Dear Readers,

As I write my The DropTimes newsletter, I'm filled with a bittersweet blend of gratitude and nostalgia. When I first joined The DropTimes, my understanding of Drupal was minimal, but stepping into this expansive world, I was not only educated but deeply inspired by the robust spirit of our community. Throughout my tenure, I've had the unique privilege to connect with many of you—talented individuals from across the globe, each sharing the same passion and dedication.

Over these months, The DropTimes has stood as a never-fading testimony to the vibrant and ever-evolving Drupal world, chronicling its achievements, challenges, and the incredible community that drives its success. Today, I am sharing not just another update, but a personal farewell. May the coming chapters of my life lead me towards new beginnings, filled with personal and professional growth.
As I close this significant chapter at The DropTimes, I want to extend my deepest gratitude to all of you—my colleagues, our readers, and the entire Drupal community—for the support, inspiration, and camaraderie. It has been a profound journey, one that has enriched me beyond words, and I look forward to carrying these memories and lessons with me into my future endeavors.

So, with that said, let me, for the last time, take you through the stories we covered last week.

Kazima Abbas, a sub-editor at TDT, unveils insights from two significant events. Acquia Engage London 2024, which took place from May 21 to 22 marked the first European stop of the 2024 Digital Freedom Tour. It convened digital leaders who shared their expertise, insights, and practical tips on crafting impactful customer experiences. Learn more here. The next event is, Evolve Drupal Montreal 2024, organized by Evolving Web following the success of EvolveDrupal Atlanta. This upcoming summit, set for June 14, 2024, marks its return to Montreal where it debuted in May 2023. Read about this in detail here.

A few other important updates are; Drupal has launched the IXP Fellowship Initiative survey to bolster support for inexperienced developers looking to kickstart their careers in the Drupal ecosystem. By defining core competencies and gathering community input, this initiative aims to bridge the gap between training and practical experience, ultimately nurturing new talent within the community. Participate in shaping the future of Drupal development and read more about the initiative here.

Drupal 11 is set to remove several long-standing modules, such as Actions UI, Book, and Forum, in a bid to streamline its core functionality and focus on innovation. However, users need not fret as these features will still be accessible through contributed modules. This strategic move underscores Drupal's commitment to empowering site builders and ensuring a lean, efficient platform for ambitious digital experiences. Learn more about the changes and their implications here.

Michael Anello, on DrupalEasy, sheds light on the pressing need for fresh talent in the Drupal community, as evidenced by the concerning lack of new developers highlighted at DrupalCon Portland 2024. With only 9.1% of respondents under 30 in the 2024 Drupal Developer Survey, urgent action is needed to attract and retain young developers. Michael proposes several strategic measures, including modernizing Drupal's code and creating educational programs, to address this challenge. Get involved in shaping the future of Drupal development and read more about Michael's insights here.

New dates have been announced for DrupalCon Asia 2024, set to take place in Singapore from December 9th to 11th, 2024. Know more about the three-day event here. Applications are now open for grants and scholarships to attend DrupalCon Barcelona 2024 until June 28th, 2024. The initiative, led by the Drupal Association in partnership with Kuoni Tumlare Congress, aims to promote diversity and inclusivity within the open-source community.

The Drupal Brisbane meetup is scheduled to resume on June 18, 2024. This event offers both in-person attendance at Brisbane Square Library and the option to participate online, providing an opportunity for individuals to engage in discussions surrounding Drupal and contribute to the community. Interested participants are encouraged to submit their topic suggestions, fostering an inclusive environment for collaborative discourse. A complete list of events for the week is available here.

The Technical Working Group (TWG) has scheduled a final discussion on proposed changes to Drupal's coding standards for June 5, 2024, UTC. The focus of this discussion will be the coding style for PHP Enumerations, inviting community input to refine Drupal's coding practices.

