6.6 Dev Note Tracking Issue

[juanmaguitar]

Tracking all Dev Notes from Gutenberg plugin releases 17.8 - v18.5

Please read the information below carefully. If you have questions or suggestions, connect with @JuanMa via Slack, ping @juanmaguitar on GitHub, or comment here.

Important

🗓 Deadline Drafts for All Dev Notes - June 11th, 2024 (on Beta 2, so there's enough time for reviews)
🗓 Deadline All Dev Notes Published - June 23rd, 2024 (a few days before RC1)

Not all developer-related information must be in a separate DevNote on the Make Core blog for the field guide. We can group related information. We can already decide whether some features warrant a stand-alone blog post or a group post.

Stand-alone post

To streamline the process and eliminate bottlenecks, all writers of stand-alone dev notes will write the dev notes on the Make Core Blog.

Instructions

• Create your note in a new post,
• Save as Draft
• Enable public preview
• Share the link to the public preview in a comment below as "ready for review"
• "For dev notes, each one must have at least two reviewers" (Handbook)

Part of a group post

If the information related to your PR will be part of a group post, please write the dev note in a comment on the PR, so it can be reviewed and, if necessary commented on, by the release docs team or a reviewer.

Before you start writing 📣 please read the handbook pages:

• ⭐️ Writing developer notes
• ⭐️ Style & Substance section of the Post & Comment Guidelines for Make Blog
• ⭐️ Documentation Style Guide - Good for reference, when in doubt, especially when English is not your native language.

---

Note

The list is incomplete. We are in the process of reviewing plugin release changelogs and add them as we progress on the task.

There are two labels relevant to DevNotes :

• needs dev note
• has dev note

If you worked on a feature/module/component that definitely needs a dev note, please assign the label needs dev note If you already added the Dev Note to the make blog on draft or as a comment on the PR, please label it has dev note

---

TO DO

Progress of the Documentation work for WP 6.6 release (including the DevNotes tracked on this issue) can also be followed at WP 6.6 Documentation project dashboard

PRs with label has-dev-note or a related DevNote draft are marked with [x]

Stand-alone posts

• Grid layout feature: @tellthemachines dev note published

  • Add toggle for grid types and stabilise Grid block variation. #59051 GB17.8
  • Add support for column and row span in grid children. #58539 GB17.8

• Background image feature dev note, covering the following PRs: @ramonjd dev note published

  • Global styles: add background image to top-level theme.json styles #59354 GB17.9
  • Global styles: background UI controls #59454 GB18.1
  • Background image: add support for relative theme path URLs in top-level theme.json styles #61271 GB18.5
  • Global styles: add option to remove site-wide theme background image #61998 GB18.5

• Theme.json version 3 @ajlende dev note published

  • Add defaultFontSizes theme.json (theme.json v3) #58409 GB18.3 📝 @ajlende

• CSS Specificity @aaronrobertshaw dev note published

  • Styles: try wrapping with :root to fix reset styles #61638 GB18.5 @aaronrobertshaw
  • Try reducing specificity of global styles selectors only. #60106 GB18.1 @tellthemachines
  • Reduce specificity of block library styles conflicting with block supports #59457 GB18.1 @tellthemachines

• React JSX transform @youknowriad dev note published

  • React: Upgrade to the new JSX transform  #61692 GB18.5 @youknowriad
    React updates

• Preparation for React 19 Upgrade @Mamaduka dev note published

  • Upgrade React to v18.3 #61202 GB18.3 @Mamaduka

• Section Styles @aaronrobertshaw dev note published

  • Block Styles: Extend block style variations as mechanism for achieving section styling #57908 GB18.5 @aaronrobertshaw

• Improvements to active block variation detection @ockham dev note published

  • Block Variations: Support dot notation in isActive string array #62088 GB18.5 @ockham
  • Block Variations: Have getActiveBlockVariation return variation with highest specificity #62031 GB18.5 @ockham
  • Block Variations: Compare objects based on given properties #62272 GB18.5 @ockham
  • Block Variations: Detect active variation correctly based on RichText attribute #62325 GB18.5 @ockham

• Social Block updates @talldan dev note published

  • Add list item wrapper to social links when used in navigation block #61396 GB18.4 @talldan dev note comment
  • Remove Button component from social link block, replace with button element #61270 GB18.3 @talldan dev note comment

