 I hope everybody had a good lunch. Who's excited to learn about WordPress 6.4? That's coming out in November. Yeah, we're all on 6.3.1 right now. Hopefully running stable. I'm Damon Cook. The slide link is there, but if you just go to my site, colorfultones.com, the slides are there as well. You can get to them from there. I am a developer advocate at WP Engine. Before that, I was a front-end developer for about 10 years in WordPress-centric agency land. So I worked with a lot of the mainstream WordPress agencies. So I'm just gonna give an overview of these features that are scheduled to come out in early November, November 7th, if we wanna stick to a deadline. But things get shifted and any of this can get shifted. But a lot of the stuff that I'll be covering today has been blessed by the release squad. So hopefully nothing will change too much. Just checking out how big that is. It's okay. I have a lot of videos on slides that are auto-playing. They're very short. They're just kind of brief overviews of the future I'm talking about and just trying to let you know and hopefully they're gonna work okay with the internet. 6.4 is the third release of 2023 and the final release. And it's led by an underrepresented gender squad. So let's give a big, that's an awesome, we need more of that. Primarily focused on extending the features from phase two, which is mostly around design. So block patterns, full-site editing and laying the groundwork for phase three work around collaboration features and then phase four being multilingual support. 6.4, just a breakdown of the Gutenberg releases that are included in that there. 16.2 to 16.7. Can everybody hear me okay? No. No? I can. Oh well, I don't have, here. Can you hear me better? Better? Okay, I'll do the microphone. Just to kind of put the main features that I'll be going through here into a couple sections. We're going over the default theme, style, grouping of things that affect styles, interface, blocks and patterns. And we'll go into detail as I get through these. The 2024 new default theme. Hopefully you've seen some of the designs that are out there. It's all on Figma and all publicly available. It does not, this year, they're not focusing on a specific kind of topic, but they have three kind of general use cases that they're targeting the designs around in the build and full-page patterns. Entrepreneurs, photographer and artists and writers and bloggers. So there is quite a wide variety of designs and builds and versatility in these designs. And this is already, of course, all this work is already underway. Lots of folks behind the scenes. These are just kind of some of the screen grabs from the designs in Figma. Good, the videos are working. This is just a kind of a walkthrough of the installation of 2024. I'm kind of going to go through a lot of these features kind of quick with the hope that at the end, I can go into some of these features if anybody wants me to in local and just kind of step through them in more detail. But these are just kind of a previews of these features. Style enhancements. The font library, this is a big one. They've been working on this for a while. This is kind of like, well, yeah, it's the media library for your fonts. And this is theme agnostic. So you can go into the site editor, toggle on, open up the fonts library and install fonts from Google Fonts or you can even drag and drop your own fonts into the library and activate them. And then you still have to assign them to all the areas that you want to use them, like the headings and the body or any of the text elements. But this is great because then you can switch themes and you can still have your fonts available. Currently the fonts do not switch, like if you activate a font and then switch themes that font necessarily won't carry over, you would have to reassign again to the body and all the elements that you want to use it on, but that, yeah, further work is being done on that. So, and there is support. A lot of people ask if there's support for variable fonts and kind of the, I think it's more of the way the Google Fonts API works, but you can, you actually have to download the variable font package and then you can drag and drop it into your library because all these fonts are actually saved in your WP content fonts directory. So, yeah, so that's how you handle variable fonts because otherwise you have to kind of go through and assign like 100, all the different weights, 100, 200, 300 and grab the ones that you want, but if you want to use a single variable font you can just drag and drop it in. Global style revisions, this is actually, I think it came out in 6.3 or maybe some of the earlier work was before that, but there were some minor adjustments just to the way it worked because in the lat, or while in the current release, you have to save essentially two changes to make revisions take place to show up in the UI, which is kind of counterintuitive. You want that first change that you make in the site editor to be recorded as a revision so you can roll back, but yeah, so that's been changed and there might have been some little UI adjustments around how you can, down at the bottom here, there's a button to apply and then reset to default so you can, after making several changes, you can go back to a blank slate if you want. That was the style enhancers. These are interface enhancements, things