X-post: Test Team Update: 26 September 2022

X-post from +make.wordpress.org/updates: Test Team Update: 26 September 2022

Week in Test: 23 September 2022

Hello and welcome to Week in Test, the place where contributors of any skill level can find opportunities to contribute to WordPress through testing. For even more talk about testing, join the Test Team over in #core-test.

Jump to: Calls for Testing | Weekly Testing Roundup | Profile Badge Awards | Read/Watch | Upcoming Meetings

Calls for Testing 📣

Calls for Testing can originate from any team, from themes to mobile apps to feature plugins. The following posts highlight features and releases that need special attention:

WordPress Help Test WordPress 6.1 (get involved)

You’ve heard all the “cool kids” 😎 talking about it: 6.1 Beta 1 was released on Wednesday, and is available for testing. See the 6.1 Call for Testing post for a rundown of major new features and tips for testing. Prereleases of 6.1 will be available until its official release the first week of November, so 🗓please provide feedback before 1 November 2022.

FSE Program Testing Call #17:
Guiding the GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ Gallery (get involved)

Take on the roll of an intrepid website owner who makes the switch from Twenty Twenty to Twenty Twenty-Two. Discover blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. site editing by working with navigation, headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes. and footer patterns, categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. templates, and more! Includes a testing option for users without a dev environment. 🗓Please leave feedback by 6 October 2022. #fse-outreach-program

Would you like to help organize calls for testing? Help work toward a bug-free WordPress and become a testing facilitator.

Weekly Testing Roundup 🤠

Here’s a roundup of active tickets that are ready for testing contributions.

Did you know that contributions with the Test Team are also a fantastic way to level up your WordPress knowledge and skill? Dive in to contribute, and gain coveted props 😎 for a coming release.

Reproduction Testing 🔁

Who? Any contributor.
Why? It is helpful to show an issue exists for other users in order to move a ticket forward for patching.

The following new tickets are awaiting review, and need testers to attempt to reproduce the reported issue (aka “repro”), and then provide a reproduction test report with the results:

  • #56591: Error decoding JSONJSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML. with TT2 theme on ddev installation.
  • #56600: Twenty Ten: Pullquote block text is not reflected in editor.

Patch Testing 🩹

Who? All contributors (not just developers) who can set up a local testing environment.
Why? It is necessary to apply proposed patches and test per the testing instructions in order to validate that a patch fixes the issue.

The following tickets have been reviewed and a patch provided, and need testers to apply the patch and manually test, then provide feedback through a patch test report:

  • #56599: “All” view not selected for views of custom post typeCustom Post Type WordPress can hold and display many different types of content. A single item of such a content is generally called a post, although post is also a specific post type. Custom Post Types gives your site the ability to have templated posts, to simplify the concept.. More testing needed for plugins that extend the WP_Posts_List_Table class.
  • #48244: Expand translation options between singular and plural results (_n).
  • #55290: Not all image edits are applied to all subsizes.

PHPUnit Tests 🛟

Who? Any QA or PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php. developer contributors who can (or are interested in learning how to) build automated PHPUnit tests.
Why? Automated tests improve the software development feedback loopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. for quality and backward compatibility.

The following 6.1 tickets need PHPUnit tests built to accompany their respective patches:

  • #21650: Replace serialize() with print_r() in stats() function in wp-includes/cache.php.
  • #55448: WP_Widget_Block outputs empty container if widgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. has no output.
  • #56340: PHP 8.1 E_DEPRECATED in PasswordHash::gensalt_blowfish.

Profile Badge Awards 🎉

Congrats and thank you to the following contributors who have earned the Test Contributor profile badge:

Read/Watch 📖

Upcoming Meetings 🗓

Interested in hosting a <test-scrub>? Test Team needs you! Check out Leading Bug Scrubs for details, or inquire in #core-test for more info.

Special thanks to @annezazu and @laurlittle for review of this post.

