The Drop Times: How TDT Is Evolving: Change Records from Late 2023

At The DropTimes (TDT), we constantly evolve. The formative steps for us were challenging. We might be just out of infancy, but still in childhood. That does not give us any excuse not to be a better version of what we were yesterday. As we align with the build-in-open philosophy, let us record our recent decisions in response to community feedback.

Drupal Association blog: Introducing: the bounty program

As part of my role in the Drupal Association, we are trying to find new ways to unleash innovation. Innovation as it happens is a key goal for the Drupal Association. What surprised me when I started with the Drupal Association was to meet companies that were contributors, (some of them known for being long-time contributors) or that are very interested in contributing, but then not knowing how they could maximize their contributions or even where they should be contributing to.

I don’t think that these are a few isolated cases, as it’s not the first time I've seen this trend. Back when I was working for a 100+ developer consultancy firm there was a big corporate push to increase our contribution to open source. And contribute we did. We started “Pizza Fridays”, which meant we were spending Fridays contributing, doing presentations between us, and having pizza for lunch. We had fun, but we lacked structure, purpose, and higher goals (and a healthy diet on Fridays). Our plan was not aligned with anything other than our own appetite to experiment or learn something.

If we had a structure that aligned us to the project we were contributing to, our contributions would have been more impactful, business would have benefited in a more meaningful way, and the whole team would have probably been allowed to contribute even further and longer in time. We did amazing things, don’t get me wrong, but the impact of those could have been much bigger.

That’s why, today, we are introducing the credit bounty program. The idea is to do an initial experiment, and if it has an impact on Drupal moving forward, we’ll tweak it if needed and continue with new iterations.

I expect that the issues and projects that we are promoting will change over time, so we’ll share soon how you can get updated information.

If you are a maintainer and you would like us to include your issues in this pilot program, that may be a possibility as well, so please send me an email: alex.moreno@association.drupal.org. Depending on how this first phase goes, we may start promoting contributed module issues as well based on the popularity of the modules, usage on sites, complexity, how innovative they are, etc, etc

For now, this is the list of issues where (core for now) maintainers need your help. The amount of credit we’ll be given is 50 credits, which is 5 times the normal amount of credits we would grant (normal core issues get 10 credits).

Maintainers will grant credit as normal on these issues, and *all* of the contributing organizations and individuals that the maintainers credit will receive the full bounty. 

Make sure to read Drupal Core's Issue Etiquette for core contribution, and the Contributor Guide. 

Have questions or ideas? Please ping me: alex.moreno@association.drupal.org
 

Specbee: The Drupal 10 CKEditor Templates Module - A Blessing for Content Editors

Content editors are always looking for ways to get more efficient and faster at creating/updating content. It can always be challenging to start with a blank page. Having a predefined set of templates to begin with makes the job much easier and quicker. Let us introduce you to the Drupal 10 CKEditor Templates module. CKEditor is a popular rich text editor used in many content management systems, including Drupal. Currently, Drupal 10 supports CKEditor version 5 and it comes with a great user experience, it is highly customizable and extensible. CKEditor offers many plugins to extend its functionality. One such plugin in focus today is  “Content Templates” which is extremely useful for content creators and editors.  The CKEditor Templates module is an extension/plugin for the CKEditor WYSIWYG editor in Drupal, that allows you to easily insert pre-defined templates or content snippets into your content. We are grateful for the wonderful Drupal community contributors who created this module! How to Install the CKEditor Templates Module The installation of the Drupal 10 CKEditor Templates module is the same as any other Drupal module. It has dependencies on the CKEditor template plugin. If the plugin is needed, add it to the libraries folder at the root of the Drupal setup. After installing and adding the library, enable the module. Now, two main steps need to be followed to work with the module: Configure CKEditor to include the CKEditor Templates button in the toolbar. Create and manage templates in the template library. Configure CKEditor to include the CKEditor Template Button Configuration -> Content Authoring -> Text formats and editors Now, all the text formats will be listed. Configure any text format that needs the Template insert option (using full HTML in this tutorial) and move the 'Templates' icon from "Available buttons" to "Active Toolbar." Create and Manage Templates in the Template Library Configuration -> Content Authoring -> CKEditor TemplatesNow, the previously created templates will also be listed. Click on the ‘Add CKEditor template’ button to add a new template. It will now redirect to the template page and the following fields must be filled. Title: Title of Template Description: Description of the Template Image path for template: Preview the image of the Template. This can be added manually. Also, it will auto-fill when uploading an image using the next field ‘Image path for this template’. Image path for this template: This will upload the image and the ‘Image path for template’ field will be filled with the path of the uploaded image. Body: The predefined template’s HTML code will be added in this field which will be inserted in CKEditor when this template is added. Inserting the Template into CKEditor Now that you have configured the templates, let's look at how to add them to your CKEditor. Add/Edit any node, block, or other component with CKEditor. Click on the "Template" icon (resembling the attached screenshot) to insert the template. A popup with a list of templates will appear. Click on the template you want to insert in CKEditor, and the template will be added. Make changes in content and save the component. Final Thoughts The Drupal 10 CKEditor Templates module enhances content creation by providing content editors with a user-friendly platform to insert pre-defined templates or snippets effortlessly. This module integrates seamlessly with the CKEditor WYSIWYG editor in Drupal, making the process more efficient and enjoyable. As a focused Drupal development company, our experts continually strive to improve the end-user experience. If you’re looking for any Drupal development services, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We’re here to assist you. 

