Drupal 6 coming along nicely

I checked out the new Drupal 6.0 from CVS today, and I must say, allot has happened since the last time I tried it some weeks ago.

The biggest news is probably the improvements to the language system.

• Support for right to left languages.
• Language detection based on parts of the URL.
• Browser based language detection.
• Made it possible to specify a node's language.
• Support for translating posts on the site to different languages.
• Language dependent path aliases.
• Automatically import translations when enabling new modules.
• Automatically import translations when adding a new language.
• JavaScript interface translation.

One of the first things you will notice when installing Drupal 6.0 is the new installer. I have always thought installing Drupal was i breeze (even before the installer) but now, it's just plain fun. Really, I enjoy doing it.

Also, the famous CSS preprocessor is now available as a JavaScript preprocessor.


In preparation of the Drupal 6.0 release development of Drupal core is frozen as of July 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. 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.


And for those interested, here is the full change log for Drupal 6.0.

Drupal 6.0, xxxx-xx-xx (development version)
----------------------

• New watchdog as a hook functionality.
  • New hook_watchdog that can be implemented by any module to route log messages to various destinations.
  • Expands the severity levels from 3 (Error, Warning, Notice) to the 8 levels defined in RFC 3164.
  • The watchdog module is now called dblog, and is optional, but enabled by default in the default install profile.
  • Extended the database log module so log messages can be filtered.
  • Added syslog module: useful for monitoring large Drupal installations.
• Added optional e-mail notifications when users are approved, blocked, or deleted.
• Added versioning support to node terms.
• Made it easier to theme the forum overview page.
• Made Drupal work correctly when running behind a reverse proxy like Squid or Pound.
• Drupal works with error reporting set to E_ALL.
• Added scripts/drupal.sh to execute Drupal code from the command line. Useful to use Drupal as a framework to build command-line tools.
• Made signature support optional and made it possible to theme signatures.
• Made it possible to filter the URL aliases on the URL alias administration screen.
• Language system improvements:
  • Support for right to left languages.
  • Language detection based on parts of the URL.
  • Browser based language detection.
  • Made it possible to specify a node's language.
  • Support for translating posts on the site to different languages.
  • Language dependent path aliases.
  • Automatically import translations when enabling new modules.
  • Automatically import translations when adding a new language.
  • avaScript interface translation.
• Moved "PHP input filter" to a stand-alone module so it can be deleted for security reasons.
• Usability:
  • Improved handling of teasers in posts.
  • Added sticky table headers.
  • Check for clean URL support automatically with JavaScript.
  • Removed default/settings.php. Instead the installer will create it from default.settings.php.
  • Made it possible to configure your own date formats.
  • Remember anonymous comment posters.
  • Only allow modules and themes to be enabled that have explicitly been ported to the right core API version.
  • Dynamically check password strength and confirmation.
• Theme system:
  • Added .info files to themes and made it easier to specify regions and features.
  • Added theme registry: modules can directly provide .tpl.php files for their themes without having to create theme_ functions.
  • Used the Garland theme for the installation and maintenance pages.
  • Added theme preprocess functions for themes that are templates.
  • Added support for themeable functions in JavaScript.
• Refactored update.php to a generic batch API to be able to run time consuming operations in multiple subsequent HTTP requests.
• Installer:
  • Themed the installer with the Garland theme.
  • Added form to provide initial site information during installation.
  • Added ability to provide extra installation steps programmatically.
  • Made it possible to import interface translations at install time.
• Added the HTML corrector filter:
  • Fixes faulty and chopped off HTML in postings.
  • Tags are now automatically closed at the end of the teaser.
• Performance:
  • Made it easier to conditionally load include files.
  • Added a JavaScript aggregator and compressor.
• File handling improvements:
  • Entries in the files table are now keyed to a user, and not a node.
  • Added re-usable validation functions to check for uploaded file sizes, extensions, and image resolution.
• Forum improvements:
  • Any node type may be posted in a forum.
• Added support for OpenID.
• Added support for configurable actions.
• Made user profiles easier to theme by using array rendering and supplying template files.