JSON:API shipping with Drupal 8.7!

The JSON:API module was added to Drupal 8.7 as a stable module!

See Dries’ overview of why this is an important milestone for Drupal, a look behind the scenes and a look toward the future. Read that first!

Upgrading?

As Mateu said, this is the first time a new module is added to Drupal core as “stable” (non-experimental) from day one. This was the plan since July 2018 — I’m glad we delivered on that promise.

This means users of the JSON:API 8.x-2.x contrib module currently on Drupal 8.5 or 8.6 can update to Drupal 8.7 on its release day and simply delete their current contributed module, and have no disruption in their current use of JSON:API, nor in security coverage! 1

What’s happened lately?

The last JSON:API update was exactly two months ago, because … ever since then Gabe, Mateu and I are have been working very hard to get JSON:API through the core review process. This resulted in a few notable improvements:

  1. a read-only mode that is turned on by default for new installs — this strikes a nice balance between DX (still having data available via APIs by default/zero config: reading is probably the 80% use case, at least today) and minimizing risk (not allowing writes by default) 2
  2. auto-revisioning when PATCHing for eligible entity types
  3. formally documented & tested revisions and translations support 3
  4. formally documented security considerations

Get these improvements today by updating to version 2.4 of the JSON:API module — it’s identical to what was added to Drupal 8.7!

Contributors

An incredible total of 103 people contributed in JSON:API’s issue queue to help make this happen, and 50 of those even have commits to their name:

Wim Leers, ndobromirov, e0ipso, nuez, gabesullice, xjm, effulgentsia, seanB, jhodgdon, webchick, Dries, andrewmacpherson, jibran, larowlan, Gábor Hojtsy, benjifisher, phenaproxima, ckrina, dww, amateescu, voleger, plach, justageek, catch, samuel.mortenson, berdir, zhangyb, killes@www.drop.org, malik.kotob, pfrilling, Grimreaper, andriansyahnc, blainelang, btully, ebeyrent, garphy, Niklan, joelstein, joshua.boltz, govind.maloo, tstoeckler, hchonov, dawehner, kristiaanvandeneynde, dagmar, yobottehg, olexyy.mails@gmail.com, keesee, caseylau, peterdijk, mortona2k, jludwig, pixelwhip, abhisekmazumdar, izus, Mile23, mglaman, steven.wichers, omkar06, haihoi2, axle_foley00, hampercm, clemens.tolboom, gargsuchi, justafish, sonnykt, alexpott, jlscott, DavidSpiessens, BR0kEN, danielnv18, drpal, martin107, balsama, nileshlohar, gerzenstl, mgalalm, tedbow, das-peter, pwolanin, skyredwang, Dave Reid, mstef, bwinett, grndlvl, Spleshka, salmonek, tom_ek, huyby, mistermoper, jazzdrive3, harrrrrrr, Ivan Berezhnov, idebr, mwebaze, dpolant, dravenk, alan_blake, jonathan1055, GeduR, kostajh, pcambra, meba, dsdeiz, jian he, matthew.perry.

Thanks to all of you!

Future JSON:API blogging

I blogged about once a month since October 2018 about JSON:API, to get more people to switch to version 2.x of the JSON:API module, to ensure it was maximally mature and bug free prior to going into Drupal core. New capabilities were also being added at a pretty high pace because we’d been preparing the code base for that months prior. We went from ~1700 installs in January to ~2700 today!

Now that it is in Drupal core, there will be less need for frequent updates, and I think the API-First Drupal: what’s new in 8.next? blog posts that I have been doing probably make more sense. I will do one of those when Drupal 8.7.0 is released in May, because not only will it ship with JSON:API land, there are also other improvements!

Special thanks to Mateu Aguiló Bosch (e0ipso) for their feedback!

  1. We’ll of course continue to provide security releases for the contributed module. Once Drupal 8.7 is released, the Drupal Security Team stops supporting Drupal 8.5. At that time, the JSON:API contributed module will only need to provide security support for Drupal 8.6. Once Drupal 8.8 is released at the end of 2019, the JSON:API contributed module will no longer be supported: since JSON:API will then be part of both Drupal 8.7 and 8.8, there is no reason for the contributed module to continue to be supported. ↩︎

  2. Existing sites will continue to have writes enabled by default, but can choose to enable the read-only mode too. ↩︎

  3. Limitations in the underlying Drupal core APIs prevent JSON:API from 100% of desired capabilities, but with JSON:API now being in core, it’ll be much easier to make the necessary changes happen! ↩︎

Original Article: