The WordPress coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. development team builds WordPress! Follow this site for general updates, status reports, and the occasional code debate. There’s lots of ways to contribute:
Found a bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority.?Create a ticket in the bug tracker.
The coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. performance team recently conducted an in-depth i18n performance analysis. It showed that localized WordPress sites load significantly slower than a site without translations. The blogblog(versus network, site) post presented and compared multiple solutions to this problem, and now the team would like to test the most promising approach at a wider scale using a dedicated pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party.
Introducing the Performant Translations plugin
What it does
The Performant Translations plugin uses a new approach to handle translationtranslationThe process (or result) of changing text, words, and display formatting to support another language. Also see localization, internationalization. files in WordPress, making localization blazing fast. The primary purpose of this plugin is to allow broader testing of these enhancements, for which the goal is to eventually land in WordPress core.
This plugin helps to make localized WordPress sites faster by replacing the traditional MO translation files with PHPPHPThe web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher files, which are much faster to parse. Plus, PHP files can be stored in the so-called OPcache, which provides an additional speed boost.
If your site is using a language other than English (US), you should see immediate speed improvements simply by activating this plugin. No further action is required.
The Performant Translations plugin is available for download on WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ or directly from your WordPress adminadmin(and super admin).
Since the Performant Translations plugin requires no configuration, all that’s needed to benefit from its speed improvements is to activate the plugin.
To verify that something has changed, you could use a tool like Query Monitor or an external tool for testing server response times. In Query Monitor, the page load time and memory usage should drop quite a bit after plugin activation:
Page load time and memory usage beforePage load time and memory usage after
In Query Monitor you will also see how translations are loaded from PHP files from now on:
While the plugin is mostly considered to be a betaBetaA 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 plugin, it has been tested and established to a degree where it should be okay to use in production. Still, as with every plugin, you are doing so at your own risk.
It’s also worth noting that the plugin has been successfully tested with common multilingual plugins, such as WPML, Weglot, TranslatePress, MultilingualPress, and Polylang. It also works fine with Loco Translate and the Preferred Languagesfeature pluginFeature PluginA plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins..
Should you choose to stop testing the Performant Translation plugins, uninstalling it will remove all of its traces.
The performance team’s goal is to get as much feedback as possible and further refine the approach so that it can ultimately be proposed to be merged into WordPress core 6.5. That means testing will last for a few months at least.
We are seeking basic workflow feedback for the Plugin Dependencies feature. Testing should be very straightforward.
The testing pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party was chosen because it fulfilled the following criteria:
Plugin is in the plugin repository.
Plugin has the required Requires PluginsheaderHeaderThe 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. for Plugin Dependencies.
Install and activate The Events Calendar CategoryCategoryThe 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. Colors plugin.
The goal is to see how intuitive the process is or might become.
Feedback
What did you do?
Did you get stuck? Where?
Were you able to figure out the path forward?
What did you do?
Did the experience feel “natural” to WordPress?
Thanks for testing. Testing should last for 3 weeks.
This feature allows pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party authors to identify which other plugins must be installed so that their plugin functions as expected. This is done by adding a “Requires Plugins” headerHeaderThe 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. to the docblockdocblock(phpdoc, xref, inline docs) of the main plugin file which contains a comma-separated list of slugs for the required plugins.
The feature is not intended to work with Must-Use plugins, nor does it impact them.
Delete the Hello Dolly plugin, a single file plugin cannot be a dependency
Copy the three test plugin files from /plugins/wp-plugin-dependencies/test-plugins to the /plugins directory.
Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins.
Test Instructions / Key Features
Confirm that a new adminadmin(and super admin) notice is displayed if there are additional plugins that must be installed if dependencies are missing.
Confirm that individual plugins with dependency relationships on Plugins > Installed Plugins display Requires or Required by: under the version information.
Add (install/activate) needed dependencies.
Confirm that admin notice goes away once all the dependencies have been installed. Dependencies don’t need to be activated for the admin notice to be satisfied and go away.
After installing all dependencies, confirm that the new admin notice disappears.
Confirm that the Deactivate link and checkbox are not available for plugins that are dependencies with active dependent plugins.
