Interface for WordPress, used to do administrative and development tasks in a programmatic way. The project page is http://wp-cli.org/https://make.wordpress.org/cli/ to test: wp core update https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.8.zip
Directly download the 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./RC version (e.g., https://wordpress.org/wordpress-5.8.zip)
In particular, testing the following types of installs and updates would be much appreciated:
Does a new WordPress install work correctly? This includes running through the manual install process, as well as WP-CLI or one-click installers.
Test upgrading from 4.0.33, 4.9.18, 5.7.2, and 5.8 RC 4 as well as any other versions possible
Remove wp-config.php file and test fresh install
Test single site and multisitemultisiteUsed 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/networknetwork(versus site, blog) (both subdirectory and subdomain) installs
Finally the following user flows, on desktop and mobile, would be great to validate work as expected:
Publish a post, including a variety of different blocks.
Comment on the post.
Install a new pluginPluginA 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/theme, or upgrade an existing one.
Change the site language.
If you’re a plugin developer, or if there are complex plugins you depend upon, test that they’re working correctly.
You can even start this early, by running the WordPress 5.8 RC4 packages, which are built using the same method as the final packages.
Since the image lazy-loading feature was originally added to WordPress core in 5.5, by default every post content image as well as every image rendering using the wp_get_attachment_image() function (which includes featured images) is lazy-loaded. This optimization follows the typical implementation of the feature in other projects, without consideration for whether an image appears above or below the fold. Due to the available metrics at the time it was decided to leave fine-grained control over opting out certain images from being lazy-loaded to theme authors, since the position of images heavily depends on the current theme layout. See also the following paragraph in the original announcement post:
Theme developers are recommended to granularly handle loading attributes for images anytime they rely on wp_get_attachment_image() or another function based on it (such as the_post_thumbnail() or get_custom_logo()), depending on where they are used within templates. For example, if an image is placed within the header.php template and is very likely to be in the initial viewport, it is advisable to skip the loading attribute for that image.
Omitting the loading attribute on certain elements
As mentioned before, WordPress coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. is unable to reliably assess whether an image is going to appear above or below the fold, since it depends on the currently active theme. Furthermore, the loading attributes are added on the server-side, which has no notion on the influencing client factors like viewport size. Because of those reasons, fine-grained control over lazy-loading images (and iframes) still remains with theme authors. However, we can fine tune WordPress core’s lazy-loading implementation to behave in a way that improves the situation for the vast majority of cases, to achieve better LCP values out of the box.
Now, one could argue that lazy-loading should be entirely removed again to avoid any negative impact on LCP. However, that would also remove all the benefits that lazy-loading comes with, which is reducing bandwidth and wasting fewer networknetwork(versus site, blog) resources, which in itself can impact Core Web Vitals (CWV) metrics. The preferable default behavior here would be to find a solid middle ground between those trade-offs. This leads to the following goal for the WordPress core implementation:
The first “x” content image(s) should not be lazy-loaded by default, with “x” being as high as possible so that there is little to no LCP regressionregressionA 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. and as low as possible so that there is little to no regression in the total bytes loaded.
(Note that this also includes iframes, but they are less commonly used as hero elements, so for simplicity this post mentions primarily images.)
To determine the right value for “x” (i.e. the number of images/iframes to omit from being lazy-loaded by default), I conducted an analysis using two versions of a small prototype pluginPluginA 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 which prevents the loading=”lazy” attribute from being added to the first 1 or 2 content images respectively. The analysis relied on the following methodology:
Test across the 50 most popular themes according to the wordpress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ popular themes search
Test on a demo site without any plugins active (except for the lazy-loading prototype plugin), for an archive view with 5 posts (where every post has a featured imageFeatured imageA featured image is the main image used on your blog archive page and is pulled when the post or page is shared on social media. The image can be used to display in widget areas on your site or in a summary list of posts.) and for a single post view (where the post has a featured image as well as 5 images within its content), i.e. 2 different types of URLs
Test for 2 viewports, “mobile” and “desktop”
Use WebPageTest for the individual scenarios (200 in total), with 9 test runs for each scenario in order to counter variance and rely on the median result
That analysis produced the following results:
Omitting the first content image from being lazy-loaded resulted in a median LCP improvement of 7% (1,877ms compared to 2,020ms with current core behavior) and a median image bytes increase of 0% (368KB compared to 369KB with current core behavior). → Omitting the first content image clearly results in an LCP improvement while not noticeably regressing on image bytes saved.
Omitting the first two content images from being lazy-loaded resulted in a median LCP improvement of 5% (1,927ms compared to 2,020ms with current core behavior) and a median image bytes increase of 2% (378KB compared to 369KB with current core behavior). → Omitting the first two content images produces worse results for both metrics than only omitting the first one, i.e. it is better to only skip lazy-loading for the first content image, and therefore no additional tests with larger numbers of images not being lazy-loading are needed.
Both fixes actually perform even better in LCP compared to the results with lazy-loading completely disabled. This confirms that completely disabling lazy-loading is not a solution to the problem.
Drilling further into the results for omitting the first content image, 42% of scenarios result in a median LCP improvement of greater than 10%, with the maximum improvement being 33%. 5% of scenarios result in the median LCP being more than 10% worse, with the maximum here being 21%. → While the median LCP improvement across all themes is only 7%, there are larger notable wins for a significant number of themes, while notable losses are minimal.
Relative LCP change of the fix compared to the current behavior across all tested scenarios
Following up on the findings on the LCP regression from lazy-loading as well as the analysis about the potential fix, the following refinement to the lazy-loading implementation in core is being proposed for WordPress 5.9:
Instead of lazy-loading all images and iframes by default, the very first content image (also considering featured images) or content iframeiframeiFrame is an acronym for an inline frame. An iFrame is used inside a webpage to load another HTML document and render it. This HTML document may also contain JavaScript and/or CSS which is loaded at the time when iframe tag is parsed by the user’s browser. should not be lazy-loaded.
This is a more sensitive default than what the current implementation uses, that on average and at scale will result in better LCP performance out of the box, while keeping necessary bandwidth low.
Despite this change of the default behavior, responsibility for fine grained control of which elements should be lazy-loaded remains with theme authors. As a theme author, you are still recommended to specify a loading attribute value for images presented by the theme. Particularly pay attention if your theme relies on less standard layouts, e.g. a grid or slider view of posts or if post content only appears far down the page.
A TracTracAn open source project by Edgewall Software that serves as a bug tracker and project management tool for WordPress.ticketticketCreated for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. for adding this enhancementenhancementEnhancements are simple improvements to WordPress, such as the addition of a hook, a new feature, or an improvement to an existing feature. to core has been opened in #53675 for further review and discussion.
You must be logged in to post a comment.