Author: efpunter

November 2023 Newsletter

WordPress 6.3 Maintenance Releases

WordPress 6.3 was released in August 2023. There have subsequently been two maintenance releases: WordPress 6.3.1 – August 29th, 2023; and WordPress 6.3.2 – October 12th, 2023.

WordPress 6.4

This version was launched on November 7th, 2023. See the WordPress 6.4 Release Post. For more technical information see the WordPress 6.4 Field Guide. A release overview can also be found on WPTavern.

This release is still predominantly concerned with developments and changes that are part of phase two of the Gutenberg project. For want of a better term, perhaps fine-tuning is a suitable phrase to describe it. It includes:

  • Twenty Twenty-Four, this year’s new default theme
  • Pattern management facilities
  • redesign of the command palette (keyboard shortcuts) with further additions
  • stand out (full screen image) capability
  • plus various other minor changes, e.g. writing enhancements.

As has become regular in recent releases, there are improvements in the areas of both performance and accessibility.

What Next?

Three releases are planned for 2024: March, July and November. One hopes that phase three of the Gutenberg project (the Collaboration phase) will begin to make a noticeable appearance, although further fine-tuning to the site editor is inevitable.

August 2023 Newsletter

WordPress 6.2 Maintenance Releases

WordPress 6.2 was released in March 2023. There has subsequently been two maintenance releases: WordPress 6.2.1 – May 16th, 2023; and WordPress 6.2.2 – May 20th, 2023.

WordPress 6.3

This version was launched on August 8th, 2023. See the WordPress 6.3 Release Post. For more technical information see the WordPress 6.3 Field Guide.

We were (certainly I was) led to believe that 6.2 would see the end of phase 2 of the Gutenberg project. Wrong. It appears that 6.3 is the official end of phase 2! .. although I am not sure that I fully believe them, but then I am just a cynical sort of chap.

A flurry of changes have appeared in 6.3, including:

  • the ability to do more work on block themes from within the site editor, e.g. add / maintain pages rather than having to jump between the site editor and the WordPress dashboard
  • pattern management. You can now have your own searchable pattern library. Note that reusable blocks are now called “synced patterns”
  • the introduction of the command palette, essentially a search mechanism to allow you to quickly jump to other parts of WordPress
  • the ability to preview a new block theme, including making some customisations, before you actually commit to the theme
  • various new design controls which allow further fine-tuning of blocks
  • new blocks include: the ability to have footnotes; and hide / display detailed information

As with recent releases, work has continued in the areas of performance and accessibility.

What Next?

While work will inevitably continue on refining the functionality and user experience that have been developed thus far, phase three of the Gutenberg project will finally get started. This is Collaboration, and a useful introduction on the subject was been penned by Matias Ventura back in March 2023.

He has followed it with three more detailed articles on particular aspects, viz. Workflows, Revisions, and the Media Library. 

March 2023 Newsletter

WordPress 6.1 Maintenance Releases

WordPress 6.1 was released in November 2022. There has subsequently been one maintenance release, WordPress 6.1.1 – November 15th. 2022.

WordPress 6.2

This version was launched on March 28th, 2023. See the WordPress 6.2 Release Post, which includes a short video. For more technical information see the WordPress 6.2 Field Guide.

The main objective of this release was to complete phase 2 of the Gutenberg project, Customisation. The major element has been the site editor, formerly called the full site editor, which has been available as a beta version for some time. The beta tag has now been removed although further refinements will continue to be introduced in the next release(s).

As with recent releases, work has continued in the areas of performance and accessibility.

What Next?

While work will continue on refining the functionality and user experience that have been developed thus far, phase three of the Gutenberg project will get started. This is Collaboration, and a useful introduction on the subject has been penned by Matias Ventura.

November 2022 Newsletter

WordPress 6.0 Maintenance Releases

WordPress 6.0 was released in May 2022. There have subsequently been three maintenance releases:

  • WordPress 6.0.1 – July 12th, 2022
  • WordPress 6.0.2 – August 30th, 2022
  • WordPress 6.0.3 – October 17th, 2022.

Release information can be found here if you want further details on any of them.

WordPress 6.1

This version was launched on November 1st, 2022. See the WordPress 6.1 Release Post which includes a short video. For more technical information see the WordPress 6.1 Field Guide.

As with WordPress 6.0, it is difficult to categorise this release. If pushed, I would say that it continues to refine the user interface. It includes a new default theme, Twenty Twenty-three, which is in essence a stripped-back version of Twenty Twenty-Two with 10 style variations which allow you to modify the look-and-feel of the theme. It is tagged as Accessibility Ready.

Significant work has also been carried out in the areas of both performance and accessibility on this release.

What Next?

