Hello everyone!  We've just released Backdrop 1.14, and would love your feedback! 

Backdrop CMS version 1.14 is here! This version of Backdrop includes lots of great new features including:

  • #2632: Core fieldable file entity bundles.
  • #3755: Adding flexible templates to Layouts.
  • #2568: Add support for `trusted_host_patterns`.
  • #3862: Exclude hidden paths from search for users without permission to view directly.
  • #1285: Include an editor role in the standard profile (on new sites).
  • #3994: Add welcome dashboard block (may require enabling the dashboard module).

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Most helpful answers

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.

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

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!

Comments

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!

klonos's picture

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.

@korontari - It's totally appropriate and even helpful for you to comment in Github on an issue that you would like to see developed. For example: https://github.com/backdrop/backdrop-issues/issues/3297

Adding a comment to that issue that simply says "I've love to see this in core!" shows interest in a feature and helps motivate core developers. Definitely check the "subscribe" button for that issue to see progress and potentially help test the feature when it's close to being developed. 

Thank you for the advice, @stpaultim! I followed it and... found that I have already commented this feature on Github. :) But I subscribed and may be able to help test the feature when it is close to any release.

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.

ah, this is in the ticket:

How do you use files with content types? I can't see a way to choose a file type, and the File and Image fields look the same... The same with CKEditor.

It's exactly the same as it was before. The only difference is that now you can come to the manage files page, edit them, and add additional field data. We may look into adding something like inline entity form so that we can get those additional fields to show up in other places too. But, that's a follow-up. :)

https://github.com/backdrop/backdrop-issues/issues/2632#issuecomment-527...

So it's an interesting thing we won't use yet.

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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

klonos's picture

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback @ailenkov

I have opened an issue about improving the files and file types admin pages via help text. Please follow here: https://github.com/backdrop/backdrop-issues/issues/4148

There is an existing issue about providing the means to be editing the trusted host patterns via the admin UI (and I hope to get that implemented by 1.15 in Jan 2020 - if not sooner than that): https://github.com/backdrop/backdrop-issues/issues/3630

As for the backstory why the trusted host patterns has been introduced, please read the change record for D8 https://www.drupal.org/node/2410395 and the respective issue here: https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/issues/2221699 (in fact that issue has been marked for backport to D7, and is being worked on).

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?

 

 

klonos's picture

Hello again @amilenkov,

We are still focusing on improving the learnability and UX of the CMS in general, with a focus on less experienced CMS users, and people new to Drupal/Backdrop.

The trusted host patterns setting was implemented as an added security setting, and for feature parity with D8/D7. As I explained in my reply to your previous comment, we plan to work on an admin UI that will allow non-coders to a) disable the trusted host pattern check (at their own risk), and b) configure trusted host patterns without touching any files (although they may still need to figure out how regular expressions work). We are planning to add a dedicated security section on the admin UI. For more on that, see: https://github.com/backdrop/backdrop-issues/issues/3624

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.

klonos's picture

...and hello yet again @amilenkov,

The new flexible layout templates introduced in 1.14 is a very useful feature for people that cannot code to create their own templates, or simply prefer to do it from the admin UI. There are many examples of modern CMS's that offer this feature out of the box, and I am happy that Backdrop offers this feature too.

Having said that, the first iteration of the current implementation was an MVP, and we do have a meta-issue, with follow-ups to improve it further: https://github.com/backdrop/backdrop-issues/issues/4046 ...one of the items in the list is to possibly split the flexible templates into its own module, which would allow people to disable it if they don't need it. May I ask what makes it seem "intrusive" to you? ...all it adds is a "+ Add flexible layout template" link in the layout settings page; so you can simply ignore it if you don't want to use it.

I understand your concern about adding further features in core vs having them as separate modules (and perhaps in contrib instead of core), but I find that sometimes people are taking this too far. I on the other hand, am concerned about things like the "minicore" concept in Drupal, which was a "push" by some experienced Drupal users to have a "slim" version of core. In Drupal, it was proven that over time, things that move into contrib have an uncertain fate: they either get "traction" and move faster (at which point they may be considered for inclusion in future versions of core), or they are simply neglected.

I believe that we need to keep in mind that it is easier for more experienced users to disable/remove things they don't need (or simply install the minimal profile, and go from there), then it is for less experienced people to find, enable, and configure or set things up from scratch. We need to find a balance between these things, and I understand that this is hard. I believe that things like getting more feedback, and also more data provided by "telemetry" will help us decide which features are being used by the 80%, and then adjust accordingly. For more on that last bit, please follow https://github.com/backdrop/backdrop-issues/issues/285

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?