WordPress 5.7 Release Candidate

The first release candidate for WordPress 5.7 is now available!

Please join us in celebrating this very important milestone in the community’s progress towards the final release!

“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 5.7 is slated for release on March 9, 2021, but your help is needed to get there—if you haven’t tried 5.7 yet, now is the time!

You can test the WordPress 5.7 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 5.7?

• Robots API and Media Search Engine Visibility
• Detect HTTPS support
• Lazy-load iframes
• jQuery migrate-related Deprecation notice clean-up
• Admin color palette standardization
• The newest version of the Gutenberg plugin

Plugin and Theme Developers

Please test your plugins and themes against WordPress 5.7 and update the Tested up to version in the readme file to 5.7. 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 5.7 Field Guide 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 5.7 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.

Props to @audrasjb for copy suggestions and @davidbaumwald for final review.

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Test this test that
Catch everything that you can
Before it’s live…

WordPress 5.7 Release Candidate was originally posted at https://wordpress.org/news/2021/02/wordpress-5-7-release-candidate/

WordPress 5.6.2 Maintenance Release

WordPress 5.6.2 is now available!

This maintenance release includes 5 bug fixes. These bugs affect WordPress version 5.6.1, so you’ll want to upgrade.

You can download WordPress 5.6.2 directly, or visit the Dashboard → Updates screen and click Update Now. If your sites support automatic background updates, they’ve already started the update process.

WordPress 5.6.2 is a small maintenance release focused on fixing user-facing issues discovered in 5.6.1. The next major release will be version 5.7, currently scheduled for release on March 9, 2021.

To see a full list of changes, you can browse the list on Trac, read the 5.6.2 RC1 post, or visit the 5.6.2 documentation page.

Thanks and props!

The 5.6.2 release was led by @desrosj. Special props to @isabel_brison and @talldanwp for helping to prepare the block editor related fixes, and @audrasjb and @sergeybiryukov for helping with other release related tasks.

Props to everyone who helped make WordPress 5.6.2 happen:

aaronrobertshaw, Addie, André Maneiro, archon810, Ari Stathopoulos, bartosz777, Bernhard Reiter, Daniel Richards, David Anderson, dbtedg, glendaviesnz, hmabpera, ibiza69, Isabel Brison, Jason Ryan, Jb Audras, Juliette Reinders Folmer, Kai Hao, Kerry Liu, Konrad Chmielewski, Jorge Costa, magnuswebdesign, Marius L. J., Matt Wiebe, Mukesh Panchal, Paal Joachim Romdahl, Prem Tiwari, Q, Riad Benguella, Robert Anderson, roger995, Sergey Biryukov, Sergey Yakimov, Steven Stern (sterndata), Takashi Kitajima, tonysandwich, worldedu, Yui.

WordPress 5.6.2 Maintenance Release was originally posted at https://wordpress.org/news/2021/02/wordpress-5-6-2-maintenance-release/

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Reflecting on Gutenberg’s 100th Release

1.0 to 10.0

Gutenberg 10.0 released this week, February 17, 2021, marking the 100th release of the Gutenberg plugin; the 100th release of a journey that started more than four years ago when Matt announced the project at WordCamp US 2016. 

Where We Started

The past four years have not always been an easy journey. Shipping something this impactful is not easy, and there was precedent for keeping the editor as it was: WordPress had already tried to replace TinyMCE a couple of times already. What would be different this time around? The worry was “not much” and initially, very few people actively joined the project.

Six months later came WordCamp Europe 2017 and the first release of the plugin. The editor was nowhere close to being usable, but it “clicked” for some. The reactions to the presentation were hopeful, but afterward, there was a lot of pushback.

Gutenberg was (and is) an audacious project. With a project this big it attracted a lot of attention, and it became difficult to discern constructive debate from mere opposition. We each come with our context, and some people had a fixed idea about what they wanted for the project. Some wanted to reuse an existing page builder, others wanted to revive the Fields API project, some wanted it to be front-end-first, others wanted it just to replace the classic editor’s content area, some wanted it to be in Vue.JS, others wanted no change at all. With a product used by 40% of the web, you hope to find consensus, and when compromises have to be made, it can be difficult for those involved to avoid feeling that their voice is being ignored.

We have also made quite a few mistakes: stability wasn’t great in some releases, performance suffered in others, and accessibility as well. But we kept pushing forward, using feedback to improve the editor and the project in all aspects until its first inclusion in WordPress 5.0, and we’re still working to improve it today.

Where We Are

It’s a delight to see some people who strongly disagreed with the initial vision or approach to Gutenberg gradually come to enjoy using the editor and join the project to carry on its vision. Others might still not like it; some won’t ever use it. One thing is certain; we’ll continue doing our best to push forward, improve what’s already shipped, and ship new exciting features. We’ll continue making mistakes and hopefully continue learning from them.

