Visual revisions: add shareable urls by priethor · Pull Request #79934 · WordPress/gutenberg

priethor · 2026-07-07T11:41:49Z

What

Part of #79120, closes #76552.

Makes visual revisions linkable in the post editor and site editor.

Why

Reviewing or discussing a specific revision is much easier when the URL points to the exact revision being shown.

How

A URL with revision=<id> now opens the editor directly on that revision, and moving through revisions keeps the address bar up to date so the current view can be shared.
The URL is updated with history replacement, so moving through revisions does not add extra browser history entries. Rapid slider or keyboard changes are grouped to stay below Safari's limit of 100 History API calls in 30 seconds. Normal post URL updates and single revision changes remain immediate.
Leaving revisions mode removes the arg again.
Invalid revision IDs show a notice and fall back to the normal editor, while posts with active classic meta boxes still land on the classic revisions screen.

Testing Instructions

Create a post and update it enough times to get at least two revisions.
Open wp-admin/post.php?post=<post-id>&action=edit&revision=<old-revision-id>.
Check that the post editor opens in revisions mode at that revision.
Move the revision slider and check that the revision arg changes to the selected revision.
Click “Exit” and check that the revision arg is removed.
Open the same post with an invalid revision ID and check that the notice appears and the URL is cleaned up.
Repeat the deep-link, slider, and exit checks for a page in the site editor with wp-admin/site-editor.php?p=%2Fpage%2F<page-id>&canvas=edit&revision=<old-revision-id>.
For a post type with active classic meta boxes, open a revision deep link and check that it redirects to the classic revisions screen.

Screencast

Grabacion.de.pantalla.2026-07-08.a.las.12.12.25.mov

Implemented with Claude and Codex, with direction, manual testing, and review by me.

github-actions · 2026-07-07T11:42:37Z

👋 Thanks for your first Pull Request and for helping build the future of Gutenberg and WordPress, @priethor! In case you missed it, we'd love to have you join us in our Slack community.

If you want to learn more about WordPress development in general, check out the Core Handbook full of helpful information.

github-actions · 2026-07-07T11:50:10Z

Size Change: +1.23 kB (+0.02%)

Total Size: 7.77 MB

📦 View Changed

Filename	Size	Change
`build/scripts/core-data/index.min.js`	36.4 kB	-4 B (-0.01%)
`build/scripts/edit-post/index.min.js`	52.4 kB	+488 B (+0.94%)
`build/scripts/edit-site/index.min.js`	306 kB	+447 B (+0.15%)
`build/scripts/editor/index.min.js`	501 kB	+284 B (+0.06%)
`build/scripts/router/index.min.js`	5.97 kB	+12 B (+0.2%)

_{compressed-size-action}

im3dabasia · 2026-07-07T12:00:34Z

Surprised to see the "First-time contributor" label added to these PRs #79934 and #79901 😕 , Ideally should not have happened.

cbravobernal · 2026-07-07T15:28:10Z

Surprised to see the "First-time contributor" label added to these PRs #79934 and #79901 😕 , Ideally should not have happened.

Bots doing bots stuff :)

priethor · 2026-07-08T09:47:21Z

Surprised to see the "First-time contributor" label added to these PRs

Indeed, it was very annoying 😅 . Fixed it in #79987

…ons-shareable-urls

…ons-shareable-urls # Conflicts: # packages/router/CHANGELOG.md

jorgefilipecosta

Left some minor comments but things tested well for me.

ellatrix · 2026-07-31T02:44:17Z

+		'wp_template_part',
+	].includes( postType );
+
+	useEffect( () => {


I don't understand why this is an effect. Why don't we do this when the revisions button is clicked, or determine the right link to provide for the button?

The button already links to revision.php when clicked, indeed, but the effect handles opening an editor URL that already contains ?revision= in it. In that case, we only know after the editor loads whether the post needs the classic revisions screen or not, and once we know, the effect redirects there. I added a comment to make that clearer.

Why do we only know that when the editor loads? Why can't we redirect in PHP?

ellatrix · 2026-07-31T02:45:23Z

 	const _isPreviewingTheme = isPreviewingTheme();
 	const iframeProps = useEditorIframeProps();
 	const isEditMode = canvas === 'edit';
+	useRevisionsURLSync( isEditMode, editorPostType, editorPostId );


Just seeing this already makes me wonder: is the URL not the source of truth? If not, why not? Why are we syncing it?

