No one wanted to be left behind when the internet was gaining popularity in the 90s. Everyone was creating websites and experimenting with online communication—yet few really knew what they wanted to get out of it. The same thing is happening now as generative AI is taking hold. 

We’re on the cusp of a technological paradigm shift and everyone is clamouring to get ahead of the curve. But we can’t foresee all the opportunities AI will unlock, or all the new problems that it will bring. As a result, many people are acting and investing without clear direction. 

Over the past five years I’ve seen an increase in clients wanting to integrate AI into their apps and sites. Yet few of them have specific goals for AI to help them achieve. Instead, they’re operating under the misconception that innovation is always good.

Meanwhile, investments have created a technology bubble where growth happens for growth’s sake. Investors are keen to buy into AI startups (which require significant capital to purchase GPUs), as well as SaaS companies (which are moving to the cloud with the promise of infinitely scaling up).

All this means that innovation is being driven by the emerging technology itself, instead of by society and people. And that’s a problem. 

How the Open Web Can Help Vet and Harness AI

As technologists, we have a responsibility to stay on top of new technologies. To read stack overflow, listen to technology podcasts, and try things out on GitHub. We also have a responsibility to question new ideas. To hold them up to the light and see if they bring enough value for the price. 

Both the appraisal and application of innovative technology can be done more effectively through the open source community. Why? Because it provides a diversity of perspectives and expertise, which enables us to hold technology to a higher standard.

Drupal’s Open Web Manifesto speaks directly to this desire to use technology for good. With support from the Drupal Association, the Drupal community has the capacity to make AI technologies more accessible, impactful, and safer for everyone. It can tackle the big picture questions that individuals alone can’t. Things like how to close the privacy gaps in an AI integration and how to evolve Drupal’s functionality to take advantage of AI. 

Your Drupal website is improved each time you update the platform. Sometimes these improvements allow you to leverage technology you didn’t even know you needed yet. For example, Drupal is interoperable and provides a JSON API—a feature that most Drupal websites don’t yet use, but can in the future.

 

“I do think that AI can be the ultimate user experience for a lot of people.”

– Dries Buytaert, Founder of Drupal & Acquia

 

Dries Buytaert, the founder of Drupal and Acquia, spoke at EvolveDrupal about where Drupal is going.

AI Will Transform the User Interface, Says Drupal’s Founder

Earlier this month I interviewed Dries Buytaert, the founder of Drupal and Acquia, at EvolveDrupal Toronto. He talked about the opportunities he sees for Drupal to leverage AI in the short, mid, and long term. 

Short-term

Dries spoke about immediate opportunities to use generative AI to help with content creation. He noted that Drupal already has a few solutions in this area, including the OpenAI module—which allows you to generate content with ChatGPT directly within the Drupal UI, as well as do things like auto generate taxonomy or translate your content into multiple languages. Dries also noted that there may be possibilities to automatically generate images or short videos.

Mid-term

In the medium term, Dries sees AI being used to help people navigate sites and search content. “I believe AI tools can help assist users with finding the information they’re looking for. It can make it more accurate and also more intuitive to find the information.” Dries noted that this is already becoming a reality with enterprise search tools.

Long-term

The longer term “is where it gets really interesting, but also unclear”, says Dries. He believes there is potential for AI to become the new user interface for experience creation. Today, building engaging content still requires a fair amount of knowledge, skills, and clicking. But Dries predicts that in the future, users will be able to tell AI in human language to generate full pages and components in specific styles. 

“It will figure out what modules you need and maybe do the initial configuration. Then a  developer or a side builder can come in and fine tune it, because I'm sure it won't be perfect.” 

“Maybe it's a big vision, but I think that's where we're going. I don't know exactly how we'll get there, but I do think that AI can be the ultimate user experience for a lot of people. That's why I think it's important for us to pay attention.” 

 

 

Psst… want to attend talks like this in person? See our upcoming EvolveDrupal events!