Wednesday marked the 100th release of Gutenberg, and while that looks remarkable on the outside, the release itself holds what all the other releases did. It holds improvements to the existing features, it fixes bugs that users reported, adds new features, and it highlights experiments with new ideas.

What is remarkable about the release is the people. The ones who were with us from the start, the ones who were with us but left, the ones who joined in our journey, everyone who helped along the way, everyone who provided feedback, everyone who got their hands dirty, and everyone who tried to use this editor, extend it and provide ideas.

Thank you all.

Reflecting on Gutenberg’s 100th Release was originally posted at https://wordpress.org/news/2021/02/reflecting-on-gutenbergs-100th-release/

WordPress 5.7 Beta 3

WordPress 5.7 Beta 3 is now available for testing!

This software is still in development, so it’s not recommended to run this version on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with it.

You can test the WordPress 5.7 Beta 3 in two ways:

• Install/activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the Bleeding edge channel and the Beta/RC Only stream)
• Direct download the beta version here (zip).

The current target for final release is March 9, 2021. That’s just three weeks away, so your help is vital to making sure that the final release is as good as it can be.

Some Highlights

Since Beta 2, 27 bugs have been fixed. Here is a summary of some of the included changes:

• Adjusted color contrast on various admin buttons to improve accessibility and readability (#52402)
• Several fixes for the Twenty Twenty-One theme (#52287, #52377, #52431, #52500, #52502, #52412)
• Replaced editor typeface with system fonts to improve privacy and performance (#46169)
• Added i18n support to register_block_type_from_metadata function (#52301)
• Media upload errors are now more accessible (#47120)
• New filter to modify how pagination links are rendered when using paginate_links function (#44018)

How You Can Help

Watch the Make WordPress Core blog for 5.7-related developer notes in the coming weeks, which will break down these and other changes in greater detail.

So far, contributors have fixed 171 tickets in WordPress 5.7, including 64 new features and enhancements, and more bug fixes are on the way.

Do some testing!

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

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

Props to @audrasjb and @lukecarbis for your peer revisions.

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Finish line ahead
Defects in focus
We are almost there…

WordPress 5.7 Beta 3 was originally posted at https://wordpress.org/news/2021/02/wordpress-5-7-beta-3/

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WordPress 5.7 Beta 2

WordPress 5.7 Beta 2 is now available for testing!

This software is still in development, so it’s not recommended to run this version on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with it.

You can test the WordPress 5.7 Beta 2 in two ways:

• Install/activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the Bleeding edge channel and the Beta/RC Only stream)
• Direct download the beta version here (zip).

The current target for final release is March 9, 2021. That’s just four weeks away, so your help is vital to making sure that the final release is as good as it can be.

Some Highlights

Since Beta 1, 38 bugs have been fixed. Here is a summary of some of the included changes:

• Italicized text has been removed to improve accessibility and readability (#47326)
• Pause any playing media when closing the the media modal (#48562)
• Add Content-Security-Policy script loaders (#39941)
• Several fixes for the Twenty Twenty-One theme (#50454, #52432, #52433, #52473, #52477, #52374)
• Gutenberg editor support for custom spacing (#51760)
• Resolved Menu UI issues on medium-large screen sizes (#49576)
• Admin UI color palette: ensure that all interactive elements have an appropriate contrast ratio (#52402)

How You Can Help

Watch the Make WordPress Core blog for 5.7-related developer notes in the coming weeks, which will break down these and other changes in greater detail.

So far, contributors have fixed 157 tickets in WordPress 5.7, including 68 new features and enhancements, and more bug fixes are on the way.

Do some testing!

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

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

Props to @audrasjb, @hellofromtonya, @francina and @desrosj for your peer revisions!

WordPress 5.7 Beta 2 was originally posted at https://wordpress.org/news/2021/02/wordpress-5-7-beta-2/

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WordPress 5.6.1 Maintenance Release

WordPress 5.6.1 is now available!

This maintenance release features 20 bug fixes as well as 7 issues fixed for the block editor. These bugs affect WordPress version 5.6, so you’ll want to upgrade.

You can download WordPress 5.6.1 directly, or visit the Dashboard → Updates screen and click Update Now. If your sites support automatic background updates, they’ve already started the update process.

WordPress 5.6.1 is a short-cycle maintenance release. The next major release will be version 5.7.

To see a full list of changes, you can browse the list on Trac, read the 5.6.1 RC1 post, or visit the 5.6.1 documentation page.

Thanks and props!

The 5.6.1 release was led by @audrasjb, @desrosj, @sergeybiryukov and @whyisjake. Thanks to @metalandcoffee and @hellofromtonya for running bug scrubs, @planningwrite and @davidbaumwald for their help on the release post.

