WordPress.org

The Month in WordPress – December 2021

Posted January 5, 2022 by rmartinezduque. Filed under Month in WordPress.

December was a busy month for the WordPress community. In the latest episode of the WP Briefing podcast, WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy shares a carol of thanks and shows her gratitude to all the people who make the WordPress project a success.

(…) I know that we have gotten so much done together in the last few years. And I am equally sure that we’re going to get so much done in the years to come. And so thank you all so much for your continued work with WordPress and the way that you just bring your best at all times.

Josepha Haden, Executive Director of the WordPress project

We said goodbye to 2021 with the annual State of the Word, along with the release of WordPress 5.9 Beta 4, among many other exciting updates. Read on to learn more about the latest community achievements.


WordPress 5.9: The first release candidate just landed

Are you interested in contributing to WordPress core? Join the #core channel, follow the Core Team blog, and check out the team handbook. Also, don’t miss the Core Team’s weekly developer chat on Wednesdays at 8 PM UTC.

Gutenberg releases: Versions 12.1 and 12.2 are here

The Core Team launched two new versions of Gutenberg last month. Both come with new features, code quality improvements, and bug fixes.

  • Gutenberg 12.1 marks the return of the template List View and includes several Navigation block enhancements, new global styles features, an improved developer experience for block themes, and more.
  • The Gutenberg 12.2 release focuses on user experience improvements and brings the block styles preview to the Widgets Editor, among other new features.

Want to get involved in developing Gutenberg? Follow the Core Team blog, contribute to Gutenberg on GitHub, and join the #core-editor channel in the Make WordPress Slack. Follow the #gutenberg-new tag for details on the latest updates.

Highlights from State of the Word 2021

  • State of the Word 2021, the annual keynote address delivered by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, was livestreamed from New York City on December 14, 2021. The event gathered WordPress enthusiasts at 29 watch parties around the world.
  • Matt shared his thoughts on the progress of the WordPress project and made announcements regarding its future in 2022. The presentation was followed by a Question and Answer session.

If you missed the event’s livestream, you could watch the State of the Word recording and the Q&A session on WordPress.tv.

Team updates: 2022 major release timings, new team rep announcements, and more

Are you looking for some 5.9 resources to share with your local community? Check out the WordPress 5.9 Talking Points for Meetup Organizers post.

Feedback/Testing requests: Contribute by testing or translating WordPress 5.9

  • Your feedback on WordPress 5.9 release candidates is still needed and appreciated! If you haven’t tried this version yet, you can find instructions on testing 5.9 features in this post.
  • Do you speak a language other than English? The Polyglots Team announced that WordPress 5.9 is also ready to be translated.
  • Version 18.9 of WordPress for Android is available for testing.

Share your feedback on WordPress 5.9.

Apply to speak or host a workshop at WordCamp Europe 2022

  • WordCamp US 2022 is currently looking for organizers.
  • The WordPress community celebrated its first in-person WordCamp after 21 months in Sevilla (Spain) on December 11-12, 2021. WordCamp Taiwan was held online the same weekend.
  • The Test Team organized the Hallway Hangout titled Let’s talk about WordPress 6.0 on December 21, 2021. The team also shared a wrap-up of the Site Editing Safari as part of the FSE Outreach Program.
  • The Training Team hosted several WordPress Social Learning Meetups last month, and there will be many more in January 2022.
  • Last year the WordPress Foundation made significant progress in its mission to educate the public about open source software. Learn more about it in this 2021 recap.

Don’t miss the following upcoming WordCamps: WordCamp Birmingham, Alabama 2022, WordCamp Genève 2022, WordCamp Vienna 2022, and WordCamp Europe 2022.

The Call For Sponsors and Call For Speakers for WordCamp Europe 2022 are open! Read this post to learn more about the Organizing Team’s plans for the first in-person WordCamp Europe in three years.


Have a story that we could include in the next ‘Month in WordPress’ post? Let us know by filling out this form.

The following folks contributed to December 2021’s Month in WordPress: @anjanavasan, @harishanker @lmurillom @meher @nalininonstopnewsuk @webcommsat

WordPress 5.9 RC 1

Posted January 4, 2022 by webcommsat AbhaNonStopNewsUK. Filed under Development, Releases.

