Wait…hear us out first - imagine a scenario where you need to dig into your traditional closet to find that one dress to wear for a special occasion. How’s the picture? Tiresome?

Now imagine a walk-in closet where you can quickly browse through all your outfits and hand-pick your favorite one for that special occasion.

The latter saves you time and gives you quick access to a variety of options. The Drupal Admin Toolbar module does the same for site admins. It makes your job easy and quick, gets you to your destination easily, and saves you a lot of time digging through your options on your website.

In this blog, you’ll read about the benefits and uses of the Admin toolbar module. You’re probably already using it, but if not, you will once you read this blog. Even if you are, read it anyway because we’ll also talk about a few less-known facts about this module.

What is the Admin Toolbar Module?

In the digital age, expecting things to get easier and easier with lesser human effort has become the norm. And this module is also an example of such ease of moderation.

The Admin Toolbar module is an upgrade to the standard or default toolbar, the administration menu at the top of your site. Using the module, you can empower the regular toolbar with drop-down menus and get quick access to all your admin pages.

This is a light module and can overwrite your default toolbar core module. It employs responsive shortcuts and keeps the default toolbar functionalities active.

Few Facts and Usage Stats of Drupal Admin Toolbar Module

Did you know that the Drupal Admin Toolbar Module was released on April 20, 2015? And over time, its usage has kept growing consistently. Now, more than 280,000 websites have used this module.

Source: Drupal.org

Although this module is not yet in Drupal core, it could be a great feature to add to it. This way, it can further enhance usability out of the box.

Version Status and Sub-modules

Version 3.x of this module has a configuration form so that site admins can limit the stock of bundles to be displayed in the drop-down menus.

Additionally, you can use the accompanied submodules as below:

Admin Toolbar Extra Tools: With this submodule, you can add a few menu items like Cache Rebuild, Run Cron, Index site, etc. which are frequently used admin tasks.

Admin Toolbar Search: You need this module to empower the search box to look for admin pages.

Admin Toolbar Links Access Filter: Using this submodule, you can filter out the links that shouldn’t be accessible by users. Makes sure to use the route name instead of the internal path for custom menu links.

Benefits of the Admin Toolbar Module

Not just the configuration form for this module, but Drupal has a comprehensive system that includes various configuration forms. Most of these configuration forms are nested and so, users can access them from the parent tab.

The default toolbar cannot lead you to your destination, as the administration menu is not expansive. It did take up one’s time having to visit various websites for one particular action. In the previous scenario (before the launch of this module), you had to click on Content Type and then on Article to add an article.

Thanks to this module, you can now save a lot of time with drop-down lists with responsive, expanded functionalities. Additionally, you can restrict users from accessing certain links on our website. For this, you have the Admin Toolbar Access Filter, a submodule mentioned earlier.

How to install the Admin Toolbar module?

Let’s start by downloading the Admin Toolbar module first.

1. Run this Composer command:

composer require drupal/admin_toolbar

2. Visit Extend page and click on Extend

Or visit: https://

3. Search for “admin toolbar” in the search box

4. Select the checkbox for Admin Toolbar

5. Install the Admin Toolbar module and its three submodules

The functionality of the toolbar depends on the collaboration of all four modules.

The Admin Toolbar Module and its 3 Submodules

Here is a breakdown of all four modules that create the best output with collaboration:

Admin Toolbar

It is the base module and provides dropdown functionalities on your standard toolbar after installation.

Source: Drupal.org

As mentioned earlier, the 3.0.0 version of the module introduced a new configuration form which may have created performance issues. In order to configure this issue, go to:

Admin > Configuration > User interface > Admin Toolbar Tools

Make sure to take a hard look at the warning that says “Loading a large number of items can cause performance issues.”

