Bug: There is no authoritative information about what specific version(s) of jQuery ships with Drupal. This information is not in the packed JavaScript source file(s), nor is it included anywhere else -- system requirements, handbooks, readme files, etc. etc. This appears to be the case for all versions of Drupal.
Expected Behavior: An authoritative declaration of shipped jQuery version number should be clearly stated and readily available in the obvious places, including system requirements and the handbook for each version of Drupal.
This is mission-critical information for proper and professional site development, every bit as vital as what versions of PHP and database server are required. Its absence is a fundamental flaw in basic documentation.
jQuery capabilities and documentation are contingent on version number -- for the oldest versions, accurate documentation may not even exist anymore. Also, a given version of jQuery may have conflicts or bugs which need to be accounted for. (For example, I'm experiencing some fairly hellacious memory leaks.)
The ability to develop and debug JavaScript components properly and professionally is thus dependent on jQuery version information -- which is not available. One should not be forced to hunt hither and yon, only to find a passing and possibly outdated reference to jQuery's version buried in a non-core module description.
Comments
Comment #1
keith.smith CreditAttribution: keith.smith commentedMy copy of (D7) /misc/jquery.js has as the top:
Admittedly, the copy of Drupal 5 I have handy does not seem to have this information as a header.
Putting the jQuery version on the status page (along with Drupal, MySQL and PHP versions) would be a good non-critical feature request, IMO.
Comment #2
spencersundell CreditAttribution: spencersundell commentedHi keith.smith --
I stand correct re: Drupal 7 and, upon closer inspection, Drupal 6.1. However...
Yes, which is precisely why I set 5.7 as the version relevant for this ticket. Changing it to signify version 7.x-dev does not resolve the issue as described.
Additionally, I still insist the absence of jQuery version info is indeed a critical issue -- not a feature request -- for the reasons I have already delineated.
Respectfully...
Comment #3
keith.smith CreditAttribution: keith.smith commentedspencersundell: Sure, I understand, and did not mean to come off as flippant in my earlier post. I agree with you that this is apparently hard to find in Drupal 5.
But, we have a general policy of working on changes to development branches, and then letting a branch maintainer determine whether this is something that should be backported. Large changes sometimes may get into a previously-released version, but often not.
If all you want to do is add the relevant jQuery version information at the top of /misc/jquery.js for 5, then just submit a patch for that. I'll promise to review it myself. If you want to add the version information to the status page -- which you did not explicitly mention, I feel like a patch to do that will have to start with HEAD and work down.
As to whether it is a bug, that is probably debatable. Critical though, is intended to be something that should block a release, and its hard to see how a documentation issue rises to that. If you feel very strongly about it, set it back after this post and I'll leave it alone. Other folks may, or may not -- I can't speak for anyone else.
Comment #4
marcingy CreditAttribution: marcingy commentedClosing due to inaction