The first Release Candidate (RC1) for WordPress 5.9 is now available! 

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to reach this important milestone in the community’s progress towards a WordPress 5.9 release.

“Release Candidate” means the new version of the software is ready for release. It helps the community check that nothing is missed, given the thousands of plugins and themes and differences in how millions of people use the software.

WordPress 5.9 is slated for release on January 25, 2022. This is just three weeks to go  – and there’s still time to help!

Testing the release

You can test the WordPress 5.9 release candidate in three ways:

Option 1: Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).

Option 2: Direct download the beta version here (zip).

Option 3: When using WP-CLI to upgrade from Beta 1, 2, 3 or 4 on a case-insensitive filesystem, please use the following command sequence:

Command One:

wp core update --version=5.9-RC1

Command Two:

wp core update --version=5.9-RC1 --force

Your help to test the RC1 is vital: the more testing that happens, the more stable the release, and the better the experience for users and developers—and the entire WordPress community.

Thank you to all of the contributors who tested the Beta releases and gave feedback. Testing for bugs is not just a critical part of polishing every release; it is also a great way to contribute to WordPress.

Help test WordPress 5.9 features – a guide to how you can take part.

What is in WordPress 5.9 release candidate?

This will be the first release of 2022 and continues the work towards 5.9 from last year. It features the latest advances of the block editor and is the first version of full site editing in Core.

WordPress 5.9 also brings more refinements to the developer experience. To keep up with the latest updates and discover more about how the community works to continually improve the software, please subscribe to the Make WordPress Core blog. In particular, the developer notes tag will keep you up to date on changes that might affect your products or how you use the software.

Plugin and Theme Developers

Please test your plugins and themes against WordPress 5.9 and update the Tested up to version  to 5.9 in your readme file. If you find compatibility problems, please post to the support forums, so volunteers and developers can help you figure them out before the final release.

The WordPress 5.9 Field Guide will be out very shortly. It will give you a deeper dive into the major changes.

How to Help

Do you speak a language that is not English? You can help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages! Release Candidate 1 marks the hard string freeze point of the 5.9 release schedule. Thanks to every locale that is already involved with translations.

If you think you have found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums.  If you are comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, you can file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also check the issue against a list of known bugs.

Props to @webcommsat for the post and to @marybaum @hellofromtonya @audrasjb @davidbaumwald @estelaris @cbringmann for final review.

People of WordPress: Collins Agbonghama

Posted December 30, 2021 by webcommsat AbhaNonStopNewsUK. Filed under Community, Features, Interviews.

In this series, we share some of the inspiring stories of how WordPress and its global network of contributors can change people’s lives for the better. This month we feature a website builder from Nigeria, who uses the open source WordPress platform to support his family and to share learning with others in his home country and beyond.

Collins Agbonghama

Creating a life in the WordPress Ecosystem

Collins Agbonghama started his journey to becoming a web developer by reading the football news headlines on a friend’s mobile phone. His fascination with development and learning continued to grow, and he now makes a living using WordPress and the web.

Read on to discover his story, which shows with creativity and determination you can create products and make a living using WordPress. 

Starting web building on a phone

Collins Agbonghama headshot photo

Collins began his exploration of the internet while attending Secondary School in Nigeria, or High School as it is known in some other countries. 

A friend at the school had a simple mobile phone which could browse the internet. Collins had his first introduction to the World Wide Web through access to this device. He became hooked by reading headlines on a sports site about a famous English Premier League Football Club, Chelsea, a soccer team which he has long supported.

“Being a very inquisitive person, I wanted to learn how the web works as well as have my own website. I was able to buy a classic mobile phone through the menial jobs I did after school,” he said. 

His first website was a wapsite or Wireless Application Protocol site optimized for mobile devices. 

He took to Google to learn how to actually build a site. He discovered he needed something called an ‘email address’ to sign-up for site builders. Google Search came to the rescue again, and he created the first email account for his first website.

A desire for a website was the catalyst for further learning, starting with HTML and CSS from an online provider. His interest in building sites with more advanced tools grew, and then he came across WordPress. 

