Shiny Updates Project Officially Proposed for Merge Into WordPress 4.6

This week the Shiny Updates Team officially proposed the merge of the plugin into the upcoming WordPress 4.6 release. The project modernizes the process of installing, updating, and deleting themes and plugins in order to hide what is colloquially referred to as “The Bleak Screen of Sadness.” This is the screen that shows the technical rundown of what WordPress is doing behind the scenes as it performs installations and updates.

Shiny Updates improves the workflow so that it hides all the mundane details and doesn’t require a page refresh. The plugin also shines up the process of updating core translations. Pascal Birchler posted a screencast in the proposal, demonstrating the improvements that users can expect if Shiny Updates are approved for merge:

https://wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Shiny-Plugins.mp4

The proposed update expands on the shiny plugin updates that were introduced in WordPress 4.2 and extends the improvements to themes, translations, core, and the installation/deleting workflow for extensions.

Shiny Updates is currently active on more than 1,000 installations and has been refined by multiple rounds of user testing. The project’s team plans to tackle any remaining bugs on GitHub this week and will prepare a core patch by next Wednesday’s scheduled development chat.

Responses to the proposal have been consistently positive, as the improvements make updating WordPress easier and less of a chore. Although this may seem like a small improvement, refinements like these have a major impact on WordPress users. Fewer clicks in the admin translate into less time spent on site management, making it easier to stay ahead of security issues and keep the software up to date.