Props to everyone who helped make WordPress 5.6.1 happen:

aaribaud, Aaron D. Campbell, Ahmed Saeed, Andrew Ozz, Anthony Burchell, archon810, Ari Stathopoulos, Ayesh Karunaratne, basscan, carloscastilloadhoc, Carolina Nymark, celendesign, Christopher Finke, Copons, Dan Farrow, Daniel Richards, david.binda, Denis Yanchevskiy, Dilip Bheda, Dominik Schilling, Ebonie Butler, Felix Arntz, Florian TIAR, Garrett Hyder, gKibria, Greg Ziółkowski, Helen Hou-Sandi, Ian Dunn, ifnoob, Isabel Brison, Ismail El Korchi, Jake Spurlock, James Huff, Jason LeMahieu (MadtownLems), Jb Audras, John Blackbourn, Jonathan Desrosiers, Jonathan Stegall, Jorge Costa, Josepha, Justin Ahinon, Kai Hao, Kelly Choyce-Dwan, Kjell Reigstad, Konstantinos Xenos, litemotiv, lucasbustamante, Mahdi Akrami, majhajob, Manzur Ahammed, Marius L. J., Matt Wiebe, Maxime Pertici, Mel Choyce-Dwan, Michael Babker, Mukesh Panchal, NicolasKulka, Nik Tsekouras, oakesjosh, Peter Wilson, Prem Tiwari, Riad Benguella, Richard Tape, Robert Anderson, Rodrigo Primo, SeBsZ, Sergey Biryukov, Slava Abakumov, Stephen Bernhardt, t-p, Takashi Kitajima, Tanvirul Haque, thorlentz, Timothy Jacobs, Toni Viemerö, Tony A, Tonya Mork, transl8or, and Vlad T.

WordPress 5.6.1 Maintenance Release was originally posted at https://wordpress.org/news/2021/02/wordpress-5-6-1-maintenance-release/

WordPress 5.7 Beta 1

WordPress 5.7 Beta 1 is now available for testing!

This software is still in development, so it’s not recommended to run this version on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with the new version.

You can test the WordPress 5.7 Beta 1 in two ways:

• Install/activate the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (select the Bleeding edge channel and the Beta/RC Only stream)
• Direct download the beta version here (zip).

The current target for final release is March 9, 2021. That’s just five weeks away, so your help is vital to making sure that the final release is as good as it can be.

So what’s new?

Improvements in Core

Lazy-load iframes
Now you can enable lazy-loading of iframes by adding the loading="lazy" attribute to iframe tags on the front-end. 

Migrating from HTTP to HTTPS is streamlined
Switching a WordPress site from HTTP to HTTPS has proven to be a pain for all involved. While on the surface, the Site Address and WordPress Address have to be updated, content with embedded HTTP URLs remains unchanged in the database. With this release, migrating a site to HTTPS is now a one-click interaction. URLs in the database are automatically replaced when the Site and WordPress Address are both using HTTPS.  Also, Site Health now includes an HTTPS status check.

Standardize colors used in WP-Admin CSS to a single palette
This change collapses all colors used in the CSS to one of the available shades of blue, green, red, yellow, grey, black, and white. The palette makes it simpler than ever to build components your users can read, because half the range gives you great contrast with white type and a half with black, according to current accessibility guidelines.

Ongoing cleanup after update to jQuery 3.5.1
jQuery deprecations in WordPress Core and bundled themes show up a lot less often, and the notifications make more sense to the user.

New Robots API
The new Robots API allows the filter directives to be included in the ‘robots’ meta tag. Also, the directive max-image-preview:large is now included by default to allow large image previews to be displayed in search engines (unless the blog is marked as not being public).

Improvements in the Editor

• Buttons block: Overhaul alignment and justification controls
• Buttons block: Adds variations for vertical layout
• Buttons block: Adds width selector
• Code block: Adds support for font sizes
• Cover block: Full Height Alignment control
• List block: Adds font size support
• Social Icons block: Adds Patreon, Telegram, and Tiktok icons
• Social Icons block: Adds the ability to change social icon sizes
• Spacer block: Use a semi-transparent background
• Adds block variations transformations
• Allow dragging blocks & block patterns from the inserter into the canvas

To see all of the features for each release in detail check out the Gutenberg release posts: 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.6, 9.7, 9.8, and 9.9 (link forthcoming).

How You Can Help

Watch the Make WordPress Core blog for 5.7-related developer notes in the coming weeks, which will break down these and other changes in greater detail.

So far, contributors have fixed 143 tickets in WordPress 5.7, including 68 new features and enhancements, and more bug fixes are on the way.

Do some testing!

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

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

Props to @hellofromtonya, @sarahricker, @webcommsat, @marybaum, @jeffpaul, and @audrasjb for your peer revisions and @desrosj, @davidbaumwald, @cbringmann, and @chanthabouneon for final review on this exciting news.

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New Year, new goals
Each day, one small step
It’s the little things…

WordPress 5.7 Beta 1 was originally posted at https://wordpress.org/news/2021/02/wordpress-5-7-beta-1/

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