Dear Readers,

Much has happened in a week. The biggest open-source event in North America, DrupalCon Portland 2024 has come to a close. A convergence of technology and community weaving tales of innovations gathering Drupalers worldwide has successfully concluded. Among the many highlights of the DrupalCon Portland 2024, some stole the limelight. The introduction of the Drupal Starshot initiative definitely tops the list!

What is Drupal Starshot?

It is a long overdue strategic overhaul aimed at improving Drupal's functionality and usability.  This project introduces a new "Drupal CMS" that seamlessly integrates core modules with popular community modules through a Recipes API, facilitating easier setups. Additionally, the "Experience Builder" tool, built with React, is designed to enhance page-building capabilities. Dries Buytaert propelled the Drupal Starshot rocket during DrupalCon with the help of John. F. Kennedy's "moonshot" speech. 

"We choose to go to the moon, not because that will be easy, but because it will be hard" - JFK

From learning the Soviet Union had put a man in space, the space war began. It was followed by eight years of failed attempts from the part of the US before they finally succeeded in launching Apollo 11. Dries had chosen the perfect analogy to fuel Drupal Starshot because the competition in the CMS landscape is much similar to that of the space war and failure is not an option. He reiterates that if Drupal needs to stay relevant, it needs to have its moonshot moment and Drupal Starshot is the moonshot Drupal needed.

With Drupal 8, it was more or less like Drupal had abandoned small and mid-websites for enterprise sites, but this has adversely affected its market. Additionally, Drupal's sub-standard page-building capabilities have been finally identified as the primary reason for Drupal's shrinking adoption. Now, there is only one way to go about it, make the fundamental changes urgently enhancing Drupal core with additional components tailored to everyday users of the interface.

The path that has been declared by Dries is easier said than done. But this is a race Drupal can't afford to lose because Drupal has a strong legacy to safeguard. It was born to be open and has been the defender of the open web for the past 23 years.

"Some people feel like we're falling behind, and no one wants our competitors to win because they aim to colonize a web that's less open, more closed, less creative, maybe more expensive, less accessible, and more proprietary." - Dries Buytaert

The web is moving forward it is up to Drupal and its community to decide whether they want to be a part of it. The need for change is evident and Drupal Starshot is the way to a rejuvenation. So join the Drupal Starshot initiative and make your pledge today. A comprehensive and detailed account of Driesnote that introduced Starshot can be found here.

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

DrupalCon Portland came up with many insights and announcements. Elma John, our sub-editor has gathered the key insights from DrupalCon Portland 2024. Drupalers are excited about DrupalCon North America  2025 declared to be held in Atlanta from March 24 to March 27. The dates for DrupalCon Singapore have been confirmed: November 18th to 21st, 2024. The event is to be held at the prestigious Pan Pacific Parkroyal Collection in Marina Bay.

Michael Anello, co-owner of DrupalEasy, has received the prestigious 2024 Aaron Winborn Award at DrupalCon Portland 2024. The award, presented by the Drupal Community Working Group, honors individuals who have shown exceptional commitment and contribution to the Drupal community.

The Women in Drupal Luncheon headed by the female stalwarts of Four Kitchens was a huge success. The event titled, "The Lonely Only: Women in Tech and Navigating a Male-Dominated Landscape" featured Sebastianna Skalisky, Laura Johnson, Jenna Harris, and Shanice Ortiz in a compelling discussion about the dimunitive presence of women in the historically made-dominated tech landscape. Most of these women have been the only women in their department and even at their company. For detailed insights into this session, please read my article, "Women in Drupal Luncheon at DrupalCon Portland 2024: A Convergence for Change."

A supportive initiative bloomed at DrupalCon Portland this year, introducing green sunflower lanyards to support individuals with hidden disabilities. These lanyards marked a significant step towards making Drupal events more accessible and comfortable for everyone. 

Jesus Manuel Olivas, CEO of Octahedroid, unveiled a new Headless Drupal content structuring approach improving the balance between developers, site builders, content editors, and marketers at DrupalCon. The system called Drupal as a Composable CMS, introduces three key modules: the Composable Module for better content adaptability, a Decoupled Preview Iframe for real-time content previews, and a Visual Editor for streamlined editing.

