The End of Drupal 7: Why Are So Many Sites Choosing WordPress? kanapatrick Mon, 10/28/2024 - 10:48

Since January 5, 2025, Drupal 7 has officially reached its end of life. This iconic Content Management System (CMS), used by thousands of sites worldwide, no longer receives security updates or official support. This deadline has prompted many site administrators to rethink their strategy and select a new platform to ensure continuity.

In one way or another, I have developed, configured, and worked with Drupal for over 15 years. On almost every website I’ve had the privilege of working on, there have been various forms of forms—comment fields, contact forms, membership requests, and so on. And something that’s always been present is spam.

Regardless of the size of the site, bots eventually find the forms. I’ve moved from module to module trying to prevent forms from being overtaken by bots and their often offensive content, which 99.9% of the time includes a link to some obscure website, often on the darker parts of the web. But where there are spam bots, there are also services and modules to stop them. Over the years, I’ve moved from module to module as bots have become smarter and some modules have become outdated technologically.

About six months ago, I revamped my own site, AdamEvertsson.se, and just recently realized that I’d forgotten to add a spam prevention module. How did I notice? I happened to see that I had over 3,500 comments spread across a very small number of posts—all 100% spam.

I quickly activated one of the classic modules I’ve used, but the spam posts continued to pour in by the dozens every day. Even though I have some go-to modules, I thought it might be interesting to see what’s new among spam prevention modules since it had been a while since I updated myself on the state of Drupal spam-blocking modules.

I quickly found the Antibot module, a new discovery for me, and within just a couple of days of testing, it proved to be 100% effective against spam. Since it worked so incredibly well, I stopped searching. I haven’t received a single spam post since activating it earlier this week, and I now have a new favorite to add to my collection of modules when building Drupal sites.

Here are the modules I currently consider relevant for blocking spam posts:

Antibot

As mentioned, this is now my go-to for spam-fighting and will be my standard module for spam management for a good while—until it loses effectiveness and another module steps up.

Visit the module’s project page on drupal.org.

Honeypot

A classic module that monitors how quickly a form is filled in, with some other functions as well. It’s been a favorite for many years and keeps pace with Drupal’s development. I highly recommend it and still use it on my sites that run on Drupal 7, for instance.

Visit the module’s project page on drupal.org.

Google reCAPTCHA

The classic box with prompts like "select all boxes with a moped" or "choose the images showing a bridge" is something we’ve all seen. It’s one of the internet’s most effective and widely used systems for ensuring “I am not a robot.” In Drupal alone, there are over 168,000 registered sites using this module and the reCAPTCHA system.

Visit the module’s project page on drupal.org.

Anti-Spam by CleanTalk

This is a new module I came across during my search but didn’t get around to testing since I found Antibot, which worked well. It has a bit more modest stats in terms of usage, with just over 3,000 sites using it, but it’s maintained and appears reliable.

Visit the module’s project page on drupal.org.

SpamSpan

While it doesn’t block spam directly, it prevents email addresses displayed on the site from being picked up by bots. It can and should be combined with one of the modules above.

Visit the module’s project page on drupal.org

With PHP attributes, your Drupal development process can be simplified, more performant, and easier to read. Learn the difference between PHP Attributes and Annotations and discover why attributes are the future of efficient coding.

Using JavaScript Frameworks - React, Vue, Angular in Drupal Editor Mon, 10/28/2024 - 15:03

The integration of JavaScript frameworks, like React, Vue, and Angular, with Drupal has sparked a wave of creativity and innovation. It goes beyond building websites. This blog explores the benefits and methods of integrating these frameworks with Drupal, demonstrating how this fusion enhances front-end development and user engagement.
Traditional static websites and strict CMS constraints are becoming a thing of the past. Nowadays, developers are embracing the adaptability and engagement provided by JavaScript frameworks to design UI within the Drupal environment.

Drupal's Frontend Landscape: General Overview

To really understand how JavaScript frameworks such as React, Vue, and Angular work with Drupal, you need to know about the frontend environment of Drupal and the difficulties developers meet while creating complicated user interfaces in this strong content management system.

The Drupal Association has published client guides to RFPs that prioritise open source software solutions. 

by fiona.crowson / 28 October 2024

In a recent blog post, 'How to write an RFP for Open Source Solutions: Featuring Drupal Certified Partners', the Drupal Association outlines:

• the advantages of open source software
• tips for finding the ideal service provider (and why Drupal Certified Partners like PreviousNext make for good partners)
• guidance for crafting a successful RFP
• strategies for evaluating proposals

Clients also have access to a downloadable open source Request For Proposal (aka Request For Quote) template.

