More and more these days the impending release of Drupal 8 is being discussed within our team and in client meetings. While it's scheduled to be released later in 2014, we're already looking forward to how it's going to change and improve our workflows. While we wait for it's release we'll be busy porting the modules we maintain to D8 and working on a plan for migrating some of our aging (and soon to be unsupported) D6 sites.
So what will Drupal 8 mean for our clients? First and foremost, we're expecting overall improved ease of use and efficiency when it comes to content management.
Here are some of the upcoming features that will make day-to-day life easier for our clients with an upgrade to Drupal 8:
- In-line Editing: instead of selecting the Edit tab on a page or travelling through the Content menu, site editors will now be able to remain on the page itself and dive into editing their copy there. I'm personally really looking forward to this one from an editing pov.
- Uploading images: this process has been simplified as you'll now be able to upload images directly to the WYSIWYG editor instead of to a browser first and then into the editor. This feature simply rocks.
- CKEditor now comes with Core: instead of having to install and customize a WYSIWYG editor with every project, we're happy to see this module packaged into the core and ready to roll with commonly used Basic HTML & Full HTML text formats in place. They have also improved upon customizing the toolbar so site admin's will be able to change up their needed editors with a new drag and drop interface.
- "Save as Unpublished" & new Revisions: not having to actively remember to uncheck "publish" before saving is a small but helpful change; and automatically saved revisions will let you stay focused on your copy creation.
- Responsive Admin Tools & Themes: for anyone who needs to update their copy on the fly, mobile-based editing is much easier now.
- Copy & Paste retains markup: this means if you have copied your content from a Word doc which contains styling such as bold or italics, this will be carried into the WYSIWYG editor.
- Multilingual Sites: language maintenance options and overall site translations will be improved to provide an easier experience when managing your content.
2014 is going to be a big year for Drupal. I for one am really looking forward to seeing the new Drupal 8 in action and making use of these improved features.
If your site is currently on Drupal 6 or 7 and youâre wondering how to make the transition to Drupal 8 when it arrives, feel free to contact us and we can review what will be involved.
References:
https://www.acquia.com/blog/content-editing-enhancements-drupal-8
https://www.acquia.com/blog/9-changes-be-excited-about-drupal-8
http://drupalize.me/blog/201310/drupal-8-wysiwyg-and-line-editing