drupal

Series Overview & ToC | Previous Article | Next Article - coming soon! --- So far we have migrated three entity types: content types, taxonomy vocabularies, and paragraphs. It is very common that fields are attached to those, and other entities, to collect and display data. Field migrations can be tricky. For one, it is a multi-step process that requires, at a minimum, four different migrations. Additionally, it is common to find errors because field related configuration used in Drupal 7 is not available in Drupal 10. In this article, we take a pause from executing migrations to understand how fields work in Drupal. The information presented today will prove useful for custom migrations, especially when they include content model changes. ## Understanding Drupal fields Drupal fields are used to provide structure to the information the CMS stores. They save discrete data, which can be used for displaying, filtering, and sorting purposes. Fields are attached to entities like nodes, users, taxonomy terms, blocks, etc. For entities that can have bundles, each bundle can have a different set of fields attached to them. The node entity, for example, almost always has a different set of fields attached to each content type...

Read more mauricio Wed, 08/14/2024 - 15:40

Dominique De Cooman shares his plans to position Drupal as a leader in the open Digital Experience Platform (DXP) ecosystem as the Drupal Association's board election approaches. In this interview, he outlines his strategy for expanding Drupal’s influence in the midmarket and fostering innovation through stronger connections with other open-source platforms. Read on to discover how Dominique aims to help shape Drupal's future.

Imagine delivering faster, more accurate search results to your users. Apache Solr makes that possible. Built on Apache Lucene, this open-source search platform powers enterprise-level search and analytics. It’s not just about speed—Solr's advanced features like full-text search, hit highlighting, faceted search,  real-time indexing, and more can significantly enhance your business's data handling and customer experience. In this article, you’ll learn how to set up Apache Solr on Ubuntu within a Lando environment and configure it with the Search API. By the end, you'll understand how to leverage Solr's powerful search capabilities to enhance your Drupal website’s performance and user experience. What You’ll Need Ubuntu Server (20.04 or Later): Ensure you have a server running Ubuntu 20.04 or a more recent version. Java Development Kit (JDK) or Java Runtime Environment (JRE): Apache Solr requires either JDK or JRE to function properly. Make sure Java is installed on your server. Terminal/Command Line Access: You'll need access to a terminal or command line interface to execute commands during the setup. Familiarity with Linux Commands: Basic knowledge of Linux commands is essential to navigate and configure the server efficiently. Setting Up : A Step-by-Step Process Step 1: Update the System Before diving into the installation, it's crucial to ensure your system is up-to-date. This helps prevent compatibility issues and ensures you have the latest security patches. Open the terminal and execute the following command: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y Updating your system's package list before installing new packages is always recommended. This command updates your package list and upgrades any outdated packages. Step 2: Install Java Apache Solr requires Java to run. To get started, you'll need to install the Java Development Kit (JDK). sudo apt-get install default-jdk -y Verify Installation: java -version Once installed, verify the Java installation to ensure it's set up correctly. Java is essential for running Solr, so make sure this step is completed without errors. Step 3: Download and Install Solr Next, you'll download the latest version of Apache Solr and install it on your server with this command: wget https://downloads.apache.org/lucene/solr/8.11.3/solr-8.11.3.tgz Extract the downloaded archive: tar xzf solr-8.11.3.tgz Navigate to the Solr installation script directory: cd solr-8.11.3/bin/ Run the installation script with sudo: sudo ./install_solr_service.sh ../solr-8.11.3.tgz Looking to enhance your Drupal site’s performance even further? Our expert team specializes in custom Drupal development and can help you optimize your search functionality for better user engagement. Step 4: Start and enable Solr Service After Solr is installed, you need to start the Solr service and enable it to start automatically on system boot. sudo systemctl start solrsudo systemctl enable solr Starting the Solr service allows it to begin running on your server. Enabling the service ensures it starts automatically whenever your server reboots, ensuring Solr is always available. Step 5: Configure Solr for Your Drupal Project To integrate Solr with your Drupal project, you'll need to modify the .lando.yml file. Add the Following Code to .lando.yml: services:   search:     type: solr:8     config:       dir: ./solr_8.x     core: drupal     portforward: trueAfter adding the above code, run the following command to rebuild your Lando environment: lando rebuild Step 6: Install & Configure Search API Solr With Solr configured, the next step is to install and enable the Search API Solr module in your Drupal project. Use Composer to install the Search API Solr module.lando composer require 'drupal/search_api_solr:^4.3'  Enable the module by navigating to admin > Extend > Search API Solr or running this command from the terminal:lando drush en search_api_solr  After enabling go to Configuration > Search and metadata > Search API Click on Add server to configure Solr as your search server and save the configuration. How to Add a Search Index Now, let’s create a search index that will allow your site to use Solr for searching content. Navigate to Add index within the Search API configuration. Choose a name for your index. Pick the datasources from which Solr will pull content. Choose the Solr server you configured earlier. Click on Save to save the configuration. After setting up the index, you'll need to configure the fields that Solr will index. Navigate to the Fields tab. Click Add fields and select fields like Title and Body. Add content fields based on your requirements, then save the changes. Access the newly created index and click on Index Now to begin indexing your site’s content. Enable Highlighting in Apache Solr To enhance user experience, enable highlighting in Solr to emphasize matching search terms. Steps: Go to the Processors tab in the Search API configuration. Check the Highlight option. Configure the settings as needed and save the configuration. Highlighting will make it easier for users to see relevant search terms in the search results, improving the overall usability of your site. Final Thoughts By following these steps, you'll have a fully operational Solr search setup, optimized for integration with Drupal. This setup not only improves search performance but also enhances the user experience by delivering faster and more relevant search results. Need help with your Drupal setup? Our Drupal development services can assist with fine-tuning your search functionality. Reach out for expert support.

