drupal

We are thrilled to announce that Evolving Web has been honored with the Social Impact Award in the Inaugural Pantheon Partner Awards for our work on the Planned Parenthood Direct website. 

The winners were announced at the Pantheon Partner dinner, held during DrupalCon Portland on May 6, 2024. Congratulations to the other winners who took to the stage with us: 

• Elevated Third – Partner of the Year Award
• WebMD Ignite – Innovation Award
• HoundER – Rookie of the Year Award
• Forum One – Customer First Award
• Danny Pfeiffer – Friends of Pantheon Partners Award

Pantheon’s Partner Awards recognize the outstanding contributions of digital agencies that drive positive change. We’re proud to be acknowledged for our role in the Planned Parenthood Direct project, which supports reproductive rights and enhancing access to reproductive and sexual healthcare. Our work on the project demonstrates our commitment to creating impact through user-centric digital experiences.

A Mission-Driven Collaboration

In the U.S., reproductive and sexual health care services vary from state to state. Planned Parenthood Direct (PPD) aims to provide trusted care from anywhere by offering “on-the-go” services. We collaborated with PPD to build a secure, mobile-first website on that informs users of available services in their state. The site also encourages users to download the PPD app, which they can use to order birth control.

Designing for Impact and Inclusion

Our team undertook the challenge of creating a highly informative, accessible website that appeals to a younger audience.

• We created dedicated pages for each state, ensuring they’re easy for PPD to update and optimized for search engines.
• We created a new visual brand identity that incorporates bold design principles for a youthful, reassuring, and non-stigmatizing user experience.
• Our mobile-first approach ensured that the site meets the needs of an audience who prefer mobile devices.
• We also followed accessibility best practices to ensure a user-friendly experience for all, including users with disabilities. 

Protecting Users with Exceptional Security

Security was a paramount concern, given the political climate surrounding reproductive rights. We ensured a highly secure online experience using a decoupled architecture with Next.js for the front-end and Drupal 10 for the back-end. Hosting on Pantheon added additional layers of security, including HTTPS certificates and DDoS protection.

Setting PPD Up For Success & Growth 

Our work on the Planned Parenthood Direct website included the development of 17 custom components and 14 content types in Layout Builder. This empowers PPD’s content editors to create flexible, engaging, and visually appealing layouts. The results is streamlined content creation and management, allowing PPD to maintain and grow their website effectively.

Outstanding Results & Continued Commitment

The new Planned Parenthood Direct website has been instrumental in continuing PPD’s mission to support human rights and ensure access to sexual and reproductive healthcare.

A big thank you to Pantheon for recognizing our efforts, and to Planned Parenthood Direct for trusting us with this important project. We’re honoured to have partnered with you both.

As we celebrate this award, we’re reminded of the importance of our work and the impact it has on communities. We look forward to future opportunities to make a difference.

Partner with us to turn your vision into a powerful digital experience that drives change. 

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When I first got into web development after graduating from university, I got excited about how easy it was to build a website. A bit of knowledge goes a long way. I learned HTML, CSS, Ruby on Rails, and PHP, and tried all kinds of platforms and content management systems. Sometimes it felt hard and sometimes easy. But it was those “aha” moments when I could prototype a site in an afternoon that really got me excited. Which is why I think Drupal Starshot is such a promising initiative.

The goal of Starshot is to create an out-of-the-box version of Drupal that fast-tracks people through building and launching a website. It’ll attract new users, on-board them quickly, and give them an instant feeling of empowerment.

Starshot will show new users that, yes, you can build enterprise websites with Drupal — but you can also use it to launch a campaign, create an event website, or evolve a digital presence for your startup business. 

The Initiative was announced at DrupalCon Portland 2024. Already, more than 386 individuals have pledged support, and dozens of companies have expressed interest too. Starshot is shaping up to be one of the most exciting large-scale initiatives in Drupal’s 23 year history.

“Without a doubt, Starshot will be the largest change to Drupal since the foundational rewrite to modern object-oriented PHP that occurred with Drupal 8.” 

– Mike Herschel, Senior Front-End Developer at Agileana, former elected member of the Drupal Association Board of Directors

Is Starshot a Rewrite of Drupal?

