drupal

The Drop Times: The Shape of Access

Dear readers,

The web is having an accessibility moment, and it's about time. While major platforms scramble to meet compliance deadlines, something more fundamental is happening in our corner of the internet. Our journey from default theme fonts (Thunder backend + EM Magazine frontend) to IBM Plex and Atkinson Hyperlegible revealed something telling: the same attention to detail that makes us distinguish between a zero and an uppercase O is the same mindset driving accessibility improvements across open source communities. This isn't a coincidence.

There's a philosophical shift happening where accessibility is becoming a natural extension of the open source ethos rather than a checkbox to tick. When we chose fonts explicitly designed for visually impaired readers or questioned why we looked identical to every other community site, we joined a larger movement. Developers are choosing semantic markup not because they have to, but because it's right. Designers are prioritising keyboard navigation from day one. Communities are recognising that technology's true purpose is serving people, all people.

What's encouraging is how this mindset is spreading beyond obvious accessibility wins. We're seeing it in performance optimisation for slower connections, content strategy that prioritises clarity over cleverness, and design decisions that favour inclusion over aesthetics. Whether through better typography, cleaner code, or thoughtful user experiences, communities aren't just talking about accessibility anymore. They're living it.

OPEN

The Letters That Changed Everything: How The DropTimes Discovered Its Voice Through Typography

INTERVIEW

Nineteen Years in a Twenty-Four-Year-Old Drupal

DISCOVER DRUPAL

EVENTS

ORGANIZATION NEWS

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.

Golems GABB: BPMN.io for ECA: visualize models in detail

BPMN.io for ECA: visualize models in detail Editor Mon, 07/14/2025 - 12:31

Visualizing Event-Condition-Action (or ECA) models is perfect choice to ease modern business processes and software development. ECA models transform complex sets of rules and relationships into understandable diagrams that can be easily interpreted by all project stakeholders. It helps to understand the business logic, helps identify problems in the development process and improves communication between technical and non-technical professionals.
Visual parts of ECA models also push decision-making efficiency. They are capturing the entire process structure and understanding how different events can affect the system. In addition, it serve as excellent documentation that remains relevant throughout the project lifecycle. With tools like BPMN.io, teams can create, edit, and share ECA models. Keep reading to learn more about BPMN.io for ECA from the Golems Drupal development team.

Colan Schwartz: Want to Run Drupal in Kubernetes? Try Our New Terraform Module

This article was originally published on the BackUpScale blog.

Background

Our customer dashboard, which will soon be used for managing subscriptions to our backup service (and not just newsletters and our contact form, as we’re doing now), is built on the Drupal data management framework. Until now, we’ve been hosting it with a company that specializes in hosting very specific types of applications, like Drupal. This wasn’t working for us because our service is running in our Kubernetes cluster at a cloud service provider that specializes in managed Kubernetes hosting, which let’s us run whatever applications we want, and configure them however we need. The challenge was getting the dashboard to communicate securely with our other applications.

It needs to communicate with our back-end systems in the Kubernetes cluster to:

send requests from customers to provision services,
configure customer accounts, and
receive status information from back-end services to create log entries that users can see in their accounts.

Why the old approach broke down

In order for things to work with the old set up, we’d have to:

expose internal applications to the Internet (so the dashboard site could access them), and
add additional layers of security to the communications to ensure privacy.

We didn’t feel as confident with this set-up as moving everything into our private Kubernetes network, which protects all of our services with a single firewall. Keeping non-public facing services within that network ensures that they’re not accessible by anyone on the greater Internet (except our staff using the company VPN), which ensures greater security and privacy for our users.

In order to make the change, we needed to be able to run a Drupal site within Kubernetes. Given that Drupal is a popular framework, and Kubernetes is a popular container orchestration system, we assumed that there would be good options for putting them together using open-source infrastructure as code (IaC) to handle the automated provisioning (we automate everything here). However, we weren’t able to find anything that could help us.

Evaluated options

We explored the following options:

The Bitnami Helm chart did at least one very strange thing: It was placing the Drupal code files on the persistent volume instead of placing them in the container image. We wanted the Drupal code (or at least the Composer files that build it along with any custom code) to be version controlled with Git. When we tried to work around this, they made it very difficult to make these changes.

Jeff Geerling simply stopped recommending his earlier approach (except for potentially hosting many sites on a hosting platform), and said that he currently uses his own Kubernetes primitives. So we took that idea, and expanded on it to build a fairly complete solution. Once we had something that worked for us, we believed we could make it generic enough to make it available to everyone else. So that’s what we did.

