Now Available: WordPress 6.1

WordPress 6.1 has been released. In keeping with WordPress version numbering convention, 6.1 is a major release.

WordPress 6.1 will make the life of your content creators much easier. It offers a much improved block editor experience to make content creation both faster and less prone to error, especially when it comes to longer, more complex pages and posts.

Learn more about the highlights of WordPress 6.1.

For more details about this release (including specific changes), please see the announcement post and Field Guide.

Questions?

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

WordPress Multilingual (WPML)

Please be advised that using older versions of either the WPML plugin (< 4.5.12) or the WPML String Translation plugin (< 3.2.3) will result in an incompatibility with WordPress 6.1. Please upgrade to the latest versions to receive the compatibility fixes.

Call for Testing: WordPress 6.1 RC2

The WordPress 6.1 Release Candidate 2 is now available on WordPress VIP. Use the Software Management page to have your non-production sites updated to WordPress 6.1 for testing.

What’s Changing?

WordPress 6.1: Hot Takes for Enterprise Content Creators

Testing this release candidate is the next step in preparing your site for the WordPress 6.1 release slated for November 1st, 2022. WordPress 6.1 makes further improvements for your content creators with the improved functionality of the Gutenberg editor. 

How to test WordPress 6.1

Local Environment

Ensure VIP-CLI is updated:
npm update -g @automattic/vip

Update environment:
vip dev-env update --slug SITENAME

Non-production

Alternatively, you may update a non-production site to WordPress 6.1 RC2 now.

From within the Software Management section of the VIP Dashboard, you can select your non-production environment and change the WordPress version to “6.1-RC2”.

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

Questions?

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

New Release: Jetpack 11.4

Jetpack 11.4: Behind the scenes improvements for your site

Jetpack 11.4 has been made the default Jetpack version on the VIP Platform.

What is being added or changed?

Enhancements

  • Editor: update icon sizing in the Jetpack sidebar for consistency.
  • Recommendations: update assistant with question for agency managed sites.

Bug fixes

  • Admin: fix JavaScript errors related to the Jetpack disconnect option on multisite networks.
  • Payments block: make filtering patterns used for the payments intro more robust.
  • Social: prevent the package being initialized without a user connection.

Other changes

  • Account Connection Card: remove magic mobile link.
  • Dashboard: update display of Jetpack app offering.
  • Disconnect Dialog: fix prop types to avoid warnings from React.
  • E2E tests: use CI build artifacts in e2e tests.
  • Masterbar: always load CSS from Jetpack, not Fusioned paths, in preparation for de-Fusioning.
  • Mock update API response in sync test.
  • Register pcast.pocketcasts.net for oEmbed even with WordPress 6.1, they only register pca.st.
  • Removed connection-ui package dependency.
  • SEO: refactor editor sidebar panel to share code.
  • Site Accelerator: update image used for site accelerator recommendation.
  • Social: align Jetpack and Social to use the connection-test-results endpoint in the block editor.
  • Social: move the share limits logic to the social package.
  • Sync changes to modules/masterbar/nudges/additional-css/ from wpcom.

For more details about this release (including specific changes), please see the release notes.

Questions?

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

Call for Testing: WordPress 6.1 Beta

WordPress 6.1 Beta is now available. This is the first beta released as part of the 6.1 development cycle and can be deployed to non-production environments in your WordPress VIP dashboard. The current target for the final release is November 1st, 2022.

What is being added or changed?

The WordPress 6.1 release consolidates and expands the customization tools introduced in recent versions. Usability and refinement are the main focus of this release. Here are some highlights:

  • More control over content locking:  It’s now easy to lock non-content child blocks, for example, containers, spacers, columns, etc, to create better guardrails for content creators and maintain design consistency.
  • Improved support for typography across screen sizes:  Fluid typography support means it’s now easy to define text size that can scale and adapt to the screen’s real estate available, so your content looks great on any screen.  Font families will allow headers to remain in one font style and paragraphs in another.
  • Hover states:  Improved support for hover and focus functionality within buttons and objects.
  • Individual block improvements: Several out-of-the-box blocks have been improved with this release
    • Quote Block:  This block now supports block nesting, so you can, for example, easily add images or lists within quotes.
    • Image Block:  This block supports the full range of border controls, including color, style, and width
    • Consistency between blocks:  Options are now more consistent to improve overall design tools.
  • Template Improvements: Improved navigation within Gutenberg to easily browse templates and create new pages or posts using them.  
  • Bug Fixes: Caching improvements, embedded PocketCasts support, Internationalization privacy/accessibility items have been fixed and added.

If you are already using the Block Editor, this release will make that experience even better. If you have held off, the refinements in this release provide even more incentive to make the switch.

How to test?

We recommend updating your local development environments to the 6.1 Beta release via either the Subversion or GitHub repositories.

New Release: Jetpack 11.2

Jetpack 11.2

Jetpack 11.2 is now the default version on VIP.

What is being added or changed?

Enhancements

  • Native block inserter: only display blocks under a Jetpack heading if the host app is WordPress.
  • VideoPress Block (beta): add block transforms for the VideoPress block.

