Dear Readers,
Drupal has seen widespread adoption worldwide, a testament to its flexibility, security, and scalability. Renowned for its modular architecture and strong community support, Drupal empowers developers, businesses, and governments to create and manage diverse digital experiences. From educational institutions and media outlets to non-profit organizations and governmental agencies, the platform's extensive capabilities allow for the customization and integration necessary to meet complex digital needs.
An endeavor to track Drupal's usage across various industry sectors represents a need of the moment for the Drupal community and is put forth by Paul Johnson. The project aims to showcase Drupal's diverse applicability and strengthen its shared knowledge base by gathering detailed resources and data. This concerted effort, aimed at illuminating Drupal's footprint, will offer insights into the platform's impact and success across different domains. It sets the stage for a deeper understanding of the community's achievements and challenges, guiding them toward more strategic, evidence-based decisions within the digital ecosystem.
The DropTimes [TDT] has already published a comprehensive study on Drupal's usage in prominent educational institutions worldwide, which can set the right example for this new project. Grzegorz Pietrzak's study on global city website trends analysis further underscores Drupal's influence across diverse sectors, amplifying the platform's prominence within various industry verticals. The full study is published on our website; read it here.
As the community delves into the specifics of these endeavors and their implications, it is crucial to remain connected and informed. With that, welcome to the last week's most important content covered by The DropTimes.
Performance is the cornerstone of user experience and operational efficiency in web development. Learn about the genesis, capabilities, and transformative potential of Gander, the automated performance testing framework for Drupal, as elucidated by Nathaniel Catchpole and Janez Urevc in Elma John's latest article.
We have a new addition to our Spotlights channel, Zoocha, a leading Drupal Development Agency in the UK. The article discusses the intricate world of Zoocha, bringing to light the company's journey, strategies, and outlook with contributions from Will Huggins, the CEO, and the Zoocha team.
Dries Buytaert, the founder of Drupal, visited Japan for the first time in nearly eight years. He presented the latest developments in Drupal and associated web technologies at the Drupal Meetup. Tokyo. Read the article by Kazima Abbas for a comprehensive overview of the Tokyo Meetup and its significance.
Interestingly, the recent Drupal Meetup, organized by Valuebound in collaboration with the Drupal Association, marked a significant event for Drupal enthusiasts and professionals. The event, held at Valuebound's office in Bangalore, featured a special meet-and-greet session with Tim Doyle, the CEO of the Drupal Association. As an after-note, Tim wrote, that "Drupal is alive and well in India", owing to the enthusiastic Drupal Community in India.
The Drupal Community has many events to celebrate this week, but MidCamp 2024 and DrupalSouth Sydney 2024 tops the list. As the Media Partner for both events, The DropTimes is determined to provide its readers timely updates. A complete list of events for the week is available here.
The upcoming DrupalCamp Burkina Faso 2024 is close to reaching its funding target, needing just $2,000 more to facilitate the largest DrupalCamp event in West Africa. DrupalCamp Asheville is now open for speaker submissions, inviting seasoned presenters and newcomers to share their expertise and insights. Also, the last chance to submit proposals for Stanford WebCamp 2024 ends on or before March 25, 2024. The DrupalSouth Splash Awards 2024 shortlist, sponsored by Ironstar, has been announced ahead of the event.
Imre Gmelig Meijling, CEO of React Online Digital Agency in The Netherlands, has been introduced as one of the newest members elected to the Drupal Association Board. Alex Moreno has launched a comprehensive guide to enhance impactful contributions to Drupal and the Drupal Association. The contributor guide lists strategic initiatives, crucial issues, and essential modules, offering contributors an avenue to make significant impacts within the Drupal community.
The Drupal community has recently seen the introduction of a new module, Bill of Lading, created by Jeff Greenberg. This module simplifies site management by generating a comprehensive list of Drupal structures using a new Drush command, 'bol.' QuantCDN co-founder Kristen Pol has announced a major update to their Drupal static site generator, enhancing Drupal 9 and 10 integration with new features, including visibility into Quant metadata directly within the Drupal platform.
We acknowledge that there are more stories to share. However, due to constraints in selection, 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, TheDropTimes.
admin
Mon, 03/18/2024 - 15:10
Wow, what an event!