It’s hectic and time-consuming when it comes to making something that takes a long time. Yes, we are talking about CSS stylesheets. It’s not easy to design a website because it’s not ‘effortless’. 

In this blog, we will talk about the Integration of Drupal and Tailwood CSS to make this process a little bit easier for you. 

A brief About Tailwind CSS

Tailwind CSS adopts a utility-first approach rather than building a class for the component. Tailwind CSS is a utility-first approach that makes creating applications faster and easier

Tailwind CSS offers limited benefits but assures you the flexibility and power to create your unique site. 

Today we are talking about DIY Site Builders, what are the benefits over Drupal (If Any), and When using Drupal makes sense with guest Ivan Stegic. We’ll also cover Drupal 11 as our module of the week.

For show notes visit: www.talkingDrupal.com/463

Topics

• What is a DIY site builder
• Does TEN7 use DIY site builders
• How are DIY site builders better than Drupal
• Are they less expensive than Drupal
• HAve you ever suggested a site builder to a client
• What does a migration from a site builder look like
• Do you think starshot will make Drupal competitive with site builders

Resources

• Workspaces Extra
• Talking Drupal 451 - Just say Drupal
• Shopify
• Webflow
• Wix
• Squarespace
• Wordpress vip
• Cosmic.build
• Preshow:
  • Eurion constellation

Guests

Ivan Stegic - ten7.com ivanstegic

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Josh Miller - joshmiller

MOTW Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• Brief description:
  • Have you been wanting a version of Drupal that can use Workspaces, Recipes, and Single Directory Components, while running all the latest versions of its underlying technologies? Drupal 11 is all of that and more
• Module name/project name:
  • Drupal 11
• Brief history
  • How old: created on Aug 2 by catch of Tag1 and Third & Grove
• Module features and usage
  • Limited additions vs 10.3: by design to make the transition easier
    • Mostly in the recipes API, e.g. new config actions
  • Recap of new features vs. 10.0
    • Workspaces
    • Revisions and workflow are possible in the UI for Blocks and Taxonomy Terms
    • UI updates for creating and reusing fields, as well as bulk content operations
    • New Access Policy API and Single Directory Components
    • New Navigation and Announcements Feed modules
  • Contrib support out of the gate: about ⅔ of the top 200 modules already support Drupal 11
    • Adding modules that Rector estimates will only need info.yml or automated fixes brings us to over 80% of the top 200, or about 75% of all Drupal 10-compatible projects on Drupal.org
  • Updated dependencies: PHP 8.3, Symfony 7, CKEditor 5 42.0,2, Twig 3.9, Yarn 4, jQuery 4.0.0-beta, jQuery UI 1.14-beta.2 and more
  • Modules moved to contrib (smaller core):
    • Actions UI
    • Activity Tracker
    • Book
    • Forum
    • Statistics
    • Tour
  • Drupal 10 will receive maintenance support until mid-2026, so the community created this release of Drupal 11 early to give sites as much time as possible to make the transition, in this case almost 2 years!

