DrupalCon Lille is around the corner, and it comes with a schedule jam-packed with interesting talks. Which ones do you pencil in? We asked around, and these are the sessions that Annertechies are looking forward to checking out.
rcunningham
Tue, 10/10/2023 - 14:31
Thoughts before heading off to Lille for DrupalCon
It’s yet again that exciting period of time, in which last minute tasks are crunched in the final week before heading out abroad for another round of DrupalCon festivities. This year’s DrupalCon in Europe is being held in Lille, France, near the border with Belgium. Having never been to this region of Europe before, I’m curious what the city has to offer and how the city vibe will resonate with all walks-of-life Drupalers traveling to one meeting point.
We’ve had another great year at Brainsum working on ambitious projects that run the gamut of client needs, one of which -, a social platform - is going to be showcased in a session. Here’s what I’m looking forward to next week:
If someone said “There’s no easy recipe for a perfect website,” we’d have to argue with that statement. Even more so now that Drupal is bringing a new, exciting concept of Recipes on stage. Recipes are currently in the making, but they have already become the talk of the town as one of the most powerful additions to the CMS on the way from Drupal 10 to Drupal 11.
Behind every successful project is a talented workforce. This calls for making conscientious decisions when it comes to recruiting your team. However, the bitter truth is that hiring proficient candidates is not an easy task, especially when it comes to Drupal development. As the content management system has a steep learning curve, there is a lack of Drupal talent worldwide. Does that mean you should abandon your project or compromise the quality of the workforce? Gladly, the answer is no! You can leverage Drupal staffing to mitigate the lack of talented Drupal developers.
If you have never heard about Drupal staffing before, this blog will help you get acquainted with everything you need to know about it. In case you already know about it, this blog can help you delve deeper into it. So, are you ready for the enchanting journey?
Over the past few years, we've published a couple of blog posts about setting up Xdebug for Drupal module development. But, like all things in tech, there's always more to learn as tools and technology evolve.
I was recently working with one of our Professional (Drupal) Module Development students trying to determine why she wasn't able to use Xdebug to debug a PhpUnit-based functional test. To be clear, the breakpoint wasn't set in the actual test class, the breakpoint was set in some custom module code that was called by the test class.
In functional tests, Guzzle is used by PhpUnit to make calls like:
$this->drupalGet('')So, in a way, there isn't a direct PHP connection between test class and the code under test. It is in this circumstance that the breakpoint wasn't working.
Xdebug was working fine for this student to debug other aspects of the same project - it just wasn't hitting breakpoints during functional tests.
This was one of those instances that I had seen (and solved) previously, but to be honest, PhpStorm/Xdebug solutions have often involved numerous trips into the (extensive) PhpStorm settings area. By the time the problem is fixed, I was never 100% sure exactly which change I made had actually solved the problem. But, this time, I was more careful…
Obviously, Xdebug must be enabled in DDEV, and PhpStorm's almost-magical auto-configuration for Xdebug needs to have configured a new "Server" with proper path mappings (especially for the project root).
The PhpStorm configuration settings related to Xdebug that I now recommend are:
With these settings, functional PhpUnit tests can be effectively debugged.
Unless you've been living underneath a Druplicon-shaped rock, you're probably aware that DrupalPalooza Pittsburgh took place June 5-8. If so, I'm guessing that your Drupal newsfeed is full of wrap-up articles and summaries that may feel a bit redundant (I know that mine is and that they do).
It is in the spirit of hopefully spicing up your Drupal news consumption that this will not be one of those blog posts. Rather, in my somewhat still high-school-aged mind, I'm rolling back the clock to present the DrupalCon Pittsburgh 2023 Superlatives 🎉
Best session (that I attended): Drupal Distributions & Recipes Initiative Update - but don't get too excited, Mr. Jim Birch (the presenter) 😜, as I really don't go to a whole lot of sessions normally. That being said, it is difficult not to get excited about Recipes and this session was exactly what I was hoping for.
Most "It's about time" thing: Randy Fay winning the Aaron Winborn Award.
Most fulfilling personal moment: The DrupalEasy Learning Community alumni and mentor lunch. Having so many of our graduates and mentors in one place was quite gratifying, even if they did turn teasing me into a competitive sport.
Most of the alumni present were from our long-running 12-week, best practice and beginner focused Drupal Career Online http://drupaleasy.com/dco (next semester begins August 28.)
Best official/unofficial party: The Lullabot Party. There are a few things I really need at a party these days: a volume level where I don't have to scream to have a conversation, an outdoor area, activities, and good food and drink. This one was 4-for-4. The Pins x Pints Barcade Bash from Acquia came in a close second.
Favorite session that I didn't see in person but have since watched: Advanced Render Cache Debugging presented by Jody Hamilton and Janez Urevc. I'll watch pretty much anything having to do with Drupal caching, and this was one of the better presentations I've ever seen on the topic. Well worth your time.
Most useful thing that I really liked but probably not too many other people did: The distance between the expo hall and the session rooms.
Biggest question I left with: Which hosting companies are going to step up and fully support (and promote) hosting plans for Automatic Updates (and therefore Project Browser) for less technical Drupal site-builders?
Best new "thing": I am not a fan of draws (even though I do love soccer,) but in this case I really can't pick one. Both Pitch-burg and the Drupal Association Member Breakfast were fantastic additions this year. I love incentivizing folks to join the Drupal Association (especially with free food.) Also, I was a bit skeptical of Pitch-burg at first, but I really enjoyed how Dries weaved it into his keynote, and I am really looking forward to seeing how the funded projects turn out.
Best contributed module release that took place during DrupalCon: Smart Trim 2.1.0
Biggest complaint: Why was the Single Directory Components session in such a small room? Silly.
Worst accommodations: Mine (shared with Gwendolyn, Sara, John, and Ryan.) We were in an Airbnb that was located by itself in the middle of a mostly-abandoned, overgrown industrial park. We had difficulty getting ride-share drivers there after dark. Seriously. Perhaps we need to read the reviews more carefully next time.
Biggest personal takeaways: Single Directory Components and Recipes are the future of Drupal. Also, the average age of community members needs to get younger (no offense, REDACTED.)
Best completely unofficial social event: The Pirates/A's baseball game on Wednesday afternoon (that led into Wednesday evening.)
Most inconvenient alarm: Thursday, 5am, in the bedroom of our sketchy Airbnb so I could finish prep for the Intro to Module Development workshop I was teaching at 9am.
Favorite image from another DrupalCon Pittsburgh wrap-up blog post: Ted Bowman (T-Bone to his friends) shot-gunning a beer(?) on the keynote stage on Mike Herchel's blog.