This move eliminated two Internet-facing endpoints and let us apply a single network-policy layer to all microservices. Additionally, running inside the cluster removes a public load balancer, and shrinks latency.

Meet “Drubernetes”

Because we automate all of our infrastructure with Terraform, we just released Drubernetes, a new module in the Terraform Registry, which provisions Drupal onto a generic Kubernetes cluster. It shouldn’t matter where your cluster is, who’s managing it for you, or if you’re managing it yourself on your own hardware. We wanted to provide something standardized that everyone can use and build from.

Contribute

Contributions are welcome! Please try it, and provide any feedback that you may have. The project is hosted on Gitlab.com, and any issues can be opened from the board.

As always, if you have questions or feedback, feel free to reach out. We appreciate your support and can’t wait to bring you the next chapter of BackupScale.

Event Organizers: Event Report: Drupal Contribution Japan - July 2025

On July 11, 2025, the Japanese Drupal community reached a significant milestone with the first-ever Drupal Contribution Day held in Tokyo. This groundbreaking event brought together developers, translators, and Drupal enthusiasts from across Japan for a full day of collaborative contribution to the Drupal project and the broader open web ecosystem.

Setting the Stage for DrupalCon Nara

This contribution day was strategically designed as part of our efforts to strengthen Japan's Drupal contributor base ahead of DrupalCon Nara in November 2025. With DrupalCon Nara featuring a dedicated contribution space for all three event days, we recognised the importance of preparing our rapidly growing Japanese Drupal community to actively participate in global Drupal development.

The event welcomed a diverse range of participants, from experienced developers looking to contribute bug fixes and patches to newcomers interested in translation work and community building. The inclusive atmosphere fostered collaboration between seasoned contributors and first-time participants, creating an ideal environment for knowledge sharing and skill development.

Empowering First-Time Contributors

A highlight of the day was the First Time Contributors Workshop, delivered in Japanese by Jimmy Cann from Ironstar. This workshop proved invaluable in breaking down barriers for new contributors, providing hands-on guidance on navigating Drupal's contribution processes, understanding issue queues, and making meaningful contributions to the project.

The workshop's success was evident in the enthusiastic participation throughout the day, with several attendees making their first contributions to Drupal core and contributed modules. Special thanks go to mradcliffe, ninelivesblackcat, and larowlan for their support.

Tackling Real-World Issues

After Jim's contribution workshop, participants broke off into three groups focused on contribution relevant to the local community and users:

Internationalisation and Localisation: The team worked on critical issues affecting Japanese users, including problems with content transliteration where Japanese text was incorrectly being transliterated as Chinese. This work directly impacts the user experience for Japanese Drupal sites and demonstrates the importance of having diverse, international contributors.

Metatag Module Improvements: Contributors focused on resolving canonical link issues in the Metatag module, particularly problems affecting multilingual sites where canonical links weren't properly referencing the current language page. This work has direct implications for SEO and site architecture in multilingual Drupal installations.

Core JavaScript Enhancements: Advanced contributors worked on updating core JavaScript functionality, including the removal of deprecated UIEvent.which usage, ensuring Drupal stays current with evolving web standards.

CKEditor Integration: The team addressed issues with CKEditor 5 integration, working on problems related to image handling and element spacing that affect content editor experiences.

Community Spirit and Collaboration

Japan is already home to a collection of experienced contributors and we were grateful to have some of them attend and help in the mentoring experience. As with other Drupal communities spread across the world, this was another contribution event where there was a natural emphasis on sharing, collaboration, and inclusiveness.

Acknowledgments

The success of this inaugural event would not have been possible without the generous support of our sponsors and the dedication of our speakers and participants.

Special thanks to our speakers:

Kensuke Naoe from Ironstar Japan
Jimmy Cann from Ironstar Australia

Heartfelt gratitude to our sponsors:

Genero
Ironstar Japan
Previous Next
Pixel Onion
Stirling Marketing

Most importantly, very special thanks to all attendees who volunteered their time and energy to make meaningful contributions to Drupal and the open web. Your dedication and enthusiasm made this event a resounding success.

Looking Forward

The inaugural Drupal Contribution Day Tokyo 2025 represents more than just a single successful event—it marks the beginning of a new chapter for Drupal contribution in Japan. As we approach DrupalCon Nara in November, we're excited about the momentum building within the Japanese Drupal community.

One of our central goals for planning DrupalCon Nara has been to ensure that local Japanese-speaking community members had an opportunity to engage in the conference in their own language, even though English is the primary language of the conference. We're excited to have nearly a third of all accepted sessions for Nara be in Japanese, and now to have an experience group of Drupal contributors who can act as Mentors for their local community in their own language.

