WordPress 4.4 is the next major releasemajor release A release, identified by the first two numbers (3.6), which is the focus of a full release cycle and feature development. WordPress uses decimaling count for major release versions, so 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, and 3.1 are sequential and comparable in scope. of WordPress and is shaping up to be an amazing release. While you have likely discovered many of the changes from testing your plugins, themes, and sites (you have been testing, right?), this post highlights some of the exciting 🎉changes developers can look forward to. 💥

Externally Embeddable

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2015/10/28/new-embeds-feature-in-wordpress-4-4/

Using a handful of filters, you can customize how your site looks when it’s embedded elsewhere. As a part of the work around embeds, there are also a couple of new functions for retrieving and displaying embeddable content. The post above also links to a plugin which will remove the ability to embed your site elsewhere.

The infrastructure to create a REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/. has landed in WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.. Adding your own endpoints (or using the latest version of the REST API plugin) is now even easier. The new embed feature mentioned above uses this new infrastructure.

Note: If you are using v1 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. pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party, it is incompatible with 4.4, however an update is planned before 4.4 ships. The update will not use the new REST API infrastructure, so you’ll want to update your REST API usage eventually. If you are using v2 of the API plugin, be sure you’re on betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 5 or later; previous versions do not support WordPress 4.4.

Through the use of a display filter, image tags in WordPress now include srcset and sizes. These two attributes to the <img> tagtag A directory in Subversion. WordPress uses tags to store a single snapshot of a version (3.6, 3.6.1, etc.), the common convention of tags in version control systems. (Not to be confused with post tags.) allow browsers to choose the most appropriate image size and download it, ignoring the others. This can save bandwidth and speed up page load times. There are new functions, filters, and an additional default image size available to help with the creation of responsive images.

Since WordPress 4.1 , add_theme_support( 'title-tag' ); has been the recommended way of outputing a title tag for themes. Now, a year later the wp_title function has been officially deprecated. Take a look at this post if you want to see all the great new filters you can use to modify title tags.

UPDATE 12 November – wp_title has been reinstated for the time being. It is a zombie function. add_theme_support( 'title-tag' ); remains the recommended way to insert a title tag into your theme, however there were use cases for wp_title that were not accounted for in the original deprecation decison

WordPress 4.4 is the latest in a string of releases to feature major updates to the taxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies. system. This release introduces of term metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress., a new WP_Term class, and a host of other under the hood changes.

Comment Component Cultivation

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2015/10/28/comment-object-and-query-features-in-4-4/

https://make.wordpress.org/core/2015/09/25/changes-to-fields-output-by-comment_form-in-wordpress-4-4/

Comments received love both on the front end of sites and on the backend. On the front-end, the comment field will always appear first, before the name and email fields. This fixes a longstanding bug where the behavior was different for logged in and logged out users.

Under the hood, comments are now represented by a WP_Comment class and comment queries are now considerably more powerful.

Like taxonomy and comments, the multisitemultisite Used to describe a WordPress installation with a network of multiple blogs, grouped by sites. This installation type has shared users tables, and creates separate database tables for each blog (wp_posts becomes wp_0_posts). See also network, blog, site features gains a new class, WP_Network . Additionally, there are now *_network_option functions which make it easier to use multiple networks. The linked post also highlights new hooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same., some notable bugbug A bug is an error or unexpected result. Performance improvements, code optimization, and are considered enhancements, not defects. After feature freeze, only bugs are dealt with, with regressions (adverse changes from the previous version) being the highest priority. fixes, and two newly-deprecated functions. If you use WordPress in a multisite environment, this is a must-read.

Headings on the adminadmin (and super admin) screens are now more semantic. Be sure to update your custom admin screens to follow the proper heading structure. These changes help users of assistive technologies, such as screen readers.

Each year, WordPress releases a new default theme and this year is no exception. Twenty Sixteen is a brand new theme, bundled with WordPress 4.4. Default themes are incredibly popular; be sure to test your plugins to ensure they function well with Twenty Sixteen.

Other Notes

So far, this release has had over two thousand commits. There are many additional changes not outlined above including: the removal of support for my-hacks.php (Update Nov 20th: My Hacks support was added back), giving add_rewrite_rule support for an easier-to-read syntax, support for single-{post_type}-{post_name} in the template hierarchy, pretty permalinks for unattached media, and stronger enforcement of the show_ui argument in custom post types. As with every major update, it is very important to test every feature in your plugins and themes to ensure there are no regressions in their behavior.

Closing

If you haven’t been testing your themes, plugins, and sites with WordPress 4.4, now is a great time to start. You can grab a copy from svn (or git), download the nightly builds, or install it using the Beta Tester Plugin.

WordPress 4.4 is not recommended for use on production servers until the final release has been announced on the WordPress News blog. The release is currently targeted for December 8, 2015. Get testing today!