[development] Announcing DRUPAL-7-0-UNSTABLE-8

Sun Jul 26 11:47:29 UTC 2009

Great work as usual, Angie!

For those interested in some awesome media handling for d7, take a look 
at http://groups.drupal.org/node/24661 (a two day sprint in Philly). 
Join us in IRC today and tomorrow (Sunday & Monday, July 26-27). (Note 
I'll be aaronwinborn_ in IRC, because my desktop will be aaronwinborn, 
and I'll be on my laptop in Philly, two hours away. You can also ping 
drewish, jmstacey, alexua, justinrandell, pwolanin, or anyone else you 
happen to learn about being there).

Patches planned for review:

Support PHP stream wrappers: http://drupal.org/node/227232
File API Stream Wrapper Support (Part 1): http://drupal.org/node/519392
File API Stream Wrapper Support (Part 2): http://drupal.org/node/517814

Thanks,
Aaron

Angela Byron wrote:
>
> Howdy there, development list!
>
> Sadly, it's been a shamefully long time (almost two months!) since our 
> last interim unstable release. But the good news is that this release 
> is BURSTING with awesome. That's right. Not merely filled with 
> awesome. BURSTING with it. More on that in a second. Since this will 
> probably be the last interim unstable release before code freeze, I 
> have some unsightly begging to do, and I also want to take as many 
> opportunities as possible to point people towards existing efforts. 
> This e-mail will be a bit long. You have been warned!
>
> First, remember that there are *less than 6 weeks* until code freeze, 
> which is September 1 (same day Drupalcon Paris starts, which you 
> already have your ticket for, RIGHT? :)). Remember: at code freeze, we 
> need to turn off the glorious fountain of world-dominating awesome 
> (also known as new features and API changes), and instead turn our 
> attention to removing the scum that's accumulated on its sides and the 
> bits of bird poop clogging its nozzles (also known as bug fixing). Hm. 
> I think my analogy fell apart there a little bit... Anyway!
>
> The point being: there has NEVER been a more critical time to help 
> drive forward important Drupal 7 patches than *right now*! To support 
> this, I've identified some of these areas that need assistance inline 
> with related new changes. Click a link, get a list of oodles of 
> would-be-totally-fantastic things that need people to push them through!
>
> To help these efforts along, every weekend for the entire month of 
> August I will heading up "virtual" patch review sprints on IRC in 
> #drupal and #drupal-dev. Details on patch review sprints can be found 
> at http://drupal.org/node/442368. *Anyone* can drop by, learn the 
> ropes of reviewing patches from the Drupal ninjas, and help important 
> new features get committed by trying out proposed changes and giving 
> feedback.
>
> It would *also* be awesome for these sprints to coincide with "real 
> life" patch review sprints at local Drupal meetups, as the LA group 
> will be doing at their bug-fixing sprint: 
> http://drupal.org/node/520184. So, please! Organize something in your 
> own community for some weekend during the month of August! :) Maybe 
> someone can head up compiling a big list of these somewhere.
>
> Finally, I am away for the next week on what my wife informs me is 
> commonly referred to as some very bizarre word I've never heard of 
> before (must be Sumerian) called "vacation." So I will not be on IRC, 
> reading/responding to e-mail, or... committing patches. :( However! 
> I'm told that these "vacations" are often very "relaxing" and 
> sometimes you even get to catch up on "sleep" (so many of these new 
> words!) so when I get back on August 2, I hope to be pounding at the 
> issue queue with renewed vigor! A nice big fat RTBC queue waiting for 
> me when I get back, filled with many fantastic improvements would be a 
> wonderful welcome-home present! :) (Note: *especially* 
> usability-related patches: I want end users to feel the same sense of 
> wonder at Drupal 7's greatness that developers will feel!)
>
> Ok. Stepping off my soapbox, now. Let's get down to business: what's 
> new in DRUPAL-7-0-UNSTABLE-8!
>
> ---
>
> Changes for developers:
> =======================
>
> - Berdir has been leading the charge on lots of conversions to the new 
> database abstraction layer in Drupal 7 (DBTNG). Most of core has now 
> been converted, with just *two more* open issues! Check the "DBTNG 
> Conversion" tag 
> http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?status%5B%5D=Open&issue_tags=DBTNG+Conversion or 
> the "database system" component for more general issues: 