No, Starshot isn’t a rewrite. It is built on Drupal core and include many features from recent Drupal initiatives, including:

• Recipes, packaged features that give you content types and content listings
• Project Browser, for adding more functionality
• Experience Builder, the improved version of Layout Builder for drag-and-drop page building 
• Automatic Updates

Drupal Starshot will be available alongside traditional Drupal Core on the Drupal.org download page later this year. Selecting Starshot will install the necessary features for various website use cases, simplifying the process for new users. Traditional Drupal Core will continue to be available for more custom sites. 

Watch the Driesnote from DrupalCon Portland 2024 where Starshot was revealed:

How Will Starshot Enhance the Open Web?

Starshot will increase Drupal usage and bring the power of open source to even more people by lowering the barrier to entry. It’s a great opportunity to package a version of Drupal that’s more attractive, user-friendly, and engaging for newcomers. This initiative will bring long-overdue improvements to usability, while maintaining Drupal’s strengths: content architecture, security, and multilingual support.

A key component of Starshot's development is its focus on the "Builder" persona—users who aspire to create amazing websites with Drupal but may not have extensive web development experience. By leveraging user research with Builders, Starshot will tailor its features and the editing interface around their needs. This means that folks with limited technical expertise can harness the power of Drupal to bring their creative ideas to life.

Starshot can pre-package Drupal with default configurations and pre-configured modules, leveraging the flexible Recipes initiative, and using the new Experience Builder to enhance page creation. Starshot should significantly reduce development and maintenance costs for simpler web builds. Plus, it will set good UX standards for Drupal websites across the board.

“Let’s reach for the stars and bring the open web to all.”

– Dries Buytaert, Creator and Project Lead of Drupal

How Can I Contribute?

The first releases of Starshot should be available before the end of 2024. The initiative needs lots of support to make this a reality!

Make your pledge on the Starshot landing page or reach out to us with the details of your expertise and availability. We’ll be happy to connect you with a meaningful way to contribute.

Want to help with marketing efforts related to Startshot? Go to the Drupal Marketing page or reach out to me directly.

Take Your Drupal Skills to New Heights

I’ve trained countless people in Drupal and web development over the years — always with the aim of empowering them and inspiring the same passion I have for building websites. If you’re looking to enhance your knowledge and gain valuable tools, you’ve come to the right place. My team and I offer course packages and custom training for site builders, content editors, UX/UI designers, front-end and back-end developers, and entire teams.

Learn more about Drupal training with Evolving Web.  

+ more awesome articles by Evolving Web

Dive into an in-depth conversation with Brian Perry as he unveils the latest updates and future trajectory of the API Client initiative. Discover how the Drupal API Client is revolutionizing the interaction with Drupal APIs, and explore the exciting opportunities it presents for web development enthusiasts. Join us as we unravel the journey of innovation and collaboration within the Drupal ecosystem.

Back in March I started to look at sponsors for the time I’m spending working on the Drupal core issue queue. It’s been a few months and I wanted to go back on all the sponsored commits I made as a Frontend Framework Manager, to show how the sponsorships helped Drupal for the past few months.

The sponsorship offer is simple: you send me a fixed monthly fee of 2500€, and I share the issue credit of every Drupal core commit that I make. I’m very thankful to Palantir.net and OPTASY who are sponsoring me. Thanks to them I was able to increase the amount of commits I can make to Drupal core. In the last 3 months I committed 61 issues (worth 610 weighted issue credits) and the more sponsors I have, the more time I can spend reviewing and committing issues.

