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WordPress 5.6 “Simone”

Meet Simone, our latest and greatest WordPress release. Named for the legendary performer Nina Simone, who is known for tunes like “Feeling Good”, “Young, Gifted and Black”, and “Four Women”. Fire up a playlist with her best work and read on to discover what we have in store for you.

Welcome to WordPress 5.6

Sharing your stories has never been easier.

WordPress 5.6 brings you countless ways to set your ideas free and bring them to life. With a brand-new default theme as your canvas, it supports an ever-growing collection of blocks as your brushes. Paint with words. Pictures. Sound. Or rich embedded media.

Greater layout flexibility

Bring your stories to life with more tools that let you edit your layout with or without code. Single column blocks, designs using mixed widths and columns, full-width headers, and gradients in your cover block—make small changes or big statements with equal ease!

More block patterns

In some themes, preconfigured block patterns make setting up standard pages on your site a breeze. Let the power of patterns streamline your workflow and save you clicks. Plus, share these features with clients, editors, and more.

Better video captioning

To help you add subtitles or captions to your videos, you can now upload them within your post or page. This makes it easier than ever to make your videos accessible for anyone who needs or prefers to use subtitles.

Twenty Twenty-One is here!

Twenty Twenty-One is a blank canvas for your ideas, and the block editor is the best brush. It is built for the block editor and packed with brand-new block patterns you can only get in the default themes. Try different layouts in a matter of seconds, and let the theme’s eye-catching, yet timeless design make your work shine. 

What’s more, this default theme puts accessibility at the heart of your website. It conforms to the WordPress accessibility-ready guidelines and addresses several more specialized standards from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at level AAA. It will help you meet the highest level of international accessibility standards when you create accessible content and choose plugins which are accessible too!

A rainbow of soft pastels

Perfect for a new year, Twenty Twenty-One gives you a range of pre-selected color palettes in pastel, all of which conform to AAA standards for contrast. You can also choose your own background color for the theme, and the theme chooses accessibility-conscious text colors for you — automatically!

Need more flexibility than that? You can also choose your own color palette from the color picker.

Improvements for everyone

Expanding auto-updates

For years, only developers have been able to update WordPress automatically. But now you have that option, right in your dashboard. If this is your first site, you have auto-updates ready to go, right now! Upgrading an existing site? No problem! Everything is the same as it was before.

Accessibility Statement 

Even if you’re not an expert, you can start letting others know about your site’s commitment to accessibility! The new feature plugin includes template copy for you to edit and publish, and it’s written to support different contexts and jurisdictions.  

Built-in Patterns

If you’ve not had the chance to play with block patterns yet, all default themes now feature a range of block patterns that let you master complex layouts with minimal effort. Customize the patterns to your liking with the copy, images, and colors that fit your story or brand. 

For developers

REST API authentication with Application Passwords

Thanks to the API’s new Application Passwords authorization feature, third-party apps can connect to your site seamlessly and securely. This new REST API feature lets you see what apps are connecting to your site and control what they do. 

More PHP 8 support

5.6 marks the first steps toward WordPress Core support for PHP 8. Now is a great time to start planning how your WordPress products, services, and sites can support the latest PHP version. For more information about what to expect next, read the PHP 8 developer note.

jQuery

Updates to jQuery in WordPress take place across three releases 5.5, 5.6, and 5.7. As we reach the mid-point of this process, run the update test plugin to check your sites for errors ahead of time.    

If you find issues with the way your site looks ( e.g. a slider doesn’t work, a button is stuck — that sort of thing), install the jQuery Migrate plugin.

Check out the Field Guide

Read about the latest version of WordPress in this guide. It highlights developer notes for each change in the release. 

“It’s a new day, it’s a new life for me….and I’m feeling good.”

~Nina Simone

The Squad

The WordPress 5.6 release comes to you from an all-women release squad:  

• Release Lead: Josepha Haden (@chanthaboune).  Cohort: Chloé Bringmann (@cbringmann) and Angela Jin (@angelasjin).
• Release Coordinator: Dee Teal (@thewebprincess).  Cohort: Thelma Mutete (@thelmachido) and Laura Nelson (@laurora).
• Triage Lead: Tonya Mork (@hellofromtonya). 
• Core Tech Lead: Helen Hou-Sandì (@helen).  Cohort: Amy Kamala (@amykamala) and Ebonie Butler (@metalandcoffee).
• Editor Tech Lead: Isabel Brison (@isabel_brison).  Cohort: Chandrika Guntur (@cguntur), Anchen le Roux (@anchenlr), and Rebecca Hum (@rebasaurus).
• Design Leads: Ellen Bauer (@elmastudio) and Tammie Lister (@karmatosed).  Cohort: Anyssa Ferreira (@anyssa), Estela Rueda (@estelaris), Tracy Apps (@tray), and Sophia DeRosia (@eringoblog).
• Design Tech Lead: Shital Marakana (@shital-patel).
• Accessibility Lead: Sarah Ricker (@sarahricker). Cohort: Hauwa Abashiya (@azhiyadev).
• Marketing & Communications Leads: Abha Thakor (@webcommsat) and Yvette Sonneveld (@yvettesonneveld). Cohort: Nalini Thakor (@nalininonstopnewsuk), Meher Bala (@meher), Olga Gleckler (@ogleckler), Larissa Murrillo (@lmurillom), Michelle Frechette (@michelleames), Breann McDede (@bmcdede), and Afshana Diya (@afshanadiya).
• Documentation Lead: Shawntelle Coker (@sncoker). Cohort: Daisy Olsen (@DaisyO), Meher Bala (@meher), Winstina Hughes (@planningwrite).
• Documentation Review Lead: Michele Butcher-Jones (@m_butcher).  Cohort: Nidhi Jain (@jainnidhi), Laura Byrne Cristiano (@newyorkerlaura).
• Default Theme Design Lead: Mel Choyce-Dwan (@melchoyce).  Cohort: Ellen Bauer (@elmastudio).
• Default Theme Development Lead: Carolina Nymark (@poena).  Cohort: Kelly Choyce-Dwan (@ryelle) and Jessica Lyschik (@luminuu).
• Default Theme Wrangler: Jessica Lyschik (@luminuu).
• Test Lead: Monika Rao (@monikarao).  Cohort: Allie Nimmons (@alliennimmons).
• Support Lead: Bet Hannon (@bethannon1).

As always, this release reflects the hard work of 605 generous volunteer contributors. They collaborated on nearly 350 tickets on Trac and over 1,000 pull requests on GitHub.

Özgür KARALAR, 1naveengiri, A5hleyRich, Aaron D. Campbell, Aaron Jorbin, aaronrobertshaw, abderrahman, Abha Thakor, Abhijit Rakas, Abhishek Pokhriyal, acosmin, Adam Silverstein, Adam Zielinski, Addie, Adrián de Grafreak, Adrianti Rusli, Afshana Diya, Ahmed Chaion, Ahmed Elgameel, ajensen, Ajit Bohra, Akira Tachibana, aktasfatih, Albert Juhé Lluveras, albertomake, Alex Concha, Alex Kirk, Alex Kozack, Alex Lende, Alex Mills, Alex Standiford, Alex Stine, allancole, Allie Nimmons, ambienthack, Amit Dudhat, Amol Vhankalas, Amy Kamala, Anand, Anders Norén, Andrea Fercia, Andrea Middleton, Andrei Baicus, Andrei Draganescu, Andrew Duthie, Andrew Nacin, Andrew Ozz, Andrey "Rarst" Savchenko, Andy Fragen, Andy Peatling, Andy Skelton, Andy Stitt, Angel Hess, Angela Jin, Ankit Gade, Ankit Panchal, Anne McCarthy, Anthony Burchell, Anthony Hortin, Anton Lukin, Antonis Lilis, anuj2, apedog, Apermo, archduck, archon810, Ari Stathopoulos, arippberger, arjendejong, ArnaudBan, Arpit G Shah, Arslan Ahmed, Arslan Ahmed Kalwar, Asvin Balloo, Atharva Dhekne, Austin Passy, austin880625, avixansa, ayesh, Ayesh Karunaratne, BackuPs, Barry, Bart Czyz, bduclos, Beatriz Fialho, Ben Meredith, Bernhard Kau, Bernhard Reiter, Beth Soderberg, bgermann, Bhagvan Mangukiya, bhautikvirani, Billy, Birgir Erlendsson (birgire), Birgit Pauli-Haack, bmcdede, bobbingwide, BoldGrid, Boone Gorges, Boy Witthaya, Brady Vercher, Brandon Kraft, Brandon Payton, Brent Miller, Brent Swisher, Brian Henry, Brian Hogg, bridgetwillard, brijeshb42, Burhan Nasir, Caleb Burks, Calin Don, Cameron Voell, campusboy, Carike, Carolina Nymark, Caroline, ceyhun0, Chad Reitsma, Chandrika Guntur, Chetan Prajapati, chexwarrior, Chintan hingrajiya, Chip Snyder, Chloé Bringmann, Chouby, Chris Alexander, Chris Van Patten, chriscct7, Christian Martin, Christoph Herr, Christopher Churchill, chunkysteveo, Claudiu Lodromanean, Clayton Collie, Collins Agbonghama, Commeuneimage, Copons, Corey Salzano, cpapazoglou, cranewest, Csaba (LittleBigThings), ctmartin, Dávid Szabó, Daisy Olsen, Dan Farrow, Daniel Bachhuber, Daniel Richards, Daniele Scasciafratte, danieltj, dantahoua, Darin Kotter, Dave McHale, David Aguilera, David Anderson, David Baumwald, David Gwyer, David Herrera, David Shanske, David Smith, David Wolfpaw, david.binda, Davis Shaver, dd32, Dean, Debabrata Karfa, Dee Teal, Deepak Lalwani, dekervit, demetris (Demetris Kikizas), Denis de Bernardy, Derek Herman, Designer023, dfenton, Dharmesh Patel, Dharmin Shah, Dhruvin, Dhul Wells, dietpawel, Dilip Bheda, dingo-d, DjZoNe, dogwithblog, Dominik Schilling, donmhico, donsony, Dossy Shiobara, dpacks, Dr. Ronny Harbich, dratwas, Drew Jaynes, dsifford, dushakov, dushanthi, dyrer, Earle Davies, Ebonie Butler, Edi Amin, Ella van Durpe, Ellen Bauer, Enej Bajgoric, Enrique Sánchez, epiqueras, Erik Betshammar, erikjandelange, Erin 'Folletto' Casali, eroraghav, Estela Rueda, etoledom, EugeneBos, Evan Mullins, Fabian, Fabian Kägy, Fabian Todt, Felipe Elia, Felix Arntz, Ferenc Forgacs, Florian TIAR, flymike, Francesca Marano, Frank Klein, Frankie Jarrett, fullofcaffeine, Gan Eng Chin, Garrett Hyder, Gary Cao, Gary Jones, Gary Pendergast, gchtr, Gennady Kovshenin, George, George Stephanis, geriux, Glauber Mota, glendaviesnz, goldenapples, Greg Ziółkowski, guidooffermans, gumacahin, H-var, hakre, happiryu, Hareesh, Haris Zulfiqar, harrym, harshbarach, Hauwa Abashiya, Haz, Helen Hou-Sandí, Henry Wright, Herre Groen, HoaSi, Howdy_McGee, Hugh Lashbrooke, Ian Dunn, Igor Radovanov, Imran Sayed, ingereck, Ipstenu (Mika Epstein), iqbalbary, Irene Strikkers, Isabel Brison, jagirbaheshwp, Jake Spurlock, Jake Whiteley, James Collins, James Koster, James Nylen, James Rosado, jameslnewell, Jan Thiel, Janvo Aldred, Jared Cobb, Jason Caldwell, Jason LeMahieu (MadtownLems), javorszky, Jaydip Rami, Jean-Baptiste Audras, Jeff Matson, Jeff Ong, Jeff Paul, jeffikus, jellypixel, Jeremy Felt, Jeremy Scott, Jeremy Yip, Jeroen Rotty, jeryj, Jeslen Bucci, Jessica Lyschik, jfoulquier, jimyaghi, Jip Moors, Joe Dolson, Joe McGill, joelclimbsthings, joelyoder, Joen Asmussen, Johanna de Vos, John Blackbourn, John Godley, John James Jacoby, Jon Brown, Jonathan Bossenger, Jonathan Desrosiers, Jonathan Stegall, Jonny Harris, Jono Alderson, Joost de Valk, jordesign, Jorge Bernal, Jorge