The WordPress team announced the release of the fourth beta version of the popular content management system. The entire WordPress 5.9 release schedule was delayed due to a red flag about blockers and with the Beta 4 release, we are now one step closer to the final release. The expected release date for the final version is the 25th of January. The team also stated that the beta versions are for testing purposes only and shouldn’t be used on a production site.
Highlights
Since the latest beta release, 20 bugs have been fixed. Some of the changes in the Beta 4 are as follows:
- Bundled Theme: Fixed duplicate CSS rules in Twenty Twenty-One theme.
- Customizer: It’s possible to switch to a block theme from within Customizer.
- Themes: Provide guidance to users seeking to preview block themes on WordPress versions below 5.9.
- REST API: The get_theme_item method should respect fields param.
- Editor: Block Patterns: “Featured” category & patterns missing from inserter.
- Login and registration: Add a filter to allow to disable the Login screen language dropdown54675).
Users who are interested in testing the beta version can use the WordPress Beta Tester plugin by selecting the “Bleeding edge” channel and “Beta/RC Only” stream, directly downloading the beta version from the official website, or upgrade from Beta 1, 2, or 3 to Beta 4 with the following commands respectively:
wp core update --version=5.9-beta4
wp core update --version=5.9-beta4 --force