OpenCulturas stays up to date and ist based on Drupal 10 with this release. This is also a feature release, containing a lot of enhancements. Changes to adjusted setups will happen!
New features
Password policy
Drupal allows (not recommends, though) weak passwords. With this release we are introducing Password policy (a useful third-party module) to enforce stronger passwords.
When registering a new account or changing the password of a given account, it is now required to enter at least 12 characters of at least 3 different character types (e. g. small or capital letters, numbers, punctuation). A blacklist disallows certain typical weak passwords (or weakening parts of passwords). Administrators can edit the blacklist under /admin/config/security/password-policy/user.
Please note that this module allows to configure a lot more. Re-configure at your own risk and scan the issue queue before doing so. We are providing a set of rules that has been broadly tested.
Pricing details
The price field in a date node deliberately allows text entries instead of just numbers. It was meant to allow easy price range entries. One site owner noticed that some organizers entered verbose explanations. This was certainly not intended and makes it harder to prepare data exchanges between platforms.
This is why we are introducing a new field Pricing details, giving your users a chance to explain e. g. the conditions to buy tickets for a reduced price. The new field is placed below the given price field when updating to OC 2.0.
Type taxonomies now visible in full and teaser templates
In the 1.3 release notes we noted: "In the next release we plan to enhance the default teasers and pages to contain a 'type' label above the headlines."
This is now the case: Wherever there is a Type taxonomy available for a given content type, the page layout now displays the term above the page's headline (for options, read on). The term is linked to its landing page (where all content tagged with the same term is aggregated).
All teasers now show the term (without link) above the teaser headline if applicable. One specialty: Magazine article teasers show the Column term instead of the Type term in case both are selected. We recommend that you use either Column (for magazine articles) or Type (for other article types like press releases).
Just in case you still have not introduced Type taxonomies: No worries, there will be no error message. Empty fields will simply not be rendered.
Configurable title block
OC combines several fields (title, subtitle, portrait and now type) in a dedicated block (PageTitleBlock), rendered in any node and (accessible) term bundle's full view mode. This had caused some confusion for themers and made design decisions somewhat hard to fulfil. With this version the block is configurable. Any field except the page title can be disabled in the block and place elsewhere in customized OpenCulturas instances' displays.
Background image sovereignty
The image covering the layout background is now optional. The recent version duplicated the given header image of a page and re-used it as a blurred background image. With 2.x you have the option to keep it that way (default setting), to disable it completely, or to upload an image of your choice as a site-wide background image. Feel free to override the CSS to make the image cover the full viewport.
Enhancements
Re-arranged "Interact" area
Admittedly, when logged in, the many buttons right below the headlines were quite space-consuming. We had a lot of discussions of different approaches and hope to present a better concept now. This brings changes to the full view modes of all node and terms:
- Bookmark button (visually reduced to its icon) is placed on top of the header image (below the headline if no header image is given)
- The area with all remaining buttons (Recommend, Share, Claim, Report) moves below the body and other important information (depending on the node type). We followed the rule of thumb to place the container "above the Focus (tags) area".
Header image attribution less disrupting
We never liked the rotated attribution information very much. At least it was not overlapped by other information. With OpenCulturas 2.0 the attribution block can be revealed and hidden by a new toggle placed in the upper right of the header image (so basically where it had been before). Please check back with your custom theme if it interfers with any custom solution.
Search enhancements
Up to now it had been possible to use keyword spamming in the profile text to boost a location for e. g. the search keyword "theater" to the top of the list even when the search entry was more specific like "theater fourty-two".
The search index and boost-per-field has been improved a lot now and should result in more satisfying results in the future. Administrator role required: Make sure your content is re-indexed after the update!
Further enhancements: Search facets. We are introducing a new facet for the Type taxonomies (see above). All facets filter blocks are now placed below the search field. And all facets look the same as far as possible (like the given accessibility facets). Please make sure your theme handles this presentation style.
Nicer UX for offcanvas menu
The menu now closes with a click on the close button or anywhere outside the menu layer. Accessibility enhanced as well: the menu now closes on Esc key.
Theme bugfixes and enhancements that might require your attention
- Fixed CSS syntax error in universal teasers
- Custom teasers template adjusted to universal teasers
- Hide teaser body text in small viewports
- FAQ: emphasized detailed question
- FAQ headlines in nested details now are h3
- Current selected language now styled differently
- Search button height in offcanvas menu fixed
- Clicked menu links "white on white" now visible in active state
- Logo home link now wrapped in a nav HTML element
Other tweaks
- Localized date picker widget: On a German calendar the popup will now start with Monday and show translated months/days.
- Attributions icons formatter patch: fixes deprecated functions and displays more compact in media library (e. g. "All rights reserved" now represented by ©)
What do the release numbers mean?
Just in case you were wondering: Within the Drupal ecosystem, all modules, themes and distributions (like OpenCulturas) follow a version syntax. Since Drupal 8, compatible contributions started with version 1.x. Feature releases are indicated by the second number. Up to now the current feature release of OpenCulturas was 1.3.x. For completeness: the third digit is used for security and bugfix releases. At the time of writing, that was 1.3.7
Now you would expect the new feature release to be 1.4.0, right? Congratulations, you understood the principle of semantic versioning right away. Normally that would have been the case. As long as there are no breaking changes we would go on with this counting.
Drupal 9 has reached end of life. And with Drupal 10 come breaking changes. There are some incompatible requirements between those two major Drupal releases and some modules vital for OpenCulturas are consequently incompatible with older versions. To stay in pace, OpenCulturas now makes the latest possible switch to its next major version. That is why we are now releasing OpenCulturas 2.0 instead of 1.4.
