10 Dec 2012
With 2.2.2 out the door, our attention has shifted almost entirely to the next major update to the project, Bootstrap 3. Things are coming together and we want to give you an update on what's next and give you a chance to share your thoughts.
Specifics of v3
Overall, Bootstrap 3 will be rather narrow in focus compared to the last major update. In short, we'll drop legacy code, improve responsive CSS, and centralize community efforts. Specifically, v3 will address the following:
- Migrate twitter/bootstrap, twitter/bootstrap-server, and mdo/bootstrap-blog (currently a private repo) to the twbs organization.
- Change site URLs to http://getbootstrap.com (more on that below).
- Compile all Less code, including responsive styles, into a single CSS file.
- Drop IE7/FF3x support entirely.
- Use the
@font-face version of Glyphicons instead of the current PNGs.
- Switch to the MIT license instead of Apache.
- Drop the
*-wip branch style of development.
- Use tags for all versioned downloads, use smaller feature branches for dev work, and merge right into master (after 3.0 launches).
To help communicate and track changes, we put together a wiki page for upcoming 3.0 changes. Follow along with what we're working on, ask questions, or contribute by using that page as a reference point. We'll do our best to keep it up to date as development progresses.
In addition, we're going to try to accelerate versioning by focusing on individual components for major releases after 3.0 (e.g., modals or the carousel could be punted to a 4.0 release). Given this approach, it's less important for us to stuff a lot of feature work into 3.0.
Beyond that, we're open to addressing a couple of things with 3.0 like form styles and mobile enhancements. We want to limit these kind of changes for 3.0 though, so let us know what features are most important to you.
New GitHub organization
We mentioned this a few times in recent months, but with 3.0 we'll be transitioning to a new organization on GitHub, twbs. The username is homage to H5BP, one of the most notable front-end tools out there, and of course, Twitter. The move shouldn't present any problems to you fine folks.
New URLs
With the move to the new organization, the URLs of the Bootstrap docs must change. We host our docs on GitHub Pages and those URLs are based on user or organization names. To better future-proof things, we'll be making http://getbootstrap.com our base URL instead of just a redirect.
For us, this will be the most painful part of the move. Given how prolific links are, we'll also try to setup something at the old URLs to redirect folks, but we're unsure how we will do that just yet. Perhaps a shell repository with dummy pages pointing to their replacements? Time will tell.
Strengthening the community
The larger goal behind the organization move is to bolster the Bootstrap community. To start, we'll be transferring the main Bootstrap repo, the Heroku customizer app, and the blog to the new organization. But more importantly, we want to bring community projects into the organization as official projects.
From language ports to extensions to snippets, we want to work with leaders of key community efforts to see if this makes sense. We're still working on the criteria for this and have yet to reach out to anyone.
If you think your project fits, hit us up. We'll be looking to add projects shortly after 3.0.
Growing the team
Bringing additional projects into the fold is going to be a huge undertaking as managing the existing code is already a hefty task between Jacob and myself. To that end, we'll be looking to add one or two people to the team to help us manage issues, pull requests, etc. This is a huge deal for us and we'll be taking our time on figuring it all out.
Growing the team with official contributors, other than the two of us, is also a goal. Similarly, we're super nervous about this and have no clear timetable for it as well.
Wrapping up
Bootstrap is still just getting started. There is so much more awesome stuff to do and we want to work with you awesome folks to do it all as best we can. We hope you're as excited as we are.
Please reach out to us on Twitter or GitHub with any questions or feedback.
<3,
@mdo and @fat
08 Dec 2012
Today we're launching Bootstrap 2.2.2, another larger bugfix release that focuses mostly on CSS and documentation fixes, with a few key JS issues mixed in as well. Here's the rundown on what's new in this release:
- Docs:
- Assets (illustrations and examples) are now retina-ready.
- Replaced Placehold.it with Holder.js, a client-side and retina-ready placeholder image tool.
