Dear Readers,

The DropTimes [TDT], as you know, is a news website with the vision of contributing to the growth of a vibrant community of users and contributors around Drupal through the process of covering and promoting everything happening around Drupal. To borrow our founder, Anoop John's words, 

"What we are doing as TDT is not just running a news website but we are trying to mobilize a whole community of users toward revitalizing the community."

 We are working towards improving the technology, driving the contributions back to the Drupal community, and ultimately contributing back to society at large. We are driving towards something bigger than all of us. 

The growth of such a venture certainly will be slow, like a writer adding a few words to their novel each day, a runner slightly extending their distance each week, or a business steadily enhancing its customer service. These small steps may seem insignificant in isolation, but they compound into significant advancements over months and years. These seemingly minor improvements compound over time, accumulating smaller strides and preparing for the dramatic leaps. The DropTimes has, day by day, accumulated the strength to make bigger leaps.

In digital innovation, embracing new directions and challenging conventional norms often leads to remarkable discoveries. Just as the Drupal community continuously strives to push boundaries and advocate for the principles of openness and community-driven development, we are likewise urged to delve into diverse domains with immense potential for creativity and impact. The DropTimes model is one based on resilience, fosters a culture of continuous learning, and ultimately transforms modest efforts into significant accomplishments. This method underscores the importance of the journey, teaching patience and discipline and proving that steady progress can lead to remarkable success.

While grateful to all the readers and loyal supporters of TDT, we seek your continued support in building something impactful and helping contribute to Drupal and open-source. With that, let's revisit the highlights from last week's coverage.

The DropTimes Community Strategist, Tarun Udayaraj, had an opportunity to converse with Tim Doyle, the first-ever Chief Executive Officer and the appointed leader of the Drupal Association. In this exclusive interview, the CEO of the Drupal Association shares his perspectives on the future of Drupal and the open-source community at large. Read the full interview here.

Preston So is a dynamic figure in software development. He showcases a rich career spanning diverse roles within the tech industry and emphasizes a leadership philosophy rooted in empathy and adaptability. Beyond his professional endeavors, Preston's commitment to the Drupal community is notable, having been a significant part of it since 2007. Learn more about this multifaceted individual and his contributions to open-source with an interview by Elma John, a sub-editor at TDT, "Navigating the Currents of Change: The Multidimensional Journey of Preston So."

In an interview with Kazima Abbas, sub-editor of The DropTimes, Adrian Ababei, the Senior Drupal Architect and CEO at OPTASY, shares his extensive experience in web development and Drupal architecture. He discusses overseeing full-cycle project management, conducting technology research, and leading a team of developers at OPTASY.

The third part of the hit Page Builder series by  André Angelantoni, Senior Drupal Architect at HeroDevs, came out last week. "Drupal Page Builders—Part 3: Other Alternative Solutions" discusses alternatives to Paragraphs and Layout Builder. This segment navigates through a variety of server-side rendered page generation solutions, offering a closer look at innovative modules that provide a broader range of page-building capabilities beyond Drupal's native tools.

March has ended, and TDT has successfully concluded its "Women in Drupal" campaign. As the series ends with the third part of Inspiring Inclusion: Celebrating Women in Drupal, The DropTimes reflects on the powerful narratives and insightful messages shared by women Drupalers from around the globe. 

In exciting news, TDT has been announced as the Media Partner for DrupalCon Barcelona 2024 and Drupal Iberia 2024 as a testament to the platform's growth and resilience. We are also seeking volunteers from the members of the Drupal Community to help us cover the upcoming DrupalCon Portland 2024. 

The Regular Registration window for DrupalCon Portland is now open. Registration for DrupalCon Portland will unlock an additional $100 discount on your ticket for DrupalCon North America 2025, in addition to the Early Bird discount during the Early Bird registration window. 

Every week, we will have some events somewhere around the world. A complete list of events for the week is available here.

In other news, Drupal 10.2.5 is now available, featuring a collection of bug fixes. This patch release addresses various issues to ensure stability for production sites. Janez Urevc has reported a 10% improvement in Drupal core test suite runtime, attributed to Gander, a performance testing framework part of Drupal since version 10.2. The latest WebAIM Million report reveals insights into web accessibility, with Drupal holding strong in the CMS rankings. Discover the subtle shifts in WCAG 2 compliance and the strategic decision to exclude subdomains for improved analysis. 

In another interesting update, Mufeed VH, a 21-year-old from Kerala, India, and founder of Lyminal and Stition.AI, has created Devika, an open-source AI software similar to Devin. Devika, conceived initially as a joke, can understand instructions, conduct research, and write code autonomously.

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.

Thank you,
Sincerely
Alka Elizabeth
Sub-editor, The DropTimes.

Given the variety of tools and techniques Drupal offers, it is a must to estimate your business needs first. AI, VR, AR, blockchain, and other technologies will keep reshaping industrial processes, so your task is to ensure the overall Drupal site’s scalability and versatility. 
Businesses of any calibre won’t achieve excellent results if they don’t align the server-side and client-side aspects of website development. Expanding website capabilities with Drupal integration will help you keep the momentum and improve online experiences for your audiences. 
The demand for mobile-first designs, as well as emerging technologies and e-commerce growth, make surviving in the niche without implementing innovative methods of performance and communication impossible. Stay tuned to explore the palette of tools and techniques to level up the standards of website architecture and efficiency for your business.

For those of you who usually read my blog, it's no news that I dabble with the content management system Drupal. This website is built on Drupal, as well as many of my other websites such as Alla Talar Svenska or the podcast platform Voffor Då Då. Drupal is more or less a Swiss Army knife when it comes to building different kinds of solutions, and behind it is an open-source community that ensures its development and maintenance.

A community that also has a sense of humor. Which is evident when there's a bunch of add-on modules that are more or less made for fun, or to have fun. Here's a dozen of such add-on modules and a brief explanation of what they do.

Pirate

International Talk Like a Pirate Day is a parody holiday created in 1995 by John Baur and Mark Summers. When the 19th of September, which is the special holiday International Talk Like a Pirate Day, arrives, the text on your website changes to pirate talk. A simple text filter in this module makes the magic happen - but only once a year.

Read more and find the module at https://www.drupal.org/project/pirate

Thanos

How's your Marvel knowledge? Do you remember the purple supervillain Thanos who had a mission to ensure the universe's survival - by simply removing 50% of all living beings? This module has the same mission. Kind of. It removes half of your uploaded files. Randomly. Every now and then. Really makes you feel alive, doesn't it?

Read more and find the module at https://www.drupal.org/project/thanos

Christmas lights

Colorful lights hanging from the top of your webpage? Absolutely! And you don't have to feel restricted to Christmas time when setting the dates for when the lights should be displayed - you can simply choose to have them shown from January 1st to December 31st. So you'll always have a bit of Christmas spirit on your website!

Read more and find the module at https://www.drupal.org/project/christmas_lights

Christmas snow

And while you're hanging up the Christmas lights - why not install this module to have a lovely snowfall on your website. "Man it doesn't show signs of stopping, and I brought me some corn for popping, the lights are turned way down low. Let it snow! Let it snow!"

Read more and find the module at https://www.drupal.org/project/christmas_snow

Nyan cat

Every now and then you do things in the Drupal interface that triggers a progress indicator to appear, so you can see, in a user-friendly way, that something is happening. That indicator isn't the sexiest in the world, needless to say. But now you can fix that. With this module, you'll see Nyan cat count up from 0 to 100%. And you'll get the song too! Not bad! Not bad at all!

Read more and find the module at https://www.drupal.org/project/nyan

Konami code

I grew up with a Nintendo 8-bit game console and through the game manufacturer Konami, the Konami code became part of popular culture. You know, you pressed UP UP DOWN DOWN LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT B A and you got more lives, or better weapons, or could become invisible, or something else that made the game a bit easier. This code has found its way into various places, and through this module, you can make different things happen on your website. Such as flipping the text on the page, randomly changing images, sending the visitor to a new web address - or why not have dinosaurs running around on the screen like in Jurassic Park?

Read more and find the module at https://www.drupal.org/project/konamicode

Fun modules for Drupal 7

In 2011, version 7 of Drupal was released and became a favorite among many web developers. That version became so big that its End of Life has been prolonged many times. You could almost say that Drupal 7 is Drupal's version of Windows XP. However, it should be noted that the later versions of Drupal are so much better, so those of you who are still on version 7 - upgrade! But before you do that, you can try out these fun modules, which only work in Drupal 7!

dRuPaul

The fashion model, actor, and drag queen Ru Paul is not entirely unknown, and if you feel like you want more Ru Paul, by activating this module, you can ensure that images are replaced with an animated GIF, provided that the fields for the image use Field API, which is highly likely that they do. Extra credit to the module's maintainer who has one of the funniest project descriptions I've seen on drupal.org.

