Version 8.8 of Drupal has been released. Drupal is a PHP written, user-friendly and powerful content management platform, which can be used to create websites, for example. It’s simple enough for a novice user, but powerful enough to build a more complex website as well. The program includes a content management platform and a development framework. Version 8.8 is the last version where (major) changes are still being made. Both version 9.0 and version 8.9 will be released at the beginning of June next year. The latter is a version where long-term support will be provided.
What’s new in Drupal 8.8.0?
The last normal feature release of Drupal 8 includes a stable Media Library as well as several improvements to workspaces and migrations. The new experimental Claro administration theme brings a fresh look to site management. This is also the first release to come with native Composer support.
Stable Media Library
The Media Library module allows easy reuse of images, documents, videos, and other assets across the site. It is integrated into content forms and seamlessly fits into CKEditor. You can upload media right from the library and even reuse a combination of uploaded and existing media. Media Library was previously included with Drupal core as a beta experimental module.
New experimental administration theme
The Claro administration theme was added to Drupal core with beta experimental stability. The new theme is clean, accessible, and powerful. Administration pages are more touch-friendly, and color combinations and contrasts are more accessible.
Significant improvements to Workspaces
It is now possible to define hierarchical workspaces (such as preparing a “New Year’s” issue for a magazine under the “winter issue”, while both receive changes to be deployed). Workspaces can now work with Content Moderation, and path alias changes can also be staged.
Native Composer support included
Drupal 8.8.0 is the first release to include native Composer support without reliance on third-party projects to set up Drupal with its dependencies. New sites can be created using a one-line command.
Migration improvements
The multilingual migration path is still experimental, but has received various updates. This includes handling of vocabulary language settings, term language information, and localization. Modules can now specify whether migrations provided by them are finished or not finished to help audit completeness of available migrations.
New experimental Help Topics module
The existing help system is module based, whereas users intend to complete tasks, not use modules. A new task-based Help Topics beta experimental module has been added to bring in-Drupal help to the next level.
| Version number | 8.8.0 |
| Release status | Final |
| Operating systems | Script language |
| Website | Drupal |
| Download | https://ftp.drupal.org/files/projects/drupal-8.8.0.tar.gz |
| License type | GPL |