WordPress 4.2 Beta 1

WordPress 4.2 Beta 1 is now available!

This software is still in development, so we don’t recommend you run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site just to play with the new version. To test WordPress 4.2, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the beta here (zip).

4.2 is due out next month, but to get there, we need your help testing what we’ve been working on:

• Press This has been completely revamped to make sharing content from around the web easier than ever. The new workflow is mobile friendly, and we’d love for you to try it out on all of your devices. Navigate to the Tools screen in your WordPress backend to get started (#31373).
• Browsing and switching installed themes has been added to the Customizer to make switching faster and more convenient. We’re especially interested to know if this helps streamline the process of setting up your site (#31303).
• The workflow for updating and installing plugins just got more intuitive with the ability to install or update in-place from the Plugins screens. Try it out and let us know what you think! (#29820)
• If you felt like emoji were starkly missing from your content toolbox, worry no more. We’ve added emoji support nearly everywhere, even post slugs 👍 (#31242).

Developers: There have been a lot of changes for you to test as well, including:

• Taxonomy Roadmap: Terms shared across multiple taxonomies will now be split into separate terms when one of them is updated. Please let us know if you hit any snags (#5809).
• New wp.a11y.speak() functionality helps your JavaScript talk to screen readers to better inform impaired users what’s happening on-screen. Try it out in your plugin or theme and let us know if you notice any adverse affects (#31368).
• Named clause support has been added to WP_Query, WP_Comment_Query, and WP_User_Query, allowing specific meta_query clauses to be used with orderby. If you have any complex queries, please test them (#31045, #31265).

If you want a more in-depth view of what changes have made it into 4.2, check out the weekly review posts on the main development blog.

If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on the WordPress Trac. There, you can also find a list of known bugs and everything we’ve fixed so far.

Happy testing!

Press This: switch a theme
Save time installing plugins
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