Read more and test it out at https://www.drupal.org/project/drupaul

Malkovichification

Have you seen "Being John Malkovich"? Then you probably already understand what this module does to your website. It replaces every single word with Malkovich, and then it's Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich, Malkovich Malkovich. Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich, Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich; Malkovich Malkovich! Malkovich!!!

Read more and test it out at https://www.drupal.org/project/malkovichification

Little helper

Do you remember the Microsoft Office assistant Clippy? Of course you do. That little creature has eternal life through its annoying way of popping up and absolutely not helping in any constructive way! Now you can have the same functionality in Drupal ( 7)! Install, lean back, and look forward to getting annoyed!

Read more and test it out at https://www.drupal.org/project/little_helper

Beer o'clock

When is it time to crack open the beer? With the help of this module, you can easily have a webpage that simply tells you when it's "beer o'clock."

Read more and test it out at https://www.drupal.org/project/beer_o_clock

Lebowski

Another wonderful movie is "The Big Lebowski". This module sends out lovely quotes from the movie. A way to get a little encouraged when visiting your website!

Read more and test it out at https://www.drupal.org/project/lebowski

Cornify

Who doesn't like unicorns and rainbows? Answer: Nobody! This module uses the service cornify.com/ and with a simple click, you'll flood your website with unicorns, pink colors, rainbows, and all sorts of other fun stuff. Highly recommended!

Read more and test it out at https://www.drupal.org/project/cornify_block

Are there more?

Here you have a selection of fun modules for Drupal, both modern versions as well as for Drupal 7. I hope they can brighten up your and your visitors' day a bit. Have I missed your personal favorite? Write in the comments section, it's always fun to get new tips!

Drupal is pretty expensive to host and maintain. There is already work well under way to address this with automatic updates and project browser. It’s great, and it’s not enough. What if we could ship drupal with a production-ready webserver that can handle real-time features? What if we could make HTTPS certificate management easier? What if we could significantly improve the performance of Drupal?

Exactly 2 years ago I started to talk about how can drupal scale down and in 2 years things have changed! Last week I attended the very interesting (and well organized) Drupalcamp Rennes 2024 where I saw Kévin Dunglas give a talk about FrankenPHP: The Modern PHP App Server, written in Go. Turns out the last two point on my “drupal scale down” have a solution: it can replace apache/php-fpm and be distributed as a single executable. I haven’t tested it yet, it’s possible to bundle server and application code to ship everything in one executable.

Drupal has always been about giving people more power than they expect (or even want in some cases…). On the content management side of things we’re very, very advanced, even if some interfaces and interactions can look and feel a bit dated. Defining content types, creating custom fields, workflows, content listing, layouts, decoupled, media library, and more we’ve been doing that for a long time, we have a very wide range of modules for practically any use case you can think of. And the vast majority of the modules work together without conflicts, and they’re all free.

What I would like to see is Drupal using FrankenPHP in the worker mode as the default way to put Drupal on production. This will make it possible to host Drupal more easily. Hook the included webserver to a startup/monitoring script (we’ll give examples) and you’re ready to serve the website. No need to install apache, nginx, or even PHP!

Now you can use the server to power your real-time features, without having to write or maintain a separate nodejs server, all in PHP. If we make sure Drupal can work in the worker mode, there won’t be a performance issue for this either. Without doing anything you’ll get a performance boost for all your users thanks to early hints, your CSS and JS will start loading before the HTML even arrives from the server. To get there we need a few steps:

1. Create a configuration file suited to Drupal: #3437187: Add Caddyfile configuration
2. Include FrankenPHP as a webserver option in DDEV: Feature request: FrankenPHP Support #5655
3. Add a FrankenPHP runner to the gitlab testbots: #3438767: Support FrankenPHP as a webserver
4. At this point if Drupal tests pass we’re ready to go, with a bonus step to increase performance.
5. Bonus make Drupal work in the “worker mode”: #2218651: [meta] Make Drupal compatible with persistent app servers like ReactPHP, PHP-PM, PHPFastCGI, FrankenPHP, Swoole
6. Implement early hints for CSS/JS assets in Drupal (issue to be open, proof of concept in the caddyfile issue)

Right now I need help making the DDEV integration work well with the recommended version of FrankenPHP, and making this available to the Drupal testbot. If you have a Drupal website using DDEV you can already try it out with ddev get theodoreb/ddev-frankenphp-drupal && ddev restart and it should mostly work (with some https problems for now). I would love to know what you think, leave a comment or let’s chat in #drupal slack.

If you’re interested in sponsoring me to work on this or other Drupal things, that would be great!