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Jb Audras 6:57 am on August 17, 2021

A Week in Core – August 16, 2021

Welcome back to a new issue of Week in Core. Let’s take a look at what changed on Trac between August 9 and August 16, 2021.

  • 33 commits
  • 31 contributors
  • 43 tickets created
  • 5 tickets reopened
  • 37 tickets closed

Pending the appointment of the WordPress 5.9 team, a number of tickets have been fixed, waiting for the next minor release(s).

Ticket 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

Build/Test Tools

  • Add schema reference to PHPUnit config files – #53363
  • Declare two TestCase classes as abstract – #53363
  • Enable running the tests on PHP 8.1 – #53891, #53635
  • Hard deprecate WP_UnitTestCase_Base::checkRequirements() – #46149
  • Hard deprecate WP_UnitTestCase_Base::checkRequirements() – #46149
  • Make the polyfills loading more flexible – #46149
  • Remove Unicode character from PHPUnit version check message – #53363
  • Revert [51602] for now to investigate test failures on PHPUnit < 7.0 – #46149
  • Simplify the PHPUnit test workflow – #53891
  • Add unit tests for the wp_nonce_ays() function – #53882
  • Fix failing i18n unit tests for block metadata – Follow up for #53238
  • Rename classes in phpunit/tests/formatting/ per the naming conventions – #53363
  • Use correct comparison in do_enclose() tests – #53635

Code Modernization

  • Check the return type of _get_cron_array() in wp_schedule_event() – #53635
  • Check the return type of parse_url() in WP::parse_request() – #53635
  • Correct handling of null in wp_parse_str() – #53635
  • Rename the readonly() function to wp_readonly() – #53858
  • Replace strftime() and gmstrftime() usage in unit tests – #53897
  • Silence the deprecation warning for missing return type in phpunit/tests/compat.php – #53635

Documentation

  • Add a @see reference to the wp_mail_content_type filter in wp_staticize_emoji_for_email() – #53399
  • Add a @see reference to the xmlrpc_enabled filter in wp_xmlrpc_server::set_is_enabled() – #53399
  • Correct @since version for the wp_parse_str filter – #53399
  • Fix typo in the get_block_editor_settings() description – #53922
  • Improve documentation for a few functions per the documentation standards – #53399
  • Synchronize documentation for wp_get_attachment_image_attributes filter callbacks in bundled themes – #53878

Editor

  • Preserve the original template keys when preparing a list of page templates – #53898
  • Add support for variations in block.json file – #53238

General

  • Restore (un-deprecate) the sanitize_url() function – #53876

Themes

  • Make sure the theme API response is not an error before operating on it in themes_api() – #53913
  • Twenty Seventeen: Add support for wa.me links in Social Links menu – #51946
  • Twenty Twenty: Add support for wa.me links in Social menu – #50542

Upgrade/Install

  • Update sodium_compat to v1.17.0 – #53907
  • Use consistent capitalization for “web host” in setup messages – #53926

Props

Thanks to the 31 people who contributed to WordPress Core on Trac last week: @jrf (17), @SergeyBiryukov (7), @swissspidy (4), @hellofromTonya (4), @pbearne (3), @sabernhardt (3), @mukesh27 (3), @lucatume (2), @Ipstenu (1), @thomasplevy (1), @Toro_Unit (1), @aadilali (1), @Mamaduka (1), @jorgefilipecosta (1), @youknowriad (1), @ayeshrajans (1), @haosun (1), @jeherve (1), @desrosj (1), @schlessera (1), @gwwar (1), @pierlo (1), @ankitmaru (1), @bradparbs (1), @tmatsuur (1), @dkarfa (1), @carepsules (1), @macmanx (1), @pedromendonca (1), @iluy (1), and @knutsp (1).

Congrats and welcome to our 3 new contributors of the week! @aadilali, @carepsules, and @iluy ♥️

Core committers: @sergeybiryukov (31), and @gziolo (2).

#5-8-1, #5-9, #core, #week-in-core

Francesca Marano 8:53 am on August 16, 2021

Upgrade/Install component meeting agenda for August 17, 2021

The next meeting is scheduled on Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 05:00 PM UTC and will take place on #core-auto-updates Slack channel.

The aim of the chat is to check the status of the rollback for failed plugin/theme updates and decide if it is ready for a merge proposal.

Got something to propose for the agenda? Please leave a comment below.

