WordPress 5.5 arrive code name “Eckstine”
WordPress.org launched 11 Aug 20219 WordPress 5.5, which brings a slew speed, search, security, Block Editor, accessibility and developer updates. You can now download version 5.5, which was developed by 805 volunteer employees, WordPress.org/Download. (Update: If you see problems in the traditional publisher and with plugins after deploying WordPress 5.5, you may need to install the plugin jQuery Migrate.)
WordPress 5.5 is a major update. It has more than 450 improvements and bug fixes. These are the main changes you need to know.
Lazy Loading
This feature helps your site perform faster. This is feature images expect the load until they are about to scroll into view. The technical term is “lazy loading”.
Fast loading website means more revenue and more sales.
Theme and Plugin Auto-update
WordPress introduced a feature that will help you to update all the themes and plugins automatically. This is an important feature because some updates are essential for preventing hacking attacks.
This new feature will prevent such events from occurring. This will help you keep a free hacker site.
Automatic Update is useful for sites that do not change much and do not use a lot of plugins.
There are edge cases where a plugin update can introduce unwanted problems. This is why some publishers prefer to manually choose which plug-ins to update and when.
Sometimes it is safer to update plugins manually for critical patches and wait longer to choose the updates to upgrade features.
WordPress theme and plugin automatic updating is disabled by default. Publishers must allow it to take advantage of this feature.
That said, this is a feature that many publishers will find useful, especially small business owners who have a generally static site with not too many plugins.
WordPress Site Maps
A sitemap allows a publisher to tell the search engines where all their Web pages, especially new web pages. WordPress introduces integrated site maps. This means users will not need a third-party plugin to generate a sitemap.
That said, sitemap features the undoubtedly significant limitations. The most important feature missing is site maps image.
Thus, being able to tell Google where all images are important.
Better accessibility
WordPress works hard to improve accessibility. Version 5.5 is no different and packs a package of fixes and accessibility improvements. Looked:
- List of tables now come with vast, alternative view modes.
- Link-list of a widget can now be converted to HTML5 navigation blocks.
- Copy links in the screens of media and modal dialogues can now be done with just a click of a button.
- Disabled buttons now look effectively disabled.
- Meta boxes can be moved with the keyboard.
- A custom logo on the first page links are not on the first page.
- Devices can now view status messages in the image editor.
- The animation shake indicating a connection failure now respects the choice of the user in the reduced-motion movement prefers media.
- Redundant Error: prefixes were withdrawn error of opinion.
Older browsers are not supported
WordPress 5.5 only support explorer higher than version 9.
More changes for developers
- The PHPMailer library just got a major update, going from version 5.2.27 to 6.1.6.
- Now get more fine-grained control of redirect_guess_404_permalink().
- Sites that use PHP’s OPcache will see more reliable cache invalidation, thanks to the new wp_opcache_invalidate() function during updates (including to plugins and themes).
- Custom post types associated with the category taxonomy can now opt-in to supporting the default term.
- Default terms can now be specified for custom taxonomies in register_taxonomy().
- The REST API now officially supports specifying default metadata values through register_meta().
- You will find updated versions of these bundled libraries: SimplePie, Twemoji, Masonry, imagesLoaded, getID3, Moment.js, and clipboard.js.
