WordPress 6.6, alias Dorsey, has been released, marking one of the most significant updates to WordPress in many years.
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Program transcript
Hello, I’m Alicia Ireland, and you’re listening to WordPress Podcast, bringing the weekly news from the WordPress Community.
In this program, you’ll find the information from July 15th to 21st, 2024.
The highly anticipated WordPress 6.6 has been launched in grand style. Following a previous version that focused heavily on laying the correct foundations and fixing many bugs, this version is very focused on functionalities and, above all, on expanding the capabilities of the editor.
WordPress 6.6, also known as Dorsey, is the 50th major release of WordPress, and its name honors the trombonist Tommy Dorsey and the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, formed in 1934.
This release introduces significant improvements in design, performance, and accessibility, allowing for varied design combinations using color and font sets, and offers a new Site Editor design for quickly previewing pages. It also includes automatic plugin updates with safe rollback, ensuring site security.
Performance improvements include the removal of unnecessary dependencies and faster template loading. In terms of accessibility, 58 enhancements have been implemented, making it easier to interact with blocks and patterns.
We must thank the efforts of more than 630 contributors from 51 countries.
And with the release of a major version, we also have the planning for the next minor version, WordPress 6.6.1 which already has a release date: July 23, 2024. The release candidate is now available for testing.
While the machinery never stops, the experimental plugin release Gutenberg 18.8 includes some improvements such as group shadow support, background image support in global styles, container block justification, and individual list item colors.
An article on JSON Schema in WordPress in the Developers Blog explains how this tool improves the validation and structuring of JSON data in projects.
JSON Schema allows defining rules for JSON data, facilitating error detection and autocompletion in code editors. This is especially useful in configuration files like theme.json, block.json, and wp-env.json, which configure themes, blocks, and local environments.
Additionally, JSON Schema plays a crucial role in the WordPress REST API, validating request and response data, and allowing clear API design. The article highlights the open contribution to WordPress JSON schemas, encouraging developers to participate in the continuous improvement of these tools.
The Design team has presented some of the work they are focusing on, such as improving filters, particularly regarding user experience, consolidating bulk tasks, adding a new text auto-adjustment feature, allowing for the use of cutting or not cutting words at the end of the sentence, and creating a new audio block that significantly improves the current player.
The Documentation team continues to advance the localization and translation project for HelpHub. They are testing a process with the Spanish team, which includes creating the project on GitHub, translating and reviewing content, and publishing on GlotPress for approval.
The biggest challenge now is adapting GlotPress to manage long text content and creating plugins to import and export data while maintaining previous versions of translations, considering that some teams already have translated content that should not be lost.
Another highlighted element is the need to improve WordPress.org’s multilingual capability and the possibility of keeping URLs in English to facilitate content synchronization and review.
The Community team has published numerous event-related data referring to the first half of 2024.
Regarding the 66 WordCamps and 11 WordPress events, the goal of achieving 45% new attendees is close, currently at 42%, although only 25% of events manage to have half of their attendees be new. More than 80% of attendees are satisfied with the event.
Regarding Meetups, there are 761 groups with over 537,000 members, although attendance at events has slightly declined.
Nearly $175,000 of the $725,000 available has been spent.
Regarding trends in Meetups, in-person meetings in India have the highest participation, while popular online events focused on SEO, accessibility, and artificial intelligence.
In Asia, there is a strong commitment to in-person events, while Learn WordPress online workshops attract much interest, mainly led by full-time sponsored contributors. Additionally, there is a general trend towards virtual events post-COVID, with popular topics like AI and APIs.
As a summary of the WordCamp Europe Contributor Day, a first conversation addressed the current evolution and challenges of WordPress events, highlighting the need to diversify the user base both vertically and horizontally, with new ideas such as specific events for young people and professionals, as well as improving communication and the use of social media.
The recurrence of attendees has also been considered, and strategies are suggested to make WordPress events more accessible and attractive to a broader audience.
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, and the podcast in other languages, at WordPress Podcast .org.
Thanks for listening, and until the next episode!
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