WordPress 5.0 – what’s new in this release

WordPress 5.0 named in honor of jazz musician Bebo, is available on December 6, 2018. You can download it or update in your WordPress dashboard. If you ignored all the other updates this year, now’s the time to buckle down and take notice as this is the biggest update for 2018. The new release is touted to be the most significant update in last years.

WordPress developers wrote about two major upgrades. Gutenberg is the new post editor. Twenty Nineteen is new default theme. And it features custom styles for the Gutenberg.

Security Update

Undeniably, the main update – it is not Gutenberg editor. I think, the main and most important – it improve of security. Website security is a crucial part of any brand or business. Yoast team discovered that the user activation screen could be indexed by by search engines in some uncommon configurations. Also it leading to exposure of email addresses, and in some rare cases, default generated passwords.

Also prior to release 5.0.1, WordPress did not require uploaded files to pass MIME type verification. It mean, files could be upload even if the contents didn’t match the file extension. For example, a binary file could be upload with “.jpg” extension. This is no longer the case, and the content of uploaded files must now match their extension.

New Editor

Second important update – of course, this is new editor. Named after Johannes Gutenberg, the new editor will give you a whole new editing experience by moving to a block-based approach to content. This is the first step toward an exciting new future with a streamlined editing experience across your site. You’ll have more flexibility with how content is displayed, whether you are building your first site, revamping your blog, or write code.

Since the current editor requires using shortcodes and HTML, the Gutenberg make this easier. Above all for those who have just started using WordPress but maybe it can be helpfull for advanced users. In release 5.0.2 was performance improvements in the block editor. The cumulated performance gains make it 330% faster for a post with 200 blocks.

But as you can see, the Gutenberg has too small rating on wordpress.org. On current time it 2 stars from 5. Why? Lets try to understand.

That whatever is implemented in WordPress.org is being built for WordPress.com. This is one of the main money-making arms of Automattic and I hope, it clear. Their just concern when considering losing customers.

Iain Poulson wrote a good post about future of Gutenberg.

 

Some Cons about Gutenberg:

• Presently simple tasks require more clicks;
• Crowded dashboard. I mean the admin menu, Gutenberg editor, and Gutenberg sidebar all in the same place;
• Can not wrap text around an image, as images have their own block;
• Not possible to execute shortcodes in text columns or paragraph blocks;

Don’t panic – if you don’t want to use the Gutenberg Editor, you’ll still be able to keep the classic editor. Just install the official Classic Editor plugin for WordPress 5.0.

The Classic Editor plugin restores the previous WordPress editor and lets you:

• Keep using plugins that extend it.
• Keeps old-style meta boxes.
• Allows your to continuing using functionality TinyMCE.

New Default Theme

Introducing Twenty Nineteen, a new default theme that shows off the power of the new editor.

• Designed for the block editor;
• Simple, type-driven layout;
• Versatile design for all sites;

The block editor is a big change, but that’s not all. Additionally WordPress 5.0 include some smaller changes as well, including:

• All of the previous default themes now support the block editor;
• Theme and plugin developers can create their own custom blocks, thus providing flexibility;
• You can improve the accessibility of the content you write. Now that simple aria labels can be saved in posts and pages;
• WordPress 5.0 officially supports the upcoming PHP 7.3 release;
• Developers can now add translatable strings directly to your JS code, using the new JS language packs;

WordPress 5.0 and WooCommerce

WooCommerce has released an official statement regarding the release of WordPress 5.0. If you’re running WooCommerce, make sure to update to WooCommerce 3.5.1+ before updating.

How to Get Ready and Update to WordPress 5.0

Must be remembered how important testing WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg. As with any new version of WordPress, I always recommend testing. This release impacts everything from the editor, to third-party plugins, and even your theme.
You really need to make sure all of your plugins and theme are going to work properly. If you have a custom built solution(s), maybe the best will need to reaching to WordPress Freelancer.