The latest version of Drupal ‘Drupal 8.5.0’ is now available to us and it is packed with some amazing features. While Drupal CMS never shied away from customizations, it lacked some features that its competitors had by default. But not anymore; these features are now available in the latest release of Drupal.
In this post, I have listed all the modules that Drupal has added to close the gap with its competitors.
Core Media Capabilities Improved
While Drupal’s support for media itself isn’t entirely new (Drupal 8.4 included Media API in its core), but the implementation this time has vastly improved. In the last version, there was no way for a user to enable or disable the module – due to it being hidden from the user interface. Drupal 8.5 now includes these modules as an integral part of the system.
This means that the users can now comfortably enable or disable the media module themselves just like any other module of the framework.
The media module is an incredibly powerful tool in Drupal’s arsenal. It natively supports all type of media formats such as uploading images, videos, and audio. And, it also allows users to reuse and list the media they upload. Apart from its native functionality, the media module can also be integrated with other contributed modules to enhance functionality.
For example: Integrating external videos with WYSIWYG.
Content Moderation Module Stabilized
One of the most powerful aspects of Drupal is its ability for extreme organization. Keeping that in mind, the content moderation module, which was experimental in Drupal 8.4 is now made stable in the current version. This module allows users to set up a workflow for content (Draft -> Review -> Published). This makes the state of content even more efficient.
Experimental Layout Builder Added
One major drawback of Drupal is its complexity. First timers don’t get a grasp of this CMS easily and the core team realizes that. In the latest release, they have added an experimental layout builder to tackle this problem.
A major step in the right direction, the Layout Builder module allows users to configure the layout of web pages on the site through the page settings itself. Previously, the user had to go to a separate configuration page using the backend panel to achieve this purpose. The page builder has reduced a number of steps, improving efficiency manifolds.
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BigPipe Module
Although Drupal is nowhere slow when it comes to page load time and is often endorsed as one of the fastest CMSs out there, this release has upped the game one level further by integrating BigPipe module.
BigPipe is a page loading method that was invented by Facebook and is one of the most popular methods out there. It was available for Drupal as a separate module since Drupal 8.3.0.
In previous versions of Drupal, the users had to enable it manually through the Drupal core. But now it is an integral part that comes pre-enabled.
Recommends PHP 7.2
Also keeping up with the advancements in the world of PHP and the host of advantages it brings, Drupal 8.5.0 not only adds PHP 7.2 support but in fact it is now the recommended version to use with Drupal.
Other Features
Some other features which Drupal 8.5.0 brings with it:
- Settings Tray module moved from experimental to a stable stage
- Basic groundwork for Drupal’s “Out-of-the-box” Demo laid. This allows Drupal to showcase a modern demonstration of the capability of Drupal.
- A host of other bug fixes and improvements made.
Conclusion
That’s all the major improvements with Drupal’s new version. It is always exciting whenever a new Drupal update comes out, and this time’s no exception.
Drupal is improving at a rapid pace and it certainly will be very interesting to see how Drupal keeps this up in future.
Let me know your thoughts, and if I missed anything, do sound it off in the comments section below. Also, learn about 10 Things Every Drupal Developer Should Know in my previous post.
Hamza Zia
Hamza is a Drupal Community Manager at Cloudways - A Managed Drupal Hosting Platform. He loves to write about Drupal and related topics. During his free time, he can be seen obsessing over Football, Cars, Android and Gaming.
