Update: Drupal 6.0 Beta 4 is available now!

With another month of active beta testing, our code is growing more stable by the day. Since Drupal 6 beta 2 was released, we have committed over 180 fixes to the Drupal 6.x code, so we are proud to announce the release of the third beta version of Drupal 6.x for your testing. This beta version includes usability improvements and lots of bug fixes for issues which the testers encountered. The first beta announcement provided a comprehensive list of high level improvements made since Drupal 5.x, so in this announcement we'll concentrate on how you can help ensure that Drupal 6 is released as soon as possible and is as rock solid as the previous Drupal releases that you've grown to love!

Major changes made since the release of Drupal 6 beta 2 include several code and interface documentation fixes and improvements, HTML validity fixes, performance improvements and easier to use templating. The core system now also runs without table locks and temporary tables, making Drupal usable in more shared hosting environments, and also improving performance at the same time. Localization support in the installer is now complete, as well as error reporting and requirements management through the installation process. One of the major usability improvements in this beta release is the addition of drag and drop ordering support to the blocks, menus and filter formats administration interface.

So when does 6.0 get released?

We plan to advance to the last beta in around a week, and then the first Drupal 6 Release Candidate next, unless major bugs appear in the beta versions. Drupal 6.0 will be released after (a) there are no more critical bugs and (b) we've had at least one release without adding any more to the list. When will that be? Well, it depends entirely on how many people chip in and help out! The more people help, the faster we can find and fix bugs, and the faster 6.0 gets released. The faster 6.0 gets released, the faster we can start adding new features to Drupal 7.0. So help out where you can, and let's make this the best and most solid release of Drupal yet! :)

How do I help test the beta?

Start by either installing a new Drupal site or upgrading an existing one running on a previous version (see INSTALL.txt or UPGRADE.txt in the package). When setting up a new site, you can use the development module to generate some test data (content, users, etc) to help you start testing quickly. As with everything still in development, we do not recommend running any beta release on a live site. Also, always make sure to backup of your data before performing an upgrade or start testing.

New Drupal users

Are you completely (or relatively) new to Drupal? Or do you know just enough to be dangerous? Are you used to working with other content management systems, and willing to lend your perspective in improving the way Drupal works? If so, you're a perfect candidate to help with usability testing and improving documentation! As you're going through Drupal 6, take notes on things you find difficult or confusing, and translate those notes into an issue which will show up in the issue tracker. Make sure to be as clear as possible about what the problem was and provide suggestions on how to improve it -- this makes it easier for developers to help!

Testers

Do people often congratulate you on your ability to break things? Are you a creative individual who likes to experiment with things in unconventional ways to see what happens? Do you enjoy looking over other peoples' work and picking nits in order to make it as good as it possibly can be? If any of these apply to you, you could make a great tester! We need testers both to try out different aspects of Drupal itself, as well as take a look at the issue queue to check bugs to see if they're valid, and also test patches to see if they work properly. Read more on setting up a testing environment and how to apply patches.

Module and theme developers

There is no better way to shake out any lingering bugs with the API and to ensure that your modules and themes will work with the new version of Drupal than to update your modules and update your themes! Make sure to file any bugs that you find!

Drupal Ninjas and Ninjas-in-training

If you're adept at Drupal hacking, or are eager to learn, a great place to start is with the bug tracker or the patch queue. Even if you don't have a full solution for a problem, often even a step in the right direction can be enough for another developer to take it home! Read up on how to create patches.

Drupal interface translators

The interface strings of Drupal 6.0 are not frozen yet. We improved on a lot of help texts and interface elements in this beta version. A notice will be sent to the translators mailing list, when the interface is close to being ready for translation. Until that time, there is no point in starting to translate, so we are not providing translation templates.

[NOTE: Off topic posts will be removed]

Comments

Rowanw’s picture

Digg this.

The new drag 'n drop functionality will be invaluable, soon you won't have to explain 'weight' to new users. :)

JohnForsythe’s picture

Wow, that looks incredibly useful and efficient.. Nice :D

--
John Forsythe
Need reliable Drupal hosting?

lolfreeman’s picture

Indeed , incredibly !! - by teal'c

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My drupal,j0575

ToshoFreny’s picture

Hi Psicomante , your video is nice. Thanks for the workout. It really helps.

