We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of WordPress 4.9.8. This maintenance release fixes 46 bugs, enhancements and blessed tasks, including updating the Twenty Seventeen bundled theme.
Following are the highlights of what is now available.
“Try Gutenberg” callout
Most users will now be presented with a notice in their WordPress dashboard. This “Try Gutenberg” is an opportunity for users to use the Gutenberg block editor before it is released in WordPress 5.0.
In WordPress 4.9.8, the callout will be shown to the following users:
If Gutenberg is not installed or activated, the callout will be shown to Admin users on single sites, and Super Admin users on multisites.
If Gutenberg is installed and activated, the callout will be shown to Contributor users and above.
If the Classic Editor plugin is installed and activated, the callout will be hidden for all users.
This release includes 18 Privacy fixes focused on ensuring consistency and flexibility in the new personal data tools that were added in 4.9.6, including:
The type of request being confirmed is now included in the subject line for all privacy confirmation emails.
Improved consistency with site name being used for privacy emails in multisite.
Pagination for Privacy request admin screens can now be adjusted.
Increased the test coverage for several core privacy functions.
Download WordPress 4.9.8 or venture over to Dashboard → Updates and click “Update Now.” Sites that support automatic background updates are already beginning to update automatically.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to WordPress 4.9.8:
While this is a minor release, incremental fixes are essential to keep WordPress running smoothly. Everyone is encouraged to update as soon as possible and to make sure that automatic updates are switched on.
In the upcoming minor release of WordPress, 4.9.8, a new section in the dashboard will feature Gutenberg, the upcoming content editor for WordPress.
While the official release of Gutenberg is scheduled for the coming months, you can already install it as a plugin to test it out right now. Additionally, a brand new demo page is now available — play around with the many features the editor has to offer, without installing it on your own site.
Bit by bit we’re refreshing the design of WordPress.org. The latest pages to get a new treatment have been the Download page and user profiles.
The Meta and Design teams worked hard to make these new designs a reality, with notable contributions from @melchoyce, @obenland, @mapk, and @kjellr. The new designs enhance the overall look of the site and provide more relevant information to those searching.
Would you like to get involved in the design refresh? Follow the Meta and Design team blogs and join the #meta and #design channels in the Making WordPress Slack group.
The First WP-CLI Hack Day
On Friday July 20, the WP-CLI team held their first hack day — a global event encouraging people to contribute to the official command line tool for WordPress.
Run by @schlessera, the event was a great success. Twelve pull requests were merged and another 13 submitted. It also included a video chat to give all contributors a space to meet each other and connect directly.
To keep everyone aware of big projects and efforts across WordPress contributor teams, I’ve reached out to each team’s listed representatives. I asked each of them to share their Top Priority (and when they hope for it to be completed), as well as their biggest Wins and Worries. Have questions? I’ve included a link to each team’s site in the headings.
Priority: Working to make sure that Gutenberg is reasonably accessible prior to merge. ETA is before 5.0
Struggle: Lack of developers and accessibility experts to help test and code the milestone issues. The team is doing outreach to help solve this problem.
Big Win: Interest from companies like The Paciello Group and Tenon.io to help out with Gutenberg code review and testing tools.
Priority: Focusing on smoothing out the processes in our community management by building up our team of volunteers and establishing what tools we need to keep things running well. ETA is ongoing.
Struggle: Our two biggest struggles at the moment are tracking what we need to get done, and making final decisions on things. There is current work on the tools available to assist with tracking progress.
Big Win: After making a concerted effort to get more contributors on the Community Team, we now have a much larger group of volunteers working as deputies and WordCamp mentors
Priority: Following the WordCamp Europe summer update (and the companion post here), the team is getting Gutenberg (the new WordPress editing experience) into a strong state for the 5.0 release. Potential ETA as soon as August.
Struggle: Coordinating momentum and direction as we start seeing more contributors offering their time. Still working our way through open issues. The team is starting multiple bug scrubs each week to work through these more quickly and transparently.
Big Win: Had a sizable release in 4.9.6 which featured major updates around privacy tools and functionality in Core.
Priority: Better on-boarding of new contributors, especially creating better documentation. ETA is end of July.
