Divi 5 Dev Letter #4: Progress Report and Big Changes Behind the Scenes

Welcome to our 4th (and very delayed) Divi 5 Dev Letter, where we share the latest on how Divi Engine is preparing for the highly anticipated Divi 5 release. With Divi 5 Public Alpha already on its 7th version, we’re excited to report on our progress, showcase some significant milestones, and give you a glimpse into what’s next.

Divi Ajax Filter: Fully Re-coded and Stress Tested

We’re thrilled to announce that the Divi 5 version of our Divi Ajax Filter plugin is complete! Currently undergoing internal stress testing, this milestone brings us one step closer to ensuring seamless compatibility with Divi 5. This plugin is a cornerstone of both Divi Machine and Divi BodyCommerce, making its successful adaptation a pivotal achievement.

Divi Machine: Next on the Roadmap

With Divi Ajax Filter nearing readiness, our focus now shifts to Divi Machine. Known for its advanced custom post type functionalities, Divi Machine’s transformation for Divi 5 will enable even more dynamic content creation possibilities. Rest assured, we’re dedicated to maintaining the exceptional performance and usability our users have come to expect.

Prioritizing Accessibility

As part of our commitment to improving the experience for all users, we’re making accessibility a central focus of our development efforts. With the rewrite of each plugin for Divi 5, we are implementing WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) standards to ensure our plugins meet the needs of users requiring accessibility features.

This step is about more than compliance—it’s about making sure everyone can build and enjoy beautiful, functional websites. By aligning with WCAG, we’re creating tools that are not only powerful but also inclusive.

A New Era for Divi Engine Development

The past five months have been a period of reflection and transformation for our development team. To ensure we’re ready for Divi 5 and beyond, we’ve implemented significant changes to our processes:

  • Streamlined Development Practices: We’ve refined our workflows to enhance efficiency and ensure consistent, high-quality output.
  • Team Expansion: Our development team has grown, and we’ve started training Pavak to play a vital role in future projects. His enthusiasm and potential make us confident he’ll become a key contributor down the line.
  • New Plugin Features & Maintenance: The time spent reflecting on our development processes have enabled us to take a step back and decide where dev hours are best spent.

Why This Matters

These changes aren’t just about adapting to Divi 5—they’re about future-proofing our plugins and strengthening the Divi Engine ecosystem. By investing in our team and rethinking how we work, we’re ensuring that our plugins remain innovative, robust, and ready to harness the power of Divi 5’s new capabilities.

Our new approach comes with a huge new feature for Divi Form Builder as well as changes to two of our oldest plugins, but more on that a bit later.

Stay Updated with Our Dev Letters

As we continue to navigate this exciting journey, your support and feedback remain invaluable. Keep an eye on our blog for updates, and don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions or insights to share.

We know this update might feel a bit “light”, but big ships steer slowly. Thank you for being part of the Divi Engine community. We can’t wait to see what you create with Divi 5 and our suite of plugins when it finally drops!

Warmest regards,

Divi Engine Team Signature

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, we have already started development for Divi 5 by exploring the impact and assessing the development cycle. We are starting with our Ajax filtering features in Divi Ajax Filter, Divi Machine, and Divi BodyCommerce.

Yes, we will continue to add new features and maintain the plugins.

Accessibility ensures that our plugins can be used by everyone, including individuals with disabilities. This involves designing features that align with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), making our plugins more inclusive for all users.

We believe that everyone should have the ability to create and interact with websites, regardless of their abilities. By implementing accessibility standards, we empower users to build websites that cater to diverse audiences, ensuring that no one is left behind.

This all depends on the changes that come with future versions of the Divi 5 development beta, as well as when Divi 5 is released. The plan is to do things in a way that not only makes our plugins compatible, but also more useful with the new flexibility offered with Divi 5.

Yes, we feel the developer documentation for Divi 5 and the new API is at a place where it makes sense to dive in. We have completed Divi Ajax Filter and are busy testing it internally.

Since we received access to the Divi 5 developer alpha, much has changed in how it operates and what the expectations are for final release. During our initial exploration last year, we found that the developer documentation was lacking and that things were still very buggy. Various class names and modules have changed since then and as early as one month ago, we were still seeing some changes that would have wasted precious development time. At this time, we think the developer beta is in a good place, so we are fully committed to full-time development from here on in.

No, we do not currently have any plans to increase the pricing of our plugins related to Divi 5 or otherwise.

Yes, we want to hear from you in this process. We constantly monitor feedback on our feedback site at https://feedback.diviengine.com, so we encourage you to make any suggestions there.

We wish we knew as much as you do. Divi 5 is still evolving and is actively being developed by Elegant Themes. We suspect the public alpha might be released during Q2 this year, with a beta to follow in Q3, and ultimately a Divi 5 release before the end of the year. This is speculation based on the state of Divi 5 right now.

  • Core Technology Overhaul: Total rewrite for improved performance and scalability.
  • New Builder API: Allows extensive customization and feature development.
  • Enhanced Gutenberg Integration: Improved compatibility with Gutenberg blocks.
  • Elimination of Shortcodes: Shift to a modern storage format.
  • Performance Improvements: Faster load times for front-end and builder interface.
  • Future-Proofing: Updated for the latest PHP and WordPress versions.

Unfortunately, we are unable to offer any support on the interaction between Divi 5 and our plugins until the official release of Divi 5. If you do have issues after updating to a pre-release version of Divi 5 the best course of action is to roll back to an official release.

Please do not open support tickets that relate to these Divi 5 pre-release versions.

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