Keeping Sites Safer
Version 5.2 of WordPress, named โJacoโ in honor of renowned and revolutionary jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius, is available for download or update in your WordPress dashboard. New features in this update make it easier than ever to fix your site if something goes wrong.
There are even more robust tools for identifying and fixing configuration issues and fatal errors. Whether you are a developer helping clients or you manage your site solo, these tools can help get you the right information when you need it.
Site Health Check
Building on the Site Health features introduced in 5.1, this release adds two new pages to help debug common configuration issues. It also adds space where developers can include debugging information for site maintainers.
PHP Error Protection
This administrator-focused update will let you safely fix or manage fatal errors without requiring developer time. It features better handling of the so-called โwhite screen of death,โ and a way to enter recovery mode, which pauses error-causing plugins or themes.
Improvements for Everyone
Accessibility Updates
A number of changes work together to improve contextual awareness and keyboard navigation flow for those using screen readers and other assistive technologies.
New Dashboard Icons
Thirteen new icons including Instagram, a suite of icons for BuddyPress, and rotated Earth icons for global inclusion. Find them in the Dashboard and have some fun!
Plugin Compatibility Checks
WordPress will now automatically determine if your siteโs version of PHP is compatible with installed plugins. If the plugin requires a higher version of PHP than your site currently uses, WordPress will not allow you to activate it, preventing potential compatibility errors.
Developer Happiness
The minimum supported PHP version is now 5.6.20. As of WordPress 5.2*, themes and plugins can safely take advantage of namespaces, anonymous functions, and more!
A new theme page template, a conditional function, and two CSS classes make designing and customizing the Privacy Policy page easier.
5.2 introduces a wp_body_open hook, which lets themes support injecting code right at the beginning of the <body> element.
With the addition of webpack and Babel configurations in the wordpress/scripts package, developers won’t have to worry about setting up complex build tools to write modern JavaScript.
*If you are running an old version of PHP (less than 5.6.20), update your PHP before installing 5.2.
The Squad
This release was led by Matt Mullenweg, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, and Gary Pendergast. They were graciously supported by 327 generous volunteer contributors. Load a Jaco Pastorius playlist on your favorite music service and check out some of their profiles:
Aaron D. Campbell ยท Aaron Jorbin ยท abbe ยท Adam Silverstein ยท Adil Özta?er ยท Ajit Bohra ยท Alain Schlesser ยท Alda Vigdís ยท Alex Concha ยท Alex Denning ยท Alex Dimitrov ยท Alex Kirk ยท Alex Mills ยท Alex Shiels ยท Alexis ยท Alexis Lloyd ยท Alexis Soucie ยท allancole ยท Allen Snook ยท alpipego ยท Andrea Fercia ยท Andrea Middleton ยท Andrei Draganescu ยท Andrei Lupu ยท Andrew Dixon ยท Andrew Duthie ยท Andrew Nacin ยท Andrew Ozz ยท Andrey “Rarst” Savchenko ยท Andrรฉs Maneiro ยท Andy Fragen ยท Andy Meerwaldt ยท Aniket Patel ยท Anis Charolia ยท Anton Timmermans ยท Anton Vanyukov ยท Antonio Villegas ยท antonypuckey ยท arena ยท Ari Stathopoulos ยท Aslam Shekh ยท axaak ยท backermann1978 ยท bahia0019 ยท Bego Mario Garde ยท Ben Dunkle ยท Ben Ritner – Kadence WP ยท Benjamin Intal ยท Bill Erickson ยท Birgir Erlendsson ยท Bodo (Hugo) Barwich ยท bonger ยท Boone Gorges ยท Bradley Taylor ยท Brandon Kraft ยท Brent Swisher ยท Brian Stal ยท Burhan Nasir ยท Cathi Bosco ยท Chetan Prajapati ยท Chiara Magnani ยท Chouby ยท Chris A. a11n ยท Chris Van Patten ยท Christoph Herr ยท C?t?lin Dogaru ยท D.S. Webster ยท Damon Cook ยท Dan Foley ยท Dani Llewellyn ยท Daniel Bachhuber ยท Daniel Richards ยท Daniele Scasciafratte ยท danieltj ยท Darren Ethier ยท Dave Whitley ยท David Baumwald ยท David Binovec ยท David Biลovec ยท David Herrera ยท David Marín Carreño ยท David Newman ยท David Roddick ยท David Smith ยท daxelrod ยท Debabrata Karfa ยท dekervit ยท Denis de Bernardy ยท Dennis Snell ยท Derek Herman ยท Derrick Hammer ยท designsimply ยท Dhanukanuwan ยท Dharmesh Patel ยท Diane Co ยท diegoreymendez ยท Dilip Bheda ยท Dion Hulse ยท Dixita Dusara ยท Dmitrii ยท Dmitry Mayorov ยท Dominik Schilling ยท Drew Jaynes ยท dsifford ยท Eduardo Toledo ยท Ella Van Durpe ยท Emil Dotsev ยท epiqueras ยท Erin ‘Folletto’ Casali ยท Fabian Kägy ยท Faisal Alvi ยท Felix Arntz ยท Fencer04 ยท flaviozavan ยท Franklin Tse ยท Fuegas ยท Garrett Hyder ยท Garth Mortensen ยท Gary Jones ยท Gennady Kovshenin ยท Girish Panchal ยท gqevu6bsiz ยท Grzegorz Ziรณ?kowski ยท Guido Scialfa ยท GutenDev | ? ?็ง ยท Hannah Malcolm ยท Hardik ยท Hardik Thakkar ยท Hendrik Luehrsen ยท Henry ยท Henry Wright ยท Ian Belanger ยท Ian Dunn ยท ice9js ยท Igor Zinovyev (a11n) ยท Isabel Brison ยท Ismail ยท J.D. Grimes ยท Jake Spurlock ยท jakeparis ยท James ยท janak Kaneriya ยท Janki Moradiya ยท Jarred Kennedy ยท Javier Villanueva ยท Jay Upadhyay ยท Jaydeep Rami ยท Jaye Williams ยท Jayman Pandya ยท jdeeburke ยท Jean-Baptiste Audras ยท Jeff Paul ยท Jeffrey de Wit ยท Jenny Wong ยท Jeremy Felt ยท Jeremy Green ยท Jeremy Herve ยท jikamens ยท Jitendra Banjara ยท Joe Dolson ยท Joe McGill ยท Joen Asmussen ยท Johan Falk ยท Johanna de Vos ยท John Blackbourn ยท John James Jacoby ยท Jonathan Desrosiers ยท Jonathandejong ยท joneiseman ยท Jonny Harris ยท jonnybojangles ยท Joost de Valk ยท jordesign ยท Jorge Bernal ยท Jorge Costa ยท Jory Hogeveen ยท Jose Castaneda ยท josephwa ยท Josh Feck ยท Joshua Wold ยท Joy ยท jplo ยท JR Tashjian ยท Juhi Patel ยท juliarrr ยท Juliette Reinders Folmer ยท Justin Ahinon ยท K. Adam White ยท KamataRyo ยท Karine Do ยท karlgroves ยท Katyatina ยท Kelin Chauhan ยท Kelly Choyce-Dwan ยท Kerry Liu ยท KHAN ยท Khokan Sardar ยท killua99 ยท Kira Song ยท Kite ยท Kjell Reigstad ยท Knut Sparhell ยท Koji Kuno ยท Konstantin Obenland ยท Konstantinos Xenos ยท laurelfulford ยท Lena Morita ยท lkraav ยท lovingboth ยท Luke Carbis ยท Luke Gedeon ยท Luke Pettway ยท Maciek Palmowski ยท Maedah Batool ยท Maja Benke ยท Maje Media LLC ยท Malae ยท Manzoor Wani (a11n) ยท Marcin ยท