Struggle: It’s hard to identify reasonably small tasks for first-time contributors.
Big Win: The team is much more organized now which has helped clear out the design backlog, bring in new contributors, and also keep current contributors coming back. Bonus: Joshua Wold will co-lead the upcoming release.
Priority: Opening up the work on HelpHub to new contributors and easing the onboarding process. No ETA.
Struggle: Some blockers with making sure the code and database can be ready to launch on https://wordpress.org/support/
Big Win: The first phase of HelpHub creation is complete, which means content updates (current info, more readable, easier discovery), internal search, design improvements, and REST API endpoints.
Priority: Preparing hosts for supporting Gutenberg, especially support questions they’re likely to see when the “Try Gutenberg” callout is released. ETA July 31st, then before WordPress 5.0
Struggle: Most contributions are still made a by a small team of volunteers. Seeing a few more people join, but progress is slow.
Big Win: New team members and hosting companies have joined the #hosting-community team and have started contributing.
Priority: Continuing to write and publish case studies from the community. ETA is ongoing.
Struggle: No current team struggles.
Big Win: Wrote and designed a short Contributor Day onboarding card. It was used at Contributor Day at WCEU and onboarding time went down to 1 hour instead of 3 hours.
Priority: Reducing manual work around the contributor space (theme review, GDPR/privacy, plugin review). ETA for small wins is end of quarter, larger efforts after that.
Struggle: Maintaining momentum on tickets. There are also some discussions about updating the ticket management process across teams that use the Meta trac system.
Big Win: The new About page launched and has been translated across most locale sites.
Priority: Getting Gutenberg in the mobile applications. ETA is late December.
Struggle: Consuming the Gutenberg source in the ReactNative app directly. More info can be found here: https://make.wordpress.org/mobile/2018/07/09/next-steps-for-gutenberg-mobile/
Big Win: The WordPress mobile applications now fully support right-to-left languages and are compliant with the latest standards for accessibility.
Priority: Getting ready for the Gutenberg callout (it got pushed last quarter). Needing a better presence on the official support forums, and outreach for that is underway, ETA end of July.
Struggle: Keeping contributors participating post-contributor days/drives. Considering the creation of a dedicated post-contributor day survey to get some insight here.
Big Win: The increase in international liaisons joining for weekly meetings, helping bring the wider support community together.
Priority: Storing PHPCompatibilty results inside the WordPress.org API and building a UI to display those results, an endpoint to request an audit is required for this work to continue.
Struggle: Development has dramatically slowed down while team members are on leave or pulled into internal client work.
Big Win: Migration to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) from Amazon Web Services (AWS) is complete and the audit servers have all been rewritten in Go. (This allows us to be faster with greater capacity and less cost.)
Struggle: The workflow is a little complex, so recruiting and training enough contributors to keep the process moving is a struggle.
Big Win: WordCamp Europe’s Contributor Day was very productive. New tools/workflow are in place and two team representatives were there to lead and help.
Progress on the Gutenberg project, the new content creating experience coming to WordPress, has come a long way. Since the start of the project, there have been 30 releases and 12 of those happened after WordCamp US 2017. In total since then, there have been 1,764 issues opened and 1,115 closed as of WordCamp Europe. As the work on phase one moves into its final stretch, here is what you can expect.
In Progress
Freeze new features in Gutenberg (the feature list can be found here).
Hosts, agencies, teachers invited to opt-in sites they have influence over.
WordPress.com has opt-in for wp-admin users. The number of sites and posts will be tracked.
Mobile app support for Gutenberg will be across iOS and Android.
July
4.9.x release with an invitation to install either Gutenberg or Classic Editor plugin.
WordPress.com will move to opt-out. There will be tracking to see who opts out and why.
Triage increases and bug gardening escalates to get blockers in Gutenberg down to zero.
Gutenberg phase two, Customization exploration begins by moving beyond the post.
August and beyond
All critical issues within Gutenberg are resolved.
There is full integration with Calypso and there is opt-in for users there.
A goal will be 100k+ sites having made 250k+ posts using Gutenberg.
Core merge of Gutenberg begins the 5.0 release cycle.
5.0 moves into beta releases and translations are completed.
There will be a mobile version of Gutenberg by the end of the year.
