WordPress.org

WordPress 5.2.1 Maintenance Release

Posted May 21, 2019 by Jonathan Desrosiers. Filed under Releases.

WordPress 5.2.1 is now available! This maintenance release fixes 33 bugs, including improvements to the block editor, accessibility, internationalization, and the Site Health feature introduced in 5.2.

You can browse the full list of changes on Trac.

WordPress 5.2.1 is a short-cycle maintenance release. Version 5.2.2 is expected to follow in approximately two weeks.

You can download WordPress 5.2.1 or visit Dashboard → Updates and click Update Now. Sites that support automatic background updates have already started to update automatically.

Jonathan Desrosiers and William Earnhardt co-led this release, with contributions from 52 other contributors. Thank you to everyone that made this release possible!

Alex Dimitrov, Alex Shiels, Andrea Fercia, Andrew Duthie, Andrew Ozz, Andrey “Rarst” Savchenko, Andy Fragen, anischarolia, Birgir Erlendsson (birgire), chesio, Chetan Prajapati, daxelrod, Debabrata Karfa, Dima, Dion Hulse, Dominik Schilling, Ella van Durpe, Emil Dotsev, ghoul, Grzegorz (Greg) Ziółkowski, gwwar, Hareesh, Ian Belanger, imath, Jb Audras, Jeremy Felt, Joen Asmussen, Jonathan Desrosiers, Jonny Harris, Josepha, jrf, kjellr, Marius L. J., MikeNGarrett, Milan Dinić, Mukesh Panchal, onlanka, paragoninitiativeenterprises, parkcityj, Peter Wilson, Presskopp, Riad Benguella, Sergey Biryukov, Stephen Edgar, Sébastien SERRE, Thorsten Frommen, Tim Hengeveld, Timothy Jacobs, timph, TobiasBg, tonybogdanov, Tor-Bjorn Fjellner, William Earnhardt, and Yui.

Tomorrow is WordPress Translation Day 4

Posted May 10, 2019 by Joost de Valk. Filed under Documentation, Events.

The fourth edition of WordPress translation day is coming up on Saturday 11 May 2019: tomorrow! Get ready for a 24-hour, global marathon dedicated to localizing the WordPress platform and ecosystem. This event takes place both online and in physical locations across the world, so you can join no matter where you are!

The WordPress Polyglots Team has a mission to translate and make available the software’s features into as many languages as possible. As WordPress powers more than 33% of websites, people from across the world use it in their daily life. That means there is a lot that needs translating, and into many different languages.

On 11 May 2019, from 00:00 UTC until 23:59 UTC, WordPress Translation Day aims to celebrate the thousands of volunteers who contribute to translation and internalization. The event is also an opportunity for encouraging more people to get involved and help increase the availability of themes and plugins in different languages.

“At the time of the last event in 2017, WordPress was being translated into 178 languages, we have now reached the 200 mark!”

WPtranslationday.org

What happens on WordPress Translation Day?

There are a number of local meetings all over the world, as well as online talks by people from the WordPress community. More than 700 people from around the world took part in past WordPress Translation Days, and everyone welcome to join in this time around!

Everyone is welcome to join the event to help translate and localize WordPress, no matter their level of experience. A lot is happening on the day, so join in and you will learn how to through online sessions!

What can you expect?

  • Live online training: Tutorials in different languages focused on translation and localization, or l10n, of WordPress. These are streamed in multiple languages
  • Localization sessions: General instruction and specifics for particular areas and languages. These sessions are streamed in multiple languages.
  • Internalization sessions: Tutorials about optimizing the code to ease localization processes, also called internationalization or i18n. These sessions are streamed in English.
  • Local events: Polyglot contributors will gather around the world for socializing, discussing, and translating together.
  • Remote events: Translation teams that cannot gather physically, will connect remotely. They will be available for training, mentoring, and supporting new contributors. They will also engage in “translating marathons”, in which existing teams translate as many strings as they can!

A number of experienced WordPress translators and internationalization experts are part of the line-up for the livestream, joined by some first time contributors.