> http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?version[]=7.x&component[]=database+system 
> Note that this a *great* place to help out as you'll get a real 
> jump-start on the new DBTNG syntax you'll need to know to code Drupal 
> 7 modules. (Incidentally, it's also a great time to *port* your 
> modules to Drupal 7 to ensure that the new DB layer contains 
> everything you'll need to do the job!)
>
> - Speaking of database stuff, Schema API now has support for defining 
> foreign key relations between tables. While core doesn't do anything 
> with this information yet (due to the fact that we have to support 
> stinky old MyISAM tables), contrib modules certainly could. There's 
> also now support for queries to ignore slaves when you are using a 
> replication set up, which is great for high performance sites.
>
> - The miserable DX suck-fest that is node_get_types() has been split 
> up into much more reasonable function names like node_type_get_types() 
> and node_type_get_names() etc. YAY!
>
> - Installation Profiles have at long last gotten some love! They now 
> come with .info files where all of the various metadata such as name, 
> description, dependencies, etc. goes. No more learning obscure PHP 
> functions, and this lays important ground work for being able to 
> smarten up the packaging system. Hooray! Adrian has big plans for a 
> more robust installation profile system. Check the "installation 
> profiles" tag for  places to help out: 
> http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?issue_tags=installation+profiles 
>
>
> - Catch has been going bananas with a code profiler, filling the issue 
> queue with all sorts of interesting optimization issues and patches. 
> This is an important area, because right now D7's performance as 
> compared to D6's is not so hot. Wanna help? Check out issues under the 
> "Performance" tag: 
> http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?issue_tags=Performance
>
> - Field API improvements galore, including conversion of node's "body" 
> and "teaser" fields, a query API for our pluggable storage system, 
> alter hooks for all of the various metadata and settings, and 
> fieldable taxonomy terms. See the "Fields in Core" tag for many, many 
> more places to help out! 
> http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?issue_tags=Fields+in+Core
>
> - Lots of improvements in the testing world, including user interface 
> improvements to SimpleTest module (you can now re-run the same batch 
> of tests easily), a 'verbose' debugging mode, improved test coverage 
> of long-neglected areas such as Poll module, and various 
> under-the-hood improvements for rolling out version 2.0 of the testing 
> bot. Check out 
> http://drupal.org/project/issues/drupal?component=simpletest.module for 
> issues about SimpleTest, or 
> http://testing.drupal.org/%20PIFR-2-Client-Configuration-FAQs for how 
> you can help bring about the next generation testing framework.
>
> - t() now supports additional contextual information for short 
> strings, which comes in really handy since words like "View" can often 
> mean entirely different things depending on what it's referring to. 
> The "i18n sprint" tag at 
> http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?issue_tags=i18n+sprint has 
> many more issues vying for attention.
>
> Changes for themers:
> ====================
> - Under the banner of "eliminating WTFs/minute for new themers", 
> themes no longer auto-recognize scripts.js and style.css: you specify 
> those in the .info file same as you do all other CSS/JS files. 
> Additionally, themes no longer support the theme_engine prefix name on 
> function calls: always use the theme name. 
> http://drupal.org/project/issues/drupal?component=theme+system has 
> lots of other theme improvements that need review and code.
>
> - All dynamic classes in templates are now in a single $classes string 
> (and corresponding $classes_array). Good bye, class="node<?php if 
> ($sticky) { print ' sticky'; } ?><?php if (!$status) { print ' 
> node-unpublished'; } ?>" and hello class="<?php print $classes ?>" 
> w00t! Check out the tpl-refresh tag for similar .tpl.php clean-up 
> patches: 
> http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?issue_tags=tpl-refresh
>
> - New functions render(), hide(), and show() have been introduced for 
> selecting exactly when and where to print *part* of a complex variable 
> such as $content without having to micro-manage the whole thing. I'm 
> very tired and doing a horrible job of explaining this, but hopefully 
> http://drupal.org/update/theme/6/7#granular helps.
>