The core of the guide provides a detailed overview about why choosing a Drupal Certified Partner is the key to the technical expertise, smooth collaboration and commitment to quality and innovation that helps ensure the success of your projects. PreviousNext has been able to attain the current top ranked Drupal Certified Partner status globally by demonstrating our proven track record, commitment to the Drupal open source community and our verifiable capabilities.  

Our team is highly experienced and happy to answer your questions about the advantages of Drupal, so please feel free to get in touch.

Quick links

• How to write an RFP article
• RFP template download

Drupal 11: Batch Operations Built Into Drupal

This is the sixth article in a series of articles about the Batch API in Drupal. The Batch API is a system in Drupal that allows data to be processed in small chunks in order to prevent timeout errors or memory problems.

So far in this series we have looked at creating a batch process using a form, followed by creating a batch class so that batches can be run through Drush, using the finished state to control batch processing, processing CSV files through a batch process and finally adding to running batch processes. These articles give a good grounding of how to use the Drupal Batch API.

In this article we will look at how the Batch API is used within Drupal. The Batch API in Drupal is either used to perform a task, which I will call "direct", or to pass on the batch operations to a hook, which I will call "indirect". These aren't official terms you understand, I'm just using them here to separate how Drupal uses the Batch API. I find these terms useful to describe where the batch is running.

Let's look at direct usage first.

Direct

Direct usage just means that a method in Drupal creates a BatchBuilder object and then uses that object to setup and trigger the batch run (via the batch_set() function). This is used in a variety of situations all over Drupal, including:

philipnorton42 Sun, 10/27/2024 - 18:23

At Acquia Engage NYC this week, our partner and customer conference, we shared how Acquia's Digital Experience Platform (DXP) helps organizations deliver digital experiences through three key capabilities:

• Content: Create, manage and deliver digital content and experiences - from images and videos to blog posts, articles, and landing pages - consistently across all your digital channels.
• Optimize: Continuously improve your digital content and experiences by improving accessibility, readability, brand compliance, and search engine optimization (SEO).
• Insights: Understand how people interact with your digital experiences, segment audiences based on their behavior and interests, and deliver personalized content that drives better engagement and conversion rates.

Since our last Acquia Engage conference in May, roughly six months ago, we've made some great progress, and we announced some major innovations and updates across our platform.

The Acquia Open DXP platform consists of three pillars - Content, Optimize, and Insight - with specialized products in each category to help organizations create, improve, and personalize digital experiences.

Simplify video creation in Acquia DAM

Video is one of the most engaging forms of media, but it's also one of the most time-consuming and expensive to create. Producing professional, branded videos has traditionally required significant time, budget, and specialized skills. Our new Video Creator for DAM changes this equation. By combining templating, AI, and DAM's workflow functionality, organizations can now create professional, on-brand videos in minutes rather than days.

Make assets easier to find in Acquia DAM

Managing large digital asset libraries can become increasingly overwhelming. Traditional search methods rely on extensive metadata tagging and manual filtering options. Depending on what you are looking for, it might be difficult to quickly find the right assets.

To address this, we introduced Acquia DAM Copilot, which transforms the experience through conversational AI. Instead of navigating complicated filter menus, users can now simply type natural requests like "show me photos of bikes outside" and refine their search conversationally with commands like "only show bikes from the side view". This AI-powered approach eliminates the need for extensive tagging and makes finding the right content intuitive and fast.

Easier site building with Drupal

I updated the Acquia Engage audience on Drupal CMS (also known as Drupal Starshot), a major initiative I'm leading in the Drupal community with significant support from Acquia. I demonstrated several exciting innovations coming to Drupal: "recipes" to simplify site building, AI-powered site creation capabilities, and a new Experience Builder that will transform how we build Drupal websites.

Many in the audience had already watched my DrupalCon Barcelona keynote and expressed continued enthusiasm for the direction of Drupal CMS and our accelerated pace of innovation. Even after demoing it multiple times the past month, I'm still very excited about it myself. If you want to learn more, be sure to check out my DrupalCon presentation!

Improving content ranking with Acquia SEO

Creating content that ranks well in search engines traditionally requires both specialized SEO expertise and skilled content writers - making it an expensive and time-consuming process. Our new SEO Copilot, powered by Conductor, integrated directly into Drupal's editing experience, provides real-time guidance on keyword optimization, content suggestions, length recommendations, and writing complexity for your target audience. This helps content teams create search-engine-friendly content more efficiently, without needing deep SEO expertise.

Improving content quality with Acquia Optimize

We announced the rebranding of Monsido to Acquia Optimize and talked about two major improvements to this offering.

First, we improved how organizations create advanced content policies. Creating advanced content policies usually requires some technical expertise, as it can involve writing regular expressions. Now, users can simply describe in plain language what they want to monitor. For example, they could enter something like "find language that might be insensitive to people with disabilities", and AI will help create the appropriate policy rules. Acquia Optimize will then scan content across all your websites to detect any violations of those rules.

Second, we dramatically shortened the feedback loop for content checking. Previously, content creators had to publish their content and then wait for scheduled scans to discover problems with accessibility, policy compliance or technical SEO - a process that could take a couple of days. Now, they can get instant feedback. Authors can request a check while they work, and the system immediately flags accessibility issues, content policy violations, and other problems, allowing them to fix problems while the content is being written. This shift from "publish and wait" to "check and fix" helps teams maintain higher content quality standards, allows them to work faster, and can prevent non-compliant content from ever going live.

FedRAMP for Acquia Cloud Next

We were excited to announce that our next-generation Drupal Cloud, Acquia Cloud Next (ACN), has achieved FedRAMP accreditation, just like our previous platform, which remains FedRAMP accredited.

This means our government customers can now migrate their Drupal sites onto our latest cloud platform, taking advantage of improved autoscaling, self-healing, and cutting-edge features. We already have 56 FedRAMP customers hosting their Drupal sites on ACN, including Fannie Mae, The US Agency for International Development, and the Department of Education, to name a few.

Improved fleet management for Drupal

Acquia Cloud Site Factory is a platform that helps organizations manage fleets of Drupal sites from a single dashboard, making it easier to launch, update, and scale sites. Over the past two years, we've been rebuilding Site Factory on top of Acquia Cloud Next, integrating them more closely. Recently, we reached a major milestone in this journey. At Engage, we showcased Multi-Experience Operations (MEO) to manage multiple Drupal codebases across your portfolio of sites.

Previously, all sites in a Site Factory instance had to run the same Drupal code, requiring simultaneous updates across all sites. Now, organizations can run sites on different codebases and update them independently. This added flexibility is invaluable for large organizations managing hundreds or thousands of Drupal sites, allowing them to update at their own pace and maintain different Drupal versions where needed.

Improved conversion rates with Acquia Convert

Understanding user behavior is key to optimizing digital experiences, but interpreting the data and deciding on next steps can be challenging. We introduced some new Acquia Convert features (powered by VWO) to solve this.

First, advanced heat-mapping shows exactly how users interact with your pages, where they click first, how far they scroll, and where they show signs of frustration (like rage clicks).

Next, and even more powerful, is our new Acquia Convert Copilot that automatically analyzes this behavioral data to suggest specific improvements. For example, if the AI notices high interaction with a pricing slider but also signs of user confusion, it might suggest an A/B test to clarify the slider's purpose. This helps marketers and site builders make data-driven decisions and improve conversion rates.

Privacy-first analytics with Piwik Pro

As data privacy regulations become stricter globally, organizations face growing challenges with web analytics. Google Analytics has been banned in several European countries for not meeting data sovereignty requirements, leaving organizations scrambling for compliant alternatives.

We announced a partnership with Piwik Pro to address this need. Piwik Pro offers a privacy-first analytics solution that maintains compliance with global data regulations by allowing organizations to choose where their data is stored and maintaining full control over their data.

This makes it an ideal solution for organizations that operate in regions with strict data privacy laws, or any organization that wants to ensure their analytics solution remains compliant with evolving privacy regulations.

After the Piwik Pro announcement at Acquia Engage, I spoke with several customers who are already using Piwik Pro. Most worked in healthcare and other sectors handling sensitive data. They were excited about our partnership and a future that brings deeper integration between Piwik Pro, Acquia Optimize, Drupal, and other parts of our portfolio.

Conclusion

The enthusiasm from our customers and partners at Acquia Engage always reinvigorates me. None of these innovations would be possible without the dedication of our teams at Acquia. I'm grateful for their hard work in bringing these innovations to life, and I'm excited for what is next!

