Thanks to all the hard work we've done in the past three months, the next version of Drupal will have a lot of great improvements, including an installer, requirement checking for modules, a reorganization of the administration pages and file structure, a light-weight CCK, inclusion of jQuery and much more. We're also working on a new core theme (no guarantees it'll make it in time). With all that, I feel that, finally, the stars have aligned, and we're ready to call the next Drupal version, "Drupal 5.x". Thanks to all our contributors, Drupal 5.x promises to be an amazing release!

In preparation of the Drupal 5.x release, and as promised many moons ago, development of Drupal core is frozen as of today, September 1st. During the initial stage of the code freeze, documentation updates, usability improvements, and performance improvements will still be accepted. New functionality or API changes / additions, on the other hand, will not be unless deemed critical. Thus, as of today, the focus is to strengthen the code base's performance, usability, and stability. As we progress, focus will shift towards stability and, near the end of the code freeze, only bug fixes will be allowed, until no release critical bugs are left. As always, everyone is invited to help.

We can't say when Drupal 5.x will be ready (it's ready when it's ready) but it is estimated that it will take at least two months before Drupal 5.x can be released. During that period, one or more release candidates will be made available. Furthermore, a two month code freeze should give module maintainers plenty of time to upgrade their modules. People who maintain contributed modules or themes are advised to start updating them to be compatible with Drupal 5.x.

I'm sure that in the next couple months we'll be talking more about the new features in Drupal 5.x. In the meantime, the curious can check the updated CHANGELOG.txt.

[Note: 5.0.0 changed to the new naming convention of 5.x with permission. Path not changed to avoid breaking links.]

Comments

mo6’s picture

Hip hip hurray! Can't wait. I'll start flexing my muscles for another round of module (and theme) conversion. ;)

desm0n’s picture

Woohoo looks like we may be in for an early christmas present :) Can't wait ..

I'm really looking forward to being able to disable email verification for new members as although its likely some will sign to try and spam, most of my users want to sign and start writing and do tend to get confused by the verification.

As regards modules and upgrades will this branch drastically effect 4.7 modules like 4.6 to 4.7 did ? Or will it likely just effect some modules ?
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krzysiek@palikowski.vel.pl’s picture

try it :)

alexmc’s picture

Hooray. I've got some incentive now to do more testing and coding :-)

robertDouglass’s picture

http://digg.com/software/The_next_Drupal_will_be_5_0

Spread the word: Drupal is on FIRE!

- Robert Douglass

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Harry Slaughter’s picture

i gotta wear a welder's mask working with drupal it's so hot!

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Robardi56’s picture

Great !! Drupal is certainly the most exiting CMS out there.
The development path with installer, different caching methods, and later a new module install system will bring drupal to the moon. It's only the beginning and I foresee monstruous drupal installations growth.

Yes, i became a fan ^^

Brakkar

AlanT’s picture

Looks like there's a lot of great improvements in 5.0.

One thing I didn't see in the changelog was a mechanism for modules to completely uninstall themselves from the database. It would be very nice if the admin could click a button and completely remove all traces of a module from the database.

Hope this makes it in.

- Alan Tutt
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- Alan Tutt

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Robardi56’s picture

Hi,
yes it is certainly an important feature, but I think it will be part of a separate major project: http://drupal.org/node/77562

webchick’s picture

http://drupal.org/node/81033

This was one of the "11th hour" patches that got committed. The UI for this will be forth-coming soon.

The best (and really, only) way to ensure that the final version meets your expectations is to get involved, test it, report bugs, and suggest fixes. :)

John Norich’s picture

I just installed the CVS release on my webserver. I have to say that I am really impressed by the first look. Everything seems more logical. Also I have the feeling that it runs faster. I allways test sites on an old P2 450 mhz. With drupal 4.7 I had the idea the server had more trouble than with this one. The installer makes things even easier. I am going to play with it more to look at more changes.
Keep up the great work!

omar’s picture

The last time around the changes to FormAPI were drastic enough to warrant/require some instructions/guidlines to help developers updgrade their module. Are there any pointers we should be aware of this time around?

[OOOOPs.... wrote too fast... need coffee... they are clearly indicated above]

/me feels stupid now :-/

rszrama’s picture

jQuery looks slick and will be fun to toy with.

I'm curious about this mentioned above, though: "requirement checking for modules"

Can I get someone to elaborate a bit? I'm curious if this is why modules I'm unzipping to the modules directory aren't showing up in admin/settings/modules. (Or if I'm just crazy.)

