WordPress 5.1 “Betty”

A Little Better Every Day

Version 5.1 of WordPress, named “Betty” in honour of acclaimed jazz vocalist Betty Carter, is available for download or update in your WordPress dashboard.

Following WordPress 5.0 — a major release which introduced the new block editor — 5.1 focuses on polish, in particular by improving the overall performance of the editor. In addition, this release paves the way for a better, faster, and more secure WordPress with some essential tools for site administrators and developers.

Site Health

With security and speed in mind, this release introduces WordPress’s first Site Health features. WordPress will start showing notices to administrators of sites that run long-outdated versions of PHP, which is the programming language that powers WordPress.

When you install new plugins, WordPress’s Site Health features will check them against the version of PHP you’re running. If the plugin requires a version that won’t work with your site, WordPress will keep you from installing that plugin.

Editor Performance

Introduced in WordPress 5.0, the new block editor continues to improve. Most significantly, WordPress 5.1 includes solid performance improvements within the editor. The editor should feel a little quicker to start, and typing should feel smoother.

Expect more performance improvements in the next couple of releases.

Developer Happiness

Multisite Metadata

5.1 introduces a new database table to store metadata associated with sites and allows for the storage of arbitrary site data relevant in a multisite / network context.

Cron API

The Cron API has been updated with new functions to assist with returning data and includes new filters for modifying cron storage. Other changes in behavior affect cron spawning on servers running FastCGI and PHP-FPM versions 7.0.16 and above.

New JS Build Processes

WordPress 5.1 features a new JavaScript build option, following the large reorganisation of code that started in the 5.0 release.

Other Developer Goodness

Miscellaneous improvements include:

• Updates to values for the WP_DEBUG_LOG constant
• New test config file constant in the test suite, new plugin action hooks
• Short-circuit filters for wp_unique_post_slug(), WP_User_Query, and count_users()
• A new human_readable_duration function
• Improved taxonomy metabox sanitization
• Limited LIKE support for meta keys when using WP_Meta_Query
• A new “doing it wrong” notice when registering REST API endpoints

…and more!

The Squad

This release was led by Matt Mullenweg, along with Gary Pendergast as Senior Code Reshuffler and Poet. They received wonderful assistance from the following 561 contributors for this release, 231 of whom were making their first ever contribution! Pull up some Betty Carter on your music service of choice, and check out some of their profiles:

