Every so often there is a bug in which WordPress does NOT update automatically. This is one of those updates. So for you website management and one-wo(man) developers, do the update manually this time and all should be good thereafter. File this under #NothingIsPerfect. However, we still trust WordPress above other CMS (content management) solutions BIG TIME!
So what’s new? Here’s what appears AFTER YOU UPDATE!
Welcome to WordPress 4.9.6
Thank you for updating to the latest version! WordPress 4.9.6 will smooth your design workflow and keep you safe from coding errors.
Version 4.9.6
Maintenance and Security Releases
Version 4.9.6 addressed 18 bugs. For more information, see the release notes.
Version 4.9.5 addressed some security issues and fixed 28 bugs. For more information, see the release notes.
Version 4.9.4 addressed 1 bug. For more information, see the release notes.
Version 4.9.3 addressed 34 bugs. For more information, see the release notes.
Version 4.9.2 addressed some security issues and fixed 22 bugs. For more information, see the release notes.
Version 4.9.1 addressed some security issues and fixed 11 bugs. For more information, see the release notes.
Major Customizer Improvements, Code Error Checking, and More! 🎉
Welcome to an improved Customizer workflow with design drafts, locking, scheduling, and preview links. What’s more, code syntax highlighting and error checking will make for a clean and smooth site building experience. Finally, if all that wasn’t pretty great, we’ve got a great new Gallery widget and improvements to theme browsing and switching.
Lend a Hand with Gutenberg 🤝
WordPress is working on a new way to create and control your content and we’d love to have your help. Interested in being an early tester or getting involved with the Gutenberg project? Contribute on GitHub.
Developer Happiness 😊
We’ve made numerous improvements to the Customizer JS API in WordPress 4.9, eliminating many pain points and making it just as easy to work with as the PHP API. There are also new base control templates, a date/time control, and section/panel/global notifications to name a few. Check out the full list.
We’ve introduced a new code editing library, CodeMirror, for use within core. Use it to improve any code writing or editing experiences within your plugins, like CSS or JavaScript include fields.
WordPress 4.9 includes an upgraded version of MediaElement.js, which removes dependencies on jQuery, improves accessibility, modernizes the UI, and fixes many bugs.
New capabilities have been introduced that allow granular management of plugins and translation files. In addition, the site switching process in multisite has been fine-tuned to update the available roles and capabilities in a more reliable and coherent way.
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