1. Differentiate visually dragging with and without hierarchy A nice improvement for editors working a lot with lists and trees
2. Sticky table header is not sticky if --drupal-displace-offset-top is not defined
3. [jQuery 4] ajax.js and jquery.form.js use deprecated function $.parseJSON() Preparing for the next release of jQuery 4 with some cleanup.
4. cspell check is broken in commit-code-check.sh Sometimes we break the CI and it needs to be fixed 🤷
5. CKEditor admin toolbar config buttons using ::before to add content: have invalid screen reader text It takes dedication to land those accessibility fixes, kudos to our accessibility contributors.
6. Linking in CKEditor 5: URLs with top-level domain but without protocol should get a protocol added automatically
7. #states disable property has stopped working for submit button and other elements Sometimes when we clean-up code, we clean too much and break some other parts of the code
8. Setting width for sticky-header is broken
9. Negotiate max width/height of oEmbed assets more intelligently
10. States API doesn't work with multiple select fields This was a a 13 years old issue! It _always_ feels good to close an issue that old.
11. Add deprecation/bc support for library-overrides when files are moved Making sure backwards compatibility is working and useful
12. Remove default event from collpased nav-tabs button
13. [DrupalHtmlEngine] HTML-reserved characters (>, <, &) in <script> and <style> tag are converted to HTML entities It happens that we fix things for uses cases that stretch the reasonable (like having whole script tags in a WYSIWYG field)
14. Olivero: Show content preview checkbox is not center aligned with the layout builder buttons. Even a minor issue of a misaligned text by a few pixels is worth fixing
15. Drupal.theme.progressBar() does not escape output correctly
16. filter_autop should ignore twig.config debug html comments Making sure Developer experience doesn't impact regular users
17. tablePositionSticky should not be called on a non-array variable
18. CKEditor 5 table cell vertical align "middle" doesn't work
19. Move system/base component CSS to respective libraries where they exist A surprising performance improvement. There are still some low hanging fruits to improve the default frontend performance of Drupal
20. Remove country setting from the installer When you don't need a piece of data, just don't collect it
21. Media Library widget display doesn't return to first page on applying filters
22. Deprecate and remove the AJAX replace method That was a leftover D7 era deprecation
23. Claro should use libraries-extend for views_ui.css Even in core it happens that we don't use the right way to do something
24. Removal :tabbable usage in dialog.js Some more jQuery 4 preparation
25. Close icon is ovrlapping the title text in modal in claro Yes, typos can make it in the commit log
26. Convert Olivero's teaser into a single directory component Slowly but surely we're adding Single directory components to Drupal core
27. Refactor (if feasible) uses of the jQuery animate function to use Vanilla/native More CSS awesomeness making JavaScript code disapear
28. [11.x] Update to jQuery 4.0.x beta Drupal staying on the bleading edge of frontend developement :)
29. Refactor some uses of the jQuery parents function to use vanillaJS Did a small post earlier about this, CSS is really very good
30. [regression] Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read properties of null (reading 'style') (toolbar.js)
31. JSDoc for ajax command "changed" is incorrect There was a bunch of documentation fixes around this time
32. menu_heading_id variable is not set in menu-region--footer.html.twig
33. Add @file documentation to navigation.html.twig layout template
34. Add @file documentation to menu-region--footer.html.twig template
35. Views UI action buttons create janky layout shift on page load Polishing the loading of pages with heavy JS usage is important to show we care about UX
36. Remove bottom radius on hover state of expanded sub menu item
37. Setting empty URL when making embedded media a link in CKEditor5 causes JS errors
38. Update color of submenu title text
39. Collapsed nav-tabs status not exposed to screen reader There is a good number of accessibility fixes after this one, always nice to commit
40. Incorrect padding on child menu items
41. Claro: Form labels that are disabled have too low color contrast
42. Claro should not hardcode decimal list style type for <ol>
43. Some of string comparisons should use String.prototype.startsWith() or String.prototype.endsWith() Removing regular expressions as much as we can is a noble goal
44. Location of "Skip to Main" link below admin toolbar in Claro is problematic for screen magnifier users
45. Focus states on mobile second level navigation items can get cut off in Olivero
46. Regression: Shortcuts menu flickers when the page is loaded Those toolbar flickering issues are tricky. Thankfully the new navigation module code is simpler than the existing Toolbar code, so it's much much easier to deal with
47. escapeAdmin.js functionality should be removed(it not used anymore) Removed the feature that removed the overlay… for now, escapeAdmin will be back one way or another)
48. Navigation module offsets the Olivero skip link element
49. Umami page.tpl.php breaks block placeholders Sometime themes can break really nice Drupal features (like bigpipe)
50. Claro CSS for dropbutton items adds large gap of white space
51. Replace dialogContentResize jQuery event with CustomEvent Those events issues are really exciting, we're moving away slowly from jQuery for event management
52. Umami views should use responsive grid Another case of core not using the awesome features we provide, not anymore :)
53. Claro highlighted row not communicated to keyboard users
54. Fix overflow visibility for wrapper content in navigation CSS
55. Claro details component does not have the right class
56. Make drupal.tableheader only use CSS for sticky table headers I will always welcome CSS-removing-JS patches
57. Mismatch between implementation and description for Drupal.Message.prototype.remove().
58. "Skip to main content" link skips over content that is essential to the page, banner role should be for global content
59. Add pdureau as a co-maintainer for the Theme API with a focus on SDC Adding new maintainers is too rare. In this case the community is better for having him around
60. Choose an icon for the Announcements link
61. Remove deprecated moved_files entries in core

Many of these issues are maintenance focused, it’s not shiny, it’s not exciting, and it needs to be done. Sponsoring big initiatives like Starshot is exciting, let’s not forget the unexciting day to day that keeps things running. If you’re interested in supporting my work on Drupal core and keep the frontend fixes coming, consider sponsoring me.

Recently, we built a queue worker to send emails asynchronously, meeting a client's unique requirements to ensure email delivery. There is a lot of movement in the Drupal contribution space to innovate on the mailer. Traditionally, Drupal uses a plain PHP mailer to deliver transactional emails such as sign-up confirmation or password reset instructions. Nowadays, many websites rely on the contribution module Drupal Symfony Mailer to use the framework mailer by Symfony and leverage the flexible setup of mailer policies, transport, and HTML theming with templates. What needs to be added to the mix are easy-to-implement ways to send emails asynchronously. Today, we announce the first stable release of the new contribution module Symfony Mailer Queue.

Today, we will take a step back from reviewing the Migrate API. Instead, we will have an overview of content and configuration entities in Drupal 10. This is important for two reasons. Read more mauricio Wed, 05/29/2024 - 07:40

The person with the most trouble with duplicate material is the content writer. The hardest task is having to start over and make the necessary corrections after spending hours writing something and discovering that your content is plagiarized. 

This not only gives you a lot of work to do, but it may also interfere with the SEO of your website. Further, we’ll discuss the main problems brought on by duplicate content and discuss how the Drupal SEO module might assist in resolving this issue. 

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our new initiative led by Programs Manager, Joi Garrett. This program is designed to support the success of Drupal Local Associations by engaging directly with community leaders who work to promote the Drupal project in their global regions.

Connecting Communities

The heart of the Local Associations Initiative lies in fostering meaningful connections. We recognize the efforts of local leaders and the unique challenges they face. By hosting a series of virtual meetings, we aim to create a platform for leaders to share their experiences, successes and challenges. These sessions will not only provide valuable insight to the state of various local associations but help to strengthen our global community. 

Identifying and Addressing Common Needs

Understanding the diverse needs of our local associations is crucial. Through open dialogue in our virtual meetings, we will identify common needs and prioritize them. We hope by facilitating a collaborative environment the Drupal Association can support efforts for the most pressing issues faced by community leaders. The Drupal Association is committed to finding solutions that drive success. 

Join Us on This Journey

We invite local association leaders to participate in this initiative and attend the virtual meetings. Your insights and contributions are invaluable as we work together to strengthen our global Drupal Community. Stay tuned for announcements about the upcoming virtual meetings. Through this initiative, we aim to foster a collaborative environment where our global community feels more connected and supported. Once we have concluded the meetings, we will discuss the findings and future plans during DrupalCon Barcelona 2024. 

We have been collecting contact information of Local Association leaders for the past few months, if you would like to be included please fill out the following form.

Thank you to our local leaders for being an integral part of our community. We look forward to collaborating with you to make this initiative a success!

Continent Expected Start Europe April (working with Network of European Drupal Associations)  Asia June Australia July North America July South America August Africa August

A few weeks ago at DrupalCon Portland, I announced Drupal Starshot, a project to create the new default download of Drupal. Built on Drupal Core, Drupal Starshot will include popular features from the contributed project ecosystem. It focuses on delivering a great user experience right out of the box. Drupal Starshot builds on recent initiatives like Recipes, Project Browser, and Automatic Updates to elevate Drupal to new heights.

The response has been incredible! Hundreds of people have pledged their support on the Drupal Starshot page, and many more have asked how to get involved. Over the past few weeks, we have been planning and preparing, so I'm excited to share some next steps!

We're launching a series of sessions to get everyone up to speed and involved. These will be held as interactive Zoom calls, and the recordings will be shared publicly for everyone to watch at their convenience.

The main goal of these Zoom sessions is to help you get involved in each area. We'll cover details not included in my keynote, update you on our progress, and give you practical advice on where and how you can contribute.

We've scheduled six sessions, and we invite everyone to attend. The first one will be on this Friday on participation, funding, and governance! You can find the latest schedule online at https://www.drupal.org/starshot#sessions and the core calendar in the sidebar of the Drupal core news page.

We look forward to seeing you there and working together to make Drupal Starshot a success!