Once all dependent plugins are deactivated, confirm that plugin dependencies can then be deactivated and deleted.
Confirm that the Add Plugins > Dependencies page lists correct plugins, including non-WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ plugins that are and aren’t supported.
Other Things to Test
In a test plugin, try to add a dependency using a plugin’s full name (not slug).
No dependency should be noted
Add a dependency for a non-wordpress.org plugin slug that is installed/active.
Hook the Plugins APIAPIAn API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. to register a non-wordpress.org plugin.
This is done with the GitGitGit is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. Git is easy to learn and has a tiny footprint with lightning fast performance. Most modern plugin and theme development is being done with this version control system. https://git-scm.com/. Updater plugin
Test adding “Requires Plugins” to the DocBlock of a plugin in mu-plugins.
Nothing should happen as mu-plugins are not supported for this feature.
What’s New?
In the main plugin file’s docblock:
A Requires Plugins header has been introduced.
List the slugs of the dependencies in a comma separated string. For example:
An admin notice informs site owners if there are additional plugins that must be installed. It will display as long as there are uninstalled dependencies.
Each plugin that requires other plugins has a new line in the plugin description. For example:
Each plugin that is a dependency, and is also dependent on other plugins, has both lines above.
If all the dependencies of a plugin have not been installed and activated then the dependent plugin will not be able to be activated.
Plugins page
On the Plugins > Add New > Dependencies tab:
The above Requires and Required by data will display in the plugin card.
This tab shows a card for each plugin that is required for other plugins to work.
Familiar Install Now, Activate and Active buttons are provided so that site owners can manage these plugins.
If a dependency is not available on wordpress.org and does not integrate with the Plugin Dependencies feature, it will not be possible to install or activate via this tab. The plugin will display in a generic card.
It is possible to integrate a dependency that is not available on wordpress.org with the Plugin Dependencies feature. This requires hooking into the plugins_api_requestfilterFilterFilters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. and returning a valid plugins_api() response. This type of code was added to the feature pluginFeature PluginA plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins. as a composer dependency with afragen/add-plugin-dependency-api, and a filter to the endpoint returning valid plugins_api() response for the Git Updater plugin.
Plugin > Add New page
Instructions for Reporting Issues
Please leave feedback in the comments below this post.
Remember the blockBlockBlock 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. based Widgets Editor? In case you missed it, this new feature had both a previous call for testing and a merge proposal ahead of WordPress 5.6. After months of hard work, it’s back and better than ever! For a quick refresher, the block based Widgets Editor is an upgrade to the widgetWidgetA 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. areas provided by WordPress through themes, that enables users to add blocks right next to widgets to their headers, footers, sidebars and other widget areas.
Help test this feature
This is a call for testing for the new block based Widgets Editor. Please report your findings on GithubGitHubGitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ in the Gutenberg repository as issues or in the comments below. If you have triagetriageThe act of evaluating and sorting bug reports, in order to decide priority, severity, and other factors. access, labeling any issue with [Feature] Widgets Screen or [Feature] Widgets Customizer, depending on the issue, would be very helpful. Alternatively, you can simply include “[Widgets Screen]” in the title to help those who can set the labels appropriately. Check out the instructions below for more detailed information.
What’s new?
The most important addition since the last call for testing is that the CustomizerCustomizerTool 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. now supports editing blocks and widgets in widget areas with live preview. Compared to the first iteration of this project, where the widget areas in the Customizer were read only, now you can add widgets and blocks with live preview, scheduling and sharing right from the Customizer.
The main benefit of upgrading the widgets functionality to blocks comes from the ability to directly edit widgets using the familiar block interaction that you use when editing a page or post on your site. Being able to use blocks opens up tons of new creative possibilities, from no-code mini layouts to tapping into the vast library of coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. and 3rd party blocks to create content.
For developers, unlocking blocks in widget areas also offers a core path to upgrade widgets to blocks and get ready for the future. With more aspects of content creation and management moving to blocks, including the upcoming block based theme format, this also helps bring consistency to the user experience.
Is it ready?