What’s Next for You? 3 Ways to Evolve With Drupal

If you’re using Drupal, you’re already part of a community that can help you leverage innovations—including AI tech—in a thoughtful and effective way. I think there are three ways that we can all proactively innovate with Drupal:

1. Build new things with Drupal

An example is my team’s recent work with McGill University to create Data Homebase, the first web application of its kind in North America. It’s revolutionizing the housing industry by standardizing circular housing data and using data visualization to champion sustainable homebuilding. 

2. Innovate alongside Drupal

Because of its composable nature, we can integrate adjacent innovative tools into our technology stack. We built the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) website with Drupal as its CMS because of its ability to seamlessly integrate Acquia Cloud for hosting, Azure AD for employee logins, API-connected Drupal forms, and Google Custom Search. This allows archivists, researchers, and the public to take full advantage of the vast resources of one of Canada’s most prominent cultural hubs. 

3. Improve Drupal itself

Our team regularly contributes to Drupal—for example, we recently helped convert Olivero components into Single Directory Components and proposed enhancements to LayoutBuilder at the EvolveDrupal Toronto summit. We encourage everyone to try their hand at contributing, no matter their skill level or background! Check out the Drupal AI Community Initiative to see what Drupal AI solutions have already been created and what projects are currently underway.

+ more awesome articles by Evolving Web

The Drupal Camp Sevilla has come to an end, and we have all returned home, but the memories and knowledge gained remain with us.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all those who made this event possible. This gathering is a product of the dedicated Drupal Community, and the results have been truly outstanding!

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The Business Day

Since many editions ago, the first day of the Drupal Camp has been the Business Day. It is oriented towards meeting other companies and organisations that use Drupal and trying to establish synergies. This time there were almost 30 of us, much more than last year. We discussed the Business Day and Drupal through questions like: Is it worth it? What can we do to improve it and enhance engagement with Drupal? What can we propose? We split into small groups, and I can talk about what we discussed: yes, the…

DrupalCon Lille is in less than three weeks with more than a thousand in-person attendees and leads of various key initiatives there. Meet the leaders of improvements to Drupal core and drupal.org and advance the platform together! Here are some chances to meet them and connect.

Keynotes

The Driesnote on Tuesday at 1:30pm will of course include an update on some key initiatives as well as other exciting insights into where Drupal is headed.

The Drupal Initiative Leads keynote on Thursday at 1:30pm will feature Mike Herchel (New toolbar), Sascha Eggenberger (Admin UI improvements), Chris Wells (Project Browser), Suzanne Dergacheva (Promote Drupal), Felip Manyer Ballester (localize.drupal.org's Drupal 10 port), Fran Garcia-Linares (drupal.org's Gitlab). Meet them after the keynote on Friday to get involved in their respective initiatives!

Drupal's future

There are various sessions beyond the keynotes to discuss where Drupal is headed.

Alejandro Moreno Lopez, Scott Massey, Cristina Chumillas, AmyJune Hineline and Nick Veenhof will discuss Innovation and the future of Drupal on Thursday at 9:15am.

To discuss the Drupal Association's strategy of supporting Drupal's innovation and other questions, join Tim Lehnen, Tim Doyle, Baddy Breidert and Dries Buytaert on Wednesday 4:15pm at Drupal Association Staff + Board + Community Q&A.

More specifically Lauri Eskola, one of Drupal's Product Managers will talk about Making Drupal a Better Out-of-the-Box Product on Thursday at 11:30am.

Adopt new frontend tools

Some of the recent frontend initaitive results are now at a stage where you can adopt them!

Join Mike Herchel on Thursday at 9:15am to learn about Drupal's new Single Directory Components (SDC), which will revolutionize how you create reusable components for your modules and themes.

Andy Blum will dive deep into Drupal 10's recently stabilised starterkit tool on Thursday at 10:30am. In One Theme To Rule Them All: Using StarterKits to accelerate theme development and reduce technical debt he will show you how this new tool changes theme creation for agencies and product team for years to come.

Get involved with admin interface improvements

In Next Drupal admin UI improvements on Thursday at 10:30am, Cristina Chumillas and Sascha Eggenberger will provide an overview of various admin UI improvements in the making.

Christian López Espínola will join Cristina Chumillas to immerse you in the discussion around a new Drupal dashboard specifically in So I logged in, now what? The Dashboard initiative welcomes you on Tuesday at 4:15pm.

Project Browser

Check out the Project Browser Initiative: Where We're At and How You Can Help session on Tuesday at 3:00pm by Leslie Glynn and Chris Wells. Later on find Chris at the contribution rooms most days to collaborate on project browser development. Meet Leslie at mentored contribution events to try Project Browser.

After the session Leslie will also hold a BoF on Tuesday at 4:15pm: Maintainers - prepare your modules to shine in the Project Browser for project maintainers to get the most out of their placement in Project Browser.

Automatic updates

There is a whole panel discussion about Automatic Updates with key contributors Peter Wolanin, Tim Lehnen, Wim Leers and Jess (xjm). What's Next for Drupal Autoupdates on Thursday at 3pm.

Backend improvements

Wim Leers will talk about the work he is coordinating in Drupal's next leap: configuration validation on Thursday at 5:15pm. Configuration validation will not only make decoupled solutions easier to implement, it will also make deployments more consistent and reliable.

David Bekker, Drupal core's database API maintainer will present Why we moved the database drivers to their own modules and what we want to do next on Thursday at 5:40pm.

Drupal.org improvements

DrupalCon Lille offers a wide varierty of content and ways to get involved with improvements to Drupal.org. Drupal.org Update: Accelerating contribution will provide an overview with Tim Lehnen, Neil Drumm, Brendan Blaine and Fran Garcia-Linares on Wednesday at 11:30am.

Fran Garcia-Linares will present a dedicated session api.drupal.org, a journey from Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 on Wednesday at 3:00pm, while Felip Manyer Ballester and Nicolas Loye will delve into Drupal 10 localization server upgrade initiative status on Tuesday at 5:15pm. Felip Manyer Ballester will also hold a BoF discussion on Wednesday at 3pm on Contribution credits for translation activity on localize.drupal.org.

Contribution day

All of the initiatives mentioned in this post will have key folks working on contribution day on Friday (20th of October), while some of them will be present in the contribution rooms on earlier days as well. Join them at their respective tables to be part of Drupal's future!

And even more

These were just some of the top initiatives we are tracking and there will be a lot more things you can learn and be involved with at DrupalCon. Check out the full DrupalCon Lille schedule for sessions and especially BoFs to get involved and make sure to join contribution spaces throughout the event and on Friday.

Change Drush command annotations with an alterer Service instead of overriding an entire command.

Discover the enduring commitment of nonprofits to open-source solutions within the Drupal ecosystem. Co-organizer Johanna Bates shares insights into the vibrant 'Nonprofit Drupal' community, where professionals converge to discuss the intersection of Drupal and nonprofit work. Explore their journey, monthly chats, and dedication to fostering knowledge-sharing among those passionate about using Drupal for mission-driven endeavors.

As you may have heard, Drupal 7 is reaching its End of Life on 5 January 2025 – fourteen years to the day that it was released. While migrating from Drupal 7 may seem daunting, the Drupal Association is here to assure you that the process can be smooth from start to finish! In our series of Drupal 7 End of Life blog posts, throughout the next 15 months we’ll be sharing all of the tips and tricks to ensure you have the easiest migration possible.

