EDIT (02/23/2022): A problematic bug was found in 1.21.0 and we have issued a new release to resolve the issue. Please, upgrade directly to 1.21.1 to get all these new features without the bug.
The Backdrop community is proud to announce version 1.21 of Backdrop CMS, which was released on January 15, as scheduled. As part of our commitment to deliver the most usable product, the "minor" releases come out like clockwork, three times a year. This allows site maintainers to know when to expect updates, and they can plan accordingly. (See https://backdropcms.org/releases for more information on this).
Notes for updating
- It will be necessary to run the update script (located at
/core/update.php) for this release. - No changes have been made to the
.htaccess,robots.txtor defaultsettings.phpfiles in this release. Updating customized versions of those files is not necessary.
Here are some of the more interesting and important changes you will see in version 1.21.
Add crop anchor point for Scale and Crop image effect
Issue #5080 - We already had the ability to set an anchor point in the Crop image effect, we now have the ability to do this same thing in the Scale and Crop image effect.
Add additional CSS classes on regions in Flexible layout templates
Issue #5044 - Flexible layouts do not have the same classes available that are usually provided by core or contrib layouts. With this change, it will be much easier to add custom classes to regions in your flexible layout templates. This is a nice addition for site architects and front end developers.
Add a "negate" option to the visibility condition for roles
Issue #4689 - Visibility conditions are a powerful way to place blocks or content on some pages, but not others. While some visibility conditions allow you to negate or reverse your selection, we did not have that option for the Role visibility condition and now we do. For example, this will be very helpful if you wish to show a block or template to everyone that is NOT an administrator.
Add settings for which parts of the book navigation to display
Issue #5430 - The book module provides "previous/next/up", "add a child", and "table of content" navigation features. However, until now there it was not easy to select which of these features that you actually want. With this release, we now have a global setting that allows site architects much more control over which features from the book module that they want to use or display.
Before and After
User experience improvements
Most releases, this one included, contain a number of small changes to the appearance of the site or the help text on pages that are designed to make the user, editorial, or site building experience better. Here are a few of the changes you might notice in this release.
Separate help text for publishing options
Issue #3122 - We've broken a single paragraph of help text at the end of the Publish Action section into three short statements that will help clarify these settings. Saving content is easier than ever, with clear descriptions of each publishing action.
Place breadcrumbs above the page title for new installs
Issue - #4113 - For many people the default position of the breadcrumbs in Backdrop was a bit unusual. As of this release, we've moved the default position of the Breadcrumbs from below the view/edit tabs to above the page title. This change will only affect new sites and does not prevent anyone from moving the breadcrumbs block anywhere they like.
Usability improvements around the layout system
The layout system in Backdrop can be confusing for many site administrators and architects. In this release, we make a number of small improvements to the layout, format, and help text on various admin pages that are designed to make the layout system easier to navigate and understand.
Issue #5399 - Improve the description for the Path field on the configure layout page.
Issue #4868 - Add help text on the Layout listing page to explain order and grouping.
Describe ability to re-order roles
Issue #4504 - We have added some help text to better explain the ability to re-order site roles with the suggestion that roles be ordered from the least permissive to most permissive.
"Add another item" buttons are hard to distinguish from the field label
Issue #3520 - We have restyled the "add another item" buttons on admin pages to be more visible and less confusing.
Before:
After:
Developer Experience improvements
Add entity_view() into core
Issue #1739 - This is a powerful change that most end users will not notice, but will help contrib and core developers in the future. Several contrib modules are dependent upon this function and adding it into core will make their lives easier. We also expect that this change will move us one step closer to our goal of eventually including a Reference module in core. For more information, see the relevant change record.
Miscellaneous changes
Enable telemetry module on new installs
Issue #5253 - We added a telemetry module to Backdrop 1.20.0, but as of version 1.21.0 we are enabling this module by default on new sites. For more information on Telemetry see our previous blog post.
The 1.21.0 version also includes bug fixes and usability improvements from the 1.20.4 version, which was also released today.
Version 1.22.0 is schedule for release on May 15, 2022.