Drupal Release: 8.5.0-beta1

TL;DR

Drupal 8.5.0-beta1 marks a significant milestone with several key modules reaching stable status, including Content Moderation and Settings Tray. This release introduces the experimental Umami demo profile, improves multilingual content moderation, enhances migration capabilities with incremental migrations through the UI, and includes numerous accessibility improvements. The Media module is now unhidden in the UI, making it more accessible to content authors. This release also features important bug fixes, performance improvements, and developer experience enhancements.

Highlight of the Release

• Content Moderation module is now stable, providing robust workflow management capabilities
• Settings Tray module marked as stable, improving the block configuration experience
• Media module is now unhidden in the UI, making it more accessible to content authors
• New experimental Umami demo profile showcases Drupal's capabilities for newcomers
• Layout Builder module marked as Beta, indicating progress toward stability
• Improved multilingual content moderation with independent translation moderation
• Incremental migrations now available through the UI
• Enhanced accessibility across multiple components

Migration Guide

Content Moderation

If you've been using the experimental version of Content Moderation, you should review your workflows after upgrading as the module is now stable. No specific migration steps are required, but it's recommended to test your existing workflows to ensure they function as expected.

Settings Tray

If you've been using the experimental version of Settings Tray, note that the block entity form handler has changed from 'off_canvas' to 'settings_tray'. Custom code that references the old handler name may need to be updated.

Entity API Changes

Several changes have been made to how entity revisions and translations are handled:

1. If you have custom code that works with entity revisions, especially for translated content, review it for compatibility with the new revision handling mechanisms.

2. Note that translatable fields with synchronization enabled now behave as untranslatable fields with respect to pending revisions.

3. If you're using the EntityConverter, be aware that it now loads the latest translation-affecting revision for translated entities.

Multilingual Sites

For multilingual sites, review your content translation workflows, especially if you're using Content Moderation, as content translations can now be moderated independently.

PHP Version Requirements

This release continues to enforce the minimum PHP version requirements. Ensure your environment meets these requirements before upgrading.

Upgrade Recommendations

Who Should Upgrade

• Sites that need the new stable Content Moderation and Settings Tray modules
• Sites experiencing issues with multilingual content and revisions
• Sites that would benefit from the improved migration capabilities
• Anyone wanting to use the new Media UI improvements

When to Upgrade

As this is a beta release (8.5.0-beta1), it is not recommended for production sites unless you have a specific need for the new features and have thoroughly tested the upgrade in a development environment.

Preparation Steps

1. Create a complete backup of your site, including files and database
2. Review the full release notes for any changes that might affect your custom code
3. Test the upgrade on a staging environment before applying to production
4. Pay special attention to any custom code that interacts with:
   • Entity revisions
   • Content translations
   • Block configurations
   • Media entities

Post-Upgrade Actions

1. Clear caches thoroughly after upgrading
2. Test all critical site functionality, especially workflows involving content moderation
3. Review any custom themes or modules that might interact with the newly stable modules
4. If using multilingual features, test content translation workflows carefully

Bug Fixes

Multilingual Content and Revisions

• Fixed issues with multilingual content moderation to ensure that content translations can be moderated independently
• Resolved problems with translatable fields with synchronization enabled to ensure proper behavior with pending revisions
• Fixed a bug where node links always loaded the default revision during rendering
• Corrected issues with field synchronization running for non-Content Translation-enabled entities

Entity API and Fields

• Fixed a regression where LinkWidget no longer supported base fields with optional title
• Resolved an issue where the moderation_state field was not computed during the creation of a new entity translation
• Fixed a bug where field_purge_batch expected an array of objects but instead got an array of arrays
• Corrected an issue where menu_link_content_entity_predelete was deleting "collection", "add-form", etc. links

Migration Issues

• Fixed a bug where d6_url_alias migration failed when the src path in D6 contained no slashes
• Resolved an issue with storing uploads in the correct translation during migration