Admin Toolbar Extra Tools

One of the three submodules, the Admin Toolbar Extra Tools lets you add extra drop-down functionality via the following functions:

• Additional menu options in the dropdown functionality
• A Drupal logo in the top left corner of the Admin Toolbar
• A list of functioned indexed alphabetically
• Flush individual or all caches
• Need not wait for 3 hours, instead run cron job immediately
• Post module updates, run a system update 
• Employ quick access to logout function

Admin Toolbar Links Access Filter

Site admins can restrict users from accessing specific links. These users will have “Use the Administration Pages and Help” permission but no access to certain pages on the website. However, such users can still view the menu items. This submodule can be used simply by installing it and does not require any configuration.

Admin Toolbar Search

You will find the Admin Toolbar Search box on the Admin Toolbar itself. Beginners, site builders, or admins new to Drupal can use this search box to look for functions or administrative and configuration pages.

Complementary Modules

These are a few sub-modules to add the cherry topping to the cake you made with the Admin Toolbar module - 

• Toolbar Menu: Add any menu that easily blends with the Admin toolbar, making them easily accessible dropdown menus.
• Toolbar Anti-flicker: Remove any impact of the toolbar submenus on the rest of your website page.
• Coffee: Look for admin paths with this module.
• Adminimal Admin Toolbar: Add a black theme to your page.
• Admin Toolbar Content Language: Add links to create content using any active language.
• Toolbar Themes: Access great UI themes from here.

Final Thoughts

If you want a list of must-have Drupal modules for your website, the Admin Toolbar module is one to include in that list. Site admins and builders can easily manage content and configure and develop a better user experience.

Reference:

• https://www.droptica.com/blog/how-manage-backend-website-drupal-admin-toolbar-module/ 
• https://www.volacci.com/drupal-seo-guide/drupal-admin-toolbar-module 
• https://www.webwash.net/quick-search-and-drop-downs-to-toolbar-using-admin-toolbar-in-drupal/ 
• https://www.drupal.org/project/admin_toolbar

Author: Priyanka Phukan

Meet Priyanka, a Junior Content Writer and Marketer at Specbee. Priyanka’s a Grammar-Freak with a knack for creating impactful content with ‘words’ being her weapon of choice. A foodie who likes all things chicken. When not writing, she likes to play the Uke and sing. On blue days, you’ll find her binge-watching Asian dramas.

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I am happy to share that Lauri Eskola has accepted our invitation to become a Drupal Core Product Manager.

The Core Product Managers communicate with different types of users, gather data about how Drupal is currently being used, and represent Drupal's end users (like site builders and content authors). They help determine the core feature set and work to holistically improve Drupal's out-of-the-box experience.

Lauri has been working with Drupal for almost 13 years. Not only is Lauri a subsystem maintainer of the theme system, Claro, and CKEditor 5, but he has also been a Frontend Framework Manager and a Drupal Core Committer since 2017.

Throughout the years, Lauri's enthusiasm for driving user-facing improvements has grown. In light of this, we have decided to transition Lauri's role from being a Drupal Core Frontend Framework Manager to becoming a Product Manager.

Lauri is looking forward to helping the project by prioritizing and supporting efforts to make Drupal an even more powerful tool for ambitious site builders.

It’s time to transform and improve the Layout Builder UI experience. What if we could rewrite it using React? Check out our video pitch (made using React), which received the highest average rank in the Pitch-burgh contest at DrupalCon!

At PreviousNext, we enjoy getting curious, tackling challenges and finding innovative solutions for our clients and the wider Drupal community. This constant drive for the future is why we’re such prolific contributors to the Drupal project. 

What if we used our curiosity and expertise to explore the concept of a decoupled Layout Builder?

The Pitch

Simply put, we believe creating a better experience for the Layout Builder user interface is possible. Getting there would mean leveraging a modern Javascript framework, like React, that communicates with Drupal over JSON.

We would plan to design an API that describes the future state of how a Decoupled Layout Builder could work, dramatically enhancing the content editor experience and bringing Drupal into the modern era of web UX. It would also strengthen Drupal’s reputation with marketers.

