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
TopicsJean-Paul Vosmeer - reactonline.nl jpvos
HostsNic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Avi Schwab - froboy.org froboy
MOTW CorrespondentMartin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
Beyond these core features, Lupus Decoupled Drupal maintains deep integration with Drupal, ensuring that Drupal's powerful tools work seamlessly with your modern frontend:
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!
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:
Every year we try to clarify goals early, and here we go for 2025! We'd love to have your thoughts and opinions! Some of the things we planned in 2024 aren't quite done yet, but we're working and planning and responding to your needs.
At the DDEV Advisory Group's 2-hour annual review/planning meeting on March 4, 2025, we'll talk about plans and priorities for 2025. You are invited!
We'd love to have your input as daily users as we work through these this month.
(I expect to edit this blog post several times as people express their opinions.)
ddev launch in Golang instead of as script.In addition to prioritizing these initiatives, we have applied to the Google Summer of Code, hoping that we can mentor contributors in that program and see work on one or more of these be successful through GSoC. We'll also be looking for community mentors (is that you?), and maybe some of you would like to sign up for being mentees via Google this summer!
Do you see other important things in the issue queue or elsewhere that are important to you? Are there frictions that impact your work that DDEV could fix? Please let us know.
We would dearly love to have your input on these as the planning process goes forward. You can respond so very many ways in all of the support venues.
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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
ddev composer create, making it nearly compatible with composer create-project. Additionally, the ddev composer create-project alias has been added for improved usability.Ongoing DDEV Work
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.
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Happy February from Randy Fay, DDEV Project Lead. It's a delight to collaborate with you!