WordPress 4.8 introduces exemplary features to its users

Text widget received TinyMCE

The previous Text widget did not include TinyMCE or Quicktags. The WordPress 4.8 has included TinyMCE to its Text widget.

• This inclusion let users edit visual texts without utilizing HTML in Text widgets for simplest of tasks. The web-developers can effortlessly edit visual texts with this modification.
• It can still perform raw HTML editing with the assistance of Text Tab and Quicktags.

Tag cloud widget modifications

The Tag Cloud Widget helps users display useful tags as Widgets. The frequently used Widgets become larger than others do. This widget used ‘title’ attributes in the past. These attributes were not easily accessible.

• The WordPress 4.8 has replaced title attributes with aria-label attributes due to this reason.
• The web-developers can view ‘tag counts’ in plain text amidst the list of tags due to this modification.
• The widget interface has also received a new checkbox.
• The users can choose the ‘show tag counts’ option in Admin to view the counts alongside the tags.

New media widgets for audio, video & images

The WordPress 4.8 has included three new media widgets to let developers effortlessly add audio, video and image files.

• The developers need not write custom HTML or use plug-ins to add images to the WordPress sidebar. This latest update allows them to drag and drop the image widget onto the sidebar.

• The video widget allows developers to embed or upload videos from the popular video-hosting providers.

• The developers can easily add any audio files to the WordPress sidebar with the use of audio widget. This widget supports the audio files in HTML5, WAV, OGG or MP3 formats.

Editor API modifications

The WordPress 4.8 has a new API for TinyMCE editor. Hence, it is possible to instantiate the editor via JS.

• The users can add the ‘editor’ to any text area due to this change. It has become easier to utilise the plug-ins and themes.
• It is easier to add and manage links within the editor. This addition has let web-developers easily identify the cursor’s position (inside, before or after) on the link element.
• The removal of support for Internet Explorer 8/9/10 has streamlined the browser support.

Core-embedding support removal for WMV/WMA

The MediaElement.js no longer supports WMV and WMA file formats with the inclusion of audio and video widgets. These file-formats need Silverlight plug-ins that many browsers do not support. Hence, WMV/WMA file formats are retiring. These formats will no longer embed automatically.

function add_wmv_to_wp_video_extensions( $extensions ) {
 $extensions [] = 'wmv' ;  return $extensions ;
}
add_filter( 'wp_video_extensions' , 'add_wmv_to_wp_video_extensions');
 
function add_wma_to_wp_audio_extensions( $extensions ) {
 $extensions [] = 'wma' ;
 return $extensions ;
}
add_filter( 'wp_audio_extensions', 'add_wma_to_wp_audio_extensions' );

Variable customizer sidebar width

The Customizer Sidebar appears sub-optimally narrow on the high-resolution screens of latest mobiles. The addition of ‘responsive controls’ let the pane-size alter depending upon the screen’s width. The pane-size now stays between 300px and 600px for relevant alterations.

WordPress event updates

The users no longer miss the deadlines for volunteer or speakers. The WordPress 4.8 let them receive updates on latest WordCamps and meet-ups within their localities from their dashboards.

Additional highlights

• The WordPress 4.8 has included REST API to add ‘supports object’ to ‘/types’ response.
• It has included many new filter hooks and action hooks. It has also modified the older filter hooks.
• It has removed HHVM from test matrix and well-known plug-ins from the dashboard.

These updates happened in addition to 108 enhancements, 217 bugs, 16 noteworthy tasks and one feature request.