• Editor: Unified Extensibility APIs in 6.6 @youknowriad
  dev note published

  • Add PluginDocumentSettingPanel in template inspector controls #60961 GB18.3 @ntsekouras dev note comment
  • Editor: Unify PluginSidebarMoreMenuItem #60853 GB18.2 @youknowriad
  • Editor: Unify the PluginSidebar slot between post and site editors #60815 GB18.2 @youknowriad
  • Editor: Support PluginPostStatusInfo Slot in the site editor #60814 GB18.2 @youknowriad
  • Editor: Unify PluginMoreMenuItem API between post and site editors #60778 GB18.2 @youknowriad
  • Extensibility: Support PluginBlockSettingsMenuItem in the site editor #60033 GB18.1 @youknowriad
  • Extensibility: support the PluginDocumentSettingPanel slot in the site editor #59985 GB18.0 @youknowriad
  • Editor: Consistently deprecate edit-post and edit-site slots. #61134 GB18.3 @youknowriad
  • Editor: Unify the names of the sidebars between edit post and edit site. #60856 GB18.2 @youknowriad

Misc Dev Notes

• Miscellaneous Editor changes in WordPress 6.6 @juanmaguitar dev note published
  • Add block class name to the list block #56469 GB18.4 @carolinan (Block Styles) dev note comment
  • Introduce wp-on-async directive as performant alternative over synchronous wp-on directive #61885 GB18.5 @westonruter (Interactivity API) dev note comment
  • Allow view access of template rest endpoint to anyone with the edit_post capability #60317 GB18.1 @fabiankaegy (REST API) dev note comment
  • Writing Flow/Rich Text: unify split logic #54543 GB18.4 @ellatrix, see 6.6 Dev Note Tracking Issue #62096 (comment)
  • Make BlockPopover component public #61529 GB18.4 @gigitux dev note comment
  • Add filter to allow extending the list of post content blocks #60068 GB18.1 @fabiankaegy dev note comment
  • Global Styles: Filter out color and typography variations #60220 GB18.3 @scruffian dev note draft
  • Add aspect ratio presets support via theme.json #47271 GB18.4 @fabiankaegy dev note comment
  • More consistent root padding #60715 GB18.5 @richtabor dev note comment
  • Try: Add new textAlign block support #59531 GB18.2 @t-hamano dev note comment

[ellatrix]

👋 curious why you added my name to the last item

[juanmaguitar]

curious why you added my name to the last item

🤦‍♂️ Sorry @ellatrix, your ping was meant for #54543
It's fixed now!

[ramonjd]

Thanks for this! I've updated the background image feature to cover the relevant PRs that, together, introduced the feature. I'll do a single dev note to cover all of them.

[aaronrobertshaw]

I've added #61638 the list which altered some of the previous CSS specificity changes in PRs such as #60106. A single dev note to cover the specificity changes is probably best.

[tellthemachines]

@juanmaguitar were any PRs from 17.8 included in this list? I notice you missed the grid stabilisation and row/column span ones even though they were correctly tagged. I added them to the list above.

[ramonjd]

Single dev note for the background image feature:

• Global styles: add background image to top-level theme.json styles #59354 (comment)

Also added to issue description.

[juanmaguitar]

were any PRs from 17.8 included in this list? I notice you missed the #59051 and #58539 ones even though they were correctly tagged

@tellthemachines Thanks for spotting this.
You're right. I was using a query to get all PRs with Needs Dev Note label that are closed and merged from March 5th (WP 6.6 Alpha begins) when I should have got all PRs Needs Dev Note that are closed and merged from February 14th (release of Gutenberg 17.7, when PRs of GB 17.8 start). Still learning on this 😅

I have reviewed my process and queries to make sure I properly track all PRs from GB 17.8 requiring DevNotes

For reference, these are the queries I'm using to track them:

PRs Needs Dev Note that are closed and merged from February 14th (release of Gutenberg 17.7, when PRs of GB 17.8 start)

