WordPress 4.9 will be the second major update this year to WordPress and is currently scheduled for release on November 14th, 2017, with the initial beta being available on October 4th. This version aims at making managing plugins and themes easier directly from the dashboard, this includes updating as well as editing theme options in Customizer. Here is a list of the planned updates for 4.9. Please note that this list is as of today, and some of the work may not make it to the WordPress 4.9 release.
- Dropzone for Plugin and Theme uploads – This allows you to drag & drop your theme or plugin file into the dashboard rather than having to browse your computer for it.
- Draft capability in Customizer – This allows you to store your Customizer changes as a draft so you can publish later, or schedule your changes for a date/time of your choice.
- Syntax highlighting and code linting in the plugin/theme code editor in the dashboard, as well as added warnings when users are editing code in the dashboard,
- Improved mapping of widgets when switching themes. This solves the issue of orphaned widgets that occurs when users switch themes.
- Updating themes & plugins via zip file upload
All together, this is promising update that will help users with managing their sites more effectively. Click here to learn more about WordPress 4.9.