WordPress 5.1 Beta 1, the initial beta for the next major release – WordPress 5.1 was released yesterday. The Beta 1 update has been released with numerous highlighted features that will definitely excite the users.
The software is still in development, so the development team recommends you not run it on a production site and so do we. Simply set up a test site just to play around with the new version.
WordPress 5.1 is slated for release on February 21, and the team needs your help to get there. To test WordPress 5.1, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the beta here (zip).
Check out the big items to test to find as many bugs as possible in the coming weeks to make things easier for the developers.
Highlights in WordPress 5.1 Beta 1
Site Health Check
Site Health Check is an ongoing project aimed at improving the stability and performance of the entire WordPress ecosystem. And the first phase of this project is included in WordPress 5.1. This will be the first time that WordPress would catch and pause the problem code. With this, you can log in to your Dashboard and find out about the issue. Prior to this, you’d have to FTP in to your files or get in touch with your host.
Additionally, in April 2019, WordPress’ will increase its minimum supported PHP version to 5.6. To help you check if you’re prepared for this change, WordPress 5.1 will show you a warning and help you upgrade your version of PHP, if necessary.
Additionally, in April 2019, WordPress’ will increase its minimum supported PHP version to 5.6. To help you check if you’re prepared for this change, WordPress 5.1 will show you a warning and help you upgrade your PHP version, if necessary.
For Developers
- The Cron system can now be more easily replaced with a custom cron handler (#32656).
- When starting cron under PHP-FPM, the connection will return a response immediately, even for long running cron jobs (dev note).
- WP_DEBUG_LOG can be set to a custom log location (#18391).
- Introduced the wp_blogmeta table (#37923).
- Added LIKE support to meta_key comparisons in WP_Meta_Query (#42409).
There are more than 360 tickets closed in WordPress 5.1. It includes numerous small bug fixes and improvements to help smooth your WordPress experience.
As mentioned above, WordPress 5.1 is scheduled for release on February 21 and the development team can surely use all the help they can get. If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.
Source: WordPress.org