A summary of the most important features that were added to each minor version
Project History
- Version 1.0 (January 15, 2015)
- Version 1.1 (May 15, 2015)
- Version 1.2 (September 15, 2015)
- Version 1.3 (January 15, 2016)
- Version 1.4 (May 15, 2016)
- Version 1.5 (September 15, 2016)
- Version 1.6 (January 15, 2017)
- Version 1.7 (May 15, 2017)
- Version 1.8 (September 15, 2017)
- Version 1.9 (January 15, 2018)
- Version 1.10 (May 15, 2018)
- Version 1.11 (September 15, 2018)
- Version 1.12 (January 15, 2019)
- Version 1.13 (May 15, 2019)
- Version 1.14 (September 15, 2019)
- Version 1.15 (January 15, 2020)
- Version 1.16 (May 15, 2020)
- Version 1.17 (September 15, 2020) (current release)
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:
- Configuration Management System
- Built-in Content Listing Generator (Views)
- Revamped Layout System
- Improved Performance
- Improved Mobile Support
- Reduced Theme System Complexity
- 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:
- More tokens and a token UI in core.
- Automated URL alias creation for Users, Taxonomy Terms, and Nodes.
- A fresh new look to the administration theme!
- See the GitHub issue tracker for all 1.1 issues.
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:
- Built-in Rich text editor.
- Built-in Date fields.
- Built-in Link field.
- Built-in E-mail field.
- See the GitHub issue tracker for all 1.2 issues.
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:
- Expanding the capabilities of the Layout edit (more out-of-box blocks and features)
- Easier and more powerful configuration of content types, vocabularies, and user accounts.
- Notification icon in the administrative toolbar for status report problems.
- Faster page loads with Background Fetch and Cron jobs.
- See the GitHub issue tracker for all 1.3 issues.
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.
- 10 new responsive layouts based on the Bootstrap 4 grid system.
- Automatic and manual path redirection ability when path aliases change (Redirect module).
- A project browser module (Installer) that allows finding and installing modules from within the Backdrop UI.
- The Layout module UI has been improved with new terminology, more descriptive listings, and improved configuration of conditionals.
- See the GitHub issue tracker for all 1.4 issues.
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.
- A new front-end theme, and hero block.
- A new default home-page layout.
- Responsive and drop-down menus by default.
- Emoji support.
- See the GitHub issue tracker for all 1.5 issues.
Key features in version 1.6
Release date: January 15th, 2017
Backdrop 1.6 (announcement and release notes); focused on improving the user experience.
- Add an image & file management User Interface
- Add support for custom view modes
- Add a hamburger-menu toggle for responsive menus.
- See the GitHub issue tracker for all 1.6 issues.
Key features in version 1.7
Release date: May 15th, 2017
Backdrop 1.7 (announcement and release notes); focused on improving the administrative style.
- New blocks for Page title, tabs, messages, and action links
- Drag and Drop or Clipboard Paste upload for Images in the Rich-Text editor
- Add links to Images in the Rich-Text editor.
- Links to local pages in the Rich-Text editor via autocomplete
- See the GitHub issue tracker for all 1.7 issues.
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.
- Administrative interface design and usability improvements.
- Enhancements to Menu blocks.
- Unpublished content indicators in the Basis theme.
- See the GitHub issue tracker for all 1.8 issues.
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.
- Manage files independent from other content.
- Redirect logged-out visitors to
/user/login
on the/user
page. - Integrates many bug-fixes and improvements that were also made to Drupal 7.
- See the GitHub issue tracker for all 1.9 issues.
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.
- Posts can now be scheduled into the future
- Commenting can now be closed automatically
- Improvements to the installer, and a better first impression
- Improvements to module, theme, and layout selection interfaces
- See the GitHub issue tracker for all 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.
- Restore Content Previews
- Image Browser for inserting inline images
- Allow nodes to be pathless (à la RabbitHole)
- Provide theme settings preview (with color support!)
- See the GitHub issue tracker for all 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.
- In-app core updates (manual)
- A contact form block
- CSS grid for views grid displays
- A better UI for specifying allowed values (Options Element in core)
- See the GitHub issue tracker for all 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.
- Administrative Dashboard
- Support for more link attributes in the Rich-Text Editor
- Field Formatter Settings functionality moved into core
- See the GitHub issue tracker for all 1.13 issues.
Key features in version 1.14
Release date: September 15th, 2019
Backdrop 1.14 (announcement and release notes); focused on file entities in core, and on introducing a way to create layout templates via the admin interface.
- Flexible layout templates (layout template builder via the admin UI)
- Fieldable files (i.e. File Entity in core)
- Include an 'Editor' role in the standard profile
- Opt-in support for
trusted_host_patterns
in settings.php. - See the GitHub issue tracker for all 1.14 issues.
Key features in version 1.15
Release date: January 15th, 2020
Backdrop 1.15 (announcement and release notes); focused on adding an Image Library browser to Image fields, on using the Dashboard to communicate news via a "Recent news" block, and on improving the datetime and boolean fields.
- Added an Image Library browser to Image fields
- Added a "Recent news" block to the Dashboard
- Allow content to be placed into the menu by default
- Allow menus to be always click/touch activated (rather than hover activated)
- Add new translatable HTML5 date form elements: html_datetime, html_date, html_time
- Add more display options for boolean fields
- See the GitHub issue tracker for all 1.15 issues.
Key features in version 1.16
Release date: May 15th, 2020
Backdrop 1.16 (announcement and release notes); focused on improving the user experience in various parts of the admin UI.
- Vastly improved the UX of the text format configuration form, by merging the UI elements that allow you to enable/disable, reorder and configure filters into a single draggable table
- Autocomplete is now available on all link/path fields
- Disabled text formats can now be re-enabled
- Any configuration value can be overridden in settings.php
- Author and Date display can now be customized for each content type
- Individual content types can now be excluded from the search index
- No password required when creating user accounts, if the "Notify user of new account" option is selected
- See the GitHub issue tracker for all 1.16 issues.
Key features in version 1.17
Release date: September 15th, 2020
Backdrop 1.17 (announcement and release notes); focused on improving security, and supporting custom contexts for Layouts.
- Layouts: Allow support for custom contexts
- Layouts: Allow all blocks to have an admin label and description
- Image fields: Add an option to allow lazy-loading of images
- Expand image tokens to allow image styles (imagecache_token functionality added to core)
- Security: Enforce some basic password constraints (no username or email as password)
- Security: Use .htaccess files to further secure the config directory (when apache is used)