Talking Drupal: Talking Drupal #433 - Drupal 10 Masterclass

Today we are talking about The Drupal 10 Masterclass book, How it’s different from other Drupal books, and why you need it on your bookshelf with author Adam Bergstein. We’ll also cover Dashboards as our module of the week.

For show notes visit: www.talkingDrupal.com/433

Topics
  • What is Drupal 10 Masterclass about
  • Who is this book for
  • Why did you write the book
  • Can you explain the subtitle a bit
  • How does this differ from other recent Drupal books
  • Can you tell us about the authoring experience
  • What can our listeners do to make this book a success
  • Do you think you’ll write another book
  • Simplytest.me update
Resources Guests

Adam Bergstein - @n3rdstein

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi

MOTW Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu

  • Brief description:
    • Have you ever wanted to add a dashboard to your Drupal site, to provide at-a-glance information to editors? There’s a module for that.
  • Module name/project name:
  • Brief history
    • How old: created in Nov 2019 by Erik Seifert of 1x Internet
    • Versions available: 2.0.8 and 2.1.6 versions available, the latter of which works with Drupal 9 and 10
  • Maintainership
    • Actively maintained
  • Test coverage
    • 13 open issues, 5 of which are bugs on th 2.1.x branch
  • Usage stats:
    • 1,878 sites
  • Module features and usage
    • Allows for the creation of dashboards as exportable config entities, using Layout Builder to define the layout and placement of blocks
    • It’s possible to create unique dashboards per user
    • Out of the box you get a number of dashboards components to embed views, show recent errors, display content from RSS feeds, and more
    • Dashboard components are defined using a new plugin base, so you can also create custom components to meet the unique needs of your site
    • The dashboards are also optimized for use with Gin, which isn’t a surprise because 1x Internet is also a sponsor of the Gin admin theme. If your site is also using Gin then this module will provide a central dashboard that seamless integrate with the backend UI
    • If you’re looking to implement dashboards on your site, you can also look at Moderation Dashboard and Homebox as other options. The latter of those is even more widely used, but mostly by D7 sites. That said, drupal.org is one of those sites, so if your team is active on drupal.org then the interface will be very familiar
    • There is also a Dashboard Initiative that has been started by some core maintainers, so using one of these modules can set you up to weigh in on what the ideal state for the initiative might look like

DrupalEasy: DrupalEasy Podcast S16E2 - Luca Lusso - Modernizing Drupal 10 Theme Development book

We talk with Luca Lusso, author of Modernizing Drupal 10 Theme Development, published in August, 2023 by Packt Publishing. 

URLs mentioned

DrupalEasy News

Audio transcript

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Credits

Podcast edited by Amelia Anello.
 

The Drop Times: Spam's a Stale Joke!

Dear Readers,

The world is marching forward at an unprecedented pace, grabbing the wings of the digital revolution. Just as light, water, land, and air are naturally ubiquitous elements sustaining us, the current era introduces another layer of ubiquitous elements that make our lives easier and connect us in ways never imagined. Social media, emails, and various messaging platforms exemplify these transformative elements. But with unprecedented connectivity came an uninvited, often irksome guest: "Spam." 