#core-auto-updates, #updater, #upgrade-install

Matias Ventura 4:50 pm on August 13, 2021

Preliminary Road to 5.9

This is a quick overview of the main areas and features currently underway for 5.9 in Gutenberg. Some are in more advanced stages than others, but together they paint a picture of what we are looking forwards to.

To dive deeper into concrete tasks and areas of work, this tracking issue is the best place to follow.

Blocks + intrinsic web design

Collection of various patterns displayed at mobile resolutions.
  • One of the biggest points of friction for pattern and theme builders are the lack of responsive tools available at a block level. This needs to be solved in a way that doesn’t disproportionally increase interface complexity.
  • The block model is a good case to apply some intrinsic design principles, since a block can occupy a place in many different layouts and containers, for which prescriptive media queries that don’t take context into account are inflexible.
  • Each block area should be intrinsically responsive allowing blocks to compose together, wrap, stack, and organize themselves to fit the different spaces and screens. For this to work well, container blocks need to absorb more layout controls. (Container queries might help expand this further in the future.)
  • Typography tools need to become more fluid and internally support algorithmic clamping. Whenever possible, patterns should just work and accommodate themselves.

Patterns

Mosaic galleries showing different design patterns.
  • With the initial rollout of the new directory there’s a growing need to expand the inserter integration to accommodate broader categories of patterns and the experience of browsing them.
  • There’s more work to be done within the setup flow of single and multi-block selections. This also includes improving the mechanisms for transforming to and from patterns, which are still nascent.
  • Creation flows with patterns also need expanding from template parts and blocks to pages and templates.

Navigation Menus

  • The navigation block and navigation screen projects have been underway for quite some time and are a main target for 5.9. With the principal tracking issue about to be completed, a large part of the remaining work is to improve the user experience, reduce complexity, and test as much as possible on themes.

An interface for theme.json.

Global Styles panel showing the main area and the background color section.
  • 5.8 introduced the scaffolding necessary for themes to take the reins over how various aspects of blocks render and how the interface is controlled. The natural next step ahead is to develop the user interface that will allow users to interact with these style properties. This goes by the project name “global styles” and an updated design is currently in prototype stage.
  • It should be appreciated how important it is to leverage the global reach of CSS rules as we combine it with the power of blocks. The current structure deals with two large groups of design targets: blocks and elements. Elements represent things that can be styled globally and across blocks (such as “text”, “links”, “captions”, etc).

Design Tools: Colors, Typography, Spacing, Layout

Series of panels showing different configurations of the typography tools.
  • The effort to bring better and more consistent design tools continues to progress. These tools need to integrate smoothly with both the block API (through the “supports” mechanism) and theme.json. One of the main goals is consistent access to similar tools across blocks, including third-party ones.
  • Running parallel to this effort comes the work on the WordPress components system, refinements to color tools, interactivity, accessibility, etc.

Formalize editing flows for block themes

Displays templates as small cards in a mosaic, connecting diagrams with the different flows.
  • A large percentage of the infrastructure and features needed to build block themes are established. The UX and design needs the most attention, though, starting by mapping into a clearer information architecture all the possible flows that are to be supported (editing templates, parts, styles, pages, etc).
  • Continue to process and take into the design process all the feedback gathered from users and theme builders.
  • Begin defining transition flows from existing widget areas to block areas when appropriate, and explore the various aspects of theme switching.
  • Finalize and commit all remaining blocks under the “theme” category.

#5-9, #gutenberg

Jon Brown 5:22 pm on August 13, 2021

Lack of responsive controls is by far my biggest frustration with core blocks (and why I almost never use them). I’ve been advocating for this being in the block API since the beginning, rather than encouraging the diversity of UIs to develop independently. It’s really a mess already with each block doing something a little different. FWIW, Ultimate Add-ons for Gutenberg does the best job I’ve seen of providing mobile responsive settings without being overwhelming.

In terms of Design Tools, one thing I’d also really like to see in core however is something like color palettes for typography. Give theme developers the ability to pre-define a dozen typography combinations. The free form “lets pick any font, size, color and style” by end users very quickly leads to absolutely disgusting looking sites.

I’m not advocating that things like typography always be locked down to a theme’s prescription, although obviously on well-managed sites that will often be needed. Average users ought to still have a path to overriding those pre-defined styles.