Whether you have or haven’t contributed to the Polyglots before, you can join in for WordPress Translation Day. Learn more about both local and online events and stay updated through the website and social media.

WordPress 5.2 “Jaco”

Posted May 7, 2019 by Matt Mullenweg. Filed under Releases.

Keeping Sites Safer

Version 5.2 of WordPress, named “Jaco” in honor of renowned and revolutionary jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius, is available for download or update in your WordPress dashboard. New features in this update make it easier than ever to fix your site if something goes wrong.

There are even more robust tools for identifying and fixing configuration issues and fatal errors. Whether you are a developer helping clients or you manage your site solo, these tools can help get you the right information when you need it.


Site Health Check

Building on the Site Health features introduced in 5.1, this release adds two new pages to help debug common configuration issues. It also adds space where developers can include debugging information for site maintainers.

PHP Error Protection

This administrator-focused update will let you safely fix or manage fatal errors without requiring developer time. It features better handling of the so-called “white screen of death,” and a way to enter recovery mode,  which pauses error-causing plugins or themes.


Improvements for Everyone

Accessibility Updates

A number of changes work together to improve contextual awareness and keyboard navigation flow for those using screen readers and other assistive technologies.

New Dashboard Icons

Thirteen new icons including Instagram, a suite of icons for BuddyPress, and rotated Earth icons for global inclusion. Find them in the Dashboard and have some fun!

Plugin Compatibility Checks

WordPress will now automatically determine if your site’s version of PHP is compatible with installed plugins. If the plugin requires a higher version of PHP than your site currently uses, WordPress will not allow you to activate it, preventing potential compatibility errors.


Developer Happiness

PHP Version Bump

The minimum supported PHP version is now 5.6.20. As of WordPress 5.2*, themes and plugins can safely take advantage of namespaces, anonymous functions, and more!

Privacy Updates

A new theme page template, a conditional function, and two CSS classes make designing and customizing the Privacy Policy page easier.

New Body Hook

5.2 introduces a wp_body_open hook, which lets themes support injecting code right at the beginning of the <body> element.

Building JavaScript

With the addition of webpack and Babel configurations in the wordpress/scripts package, developers won’t have to worry about setting up complex build tools to write modern JavaScript.

*If you are running an old version of PHP (less than 5.6.20), update your PHP before installing 5.2.


The Squad

This release was led by Matt Mullenweg, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and Gary Pendergast. They were graciously supported by 327 generous volunteer contributors. Load a Jaco Pastorius playlist on your favorite music service and check out some of their profiles:

Aaron D. Campbell, Aaron Jorbin, Adam Silverstein, Adam Soucie, Adil Öztaşer, Ajit Bohra, Alain Schlesser, Alda Vigdís, Alex Denning, Alex Dimitrov, Alex Kirk, Alex Mills, Alex Shiels, Alexis, Alexis Lloyd, allancole, Allen Snook, André, andraganescu, Andrea Fercia, Andrea Middleton, Andrei Lupu, Andrew Dixon, Andrew Duthie, Andrew Nacin, Andrew Ozz, Andrey "Rarst" Savchenko, Andrés Maneiro, Andy Fragen, Andy Meerwaldt, Aniket Patel, anischarolia, Anton Timmermans, Anton Vanyukov, Antonio Villegas, antonypuckey, Aristeides Stathopoulos, Aslam Shekh, axaak, Bego Mario Garde, Ben Dunkle, Ben Ritner - Kadence Themes, Benjamin Intal, Bill Erickson, Birgir Erlendsson, Bodo (Hugo) Barwich, bonger, Boone Gorges, Bradley Taylor, Brandon Kraft, Brent Swisher, Burhan Nasir, Cathi Bosco, Chetan Prajapati, Chiara Magnani, Chouby, Chris Van Patten, D.S. Webster, Damon Cook, Daniel Bachhuber, Daniel James, Daniel Llewellyn, Daniel Richards, Daniele Scasciafratte, Darren Ethier, Dave Whitley, DaveFX, davetgreen, David Baumwald, David Binovec, David Binovec, David Herrera, David Roddick, David Smith, Davide 'Folletto' Casali, daxelrod, Debabrata Karfa, dekervit, Denis de Bernardy, Dennis Snell, Derek Herman, Derrick Hammer, designsimply, Dhanukanuwan, Dharmesh Patel, Diane, diegoreymendez, Dilip Bheda, Dima, Dion Hulse, Dixita Dusara, Dmitry Mayorov, Dominik Schilling, Drew Jaynes, dsifford, ecotechie, Eduardo Toledo, Ella Van Durpe, Emil Dotsev, fabiankaegy, Faisal Alvi, Farhad Sakhaei, Felix Arntz, Franklin Tse, Fuegas, Garrett Hyder, Gary Jones, Gennady Kovshenin, ghoul, Girish Panchal, Grzegorz Ziółkowski, Guido Scialfa, GutenDev ✍㊙, gwwar, Hannah Malcolm, Hardik Amipara, Hardik Thakkar, Hendrik Luehrsen, Henry, Henry Wright, Hoover, Ian Belanger, Ian Dunn, ice9js, Igor Zinovyev, imath, Ixium, J.D. Grimes, jakeparis, James, janak Kaneriya, Jarred Kennedy, Javier Villanueva, Jay Upadhyay, Jaydip Rami, Jaye Simons, Jayman Pandya, jdeeburke, Jean-Baptiste Audras, Jeff Paul, Jeffrey de Wit, Jenny Wong, Jeremy Felt, Jeremy Green, Jeremy Herve, jitendrabanjara1991, JJJ, Joe Dolson, Joe McGill, Joen Asmussen, Johan Falk, Johanna de Vos, John Blackbourn, Jonathan Desrosiers, Jonathandejong, joneiseman, Jonny Harris, jonnybojangles, Joost de Valk, jordesign, Jorge Bernal, Jorge Costa, Jory Hogeveen, Jose Castaneda, josephwa, Josh Feck, JoshuaWold, Joy, jplo, JR Tashjian, jrf, Juhi Patel, juliarrr, K. Adam White, KamataRyo, Karine Do, Katyatina, Kelin Chauhan, Kelly Dwan, Khokan Sardar, killua99, Kite, Kjell Reigstad, Knut Sparhell, Koji Kuno, Konstantin Obenland, Konstantinos Xenos, Kʜᴀɴ (ಠ_ಠ), laurelfulford, lkraav, lovingboth, Luke Carbis, Luke Gedeon, Luke Pettway, Maedah Batool, Maja Benke, Malae, Manzoor Wani, Marcin, Marcin Pietrzak, Marco Fernandes, Marco Peralta, Marcus Kazmierczak, marekhrabe, Marius Jensen, Mariyan Belchev, Mark Uraine, markcallen, Markus Echterhoff, Marty Helmick, marybaum, mattnyeus, mdwolinski, Meet Makadia, Mel Choyce, mheikkila, Micah Wood, michelleweber, Miguel Fonseca, Miguel Torres, Mikael Korpela, Mike Auteri, Mike Schinkel [WPLib Box project lead], Mike Schroder, Mike Selander, MikeNGarrett, Milan Dinić, mirka, Mobin Ghasempoor, Mohadese Ghasemi, Mohammed Saimon, Morten Rand-Hendriksen, Morteza Geransayeh, Muhammad Muhsin, Mukesh Panchal, Mustafa Uysal, mzorz, Nahid F. Mohit, Naoki Ohashi, Nate Allen, Ned Zimmerman, Neokazis Charalampos, Nick Cernis, Nick Diego, Nick Halsey, Nidhi Jain, Niels, Niels de Blaauw, Nikolay Nikolov, Nilambar Sharma, ninio, notnownikki, Oliver Sadler, onlanka, pandelisz, Pascal Birchler, Paul Bearne, Paul Biron, Pedro Mendonça, Peter Booker, Peter Wilson, pfiled, pilou69, Pranali Patel, Pratik, Pratik K. Yadav, Presskopp, psealock, Punit Patel, Rachel Cherry, Rahmon, Ramanan, Rami Yushuvaev, Ramiz Manked, ramonopoly, Riad Benguella, Rinat Khaziev, Robert Anderson, Rudy Susanto, Ryan Boren, Ryan Welcher, Sébastien SERRE, Saeed Fard, Sal Ferrarello, Salar Gholizadeh, Samaneh Mirrajabi, Sami Keijonen, Samuel Elh, Santiago Garza, Sara Cope, saracup, sarah semark, Scott Arciszewski, Scott Reilly, Sebastian Pisula, Sekineh Ebrahimzadeh, Sergey Biryukov, SergioEstevao, sgastard, sharifkiberu, shazdeh, Shital Marakana, sky_76, Soren Wrede, Stephen Edgar, Steven Word, Subrata Sarkar, Sudar Muthu, Sudhir Yadav, szepe.viktor, Takayuki Miyauchi, Tammie Lister, Themonic, thomstark, Thorsten Frommen, Thrijith Thankachan, Tim Hedgefield, Tim Wright, Timothy Jacobs, timph, tmatsuur, tmdesigned, tmdesigned, Tobias Zimpel, TobiasBg, TomHarrigan, tonybogdanov, Tor-Bjorn Fjellner, Toro_Unit (Hiroshi Urabe), torres126, Torsten Landsiedel, Towhidul Islam, Tracy Levesque, Umang Bhanvadia, Vaishali Panchal, WebFactory, Weston Ruter, WFMattR, William 'Bahia' Bay, William Earnhardt, williampatton, Willscrlt, Wolly aka Paolo Valenti, wrwrwr0, Yoav Farhi, Yui, Zebulan Stanphill, and Česlav Przywara.