- Dropdowns: Temporary fix added for dropdowns on mobile to prevent them from closing early.
- Popovers:
- No longer inherits
font-size: 0; when placed in button groups.
- Arrows refactored to work in IE8, and use less code.
- Plugin no longer inserts popover content into a
<p>, but rather directly into .popover-content.
- Labels and badges: Now automatically collapse if they have no content.
- Tables: Nesting support with
.table-bordered and .table-striped greatly improved.
- Typeahead:
- Print styles, from HTML5 Boilerplate, have been added.
Get a more complete list by viewing the 2.2.2 milestone on GitHub. Most of the issues not mentioned above are minor CSS tweaks and documentation typos.
Download Bootstrap 2.2.2 (latest master ZIP)
We have a 2.2.3 release slated for further bugs and improvements we couldn't tackle in this version, but most of our ongoing efforts are going to transition to development on 3.0.0. More details on that will come next week.
02 Dec 2012
In the next week or so, we plan on releasing v2.2.2. To date, there are over 50 CSS and documentation related issues already closed, and we want to get those out in your hands. We still have some significant JavaScript issues to work out, but those will be punted to 2.2.3 so we don't hold up development. Our hope is to have that release out by end of year at the latest.
Key changes
- Added retina assets in the docs.
- Added HTML5 Boilerplate print styles.
- Swapped placehold.it for Holder.js.
- Fixed issues with popovers inheriting
font-size: 0; in button groups.
- Refactorered popover arrows to fix IE8 display bug and use less code.
- Updated popover plugin to remove the
<p> within .popover-content. Popover text and HTML now directly inserts into .popover-content.
- Enabled badges and labels to automatically collapse when empty.
For a more complete set of changes, view the 2.2.2 milestone on GitHub. Most of the issues not mentioned above are minor CSS tweaks and documentation typos.
How to help
We would love to have folks help test these changes to prevent further regressions.
- Checkout the branch,
2.2.2-wip, or browser the release candidate docs so you can easily load it up on devices and such for testing. Note: downloads on the RC docs do not work.
- Take a look at the docs and give 'em a run on the docs, on your phone, your (least?) favorite browser, etc.
- Open a new issue on GitHub to report bugs. Please include as much context and information as possible. If it's a visual bug, please include a screenshot. If it pertains to javascript, consider including a jsfiddle.
If you're submitting a pull request against 2.2.2-wip, be sure to read the Contributing to Bootstrap wiki page first.
09 Nov 2012
Earlier this week, I was excited to announce that our next release, 2.2.2-wip, would include the new Glyphicons icon font. In hindsight I got a little carried away and forgot about something.
IE7 doesn't really do icon fonts.
I could put together a hack to add IE7 support, duplicating tons of code, but that doesn't feel right as we're dropping IE7 support in BS3. Instead of spending time on something we'll just remove later on, we're going to focus on things that will be here in the next major version.
So, it's with some sadness that I inform you we will not be including the Glyphicons font in 2.2.2-wip.
Backwards compatibility is always a pain in the ass, and to avoid huge headaches for folks, we sometimes have to bend over, well, backwards. I hope this doesn't screw up your plans too much and that you understand we have the community's best interests at heart.
There's some good news though. For you nerds who live on the edge, I've been working on tons of BS3-esque changes in the 3.0.0-wip branch on GitHub. If you really cannot wait for the Glyphicons font (and don't mind using unsupported code), do check it out. I plan on accelarating work on it in the coming weeks. (Please don't submit issues for it though, but rather email me or ping me on Twitter for questions.)
Thanks for listening, and as always, <3<3<3.
@mdo
30 Oct 2012
After the 2.2.0 release last night, a few bugs were reported, but only one major one: malfunctioning carousels. To address that, @fat just pushed out a 2.2.1 hotfix release that fixes the bug. Upgrading should be super simple given the scope of this release.
Download Bootstrap 2.2.1 (latest master ZIP)
Once more, apologies for any hiccups and happy Bootstrapping!