Matias Ventura 6:11 pm on August 13, 2021

It’s possible already for a theme to specify typography presets and restrict blocks to only choose among those (no custom font size, for example). Something like this:

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"typography": {
    "customFontSize": false,
    "customLineHeight": false,
    "fontSizes": [
        {
            "slug": "normal",
            "size": 16,
            "name": "Normal"
        },
        {
            "slug": "big",
            "size": 32,
            "name": "Big"
        }
    ]
}

With theme.json it can even be done on a per block type basis, so you can allow custom font sizes for the site-title block but lock it down for others. More examples here: http://wayback.fauppsala.se:80/wayback/20210817144203/https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/how-to-guides/themes/theme-json/#settings-examples

Phil 9:57 am on August 15, 2021

Is it possible to disable the new navigation menu page for those that want to keep the current system at ‘Appearance > Menus’? Much like with the new widget editing page in 5.8 by setting the ‘use_widgets_block_editor’ filter to False.

annezazu 4:04 pm on August 16, 2021

@probablynotphil a filter is on the list to tackle before introducing this new editor to the world: http://wayback.fauppsala.se:80/wayback/20210817144203/https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/24683 It will likely take a similar approach as you mentioned as widgets 🙂

deborah86 11:59 am on August 15, 2021

This update is not going to be that exciting because a lot of basic features are missing from core that the WordPress team refuses to address. The team just relies on plugins or complicated workarounds for features that should be included in core. It is 2021, not 2000. My biggest concerns are security, SEO, and ease of use.

1. Ability to sort items in the Media Library by Categories and Tags.

2. Basic SEO features
a. Meta Title and Descriptions for posts and pages
b. Ability to set links as no-follow
c. Ability to set pages, posts, and media files as no-index
d. 301 redirects
e. Ability to add structured data to pages and posts

3. Better ways to secure content.
a. The option to set pages, posts and media files to only be viewable by logged-in users. Requiring only logged-in users to access pages is more secure than using a password to protect pages and posts. A password can be shared by many people and there is no way to tell who shared the password.
b. Built-in ability to prevent image hotlinking.
c. The ability to restrict authors and contributors to view only and manage the files they upload to the Media Library

4. Easy way to delete orphaned plugin and theme files from the database. A deleted plugin or theme file database entries should not be allowed to stick around forever. Plugin and theme developers don’t always do a clean uninstall.

5. Improve the search for plugins and themes. The search is a nightmare.
a. I know WordPress likes to boast how many plugins and themes it has but it needs to remove plugins and themes that haven’t been updated in over 2 years. This opens new users up to security vulnerabilities.
b. Add better filters and tags.

6. WordPress needs to be new-user friendly like Wix, SquareSpace, etc. The average person should be able to use WordPress without having to hire a developer.
a. Many settings need better descriptors added to them
b. Make it easier for a user to get to the support for their theme or plugin through the WordPress dashboard by creating a new support section directly in WordPress Core
c. Only show plugins and themes compatible with the user’s version of WordPress unless they want to see everything so a new user does not download a plugin that might break their website.
d. Get rid of the Hello Dolly plugin on all new installs. It serves no practical purpose for creating a website. It is just extra unneeded code. I know there is sentimental value but if someone wants the plugin on their website, they can install it themselves.
e. Users should be able to create a website comparable to what is offered by Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, etc without the use of 10+ plugins. The transition from one of these websites to WordPress should be easy.

There is a lot more I can say on how WordPress needs to make big changes to improve its experience for users. Updating Gutenberg is great but WordPress Core needs major improvements also.

deborah86 6:45 pm on August 15, 2021

I forgot to add the option to disable right-click on embeded images.

indysigner 11:16 am on August 16, 2021

Amen to that, Deborah! So many core features that should be part of a CMS right from the start, that still are missing.

nimmolo 6:27 am on August 16, 2021

Amen @deborah86, the Core php code is in a woeful state of technical debt and leaderless drift.

You listed many user-facing improvements, and there are just as many developer-facing code improvements that need solutions IN CORE. I cannot believe this has gone on this long without real leadership from Automattic.

deborah86 12:48 pm on August 16, 2021

@nimmolo From what I understand Matt is the issue. Look at the state of Automattic’s products for reference. WooCommerce doesn’t even use Gutenberg even though Matt is pushing Gutenberg development in WordPress. Also, didn’t WooCommerce have two major security breaches this year?

WordPress will use resources to push CRT and woke politics rather than pushing the development of great code and tools for developers. There is always some long discussion on some social issue but there are no long discussions they open up to users or developers on how they can improve WordPress core. WordPress is a CMS and should stay out of politics period.

WordPress used to be an inexpensive way for someone to build a website, now it is the most expensive way to build a website. The line between themes and plugins has become blurred and themes with good designs are hard to find in the directory. All that is left is a bunch of themes with a ton of features but no quality design. The highest quality themes are those made by WordPress or Automatic but those theme developers refuse to update their themes with new features or fix the bugs in the themes. I reported bugs with the base themes. It is almost 3 months later and those bugs haven’t been addressed.

The majority of the features in the themes don’t work unless you upgrade to the premium version. So, to have a nice-looking website like the theme’s preview or to brand the theme, you need to install a premium version of the theme. Those themes are just like a trial of the main theme. The theme directory does not do a good job of separating premium themes from free themes.

Plugins in the plugin directory are mostly previews. Then you have to pay yearly to get the full features of the plugin plus you have to pay for basic support. The plugins that were free with robust features are outdated and not compatible with the latest version of WordPress. They seem to have been abandoned. The directory does not filter between premium plugins and free plugins. If you download a trial plugin, you are bombarded with ads to upgrade to the premium version. The only way to get rid of these ads is to download another plugin.

The WordPress core team relies too much on plugins rather than building a great CMS. Basic SEO features, security features, protecting your content, and simple functionality that will make WordPress beginner-friendly should not be plugins.

One of the biggest issues creators face with the websites is stolen content. In order to fix this issue, 2-3 plugins are needed with an annual cost of $300-$500 dollars. That is just to prevent someone from stealing your blog content and pictures and putting it up on their website.

There are a bunch of hidden costs with WordPress. The cost of a theme for about $40 – $100 a year just for a single website. Hosting can be about $10 a month. Then there is the cost of plugins for basic functionality. That ranges from about per plugin $100 – $300 a year for a single website.

To have a functioning website, a user might spend $500 to $1000 a year, That is way more than someone would spend with Wix, Weebly, SquareSpace, etc for the same features. Plus using those CMS you only have to deal with customer service from one company so you can get better and quicker help for your website.

It is no surprise WordPress is such a mess. If you see how Auttomattic’s business model is (high price, missing or charging more for basic features that similar products have, lack-luster support) you can understand why WordPress is in the predicament that it is in.

There is a lot more I can say about the handling of WordPress Core. I am sure a multitude of users believes the same way.

The Gutenberg team is great and they are dedicated to improving WordPress. I appreciate all the work they have done.

jtolleouw 2:56 pm on August 16, 2021

Some of these comments are ridiculous, and I hope they do not discourage you. But they do have a some points, and the WP teams should still try to see through their anger and pick out the important bits of what they are trying to say.

Thank you for your continued hard work on these products.

Lara Schenck 3:36 pm on August 12, 2021

CSS Chat Agenda: August 12, 2021

This is the agenda for the upcoming CSS meeting scheduled for Thursday August 21 at 21:00PM UTC. The meeting will be held in the #core-css channel in the Making WordPress Slack.

This week, we will be continuing with a supported working session for new contributors! Please see this post with our call for contributors and more details. Our agenda is as follows:

  • Welcome
  • Housekeeping
  • Discussion around the CSS Custom Properties project (#49930)
    • Brief Overview
    • How to Get Involved
  • Open Floor
  • Working Time
  • 21:50PM UTC – Circle back, closing discussion, CSS link share

#agenda, #core-css

David Smith 11:06 am on August 12, 2021

Editor chat summary: 11th August 2021

This post summarises the weekly editor chat meeting (agenda here) held on Wednesday, August 11, 2021 at 02:00 PM UTC in Slack. Moderated by @get_dave.

Gutenberg Plugin releases

Whats next in Gutenberg: July and August

Updates based on the scope for Site Editing projects

Updates were requested for the key projects:

Navigation Block

@mkaz provided an update:

Navigation Editor screen

@get_dave provided the update:

  • Work has continued on bug fixes and stability.
  • Now looking to define what is required to bring the Nav Editor out of “experimental”.
  • To this end, the team is looking to arrange a hallway hangout (or similarly public forum) to compare/contrast the classic navigation screen with the block-based navigation screen.
  • We’re also looking to filter out or break down any “Epic” Issues from the Nav Editor tracking issue into more actionable tasks (where possible).
  • @javiarce has also been looking into and documenting the need to add some “polish” to the Nav Editor screen in order that UX bugs/issues don’t spoil the overall experience. I believe he will look to add these as Bugs to the repo soon.
  • From this we will then look to reprioritise the task list in this tracking Issue around achieving feature parity at a user interface level (developer APIs will follow).

