Getting version number of latest Wordpress release

Question

I want to find out the latest version of WordPress that is officially released. If possible, I'd like to get that version language specific for at least English and German.

I could try and parse the website https://wordpress.org/download/ but it doesn't have the version number in a specific place. I also know I could download the latest package (https://wordpress.org/latest.zip), but I don't need the whole package, just the version number.

Is there a reliable, stable way to just get the latest stable version number of WordPress?

This question is not about getting the version number of my WordPress installation. Actually I want to compare my installed version against the latest version by a script.

Answer 1

WordPress.org offers an api that includes a version checker. That version checker can return a json response (or a serialized string if that's your thing).

Example usage

$url = 'https://api.wordpress.org/core/version-check/1.7/';
$response = wp_remote_get($url);

$json = $response['body'];
$obj = json_decode($json);

The resulting $obj will contain an offers array, whose first element is an object that contains the information you want.

$upgrade = $obj->offers[0];
echo $upgrade->version;

$upgrade will also contain a lot of other useful information including the locale, where to download the current version, etc.

If you're going to be running this in a plugin, I'd recommend caching it with a transient that expires every 12 hours or something and not spamming the poor api on every page load.

Edit: Variable name spelling fail.

Answer 2

For bash users a one liner: (Install jq if not there)

curl -s "https://api.wordpress.org/core/version-check/1.7/" | jq -r '[.offers[]|select(.response=="upgrade")][0].version'

Answer 3

#For the PowerShell users
#One liner using aliases to retrieve latest WP version
((irm 'https://api.wordpress.org/core/version-check/1.7/').offers | ? response -eq upgrade).version

#WP Version Check API URL
$API = 'https://api.wordpress.org/core/version-check/1.7/'
#Invoke-RestMethod automatically converts JSON to PowerShell objects
$WPreleases = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $API
#Get latest version number based on JSON response having a single "upgrade" offering
$WPlatestVersionNum = ($WPreleases.offers | Where-Object response -eq upgrade).version
#Get download URL for latest version
$WPlatestDownloadURL = ($WPreleases.offers | Where-Object response -eq upgrade).download
#Get download URL for latest version without content folder (no themes or default plugins)
$WPlatestDownloadNoContentURL = ($WPreleases.offers | Where-Object response -eq upgrade).packages.no_content
#Create variable holding all release version numbers as version type (instead of strings)
$WPallVersions = $WPreleases.offers | Where-Object response -eq autoupdate | foreach { [version]$_.version }
#Get latest version number
$WPlatestVersion = ($WPallVersions | sort -Descending)[0].ToString()
#Get latest 6.2 release version number
$WPlatestVersion62 = ($WPallVersions | Where-Object {($_.Major -eq 6) -and ($_.Minor -eq 2)} | sort -Descending)[0].ToString()
#Get latest 6.1 release version number
$WPlatestVersion61 = ($WPallVersions | Where-Object {($_.Major -eq 6) -and ($_.Minor -eq 1)} | sort -Descending)[0].ToString()
#Get latest 5 release version number
$WPlatestVersion5 = ($WPallVersions | Where-Object Major -eq 5 | sort -Descending)[0].ToString()
#Get latest 4 release version number
$WPlatestVersion4 = ($WPallVersions | Where-Object Major -eq 4 | sort -Descending)[0].ToString()
#Get download URL for latest release based on version number
$WPlatestVersionDownloadURL = ($WPreleases.offers | Where-Object version -eq $WPlatestVersion).download[0]

#WP Translation API URL
$APtranslations = 'https://api.wordpress.org/translations/core/1.0/?version='
#Language to retrieve
$Language = 'de_DE'
#Get all translations for latest WP version
$WPtranslations = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "$APtranslations$WPlatestVersionNum"
#Does the language have support for the latest version of WP?
if (($WPtranslations.translations | Where-Object language -eq $Language).version -eq $WPlatestVersionNum) {'ja'}else{'nein'}
#Get translation download URL for latest release for German
$WPgermanDownloadURL = ($WPtranslations.translations | Where-Object language -eq $Language).package