The Drupal Association has appointed Simba Ndemera as its new Chief Financial and Operations Officer, effective April 2024. With nearly three decades of experience in finance and a strong background in nonprofit accounting, Simba brings valuable expertise to his role. His dedication to community service and advancing open-source technology aligns perfectly with the organization's mission, promising a collaborative effort toward progress and inclusivity in the tech industry.

Bluechip Tech Limited, headquartered in the UK, has unveiled a new training course focusing on Drupal responsive design. Geared towards educating participants on crafting responsive and adaptive designs with Drupal and its modules, the course covers essential principles and techniques. Learn more about this new training here. Additionally, Evolving Web is offering a series of in-person Drupal training sessions next month in Montreal, aimed at enhancing digital practices for teams and individuals. These full-day training sessions, scheduled for June 11 to 13, cover crucial aspects of Drupal, providing participants with expert knowledge and practical skills.

Frontkom has announced the imminent release of Drupal Gutenberg 3.0.0, promising enhanced customization options and improved support for content blocks in Drupal. This update, designed to simplify content creation with advanced style controls and user-defined patterns, aims to elevate the user experience within the Drupal ecosystem.

Introducing the Time Machine module for Drupal, crafted by Mandip Singh, offering administrators seamless site restoration capabilities to any desired point in time. With comprehensive rollback features covering content, configuration, and user data, this module ensures robust disaster recovery and facilitates safe experimentation. Read more about this new module here.

The Drupal Association has issued an update on its Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) Pledge for 2024, reaffirming Drupal's commitment to accessibility standards. Led by Mike Gifford, the Drupal accessibility maintainers are actively working to align with WCAG 2.2 AA standards, aiming for inclusivity across the platform. With ongoing efforts to address accessibility issues and promote community involvement, Drupal continues its mission to ensure accessibility for all users.

We acknowledge that there are more stories to share. However, due to selection constraints, we must pause further exploration for now.

To get timely updates, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Also, join us on Drupal Slack at #thedroptimes.

For the Last Time,
Sincerely,
Elma John
Sub-editor, The DropTimes.

Have you ever faced any problems on your Drupal websites coming from Drupal core, its contributed modules and themes or do you want to enhance their functionality as per your requirement which can't be possible through your custom modules? As you know we can't apply code directly there, then what could be the solution for this?  Well, patching those codes might just be the solution you're looking for.

In this blog, we'll talk about the process of creating and applying patches using git diff and git apply commands and we will also apply patches through composer install command. By applying patches you can achieve all your requirements before this you must have good coding skills to understand Drupal code.

This article was updated in May 2024.

As a marketing leader, you need to drive traffic to your site and create a superior user experience. But you also need to push your content out to a variety of channels so you can reach your audience where they are.

To achieve your goals, you need a content management system (CMS) that’s flexible, scalable, and efficient. And if you’re researching your options, you’ve probably heard a lot about composable CMSs.

Every marketer and content editor deserves solutions that deliver outstanding results. Check how a preconfigured Drupal CMS can make your daily work easier!

This is a guest post by Kana Patrick who is a world-class Drupal migration expert.

As the impending end of life for Drupal 7 draws near, the necessity for website owners to consider their migration options becomes increasingly urgent. While the prevailing trend in the Drupal community leans towards transitioning to Drupal 10 to leverage its modern features, some are hesitant due to the associated costs.

In this discourse, we advocate for a different approach by presenting compelling reasons to shift your website from Drupal 7 to Backdrop CMS if you have not already done so.

Embracing Backdrop CMS

Backdrop CMS emerges as a noteworthy contender in the realm of content management systems, originating as a fork from Drupal 7. Conceived in 2013 by Nate Lampton and Jen Lampton, this platform sought to streamline and enhance the foundational code of Drupal 7 while maintaining cost-effectiveness for users.

The reluctance of many website owners to depart from Drupal 7 may stem from financial constraints, sentimental attachment to the platform, or various other factors. However, the looming conclusion of Drupal 7’s lifecycle, coupled with the cessation of community support, prompts a reevaluation of alternatives.