Also, 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 since the first release. These releases are more successful for their efforts!

If you want learn more about volunteering with WordPress, check out Make WordPress or the core development blog.

Thanks for choosing WordPress!

WordPress 5.2 RC2

Posted May 2, 2019 by Josepha. Filed under Development, Releases.

The second release candidate for WordPress 5.2 is now available!

WordPress 5.2 will be released on Tuesday, May 7, but we need your help to get there—if you haven’t tried 5.2 yet, now is the time!

There are two ways to test the WordPress 5.2 release candidate: try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want to select the “bleeding edge nightlies” option), or you can download the release candidate here (zip).

For details about what to expect in WordPress 5.2, please see the first release candidate post.

This release includes the final About page design. It also contains fixes for:

  • Proper translation of the recovery mode notification emails (#47093).
  • Improvements to the way Site Health works with multisite installs (#47084).

Plugin and Theme Developers

Please test your plugins and themes against WordPress 5.2 and update the Tested up to version in the readme to 5.2. If you find compatibility problems, please be sure to post to the support forums so we can figure those out before the final release.

The WordPress 5.2 Field Guide has also been published, which details the major changes.

How to Help

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

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.


It’s the start of May
and the release is coming.
We all give a cheer!

The Month in WordPress: April 2019

Posted by Hugh Lashbrooke. Filed under Month in WordPress.

This past month has been filled with anticipation as the community builds up towards a big new release, plans some important events, and builds new tools to grow the future of the project.


WordPress 5.2 Almost Due for Release

WordPress 5.2 is due for release on May 7 with many new features included for developers and end-users alike. The Field Guide for the release provides a lot of information about what is in it and what you can expect, including a few key elements:

Site Health Check

One of the most highly anticipated features for v5.2 is the Site Health Check. This feature adds two new pages in the admin interface to help end users maintain a healthy site through common configuration issues and other elements that go along with having a robust online presence. It also provides a standardized location for developers to add debugging information.

Fatal Error Recovery Mode

The Fatal Error Recovery Mode feature was originally planned for the 5.1 release but was delayed to patch up some last-minute issues that arose. This feature will help site-owners recover more quickly from fatal errors that break the display or functionality of their site that would ordinarily require code or database edits to fix.