#build-test-tools, #core-test

Help Test WordPress 6.1

Save the date! WordPress 6.1 is scheduled for release on 1 November 2022. This release is the culmination of over 360 updates and 370 bug fixes. Check out last week’s 6.1 Product Walk-Through for a visual overview of major features shipping with 6.1.

For a list of when each pre-release build will be available for download, refer to the WordPress 6.1 Release Schedule. And drop by the #core-test Slack channel to chat about testing, attend a weekly scheduled team meeting, or a test scrub!

Table of Contents

Testing Environment 💻

Please only test on a development siteDevelopment Site You can keep a copy of your live site in a separate environment. Maintaining a development site is a good practice that can let you make any changes and test them without affecting the live/production environment. and not on a production/live site. You can follow these instructions to set up a local installLocal Install A local install of WordPress is a way to create a staging environment by installing a LAMP or LEMP stack on your local computer., or use a tool like this to set up a development site.

Once your development site is set up, please install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester Plugin. After activation:

  • Navigate to Tools > BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. Testing.
  • Set the update channel to “Bleeding edge” and click Save Changes.
  • Set the stream option to “Beta/RCRelease Candidate A beta version of software with the potential to be a final product, which is ready to release unless significant bugs emerge. only” and click Save Changes again.
  • Navigate to Dashboard > Updates and click the Update to latest… button.

For more detailed steps, click here for complete instructions.

Testing Tips 💡

At a high level, here are a few tips to keep in mind to get the most out of helping to test:

  • Test across different browsers.
  • Test in different languages.
  • Compare features on different screen sizes, including tablets and mobile.
  • Use just your keyboard to navigate, or use a screen reader.
  • Test with both blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. and classic themes.

Important Note: Anything marked with a tool icon (🛠) is more technical, and may be best suited for those comfortable with more advanced testing steps.

Key Features to Test 🔑

Twenty Twenty-Three

WordPress 6.1 introduces a new default theme, Twenty Twenty-Three (aka TT3). This theme ships with 10 unique Styles variations, the result of a month-long community design collaboration, with submissions from around the globe.

Twenty Twenty-Three theme style variants.

In addition to activating and testing the base TT3 theme itself, please refer to the official Styles documentation for more information on accessing and modifying theme Styles.

HeaderHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes. and Footer Patterns

Community designers have banded together to produce a new collection of Header and Footer block patterns for use in all themes.

To help make finding patterns for specific use, new categorization has been added to the pattern chooser to identify patterns by type. To test, look for the new categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. dropdown, and explore the different options available for your theme.

Quote and List Block Updates

The Quote and List blocks have been supercharged, and now support inner blocks. For instance, Quote can now contain any inner block, such as Heading, Image, List, or even another Quote. And List items are now treated as individual blocks, which makes sorting much easier than before.

Revamped Quote block with support for inner blocks.

To test these updates, create and reorder lists, and make quotes more expressive with inner block options.

Fluid Typography 🛠

The first version of fluid typography support via theme.json is shipping with WordPress 6.1, which allows theme authors to set text that adapts to the user’s viewport.

Fluid typography support in action.

For details and testing instructions, see Testing and Feedback for the Fluid Typography Feature.

Classic Theme Block Template Part Support 🛠

Now classic themes can adopt block-based template parts through a new add_theme_support( 'block-template-parts' ); flag. For guidelines on testing this feature, see the Testing and feedback for using block based template parts in classic themes post.

New Appearance > Template Parts menu after block-based template parts opt-in.

More Design Tools

The WordPress editor has undergone extensive usability improvements, including better consistency between editor design controls, and extending style options to a broader range of blocks. These updates allow for more fine-tuned design control over content, enhancing the editor experience.

Demo of new Gallery, Image, and Button block style options.

These improvements have been extended to a long list of block types that can be tested in 6.1:

Updated design tools in WordPress 6.1.

Additionally, detailed information on testing specific block features can be found at the following issue tracking links:

Enhanced Layout and Styles Control 🛠

With 6.1 comes a new Style engine, bringing with it numerous opportunities to optimize and improve style management in themes. Explore each of the following features for information on testing this new functionality.

Appearance Tools for Any Theme 🛠

This feature has been moved to a future version of WordPress so that it may undergo additional testing before release.

Themes that don’t use a theme.json file can now opt-in to enable the editor’s global styles Appearance Tools. To test, add the add_theme_support( 'appearance-tools' ); feature support flag to your theme, and see the Appearance Tools documentation for supported CSSCSS CSS is an acronym for cascading style sheets. This is what controls the design or look and feel of a site. styles.

Note that adopting Appearance Tools in a classic theme can introduce some unexpected visual changes when applying new default styles (via the support flag) or user-selected styles (modified through the editor). Therefore adopters are encouraged to test thoroughly to be aware of how their individual theme is affected.

Block Theme Spacing Presets 🛠

As an alternative to providing users with full control over spacing, block themes can now define preset spacing ranges in theme.json to ensure greater consistency throughout the theme.

Example showing padding constrained by preset values.

To learn more about how to implement and test this feature, see these PRs: padding presets, margin presets, and block gap presets.

Pattern Block Locking 🛠

Locking features have been extended to Patterns, providing theme authors control over the intended design, and providing users with a more streamlined experience while building out content. See the "templateLock":"contentOnly" update for testing instructions.

Content lock usage within a Pattern.

Locks on blocks also get a much desired update with the ability to quickly apply selected locks to all blocks within a container block, rather than applying locks individually to each inner block. (Now say that ten times fast! 😉) Applies to Column, Cover, and Group blocks. Testing information for this feature can be found at the content lock PR.

Expanded Template Options

The template selection and creation process in the editor has been extended and streamlined, offering an easier way to find, apply, and modify templates, template parts, and patterns – all without code. This has been achieved through the following updates:

To test these updates, begin by creating templates for specific categories, pages, and more. You can also add and edit templates for custom posts types and taxonomies. Get very specific and offer a different template for single categories or tags.

Featured Images in Cover Block

The Cover block now supports using the featured imageFeatured image A featured image is the main image used on your blog archive page and is pulled when the post or page is shared on social media. The image can be used to display in widget areas on your site or in a summary list of posts. to streamline users’ content editing workflows.

Cover block’s new “Use featured image” option.

To test this feature, refer to the featured image in media placeholder PR.

Starter Patterns for All Post Types 🛠

Theme authors now have the ability to include patterns for any post type — including custom post types — as well as the ability to prioritize these patterns for their users.

To test this feature, authors can add a patterns folder to their theme, and add these two sample files: new-event-announcement.php and event-recap.php (provided courtesy of #fse-outreach-program). Then try adding a new post to confirm that these custom patterns appear.

Also refer to the ability to use creation patterns for other post types PR for more information on testing starter patterns.

Where to Report Feedback 🗣

If you find any issues, it’s best to share them on the WordPress.org alpha/beta forums, or if you are more technically savvy and comfortable, on Core Trac. For helpful reporting guidelines, refer to the Test Reports section of the Test Handbook.

Please share feedback as soon as you can before the release on 1 November 2022.

Changelog 🪵

  • 2022-09-20
    • Initial post.
  • 2022-09-29

A huge thank you 🙏🏻 to @annezazu, @boniu91, and @dansoschin for review and contributions to this post.

#6-1, #full-site-editing

X-post: Test Team Update: 19 September 2022

X-post from +make.wordpress.org/updates: Test Team Update: 19 September 2022

X-post: Call for Testing: WordPress for iOS 20.8

X-post from +make.wordpress.org/mobile: Call for Testing: WordPress for iOS 20.8

X-post: WordCamp US Contributor Day 2022 Recap

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X-post: Call for Testing: WordPress for Android 20.8

X-post from +make.wordpress.org/mobile: Call for Testing: WordPress for Android 20.8

FSE Program Testing Call #17: Guiding the Gutenberg Gallery

This post is the seventeenth call for testing as part of the Full Site Editing Outreach Program. For more information about this experimental program, please review this FAQ for helpful details. To properly join the fun, please head to #fse-outreach-experiment in Make Slack for future testing announcements, helpful posts, and more will be shared there. 