0x6f0, 1265578519, 1naveengiri, 360zen, aardrian, Aaron Jorbin, Abdullah Ramzan, Abhay Vishwakarma, Abhijit Rakas, Achal Jain, achbed, Adam Silverstein, Ajit Bohra, Alain Schlesser, aldavigdis, alejandroxlopez, Alex, Alex Shiels, Alexander Botteram, Alexandru Vornicescu, alexgso, All, allancole, Allen Snook, Alvaro Gois dos Santos, Ana Cirujano, Anantajit JG, Andrés, Andrea Fercia, Andrea Gandino, Andrea Middleton, andrei0x309, andreiglingeanu, Andrew Duthie, Andrew Lima, Andrew Nacin, Andrew Nevins, Andrew Ozz, Andrey Savchenko, Andy Fragen, Andy Meerwaldt, Angelika Reisiger, Antal Tettinger, antipole, Anton Timmermans, Antonio Villegas, antonioeatgoat, Anwer AR, Arun, Ashar Irfan, ashokrd2013, Ayesh Karunaratne, Ayub Adiputra, Barry Ceelen, Behzod Saidov, benhuberman, Benoit Chantre, benvaassen, Bhargav Mehta, bikecrazyy, Birgir Erlendsson, BjornW, Blair jersyer, blob, Blobfolio, bobbingwide, boblinthorst, Boone Gorges, Boro Sitnikovski, Brad Parbs, Bradley, bramheijmink, Brandon Kraft, Brandon Payton, Brent Swisher, Brian Richards, bridgetwillard, Brooke., bruceallen, Burhan Nasir, Bytes.co, Caleb Burks, Calin Don, campusboy, carolinegeven, ccismaru, chasewg, Chetan Prajapati, Chouby, ChriCo, chriscct7, Christopher Spires, claudiu, Clifford Paulick, Code Clinic, codegrau, coleh, conner_bw, Corey McKrill, croce, Csaba (LittleBigThings), Cyrus Collier, Daniel Bachhuber, Daniel James, Daniel Koskinen, Daniel Richards, Daniele Scasciafratte, danimalbrown, Danny Cooper, Danny de Haan, Darko A7, Darren Ethier (nerrad), Dave Pullig, David A. Kennedy, David Anderson, David Binovec, David Cramer, David Herrera, David Lingren, David Shanske, David Stone, dekervit, Denis Yanchevskiy, Dennis Snell, designsimply, dfangstrom, Dhanendran, Dharmesh Patel, Dhaval kasavala, Dhruvin, DiedeExterkate, Dilip Bheda, dingo_d, Dion Hulse, dipeshkakadiya, Dominik Schilling, Donncha O Caoimh, dontstealmyfish, Drew Jaynes, Drivingralle, drywallbmb, dschalk, dsifford, eamax, eArtboard, edo888, edocev, ElectricFeet, Ella Van Durpe, Eric Andrew Lewis, Eric Daams, Erich Munz, Erick Hitter, ericmeyer, etoledom, Evan Solomon, Evangelos Athanasiadis, ever, everyone, Faisal Alvi, Felipe Elia, Felix Arntz, Fernando Claussen, flipkeijzer, Florian TIAR, folio, FPCSJames, Frank Klein, frOM, fuchsws, fullyint, Gabriel Maldonado, Gareth, Garrett Hyder, Gary Jones, Gennady Kovshenin, Gerhard Potgieter, Girish Panchal, GM_Alex, gnif, graymouser, greg, Grzegorz (Greg) Ziółkowski, Guido, GutenDev, Hafiz Rahman, Hai@LiteSpeed, Hans-Christiaan Braun, Hardeep Asrani, Hardik Amipara, Harsh Patel, haruharuharuby, Heather Burns, Helen Hou-Sandi, Henry Wright, Herre Groen, hitendra, Hitendra Chopda, Ian Belanger, Ian Dunn, ibantxillo, Ignacio Cruz Moreno, Igor, Igor Benic, imath, ionvv, Irene Strikkers, isabel104, ishitaka, Ivan Mudrik, J.D. Grimes, Jack Reichert, Jacob Peattie, James Nylen, janak Kaneriya, janalwin, Janki Moradiya, janthiel, Jason Caldwell, javorszky, Jaydip Rami, Jayman Pandya, Jb Audras, Jeff Farthing, Jeffrey de Wit, Jeffrey Paul, Jennifer M. Dodd, Jenny, Jeremey, Jeremy Felt, Jeremy Herve, Jeremy Pry, Jeremy Scott, Jesper V Nielsen, Jesse Friedman, Jimmy Comack, Jip Moors, Jiri Hon, JJJ, joanrho, Job, Joe Bailey-Roberts, Joe Dolson, Joe Hoyle, Joe McGill, Joel James, Joen Asmussen, John Blackbourn, John Godley, johnalarcon, johnpgreen, johnschulz, Jonathan Champ, Jonathan Desrosiers, joneiseman, Jonny Harris, Joost de Valk, Jorge Costa, Joseph Scott, JoshuaWold, Joy, jpurdy647, jrdelarosa, jryancard, Juhi Patel, Julia Amosova, juliemoynat, Juliette Reinders Folmer, Junaid Ahmed, Justin Sainton, Justin Sternberg, Justin Tadlock, K.Adam White, kapteinbluf, keesiemeijer, Kelly Dwan, kelvink, khaihong, Kiran Potphode, Kite, kjellr, kkarpieszuk, kmeze, Knut Sparhell, konainm, Konstantin Obenland, Konstantinos Xenos, kristastevens, krutidugade, laghee, Laken Hafner, Lance