Privacy and Accessibility Updates

Along with the headlining features mentioned above, there are some important enhancements to the privacy and accessibility features included in Core. These include some important developer-focused changes to how privacy policy pages are displayed and user data is exported, as well as moving to more semantic markup for admin tabs and other improvements such as switching post format icons to drop-down menus on post list tables, improved admin toolbar markup, and contextual improvements to archive widget drop-down menu.

New Dashicons

The Dashicons library was last updated was over 3 years ago. Now, in the upcoming release, a set of 13 new icons will be added to the library along with improvements to the build process and file format of the icons.

Block Editor Upgrades

The Block Editor has seen numerous improvements lately that will all be included in the v5.2 release. Along with the interface upgrades, the underlying Javascript module has been reorganized, improvements have been made to how the block editor is detected on the post edit screen, and the Javascript build process has been enhanced.

WordPress 5.2 is now in the Release Candidate phase and you can test it by installing the Beta Tester plugin on any WordPress site.

Want to get involved in building WordPress Core? Follow the Core team blog and join the #core channel in the Making WordPress Slack group.

WordPress Translation Day 4 is Almost Here

On 11 May 2019, the fourth WordPress Translation Day will take place. This is a 24-hour global event dedicated to the translation of all things WordPress, from Core to themes, plugins to marketing.

Over the course of 24 hours, WordPress communities will meet to translate WordPress into their local languages and watch talks and sessions broadcast on wptranslationday.org. During the previous WordPress Translation Day, 71 local events took place in 29 countries, and even more communities are expected to take part this time.

Want to get involved in WordPress Translation Day 4? Find out how to organize a local event, follow the updates on the Polyglots team blog, and join the #polyglots channel in the Making WordPress Slack group.

Block Library Project Gets Started

Since the initial proposal for a Block Library that would be made available from inside the block editor, work has been done to put together some designs for how this would look. Since then the project has received a more direct focus with a planned out scope and timeline.

The project is being managed on GitHub and people interested in contributing are encouraged to get involved there. You can also keep up to date by following the Design team blog and joining the #design channel in the Making WordPress Slack group.


Further Reading:

Have a story that we should include in the next “Month in WordPress” post? Please submit it here.

WordPress 5.2 Release Candidate

Posted April 26, 2019 by Josepha. Filed under Development, Releases.

The first release candidate for WordPress 5.2 is now available!

This is an important milestone as we progress toward the WordPress 5.2 release date. “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 5.2 is scheduled to be released on Tuesday, May 7, but we need your help to get there—if you haven’t tried 5.2 yet, now is the time!

There are two ways to test the WordPress 5.2 release candidate: try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want to select the “bleeding edge nightlies” option), or you can download the release candidate here (zip).

What’s in WordPress 5.2?

Continuing with the theme from the last release, WordPress 5.2 gives you even more robust tools for identifying and fixing configuration issues and fatal errors. Whether you are a developer helping clients or you manage your site solo, these tools can help get you the right information when you need it.

The Site Health Check and PHP Error Protection tools have brand new features, giving you peace of mind if you discover any issues with plugins or themes on your site. There are also updates to the icons available in your dashboard, fresh accessibility considerations for anyone using assistive technologies and more.

Plugin and Theme Developers

Please test your plugins and themes against WordPress 5.2 and update the Tested up to version in the readme to 5.2. If you find compatibility problems, please be sure to post to the support forums so we can figure those out before the final release.

The WordPress 5.2 Field Guide has also been published, which goes into the details of 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 5.2 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.


Howdy, RC 1!
With tools this interesting,
I can hardly wait.

WordPress 5.2 Beta 3

Posted April 12, 2019 by Jonathan Desrosiers. Filed under Development, Releases.

WordPress 5.2 Beta 3 is now available!

This software is still in development, so we don’t recommend you run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with the new version.

There are two ways to test the latest WordPress 5.2 beta: try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want to select the “bleeding edge nightlies” option), or you can download the beta here (zip).

