Release version 1.9.0

[vikrampm1]

This issue is for tracking changes for the 1.9.0 release. Target release date: June 03 2025.

Pre-release steps

• Resolve conflicts & Merge Improve the enqueueing of JS scripts and styles #161
• Merge Add user synchronization  #156

Release instructions

• Branch: Starting from develop, cut a release branch named release/1.9.0 for your changes.
• Version bump: Bump the version number in mailchimp.php, package-lock.json, package.json, and readme.txt if it does not already reflect the version being released. Update both the plugin "Version:" property and the plugin MCSF_VER constant in mailchimp.php.
• Changelog: Add/update the changelog in both CHANGELOG.md and readme.txt.
• Since updates: Find any @since x.x.x statements and update those with the proper version number.
• Props: update CREDITS.md with any new contributors, confirm maintainers are accurate.
• New files: Check to be sure any new files/paths that are unnecessary in the production version are included in .gitattributes or .distignore.
• Readme updates: Make any other readme changes as necessary. README.md is geared toward GitHub and readme.txt contains WordPress.org-specific content. The two are slightly different.
• Merge: Make a non-fast-forward merge from your release branch to develop (or merge the pull request), then do the same for develop into main, ensuring you pull the most recent changes into develop first (git checkout develop && git pull origin develop && git checkout main && git merge --no-ff develop). main contains the latest stable release.
• Push: Push your main branch to GitHub (e.g. git push origin main).
• Compare main to develop to ensure no additional changes were missed.
• Test the pre-release ZIP locally by downloading it from the Build release zip action artifact and installing it locally. Ensure this zip has all the files we expect, that it installs and activates correctly and that all basic functionality is working.
• Compare this zip with the latest release, ensuring all new files and file changes are expected.
• Either perform a regression testing utilizing the available Critical Flows and Test Cases or if end-to-end tests cover a significant portion of those Critical Flows then run e2e tests. Only proceed if everything tests successfully.
• Release: Create a new release, naming the tag and the release with the new version number, and targeting the main branch. Paste the changelog from CHANGELOG.md into the body of the release and include a link to the closed issues on the milestone.
• SVN: Wait for the GitHub Action to finish deploying to the WordPress.org repository. If all goes well, users with SVN commit access for that plugin will receive an emailed diff of changes.
• Check WordPress.org: Ensure that the changes are live on WordPress.org. This may take a few minutes.
• Close the milestone: Edit the milestone with release date (in the Due date (optional) field) and link to GitHub release (in the Description field), then close the milestone.
• Punt incomplete items: If any open issues or PRs which were milestoned for 1.9.0 do not make it into the release, update their milestone to 2.0.0, or Future Release.

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct