If you are one of the approximately 22.6 million sites using WordPress you are probably quite familiar with the plentiful number of updates that come with WordPress.
As major versions go, switching to a new digit at the front usually means big changes. And there are. WordPress 5.0 is a big change, but beyond some bug fixes and other minor updates the main focuses of WordPress 5.0 are around a couple things.
Gutenberg WordPress Editor
This is the new block-based post editor. With over 1 million sites currently using Gutenberg, it’s being released now in to the core of WordPress with 5.0. While being billed as a streamlined editing experience, for those that have never used Gutenberg before, it’s certainly going to change your current processes and also going to take some time to get use to the new way WordPress 5.0 operates at its core.
If you need some more time to get ready for this new experience, the Class Editor Plugin is what you’ll want to have before upgrading to 5.0.
Twenty Nineteen WordPress theme
To support the new block editor, this is the new and default theme with custom styles in place to work with these blocks. All of the previous default themes, from Twenty Ten through to Twenty Seventeen, have been updated to support the block editor.
PHP 7.3
WordPress 5.0 officially supports the upcoming PHP 7.3 release: if you’re using an older version, we encourage you to upgrade PHP on your site.
When is WordPress 5.0 going live?
Officially, the release date for this was November 19, 2018, and had been pushed back to November 27, 2018, and has been now targeted to be released very soon, on December 6th, 2018.
While this date has been, not surprisingly, moved a couple times already, we will update this article with any information as it becomes available. You can also check the link below to WordPress 5.0 discussion:
https://make.wordpress.org/core/5-0/
What should I do to get ready?
Managed WordPress Hosting
If you are subscribed to our Managed WordPress hosting our platform is ready to support 5.0, but your site and/or you may not be ready for this.
Once there is a confirmed and firm date for this rollout, we will be disabling the auto updates for major versions to prevent the automatic update to 5.0. We will still be ensuring that security updates are applied across your installation with us.
You can use the staging site features within the control panel to test the roll out of 5.0 on your installation. Once you are confident that the update hasn’t affected your site, you can push the staging to the production site and that will trigger our systems to re-subscribe you to all updates again.
If you are dragging your heels a bit and getting your WordPress to 5.0, you can expect to hear from us about 3 months after launch to confirm your plans to upgrade.
Should a calamity strike and you only notice this once you’ve pushed the staging site to production, you can roll back these changes. We will also be here to help you with backups if necessary.
If you need some more time to get ready for this new experience, the Class Editor Plugin is what you’ll want to have before upgrading to 5.0.
All Other Hosting Plans
Whether you are on a Web Hosting, Reseller Hosting, or Managed Virtual Server, you’ll be needing to mimic the processes described above:
- Create a staging site to test 5.0 with your current installation and ensure compatibility
- Disable any auto updates you have set up while testing is being done
- Backup your production site
- Push the staging site out to production
- Re-enable Auto Updates again.
