New Release: WordPress 5.8 “Tatum”

WordPress 5.8 "Tatum"

WordPress version 5.8 “Tatum” has been released to the WordPress VIP platform.

Named in honor of Art Tatum, the legendary Jazz pianist. His formidable technique and willingness to push boundaries inspired musicians and changed what people thought could be done.

Please note that this is the first major version of WordPress since we announced our Supported Versions Policy. VIP now supports the current version of WordPress, and one major version behind. 

WordPress 5.8 has a number of new features and changes, you can find the full change list here and we’ve highlighted the changes that are most likely to impact you as VIP Customers below. 

What is being added or changed?

General Changes

Click the links below to learn more about these changes and features.

High Impact Changes

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. This may require that you modify your editing workflows if they rely on IE 11.  

New Widget Editor

This is a potentially breaking change. 

  • You can now use any block in your theme’s widget areas via the all new Widgets screen and updated Customizer.
  • Existing third-party widgets should continue to work via the Legacy Widget block.
  • Not quite ready for a full switch? To ease the transition, use the Classic Widgets plugin, and themes can call remove_theme_support( ‘widgets-block-editor’ ).
  • Core widgets will be upgraded and third-party widgets will utilize the Legacy widget block. While this feature has undergone extensive testing, we always recommend testing in non-production first to ensure compatibility.

To see a full list of changes, you can browse the list on Trac, or visit the  documentation page.

For more details about this release (including specific changes), please see the announcement post on WordPress.org and release notes.

WebP Support

The next generation of image files has arrived in WordPress core with the release of WordPress 5.8 The VIP Filesystem already converts images such as .jpeg and .png and serves them as needed as .webp files instead where possible. No action is required on your part.

As a result of this conversion while 5.8 will introduce WebP support into Core WordPress, we recommend that you continue to upload files in traditional image formats to maintain compatibility with older devices that cannot display .webp files. Our Filesystem will continue to convert all media to .webp as needed. Webp files cannot be imported to VIP’s File System.

You can learn more about how the VIP Filesystem works with WebP here: https://docs.wpvip.com/how-tos/migrate-content-media/#h-webps

Have questions?

If you have any questions related to this release, please open a support ticket and we will be happy to assist.