DrupalCon Vienna 2025 is more than a gathering of developers and site builders, it's a destination for anyone who believes in continuous learning, personal growth, and professional development. Whether you're new to Drupal or leading enterprise-scale digital experiences, this year’s event offers a wealth of opportunities to learn, share, and evolve.

At its core, DrupalCon has always been about knowledge-sharing. In Vienna, you’ll have direct access to the people who build, maintain, and push the boundaries of Drupal itself. Through keynotes, breakout sessions, workshops, and contribution sprints, you’ll find insight into the technologies shaping the future and the practical tools to apply them now.

Photo by Bram Driesen - Sessions - DrupalCon Barcelona 2024

Learn from the Best in the Ecosystem

DrupalCon Vienna brings together core contributors, industry leaders, and community experts to deliver actionable, real-world knowledge. You’ll explore:

• Deep technical sessions on decoupled architecture, API-first development, Drupal 11, and performance engineering
• Hands-on workshops covering theming, configuration management, CI/CD, and DevOps best practices
• Case studies from global enterprises, nonprofits, and government platforms
• Frontend and backend tracks tailored to developers of all levels

These sessions go beyond theory, they’re rooted in real-world challenges and solutions.

Tailored Learning for Every Role

DrupalCon is a cross-functional conference  and that’s one of its greatest strengths. Whether you’re in tech, marketing, or project leadership, you’ll find content built specifically for your role:

• Site builders & editors will learn about Layout Builder, content moderation, and editorial UX
• Marketers & strategists will dive into SEO, multilingual strategy, accessibility, and personalization
• Architects & developers will explore caching, security, decoupled builds, and API integrations
• Project managers & product owners will discover agile delivery tactics and stakeholder management tips

No matter your background, you’ll find relevant, high-impact learning.

Hands-On Practice That Drives Confidence

One of the things that makes DrupalCon truly unique is its emphasis on applied learning. You won’t just sit through slide decks, you'll get your hands dirty with real-time coding, design exercises, and collaborative problem-solving.

Expect:

• Live coding labs to walk through Drupal API use cases, module creation, and debugging workflows
• UX and accessibility workshops where you can test your designs against inclusive standards
• DevOps sessions focused on deployment pipelines, performance testing, and automation
• Contribution sprints where you can apply your knowledge in the real Drupal ecosystem

This approach gives you the confidence to return to your projects and implement what you’ve learned right away.

Grow Through Community Interaction

Some of the most meaningful growth happens outside the session rooms in conversations, BoF groups, hallway chats, and sprint tables. DrupalCon Vienna is your chance to:

• Connect with mentors and contributors you've followed online
• Discuss technical challenges with peers solving similar problems
• Discover new career paths or specializations you hadn’t considered
• Build lasting relationships with a global community of passionate professionals

The Drupal community is known for its openness and generosity, and DrupalCon is the perfect space to experience it firsthand.

Invest in Yourself and Your Future

Attending DrupalCon Vienna 2025 is an investment in your skills, your confidence, and your future. It’s a space to stretch your abilities, explore unfamiliar territory, and return home with practical knowledge you can apply immediately. More than that, it’s a reminder that you’re part of something bigger, a global open-source movement dedicated to building a better web.

Whether you’re there to learn something new, prepare for certification, network with potential collaborators, or simply get inspired, DrupalCon Vienna is your platform for growth.

Join the DrupalCon Vienna contribution sprints and make a difference.

Mark Your Calendars

🗓️ Dates: 14–17 October, 2025
 📍 Location: Austria Center Vienna, Vienna, Austria
 🌐 Official Website & Registration: https://events.drupal.org/vienna2025/registration-information
 🐦 Follow the buzz: #DrupalConVienna #DrupalCon2025

Stay Tuned!

So bookmark this space, and get ready to experience DrupalCon Vienna 2025 like never before.

Are you coming? Let’s connect!

