The first release candidate for the upcoming Drupal 8.4.0 release is now available for testing. Drupal 8.4.0 is expected to be released October 4.

8.4.x includes new stable modules for storing date and time ranges, display form errors inline and manage workflows. New stable API modules for discovering layout definitions and media management are also included. The media API module is new in core, all other new stable modules were formerly experimental. The release also includes several important fixes for content revision data integrity, orphan file management and configuration data ordering among other things. You can read a detailed list of improvements in the announcements of alpha1 and beta1

What does this mean to me?

For Drupal 8 site owners

8.3.x will receive no further releases following 8.4.0, and sites should prepare to update . php to update your 8.3.x sites to the 8.4.x series, just as you would to update from (e.g.) 8.3.4 to 8.3.5. You can use this release candidate to test the update. (Always back up your data before updating sites, and do not test updates in production.) The final bugfix release of 8.3.x has been released. A final security release window for 8.3.x is scheduled for September 20, but, and sites should prepare to update from 8.3.x to 8.4.x in order to continue getting bug and security fixes. Useto update your 8.3.x sites to the 8.4.x series, just as you would to update from (e.g.) 8.3.4 to 8.3.5. You can use this release candidate to test the update. (Always back up your data before updating sites, and do not test updates in production.)

For module and theme authors

For translators

Some text changes were made since Drupal 8.3.0 . Localize.drupal.org automatically offers these new and modified strings for translation. Strings are frozen with the release candidate, so translators can now update translations.

For core developers

All outstanding issues filed against 8.3.x were automatically migrated to 8.4.x. Future bug reports should be targeted against the 8.4.x branch. 8.5.x will remain open for new development during the 8.4.x release candidate phase. For more information, see the release candidate phase announcement

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