In other news, The DropTimes has published a new study revealing a global trend of governments favoring free and open-source software (FOSS) for their official websites. Team TDT analyzed the websites of 194 countries to understand the extent of this trend and uncover which content management systems (CMSs) are preferred for official government communication. Interestingly, Drupal emerged as a top choice when analyzing the top 100 country websites based on popularity (Tranco rank), Additionally, WordPress remains the most widely used FOSS option globally.

Kazima Abbas, a sub-editor with TDT had the opportunity to sit with Tim Hestenes Lehnen, Chief Technology Officer at the Drupal Association and Author of Young Adult Fiction, to talk about his latest novel, 'Fog & Fireflies'. 

DrupalCon Barcelona 2024 Calls for Artists to Enter Drawing Contest. Participants are encouraged to create an original drawing of Mercè, the celebrated figure of Barcelona's annual festival, in any artistic form they prefer. The winning design will earn a spot on the official event stickers, giving artists a unique platform to showcase their work. 

LagoonCon Portland 2024 offered a night of tech insights and connections. The conference featured three sessions dealing with Lagoon, Open Web Alliance, and Large Language Models. The free event also had a Lagoon round table discussion. Read more here. 

Events in the Drupal community are always a matter of celebration. It brings together Drupalers from various walks of life and forms a support system with Drupal at the core. Here is a list of Drupal events you can attend this week.

The 2024 Drupal Developer Survey, led by Michael Richardson, provided a comprehensive overview of the global Drupal community. With 648 developers from 65 countries, including significant contributions from the United States, France, and India, the survey showcased a mature developer base, with 76% aged between 30 and 49.

James Shields has launched the 2024 Drupal Advent Calendar, inviting contributions from the Drupal community. This year's theme, "People of Drupal," aims to highlight individuals who have significantly impacted the Drupal ecosystem. In another update, Promote Drupal committee member Emma Horrell has launched a comprehensive initiative to demystify Drupal's specialized language, known as "Drupalisms," to make the platform more accessible, especially to newcomers. The new initiative is named "De-jargoning Drupal".

1xINTERNET has announced its support for Drupal Starshot, promising to contribute with its expertise in pre-configured Drupal applications. Their existing CMS, Try Drupal, showcases their capabilities and will integrate with Starshot to further enrich the Drupal community and promote widespread adoption.

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. Also, join us on Drupal Slack at #thedroptimes.

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

Lots of agencies want to contribute more to Drupal, but don't have the time due to client work. Let's fix that.

Everyone wants to improve their lives over time, including those areas that make them feel like they are on top of the latest trends and staying caught up on new developments. The same happens with your software too, why fall behind from new updates? Updating your websites, software, and other essential operational business ongoings is important. 

But sometimes what happens is your team doesn’t support this not-so-big task. They believe upgrading the website is pointless because it will look the same. It becomes difficult to convince your team but we got these practical tips so your team will not deny migrating from Drupal 7 to 10. Let’s see how you can convince your team members to migrate to Drupal 10 from Drupal 7. 

Drupal project lead Dries Buytaert just unveiled the Drupal Starshot Initiative and I couldn't be more excited! Starshot is all about putting users first. Enhancing Drupal core with additional components tailored to everyday users of the interface. Technically, it builds on Drupal core's robust foundation, utilizing Automatic Updates/Package Manager for seamless installation and maintenance, Recipes for the base system and on-demand additions, and Project Browser to help with recipe and extension discovery.

As I was talking to people about Starshot at DrupalCon Portland I realized it is easy to overlook how fundamental the changes proposed are in terms of how Drupal will innovate and the benefits end users will enjoy. At the same time those that did not have time to watch the whole keynote had understandable misconceptions about its nature. Some were concerned the fundamental changes are happening in the architecture, or a fork / parallel project is being set up. That is not where/how Starshot revolutionizes Drupal though. To address those misconceptions, I already worked on answers to frequently asked questions and published on the Starshot page.

This blog post will focus on the benefits that I see. I had the chance to participate in two hours of Starshot BoFs and then an hour long Q&A session at DrupalCon Portland. I also covered more technical details of Starshot's architecture in my Drupal 11 talk (including the most popular question on what the Launch button might lead to). Finally I had countless conversations with people at the event. Maybe confirmation bias, but there were only a couple people I talked to that were entirely skeptical. On the other hand I got very different viewpoints on what will the benefits be depending on who I talked to.

I think all of those are great, so I compiled them. Let's see 15 different reasons why I am super excited about Starshot and how it is very different from previous initiatives.

Authored by: Nadiia Nykolaichuk.

“Let’s reach for the stars and bring the Open Web to all.”

— Dries Buytaert, creator and project lead of Drupal

Welcome to Day 2 at DrupalCon!! Today is another exhilarating day packed with cutting-edge sessions, collaborative workshops, and unparalleled networking opportunities. There are few better ways to enhance your skills and connect you with the vibrant Drupal community. Let's dive deeper into the world of Drupal and check out a few highlights from Day 2:

Keynote: Open Source AI Now: Why Open Must Win the AI War

In this post, we explore building a cards section with Layout Builder.

The component will look something like the 'Services' section on our homepage*. If you've built websites over the last decade, you've probably built a component like this many times.

The key aspects of the component are

• A title
• Some intro text
• A series of cards. Each card has a URL, title, image and teaser text

If you've previously used paragraphs for modelling landing pages, you may immediately be thinking that your content model will be made up of paragraph type 'cards' with three fields as follows:

• A title
• A teaser field for the intro text
• A multi-value cards field, which is itself another paragraph type 'card'.

Or rather, because this is Layout Builder, you might be thinking of a block-content type called cards with those fields on it — leaning on paragraphs for the multi-value cards field.

Whilst that approach works well for paragraphs, it isn't the best approach for Layout Builder:

• There are some gnarly bugs with Layout Builder + Block Content + Paragraphs + Content moderation
• It requires content-editors to fumble in the off-canvas editor to rearrange each card using drag-and-drop. We want a nice re-order experience like this:

Making the most of layout plugins

Let's instead pivot to a layout plugin for the cards component and think of it in terms of regions.

We have:

• A layout title
• An introduction region
• A cards region

We probably already have a block-content type that consists of a WYSIWYG field — e.g., something like the Basic block content type in core. We can use that for the intro text.

So we need a card block content-type. But we probably want two. A lot of our cards will just point to other pages on the site — and it makes sense for the card to be built from fields on that page. If we put a teaser image and teaser text field on all our node-types, we can make use of them when creating a card for that page. We can also use these for meta-tags like the OpenGraph image. And all our node-types already have a title and URL. The second block-type is if we need to link to pages outside the site. So, the content models for those two block types are as follows:

• For the internal card block-type, we need an entity-reference field to allow the content-editor to select the content to generate the card for
• For the external card block-type, we need all the fields — title, image, teaser, URL

Defining layout plugins

Next, we need to define our layout plugin. We start with a layouts.yml file in our theme or module.

Note: the icon_map isn't needed here, but it gives us a nice icon in the 'Add section' form.

With those pieces in place, we can use Layout builder restrictions to ensure only the right block-types can be placed in each region. The introduction region can be limited to the basic WYSIWYG block-type. The cards region can be limited to the internal and external card block-type.

This layout will use the default layout plugin, but we want a custom layout plugin with a title field in the configuration form. You can read more about creating a custom layout plugin from our previous post about creating a dynamic layout with flexible regions. This one will be much simpler. We just need a title field in the configuration form and a preprocess hook to expose that to our template. 

The first step of this is to add a 'class' entry to our layout definition.

Then, we need to create that class. 

Then, in your theme you can preprocess to make this variable available to the template.

For optimum UX, we'd probably want to make Layout Builder Browser blocks, too. You can read more in our previous post about our approach to Layout Builder UX.

All that remains then is to theme the block-content types to match the design. For more on that, see our previous post on theming block-content types with Layout Builder.

As an extra enhancement, you could add integration with Layout Section Classes module to give content editors additional options like the number of cards shown across the page in the card grid.

Note: this component on our website is automated and built with Views, but there is often a need to build out curated equivalents.

Tagged

Last month we took EvolveDrupal—a unique summit that fosters digital transformation and open source collaboration—to Atlanta for its first appearance in the United States.  

Couldn’t attend? Well, no need to feel left out! You can get the inside scoop right here. I’ve shared stories about 12 summit stars that’ll have you smiling, chuckling, or taking notes.

Attendees will find this a worthwhile read, too. Because unless you harnessed an AI bot to put you in three rooms at once, we’re betting there’s plenty you missed!

Ready to meet our stars? First, a quick refresher for those who need it.

Wait, What’s EvolveDrupal Again?

Ok, let’s rewind. About a year ago our digital agency started EvolveDrupal in our hometown of Montreal. After years of remote meet-ups, it was a way to finally reunite the tech and design communities in person. 

People were overjoyed to socialize in the same room as their peers again! Because let’s face it: sharing a beer on Zoom just isn’t the same. There’s none of those silly stories and spontaneous oversharing that really bring people together. 

After that first summit, we built on EvolveDrupal’s success with events in Toronto and Ottawa, before heading across the border to Atlanta. (Psst... a little birdy told me we're coming back to the U.S. in September for EvolveDrupal NYC.)

Meet the Stars of EvolveDrupal Atlanta

Now that you’re up to speed, here are all the juicy details you’re waiting for. Meet the standout stars who made EvolveDrupal Atlanta absolutely stellar. 

1. Our Event-Planning Extraordinaire, Maya Schaeffer

Maya wears multiple hats at Evolving Web. On top of taking care of us as our Employee Experience & Operations Manager, she’s the de facto Chief Event Organizer for EvolveDrupal. Maya learned on-the-job to orchestrate big corporate gatherings and she tirelessly ensures their success. You can find her at EvolveDrupal looking like she’s in her element.

Unforeseen challenges and setbacks are an inevitable part of events—like the time a well-known office supplies company printed all of our participants’ name tags upside down! But Maya has learned to roll with the punches and adapt quickly.

Maya’s can-do attitude means she sometimes tries to do everything herself, but she’s learned to delegate more over the past year. Her charming smile means that few people can say “no” to her requests. 

2. Our Boss Baby: Sofia 

Just 15 months old, Sofia has been to more Drupal conferences than most seasoned developers. She has accompanied her parents (our co-founders Alex and Suzanne) to DrupalCon Pittsburgh, DrupalConLille, GovCon, High Ed Web, and all four of our previous EvolveDrupal summits.  

With this trajectory, in 20 years she’ll have the elusive combination that so many employers seek: a freshly minted college degree and two decades of Drupal experience. 

Expect to see Sofia in Forbes 5 Under 5 very soon.

3. Artificial Intelligence  

I’d like to thank ChatGPT for writing this blog post. Joking! I’m a real person, I swear. Yet everywhere we look it seems that AI is popping up as a way to generate content, code, images, and so much more. So it was really helpful to get some perspective from the experts.

Nikhil Deshpande, Chief Digital & AI Officer at the Georgia Technology Authority, sat down for a Q&A session with our co-founder, Suzanne Dergacheva. Their discussion hit on a crucial dilemma: how to accelerate innovation through open source while retaining integrity and managing risk.

Some key takeaways from their talk include:

• AI has progressed beyond analytical tasks to creative endeavors like writing poetry.
• Its role in the workplace is expanding: over half of the U.S. workforce now uses AI tools to enhance productivity.
• AI is also shaping public services and government operations. In Minnesota, AI translation has improved accessibility for non-English speakers.
• In this age of AI, ethical considerations and good content governance are more important than ever. 
• The integration of AI technologies into existing systems will foster a new era of innovation—one where these tools not only enhance existing processes, but optimize creativity and problem solving.

We also heard from Misha Sulpovar, Head of AI at Cherre & Wired Cognition. In This Is not a Drill: Seeing the Real Opportunities Among the AI Hype, Misha debunked some common myths about AI. No, robots are not going to take over. No, the robots didn’t tell us to say that. In the face of concerns that machines will take our jobs, Misha argues that AI is actually enhancing—instead of replacing—human capabilities. It’s time to embrace the robots. They’re your new work besties. 

4. A11y (a.k.a. Accessibility)

Championing open source goes hand-in-hand with advocating for accessibility. At Evolving Web we’re committed to making the web a better place for all. So we were thrilled to host not one, but two accessibility sessions at EvolveDrupal Atlanta!

Mary Blabaum, Senior UX Manager at Acquia, gave a great overview of accessibility in her session 5 Ways to Grow Your Inclusive Design Approach: 

• Understand your user needs
• Activate by including inclusive strategy into your day to day
• Set standards such as adhering to WCAG
• Create with intent by baking inclusion into your design process
• Measure what matters using transparent accessibility conformance reports

Penny Kronz, VP of Client Services at DubBot, gave us the rundown on the new success criteria in WCAG guidelines 2.2  with her session WCAG 2.2: What Changed? What Do I Need to Know? so that we can meet the latest accessibility requirements. Some notable changes include new criteria for increased touch target size, consistent focus appearance, and easy dismissal of pop-ups. While WCAG 2.2 retains the same structure as previous versions, it offers more specific guidance for building inclusive digital experiences.