UI and JavaScript

• Fixed a bug where the Status report page without JavaScript was messed up
• Corrected an issue where position-min.js had problems since the 8.4 upgrade
• Fixed a bug where disabled form labels in Seven theme's node meta-data did not meet WCAG AA 1.4.3 Contrast requirements

Other Fixes

• Fixed a bug where truncate_utf8() cut on the first newline character when $wordsafe == TRUE
• Resolved an issue where the installer did not fix the database connection after creating the database on MySQL
• Fixed a bug where a combination of language negotiation and path aliasing could cause a corrupted route cache and 404s
• Corrected an issue with multilingual private files where FileDownloadController was used for ImageStyle instead of ImageStyleDownloadController

New Features

Content Moderation Now Stable

Content Moderation module has been marked as stable, providing a robust and reliable workflow management system for content. This allows site builders to define custom editorial workflows and states for different content types.

Settings Tray Now Stable

The Settings Tray module has been marked as stable, offering an improved in-context block configuration experience. This module allows editors to configure blocks directly from the front-end without navigating to the admin interface.

Media Module Unhidden in UI

The Media module is now unhidden in the UI, making it more accessible to content authors. This change helps content creators more easily discover and use Drupal's media management capabilities.

Experimental Umami Demo Profile

A new experimental demo installation profile called "Umami" has been added to showcase Drupal's capabilities. This profile includes a beautiful theme, sample content, and configuration that demonstrates Drupal's features for newcomers. Note that this profile is marked as not suitable for production use.

Layout Builder Marked as Beta

The Layout Builder module has been marked as Beta, indicating significant progress toward stability. This module provides a powerful visual layout building experience for content.

Timestamp Scalar Data Type

A new timestamp scalar data type has been added for GraphQL, enhancing Drupal's API capabilities.

Messenger Service in Core Classes

The messenger service has been added to ControllerBase and FormBase, making it easier for developers to display messages to users.

Incremental Migrations Through UI

Incremental migrations are now available through the UI, allowing site builders to update content from previous versions of Drupal without having to migrate everything again.

Security Updates

No significant security fixes were explicitly mentioned in the release notes. However, as with any Drupal core update, this release includes general code hardening and maintenance that contributes to the overall security posture of Drupal sites.

Performance Improvements

Entity API Performance

• Improved handling of entity revisions and translations, reducing unnecessary processing
• Enhanced entity loading mechanisms to be more efficient with translated content

Migration Performance

• Delayed SQL map table creation in migrations, improving performance during migration setup
• Optimized migration processes for better handling of large datasets

JavaScript and CSS Optimization

• Updated JS build script packages for better performance
• Improved CSS handling and processing

Cache Improvements

• Enhanced caching mechanisms for multilingual sites
• Improved route caching to prevent corruption issues that were causing performance problems

Impact Summary

Drupal 8.5.0-beta1 represents a significant step forward in Drupal's evolution, particularly for content management workflows and multilingual capabilities. The stabilization of Content Moderation and Settings Tray modules provides more reliable tools for content editors and site builders, while the unhiding of the Media module in the UI makes media management more accessible.

The improvements to multilingual content moderation are particularly impactful, allowing independent moderation of content translations and fixing several long-standing issues with revision handling in translated content. This will greatly benefit organizations managing multilingual sites.

For site builders, the addition of incremental migrations through the UI simplifies the process of updating content from previous Drupal versions, and the new experimental Umami demo profile provides an excellent showcase of Drupal's capabilities for newcomers.

Developers will appreciate the numerous API improvements, including better handling of entity revisions and translations, the new timestamp scalar data type, and the addition of the messenger service to core controller and form classes.

Accessibility has also been improved across several components, with fixes for contrast issues and better handling of form labels, making Drupal more inclusive for all users.

Overall, this release balances new features with important bug fixes and enhancements to existing functionality, setting the stage for a strong 8.5.0 stable release.