A viable solution lies in transitioning directly to Backdrop CMS, offering a cost-effective migration path that preserves much of the original project’s structure since both systems share a common API rooted in Drupal 7.

Despite its nascent community, the Backdrop project signifies a supportive ecosystem that can aid in the growth of your endeavors, a valuable asset for those seeking assistance and collaboration.

Advantages of Migrating to Backdrop CMS

• Backdrop CMS inherits the strengths of Drupal 7 while introducing distinct features.
• It boasts modest system requirements, translating to affordable hosting solutions.
• Unique functionalities absent in Drupal core are seamlessly integrated into Backdrop’s core framework.
• Backdrop furnishes a robust foundation with extensive extensibility through contributed modules, harnessing the full capabilities of Drupal.
• Scheduled updates and version releases provide a predictable timeline, mitigating uncertainties surrounding module updates.

In conclusion, Backdrop CMS emerges as a compelling alternative for Drupal 7 projects facing obsolescence. Evaluating the migration effort from Drupal 7 to 10 against a transition to Backdrop CMS presents an intriguing comparison. Should you require guidance or support in your migration journey to Backdrop CMS, do not hesitate to reach out for assistance.

Acquia is sponsoring me full-time to operate as the tech lead for Experience Builder — thanks!

Dries announced the formal start of the Experience Builder initiative at DrupalCon Portland 2024, on May 6. Shortly before DrupalCon, Drupal core product manager Lauri already shared the findings of the deep & wide research he conducted in prior months.

During the (entire!) month of March, Lauri walked some members of Acquia’s Drupal Acceleration Team (Ben “bnjmnm”, Ted “tedbow” Bowman, 
“hooroomoo”, Alex “effulgentsia” Bronstein, Tim Plunkett and I) as well as the lead front-end and lead back-end developer of Acquia’s Site Studio team (Felix Mazeikis and Jesse Baker) through the product requirements that were identified for Drupal to leapfrog its competitors on this front.
We spent that month understanding those requirements and do an initial pass at sizing them. To be able to refine the estimates, we started building proof-of-concepts for the riskiest areas. For example, I started one for dynamically loading a different “design version”, and a few days later another one for validating the data model proposed by Alex.

These proof-of-concepts have been shared with long-time Drupal core contributors while they were being worked on — for example, we asked feedback from Mateu “e0ipso” at Lullabot from the very start since Single Directory Components are his brain child. We asked feedback from Lee “larowlan” Rowlands at PreviousNext given his work on Decoupled Layout Builder. And so on.
They’re hacky as hell — the purpose was to explore connections between concepts and check viability.

At DrupalCon, Dries revealed that he’d love to see organizations using Drupal to contribute back significantly to both Starshot (the other announcement, which will include Experience Builder once it’s ready). So at DrupalCon, Lauri and I found many people asking us how to start contributing — an excellent new challenge to have!

We’re currently in an awkward phase to welcome contributors. Because  despite a clear product ambition/vision, we are in the very early stages of defining the concrete UX (Acquia’s UX team is working on wireframes and did user testing at DrupalCon). And during DrupalCon, there was no code base to point to!

So, during the week after DrupalCon, hooroomoo got a 0.x branch of Experience Builder going, cooking up a delightful hodgepodge of various PoC branches we’d worked on.
On Thursday May 16, Lauri and I met with 6 (!!!) people of the PreviousNext team, where they have not only serious Drupal core expertise, but also deep Layout Builder and JS knowledge — they offered to run the asynchronous meetings in the #experience-builder Drupal Slack channel. They’ve used this pattern before with great success, and it is the only viable way to truly involve the global Drupal community.
 

By the end of the week I got GitLab CI pipelines going (PHPStan L8!). Ready for more serious work in week 2 :)

• Drupal
• Acquia
• Experience Builder