Costa, joseaneto, Josepha Haden, Josh Levinson, Josh Pollock, joshuatf, JOTAKI, Taisuke, Joy, jsnajdr, Juliette Reinders Folmer, Junaid Bhura, Justin Ahinon, justlevine, K. Adam White, Kai Hao, Kailey (trepmal), Kalpesh Akabari, karthikbhatb, Kaspars, Kelly Dwan, Kelly Hoffman, Kelly R, kellybleck, kellylawrence, Kevin Hagerty, Kharis Sulistiyono, Kipperlenny, Kiril Zhelyazkov, Kirsty Burgoine, Kishan Jasani, Kite, KittMedia, kjbenk, Kjell Reigstad, Knut Sparhell, komagain, Konstantin Obenland, Krupa, Kyle B. Johnson, landau, Larissa Murillo, latifi, Laura Nelson, Laxman Prajapati, lcyh78, leogermani, Lester Chan, Leutrim Husaj, lim3ra, Lionel Pointet, llizard, Louis, Luca Grandicelli, Luigi Cavalieri, Luke Cavanagh, Lumne, mager19, Maggie Cabrera, Mahesh Waghmare, mailnew2ster, Mainul Hassan Main, malinajirka, manzwebdesigns, Marcus Kazmierczak, Marek Hrabe, Marie Comet, Marijn, Marius Jensen, Mark Jaquith, Mark Parnell, Mark Robson, Mark Smallman, Mark Uraine, Marko Heijnen, markshep, Marty Helmick, Mary Baum, Mateus Machado Luna, Mathieu Viet, Matias Ventura, Matt Cromwell, Matt Gibson, Matt Keys, Matt Wiebe, mattchowning, Matthias Pfefferle, mattoperry, Mayank Majeji, Meagan Hanes, Meg Phillips, Meher Bala, Mel Choyce-Dwan, mgol, mgrenierfarmmedia, Michael Arestad, Michael Beckwith, Michele Butcher-Jones, Michelle Frechette, Miguel Fonseca, mihdan, Mike Schroder, mikelopez, Mikey Arce, Milan Dinić, Milana Cap, Mitchell Bennis, mmarco9, Mohammad Jangda, Monika Rao, mopsyd, Morgan Estes, Morgan Kay, Morteza Geransayeh, mqudsi, mreishus, mrgrt, mrjoeldean, Mukesh Panchal, munyagu, musicaljoeker, mweichert, n5hzr, Nabil Moqbel, Nalini Thakor, Naoki Ohashi, Naoko Takano, Nate Gay, Nathan Johnson, Navanath Bhosale, Naveen Kharwar, nendeb, net, Netravnen, nicomollet, Niels Lange, Nik Tsekouras, Nikola, Nikolay Bachiyski, njbrown, nlpro, noahshrader, noahtallen, nourma, O André, oakesjosh, oguzkocer, Olga Gleckler, Omar Alshaker, Omar Reiss, oolleegg55, Optimizing Matters, Ov3rfly, ovann86, ovenall, oxyc, Paal Joachim Romdahl, pabloselin, Paddy, Pankaj Mohale, Pascal Birchler, Pascal Casier, Paul Bearne, Paul Biron, Paul Bunkham, Paul Schreiber, Paul Stonier, Paul Von Schrottky, Pedro Mendonça, pentatonicfunk, pepe, Peter Elmered, Peter Smits, Peter Wilson, Phil Johnston, Pierre Gordon, Pilar Mera, Pinar, Piotrek Boniu, pishmishy, pkvillanueva, prashanttholia, Pratik K. Yadav, Presskopp, presstoke, prionkor, psealock, Puneet Sahalot, Q, Rachel Baker, Rajan Vijayan, rajeshsingh520, Rami Yushuvaev, Ravi Vaghela, ravipatel, rebasaurus, redstar504, Regan Khadgi, Rene Hermenau, retlehs, retrofox, riaanlom, Riad Benguella, ribaricplusplus, Rich Tabor, Rnaby, Robert Anderson, Robert Chapin, Rodrigo Arias, rogerlos, roikles, Rolf Siebers, Ronak Ganatra, roo2, rtagliento, Ryan Fredlund, Ryan Kienstra, Ryan McCue, Ryan Welcher, Sören Wrede, Sabrina Zeidan, Saeed Fard, salvoaranzulla, Sam Fullalove, Sam Webster, Samuel Wood (Otto), Sanjeev Aryal, Saqib Ameen, Sarah Ricker, sarayourfriend, sawanoboly, scarolan, Scott Cariss, Scott Reilly, scribu, scruffian, seanpaulrasmussen, Sebastian Pisula, SeBsZ, Senning, Sergey Biryukov, Sergey Yakimov, SergioEstevao, shaunandrews, Shawntelle Coker, Shital Marakana, shramee, Simon Resok, sirreal, smerriman, snapfractalpop, sproutchris, Stéphane Treilhou, Stanko Metodiev, Stefano Garuti, Stephen Bernhardt, Steve Dufresne, Steven Stern (sterndata), stevenlinx, Stoyan Georgiev, sudoshreyansh, Syed Balkhi, szaqal21, Tammie Lister, TeBenachi, techboyg5, Tellyworth, thefarlilacfield, Thelma Mutete, thib3113, thijsvanloef, Thomas M, Thomas Patrick Levy, thomaslhotta, Tim Havinga, Tim Hengeveld, Timi Wahalahti, Timothy Jacobs, TimoTijhof, Tkama, tmdesigned, TobiasBg, tobifjellner (Tor-Bjorn Fjellner), Tonya Mork, Toro_Unit (Hiroshi Urabe), torres126, Torsten Landsiedel, Towhidul I Chowdhury, treibstoff, Trisha Cornelius, Tung Du, tzafrir, Udit Desai, Ulrich, uxkai, Valentin Bora, Varun Sharma, vcanales, vidhiaddweb, Vinayak Anivase, Vinita Tandulkar, Vinny, virgodesign, WebMan Design | Oliver Juhas, Webmigrates Technologies, Weston Ruter, William Earnhardt, williampatton, Winstina Hughes, wittich, worldweb, Y_Kolev, Yan Sern, Yoav Farhi, yscik, Yui, Yvette Sonneveld, and Zebulan Stanphill.

