Posted 04.19.2010 by Jack
Presented by Angie Byron (webchick)
- Angie discovered Drupal by looking at the source of the spreadfirefox.com website!
FAQs
- Feb 2008 - Drupal 6 released, Drupal 7 opened
- Sept 2009 - feature freeze (no new features
- Oct 2009 - code freeze
- Nov 2009 - polish phase (UI cleanups, accessibility, etc)
- When it's ready - Drupal 7 release; "when it's ready" is when there are zero D7 critical issues
- Should I start building sites on Drupal 7 now? Answer: Qualified Maybe. If you work with folks who are already involved with core, been through module porting, used to building sites where you have to fix upstream bugs and are willing to go all of that, then it's a good idea. Otherwise, if you're not in that very small segment of people, not so much. Not really for stable, public-facing sites until betas or RCs.
- Should I start playing around and testing it? YES! Test, try to break it, report what you break and how.
- Should I start porting modules and themes? YES!!!!!!! A great way to spot problems in core earlier rather than later
- #D7CX = Drupal 7 Contrib Experience - pledge to have a full D7 release of module on the day that D7 comes out. At last check ~200 projects
- What about upgrades? Too early to tell, but "we'll break your code, not your data;" upgrade path actively being developed; Coder Upgrade module that'll do a bunch of the module upgrade for you; #D7CX; Upgrade Manager to help with your site upgrade through the web UI.
- A lot is going to break from D6->D7 - CCK, files, etc. But the Coder Upgrade module will help!
Demo (from install up)
- New D7 admin theme (called Seven)
- New choices upon installation: Standard and Minimal, different languages
- D7 has translatable fields - any field can be marked as translatable
- new translation interface in D7
- nicer presentation of D7 errors during installation
- PHP 5.2, MySQL 5 are minimal requirements for D7
- Drupal can run on top of any database that PDO supports. Anything in the D6 and below DB system that ever sucked is fixed in D7
- password encryption has been improved for better security
- Server settings are location aware - default country and native time zone handling support in Drupal
- receiving email notifications about installed modules is now made more evident
- permissions have been improved - now a permission around running site updates so you can allow non-user/1 users to run updates
- PHP code can be toggled on and off in one place (with PHP module?)
- Toolbar at top for admin and shortcuts bar - shorcuts can be set up per role, per user
- D7UX - Leisa R. and Mark B. hired to make things work and look much better, those changes & recommendations have been integrated
- Overlay - you can make edits, config changes, etc without being moved away from the page you were on before you started those edits and changes
- Customizable dashboard = new landing page of admin panel
- jQuery UI 1.8 and jQuery 1.4 (latest version) are in D7 core out of the box
- Dashboard tabs also include By Task and By Module very visibly
- Onboard Help system got a big revamp
- native image handling WITH IMAGECACHE (now Image Styles) in Drupal core
- vertical tabs in content editing UI
- CCK is in core - you can add fields to all SORTS of stuff, attachable to any entity.
- D7 now ships with an Administrator role - no more need for admin_role!
- permission names are now translatable; permissions have help text to help folks understand implications
- filter access is now inline on permissions page
- users can delete their own accounts (if you give them permission)
- modules page includes help, settings, and config links for each module inline
- You can INSTALL NEW MODULES THROUGH THE UI!
- you can have public and private files systems all at once
- automated testing framework is built in to D7
- Appearance page got a big revamp, much prettier, and all of the "butt-ugly" (webchick's words tho I agree) table-based themes
- New Stark theme - Drupal's default HTML markup and CSS styles, good baseline to start working from
- Drupal's default markup is much improved, more Zen-like, don't need Zen theme as much anymore since those improvements have been moved into core
- many accessibility improvements
How to help?
- download Drupal 7, test, report issues (search first!)
- fix bugs
- port modules/themes
- write coder upgrade module rules
- #drupal-contribute on IRC
- Parc 55 Hotel, 2nd floor (where reception is): ChX Coder Lounge during the Drupalcon, every night from 6pm until everyone passes out from exhaustion