<p class="dropcaps">The Drupal Starshot Initiative, introduced at DrupalCon Portland, is making significant strides in defining its direction and goals. Recently, <a href="https://www.thedroptimes.com/42164/drupal-announces-new-track-leads-starshot-project-advancement">the initiative announced the creation of "tracks"</a> to concentrate development efforts on specific areas. This approach is set to streamline progress and ensure that each aspect of the project receives the attention it needs.</p><p>The Drupal community's response has been robust, with nearly 65 submissions for leadership roles within these tracks. Leaders have been selected, drawing expertise from a diverse set of companies. However, three tracks are still in search of leadership, and the project remains focused on evolving through community-driven collaboration.</p><p>Our founder, Anoop John, <a href="https://youtu.be/aU2Hueh6i-s">conducted an interview</a> with Dries Butyaert at the beginning of July, which we <a href="https://www.thedroptimes.com/interview/41572/chief-who-drives-and-driven-drupal-talk-with-dries-buytaert">published on July 18</a>. In it, Dries, optimistic about the path the initiative is taking, said:&nbsp;</p><blockquote><p><em>"We have been working hard on the Starshot initiative, dedicating around six hours a day to it. We have made a lot of progress."</em></p></blockquote><p>and we are witnessing that enthusiasm spreading like wildfire in the community. As detailed in Dries Buytaert's <a href="https://www.thedroptimes.com/42132/drupal-starshot-new-strategy-marketers">blog post</a>, the Starshot Initiative—currently a temporary name—targets empowering marketers and expanding Drupal's market presence. Aimed at projects with budgets between $30,000 and $120,000 USD, the initiative focuses on ease of use, flexibility, smart defaults, and strong integrations, making Drupal a gold standard for marketers. Key features include AI-assisted tools, advanced content modeling, and efficient content reuse, all designed to help marketers scale their sites without being hindered by technical limitations.</p><p><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0;padding:0;text-align:left;">The&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.thedroptimes.com/42104/drupal-starshot-initiative-introduces-new-contribution-bonuses" target="_blank"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0;padding:0;text-align:left;">Drupal Starshot Initiative has introduced new contribution bonuses</span></a><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0;padding:0;text-align:left;"> to encourage community involvement further</span>. These bonuses are designed to reward those who lead and contribute to the project, leveraging Drupal's powerful contribution credit system. This includes 10 credits per issue for contributions to specific Starshot modules, 50 credits per week for organizational pledges of dedicated team members, and 1 credit per $100 invested in the innovation fund, starting from a $5,000 minimum.</p><p>Looking ahead, the impact of Drupal 11 and the Starshot Initiative on web development is expected to be profound. Drupal 11 brings innovations such as improved APIs, a revamped admin interface, and enhanced performance, making it more powerful and user-friendly. Starshot builds on this by simplifying installation and configuration, making Drupal accessible even to newcomers.</p><p>As the community continues to work hard on Starshot, anticipation is building for more updates at DrupalCon Barcelona in September. Dries hinted that they hope to showcase real progress, from marketing efforts to the first implementation of "recipes," one of the key technical components of Starshot.</p><p>Now, let's explore what <em>The Drop Times</em> has been reporting on over the past week.</p><p><a href="https://www.thedroptimes.com/41622/which-cms-powers-top-us-university-websites-comprehensive-analysis">A comprehensive study by The Drop Times</a> reveals that 35.4% of U.S. universities prefer Drupal for its flexibility and robust community support. The study highlights Drupal's growing role in academic content management.</p><p><a href="https://www.thedroptimes.com/interview/42044/resurrected-with-resilience-dallas-ramsdens-drupal-legacy">In a conversation</a> with <em><strong>Elma John</strong></em>, a former sub-editor with <em>The DropTimes</em>, <a href="/people/32359/dreambubbler" data-entity-type="node" data-entity-uuid="20d35642-6e8c-4a72-baa3-e3000e862103" data-entity-substitution="canonical">Dallas Ramsden</a>, CEO of Xequals, shares his 16-year journey with Drupal, including surviving a life-threatening accident and transitioning to teaching. His story is one of resilience and dedication to the Drupal community.</p><p><strong>Alka Elizabeth</strong>, sub-editor at The Drop Times, <a href="https://www.thedroptimes.com/42015/closer-look-at-ffws-transition-jakala">reports on JAKALA, a leading data and AI company, acquiring digital experience solutions provider FFW.</a> This deal, the largest non-public digital agency acquisition in Europe for 2023, significantly expands JAKALA's global workforce and market position.</p><p>The Drupal Association has introduced the <a href="https://www.thedroptimes.com/42169/drupals-starshot-edition-bounty-program-seeks-accelerate-contribution-and-reward-innovation">Starshot Edition of its Bounty Program</a>, offering credits to contributors for their involvement in key projects. This initiative aims to accelerate progress within the community.</p><p><a href="https://www.thedroptimes.com/42098/drupal-ai-module-alpha-6-update-released">The AI Module in Drupal has launched its Alpha 6 update,</a> including most core functionalities. A series of instructional videos has been created to help users navigate these new features.</p><p><a href="https://www.thedroptimes.com/42102/introducing-dresktop-multi-platform-tool-drupal-project-management">Jose Daniel Estrada introduces Dresktop</a>, a desktop application designed to simplify Drupal project management, inspired by Acquia Desktop and other tools.</p><p><a href="https://www.thedroptimes.com/42133/drupalorg-outage-resolved-after-brief-downtime">The Drupal.org website experienced a brief outage</a>, but thanks to swift action, the issue was promptly resolved, with insights from <a href="/people/27085/hestenet" data-entity-type="node" data-entity-uuid="a83a1737-f31e-4f40-8f7b-2d0c7228bedb" data-entity-substitution="canonical">Tim Lehnen</a>, CTO of the Drupal Association.</p><p>Acquia and other sponsors will <a href="https://www.thedroptimes.com/42031/drupal-govcon-community-party-in-college-park">host a community party for Drupal GovCon attendees on August 13</a>. The event promises an evening of relaxation and networking.</p><p><a href="https://www.thedroptimes.com/42153/last-chance-submit-sessions-twin-cities-drupal-camp-2024">Session proposals for Twin Cities Drupal Camp 2024 are open until August 15</a>. The camp, taking place at the University of Minnesota, encourages last-minute submissions.</p><p><a href="https://www.thedroptimes.com/42168/visit-droptimes-stall-at-drupal-govcon-2024">The Drop Times will participate in Drupal GovCon from August 13 to 15</a>, inviting attendees to discuss the latest trends in Drupal and digital governance at our stall.</p><p>With DrupalCon Barcelona 2024 approaching, <a href="https://www.thedroptimes.com/42079/drupalcon-barcelona-2024-register-now-regular-rate">attendees are encouraged to secure their tickets at the regular rate</a> before August 19 for significant savings.</p><p>DrupalCon Singapore 2024 will be held from December 09 to 11, <a href="https://www.thedroptimes.com/42129/drupalcon-singapore-2024-agenda-released">featuring a wide array of sessions tailored to the Drupal community</a>.</p><p><a href="https://www.thedroptimes.com/42097/drupal-tech-talk-37-be-held-in-tilburg-september-5">The 37th Drupal Tech Talk will take place on September 5, 2024</a>, at Spoorlaan 348 in Tilburg at 19:00 CEST. Hosted by <a href="/organization/14123/indicia" data-entity-type="node" data-entity-uuid="2b89aed5-bc5a-46b2-ac70-f89061095844" data-entity-substitution="canonical">Indicia</a> and organized by <a href="/organization/19104/finalist" data-entity-type="node" data-entity-uuid="c470dfbd-89db-4300-b989-4b3a1d4b26bf" data-entity-substitution="canonical">Finalist</a>, <a href="/organization/19339/react-online" data-entity-type="node" data-entity-uuid="2a5e3872-c5a2-4b50-8e22-475659cc6ad2" data-entity-substitution="canonical">React Online</a>, <a href="/organization/20011/swis" data-entity-type="node" data-entity-uuid="6546e414-fe75-40bb-acef-8d376b614fc8" data-entity-substitution="canonical">SWIS</a>, and <a href="/organization/19533/synetic" data-entity-type="node" data-entity-uuid="c3fa64e1-ea1a-4a90-8e1d-fe355452b3c9" data-entity-substitution="canonical">Synetic</a>, this meetup promises insightful sessions, networking, and community building. Dutch Drupal developers will gather to share experiences, learn from experts, and enjoy food and drinks.</p><p>We acknowledge that there are more stories to share. However, due to selection constraints, we must pause further exploration for now.</p><p>To get timely updates, follow us on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-drop-times/">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/thedroptimes">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/thedroptimes">Facebook</a>. You can also, join us on Drupal Slack at <a href="https://drupal.slack.com/archives/C04A6AZGYF6">#thedroptimes</a>.</p><p>Thank you,<br>Sincerely<br><strong>KAZIMA ABBAS</strong><br><strong>Sub-editor, </strong><em><strong>The DropTimes</strong></em><strong>.</strong></p>

