“The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.” – Molière

Dear Readers,

Stepping out of our comfort zones is undoubtedly a daunting task. Yet, it's precisely this leap into the unknown that often leads to remarkable growth and self-discovery. Embracing new challenges and learning from scratch can feel overwhelming at first, but through these experiences, we truly push our limits and uncover our hidden capabilities.

In our journey of embracing the unfamiliar, we expand our skill sets and gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and the paths we never thought possible. Each new challenge becomes an opportunity to stretch beyond what we thought we were capable of, illuminating uncharted territories of potential and opportunity.

Embrace the technological diversity surrounding us, as it serves as a rich tapestry of tools and methodologies that can enhance our creativity, efficiency, and impact in ways we've only begun to explore. Like the inspiring journey of Tanay Sai, a seasoned builder, engineering leader, and AI/ML practitioner who recently embarked on a transformative adventure beyond the familiar horizons of Drupal. Tanay's story is a testament to the idea that stepping out of one's comfort zone can lead to groundbreaking achievements and a deeper understanding of the multifaceted digital ecosystem.

The importance of continuous learning and the willingness to embrace new challenges is profound. It encourages us to look beyond the familiar, to experiment with emerging technologies, and to remain adaptable in our pursuit of delivering exceptional digital experiences.

Now, Let's take a moment to revisit the highlights from last week's coverage at The Drop Times.

Last month, we celebrated the Women in Drupal community and released the second part of "Inspiring Inclusion: Celebrating the Women in Drupal | #2" penned by Alka Elizabeth. Part 3 of this series will be coming soon.

Explore the dynamic evolution of Drupal's page-building features in Part 2 of André Angelantoni's latest series on The Drop Times. Each module discussed extends Layout Builder and can be integrated individually. Part 3 might already be released by the time this newsletter comes your way. Access the second part here.

DrupalCon Portland 2024, scheduled from May 6 to 9, will feature an empowering Women in Drupal Lunch event. This gathering aims to uplift female attendees and inspire and support women within the Drupal community. Learn more here.

Save the dates for DrupalCamp Spain 2024 in Benidorm! The event is scheduled for October 25 and 26, with the venue to be announced soon. Additionally, mark your calendars for October 24, designated as Business Day.

DrupalCamp Belgium has unveiled the keynote speakers for its highly anticipated 2024 edition in Ghent. For more information and to discover the lineup of keynote speakers, be sure to check out the details here. A complete list of events for the week is available here. Additionally, Gander Documentation is now available on Drupal.org, as announced by Janez Urevc, Tag1 Consulting's Strategic Growth and Innovation Manager, on March 25, 2024.

Also, read about Tanay Sai, an accomplished builder, engineering leader, and AI/ML practitioner who shares insights into his transformative journey beyond Drupal. After a decade immersed in the Drupal realm, Tanay candidly expresses his pivotal decision to venture beyond its confines. Learn more here.

Monika Branicka of Droptica conducts a comprehensive analysis of content management systems (CMS) employed by 314 higher education institutions in Poland. This study aims to unveil the prevalent CMS preferences among both public and non-public universities, providing insights into the educational sector's technological landscape. The report comes amidst a growing call for resources to track Drupal usage across industry sectors, coinciding with similar studies conducted by The DropTimes and Grzegorz Pietrzak.

DevBranch has announced the launch of a Drupal BootCamp tailored for aspiring web developers. This initiative aims to equip individuals with the necessary skills and knowledge to excel in web development using Drupal. For further details, click here.

The development of Drupal 11 has reached a critical phase, marked by ongoing updates to its system requirements within the development branch. Gábor Hojtsy has provided valuable insights on preparing core developers and informing the community about these changes. Stay updated on the latest developments as Drupal 11 evolves to meet the needs of its users and developers.

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
Elma John
Sub-editor, TheDropTimes.

A very special episode of the DrupalEasy Podcast - an episode two years in the making.

Welcome to DrupalCon Portland 2024, where innovation, collaboration, and excellence converge! As the premier event for Drupal enthusiasts, developers, and businesses, it's the perfect occasion to explore why Drupal stands tall as the preferred choice for web development. In this article, we'll delve into the compelling reasons that make Drupal the ultimate solution for your web development needs.