This is currently betaBetaA 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. software and it has a host of known bugs. But it is also intended to be merged into core for the 1st beta of WordPress 5.8. As a merge candidate the goal of the testing is not to discover a bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. free feature, but to observe if there are blockers for merging. During WordPress 5.8 beta releases, the bug list will be prioritized ahead of the release candidaterelease candidateOne of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta)..
What to test:
Please keep in mind that it’s recommended that you test this feature on a development siteDevelopment SiteYou 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. rather than a production siteProduction SiteA production site is a live site online meant to be viewed by your visitors, as opposed to a site that is staged for development or testing.. For information about how to set up a development site, please refer to the Setting Up a Development Environment documentation.
– Update channel to “Bleeding edgebleeding edgeThe latest revision of the software, generally in development and often unstable. Also known as trunk.”
– Stream options to “Beta/RCrelease candidateOne of the final stages in the version release cycle, this version signals the potential to be a final release to the public. Also see alpha (beta). only”
You can install the WordPress 5.8 Beta 1 in two ways:
Install and activate the WordPress Beta TesterpluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party (select the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream).
Install and activate a plugin that provides widgets
Go to Appearance > Widgets
Add some core widgets. For example, Search or Recent Posts.
Add some 3rd party widgets (aka widgets provided by a plugin)
Go to Plugins > Add new
Install and activate the latest version of the GutenbergGutenbergThe 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/ plugin
Go to Gutenberg > Experiments
Check “Enable Widgets screen in Customizer”
Go to Appearance > Widgets
Are all the widgets you added there?
Can you customize their settings?
Can you drag and drop widgets to different places?
Go to Appearance > Customize > Widgets
Are all the widgets you added there?
Can you customize their settings?
Adding blocks next to widgets
Be on the latest version of WordPress (5.7.1)
Go to Appearance > Themes
Install and activate a theme that has support for sidebars
Go to Appearance > Widgets
Add some core widgets. For example, Search or Recent Posts.
Go to Plugins > Add new
Install and activate the latest version of the Gutenberg plugin
Go to Gutenberg > Experiments
Check “Enable Widgets screen in Customizer”
Go to Appearance > Widgets
Click the inserter plus button in the top bar
Add some blocks
Do they work?
Save
Are they published on the front end next to the widgets?
Go to Appearance > Customize > Widgets
Click the inserter plus button in the top bar
Add some blocks
Do they work?
Edit some of the block contents
Does the preview update accordingly?
Edit some of the classic widget’s contents
Does the preview update accordingly?
Publish
Are they published on the front end next to the widgets?
Was it intuitive for you to add blocks and third party widgets (ie from other plugins)?
Were you able to properly customize widgets as you wanted?
Did it work using Keyboard only?
Did it work using a screen reader?
For developers:
Make sure to go through the general “How to” documentation available in the Gutenberg codebase for specific instructions.
Test upgrading classic widgets to blocks.
The new block based widget editor introduces a new filterFilterFilters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. `widgets_to_exclude_from_legacy_widget_block`. It is used to hide widgets that have block equivalents.
We now have a documented way to upgrade widgets to blocks via block transforms.The transform may be added to the legacy widget via typical block extending. This in turn enables users to migrate widgets they already have configured to new block equivalents provided by plugins.
Test enabling and disabling theme support
Test widget areas provided by themes, particularly “dynamic” sidebars, which appear depending on other factors.
Test 3rd party widgets compatibility.
The most common case is for widgets that work in the Customizer but not in the stand alone widgets editor. Previously, developers opted to present the widget UXUXUser experience differently in the widgets screen compared to the Customizer. However, the best practices are preserved in the Customizer.
We’re having an audit of extension points and how well supported they are. Please add missing things that you may find.
Considerations around Opt-in vs Opt-out
Because there is not enough data and stories, a decision has not yet been made on whether the block based Widgets Editor will be opt-out by default or an option for each theme to opt into. Currently, we’re providing the following options for opting out:
The Classic Widgets plugin which allows users to easily opt out of the new blocks in widget areas feature and see the classic widget editor only.
The `widgets-block-editor` theme supports which allows theme authors to opt out of supporting blocks in widget areas. This also reverts WordPress adminadmin(and super admin) to the classic widget editor.