WordPress 5.0 could be as soon as August with hundreds of thousands of sites using Gutenberg before release. Learn more about Gutenberg here, take it for a test drive, install on your site, follow along on GitHub and give your feedback.
WordPress 4.9.7 is now available. This is a security and maintenance release for all versions since WordPress 3.7. We strongly encourage you to update your sites immediately.
WordPress versions 4.9.6 and earlier are affected by a media issue that could potentially allow a user with certain capabilities to attempt to delete files outside the uploads directory.
Thank you to Slavco for reporting the original issue and Matt Barry for reporting related issues.
Seventeen other bugs were fixed in WordPress 4.9.7. Particularly of note were:
Taxonomy: Improve cache handling for term queries.
Posts, Post Types: Clear post password cookie when logging out.
Widgets: Allow basic HTML tags in sidebar descriptions on Widgets admin screen.
Community Events Dashboard: Always show the nearest WordCamp if one is coming up, even if there are multiple Meetups happening first.
Privacy: Make sure default privacy policy content does not cause a fatal error when flushing rewrite rules outside of the admin context.
Download WordPress 4.9.7 or venture over to Dashboard → Updates and click “Update Now.” Sites that support automatic background updates are already beginning to update automatically.
With one of the two flagship WordCamp events taking place this month, as well as some important WordPress project announcements, there’s no shortage of news. Learn more about what happened in the WordPress community in June.
Another Successful WordCamp Europe
On June 14th, WordCamp Europe kicked off three days of learning and contributions in Belgrade. Over 2,000 people attended in person, with hundreds more watching live streams of the sessions.
The WordCamp was a great success with plenty of first-time attendees and new WordPress contributors getting involved in the project and community. Recorded sessions from the 65 speakers at the event will be available on WordPress.tv in the coming weeks. In the meantime, check out the photos from the event.
Updated Roadmap for the New WordPress Content Editor
During his keynote session at WordCamp Europe, Matt Mullenweg presented an updated roadmap for Gutenberg, the new content editor coming in WordPress 5.0.
While the editor is in rapid development, with v3.1 being released this past month, the team is aiming to ship Gutenberg with WordPress Core in August, 2018. This is not set in stone — the release date may shift as development progresses — but this gives the first realistic idea of when we can expect the editor to be released.
The WordCamp Incubator program helps spread WordPress to underserved communities by providing organizing support for their first WordCamp. The first iteration of this program ran successfully in 2016 and empowered three cities to start their own WordPress communities.
This year, the Community Team is running the Incubator program again. After receiving applications from 104 communities, they have selected Montevideo, Uruguay and Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia to participate in the program. Both cities will receive direct help from experienced WordCamp organizers to run their first-ever WordCamp as a way to help their WordPress community get started.
WP Rig is a brand new tool to help WordPress developers build better themes.
Block Unit Test is a new plugin to help theme developers prepare for Gutenberg.
Near the end of the month, Zac Gordon hosted an online conference focused on JavaScript development in WordPress – the session videos will be available on YouTube soon.
If you have a story we should consider including in the next “Month in WordPress” post, please submit it here.
This month saw two significant milestones in the WordPress community — the 15th anniversary of the project, and GDPR-related privacy tools coming to WordPress Core. Read on to find out more about this and everything else that happened in the WordPress community in May.
Local Communities Celebrate the 15th Anniversary of WordPress
Last Sunday, May 27, WordPress turned 15 years old. This is a noteworthy occasion for an open-source project like WordPress and one well worth celebrating. To mark the occasion, WordPress communities across the world gathered for parties and meetups in honor of the milestone.
Altogether, there were 224 events globally, with a few more of those still scheduled to take place in some communities — attend one in your area if you can.
In light of recent changes to data privacy regulations in the EU, WordPress Core shipped important updates in the v4.9.6 release, giving site owners tools to help them comply with the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It is worth noting, however, that WordPress cannot ensure you are compliant — this is still a site owner’s responsibility.
The new privacy tools include a number of features focused on providing privacy and personal data management to all site users — asking commenters for explicit consent to store their details in a cookie, providing site owners with an easy way to publish a Privacy Policy, and providing data export and erasure tools to all site users that can be extended by plugins to allow the handling of data that they introduce.
To find out more about these features and the other updates, read the 4.9.6 update guide. You can also get involved in contributing to this part of WordPress Core by jumping into the #core-privacy channel in the Making WordPress Slack group, and following the Core team blog.
Updates to the WordPress.org Privacy Policy
In a similar vein, WordPress.org itself has received an updated Privacy Policy to make clear what is being tracked and how your data is handled. Along with that, a Cookie Policy has also been added to explain just what is collected and stored in your browser when using the site.
These policies cover all sites on the WordPress.org network — including WordPress.org, WordPress.net, WordCamp.org, BuddyPress.org, bbPress.org, and other related domains and subdomains. It’s important to note that this does not mean that anything has changed in terms of data storage; rather that these documents clarify what data is stored and how it is handled.
The WordPress.org privacy policy has been updated, hurray! While we weren’t able to remove all the long sentences, we hope you find the revisions make it easier to understand:
how we collect and use data,
how long the data we collect is retained, and
how you can request a copy of the data you’ve shared with us.
There hasn’t been any change to the data that WordPress.org collects or how that data is used; the privacy policy just provides more detail now. Happy reading, and thanks for using WordPress!
WordPress 4.9.6 is now available. This is a privacy and maintenance release. We encourage you to update your sites to take advantage of the new privacy features.
Privacy
The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) takes effect on May 25. The GDPR requires companies and site owners to be transparent about how they collect, use, and share personal data. It also gives individuals more access and choice when it comes to how their own personal data is collected, used, and shared.
It’s important to understand that while the GDPR is a European regulation, its requirements apply to all sites and online businesses that collect, store, and process personal data about EU residents no matter where the business is located.
You can learn more about the GDPR from the European Commission’s Data Protection page.
We’re committed to supporting site owners around the world in their work to comply with this important law. As part of that effort, we’ve added a number of new privacy features in this release.
Comments
Logged-out commenters will be given a choice on whether their name, email address, and website are saved in a cookie on their browser.
Privacy Policy Page
Site owners can now designate a privacy policy page. This page will be shown on your login and registration pages. You should manually add a link to your policy to every page on your website. If you have a footer menu, that’s a great place to include your privacy policy.
In addition, we’ve created a guide that includes insights from WordPress and participating plugins on how they handle personal data. These insights can be copied and pasted into your site’s privacy policy to help you get started.
Site owners have a new email-based method that they can use to confirm personal data requests. This request confirmation tool works for both export and erasure requests, and for both registered users and commenters.
Maintenance
95 updates were made in WordPress 4.9.6. In addition to the above, particularly of note were:
“Mine” has been added as a filter in the media library.
When viewing a plugin in the admin, it will now tell you the minimum PHP version required.
We’ve added new PHP polyfills for forwards-compatibility and proper variable validation.
TinyMCE was updated to the latest version (4.7.11).
Download WordPress 4.9.6 or venture over to Dashboard → Updates and click “Update Now.” Sites that support automatic background updates will start updating soon.
Please note that if you’re currently on WordPress 4.9.3, you should manually update your site immediately.
This past month saw a lot of preparation for upcoming events and releases across the WordPress project. Read on to find out more about these plans, and everything else that happened around the community in April.
The WordPress 15th Anniversary is Coming
On May 27 2018, WordPress will turn 15 years old — this is a huge milestone for the project, or, indeed, for any open-source platform. The Community Team has been hard at work helping communities around the world plan local anniversary parties.
Check the central anniversary website to see if there’s already a party being planned near you. These parties are all organized by local communities — if there’s no local community in your area, you can start one today and host a party yourself.
Work has Started on a Gutenberg Migration Guide
With Gutenberg, the upcoming WordPress content editor, in rapid development, a lot of people have been wondering how they will convert their existing plugins to work with the new features. To mitigate the issues here and help people overcome any migration hurdles, a Gutenberg Migration Guide is underway to assist developers with making their code Gutenberg-compatible.
This program will allow frequent and reliable theme authors to apply for trusted status, allowing them to upload themes more frequently and to have their themes automatically approved. This will allow more high-quality themes to be added to the directory, as well as recognize the hard work that authors put in to build their themes.
