Project History and Future

Key features in version 1.0

Release date: January 15th, 2015

Backdrop 1.0 (announcement and release notes) was the first release of the Drupal fork, Backdrop. It included a number of major improvements over Drupal 7 while maintaining a high degree of compatibility. This release was in development for 16 months of development to deliver a next-generation CMS platform. Key features included:

  1. Configuration Management System
  2. Built-in Content Listing Generator (Views)
  3. Revamped Layout System
  4. Improved Performance
  5. Improved Mobile Support
  6. Reduced Theme System Complexity
  7. An upgrade path from Drupal 7

Key features in version 1.1

Release date: May 15th, 2015

Backdrop 1.1 (announcement and release notes) included new out-of-box abilities. Including:

  1. More tokens and a token UI in core.
  2. Automated URL alias creation for Users, Taxonomy Terms, and Nodes.
  3. A fresh new look to the administration theme!

Key features in version 1.2

Release date: September 15th, 2015

Backdrop 1.2 (announcement and release notes) expands the out-of-box experience with critical features, specifically:

  1. Built-in Rich text editor.
  2. Built-in Date fields.
  3. Built-in Link field.
  4. Built-in E-mail field.

Key features in version 1.3

Release date: January 15th, 2016

Backdrop 1.3 (announcement and release notes) focused on user experience (UX) improvements, polishing existing functionality rather than adding new major modules. New features included:

  1. Expanding the capabilities of the Layout edit (more out-of-box blocks and features)
  2. Easier and more powerful configuration of content types, vocabularies, and user accounts.
  3. Notification icon in the administrative toolbar for status report problems.
  4. Faster page loads with Background Fetch and Cron jobs.

Key features in version 1.4

Release date: May 15th, 2016

Backdrop 1.4 (announcement and release notes) focused on providing new site-building tools, making it easier than ever to build a Backdrop site.

  1. 10 new responsive layouts based on the Bootstrap 4 grid system.
  2. Automatic and manual path redirection ability when path aliases change (Redirect module).
  3. A project browser module (Installer) that allows finding and installing modules from within the Backdrop UI.
  4. The Layout module UI has been improved with new terminology, more descriptive listings, and improved configuration of conditionals.

Key features in version 1.5

Release date: September 15th, 2016

Backdrop 1.5 (announcement and release notes) focused on creating an all-new out-of-box experience.

  1. A new front-end theme, and hero block.
  2. A new default home-page layout.
  3. Responsive and drop-down menus by default.
  4. Emoji support.

Key features in version 1.6

Release date: January 15th, 2017

Backdrop 1.6 (announcement and release notes) focused on improving the user experience.

  1. Add an image & file management User Interface
  2. Add support for custom view modes
  3. Add a hamburger-menu toggle for responsive menus.

Key features in version 1.7

Release date: May 15th, 2017

Backdrop 1.7 (announcement and release notes) focused on improving the administrative style.

  1. Views that contain Block Displays have substantially increased powers, allowing per-placement overrides of pager settings, contextual filters, and more.
  2. Page titles, tabs, messages, and action links may now be placed as blocks and moved around within layouts.
  3. Images can be uploaded in the Rich-Text editor via Drag and Drop or Clipboard Paste.
  4. Add the ability to add links to Images in the Rich-Text editor.
  5. Allow adding links to local paths in the Rich-Text editor via an autocomplete dialog.
  6. Clean up the User Interfaces for Views, Status & Update reports, the Autocomplete widget, and the Rich-Text editor.

Key features in version 1.8

Release date: Sept 15th, 2017

Backdrop 1.8 (announcement and release notes) focused on interface changes that continue to improve on the overall experience of using Backdrop.

  1. Administrative interface design and usability improvements.
  2. Enhancements to Menu blocks.
  3. Unpublished content indicators in the Basis theme.

Key features in version 1.9

Release date: Jan 15th, 2018

Backdrop 1.9 (announcement and release notes) focused on keeping up with all the bug-fixes and improvements made to Drupal 7.