Loving Life,
Tosho Freny,
Reading Sex and the Osho and other Dangerous Posts at BelovedOsho.com.

sumgai’s picture

Now, if you just put the expand option on the same page, so you don't have to edit each menu item you want to expand/collapse, the menu administration will be close to perfect ;-)

duntuk’s picture

nice!

lungtung’s picture

he he, i'll see how its work
i hate you, drupal. You spend many my time

Drupal Vietnam community

web2’s picture

Hi,

Drag and Drop facility make web developer's life easier.
Thanks.

Visit me at http://nashikit.com

alimosavi’s picture

You can play with the latest Drupal 6 beta (including administrator access) at:
this site crated with drupal beta 2 and now upgrade to drupal beta 3
drupal6 beta3 : http://testd6.irdrupal.com

Persian support of drupal http://www.irdrupal.com
IT news and articles in : http://www.percms.com

ReneL’s picture

The MySQL performance of the new core without table locks and temporary tables can easily be profiled with the built-in query logger, with MySQL 5.1.21+ (or a patched 5.0) even with microseconds granularity.

Just run the application as normal and filter the Slow Query Log afterwards with an easy though customizable script:
php mysql_filter_slow_log.php --exclude-user=root --no-duplicates linux-slow.log > mysql-slow-queries.log

Activate the Slow Query Log in my.ini:
log-slow-queries
# Log only those queries that run 0.3s or more (value given in microseconds)
long_query_time=300000
# Additionally log all queries which do not use indexes
log-queries-not-using-indexes
# MySQL 5.1.6 through 5.1.20 had a default value of log-output=TABLE, so you should force
log-output=FILE

http://code.google.com/p/mysql-log-filter/

Mgccl’s picture

I can see it become database logging, but it is not optional. Watchdog can do a bit performance damage to sites and for a lot of sites, there is no need for it. :)

Gábor Hojtsy’s picture

You can use any logging functionality. Drupal 6 now comes with database logging and system logging, so you can choose. None of these loggers are required as far as I have seen.

eastcn’s picture

After a week?
We plan to advance to the last beta in around a week, and then the first Drupal 6 Release Candidate next, unless major bugs appear in the beta versions.
-----------------------
my drupal

StevenSokulski’s picture

Woohoo!!

peacho’s picture

So is Drupal6 expected to be released by the end of this year?

Michelle’s picture

It's released when it's done. Therefore it will be released by the end of the year if it's done by then.

Michelle

--------------------------------------
See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out life in the Coulee Region.

laogui’s picture

Indeed, thanks a lot for the fast update!
-----------------------
my drupal

saml’s picture

I just noticed that the useful "drag and drop" sorting feature is not implemented for book outlines. Not directly a bug, but I'll miss it.

ChrisKennedy’s picture

There is already an issue for it in the queue...

catch’s picture

and you can make sure it gets into Drupal 6 by testing the functionality.

The issue is here: http://drupal.org/node/192736

Instructions on how to test patches are at http://drupal.org/patch

banned’s picture

>One of the major usability improvements in this beta release is the addition of drag and drop
>ordering support to the blocks, menus and filter formats administration interface.

This is great, I'm wondering if this can be accomplished, also, for CCK fields..

banned,

---
CameraMatrix

GoofyX’s picture

I have been playing for a couple of minutes with Drupal 6 beta3 and the first impression is that it's fast. Surely faster than the 5.x series.

A nice addition as far the Drupal marketing is concerned is the addition of the Powered by Drupal (with image) block that is enabled by default and placed on the footer. It's a nice small addition that will make the Drupal name more famous.

I have not yet played with it a lot, but I get random not found pages when trying to create a new comment, forum topic or page. I have not managed to isolate this behaviour, but I'm sure that if you try it out in a fresh beta3 installation, you will probably stumble on it.

Other than that, the i18n feature will probably be a killer feature.

Great work guys!
--
... Morpheus: What is "real"? How do you define "real"? If you 're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then "real" is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain...

