WordPress 4.0 Kicks Off Development Today, Helen Hou-Sandí to Lead Release

Andrew Nacin announced today that Helen Hou-Sandí will be the release lead for WordPress 4.0, which kicks off development today during the regularly scheduled meeting in the #wordpress-dev IRC channel. Two guest committers, Dominik Schilling (@ocean90) and Sergey Biryukov (@SergeyBiryukov) have both been granted permanent commit access.

An important development meeting was held yesterday, where Samuel Sidler put out a roll call for feature plugins currently in the works, some of which may be considered for the 4.0 release. Feature plugin team leaders submitted overviews of their plugin proposals, teams and current development status. While some of the plugins are still in the idea and planning stage, there are a few that may be ready in time to coincide with the next major release.

JSON REST API Plugin

The JSON REST API plugin is targeting 4.0 for inclusion in WordPress. Rachel Baker, representing the plugin at the meeting, reported that there are just a couple of development-related items: removal of basic auth, in favor of Oauth, and addition of meta handling. Many developers are looking forward to this API being added to core, as it will greatly expand WordPress’ capabilities for being used as an application framework.

Media Grid Project

A small group of contributors is currently working on a Media Grid project, originally proposed during the 3.7/3.8 development cycle. Shaun Andrews is looking to form a focused team to work together on preparing it for an upcoming release. “I think we could have something ready for 4.0, but 4.1 is a possibility as well,” he said in a recent update. “I’m looking for any-and-all help, but specifically 1-2 backbone-capable developers with familiarity with the Media Modal would be a huge help.” Development for the Media Grid project is currently happening on Github, with a corresponding plugin in the directory.

Other notable projects currently in the idea and planning stages include the Admin Help initiative focused on making the admin easier, and the possibility of redesigning and overhauling the “Press This” feature. Both are not likely to be ready for 4.0 but have teams currently active in researching future improvements.