Spam can be likened to a tedious joke frequently repeated aloud, devoid of humor but somehow forcing an obligatory laugh. What's intriguing is that many find themselves compelled to endure this strained laughter collectively. Like dealing with someone who insists on sharing a lousy joke, we attempt to avoid, hide, change the topic, or deliberately feign obliviousness. However, despite our efforts, we often find ourselves unable to escape its persistence. 

Sure, akin to a bad joke, it is not harmful most of the time; you hear it and leave it, but what happens when its impact transcends mere irritation? When spam begins to intrude upon your time, occupy unnecessary thought space, and sometimes even pose potential harm, it becomes clear that dismissing it as benign is no longer feasible. Various prevention methods have been developed and implemented to combat the persistence of spam across different digital platforms. Drupal, the most sought-after and trusted enterprise-level CMS, ensures spam prevention with the utmost efficacy and a wide array of modules.

I was able to round up a list of Drupal modules that can help you prevent spam in the latest listicle published by The DropTimes (TDT). Users can choose from various modules and services based on their specific requirements, balancing spam prevention with user experience and accessibility considerations. We invite readers to share their preferred spam control modules for Drupal in the content here.

A seasoned Drupal developer at Novicell, Mads Nørgaard explores their groundbreaking journey harnessing Drupal 10's power to revolutionize high-traffic websites, featuring the success story of kino.dk. As the digital world buzzes with the concepts of Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, and Headless (MACH), there's a misconception that Drupal, a traditional CMS, falls behind in this evolution. However, the kino.dk project tells a different story. 

In the past week, Kazima Abbaz covered an intriguing discussion on Reddit, showcasing how the Drupal community creatively addresses complex content management challenges across multiple sites. To delve deeper into these diverse perspectives, check out the article here. 

The entry of 2024 is creating all the buzz in Drupal, with its communities across the globe bustling to conduct conferences, camps, and meetups. Students can attend DrupalCon Portland 2024 at a new discounted rate of just $50 with access to sessions, networking opportunities, job fairs, resume building, and more. DrupalCon Portland also calls for volunteers to lead breakout sessions during the Nonprofit Summit on May 9, 2024. 

DrupalCamp Belgium 2024 will be hosted at Odisee Technologiecampus in the vibrant city of Ghent on May 10-11. Prospective speakers can submit session proposals from Drupal Mountain Camp 2024, contributing to the event's diverse and comprehensive knowledge-sharing. 

The Annual Mautic Conference, with this habit of continent hopping, is set to unfold in the APAC region this time. Pune, Maharashtra, India, will host the largest Mautic conference—MautiCon India 2024. A Design Feedback Event - EvolveUX Montreal, hosted by Evolving Web, will take place in Montreal on January 22, 2024. A list of Drupal events for this week is published here.

In other updates in the past week, Ryan Szrama has disclosed the latest update to Commerce Core in version 2.37, introducing a new store dashboard. Michael Miles introduced "Drupal Droid," an AI assistant for Drupal 9+ website development designed to streamline coding and site configuration processes. The Drupal Association has secured a $300,000 service contract from the Sovereign Tech Fund (STF), marking a significant milestone in their efforts to fortify Drupal's security and bolster the platform's ecosystem. 

There are more stories available out there. But the compulsion to limit the selection of stories is forcing us to put a hard break on further exploration—happy Drupaling folks.

To get timely updates, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Thank you,

Sincerely
Alka Elizabeth
Sub-editor, TheDropTimes.

Golems GABB: Creating Custom Drupal Blocks: Best Practices and Use Cases

Creating Custom Drupal Blocks: Best Practices and Use Cases Editor Mon, 01/15/2024 - 16:49

Discover the power of custom Drupal blocks as we delve into website customization in this article. Custom Drupal blocks offer personalized functionality, design, and content that set your website apart. Investing time in creating these blocks unlocks many benefits for Drupal website development.
To inspire your creativity, we will present real-world use cases demonstrating how custom Drupal blocks can elevate user experiences and deliver tangible results.
Are you ready to unlock the full potential of your Drupal website? Join us as we open the secrets of creating custom Drupal blocks, sharing best practices, and exploring compelling use cases.

ImageX: Accessibility Elements, Part 5: Captions, Subtitles, Transcripts, and Audio Descriptions in Drupal

Multimedia content, such as engaging videos, insightful podcasts, and vibrant images, is meant to captivate, inform, and entertain website users. However, while creating an immersive world of multimedia experiences, it’s necessary to be mindful of the people with a wide range of impairments who need alternative ways to perceive the content. 

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