The beta version of WordPress 4.6 has been released. We followed the development closely and excited to report that the final version is expected to be released around August 16, 2016. In this article, we will highlight what’s coming in WordPress 4.6 with features and screenshots.
Note: You can try out the beta version on your computer or on a staging environment by using the WordPress Beta Tester plugin.
This is the beta release, which means no more new features will be added until the final release of WordPress 4.6. However, some of the features in beta may not make it into the final release.
Shiny Updates in WordPress 4.6
When users installed a new plugin or theme, or updated one, they usually saw a progress screen. This progress screen added one more page load and was a bit distracting.
WordPress 4.6 will introduce shiny updates. Users will now be able to update and install plugins and themes without being redirected to the progress screen.
Native System Fonts in WordPress Admin Area
WordPress started using Open Sans font in WordPress admin area to offer a consistent look across different devices and platforms. However, this meant that WordPress to rely on an external third party source. This also increased page load times of admin area, and affected speed.
With WordPress 4.6, the admin area will revert back to using the system fonts. This means that your WordPress admin area may look slightly different on different platforms.
Here is a screenshot of admin area in Safari web browser on macOS using system font San Francisco.
These are the system fonts that will be used in WordPress admin area on different platforms and environments.
- apple-system for Safari and Firefox on macOS and iOS
- Helvetica Neue on macOS prior to 10.11
- BlinkMacSystemFont for Google Chrome on macOS
- Segoe UI for Windows
- Roboto for Android and Chrome OS
- Oxygen-Sans for KDE
- Ubuntu for Ubuntu
- Cantarell for GNOME
- sans-serif, the standard fallback
Note: This change only affects the UI elements of WordPress admin area. It will not content areas like post editor which uses your theme’s editor stylesheet for fonts.
Editor Improvements in 4.6
Most WordPress users spend more time on post editor than any other admin screen on their site. Improving post editing experience always takes priority in new WordPress releases.
Improved Auto Save Feature
WordPress 4.6 brings improvements to autosave feature in WordPress. Previously, when users disabled revisions, it also affected restoring posts from autosave feature.
WordPress 4.6 will fix this issue and users can restore WordPress posts from browser backups and autosave even when they have revisions disabled.
Highlighting Broken Links
If you are using the visual editor to write posts, then adding a broken URL will be highlighted.
As soon as you add a link, WordPress will check if the link is valid. If you take the cursor to the linked text, then you will see the link in red color instead of the usual blue.
Under The Hood Improvements
These updates improve significant parts of WordPress core but are mainly intended for developers.
Standardized Metadata Registration
WordPress 4.6 brings register_meta() function for the registration of meta keys. This function works like register_post_type() function. It allows plugins and theme developers to use a standardized way to work with meta data stored with posts, users, comment, or terms object types. (#35658)
New WP_Post_Type Class
WordPress 4.6 will introduce the new WP_Post_Type class. It changes $wp_post_types to an array of WP_Post_Type objects. This provides methods to handle post type supports, rewrite rules, meta boxes, hooks, and taxonomies. (#36217)
New WP_Term_Query Class
Similar to WP_Query, WP_User_Query, and WP_Comment_Query classes, WP_Term_Query in WordPress 4.6 will provide a better structure for generating term queries. (#35381)
WP_Site_Query and WP_Network_Query Classes
For WordPress multisite networks, the new WP_Site_Query and WP_Network_Query classes allow querying sites and networks with lazy loading. (#35791, #32504)
We hope this article helped you learn what’s coming in WordPress 4.6. Let us know which features you find exciting and what you would like to see in future releases of WordPress?
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Nico
Wordpress should have a tool like GoogleDev Tools (Source Render) to code Front-End without so many plugins involve and all the nightmare.
PLS Freedom to front-end developers!
Why do I have to use an editor like the Family Game or Sega?
I mean Wordpress should add kind of a GoogleDev Tools to work and update HTML, CSS and JS.