Per GB version

• GB 17.8
  • Milestone Gutenberg 17.8 (164 closed)
  • PRs Needs Dev Note of milestone "Gutenberg 17.8"
  • PRs Has Dev Note of milestone "Gutenberg 17.8"
• GB 17.8
  • Milestone Gutenberg 17.9 (196 closed)
  • PRs Needs Dev Note of milestone "Gutenberg 17.9"
  • PRs Has Dev Note of milestone "Gutenberg 17.9"
• GB 18.0
  • Milestone Gutenberg 18.0 (208 closed)
  • PRs Needs Dev Note of milestone "Gutenberg 18.0"
  • PRs Has Dev Note of milestone "Gutenberg 18.0"
• GB 18.1
  • Milestone Gutenberg 18.1 (152 closed)
  • PRs Needs Dev Note of milestone "Gutenberg 18.1"
  • PRs Has Dev Note of milestone "Gutenberg 18.1"
• GB 18.2
  • Milestone Gutenberg 18.2 (236 closed)
  • PRs Needs Dev Note of milestone "Gutenberg 18.2"
  • PRs Has Dev Note of milestone "Gutenberg 18.2"
• GB 18.3
  • Milestone Gutenberg 18.3 (165 closed)
  • PRs Needs Dev Note of milestone "Gutenberg 18.3"
  • PRs Has Dev Note of milestone "Gutenberg 18.3"
• GB 18.4
  • Milestone Gutenberg 18.4 (185 closed)
  • PRs Needs Dev Note of milestone "Gutenberg 18.4"
  • PRs Has Dev Note of milestone "Gutenberg 18.4"
• GB 18.5
  • Milestone Gutenberg 18.5 (162 closed)
  • PRs Needs Dev Note of milestone "Gutenberg 18.5"
  • PRs Has Dev Note of milestone "Gutenberg 18.5"

[youknowriad]

For me I've always done PRs with Needs Dev Note. regardless of time. Some PRs make it as experimental before and need a dev note when they become stable. And when a PR had a dev note, we should just remove the tag. no?

[fabiankaegy]

To further complicate this I am not confident that we capture all the items that need a dev note at time of merge. So I spend my time digging through all merged PR's and adding the label now...

[juanmaguitar]

For me I've always done PRs with "Needs Dev Note" regardless of time

@youknowriad the difference between PRs with "Needs Dev Note" label (266 total) vs PRs with "Needs Dev Note" label merged after Feb 24th 2024 (GB 17.8) (27 closed) is huge. Isn't it more effective to just focus on the GB milestones included in the WP release?

And when a PR had a dev note, we should just remove the tag. no?

By looking at the number of PRs with "Needs Dev Note" label (266 total) from previous releases I'm not confident this is actually happening.

[youknowriad]

By looking at the number of PRs with "Needs Dev Note" label (266 total) from previous releases I'm not confident this is actually happening.

Yeah, I'm guessing we stopped doing that at some point, and this is the mistake that we made. If you all agree that it's a better way to deal with that, we can correct it and just remove the label from these old PRs.

[mirka]

Flagging that my item #58974 in the Misc Dev Notes section was already included in the Dev Notes for 6.5 (#59155). Not exactly sure which was the correct version 😅

[juanmaguitar]

Flagging that my item #58974 in the Misc Dev Notes section was already included in the Dev Notes for 6.5 (#59155). Not exactly sure which was the correct version 😅

Thanks for the heads up @mirka! You're right. The DevNote for that change is available here. I have removed that PR from the tracking list above 👍

[tellthemachines]

I added a draft in make core for the new grid layout features: https://make.wordpress.org/core/?p=113315&preview=1&_ppp=1b26d1c689

[SantosGuillamot]

In Block Bindings: Iteration for WP 6.6, we haven't made any changes affecting public APIs. Basically, because we focused on the editor side, and those APIs are still private. Most of the changes affect the user experience and how everything works internally. We already had a dev note for 6.5 covering the public APIs. Do we still need a new dev note? @juanmaguitar

[fabiankaegy]

@SantosGuillamot I think the fact that the post meta bindings are now editable in line deserve a quick dev note. Even if there are no actual API changes.

[juanmaguitar]

Do we still need a new dev note?

@SantosGuillamot I replied here

[youknowriad]

I've started working on the JSX Dev Note here. I could use a review.

[ramonjd]

I've started working on the JSX Dev Note here. I could use a review.

I added some things - nothing huge. Looks good!

[ntsekouras]

#60961 shouldn't be a standalone dev note and probably a sentence should be included with the other unification efforts between site and post editor and new extensibility points.

You can now extend templates panel in post editor too with the existing PluginDocumentSettingPanel. Previously you could do it only in site editor with PluginTemplateSettingPanel, which is now deprecated.

[juanmaguitar]

with the other unification efforts between site and post editor and new extensibility points.