We would like to thank you for contributing to the magic of Drupal Mountain Camp 2024 and making it tremendous success!
From the snow-capped peaks of learning to the comfy fireside chats of networking, the event was a one-of-a-kind experience that left a lasting imprint on all of us.
As I look back on the laughter-filled evenings and the insightful discussions that echoed through the venue to the fondue evening, I'm reminded of the incredible sense of community that defines us.
We are immensely grateful for the insightful presentations by our honoured speakers, the generous support from our valuable sponsors, and the dedication and hard work of our volunteers to ensure the event's success.
Together, we explored new ideas, shared knowledge, and forged meaningful connections within the Drupal community.
As we reflect on the success of this year's conference, we're already looking forward to what lies ahead for the next Drupal Mountain Camp.
Feedback
We implore everyone to submit their feedback to each session they attended by going to the schedule and clicking on each session, then giving a quick anonymous feedback.
The schedule should still be available via the custom domain:
https://event.drupalmountaincamp.ch/drupal-mountain-camp-2024/schedule/
Furthermore, we would greatly appreciate all feedback regarding the conference as a whole to be submitted on the "Closing Session".
Highlights
Here's some of the statistics that we calculated from the event.
Participants per Country
Media
We're very grateful to have such an awesome media team to capture every single moment.
Official photos by Patrick Itten
https://foto.patrickitten.ch/drupal-mountain-camp-2024
Photos by Josef Kruckenberg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/185226958@N05/albums/72177720315270848/
Relive the recap here by Dan Lemon
https://youtu.be/Z6AX_gexOg0
Extended fondue and sledding with the little happy birthday surprise
https://youtu.be/BgBzHbveSdE
Session Videos
We were able to record all the keynote sessions along with all sessions that took place in the Pischa room.
You can find the session videos on our YouTube Channel, under the playlist title "Sessions - Drupal Mountain Camp 2024"
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6C9y4dEueZhksow0hSYFsPKGIo2c735C
Aaron Winborn Award
This is a reminder that the Aaron Winborn award nominations are open until Friday, March 29, 2024
This annual award recognizes an individual who demonstrates personal integrity, kindness, and above-and-beyond commitment to the Drupal community.
It includes a scholarship and travel stipend for the winner to attend DrupalCon North America and recognition in a plenary session at the event.
https://www.drupal.org/community/cwg/blog/nominations-are-now-open-for-the-2024-aaron-winborn-award
What's Next
Drupal Switzerland Association plans to host further in-person events throughout the year, such as gatherings in Zurich, Bern, and hopefully somewhere in the Swiss Romandie area.
We will post new events to our meetup.com account, as well as cross-posting to our Drupal Switzerland Slack and also to Drupal Groups:
https://www.meetup.com/zurich-drupal-meetup/
https://groups.drupal.org/switzerland
Furthermore, we'd like to highlight these two upcoming events for the Drupal community.
Drupal Dev Days Burgas
Drupal Developer Days is an annual gathering of people loving, learning, and discussing all things relating to Drupal. This year it'll be hosted by Drupal Bulgaria in Burgas, by the seaside.
The event is planned to take place between June 26-28, 2024 at Burgas Free University in Burgas, Bulgaria.
Drupal Dev Days 2024 is going to be a 3-day event full of amazing sessions, workshops and discussions as well as various social events and other surprises.
Find out more on their website
https://ddd2024.drupalcamp.bg/
DrupalCon Barcelona
You may have seen Mercè in Davos, the mascot for DrupalCon Barcelona. Kuoni-Tumlare will calculate out who won the contest for a free ticket to DrupalCon Barcelona 2024.
This year's DrupalCon takes place from September 24-27, 2024 at the stunning Centre de convencions internacional de Barcelona (CCIB).
Barcelona's accessibility ensures that this event is within reach for all Drupal enthusiasts.
https://events.drupal.org/barcelona2024
A Final Thank You
We'd like to extend our deepest gratitude to our valuable sponsors, whose generous support made Drupal Mountain Camp 2024 possible.
To our esteemed speakers, thank you for sharing your expertise and insights, enriching the experience for all attendees.