Block based Widget Editor and Customizer.

@get_dave provided the update:

Native Mobile Team

@mattchowning provided the update:

Shipped

  • Added Android support for themes that use Global Styles

Added:

In Progress:

  • Block Picker Search is almost ready to ship.
  • Embed block.
  • Editor onboarding help section.
  • GSS Font size.
  • line height.
  • colors.

Styles, Patterns and Template Editor

At the time of the meeting no updates were provided. If you are a contributor, please do leave an update in the comments below.

(Aside: see Open Floor section below where we discussed how to avoid situations where there are no updates for key projects during the meeting).

Bonus: impromptu discussion on “Full Page Patterns”

This item was not on the agenda, but it’s worth including here because some good points were raised about the value of this proposal.

  • @paaljoachim resurfaced the idea of full page patterns as an alternative to creating a page template.
  • There is a proposal to add Full Page Patterns to Core which looks to have stalled.
  • One could tell the user to add a full page pattern instead of a reusable block that needs to first be converted back to regular blocks before being filled out.
  • Adding patterns is an accident proof way of not affecting any other pages. 
  • @mkaz noted that this feature will work now – there is no limit to what can be put into a pattern.
  • @get_dave noted the key difference between Full Page Patterns and Templates is that inserting a pattern is a one time operation – once inserted it will receive no further updates should the pattern be amended in future.
  • @digamberpradhan and Frank Wazeter were both in favour and could see the value of full page patterns as a discreet concept.

Task Coordination

@paaljoachim:

@annezazu:

  • Main focuses this week are:
    • starting to recap the block theme survey (responses due by Friday!).
    • shipping the call for testing today (included lots of testing).
    • responding to feedback as responses roll in.
  • I hope to have time to do triage once more, focused again on labelling PRs to make releases a bit easier.

@get_dave:

Open Floor

Proposal for improving the “Key project updates” section of editor chat meetings

Usability feedback on the Template settings panel in Block Editor

  • Frank Wazeter raised some feedback about the Template settings panel.
  • When you click on “new”, the default thought is to do something akin to “create new from default template,” especially because the dropdown above has “default” selected.
  • However, what you get is whatever’s set in ‘defaultBlockTemplates’, which for the vast majority, isn’t anything explicitly set.
  • Likewise, if I select another template, my initial assumption is I’m making “New from…” whatever template I set.
  • It might make more sense if there was a toggle – similar to in background color for “Color” or “Gradient” to indicate that I’m making a brand new blank template.
  • @get_dave advised creating and Issue and Frank did so after the meeting.

Wrap up

Thanks to everyone who attended the meeting!

#core-editor, #core-editor-summary, #meeting-notes, #summary

annezazu 10:04 pm on August 11, 2021

Dev chat summary, August 11, 2021

@sergeybiryukov stepped up to lead this agenda-less meeting. Big thank you!

Highlighted blog posts

From @audrasjb, another A Week in Core post highlights the moving parts of Core and recognizes a week’s worth of contributors at a time.

From @sarayourfriend provides an update on the native TypeScript proposal announcing that the Gutenberg project supports native TypeScript.

From @notlaura comes a Call for CSS Contributors, a carryover and reminder from last week. Their next weekly work session is August 12, 2021 at 21:00 UTC in #core-css.

From @chanthaboune, participate in the WordPress 5.8 ‘Tatum’ Retrospective. Feedback is due on August 15th and is greatly appreciated to make future releases even better.

From @webcommsat comes a helpful post for spreading the word about 5.8. In this post, you will find social posts you can share and adapt on Twitter and Facebook.

From @annezazu, follow the latest call for testing through the FSE Outreach Program. It’s focused on using the navigation block to build out a HigherEd themed header with three weeks to share you feedback.

From @annezazu comes a reminder to help shape the future of theme design. If you’re a block theme author or have explored that space, please share your responses by August 15th and know they are each greatly appreciated. 

Finally, catch up with the previous episodes of WP Briefing. The podcast will return in September!

