It’s been a few weeks since WordPress 5.6 saw daylight! WordPress 5.6 “Simone,” honoring singer Nina Simone, has been released on 8th December 2020 with dozens of improvements and new features. This release is full of good stuff, such as a default theme called “Twenty Twenty-One’, an automatic update feature, application passwords, and tons of updates on the block editor.
Like previous releases, WordPress 5.6 is packed with a few block editors’ versions to improve the editing experience for the WordPress website development. However, the latest version is not just about the Block Editor, and it brings a lot more exciting features for the developers.
Let’s take a deep dive to know how WordPress 5.6 can boost WordPress development services without scratching the surface.
What’s different in the Block Editor?
One of the significant improvements in WordPress 5.6 is the block editor. In this version, the development team has merged several versions of the Gutenberg plugin into the core. So, you might experience some improvement during WordPress website development.
Change in blocks, patterns, and UI
With WordPress 5.6, the development team has introduced various improvements, such as position controls for videos in Cover Block, updates in block patterns, support for video subtitles, transforming blocks into column block, background patterns in Cover Block, and image size control for media and text block. These improvements will significantly improve the overall editing experience for the developers dealing with WordPress development services.
- All new Block API Version
With the new Block API version, it becomes easy to render wrapper elements of the block. The new API aims to reduce the editor’s DOM burden and make it compatible with front page contents.
- Additional enhancements and changes
Apart from these two significant improvements, the developers have also focused on Block Supports API, which helps developers to add new features to their blocks easily. In addition to this, WordPress 5.6 came up with a few changes in the toolbar components.
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Auto-Updates – For WordPress core major releases
Automatic updates were introduced in WordPress 3.7 to enhance website security and help website admins keep their site up to date. With WordPress 5.6, the site administrators can now manually enable automatic updates for all the major releases. WordPress 5.6 brings a whole new dashboard UI where users can easily manage auto-updates. This will help website owners to know whether their website is running the latest code available or not.
However, this could be a little complicated for non-technical site users, such as website owners, but they can get help from the WordPress development company to get the things done correctly.
Twenty Twenty-One – A New DEFAULT theme
One of the significant new features of WordPress 5.6 is the all-new twenty twenty-one default theme. The new theme is faster, easily accessible, and SEO-compatible. One of the most interesting features is that it allows developers to build even complex layouts with block patterns quickly. Moreover, the default theme comes up with rainbow-colored color palettes, which brings ease of choosing the right kind of background for WordPress website development.
Moreover, the users can switch layouts in a blink of an eye and utilize theme design to make their pages and posts engaging.
Application Passwords – to restrict access
WordPress 5.6 has introduced a new way to restrict access to certain parts of your website – Application Passwords. Unlike login credentials, you can use application passwords to provide access to your website’s external sources while keeping other sections of the website intact. All you need to do is to generate access keys and share them with the intended audience.
Moreover, you can revoke access by merely hitting the “Revoke” button.
Leverage from PHP 8 support
PHP 8 was released some time back, and it is an excellent deal for the developers since it is the programming language in which WordPress is written. WordPress 5.6 is beta-compatible with PHP 8, but it still requires a lot of work to make it fully compatible with the latest version of PHP 8. However, it is an excellent initiative from the WordPress team to support PHP 8.0.
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Updated jQuery Migrate Plugin
In the previous versions of WordPress, jQuery migrates deprecations, and updates are considered significant issues for the developers involved in WordPress development services. WordPress 5.6 has updated and enabled the jQuery Migrate plugin to mitigate the problem of website crashes. When the plugin is enabled, the plugin will detect outdated jQuery, highlight the same on the page, and educate the user to install the enable jQuery Migrate helper plugin. The plugin detects jQuery issues as and when the user browses any page.
Ready to Upgrade?
There is so much more to deep dive into WordPress 5.6. It is a significant update, and the features highlighted make sense for businesses and developers using WordPress development services. Are you thrilled and excited to move your existing website to WordPress 5.6 version? Before running any WordPress major update, it is important to take a backup of your existing website. You can Hire a WordPress developer to help you leverage nitty-gritty stuff offered by WordPress 5.6.