In addition, many thanks to all of the community volunteers who contribute in the support forums. They answer questions from people across the world, whether they are using WordPress for the first time, or they’ve been around since the first release all the way back in 2003. These releases are as successful as they are because of their efforts!

Finally, thanks to all the community translators who helped make WordPress 5.6. available in 38 languages at the time of release. Our community translators are hard at work ensuring more languages are on their way (70 are already at 90%). If contributing to WordPress appeals to you, it’s easy to learn more. Check out Make WordPress or the core development blog.

WordPress 5.6 “Simone” was originally posted at https://wordpress.org/news/2020/12/simone/

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WPBeginner - WordPress Tutorials originally appeared at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5vu1H_1q6s

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WPBeginner - WordPress Tutorials originally appeared at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilubAY1VZr8

WordPress 5.6 Release Candidate 2

The second release candidate for WordPress 5.6 is here!

WordPress 5.6 is slated for release on December 8, 2020, and we need your help to get there—if you haven’t tried 5.6 yet, now is the time!

You can test WordPress 5.6 release candidate 2 in two ways:

• Try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (choose the “bleeding edge nightlies” option).
• Or download the release candidate here (zip).

Thank you to all of the contributors who tested the Beta releases and gave feedback. Testing for bugs is a critical part of polishing every release and a great way to contribute to WordPress.

Plugin and Theme Developers

Please test your plugins and themes against WordPress 5.6 and update the Tested up to version in the readme file to 5.6. If you find compatibility problems, please be sure to post to the support forums. That way, those can be figured out before the final release.

For a more detailed breakdown of the changes included in WordPress 5.6, check out the WordPress 5.6 beta 1 post. The WordPress 5.6 Field Guide is also out! It’s your source for details on all the major changes.

How to Help

Do you speak a language other than English? Help translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!

Think you found a bug? Post it to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We would love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report you can file one on WordPress Trac. Don’t forget to check the list of known bugs!

WordPress 5.6 Release Candidate 2 was originally posted at https://wordpress.org/news/2020/12/wordpress-5-6-release-candidate-2/

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WordPress 5.6 Release Candidate

The first release candidate for WordPress 5.6 is now available!

This is an important milestone in the community’s progress toward the final release of WordPress 5.6.

“Release Candidate” means that the new version is ready for release, but with millions of users and thousands of plugins and themes, it’s possible something was missed. WordPress 5.6 is slated for release on December 8, 2020, but we need your help to get there—if you haven’t tried 5.6 yet, now is the time!

You can test the WordPress 5.6 release candidate in two ways:

• Try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (choose the “Bleeding edge” channel and Beta/RC Only” stream options)
• Or download the release candidate here (zip).

Thank you to all of the contributors who tested the Beta releases and gave feedback. Testing for bugs is a critical part of polishing every release and a great way to contribute to WordPress.

What’s in WordPress 5.6?

The final release of 2020 continues the annual tradition of a new default theme that is custom built to showcase the new features and functionality of the software. Continued progress on the block editor is especially clear in this release, which brings more blocks to more places, and fewer clicks to implement your layouts.

WordPress 5.6 also has lots of refinements to polish the developer experience. To learn more, subscribe to the Make WordPress Core blog and pay special attention to the developer notes tag for updates on those and other changes that could affect your products.

Plugin and Theme Developers

Please test your plugins and themes against WordPress 5.6 and update the Tested up to version in the readme file to 5.6. If you find compatibility problems, please be sure to post to the support forums, so those can be figured out before the final release.

The WordPress 5.6 Field Guide, due very shortly, will give you a more detailed dive into the major changes.

How to Help

Do you speak a language other than English? Help us translate WordPress into more than 100 languages! This release also marks the hard string freeze point of the 5.6 release schedule.

If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.

WordPress 5.6 Release Candidate was originally posted at https://wordpress.org/news/2020/11/wordpress-5-6-release-candidate/

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WPBeginner - WordPress Tutorials originally appeared at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQfBXVVYMWk

WordPress 5.6 Beta 4

WordPress 5.6 Beta 4 is now available for testing!

This software is still in development, so we recommend that you run this version on a test site.

You can test the WordPress 5.6 beta in two ways:

• Try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (choose the “bleeding edge nightlies” option).
• Or download the beta here (zip).

The current target for the final release is December 8, 2020. This is just over three weeks away, so your help is needed to ensure this release is tested properly.

Thank you to all of the contributors that tested the beta 3 development release and provided feedback. Testing for bugs is an important part of polishing each release and a great way to contribute to WordPress.