WordPress 5.2 is slated for release on April 30, and we need your help to get there! Thanks to the testing and feedback from everyone who tried beta 2, nearly 40 tickets have been closed since then. Here are the major changes and bug fixes:

  • The new Site Health feature has continued to be refined.
  • Plugins no longer update if a site is running an unsupported version of PHP (see #46613).
  • It’s now more apparent when a site is running in Recovery Mode (see #46608).
  • The distraction free button no longer breaks keyboard navigation in the Classic Editor (see #46640).
  • Assistive technologies do a better job of announcing admin bar sub menus (see #37513).
  • Subject lines in WordPress emails are now more consistent (see #37940).
  • Personal data exports now only show as completed when a user downloads their data (see #44644).
  • Plus more improvements to accessibility (see #35497 and #42853).

Minimum PHP Version Update

Important reminder: as of WordPress 5.2 beta 2, the minimum PHP version that WordPress will require is 5.6.20. If you’re running an older version of PHP, we highly recommend updating it now, before WordPress 5.2 is officially released.

Developer Notes

WordPress 5.2 has lots of refinements to polish 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

Do you speak a language other than English? Help us translate WordPress into more than 100 languages! The beta 3 release also marks the soft string freeze point of the 5.2 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.


Would you look at that
each day brings release closer
test to be ready
.

WordPress 5.2 Beta 2

Posted April 9, 2019 by Gary Pendergast. Filed under Development, Releases.

WordPress 5.2 Beta 2 is now available!

This software is still in development, so we don’t recommend you run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site to play with the new version.

There are two ways to test the WordPress 5.2 beta: try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want to select the “bleeding edge nightlies” option), or you can download the beta here (zip).

WordPress 5.2 is slated for release on April 30, and we need your help to get there! Thanks to the testing and feedback from everyone who tried beta 1, nearly 100 tickets have been closed since then. Here are the major changes and bug fixes:

  • We’ve added support for Emoji 12! 🪂
  • A brand-new wp_body_open() template tag (and corresponding wp_body_open action) will let themes (and plugins!) add content right after the <body> is opened (#12563).
  • Superfluous paragraph tags will no longer incorrectly appear in dynamic block content (#45495).
  • The Site Health screens have received several bug fixes, tweaks, and performance improvements.
  • Crash Protection no longer interrupts plugin editing (#46045).
  • Custom error handlers now load correctly (#46069).

Minimum PHP Version Update

As of WordPress 5.2 beta 2, the minimum PHP version that WordPress will require is 5.6.20. If you’re running an older version of PHP, we highly recommend updating it now, before WordPress 5.2 is officially released.

Developer Notes

WordPress 5.2 has lots of refinements to polish 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

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

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.


The wonderful thing
about betas, is betas
are wonderful things.
🐯

Minimum PHP Version update

Posted April 1, 2019 by Aaron Jorbin. Filed under Development.

WordPress 5.2 is targeted for release at the end of this month, and with it comes an update to the minimum required version of PHP. WordPress will now require a minimum of PHP 5.6.20.

Beginning in WordPress 5.1, users running PHP versions below 5.6 have had a notification in their dashboard that includes information to help them update PHP. Since then, the WordPress stats have shown an increase in users on more recent versions of PHP.


Screenshot of the "PHP Update Required" widget from the WordPress dashboard. Contains information about detecting an insecure version of PHP, how it affects your site, and a link for information on upgrading.
The dashboard widget users see if running an outdated version of PHP

Why You Should Update PHP

If your site is running on an unsupported version of PHP, the WordPress updater will not offer WordPress 5.2 to your site. If you attempt to update WordPress manually, that update will fail. To continue using the latest features of WordPress you must update to a newer version of PHP.

When updating to a new version of PHP, WordPress encourages updating to its recommended version, PHP 7.3. The PHP internals team has done a great job making its most recent version the fastest version of PHP yet. This means that updating will improve the speed of your site, both for you and your visitors.

This performance increase also means fewer servers are needed to host websites. Updating PHP isn’t just good for your site, it also means less energy is needed for the 1-in-3 sites that use WordPress, so it’s good for the planet.

