WordPress Reverts Live Preview Button on Plugins After Developer Backlash
Last week WordPress meta contributors implemented a “Live Preview” button for plugins in the official directory, with the intention of allowing users to safely test any plugin in one click. The button went live across all of WordPress.org’s 59,000+ plugins but took plugin developers by surprise as it was pushed through without any communication or input from stakeholders. The implementation was premature and failed to take into consideration the many different types of plugins that appear to be broken due to inadequate support in the Playground testing environment. Five weeks ago, Automattic-sponsored Meta team contributor Steve Dufresne commented on the ticket, “Adding that it’s likely still the case (someone else can confirm), not all plugins work in the Playground so we should build in an opt-out mechanism.” This suggestion was roundly ignored by other participants on the ticket and the Playground previews went live. It became immediately apparent that this was done without thorough testing as many plugin authors reported the previews created an unfavorable, broken experience for users. “Who decided to release Preview without posting on make.wordpress.org/plugins/ with some advanced warning to plugin devs?” WordPress developer Alan Fuller asked, starting a discussion in the #meta Slack channel. “Was that…
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