This Week in 4.2: February 23 – March 1

This is the jump-start post for the sixth week of the WordPress 4.2 release cycle.

The feature pluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins merge window is scheduled to close this week on Wednesday, February 25th. BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. 1 starts in 2 1/2 weeks, on Wednesday, March 11th.

CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Meetings this week:

• Core Dev Chat
  • When: February 25 2015 21:00 UTC
  • Where: #core on Slack
• Weekly Bug Scrub
  • When: February 27 2015 16:00 UTC
  • Where: #core

4.2 Feature Chats this week:

• CustomizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. Theme Switcher
  • When: February 24 2015 16:00 UTC
  • Where: #core-customize on Slack
  • Leader: @celloexpressions
• Press This
  • When: February 24 2015 17:00 UTC
  • Where: #feature-pressthis
  • Leader: @michael-arestad
• NUX Working Group
  • When: February 24 2015 19:00 UTC
  • Where: #core-flow
  • Leader: @DrewAPicture
• Shiny Updates
  • When: February 25 2015 23:00 UTC
  • Where: #core
  • Leader: @pento

Priority tickets this week:

AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility)

• #18650 – Make archives and categories widgets dropdown ada compliant
• #26600 – Search installed themes input has no submit button
• #30619 – The wpView toolbar is not accessible by keyboard
• #31326 – Edit comment screen: misplaced-missing labels

Mobile:

• #29989 – Hide Media Buttons on small screens
• #31187 – Allow swiping the adminadmin (and super admin) menu open and closed on touch devices
• #29906 – Submenus can’t be dismissed on mobile
• #29993 – Media action links are cramped on small screens

Posts seeking your feedback:

• Multisite Objective: Defining Network Types

Notable updates from last week:

• Mobile Flow Update, Feb. 18
• WordPress Core Weekly
• Merge Proposal: Customize Theme Switcher
• Merge Proposal: Press This
• Taxonomy term splitting in 4.2: a developer guide

#4-2, #jump-starts