At the heart of the Drupal community lies our commitment to fostering a collaborative, inclusive, and positive environment. As part of this mission, the Drupal Community Working Group (CWG) Conflict Resolution Team is excited to announce quarterly open office hours.

Our open office hours are designed to create a safe and welcoming space where members of the Drupal community can connect with us. Whether you have questions about conflict resolution, need guidance on community challenges, or simply want to better understand how we support our community, this is your opportunity to engage with the team.

What to Expect

During these sessions, you’ll have the chance to:

• Ask questions about the CWG and its role in maintaining a healthy community.

• Seek advice or share concerns related to conflict resolution or community dynamics.

• Learn about tools and resources to help foster positive interactions in your own Drupal spaces.

This is a casual, open forum, so feel free to drop in and participate as much or as little as you’d like.

Details for the Next Session

📅 Date: February 28, 2025
⏰ Time: 5:00 - 6:00 PM GMT
📍 Location: ZOOM - https://drupalassoc.zoom.us/j/81673498809

We’re here to listen, provide support, and help strengthen the bonds that make the Drupal community so unique. Whether you’re a long-time contributor or new to Drupal, we welcome everyone to join us.

Why Open Office Hours?

The open office hours are part of our ongoing effort to ensure that every community member feels heard and supported. By offering this space, we hope to encourage open dialogue and provide resources that contribute to a healthier, more resilient Drupal community.

We look forward to seeing you there and working together to continue building the kind of community we can all be proud to be a part of. 💙

Authored by Nadiia Nykolaichuk.

Today we are talking about The open university initiative, Drupal in academia, and Fostering Drupal Education with guest Jean-Paul Vosmeer. We’ll also cover Artisan as our module of the week.

For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/488

• What is the Drupal Open University Initiative
• How did this initiative start
• Why is it important to get Drupal into Universities and Classrooms
• What stage is the initiative at
• Is Drupal currently in any universities
• Is it better to approach schools or professors directly
• How is the curriculum being developed
• What are the main differences between this initiative and resources like Drupalize.me, Drupal at your fingertips, or Drupal TB
• What is next on the roadmap
• Where does Drupal CMS fit in
• Where does the initiative need help
• How can someone get involved

• Drupal Open University Initiative
• Metadrop blog about Artisan
• Drupal viking
• Do it with Drupal
• Drupal at your fingertips
• Drupal Open University
• OSPO
  • https://todogroup.org/
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Program_Office
• Content Model & Site Documentation

Jean-Paul Vosmeer - reactonline.nl jpvos

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Avi Schwab - froboy.org froboy

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• Brief description:
  • Have you ever wanted to use the Drupal UI to configure numerous aspects of your Drupal site’s look and feel? There’s a theme for that.
• Module name/project name:
  • Artisan
• Brief history
  • How old: created in Sep 2024 by alejandro cabarcos though recent releases are by crzdev, both of metadrop
  • Versions available: 1.3.8, which support Drupal 10 and 11
• Maintainership
  • Actively maintained, release in the last week
  • Security coverage
  • Documentation: no, but a lengthy README that includes developer notes
  • Number of open issues: 7 open issues, 5 of which are bugs, but 3 are postponed
• Usage stats:
  • 170 sites
• Module features and usage
  • After installing the theme, there is a drush command to generate a subtheme, or you can manually duplicate an included starterkit. You also need to run a couple of npm commands to pull in all the front end libraries, and build the CSS files
  • Once you set the subtheme as your site default, you can customize a variety of ways the site looks, including the fonts and weights to use for heading and default text, the colour and padding of various elements, border weights, border radius, and more.
  • The customizations are grouped into tabs. The base tab includes a colour palette, base font, and link styling. Additional tabs include page layout, header, responsive, and footer, also breadcrumb, headings, display headings, buttons, forms, and components
  • Artisan also provides a toggle to expose extra customization options for dark mode, so if you want your site to give users the option to switch back and forth between normal and dark, this is extremely powerful, but does make for some very long configuration pages
  • You can create and save presets, for easy creation of reusable palettes
  • There is also a companion Artisan Styleguide module that provides a page that previews the theme style applied to an extensive list of elements
  • Last year I was considering making a more configurable subtheme of Olivero for the Event Platform initiative, so I was excited to read about Artisan in a metadrop blog post we’ll include in the show notes

Dear Readers,

I have been involved with the Drupal Community for almost one and a half years now but it still gives me a little bit of goosebumps every time Dries shares one of my interviews or articles. Recently, I had the honor to interview Owen Lansbury, Chair of the Drupal Association and the Co-founder of PreviousNext. Owen quoted and Dries shared,

“The simplest question any agency leader needs to ask themselves is, “Does my business rely on Drupal?” If the answer is yes, then you need to put the policies in place to qualify as a Drupal Certified Partner or your business will become irrelevant in the Drupal ecosystem.” 

The Drupal ecosystem thrives on innovation, but its long-term sustainability depends on a crucial factor—ensuring that those who benefit from Drupal also contribute back to its growth. While the open-source model has always encouraged collaboration, a persistent challenge remains: too few organizations actively invest in the development and promotion of the platform. The Drupal Certified Partner program has made significant strides in addressing this by recognizing and encouraging businesses that contribute, but there is still a long way to go in shifting more organizations toward active participation.

The numbers tell a stark story—Drupal-related projects generate billions in revenue annually, yet only a small fraction of that is reinvested into the Drupal Association. This imbalance raises critical questions about how we sustain and scale an open-source project in an increasingly competitive CMS landscape. Without broader financial and development contributions, Drupal risks losing the momentum needed to drive innovation, maintain its infrastructure, and expand its reach. The challenge is not just about raising funds but about shifting mindsets—contribution should be seen as an essential part of doing business with Drupal, not an optional act of goodwill.  

As the ecosystem evolves, organizations that actively support Drupal’s growth will find themselves in a stronger position—both in terms of influence within the community and long-term business stability. All of us are responsible for ensuring that Drupal remains a thriving, innovative platform. By investing in contribution, we aren’t just supporting an open-source project; we’re securing the future of the businesses and communities that rely on it.

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

Interviews

• Making the World Take Notice of Drupal Through Innovation: Owen Lansbury
• Video Interview with DDEV Maintainer Randy Fay Now on YouTube

Discover Drupal

• Drupal Public Data, Statistics & Silver Linings? An Exploration #2
• Drupal Releases Recipe Installer Kit for Custom Installation Profiles
• Integrating DeepSeek AI with Drupal for Smarter Content Management
• Jacob Rockowitz on Webform’s Role in Drupal CMS and Its Future

Events

• DrupalCon 2025 in Atlanta: A Key Event for Local Drupal Professionals
• Drupal Mountain Camp 2025 Schedule Released
• DrupalCamp England 2025 Tickets Now Available
• Cristina Chumillas to Deliver Keynote on the Future of Drupal at Drupal Mountain Camp 2025
• Reminder: Call for Papers for Drupal Iberia 2025 Open Until End of February
• Events This Week: Feb 10 - 16, 2025

Organization News

• Exove, Piwik PRO and Cookie Information: A Collaboration Shaping the Future of Drupal and Privacy
• Agiledrop Surges Forward with Growth, Expansion, and Innovation in 2025

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.

2001: Birth of Drupal

In 2001, Dries Buytaert laid the foundation for what would become one of the world's leading content management systems. Initially conceived as a simple message board named Drop.org, this platform served primarily as a digital space for friends to connect and share ideas. However, its potential quickly became apparent, and it evolved beyond a mere forum into a robust framework designed for comprehensive web development.

The transition from Drop.org to Drupal was profound. The name Drupal derives from the Dutch word druppel, meaning "drop," symbolizing its humble beginnings. The involvement of early community members was instrumental, setting the stage for future growth. Contributors from diverse backgrounds participated in refining and expanding the platform's capabilities, laying the groundwork for an open-source project that thrives on collaboration and shared expertise.

2003: Drupal as an Open-Source Project

The year 2003 marked a pivotal transformation for Drupal as it embraced the principles of open-source development. This strategic shift was vital, as it opened doors for a global community to engage collaboratively in enhancing the platform. Open-source software thrives on collective engagement, which fosters innovation, encourages rapid iterations, and speeds up development cycles.

In the aftermath of this transition, a wave of organizations began adopting Drupal, recognizing its flexible architecture and the advantages of community-driven improvements. Notably, prominent institutions such as NBC and the European Commission were among the trailblazers in leveraging Drupal's capabilities, significantly impacting the content management landscape and contributing to its growing popularity.

2004-2008: Expanding Features and Reach

Between 2004 and 2008, Drupal underwent remarkable enhancements, particularly through the introduction of various modules and themes that significantly broadened its functionality. Key releases during this period included Drupal 5 in 2007, which introduced essential features such as improved taxonomy and an enhanced user permissions system. Following that, Drupal 6 debuted in 2008, bringing improvements in usability and a streamlined installation process.

Additionally, the CivicSpace project showcased Drupal's versatility for political campaigns and social movements, exemplifying its adaptability across different applications. An increasing number of organizations, including the European Commission and various non-profits, transitioned to Drupal during this era, citing its inherent flexibility and robust community support as pivotal factors in their adoption decisions.

2011: Drupal 7 - A Major Leap

The release of Drupal 7 on January 5, 2011, represented a transformative milestone for the platform, introducing a plethora of substantial enhancements tailored to both developers and end-users. Among the most notable features was an improved administrative interface, which streamlined site management and rendered it more intuitive for users, regardless of their technical expertise. Additionally, enhanced user permissions enabled fine-grained control over various roles, significantly elevating security and customizability for site administrators.

The acclaim surrounding Drupal 7 was extensive and widespread, earning it multiple industry awards and solidifying its standing within the CMS community. Post-launch feedback indicated a strong appreciation for the advancements made, with usage statistics reflecting a sharp increase in site transitions to the new version, underscoring its pivotal role in Drupal's ongoing evolution.

2015-2019: The Rise of Headless CMS and Drupal 8

The period from 2015 to 2019 was characterized by a significant evolution in Drupal’s architectural framework, culminating in the release of Drupal 8. This version introduced the revolutionary concept of a headless CMS, enabling the separation of front-end and back-end functionalities. By utilizing APIs, developers gained the flexibility to interact with data efficiently, facilitating seamless integration with a variety of front-end frameworks.

Drupal 8 also featured major enhancements such as improved multilingual support, the incorporation of a RESTful API, and an enriched authoring experience. Organizations harnessed these capabilities to build customized, scalable solutions that met the ever-evolving demands of the digital landscape. As enterprises began to adopt a headless approach, they experienced enhanced agility in delivering content across multiple platforms, firmly establishing Drupal’s position within the competitive CMS ecosystem.

2020: Drupal 9 - A Cleaner Foundation and Transition

In June 2020, the release of Drupal 9 marked a consequential upgrade focused on usability and streamlined performance. This version emphasized backward compatibility, ensuring users transitioning from Drupal 7 and 8 could do so with minimal disruptions. Among the crucial enhancements were a refined user interface and improved administrative tools, which significantly accelerated site management operations for both novice users and experienced administrators alike.

The response from the community was overwhelmingly positive, with many users commending the simplified upgrade process. Success stories emerged from organizations that seamlessly transitioned to the new version, highlighting how the latest features substantially improved their content management workflows. Overall, Drupal 9 laid a stronger foundation for future developments, setting the stage for innovations in versions to come.

2024: The Transition to Drupal 11

The highly anticipated release of Drupal 11 in 2024 marked yet another significant evolution within the platform, focusing on enhancing user experience and expanding capabilities. This version introduced functionalities such as structured content workflows and improved content governance, making site management more intuitive and accessible for users of all skill levels.

Early feedback from adopters conveyed a strong appreciation for these advancements, although some challenges surfaced during the transition period. It became apparent that continuous innovation, coupled with active developer engagement, was crucial to refining features and addressing transitional hurdles. The successful launch of Drupal 11 exemplified the ongoing commitment to enhancing accessibility and scalability within the ever-evolving CMS landscape.

2025: The Launch of Drupal CMS 1.0

On January 15, 2025, the debut of Drupal CMS 1.0 represented a transformative moment in Drupal's evolution, specifically designed to empower marketers and non-technical users. This version streamlined the website creation process through innovative features such as AI agents and pre-configured Recipes, enabling users to implement complex functionalities effortlessly, even without extensive coding knowledge.

This user-centric approach is poised to expand Drupal's market reach, attracting users who previously found the platform daunting or challenging to navigate. The community's active involvement in the development of Drupal CMS promises an exciting future, ensuring a pathway for ongoing innovations and enhancements aimed at improving the overall user experience.

2025 and Beyond: AI Integration in Drupal

The AI initiative in Drupal is centered around the AI module, which provides a cohesive framework for integrating various AI technologies into Drupal sites. This module allows developers to easily connect with multiple AI providers, such as OpenAI and Hugging Face, and offers tools for generating content, images, and performing content analysis. Its architecture includes foundational tools that cater to developers, site builders, and administrators, making AI integration accessible and efficient.

Moreover, the AI Agents module expands on this capability by enabling the creation of intelligent agents that can manipulate site content and configurations based on natural language instructions. Through the implementation of this framework, users can create agents tailored to specific tasks, such as adding fields or adjusting content types, enhancing overall site management and user experience. As this project evolves, future updates are expected to include additional functionalities and integrations that will further streamline AI usage within Drupal.

When building web applications, developers typically choose between a decoupled architecture with modern frontend frameworks or a traditional monolithic approach using template engines like Twig or Blade. Inertia.js revolutionized Laravel development by enabling developers to maintain their server-side workflow while adopting modern frontend frameworks like Vue and React - without having to completely change their development approach.

Inertia.js has proven tremendously successful in the Laravel ecosystem, showing that developers appreciate the flexibility to gradually adopt modern frontend practices while leveraging their existing server-side expertise. Today, we are excited to bring the same powerful approach to the Drupal ecosystem.

Announcing Lupus Decoupled Drupal 1.0

Like Inertia.js, Lupus Decoupled Drupal lets you build modern web applications without sacrificing the benefits of server-side rendering. You maintain full control over routing and data flow on the server while delivering dynamic, interactive experiences through JavaScript components. At its core, Lupus Decoupled Drupal follows the same simple but powerful model - pages + components. Drupal defines pages and provides data - either via code or configuration - while JavaScript components handle the presentation and interactivity. This gives you the best of both worlds: server-side control with rich client-side interactions.

We are happy that as of today, Lupus Decoupled is officially considered complete and ready for production use. In fact, the building blocks of Lupus Decoupled are stable for a long time. They are already powering this site, as you can see by inspecting the API output of this post.

With version 1.0, Lupus Decoupled Drupal provides:

• A stable, production-ready API for building decoupled Drupal applications
• Full editorial control over pages, paths or metatags
• Low-code approach - customize API output through Drupal's configuration system
• Comprehensive documentation with guides and examples
• Development tools for rapid iteration and debugging
• Production-ready performance optimizations

Keeping the Power of Drupal

Beyond these core features, Lupus Decoupled Drupal maintains deep integration with Drupal, ensuring that Drupal's powerful tools work seamlessly with your modern frontend:

• Native Drupal authentication in the frontend - access control, edit buttons, editorial previews, and Drupal messages all just work
• Metatags, URL aliases, and Drupal redirects work out of the box
• Support for using Drupal forms in the modern frontend, including webforms
• Views and Layout Builder support

Multi-frontend Approach

Similar to Inertia.js, the backend (Drupal) renders into a tree of high-level components (custom elements), making it easy for any frontend framework to render the output. By default, we provide a Nuxt-powered frontend that makes it simple to get started, thanks to its web-standard focused approach. Nuxt is a versatile and beginner-friendly framework supporting various rendering modes. Additionally, we offer a proof-of-concept React implementation with Next.js for those who prefer React. Other frontend frameworks, like Astro, can be easily added as well. If you are interested to work on that, get in touch!

What's Next?

We are currently working on adding better support for the Drupal CMS and leveraging recipes as part of the installation process, making it easy to pick your desired features. Next, we plan to integrate with the upcoming experience builder, enabling server-rendered modern experiences. When Drupal CMS and the experience builder empower the Drupal site-builder, Lupus Decoupled Drupal will be ready to connect it with a modern frontend development toolbox.

Now is the perfect time to get started: Try one of the Gitpod-powered web-based development environments and take your first steps. Join us in Drupal slack at #lupus-decoupled to share your feedback or get help!

The video above explores two different methods for creating engaging quizzes in Drupal CMS. Whether you want to test user knowledge or boost engagement, Drupal provides flexible solutions for quiz creation.

The guide below explains the Quiz module and Webform Quiz Elements, their key differences, and step-by-step instructions for implementing each option.

What are Drupal Quiz Solutions?

Drupal provides two primary methods for creating quizzes:

• Quiz Module: A robust solution featuring various question types and advanced capabilities.
• Webform Quiz Elements: A simpler option integrated with Drupal’s Webform system.

Happy February!

DDEV v1.24.2 was released with MySQL 8.4 support and improved ddev composer create making it nearly compatible with composer create-project.

DDEV Notes and News

• The DDEV Advisory Group met January 8. The primary topic of discussion was the change in DDEV's funding and budgeting response to it. Our decision was to continue the arrangement with Stas as-is (bill hours at $50/hour, cap $4000/month). Randy will also bill at $50/hour with cap of $4000, but limited by always trying to leave $6000 in the bank.
• We need your input! Please take a look at the proposed 2025 Plans for DDEV and let us know your opinion, how these things should be ordered, and what we might have missed!
• macOS users will be interested in the (not-DDEV-focused) Docker Performance macOS 2025.
• The Open Source Pledge and DDEV: A Path to Sustainability.
• MySQL 8.4 is now in DDEV v1.24.2.
• DDEV v1.24.2 has improved argument handling for ddev composer create, making it nearly compatible with composer create-project. Additionally, the ddev composer create-project alias has been added for improved usability.
• The Gitpod that we have known and loved is shutting down. This affects DDEV contributors that have used it and makes DrupalPod as it stands obsolete. If you're interested in DrupalPod and will be at DrupalCon Atlanta, there is a Birds-of-a-Feather session scheduled on the path forward, 04:00pm - 04:30pm Tuesday, March 25, 2025.
• The Drop Times did a nice and extensive interview with Randy and video interview.
• Tag1 Consulting did a performance comparison of the new Drupal CMS vs WordPress, (using DDEV for everything). See Drupal CMS vs WordPress Performance.
• The latest DDEV Quickstarts in the docs are for Drupal CMS and ProcessWire! Congratulations to the Drupal community on Drupal CMS, and welcome ProcessWire folks. Thanks to Bernhard Baumrock for the ProcessWire initiative!
• DDEV: We use it on all our projects. (Followups in Reddit r/php and Reddit r/drupal).

Ongoing DDEV Work

• Node.js improved support: People have asked for some time for Node.js to be the primary web server (instead of Nginx+php-fpm, etc), and now it can be done in a number of ways. This is now in DDEV HEAD and there are Quickstarts for Simple Node.js and SvelteKit. Incidentally, this also provides experimental support for FrankenPHP and provides a Quickstart for it as a demonstration of the "generic" web server type.
• Web-based Add-on Registry: As add-ons have become so very popular it's hard to sort them out and understand which ones are meaningful for a particular need. This long-term goal is nearing completion as Stas has a proof of concept and now has to push it through to a maintained production status.
• Automated Tests for Quickstarts: You won't see these, but it's a big step for us. Because our Quickstarts are so dependent on the behavior of the upstream projects, it's always been hard for us to know when the target project has had a change that invalidates them. Now we have automated tests for the quickstarts of number of project types, and will add others as maintenance is done. Thanks to Ralf Koller for extensive work on the Drupal, WordPress, and TYPO3 quickstarts.
• Funding situation data feed: Aiming for ever-increasing transparency in the DDEV funding situation, we now have an automatically-updated feed showing our funding situation from all sources. You can see the exact situation at any time. We expect to use this feed in the message-of-the-day on DDEV, as well as ddev.com and the DDEV README.
• New contributors and maintainers: As DDEV's community grows, we always need new contributors and maintainers. We love to get contributors trained and get privileges to maintainers as needed! We already have lots of Contributor Training material, and docs on how to contribute but we'll do anything you ask for! Need help with something? Need updates? Join us in Discord or make an appointment with me.

Funding DDEV and especially to help both maintainers go full-time on DDEV: We need your help and your organization's help! Let me know if you need help getting this into your 2025 budget! Our key financial goal is to fully fund @stasadev so he can work exclusively on DDEV. We've slipped back in recent months. We need about $3700/month in increased pledges from organizations and individuals. See Full information about supporting DDEV. We’re happy to invoice you, happy to do a call discussing this, and would love it if you’d include DDEV in your 2025 budgeting process. (Our current status: We receive about $3000/month, have been spending about $3000-$4000/month. Bank balance is about $6,000, down from $8,600 last month.)

THANKS to all of you who are supporting DDEV’s path to sustainability and who have gotten your organizations to do so.

Want to keep up as the month goes along? Follow on

• blog
• LinkedIn
• Mastodon
• Bluesky
• and join our community on Discord

Happy February from Randy Fay, DDEV Project Lead. It's a delight to collaborate with you!