Drupal News

It was a close race to the finish -- or rather the beginning -- of the Drupal 7 code freeze process a couple of weeks ago. Now that we're in the middle of the code freeze, I wanted to update everyone on the current status of the freeze, and provide some guidance about where we go from here.

First and foremost, I know that both Angie (my Drupal 7 co-maintainer) and I want to express how excited we are about how everyone really pulled together as a team at the end, and who, by working together, got a lot of great stuff in before the deadline for the "code slush" passed. Of the exceptions we had previously noted (see slides for details), eight of the ten made it in. The two stated exceptions that didn't are (1) allowing user profiles to use the field API, and (2) the administrative overlay. Since the overlays patch got incredibly close, Angie and I are committed to having this as part of the final release. There is now a further exception for getting overlays in, and I encourage everyone to keep working on it as fast as possible.

Other than changes necessary for the overlay, and a few left-over patches that were ready by the 10/15 deadline, we have now entered the next phase of the code freeze: no more API changes and no additional features. At this point, we focus exclusively on usability, accessibility, and performance. (If a performance, accessibility, or usability patch requires an API change, webchick and I will make a decision on a patch by patch basis.) This current phase was originally said to be four weeks from API freeze, but we're extending it to six weeks instead. The new deadline is December 1st, instead of November 15th.

My guidance at this point: depending on your strengths, and how involved you've been with the various issues in the past, please devote some time to the overlay patch, to D7UX issues and Usability issues, to accessibility issues, or to performance-related issues. For the remaining five weeks, that's where the action is. Get involved now!

Lullabot is pleased to announce the second annual Do It With Drupal Seminar. This 3-day event is focused on the configuration, architecture, and processes behind building successful Drupal websites and communities.

The event is geared at attendees with a wide range of Drupal experience. For new site-builders and decision-makers, DIWD will offer a great introduction to Drupal and the Drupal community. For more experienced Drupalers, DIWD will offer a great chance to pick up tips and tricks straight from the module developers themselves and a chance to connect and socialize with other Drupal professionals.

The Do It With Drupal Seminar will feature the following highlights:

• Examine and dissect successful Drupal sites
• Discover new site-building strategies
• Learn from Drupal's top developers
• Hear from social media and social networking experts
• Connect with other Drupal professionals
• Expand your Drupal knowledge

This commercially produced event takes place at the Marriott Hotel in New Orleans' French Quarter, December 9, 10, 11, 2009 and features sessions by many "big names" from both inside and outside of the Drupal community (see list of current speaker list below).

The current list of speakers includes...

After some 82 weeks of development beginning in February 2008, no one should be caught by surprise that we are in a code freeze for a release of Drupal 7, the next and best release of Drupal yet. However, as we all know, some of the best patches always happen at the last minute, and there are always last-minute patches that must happen. As part of my State of Drupal presentation at DrupalCon Paris last week, I talked about the Drupal 7 code freeze. Since not all of us could be in Paris, I wanted to share the relevant slides (PDF, 85 KB) in this post.

In heavy testing of the proposed update of the automated testing infrastructure, we decided it was not yet ready to deploy. However, the other code we wanted to upgrade was successfully installed and the database updates ran without error. Therefore, the downtime really went from 12:47am until 1:09am UTC on Friday 2009-08-14. We're sorry it started late, but the extra testing allowed us to avoid trouble that would have led to an even longer window with the site off-line.

Unfortunately, most of the new code isn't very end-user visible, so there's not much to point at on the upgraded site to show off. But, it's going to let us roll out more changes and new features in the future (without needing to take the site offline).

Thanks again for your patience and understanding, and please accept our apologies for the late start.

The Lullabot team is proud to announce its latest Drupal learning tool: Lullabot Online Workshops. The first of these is "Drupal Fundamentals", a six-week course beginning September 9th, 2009. Each week's live 2-hour streaming video-and-multimedia class will focus one one aspect in the process of building and configuring an entire Drupal site.

Students will be able to watch as the site is built and instructors delve deep into specific topics such as taxonomy, comments, building content types with CCK, and creating both simple and complex content listings with Views. Each weekly discussion will conclude with a question-and-answer period with the Lullabot instructors and a homework assignment to reinforce the lesson.

Each student will get his/her own sandbox Drupal site in which they can set up and experiment with Drupal. Each lesson will be recorded and placed in a student-accessible video archive, so whether one is unable to make it to a live session or simply needs to review, the class will be available to them in the archive. Additionally, students will be able to post to class message board where they can discuss lessons with the instructor and other students.