Varbase is our flagship solution, an enterprise-ready Drupal distribution that provides a strong foundation for any digital project. And like any other software, having regular updates and smart workflows in place will help the software realize its full potential. In this post, we'll cover: Latest Varbase features and release highlights Best practices for long-term longevity and security Recommended maintenance checklist you can adopt today   What’s New in Varbase Varbase 10.0.x and beyond bring major improvements, smart defaults, modern tools, and optional AI integration. Feature highlights:

Twig is the theming engine that Drupal uses, at least after Drupal 8. It's a templating engine that is developer-friendly and designer-friendly. Its syntax is intuitive, logical, and flexible. In this post, we will cover 10 Twig tricks that will enhance your Drupal theming process, and make theming fun and productive.   1. The Debugger Debugging is the gateway to understanding, so before any tips or tricks, the Twig debugger must be enabled. This will add HTML comments around template suggestions and show which template is being used. In services.yml, set  twig.config: debug: true auto_reload: true cache: false Using dump() for inspection {{ dump(content) }} // for cleaner outputs, install Devel and use kint() {{ kint(content) }}  

Drupal 7 has reached its end of life, which means no further support, security updates, or bug fixes. If new security flaws are discovered in your Drupal 7 instance, they won't be fixed, or if bugs start appearing, there won't be an active community working to resolve them. This builds huge technical debt for any organization. And technicalities aside, organizations must always meet compliance standards, data protection and accessibility regulations.

CodeLift migrated Cram-A-Lot’s e-commerce site from Drupal 7 with Ubercart to Drupal 10 with Drupal Commerce. The migration included over 100 configurable products, quote request workflows, and related content.

The approach involved replicating the production environment locally, using AI-assisted refactoring to update custom modules, and preserving the existing content architecture and field structures. Automated visual regression testing helped verify consistency across more than 40 screens.

The result is a Drupal 10 Commerce site that mirrors the original design and functionality while running on a modern platform, ensuring continuity for product data, quotes, and order workflows.

Explore 23 AI-powered Drupal modules that transform how you create, edit, and manage content. From intelligent page builders to real-time collaboration and automated media handling, this curated list by The DropTimes highlights the tools driving the future of content in Drupal.

At the time of writing there are 7,151 reported installs of Drupal AI and adoption is accelerating. Every day, new examples emerge of how Drupal AI helps teams tackle real-world business challenges, optimise content management, streamline workflows, and improve user experiences. Yet, with so many organisations adopting Drupal AI, it can be challenging to uncover every use case.

Your Drupal AI use case could be featured—tell us how you’re innovating

We want to hear from you! If your organisation is using Drupal AI—whether you are a Drupal certified partner, AI Maker, agency, end customer, or an independent consultant—we invite you to share your story. You could be featured in a guest blog post or invited to participate in a webinar, helping others understand the practical applications of AI.

Get in touch to let us know how you are putting Drupal AI to work.

Drupal AI in action: examples from local government and education

Southwark Council, London: is transforming how it brings content online. Their digital estate holds over 2,000 PDFs, most designed for print rather than web consumption. A new AI PDF Importer, developed for the LocalGov Drupal, is helping convert these static documents into accessible, structured, and user-friendly web content. By integrating AI-powered automation, the project addresses pagination, heading hierarchies, image extraction, and link mapping, reducing a process that previously took hours to just seconds, and making vital information more accessible for residents.

University of Edinburgh, Scotland: has developed an AI tool, created during an internship, integrated into its Drupal-based content management system, EdWeb. Leveraging Drupal AI and a new “AI Agents” framework, the tool allows content editors to interact with specialised AI agents, such as a style guide agent and a site maintenance agent. These agents access trusted university resources, including the editorial style guide and acronym database, to provide context-aware guidance and support for publishers.

Artevelde University of Applied Sciences, Ghent, Belgium: is advancing knowledge on AI-assisted development through student contributions. Witze Van der Straeten has published a tutorial on converting Figma designs into Drupal components, illustrating how Drupal AI can significantly accelerate the process of turning designs into functional solutions.

These examples demonstrate the broad range of applications for Drupal AI, from local government to higher education and the wider ICT community, showing how AI can make content management smarter and more efficient. Of course Drupal AI has many other applications and we want to hear yours!

Share your Drupal AI achievements and help others learn

We want to showcase how organisations are using Drupal AI, whether in research, pilot, beta, or full production. Share your experience and you could be featured in a blog or invited to a webinar, helping others understand the practical impact of AI with Drupal.

Contact us to tell your story.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming part of everything we do at Tag1, from performance testing to content workflows, as we continue to prove its value inside our own operations first. This post launches our AI content series, sharing how we’re applying AI in practice, what we’re learning along the way, and the principles guiding us to deliver business value without the hype.

Jeremy Thu, 09/11/2025 - 14:05

Varbase is our flagship solution, an enterprise-ready Drupal distribution that provides a strong foundation for any digital project. And like any other software, having regular updates and smart workflows in place will help the software realize its full potential. In this post, we'll cover: Latest Varbase features and release highlights Best practices for long-term longevity and security Recommended maintenance checklist you can adopt today   What’s New in Varbase Varbase 10.0.x and beyond bring major improvements, smart defaults, modern tools, and optional AI integration. Feature highlights:

Unmanaged files in Drupal? Yes, there's a time and place. In this practical tutorial, veteran developer Jeff Greenberg walks through a real-world use case where skipping Drupal's file management system results in a cleaner, faster solution. Learn how to structure, access, and display hundreds of images without cluttering your database—or your sanity.

Join John and Steve as they delve into the intricacies and challenges of maintaining Drupal modules, comparing experiences with WordPress, and sharing their journey in making web development more accessible. They discuss their personal stories, the learning curve in module development, balancing user experience, and the importance of contributing back to the community. Learn about their current projects, thoughts on AI's role in accessibility, and get inspired by their dedication to improving the web for all users.

For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/cafe010

Topics

• Drupal Beginnings: Personal Stories
• Journey into Module Development
• Accessibility in Web Development
• Navigating the Learning Curve in Development
• The Importance of Community and Collaboration
• Challenges in Module Maintenance
• Comparing Drupal and WordPress
• Innovative Approaches to Development
• Pet Peeves and Frustrations
• Future Directions and AI Integration
• The Story Behind the Shovel Avatar

Steve Wirt

Being a Developer and Tech Lead at CivicActions has exposed him to the experience of working on some of the largest government websites in the United States. A passion for opensourcing as much as possible has lead him to develop a growing number of modules, with two addressing accessibility Alt Text Validation & Node Link Report)

John Jameson

As the Digital Accessibility Developer at Princeton University, John has come to believe that the biggest barrier to accessible content is the idea that training can compensate for unintuitive authoring interfaces. So far his work to fix the authoring interfaces, to make workflows intuitive and accessible by default, has resulted in the Editoria11y Accessibility Checker and Link Purpose Icons JS libraries and Drupal modules.

Guests

Steve Wirt - swirt John Jameson - itmaybejj

Resources

Modules

• Editoria11y Accessibility Checker https://www.drupal.org/project/editoria11y
• Link Purpose Icons https://www.drupal.org/project/linkpurpose
• Alt Text Validation https://www.drupal.org/project/alt_text_validation
• Node Link Report https://www.drupal.org/project/node_link_report

Talking Drupal #490 Contrib First https://talkingdrupal.com/490 Contrib First https://guidebook.civicactions.com/en/latest/common-practices-tools/contribution/contrib-first/