The first release candidate for WordPress 3.7 is now available!
In RC 1, we’ve made some adjustments to the update process to make it more reliable than ever. We hope to ship WordPress 3.7 next week, but we need your help to get there. If you haven’t tested 3.7 yet, there’s no time like the present. (Please, not on a production site, unless you’re adventurous.)
WordPress 3.7 introduces automatic background updates for security and minor releases (like updating from 3.7 to 3.7.1). These are really easy to test — RC 1 will update every 12 hours or so to the latest development version, and then email you the results. (You may get two emails: one for debugging, and one all users of 3.7 will receive.) If something went wrong, you can report it.
Think you’ve found a bug? Please post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. If any known issues come up, you’ll be able to find them here.
To test WordPress 3.7 RC1, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the release candidate here (zip). If you’d like to learn more about what’s new in WordPress 3.7, visit the awesome About screen in your dashboard ( → About in the toolbar). There, you can also see if your install is eligible for background updates. WordPress won’t automatically update, for example, if you’re using version control like Subversion or Git.
Developers, please test your plugins and themes against WordPress 3.7, so that if there is a compatibility issue, we can figure it out before the final release. Make sure you post any issues to the support forums.
WordPress three seven
A self-updating engine
Lies beneath the hood