Friendly Reminder

If anyone is interested in being a part of the test creation or facilitation process, check out this recent post on how to get involved.

Overview

With each major WordPress release, there are more people who are likely to be in the position of switching to a blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. theme world from a classic theme. With 6.1 approaching in November, this call for testing is rooted in exploring that experience. The form of this test is going to be both prescriptive with steps to take in order to ensure certain features are covered and, at points, open ended so you can explore and think of areas to improve. 

To make it more fun, you’re going to step into the shoes as the owner of the GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ Gallery website. A simple site focused on sharing information about exhibits, current calls for submissions, and ways to stay in touch. After hearing about full site editing features for a while now, you’re deciding to take the plunge and switch from the trusty Twenty Twenty theme to Twenty Twenty-Two. Along the way, you’ll interact with the following and more: 

Theme switching

As we’ve explored previously with switching between block themes, there are a lot of both quick wins and overarching decisions to be made. The same is true for switching from classic to block themes. For example, right now there’s not a clear pathway for widgets. Ultimately, the more insights around how to ease this experience and make it feel magical, the more relevant block themes become. 

Improved fallbacks and menu management with the navigation block

To offer a better “out of the box” experience with the navigation block, various fallback options have been implemented so the menu you are most likely to want to use is available. This test seeks to explore that and ensure it does truly provide a better default experience. Separately, the interface for menu selection and management has been moved to a dedicated section in the block settings to make it more prominent and easier to work with. You can also pick from a set of icons to better personalize your mobile menu

Navigation block settings showing different icon options to pick from.

New HeaderHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes. and Footer Patterns

Coming to 6.1, these carefully designed block patterns represent a consolidation of recurring headers and footers, simplified in order to work well across themes. When it comes to embracing a block theme, these should help folks quickly find the basics of what they might need to make a site their own in a few clicks. 

Visual of a new header option with a mountain range image and a blue header with a navigation.

Zoomed out mode

This experimental tool allows you to focus more on site building than on editing granular blocks by both allowing you to see the entire layout a bit more and always selecting the top level block (often container blocks like Groups or Template Parts). If you use the Quick Inserter, you’re met with patterns instead of blocks to continue the emphasis on more high level actions one might take to customize. 

Top toolbar in the site editor with an emphasis on the new zoomed out mode.

CategoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. Templates

This test once more explores creating a category specific template in order to offer a more tailored experience of looking at specific folks. This aligns nicely with the Gutenberg Gallery where you might want to emphasize different things depending on whether someone is looking at the posts about submissions or exhibit recaps. 

Design tools galore

It’s hard to miss how many design tools have been added to even more blocks. Because there are so many new options, this test doesn’t necessarily dive into the details like they have in the past. Instead, please note and explore the various additional options unlocking new possibilities as you go. 

Testing Instructions 

Note on InstaWP

As noted previously, the folks behind InstaWP have granted the outreach program an account that we can use for these calls for testing. This means if you want to skip setting up your own test site and instead use a temporary one, you can do so. When you set up a site with InstaWP, no email addresses will be collected which means you’ll need to save the link to access the site again. Big thank you to the InstaWP team for making it even easier for folks to participate in the future of WordPress.

To use a prebuilt test site: 

  1. Open this link only once: https://app.instawp.io/launch?t=fse-call-for-testing-17 
  2. Please do not repeatedly open this link as it creates a new site each time and there’s a limit of 50 sites that can be created. 
  3. This will launch a site for you to use for up to 24 hours. Select “Access Now” to log in to the wp-admin dashboard. 
  4. Save the link to your site so you can access it again during the test. 

To set up your own test site: 

  1. Have a test site using the latest version of WordPress. It’s important this is not a production/live site. 
  2. Install and activate the Twenty Twenty theme by going to Appearances > Themes.
  3. Install and activate the latest version of Gutenberg by going to Plugins > Add New > Searching Gutenberg. 
  4. Head to Tools > Import and import this file to have access to the same posts as above.

