WordPress 5.1 Release Candidate (RC) is now available for the general public to test.
A release candidate means that the core team is almost done with WordPress 5.1. However, with the millions of users and thousands of themes and plugins, there sure is a possibility that something might have been missed. Therefore, the core team wants users to test the release candidate in order to make the 5.1 update complete and enhanced.
The WordPress 5.1 Release Candidate is an important update since the release date for WordPress 5.1 is nearing. WordPress 5.1 has been scheduled to be released on 21st February 2019.
To test WordPress 5.1 Release Candidate, you can use the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want to select the “bleeding edge nightlies” option) or you can also directly download the release candidate here (zip).
Here is what you will find in WordPress 5.1:
This release has introduced the first ever Site Health features in WordPress. WordPress will now start showing notices to administrators of sites that run long-outdated versions of PHP—the programming language that powers WordPress.
Also, the Site Health feature will check whether a plugin requires a version of PHP incompatible with your site when you install a new plugin. If it finds any, WordPress will prevent you from installing that plugin.
Furthermore, WordPress 5.1 will include enhancements regarding the new Gutenberg editor.
If you want to know more about the major changes in 5.1, check out the WordPress 5.1 Field Guide.
If you find any bug or issue, you can report them to the Alpha/Beta support forum. This will help the development team to ship WordPress 5.1. If any known issues come up, you’ll be able to find them here.
Developers have been asked to test their plugins and themes against WordPress 5.1 and update the Tested up to the version in the readme to 5.1. If you find compatibility problems please be sure to post to the support forums so the team can figure those out before the final release of WordPress 5.1.