How to Make New Feature Suggestions for WordPress

Are you wondering how new features get added to WordPress?

You can make a new feature suggestion for WordPress using Trac or GitHub. Besides that, you can also report bugs and open tickets so contributors and developers can add them to WordPress core.

In this article, we will show you how to make new feature suggestions for WordPress.

How New Features Make Their Way into WordPress

As an open-source software, the development of WordPress is driven by its users and volunteer developers that make up the core team. Anyone can make suggestions for new features and improvements they think would be good for all WordPress websites.

If there is a feature that enough users want, and there are developers interested in working on that feature, then it eventually becomes part of the software.

This has been the winning formula that has led to WordPress now powering over 43% of all websites.

WordPress can also be easily extended with plugins. This means that even if a feature is not included in the core software, it could still be added as a WordPress plugin.

If a feature can be easily added using a plugin and is not beneficial for a majority of WordPress users, then it is not added to the core. Usually, this is the case with most new feature suggestions.

Users can suggest features by using WordPress Trac, which is a bug tracking, development, and ticketing software. All WordPress development progress is recorded on Trac.

Another place where users can suggest new features is the WordPress Requests and Feedback Forum. It allows users to submit their suggestions as ideas and other WordPress users can vote on them.

Depending on the number of votes an idea generates, the WordPress development team can consider it to be added to the core.

That said, let’s see how to use WordPress Trac and GitHub to submit new feature ideas. Simply click the links below to jump ahead:

Adding a New WordPress Feature Suggestion Using Trac

First, make sure that you are using Trac correctly.

Note: Trac is not a support platform. If you are looking for support, then use the WordPress support forums instead.

Before you create a Trac ticket, please thoroughly search through it to ensure that someone else hasn’t already suggested this feature.

You can do that by going to the search page in WordPress Core and then entering the search term in the search bar.

Once you are sure that the feature you are going to suggest does not exist, then visit the Trac website.

From here, simply click the ‘Create a new ticket’ button.

Next, you will need to log in to your WordPress.org account.

If you don’t have an account, then you will need to sign up first.

Once you are logged in, you will see the New Ticket form.

Go ahead and enter the details for your feature suggestion.

First, you need to provide a summary of your feature suggestion. This should be a simple one-liner that explains the problem that you are trying to solve with your feature suggestion.

In the ‘Description’ area, you will need to provide as much detail as you want about the feature you are suggesting. Feel free to add screenshots and mockups to explain your suggestion. You also need to use this space to make a case for your feature suggestion, explaining why you think it should be part of the core.

Make sure that you select ‘Feature request’ as your ticket type. If you are adding a bug report, then select ‘defect (bug)’. If you think that the feature you are suggesting is actually an enhancement of an already existing feature, then select ‘enhancement’ as your ticket type.

Then, you can choose a WordPress version number (like 6.1), component, and contributor focus as per your requirement.

The component refers to a specific area like WordPress comments, editor, themes, plugins, and more. By contrast, contributor factors are additional tags you can add to your ticket.

When you are done, you can preview the details and then click on the ‘Create ticket’ button.

If you scroll down from there, you will see a preview of your ticket.

Ensure that all the details are correct before submitting the WordPress feature suggestion ticket.

What Happens After You Submit a Ticket to Trac?

Once you have submitted a ticket to Trac, it becomes available for other contributors and developers.

Lead developers will also receive notifications, and they can take a look at your ticket and take action on it.

There are a number of actions that any WordPress user can take on the ticket. For example, someone can change the focus, component, status, and other details. These changes will be recorded and shown in Trac.

If your ticket gains enough interest, someone can develop and submit a patch for it. This patch can then be reviewed by the lead developer and can be accepted. Once a patch is accepted, either a lead developer or another person with permission can ‘commit’ the change, and it will be added to the core during the next update cycle.

Depending on the nature of your suggestion, it can take days, weeks, months, and sometimes even years to become a part of the core.

Despite the sometimes long wait, submitting feature requests is worth the effort. It’s because of requests like these that WordPress has grown from software that only supported blogs to the CMS that it is today.

Adding a New WordPress Feature Suggestion Using GitHub

Another way you can request new features in WordPress is by using GitHub.

GitHub is a cloud-based website that allows developers to store and manage their code, keep track of changes, offer version control, and help others collaborate on a project.

First, you’ll need to visit the GitHub website and sign up for a free account.

After that, you can visit the WordPress core page on GitHub.

Here, you will see an Overview. Go ahead and click the ‘Repositories’ tab.

On the next screen, search for the repository where you want to suggest new WordPress features.

For example, if you have a new idea, bug report, or improvement recommendation for the block editor, then you can post it in the Gutenberg repository.

After selecting the relevant repository, you can create a ticket for your suggestion.

Simply click the ‘Issue’ option from the menu at the top.

Next, you’ll see a list of issues, bug reports, and other threads.

First, you can search the issue tab and make sure that your feature request hasn’t already been posted. From here, you can click the ‘New issue’ button in the top corner.

On the next screen, you’ll see multiple options to create a new issue.

Go ahead and select the ‘Feature request’ option.

Next, you’ll need to enter the details of your feature request. You can give a title and write down the details.

After that, simply click the ‘Submit new issue’ button to create the ticket.

After that, there will be a GitHub thread where you can follow the discussion and development that happens about your suggested feature.

We hope this article helped you learn how to make new feature suggestions for WordPress. You may also want to check out our guide on why WordPress is free and the ultimate WordPress security guide.

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