What’s did July have for WordPress? Well, July was an action packed month for WordPress. The month saw a lot of updates and one major release. Among other things in the WordPress World – the WordCamp US 2020 was cancelled. However, the community has been experimenting with different formats for engaging in online events.
Here is the roundup of what July had in the WordPress World
WordPress 5.5
July began with a lot of WordPress 5.5 updates! WordPress 5.5 Beta 1 came out on 7th July that was immediately followed by Beta2 on 14th July. The subsequent versions Beta 3 and Beta 4 were released on 21st and 27th July respectively. The team also published WordPRess 5.5 release candidate on 28th of July 2020.
WordPress 5.5 will now be released on 11th Aug 2020 and will be one of the major updates with a number of features. It will have automatic updates for plugins and themes, block directories, XML sitemaps, block patterns and lazy loading images. We have a detailed post for the WordPress 5.5 features.
Gutenberg 8.5 and 8.6
The core team also launched the Gutenberg 8.5 and 8.6 versions. The version 8.5 with the last plugin release will be include entirely (without experimental features) in WordPress 5.5. It will be introduced with improvements to block and drag-and-drop and accessibility, easier updates for external images and support for block directory. The version 8.6 comes with features like cover block video position control and block pattern updates.
Reimagining online WordPress Events
The community team made the difficult decision to suspend in-person WordPress events for the rest of 2020. This is in line with the COVID-19 social distancing norms. The team has now started working on online events and is working on new ways to conduct events online. Key changes include wrapping up financial support for A/V vendors, ending event swag support for newer online WordCamps, and suspending the Global Community Sponsorship program 2020. WordCamps shall also be online and they will experiment with their events to facilitate learning experiences for attendees. The team is also currently working on a proposal to organize community supported recorded workshops and synchronous discussion groups to help community members learn WordPress.
Plugin and theme updates are now available over zip files
WordPress now enables users to update plugins and themes using Zip files. With WordPress 5.5 users can upload a zip file and instantly update their themes and plugins. WordPress also offers automatic theme and plugin updates.
It has been an eventful month for WordPress and will definitely be more exciting in the coming months.
