Drupal

Drupal is part of the CMS trifecta alongside Joomla & WordPress, rotating the title of best CMS amongst each other for the past 10-15 years.

Used for popular websites ranging from the White House's online presence and to weather.com, the CMS can be used for any kind of site, ranging from personal sites to large Intranets and online shops.

A big part of its appeal is its huge database of free or commercial themes and modules, allowing non-technical users to create websites without too much hassle on their part.

Drupal can be setup and ready to use within minutes, thanks to its easy to follow installer, and once everything ready, an administration panel can be accessed by the admin where he can then start creating his website.

Here he can customize the site's overall settings, add pages, install modules, switch between themes, track website usage, and various other more.

The CMS supports multi-lingual installations, and the community has contributed top of the line modules for running fully-equipped online stores, social networks, and discussion forums on Drupal's core.

If you've been working in Web development and haven't heard about Drupal, it may be a hint that you're really not that good at your job.

System requirements

• Web server (Apache, IIS)
• Database: MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQLite (MS-SQL and Oracle supported unofficially)
• PHP 5.3 or higher
• PHP XML extension
• An image library for PHP (GD, ImageMagick)
• PHP safe_mode: off
• PHP Data Objects (PDO) active
• PHP register_globals: off

What is new in this release:

• Experimental UI for migrations from Drupal 6 and 7
• BigPipe for perceived performance
• CKEditor WYSIWYG spellchecking and language button
• Improved help page with tours
• Rendered entities in Views fields
• Support for JavaScript automated testing
• Improved Composer support
• Developer API improvements

What is new in version 8.1.1 / 7.43 / 6.38 / 9.x-dev:

What is new in version 8.1.0 / 7.43 / 6.38 / 9.x-dev:

• Experimental UI for migrations from Drupal 6 and 7
• BigPipe for perceived performance
• CKEditor WYSIWYG spellchecking and language button
• Improved help page with tours
• Rendered entities in Views fields
• Support for JavaScript automated testing
• Improved Composer support
• Developer API improvements

What is new in version 8.0.5 / 7.43 / 6.38 / 9.x-dev:

• Significantly improved the front end:
• Made all built-in themes responsive.
• Added support for responsive images.
• Made built-in tables responsive with three levels of column importance.
• Added Twig as the default template engine and converted all .tpl.php templates and theme functions to .html.twig.
• Removed the PHPTemplate engine.
• Several large scale cleanups of the markup produced by Drupal.
• Added Classy as a base theme to maintain CSS classes and wrappers.
• Added Stable as the default base theme to maintain backwards compatibility for core template and CSS changes, because templates and CSS outside
• Redesigned several key elements of the Seven theme.
• Added support for HTML5 elements.
• Included Backbone.js and Underscore.js JavaScript frameworks.
• Updated to jQuery 2.1.4.
• Updated to jQuery UI 1.11.4.
• Removed jquery.bbq.
• Removed the Garland theme from core. Removed the Overlay module from core and replaced it with a simple, dynamic "Back to site" link.
• Improved the asset library system to manage CSS and JavaScript files and their dependencies. Allowing for smaller AJAX request payloads.
• jQuery is no longer loaded on all pages, only when another asset needs it.
• No JavaScript is loaded at all for anonymous users by default, for faster page loads.
• Implemented SMACSS-style categorization for CSS files.
• Removed most support for Internet Explorer 8 and below.
• Added Modernizr for making styling changes based on browser support.
• All page template variables converted to blocks (title, breadcrumb, branding, etc).
• Added the Breakpoint module to manage breakpoints of responsive designs.
• Introduced native Schema.org output in pages.
• Made use of semantic HTML 5 tags when possible. This also makes form input on mobile devices much easier for users.
• Redesigned icons to look good on high resolution (retina) displays too.
• Made the site administration experience simpler:
• Redesigned the installer.
• Visually updated and extended the Seven (administration) theme.
• Made the administration toolbar responsive and touch friendly.
• Added search to the module listing and made the page easier to read.
• Added the tour module to provide highly contextual tips for UI elements.
• Improved the entity system:
• Added a full CRUD API for entities.
• Improved the field API and entity query API.
• Added support for widgets, formatters, and translation to base entity fields (such as labels).
• Made view modes configurable for reusable display variants.
• Introduced form modes for reusable form variants.
• Added ability to handle a "default" revision that may not be the latest.
• All content entity types (custom blocks, terms, comments, etc.), not just nodes, have support for revisions.
• Database schema of content entities is automatically generated based on entity type and field definitions.
• Improved the menu handling systems:
• Moved custom menu item handling to its own module.
• Reworked menu links, local actions, and local tasks based upon the new routing system.
• Introduced a new configuration management system:
• Added a centralized configuration system with export and import functionality.
• Allowed module authors to provide configuration in a YAML file format.
• Implemented functionality to get, set, add, and remove configuration.
• Provided the ability to override configuration values with language variants and other runtime values.
• Added configuration schema, dependencies, and validation to maintain data integrity between deployments and updates.
• Support added for both global configuration and configuration entities.
• Improved authoring experience:
• Redesigned the content creation and editing form.
• Content preview is now displayed on the frontend.
• Added the CKEditor WYSIWYG editor. Clean markup guaranteed thanks to tight integration with the filter system.
• Made uploading, aligning, and captioning of images possible in the editor.
• Modernized the default text formats.
• Added a drag-and-drop configuration UI, which automatically updates the HTML filter settings, making configuring text formats trivial for typical use cases.
• Added align and caption filters that can be applied to any element: images, blockquotes, code snippets, videos...
• Made possible to in-place edit any entity: nodes, blocks...
• Added the Text Editor module to help map other editors to text formats.
• Improved media management:
• Added ability to configure when unused files get deleted with the option to keep them, useful for media libraries.
• Added a customizable view under the content administration screen that lists all files uploaded on the system.
• Made uploads immediate when selecting files in file fields.
• Added ability to upload multiple files at once.
• Added local image input filter, to enable secure image posting.
• Included the following Symfony2 components:
• ClassLoader PSR-0-compatible autoload routines.
• DependencyInjection Flexible dependency injection container.
• EventDispatcher Object-oriented lightweight event handling system.
• HttpFoundation Abstraction objects for HTTP requests and responses.
• HttpKernel Core system for managing incoming HTTP request and responses.
• Process Allows for executing commands in a sub-process.
• Routing Framework for mapping incoming requests to controller information.
• Serialization Serialize complex nested objects into JSON/XML etc.
• Validator Ensure that an object is in a valid state based upon some validation rules defined for it.
• Yaml Parser for YAML files.
• Removed modules from core. The following modules have been removed from core, because contributed modules with similar functionality are available:
• Blog
• Dashboard
• OpenID
• Poll
• Profile
• Trigger
• New field types added to core:
• Email
• Link
• Telephone number
• Entity reference
• Date
• Made commenting more flexible:
• Added the notion of comment types (for reviews, greetings, and so on), each of which can be configured with a different set of fields.
• Made commenting a field to allow comment threads on entity types other than nodes.
• Added Views and Views UI module to core:
• Added simple bulk operations functionality to Views.
• Converted various core listings to views, including /node, /admin/content/node, /admin/people, and several blocks.
• Built in REST API support.
• Rewrote caching integration for better performance.
• Made it possible to configure responsive tables in Views.
• Greatly improved block management:
• Made custom blocks fieldable, revisionable, and translatable entities.
• Added the notion of custom block types.
• Added the ability to place the same block in multiple locations.
• Introduced a block library with categorized blocks.
• Removed the Statistics module's accesslog functionality and reports.
• Removed XML-RPC functionality from core.
• Removed user signatures support from core.
• Added ability to generate and validate Universally Unique IDentifiers (UUIDs).
• Tremendously improved language support all around
• Added routing component from Symfony CMF.
• Added Guzzle HTTP library.
• Added Zend Feed component.
• Introduced an accessible modal API based on improvements made in collaboration with the jQuery UI team.
• Made it possible to add fields to contact forms allowing site-builders to easily build custom forms for soliciting feedback from users.
• Switched to semantic versioning with significant updates planned every 6 months in 8.1, 8.2, etc.
• Numerous other important changes and additions.
• Numerous bug fixes.
• Numerous API documentation improvements.
• Additional automated test coverage.
• Added the Typed Data system to manage complex types.
• Refactored routing system based on Symfony2 components.
• Made declarative information (libraries, permissions, routes etc.) use YAML files for definitions instead of PHP.
• Added plugin system to standardize implementation of several core APIs.