A heartfelt thank you to our dedicated volunteers, whose hard work and enthusiasm ensured the smooth execution of every detail.
And last but certainly not least, to all our participants, thank you for bringing your passion and energy, making Drupal Mountain Camp a vibrant and unforgettable gathering.
Your contributions have truly made a difference and have left a lasting impact on our community.
Until we meet again, let's continue to collaborate, learn, and grow together in the spirit of Drupal.
On behalf of the Drupal Mountain Camp organisation team,
Dan Lemon
It's not only about what a module from the Drupal community can achieve when you consider using it. Along with how long you want your website to remain, you need also to consider who will maintain it after it goes up. These factors influence the level of danger you are willing to accept.
For instance, you might desire modules with an excellent track record and robust community support if you're not too familiar with Drupal.
Every module available on Drupal.org is licensed under the GPLv2 and is open source. This means that while they are free to use, any dangers are your responsibility but every module has a community of users who assist with problems and updates, as well as a team of maintainers for each module. Additionally, partnering with a reputable Drupal web development company can provide further assurance in terms of module selection, ongoing support, and maintenance.
Let's discuss some factors to consider when evaluating a community module.
Creating user-friendly and stylish web pages can sometimes make you nervous, and maybe you want to turn off your computer - does that sound familiar? Even using popular CMSs, including Drupal, sometimes it is difficult to understand this issue and create a functional, modern website. Drupal can offer several effective solutions, and today, we will look at one of them - the Drupal Paragraphs module.
Creating a home page, or even a regular page on a website, requires much effort and time unless you're a professional web developer. Many people with initial design skills face similar problems and spend much time searching for solutions. Often, everything comes with experience. Through trial and error, reading various articles, and watching videos on YouTube, we are looking for an opportunity to achieve the goal.
Nightwatch is an automated testing framework for web applications and websites. It uses the W3C WebDriver API to simulate real user interactions in a web browser environment, such as Chrome, to test the complete flow of an application, end-to-end.
In this tutorial, we'll see how we can extend the Acquia AutoDevOps template that comes out-of-the-box with Code Studio to also run Nightwatch tests for our application so we can ensure critical features remain functional as we further develop and maintain it.
To start, let's first add a simple Nightwatch test to verify Drupal is up and running by navigating to the Drupal login page and
Evolving Web is the agency partner that empowers organizations to adapt to the ever-changing digital landscape. We’re a team of 90+ technologists, storytellers and creatives who believe that a dynamic and adaptable digital presence is the most powerful way for clients to create meaningful connections. Through strategy, technology, design, marketing, and training, we set stories in motion through digital platforms designed for growth.
Evolving Web was founded in 2007 by two passionate Drupalists on the ideals that define the open source ethos: transparency, collaboration, and continuous improvement. Then and now, we believe in the power of open source to drive innovation and growth. Our team regularly contributes to the open source community through code, documentation, sponsorship, strategic initiatives, and events like EvolveDrupal.
We look into the challenges and solutions in managing Drupal and other website updates across hundreds of websites, a topic brought to life by members of Lullabot's Support and Maintenance team and Jenna Tollerson from the State of Georgia.
Learn how Lullabot deals with update processes, drastically reducing manual labor while enhancing security and efficiency through automation.
"It's almost like adding another whole developer to your team!"
With just one week until we meet in person for MidCamp 2024, book your ticket before the standard discount pricing ends on March 14, 11.59pm CT to save $100!
We’ve got a great line-up this year! All sessions on Wednesday and Thursday (March 20/21) are included in the price of your MidCamp registration. We encourage you to start planning your days -- and get ready for some great learning opportunities!
Know any students or individuals seeking to expand their Drupal knowledge?
We have heavily discounted tickets ($25!) available for students and those wanting to learn more about Drupal to join us at MidCamp and learn more about the community!
There are sessions for everyone—topics range from Site Building and DevOps to Project Management and Design.
If you know you'll be joining us in Chicago, why not volunteer some of your spare time and get some exclusive swag in return! Check out our non-code opportunities to get involved.
Please feel free to ask on the MidCamp Slack and come hang out with the community online. We will be making announcements there from time to time. We’re also on Twitter and Mastodon.
We can’t wait to see you next week!
The MidCamp Team