CentrioHost Blog

WordPress 5.2 “Jaco” was officially released on May 7, 2019, and is available for download.

This version comes packed with a lot of exciting changes, the biggest one being the new Site Health check tool which will help both educate users and give developers the essential information they need. Other improvements include PHP error protection (fewer white screens of death), block editor improvements, new dashicons and emojis, and various developer and accessibility updates.

As the WordPress team describes it:

WordPress 5.2 gives you 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.

This is the second major release since the launch of the WordPress block editor (AKA Gutenberg) in WordPress 5.0. Below we’ll dive into all the new improvements and the most important changes you will find with this latest WordPress release.

• Site Health Check
• PHP Error Protection
• Miscellaneous Developer Updates
• New Emojis and Dashicons
• Notable Accessibility Changes
• Security Enhancements
• How to Update to WordPress 5.2

Site Health Check

We saw the first site health check features back in WordPress 5.1 when they added PHP version compatibility checks for plugins and themes. In WordPress 5.2, they’ve added a completely new tool which comes with two new pages to help debug common issues due to server and software configurations, PHP versions, etc.

Site Health Status

Under “Tools” → “Site Health” there is a new page called “Status.” The site health check shows critical information about your WordPress configuration and items that require your attention.

One thing you’ll probably notice right away is that they’ve added a percentage score grade at the top of the page based on how many tests your site passes. Some aren’t happy about this and there is a discussion among developers (Ticket #47046) of whether or not a grading system should exist. The main reason is that scores sometimes create additional problems as users are obsessed with scoring 100%.

However, we are glad to see this, as it will help raise awareness among users. For example, a check for inactive plugins and themes is important. Why?

Many don’t realize that simply because something isn’t active on your WordPress site doesn’t mean someone can’t execute the code if they browse directly to it. Therefore, in order to keep your WordPress site secure, it’s recommended to completely remove inactive themes and plugins if they aren’t being used.

The tests in the new Site Health tool includes checks for the following performance and security-related items:

Performance Checks ?

• Latest WordPress version
• Up to date version of PHP
• Up to date SQL server
• Required and recommended PHP modules are installed
• UTF8MB4 is supported
• Scheduled events
• Working HTTP requests
• REST API available
• Can perform loopback requests

Security Checks ?

• Only running active themes
• Up to date plugins
• HTTPs connection
• Secure communication
• Debug mode off
• Can communicate with WordPress.org
• Background updates are working

If you’re a Host SEO client, it’s easy to score 100% as everything on our platform is always kept up to date. ?

The tests are also filterable via site_status_tests, meaning plugin or theme developers can add their own tests, or remove existing ones. See more info.

Site Health Info

Under “Tools” → “Site Health” there is another new page called “Info.” This is a place to find helpful debugging information about your WordPress site’s configuration which you can share with developers, hosting providers, etc. There is a handy “Copy site info to clipboard” button which allows you to easily grab the information and paste it into a text file to share with a third-party.

The Site Health Info page contains hundreds of different data points about your WordPress site. Without a doubt, this new page will help developers get the information they need from users faster.

Here’s just a small snapshot of some of the awesome and very helpful details you can quickly see.

• WordPress: WordPress version, site language, user language, Home URL and Site URL, permalink structure, multisite check, number of users.
• Directories and Sizes: WordPress directory location, size, upload location and size, theme location and size, plugin location and size, database size, total installation size.
• Active Theme: Name of theme, version, author, author website, parent theme, theme features, theme directory location.
• Must Use Plugins: Details of any must use plugins currently running, version numbers, and author names.
• Active Plugins: Active plugins running, version numbers, and author names.
• Media Handling: Active editor, ImageMagick version number, string, resource limits, GD version, Ghostscript version.
• Server: Server architecture (such as Linux, Windows, etc.), Web server (such as Nginx or Apache), PHP version, PHP SAPI, PHP max input variables, time limit, memory limit, max input time, upload max filesize, post max size, cURL version, SUHOSIN status, Imagick library status, .htaccess rules.
• Database: Extension, server version, client version, database user, host, name, prefix.
• WordPress Constants: ABSPATH, WP_HOME, WP_SITEURL, WP_CONTENT_DIR, WP_PLUGIN_DIR, WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT, WP_DEBUG, WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY, WP_DEBUG_LOG, SCRIPT_DEBUG, WP_CACHE, CONCATENATE_SCRIPTS, COMPRESS_SCRIPTS, COMPRESS_CSS, WP_LOCAL_DEV.
• Filesystem Permissions: Check against the following directories to see if they are writable. Main WordPress directory, wp-content directory, uploads directory, plugins directory, themes directory, must use plugins directory.

PHP Error Protection

WordPress 5.1 was originally scheduled to introduce a new feature called “fatal error protection” which would protect from the WordPress white screen of death while updating PHP. However, due to several critical flaws, this feature was delayed. It has now been included in WordPress 5.2.

With this protection, WordPress will recognize when a fatal error occurs and pause the offending theme or plugin in the WordPress admin dashboard so that you’ll still be able to log into the backend of your site and (hopefully) fix the problem. For less tech-savvy users, this is a great new feature. All we can say is, we wish this feature had been added years ago!

However, we always still recommend using a staging environment when testing out a new version of PHP.

If your site experiences issues while upgrading PHP versions, it will look like the image below on the front-end, but you will still be able to log into the backend to fix the problem.