Call for Testing: WordPress 5.8 RC 1

The WordPress 5.8 Release Candidate 1 is now available on VIP for sites running 5.8 branch with a final release planned for July 20, 2021.

“Release Candidate” means that the new version is ready for release, but with millions of users and thousands of plugins and themes, it is possible something was missed. WordPress 5.8 is slated for release on July 20, 2021, but your help is needed to get there—if you haven’t tried 5.8 yet, now is the time!

So far, contributors have fixed 254 tickets in WordPress 5.8, including 91 new features and enhancements, and more bug fixes are on the way.

What is being added or changed? 

The WordPress 5.8 RC 1 Release Article provides a full list of changes; below you’ll find some of the changes that are most likely to impact the Enterprise WordPress space. As with any release, testing your application prior to release will ensure compatibility with the latest features and security.

  • Manage Widgets with Blocks
  • Display Posts with New Blocks and Patterns
  • Edit the Templates Around Posts
  • Overview of the Page Structure
  • Suggested Patterns for Blocks
  • Style and Colorize Images
  • theme.json
  • Dropping support for IE11
  • Adding Additional Block Supports
  • Version 10.7 of the Gutenberg plugin

Internet Explorer 11 support is ending

WordPress Support for Internet Explorer 11 is ending this year, which means new features will no longer be tested with IE 11. Most of the changes are being added to this release, giving you the Beta and RC periods to test. 

This change focuses primarily on the WordPress dashboard, the block editor, and default themes going forward. The front end of your sites should not be impacted if they support  IE 11 currently; however, we do recommend testing your application leading up to the release. If your editorial workflow involves editing content with IE 11, we recommend revising your workflows to use a different browser. 

The Dropping support for Internet Explorer 11 article on WordPress.org has more information 

Theme.json

Introducing the Global Styles and Global Settings APIs: control the editor settings, available customization tools, and style blocks using a theme.json file in the active theme. At the highest level, theme.json is a configuration file used to enable or disable features and set default styles for both a website and blocks. Rather than dealing with a ton of theme support flags or alternative methods, theme.json provides a consolidated and canonical way to manage it all.

Keep in mind that theme.json support will be more robust in the future but, for now, a number of options included in 5.8 should prove to be useful to explore.

This feature is Opt-in You can opt in by including a theme.json file in your theme’s root directory.

Blocks in widgets area

This is a potentially breaking change. In addition to testing this with the 5.8 Beta, you can also test the new widget functionality in the latest version of Gutenberg with WordPress 5.7.2. 

With the inclusion of blocks in the widget areas, the WordPress Core team is looking for help to test the new widget area as part of 5.8 RC 1. While existing widgets should continue to work, you will want to check your existing widgets for compatibility. Learn more in the call for testing.

How to test

  1. We recommend updating your local development environments to the beta release using the Beta Tester plugin or updating it to WordPress to branch-5.8 via either the Subversion or GitHub repositories.
  2. You can have your non-production VIP sites switched to WordPress 5.8 branch now; please open a ticket and we can set it up for you.

Testing is a vital part of polishing the release during the beta stage and a great way to contribute. ✨