The Test Team helps manage testing and triage across the WordPress ecosystem. They focus on user testing of the editing experience and WordPress dashboard, replicating and documenting bug reports, and supporting a culture of review and triage across the project.
If you’d like to help test Full Site Editing, please join the FSE Outreach Program. You can find current calls for testing for this program here and you can join the fun in #fse-outreach-experiment.
With WordPress 5.9 slated to ship on January 25th, 2022, this post seeks to consolidate ways for folks to help test specific features that will be included in this release. This is meant to bolster and support overall 5.9 testing efforts. As a result, expect that FSE Outreach Program calls for testing will be on pause ahead of the FSE related features landing in WordPress 5.9.
Important note: Anything marked as [Technical] is best for those comfortable with more advanced testing steps.
Please only test on a development siteDevelopment Site You can keep a copy of your live site in a separate environment. Maintaining a development site is a good practice that can let you make any changes and test them without affecting the live/production environment. and not on a production/live site. You can follow these instructions to set up a local installLocal Install A local install of WordPress is a way to create a staging environment by installing a LAMP or LEMP stack on your local computer. or use a tool like this to set up a development site.
Once a development site is set up, please install and activate the WordPress Beta Tester Plugin before setting it to:
If you need more specific steps, here are more detailed instructions you can follow.
At a high level, there are a few tips to keep in mind to get the most out of helping to test:
Twenty Twenty-Two Default Block Theme
When picking a theme to use for your test site, please try out the Twenty Twenty-Two theme. It’s the very first theme that’s block based and needs thorough testing as a result. Here’s where you can read more about this theme. You can test the theme by installing the Beta and activating Twenty Twenty-Two from Appearance > Themes. To report issues with the theme, you can do so here.
Block theme flows
Since Block Themes open up the opportunity to edit more parts of your site, new flows have been added to make it more intuitive to access items, like a template editor, where you can make the changes you want to your homepage or 404 page. These workflows and new features need your help to test!
For detailed testing steps around how best to test these workflows, please follow this call for testing that covers using Styles, Template Part focus mode, and more.
Theme blocks with a focus on the Navigation block
As Full Site Editing is a collection of features that allows more items to be easily edited without knowing how to code, new blocks were created to cover more parts of your site. These blocks are generally called “Theme Blocks” as they match the functionality that used to be in themes. While a number of theme blocks were introduced in WordPress 5.8, there’s always more work to be done, including shipping even more theme blocks in future releases!
For detailed steps around how to test the navigation block, please follow this call for testing that covers creating two different menus.
For detailed steps around how to general test theme blocks and a complete list of blocks, please follow this call for testing.
List View
List view has a few enhancements to keep in mind, including the ability to drag & drop blocks, and the ability to collapse sections to make it easier to navigate complex content. As you explore 5.9, try using List View in various situations to ensure it’s performant and easy to use.
Design tools
The effort to bring better and more consistent design tools continues to progress with new options added, a more intuitive interface, and more. With just a few combinations of these settings, you can create vastly different layouts from a few simple slight changes to more radical and complex options.
While a ton of tools have been added to various blocks, there are just a few to focus on for testing:
Gallery block
Thanks to a Gallery Block refactor, you can now use the same tools that are available for individual image blocks on each image in the Gallery Block! This added flexibility means you can do more customization – from adding links to each individual image, inline cropping to edit on the fly, apply unique styles for more visually compelling images and apply an array of duotone filters. You can read more about this change.
The following items are a high priority to test:
For additional context, please note that the new Gallery block is included in Beta 1, but the auto migrationMigration Moving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies. of existing Gallery blocks will be in Beta 2. As a result, for Beta 1, you’ll be able to test the new Gallery block by adding a new Gallery, but, in order to migrate an old format Gallery block, you’ll need to do so manually using the Update button in the block toolbar.
Block pattern explorer
The experience of adding patterns from the Inserter just got a refresh with the introduction of a new modal that allows you to see patterns in a more organized way with larger previews. In terms of testing, the items to cover are quite simple:
General updates coming to CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.
Outside of these more specific features, there are also some general updates coming to this release that would be advantageous to have tested:
If you find any issues, it’s best to share them on the alpha/beta forums, or Trac if you are more technically savvy and comfortable. Please share feedback as soon as you can before the release on January 25th, 2022.
Thank you to @justinahinon @boniu91 @cbringmann @hellofromtonya and @webcommsat for reviewing and contributing to this post.
This is the eleventh call for testing as part of the Full Site Editing Outreach Program! For more information about this outreach program, please review this FAQ for helpful details. To properly join the fun, please head to #fse-outreach-experiment in Make Slack for future testing announcements, helpful posts, and more.
As a reminder, if you’d like to suggest an idea for a call for testing, it’s very welcomed and all ideas will be weighed against current project priorities to figure out what makes the most sense to pursue. You can share ideas directly in the slackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel or via DM to me (@annezazu).
Feel free to jump straight to the testing steps if you’d prefer to get started right away.
This is the final call for testing before WordPress 5.9, which makes it a wonderful and high impact one to be involved in as it’ll help improve the experience for a large portion of the web before it ever launches. In order to get the most out of this call for testing, the instructions are going to change as the test goes on and as we move forward in the release cycle. For example, at the start of this test, folks will be encouraged to use TT1 and, by the end of the test, Twenty Twenty-Two will be recommended. For now, here’s a high level overview of what is going to be tested:
BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. theme template and template part editing UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing.
While certain calls for testing have ventured into the Site Editor, that experience as you’ve known it is shifting for 5.9 in order to offer a more refined and scaled down experience to manage templates and template parts within a block theme. With a condensed browsing tool and a new placement in wp-admin under Appearance, this might feel more like a taste than the full experience of the Site Editor as you’ve come to know it.
Styles Interface
While 5.8 laid the groundwork for a cohesive style system, 5.9 sees the introduction of a beautiful user interface that allows folks to interact directly with various style properties. You might have heard of this work under the project name “global styles”! While we’ve had calls for testing around theme.jsonJSON JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a minimal, readable format for structuring data. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML., one of the mechanisms related to the overall Global Styles project, this is the first time Styling itself is being explored. Currently, this interface displays two large groups of design focuses: blocks and elements. Elements represent things that can be styled globally and across blocks (such as “text”, “links”, “captions”, etc). This is a fancy way of saying you can easily change the typography of your entire site or the unique coloring of your buttons block all from the same interface.
Patterns Explorer
With block patterns on the rise, a new explorer modal has been shipped to make it easier to navigate between patterns and find the exact one you want to use. This sets the groundwork for future integration with the Pattern Directory. This test will briefly explore this new experience.
Twenty Twenty-Two
Twenty Twenty-Two is the latest in a long line of default themes with a twist — it’s a block theme first and foremost built for the various site editing tools. As a result, midway through this call for testing, folks will be encouraged to test using this theme and report back their findings. Read more about this groundbreaking default theme here.
This will adjust as the test goes on and the release cycle progresses to ensure folks are testing the latest and greatest.
Here are the steps to follow to properly set up your testing environment for this specific all for testing. If you’re already ready to go, jump to the testing steps below.
Generally speaking, please use the latest versions of each part of the setup and keep in mind that versions might have changed since this post was shared.
Personalize your homepage
1. Go to Settings > Reading and set “Your homepage displays” to show “Your latest posts”.
2. Once set, go to Appearance > “Editor (beta)”. This will open up to show a template that displays your homepage.
3. From there, change your homepage to your liking! This could mean adding in a navigation block, changing the font size of your Post Title Blocks, adding a duotone filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. to your Post Featured ImageFeatured image A featured image is the main image used on your blog archive page and is pulled when the post or page is shared on social media. The image can be used to display in widget areas on your site or in a summary list of posts. blocks, removing blocks, adding blocks, and more.
4. Once you’ve adjusted everything to your liking, click “Save” and go through the saving experience.
Set your styles
5. From there, click on the Styles icon in the upper right corner to access the Styles interface.
6. Once open, personalize the four sections as much or as little as you’d like: Typography, Colors, Layout, and Blocks (to customize individual blocks). For example, you can click on Colors > Palette > Use the + sign to add your own custom color option for use throughout your content.
7. Once you’ve adjusted everything to your liking, click “Save” and go through the saving experience.
Add a buttons pattern and use layout controls
8. From there, open up the Inserter and switch to the Patterns tab.
9. Select the “Explore” option, navigate to the Buttons section, and pick the “Simple call to action” pattern.
10. Once added, use the + option to add in a second button.
11. From there, select the overall parent Buttons block and open the sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. settings to customize the layout to your liking. Here’s a quick video in case you get stuck.
12. Save the changes.
Add a duotone filter to your Archive template
13. Click on the W menu in the upper left hand corner > Under Editor select “Templates” > Select “Add New” > Select “Archive” (currently not possible to create a General template from here).
14. In the content, add in the Post Featured Image block and add in a duotone filter.
15. Add in any additional blocks you’d like and save the changes when you’re ready.
16. Head back to your dashboard by clicking on the W icon in the upper left corner before heading to Posts > All posts.
17. Edit one of your posts with a featured image and assign your updated “Archive” to this post. Here’s a quick video in case you get stuck.
18. Save and view the post to see the filter applied!
Edit your HeaderHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes.
19. Return to Appearance > Editor (beta) and, using List View if you need to, select your Header template part.
20. Select the three dot menu in List View or in the block toolbar and select “Edit Header”. This will take you to the focused template part mode.
21. From there, make a few changes to the template part (add items to the navigation block, change the size of your Site Title, etc) and use the horizontal drag handles to see how your header will look at different sizes!
22. Save the changes.
Please leave feedback in the comments of this post. If you’d prefer, you’re always welcome to create issues in this GitHub repo directly for Gutenberg. If you leave feedback in GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/, please do still comment below with the link. If you see that someone else has already reported a problem, please still note your experience with it below, as it’ll help give those working on this experience more well-rounded insight into what to improve.
Props to @kellychoffman for helping review this call for testing.
Changelog
Nov 10th: updated instructions to use Gutenberg 11.9 RC4.
Nov 12th: updated instructions to use Gutenberg 11.9.
Nov 13th: updated instructions to use WordPress 5.8.2.
Nov 24th: updated instructions to use Gutenberg 12.0, to change the phrasing around the browsing component, and to update the due date.
Welcome to this week’s edition of Week in Test! This post is a curated list of where you can get involved (i.e. where testers of all skill levels and expertise are needed), learning opportunities, and some reading to keep you informed.
This week focuses on helping with 5.9 new features and enhancements. Remember, feature freeze is 9 Nov.
Looking for ways to contribute? The following tickets and patches need contributors.
Who? All contributors (not just developers) who can set up a local testing environment, apply patches, and test per the testing instructions.
The following tickets need testers to manual test and provide feedback (test report):
Who? Any QA or PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php. developer contributors who can (or is interested in learning how to) build automated PHPUnit tests.
The following tickets need PHPUnit tests build:
wp_list_users() template tagwp_http_validate_url to control which ports are allowed for remote requestsWho? Any contributor.
The following new tickets need testers to attempt reproducing the reported issue and then providing a test report with the results:
open_basedir warnings on classic post edit screens with TinyMCE plugins presentProps to @boniu91 for peer review.