Phase two of the Gutenberg project is yet to be finished. This should happen in 2023, although no information is yet available on planned releases for 2023. I will add the information when it becomes available.

May 2022 Newsletter

WordPress 5.9

This release was launched back in January, and was covered in that month’s newsletter.

There have since been three maintenance releases:

  • 5.9.1 – February 22nd, 2022
  • 5.9.2 – March 11th. 2022
  • 5.9.3 – April 5th, 2022.

Release information can be found here if you want further details on any of them.

WordPress 6.0

WordPress 6.0 was launched on May 24th, 2022. See the WordPress 6.0 release post which includes a short video, while more technical information can be found in the WordPress 6.0 Field Guide.

The wide range of features which have been implemented makes it difficult to label this release, other than to say that they generally progress the implementation of full site editing, the Holy Grail of Phase 2 of the Gutenberg project. Read the WordPress 6.0 release post for details

In addition, there are performance improvements and enhanced accessibility features.

WordPress.com Pricing

Automattic have recently been making a right mess of revising its pricing plans for WordPress.com, and effortlessly upsetting many users in the process, not least by failing to officially announce any changes initially. This story continues to run, and so I will summarise it thus far:

  • in the beginning, there was going to be a much reduced free plan and a single Pro plan (£15 per month) which would replace the existing Personal, Premium, Business and E-Commerce plans
  • quick change when the you know what hit the fan. The free plan was not quite so reduced (1GB of storage). Oh, and did we not tell you that you can always stay on your existing plan? The changes only apply to new sites
  • we have now introduced a Starter plan (£5 per month). This appears to be similar(ish) to the Personal Plan. An article in WP Tavern reckons that users of this plan will have to suffer adverts, but I do not see it mentioned by Automattic. It is seemingly difficult at the moment on the WordPress.com site to see what you get (or more interestingly) do not get with the free plan
  • What now? There is talk of introducing add-ons to the Starter Plan. No mention as to whether they will be chargeable or not!
  • Watch this space for whatever pricing changes come next …

What Next

WordPress 6.1 (slated for mid-October) is the only further release which is currently planned for 2022. A roadmap for WordPress 6.1 was published on June 4th, 2022. As expected, the principal focus will be on refining full site editing.

Collaboration (phase 3 of the Gutenburg project) is slated for 2023, and it will be followed by Multilingual Features (phase 4).

January 2022 Newsletter

WordPress 5.9

This significant release was originally scheduled for November, 2021, but it was wisely delayed, eventually seeing the light of day on January 25th, 2022. See the release notice, while more technical information can be found in the WordPress 5.9 Field Guide.

In brief, the content can be summarised as follows:

the introduction of Full Site Editing (FSE). This provides the mechanism for controlling your site via a visual interface. Note that it is limited to block themes, and there are not many of them just yet. Features which were controlled by the Customiser are now controlled within the FSE for block themes. I was not expecting to see FSE until the next release. It will no doubt be subject to a series of refinements.

a new default theme – Twenty Twenty-Two is a block theme.

the Navigation Block (for the creation / maintenance of menus) has finally made its much delayed initial appearance.

Patterns have seen various improvements, notably to the Pattern Explorer. Once again, it is early days for this feature. There are a limited number of patterns in the Pattern Directory at the moment.

Block Control. Refinements include new typography tools, flexible layout controls, and finer control of details like spacing and borders, along with greater control of individual images within a gallery block. 

Classic Editor

It seemingly remains a struggle to persuade existing users of the Classic Editor to convert to the block editor. An article in WP Tavern on January 19th, 2022 claimed that there are still 5 million users of the Classic Editor.

What’s Next

I am inclined to think that 2022 will principally be a year when WordPress development will concentrate on further improvements and refinements to Full site Editing and the block editor in an attempt to persuade more users to give up on the Classic Editor.

The next stage of the Gutenberg project will be Collaboration. Perhaps, initial work may commence here later this year.

Within a day or two of writing the above, a Preliminary Roadmap for WordPress 6.0 appeared. It includes the following statement:

The overall aim is to consolidate and expand the set of customization tools introduced in 5.9 for creating themes with blocks, with a special focus towards usability and refinement. This new release could be considered a conceptual wrap for Gutenberg: Phase 2. This doesn’t mean the customization phase would be concluded with it, but that its main features would have been established.

Matias Ventura

It was subsequently announced that two releases are planned for the remainder of this year: 6.0 in late May and 6.1 in late October.

September 2021 Newsletter

Support for the Classic Editor

Back in late 2018, it was said that the Classic Editor would be supported until the end of 2021. It has now been announced that support will be extended until at least the end of 2022.