Open Source Excellence

Drupal is renowned for being an open-source content management system (CMS), fostering a vibrant community of developers and contributors. The power of collaboration within the Drupal community results in continuous improvements, security updates, and a wealth of modules that cater to a wide range of functionalities. Choosing Drupal means embracing a platform that is constantly evolving and adapting to the ever-changing landscape of the digital world.

Flexibility and Scalability

Drupal's flexibility is one of its key strengths. Whether you're building a personal blog, a corporate website, or a complex e-commerce platform, Drupal adapts to your needs. Its modular architecture allows developers to create custom functionalities and integrate third-party tools seamlessly. As your business grows, Drupal scales with you, ensuring that your website remains robust, high-performing, and capable of handling increased traffic and data.

Exceptional Content Management

Content is at the heart of any successful website, and Drupal excels in providing an intuitive and powerful content management experience. The platform offers a sophisticated taxonomy system, making it easy to organize and categorize content. With a user-friendly interface, content creators can effortlessly publish, edit, and manage content, empowering organizations to maintain a dynamic and engaging online presence.

Security First

In the digital age, security is non-negotiable. Drupal takes a proactive approach to security, with a dedicated security team that monitors, identifies, and addresses vulnerabilities promptly. The platform's robust security features, frequent updates, and a vigilant community ensure that your website is well-protected against potential threats. By choosing Drupal, you're investing in a platform that prioritizes the security of your digital assets.

Mobile Responsiveness

With the increasing prevalence of mobile devices, it's crucial for websites to be responsive and accessible across various screen sizes. Drupal is designed with mobile responsiveness in mind, offering a seamless experience for users on smartphones, tablets, and other devices. This ensures that your website not only looks great but also performs optimally, regardless of the device your audience is using.

Community Support and Knowledge Sharing

Drupal's strength lies not only in its codebase but also in its vast and supportive community. DrupalCon is a testament to the spirit of collaboration and knowledge sharing within the community. Whether you're a seasoned developer or a newcomer, Drupal's community is there to offer support, guidance, and a wealth of resources to help you succeed. By choosing Drupal, you're not just adopting a technology but becoming part of a global network of passionate individuals.

As we gather at DrupalCon Portland 2024, the choice is clear – Drupal is the unparalleled solution for web development. Its open-source nature, flexibility, security features, exceptional content management capabilities, mobile responsiveness, and thriving community make it the go-to platform for building robust and scalable websites. Join the Drupal revolution and unlock the full potential of your digital presence!

Register now for DrupalCon Portland 2024!

This is the complementary blog post for my DrupalSouth Sydney 2024 session, and also v2.0 follow up of sorts from the original 2022 version. The full presentation was much longer than this blog post, this blog post is just going to highlight the core statistics and findings.

Have you ever wondered how popular Drupal is in your local state and at the Australian Federal Government level? This blog post will help to answer that question, using open source tooling. The hope is that you gain some insight to the relative popularity of Drupal and appreciate more the impact you and Drupal have in Australia.

As this blog post is a follow up, you can also now start to see trends (data is around 13 months newer than the last time I did this).

Just show me the graphs

Disclaimer:

• This is based on Oct 20, 2023 data
• The scoring is based off PageRank data, so the percentages are not raw counts of websites, but an approximation of how important the respective sites are compared to others (assumes a logarithmic base of 5).
• Wappalyzer detection is not perfect (see the end of this blog post for upstreamed PRs), and there is still a fairly large portion of sites where the CMS cannot be identified
• MoGs make this tricky (PageRank relies on incoming links, which break due to MoGs)
• Only source *.gov.au domains considered (some Government sites use other TLDs)
• Unlikely newly created websites are in the top 10 million just yet (due to how the algorithm of PageRank works)

All sites (*.gov.au)

Federal sites (not state based domains)

Programmes like GovCMS are having an impact here. Also interesting that if you are not using Drupal, the chances are you have written something entirely custom.

Victoria *.vic.gov.au

The Single Digital Presence (SDP) programme makes a mark in Victoria.

New South Wales *.nsw.gov.au

Large Drupal sites like https://www.nsw.gov.au/ and https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/ help to make Drupal dominant in NSW.