Some Highlights

Since beta 3, 42 bugs have been fixed. Here is a summary of a few changes included in beta 4:

• There was a change to the auto-updates implementation for new installations of the software (#50907). Next steps, and rationale are both available.
• Added better handling of unexpected values in Site Health (#50145).
• Added a way for developers to filter the available authors list in Quick Edit (#47685).
• More accessible handling of the tag cloud widget (#51455).
• Multiple improvements in the Media component.
• Multiple improvements in the Build/Test Tools component.

To see all of the features for each Gutenberg release in detail, check out the release posts: 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.9, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, and 9.3.

Developer notes

WordPress 5.6 has lots of refinements to the developer experience. To keep up, subscribe to the Make WordPress Core blog and pay special attention to the developers’ notes for updates on those and other changes that could affect your products.

How to Help

If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you!

If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.

Props to @tonyamork, @audrasjb for technical notes and @angelasjin, @yvettesonneveld, @cguntur, @cbringmann for final review.

WordPress 5.6 Beta 4 was originally posted at https://wordpress.org/news/2020/11/wordpress-5-6-beta-4/

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WPBeginner - WordPress Tutorials originally appeared at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy6h8JI364o

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WPBeginner - WordPress Tutorials originally appeared at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiAo2uiaCEA

WordPress 5.6 Beta 3

WordPress 5.6 Beta 3 is now available for testing!

This software is still in development, so we recommend that you run this version on a test site.

You can test the WordPress 5.6 beta in two ways:

• Try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (choose the “bleeding edge nightlies” option).
• Or download the beta here (zip).

The current target for the final release is December 8, 2020. This is just five weeks away, so your help is needed to ensure this release is tested properly.

Thank you to all of the contributors that tested the beta 2 development release and provided feedback. Testing for bugs is an important part of polishing each release and a great way to contribute to WordPress.

Some Highlights

Since beta 2, 20 bugs have been fixed. Here is a summary of a few changes included in beta 3:

• Added block patterns for Twenty Twenty (see #51098) and Twenty Nineteen (see #51099) themes.
• Added theme support for navigation-widgets (see #51445).
• Fixed incorrect slashes in the URL if the parent is empty for REST API (see #44745).
• Added a test to Site Health to verify that the Authorization header is working as expected for Application Passwords (see #51638).
• 10 additional bugs fixed in the block editor (see #26588).

To see all of the features for each Gutenberg release in detail, check out the release posts: 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.9, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, and 9.3.

Developer notes

WordPress 5.6 has lots of refinements to the developer experience as well. To keep up, subscribe to the Make WordPress Core blog and pay special attention to the developers’ notes for updates on those and other changes that could affect your products.

How to Help

If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you!

If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.

Props to @hellofromtonya, @davidbaumwald for help and @chanthaboune  for final review.

WordPress 5.6 Beta 3 was originally posted at https://wordpress.org/news/2020/11/wordpress-5-6-beta-3/

Video: How to Display Breadcrumb Navigation Links in WordPress

WPBeginner - WordPress Tutorials originally appeared at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfG4dhQs8qk

WordPress 5.5.3 Maintenance Release

WordPress 5.5.3 is now available. 

This maintenance release fixes an issue introduced in WordPress 5.5.2 which makes it impossible to install WordPress on a brand new website that does not have a database connection configured. This release does not affect sites where a database connection is already configured, for example, via one-click installers or an existing wp-config.php file.

5.5.3-alpha Issue

Earlier today — between approximately 15:30 and 16:00 UTC — the auto-update system for WordPress updated some sites from version 5.5.2 to version 5.5.3-alpha. This auto-update was due to an error in the Updates API caused by the 5.5.3 release preparations (see more here). The 5.5.3-alpha version at this point was functionally identical to 5.5.2 as no development work had been started on 5.5.3; however, the following changes may have been made to your site:

• The default “Twenty” themes installed as part of the pre-release package.
• The “Akismet” plugin installed as part of the pre-release package.

These themes and plugins were not activated and therefore remain non-functional unless you installed them previously. It is safe to delete these features should you prefer not to use them. 

If you are not on 5.5.2, or have auto-updates for minor releases disabled, please manually update to the 5.5.3 version by downloading WordPress 5.5.3 or visiting Dashboard → Updates and click “Update Now.”

For more technical details of the issue, we’ve posted on our Core Development blog.

Thanks and props!

Thanks to those who contributed to the 5.5.3 release @audrasjb, @barry, @chanthaboune, @cbringmann, @clorith, @davidbaumwald, @desrosj, @hellofromtonya, @jeffpaul, @johnbillion, @garubi, @metalandcoffee, @mukesh27, @otto, @punitsoftac, @sergeybiryukov, @whyisjake, and @xknown.

