“In all the List Tables in the admin, the “Select %s” (where %s is the name of the Post, Attachment, Plugin, User, etc,) is used as row header:

This is not correct from a semantics and accessibility point of view for all the reasons mentioned in #31654. The row header should be the cell with the main object the table refers to: the Post title, the Plugin name, etc.”

What Should Plugin Users Do?

Plugins that use CSS or JavaScript to target specific

or elements in WordPress admin post list tables are the ones at risk.

You may be affected if you use a plugin that adds information or controls to WordPress admin post lists and relies on the existing

and structure.

Review that plugin’s changelog once WordPress 7.1 rolls out. To do that, just Google the name of the plugin plus the keyword “changelog” in order to find the log of changes made to the plugin as well as information about compatibility. Most plugins test for compatibility. If the plugin is marked as compatible, update it before installing WordPress 7.1. If compatibility has not been confirmed, use a staging site to test whether the plugin breaks the WordPress 7.1 admin post list.

The three most popular SEO plugins, Yoast SEO, Rank Math, and All in One SEO, have functionality related to the admin post list, but they are unlikely to break. A review of their publicly available code found no selectors that appear to rely on the

and structure changed in WordPress 7.1. That’s not a guarantee, though, so it’s prudent to check their website blogs and changelogs to make sure.

Even if a plugin breaks with WordPress 7.1, the change is unlikely to be an issue on the public-facing side of the website.

What Should Plugin Developers Do?

WordPress software developers should already know to audit their software for changes. But there are many people nowadays who are vibe coding their own plugins so it’s important for non-developers who rely on AI to code their plugins to also audit any CSS or JavaScript selectors that specifically target

or elements in WordPress admin post list tables, because those selectors may stop working when the element type changes in WordPress 7.1.

The official WordPress announcement offered the following before and after examples of how the code will change:

Code Before Change

Hello world!

admin

The th is in the first column, followed by a td with the column title.

Code After Change

Hello world!

admin

The checkbox cell is changing from a

to a , while the post title cell is changing from a to a . Because plugins may need to support both the old and new markup, developers should update their CSS and JavaScript to work with both versions of the code.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Konstantin Kolosov