WordPress 6.1 was released this month, as the last major release of 2022. As usual, there are a number of great features to explore. Here is a summary of some of the ones to watch out for.
Performance Upgrades
Improvements to WP_Query
Database queries in WP_Query being cached is a feature many developers have had on their wishlists, and now it’s finally available. A couple of new functions will ensure that the users cache and linked objects for menu items are now primed, while the get_page_by_title function will from now on use WP_Query and take the full advantage of all these improvements.
Site Health improvements
WordPress 6.1 will have two new Site Health checks – Persistent Object Cache and Page Cache, along with a number of new filters.
Persistent Object Cache – This new check determines whether the site uses a persistent object cache or not and recommends it if it makes sense for the site. It also links to a support resource created for the check.
Full Page Cache – This new check determines whether the site is using a full page cache solution and if the response time is acceptable.
Accessibility Improvements
WordPress 6.1 will now have both Twenty Twenty-Two and Twenty Twenty-Three standard themes marked as accessibility ready, making them the first default block themes to do so.
Aside from the public-facing accessibility features, there are also a number of new accessibility improvements to the WP admin pages that should make it much easier for those with disabilities to manage their WordPress site.
A More Refined Block Editor
The WordPress team continues to refine their block editor, including new features like scaffolding block variants with create-block tool, content locking updates, filtering theme.json data, extending Query block, Style Engine, new React hooks for easier data access, and many more.
Content only editing
With WordPress 6.1, a new experimental type of locking has been added called “contentOnly”. This locking method can be used by any pattern or block. When enabled, the users can only change the nested content inside the block/pattern. The block structure starts behaving as a single unit where the block hierarchy is entirely hidden. The user can only change text and media URLs in the blocks.
Additionally, block types without content are hidden from the List View and are unable to gain focus within the block list. This makes it harder to break the expected layout. In locked mode, the inspector controls of the blocks are also disabled. Instead, the sidebar only shows a list of content blocks a user can change.
For now, users still have the freedom to leave this locked mode by pressing modify. When modify is pressed, the block editor shows the hierarchy, and the user has complete control. For now, any user can press the modify button. In the future, the ability to access this function may depend on the capabilities of the user.
Fluid Font Sizes
WordPress 6.1, also brings forth fluid font sizes. This feature enables font sizes to adapt to changes in screen size, for example, by growing larger as the viewport width increases, or smaller as it decreases.
As usual, CanSpace clients can use our free script installer to install WordPress 6.1 to try it out. Clients already using WordPress can use our script installer to update WordPress to this latest version.
Want to know more about WordPress 6.1? Click here for a full list of features!
