You can now add blocks both in widget areas on your site and with live preview via the Customizer. This opens up new possibilities for content creation: from code-free mini-layouts to the vast library of third-party cores and blocks. For our developers, you can find more details in the Widget Developer Notes.
View Articles with New Blocks and Patterns
Query Loop Block makes it possible to display posts based on defined parameters. like a codeless PHP loop. Easily display posts from a specific category to do things like create a portfolio or a page full of your favorite recipes. Think of it as a more sophisticated and powerful block of Recent Posts! In addition, pattern suggestions make it easier than ever to create a list of posts with the design you want.
Edit Templates Around Posts
You can use your own block editor to edit templates that retain your content - just enable a block theme or a theme that has been featured for this feature. Go from editing your posts to editing your pages and come back again, using a familiar block editor at the same time. There are more than 20 new blocks available on compatible themes. Read more about this feature and how to experiment with it in the release notes.
Three Workflow Assistants
Overview of the Page Structure
Sometimes you need a simple landing page, but sometimes you need something a little more powerful. As blocks grow, patterns emerge, and content creation becomes easier, new solutions are needed to make it easier to navigate complex content. List View is the best way to navigate between content levels and insert blocks. Because List View provides you with an overview of all the blocks in your content, you can now quickly navigate to the exact blocks you need. Are you ready to focus fully on your content? Turn it on or off to fit your workflow.
Suggested Patterns for Blocks
Starting with this release, the Template Transformation Tool will suggest block patterns based on the block you are using. Right now, you can try it in Block Query and Social Icon Block. As more patterns are added, you will be able to get inspired on how to design your website without ever leaving the editor!
Image Styling and Coloring
Paint your image and cover the blocks with duotone filters! The duotone can add a little bright, vibrant color to your designs and style your images (or videos on the cover) to blend in well with your themes. You can think of the duotone effect as a black and white filter, but instead of the shadows being black and the highlights being white, you choose your own colors for the shadows and highlights. There is more to learn about how it works in documentation.
For Developers to Explore
Theme.json
Introducing the Global Styles and Global Settings API: Control editor settings, available customization tools, and style blocks using a theme.json file in your active theme. This configuration file enables or disables features and sets default styles for both a site and blocks. If you’re a theme builder, you can experiment with this early iteration of a useful new feature. For more on what’s available today and how it works, check out this developer note.
Stop support for Internet Explorer 11
Support for Internet Explorer 11 has ended with this release. This means that you may experience issues with managing your site that will not be fixed in the future. If you are currently using IE11, it is highly recommended that you upgrade to a more modern browser.
WebP support added
WebP is a state-of-the-art image format that provides improved lossy and non-lossy compression for web images. WebP images are about 30% smaller on average than their JPEG or PNG counterparts, resulting in sites that are faster and use less bandwidth.
Add Additional Support Blocks
Extending support for previous block implementations in WordPress 5.6 and 5.7 , WordPress 5.8 introduces some new notifications and new options for customizing your declared blocks. More information on availability can be found in the block development support note.
Check out the Development Guide for more!
Check out the latest version of the WordPress Development Guide. It contains developer notes for every change you might want to be aware of. WordPress 5.8 Development Guide
