Interactivity API: Roadmap

[luisherranz]

This is the list of tasks that we currently have in mind for the Interactivity API. This list is being updated as we progress and learn more about the needs of this initiative.

We'll keep this list updated, but we will use Tracking Issues to track who is doing what, which PRs are opened, merged and so on. We'll add a comment here each time we open a new Tracking Issue so anyone interested in the development can subscribe to it, and we'll update the list to reflect what has been completed and add links to the relevant issues and PRs. So please subscribe to this discussion if you want to follow the development of the Interactivity API.

If you have ideas or suggestions, don't comment here!! Please open a separate discussion in the Interactivity API category instead.

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• Runtime

  • Make ref a signal so getters using only ref get reevaluated when it is populated
  • Pass down signals/computeds to avoid component rerenders
  • Test if memoizing the Directives components (or top component) avoids unnecessary rerenders
  • Support lazy hydration
    • Support for lazy hydration techniques: idle and view #52723
    • Interactivity API: Defer hydration until node is scrolled near the viewport #58284
  • Support non-overridable/extensible stores (can be accessed with store(), but don't accept new state, actions...)
  • Update @preact/signals to v2 and remove custom useSignalEffect implementation
    • useSignalEffect should execute after changes have been applied to the DOM preactjs/signals#228 (comment)
    • https://stackblitz.com/edit/vitejs-vite-e1qt21

• Directives

  • Support lazy loaded callbacks in data-wp-init/run/watch
  • Support no prefix for data-wp-class and data-wp-style directives
    • Interactivity API: Allow more directives suffixes #65803 (comment)
  • Implement data-wp-html and data-wp-dangerous-html
  • Implement data-wp-if and data-wp-else directives
    • What should be the HTML structure returned when `wp-show` is false? #53058
  • Implement data-wp-slot and data-wp-fill directives
  • Implement a directive to load JSX (client-side only) components: data-wp-client-only-component
  • Add ability to use data-wp-each recursively
    • Interactivity API and extensibility #62119 (comment)
  • Expose the index of the array in data-wp-each

• Server Directive Processing

  • Add support for private stores
    • Private store references #51596
  • Code-split directives, auto-detect them, and auto-enqueue them
  • Move the Server Directive Processing to the final HTML API once ready
  • Add support for unique IDs in wp_interactivity_data_wp_context

• Client-side Navigation

  • Inherit namespace on nested data-wp-router-region directives
  • Expose the loading state on client-side navigation
  • Figure out compatibility with View Transitions API (and progressive enhancement with the MPA version)
    • Explore how to integrate the new View Transitions API #53063
  • Add a dom option to navigate to accept a parsed DOM.
  • Expose wp_interactivity()->add_client_navigation_support_to_script_module as wp_interactivity_add_client_navigation_support_to_script_module helper function
  • Expose site's home URL
    • Support multisite with subdirectories in `navigate` function #53104
  • Support ignoring queries (like utm*) for the client page cache
  • Support URLs with hash
    • Router: support hash #53068
  • Keep favicon when doing full-page client-side navigation
    • Router: keep favicon when doing client-side navigation #53067
  • Query block: Add directives when full-page client-side navigation is active
  • Scroll to top by default when doing full-page client-side navigation
  •  Use CSS variables for the top loading bar animation
    • iAPI Docs: Add client-side navigation guide under "Core Concepts" #75263 (comment)
  • Add support for dynamically injected CSS
    • Add support for dynamically injected CSS #76031
  •  Add support for inline script modules with loadOnClientNavigation: true
  • Interactivity API proposal: declarative mechanism to refresh server-only regions that depend on visitor state #80521

• Debug

  • Emit warning when the server-side rendering is different than the first render
    • Remove/restrict wp-init effect to encourage/enforce initial state to be supplied by PHP for SSR #52889
    • Interactivity API: Server Directive Processing wordpress-develop#5953 (comment)
  • Add the names of each loaded directive to the component names
    • Improve the Interactivity API priority levels logic #52323 (comment)
    • Interactivity API: Debug - Show directive names included in each Directives component on Preact’s debug tools #60049
  • Prevent crashes when references are not defined and inform about the error in the console

• Deprecations

  • Introduce withSyncEvent action wrapper utility and proxy event object whenever it is not used #68097
  • Deprecate data-wp-ignore directive with warning message #70945
  • iAPI: Add official support for unique IDs #72161
  • Using a function with a negator operator
  • iAPI router: Move internal properties to a private store #70882

[luisherranz]

I've closed the previous Tracking Issue as completed:

• Tracking Issue: Expose the full Interactivity API in @wordpress/interactivity #51056

And opened a new one for the next iteration:

• Tracking Issue: More core blocks and new store() API #53740

[luisherranz]

I've opened a new Tracking Issue to track the ongoing efforts to improve the way we process directives in the server:

• Tracking Issue: Server Directive Processing #55938

[luisherranz]

I've closed the Core blocks and new store() API tracking issue as completed, and consolidated the Server Directive Processing into a new one to track the progress of the public 1.0 version:

• Epic: Interactivity API - public 1.0 version #56803

[luisherranz]

This was the tracking issue related to the changes made in WordPress 6.6.

• Interactivity API: Iteration for WP 6.6 #60219

[luisherranz]

This is the tracking issue to keep the progress of the planned changes for WordPress 6.7.

• Interactivity API iteration for WordPress 6.7 #63232

[luisherranz]

These were the tracking issues to keep progress of the planned changes for WordPress 6.8 and WordPress 6.9:

• Interactivity API iteration for WordPress 6.8 #67276
• Interactivity API iteration for WordPress 6.9 #70883