Drupal 8 Download - When should Drupal 8 have a packaged release on the Drupal Project page [#1343858]

Problem/Motivation

There's currently no way to download D8 as a tarball or zip file. You have to use Git. Here's why this is a problem we should be motivated to resolve:

The Boston Initiative lead by the Boston Drupal Users Group is working on making it easier for people to contribute to core. In this spirit, we're dedicating the first hour of five monthly meetups leading up to Drupalcon Denver helping our members improve their Drupal chops, work on issues in the core issue queue, and develop materials along the way so our activities can be replicated by other meetup groups.

webchick recently convinced me of two things:

People at every step in the Drupal Learning Ladder should really be working on D8.
Installing Git should not be a first step alongside Install Drupal Locally (where it used to be). Rather, people should be able to start climbing the ladder first, and then install Git when they're ready to start working with (or learning about) patches. I agree. This is more user friendly. I have updated the ladder accordingly.

Unfortunately, newbies can't actually download D8 right now without using Git.

Our next Boston meetup is on 12/6/11. If it's possible to get this resolved before then, we'd really appreciate it. Based on attendance the past two months, we can expect 30-40 people to download D8 then.

Proposed resolution

An 8.x download of Drupal should be available for download here.

Remaining tasks

Tag Drupal 8.x. Looking at tags from D7, it seems like 8.0-unstable-1 or 8.0-alpha1 would be appropriate
Make 8.0-something available to download here

User interface changes

None

API changes

None

Comments

Comment #1

tstoeckler

he/him

German

Essen, Germany

commented 16 November 2011 at 20:31

Title:	Please consider making an alpha development release of D8 available for download as a zip or tarball	» Show 8.x-dev on the Drupal project page?
Status:	Needs review	» Active

http://drupal.org/node/572834 is your friend. :)

I'm not marking this fixed, because we might consider showing the D8 snapshot on the Drupal download page (http://drupal.org/project/drupal). I think we did that for D7, pretty early, but I'm not sure. I don't really care, either.

Comment #2

bryanhirsch commented 16 November 2011 at 23:06

Thanks tstoeckler! Node 572834 will definitely give us what we need for the meet up on 12/6/11.

Thank you also for not marking this fixed. :) While 572834 is helpful for me to share with people in Boston, it's still not very user friendly in terms of encouraging newbies to download and try D8. Still seems worth while to me to make this available here: http://drupal.org/project/drupal.

christopher james francis rodgers’s picture

Comment #3

christopher james francis rodgers commented 20 October 2012 at 01:15

Title:	Drupal 8 Download - How to download Drupal 8 the latest D8 development version; since 8.x-dev isn't on the Drupal project page.	» Show 8.x-dev on the Drupal project page?
Component:	documentation	» base system
Category:	feature	» task
Priority:	Major	» Normal
Issue tags:	-Drupal, -version, -development, -download, -8.x, -D8, -eight, -dl

Download Drupal 8:

The page to download the most recently updated development version of Drupal 8 is always at:

"Drupal 8.x-dev".

http://drupal.org/node/572834

Comment #4

Anonymous (not verified) commented 9 October 2012 at 17:44

Category:	task	» feature
Priority:	Normal	» Major

+1 on op.

I just spend 15 minutes looking for a downloadable version of Drupal 8 in order to work on an issue, and another 10 minutes writing an issue. Please fix this.

Can we please put a link on the 'Drupal 8 Updates and How to Help' page:
http://drupal.org/community-initiatives/drupal-core?

The 'Help Build Drupal' block on the front page I found really motivating, but when you click there, where do you start working with Drupal 8? You have this really beautiful page, and this must be the place, where is it? :-) For me it was really confusing this way.

After having tried various searches with no results, found this issue by typing in search: 8.x.dev download

Comment #5

Anonymous (not verified) commented 9 October 2012 at 17:45

Project:	Drupal core	» Drupal.org site moderators
Version:	8.x-dev	»
Component:	base system	» Site organization

Comment #6

Bojhan commented 10 October 2012 at 01:03

Personally, as a non-developing contributor to Drupal core the git/cvs step was a huge one to take. Having just a download, would have made a world of difference.

Comment #7

dddave commented 10 October 2012 at 12:53

+1 for the requested link in #4

One thing to bear in mind if we make D8 more easily obtainable is that we might want to clarify that D8 is under heavy development and discourage any support requests at this stage. Otherwise we might get some pollution in the issue queue with users who want the hot shizzle without noticing that it might be fairly broken. I think the location in #4 wouldn't need this though.

Comment #8

Anonymous (not verified) commented 11 October 2012 at 15:48

The 'How do I start?' text for Git is at the bottom the last thing on the page, below the personal introductions. To tell you the truth I didn't even notice this text the first few times. I stopped looking after the first few profiles not expecting any other information. This was my user interaction reaction to the page.

Suggestions:

1. The part on git is pretty clear. Except it doesn't tell me one basic thing namely where Drupal 8 in git is. I end up clicking through various pages and watching a instructional video. The instructional video is very handy, but it also leaves me with the idea that there are many repositories, and I may have to do a lot of searching before I even, if ever, find the Drupal 8 development branch. So, I'm getting disparaged, I'm not getting the answer that I'm looking for, and I'm overloaded with different kinds of information, that only confuses me more. Adding the Drupal 8 git address in this bit of text could be helpful. The instructions present are really well written, but I feel like this bit could help people feel like they know where they are going.

2. A block at the top right of the page with something like:

Start working on Drupal

Here you find two ways you can work on the
development version.

