The WordPress community experienced significant leadership changes this week. Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic, was placed on paid leave by the company’s board. Two days later, he returned to his position in control of the company.

Justin Tadlock, WordPress developer advocate at Automattic, addressed the situation in this edition. He expressed support for Mullenweg, fellow Automattic employees, and the broader WordPress community. The core philosophy of democratizing publishing remains unchanged, according to Tadlock.

WordPress 7.1.1 Release Schedule

WordPress 7.1.1 is scheduled for release on Thursday, September 17. This maintenance release focuses exclusively on bug fixes. The update addresses 16 Core tickets and 22 Gutenberg pull requests.

Adam Silverstein, Adrian Duffell, and Andra Ganescu are co-leading the release. Developers who maintain features related to responsive styles, the Icon Registration API, or the iframed editor should test the release candidate now. The RC1 version is currently available for testing.

Gutenberg 23.9 Improvements

Gutenberg 23.9 introduces several workflow enhancements. The most notable change allows users to insert blocks directly from the block toolbar. This addresses a persistent navigation issue that affected many users.

Additionally, Global Styles now displays dot indicators for blocks with custom style overrides. A new filter lets users view only those blocks with customizations. Theme developers gain access to separate vertical and horizontal gap controls for the Group block.

The update also includes theme.json styling for label elements. Global Styles controls now extend to citations, inputs, and selects. Custom Duotone colors are also supported in this release.

WordPress 7.2 Development Begins

The WordPress 7.2 development cycle has officially started. Jeffrey Paul announced the release squad, with Matt Mullenweg serving as release lead. David Baumwald handles release coordination, while George Mamadashvili and Peter Wilson serve as tech leads.

Henrique Iamarino leads default theme design. Carolina Nymark and Maggie Cabrera oversee development. Beta 1 is scheduled for October 20-22, with final release planned for December 8-10.

Notes Feature Enhancement

Anne McCarthy outlined plans to improve the Notes feature by 7.2 Beta 1. The current implementation suffers from discoverability issues and tracking difficulties. Her proposal calls for better visibility in the block toolbar and a dedicated suggestion mode.

The updated Notes will appear alongside the Settings sidebar. Users will also gain the ability to add emoji reactions. This represents a significant evolution from the feature’s state in WordPress 6.9.

WooCommerce 11.1 Released

WooCommerce 11.1 brings variation image galleries to all stores as a core feature. Karol Manijak confirmed that the standalone extension automatically deactivates upon update. Existing galleries migrate to the core system without manual intervention.

The release introduces opt-in right of order withdrawal for EU compliance. Beta support for video in product galleries is now available. Store API requests show measurable performance improvements, running 13-18 milliseconds faster.

Store owners should test the update in staging environments first. This is particularly important for stores with large variation catalogs.

PHP Version Requirements

WooCommerce plans to drop PHP 7.4 and 8.0 support. Brian Coords shared a proposal requiring PHP 8.1 or newer starting with WooCommerce 11.5. The change targets January 2027 implementation.

The team seeks feedback from agencies, hosts, and extension developers. They want to identify potential migration barriers before finalizing the decision. This move signals broader industry readiness for modern PHP versions.

Icon Font Replacement Initiative

Joen Asmussen proposed replacing Dashicons with SVG icons in the admin bar and menu. The new system would use wp_get_icon(), which WordPress 7.1 introduced. Icon fonts present accessibility challenges that SVG addresses more effectively.

Screen readers handle icon fonts inconsistently. Windows High Contrast Mode also renders them improperly. SVGs with aria-label and currentColor provide predictable behavior across platforms.

Block developers should note future plans. The team considers letting block.json icon registration use WordPress icons instead of Dashicons.

Developer Requirements Update

As of September 8, trunk in wordpress-develop and gutenberg requires Node.js 24 and npm 11. Manzoor Wani specified the minimum versions: Node.js 24.18.0 and npm 11.16.0. Required CI checks now run on Node.js 24.

Developers with pull requests based on older trunk versions should rebase. This picks up the new checks automatically. Older branches maintain their previous requirements without changes.

WordPress Playground Advances

Fellyph Cintra introduced WordPress Playground and WebMCP integration. This allows AI agents to work with WordPress directly in browser tabs. No server connection is required for the interaction.

Playground exposes 16 actions as tools that agents can discover. These cover site management, PHP execution, navigation, and file operations. Plugins can register their own custom actions as well.

Adam Zieliński announced runnable code examples in the Code Reference. Users can click Run to execute snippets against a real WordPress install in their browser. Examples are written in DocBlocks with php interactive code fences.

Community Updates

WordPress News highlighted students in Bangladesh who built 108 websites in two weeks. The initiative included free workshops spanning from Uganda to Costa Rica. These educational efforts demonstrate WordPress’s global reach and accessibility.

WordCamp World offers a pixel-art adventure game set at a fictional flagship WordCamp. The game includes a Contributor Day and closing ceremony. Marcus Burnette created it through The WP World, an independent community project.

Benjamin Zekavica opened the WordPress 7.1 release retrospective. Feedback is welcome through a linked form or comments until September 30. The team anonymizes submissions in follow-up summaries.

Original Source: gutenbergtimes.com