WordPress 4.2 Beta 1 is now available! Towards WordPress version 4.2, which is scheduled for release in April 2015 much work is being done behind the scene for the upcoming major release.
This is a beta version and is available for early testers to try new and updated features. It is recommended you use 4.2 Beta 1 in a test environment such as DesktopServer or Instant WordPress (my recommendations) and not on your regular blog. The software is still in development so you don’t want to break your website, right!
If you want to try this version, you need to install the WordPress Beta Tester plugin to take the “bleeding edge nightlies” for a spin. Meaning this is the bleeding edge development code which may be unstable at times. Only use this if you really know what you are doing.
That’s why you need a test environment.
The more users testing the beta versions, the easier it is to find bugs and If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha / Beta area in the support forums.
For all of us “regular” users, there are some new exciting features such as:
- Browsing and switching installed themes now has been added to the Customizer to make switching faster and more convenient. Check it out and see if this feature is an improvement or not?
- Press This has been remade and completely revamped to make sharing content will be a lot easier. Press This is now mobile friendly so try the feature on all of your devices as mobile phones and tablets.
- The workflow for updating and installing plugins just got more intuitive with the ability to install or update-in-place from the plugins screens.
- Emoji – Support for emoji. In this version emoji support is added nearly everywhere, even for post slugs. Try it! What do you think? Is it really suitable to add emoji into WordPress?
For all 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.
- New wp.a11y.speak() functionality helps your JavaScript talk to screen readers to better inform impaired users what’s happening on-screen.
- 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 think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. You can also find a list of existing known bugs, plus you can check out everything that have been resolved so far.
Happy testing and good luck with trying out WordPress 4.2 Beta 1.