Using his savings, he bought the cheapest hosting plan from a local Nigerian web host. He installed WordPress and started writing tutorials for a mobile device platform. He built the site, created the lessons, and started his entry into WordPress all on a mobile phone. 

This led to him having the confidence to start building sites for others, and he was able to earn a small income from that. 

Collins said: “I couldn’t go to the university because of my precarious financial situation. I continued to do menial jobs during the day and started learning PHP in the evenings and at night using my mobile phone via online learning platforms.”

He was later able to get an old laptop, which helped him access ebooks to learn more and practice his coding. 

Keen to share this learning, he started blogging about what he was learning on his website.  

Collins said: “I later took up a job teaching children at a school primarily because I got tired of the menial jobs and wanted to earn enough to take care of my internet data plan. After a while, I became fairly proficient in PHP and even took up a job to build a school management system.”

Using WordPress to make a living

Collins’ blog wasn’t making money through advertisements, but he discovered opportunities to write tutorials for other platforms. 

“I started writing PHP and WordPress development tutorials and got paid a few hundred dollars per article. In Nigeria, that’s quite a lot of money. I was able to improve the life and wellbeing of my family and myself,” he said.

After getting into a higher education program to study computer science, his life dramatically changed. He decided to stop writing and began to focus on building and selling WordPress plugins. His first one was a user and profile plugin for WordPress sites.

“Thankfully, after a year, it started making enough revenue for me to live pretty comfortably here in Nigeria because the cost of living here is relatively low,” he said

Today, Collins has several plugins which have given him a sustainable source of income. He’s also a Core and Translation volunteer contributor to the WordPress.org Open Source project.

I am thankful for WordPress because without it, I’m really not sure I would have been able to live a decent quality life.
Who knows what would have become of me?

Collins Agbonghama

“I am also thankful for the community. I have made lots of friends that have been very supportive and helpful in my journey.”

He added: “I tell people, life won’t give you what you want. You demand from life what you want. You make these demands by being determined and never giving up on your dreams and aspirations.

“If you are poor, perhaps because you came from a humble and poor background, it is not your fault. You can’t go back in time to change things. I implore you to be strong, determined, and work hard.”

Meet more WordPress community members in our People of WordPress series.

Contributors

Thanks to Michael Geheren (@geheren), Abha Thakor (@webcommsat), for writing this feature, to @MeherBala (@meher) for follow-ups and photo-editing, and to Chloe Bringmann (@cbringmann) and Nalini Thakor (@nalininonstopnewsuk) for the final proofing. Thank you to Collins Agbonghama (@collizo4sky) for sharing his Contributor Story.

Thanks to Josepha Haden Chomphosy (@chanthaboune), Topher DeRosia (@topher1kenobe) and others for their support of this initiative.

The People of WordPress feature is inspired by an essay originally published on HeroPress.com, a community initiative created by Topher DeRosia, which highlights people in the WordPress community who have overcome barriers. 

#HeroPress #ContributorStory

WordPress 5.9 Beta 4

Posted December 21, 2021 by Jonathan Bossenger. Filed under Development, Releases.

WordPress 5.9 Beta 4 is now available for testing!

This software version is still under development. Please do not run this software on a production site; install it on a test site, where you can try out the newest features and get a feel for how they will work on your site.

You can test the WordPress 5.9 Beta 4 in three ways:

Option 1: Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).

Option 2: Direct download the beta version here (zip).

Option 3: When using WP-CLI to upgrade from Beta 1, 2, or 3 to Beta 4 on a case-insensitive filesystem, please use the following command sequence:

Command One:

wp core update --version=5.9-beta4

Command Two:

wp core update --version=5.9-beta4 --force

The current target for the final release of 5.9 is January 25, 2022, which is only five weeks away. Your help testing this beta is vital: the more testing that happens, the more stable the release, and the better the experience for users and developers—and the entire WordPress community.

Some Highlights

Since Beta 3, 20 bugs have been fixed. Here are a few of the changes you will find in Beta 4:

  • Bundled Theme: Fixed duplicate CSS rules in Twenty Twenty-One theme (#53605).
  • Customizer: It’s possible to switch to a block theme from within Customizer (#54549).
  • Themes: Provide guidance to users seeking to preview block themes on WordPress versions below 5.9 (#54575).
  • REST API: The get_theme_item method should respect fields param (#54595).
  • Editor: Block Patterns: “Featured” category & patterns missing from inserter (#54623).
  • Login and registration: Add a filter to allow to disable the Login screen language dropdown – (#54675).