By Iwantha Lekamge

Technical Lead
WSO2

Building accessible websites for people with disabilities should be a common practice nowadays. The Drupal CMS is helpful in this matter. How does it support creating webpages available for everyone? Find out from the following article.

Not all software issues are bugs. Discover the four-category classification system that helps project managers allocate budgets correctly and set proper expectations with stakeholders.

Dries Buytaert’s recent article on AI and the unbundling of digital agencies maps out many of the pressures and changes agencies are navigating right now. He outlines the shift from execution to orchestration, the reduced value of raw platform expertise, and the growing need for agencies to focus on outcomes rather than tasks. One idea that deserves more attention, though, is how AI might not just change the work agencies do, but change how clients define the work they need in the first place.

Most discussions around AI in agencies focus on internal operations. How can teams use AI to write content, generate code, automate testing, or produce visuals faster? That’s important. But equally important is what happens outside the agency, how client expectations change once they begin using the same tools themselves. When AI gives clients direct access to capabilities they once hired agencies for, their view of what an "agency" is supposed to deliver will shift.

This creates a more subtle kind of unbundling, not just in how services are delivered, but in how problems are framed. A client who used to ask for a full website may now ask for a performance audit or a targeted campaign strategy instead. A marketing team with AI-generated content at their fingertips may turn to agencies less for copywriting and more for brand consistency, cross-channel orchestration, or data-informed decision support. The deliverables may look the same on the surface, but the reasoning behind them changes.

Agencies that understand this shift early will be in a better position to adjust their messaging, services, and proposals. The real question isn't how AI will change agency workflows. It's how AI will reshape what clients believe they need help with. That shift won't happen all at once. But it's already starting, and those who recognise it can prepare for a very different kind of conversation at the next client pitch.

INTERVIEW

• What Bram Driesen Sees from Inside the Drupal Ecosystem

DISCOVER DRUPAL

• Maya Schaeffer Secures Victory in 2025 Drupal Association Board Election

• Drupal: A Digital Public Good for a Better Digital Future | Mike Gifford writes

• ECA Module 3.0.0 for Drupal Released with Drupal 11.2 Support and Modeler API

• Drupal Releases Modeler API 1.0.0, Paving Way for Unified Automation and UI Flexibility

• Drupal Introduces New Contribution Records System to Enable GitLab Issue Migration

EVENT

• DrupalCon Vienna 2025 Opening Reception Sponsorship Opportunities Available

• Early Bird Registration Now Open for DrupalCamp Pune 2025

• Nominations Open for Women in Drupal Award at DrupalCon Vienna 2025

• Upcoming Drupal AI Webinars Focus on Search and Agent Development

ORGANIZATION NEWS

• How amazee.io Helped Renesas Modernize Enterprise Hosting Without Disruption

• Palantir.net’s Positioning Pivot: How Open Strategy Partners Helped Them Win More RFPs

• Vortex 25.7.0 Released with Drupal 11.2 Support, Improved CI Pipelines, and Composer Integration
   

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, Bluesky, and Facebook. You can also join us on Drupal Slack at #thedroptimes.

Thank you, 
Sincerely 
Kazima Abbas 
Sub-editor, The DropTimes.

Today we are talking about HTMX, What it is, and why it could be a game changer for Drupal with our guests Shawn Duncan & Carson Gross. We’ll also cover RefreshLess as our module of the week.

For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/514

• What is HTMX
• HTMX and Drupal Integration
• Community and Contribution
• Discussing HTMX and Its Integration
• HTMX's Stability and Composition
• Programming with HTMX: A Lego-like Experience
• Drupal's HTMX Initiative
• Proof of Concept and Community Involvement
• HTMX's Flexibility and Developer Experience
• Big Pipe and HTMX Integration
• Comparing HTMX with Hotwire Turbo
• Getting Involved with the HTMX Initiative

• [Plan] Gradually replace Drupal's AJAX system with HTMX
• HTMX in core Proof of Concept
• HTMX contrib module
• HTMX Documentation
• Hypermedia Systems - Carson’s book
• A comparison of Hypermedia Application architecture with Single Page Application. Available for purchase and free online.
• Academic Paper on HTMX
• FACET
• Essays
  • HTMX Sucks
  • Locality of behavior
  • Future of HTMX
• Drupal community initiatives
• Contrast of htmx vs hotwire
• grugbrain
• Primeagen
• Fireship dev

Shawn Duncan - HTMX intiative fathershawn Carson Gross - bigsky.software 1cg

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Rich Lawson - richlawson.co rklawson

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• Brief description:
  • Have you ever wanted to give your Drupal site a more application-like feel, by only reloading parts of the page that need to change? There’s a module for that.
• Module name/project name:
  • RefreshLess
• Brief history
  • How old: created in Mar 2016 by Wim Leers, but recent releases are by ambient.impact, a fellow Canadian
  • Versions available: 2.0.0-alpha9
• Maintainership
  • Actively maintained
  • Security coverage
  • Test coverage
  • Documentation
  • Number of open issues: 40 open issues, only 2 of which are active bugs against the current branch
• Usage stats:
  • 2 sites
• Module features and usage
  • The RefreshLess module aims to give Drupal sites a smooth, fast, and responsive experience by using Javascript to selectively update the parts of the existing page that need to change, instead of a full page refresh. It uses the HTML5 History API to ensure the browsing behaviour is equivalent, and unsupported browsers will see a standard page refresh instead
  • Using RefreshLess also makes it possible to use transitions (with or without the View Transition API in modern browsers), morphing, and persistent elements to enhance the application-like feel
  • There is some indication that sites may encounter issues if they use RefreshLess with JS aggregation enabled, so it’s probably better to use it if your site has HTTP/2 enabled
  • RefreshLess is currently built on the Turbo library originally built for Ruby on Rails, but there is already an issue open to move the implementation to use HTMX instead

Technically, Drupal is one of the most secure open-source platforms out there. It has an active developer community, frequent patches, and a robust architecture. But the reality is that cyber threats aren’t slowing down even in 2025. If you still think updating modules is enough, that’s one of the biggest mistakes today.
You know, cybercriminals in 2025 are sharper than ever. Hacking a site used to take time previously. Now they need just a few minutes, especially when site owners overlook basic security. Drupal may be powerful and built for high traffic, but without proper setup and maintenance, it can be breached. Read this article to learn how to protect your Drupal website from emerging threats.

Hooks are used in Drupal to allow modules and themes to listen to or trigger different sorts of events in a Drupal system. During these events Drupal will pause and ask if any modules want to have any say in the event that is currently being triggered.

For example, hooks are commonly used when content is viewed, created, updated, or deleted. So, if we delete a page of content then a delete hook is triggered which allows modules to react to that content item being deleted. Using this, we can react to this and perform clean up operations on items of content that don't exist any more. Our custom module might want to remove items from a database table, or delete associated files since they wont be needed.

This is just one example of how hooks are used in Drupal as they are used in all manner of different situations, and not just listening for content events. Another example of a common Drupal hook is when creating a custom template. Many modules will use a hook called hook_theme() to register one or more templates with the theme system so that they can be used to theme custom content.

Hooks have been used in Drupal for a long time (probably since version 3) and have always been one of the harder things for beginners to understand. Module files full of specially named functions that seem to be magically called by Drupal is not an easy concept to get into and can take a while to get familiar with.

New in Drupal 11.1.0 is the ability to create object oriented (OOP) hooks, which is a shift away from the traditional procedural based hooks that have been a part of Drupal for so long. This OOP approach to hooks can be used right now, has a backwards compatible feature, and will eventually replace procedural hooks (where possible).

In this article we will look at how to create a OOP hook, how to transition to using OOP hooks in your Drupal modules, and how to create your own OOP hooks.

Read more