to help, what's the, yeah, to help with the writing experience. So the navigation, this actually affects the navigation list and quote block. Just the pinning of the toolbar in location to where you're editing with nested blocks has been altered to, it's a better, so this is the before as I'm playing here and I think you can kind of see how the toolbar above fouls along and then this is the change for 6.4 where it stays attached to the top and is a little more intuitive in the UI so it's not moving around a lot and shifting. That is great for the list block as well because if you get nested list items, a lot of times the toolbar would, if you had four down and you would go to edit the fourth item and you wanted to go ahead at the third, the toolbar would be above the third so you couldn't really get to it or click to it so now it stays pinned to the top which is easier. This is the link block, well, yeah, just the link. The open in a new tab, access to that is a little easier now and like one or two less clicks and it shows up in the preview so I think that was some feedback that the team got and they made adjustments there so that's really handy. The list view, which is the kind of the side, the left-hand sidebar that pops out when you're editing blocks. There's quite a few enhancements. You can multi-select now, well, you could multi-select but now when you multi-select you can use escape key to de-select those items where it's before which it's pretty common interaction, keyboard interaction but it wasn't working before so they fixed that. You can rename the group block in the sidebar as well which is kind of anybody in like Photoshop or Figma, you can set your layer names and keep everything tidy and organized which is great and you can rename in the sidebar but you can also rename on the right-hand side under settings for the group block as well and also in the sidebar for the gallery block and the image block there's now some tiny thumbnails that are displayed when you've attached items there just to kind of give you an indication of what, yeah, just, you know, your images are there. They're pretty small thumbnails which, you know, I mean it meets the UI but it's a good visual indication to reinforce what's there. Duplicating blocks is a lot easier with keyboard shortcuts. I don't think this, yeah, this doesn't exist in the current release so now, yeah, the command, what is it, command option D to duplicate any of the blocks from the sidebar is handy. Command palette, is anybody using the command palette? No? No? I had a feeling about it. The command palette is, anybody use Alfred? It's kind of that little or finder spotlight, you know, you can get quick access especially in the site editor but with this release they're introducing more functionality to duplicate or insert before or after blocks so it's just kind of a quick way to keyboard navigate a lot of these items and make the editing experience a little faster if you prefer to use the keyboard for those types of editing functionality. They also, yeah, they made the command palette responsive so it's easier to use on smaller screens. The snack bar which is an odd name for something but it's these little items that show up in the bottom left like if you ever saved a post, I'm sure you see the preview link is there so there's just some very subtle tweaks to the animation time and delay around those just to make it a little easier to interact with block enhancements, block hooks. This kind of came up earlier in Johnathan's talk, this is kind of a different idea of hooks in a way but not at the same time I guess because you're inserting, this API now allows extenders and plug-in authors to create maybe a custom block and assign it and say insert before every single heading or H1 and this gives you the API to do that. You can do before after or first child or last child but yeah, I think this is gonna be really helpful for extenders to integrate their blocks in different areas throughout the site, especially in the site editor and this is the thing to remember about this is it recognizes user changes so if a user modifies a template in the site editor and then maybe goes and installs a plugin that utilizes the block hooks, it will not interfere or alter their template but it will show in the UI, give them an option to opt into that at a later point should they choose to do so. The query loop got some attention and the pagination. There is the, you can probably barely see that but when you have several dozen posts and it's paginated and sometimes you have the numbers in the middle which is optional, you can now adjust, do you wanna have 10 of those numbers or three? So you can slide, there's a slider interface for that on the query loop block and there's also, oh yeah, sorry, I think I skipped a slide, that was the pagination. Yeah, this is the enhanced pagination which is the good old days of HAC so this uses the new interactive interactivity API to allow users to not have to refresh the page should they hit next or before in a pagination and that again is an opt-in toggle for the query loop block itself and that's just, yeah, there's the page numbers here. Looks like it got cut off a little bit there. This is the group block enhancements. Group block now has background image support so you can sign a background image to it and also I think in 6.3 the featured image