The Future of Open Source in Japan

The inaugural Drupal Contribution Day Tokyo 2025 proved that when diverse minds come together with a shared commitment to the open web, great things happen. Here's to many more successful contribution days and a thriving Japanese Drupal community!

See you at DrupalCon Nara!

Mike Richardson, Chair, Drupal Asia Steering Committee

File attachments: IMG_3178.jpg IMG_3187.jpg

Drupalize.Me: Automatic Updates: Is It Right for Your Drupal Site? 🤔

Automatic Updates: Is It Right for Your Drupal Site? 🤔

Keeping a Drupal site secure means staying on top of security updates, which are a kind of patch-level update. You may have heard of Automatic Updates, a tool that helps you apply patch-level updates to your site without the need to manually use Composer on the command line. Perhaps you’ve installed Drupal CMS and encountered it there or in the documentation as a feature. Before you dive in, make sure you understand what’s required and the best-fit use cases. Depending on your hosting provider and deployment workflow, you may already have the best update solution in place.

In this post, we’ll walk through what Automatic Updates can and can’t do, the technical requirements and limitations, a decision matrix to help you determine if it's a good fit, and where to learn more in the Drupal CMS Guide.

Amber Matz Thu, 07/10/2025 - 18:28

DDEV Blog: Testing DDEV with VMware Workstation Pro

Introduction

DDEV works in various environments, and it's often tested in virtual machines, but nested virtualization can be hard to set up and may impact performance.

In 2024, VMware Workstation Pro became free for personal use.

This guide shows how VMware Workstation Pro can be used to prepare environments for both Windows and Linux, where Docker and DDEV perform well even inside a VM.

Warning: Nested virtualization may not work on all systems:

Virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT is not supported on this platform. Continue without virtualized Intel VT-x/EPT? VMware Workstation does not support nested virtualization on this host. Module 'HV' power on failed. Failed to start the virtual machine.

If this occurs, search for known workarounds specific to your hardware and BIOS/UEFI configuration. It worked out of the box for me on Arch-based Linux but did not work for Randy on Windows 11.

Installing VMware Workstation Pro

Download and install VMware Workstation Pro. You must click on the link to the terms and conditions to accept them before downloading (checkbox is inactive by default). Packages are available for Windows and Linux.

On Arch-based systems, install via:

yay -S vmware-workstation

Initial configuration steps:

Edit > Preferences > Workspace > Default Location for Virtual Machines - use location with sufficient space
Edit > Preferences > Hotkeys - remember shortcut to escape the VM, the default is Ctrl+Alt.
Edit > Preferences > Updates > Configure update behavior
Check other settings

Installing Windows 11

Download the Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO) for x64 devices.

In VMware:

File > New Virtual Machine > Typical > I will install the operating system later
Select Windows 10 x64, not Windows 11 x64 (I don't want to use TPM encryption)
Specify 100 GB disk, stored as a single file
Customize hardware and finish:
- Set at least 8GB RAM
- Number of processors: 2, number of cores per processor: 2
- Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI (check)
- Virtualize CPU performance counters (check)
- Network Adapter > Connect at power on (uncheck) - to be able to set up a local Windows account and skip Windows updates
- Sound Card > Connect at power on (uncheck) - I don't like any beeps on the first boot, will be turned on later
- USB Controller > Automatically connect new USB devices (uncheck if you don't need USB devices)
- CD/DVD (SATA) > Use ISO image > Browse - select ISO file

To apply additional low-level VM configuration, close VMware itself and use the script below:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# This script changes more settings than the GUI allows
# Tested only on Arch-based Linux
# Run it from the virtual machine directory

vmx_file="$( (find ./*.vmx -maxdepth 1 -type f 2>/dev/null | head -1) || true)"

if [[ "${vmx_file}" == "" ]]; then
    echo >&2 "Unable to find *.vmx file in the current directory."
    exit 1
fi