Component maintainers

Reporting in on Build/Test tools, @sergeybiryukov shared that, as of last weekend, WordPress test suite is compatible with PHPUnit 8 & 9, and runs tests on PHP 8.1 beta (scheduled for release in November). Props to @jrf and @hellofromtonya for all the fixes and improvements that made it possible!  See ticket #46149 for more details.

Reporting on Date/Time, I18N, Permalinks, @sergeybiryukov said that there’s no major news this week.

Reporting on General, @sergeybiryukov shared that work has started on making various compatibility fixes for PHP 8.1. Thanks @jrf, again!  See ticket #53635 for more details.

Open Floor

Considering #49728 for the 5.9 release. Raised by @hareesh-pillai.

Since the topic of compatibility with the latest PHP versions came up, Hareesh flagged that it would make sense to include this additional ticket after it was pushed from 5.6.

Next step: @hellofromtonya moved it to the 5.9 milestone.

Invitation to contribute to testing. Raised by @hellofromtonya.

Anyone interested in contributing to testing including attempting to reproduce problems, gathering testing information (such as testing steps, acceptance criteria, dependencies), user testing, and automated testing, you’re invited to join us in #core-test channel.

Checking in on a dev note related to plugin folks finding issues with PHPUnit updates. Raised by @jeffpaul.

@hellofromtonya and @jrf quickly chimed in to say that a dev note is in progress with an ideal publish date of next week. The quick TL;DR is:

  • Fixture methods changed in the WP test cases, i.e. changed to snake_case
  • Wrappers for the snake_case will be backported for extenders who are testing against versions other than trunk.
  • Once those backports happen, then the fixture methods in your tests need to be updated for testing against trunk.

To help extenders, command-line messages will be added as well to alert and guide devs.

Bumping the ACCEPTABLE_PHP and SUPPORTED_PHP versions in light of PHP 7.3 support ending in 3 months. Raised by @hareesh-pillai.

@sergeybiryukov recommended that this be raised as a discussion topic in the next #core-site-health meeting. He also shared that he felt it was a bit too early to bump the recommended version to PHP 8.0, as there is still ongoing work to make it more compatible.

#dev-chat, #summary

sarayourfriend 1:22 pm on August 11, 2021

Finalizing the native TypeScript proposal

Hi folks! I’m back again with an update on the TypeScript proposal. Previously in the follow-up post I said that after two weeks we would make a decision about it. It’s been several months since then, so it’s about time to make that decision!

While there was some feedback to the proposal, nothing was raised that seemed to block the integration of native TypeScript into the Gutenberg project. Indeed, some packages (like compose and components) have seen a great deal of native TypeScript introduced. In fact, compose today is fully typed and this would not be the case if it were not for native TypeScript support in Gutenberg.

Therefore, I’d like to officially announce that the Gutenberg project supports native TypeScript. We will continue to follow the guidelines laid out in the follow-up proposal, reproduced here for posterity.

For existing code:

  • The default is to use JavaScript
  • When it is possible to type something simply with JSDoc, use JSDoc
  • If there are complex types, but JSDoc is still sufficient generally for consuming those types, you may extract the complex types into a types-only types.ts file to be imported into the JSDoc
  • If it is not possible to express the types using JSDoc or if the JSDoc will vastly over-complicate the ability to type a function, convert it to TypeScript

For new code:

Use TypeScript when working in a “low-level package” (as defined below) for new code. Otherwise, follow the same pattern laid out for the existing code.

Low level packages:

A low level package is a package that:

  1. Provides a public API; and
  2. Is not frequently contributed to.

The coding guidelines for Gutenberg will be updated to reflect this approach to TypeScript.

#javascript

David Smith 9:00 am on August 10, 2021

Editor Chat Agenda: 11 August 2021

Facilitator and notetaker: @get_dave.

This is the agenda for the weekly editor chat scheduled for Wednesday, August 11, 2021, 03:00 PM GMT+1.

This meeting is held in the #core-editor channel in the Making WordPress Slack.

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.

#agenda, #core-editor, #core-editor-agenda, #meeting

Héctor Prieto 11:41 am on August 11, 2021

I have a topic/suggestion for the open floor. As the number of contributors and projects grows, it gets harder to digest and follow up on project updates and task coordination synchronously during the chat. However, some folks compile their updates in advance in the relevant GitHub issue, making it easy to reference during the chat (and chat summary) and to check in the future. It would be awesome if more projects tried this approach as it dramatically helps digest the updates and follow up on projects. ❤️

Jb Audras 10:14 pm on August 9, 2021

A Week in Core – August 9, 2021

Welcome back to a new issue of Week in Core. Let’s take a look at what changed on Trac between August 2 and August 9, 2021.