The case for an improved Layout Builder user experience

What if Layout Builder could move forward? It’s currently built with Drupal technologies that haven't significantly progressed in ten years.

Page edits use Drupal's AJAX API, which requires a round trip back to the server to perform UI updates. The server updates state on the server side and then returns a series of Javascript commands to update the page state.

This round trip is inconsistent with the instant experience users expect from the modern web. 

Our solution

Applications that leverage modern Javascript frameworks perform optimistic updates. They update the UI immediately and then update state on the server in the background.

We want layout retrieval and updates to happen in real time for more dynamic editing. To achieve this, we would rebuild the Layout Builder UI using React and identify the pain points.

This would be a significant jump, similar to the change to the block-based editor in WordPress.

Rather than starting from scratch, we could leverage a lot of prior art from the WordPress community. However, we would also bring our strengths into play, retaining our uniquely Drupal focus on structured data instead of serialising to HTML. 

Proof of concept

React is the best and most obvious option for the proof of concept. It was selected as the framework of choice for Drupal core development and has a large ecosystem. It was also successful in helping set WordPress up for the future. 

What if it’s Drupal’s turn next?

To retain structured data, it would be necessary to provide React versions of our existing formatters and widgets and a way for developers to create their own.

This approach would require a Javascript way of declaring layouts. Again, we could take a lot of this from existing layout plugins but would require a React component for the HTML representation.

We would also need to incorporate a Javascript way of declaring blocks. Much could be derived from our existing structured content modelling. However, assuming there would be a build step where this data is used for scaffolding Javascript code is reasonable.

JSON:API could be leveraged where possible, but we envisage needing to make new JSON endpoints for data that doesn't map to entities.

Once we had achieved a non-twig way of rendering widgets, formatters, blocks and layouts, we could keep the layout state in the browser, mutate it immediately and persist to the backend in the background.

Is a decoupled Layout Builder feasible?

There are a number of hard problems we'll need to solve here, such as how we allow modules to ship Javascript that relies on bundling, how we ensure there's only one version of React loaded into the page, and how we allow modules to rely on other packages from npm. Solving those will be a big part of this work, and even if a React-powered Layout Builder doesn't make its way from experimental to stable, the lessons learned in the process could solve some long-standing hard problems for Drupal in the front end space.

React in video

We decided it would be a fitting way to demonstrate how powerful React is by using it to make our Pitch-burgh video submission. 

We received the highest average rank when the video was shown during the Driesnote address at DrupalCon Pittsburgh, and look forward to the next steps for this exciting concept. 

Huge shout out to the team who worked on creating the pitch video especially the wizard of words Fiona, frontend Guru Jack and the excellent QA and GIF selection from Kim and Tina.

Enjoy!

Today we are talking about The ECA Module with Jürgen Haas.

For show notes visit: www.talkingDrupal.com/402

• What does ECA stand for
• What does ECA do
• Is ECA a replacement for Rules
• Team
• Hardest feature to implement
• Performance
• What is BPMN
• Using the module
• When wouldn’t you use the module
• Roadmap
• Helping with ECA

• Bpmnio
• BPMN
• Camunda
• HTTP Client Manager
• ECA Video Stream/Library
  • Sessions and link to the live stream will be pre-announced in the #ECA channel on Drupal Slack, at the latest an hour prior to the event. It is held on Fridays 3pm CEST/1pm UTC/9am EST/6am PST
• ECA Guide

Jürgen Haas - www.lakedrops.com @jurgenhaas

Nic Laflin - www.nLighteneddevelopment.com @nicxvan John Picozzi - www.epam.com @johnpicozzi

I have had an idea for a few years. It is the greatest yet worst idea I’ve had for four years. Some 400,000 Drupal 7 sites report to Drupal.org through the Update module. Drupal 7's end-of-life is coming on November 1, 2023, and has been a continual topic of discussion.