Discover the power of custom Drupal blocks as we delve into website customization in this article. Custom Drupal blocks offer personalized functionality, design, and content that set your website apart. Investing time in creating these blocks unlocks many benefits for Drupal website development.
To inspire your creativity, we will present real-world use cases demonstrating how custom Drupal blocks can elevate user experiences and deliver tangible results.
Are you ready to unlock the full potential of your Drupal website? Join us as we open the secrets of creating custom Drupal blocks, sharing best practices, and exploring compelling use cases.

Multimedia content, such as engaging videos, insightful podcasts, and vibrant images, is meant to captivate, inform, and entertain website users. However, while creating an immersive world of multimedia experiences, it’s necessary to be mindful of the people with a wide range of impairments who need alternative ways to perceive the content. 

Are you working on a Drupal website and being tormented by a storm of issues? If the answer is yes, just know that you are not alone. Anyone who offers Drupal development services, be it a Drupal development company or an individual freelancer, encounters these issues during the development, deployment, or maintenance stage. 

Now, is your mind being boggled by the question, “Then, how do they manage to sail through the challenges they come across?” The answer lies in some sureshot debugging techniques that help in eradicating any issues you encounter while building or working on a Drupal site. 

We're thrilled to share that the Sovereign Tech Fund (STF), based in Germany, has generously entrusted the Drupal Association with a $300,000 USD service contract for work done to benefit the public. This funding is set to fuel two crucial projects that promise to strengthen security for Drupal and enhance the Drupal ecosystem.

The Sovereign Tech Fund (STF) supports the development, improvement, and maintenance of open digital infrastructure in the public interest. Its goal to strengthen the open source ecosystem sustainably, focusing on security, resilience, technological diversity, and the people behind the code. STF is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) and hosted at and supported by the German Federal Ag-ency for Disruptive Innovation GmbH (SPRIND).

The Drupal Association, along with the Drupal community, support Drupal with core support, community support, flagship programs, and new innovation. The Drupal Association is a unicorn in the software sector in terms of structure and true community - and is a leader for open source collaboration and an open web.

Project 1: Developer Tools Acceleration

This project will optimize GitLab CI, streamline user authentication with Keycloak, migrate Drupal contribution credits from the old issue queue to a new GitLab integration, create a seamless opt-in process for Drupal.org hosted projects to transition to GitLab issues, and develop an accessible learning guide. The guide will be a valuable resource for project maintainers looking to shift from Drupal.org's custom tooling to GitLab.

Project 2: Community Supply Chain Security

This initiative aims to enhance the security of the Drupal ecosystem by securing the signing prototype, conducting a third-party security audit of the PHP-TUF client and Rugged server, and performing a third-party security audit of the Drupal integration code. Additionally, the project will deploy secure signing in a production environment, further bolstering the security measures in place.

This funding aligns perfectly with the Drupal Association's strategic priorities. It enables us to make significant strides towards our goals, particularly in terms of optimizing our workflows through GitLab and enhancing our security measures with secure signing. Both projects will conclude before 31 March 2024.

The partnership with STF allows us to make a positive difference in the Drupal community and advance the open source platform for all users. We are grateful to the Sovereign Tech Fund for their generous support. Their funding shows dedication to open source and their belief in the Drupal Association and the community's ability to innovate and ensure the future of web development.

Hey nonprofit Drupal users! The DA is interested in supporting community-driven content that is specifically relevant to nonprofit organization staff and related agencies at DrupalCon North America in Portland, Oregon, at the Nonprofit Summit on May 9, 2024.

We are looking for volunteers who would be interested in giving back to the community by contributing some subject matter expertise via a day of informal breakout sessions or other group activities. We are open to ideas!

Who are we looking for?

Do you have some Drupal expertise or a recent experience with a Drupal project that you would like to share with others? Is there something about Drupal that you think is really cool that you would love to share with the nonprofit Drupal community?

What’s required?

You will not be required to make slides! You don’t need to have lots of (or any) speaking experience! All you need is a willingness to facilitate a discussion group or engaging activity around a particular topic, and some expertise or enthusiasm for that topic that you wish to share. 

How to Submit an Idea or Topic

Please fill out this form by February 13th and we will get back to you as soon as we are able. Thank you! https://forms.gle/MJthh68rsFeZsuVc8

Discussion leaders will be selected by the Nonprofit Summit Planning Committee and will be notified by the end of February. 

Questions? 

Email nonprofitsummit@association.drupal.org.

In Drupal 8 and later versions, the routing system allows developers to define routes for various pages in their applications. These routes can include placeholder elements in the path, which are essentially variables or dynamic values in the URL. These placeholders are enclosed in curly braces, such as {node} in the example I have provided.

How upcasting parameters work: Step-by-Step Process

Placeholder Elements

These are parts of the URL that are variable or dynamic.In the example, /node/{node}, {node} is a placeholder indicating that this part of the URL can vary. The placeholders are named to make them identifiable. In the example, {node} is named to indicate that it represents a node ID.

Upcasting

Upcasting refers to the process of converting a placeholder value from the URL into an actual object instance.In the example, the system wants to convert the {node} placeholder value into an actual node object.

The Gutenberg Editor is a powerful page building tool for Drupal that utilizes a block building system to create and edit content.

This comprehensive guide walks you through each step of setting up and using the Gutenberg Editor.

From downloading and installing the Gutenberg module, to enabling it on your content types, and finally using it to create your content using blocks, this guide has you covered.

To get the most out of this guide, follow the video above.