How You Can Help

Do some testing!

Testing for bugs is vital for polishing the release in the beta stage and a great way to contribute. 

Please post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums if you find a bug. If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.

Got questions? Here are some answers

In the coming weeks, follow the Make WordPress Core blog for 5.9-related developer notes that will cover these items in detail.

So far, contributors have fixed 326 tickets and 108 new features and enhancements in WordPress 5.9. More bug fixes are on the way with your help through testing.

Props to @cbringmann, @psykro@hellofromtonya@marybaum@webcommsat, @audrasjb, @costdev and @meher for contributions to this post.

Episode 22: A Carol of Thanks

Posted December 20, 2021 by Chloe Bringmann. Filed under Podcast.

In this last episode of 2021, Josepha Haden Chomphosy takes the time to appreciate those who make the WordPress project a success and offers a carol of thanks.

Have a question you’d like answered? You can submit them to wpbriefing@wordpress.org, either written or as a voice recording.

Credits

References

Have yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Transcript

Read on for more »

Highlights from State of the Word 2021

Posted December 16, 2021 by Anjana Vasan. Filed under Events, WrapUp.

State of the Word 2021, the annual keynote from WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, happened on December 14. The hybrid event took place in New York City with a small audience (proof of vaccination required). As Matt said, “we had people join by plane, train, and automobile.” Those who didn’t make the trek to the live event watched the livestream from wherever they call home, all around the world. 

It was an exciting moment for the WordPress community which also celebrated its first in-person WordCamp in Sevilla, Spain, after a lengthy hiatus for in-person events.

You can view the full recording, complete with captions and transcripts on WordPress.tv.

It was thrilling to see so many meetup organizers host watch parties worldwide. Twenty-eight watch parties were held across eleven countries, with more than 300 RSVPs.  

Similar to past State of the Word events, Matt covered a broad range of topics. This year was no different. WordPress’ past, present, and future were in the spotlight, with highlights on the growth of the contributors, language translations, recent release milestones, and educational initiatives, to name a few.

Audience members and livestreamers alike viewed product demos showcasing upcoming features that will be the hallmark of WordPress 5.9, such as full site editing, block patterns, global styling options, and enhanced image controls.

Matt took the opportunity to remind everyone of the WordPress roadmap which includes native multi-lingual support and real-time collaborative site editing. He also pointed out that anyone can contribute to WordPress’ progress through a number of different initiatives ranging from creating new features and testing to helping spread the word and educate others.

Matt emphasized the way that open source software gets better by reminding everyone that “The more people that use a program like WordPress, the better it gets.”

Broader topics covering the tech landscape including web3, merger and acquisition activity, as well as the growth and support of open source software, rounded out the energetic presentation. 

The one-hour multimedia presentation was followed by an interactive question and answer session where Matt fielded questions that were submitted ahead of the event, as well as questions from the livestream and studio audience.

Discover everything that was covered by watching the official event recording and join the ongoing #ILoveWP conversation on Twitter!

Special thanks to @dansoschin for review and edits!

WordPress 5.9 Beta 3

Posted December 14, 2021 by Jonathan Bossenger. Filed under Development, Releases.

WordPress 5.9 Beta 3 is now available for testing!

This software version is still under development. Please do not run this software on a production site; install it on a test site, where you can try out the newest features and get a feel for how they will work on your site.

You can test the WordPress 5.9 Beta 3 in three ways:

Option 1: Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).

Option 2: Direct download the beta version.

Option 3: If you use WP-CLI to upgrade from Beta 1 or Beta 2 to Beta 3 on a case-insensitive filesystem, please use the following command sequence:

Command One:

wp core update --version=5.9-beta2

Command Two:

wp core update --version=5.9-beta3 --force

The current target for the final release of 5.9 is January 25, 2022, which gets closer every minute. Your help testing this beta is vital: the more testing that happens, the more stable the release, and the better the experience for users and developers—and the entire WordPress community.

