Drupal (core)

Following on the third beta release two weeks ago, we are ready to present Drupal 6.0 beta 4. Since the previous beta release, we have committed over 80 fixes to the Drupal 6.x code. This beta version includes some usability improvements and lots of ... [More] bug fixes for issues which the testers and contributed module upgraders encountered. The first beta announcement provided a comprehensive list of high level improvements made since Drupal 5.x, so in this announcement we'll concentrate on how you can help ensure that Drupal 6 is released as soon as possible and is as rock solid as the previous Drupal releases that you've grown to love! Changes made since the release of Drupal 6.0 beta 3 include several multilingual support fixes, caching improvements, more clear help texts, drag and drop support for book outlines, user profile administration, taxonomy pages and file uploads, and fixes to node teaser generation. With the right to left version of the pushbutton theme, we also completed RTL support for all core themes. We have also hardened the security of the system, closing potential cross site scripting (XSS) and cross site request forgery (CSRF) security holes. This beta release also includes the security updates released in Drupal 5.4 and 4.7.9. read more [Less]

Drupal 4.7.9 and 5.4 are now available for download. These are maintenance releases that fix problems reported using the bug tracking system, as well as a security vulnerability. Upgrading your existing Drupal sites is strongly recommended. Download Download Drupal 5.4. Download Drupal 4.7.9. read more

I have founded a software company called Acquia. The company will provide value-added software and services in and around Drupal. The company plans to participate actively within the Drupal community and project. Acquia will not create a ... [More] closed-source version of Drupal or compete with existing professional services companies who build Drupal-based websites. Details are available in the Acquia FAQ and in my blog post. [Less]

The what now? With the repeated success of the Google Summer of Code, Google has announced the Google Highly Open Participation Contest (GHOP) for pre-university students involved in all aspects of open source development. Drupal has been chosen ... [More] as one of the ten projects participating in the new pilot program, which means we need you! So if you're aged 13-18, or know someone who is, come join in the fun of improving Drupal! Sign up for a drupal.org account, and join the Drupal GHOP Group. We are looking for all varieties of contribution, from development to bug fixing to writing documentation to doing user-experience research. read more [Less]

Calling all designers! Packt Publishing, who recently donated $5,000 to the Drupal Association after Drupal won the 2007 Overall Open Source CMS Award, announces a new book, Drupal 5 Themes by Ric Shreves. A description from the publisher: This book ... [More] is the ideal introduction to theming with Drupal 5. If you want to create a striking new look for your Drupal website, this book is for you. Starting from the basics of theme setup and configuration, you will learn about the Drupal theming architecture and the PHPTemplate engine, and then move on to modifying existing themes and building new themes from scratch. Included is a complete guide to the various style sheets and themeable functions in Drupal 5, making this book a valuable resource even to experienced theme developers. It covers: Creating custom templates Basics of theming in pure PHP Modifying an existing PHPTemplate theme— a step-by-step guide Creating a new PHPTemplate theme—a step-by-step guide Working with forms read more [Less]

With another month of active beta testing, our code is growing more stable by the day. Since Drupal 6 beta 2 was released, we have committed over 180 fixes to the Drupal 6.x code, so we are proud to announce the release of the third beta version of ... [More] Drupal 6.x for your testing. This beta version includes usability improvements and lots of bug fixes for issues which the testers encountered. The first beta announcement provided a comprehensive list of high level improvements made since Drupal 5.x, so in this announcement we'll concentrate on how you can help ensure that Drupal 6 is released as soon as possible and is as rock solid as the previous Drupal releases that you've grown to love! Major changes made since the release of Drupal 6 beta 2 include several code and interface documentation fixes and improvements, HTML validity fixes, performance improvements and easier to use templating. The core system now also runs without table locks and temporary tables, making Drupal usable in more shared hosting environments, and also improving performance at the same time. Localization support in the installer is now complete, as well as error reporting and requirements management through the installation process. One of the major usability improvements in this beta release is the addition of drag and drop ordering support to the blocks, menus and filter formats administration interface. read more [Less]

50 Drupal Tips and Tricks is the title of Lullabot's 50th Drupal podcast. The team has assembled a list of pointers for beginners and experts alike. A useful list of additional tips is starting to emerge as people expand on the list in the comments.

Views 2 is currently being updated for Drupal 6 compatibility, but it needs major help in order to be ready for the Drupal 6's approximate release date! We're short on people and short on time, so here's the bottom line. Without your assistance and ... [More] contributions, there will be no Views for Drupal 6 within any useful timeframe. If we don't have Views 2 ready for the D6 release date, the vast majority of casual users might not even bother to download and try Drupal 6. That would be bad, so you need to get involved in helping to complete Views 2 so this scenario doesn't happen! read more [Less]

For the Drupal community's participation in the 2007 Google Summer of Code program, Google donated $10,000 USD to the Drupal Association earlier this week. This amount represents 10% of the $100,000 USD allocated to Drupal's Summer of Code students. ... [More] We'd like to sincerely thank Google for this tremendous contribution, which will be used to fund infrastructure improvements and to sponsor Drupal events (among other things). We'd also like to thank Drupal's extensive mentoring team for helping to make this possible. Google Summer of Code is a program which awards stipends to students who successfully complete an open source coding project. Students from around the world apply to Google-selected "mentoring organizations" (open source projects, Universities, and so on) to work either on projects of their own devising or to implement projects set out by each organization. The top applicants are allocated $5,000 each, of which $4,500 goes to the student upon successful completion of their project, and $500 goes to the mentoring organization. A designated mentor from the mentoring organization helps to advise the student during the course of their project. This year, Drupal was awarded 20 student slots, which resulted in a number of new contributors and awesome projects, including several internationalization improvements in Drupal 6. Many of our 2006 and 2005 Summer of Code alumni helped out this year as mentors, or even as return students for a second round! We'll be ramping up efforts soon to make Summer of Code 2008 the biggest and best yet! :) If you're interested in helping out, leave a comment at http://groups.drupal.org/node/7157. read more [Less]

The judges for the 2007 EContent 100 List have selected Drupal as one of their 100 companies/projects that matter most in the digital content industry. Drupal was selected for the social media category, which highlights tools that enable readers of ... [More] content to become writers, reviewers, and producers. Among other social media companies were Digg, LinkedIn, SixApart, and Technorati. Fellow open source projects such as Plone, Typo3, WordPress, and eZ Publish also made it to the top 100 list. From the article's preface: The EContent 100 list represents the best and the brightest digital content companies as selected by a dozen judges who follow different aspects of our vast and varied industry—from vantage points all over the map (literally and figuratively). We offer this list not just to recognize companies that lead our industry, but to inspire organizations of all kinds to join in the content conversation online. Way to go, Drupal! [Less]