Right now, the URL sets the initial revision when an entity loads. After that, the existing revisions UI keeps the selection and this hook mirrors those changes back to the URL.

Making the URL the only source would mean changing the shared revision controls so every selection goes through navigation, especially while using the slider. I’m not against that, but it felt like a bigger behavioral change and a lot of navigation for this PR. What do you think?

Making the URL the only source would mean changing the shared revision controls so every selection goes through navigation, especially while using the slider.

Shouldn't that be the case? The URL is the state. What's the behavior change?

The behavior change is mostly in the slider: the preview updates immediately, while URL updates have to be throttled because of Safari’s History API limit. Making the URL the source of truth would be cleaner indeed, but it would also need some changes to the shared revision controls. I’d rather handle that in a polishing follow-up, would that work for you?

Sure. Isn't the slider already throttled?

Nope, but it might be worth considering handlding the throttle at RangeControl level. 🤔

I thought I throttled a tiny bit because otherwise it goes through tons of diff calculations of intermediate revisions you slide through.

If it does, I can't see it 😅 . The slider seems to dispatch on every input event, so dragging accross 20 revisions would parse all 20, not just the one you land in.

I guess moving up the throttle a level (even if it's not at range control level) would improve the revisions performance to avoid these unnecessary diffings when sliding.

I guess moving up the throttle a level (even if it's not at range control level) would improve the revisions performance to avoid these unnecessary diffings when sliding.

To answer my comment above: I measured it to see how impactful it could be with 30 revisions of ~100 paragraphs each and it takes under 50 ms for a full drag, so I don't think it's worth considering throttling at all.

Right, I think I ended up speeding up diffing and dropped the throttling maybe. 🤔 100 paragraphs is small though.

t-hamano · 2026-08-04T15:36:58Z

This PR is a blessed task, so we are considering backporting it to 7.1. Do you have any concerns about backporting this PR as is to 7.1? cc @annezazu

priethor · 2026-08-04T17:03:02Z

Do you have any concerns about backporting this PR as is to 7.1?

I'd like to explore a follow-up based on the feedback received to make the URL the canonical source of truth. I don't consider it a blocker to port it and start testing it, but also don't have a strong opinion on whether it should be included at this point, I'll defer to release leads.

t-hamano · 2026-08-05T06:10:31Z

It has been agreed to backport this PR to 7.1. If a follow-up PR is submitted, let's backport it to 7.1 as well, if possible.

github-actions · 2026-08-05T06:12:11Z

There was a conflict while trying to cherry-pick the commit to the wp/7.1 branch. Please resolve the conflict manually and create a PR to the wp/7.1 branch.

PRs to wp/7.1 are similar to PRs to trunk, but you should base your PR on the wp/7.1 branch instead of trunk.

# Checkout the wp/7.1 branch instead of trunk.
git checkout wp/7.1

# Create a new branch for your PR.
git checkout -b my-branch

# Cherry-pick the commit.
git cherry-pick 816fdbb14f353498aed164cde410274d741057ec

# Check which files have conflicts.
git status

# Resolve the conflict...
# Add the resolved files to the staging area.
git status
git add .
git cherry-pick --continue

# Push the branch to the repository
git push origin my-branch

# Create a PR and set the base to the wp/7.1 branch.
# See https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/proposing-changes-to-your-work-with-pull-requests/changing-the-base-branch-of-a-pull-request.

Co-authored-by: priethor <priethor@git.wordpress.org> Co-authored-by: ramonjd <ramonopoly@git.wordpress.org> Co-authored-by: Mamaduka <mamaduka@git.wordpress.org> Co-authored-by: tyxla <tyxla@git.wordpress.org> Co-authored-by: getdave <get_dave@git.wordpress.org> Co-authored-by: jorgefilipecosta <jorgefilipecosta@git.wordpress.org> Co-authored-by: ellatrix <ellatrix@git.wordpress.org> Co-authored-by: t-hamano <wildworks@git.wordpress.org> Co-authored-by: aduth <aduth@git.wordpress.org>

t-hamano · 2026-08-05T06:22:13Z

Manual backport: #81205

Co-authored-by: priethor <priethor@git.wordpress.org> Co-authored-by: ramonjd <ramonopoly@git.wordpress.org> Co-authored-by: Mamaduka <mamaduka@git.wordpress.org> Co-authored-by: tyxla <tyxla@git.wordpress.org> Co-authored-by: getdave <get_dave@git.wordpress.org> Co-authored-by: jorgefilipecosta <jorgefilipecosta@git.wordpress.org> Co-authored-by: ellatrix <ellatrix@git.wordpress.org> Co-authored-by: t-hamano <wildworks@git.wordpress.org> Co-authored-by: aduth <aduth@git.wordpress.org>