5. OOUX  

So much more than a pleasing acronym, object-oriented UX (OOUX) is a proven method for making user experiences more human-centric. Sophia Prater taught us how to shift our UX process to turn complex processes into intuitive user flows in How to Fix UX Fails with Object-Oriented UX. The room was packed, with every seat taken and more participants standing at the back to catch the talk! 

One great takeaway from the talk was "ORCA". No relation to the whale. ORCA is an acronym that highlights great questions to ask when designing a single screen: 

• O: What are the objects in the users' mental model?
• R: What are the objects' relationships to each other?
• C: What calls-to-action do objects offer users?
• A: What are the attributes that make up the objects?

6. Our Creative Director, Morgan, and His Infallible Attention to Detail

Morgan decided to take a steamer to our backdrops. There wasn’t a single wrinkle to be seen when he was done with them. Not that he’s a Monica or anything (from the TV show Friends for those who—gasp!—don't get the reference.) 

Morgan also delivered From Chaos to Clarity: The Benefits and Challenges of Design Systems with Bryenne. They dived into the complexities and challenges our team has encountered over the years, offering up some invaluable best practices for creating a sustainable design system.

Finally, Morgan captivated a creative audience at our EvolveUX Unconference, an interactive session with real-time feedback from the audience. Morgan showcased the Planned Parenthood Direct app and took participants behind the scenes of the project. 

7. Sammy the Eagle

You read that right—the official mascot of Drupal GovCon swooped in to steal the show at EvolveDrupal Atlanta. I guess it’s easy when you have wings. Naturally, we set aside a free ticket and cleared his visit with the civil aviation authorities. 

8. Steve Persch’s Twister Board

Steve Persch is a seasoned Drupalist and the Director of Developer Experience at Pantheon. He’s also a theater grad! Which explains why he brings a dramatic flair to even the most technical of presentations.  

In his talk The Fourth Decade of Web Deployments, Steve literally bent over backwards to illustrate how complex web pages have become. It certainly woke people up to see Steve pretzeling on a Twister board first thing in the morning. We’ve never seen a more visually stimulating illustration of a technical concept. Proof that majoring in theatre is useful, no matter what the haters say. 

9. The EPIC Page Builder Battle 

The boxing gloves came out when five speakers went head-to-head, each of them representing a different page building tool. And if you thought Drupal would have a leg up at an event with Drupal in the name, think again! It was no match for the ease with which our designer Yue Lu could build a site in Webflow.

Nevertheless, the key takeaway from our Page Builder Battle was that no single tool is perfect for everyone or every project. Choosing the right tool depends heavily on your unique needs.

We also learned that while Drupal’s content creation experience has room for improvement, the Drupal community is aware of this fact and actively working on it.

10. Josh, Our Magic Weatherman

Our Atlanta-based team member, Josh, seems to have a mysterious ability to control the weather. Who knows how he did it, but Josh ordered some darn good weather for the event. 

Booking the rooftop patio three months in advance was always going to be a gamble. So we were biting our fingernails as rain poured down the day before… but the summit rolled around with nothing but the bluest of skies! Honourable mention to Josh because we're sure he had something to do with it. Definitely a wizard.

11. The Drake Quote in our Brand Colours

As we left the elevator for the rooftop after-party, what did we see but a big quote from Drake on the wall! Way to make a canuck feel at home. And way to make us feel special, because it was in our brand green.  

12. The Airbnb Deer

This is becoming a weird trend for us. It all started with the Airbnb we stayed in for DrupalCamp Florida. Our team walked in to find a huge taxidermy deer on the wall. After initially feeling creeped out, they named him Luke and accepted him as part of the gang.

Would you believe it, when we turned up at our Airbnb for DrupalCamp New Jersey—oh dear, another deer! This one was named Frosty because he seemed a little aloof.

And then in Atlanta, what did we find but yet another deer! Perhaps we should just listen to the signs from the universe and get one for our office.
 

Join the EvolveDrupal Adventure

Tickets are now on sale for EvolveDrupal Montreal on June 14. We're also heading back to the United States for EvolveDrupal NYC on September 20. 

Want to stay in the loop? Sign up for EvolveDrupal updates. You'll be among the first to hear about ticket sales, early bird discounts, and competitions for free stuff!

Here's what to read next: 9 Ways to Make the Most of EvolveDrupal.