Drupal GovCon 2024 kicks off tomorrow in Washington, D.C., uniting professionals from government, non-profits, education, and the private sector for a free, three-day conference. With over 800 participants expected, this event promises rich sessions, networking opportunities, and insights from the organizers, shared exclusively with The DropTimes, the official media partner.

Scaling and Performance Optimization of Drupal Editor Mon, 08/12/2024 - 10:24

The future is not distant anymore, so what kind of "good Drupal performance and scalability" can we expect in 2024? Moreover, what implementations can be done via Drupal's features and options to impress an online audience?
Nowadays, in the era of digital content, a website should be ultramodern in both presentation and performance. Consumers prefer easy experiences. Hence, the ability of an organization to do this for them is a critical factor in service delivery. Regarding the user side of the services, sites should hold up with rapid traffic growth, constantly upgrade, and provide users with a wide range of features.
Moreover, such a growing level of cross-communication may not only meet those expectations but also go far beyond them to help organizations grow in the digital domain. 

A comprehensive study by The DropTimes (TDT) uncovers a significant preference for Drupal among U.S. universities, with 35.4% opting for this robust and flexible CMS. The findings highlight Drupal&#039;s critical role in shaping the digital landscape of higher education, as institutions increasingly favor free and open-source solutions for their adaptability and community support. Dive into the study&#039;s insights and discover how Drupal is leading the charge in academic content management

This week started with undoing the horrors that y’all were subjected to last week: TwoTerribleTextAreasWidget featured prominently. The follow-up that I mentioned landed (Ben “bnjmnm” Mullins and I collaborated on it), which with a +110,-245 diff resulted in something that still is nowhere near a final UX, but is starting to look reasonable.

The evolved component instance props form: much simpler (it looked Frankensteinish a week ago!), by using the appropriate field widgets directly. Issue #3461422.

(Next up on that front: #3462310: Component props form: make form elements match design.)

That right sidebar is overlaid on top of the canvas, which also saw a big leap forward this week — thanks to Jesse “jessebaker” Baker, Harumi “hooroomoo” Jang, Ben “bnjmnm” Mullins and Lauri — a true team effort:

Component states in action: hover and active/focus. Issue #3460783, image by Jesse.

The images you saw last week showed actual component previews … but we cheated by using inline styles :P.
This week, Ben rectified that: CSS/JS assets are now loaded inside the preview <iframe>s.

But I saved the best for last: the last MR to land this week was Ben’s Redux integration issue … which brought with it: live updates of the component’s preview:

Live updating of component previews while the props are edited in the right sidebar! Issue #3462441, image by Ben.

This currently always requires a round trip to the server, but in many cases we’d actually be able to update the preview without a round trip (better for UX obviously!). See #3453690: [META] Real-time preview: supporting back-end infrastructure, where Lee “larowlan” Rowlands intends to work on parsing a Single-Directory Component’s Twig template into an Abstract syntax tree, which would allow eliminating that round trip in typical cases.1

I omitted less interesting MRs, but there’s one more issue that landed that deserves a mention: Ted “tedbow” Bowman and Ben landed CI: use a snapshot of core’s phpcs rules as changes in Drupal core will break MRs with limited benefit to module development, which was a very welcome addition: recently, Drupal 11 development has picked up steam … and hence several coding standards were added to Drupal core. Result: XBs phpcs CI job started failing overnight, with zero changes on our end. Doing the right thing can be painful! So, Ted and Ben changed that so we’d be notified instead: far less disruptive.

In progress/where to contribute

• Experience Builder has some needs that Single-Directory Components has not had to fulfill. Lauri asked me to start developing a comprehensive plan for integrating XB with SDC: what are all the mismatches, the feature gaps, et cetera?
• Ted discovered that XB currently does not support propless SDCs — oops! This is a great first issue to contribute to XB!
• Lauri created #3463300: Implement the concept of sections within the client
• Lauri also created #3463307: Implement simplified zoom interface, which Gauravvvv quickly picked up!
• Ben created #3463610: VH units fix only works for inline styles, which seems another great first issue to contribute to XB, but this time on the front end.
• Finally, I created #3463957: “Publish” and “Share” buttons should convey they do not yet work, which was quickly picked up by fazilitehreem :)

P.S.: issues that were picked up by somebody do not exclude you from contributing too — as you can see above, almost every issue is a multi-person effort!

Missed a prior week? See all posts tagged Experience Builder.

Goal: make it possible to follow high-level progress by reading ~5 minutes/week. I hope this empowers more people to contribute when their unique skills can best be put to use!

For more detail, join the #experience-builder Slack channel. Check out the pinned items at the top!

Week 11 was July 22–28, 2024.

1. If the SDC prop value is rendered as-is, with no transformations applied, then no round trip is necessary. Otherwise, that might be needed. ↩︎

• Drupal
• Acquia
• Experience Builder

• Component states in action: hover and active/focus.
• The evolved component instance props form: much simpler, by using the appropriate field widgets directly.
• Live updating of component previews while the props are edited in the right sidebar!