Textpattern 4.9.0 release flight plan

[petecooper]

We are targeting Textpattern 4.9.0 for release in Q4 2024 or Q1 2025 to introduce new features & improvements, provide initial support for PHP 8.5 (plus formal PHP 8.4, PHP 8.3 & PHP 8.2 support), address some snags, and provide further refinements.

The release flight plan includes at least one beta release before the production release.

Please update this post and subsequent replies with tasks etc as needed, assigning yourself or others where appropriate.

Timeline

• beta release(s): Q3 2024 and Q4 2024 as needed
• GA release: from December 2024 (i.e. after PHP 8.4.0 GA) December 2025 (i.e. after PHP 8.5.0 GA)

Beta and / or RC release(s)

Beta 1

Personnel

• Release pilots pool: @Bloke & @petecooper
• Release co-pilot: Donald Swain

Preflight

• preflight
  • update release toolbelt instructions for altered locations of $thisversion and $txp_is_dev (@petecooper @Bloke )
  • latest translations (@philwareham)
    • tag with release tag in own repo (@philwareham)
  • latest pophelp (@philwareham)
    • tag with release tag in own repo (@philwareham)
  • write .com blog post for minor release intentions (@petecooper)
  • draft .com blog post (release pilot, or assigned person)
  • write HISTORY.txt (everyone)
    • additional credits where not already listed (e.g. patched security issues) (everyone)
  • top and tail HISTORY.txt with additional information (release pilot or co-pilot)
  • latest public/admin themes (@philwareham)
    • tag with release tag in own repo (@philwareham)

Take Off

• take off
  • package up for GitHub and .com (release pilot)
  • update demo site (@petecooper)
  • publish .com blog post (release pilot, or assigned person)
  • forum announcement (release pilot, or assigned person)
  • forum feedback (release pilot, or assigned person)

Inflight service

• inflight service
  • socials (@petecooper or @philwareham)

Repo Issues

Beta 2

Personnel

• Release pilots pool: @Bloke & @petecooper
• Release co-pilot: Donald Swain

Preflight

• preflight
  • update release toolbelt instructions for altered locations of $thisversion and $txp_is_dev (@petecooper @Bloke )
  • check vendors is up-to-date (everyone)
  • latest translations (@philwareham)
  • pophelp tweaks and new entries
  • latest pophelp (@philwareham)
  • write .com blog post for minor release intentions (@petecooper)
  • draft .com blog post (release pilot, or assigned person)
  • write HISTORY.txt (everyone)
    • additional credits where not already listed (e.g. patched security issues) (everyone)
  • top and tail HISTORY.txt with additional information (release pilot or co-pilot)
  • tag public/admin themes with release tag (@philwareham)
  • tag Textpacks and Pophelps with release tag (@philwareham)

Take Off

• take off
  • package up for GitHub and .com (release pilot)
  • update demo site (@petecooper)
  • publish .com blog post (release pilot, or assigned person)
  • forum announcement (release pilot, or assigned person)
  • forum feedback (release pilot, or assigned person)

Inflight service

• inflight service
  • socials (@petecooper or @philwareham)

Repo Issues

GA release

Textpattern 4.9.0

Personnel

• Release pilot: @Bloke or @petecooper
• Release co-pilot: @Bloke or @petecooper

Preflight

• preflight
  • check vendors is up-to-date (everyone)
  • latest translations (@philwareham)
    • tag with release tag in own repo (@philwareham)
  • latest pophelp (@philwareham)
    • tag with release tag in own repo (@philwareham)
  • draft .com blog post (release pilot, or assigned person)
    • add info about image thumbnail stuff (@Bloke)
  • write HISTORY.txt (everyone)
    • additional credits where not already listed (e.g. patched security issues) (everyone)
  • top and tail HISTORY.txt with additional information (release pilot or co-pilot)
  • tag public/admin themes with release tag (@philwareham)
    • tag with release tag in own repo (@philwareham)

Take Off

• take off
  • package up for GitHub and .com (release pilot)
  • update latest.zip, latest.tar.gz, and latest.tar.xz in server config (@petecooper)
  • update language pack links in server config (@petecooper)
  • update demo site (@petecooper)
  • open feedback thread on forum (?id=52735) (release pilot, or assigned person)
  • publish .com blog post (release pilot, or assigned person)
  • forum announcement (release pilot, or assigned person)
  • forum feedback (release pilot, or assigned person)

Inflight service

• inflight service
  • close milestone (release pilot, or assigned person)
  • update TXPversion on rpc.textpattern.com (release pilot, or assigned person)
  • update https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Textpattern_version (@petecooper or @philwareham)
  • socials (@petecooper or @philwareham)
  • update https://textpattern.com/about/system-requirements to reflect changes

[petecooper]

Can we pin down and agree on the milestone for the first beta of 4.9.0, please?

The 4.9 shopping list milestone is here: https://github.com/textpattern/textpattern/milestone/5

Remember that we don't have to get all this into the 4.9.0 release, enhancements are totally fine in patch releases.

We're more than 2 years since a release and it will do us a lot of good to get 4.9.0 out there, especially given the latest PHP we officially support (8.1) is now in its security support era.

Paging @Bloke @bloatware @philwareham for commentary.

[Bloke]

I'd love to get the constraints system going but I'm not delaying any longer. If I can crack it then it might squeeze into 4.9 final. Otherwise it'll be 5.0.0.

The only outstanding things from my perspective both relate to the CSS for the plugins panel. See philwareham/textpattern-hive-admin-theme#683 and philwareham/textpattern-hive-admin-theme#669.

Related to the above, with recent changes to the plugin panel Manage column there's also a slight annoyance that if one of the elements is missing and is injected by JS, you get an empty double pipe symbol. Solutions welcomed.

[philwareham]

Hi. I'll try to mop up those CSS issues next week for you. I'll also pull in any recent translations.

[bloatware]

There are some other css to tweak, namely for the anchors that have been converted to buttons.

[Bloke]

Hi. I'll try to mop up those CSS issues next week for you. I'll also pull in any recent translations.

Awesome, thank you. Btw, I'm not suggesting my PRs are the correct or best way to do this, so if anyone has any other ways to achieve this - maybe even refactor the way the Manage column is handled - then by all means go for it.

The main issue with 669 that I'm trying to address can be seen by installing a plugin that responds to lifecycle events and has prefs and docs.

Install it and take a look on the Plugins panel while it's not activated and you'll see:

Help |          | Export

(and maybe | Upgrade to vA.B.C if it's available on the plugins site)

When you enable the plugin, Options pops up in the central empty slot. It'd be nice if it didn't leave a gap. But if we just go for the PR as is, then it will render two pipes next to one another, which is equally rubbish.

I'm not sure how to fix it, beyond getting rid of the hard coded pipes and maybe rendering the things as buttons, or marking up the pipes somehow so they collapse automatically if two occur in a row.