WordPress Release: 4.8.0

TL;DR

WordPress 4.8 "Evans" introduces several significant enhancements to the WordPress user experience, focusing on making the platform more user-friendly and feature-rich. This release brings new media widgets for images, video, and audio, an improved Text widget with rich-text editing capabilities, and an enhanced News & Events dashboard widget that shows upcoming WordPress events near your location. Under the hood, improvements include TinyMCE updates with link boundaries, multisite enhancements, and various accessibility improvements.

Highlight of the Release

• New media widgets for images, audio, and video
• Rich-text editing capabilities in the Text widget
• Enhanced News & Events dashboard widget showing nearby WordPress events
• TinyMCE updates with link boundaries for improved editing experience
• Improved multisite functionality with better network management
• Emoji 5.0 support

Migration Guide

Migrating to WordPress 4.8

Most users should experience a smooth upgrade to WordPress 4.8. However, there are a few things to be aware of:

For Theme Developers

If your theme has custom styling for widgets, you may need to update your CSS to accommodate the new media widgets. The default themes have been updated with styles for these widgets, which you can reference.

For Plugin Developers

• If you've built custom widgets that handle media, you may want to review the new media widgets API to ensure compatibility or to leverage the new functionality.
• The Text widget now uses TinyMCE for rich-text editing. If you have plugins that modify the Text widget, you should test them with this update.
• WMV and WMA file support has been removed from core MediaElement.js. If your plugin relies on these formats, you'll need to add support via the wp_video_extensions and wp_audio_extensions filters while also implementing fallback rendering routines.

For Multisite Administrators

Several multisite functions now accept a $network_id parameter, which allows for more precise network management. Review any custom scripts that interact with multisite functionality to ensure they work correctly with these changes.

Upgrade Recommendations

It is recommended that all WordPress users upgrade to version 4.8. This release includes significant enhancements to the user experience with new widgets and editor improvements, as well as numerous bug fixes and performance improvements.

The upgrade process should be straightforward for most users:

1. Back up your website before upgrading
2. Update through the WordPress admin dashboard or download the update from wordpress.org
3. Test your site's functionality after the update, particularly if you use custom themes or plugins

For developers, review the changes to the Text widget, media handling, and multisite functionality to ensure your custom code remains compatible.

This is a feature release rather than a security release, so while upgrading is recommended, it's not as urgent as security updates would be.

Bug Fixes

General Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where user counts could become inaccurate if users were added to or removed from the users table without corresponding usermeta entries
• Fixed a bug where the News dashboard widget could display unstyled no-js notices
• Fixed issues with the suggested image size text in media views for better screen reader pronunciation
• Fixed a bug where user settings cookies weren't cleared when logging out or switching between user accounts
• Corrected a permission check when showing the User item in the admin toolbar menu
• Fixed a visual glitch on widget control animation
• Fixed an issue where plugin names within the plugin details modal were collapsed on Chrome 58+
• Fixed a bug where the customizer menu classes weren't properly applied in the preview
• Fixed improper use of jQuery hasClass method in MediaElement.js

REST API Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where WP_REST_Request::remove_header() wasn't canonicalizing header names
• Fixed a bug where WP_REST_Request::set_param() wasn't properly updating parameters
• Fixed an issue where the REST API was sending blank Last-Modified headers with authenticated requests
• Corrected the REST API endpoint URL to use HTTPS when necessary in the admin area

New Features

Media Widgets

WordPress 4.8 introduces three new media widgets that allow you to easily add images, audio, and video to your sidebars:

• Image Widget: Add images to your sidebars with options for title, caption, and alignment.
• Video Widget: Embed videos from your media library or from services like YouTube and Vimeo.
• Audio Widget: Add audio files from your media library or embed audio from services like SoundCloud.

These widgets use the familiar media modal interface, making it easy to select or upload media directly from your widgets.

Rich-Text Text Widget

The classic Text widget has been enhanced with TinyMCE capabilities, allowing you to format text with bold, italic, lists, and links without having to write HTML code manually.

News & Events Dashboard Widget

The WordPress News dashboard widget has been expanded to also show upcoming WordPress events (meetups and WordCamps) near your location. You can:

• See events happening in your area
• Search for events in other locations
• Get links to more information about each event

REST API oEmbed Proxy Endpoint

A new REST API endpoint has been added for proxying requests to external oEmbed providers, which is used by the new media widgets and improves the media modal experience.

Security Updates

No significant security fixes were explicitly mentioned in the release notes. However, as with all WordPress updates, it's recommended to upgrade to the latest version to ensure you have the most secure version of the software.

Performance Improvements

Performance Enhancements

• Added Composer files to the cache on Travis CI to speed up subsequent builds
• Improved the handling of test skipping in the test suite, reducing the number of skipped tests
• Introduced skipWithoutMultisite() and skipWithMultisite() methods to bring uniformity to test skipping
• Removed HHVM from the test infrastructure on Travis to streamline testing
• Added object-cache.php to the unit test suite to remove an unnecessary external dependency

Impact Summary

WordPress 4.8 "Evans" represents a significant step forward in improving the WordPress user experience, particularly for content creators and site administrators. The introduction of media widgets makes it much easier to add rich media content to sidebars without needing to use custom HTML or third-party plugins. The enhanced Text widget with rich-text editing capabilities eliminates the need for users to know HTML to format their sidebar text.

The improved News & Events dashboard widget helps connect WordPress users with their local community by showing nearby WordPress events, fostering greater community engagement. This is particularly valuable for new WordPress users who may not be aware of the extensive WordPress community.

For developers, the release provides new APIs and filters that make it easier to extend WordPress functionality, particularly around media handling and widgets. The update to TinyMCE 4.6.3 brings improved editing capabilities, including link boundaries that make it easier to select and edit links.

Accessibility improvements throughout the platform continue WordPress's commitment to being usable by everyone, with better keyboard navigation, improved screen reader support, and more consistent ARIA attributes.

While not introducing any major architectural changes, WordPress 4.8 lays groundwork for future improvements by refining the widget system and continuing to enhance the REST API.