--
... Morpheus: What is "real"? How do you define "real"? If you 're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then "real" is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain...

catch’s picture

GoofyX, posting here won't help any issues get fixed. If you haven't done so already, post an issue at http://drupal.org/node/add/project-issue

GoofyX’s picture

catch, thanks for the note, but as I say, if I had managed to find a specific pattern these faulty behaviours follow, then I would have already filed an issue. I will continue investigating the problem, though.
--
... Morpheus: What is "real"? How do you define "real"? If you 're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then "real" is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain...

--
... Morpheus: What is "real"? How do you define "real"? If you 're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then "real" is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain...

huang_cn’s picture

Wow! Great. all i want is Drupal 6 RC1. Can't wait to see how the multilingual works.

-----------------------
http://voiceofchinese.com/huang

Vahrokh’s picture

We are about to start to create two big web sites and we have chosen Drupal as our next platform.

One will be from scratch, the other is a "total conversion" from a Xoops huge portal with dozens custom written modules (about 3 man years work).

Now, I have read about the "let's scrap compatibility vs freedom at new, no compromise features" approach Drupal got against keeping backwards compatibility.

What should we do? Wait for Drupal 6 being out? The first project (smaller, it's just a portal with some hundreds "pages") should start asap, the huge one can wait for few months.

Is it possible to "upgrade" (yes we are totally new at Drupal so the questions are so trivial) our smaller project to 6.0 if we start right now with 5.3? We are using every basic feature plus latest Category plus Views, and about 20 other modules. We are expecially interested if Category and Views (and CCK) content will have an upgrade script to 6.0 when it'll be released.

JirkaRybka’s picture

Upgrades are always supported, you'll only need to obtain new 6.x versions of all code (modules, themes, whatever), which might need some time before being all available. And do some extra testing, to be sure nothing got broken. But otherwise, your data will migrate to the new version well, just as it did on previous new releases.

catch’s picture

Drupal 6 won't be released until Views is also ready. CCK is currently being updated as well. How quickly contributed modules are ready once D6 is out, and whether they have solid upgrade paths, is entirely down to the module maintainers, so you're best off checking the issue queues for modules you're using, and the contributed module status group. The less contributed modules you use, the easier it is to upgrade between major releases. There are also instructions in the Handbook for updating modules yourselves, and coder module helps with some of the work.

moshe weitzman’s picture

i'm not sure where that fact comes from. we'd all love for views to be done when D6 is done, but if it isn't i highly doubt we will hold back core. i know that project maintainers want to use Views for their D6 version. Thats fine. drupal.org could choose to stay on 5 for while. it isn't ideal, but never say never.

sepeck’s picture

I don't think we've ever released without Drupal.org being on the new code base.

-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

catch’s picture

That's how I understood it from the recent development list discussions and others.

runway’s picture

Drupal 6 is very good!!!

http://jarioaraujo.com

okaym’s picture

No Drag and drop feature for book , so sad :(

Michelle’s picture

... help: http://drupal.org/node/192736

Michelle

--------------------------------------
See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out life in the Coulee Region.

okaym’s picture

Thanks Michelle

osherl’s picture

I am very excited about the "without table locks and temporary tables" feature. Sounds like I don't have to modify database.mysql.inc anymore on my GoDaddy.com the shared hosting site (I used to comment out the "LOCK TABLES" statements.) Also, I will be able to activate Drupal Search. Thanks!
Laszlo
http://osherl.com

BryanSD’s picture

I think this is really a big plus for most Drupal users using budget hosts.

FYI, Google actually does provide table locking and temporary tables. I believe though you need to make sure you're using their 2.0 configuration as well as MySQL 5 (likely need to create a new database). However, I found (at least through a reseller account I have through them) that too many SQL queries to the remote database still was too much for them to handle. The problems were mainly during the Search Indexing as well as the Aggregator after running cron.php. I think though without the need for lock tables and temporary tables...and some other Drupal caching improvements...Drupal 6 should be a go on the cheaper hosting accounts.

Bryan
CMSReport

slimandslam’s picture

My comment on this is three years old this month - http://drupal.org/node/13231
Is there any specific support for HTTPS now or do we have to resort to hacks?
This does not make sense for an add-on module - it really needs to be in the core.
Sites should be able to turn it on for specific things - like just logins and profile edits.
Having HTTPS turned-on for the entire site usually doesn't make sense.