What is new in version 8.0.3 / 7.42 / 6.37 / 9.x-dev:

• Significantly improved the front end:
• Made all built-in themes responsive.
• Added support for responsive images.
• Made built-in tables responsive with three levels of column importance.
• Added Twig as the default template engine and converted all .tpl.php templates and theme functions to .html.twig.
• Removed the PHPTemplate engine.
• Several large scale cleanups of the markup produced by Drupal.
• Added Classy as a base theme to maintain CSS classes and wrappers.
• Added Stable as the default base theme to maintain backwards compatibility for core template and CSS changes, because templates and CSS outside
• Redesigned several key elements of the Seven theme.
• Added support for HTML5 elements.
• Included Backbone.js and Underscore.js JavaScript frameworks.
• Updated to jQuery 2.1.4.
• Updated to jQuery UI 1.11.4.
• Removed jquery.bbq.
• Removed the Garland theme from core. Removed the Overlay module from core and replaced it with a simple, dynamic "Back to site" link.
• Improved the asset library system to manage CSS and JavaScript files and their dependencies. Allowing for smaller AJAX request payloads.
• jQuery is no longer loaded on all pages, only when another asset needs it.
• No JavaScript is loaded at all for anonymous users by default, for faster page loads.
• Implemented SMACSS-style categorization for CSS files.
• Removed most support for Internet Explorer 8 and below.
• Added Modernizr for making styling changes based on browser support.
• All page template variables converted to blocks (title, breadcrumb, branding, etc).
• Added the Breakpoint module to manage breakpoints of responsive designs.
• Introduced native Schema.org output in pages.
• Made use of semantic HTML 5 tags when possible. This also makes form input on mobile devices much easier for users.
• Redesigned icons to look good on high resolution (retina) displays too.
• Made the site administration experience simpler:
• Redesigned the installer.
• Visually updated and extended the Seven (administration) theme.
• Made the administration toolbar responsive and touch friendly.
• Added search to the module listing and made the page easier to read.
• Added the tour module to provide highly contextual tips for UI elements.
• Improved the entity system:
• Added a full CRUD API for entities.
• Improved the field API and entity query API.
• Added support for widgets, formatters, and translation to base entity fields (such as labels).
• Made view modes configurable for reusable display variants.
• Introduced form modes for reusable form variants.
• Added ability to handle a "default" revision that may not be the latest.
• All content entity types (custom blocks, terms, comments, etc.), not just nodes, have support for revisions.
• Database schema of content entities is automatically generated based on entity type and field definitions.
• Improved the menu handling systems:
• Moved custom menu item handling to its own module.
• Reworked menu links, local actions, and local tasks based upon the new routing system.
• Introduced a new configuration management system:
• Added a centralized configuration system with export and import functionality.
• Allowed module authors to provide configuration in a YAML file format.
• Implemented functionality to get, set, add, and remove configuration.
• Provided the ability to override configuration values with language variants and other runtime values.
• Added configuration schema, dependencies, and validation to maintain data integrity between deployments and updates.
• Support added for both global configuration and configuration entities.
• Improved authoring experience:
• Redesigned the content creation and editing form.
• Content preview is now displayed on the frontend.
• Added the CKEditor WYSIWYG editor. Clean markup guaranteed thanks to tight integration with the filter system.
• Made uploading, aligning, and captioning of images possible in the editor.
• Modernized the default text formats.
• Added a drag-and-drop configuration UI, which automatically updates the HTML filter settings, making configuring text formats trivial for typical use cases.
• Added align and caption filters that can be applied to any element: images, blockquotes, code snippets, videos...
• Made possible to in-place edit any entity: nodes, blocks...
• Added the Text Editor module to help map other editors to text formats.
• Improved media management:
• Added ability to configure when unused files get deleted with the option to keep them, useful for media libraries.
• Added a customizable view under the content administration screen that lists all files uploaded on the system.
• Made uploads immediate when selecting files in file fields.
• Added ability to upload multiple files at once.
• Added local image input filter, to enable secure image posting.
• Included the following Symfony2 components:
• ClassLoader PSR-0-compatible autoload routines.
• DependencyInjection Flexible dependency injection container.
• EventDispatcher Object-oriented lightweight event handling system.
• HttpFoundation Abstraction objects for HTTP requests and responses.
• HttpKernel Core system for managing incoming HTTP request and responses.
• Process Allows for executing commands in a sub-process.
• Routing Framework for mapping incoming requests to controller information.
• Serialization Serialize complex nested objects into JSON/XML etc.
• Validator Ensure that an object is in a valid state based upon some validation rules defined for it.
• Yaml Parser for YAML files.
• Removed modules from core. The following modules have been removed from core, because contributed modules with similar functionality are available:
• Blog
• Dashboard
• OpenID
• Poll
• Profile
• Trigger
• New field types added to core:
• Email
• Link
• Telephone number
• Entity reference
• Date
• Made commenting more flexible:
• Added the notion of comment types (for reviews, greetings, and so on), each of which can be configured with a different set of fields.
• Made commenting a field to allow comment threads on entity types other than nodes.
• Added Views and Views UI module to core:
• Added simple bulk operations functionality to Views.
• Converted various core listings to views, including /node, /admin/content/node, /admin/people, and several blocks.
• Built in REST API support.
• Rewrote caching integration for better performance.
• Made it possible to configure responsive tables in Views.
• Greatly improved block management:
• Made custom blocks fieldable, revisionable, and translatable entities.
• Added the notion of custom block types.
• Added the ability to place the same block in multiple locations.
• Introduced a block library with categorized blocks.
• Removed the Statistics module's accesslog functionality and reports.
• Removed XML-RPC functionality from core.
• Removed user signatures support from core.
• Added ability to generate and validate Universally Unique IDentifiers (UUIDs).
• Tremendously improved language support all around
• Added routing component from Symfony CMF.
• Added Guzzle HTTP library.
• Added Zend Feed component.
• Introduced an accessible modal API based on improvements made in collaboration with the jQuery UI team.
• Made it possible to add fields to contact forms allowing site-builders to easily build custom forms for soliciting feedback from users.
• Switched to semantic versioning with significant updates planned every 6 months in 8.1, 8.2, etc.
• Numerous other important changes and additions.
• Numerous bug fixes.
• Numerous API documentation improvements.
• Additional automated test coverage.
• Added the Typed Data system to manage complex types.
• Refactored routing system based on Symfony2 components.
• Made declarative information (libraries, permissions, routes etc.) use YAML files for definitions instead of PHP.
• Added plugin system to standardize implementation of several core APIs.

Requirements:

• Web server (Apache, IIS)
• Database: MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQLite (MS-SQL and Oracle supported unofficially)
• PHP 5.3 or higher
• PHP XML extension
• An image library for PHP (GD, ImageMagick)
• PHP safe_mode: off
• PHP Data Objects (PDO) active
• PHP register_globals: off