(edit: finally wisened up and created a test.info to go with the test.module. I'm still curious what the requirement checking refers to, though. The need for a .info file might be added to the module conversion list. For now it's in the comments...)

I'm also curious about the new node_type table... spent a few minutes thinking I was crazy for not finding a page.module or story.module!

sime’s picture

Can I get someone to elaborate a bit? I'm curious if this is why modules I'm unzipping to the modules directory aren't showing up in admin/settings/modules. (Or if I'm just crazy.)

It's hard to say off-hand, but it's not due to the new requirement checking.

Requirement checking looks at the .info and and dependencies listed there. You will not be able to install module A if a dependency (eg. module B) is not installed.

Walt Esquivel’s picture

Wow! Overall, the changelog has excellent improvements for 5.0.0. from the current 4.7.3!!! (I'm curious, but shouldn't 4.7.1, 4.7.2, and 4.7.3. be mentioned in the changelog? I see Drupal 4.7.0, 2006-05-01 in the changelog but didn't see any mention of 4.7.1, 4.7.2, or 4.7.3. Forgive me if I've simply overlooked it (I'm not gettin' any younger!), but please point it out to me. Thanks!)

I'm particularly happy with a few of the 5.0.0 improvements such as:
- added web-based installer
(Hooray! This is probably going to result in a big increase of downloads since ease of installation will be dramatically improved! Although it's already so easy...)

- usability:
* made it possible to instantly assign roles to newly created user accounts
(Cha-ching! I think this will be an excellent tie-in with the ecommerce module! Customer pays for "Platinum Plan" and gets placed into "Platinum" category with all its associated perks...)

- content system:
* made it easier for node access modules to work well with each other
(Outstanding! I have a dream that someday all node access modules with play along nicely with each other. ;) )

- performance
(Wonderful! The improvements under performance are some of the best I've seen!!!)

I DIGG it.

CONGRATS to all contributors for what is going to be the BEST release ever!

Walt Esquivel, MBA, MA
President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)
$50 Hosting Discount Helps Projects Needing Financing

Gábor Hojtsy’s picture

4.7.x changes are presented in the 4.7.x changelog. Since Drupal does not add features in minor versions (where only the last number changes), only bug fixes are introduced in the 4.7.x series.

webchick’s picture

Want to try out what will become the Drupal 5.0 release, but don't know anything about CVS?

Download it here (updated daily): http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/drupal/files/projects/drupal-cvs.tar.gz

Are you a module developer, interested in making your modules work with the new version of Drupal?

Find out how here: http://drupal.org/node/64279

Want Drupal 5.0 to come out as quickly as possible? Want to make sure new features work as you would expect?

Test the code, and submit bug reports and fixes here: http://drupal.org/project/issues/3060

Gerry Danen’s picture

I downloaded the cvs today, but it seems barebones. For example there is no database folder. Should I grab the 4.7.3 release and copy the cvs over it?

Gerry Danen’s picture

I saw another comment to "just try it" and it works! I'm happy. ;-)

ergophobe’s picture

Just curious on two counts

1. is the "lightweight CCK" compatible with the versions we've installed in 4.7? Does lightweight simply refer to the fact that CCK has some "missing" functionality compared to what the fully built-out CCK will have (i.e. image galleries) or to a stripped down version vis-a-vis the existing version?

2. what about upgrading themes? Is there a theme upgrade page similar to the ones for modules?

Yosemite Explorer - hiking and climbing in Yosemite (drupal)

Robardi56’s picture

I remember reading that "light" cck mean that the current content type (book, page...) will be handled by cck.
Full cck version will support creation of content type from the core and will come later.

As for 4.7 cck, I read that Jonbob will provide an upgrade path to next drupal version. You will need to upgrade to latest 4.7 cck version before upgrading to 5.x cck.

Someone correct if i'm wrong.
Brakkar

Johan A’s picture

from what I gather, there is a difference between this lightweight CCK in the core, and the CCK contrib module.

I too would like to know more about the CCK in core, is there any documentation, or at least somewhere I can find out about the API?

I've been witholding my website for half a year just for CCK and i think many devs are also waiting for it. I'm prepared to test.

Gábor Hojtsy’s picture

1. Lightweight CCK means that story and page modules are gone, and now you have an option to add any number of story like node types using the web interface. It is not possible to customize (add more fields) to these basic node types with Drupal core alone. The CCK (and maybe even flexinode) module is supposed to migrate to extending this model (it is not yet done obviously), and it is supposed to give you a migration path (an automatic update script).