Willett, laurelfulford, lbenicio, Leander Iversen, leemon, lenasterg, lisannekluitmans, lizkarkoski, Luca Grandicelli, LucasRolff, luciano, Luminus, Mário Valney, maartenleenders, macbookandrew, Maja Benke, Mako, mallorydxw-old, Manuel Augustin, manuel_84, Marc Nilius, marcelo2605, Marco Martins, marco.marsala, Marcus Kazmierczak, marcwieland95, Marius L. J., mariusvw, Mariyan Belchev, Mark Jaquith, Mathieu Sarrasin, mathieuhays, Matt Cromwell, Matt Gibbs, Matt Martz, Matthew Boynes, Matthew Riley MacPherson, mattyrob, mcmwebsol, Mel Choyce, mensmaximus, mermel, metalandcoffee, Micah Wood, Michael Nelson, Michiel Heijmans, Migrated to @sebastienserre, Miguel Fonseca, Miguel Torres, mihaiiceyro, mihdan, Mike Gillihan, Mike Jolley, Mike Schroder, Milan Dinić, Milan Ivanovic, Milana Cap, Milind More, mirkoschubert, Monika Rao, Monique Dubbelman, moto hachi ( mt8.biz ), mrmadhat, Muhammad Kashif, Mukesh Panchal, MultiformeIngegno, Muntasir Mahmud, munyagu, MyThemeShop, mzorz, nadim0988, nandorsky, Naoki Ohashi, Naoko Takano, nataliashitova, Nate Allen, Nathan Johnson, ndavison, Ned Zimmerman, Nextendweb, Nick Diego, Nick Halsey, Nick Momrik, Nick the Geek, Nicolas Figueira, Nicolas GUILLAUME, Nicolle Helgers, Nidhi Jain, Niels Lange, Nikhil Chavan, Nilambar Sharma, Noam Eppel, notnownikki, odyssey, Omar Reiss, Omkar Bhagat, on, others, Ov3rfly, Paal Joachim Romdahl, palmiak, panchen, parbaugh, Parham Ghaffarian, Pascal Birchler, Pascal Casier, Paul Bearne, Paul Biron, Paul Paradise, Paul Schreiber, Perdaan, Peter Putzer, Peter Wilson, Petter Walbø Johnsgård, Pierre Saïkali, Pieter Daalder, Piyush Patel, poena, Pramod Jodhani, Prashant Baldha, Pratik K. Yadav, Pratik K. Yadav, precies, Presskopp, Presslabs, PressTigers, programmin, Punit Patel, Purnendu Dash, qcmiao, Rachel Baker, Rachel Cherry, Rachel Peter, Rafsun Chowdhury, Rahul Prajapati, Raja Mohammed, Ramanan, Rami Yushuvaev, Ramiz Manked, ramonopoly, RavanH, redcastor, remyvv, rensw90, rhetorical, Riad Benguella, Rian Rietveld, Richard Tape, Ricky Lee Whittemore, Rinku Y, Rishi Shah, Robbie, robdxw, Robert Anderson, Robin Cornett, Robin van der Vliet, Ryan McCue, Ryan Paul, Ryan Welcher, ryotsun, Sébastien SERRE, Saša, sagarnasit, Sami Ahmed Siddiqui, Sami Keijonen, Samuel Wood (Otto), sarah semark, Sayed Taqui, Scott Lee, Scott Reilly, Sean Hayes, Sebastian Kurzynoswki, Sebastian Pisula, Sergey Biryukov, Shamim Hasan, Shane Eckert, Sharaz Shahid, Shashwat Mittal, Shawn Hooper, sherwood, Shital Marakana, Shiva Poudel, Simon Prosser, sjardo, skoldin, slilley, slushman, Sonja Leix, sonjanyc, Soren Wrede, spartank, spyderbytes, Stanimir Stoyanov, Stanko Metodiev, stazdotio, Stephen Edgar, Stephen Harris, stevenlinx, Storm Rockwell, Stoyan Kostadinov, strategio, Subrata Sarkar, Sultan Nasir Uddin, swift, Takahashi Fumiki, Takayuki Miyauchi, Tammie Lister, Taylor Lovett, teddytime, Terri Ann, terwdan, tharsheblows, the, ThemeZee, Thomas Patrick Levy, Thomas Vitale, thomaswm, Thorsten Frommen, Thrijith Thankachan, Tiago Hillebrandt, tigertech, Tim Havinga, Tim Hengeveld, Timmy Crawford, Timothy Jacobs, titodevera, Tkama, to, Tobias Zimpel, Tom J Nowell, TomHarrigan, Tommy, tonybogdanov, Tor-Bjorn Fjellner, TorontoDigits, Toshihiro Kanai, Towhidul Islam, transl8or, Ulrich, upadalavipul, Usman Khalid, Utsav tilava, uttam007, Vaishali Panchal, Valérie Galassi, valchovski, vishaldodiya, vnsavage, voneff, warmlaundry, wbrubaker, Weston Ruter, who, Will Kwon, William Earnhardt, williampatton, wpcs, wpzinc, xhezairi, Yahil Madakiya, Yoav Farhi, Yui, YuriV, Zane Matthew, and zebulan.

Finally, thanks to all the community translators who worked on WordPress 5.1. Their efforts bring WordPress 5.1 fully translated to 34 languages at release time, with more on the way.

If you want to follow along or help out, check out Make WordPress and our core development blog.

Thanks for choosing WordPress!