As is customary here at cmx.net with every major overhaul I start with a quick overview and review of the CMS I am using to run the site. Actually cmx.net skipped version 4.6 and went straight to 4.7 so there are a few things that I consider new and cool that are actually from the previous release. In any case it will not hurt to go over some of the main features of the new releases from 4.5.

Unfortunately some of the changes to the site are so fundamental that I have decided to start fresh with 4.7.3. This means that all the previous content is gone (which is no real big loss), but I also lost the user accounts which I am more annoyed about. I apologize to the users that already had accounts created, and hope that you will consider signing up again, and posting comments.

Free Tagging

For me Free Tagging is a huge new feature in 4.7, it basically allows you to assign "tags" to your posts on the fly when you write them. The idea is not new, it has been a central feature in sites like del.icio.us and flickr, but it is new to Drupal and a welcome addition.

In the previous version of cmx.net I had to think of all the relevent categories ahead of time. This was not only time consuming at the start of setting up the site, but quickly became constrictive when actually creating content for the site. Normally I would select any of the pre-made categories that were closest to the content, which were not always the most descriptive or best choices.

With Free Tagging it is now easy to tag the content as it's being created with the most relevent and descriptive tags possible. It is not possible to create descriptive tags without having to input hundreds of categories before hand.

Another great side affect of Free Tagging is that it opens the door to implementing other nice features, such as related items, and other technologies that can dynamically map the content of the site.

PHPTemplate as Default

The PHPTemplate system in Drupal basically provides a perfect balance between power and usability. At the start you just have simple HTML blocks in template files. If you are designer you can leave it there, or you can easily inject PHP code into any template block, and manipulate the data being fed to the theme in anyway you want. The power and flexibility this system provides is great.

Seeing PHPTemplate becoming such a central part of Drupal is really nice to see. I remember when a few other developers and I worked on cleaning up the theme system in 4.4, and started making the push to the great system that is in place today. Brings back memories of when I released Marvin 2K for the first time.

I never thought it would become so powerful, and useful so quickly. The whole system is a credit to the developers that have built this great system on top of those foundations.

File Attachments

From 4.5 to 4.7 this feature has gone from a buggy hard to use module, to a fully integrated and easy to use system for attaching files directly to nodes. If even use AJAX to upload the file without and page refresh, and provides a progress indicator. A very useful feature.

Now if only images worked in the same way, you could attach any images you want to put in your post and link them into the body of the same post. That would make the creation of reliable in-line images a snap.

Node Revision Controls

The Node Revision control system has actually been a major feature of Drupal for quite awhile, but with the new release it has become easy to use and makes it really useful for any site. Basically whenever I make a major change to a long post, or one of the static pages of the site I can just check the "Create new revision" option, and after submitting I will have a new revsion of the post, and a copy of the original post that I can revert to at any time. If I only want to make minor changes then I can just leave the box unchecked and make the minor changes without having to create a new revision.

The whole system is just slick, and so far is working like a charm.

Block Regions

Have not had much time to play with this yet, but the basic premise is that instead of having a few regions of a page like right sidebar, left sidebar, etc you can define any arbitrary region and theme it.

This opens up a whole new level of flexibility that was has never been available in Drupal before now. You are no longer restricted to simple two or three regions or columns on a page. You can lay your site out how ever your want, and place fully customized blocks in any one of the regions.

Final Words

Overall Drupal 4.7 is another step forward, that is the best thing about the Drupal project. None of the developers are scared to make changes as long as they move the project forward and make it better. Sometimes the benefits to the changes are not instantly apparent, like the theme changes I helped make in 4.4, but you start to see the pay off further down the line when you see what the developers have built from those changes made back then.

Now I am going to start looking at some third-party modules, and see which ones have potential.