Bug fixes

  • Admin menu: display the translations for the plan name.
  • Comments: avoid PHP Notice when using Jetpack’s Comment form feature when your site is no longer properly connected to WordPress.com.
  • Connection: fix Jetpack redirect after registration.
  • Masterbar: ensure that the WordPress.com Add Ons menu item doesn’t display on Jetpack-connected sites.
  • Sharing: ensure that sharing buttons are not displayed for excerpts.
  • Sharing: hide button information in Blog Posts block in editor.
  • Slideshow Block: support wide and full alignment options.
  • Subscribe block: fix support for allowed HTML tags in submit button.
  • VideoPress: avoid PHP notices when inserting videos that miss some metadata.

Other changes

  • Add last_updated API field to the sites endpoint.
  • Cleanup old videopress player code.
  • E2E tests: cancel partner plan when resetting test environment.
  • Init 11.2-a.6 cycle.
  • Jetpack 11.2 changelog editorial
  • Jetpack 11.2-a.5 changelog editorial.
  • Publicize: Remove folder from modules.
  • Search: remove Calypso search page link in admin menu for simple sites.
  • Update analytics.
  • Updated package dependencies.
  • Updating composer.lock.
  • VideoPress block (beta): under the hood improvements such as emit events to window where bridge runs.
  • WordPress.com REST API: remove default for 'dont_change_homepage' in the '/sites/%s/themes/mine' endpoint.

For more details about this release (including specific changes), please see the release notes.

Questions?

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

Call for Testing: Jetpack 11.2 Beta

Jetpack 11.2-beta is available now and the download link is available here.

Jetpack 11.2 will be deployed to VIP on Thursday, August 4, 2022*. The upgrade is expected to be performed at 17:00 UTC (1:00PM ET).
*This deployment date and time are subject to change if issues are discovered during testing of the Jetpack release.

What is being added or changed?

  • This is mainly a maintenance release with various bug fixes. Some of those are related to:
    • Fixing sharing buttons in the blog posts block.
    • The Slideshow block.
      • Preventing a gap from displaying underneath the slideshow when a large number of images are present.
      • Adding CSS to fully support the options to align wide and full.
    • The Form block.
      • One fix is related to checkbox group option color.
      • A fix for preventing removal of the submit button.
    • Form submissions issue with line breaks not appearing correctly should be fixed and form submissions from 404 pages should work properly.
  • On a larger scale, this release should see the remainder of connection related issues fixed

A full list of changes is available in the release notes and the commit log.

What do I need to do?

We recommend:

  1. Installing the beta release on your non-production sites using these instructions.
  2. Running through the testing flows outlined in the Jetpack Testing Guide.

As you’re testing a few things to keep in mind:

Questions?

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

Call for Testing: WordPress 6.0 RC-1

The WordPress 6.0 Release Candidate 1 is now available on WordPress VIP. Open a support ticket to have your non-production sites updated to WordPress 6.0 for testing.

What’s Changing?

Dave on WP talks about WordPress 6.0

Testing

Testing this release candidate is the next step in preparing your site for the WordPress 6.0 release slated for May 24, 2022. WordPress 6.0 will make the life of your content creators much easier with an improved Gutenberg editor. The WordPress 6.0 RC 1 Release Article provides a full list of changes.

How to test WordPress 6.0

VIP CLI

We recommend testing in your local development environment with the VIP CLI 2.10.0.

Learn how to install the VIP CLI in our docs; or upgrade to the installation with:

npm update -g @automattic/vip

From there, you can install a new WordPress 6.0-RC1 local development environment.

Non-production

Alternatively, you may update a non-production site to WordPress 6.0 now.
Please open a support 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. ✨

Questions?

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

New Release: VIP CLI 2.9.5

The VIP CLI version 2.9.5 has been released. This release covers the following changes:

  • VIP dev-environment
    • When the user starts a dev environment with: vip dev-env start , with a WordPress version that is not the most up-to-date, the prompt for upgrading will include the option for “don’t ask again”.
    • During the sequence of: vip dev-env create , the user will be given the option to include or exclude components such as: enterprise search, Xdebug, and PHPMyadmin. This has the effect of making the dev-env less resource intensive for those who don’t need to use those components.
    • The option, for users to select a PHP version, has been added also to the vip dev-env create sequence. Users can now select between PHP: 7.4, 8.0, 8.1, or select the “default” option, which will be the current PHP version of the platform.
  • General use
    • We have made the WP-CLI integration more reliable for long-running commands.

Users can update to the new version, with the following command:

npm update -g @automattic/vip

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

New Release: Jetpack 10.8

Jetpack 10.8

Jetpack 10.8 is now the default version on VIP.

What is being added or changed?

Enhancements

  • Blocks: make settings discoverable and toggleable, and add a card to highlight the blocks available from Jetpack on the dashboard.
  • Form Block: offer option to install/activate the Jetpack CRM plugin from the Form block settings panel.
  • Payments Block: introduce new post-publish panel to highlight the options available with Payments blocks.

Improved compatibility

  • Shortcodes: adds the Jetpack namespace to slideshow shortcode CSS class names.

Bug fixes

  • Carousel: fix nonce check issue with Carousel comments
  • Form Block: do not display the CRM integration option to non-admins.
  • Subscribe Block: ensure subscription panels are not shown in the page editor, or when the site is private.

For more details about this release (including specific changes), please see the release notes.

Questions?

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