Drupal is one of the few content management system which has been put into use in making complex and fully-functional corporate websites. Its project team is continuously making efforts to improve and incorporate more advance features making it the best choice for the CMS user base. After the release of Drupal 7 alpha version about three weeks ago, Drupal is back with another new release. With immense proud, Drupal project team announces first beta version of Drupal 7.x for your further testing and feedback!
The gap between the alpha and the beta version covered up the following issues:
- They have successfully resolved all critical data loss and security bugs in Drupal 7.
- They believe that their APIs are now frozen enough so that contributed module and theme authors can start (or pick up again) their #D7CX pledges.
- They have caught and fixed most of the problems with the upgrade path. They are able to successfully upgrade a copy of the Drupal.org database to Drupal 7.
Drupal project team is urging all the Drupal developers to just check out and report to them if you encounter any issues with it.
Whats New For You!
A revamped user interface, a new admin and default core theme, image handling in core, fields (CCK!) in core, module and theme upgrades from within the browser, an automated testing framework with over 24,000 tests, improved security and scalability, revamped database, AJAX, and file systems, jQuery 1.4, jQuery UI 1.8, RDFa, and literally gazillions of other things!It would be considered as a new landmark in the world of CMS website design.
You may also check out its Changelog.txt to see all the details…
How and Who can help test this Beta Release
You may start either by installing a new Drupal site or upgrading an existing one running on a previous version. If you are starting from the scratch, then you may use the Drupal development module to generate some test data (content, users, etc) to help you start testing quickly.
Important Note: Since this is just a beta release so it is not intended to run on a live site. Also, always make sure to make backup of your data before performing an upgrade or start testing.
a) New Drupal Users: If you are just new to Drupal! Don’t underestimate your skills and power. Are you used to working with other content management systems and willing to lend your perspective in improving the way Drupal works? You are just perfect helper to help with usability testing and improving documentation! Since you are just fresher, so you may find thing sometimes difficult and confusing. It is always recommended to take notes on things you find difficult or confusing, and translate those notes into an issue which will show up in the issue tracker.
b) Testers: Testers can go a long way to help Drupal team to test the new beta release. They need testers both to try out different aspects of Drupal itself, as well as take a look at the issue queue, checking bugs to see if they’re valid and testing patches to verify if they work properly. Read more about setting up a testing environment and applying patches.
c) Module Developers: Module developers can also prove an useful resource to find out the bugs! 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! And try coding some upgrade routines to help make the process smoother for the next person!
d) Drupal Ninjas as well as trainees: If you enjoy at Drupal hacking, 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! Start now!
e) Drupal Interface Translators: The interface strings of Drupal 7.0 are mostly frozen. Although, Drupal team is changing texts to fix bugs or to lend clarity in the interface. Around release candidate 1, a formal “string freeze” will be declared at which point it should be safe to start translating.
Drupal team need people to test this like crazy! Most of the security issues in Drupal 7 have now been addressed, but the beta should still only be installed for testing and new development or working on migration from 6.x. Kindly help the Drupal team and let them know what bugs you find in the “Drupal core” issue queue.
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