Some Highlights

Since Beta 2, 14 bugs have been fixed. Here are a few of the changes you will find in Beta 3:

  • Editor: Add FSE infrastructure from Gutenberg plugin into Core (#54335).
  • Formatting: Allow PDFs to embedded as objects (#54261)
  • Language switcher on the login screen (#43700)
  • REST API: Add navigation areas REST API endpoint from Gutenberg plugin (#54393)
  • Themes: Live Preview button bug (#54578)

How You Can Help

Do some testing!

Testing for bugs is vital for polishing the release in 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. 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.

For even more ways to test, you can also refer to this official Full Site Editing post from @annezazu.

Got questions? Here are some answers

In the coming weeks, follow the Make WordPress Core blog for 5.9-related developer notes that cover these items in detail. So far, contributors have fixed 316 tickets in WordPress 5.9, including 100 new features and enhancements. More bug fixes are on the way with your help through testing.

Props to @psykro@estelaris@hellofromtonya, @marybaum@webcommsat@cbringmann@costdev, and @audrasjb for contributions to this post.

Filed under #release, #5.9, #beta

WordPress 5.9 Beta 2

Posted December 7, 2021 by Jonathan Bossenger. Filed under Development, Releases.

WordPress 5.9 Beta 2 is now available for testing!

This software version is still under development. Please do not run this software on a production site. Instead, install it on a test site, where you can try out the newest features to get a feel for how they will work on your site.

You can test the WordPress 5.9 Beta 2 in three ways:

Option 1: Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).

Option 2: Direct download the beta version here (zip).

Option 3: When using WP-CLI to upgrade from Beta 1 to Beta 2 on a case-insensitive filesystem, please use the following command sequence:

Command One:

wp core update --version=5.9-beta1 

Command Two:

 wp core update --version=5.9-beta2 --force 

The current target for the final release of 5.9 is January 25, 2022, which is just seven weeks away. Your help testing this version is a vital part of making this release as good as it can be.

Some Highlights

Since Beta 1, 24 bugs have been fixed. Here are a few of the changes you will find in Beta 2:

  • Block Editor: Remove navigation areas (#54506)
  • Block Editor: Navigation block view JavaScript error (#54456)
  • Block Editor: Block template theme error related to child themes (#54515)
  • General: Fixing existing links to Customizer when the Site Editor is enabled (#54460)
  • Media: Media library showing only the selected image (#53765)
  • Media: Fatal error uploading media on PHP8 (#54385)
  • REST API: Add Global Styles REST API endpoints from Gutenberg into Core (#54336)

Also, note that some users testing 5.9 Beta 1 faced some fatal errors upon upgrade. In turn, these errors revealed the need for some extra work on the filesystem and upgrader. Those fatal errors are no longer a problem, and the enhancements will be part of version 6.0.

How You Can Help

Do some testing!

Testing for bugs is vital for polishing the release in 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. 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.

Where can I get more information?

In the coming weeks, follow the Make WordPress Core blog for 5.9-related developer notes that cover these items in detail.

So far, contributors have fixed 305 tickets in WordPress 5.9, including 110 new features and enhancements. More bug fixes are on the way with your help through testing.

Props to @psykro, @estelaris, @hellofromtonya, @marybaum, @webcommsat, @cbringmann, @davidb, @audrasjb, and @pbiron for contributions to this post.

The Month in WordPress – November 2021

Posted December 2, 2021 by Anjana Vasan. Filed under Month in WordPress.

Despite the holiday season being around the corner, the WordPress project didn’t slow down. In a recent episode of WP Briefing, Executive Director Josepha Haden shares the first thing she wants people to notice about WordPress, which is also the heart of this open source project:

Now, the first thing I want people to see on that site is that WordPress has not only 18 years of learned knowledge that every single new user benefits from, but that it also has thousands of really smart people making sure it works and gets better every day.

Josepha Haden, Executive Director of the WordPress project

As always, contributors across various teams are working hard to ensure the upcoming release of WordPress 5.9 doesn’t disappoint. With State of the Word 2021 coming up soon, there are many exciting things in the works. Read the November 2021 edition of the Month in WordPress to learn more about what’s happening.