As you approach the start of your site migration, you may be asking yourself – where do I even begin? Don’t feel embarrassed if you don’t even know where to start! We know that there are plenty of site owners in the same boat as you, asking themselves where to begin. Luckily, we’re here to help! There are three steps you should complete first in your Drupal 7 End of Life site migration process:

1. Read our questionnaire to determine your needs
2. Determine your budget for migration
3. Select a certified partner and/or use our DIY resources to build out a plan

Not only has the Drupal Association created a questionnaire to assist you in deciding on which direction to take your Drupal 7 sites, but we have also created an entire portal of partners and resources. In order to find the best fit for you, we invite you to take our Drupal 7 Site owner questionnaire here (scroll down, and you’ll find it under ‘Understanding my Options as a Drupal 7 Site Owner’). Once you’ve taken the questionnaire, you can begin working on your budget plan for 2024 and determine if you’ll be working with a certified partner from our list or using DIY resources to migrate. 

So, when should you begin these steps? We recommend starting as soon as possible, ideally completing these three steps by the end of Quarter 4 of 2023! By determining the best path for your site, planning your budget, and then selecting your certified partner(s) or resources, you’ll be on your way to migrating your site by the End of Life date of 5 January 2025. 

What does End of Life mean for you?

In software terms, end of life means that the version of that software no longer receives feature updates, bug fixes, or security releases. This last point is the most important. If a security vulnerability is discovered after the end of life date, it may be publicly disclosed, and you will be unable to update your site to protect against the issue. For this reason, we recommend beginning to plan your migration now. 

Whether you want to take advantage of new functionalities with Drupal 10 or opt for another option, we’re here to support you.

Learn more on our Drupal 7 End of Life page now, and stay tuned for more blogs in our Drupal 7 End of Life series!

Performance and scalability are two factors that affect the profitability and impact of a website to a great degree. If your site is slow and cannot accommodate increasing traffic, you’ll undoubtedly lose potential customers which will lead to the inhibition of your business’s growth. After all, research indicates that 40% of people abandon a site that doesn’t load within 3 seconds. Given that, a nimble and scalable website is the need of the hour for any business aspiring to succeed in this highly competitive world. Drupal development is a potent way for building such sites as the CMS is pre-equipped to exhibit fast performance and incredible scalability.

However, as all websites are unique and have different requirements, Drupal's performance and scalability depend on multiple components. In this blog, we’ll examine some of these components and delve into how you can utilize them to boost site speed and scalability. 

Media release Canberra, 27 Sept, 2023 – Salsa Digital and amazee.io (a Mirantis company) are honoured to announce a three-year contract to provide a whole-of-government, open source content management system and web hosting service for the GovCMS program .  See GovCMS announcement GovCMS approached the market for the third generation of GovCMS with an emphasis on maintaining the resilience, security and stability of the current platform balanced with new innovations.  “As the incumbent, Salsa Digital in strong collaboration with our partner amazee.io, wanted to make sure we weren’t complacent,” said Alfred Deeb, Salsa Digital Founding Director and Open Government Advocate.

SEO to maximise the value of your Drupal site  Welcome to the fifth instalment of our comprehensive self-help guide series, focused on improving your Drupal website. In this 6-part series, we delve into six vital metrics for a successful Drupal website: Security Performance Accessibility Patches SEO  Carbon emissions  In this guide we focus on search engine optimisation (SEO), looking at the importance of SEO, how it’s integrated into Drupal, the top contributing factors for effective SEO, and how you can implement best practices to improve your website's search engine rankings. Go to our top 10 ways to improve SEO in your Drupal site Part 1 — Understanding the metric: SEO What is SEO?

Reducing your Drupal website’s carbon footprint  Welcome to the sixth and final instalment of our comprehensive self-help guide series, focused on improving your Drupal website. In this 6-part series, we delve into six vital metrics for a successful Drupal website: Security Performance Accessibility Patches SEO  Carbon emissions  In this guide we focus on carbon emissions. In recent years, there has been growing concern about the impact of websites on the environment. As the digital landscape continues to expand, so too does the carbon footprint of websites. Reducing CO2 emissions in web development is a critical aspect of minimising the environmental impact of digital activities and creating a more sustainable future for our planet.