Named in honor of Esperanza Spalding, WordPress 5.7 was released this week and brings with it an updated color palette, and easier to use editor, lazy loading of iFrames, and more!
All ESC! Technologies Group clients who subscribe to one of our WordPress Care Plans will be updated to the latest release as soon as testing is complete — there is nothing you need to do at this point.
So what’s new in WordPress 5.7?
Improved Color Palette
It feels cleaner when working in a streamlined color palette and that’s what WordPress did with this latest update. Standardizing on seven core colors for the admin area, WordPress offers a range of 56 shades based on that palette that meet the WCAG 2.0 AA recommended contrast ratio against white or black.
To read up on some of the reasoning behind the change as well as some tools developers can use to help port their plugins and themes to the new palette, check out the dev notes here.
Easier to Use Editor
WordPress has added font-size controls in the List and Code blocks, made sure reusable blocks are more stable and easier to use, enabled full-height alignment controls for blocks, and improved layout controls and sizing for button blocks and the social icons block. Nice!
Automatic Conversion from HTTP to HTTPS
HTTPS (setting up your site with an SSL/TLS Certificate so visitors see that reassuring “lock” in their browser) is a must these days. If you need help securing traffic to your site, just let us know! But if you do have that cert and need to swap your site over, WordPress 5.7 now makes it easier than ever by automatically updating all entries in the database to reflect your site’s new (secure) URL!
“Lazy” Loading iFrames
While using iFrames can cause its own set of problems, sometimes embedding an iFrame to pull content from another site is inevitable. In those case, WordPress 5.7 will now “lazy load” those iFrames as long as you specify both width and height meaning your site’s visitors wait less to get to the content on your site they need the most.
Want More Info on 5.7?
To get a general run down of the new features, you’ll want to read the blog post at WordPress.org. However, if you’re a developer and want to dig further into What’s New with WordPress 5.7, you can check out the Field Guide here.
Updating Your Site
If you’re not subscribed to one of ESC! Technologies Group’s WordPress Care Plans, then before upgrading you’ll want to be sure to:
1. Ensure compatibility with and/or Upgrade all your third party plugins
2. Ensure compatibility with your theme and framework and upgrade if necessary
3. Turn off any caching plugins you may have installed
4. Perform a full backup of your site and database
5. Upgrade
6. After the upgrade is complete, re-enable your caching plugins and test your site
Enjoy the new WordPress!