Global Style Variations: Changes to JSON file are not applied immediately

[mikachan]

Description

When editing a style variation's JSON file, the styles aren't immediately applied when reloading the front end. In order to see the changes, you need to reload the Site Editor, re-select the variation from within Global Styles, and then reload the front end.

Step-by-step reproduction instructions

1. Activate a theme with style variations, e.g. Twenty Twenty-Three
2. Go to Global Styles and change to a different style variation
3. Edit the chosen style variation's JSON file, e.g. change the font size of the navigation block
4. Refresh the front end and observe that the font size has not changed
5. Go back to Global Styles and refresh the Site Editor
6. Re-select the chosen style variation (you should be able to select it as if it isn't activated)
7. Reload the front end and observe that the font size has correctly updated

Screenshots, screen recording, code snippet

No response

Environment info

• WordPress 6.0.1, GB trunk, Twenty Twenty-Three

Please confirm that you have searched existing issues in the repo.

Yes

Please confirm that you have tested with all plugins deactivated except Gutenberg.

Yes

[colorful-tones]

This was a huge pain point when developing all the style variations in the Extendable theme.

I'm glad to see an Issue for it. 🙏

[ndiego]

Not a solution, but I found that turning debug on resolves this.

[colorful-tones]

@ndiego can you please clarify? I have define( 'WP_DEBUG', true ); and this does not resolve the issue. Perhaps you're referring to another debug?

I've tried all of the following, and none of them resolve the issue:

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', true );
define( 'SCRIPT_DEBUG', true );

[ryelle]

I think WP_DEBUG helps for changes in theme.json, but the variation JSON is saved to & loaded from the database. As far as I can tell, there's no way to refresh it except going through the editor process.

[ndiego]

Ah yup, I was referring to the main theme.json file. Thanks for the additional info @ryelle, I didn't realize variation files worked like that.

[aristath]

If I remember correctly, there is a small cache (I think it was 1m or something like that) to avoid parsing things on each page-request.
The caches are bypassed when WP_DEBUG/SCRIPT_DEBUG are true 'cause the assumption is that when you're building something, you have debugging turned on to catch any errors (you do, don't you?)