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Dev Chat Agendas | Dev Chat Summaries | Dev Notes | Field Guide | All Posts Tagged 4.8
WordPress 4.8 will be the first “major” release of 2017 and generally aims to refine existing features and set the foundation for the Gutenberg, the next-generation editor. Additional specific goals include the TinyMCE inline element / link boundaries, new media widgets, WYSIWYG in text widget, and the WordCamp / meetup dashboard upgrade to the “news” section. Matt Mullenweg is the Release Lead for 4.8.
Of note, WordCamp Europe will be from June 15-17. This tends to involve travel for a number of people and reduced activity; therefore, we should proceed as if there will only be the initial Release Candidate. The feature project merge deadline listed is a final deadline; all features and larger efforts should be continuously evaluated for readiness.
| December 7, 2016 | Trunk is open for business. (Post-4.7) |
| May 3, 2017 | 4.8 Kickoff meeting. |
| May 10, 2017 (+1w) | Last chance to merge feature projects. |
| May 12, 2017 (+2d) | Beta 1. |
| From this point on, no more commits for any new enhancements or feature requests in this release cycle, only bug fixes and inline documentation. Work can continue on enhancements/feature requests not completed and committed by this point, and can be picked up for commit again at the start of WordPress 4.9. | |
May 22, 2017 (+10d) |
Beta 2. |
| May 25, 2017 (+6d) | Release candidate and soft string freeze. |
| June 1, 2017 (+1w) | Final release candidate if needed and hard string freeze. |
| June 7, 2017 (+6d) | Dry run for release of WordPress 4.8 and 24 hour code freeze. |
| June 8, 2017 (+1d) | Target date for release of WordPress 4.8. |
To get involved in WordPress core development, head on over to Trac and pick a 4.8 ticket. Need help? Check out the Core Contributor Handbook. Get your patches done and submitted as soon as possible, then drum up people to test the patches and leave feedback on the ticket. Patches for enhancements won’t be committed after the posted dates, so that we can all focus on squashing bugs and hopefully deliver the most bug-free WordPress to date. If you want to dive deeper into 4.8, development is discussed at a weekly meeting in the #core Slack channel and occurs next at Wednesday at 20:00 UTC. Wish us luck!