2. http://drupal.org/handbooks => http://drupal.org/handbook/customization => http://drupal.org/node/509 (this one is the "Theme developer's guide") => http://drupal.org/update/theme ("Updating your themes")

Anonymous’s picture

And I'm just about finished migrating our site and custom modules to 4.7 :(

Ah well, my work is never done.

sime’s picture

Yeah, it's a bit like that. But hey, 4.7 (just like 4.6) is going to keep getting stronger with security and bug fixes. If 5.0 doesn't offer you any features you need, don't upgrade!

eagereyes’s picture

So how many versions will be kept alive in parallel? Does 5.0 mean that 4.6 will be dropped? What will happen when 5.1 is released?

webchick’s picture

Typically, Drupal has supported security and bug fixes for the last two releases. So when 4.7 was released, 4.5 support was dropped. I don't know that any discussion has been had about whether or not 4.6 will get dropped when 5.0 gets released, but for now it's probably safe to assume that that would be the case. Might be worth starting a separate thread about that.

robertDouglass’s picture

Someone who has the mandate to not add features or change APIs, but to fix bugs and apply security updates. There are a lot of 4.6 sites and many of them won't go away for a long time.

- Robert Douglass

-----
Lullabot | My Drupal book

sepeck’s picture

Dries asked for a volunteer to apply....

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

sime’s picture

Here is a good summary of Dries stance on this issue:
http://lists.drupal.org/archives/development/2006-05/msg01124.html

gaele’s picture

In support of multiple version support: how about splitting up the support forums in several "subforums", one for each Drupal version?
This would make it easier to search for support for your specific Drupal version, and easier to observe the demand for that version.

See http://ubuntuforums.org for an example. As soon as a new version is released, the subforum is promoted to official release subforum, and a new development subforum is opened.

vivek.puri’s picture

cvs download does not contain the database directory. So its difficult to try it out.

webchick’s picture

Try it and see. ;)

vivek.puri’s picture

ok got it ;) actually the database directory is not required just that the install instruction in install.txt are not updated yet.

sepeck’s picture

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

xamox’s picture

Alright, some hot AJAXness.

---------------------------------------------------------------
http://xamox.NET

bsdrocker’s picture

Hows about better forum software for the new version, eh?

Michelle’s picture

Since the code is frozen, it's too late for this version. But if you get going on writing the patches, you've got a chance of getting them into the next version.

Michelle

chx’s picture

I am often saying: if you think Drupal needs "better forum" then open a separate topic and specify what functionality you miss. You will be surprised how much is already available to download. Or if you would be not so lazy to read the handbook on this then you won't be so surprised...

Or if you do not like to play with Lego but need a completed and totally rigid thing then go and download that and do not pester Drupal developers.
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Toe’s picture

5.0 and STILL no image handling in core? Seeing a recent comment from Dries, I thought we might finally see this in the next version.

Guess my hoping for 5.1 starts today...

Dries’s picture

The people who planned or promised to work on that, didn't get around to it. As no one is getting paid for this, that is perfectly OK. They did a lot of other great things. So maybe in the next release ... or maybe, the image modules in the contributions repository will advance during the code freeze. :)

Michelle’s picture

Please see this thread for an ongoing status report of contrib module porting to 5.0. If you're a maintainer, we need you to add yours. :)

Thanks,

Michelle

--------------------------------------
My site: http://shellmultimedia.com

kyouens’s picture

Hi everybody. The new 5 release sounds great, and I'm really excited about it. I have one question. My site makes fairly extensive use of the flexinode module. Will it be possible for me to migrate my flexinodes to the CCK that will be built in to core? Should I worry? Thanks!

Gábor Hojtsy’s picture

The answer depends on whether the flexinode maintainers provide you a migration path or not. It is impossible to tell from here. It's completely dependant on the actual module contributors and maintainers.

ergophobe’s picture

The problem with providing an upgrade path is that they data storage is completely different and unless you know the table relationships of both flexinode and CCK quite well, it takes a fair bit of study to sort it all out. I'm still pondering over it and debating whether just doing it manually is easiest.

I don't think there would be one solution that would fit everyone anyway, since the whole concept is different. It would probably take less time to update the flexinode module to 4.7 than to convert flexinodes to CCK nodes.

