Update: Drupal 7.0 Beta 3 is available now!
Our last Drupal 7 beta version was released about a month ago. Today, we're proud to announce the release of the second (and possibly final!) beta version of Drupal 7.x for your further testing and feedback. The first alpha announcement provided a comprehensive list of improvements made since Drupal 6.x, so in this announcement we'll concentrate on how you can help ensure that Drupal 7 is released as soon as possible and is as rock solid as the previous Drupal releases that you've grown to love!
This release includes:
- Better error trapping during installation and upgrade for various incompatible systems, based on error reports from folks newly trying out Drupal 7 on various environments. We think we've caught all the ones we have so far, but please keep the reports coming!
- Better support for exportables in the form of a new Form API type "machine_name" and format IDs stored as strings rather than integers.
- Links can now participate in the D7 AJAX framework, which was previously limited to forms.
- Raised minimum version of PHP to PHP 5.2.4, to facilitate stream wrapper security.
- Numerous tweaks to basic navigation in the default profile, to prevent information overload.
- Fixed a regression in Schema API that prevented modules such as Date from adding to the column types supported by core.
- Profile module no longer shows up on the module listing on new sites, in favour of fieldable user entities.
- Fixing of numerous Bartik and Seven theme style & RTL bugs. There are still lots more, so please help get Drupal 7's new look and feel as polished as possible!
When will beta become RC?
Beta will become RC when we have zero critical issues remaining. The count is currently at 5. We're seemingly very close, but we need your help to ensure we've caught all the nasty bugs before our first release candidate.
Additionally, RC1 signals a hard string freeze so if you have issues in the queue that impact user interface text, wrap them up soon! Please tag issues with "string freeze" if they need to be committed before RC1.
Updating from previous versions
The 7.x-beta1 => 7.x-beta2 upgrade path should work. Please tell us if it doesn't. (Remember to search first!)
Always make backups of your data and never do testing on your live site to make sure you keep all of your information intact even if something goes wrong.