yoast_seo 8.x-2.0-alpha1

The release of alpha1 marks the final steps towards a stable release of a reworked Real-Time SEO module. This release brings some much needed modernisation to the module taking advantage of new Drupal 8 paradigms.

Some highlights for this release:

Only Drupal code in Drupal git

#2726871: External library included without exception approval from the Licensing Working Group
The Yoast.js library is no longer included in the module. Instead only a small piece of Javascript is included in the module that interfaces to RTSEO.js which is a compiled version of the Yoast.js package hosted on NPM.

Support all the entities!

#2917280: [META] Node preview sandbox
#2730333: Content Analysis for Entities, not just nodes
A redesigned method for doing content analysis has been implemented. Instead of doing per-field analysis the Drupal Entity API is now leveraged to send all data to the server and perform client side analysis on a rendered entity. This results in support for more entity types (any fieldable entity can now be analysed) and means that no custom work will be required to support new field types.

A new way to configure the module

#2940583: Discuss necessity for config form
The configuration screen for the module was duplicating quite some work that the Field API could do for us. It was also error prone. We have decided to remove it in favour of using Drupal’s Field API. To add SEO analysis to an entity you now simply attach the field to the entity/bundle that you want to analyse and configure the form widget, that’s all!

Editing of title and description still works

#2938278: Allow editing of page title and meta description
#2941887: yoast_seo_metatags_alter relies on removed code
#2636500: Should not change the values in my metatag fields unless I want it to
It’s no longer possible to use the Real-Time SEO module to edit a page slug, this is already handled by Drupal core’s alias fields. It is, however, still possible to edit a page title and meta description. Whether this can be done can be controlled using the field widget settings. These values are no longer stored in the metatag fields which means they’re now non-destructive.

What’s up next?

#2879061: [meta] Roadmap for version 8.x-2.0 of the Real-time SEO module
Keep an eye on our roadmap issue to see what we have planned for the future. If you have a great idea for a feature or find a bug, you can always report this in our issue queue: https://www.drupal.org/project/issues/yoast_seo