Drupal 11.1.0 and 10.4.0 release dates

Drupal core typically has a minor release window the second week of December. This is to provide enough time after PHP and Symfony's release dates for core compatibility to be updated, but still far enough before the major end-of-year holidays to avoid interfering with vacations and travel.

This year, DrupalCon Singapore is scheduled for the same week as the minor release. Normally, we would avoid having a minor release the same week as a DrupalCon, but in this case we are unable to move the release date. We will aim to release 11.1.0 and 10.4.0 later in the week to avoid having the release during the actual days of the conference. The release window is now December 12-13 UTC.

Drupal 11.0 and 10.3 will continue to have security coverage until June 2025. So, it is safe for site owners to wait until January 2025 or later, if necessary, to update their sites.

Drupal 11.1 alpha phase begins October 28

In preparation for the minor release, Drupal 11.1.x will enter the alpha phase the week of October 28, 2024. Core developers should plan to complete changes that are only allowed in minor releases prior to the alpha release. The 11.1.0-alpha1 deadline for most core patches is October 28, 2024.

The 10.5.x release branch of core will be created for the next maintenance minor release.

• Developers and site owners can begin testing the alpha after its release.

• The 11.1.x release branch of core will be created before the alpha is tagged. Future feature and API additions will continue to be targeted against 11.x.

• After 11.1.x is branched but before 11.1.0-alpha1 is tagged, alpha experimental modules will be removed from the 11.1.x codebase. Their development will continue in 11.x only.

• Following the release of Drupal 11.1 and 10.4, only security issues will be fixed in Drupal 11.0 and 10.3. Additionally, Drupal 10.2 will become end-of-life (EOL).

• During the alpha phase, core issues will be committed according to the following policy:

  1. Most issues that are allowed for patch releases will be committed to 11.1.x and 10.4.x. Such issues may also be committed to 11.0.x and 10.3.x until the final normal bugfix releases of 11.0 and 10.3 on December 4, 2024.
  2. Most issues that are only allowed in minor releases will be committed to 11.x only. (Such issues may be released in 11.2 or another future minor.). A few strategic issues may be backported to 11.1.x, but only at committer discretion after the issue is fixed in 11.x (so leave them set to 11.x unless you are a committer), and only up until the beta deadline.
  3. Most issues that are allowed in maintenance minor releases will be committed to 11.x and 10.5.x only. A few strategic issues may be backported to 11.1.x and 10.4.x, but only at committer discretion after the issue is fixed in 11.x (so leave them set to 11.x unless you are a committer), and only up until the beta deadline.

Roughly two weeks after the alpha release, the first beta release will be created. All the restrictions of the alpha release apply to beta releases as well. The release of the first beta is a firm deadline for all feature and API additions. Even if an issue is pending in the Reviewed & Tested by the Community (RTBC) queue when the commit freeze for the beta begins, it will be committed to the next minor release only.

The release candidate phase will begin the week of November 25.

Security support of Drupal 10 and 11

Drupal 10.2.x Security releases will be provided until December 12, 2024. Drupal 10.3.x and 11.0.x Security releases will be provided until June 18, 2025.

See the Drupal core release process overview, the Drupal core release schedule, allowed changes during the Drupal 10 and 11 release cycles, and Drupal 10 and 11 backwards compatibility and internal API policy for more information.

Learn how to turn Drupal into a scalable publishing platform that developers, marketers & editors love while meeting your regulatory & compliance requirements.

Keeping up with Drupal’s Evolving Plugin API: Updating Tutorials for PHP Attributes

At Drupalize.Me, one of our goals is to provide learners with up-to-date resources that align with the latest best practices. To that end, I recently worked to update our tutorials to reflect the transition from PHP annotations to PHP attributes for plugin discovery. I blogged previously about why this transition is happening.

As Drupalize.Me’s tutorial library continues to grow, these kinds of changes touch ever larger numbers of existing tutorials. Plugins is an interesting one because we have tutorials that teach the inner workings of the Plugin API. And, we have tutorials about things like blocks, field types, and views plugins, that while not specifically about the Plugin API, make use of it. This ended up being one the most significant updates we’ve made since the release of Drupal 8.

In short, the updates are necessary because Drupal is transitioning from annotations to native PHP attributes. And while annotations will continue to work for the foreseeable future, we wanted to make sure that the code examples, and recommendations, you find on our site are aligned with that code you’ll see in the latest versions of Drupal core.

joe Fri, 10/25/2024 - 11:00