had support for aspect ratio but now the image block also has support for aspect ratio and I mean this comes, I mean it's really handy but it's also good for any pattern and theme builders to set an aspect ratio on a placeholder image so if somebody installs your theme say from .org and it's just an image placeholder you don't really have a full image attached. They can assign an image there and it'll still have the aspect ratio that you want it to have in the design so it's good for extenders and good for the end users to have that set. Lightbox toggle for images and I think, yeah, there's a little bit of a demo there but I can also, it just gives a modal overlay pop up whatever you wanna call it for images and again this is a toggle in the side, right hand side bar for image blocks and I'm pretty sure gallery blocks as well and the images in the gallery block. That was the block enhancements. These are pattern enhancements for block patterns 6.3, there was the language change around reusable blocks going to synced and non-synced patterns and with it this kind of the idea that reusable blocks could be, yeah, just organized differently with categories but so they had future parity with how you can organize your pattern so now if you go and create and save a pattern while you're editing you can categorize it in a custom category and come back to that category later on in the site editor. We'll run the side bar here and you can import and export your block patterns just as JSON files again that's the parity with reusable blocks, what it was before so that's easy to kind of migrate your patterns from one side to another and that's just a slew of other items, noteworthy items that I kind of, yeah, there's probably so much more that I didn't even cover but this is kind of where I thought if anybody wants I can go and demo some of these features in a local instance and there is also an open call for testing, they're always looking for testing so there's a few links here and also a beta tester, I mean you can use the word press beta tester plugin to install 6.4 beta one I can show you how to do that if you have any questions just grab me. There's also a local blueprint which I created so you can drag and drop it into local and have it, it's all set up for you. Any questions? Anything? Yes, yes, I work for WP Engine. Yeah, yeah. Yes, yes, I mean, prior to working for WP Engine I used local so I'm a fanatic and it's, yes, yep, yes, it's a handy tool in there daily, so. Yeah, yeah, yep. Yes, yep, yep, that file will reside on your end server. Yep, in the fonts directory. Sure, yeah, he asked if you, if in the font library, the new font library, if you install a Google font in the library it will save that font locally or on your server, it's in the WP content fonts directory so it'll be saved there. So if tomorrow Google removed that font it's still on your server and you still have access to it and yeah, yep. What new feature are you most excited to have? Block hooks, I think that's gonna be really helpful because I think you can do some pretty, and I think there's still some use cases that might not even, nobody thought of yet. So just being able to slot in your own blocks in unique spaces for, you know, because there are missing features that I'm sure people allude to all the time so slotting in any custom elements before or after, I think that's gonna be really handy. Yes, yes, that's the theory, yes, absolutely, yep, yep. And I can't wait to install that plug in. Yeah, yeah, no, he asked. You wanna scary anything, sir? Yep. Or if you're interested. Yes. How do you add a paragraph? Yeah, I know it affects, yes, patterns, templates, template parts, so yes. And just as long as they haven't been user modified then yes, it would affect those. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't talk earlier. There was one that you scrolled down. Oh, down? Oh yeah, I know, yep, yeah, that's a nice, because I saw that the equal height columns, yeah. Yep, that's a nice feature. And yeah, it should, absolutely, yeah. That's what the alignment is for and sorry for the misspelling here. It sticks out like a sore thumb. Yes, another feature that actually I was really intrigued in I think is really helpful, but this is really a code-only change is button. If you use the button block and you actually want it to be a button element, you can do so, but it's more of a code change because you have to go into the code editor view and basically just swap out the A-link with a button and make sure the markup matches, but it won't give you a odd error message when you switch back to the visual editor. So it's kind of a, yeah, code-only, but it leaves the groundwork for lots of potential enhancements around buttons. Yeah, I would imagine, so I'm trying to think, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to think of a use case that wouldn't, yeah, that's, I think that's really targeted, yeah, for inner nested blocks that would be useful. Good question, I do not have any answer for that. Yep, sorry. Yeah, he asked if there was anything, sorry, I'm not repeating the question, I apologize. He just asked if for 6.4, if we know if anything's being deprecated and yeah, I'm not sure the answer to that, to be honest. Oh, I should, I do not know the answer to that either. I feel like I should though. Yeah, it is a great question. What is the minimal supported PHP version is what you're getting at essentially, right? Right, when is that coming, you're asking? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it, yeah, oh. Yeah, I think it, yeah, it should support the latest PHP, or well 8.2, I think, but there may be, I guess you're indicating there's issues for you. Yeah, I'm not privy to any of that, so I can't, yeah. I won't try to answer, but that's a great question. Yeah, yeah, seven point, yes, yep. And people try to point to my clients by saying, oh, you're still running 7.4, that's insecure, come to us, we have to worry about whatever. Right. And there's like reasons, I know something, like that, that if they would die, if they wanted to eat out something. Yeah, yeah, it's definitely, definitely test for those types of upgrades. Yeah, I'm not sure how they, what the, yeah, I'm not sure the, yeah, for 5.6, yeah. Oh, right, yeah, yeah, I'm not sure about, I'm not privy to, yeah, I'm not following up on the PHP support versions in WordPress, so I do not have an answer to that. Yeah, activity pub? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not sure, yeah, I don't know. Is that an activity pub, is that something for, like Macedon, the, yeah, yeah, Metaverse, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was just curious, yeah, good question. That I do not, I do not have answers to. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I think, yes, that's a great question that he's asking whether other libraries, like Typekit will be supported in the font library. I know for 6.4, I'm pretty sure it's just scope to Google Fonts, but I'm sure that, I've seen that question come up quite a bit, and so I think that the bones are there for the framework to integrate with other libraries, so I think it's just mostly getting it stable for one, Google being probably the more popular. I know that there was concerns that they had to work around because, especially with Google Fonts, there's a prompt to, if a user goes to the font library and goes to the install fonts and wants to use Google Fonts, they're prompted with a little notification so they can opt in, because they're basically downloading resources from Google. So I know EU has policies around stuff like that, so they had to be really careful about how they handled that and just make users aware that they're accessing files and saving them to their fonts, the font directory, so other questions? Does anybody want me to go into dive in on any of these and show? Okay, any particular, or all of them? The block, oh, that, hmm, yeah. Yeah, I wasn't prepared for that, that would be a custom block. Yeah, that might be a little too much, little too much coding, live coding. Yeah, but I'd be happy to follow up with you on that, because I definitely will be exploring that probably in the next week. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Oh yeah, the buttons, yeah that's, I haven't actually tried that out yet, so I would be happy to let's break things. And put the mic down a sec. So here I have just, this is a basic 6.4 beta one install, and this is the 2024 theme. I actually was messing around with fonts, so there is an odd font applied right now, so that's why this navigation is looking a little different. But he asked about the new button element support, so I'm just gonna walk through that quick. So if we enter, let's see, buttons, and then in theory, let's see how that works. That is not how I expected it to behave. That is the notification I did not want to see. So I wonder if, let me try one other thing. Probably because I did not supply the type maybe. Nope, so I'll have to follow up on that and see how that's supposed to work, because that's how I understood it to work. Well this still is the buttons. Yeah, this still is the buttons block. Yeah, that's what you start out with, always, yeah. Yeah, I just use the shorthand to, yeah, because you can use this syntax, I just type B-U-T and enter. Yeah, I went quick, sorry. I can quickly kind of show the font library. We go into the site editor, and then go into global styles area and typography, and then this is the font library, manage fonts. So I had already installed some of the, whoops, Google Fonts here, but we can continue, so this is, I don't know if this will work without, oh yeah, it does, I thought I would have a bad connection, but, so you can install some fonts from here and apply them, so. Once I hit that install, it's in my fonts directory, that font, although I thought I, didn't I just do that? Or, that is odd. Oh yeah, oh yes, and I forgot to mention actually, because the font library is not in beta one right now, you actually have to have the Gutenberg plugin installed, but that shouldn't be the case for beta two as far as I understand. It should be no longer, you shouldn't be required to be running the Gutenberg plugin, but that's odd. Yeah, I don't know why that's behaving like that, because I did it earlier and it was not, once I installed the font, it might be a network issue and something worth reporting a bug on. Is there anything else anybody wanted me to touch on and show and demonstrate, yeah? Yeah, co-authoring. I don't know, yeah, I'm not sure exactly what got rolled in for 6.4, but yeah, I think it's a lot of planning and discussion at this point and not so much probably code related. That's all I have, thank you. All right. Thank you.