WordPress 5.9: Expected to release on January 25, 2022

  • The Core Team announced the WordPress 5.9 Revised Release Schedule, and the release is now planned for January 25, 2022.
  • WordPress 5.9 Beta 1 was recently released and is available for testing. This version of the WordPress software is under development. Check out the release post to learn more about what’s new in version 5.9 and how you can help testing. 
  • Check out “A Look at WordPress 5.9” for a first peek into the exciting features included in this major release.
  • WordPress 5.8.2, a security and maintenance release, was out on November 10, 2021. This release includes two bug fixes and one security fix.

Are you interested in contributing to WordPress core? Join the #core channel, follow the Core Team blog, and check out the team handbook. Also, don’t miss the Core Team’s weekly developer chat on Wednesdays at 8 PM UTC.

Gutenberg releases: 11.9 and 12.0 are out

Two new Gutenberg versions have been released!

  • Version 11.9.0 brings new Gutenberg blocks for working with post comments, a fullscreen pattern explorer modal, further iterations on the Navigation block, and many other improvements.
  • Gutenberg 12.0.0, released on November 24, improves the Block Styles preview and includes featured image block visual enhancements, a site Editor welcome guide, official JSON schema updates, and much more.

Want to get involved in developing Gutenberg? Follow the Core Team blog, contribute to Gutenberg on GitHub, and join the #core-editor channel in the Make WordPress Slack. Follow #gutenberg-new for details on the latest updates.

State of the Word 2021: Join a watch party in your local community

State of the Word 2021 Announcement, which will take place on December 14 between 5 pm and 7 pm ET (22 - 00 UTC).

Add the event to your calendar so you don’t miss State of the Word 2021! Want to ask Matt a question during State of the Word? Please send your questions ahead of time to ask-matt@wordcamp.org or ask them live during the event via YouTube chat.

Team updates: Nominations for some team representatives are still underway

We want to hear from you! Suggest your 2022 goals for the Global Community Team by December 6, 2021.

Feedback/Testing requests: Test WordPress 5.9 Beta 1; Take the 2021 Annual WordPress Survey to share your experience

  • WordPress 5.9 Beta 1 is now available for testing and we’d like to hear from you! Testing is vital to ensure the release is as good as it can be—it’s also a great way to contribute. Read the comprehensive guide, “Help test WordPress 5.9 Features,” to learn how to test WordPress 5.9 Beta 1 and report any bugs.
  • There’s an open call for testing for WordPress iOS 18.7 and Android 18.7.

The 2021 WordPress Annual Survey is out! Please respond to the survey, so your WordPress experience is reflected in the results.

Keep an eye out for WordCamp Taiwan and Sevilla, along with several WordPress workshops in December 2021

Give back to open source. Please donate to the WordPress Foundation’s mission this holiday season.


Have a story that we could include in the next ‘Month in WordPress’ post? Let us know  by filling out this form

The following folks contributed to November 2021’s Month in WordPress: @anjanavasan, @harishanker, @rmartinezduque, @callye, @jrf, @webcommsat, and @nalininonstopnewsuk

WordPress 5.9 Beta 1

Posted November 30, 2021 by Chloe Bringmann. Filed under Development, Releases.

WordPress 5.9 Beta 1 is now available for testing!

This version of the WordPress software is under development. You don’t want to run this version on a production site. Instead, it is recommended that you run this on a test site. This will allow you to test out the new version.

You can test the WordPress 5.9 Beta 1 in three ways:

  • Option 1: Install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).
  • Option 2: Direct download the beta version here (zip).
  • Option 3: Use WP-CLI to test: wp core update --version=5.9-beta1. Do not use this option if your filesystem is case-insensitive.

The current target for the final release is January 25, 2022, which is just eight weeks away. Your help testing this version is vital to make sure the release is as good as it can be.

Check the Make WordPress Core blog for 5.9-related developer notes in the coming weeks which will break down all upcoming changes in greater detail.

How You Can Help – Testing!

Testing for bugs is a critical part of polishing the release in the beta stage. It is also a great way to contribute. If you’ve never tested a beta release before, this detailed guide will help walk you through what and how to test.

If you think you’ve found a bug, please report it to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. 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.

To see every feature in the Gutenberg releases since WordPress 5.8, check out the What’s New In Gutenberg posts for 10.8, 10.9, 11.0, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 11.4, 11.5, 11.6, 11.7, 11.8, and 11.9

Beyond the noted changes, which include 580 enhancements and nearly 450 bug fixes, contributors have fixed 297 tickets for WordPress 5.9, including 110 new features and enhancements. More fixes are on the way.

Happy testing!

Want to know what’s new in version 5.9? Read on for some highlights.


Full Site Editing

The Styles Interface

Combine all the features that went live in 5.8 with those making their entrance in 5.9, and you get Full Site Editing.

Formerly known as Global Styles, the Styles Interface lets you interact directly with your blocks and elements right in the WordPress Admin. From typography to color palettes, this cohesive design interface means a design change—even a dramatic one—can happen without a theme switch. No code needed.

Theme.json

Introduced in WordPress 5.8, theme.json has been improved to enable features and default styles for your site and its blocks. With 5.9, theme.json can support child themes and the duotone treatment. Coordinate layers of style with theme.json, taking the weight off of your theme’s required CSS.

Other features supported by theme.json include:

  • Border: color, style, and width augment the border-radius property that landed in 5.8.
  • Flex layouts: Block Gap support, courtesy of spacing.blockGap.
  • Typography: font families, font style, font weight, text decoration, and text transform.
  • Images: Duotones.

A New Navigation Block

Welcome to the most intuitive way to build navigation: the Navigation Block. 

Here are the features that need testing the most:

  • Responsive menu options you can turn off, have always on, or opt to use only for small screens.
  • Built-in keyboard accessibility.  For accessibility, for speed, or both.
  • Add extra blocks like Search and Site Icon blocks (and customize them to your liking).
  • Submenu items with styling options.
  • Horizontal or vertical alignment.
  • Reusable navigation? Even across themes? Yes. Because the Navigation Block you build gets saved as a custom post type.

What if you could treat single images in your Gallery Block the same way you treat the Image Block? Now you can.

Make every image in your gallery different from the next, with inline cropping or a duotone and change layouts with the ease of drag and drop. With the improved gallery block, every image is its own Image block.

One thing to note: Have you built a plugin or theme on the Gallery Block functionality? Be sure to review this Dev Note, which details what you need to do for compatibility.

Focused Template Part Mode

Building template parts can take a level of focus all its own because you’re making decisions for the entire site. So WordPress 5.9 adds a focus mode that shows you only the part you’re working on right now (and you can get back to the regular view with a keystroke). 

Block Pattern Directory

The Pattern Directory offers a range of prebuilt block patterns, from a couple of blocks that show an image and text, to an entire page layout with columns and sections. Since the 5.8 release, the directory has become a hub for exploratory UI and patterns, taking submissions and offering them to the community. So now, your creation can help other people build out their perfect site.

Twenty Twenty-Two Default Theme

A whole new way of building WordPress themes.

WordPress 5.9 introduces features that make Full Site Editing possible, including the first default block theme.

Using minimal CSS, theme styles reside in theme.json so that you can configure them in the Styles interface of the WordPress Admin. Make this theme take on its own personality site-wide, with a wide array of color schemes, type combinations, page templates, premade components (forms), and image treatments to choose from.

More Improvements and Updates

  • Do you love to blog? New tweaks to the publishing flow let you add new posts just seconds after hitting Publish on your latest post.
  • List View lets you drag and drop content as easily as you could always cruise through it – and collapse entire sections – so you can concentrate on a task or get the bigger picture.
  • The Buttons and Social icons blocks now absorb and display their parent block’s toolbar controls.  
  • Choose your language on the login screen.
  • More performance improvements (i.e., speed).

Props to @chanthaboune, @priethor, @psykro, @annezazu, @webcommsat, @marybaum, @hellofromtonya, @davidbaumwald, and @rmartinezduque for their research and copy.

Older Posts »

See Also:

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.

Want to find an event near you? Check out the WordCamp schedule and find your local Meetup group!

For more WordPress news, check out the WordPress Planet or subscribe to the WP Briefing podcast.

Categories

Subscribe to WordPress News

Join 1,931,702 other subscribers

Archives

%d bloggers like this: