Earlier this month, I debuted a way to try out Drupal core and the Starshot prototype running in the browser using WebAssembly. It started as a passion project and fascination with new web technologies, something I had tried a year before but didn't find a fit for. Now, it's officially part of a Starshot initiative track.

Trial experience for Starshot track

I am the lead for the Trial experience for Starshot track. The track has three phases:

Dear Readers,

In November 2023, the Drupal community outlined potential release windows for Drupal 11, contingent on meeting specific beta requirements. Today, it is exciting to anticipate that Drupal 11 is on the verge of being officially released, marking a significant milestone in the evolution of this widely used content management system. This release includes crucial updates to key dependencies such as Symfony 7, jQuery 4, and PHPUnit 10 or 11, promising enhanced performance and stability.

Initial challenges, particularly with the update to PHPUnit 10, made the first anticipated release window in June unfeasible. However, with the completion of beta requirements by April, the development team has positioned Drupal 11 for a scheduled release this week. The release candidate, Drupal 11.0.0-rc1, was made available in the week of July 11, 2024, paving the way for the stable release. This new version introduces several features designed to enhance the overall user experience, including more intuitive content management tools, enhanced site builder capabilities, and streamlined processes for upgrading and maintaining Drupal applications.

Noteworthy features in Drupal 11 include an improved administration backend with a faster toolbar and better permission management. The introduction of Single-Directory Components (SDC) simplifies the creation and management of UI components, making it easier for developers to work with the platform. These enhancements reflect Drupal's ongoing commitment to providing a powerful and user-friendly platform for web development.

With that, let's move on to the important stories from last week.

Last week, Janne Kalliola, the Chief Growth Officer and Founder of Exove delved into the origins and evolution of the Drupal Business Survey, which he co-initiated in 2016. The survey, which is in its ninth year, gathers information about the state of Drupal businesses and agencies worldwide. In his conversation with Alka Elizabeth, Janne emphasizes why agencies should respond to the Drupal Business Survey. 

In an interview with Kazima Abbas, Brad Jones discusses his "JSON data and schemas FTW!" initiative, which aims to modernize Drupal's data management capabilities by integrating JSON data types and schemas. He highlights the initiative's potential to enhance Drupal's flexibility and interoperability, particularly in decoupled systems. The interview also explores Brad's journey with Drupal and the challenges of incorporating his project into Drupal's core.

In a recent article published on The DropTimes, Grzegorz Pietrzak, a Senior Drupal Developer at the European Commission, outlines five basic rules to keep website dependencies secure. His advice aims to help site maintainers manage and mitigate the risks associated with using third-party dependencies in Drupal projects.

The DropTimes highlighted the key moments from DrupalCamp Asheville 2024, emphasizing the event's engaging workshops, diverse sessions, and inclusive community atmosphere. Organizer April Sides shared insights on the camp's commitment to creating a welcoming environment and the challenges of organizing such events. The camp concluded with a scenic hike, underscoring the community's emphasis on well-being and connection. Read here.

DrupalCamp Colorado 2024, held at the Tivoli Center Ballroom in Denver, provided a unique blend of learning, networking, and community engagement for open-source technology enthusiasts. The event featured keynotes by Lynn Winter and Matthew Saunders, covering topics from digital strategy to diversity in tech. The camp offered workshops, community sessions, and networking activities, including a coffee exchange and an after-party, creating a comprehensive and enriching experience for attendees.

Presently in the Drupal world, Drupal GovCon scheduled for August 13-15, 2024 has opened volunteering opportunities for the event. The deadline for submissions to the 2024 Splash Awards Germany and Austria is rapidly approaching, with entries closing on July 31. The annual event, which recognizes outstanding Drupal projects, will take place on November 7 in Berlin.

The A11yTalks session titled "Empowering People with Disabilities Using GitHub Copilot" has been postponed from July 23 to July 31. Hosted by Carie Fisher and Jesse Dugas from the GitHub Accessibility team, this session aims to enhance coding practices through GitHub Copilot’s accessibility features.

This week, the Drupal community has organized several meetups and events, taking place from July 29th to August 4th, 2024. Find the full list here.

Drupal experts Kevin Quillen and Matt Glaman have announced the forthcoming release of their new book, "Drupal 11 Development Cookbook." It is designed as a comprehensive guide for site builders and developers, building on the success of their previous "Drupal 10 Development Cookbook." The new edition aims to help users navigate the latest features and updates in Drupal 11.

Provus® 2.1.12, developed by Promet Source, has been released, offering advanced features that continue to revolutionize the content management experience for non-technical editors. Provus® is a content management platform that enhances Drupal's capabilities, making it easier for users to create and manage website content.

Acquia has announced the availability of Drupal exams in French, marking a significant advancement for the French-speaking Drupal community. This initiative, in collaboration with Wide | Switzerland, a leading digital agency with a strong presence in several Francophone regions, aims to enhance accessibility and inclusivity. 

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. You can also, join us on Drupal Slack at #thedroptimes.

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

Today we are talking about The Benefits of Distributions, If they have drawbacks, and what the future of distributions looks like with guest Rajab Natshah and Mohammed Razem. We’ll also cover Google Analytics Reports as our module of the week.

For show notes visit: www.talkingDrupal.com/461

• What is a distribution
• How does this differ from profiles
• What does Varbase provide
• What types of users is Varbase geared towards
• Paragraphs or Layout Builder
• Vardoc
• How do you overcome fear of lock-in
• What do you think the future of distributions look like considering recipes
• Any plans to move Varbase to recipes
• Starshot

• Varbase Distribution
• Vardoc
• Google analytics counter
• United nations refugee agency
• George washington university
• City of Detroit
• Bootstrap Layout Builder
• Bootstrap Styles
• Visual Distribution Operator
• Profile inheritance issue
• Starshot work tracks
• Linux from Scratch

Rajab Natshah - rajab-natshah Mohammed Razem - mohammed-j-razem

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Josh Miller - joshmiller

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• Brief description:
  • Have you ever wanted to display Google Analytics charts directly within your Drupal website? There’s a module for that.
• Module name/project name:
  • Google Analytics Reports
• Brief history
  • Created in Apr 2011 by raspberryman, but recent releases are by today’s guest Rajab Natshah
  • Versions available include 7.x-3.2, 8.x-3.2, and 4.0.0, that last two of which support Drupal 10 and 11
• Maintainership
  • Actively maintained, recent releases were less than a month ago
  • Security coverage
  • A documentation guide for older versions, and a README with detailed instructions to get it set up
  • Number of open issues: 76 open issues, 9 of which are bugs against the current branch
• Usage stats:
  • 4,272 sites
• Module features and usage
  • To set up this module, you first need to set up the API connection in the Google Developers Console, and download the client secret JSON
  • You’ll then upload that into the Google Analytics Report API submodule along with the property ID to enable the connection
  • Next, you need to install the Charts module, and either the Google Charts or Highcharts sub-module to see graphical reports
  • You will now have a new Google Analytics Summary in your site’s reports menu, and new "Google Analytics Reports Summary Block" and "Google Analytics Reports Page Block" blocks available
  • I haven’t had a chance to try the 4.0 version of this module yet, but I have used older versions with a variety of dashboard solutions, including Moderation Dashboard and Homebox
  • One of the many benefits of using a powerful, open source framework like Drupal to build your site is its ability to act as the “glass” for a variety of other systems, and this module is a perfect demonstration of that

My first few articles in this series have been focused on the messages we send to others – mostly our written messages. This time I am focusing on Listening as key skills when communicating with others.

Listening is a skill. In general in our lives we are expected to know how to listen, even though most teaching is informal.

If you aren’t listening to your colleagues and clients (friends, family, etc.), which can include reading carefully the materials they write, how can you communicate back to them clearly? And when they can tell you didn’t listen closely, why should they listen to you carefully?

The Importance of Listening

Listening when other people speak, or reading their words when they send you an email or chat message, is how we learn about other people’s needs. As developers and consultants we need to understand the needs of our users and clients. If we don’t understand what they need, we will provide the wrong thing.

Active Listening

Listening is not a passive activity. If you are simply allowing someone’s words to wash over you, but not engaged with their meaning you are missing critical details of what’s being communicated.

Active Listening is a skill you can teach yourself and improve on over time.

When we speak we communicate with more than words. Our body language, tone, pace of speaking, and a host of other details go into how we communicate our message. When we actively listen, we are absorbing all those details to make sure we’re getting the whole message.

Active Listening involves also reflecting back that you’re paying attention to the speaker. You can use your own body language to send none verbal cues that you’re paying attention. You can also make affirming noises, and other auditory markers that you’re following along. And when you start to speak you can paraphrase their comments to demonstrate you understood the previous person’s contributions.

Active Listening in an Age of Video Meetings

Most materials you’ll find on Active Listening focus on in-person discussions. That’s in part because people have been talking about Active Listening for decades and the technology is still playing catchup.

But you can bring Active Listening skills to video meetings — most easily if you have your camera on.

While affirming noises and other auditory responses can cause audio filters to struggle – clipping one speaker’s audio to provide your supportive sounds – there are still ways to make sure people know you’re listening. When you camera is on, looking at the screen closest to your camera, nodding or shaking your head, making (work place appropriate) hand gestures, and other visual cues can be helpful. Using the reactions features of most systems to give thumbs up, applause, and other indicators can also help send the message that you’re paying attention.

The hardest talk I ever had to give was an online conference early in the Covid Pandemic. I had no real-time feedback from the audience at all. I was not told how many people were listening; I could not see any chat messages: no input at all. It was just me, staring at my slides, trying to maintain good energy. Eventually I got questions read to me at the end that suggested at least someone was watching – but for most of my talk I felt like I was talking to an empty room.

Give people input whenever you can without being distracting. Helping them understand they are being heard will make it easier for them to communicate with you.

Listening as a Form of Respect

Truly listening to another person is a marker of respect. You are demonstrating that the other person is worth your time and energy. If that’s not obvious to you already, think about the difference between a friend who is looking at you while you’re talking vs that same friend looking at their phone; which makes it clear your friend cares about you?

At work the same is true with colleagues. If you are looking at your phone, reading email, looking at social media, or any number of other activities that pull your attention away you are communicating the person isn’t as important to you as all those distractions.

We all are guilty of this from time to time. I have been pushing myself recently to admit it to other people because it gets me to stop.

For example, the other day just as I as starting a call, I got a message from someone else that I found very frustrating – and was time sensitive. I started to reply while also starting the call. I wasn’t really respecting my colleague’s time. So I apologized to my colleague, asked for a moment to reply to the message explaining it was both time sensitive and distracting, and then I focused on our call. I was both more focused on our conversation two minutes later, and I avoided annoying her by constantly looking away at the other message. Because she listened to me, it also meant we could restart our conversation by commiserating about distracting messages that pull our attention away from meetings.

Communicating well requires full engagement in the work, but in the messages you send and in making sure you receive messages as well.

As I said in my first post on this topic, communications skills for developers and consultants is an enormous topic. The plan for this series is evolving as I go. If you have suggestions or requests feel free to leave me a message.

The post Writing for Developers and Consultants: Listening appeared first on Spinning Code.