The `gutenberg_use_widgets_block_editor` filter which allows administrators to opt out of supporting blocks in widget areas in cases where this is required. Like the two above, this also reverts WordPress admin to the classic widget editor.
A recent discussion in the Core Editor chat is a good summary on why we’re opting out via a plugin for users. Briefly, it seems to be the cleanest and least prone to maintenance requirements mode possible, versus settings in other plugins or user settings.
This is a difficult decision to make since supporting blocks in widget areas is an important part of the roadmap of WordPress and it will eventually be the default experience. Today, it’s important to determine the impact and significance of the current work on backwards compatibility.
Thank you!
Thank you for helping with testing the new Widgets Editor! Since it is one of the major focuses of WordPress 5.8 any help in this early stage is immensely valuable as it will help determine how viable it is for merging.
Later updates
Monday, May 17th – updated the instruction steps for the user section and added a step to enable the Customizer widgets block editor. This is essential to test the most important addition, adding blocks to widget areas using the Customizer.
Monday, June 14th – updated the instruction steps with newer recommended versions for testing (WordPress 5.8 Beta 1 and Gutenberg Plugin 10.8). Thanks to all the testers and all the feedback below. It was instrumental in advancing the state of the editor, and it’s now better than ever.
First, thank you so much if you help out by taking the time to test new features!
Customize > Menus will be one of the new features in WordPress 4.3. It is being added in addition to the Appearance > Menus page and the Appearance > Menus page will not be changed as part of the new feature.
How to Setup for Testing
Always backup first or test on a site that was made for testing (see warnings below).
Go to Plugins > Add New and search for “WordPress BetaBetaA 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. Tester”
Click the “Install Now” button for the WordPress Beta Tester pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party
Go to Tools > Beta Testing
Select the “Bleeding edgebleeding edgeThe latest revision of the software, generally in development and often unstable. Also known as trunk. nightlies” option
Click the “Save Changes” button
Go to Dashboard > Updates
Click the “Update Now” button
You should see the a message similar to this in the footer in wp-adminadmin(and super admin) pages: “You are using a development version (4.3-alpha-123456).”
Warning!
Do not use the WordPress Beta Tester plugin with a production siteProduction SiteA production site is a live site online meant to be viewed by your visitors, as opposed to a site that is staged for development or testing..
How to Test CustomizerCustomizerTool 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. Menus
Test creating menus including adding, removing, and editing menus. You may just poke around and test on your own to see if you can find any bugs, or you can use the following checklist as a guide:
Before you begin:
Create and publish some pages on your test site.
Consider an export/import from an existing site to get some unique data to test with.
Sample testing checklist (time estimate: ~20 minutes for new users):
Make sure you have installed the latest nightly WordPress release (see setup steps above).
Go to Appearance > Customize and then click on Menus.
Add a new menu named “Main Menu.”
Add all of the pages already saved on the site to the menu.
Save the changes you’ve made so far, exit the Customizer, then navigate back to the menu you just created in the previous step.
Set the “Main Menu” as the primary menu so it shows in the live preview.
Reverse the order of the menu items.
Add the “Travel” categoryCategoryThe 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. to the menu.
Move “Travel” so it is a child of the first item in the list.
Add a link to Twitter and make it a submenu item next to Travel.
Move Travel and Twitter from the first item so they are submenu items under the About page. Save changes.
Create a new menu for social media with at least one social media link in it and find a way to make it show up in the live preview on the right.
There is a way to use advanced menu settings to enable descriptions for menu items. Try to find it and add a description for the “About” page.
Other testing ideas:
Test using a very large menu with a lot of items. (Also see #32769.)
Test using a menu that is 10 levels deep.
Test with various themes and other types of menus.
Comment on this post with any other testing ideas!
If you want to dig in deeper and get involved with usability testing with others, that would be so cool! Please comment on this post or in the #core-customizeSlack channel if you’re interested in doing more.
What to Look For
Look for blockers! A blockerblockerA bug which is so severe that it blocks a release. is a very bad bugbugA bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. that blocks people from using the feature. At this stage, the biggest problems are the top priority and you should look for those first and foremost. Be aware of the known issues (see below).
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