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Drupal 7.0 Alpha 2 released

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Today, the second alpha of drupal 7 was released. There is still no upgrade path from drupal 6.x to 7 supported. As well, this alpha version should not be used in a production environment. This release saw mostly security and bug fixes.

From the drupal.org site, "...The most notable change for developers is moving $form['#field'] to $form_state. This makes field forms more resilient to form_alters and debugging became a lot less tedious. Comment body became a field and new fields can be added to comments through the field UI module..."

"...We've also fixed a number of issues since the previous alpha, most importantly one that caused all files to be deleted after six hours. Oops. :P This is a great time to reiterate...

It is important to note that this alpha version should not be used for production sites. We've resolved most errors reported so far, but there are outstanding known issues (including security issues) and most likely some problems that have not been reported as of yet. It is expected that there will be at least one more alpha version followed by a few beta versions and at least one release candidate before Drupal 7.0 is finalized. You can help us reach the final release date sooner by testing this alpha and providing feedback..."

On January 15th, the first alpha version of drupal 7 was released. From the CHANGELOG file, here is what was done to improve upon drupal 6: 

Drupal 7.0 alpha 1, 2010-01-15
4 	------------------------------
5 	- Database:
6 	* Fully rewritten database layer utilizing PHP 5's PDO abstraction layer.
7 	* Drupal now requires MySQL >= 5.0 or PostgreSQL >= 8.3.
8 	* Added query builders for INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, MERGE, and SELECT queries.
9 	* Support for master/slave replication, transactions, multi-insert queries,
10 	delayed inserts, and other features.
11 	* Added support for the SQLite database engine.
12 	* Default to InnoDB engine, rather than MyISAM, on MySQL when available.
13 	This offers increased scalability and data integrity.
14 	- Security:
15 	* Protected cron.php -- cron will only run if the proper key is provided.
16 	* Implemented a pluggable password system and much stronger password hashes
17 	that are compatible with the Portable PHP password hashing framework.
18 	* Rate limited login attempts to prevent brute-force password guessing, and
19 	improved the flood control API to allow variable time windows and
20 	identifiers for limiting user access to resources.
21 	* Transformed the "Update status" module into the "Update manager" which
22 	can securely install or update modules and themes via a web interface.
23 	- Usability:
24 	* Added contextual links (a.k.a. local tasks) to page elements, such as
25 	blocks, nodes, or comments, which allows to perform the most common tasks
26 	with a single click only.
27 	* Improved installer requirements check.
28 	* Improved support for integration of WYSIWYG editors.
29 	* Implemented drag-and-drop positioning for input format listings.
30 	* Implemented drag-and-drop positioning for language listing.
31 	* Implemented drag-and-drop positioning for poll options.
32 	* Provided descriptions and human-readable names for user permissions.
33 	* Removed comment controls for users.
34 	* Removed display order settings for comment module. Comment display
35 	order can now be customised using the Views module.
36 	* Removed the 'related terms' feature from taxonomy module since this can
37 	now be achieved with Field API.
38 	* Added additional features to the default install profile, and implemented
39 	a "slimmed down" install profile designed for developers.
40 	* Added a built-in, automated cron run feature, which is triggered by site
41 	visitors.
42 	* Added an administrator role which is assigned all permisions for
43 	installed modules automatically.
44 	* Image toolkits are now provided by modules (rather than requiring a
45 	manual file copy to the includes directory).
46 	* Added an edit tab to taxonomy term pages.
47 	* Redesigned password strength validator.
48 	* Redesigned the add content type screen.
49 	* Highlight duplicate URL aliases.
50 	* Renamed "input formats" to "text formats".
51 	* Moved text format permissions to the main permissions page.
52 	* Added configurable ability for users to cancel their own accounts.
53 	* Added "vertical tabs", a reusable interface component that features
54 	automatic summaries and increases usability.
55 	* Replaced fieldsets on node edit and add pages with vertical tabs.
56 	- Performance:
57 	* Improved performance on uncached page views by loading multiple core
58 	objects in a single database query.
59 	* Improved performance for logged-in users by reducing queries for path
60 	alias lookups.
61 	* Improved support for HTTP proxies (including reverse proxies), allowing
62 	anonymous pageviews to be served entirely from the proxy.
63 	- Documentation:
64 	* Hook API documentation now included in Drupal core.
65 	- News aggregator:
66 	* Added OPML import functionality for RSS feeds.
67 	* Optionally, RSS feeds may be configured to not automatically generate feed blocks.
68 	- Search:
69 	* Added support for language-aware searches.
70 	- Aggregator:
71 	* Introduced architecture that allows pluggable parsers and processors for
72 	syndicating RSS and Atom feeds.
73 	* Added options to suspend updating specific feeds and never discard feeds
74 	items.
75 	- Testing:
76 	* Added test framework and tests.
77 	- Improved time zone support:
78 	* Drupal now uses PHP's time zone database when rendering dates in local
79 	time. Site-wide and user-configured time zone offsets have been converted
80 	to time zone names, e.g. Africa/Abidjan.
81 	* In some cases the upgrade and install scripts do not choose the preferred
82 	site default time zone. The automatically-selected time zone can be
83 	corrected at admin/config/regional/settings.
84 	* If your site is being upgraded from Drupal 6 and you do not have the
85 	contributed date or event modules installed, user time zone settings will
86 	fallback to the system time zone and will have to be reconfigured by each user.
87 	- Filter system:
88 	* Revamped the filter API and text format storage.
89 	* Added support for default text formats to be assigned on a per-role basis.
90 	* Refactored the HTML corrector to take advantage of PHP 5 features.
91 	- User system:
92 	* Added clean API functions for creating, loading, updating, and deleting
93 	user roles and permissions.
94 	* Refactored the "access rules" component of user module: The user module
95 	now provides a simple interface for blocking single IP addresses. The
96 	previous functionality in the user module for restricting certain e-mail
97 	addresses and usernames is now available as a contributed module. Further,
98 	IP address range blocking is no longer supported and should be implemented
99 	at the operating system level.
100 	* Removed per-user themes: Contributed modules with similar functionality
101 	are available.
102 	- Added code registry:
103 	* Using the registry, modules declare their includable files via their .info file,
104 	allowing Drupal to lazy-load classes and interfaces as needed.
105 	- Theme system:
106 	* Removed the Bluemarine, Chameleon and Pushbutton themes. These themes live
107 	on as contributed themes (http://drupal.org/project/bluemarine,
108 	http://drupal.org/project/chameleon and http://drupal.org/project/pushbutton).
109 	* Added Stark theme to make analyzing Drupal's default HTML and CSS easier.
110 	* Added Seven theme as the default administration interface theme.
111 	* Variable preprocessing of theme hooks prior to template rendering now goes
112 	through two phases: a 'preprocess' phase and a new 'process' phase. See
113 	http://api.drupal.org/api/function/theme/7 for details.
114 	* Theme hooks implemented as functions (rather than as templates) can now
115 	also have preprocess (and process) functions. See
116 	http://api.drupal.org/api/function/theme/7 for details.
117 	- File handling:
118 	* Files are now first class Drupal objects with file_load(), file_save(),
119 	and file_validate() functions and corresponding hooks.
120 	* The file_move(), file_copy() and file_delete() functions now operate on
121 	file objects and invoke file hooks so that modules are notified and can
122 	respond to changes.
123 	* For the occasions when only basic file manipulation are needed--such as
124 	uploading a site logo--that don't require the overhead of databases and
125 	hooks, the current unmanaged copy, move and delete operations have been
126 	preserved but renamed to file_unmanaged_*().
127 	* Rewrote file handling to use PHP stream wrappers to enable support for
128 	both public and private files and to support pluggable storage mechanisms
129 	and access to remote resources (e.g. S3 storage or Flickr photos).
130 	* The mime_extension_mapping variable has been removed. Modules that need to
131 	alter the default MIME type extension mappings should implement
132 	hook_file_mimetype_mapping_alter().
133 	* Added the hook_file_url_alter() hook, which makes it possible to serve
134 	files from a CDN.
135 	* Added a field specifically for uploading files, previously provided by
136 	the contributed module FileField.
137 	- Image handling:
138 	* Improved image handling, including better support for add-on image
139 	libraries.
140 	* Added API and interface for creating advanced image thumbnails.
141 	* Inclusion of additional effects such as rotate and desaturate.
142 	* Added a field specifically for uploading images, previously provided by
143 	the contributed module ImageField.
144 	- Added aliased multi-site support:
145 	* Added support for mapping domain names to sites directories.
146 	- Added RDF support:
147 	* Modules can declare RDF namespaces which are serialized in the  tag
148 	for RDFa support.
149 	* Modules can specify how their data structure maps to RDF.
150 	* Added support for RDFa export of nodes, comments, terms, users, etc. and
151 	their fields.
152 	- Search engine optimization and web linking:
153 	* Added a rel="canonical" link on node and comment pages to prevent
154 	duplicate content indexing by search engines.
155 	* Added a default rel="shortlink" link on node and comment pages that
156 	advertises a short link as an alternative URL to third-party services.
157 	* Meta information is now alterable by all modules before rendering.
158 	- Field API:
159 	* Custom data fields may be attached to nodes, users, comments and taxonomy
160 	terms.
161 	* Node bodies and teasers are now Field API fields instead of
162 	being a hard-coded property of node objects.
163 	* In addition, any other object type may register with Field API
164 	and allow custom data fields to be attached to itself.
165 	* Provides most of the features of the former Content Construction
166 	Kit (CCK) module.
167 	* Taxonomy terms are now Field API fields that can be added to any fieldable
168 	object.
169 	- Installer:
170 	* Refactored the installer into an API that allows Drupal to be installed
171 	via a command line script.
172 	- Page organization
173 	* Made the help text area a full featured region with blocks.
174 	* Site mission is replaced with the highlighted content block region and
175 	separate RSS feed description settings.
176 	* The footer message setting was removed in favor of custom blocks.
177 	* Made the main page content a block which can be moved and ordered
178 	with other blocks in the same region.
179 	* Blocks can now return structured arrays for later rendering just
180 	like page callbacks.
181 	- Translation system
182 	* The translation system now supports message context (msgctxt).
183 	* Added support for translatable fields to Field API.
184 	- JavaScript changes
185 	* Upgraded the core JavaScript library to jQuery version 1.3.2.
186 	* Upgraded the jQuery Forms library to 2.21.
187 	* Added jQuery UI 1.7.2, which allows improvements to Drupal's user
188 	experience.
189 	- Better module version support
190 	* Modules now can specify which version of another module they depend on.
191 	- Removed modules from core
192 	* The following modules have been removed from core, because contributed
193 	modules with similar functionality are available:
194 	* Blog API module
195 	* Ping module
196 	* Throttle module
197 	- Improved node access control system.
198 	* All modules may now influence the access to a node at runtime, not just
199 	the module that defined a node.
200 	* Users may now be allowed to bypass node access restrictions without giving
201 	them complete access to the site.
202 	* Access control affects both published and unpublished nodes.
203 	* Numerous other improvements to the node access system.
204 	- Actions system
205 	* Simplified definitions of actions and triggers.
206 	* Removed dependency on the combination of hooks and operations. Triggers
207 	now directly map to module hooks.
208 	- Task handling
209 	* Added a queue API to process many or long-running tasks.
210 	* Added queue API support to cron API.
211 	* Added a locking framework to coordinate long-running operations across
212 	requests.