WordPress is one of the most popular development tools used to create websites, blogs, etc. online. Over the year, WordPress is getting better and better in all aspects of it and making the work simpler in website creation. Recently, it has dropped its new 5.7 beta version to its users with several added security and features. In this article, we are going to let you know all the new features and security updates that have been brought by WordPress. Let’s dive into the detailed report on what’s on WordPress 5.7.
What’s New on WordPress 5.7
- Administration
- A new dynamic hook to filter the content of a single block
- Changes in @wordpress/data API
- New block variation APIs
- Inner Blocks API Changes
- New i18n filters & createI18n() changes
- Import/Export
- Enhancements to the Import/Export feature
- Media
- Lazy-loading iframes
- Users
- Send reset password links
- REST API
- REST API Changes
- Security
- Introducing script attributes related functions
- Improved HTTPS detection and migration
- Standardization of WP-Admin Color Palette
1. Administration
At the Administration level, WordPress has made several changes on WordPress in various things like blocks, API, Filters, etc. So let’s see in detail about each one of them.
1.1 Dynamic hook to filter the content of a single block
In the latest WordPress version, a new dynamic filter, render_block_{$this->name}, has been introduced. It allows hooking with various functions on blocks of a specific type. With this, you can pre-render block and it also allows you to render block data, block context, and even whole block on WordPress.
1.2 Changes in @wordpress/data API
This allows you to change or pass your WordPress API definition instead of a string. This will mostly impact Gutenberg editor but it is fully backward compatible. As it was backward compatible, you can continue using hardcoded names for plugin and theme authors when referencing datastores.
1.3 New block variation APIs
With this function, you can easily implement block or plugin authors, because in many cases it doesn’t make sense to find a match by checking dynamically all block properties. With the new block variation APIs, block editor UI like BlockCard displays the block variation’s title and description instead of the block.
1.4 Inner Blocks API Changes
In WordPress 5.7 update, the default behavior of the Block API is changed to the former version. Also, major block authors prefer keeping the pivot on the parent block upon insertion in the editor rather than move it to one of the child blocks.
1.5 New i18n filters & createI18n() changes
Filters are specific to the text domain which is preferred for several performance reasons. If you are using the existing translation functions provided by @wordpress/i18n then the new i18n filter will be added and updated automatically on your WordPress.
2. Import/Export
Here are the updates made on the Import/Export part of the new WordPress 5.7 update.
2.1 Enhancements to the Import/Export feature
Now you can export a specific filter for post title to any of your WordPress sites with ease. Also, it HTML-encodes the title string and strips the HTML tags from the string. These behaviors are good for import and not ideal for exports, as it changes the post title and results in loss of data from the exported file.
3. Media
Under the WordPress media library, a few important things have been updated with WordPress 5.7. So let’s see what’s new in this section.
3.1 Lazy-loading iframes
Lazy-loading iframes will be embedded automatically on your WordPress 5.7. This will improve the loading speed of your website and reduce the waiting for the users trying to access your WordPress website. These iframes are not only applicable for the images or videos you upload but also for the content you embed like the YouTube videos to improve the page speeds.
4. Users
There are some changes and updates made on the user’s section of WordPress. So let’s check out those new user features on this WordPress update.
4.1 Send reset password links
In this update, the new feature allows the website admins to send a reset password link manually to the existing users via mail. This feature will be more helpful for the users who lose their password and try to reset it. Resetting by sending a password link is more secure than changing the password directly by the user.
5. REST API
The Acronym REST API means RESTful Application Program Interface that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE data. So let’s see what’s updated newly in it.
5.1 REST API Changes
The post-collection endpoints of the REST API have been updated to allow a more complex syntax to specify the tax query used when querying posts. Using this API, Multiple meta values for a key can be removed by sending some empty arrays, all themes are returned via the themes controller, the image editor accepts modifiers and several parameter validations.
6. Security
The most important reason for the update of WordPress is to improve the security of WordPress. So let’s look into some of the security updates on WordPress’s latest version.
6.1 Introducing script attributes related functions
In the latest WordPress update, they have added a handful of new functionalities that enable you to pass attributes like async and nonce. This pass can be done on both regular and inline script tag attributes. Also, this creates a path forward in Core, plugins, and themes to enable Content-Security-Policy (CSP).
6.2 Improved HTTPS detection and migration
Migration of site to HTTPs has been made simple with the new WordPress update. It is done using Site health under the tools section. Here all you need to do is click on Update to use HTTPs. This will update your WordPress and URL settings to use HTTPs.
7. Standardization of WP-Admin Palette
WordPress’s latest update has also been standardized the WP-Admin color palette with more color variations and shades. Basically, it comes with a limited set of color schema and uses Sass to generate it. Using Sass the color generation has been very difficult for the developers. In this update, you can see some beautiful shades of yellow, grey, black, white, blue, green, red, orange, etc.
Conclusion
These are some of the major updates that have been available on the new WordPress 5.7. Before updating your WordPress site, make sure to backup your site as the update running on beta may cause troubles until the stable version arrives. In our opinion, there is no glitch or error, as of now. If you feel that the new update doesn’t feel good or suits you, you can easily downgrade WordPress Version with or without using a plugin.
If you are experiencing any trouble let us know in the comment section below and we are delighted to guide you and recover from the trouble through our articles.
