Drupal Release: 8.1.8

TL;DR

Drupal 8.1.8 is a maintenance release that includes numerous bug fixes, performance improvements, and documentation updates. This release addresses issues with configuration translation, entity revisions, REST API functionality, and various UI improvements. It enhances stability for site builders and developers by fixing critical bugs in core modules like Views, BigPipe, and Queue processing. No new features were added, making this a straightforward update focused on improving reliability and fixing regressions.

Highlight of the Release

• Fixed critical bug in node revision pagination that could cause performance issues with large numbers of revisions
• Improved queue garbage collection during cron runs, enhancing system reliability
• Added automatic HEAD request support for REST resources that support GET
• Fixed issues with entity revisions not displaying translated content correctly
• Enhanced BigPipe to handle CDATA sections and inline scripts properly

Migration Guide

No specific migration steps are required for this maintenance release. As this is a bugfix release, updating from Drupal 8.1.7 to 8.1.8 should be straightforward and not require any special migration procedures.

If you're using Composer to manage your Drupal site, note that several package names and dependencies have been corrected in this release:

• Fixed package names of drupal/core-fileCache and drupal/core-phpStorage
• Added drupal/core-render to the drupal/core replace section
• Renamed drupal/core-httpFoundation and added it to drupal/core replace section
• Removed unnecessary symfony/expression-language requirement from drupal/core-dependency-injection

These changes should not affect your site functionality but may impact your Composer dependency resolution in a positive way.

Upgrade Recommendations

This is a recommended upgrade for all Drupal 8.1.x sites. As a maintenance release containing bug fixes and performance improvements, Drupal 8.1.8 enhances stability without introducing new features or breaking changes.

The update process should be straightforward:

1. Back up your database and site files before updating
2. Update through Composer (recommended): composer update drupal/core --with-dependencies
3. Or download the release and update manually
4. Run the database updates via the UI at /update.php or using Drush: drush updatedb
5. Clear caches: drush cache-rebuild or via the UI

Sites experiencing issues with entity revisions, configuration translation, or REST API functionality will particularly benefit from this update.

Bug Fixes

Core System

• Fixed issue where queue garbage collection was not correctly run on cron
• Fixed bug where empty IP records were being added to blocked_ips table
• Resolved issue with node revision overview lacking pagination
• Fixed issue with configuration translation synchronization
• Corrected handling of relative URLs in feeds to convert them to absolute ones

Entity System

• Fixed bug where node revisions weren't displaying translated content correctly
• Resolved issue where cloning an entity translation incorrectly propagated to the original entity
• Fixed issue with non-revisionable base fields with multiple columns breaking revisionable entity types
• Corrected entity form/view route errors when a non-entity parameter comes first

User Interface

• Fixed reset button functionality in AJAX-enabled Views
• Corrected issue where custom CSS classes added to status messages were printing as content in Classy theme
• Fixed dialog overflow in small resolutions when vertical toolbar is open
• Resolved issue where contextual links for Edit and Delete were incorrectly available when viewing revisions
• Fixed FileWidget inside subform not finding its values correctly

REST API

• Fixed issue where REST Views were overriding existing REST routes
• Added automatic HEAD support for REST resources that support GET

CKEditor

• Updated CKEditor library to 4.5.10
• Fixed issue where duplicate labels for Styles dropdown caused Styles to not render
• Corrected styling that forced 16x16px icons in CKEditor toolbar configuration UI

Link Handling

• Fixed LinkItem::getUrl ignoring the value of options
• Corrected Views field rewrite for "Content: Path" that incorrectly escaped HTML

New Features

No significant new features were added in this maintenance release. Drupal 8.1.8 focuses primarily on bug fixes, performance improvements, and documentation updates to enhance stability and reliability of existing functionality.

Security Updates

This release includes a security improvement that prevents insecure Guzzle versions from being installed when using Composer to manage project dependencies. While not addressing a specific vulnerability in Drupal core itself, this change helps protect sites from potential security issues that could arise from using outdated dependencies.

Performance Improvements

Performance Enhancements

• Added pagination to node revision overview to prevent unlimited queries that could impact performance
• Reduced the BigPipe placeholder interval from 200ms to 50ms and made it overridable, improving page rendering speed
• Optimized menu link migration process for better performance during site migrations
• Improved handling of UNION queries with ORDER BY clauses, enhancing database query performance
• Enhanced BigPipe to ensure it doesn't break when HTML documents contain CDATA sections or inline scripts matching certain patterns

Impact Summary

Drupal 8.1.8 is a maintenance release that focuses on stability and bug fixes rather than new features. The impact is primarily positive, addressing several critical issues that could affect site performance and functionality.

The most significant improvements include fixing node revision pagination to prevent performance issues with large numbers of revisions, correcting queue garbage collection during cron runs, and resolving issues with entity revisions not displaying translated content correctly.

For developers, the release enhances REST API functionality with automatic HEAD support for GET resources and fixes several issues with entity handling and database queries. Site administrators will benefit from improved configuration translation synchronization and better handling of blocked IP addresses.

Content editors will notice improvements in the CKEditor experience and fixed contextual links in revision views. Accessibility users gain better keyboard operability for the CKEditor toolbar configuration UI and fixed dialog overflow issues on small screens.

Overall, this release represents an important maintenance update that improves the reliability and performance of Drupal 8.1.x without introducing breaking changes or requiring significant migration efforts.