Using Git Access
Download Drupal 8

Could improve traffic flow. Have those links lead to a piece of text, where it explains how to, as well as that it is a development version and should not be used on a production site, the usual.

Comment #9

silverwing commented 19 October 2012 at 20:29

Project:	Drupal.org site moderators	» Drupal core
Version:		» 8.x-dev
Component:	Site organization	» documentation

Moving back to Drupal Core as this is something for the core maintainers to decide/act on (and nothing that the Webmasters would do).

Comment #10

chx commented 19 October 2012 at 20:35

Status:

Active

» Closed (works as designed)

It is way too early to expose Drupal 8 to those who do not develop it. It would only lead to confusion. As for where Drupal is in git, there's the version control tab on http://drupal.org/project/drupal

Comment #11

Anonymous (not verified) commented 19 October 2012 at 21:20

Just looking again at the heading on the home page bove the Drupal 8 block:

"Develop with Drupal"

Couldn't this lead to confusion as Drupal is sometimes seen/ used as framework instead of (only) a CMS.
Develop is a broad term in this case implying with the thing you can find here (which you can't find).

Also if it is way too early to release Drupal to those who do not develop it, why put it on the front page calling for help? If you have gone that far, might as well make it easy for people to download. Direct them to a page with a huge: This is for development only. For the production Drupal look here. Something to that effect, anyway.

Edit:
Maybe change the heading of the block to:
"Help Develop Drupal"

For the download page you could also add:
By downloading this you agree that this is for development purposes only and should be used a normal website. Any other use than for building on the next version of Drupal is not recommended. If you have any questions pertaining to this please post here.

Something to that effect.

Comment #12

christopher james francis rodgers commented 20 October 2012 at 00:47

Title:	Show 8.x-dev on the Drupal project page?	» Drupal 8 Download - How to download Drupal 8 the latest D8 development version; since 8.x-dev isn't on the Drupal project page.
Status:	Closed (works as designed)	» Active
Issue tags:		+Drupal, +version, +development, +download, +8.x, +D8, +eight, +dl

There are two separate issues at odds in this discussion.

1) Those who wish to download D8-dev have no easy way to find the download; and reasonably expect to find it at http://drupal.org/project/drupal; or least by a 'search' at d.o with the keyword-phrase: download drupal 8.

2) Those responsible for the page http://drupal.org/project/drupal want to keep D8 from being a source of confusion to the general public.

===

I changed the name of this issue so that the title of this page contains the keyword-phrases:
"drupal 8 download" and "download drupal 8".

I also added 'tags'.

Hopefully, soon, d.o 'Search' will now start to incorporate those phrases as associated with this page,
so at least those who are trying to find the D8-dev download by doing a 'search' at d.o will find this page, and thus the resolution of their quest. ...saving me, hopefully from having to create another page else-where named "Download Drupal 8". Time will tell... Just think of all the time, otherwise wasted, that could be saved. Allah/ God knows I have been frustrated on two different occasions trying to find it. I have now happily spent <strike>2-hours</strike> 3-hours working on this 'comment' and page changes with the intent and hope that I will save countless others in the future from having to waste time (totaling countless hours) trying to find D8.

D8: It's fun to test, occasionally, to see it in action (when it actually works); though no developer I.

===

I do feel, however and additionally, that on page http://drupal.org/project/drupal there should be links to at least one-single D8 information page, and with a link to the D8-dev download page.

As for example, content-bottom paragraphs on page http://drupal.org/project/drupal:

Drupal 8

<p style="color: red;">
Warning: Drupal 8 is still being actively developed, so do not expect the D8-dev version to work for you.
</p>

If you would like to become involved in the development of D8, start <a href="
[Insert your recommended URL here - possibly http://drupal.org/community-initiatives/drupal-core; though I do not like that page's structure... Developer biographies, and hobbies precede "How to get involved": ridiculous. : o )]
">here</a>.

The most recently updated version of D8-dev can always be found and downloaded on page Drupal 8.x-dev.

<h4>
Drupal 8
</h4>
<p style="color: #f00;">
Warning: Drupal 8 is still being actively developed, so do not expect the D8-dev version to work for you.
</p>
<p>
If you would like to become involved in the development of D8, start 
<a href="[Insert URL]">here</a>.
</p>
<p>
The most recently updated version of D8-dev can always be found and downloaded on page <a href="http://drupal.org/node/572834" target="_blank" title="This link opens in a new Tab/Window">Drupal 8.x-dev</a>. 
</p>

===

@chx - Károly Négyesi:

I changed this issue back to active in the hopes of bringing it to the attention of those able to make changes on page http://drupal.org/project/drupal; assuming you are not empowered to do so yourself, or are you?

===

All the best; intended.

-chris

Comment #13

christopher james francis rodgers commented 20 October 2012 at 01:23

Title:	Show 8.x-dev on the Drupal project page?	» Drupal 8 Download - Where to download Drupal 8: latest D8 development version; since 8.x-dev isn't on the Drupal project page.
Component:	base system	» documentation
Category:	task	» feature
Priority:	Normal	» Major
Issue tags:		+Drupal, +version, +development, +download, +8.x, +D8, +eight, +dl

[Title modification]
(Perfection is a lonely art.)

Comment #14

webchick

she/they

English

Vancouver 🇨🇦

commented 14 November 2012 at 08:52

Category:

feature

» support

Trying to clean up the list of features in advance of feature freeze. Moving this to a support request. In general though, I agree that it's too soon to expose this to hapless end-users.