Update on Support for Classic Editor Plugin

In my personal opinion, the current state of development on the Gutenberg project would make it difficult to meet this revised target. And so, the end of 2023 seems the earliest time for ending support for the Classic Editor to my untutored eye. Of course, it is debatable if even that date will be met. The only thing that you can be sure of is that Automattic will continue to apply pressure on WordPress.com users to switch to the Block Editor.

WordPress 5.8

WordPress 5.8 was made available on July 20th, 2021. See the release notice, while more technical information can be found in the 5.8 Field Guide.

What is Next?

The basic mantra for phase 2 of the Gutenberg project seemed to be that everything will become a block. While this idea tripped off the tongue very easily, its implementation has been proving far from straightforward, for example in relation to widgets and menus (now called navigation blocks). The first use of blocks in widget areas has eventually appeared in WordPress 5.8.

WordPress 5.9 is due out in early December, 2021. Expect to see further refinements of widget blocks, and possibly the first appearance of navigation blocks?

Full Site Editing is the name that is actually given to the extension of blocks to all parts of WordPress. Work has been going on in this area for quite some time. Perhaps, the big announcement will arrive with WordPress 6.0 or 6.1, somewhere around mid-2022?

March 2021 Newsletter

Background

As has become usual, there have been a number of minor releases in the wake of version 5.6 which was released back in December, 2020. They typically comprise bug and security fixes. There were two releases on this occasion: 5.6.1 (February 3rd, 2021) and 5.6.2 (February 22nd, 2021).

Version 5.7 of WordPress was released on March 9th, 2021. See the Release Notice for full details. The WordPress 5.7 Field Guide provides more technical information if you are interested.

WordPress 5.7

This release concentrates principally on polishing the block editor. There is still no sign of the promised navigation block (menus) or of block-based widgets. It seems to me that they will form part and parcel of Full Site Editing when that appears.

Other changes include: improvements to import / export; the ability to send a reset password link to a contributor to your site; two security-related additions; plus a range of updates which are aimed at developers of WordPress.

Full Site Editing (FSE)

FSE is the principal focus of phase two of the WordPress Gutenberg project.

Put very succinctly, the idea behind FSE is to provide the ability to visually customise the theme, as well as the content, rather than use the Customiser. This includes the likes of headers, menus, footers and sidebars.

However, FSE will only work with block-based themes. What are they, you might ask? Block-based themes are composed of block templates. This is all part of the move to the situation where everything in WordPress will be stored in blocks. Block-based themes are very new, and there are currently very few of them around at this time. An article in WPTavern on February 24th, 2021 indicated that there were only four in the WordPress.org theme directory at that time, and they are all described as experimental.

When will FSE appear? In WordPress 5.8, they say. As an old IT cynic, I think that towards the end of 2021 is a more likely date for the initial version.

What will FSE mean to you? Unless block-based versions of existing themes are produced, which I doubt, it should not affect you at all, assuming that you stay with your existing theme. But we shall have to wait and see.

FSE may be a brave new world, but it seems to me that it will take quite some time for it to become widely used within the WordPress ecosystem.

December 2020 Newsletter

Background

As has become usual, there have been a number of minor releases in the wake of version 5.5 which was released back in August. They typically comprise bug and security fixes. There were three releases on this occasion: 5.5.1 (September 1st), 5.5.2 (October 29th) and 5.5.3 (October 31st).

Version 5.6 of WordPress was released on December 8th, 2020. See the Release Notice for full details. The WordPress 5.6 Field Guide provides slightly more technical information if you are interested.

WordPress 5.6

The main features in this release include:

Block editor. Seven versions (8.6 through to 9.2) of the Gutenberg development project for the block editor have been included, along with relevant bug fixes and performance improvements that subsequently arrived in versions 9.3 and 9.4. The general focus can be described as ongoing improvements to the editor and to the user’s experience. However, two major developments, the navigation block and block-based widgets, which were scheduled for this release were pulled from it. This is not the first time that the navigation block has been pulled. Obviously, it is proving somewhat problematic.

WordPress.org. There are a number of updates which specifically apply to these users: support for PHP 8 which was released on November 26th, 2020; an updated user interface for auto-updates, allowing users to opt-in to major updates; and 11 updates to the Site Health Check function.

The Twenty Twenty-One theme is introduced. It is based on the lightweight Seedlet theme which was released in August, 2020. I have not previously made it clear, and I should have done, that new default themes which are shipped by Automattic, the developers of WordPress.com, are based on the block editor, i.e. they are not relevant to users of the classic editor. This started with the Twenty Nineteen theme.

What is Next?

One hopes that the navigation and widget blocks will appear in 5.7!? Meanwhile, development of full-site editing continues in the Gutenberg project. I am not expecting to see it before mid-2021 at the very earliest. I read somewhere that only block-based themes will support full-site editing. I will wait to see if this is true. If it is then there are not going to be many users of it for quite some time.

Stay safe.