Drupal 5.0 Beta 1 Available for Download

WebKnowHow
Tuesday, October 31, 2006; 07:13 AM

The fifth major upgrade of the popular content management system (CMS) Drupal is almost finished.  A beta version of Drupal 5.0 is available for download at http://www.drupal.org.

The Drupal logo. The project's name is derived from the Dutch word for "a drop" -- "druppel."

The development team encouraged dedicated testers and internet enthusiasts alike to take the new beta version for a drive. The more effort is dedicated to discovering and eliminating bugs, they said, the faster the final version will be released.

Drupal 5 features major improvements over previous versions, including a web-based install system, better administration tools, inclusion of the jQuery JavaScript library, and node access system improvements. Some of the new features in Drupal 5 will likely make the CMS more accessible for newcomers to the world of dynamic content management. Like the previous official 4.7 version, the latest release runs on a web server with PHP and either MySQL or PostGre installed.

Drupal is open source software, released under the GPL license.  Drupal consists of a central PHP-based "core," which can be expanded by plugging additional modules; different modules add different types of functionality to the system. The project started in 2000, and since then has become one of the most popular CMSs in existence. Websites like MTV UK and The Onion are based on Drupal.

No specific date was set for Drupal 5.0 final.  The developers said that the official release is expected when "a) there are no more critical bugs and b) we've had at least one release without adding any more to the list."