Backdrop 1.19.4 Release checklist

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Release scheduled for September 15, 2021 1pm - 4pm PT

Pre-release tasks

• Merge commits (@quicksketch)
• Create the next bugfix milestone (@quicksketch)
• Move all unfinished issues to the next bugfix release milestone (@quicksketch)
• Review all closed issues in milestone: @jenlampton
  • Issue titles should include a complete, but very brief summary of the problem.
  • Issue titles sould be in complete sentences, ending with a period.
  • Bug issue titles should start with Fix or Fixed,
  • New fearure issue titles should start with Add or Added.
  • Each issue should have accurate labels, especially the "type - " labels.
• Close the milestone (@quicksketch)
• Draft Release notes (@quicksketch)
  • Include a short, descriptive summary of the release, for example:
    • "Maintenance release for Backdrop CMS. This update contains bug fixes and usability improvements only."
  • Include a section containing Notes for updating
    • Note if any changes were made to files outside the core directory, for example:
      • No changes have been made to the .htaccess, robots.txt or default settings.php files in this release. Updating customized versions of those files is not necessary.
    • Note if updates (update.php) needs to be run, for example:
      • Use the text "The database update script does not need to be run."
      • or "It will be necessary to run the update script (located at /update.php) for this release."
  • Include changelog since last version:
    • Navigate to Actions
    • Select the most recent time "Release Notes Generator" has been run.
    • Download the release-notes artifact attached to the generator.
    • Unzip the file, and copy/pate contents into release notes draft.
    • Remove any square bracets in the titles, and move those issues to their own section.

Release tasks

• Update bootstrap.inc with version number (@quicksketch)
• Tag for release, and push tag to GitHub (@quicksketch)
• Revert version number back (@quicksketch)
• Create release notes on GitHub, and publish release (@quicksketch)
• Update the front page download link on b.org
• Tweet that a new release is out

See Also

• Checklist for 1.20.0 release

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Release notes draft

This is a maintenance release for Backdrop CMS. This update contains bug fixes and usability improvements only.

Notes for updating

• No changes have been made to the .htaccess, robots.txt or default settings.php files in this release. Updating customized versions of those files is not necessary.
• The database update script (/core/update.php) does need to be run.

Accessibility Improvements

• Remove 'navigation' role from 'nav' elements #4032
• Use Backdrop.announce() when using Block drag and drop rearrangement #5021
• Backdrop Admin Bar Menu Search Input Field - Accessibility Suggestion #4997

User Experience Improvements

• Provide more guidance on password strength required #5095
• Basis: Remove underline from Delete button #4206
• Update the dated icons for sorting tables #3906
• Remove search block default title #3476
• Improve the message about theme color.module support. #3458
• Remove ordering/weight from the vocabularies listing page & style the page consistently with the Views listing page #2029
• Add a 'Save and add terms' button to the 'Add vocabulary' form. #999
• Config import should list all invalid configs, not just the first one #5146
• Button colors inconsistent when Basis used as admin theme #5130

Bug fixes

• Render function in views_handler_field_file_filemime passes bad info to file_icon_url() #5227
• Views: initial setting "Use a pager" ignored #5224
• Simpletest FilterEditorLinkValidateTestCase silently broken on PHP 5.3 #5215
• Spelling mistake: langauges #5211
• Random failures or timeouts in BatchProcessingTestCase (race condition in all batch processing) #5205
• Example in help text for current-page args tokens is wrong #5194
• Random failures in CommentInterfaceTest - Link with label 1 new comment not found. #5189
• Database update fails when Backdrop is set to another language than English and the string "Apply pending updates" has a translation #5168
• BootstrapPageCacheTestCase failing in mod_proxy Apache environments #5126
• Wrong url to update.php if language prefix in use #5092
• Field UI: (Almost) empty page titles on display settings pages for user and comment #4901
• Unable to save link to node with non-ascii characters in title when transliteration is off #4630
• Non standard property “zoom” [CSS] #4276
• Symlink to document root causing several update and install issues #3008
• Random test failure: Locale: Translation import (LocaleImportFunctionalTest) #2611
• Initialize the return array in path_get_info() #5137

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The release is now out: https://github.com/backdrop/backdrop/releases/tag/1.19.4

We're dual-releasing this and 1.20.0 at the same time. We'll be continuing that release over in #5229.