Problem/Motivation

#2751325: All serialized values are strings, should be integers/booleans when appropriate was committed with an opt-in backwards compatibility layer to retain the current behaviour of outputting everything as a string.

However there are two reasons we might not want to maintain that bc layer:

1. In general, casting issues are due to having to cast '1' to 1 (For comparisons and similar), often in tests. It's much less likely that a client would get an integer and choke on it because it had previously got a string. We also expect it to be a quick update for clients if they do run into a problem.

2. If we need to change output again, we'll have two bc layers, instead of two output variants, this will give us four:

1. No bc layer
2. BC layer 1 only
3. BC layer 2 only
4. BC layer 1 + BC layer 2

That problem will get worse if there was a third issue too.

Proposed resolution

Consider a deprecation notice if the bc-layer is enabled (add it to 8.3.x or 8.4.x) and then remove the bc layer in 8.4.x or 8.5.x. This gives clients a 6-12 month window to update if they need to, without maintaining a potentially redundant and/or progressively more complex bc layer for years.

Remaining tasks

User interface changes

API changes

Data model changes

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Comments

catch created an issue. See original summary.

Wim Leers’s picture

Wim Leers’s picture

Category: Task » Plan

Version: 8.4.x-dev » 8.5.x-dev

Drupal 8.4.0-alpha1 will be released the week of July 31, 2017, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.5.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

Version: 8.5.x-dev » 8.6.x-dev

Drupal 8.5.0-alpha1 will be released the week of January 17, 2018, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.6.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

Version: 8.6.x-dev » 8.7.x-dev

Drupal 8.6.0-alpha1 will be released the week of July 16, 2018, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.7.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

Wim Leers’s picture

Issue tags: +Drupal 9
catch’s picture

Can we just update this to deprecate the bc layer for Drupal 9? We barely have three Drupal 8 releases in which to do a staggered deprecation now.

Wim Leers’s picture

You mean adding a deprecation notice during 8.x and removing the BC layer in 9.0?

catch’s picture

Yep.

Wim Leers’s picture

WFM! The key question is, where would we add that deprecation notice?

This is a piece of configuration that affects executed code. If we throw the deprecation notice upon every string normalization you're … going to see a lot of these in your logs. Perhaps that's okay?

catch’s picture

I don't think that's different from running a contrib module using something deprecated so should be OK.

Wim Leers’s picture

Status: Active » Needs review
Issue tags: +API-First Initiative
FileSize
1.46 KB

Status: Needs review » Needs work

The last submitted patch, 13: 2856594-13.patch, failed testing. View results

Wim Leers’s picture

Status: Needs work » Needs review
FileSize
3.73 KB

Version: 8.7.x-dev » 8.8.x-dev

Drupal 8.7.0-alpha1 will be released the week of March 11, 2019, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.8.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 release cycle.

Version: 8.8.x-dev » 8.9.x-dev

Drupal 8.8.0-alpha1 will be released the week of October 14th, 2019, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 8.9.x-dev branch. (Any changes to 8.9.x will also be committed to 9.0.x in preparation for Drupal 9’s release, but some changes like significant feature additions will be deferred to 9.1.x.). For more information see the Drupal 8 and 9 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 and 9 release cycles.

Version: 8.9.x-dev » 9.1.x-dev

Drupal 8.9.0-beta1 was released on March 20, 2020. 8.9.x is the final, long-term support (LTS) minor release of Drupal 8, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted against the 9.1.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 8 and 9 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 8 and 9 release cycles.

Version: 9.1.x-dev » 9.2.x-dev

Drupal 9.1.0-alpha1 will be released the week of October 19, 2020, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted for the 9.2.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal 9 minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal 9 release cycle.

Version: 9.2.x-dev » 9.3.x-dev

Drupal 9.2.0-alpha1 will be released the week of May 3, 2021, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted for the 9.3.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal core minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal core release cycle.

Version: 9.3.x-dev » 9.4.x-dev

Drupal 9.3.0-rc1 was released on November 26, 2021, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted for the 9.4.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal core minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal core release cycle.

Version: 9.4.x-dev » 9.5.x-dev

Drupal 9.4.0-alpha1 was released on May 6, 2022, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted for the 9.5.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal core minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal core release cycle.

Version: 9.5.x-dev » 10.1.x-dev

Drupal 9.5.0-beta2 and Drupal 10.0.0-beta2 were released on September 29, 2022, which means new developments and disruptive changes should now be targeted for the 10.1.x-dev branch. For more information see the Drupal core minor version schedule and the Allowed changes during the Drupal core release cycle.

catch’s picture

Category: Plan » Task
Status: Needs review » Closed (outdated)

This has been done elsewhere as far as I can tell.