Feedback on version 1.14

Flexible templates are great! I played with them a bit and they meet all my (rather minimalistic) requirements, effectively eliminating the need to install layout ad-dons. Excellent feature!

I was also glad to see files changes, especially the ability to replace files that are already uploaded. This is something I desperately needed. I have a minor question here regarding future development:

Right now if I have a content type with an image field I can assign image file only by uploading it when creating a new content instance. To edit image I can now replace it in file. Are there any plans to make it possible to assign a previously uploaded image file to an image field?

Overall I am very happy about the direction the CMS goes. Thank you for your great job!

Hello @korontari,

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback; it's really rewarding to be hearing that all the hard work, time and energy spent by the team on the project is making the community happy :)

If I am understanding your question correctly, you are referring to https://github.com/backdrop/backdrop-issues/issues/3297 ...so, in that case yes, we are planning to allow that.

Stay tuned!

I had this question a while back.  The FileField Sources module gets part of the way there.  If you've previously added an image in an image field it works.  However, it doesn't recognize images uploaded inline.  I recommend giving it a try.

https://backdropcms.org/project/filefield_sources

@klonos, yes, this feature is exactly what I am looking for. Great to see it is being developed!

@keiserjb, thank you! I wil give this module a try.

Are the fieldable file entity types not related to the content type fields?

Example, I added a Caption longtext field to the File type "Image", but if I then create a new content type and add an Image field to it, I don't see that Caption field.

Hi Friends,

In fact I installed and tested not 1.14.0 but 1.14.1 today and I share a few impressions of what I saw.

It confirms my impression that Backdrop CMS is becoming more and more useful and versatile system, with a polished and user friendly interface and hundreds of useful features. Thanks to all the developers for the huge efforts.

But I will share two problems:

1.

I am an experienced non-coder user of Drupal 6 / 7 from 2008 and Backdrop from 2015 year. But from the user interface itself I can not understand how to use all the functionality behind:

• admin/content/files and
• admin/structure/file-types

If there are help pages / info with how to use this functionality, I consider it useful at the bottom of each administrative page to have a link to a help section on the site of Backdrop CMS, where working with all the different options is explained.

2.

The new settings under Trusted Host Setting section is totally incomprehensible for non-coder. I have read many times all links with explanatory information and all that I have achieved as understandable and enough safe that I will not break the site is code

$settings['trusted_host_patterns'] = FALSE;

at bottom of my settings.php file.

I believe that these settings should be able to be done through the user interface itself in a section where allowed domains can be entered without the need for programming knowledge together with sufficient information for users to know what they are doing.

I am also interested in whether these security settings (Trusted Host Setting) are mandatory for domains that are only accessible by HTTPS protocol.

Or whether these difficult-to-set for non-coders options can be replaced with other settings on the site - Base URL, file position of settings. php file or others.

Or specific security module /s.

For example, at all my Drupal7 sites I use modules:

• Restrict Login or Role Access by IP Address
• Secure Permissions
• User One

Thanks for attention!

One more note:

The new option

admin/structure/layouts/settings/flexible-template/add

is interesting and may be useful for some or many people, but I have used to create my own templates with responsive design and think in this way I get quite more simple, FAST, understandable and easy for customization code that can be easily be adapted for different projects.

And creating of own layout templates is not difficult for an inventive non-coder and experienced CMS user :

https://api.backdropcms.org/layouts

An impression of a great and inexplicable contradiction is created:

On the one hand Backdrop CMS strives to provide to people without any programming knowledge, HTML/CSS also, to create their own templates with responsive design via flexible templates option.

On the other hand through options like Trusted Host Setting it requires precise programming knowledge to be usable.

One wonders, to whom is this content management system still intended?

Another notes about 1.14:

New functionality as

admin/structure/layouts/settings/flexible-template/add

is original, interesting, and likely to be useful to some or many people.

But I have long been used to create my own responsible layout templates as is described in

https://api.backdropcms.org/layouts

I think that the templates created in this way are much more clear as code, fast, easy to understand and customize. And easily adaptable for different projects.

I've never used any of the templates that come with the core. I always create my own template, according to the project.

From this point of view, I think the new Flexible templates option is better to be a standalone module rather than part of the core. Because few people will use it and it is unnecessary for it to load the entire system.

Generally, it seems that there is a significant contradiction and it is more and more obvious with 1.14 version of Backdrop CMS.

On the one hand, through an option such as flexible templates, Backdrop CMS aims to make it easy for people without programming / HTML / CSS skills to use the system.

On the other hand, through options such as Trusted Host Setting, users are expected to have excellent programming knowledge and great networking and CMS Experience.

The question naturally arises: for whom is the system still intended? For non-coders that will easily work with Wordpress or for experienced developers that possibly will tend to use Drupal 8.

In addition, I'm personally scared of adding new and new features to the core instead of the possibility that the new options are standalone modules that will only be installed by one that needs it.

I prefer simple core system. It surely is more stable, manageable and secure.

In addition, I worry about adding new and new features without solving long-known and important problems - for example those with multilingual support.

Sorry for the critical impression of this comment, I actually like Backdrop a lot, but I find it helpful to share what is bothering me as well.

I have to say that with Trusted Host Setting I had similar experience as @amilenkov. After a few attempts I just left it at initial unconfigured state. Adding UI access to set up this feature and clear instructions for none-coder's sounds like a good direction to me.

At the same time I am very happy about new Flexible Layouts. They do not look intrusive to me and I suppose they do not prevent from coding custom layouts for users with coding knowledge. Furthermore it seems to me that layouts that come with BD by default(Boxton, Mascone etc.) can be transformed into kind of predefined Flexible Layouts that can be changed/removed or built on by user. Also it would be great to add automatically generated icons that would provide a quick preview for the user created templates(like those in predefined layouts). This should make them more easy to find and read in the templates list.

Thanks a lot for all the answers and comments on my questions, from them I learned many new and useful things.

I've been using the file entity fields for a while now.  I've got alt and title fields on all of my image files when viewing them under manage files.  It's unfortunate that when I add an image in an image field and associate alt text with it that it doesn't automatically populate the field on the image file like it does for me in Drupal.  When reusing the image elsewhere in the site I need to enter the alt text a second time rather than it being remembered.  Is this how it's supposed to work?