WordPress 5.1

Until WordPress 5.1 release, users downloaded WordPress 5.0 for more than 35 million times who has accepted the block editor will observe that it is more responsive. WordPress 5.1 involves performance enhancements from Gutenberg 4.8. It includes features like faster page initialization time, enhanced typing performance, and escalation of different background processes.

It initiates new attributes from the Site Health project. WordPress will now detect if a site is running on an insecure, outdated version of PHP and display a notice in the dashboard with information about how to update PHP. It consists of checking PHP version compatibility with plugins. To prevent utilizers from installing plugins WordPress 5.1+ is used which require new versions of PHP.

This release also introduces a medley of miscellaneous improvements under the hood for developers, including (but not limited to) the following:

Site Health

This project will denote users of their outdated PHP versions. WordPress begins to take account of plugin PHP version requirements.

Multisite Metadata

WordPress 5.1 insert table in its database that gathers metadata associated with the websites. This permits the storage of arbitrary data relevant to a multisite network.

New JavaScript Build Process

This code was recognized in the trunk since April 2019 and is finally shipped with WordPress 5.0.

Updated Styles

WordPress 5.1 holds the admin table pagination having their CSS styling modified. This change improves the color contrast ratio. Ultimately, this will result in better accessibility and also improves consistency across admin screens.

Cron API

WordPress 5.1 also comes with a change in behavior for cron spawning not only on servers running FastCGI but also for PHP versions 7.0.16 and above. It consists of two features to assist with returning data:

  • One function will be used to retrieve cron jobs ready to be run
  • The other function will be used to retrieve a scheduled event.

Block Editor

The new editor to be improved since its release in WordPress 5.0. The 5.1 will have a new version of Gutenberg 4.8. This new version will improve Gutenberg performance and it involves design improvements.

Bug Fixes

WordPress 5.0 comes with over 303 bug fixes. That’s not all, it also includes:

  • 156 enhancements
  • 9 feature requests
  • 23 blessed tasks

New Features

  • New dashboard notice for PHP version
  • PHP version compatibility checks for plugins and themes
  • White screen of death protection
  • Improved block editor performance
  • Changes for developers

New Dashboard Notice for PHP Version

The latest versions of PHP are recommended for improved performance and security.

Let us know, PHP 7.3 is on average 9% faster than PHP 7.2. When we compare PHP 7.3 to PHP 5.6, it can hold almost 3x as many requests per second! Simultaneously, you should check your plugins and themes first on a staging site for compatibility. In case everything is good, make sure to take benefit of this free performance boost.

In the end, WordPress is getting on board with forcing the trendy versions of PHP with some new tools and denotes to promote PHP versions and compatibility.

PHP Version Compatibility Checks for Plugins and Themes

Beyond the soft prompt in the WordPress dashboard, WordPress 5.1  inserts forced PHP compatibility instead of soft prompt in the WordPress dashboard to check when to install a new plugin or theme.

For a while, WordPress plugins developers should have the talent to set a minimum PHP version needed as a comment in the plugin header. Anyhow, up until now, this hasn’t done anything but show what minimum PHP version the developer is willing to support.

White Screen of Death Protection

WordPress 5.1 was planned to introduce a new attribute called “fatal error protection” which is used to protect from the WordPress white screen of death while updating PHP.

Regrettably, this attribute has been got from the WordPress 5.1 release at the last minute. However, it’s for good reason.

Using this protection, WordPress will acknowledge if a fatal error occurs and cease the disgust theme or plugin in the WordPress admin dashboard so that you can log into the backend of your site and fix the issue. For less tech-savvy utilizers, this will be a great new attribute once they iron out all the issues.

If your site meets issues while upgrading PHP versions, it will look like below on the front-end, but still, you can log into the backend to fix the problem.

Improved Block Editor Performance

Due to the initial release of the Gutenberg block editor in WordPress 5.0, the Gutenberg team working hard to improve the block editor.

Despite the identical version numbers, WordPress 5.1 does not involve Gutenberg 5.1. Instead, WordPress 5.1 involves Gutenberg 4.8.

WordPress 5.1 block editor has the biggest changes in performance deal with performance compared to WordPress 5.0.

We hope the above article helps to know about WordPress 5.1. For more information, like us on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. For video tutorials, subscribe to our YouTube channel “ServerCake India”.

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