WordPress 5.5.3 Maintenance Release was originally posted at https://wordpress.org/news/2020/10/wordpress-5-5-3-maintenance-release/

WordPress 5.5.2 Security and Maintenance Release

WordPress 5.5.2 is now available!

This security and maintenance release features 14 bug fixes in addition to 10 security fixes. Because this is a security release, it is recommended that you update your sites immediately. All versions since WordPress 3.7 have also been updated.

WordPress 5.5.2 is a short-cycle security and maintenance release. The next major release will be version 5.6.

You can download WordPress 5.5.2 by downloading from WordPress.org, or visit your Dashboard → Updates and click Update Now.

If you have sites that support automatic background updates, they’ve already started the update process.

Security Updates

Seven security issues affect WordPress versions 5.5 and earlier. If you haven’t yet updated to 5.5, all WordPress versions since 3.7 have also been updated to fix the following security issues:

• Props to Alex Concha of the WordPress Security Team for their work in hardening deserialization requests.
• Props to David Binovec on a fix to disable spam embeds from disabled sites on a multisite network.
• Thanks to Marc Montas from Sucuri for reporting an issue that could lead to XSS from global variables.
• Thanks to Justin Tran who reported an issue surrounding privilege escalation in XML-RPC. He also found and disclosed an issue around privilege escalation around post commenting via XML-RPC.
• Props to Omar Ganiev who reported a method where a DoS attack could lead to RCE.
• Thanks to Karim El Ouerghemmi from RIPS who disclosed a method to store XSS in post slugs.
• Thanks to Slavco for reporting, and confirmation from Karim El Ouerghemmi, a method to bypass protected meta that could lead to arbitrary file deletion.
• And a special thanks to @zieladam who was integral in many of the releases and patches during this release.

Thank you to all of the reporters for privately disclosing the vulnerabilities. This gave the security team time to fix the vulnerabilities before WordPress sites could be attacked.

For more information, browse the full list of changes on Trac, or check out the version 5.5.2 HelpHub documentation page.

Thanks and props!

The 5.5.2 release was led by @whyisjake and the following release squad:  @audrasjb, @davidbaumwald, @desrosj, @johnbillion, @metalandcoffee, @noisysocks @planningwrite, @sarahricker and @sergeybiryukov.

In addition to the security researchers and release squad members mentioned above, thank you to everyone who helped make WordPress 5.5.2 happen:

Aaron Jorbin, Alex Concha, Amit Dudhat, Andrey “Rarst” Savchenko, Andy Fragen, Ayesh Karunaratne, bridgetwillard, Daniel Richards, David Baumwald, Davis Shaver, dd32, Florian TIAR, Hareesh, Hugh Lashbrooke, Ian Dunn, Igor Radovanov, Jake Spurlock, Jb Audras, John Blackbourn, Jonathan Desrosiers, Jon Brown, Joy, Juliette Reinders Folmer, kellybleck, mailnew2ster, Marcus Kazmierczak, Marius L. J., Milan Dinić, Mohammad Jangda, Mukesh Panchal, Paal Joachim Romdahl, Peter Wilson, Regan Khadgi, Robert Anderson, Sergey Biryukov, Sergey Yakimov, Syed Balkhi, szaqal21, Tellyworth, Timi Wahalahti, Timothy Jacobs, Towhidul I. Chowdhury, Vinayak Anivase, and zieladam.

WordPress 5.5.2 Security and Maintenance Release was originally posted at https://wordpress.org/news/2020/10/wordpress-5-5-2-security-and-maintenance-release/

Video: How to Password Protect Your WordPress Forms

WPBeginner - WordPress Tutorials originally appeared at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdDdse5DL9A

WordPress 5.6 Beta 2

WordPress 5.6 beta 2 is now available for testing!

This software is still in development, so we recommend that you run this version on a test site.

You can test the WordPress 5.6 beta in two ways:

• Try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (choose the “bleeding edge nightlies” option).
• Or download the beta here (zip).

WordPress 5.6 is slated for release on December 8, 2020, and we need your help to get there!

Thank you to all of the contributors that tested the beta 1 development release and provided feedback. Testing for bugs is an important part of polishing each release and a great way to contribute to WordPress.

Some highlights

Since beta 1, 53 bugs have been fixed. Here is a summary of a few changes included in beta 2:

• 6 additional bugs have been fixed in the block editor (see #26442).
• Unified design for search forms and results across the admin (#37353).
• Exposed the embed Gutenberg block to Core (#51531).
• Updated Twemoji (#51356), React (#51505), and Akismet versions (#51610).
• Added accessibility improvements (among other things) to Application Passwords (#51580).
• Added indicator to image details for images attached to a site option (#42063).