  • 58 commits
  • 22 contributors
  • 48 tickets created
  • 8 tickets reopened
  • 23 tickets closed

Pending the appointment of the WordPress 5.9 team, a number of tickets have been fixed, waiting for the next minor release(s). This week was also partly dedicated to PHP 8.1 compatibility.

Ticket 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

Build/Test Tools

  • Add Composer dependency on the PHPUnit Polyfills package – #46149
  • Add branch filtering for Slack notifications workflow – #52644
  • Add schema reference to PHPUnit config files – #53363
  • Alias the Getopt class conditionally, as the class no longer exists in PHPUnit 9.x – #46149
  • Change the inheritance order of the abstract test classes – #46149
  • Correct invalid JSON in Slack payload – #52644
  • Correctly check for the trigger event when running the Slack notifications workflow – #52644
  • Declare two TestCase classes as abstract – #53363
  • Enable running the tests on PHP 8.1 – #53891, #53635
  • Expand Slack notifications for GitHub Actions – #52644
  • Fix message display in test bootstrap – #53363
  • Handle removal of TestCase::getAnnotations() – #46149
  • Implement use of the void solution – #46149
  • Loosen the PHPUnit restriction – #46149
  • Remove SpeedTrapListener – #46149
  • Remove Unicode character from PHPUnit version check message – #53363
  • Remove the Composer lock file from version control – #47381
  • Remove the copied-in PHPUnit 9.x MockObject files – #46149
  • Revert changes only included for testing purposes – #52644
  • Simplify redundant PHPUnit shim for setExpectedException() – #46149
  • Switch to always running the tests via Composer – #47381
  • Unify the PHPUnit adapter TestCases – #46149
  • Use a custom autoloader for the PHPUnit 9.x mock object classes – #47381
  • Use the PHPUnit Polyfill TestCase as void workaround – #46149
  • Fix tests failing due to assertContains() using strict checking – #46149
  • Remove redundant @requires tags – #46149
  • Remove use of assertArraySubset() in Test_WP_Widget_Media::test_constructor() – #46149
  • Replace assertFileNotExists() with assertFileDoesNotExist() – #46149
  • Replace assertNotRegExp() with assertDoesNotMatchRegularExpression() – #46149
  • Replace assertRegExp() with assertMatchesRegularExpression() – #46149
  • Replace expectException() for PHP native errors with calls to the dedicated PHPUnit 8.4+ methods – #46149
  • Replace expectException() for PHP native errors with calls to the dedicated PHPUnit 8.4+ methods – #46149
  • Use more appropriate assertions in get_themes() tests – #53363
  • Use more appropriate assertions in get_themes() tests – #53363

Bundled Themes

  • Add / character to tags – #53870
  • Remove redundant semicolons after closing curly brackets – #53359
  • Twenty Thirteen: Correct indentation in image.php template – #53359
  • Twenty Thirteen: Remove wrapping HTML tag from translatable string – #53359

Code Modernization

  • Pass correct default value to new DateTime() in wp_default_packages_inline_scripts() – #53635
  • Rename the readonly() function to wp_readonly() – #53858
  • Replace strftime() and gmstrftime() usage in unit tests – #53897
  • Set the MySQLi error reporting off for PHP 8.1 – #52825
  • Silence the deprecation warnings for missing return type in WP_Block_List – #53635
  • Silence the deprecation warnings for missing return type in WP_Hook – #53635
  • Silence the deprecation warnings for missing return type in WP_REST_Request – #53635
  • Silence the deprecation warnings for missing return type in WP_Theme – #53635

Coding Standards

  • Correct DateTimeZone class name in WP_Customize_Date_Time_Control::get_timezone_info() – #53359
  • Fix incorrect alignment in two comment blocks – #53359
  • Fix incorrect comment indent in safecss_filter_attr() – #53359
  • Remove redundant semicolons after closing curly brackets – #53359
  • Silence a WPCS warning in date_i18n() – #53359
  • Use strict comparisons in wp-admin/options-discussion.php – #53359
  • Use strict comparisons in wp-admin/upload.php – #53359

