The latest and greatest version of WordPress is WordPress 5.5 code name āEckstineā and itās in honor of jazz singer William Clarence Eckstine. This version is available for ādownloadā from wordpress.org and not in the Synology Package Center. So, if you want to download and install WordPress 5.5 on your Synology NAS, you have to follow my step by step guide on how to manually update a new version of WordPress in your Synology. I recommend everyone use the official version of WordPress on their NAS until Synology ārestarts its engineā in the package upgrading process. WordPress 5.5Ā It is THE BEST version of WordPress to ever ship out.
There are a total of 157 enhancements,Ā 307 bug fixes, multiple feature requests, and more changes. Isn’t that exciting? The major update, WordPress 5.5 will include new blocks, enhanced block editor with improved UI, automatic themes and plugin update, improved accessibility, default lazy loading images, XML sitemaps, and more. Letās have a quick look below.
Default Lazy Loading Images (Activated by default)
Lazy loading images are one of the best ways to boost your site performance and WordPress 5.5 is bringing it to us. The new update will make lazy loading images a default option for all sites by adding the āloadingā attribute to img tag.
XML Sitemaps (Activated by default)
WordPress 5.5, by default, will come with an in-built sitemaps functionality. It will create a new sitemap index file called wp-sitemap.xml which will contain links to all other sitemap files it will generate. You can access your wp-sitemap.xml by type in your browser yourdomainname.com/wp-sitemap.xml
From now on you can add your wp-sitemap.xml on your Google Search console Sitemap area without using 3rd party plugins.
Gutenberg Block Editor Improvements
WordPress 5.5 will include an array of amazing performance enhancements regarding the Gutenberg Editor. The default block editor will include features from the last 10 Gutenberg Plugin Update releases (from 7.6 to 8.5). You will notice improved UI in the default block editor like borders around toolbars and buttons, new icons, and writing improvements. Also, users will now be able to edit images inline (scale, crop, rotate, and resize) without leaving the editor.
Accessibility
WordPress 5.5 comes with 34 Accessibility enhancements including the opt-in navigation-widgets feature. It improves the semantics and accessibility of widgets with lists of links in themes.
Themes and Plugins Auto Updates
With the new WordPress update, users will now be able to enable automatic updates for plugins and themes directly from the admin dashboard. For plugins, you just need to visit the Plugins page and click on the āEnable auto-updatesā option next to the plugin you wish to enable automatic updates for. Similarly, for themes, you need to visit the Appearance / Themes page and click on the āEnable auto-updatesā option. So, leave your updating task to WordPress. I do not recommend using this function which however is disabled by default.
Developers
There are even more goodies for developers in WordPress 5.5. Some of which are:
- Update a plugin or theme by uploading a ZIP file
- Default categories for custom post types
- Support for default terms in custom taxonomies
- Enforcing a default comment_type value
- Updates to the PHPMailer, SimplePie, Twemoji, Masonry, imagesLoaded, getID3, Moment.js, and clipboard.js external libraries
- Template loading functions now allow additional arguments to be passed through to the matched template file using a new $args parameter
- WordPress now attempts to invalidate PHP files when Core, Plugins, or Themes are updated via wp_opcache_invalidate()
- How theme authors can filter archive page headings
- The new createInterpolateElement and wp_get_environment_type() functions
- Better control of the redirect_guess_404_permalink() function
- New CSS styles for buttons with disabled state
- The final update to the Dashicons icon font as focus now shifts to the new Icon component
- Various PHP-related improvements and changes
Note: If you have any questions regarding the WordPress official version vs WordPress Synology Package, Contact me.
Note: mariushosting has been hosted from home on a Synology NAS device since January 9, 2019.
This post was updated on Wednesday / July 21st, 2021 at 12:34 AM