priethor added 4 commits July 7, 2026 13:30

Add shareable URLs for visual revisions

0cc178a

Write revision URL changes immediately after quiet periods

7a45452

Trim redundant comments

d088b1a

Reword comments and changelog entry

79b1527

priethor self-assigned this Jul 7, 2026

github-actions Bot added [Package] Editor /packages/editor [Package] Edit Post /packages/edit-post [Package] Edit Site /packages/edit-site [Package] Router /packages/router labels Jul 7, 2026

priethor mentioned this pull request Jul 7, 2026

Visual Revisions: post-7.0 polish #79120

Open

9 tasks

github-actions Bot added the First-time Contributor Pull request opened by a first-time contributor to Gutenberg repository label Jul 7, 2026

priethor added 3 commits July 7, 2026 16:40

Update meta box revisions test mock

ed200a7

Guard site editor revision URL writes

f8ba298

Catch site editor revision URL write failures

a73448b

priethor added [Feature] History History, undo, redo, revisions, autosave. [Type] Enhancement A suggestion for improvement. and removed First-time Contributor Pull request opened by a first-time contributor to Gutenberg repository labels Jul 7, 2026

priethor added 3 commits July 8, 2026 11:56

Confine site editor revision URL open to the initial load

d117024

Drop redundant classic revisions redirect from BrowserURL

113e78d

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/trunk' into add/addvisual-revisi…

fd5746d

…ons-shareable-urls

t-hamano mentioned this pull request Jul 11, 2026

Editor: Fix the view Revisions menu item to show editor revisions page #78424

Open

priethor added 3 commits July 13, 2026 11:51

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/trunk' into add/addvisual-revisi…

7fee5b9

…ons-shareable-urls # Conflicts: # packages/router/CHANGELOG.md

Harden revision deep link validation and URL writes

eaac517

Polish revision URL comments

761ff9a

priethor marked this pull request as ready for review July 13, 2026 10:47

priethor requested a review from tyxla July 23, 2026 18:12

getdave mentioned this pull request Jul 27, 2026

Fix: Support replace navigation to prevent extra history entries in site editor #77150

Open

priethor added 2 commits July 27, 2026 17:03

Merge origin/trunk

e5c8f6a

Merge origin/trunk

82bcc1a

jorgefilipecosta reviewed Jul 30, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread packages/editor/src/store/private-actions.js Outdated

jorgefilipecosta reviewed Jul 30, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread packages/edit-post/src/components/browser-url/use-classic-revision-redirect.js Outdated

jorgefilipecosta approved these changes Jul 30, 2026

View reviewed changes

ellatrix reviewed Jul 31, 2026

View reviewed changes

priethor added 3 commits July 31, 2026 14:03

Handle revision deep-link request errors

c027352

Avoid classic revision redirect loops

c3730af

Explain classic revision URL redirects

f63528c

priethor merged commit 816fdbb into trunk Aug 3, 2026
50 of 57 checks passed

priethor deleted the add/addvisual-revisions-shareable-urls branch August 3, 2026 17:05

github-project-automation Bot moved this from 🔎 Needs Review to ✅ Done in WordPress 7.1 Editor Tasks Aug 3, 2026

github-actions Bot added this to the Gutenberg 23.8 milestone Aug 3, 2026

t-hamano added the Backport to WP 7.1 Beta/RC Pull request that needs to be backported to the WordPress major release that's currently in beta label Aug 5, 2026

t-hamano mentioned this pull request Aug 5, 2026

Visual revisions: add shareable urls #81205

Merged

t-hamano added Backported to WP Core Pull request that has been successfully merged into WP Core and removed Backport to WP 7.1 Beta/RC Pull request that needs to be backported to the WordPress major release that's currently in beta labels Aug 5, 2026

t-hamano mentioned this pull request Aug 7, 2026

Revisions: Sync active revision ID with URL to support direct linking #78462

Closed

ciampo mentioned this pull request Aug 7, 2026

Package changelogs: Improve consistency and prevent future drift #81341

Open

35 tasks

jasmussen mentioned this pull request Aug 20, 2026

Make revisions more visual and cohesive across site wide changes #52138

Closed

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