Developer notes

WordPress 5.6 has lots of refinements to the developer experience as well. To keep up, subscribe to the Make WordPress Core blog and pay special attention to the developers’ notes for updates on those and other changes that could affect your products.

How to Help

If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you!

If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.

WordPress 5.6 Beta 2 was originally posted at https://wordpress.org/news/2020/10/wordpress-5-6-beta-2/

Video: Is Google Analytics Installed Twice? (Find Out Now)

WPBeginner - WordPress Tutorials originally appeared at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87ss6jANCr4

Video: This API Change Will Break Many WordPress Sites in 2 Days - Are You Prepared?

WPBeginner - WordPress Tutorials originally appeared at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcE5AP-2Srw

WordPress 5.6 Beta 1

WordPress 5.6 Beta 1 is now available for testing!

This software is still in development, so we recommend that you run this version on a test site.

You can test the WordPress 5.6 beta in two ways:

• Try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (choose the “bleeding edge nightlies” option).
• Or download the beta here (zip).

The current target for final release is December 8, 2020. This is just seven weeks away, so your help is needed to ensure this release is tested properly.

Improvements in the Editor

WordPress 5.6 includes seven Gutenberg plugin releases. Here are a few highlighted enhancements:

• Improved support for video positioning in cover blocks.
• Enhancements to Block Patterns including translatable strings.
• Character counts in the information panel, improved keyboard navigation, and other adjustments to help users find their way better.
• Improved UI for drag and drop functionality, as well as block movers.

To see all of the features for each release in detail check out the release posts: 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.9, 9.0, 9.1, and 9.2 (link forthcoming).

Improvements in Core

A new default theme

The default theme is making its annual return with Twenty Twenty-One. This theme features a streamlined and elegant design, which aims to be AAA ready.

Auto-update option for major releases

The much anticipated opt-in for major releases of WordPress Core will ship in this release. With this functionality, you can elect to have major releases of the WordPress software update in the background with no additional fuss for your users.

Increased support for PHP 8

The next major version release of PHP, 8.0.0, is scheduled for release just a few days prior to WordPress 5.6. The WordPress project has a long history of being compatible with new versions of PHP as soon as possible, and this release is no different.

Because PHP 8 is a major version release, changes that break backward compatibility or compatibility for various APIs are allowed. Contributors have been hard at work fixing the known incompatibilities with PHP 8 in WordPress during the 5.6 release cycle.

While all of the detectable issues in WordPress can be fixed, you will need to verify that all of your plugins and themes are also compatible with PHP 8 prior to upgrading. Keep an eye on the Making WordPress Core blog in the coming weeks for more detailed information about what to look for.

Application Passwords for REST API Authentication

Since the REST API was merged into Core, only cookie & nonce based authentication has been available (without the use of a plugin). This authentication method can be a frustrating experience for developers, often limiting how applications can interact with protected endpoints.

With the introduction of Application Password in WordPress 5.6, gone is this frustration and the need to jump through hoops to re-authenticate when cookies expire. But don’t worry, cookie and nonce authentication will remain in WordPress as-is if you’re not ready to change.

Application Passwords are user specific, making it easy to grant or revoke access to specific users or applications (individually or wholesale). Because information like “Last Used” is logged, it’s also easy to track down inactive credentials or bad actors from unexpected locations.

Better accessibility

With every release, WordPress works hard to improve accessibility. Version 5.6 is no exception and will ship with a number of accessibility fixes and enhancements. Take a look:

• Announce block selection changes manually on windows.
• Avoid focusing the block selection button on each render.
• Avoid rendering the clipboard textarea inside the button
• Fix dropdown menu focus loss when using arrow keys with Safari and Voiceover
• Fix dragging multiple blocks downwards, which resulted in blocks inserted in wrong position.
• Fix incorrect aria description in the Block List View.
• Add arrow navigation in Preview menu.
• Prevent links from being focusable inside the Disabled component.

How You Can Help

Keep your eyes on the Make WordPress Core blog for 5.6-related developer notes in the coming weeks, breaking down these and other changes in greater detail.

So far, contributors have fixed 188 tickets in WordPress 5.6, including 82 new features and enhancements, and more bug fixes are on the way.

Do some testing!

Testing for bugs is an important part of polishing the release during the beta stage and a great way to contribute.

If you think you’ve found a bug, please post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We would love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac. That’s also where you can find a list of known bugs.

Props to @webcommsat, @yvettesonneveld, @estelaris, @cguntur, @desrosj, and @marybaum for editing/proof reading this post, and @davidbaumwald for final review.

WordPress 5.6 Beta 1 was originally posted at https://wordpress.org/news/2020/10/wordpress-5-6-beta-1/