Flexinode was available from 2004-2007, versions 4.4-4.7. It introduced the idea of custom content types. Problem: it didn't work at all in Views. Was rewritten to scale better. CCK, the successor, lived from 2007-2010, in versions 4.7 to 6.x.

Early on, it was table-segregated by type of data: text, integer, etc. Didn't last long. Now: if the same field exists in multiple content types, it all goes in the same table.

Field data architecture: change settings or share a field after data was created could lead to potential data loss. They settled on using a per-field storage for all fields, so that data never moves.

Database optimization

• per bundle storage at http://drupal.org/project/pbs
• materialized view: http://drupal.org/project/materialized_views

Module upgrades

• Use Coder and Coder Upgrade module and then start on field issues -- http://drupal.org/project/coder
• Upgrade documentation at http://drupal.org/node/728792

Data upgrades

• May not be a normal upgrade. Likely an upgrade page listing all fields and upgrade status
• Issue to track: http://drupal.org/node/366364
• You can't upgrade to D7 partially. All the field modules have to go at once
• The tables can live in your D6 tables - because we're copying from old tables to new.
• No contrib modules are completely ready yet

New fieldable entities

• Users - were entities but not fieldable
• Comments - http://drupal.org/node/504666
• Taxonomy - http://drupal.org/node/413192

New core fields

• Body & teaser: http://drupal.org/node/3722743
• Comments: http://drupal.org/node/538164
• Taxonomy: http://drupal.org/node/412518
• Filefield / imagefield: moved to core. Upload module is deprecated as a result - http://drupal.org/node/391330 and http://drupal.org/node/560780 - there is no upgrade path yet

New field type: list

• New 'list' field type in core
• Boolean, numeric, or alpha keys
• Allowed values as textarea with 'key | value' pairs
• Allowed values from PHP in CCK

Translatable fields

• $node->body[0]value is deprecated for $node->body[$langcode][0][value]
• $langcode = FIELD_LANGUAGE_NONE;
• http://drupal.org/node/367595

User Profile fields

• D7 core: user fields and profile module.
• Create a new 'profile' entity in contrib?
• http://drupal.org/node/394720
• http://drupal.org/node/301071
• http://drupal.org/project/profile2

Nodereference

• Still in CCK but functional.
• Move to separate module? http://drupal.org/project/noderelationships -- this is a bidirectional version of nodereference
• http://drupal.org/node/533222
• Right now, no Views integration?!

Userreference

• Still in CCK but functional
• Move to new module? No immediate candidates
• http://drupal.org/node/533222

Fieldgroup

• Still in CCK. NON-functional.
• Move to module: No immediate candidates

Content Permissions

• Still in CCK. NON-functional.
• Move to new module? http://drupal.org/project/field_permissions
• How to do this so that you don't get a huge slew of fields listed in /admin/user/permissions ?

Content Copy

• Still in CCK. NON-functional
• Move to new module? http://drupal.org/project/content_type_exporter

Views, Devel Generate, Diff, Rules

• All of these are still contrib, so integration is not in core.

Token

Token functionality is now in core but token integration is still in contrib.

Multigroup

• Might be able to create a field which is itself a fieldable entity to inherit this function
• http://drupal.org/node/695636
• http://drupal.org/node/494100