@ntsekouras I agree a Misc "Extensibility of the Block Editor" Dev Note would be a good way to compile all the [Feature] Extensibility PRs included in WP 6.6.

What do you think @youknowriad @fabiankaegy?

[youknowriad]

Not sure about other extensibility features but a single dev note about all these slots / unification efforts is a good idea yes.

[talldan]

I've added a draft dev note for Remove Button component from social link block, replace with button element in a comment on the PR.

Will work on my other one tomorrow.

[ellatrix]

#54543 should probably go in the extensibility dev note?

RichText’s optional onSplit prop was deprecated and replaced with a block.json support key called splitting. The onSplit prop was only used by a few core blocks (paragraph, heading, list item, and button), so it’s not expected that this affects a lot of third party blocks. In any case, when the onSplit is used, splitting will still work, but can’t be controlled as granularly as before: the callback won’t be called and the block will split in a generic way.

[juanmaguitar]

I've added a #61270 (comment) for #61270 (comment) in a comment on the PR.

Thanks @talldan 🙌
Would it make sense to publish a standalone DevNote to include social-link and social-links blocks updates (#61396 & #61270) ?

[juanmaguitar]

#54543 should probably go in the extensibility dev note?

@ellatrix I agree. I've moved this PR to that group. Thanks for the quick DevNote! 👏

[gziolo]

Here's the draft. I've also added an item to the "Stand-alone posts" section above, with a link to the Dev Note draft (plus the four PRs that it covers).

Looks good from the technical point of view 💯 That’s a nice set of improvements coming in WP 6.6. I think we will need to explicitly mention in https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/block-api/block-variations/ what functionality is exclusively working with WP 6.6 and higher. I drafted a fix in #62399.

[Mamaduka]

@juanmaguitar, the "Preparation for React 19 Upgrade" draft is ready for review on make blog. Let me know if it's good to publish.

[juanmaguitar]

Let me know if it's good to publish.

@Mamaduka I did a proofreading review of Preparation for React 19 Upgrade and it looks good to be published 👍

✅ Proofreading

• 🟢  at least two reviewers | see Should dev notes be reviewed?
• 🟢 use of "I" and "we" and simple writing | see Style and substance
• 🟢 proper credits (I added myself for proofreading) | see Attribution
• 🟢 proper tagging and categorizing | see Tagging and categorizing
• 🟢 Grammarly check

[juanmaguitar]

@ramonjd and @ajlende, when you're dev notes as comments (see "Stand-alone posts" section in the description of this issue) are ready for review, could you post them as drafts in https://make.wordpress.org/core and enable the "public post preview" link to share them in the project?

[fabiankaegy]

I just added a draft for #60068 here: #60068 (comment)

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated :)

[fabiankaegy]

Also added a draft for #47271 here: #47271 (comment)

[fabiankaegy]

And finally here is the draft for #60317 here: #60317 (comment)

[juanmaguitar]

The following DevNotes are drafted but need a technical review (I can do the proofreading one)

• Grid layout type by @tellthemachines
• Site-wide background images by @ramonjd
• Theme.json version 3 by @ajlende
• CSS Specificity by @aaronrobertshaw
• Improvements to active block variation detection by @ockham
• Section Styles by @aaronrobertshaw

In case someone can help with these reviews, please share in this tracking issue the result of your review.

[juanmaguitar]

Friendly reminder for PR owners to draft the following dev notes by the end of this week if possible:

• #61885 @westonruter
• #60220 @scruffian
• #60715 @richtabor
• #61396 @talldan
• #60853 #60815 #60814 #60778 #60033 #59985 #61134 #60856 @youknowriad

[ramonjd]

Hi folks,

Here is a Make Core post draft for the Background Image Dev Note for your review:

https://make.wordpress.org/core/?p=113594&preview=1&_ppp=2cc45da4df

Thank you!

[youknowriad]

The Extensibility unification dev note is ready for review. cc @juanmaguitar https://make.wordpress.org/core/?p=113603&preview=1&_ppp=4d71f9add1

[talldan]

@juanmaguitar Sorry for the delay, added a dev note for the other social links issue here - #61396 (comment)

I'd be happy to see the two dev notes combined if you think that's best, though perhaps because one only affects social links when used in the navigation block, it makes it a little more particular.

[juanmaguitar]

@talldan Thanks for the drafts!

I'd be happy to see the two dev notes combined if you think that's best

In order to get the DevNote published, could you take care of the following actions?

• Shape a draft post using your notes (#61396-comment and #61270-comment) in https://make.wordpress.org/core
• Enable the "public post preview" link to share them in the project
• Get a technical review done on the draft - I think it would be easier for you to find the right person for the technical review, but I can also help with that technical review (doing it myself or helping find a reviewer) if you need me to

With these actions done, I can take care of a proofreading review to get the DevNote ready to be published

[juanmaguitar]

The Extensibility unification dev note is ready for review. cc @juanmaguitar https://make.wordpress.org/core/?p=113603&preview=1&_ppp=4d71f9add1

Thanks @youknowriad, for sharing the draft post.
Who do you think can do a technical review of the post? @ntsekouras could you do it?

With the technical review done I can take care of a final proofreading to get the DevNote ready to be published

[youknowriad]

Who do you think can do a technical review of the post? @ntsekouras could you do it?

I already had a couple persons do a technical review there but happy, let me add the props (I forgot). Happy to get more reviews.

[juanmaguitar]

I already had a couple persons do a technical review there but happy, let me add the props (I forgot). Happy to get more reviews.

Thanks @youknowriad for adding the props. Those technical reviews are more than enough. I did the proofreading review and added myself to the props.

✅ Proofreading

• 🟢  at least two reviewers | see Should dev notes be reviewed?
• 🟢 use of "I" and "we" and simple writing | see Style and substance
• 🟢 proper credits in italic (I added myself for proofreading) | see Attribution
• 🟢 proper tagging and categorizing | see Tagging and categorizing
• 🟢 Grammarly check

The post is ready to be published 🛳️

[scruffian]

Also added a dev note draft here: #60220 (comment)

[cbravobernal]

Added a dev note for Interactivity API new directives: #61885 (comment)

[talldan]

In order to get the DevNote published, could you take care of the following actions?

@juanmaguitar I've carried out those steps, @ramonjd gave it a tech review. It's on the board now with the status 'Needs 2nd review", I wasn't sure if 1st review is the technical review, but that was my guess.

[juanmaguitar]

Thanks a lot @talldan! 🙌
I did a last proofreading review and published the post.
It's available at https://make.wordpress.org/core/2024/06/19/social-links-block-changes-in-wordpress-6-6/

[t-hamano]

@juanmaguitar I added #59531 to the "Misc Dev Notes" section and wrote a dev note. Sorry for the delay 🙏

[westonruter]

Added a dev note for Interactivity API new directives: #61885 (comment)

This has been iterated on a bit more.

[juanmaguitar]

I've started a Miscellaneous Editor changes in WordPress 6.6 which includes all the short DevNotes (Misc Dev Notes). I plan on asking for a technical review of this whole post on Monday and doing another proofreading review myself, but any reviews that you can get done by then would speed up the review/publication process of this Misc DevNote.

Note

Please, add any reviewers' names in the proper props place at Miscellaneous Editor changes in WordPress 6.6.

The DevNotes included in Miscellaneous Editor changes in WordPress 6.6 are:

• Add block class name to the list block #56469 GB18.4 @carolinan (Block Styles) dev note comment
• Introduce wp-on-async directive as performant alternative over synchronous wp-on directive #61885 GB18.5 @westonruter (Interactivity API) dev note comment
• Allow view access of template rest endpoint to anyone with the edit_post capability #60317 GB18.1 @fabiankaegy (REST API) dev note comment
• Writing Flow/Rich Text: unify split logic #54543 GB18.4 @ellatrix, see 6.6 Dev Note Tracking Issue #62096 (comment)
• Make BlockPopover component public #61529 GB18.4 @gigitux dev note comment
• Add filter to allow extending the list of post content blocks #60068 GB18.1 @fabiankaegy dev note comment
• Global Styles: Filter out color and typography variations #60220 GB18.3 @scruffian dev note draft
• Add aspect ratio presets support via theme.json #47271 GB18.4 @fabiankaegy dev note comment
• More consistent root padding #60715 GB18.5 @richtabor dev note comment
• Try: Add new textAlign block support #59531 GB18.2 @t-hamano dev note comment

[juanmaguitar]

Closing this issue as all the Block Editor DevNotes have been published as well as the WordPress 6.6 Field Guide compiling them all

Thank you to all the developers pinged in this issue (and via Slack) for your collaboration in getting the DevNotes published in time for WP 6.6 RC1 release! You all rock!! 🙌