And keep the plugins for those who don’t want to code. But at least think in Developers if you have a Woocommerce environment, and so many stuff to work bigger, think bigger Wordpress.
If you have Woocommerce, stop the blog plugin-based software style and make a complete front-end developer side.
Besides, I’m not interested in programming back-end PHP functions. Wordpress is a great back-end solution.
Or do I write this for nothing and is there already a tool for what I’m saying and I’ve been going crazy with this nightmare plugin’s land?
Pls anyone can help???
Best regards
kris
I would love to have wordpress remember the category of the last post, when creating a new one,, it would be already selected… rather than the default ‘about’
huge time saver imho
WPBeginner Support
WordPress uses the default category as the pre-assigned category for new posts.
Admin
kris
thanks! right you are. after 6 years of using wordpress. I learn something so basic
although my suggestion is still valid,
Grant Winney
It’s great to see improvements still being made, and that someone’s paying attention to response time.
The link validator strikes me as odd. Nearly every single time I’ve pasted a link into a post, I’ve just copied it from another tab where I have the page open. I can’t remember a time I had a link sitting around in a text file or something, and the site had died between when I copied the link and referenced it in a post.
Sandeep Mohanty
Thanks for the list of WordPress 4.6 Very Good.
Brian
Still waiting for Plug-in search filters. Filter by currently available fields for compatibility, active installs, and last update would be a huge improvement.
Osman
Yeah plugin search filters will be added !!!
Manjunath Naik
Thanks for useful information.
Dan Heath
Keep wishing for pages to show specified categories of post, and only those categories. I create a page about constructing a canopy. I only want posts for the categories I specify, such as “Canopy”, to show up on that page. If I do not specify any categories for that page, then it shows all posts.
The stuff in this release is OK, but not really relevant to my needs. What I asked for here, I have asked for many times. If I could write a plug in for it I would. If anyone knows of a plug in that will do this, I sure would like to know.
Shaun Nestor
Hi Dan,
To have a page only show posts in a certain category is quite simple, just point your users to the /category/ URL
For example, if your website is at http://www.example.com and your canopy posts are all in the category ‘Canopy’, you can send users to http://www.example.com/category/canopy/
I hope this addresses the frustration you’ve been experiencing.
-Shaun
Dylan MacDonald
This no longer works for me in Wordpress 4.6. All of my category pages are now blank . Is this a known issue?
Sufyan Shaikh
thank you so much on giving idea of what will be there in Wordpress 4.6.
Arta
The editor link checker is amazing.
Triet Minh
Interesting update! it’s worth the wait.
ibrar
nice information bro good thing about wordpress
Loi Tran
Thanks for the informative and well put together post.
Temitayo Boboye
Wow!!! this is so great, I love the Plugin Update and the WP_Post_Type. Can’t wait to see these in action. Going for Beta now #GoingForBeta
John Brian Shannon
“When users installed a new plugin or theme, or updated one, they usually saw a progress screen. This progress screen added one more page load and was a bit distracting.”
Congratulations to WordPress! This is a major irritant to many people, especially if traveling through an area with slow internet.
And all of those progress page loads combined — from all sources 24/7 all across the internet — act to slow down the entire net, by adding millions of such operations per day. It’s outrageously wasteful and time consuming in it’s internet totality.
I hope that soon, not only website hosts such as WordPress, but all sites on the web follow the leadership of WP on this.
Thanks for posting this article. Well done.
Cheers, JBS
Kosta
Hm, Nothing Special At This Patch
Emily
If you have any influence, a very nice and very basic upgrade would be to have an “Are you sure?” dialog box after you press the Publish button. It is astonishing that this hasn’t been part of WordPress since the very first version.
Lin
Emily – there’s a plugin that I found just recently after hitting Publish instead of Saved Draft. The one I found and am using is called “Publish Confirm.” Lifesaver! And, yes, it should be in the basic WordPress.
Davide De Maestri
Thank you for this quick list of WordPress 4.6 news!