After installing a plugin, starting from WordPress 6.5.3, a message has been added prompting a page refresh to correct an error with plugin dependencies.
Remember that you can listen to this program from Pocket Casts, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts or subscribe to the feed directly.
Program transcript
Hello, I’m Javier Casares, and you’re listening to WordPress Podcast, bringing the weekly news from the WordPress Community.
In this program, you’ll find the information from May 6th to 10th, 2024.
When discussing sustainability on WordPress, we should not only think about WordPress consuming fewer resources or using fewer plastic bottles at WordCamp, but also about ensuring that the open-source community itself remains active and that the development and evolution of WordPress continues.
This concern has started to arise following the review of some data from the WordPress 6.5 release retrospective which, in addition to summarizing, has left raw response data from its participants.
As was the case a few weeks ago with the preparation for WordPress 6.6, sometimes there is a shortage of responsible individuals for the release, especially since many contributors juggle their daily work with WordPress and cannot dedicate the necessary time for a version release. Creating the team a bit more in advance is being requested, and that they themselves should define the roadmap.
There is also discussion about whether releasing three versions a year is too much, especially given the short time sometimes between versions, from when the alpha branch opens to the beta, during which no new features should be included and the focus should be on reviewing and correcting added features.
A similar issue occurs with Gutenberg features. Although it happens less frequently now, features are still included that do not meet minimum standards instead of waiting until they are more developed and tested. And it is done in a way different from how work is conducted in the WordPress core, something that creates confusion among some developers who cannot keep up with the pace between GitHub and Trac.
And one thing that doesn’t change is the transparency in some of the decisions related to version releases. This time, everything that had to do with the fonts folder had its comings and goings for weeks, and some decisions were made at WordCamp Asia, where yes, many people were involved, but it leaves that feeling that there are some decisions that happen in secret.
A surprise came with WordPress 6.5.3 and the installation of plugins. The latest version introduced a plugin dependency system that allows one plugin to require another to function, which has led to plugin activation failures. Until now, when activating a plugin, different things could happen, such as going to the plugin’s settings or to the plugin list, but with the new AJAX loading system, the possible actions to execute are not being launched, which has required including a message asking to reload the page.
This is a problem for some plugins that need to execute some actions right after installation, which are now not occurring, creating issues for their functionality.
From the Core team, it is proposed that the next version of WordPress finally includes the preferred languages, thanks to the integration of the Preferred Languages plugin into the core.
This plugin offers a very attractive functionality for sites that use languages that may not have all the translations up to date, suggesting a preference order for languages. For example, if your site is in Brazilian Portuguese, it is probably better that if something is not translated, it shows in Portuguese from Portugal, and if not, finally, in English. The same could happen with Spanish, which has many regional editions and could cover each other without having to default to English. Even, in regions where several languages are spoken, it could show a complementary language better than the base English of the plugin.
The Editor’s workgroup invites us to test combinations between the styles brought by the theme with the colors and typographies, being able to modify the global styles.
Moreover, thanks to the latest versions of Gutenberg, the new grid system and negative margins are ready for testing.
And the evolution of the HTML API continues, which after its launch with WordPress 6.2 and updates in 6.4 and 6.5 continues its journey with the focus on finishing the HTML processor and node representation.
With these next steps, it will be possible to read and modify attributes, support all HTML tags, and add semantics, which will help create tools that can migrate all classic blocks to blocks, or import any type of content, whatever the source, to WordPress easily.
The Test team offers us a proposal to begin testing WordPress 6.6 before the first beta version arrives.
Tests would focus on some of the most prominent projects such as Data Views, the new form of navigation through the admin panel, overwriting synchronized patterns, managing global styles, the new publishing cycle, creating style variations mixing fonts and colors, the new grid block, the use of patterns in classic themes, negative margins, or the last phase of Rollback Autoupdate that helps manage errors with automatic updates.
The Hosting team has proposed the creation of the WordPress Hosting Directory, a listing of companies and products for hosting WordPress, where you could filter by about 50 factors.
For now, the directory would be on the Hosting Team’s site, and the data would be provided by the companies from their websites, which would facilitate management by the team that would review the information.
The Design team has presented the proposal for the new homepage of Learn WordPress, following the new general design of WordPress.org with featured courses and upcoming events.
There is also a focus on improving the design of Openverse, with the management of dark mode and more views.
The editor is the rest of the work with proposals, variations, and improvements in many aspects that should be included in WordPress 6.6, such as managing the aspect ratio in grid views, managing button states, or managing global color palettes and variations.
The Sustainability team has launched a post seeking to improve the way contributions are recognized on WordPress, including the various existing initiatives and the challenges to being able to monitor traceability.
Not only knowing where the contributions occur, which happen from WordPress.org itself, Slack, GitHub, or Meetup.com, among many other places, but also the key metrics, which can include the number of commits per collaborator, the times to resolve issues, the bus factor, and participation in discussions across different platforms.
One of the goals with these metrics is to help understand the current levels of commitment and identify areas that need more support or resources.
A few new commands have been added to BuddyPress’s WP-CLI, which with version 3.0 adds controls over notifications, being able to delete activity contents, remove invitations or favorites, in addition to polishing many other commands for better functioning.
And finally, this podcast is distributed under a Creative Commons license as a derivative version of the WordPress Podcast in Spanish; you can find all the links for more information at WordPress Podcast .org.
You can follow the content in Catalan, German, Spanish, and French.
Thanks for listening, and until the next episode!
Leave a Reply