# from https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/VMware
declare -A vmware_configs=(
    # 3D acceleration
    ["mks.gl.allowBlacklistedDrivers"]="TRUE"
    # 5 buttons mouse for windows
    ["mouse.vusb.enable"]="TRUE"
    ["mouse.vusb.useBasicMouse"]="TRUE"
    # disable logging
    ["vmx.scoreboard.enabled"]="FALSE"
    ["logging"]="FALSE"
    ["vmx.buildType"]="release"
    # paravirtual adapters
    ["scsi0.virtualDev"]="pvscsi"
    ["ethernet0.virtualDev"]="vmxnet3"
    # performance
    ["MemTrimRate"]="0"
    ["mainmem.backing"]="swap"
    ["prefvmx.useRecommendedLockedMemSize"]="TRUE"
    ["MemAllowAutoScaleDown"]="FALSE"
    ["sched.mem.pshare.enable"]="FALSE"
    ["prefvmx.minVmMemPct"]="100"
    ["mainMem.partialLazySave"]="FALSE"
    ["mainMem.partialLazyRestore"]="FALSE"
    # config
    ["tools.syncTime"]="TRUE"
    ["numvcpus"]="4"
    ["cpuid.coresPerSocket"]="2"
    ["memsize"]="8192"
    ["vhv.enable"]="TRUE"
    ["vpmc.enable"]="TRUE"
)

for key in "${!vmware_configs[@]}"; do
    value="${vmware_configs["${key}"]}"
    line="${key} = \"${value}\""

    if grep -q "^${key}" "${vmx_file}"; then
        sed -i "s/^${key}.*/${line}/" "${vmx_file}"
    else
        echo "${line}" >> "${vmx_file}"
    fi
done

echo "Updated ${vmx_file}"

Press "Start up this guest operating system".

If Windows 10 was chosen as virtual machine type:

Wait for the "Select Image" screen (where you choose which Windows to install), press Shift+F10 to open cmd, write regedit, open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup
RMB (right mouse button) on Setup > New > Key > write LabConfig
RMB on Values area > New > DWORD (32-bit) Value > write BypassSecureBootCheck, set 1
RMB on Values area > New > DWORD (32-bit) Value > write BypassTPMCheck, set 1

After the first reboot (installation is not done yet), don't select country in the initial setup:

Press Shift+F10, enter OOBE\BYPASSNRO (O letter, not number) directly in cmd. This is needed to force creation of a local account (I don't want to login anywhere here).

After Windows boots:

VMware Menu > VM > Install VMware Tools
Open Explorer, select D: drive with mounted tools, and run setup.exe
Reboot

Windows configuration:

Settings > Windows Update > Pause
Explorer > This PC > View > Show > Filename extensions, Hidden items
Settings > Home > Rename
Settings > System > Power > Screen and sleep timeouts > Never
Settings > System > Sound > More sound settings > Sounds > No Sounds, uncheck "Play Windows Startup sound"
Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Task View (uncheck), Widgets (uncheck)
Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors > Taskbar alignment > Left

Registry configuration:

# Remove recommended applications from the Windows 11 start menu
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Cloud Content" /v DisableWindowsConsumerFeatures /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
# Disable automatic update for APPX applications in Microsoft Store
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsStore" /v AutoDownload /t REG_DWORD /d 2 /f
# Disable Meltdown and Spectre fixes that slow down Windows
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management" /v FeatureSettingsOverride /t REG_DWORD /d 3 /f
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management" /v FeatureSettingsOverrideMask /t REG_DWORD /d 3 /f
# Mouse cursor on the default button
reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Mouse" /v SnapToDefaultButton /t REG_SZ /d 1 /f
# Enable developer mode feature
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModelUnlock" /t REG_DWORD /v "AllowDevelopmentWithoutDevLicense" /d 1 /f
# Set old right click menu
reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\CLASSES\CLSID\{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}\InprocServer32" /ve /f
# Restart Windows Explorer
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
start explorer.exe
# disable reserved storage in Windows 11
dism /Online /Get-ReservedStorageState
dism /Online /Set-ReservedStorageState /State:Disabled

Shutdown the virtual machine, press "Edit virtual machine settings":

Hardware > Network Adapter > Connect at power on (check)
Hardware > Sound Card > Connect at power on (check)
Hardware > USB Controller > Automatically connect new USB devices (check if needed)
Hardware > CD/DVD (SATA) > Connect at power on (uncheck)

Press "Start up this guest operating system", and run inside Windows:

Search > Disk Cleanup
Search > Defragment and Optimize Drives

At this point, the VM uses more disk space than needed. We can shrink guest on hosted platform:

Add VMware Tools to PATH, run Terminal as admin:
cmd /c "setx /M PATH ""C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools;%PATH%"""
Restart PowerShell, and run Terminal as admin:
VMwareToolboxCmd.exe disk shrink c:\
Wait until *.vmdk file at virtual machine location will be shrinked.

VMware Menu > VM > Snapshot > Take snapshot.

Install Docker and DDEV. Create additional snapshots as needed.

Installing Linux

Follow similar steps as for Windows, using a Linux ISO (e.g. Ubuntu).

