What's new in Drupal 6.

Introducing the easiest version of Drupal ever

There's only so many clicks in a day. With Drupal 6, the smooth new installer will get your web project up and running in minutes. More time for you to enjoy the new and intuitive drag-and-drop interface.

Quick and easy setup: Installing Drupal is now a snap with the new installer that quickly guides you through the process. You can even import translations of the Drupal interface from within the installer and enjoy Drupal in your own language right from the start. You will be posting content in minutes!

Drag-and-drop administration

Use drag-and-drop to create and manage your site's menus. Move blocks around to change the content on your pages, or organize books intuitively by dragging pages to their proper place.

The drag-and-drop interface is available for menu items, forums, taxonomy terms, uploaded files, input formats and profile fields.

All languages spoken here!: Translate posts to different languages through an easy interface. Have Drupal automatically choose a language for the interface based on a custom URL, a user setting or browser preferences. Languages displayed right-to-left are supported "out-of-the-box".
Improved multilingual interface: Automatically import translations when adding a new language, installing modules or enabling themes.
Quick interface translation: Use the optional localization client module (a separate download) to translate the Drupal interface "on the fly".

Great new core modules.

The sleek and slender core Drupal distribution includes impressive new features.

Actions and triggers: Need a custom workflow? Want to send customized e-mails when a post is created or control how posts are published? To automate your processes with just a few clicks, use the new and powerful "actions" feature. No programming knowledge required! Actions are available for posts, users, comments and more.

Sign in with OpenID: OpenID support is built in, making it even easier for your visitors to sign-up as a member of your site. OpenID is a free and easy way to use a single digital identity across the internet. With OpenID, login to all your favorite websites and forget about the online paperwork.

Update module: Always know when new versions or security fixes are available. The update module stays in touch with drupal.org to keep you informed of new versions of Drupal, your modules and your themes.

Theming: it's never been easier.

Customizing the look and feel of your site is easier, just as powerful, and even more flexible.

CSS-only theming: Define regions, dependencies and features in simple theme .info files without writing a line of PHP code, opening the door to slim CSS-only themes.
Theme developer module: Drupal 6 supports new tools for themers, including the exciting Theme Developer module (a seperate download). It's the equivalent of Firebug, but for Drupal theming and will greatly enhance your theming workflow.

Customize your theme: Want to change how something looks? Almost all themeable content now uses separate template files written in simple HTML, just copy a template to your theme directory and modify as desired. No coding - no hassle.

Enhanced preprocessing: Preprocessing functions means themers no longer have to maintain PHP code (the template.php file) in themes. Yet, themes are just as flexible as before, and easier to use now that all available variables are thoroughly documented in their template files.
A unified approach: Drupal 6 extends its themeing support and automatic translation features to interface elements provided by JavaScript.

Most secure Drupal release ever.

Besides the all important Update module, more tools are available to protect your site and your users.

We've got your back!

Drupal's security team helps you keep your site secure. Working closely with the authors of contributed projects and the core Drupal code committers, coordinated security releases are published as necessary.

With the core Update module and a subscription to the e-mail Security Announcements list, you'll always be among the first to know about new security updates.

Password strength checking: Get instant feedback on the strength of your password.

More granular permissions: Role-based permissions are much more refined. Manage your user's privileges with ease and precision.
PHP format secured: The "PHP input format" is now an "opt-in" core module, rather than being enabled by default. Safer for you.

Maintainability and performance.

Even with great new features and improvements, we've still optimized performance. Less code is loaded on each page, so you can use more modules with the same memory limits.

Optimized code

Drupal 6 splits most core modules into smaller pieces and only loads what's needed, resulting in less code per page. JavaScript aggregation and block-level caching further improves performance for both authenticated and anonymous users.

For large sites, Drupal 6 performs properly when running behind a reverse proxy like Squid or Pound.

A new menu system: Drupal's menu system has been rewritten from scratch, making it much more efficient and powerful.
Better file handling: Files are keyed to users instead of posts, and new, reusable validation functions are available to check file sizes, extensions and resolution.
Extended logging: Choose between database or OS-level logging, with the flexibility to monitor your Drupal site events with your own enterprise monitoring tools. Drupal's monitoring tools follow the guidelines in RFC 3164.

Schema API: Drupal 6's Schema API provides rich support for creating and maintaining data tables, improving compatibility of both core and contributed modules with databases other than MySQL.
Batch API: Run time-consuming operations with the Batch API. A progress bar monitors the progress of tasks running in the background through multiple HTTP requests.
Scripting from the command line: Easily run Drupal code from the command line with the new drupal.sh script.

It's the little things…

Many small improvements to enhance your Drupal experience.

Better polls: Quickly add and manage poll options.
Forum improvements: Include polls, quiz forms or any other type of content in forums. Use the more granular permissions to hand out forum moderator rights.
Easier path alias management: Quickly find path aliases with powerful filter tools.

E-mail notifications: Send administrators e-mail when users are approved, blocked, or deleted.
Better anonymous commenting: Drupal 6 remembers the contact details of anonymous posters, automatically filling them in for their next comment.
New teaser handling: Cut a long story short with new interactive teaser tools. You decide whether to have a teaser or a separate summary for each post.

Sticky table headers: Always know what you are looking at. Table headings automatically scroll with you as you move up and down the page.
Custom date formats: Get precise control over how dates are presented with custom date formats.
Pretty signatures: User signatures are now optional and can be themed.