Get familiar with your current site

  1. View the front end of your site and click through various pages linked to from the menu.
  2. Head to Appearance > CustomizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. and change any settings you’d like or just review what’s there (for example, check which menu is set to each location). 

Switch to a block theme

  1. Head to Appearance > Themes.
  2. Activate the Twenty Twenty Two theme. Notice you can’t live preview this theme
  3. After activating, view the front end of your site to get a sense of the changes. 
  4. From there, head to Appearance > Editor. 

Use Styles and the zoomed out view to design your site 

  1. In the top toolbar, select the zoomed out view option (the option furthest on the right). This will place you in a zoomed out mode where you can focus more on building and creating with patterns rather than individual blocks. 
  2. While in this mode, explore the various sections of your site and feel free to reorganize as you’d like. For example, you can try using the quick inserter to add various patterns. 
  3. Once done, with the zoomed out mode still on, open the Styles sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme..
  4. Select the option to browse styles and notice how your site changes as you switch between. Feel free to toggle on and off the zoomed out mode as you see fit for the rest of this test. 
  5. As you’d like, feel free to customize the Style options further on a more granular basis or just stick with one of the built in Style variations. 

Customize your navigation

  1. Ensure you’ve exited out of the zoomed out mode and select the navigation block, either by using List View or by clicking on it directly. 
  2. Once selected, click on “Edit” in the block toolbar and follow the steps to convert to links in the pop up.
  3. Add two submenu items under Blog for both Submissions and Exhibits to match the original site. Note: Intentionally not sharing the various ways to do this.
  4. Open the block settings for the navigation block and, under Display, click on the visual below to open up more options for the mobile menu icon. Select whichever one you want. 
  5. Change further aspects of the navigation block as you see fit. For example, you can change the colors under Color, spacing between navigation items under Dimensions, or various typography options. 
  6. With the block settings open, under “Menu” explore the process to create a new menu by clicking on the name of the current menu > selecting “Create new menu”.
  7. Add some items to this new menu. 
  8. With the block settings open, switch between different menu options, including the option to import a classic menu. Select whichever menu you’d like to use. 

Explore new headers or footers

  1. Using List View, select the header or footer.
  2. Open the three dot menu and click “Replace”.
  3. Try searching for different options, scrolling, and selecting a new one. Repeat this as much as you’d like!
  4. Save your changes and note how the multi-entity saving feels. 

Create a category specific 

  1. Click on the W menu and select “Templates” to reach the template list.
  2. Select “Add New” and choose “Category”. 
  3. Choose the “Category: For a specific item” option and choose “Submissions Opportunities”. 
  4. This will create a new template that you can customize to your liking. For example, perhaps you want to change the emphasis on images in the Query LoopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. block, add or remove different blocks, change the design, etc. 
  5. Save changes and view the Submission Opportunities category. Note: Intentionally not sharing the various ways to do this.

Customize your site further – here are some ideas:

  • You’ll notice the Blog page doesn’t have any content now after switching. You can either add a Query Loop block or change the Settings > Reading to set the Posts Page as the Blog page. Note: this has been filed as an enhancement issue
  • Explore adding the Comments block to different templates and what might make the experience better. 
  • Try locking parts of your site in various ways as you are happy with the design. 
  • Use the many new design tools to change padding, margin, typography, color, border, and more. 

What to notice:

  • Did the experience crash at any point?
  • Did the saving experience work properly? 
  • What did you find particularly confusing or frustrating about the experience?
  • What did you especially enjoy or appreciate about the experience? 
  • What would have made this experience easier?
  • Did you find that what you created matched what you saw on your site?
  • Did it work using Keyboard only?
  • Did it work using a screen reader?

Leave Feedback by October 6th, 2022

#fse-outreach-program, #fse-testing-call

X-post: Testing and Feedback for using block based template parts in classic themes

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X-post: Test Team Update: 12 September 2022

X-post from +make.wordpress.org/updates: Test Team Update: 12 September 2022