Editor

  • Prevent block-editor JavaScript loading in other editors – #53696
  • Block Editor: Add missing border setting on button block – #53702

Media

  • Add / character to <img> tag in wp_print_media_templates() – #53870
  • Hide bulk-select on new menu page – #53654

Themes

  • Correct the documented types for theme mod values – #53399

Props

Thanks to the 22 people who contributed to WordPress Core on Trac last week: @jrf (43), @SergeyBiryukov (8), @hellofromTonya (6), @johnbillion (6), @netweb (5), @desrosj (4), @ayeshrajans (3), @akabarikalpesh (2), @swissspidy (2), @shital-patel (2), @priethor (1), @daisyo (1), @Mamaduka (1), @sabernhardt (1), @dlh (1), @Clorith (1), @aristath (1), @pputzer (1), @dd32 (1), @knutsp (1), @haosun (1), and @mikeschroder (1).

Congrats and welcome to our new contributor of the week! @haosun ♥️

Core committers: @sergeybiryukov (47), @desrosj (5), @peterwilsoncc (4), @johnbillion (1), and @jorgefilipecosta (1).

#5-9, #core, #week-in-core

marybaum 12:31 am on August 9, 2021

Dev chat summary, August 4, 2021

@francina led the chat on this agenda.

Highlighted blog posts

From @audrasjb, A Week in Core highlights the moving parts of Core and recognizes a week’s worth of contributors at a time.

From @notlaura comes a Call for CSS Contributors. If you’ve been looking for a way to sink your teeth into CSS Custom Properties (aka CSS variables), this is your chance to learn them well and help land them in Core.

From @sergeybiryukov comes more news on building the auto-updater ecosystem. If you work on themes and plugins, Sergey’s group would very much appreciate your feedback. The group would also like to hear from web hosts, as @ipstenu and a couple of other folks pointed out.

If you haven’t yet read @desrosj‘s post on Consistent Minor-Release Squad Leaders for Each Major Branch: Trial-run Retrospective and 5.8.x Releases, you’ll want to make time for it — the post is getting great reviews.

“Super interesting! … Super insightful!” — @francina

“Yeah. That’s a good read.” — @johnbillion

@francina suggested that if you’re interested in volunteering as a Release Lead or a Release Deputy for the 5.8.x minors, please leave a comment on @desrosj‘s post.

And, from @chanthaboune and her talented production team comes the WP Briefing podcast. It’s on hiatus now, but more episodes will arrive in September. (So you’ve got time to catch up on the ones that have already dropped!)

Component maintainers

Reporting in on Build/Test tools, @sergeybiryukov had several announcements.

Ticket #52644: when a workflow fails, a message now gets posted to #core. That will make it easier to notice and fix failures in testing, Sergey explained and then thanked @desrosj publicly for his help on this. For details, see the ticket.

Ticket #47381: So that the WordPress Project can use more modern PHPUnit versions, this ticket makes several changes that make it easier to run unit tests against a variety of PHP versions:

  • It removes the composer.lock file.
  • The PHPUnit 9.x mock object classes use a custom autoloader.
  • And the tests now always run in Composer.

Sergey thanked @jrf publicly for her work on the changes.

Reporting on General, @sergeybiryukov thanked @jrf again and announced that work has started on a variety of compatibility fixes for PHP 8.1. Details are in Ticket #52644.

Open Floor

@francina started Open Floor with news of a streaming PHP brainstorming, learning and teaching session that happened on Friday, August 30.

If you missed it, it’s up on YouTube. Featuring @jrf, @hellofromtonya, @sergeybiryukov, and @johnbillion, @hellofromtonya described the session as a “working session on modernizing the test suites. Got consensus and an action plan.”

Tonya noted that commits are in process, and @francina asked for ways the community can help.

In Highlighted Posts, @francina had asked @desrosj what encouraging words he had for people who’d like to volunteer with major and minor releases. Now, in Open Floor, she circled back around, and Jonathan pointed out that you don’t have to have any previous experience leading a major or minor release to get involved.

So if you’re interested, please comment. And get involved!

@webcommsat brought two items from Marketing to Open Floor: one on promoting favorite features in WordPress 5.8 and one on search terms for release information. Full details are in the chat here.

Thanks and props to post reviewer @desrosj!

#5-8-x, #5-9, #dev-chat, #summary