Yosemite Explorer - hiking and climbing in Yosemite (drupal)

kingofsevens’s picture

I think it didn't make it to the core, if I'm not mistaken. Don't know why but I really wished to see it in 5.0. Hope you make an exception this time and add it before the release. I know it is not likely to happen.

simplulo’s picture

There's a lot of us who want to see more multilingual support; at least two Esperantists will be attending the i18n session at DrupalCon. Consider feeding your concerns to one of the 42 people signed up:
http://drupalcon.org/node/59

Handling multilingual sites and content with Drupal
Day 2 - Saturday, September 23rd · i18n · multilanguage
Jose A Reyero@d... - Mon, 2006-08-14 17:51
Start: 2006-09-23 13:30
End: 2006-09-23 14:45

Gábor Hojtsy’s picture

Well, only one person cared to voice his opinions about the i18n approach we were trying to get into core, and it was far from positive. After the fact wishes like yours will not help advance the i18n effort. If people are not taking their time to comment on approaches and review patches, i18n will not get into the next version either. It is far from possible to make an exception, since there is no agreed upon way to implement this, and people did not seem to care either. Join the activities if you wish to see some progress, this is how it works.

kingofsevens’s picture

I am helping in my way. You can't expect me to participate everything from the start. I am trying to spend more time on Drupal. There is also a learning curve remember I am fairly new in here.. =)

quibus’s picture

I just installed the CVS release on my webserver. I have to say that I am really impressed by the first look. Everything seems more logical. Also I have the feeling that it runs faster. I allways test sites on an old P2 450 mhz. With drupal 4.7 I had the idea the server had more trouble than with this one. The installer makes things even easier. I am going to play with it more to look at more changes.
Keep up the great work!

soundsational’s picture

All the features in Drupal 5.0 is certainly a welcome change and i look forward to them with a big smile on my face :)

The only thing i want to draw attention to is the admin theme. It is great that finally we have a choice to separate the frontend and backend of a Drupal site. I love the fact that we now have a choice to theme it any way we want but for many newbies that follow tutorials to get a grasp of Drupal (whether screencasts or any other tutorials with images) may suffer if there is no default admin theme to keep consistency. Imagine trying to follow tutorials were each one of the admin backend looks completely different and the menu system for config and etc in different places. So i think there should be a standard default admin theme for all and only when you have mastered Drupal it's not late to customise it to suit your needs.

Of course, unless it will be left the same as before but admin theme is introduced as a additional feature for anyone wishing to theme it.

thanks,

Irenaeous’s picture

Which version should I start using? 5.0 or 4.7?

If I start with 4.7, I figure I would want to go to 5.0 as soon as it comes out.

But if I use the current unreleased 5.0, then I figure on updating to the released version.

How hard (or distruptive) is upgrading?

BTW, I will be creating a brand new site, then converting an old site that is now using geeklog.

sepeck’s picture

Use 4.7. 5.0 has no set release date. COntrib modules you may need are not available and may not be available for 1-6 months after release of 5.0. If you are new, starting with unreleased may lead to extremem frustration. If you are not doing much coding updating versions can be easy or difficult depening on your site, modules you use, etc.... so kind of hard to give a one size fits all answer.

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide

Michelle’s picture

If you can wait to go live until after 5.0 is released and if you don't depend too much on contribs (or can wait even longer) go with 5.0. If you need something to be stable soon, go with 4.7. More info here: http://drupal.org/handbook/version-info

Upgrading core stuff is pretty easy. It's customizations and contrib modules that make updating complicated.

Michelle

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My site: http://shellmultimedia.com

Heine’s picture

If you can wait to go live until after 5.0 is released

There's no guarantee that a HEAD(*) database can be updated to 5.0. Even if you develop on HEAD and only plan to release when 5.0 is out you may get stuck.

Also, there's no support for HEAD.

In short: don't do it.

* HEAD - the future 5.0

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Michelle’s picture

All I'm saying is that if he can wait for 5.0 it makes more sense to do that than start a new one in 4.7. I'm doing that myself for a site that doesn't have a deadline. What does that have to do with HEAD? "After 5.0 is released" it's no longer HEAD.

Michelle

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My site: http://shellmultimedia.com

Heine’s picture

It was the 'If you can wait to go live until after 5.0 is released', that lead me to believe you advocated starting development on HEAD, going live (production) after the 5.0 release.

Sorry for the confusion.

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Michelle’s picture

I guess I didn't word that really well. Sometimes I'm typing really fast with a toddler yanking on my arm. ;)

Anyway, what I'm doing with my no deadline site is planning right now, using the RCs to start playing around and testing with setting things up, and using the 5.0 release to do the real, live site. For people who have the luxury of waiting while everything gets finished, I think that's a good plan. For people who need a stable, live site soon, 4.7 is a better option.

That's what I was trying to say.

Michelle

--------------------------------------
My site: http://shellmultimedia.com

MySchizoBuddy’s picture

Is there a Tabless Drupal 5.0 theme, that i look into