  1. Manage files independent from other content.
  2. Redirect logged-out visitors to /user/login on the /user page.
  3. Integrates many bug-fixes and improvements that were also made to Drupal 7.

Key features in version 1.10

Release date: May 15th, 2018

Backdrop 1.10 (announcement and release notes) focused on adding some popular features available in Wordpress, and improving the installer and the project listing/management pages.

  1. Posts can now be scheduled into the future
  2. Commenting can now be closed automatically
  3. Improvements to the installer, and a better first impression
  4. Improvements to module, theme, and layout selection interfaces
  5. See the GitHub issue tracker for 1.10 issues.

Key features in version 1.11

Release date: September 15th, 2018

Backdrop 1.11 (announcement and release notes) focused on giving some love to "neglected" modules like Color and Contact, and reintroducing content previews and an Image Browser.

  1. Restore Content Previews
  2. Image Browser for inserting inline images
  3. Allow nodes to be pathless (à la RabbitHole)
  4. Provide theme settings preview (with color support!)
  5. Preliminary Auto-Update support
  6. See the GitHub issue tracker for 1.11 issues.

Key features in version 1.12

Release date: January 15th, 2019

Backdrop 1.12 (announcement and release notes) focused on core self-updates, and introducing a simpler, user-friendly way to to provide options for selects, radios, and checkboxes.

  1. In-app core updates (manual)
  2. CSS grid for views
  3. A "Rendered term" display
  4. Options Element in core
  5. Contact form block
  6. Tags for modules, themes, & layouts
  7. See the GitHub issue tracker for 1.12 issues.

Key features in version 1.13

Release date: May 15th, 2019

Backdrop 1.13 (announcement and release notes) focused on introducing an admin dashboard, which can be used to provide a quick overview of the most important things related to your site.

  1. Administrative Dashboard
  2. Support for more link attributes in the Rich-Text Editor
  3. Field Formatter Settings functionality moved into core
  4. See the GitHub issue tracker for 1.13 issues.

Features planned for version 1.14

Scheduled release date: September 15th, 2019

  1. Flexible layout templates (layout template builder via the admin UI)
  2. Fieldable files (i.e. File Entity in core)
  3. A new Welcome dashboard block
  4. Include an 'Editor' role in the standard profile
  5. Opt-in support for trusted_host_patterns in settings.php.
  6. See the GitHub issue tracker for 1.14 issues.

Features planned for version 1.15

Scheduled release date: January 15th, 2020

  1. Digitally signed core and contrib packages (modules, themes, layouts)
  2. Improvements to text formats
  3. Tokens for image styles (imagecache_tokens module)
  4. More TBD!
  5. See the GitHub issue tracker for 1.15 issues.

Goals for 1.x

All Backdrop 1.x releases will include new features that do not require API breaks. A subset of proposed topics are listed below. Please note: our priorities may change based on the most urgent needs of the Backdrop community.

  1. Automatic core updates (manual core self-updates are already available since 1.11).
  2. A flexible reference field for content, user accounts, etc.
  3. A more intuitive administrative User Interface with each release.
  4. Improving the out-of-the-box User Experience with each release.
  5. Improve multi-lingual support, and improve the admin UI for people on RTL languages.
  6. Ensure that a transition from Drupal 7 is as smooth as possible.
  7. More TBD!

Goals for 2.0

Backdrop 2.0 will not be released before January 15th, 2023.

Backdrop 2.0 will include the removal of deprecated functions, and may include changes in HTML markup. The upgrade from Backdrop 1 to Backdrop 2 will be easier than the upgrade from Drupal 7 to Backdrop CMS, which is alrady easier than the upgrade from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7, and from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6.

A subset of proposed topics is listed below.

  1. Expanded multi-lingual support.
  2. Reduced theme system complexity.
  3. More systems moved into configuration (possibly including menu links and/or module state).
  4. More TBD!
  5. See the GitHub issue tracker for more 2.x issues.