Install VMware Tools inside the guest:

# Debian-based:
sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools-desktop
# Fedora-based:
sudo dnf install open-vm-tools-desktop
# Arch-based:
sudo pacman -S open-vm-tools

If display resolution is incorrect:

sudo systemctl restart vmtoolsd.service

If copy/paste from/to the host doesn't work:

vmware-user
# or
vmtoolsd -n vmusr

References:

To configure shared folders inside the guest:

mkdir -p ~/Shared
echo "vmhgfs-fuse $HOME/Shared fuse defaults,allow_other 0 0" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo mount -a

Shrink Linux VM disk, take a snapshot, then proceed with installing Docker and DDEV. Create additional snapshots as needed.

How Do You Test DDEV?

If you use a different setup that performs well, consider contributing a guest post to ddev.com or sharing your findings.

ImageX: What’s New and Exciting in AI for Drupal: Latest Innovations and Trends

AI — one of the most breathtaking inventions of the 21st century — isn’t just changing the game; it’s rewriting the rulebook for effective website management and creation. The Drupal community knows this well, which is why embracing AI has become a top priority for the platform.

Talking Drupal: TD Cafe #006 - Carlos Ospina & Ana Laura Coto

Join Carlos Ospina and Ana Laura Coto as they discuss their unique perspectives on work-life balance, the blending of personal and professional lives, and the challenges and opportunities within the Drupal community. From remote working experiences, integrating AI in their workflow, to the importance of small and medium-sized projects in sustaining the Drupal ecosystem, the conversation reveals insightful and diverse views. Hear their inspiring story of collaboration, love for Drupal, and their vision for making the Drupal community more inclusive and accessible globally.

For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/cafe006

Topics Carlos Ospina

Carlos is a seasoned Drupal Architect and active contributor in the Drupal community. With over two decades of experience in open-source technologies, Carlos specializes in site architecture, development guidance, and performance optimization. He is the founder of Palcera, a digital agency looking to deliver high-quality Drupal services to clients across the Americas. Carlos is known for his community engagement through events, meetups, and mentorship within the Latin American Drupal scene and the US community. He frequently shares his knowledge through talks, workshops, and contributions to Drupal.org, helping to advance the platform and support new developers. Passionate about building inclusive tech communities, Carlos champions collaboration and continuous learning in open source and the development of a more global community for Drupal.

Ana Laura Coto

Ana is a dedicated Drupal developer and advocate. With a background in front-end development and user experience, Ana Laura brings a passion for building accessible, user-centered websites using open-source technologies. She is an active member of the Drupal community, contributing to both local and international events as a speaker, organizer, and mentor. Ana Laura is especially committed to fostering diversity and inclusion in tech, helping to create welcoming spaces for underrepresented voices. Through her contributions to Drupal.org and community initiatives, she continues to inspire collaboration and growth within the Drupal ecosystem.

How We Met: A Unique Beginning
Different Perspectives on Work-Life Balance
Challenges and Benefits of Working from Home
The Drupal Community and Family Life
The Role of AI in Our Work
Future of Drupal and Community Challenges
Challenges and Opportunities in the Drupal Job Market
The Evolution and Pricing of Drupal
Reviving the Drupal Community
Global Perspectives on Drupal's Future
The Importance of Inclusivity in Drupal
Personal Reflections and Future Goals
Concluding Thoughts

Resources

A Drupal Couple The IXP Program IXP registration Site Palcera

Guests

Carlos Ospino A Drupal Couple camoa Ana Laura Coto A Drupal Couple anilucoto

CKEditor: What’s new in CKEditor Drupal modules: Email Configuration Helper, Layout Tables, and more

New versions of the CKEditor 5 Premium Features and Plugin Pack modules bring the latest CKEditor 5 v45.0.0 features into Drupal. These releases introduce several new plugins and key configuration improvements. The Premium Features module adds the new Email Configuration Helper, which flags editor settings that may not render correctly in email clients. It now also marks external Composer dependencies as optional, reducing bloat by requiring only what's needed for enabled plugins. The Plugin Pack module introduces three new plugins: Layout Tables for email-friendly visual layouts, the official Fullscreen plugin, and Empty Block to preserve intentional empty elements.

The Drop Times: Nineteen Years in a Twenty-Four Year Old Drupal

In her interview, Alka Elizabeth of The DropTimes explores Josh Mitchell’s journey from creating his first Drupal.org account in 2005 and delivering the CRM-integrated Grammy members site in 2008, to serving as the Drupal Association’s inaugural CTO through Heartbleed and the five-year Drupal 8 development, and now guiding government teams on compliance-driven Drupal solutions at M6L.