What’s New in WordPress 5.1

WordPress 5.1 available on February 21, 2019. It have name “Betty” in honoring American jazz singer Betty Carter. WordPress 5.0 had been downloaded more than 35 million times prior to 5.1’s release. Undeniably, this is good result but now we have next step. This is the first major release since Gutenberg came into core.

WordPress 5.1 was focused on helping users update outdated versions of PHP. Also it improving performance in the block editor. Users who use the Gutenberg will notice that blocks is much more responsive and writing posts should feel smoother.

 

Site Health

This release introduces new features from the Site Health project. WordPress will now detect if a site is running on an insecure, outdated version of PHP. Also WordPress will display notices to admins that run long-outdated versions of PHP.

It also includes checks for PHP version compatibility with plugins. When installing new plugins, WordPress’s Site Health features whether a plugin requires a version of PHP incompatible with your site. If so, WordPress will prevent you from installing that plugin. If you have a custom built solution(s), maybe the best will consider to hire WordPress Freelancer.

Editor Performance

Introduced in WordPress 5.0, the new block editor continues to improve. WordPress 5.1 includes performance improvements within the editor. The editor should feel a little quicker to start, and typing should feel smoother.

WordPress 5.1 for developers

Multisite Metadata

WordPress 5.1 introduces a new database table to store metadata associated with sites. It allows for the storage of arbitrary site data relevant in multisite and network context.

Cron API

The Cron API has been updated with new functions to assist with returning data. It includes few new filters for modifying cron storage. Other changes have affect on servers running FastCGI and PHP-FPM versions 7.0.16 and above.

New JS Build Processes

WordPress 5.1 features a new JavaScript build option.

Other Developer Goodness

• Updates to values for the WP_DEBUG_LOG constant.
• New test config file constant in the test suite, new plugin action hooks.
• Short-circuit filters for wp_unique_post_slug(), WP_User_Query, and count_users().
• A new human_readable_duration function.
• Improved taxonomy metabox sanitization.
• Limited support for meta keys when using WP_Meta_Query.
• A new “doing it wrong” notice when registering REST API endpoints.

Download WordPress 5.1