I had some extra time today so I figured I would take a look at Drupal 4.7.0 and do a comparison against the older 4.6.x series.

This will be an extremely quick review based on some of the things that I noticed while browsing one of my newly upgraded Drupal powered websites.

The first thing you will notice when upgrading is that the upgrade script was given a cosmetic update. It looks much more elegant and shows you the upgrade progress percentage while it is updating. Once the update is complete it brings you to a page that shows you everything it did and links you back to the admin panel.

The second thing that you notice is that nearly all of the options on the site are now neatly hidden behind collapsed categories on the page. This gets rid of the old bulky feel it once had and ultimately gives everything a much cleaner and streamlined look to it.

The text areas are now expandable by dragging a bar at the bottom just like WordPress.

They also added a few features that I feel they should have added a long time ago. For example: They finally added a site-wide feedback module, the ability to turn off the site and display a message during maintenance, and the search page now allows you to search via advanced search operators.

One of the brand new features that I really liked is their new password recovery system. Instead of sending a plain-text password to you via e-mail, the system will now send you a one time use link so you can log in instantly and change your password without hassle.

Another interesting addition is that the built-in news aggregator now has it's own RSS feed. I suppose this would be a great benefit for people wanting to create a 'planet' style site.

Overall Drupal 4.7.0 is a definite improvement and a big step in the right direction. I really like the changes that I have seen and hope that things continue in the direction they are headed now.