> - jQuery UI now ships with Drupal core! Would love to see some patches 
> that take advantage of this library to improve user experience, and/or 
> replace our old, crusty custom implementations of stuff like 
> autocomplete. Additionally, a new drupal_add_library function was 
> added, to provide a centralized registry for JS/CSS libraries such as 
> jQuery UI. Are you a JS wizard? Hit up the "javascript" component: 
> http://drupal.org/project/issues/drupal?component=javascript
>
> - Does accessibility tickle your fancy? mgifford and Everett Zufelt 
> are heading up a massive movement for making Drupal conform to 
> WAI-ARIA standards. 
> http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?issue_tags=accessibility is 
> the place to be to dive in there.
>
> Changes for end-users:
> =====================
> - A swanky-looking new admin toolbar, and some re-working of 
> administration paths. This isn't quite what you see in the mocks at 
> http://www.d7ux.org/header/ (it's missing icons, for one), but lays 
> the initial ground work for further improvements. The "d7ux" tag has a 
> plethora of places to help drive this important work home, especially 
> if you have front-end development (JavaScript, CSS, etc.) skills. 
> http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?issue_tags=d7ux
>
> - IMAGE HANDLING IN CORE!! You heard it here first. (Well. Unless you 
> heard it on Drupal Planet, or Twitter, or...) So far, we've got 
> ImageCache in core - which allows the set up of "image styles" (like 
> thumbnail or album cover) with various "image effects" attached (like 
> "scale & crop" or "rotate") which can then be applied to any image in 
> the system, such as user pictures. Check out the "ImageInCore" tag if 
> you want to help quicksketch and drewish drive home the remaining 
> patches: 
> http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?issue_tags=ImageInCore
>
> - Tons of work is being put forth into an effort to move "Plugin 
> Manager" into core. What is Plugin Manager you ask? Can you say 
> automatic project updates from within Drupal? I *knew* you could! So 
> far we have some underlying libraries for handling SSH/SFTP/FTP 
> communication, but there's still much more work to be done before this 
> is ready, and could use YOUR help. I don't think this one has a tag, 
> but 
> http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?text=plugin+manager+in+core should 
> get you the relevant issues.
>
> - Path and Search module are now enabled in the default profile, thus 
> eliminating the first step that 90% of Drupal site builders do once 
> they've installed Drupal. Core also ships with an admin role, 
> eliminating the second step that 90% of Drupal site builders do once 
> they've installed Drupal. ;) There's more of this kind of stuff under 
> the "usability" tag: 
> http://drupal.org/project/issues/search/drupal?issue_tags=usability
>
> - The wall of text that appears when you first install Drupal, 
> including (mysteriously) to anonymous visitors, and whose instructions 
> "helpfully" disappears when you post your first piece of content thus 
> leaving you completely straded, has been moved to the landing page of 
> the help system. In its place is a simple message that there has been 
> no front page content posted yet, and invites you to either create 
> content or go change your home page. Drupal's default out-of-the-box 
> experience is being discussed at http://drupal.org/node/483987. It 
> would be wonderful to have some folks working on this before code freeze.
>
> - A variety of help text clean-up patches, mainly in removing useless 
> or overly verbose messages. If squeaky-clean text is up your alley, 
> try the "user interface text" component: 
> http://drupal.org/project/issues/drupal?component=user+interface+text
>
> - Per-content type block visibility that we ripped out of core in 
> Drupal 5 or so is now back! There'll now be a nice little selection 
> for showing a block only on "Story" nodes, for example.
>
> - Form element titles no longer end with a colon by default. Goodbye, 
> "How old are you?:" You will not be missed!
>
> ---
>
> Hm. I think those are all the commit messages that stand out to me at 
> this hour. Thanks very much to everyone's tremendous efforts  towards 
> these great improvements, and thanks in advance to everyone who helps 
> drive us through the most exciting 6 weeks of Drupal yet! :D
>
> -Angie
>

-- 
Aaron Winborn

Advomatic, LLC
http://advomatic.com/

Drupal Multimedia available in September!
http://www.packtpub.com/create-multimedia-website-with-drupal/book

My blog:
http://aaronwinborn.com/