WordPress 4.7 is shaping up to be the best WordPress yet! Users will receive new and refined features that make it easier to “Make your site, YOUR site”, and developers will be able to take advantage of 173 enhancements and feature requests added. Let’s look at the many improvements coming in 4.7…

RESTing, RESTing: 1, 2, 3

The foundation for RESTful APIs has been in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. since 4.4, and 4.7 sees the addition of Content Endpoints after a healthy discussion. We’ve defined four success metrics as part of the merge discussion and you can help by building themes and plugins on top of the APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways., using the API in custom development projects, and utilizing the API for a feature project, core features, or patches. So, dive in, start playing around, and let us know what you build!

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/08/rest-api-merge-proposal-part-2-content-api/

It don’t mean a thing, if you ain’t got a theme

No matter if you are building themes for public consumption, as a bespoke project for a major public company, or anything in between WordPress 4.7 has something to help you.

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/29/theming-with-twenty-seventeen/

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/26/video-headers-in-4-7/

https://make.wordpress.org/core/?p=20650

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/10/visible-edit-shortcuts-in-the-customizer-preview/

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/07/whitespace-changes-in-navigation-for-4-7/

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/03/post-type-templates-in-4-7/

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/03/new-post-type-labels-in-4-7/

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/09/09/new-functions-hooks-and-behaviour-for-theme-developers-in-wordpress-4-7/

The Voyages of USS Media

Two notable changes, enhanced PDF support in the media library and changes to the default fallbacks for image alt attributes, are explained in separate posts.

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/15/enhanced-pdf-support-4-7/

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/11/improving-accessibility-of-image-alternative-text-in-4-7/

Media also received other exciting enhancements and bug fixes you should check out.

Around the World

The way users understand the words on WordPress are important and now users will be able to select their personal preferred language.

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/07/user-admin-languages-and-locale-switching-in-4-7/

For Whom Customization Tolls

The customize component will now support the ability to create pages within live preview during site setup; will have a faster, smoother, and more accessible navigation; will automatically persist your changes in the background while you browse your site and switch themes; and will let you fine-tune your site with custom CSSCSS Cascading Style Sheets..

https://make.wordpress.org/core/?p=20534

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/12/customize-changesets-technical-design-decisions/

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/09/28/changes-to-customizer-sliding-panelssections-in-wordpress-4-7/

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/26/extending-the-custom-css-editor/

Reading, Writing and Teriffic

Whether you’re creating content in the WordPress Adminadmin (and super admin) or concerned about comment moderation, we’ve got updates that will be sure to please you.

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/28/editor-changes-in-4-7/

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/11/comment-allowed-checks-in-wordpress-4-7/

The Foundation of WordPress

For those who like to get “under the hood” of WordPress, we’ve got some improvements that will hopefully make your life easier.

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/07/changed-loading-order-for-current-user-in-4-7/

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/04/multisite-focused-changes-in-4-7/

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/03/attributes-for-resource-hints-in-4-7/

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/11/02/wp_list_sort-and-wp_list_util-in-4-7/

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/29/wp_taxonomy-in-4-7/

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/28/fine-grained-capabilities-for-taxonomy-terms-in-4-7/

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/09/08/wp_hook-next-generation-actions-and-filters/

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2016/10/26/registering-your-settings-in-wordpress-4-7/

But Wait, There is More!

Over 447 bugs, 165 enhancements, 8 feature requests, and 15 blessed tasks have been marked as fixed in WordPress 4.7. Some additional ones to highlight include:

Make media library searchable by file name (#22744)

Improved Custom Background Properties UI UI User interface (#22058)

(#22058) Hue-only Color Picker (#38263)

Fix Sections that .cannot-expand (#37980)

(#37980) Allow Plugins to do Comprehensive Late Validation of Settings (#37638)

Please, test your code. Fixing issues now, before 4.7 is released, helps you and helps millions of WordPress sites.