The new features look great, by the way, especially having per-module templates.

-J

Gábor Hojtsy’s picture

Where is the issue where can see code built by people working on integrating this to Drupal 6? Maybe that issue skipped me.

darumaki’s picture

When will version 7 be released ?

That was a joke :)

How about working on one version at a time ? Many of the modules and docs are made for Drupal 4 and you don't even have Drupal 5 stuff down pat and now you are working on Drupal 6 ? The documentation will only get more confusing with Drupal 4, 5, 6, 7 my head is already spinning he he

sepeck’s picture

This is not new. Please read this. Modules will get

  • upgraded by volunteers
  • upgraded by developers paid to do this
  • functionality gets absorbed into core
  • functionality gets absorbed into other modules
  • functionality gets superseded by other modules
  • functionality no longer needed
  • get abandoned and no one volunteers or pays to update them

This is how Drupal development has worked for years.

The CHANGELOG.txt in each download contains the version information but I will list in summary each full version release. There have twelve full releases since version 1.0.0.
Drupal 6.0, in beta
Drupal 5.0, 2007-01-15
Drupal 4.7.0, 2006-05-01
Drupal 4.6.0, 2005-04-15
Drupal 4.5.0, 2004-10-18
Drupal 4.4.0, 2004-04-01
Drupal 4.3.0, 2003-11-01
Drupal 4.2.0, 2003-08-01
Drupal 4.1.0, 2003-02-01
Drupal 4.0.0, 2002-06-15
Drupal 3.0.0, 2001-09-15
Drupal 2.0.0, 2001-03-15
Drupal 1.0.0, 2001-01-15

No release is backwards API compatible with the previous though some are less changed then others.

-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

ssb-1’s picture

Too many changes folks, too many...
Maybe this is "how development has worked for years", but that doesn't mean it's the right practice. Do you know, for example, how difficult is to translate half the strings whenever a Dupal new version is released. Or waiting for months before a module or a theme get updated, if ever?

I know that this is how opensource concept works, but please try to keep changes to the absolutely necessary. That will help not only users like me, but module and theme developers too.

yelvington’s picture

If you are more comfortable working with an older, unchanging version of Drupal, go right ahead. No one forces you to upgrade. Version 4.7 continues to be supported with patches when security issues are discovered. Many of our sites are still running 4.7. Bits do not rot.

Whether contributed modules continue to support 4.7 with bugfixes, etc., or whether they support later versions, is entirely up to the individual developers who own and provide them.

The core development of Drupal proceeds because the core developers identify ways to make Drupal better in very important dimensions, including performance, extensibility, ease of installation, ease of use, and ease of customization. They're really not arbitrary changes.

For example, D5 introduced major improvements in the module installation/removal processes and metadata requirements that opened the door for Drupal to automatically monitor drupal.org for enhancements and security patches (a functionality that is part of core in D6). These changes alone invalidated every existing contributed module and required module developers to rework their packages, but it was quite worthwhile.

The conscious decision to aggressively purse core system improvements, without being held down by backwards compatibility in the API, is one of the major reasons Drupal has developed into such a powerful platform for site development.

ChrisKennedy’s picture

Plus everyone should thank Doug Green for his wonderful coder.module, which will assist you in upgrading your modules from D5 to D6.

This will really cut out some lag time for module upgrades compared to previous Drupal releases.

slimandslam’s picture

Look at the positive side of this -- modules that aren't getting used or aren't well-designed will go away instead of piling up like they do now. :-)

-J

Riccardo83’s picture

Since its multilingual, how about the translation of the navigation? how does that work?

Check out my blog
http://blog.riccardo-ulpts.com

Chill35’s picture

Could someone post a link to the discussion pertaining to why the php input format was dropped in Drupal 6 for content creation? I am unable to find it. Thanks in advance.

Caroline
A coder's guide to file download in Drupal
Who am I | Where are we
11 heavens

Chill35’s picture

My apologies.

The php input format can be used by enabling a core optional module :

PHP filter 6.0-beta3 Allows embedded PHP code/snippets to be evaluated.

Caroline
A coder's guide to file download in Drupal
Who am I | Where are we
11 heavens