How to Update PHP

If you need help updating to a new version of PHP, detailed documentation is available. This includes sample communication to send to your host for them to assist you. Many hosting companies have published information on how to update PHP that is specific for them.

5.6 now, but soon 7+

This is the first increase in PHP required version for WordPress since 2010, but may not be the only increase in 2019. The WordPress core team will monitor the adoption of the most recent versions of PHP with an eye towards making PHP 7+ the minimum version towards the end of the year.

Update PHP today, so you can update WordPress tomorrow!

The Month in WordPress: March 2019

Posted by Hugh Lashbrooke. Filed under Month in WordPress.

WordPress reached a significant milestone this month. With some exciting developments in Core, an interesting new proposal, and the return of a valuable global event, March was certainly an interesting time.


WordPress Now Powers One-Third of the Web

WordPress’ market share has been steadily increasing, and as of halfway through this month, it powers over one-third of the top 10 million sites on the web (according to W3Techs, which tracks usage statistics for all major web platforms).

This growth of WordPress is only made possible by the large team of volunteers working to build the project and community. If you would like to get involved in building the future of WordPress, then check out the Make network for a contributor team that fits your skill set.

WordPress 5.2 is on the Way

WordPress 5.1.1 was released this month, with 14 fixes and enhancements, and the Core team is now focusing on the next major release, version 5.2. This release will include some great new features, along with the latest updates to the block editor.

One of the most anticipated new features is the improved fatal error detection – this was removed from v5.1 shortly before release so that it could be improved and made more secure for this release. Along with that, PHP 5.6 is going to become the minimum required PHP version for WordPress, a significant step towards a more modern web and updated coding standards.

WordPress 5.2 is now in beta and you can test it by installing the Beta Tester plugin on any WordPress site.

Want to get involved in building WordPress Core? Follow the Core team blog and join the #core channel in the Making WordPress Slack group.

Proposal for a Central Block Directory

With blocks becoming the new way to manage content in WordPress, more and more types of blocks are being developed to cater for different use cases and content types. In an effort to make it easier for content creators to find these block types, there is a proposal for a new type of plugin and a directory to handle it.

The proposal outlines a new type of WordPress plugin that provides blocks and nothing else, named Single Block Plugins. The primary benefit would be to provide content creators with individual pieces of functionality and new types of blocks without the need to search for and install new plugins.

The Single Block Plugins would be hosted in a separate Block Directory section of the Plugin Directory and they would initially be JavaScript-based. Each plugin will register a single block, and they will be searchable and installable from within the editor itself. This puts blocks at the publishers’ fingertips — you no longer have to leave the editor to find them.

Want to get involved in shaping this new type of plugin? Join in the conversation on the proposal post, follow the Meta team blog, and join the #meta channel in the Making WordPress Slack group.

Global WordPress Translation Day is Back

On 11 May 2019, the fourth Global WordPress Translation Day will take place. This is a 24-hour global event dedicated to the translation of all things WordPress, from core to themes, plugins to marketing.

Over the course of 24 hours, WordPress communities will meet to translate WordPress into their local languages and watch talks and sessions broadcast on wptranslationday.org. During the last Global WordPress Translation Day, 71 local events took place in 29 countries, and even more communities are expected to take part this time.

Want to get involved in the Global WordPress Translation Day? Find out how to organize a local event, apply to be a speaker, follow the updates on the Polyglots team blog, and join the #polyglots channel in the Making WordPress Slack group.

Gutenberg Development Continues

With the block editor in WordPress Core, the team has been able to focus on adding some frequently requested features. Version 5.3 of Gutenberg,  released this month, includes a new block manager modal, the ability to nest different elements in the cover block, and some UI tweaks to improve the hover state of blocks.

Want to get involved in developing Gutenberg? Check out the GitHub repository and join the #core-editor channel in the Making WordPress Slack group.


Further Reading:

Have a story that we should include in the next “Month in WordPress” post? Please submit it here.

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.

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