WordPress 7.2 is coming: what’s new, and leflite is already ready for it

What’s new in WordPress 7.2?

The main changes for anyone who manages a website:

• Images processed in your browser. When you upload an image in the editor, your own browser creates the smaller versions and compresses them before they go to the server. That takes load off the server.
• A refreshed admin. The icons in the menu and the top bar are replaced by new, cleaner icons. Scripts load separately instead of combined, and the admin preloads the next screen.
• More styling in the editor. A shadow for headings and text, styling per screen size and clearer settings for the style of the whole site. This belongs to the standard WordPress blocks. On a leflite website you mostly work with our own blocks, so you’ll see less of it there.
• Notes in the editor. You can react to a note with an emoji and keep notes open next to the block settings.
• Security. Plugins get a safe place to store passwords and API keys (the Secrets API). And you get an email when an application password is created for your account.
• A new default theme, Ipsum. For a website on leflite, nothing changes.

/random/: we switch it off

WordPress 7.2 adds an address like yourwebsite.nl/random/. Anyone who opens it lands on a random post. On a blog that can be fun, but on a business website it serves no purpose. Every request does cost the server extra work, and bots can call such an address endlessly. That’s why /random/ is off in leflite. Do you want it on your site anyway? Then we’ll switch it on for you.

We already tested the beta

A new WordPress version only goes onto the websites we maintain after we’ve tested it. With 7.2 we started early. We moved a full copy of lefcreative.nl to 7.2 beta 5. Our site runs on the same leflite theme as our clients’ websites. Then we tested:

• 136 pages in Dutch and English, on desktop and mobile, compared pixel by pixel with the current version;
• 60 admin screens, and the editor for every type of content: pages, posts, knowledge base articles, cases and builders;
• uploading images, through the editor and through the media library.

One thing went wrong. A knowledge base article shows a shortcode as an example, so you can see how to type it. In 7.2 that example was suddenly run: it showed our phone number instead of the code. That’s caused by a change in WordPress itself. We fixed it in leflite, so an example like that stays plain text. Everything else worked without changes.

What will you notice?

• The admin looks a little different because of the new icons. Everything is still in the same place.
• Uploading an image in the editor? Wait until the upload has fully finished before you close the page. Your browser now creates the smaller versions itself. Close it too early and they will be missing.
• Site Health may show a new recommendation about a key for the Secrets API. As long as no plugin uses it, the key does nothing. You can leave the notice.

What do you need to do?

Do you have WordPress maintenance with us? Then you don’t need to do anything. We’ll put 7.2 on your website once the final version is out and we have checked it. Just like the previous update, WordPress 7.1.3.

Do you manage your website yourself? Don’t put the beta on your live website. Wait for the final version, make a backup first and check afterwards that everything still works. Is your website a multilingual multisite? Then save the permalinks again on every subsite after the update, under Settings → Permalinks.

Not sure whether your website is ready for 7.2? Feel free to send us a message, and we’ll take a look.

Sources: WordPress.org, WordPress 7.2 Beta 5; WordPress 7.2 release schedule; SVG icons in the admin bar and menu; Your content is going to get more random; The Secrets API in WordPress 7.2.