South Australia *.sa.gov.au

Squiz Matrix increasing in market share ↑5.4% over 2022. There is a clear state led mandate here.

Western Australia *.wa.gov.au

A lot of sites this time around are now identified (decrease of ↓30.8% of unknown sites). Drupal also increased market share by ↑9.9%.

Tasmania *.tas.gov.au

The lowest usage of Drupal for any Australian state or territory and the highest percentage of Wordpress.

Queensland *.qld.gov.au

Australian Capital Territory *.act.gov.au

The highest percentage of Squiz compared to any other Australia state or territory.

Northern Territory *.nt.gov.au

Open Source Software (OSS) CMS vs Proprietary CMS

For the CMS' that can be identified, splitting them into 2 categories, OSS and Proprietary. OSS is determined on whether the source code is freely available, and there is a licence that allows me to run it without paying someone.

Drupal sites by major version

For sites reporting as Drupal, Drupal 10 is the most popular. Still 5.4% of Drupal sites running Drupal 7 to which will be End-of-Life (EOL) in early 2025.

Score by state and territory

This is weighted by total score, broken down by federal/state/territory.

Observations and other unusual findings

Drupal usage

“Drupal powers ~29.9% of all digital experiences that you use in the Australian government. This is↑2.7% compared to 2022”

Drupal Growth

“Relative to the growth of Australian government sites, Drupal adoption is growing faster”

Top contender

“Squiz Matrix is the top contender with 15.6%, and has a clear state lead mandate in 5 states/territories. This is↑3.5% compared to 2022”

Drupal 7 usage

“Drupal 7 usage dropped from 15.8% in 2022 to 5.4% in 2024. This is↓65.8% compared to 2022. Most popular Drupal 7 site is https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/”

Also after my presentation I got to meet the team behind the State Library of NSW, and they advised that they are due to upgrade to Drupal 10 anytime soon.

TLS coverage is still not 100%

83 sites with HTTP only (a drop of ↓46 since 2022)

Domain

CMS

Page Rank

Score

http://www.bom.gov.au/

unknown

5.63

8614

http://ips.gov.au/mailman/listinfo

unknown

4.68

1867

http://www.nntt.gov.au/Pages/Home-Page.aspx

microsoft-sharepoint

4.68

1867

http://ajrp.awm.gov.au/

hcl-notes

4.6

1642

http://services.land.vic.gov.au/

unknown

4.56

1539

If in doubt, add a number

14 sites with ww[0-9] in the domain name (a drop of ↓5 since 2022)

Domain

CMS

Page Rank

Score

https://www2.gbrmpa.gov.au/

drupal

5.3

5065

https://www1.health.gov.au/

unknown

4.99

3075

https://www9.health.gov.au/

unknown

4.59

1615

https://www1.aiatsis.gov.au/

unknown

4.53

1467

https://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/

unknown

4.51

1420

I think this is often used like a form of poor mans version control, often archiving the previous version of the site. For some reason it is archived publicly.

I want the raw data!

If you want to make your own visualisations of the data, or even just do random queries “how popular is Spark CMS in Western Australia”, you can download a CSV from https://bit.ly/dsau2024csv. Slides are https://bit.ly/dsau2024.

Upstreamed enhancements

I found a lot of software running in certain states, so I upstreamed some changes to better detect these software packages:

• Better SilverStripe detection #120
• Datascape detection #122
• Spark CMS detection #123
• Jadu detection #126
• Engagement HQ detection #124
• Social Pinpoint detection #125
• Citizen Space detection #121

Comments

I am keen to hear feedback on this data, and what can be done to improve the scoring. Also, if you can help fill in some of the 'unknown' data, let me know, I am happy to craft another PR into WebAppAnalyzer.

Drupal's identity is very nuanced, from its rich history to its future potential. We discuss why at least one member of the community says just saying "Drupal" is important when discussing current versions of Drupal and the community that drives it.

Is specifically calling out "Drupal 10.2" or or "Drupal 11" useful, or just confusing to outsiders?

I recently wrote a blog post about the best university websites on Drupal, which come from different corners of the world. In this article, I focus on web pages from Poland, similarly presenting their functionalities. For this compilation, I’ve selected seven examples of - in my opinion - the most interesting and inspiring websites.