Marcin Pietrzak ยท Marco Fernandes ยท Marco Peralta ยท Marcus Kazmierczak ยท Marek Hrabe ยท Marius Jensen ยท Mariyan Belchev ยท Mark D Wolinski ยท Mark Uraine ยท markcallen ยท Markus Echterhoff ยท Martin Spatovaliyski ยท Marty Helmick ยท marybaum ยท Mathieu Viet ยท mattcursor ยท Meet Makadia ยท Mel Choyce ยท mheikkila ยท Micah Wood ยท Michael ยท michelleweber ยท Miguel Fonseca ยท Miguel Torres ยท Mikael Korpela ยท Mike Auteri ยท Mike Schinkel ยท Mike Selander ยท MikeNGarrett ยท Milan Dini? ยท Mobin Ghasempoor ยท Mohadese Ghasemi ยท Mohammed Saimon ยท Monika Rao ยท Morten Rand-Hendriksen ยท Morteza Geransayeh ยท Muhammad Muhsin ยท Mukesh Panchal ยท Mustafa Uysal ยท mzorz ยท Nahid Ferdous Mohit ยท Naoki Ohashi ยท Nate Allen ยท Nayana Maradia ยท Ned Zimmerman ยท Neokazis Charalampos ยท Nick C ยท Nick Diego ยท Nick Halsey ยท nickdaugherty ยท Nidhi Jain ยท Niels de Blaauw ยท Niels Lange ยท Nikolay Nikolov ยท Nilambar Sharma ยท ninio ยท nmenescardi ยท notnownikki ยท Oliver Sadler ยท onlanka ยท pandelisz ยท ParsMizban ยท Pascal Birchler ยท Paul Bearne ยท Paul Biron ยท Paul Vincent Beigang ยท Pedro Mendonça ยท Peter Booker ยท Peter Wilson ยท pfiled ยท pilou69 ยท Pranali Patel ยท Pratik Kumar ยท Pratik Kumar ยท Presskopp ยท psealock ยท Punit Patel ยท Rachel Cherry ยท Rahmon ยท Ramanan ยท Rami Yushuvaev ยท Ramiz Manked ยท ramonopoly ยท Riad Benguella ยท Rinat ยท Robert Anderson ยท Rudy Susanto ยท Ryan Boren ยท Ryan Welcher ยท ryanshoover ยท Sébastien Gastard ยท Sébastien SERRE ยท Sachyya ยท Saeed Fard ยท Sal Ferrarello ยท Salar Gholizadeh ยท Samaneh Mirrajabi ยท Sami Keijonen ยท Santiago Garza ยท Sara Cope ยท saracup ยท sarah semark ยท Scott Arciszewski ยท Scott Reilly ยท Sebastian Pisula ยท Sekineh Ebrahimzadeh ยท Sergei Predvoditelev ยท Sergey Biryukov ยท Sergio Scabuzzo ยท SergioEstevao ยท Sharaz Shahid ยท sharifkiberu ยท Shashank Panchal ยท shazdeh ยท Shital Marakana ยท sky_76 ยท Soren Wrede ยท Stanimir Stoyanov ยท Stefano Minoia ยท Stephen Edgar ยท Steven Word ยท Subrata Sarkar ยท Sudar Muthu ยท Sudhir Yadav ยท Takayuki Miyauchi ยท Tammie Lister ยท Themonic ยท thomstark ยท Thorsten Frommen ยท Thrijith Thankachan ยท Tim Hedgefield ยท Tim Wright ยท Timothy Jacobs ยท timph ยท tmatsuur ยท tmdesigned ยท tmdesigned ยท Tobias Zimpel ยท TobiasBg ยท tobifjellner (Tor-Bjorn “Tobi” Fjellner) ยท TomHarrigan ยท tonybogdanov ยท Toro_Unit (Hiroshi Urabe) ยท torres126 ยท Torsten Landsiedel ยท Towhidul I Chowdhury ยท Tracy Levesque ยท Umang Bhanvadia ยท Vaishali Panchal ยท Viktor Szépe ยท vortfu ยท vrimill ยท WebFactory ยท Weston Ruter ยท WFMattR ยท Will West ยท William Earnhardt ยท williampatton ยท Willscrlt ยท Wolly aka Paolo Valenti ยท wrwrwr0 ยท yarnboy ยท Yoav Farhi ยท Yui ยท Zebulan Stanphill ยท ?eslav Przywara
Also, many thanks to all of the community volunteers who contribute in the support forums. They answer questions from people across the world, whether they are using WordPress for the first time or since the first release. These releases are more successful for their efforts!
If you want to learn more about volunteering with WordPress, check out Make WordPress or the core development blog.
Thanks for choosing WordPress!