drupal

As the technology advances, and where change is the only constant, the question arises: why remain anchored to Drupal 7? This familiar platform has served many well, but as digital ecosystems grow, the costs of inaction multiply. The world of web development is never static, and adhering to outdated technology can impede your progress and competitive edge.

Let's dive deeper into the specific challenges and opportunities for those still using Drupal 7. One crucial aspect is the complexity of customisations made out of necessity during its heyday. While these custom modules and tweaks may have added significant value at the time, they now serve as barriers to progress—highlighting the risks of deviating from best practices.

Custom modules often become the lifeblood of a Drupal 7 site, but they also present hurdles. Each line of bespoke code demands scrutiny. This isn't merely a case of asking whether the customisations still function, but whether they are still fit for purpose in a more modern context. As we look towards Drupal 10 and beyond, it's worth questioning whether there exists a current core or contributed module that could replace complex custom work. This requires an expert evaluation, which isn’t optional but essential for a smooth migration. Understanding the intent and function of each customisation empowers you to streamline and possibly automate future updates.

Contributed modules add another layer of complexity. While it's tempting to wait for updates, proactive engagement within the Drupal community can unlock solutions, paving the way for an easier migration. The Drupal community is one of the platform's strongest assets—by getting involved, you can influence the direction of module development and even participate in updating modules critical to your website. This active participation ensures that you’re not only a passive consumer of someone else's labour but an active contributor to your digital landscape.

Security remains a paramount concern. Maintaining Drupal 7 involves more than just patching security holes. It’s about optimising performance, refining user experience, and bolstering defences. Old modules can introduce vulnerabilities, and outdated practices might not comply with current security standards. Here, the role of a dedicated hosting expert becomes invaluable. Collaborating with hosting partners who specialise in Drupal can ease the administrative burden, ensuring your site remains secure and efficient without derailing your internal resources.

The decision to stay with Drupal 7 should be informed by strategic foresight, not stagnation. It’s about recognising the potential for transformation rather than clinging to what's comfortable. Embracing newer versions does more than just upgrade your tech stack—it revitalises your business processes and user interactions.

An upgrade to Drupal 10 isn't just a technical necessity; it's a strategic advantage. It positions your organisation to leverage the latest innovations, enhance security, and improve scalability. The transition is not merely a swap of versions but an opportunity to realign with the evolving digital landscape.

Migration may seem daunting, but with a clear strategy, it becomes a journey of growth. Start by assessing your existing architecture, identify key stakeholders, and set clear objectives. Assemble a team of experts who can guide this transition, ensuring that each step aligns with your business goals.

In the end, Drupal 7's dilemma isn't just about the platform itself. It's a reflection of how we choose to adapt to change. Commit to evolution and unlock the full potential of what modern technology can offer. The future awaits those willing to embrace it with open arms and strategic intent.

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The navigation menu is a crucial element of any website, guiding users through content, enhancing their experience, and playing a vital role in the site's overall usability and success.

Creating a menu that's accessible, responsive, and easy to navigate is a non-trivial task, no matter how simple or complex your navigation is. However, people usually underestimate the efforts required to create a navigation menu that provides a good user experience, and that it can take several iterations to do it right.

The companies are using the newest technologies to improve their e-commerce websites customer service and outreach. With e-commerce websites, you can offer better features to the audience that enhance the overall experience of the visitors on the website. 

And what better CMS of choice than Drupal for your large-scale websites? Drupal offers fresh features for e-commerce businesses that help their customers to have a better experience shopping online. On top of that, there is also a Drupal e-commerce module that allows you to help you engage more with the audience that visits the websites and converts them. 

In this blog, you will learn more about why you should use Drupal For your e-commerce websites and how it can be the best decision for your business. 

Web accessibility is crucial for ensuring people of all abilities can engage with digital content without barriers. With the European Accessibility Act approaching, both the public and private sector must comply with its requirements. Learn how!

Drupal CMS will come pre-installed with a set of modules and themes, using recipes, effectively replacing the "Standard" install profile. These recipes will provide the functionality that is considered must-have in modern CMSes, as well as what is deemed essential for our target persona and improve the overall user experience. 

We have been calling this the base recipe, which adds functionality on its own (e.g. installing the necessary core and contrib modules) and also selects other recipes to be applied by default. A while back we ran a survey to ask the community what features they felt were essential for the out-of-the-box offering and this has informed the inclusions. 

Along with the survey, we have done market research and benchmarking to see what our competitors include. But putting together a single proposal for the base recipe has proven challenging, because some features that we want are not yet available, or have some potential to conflict with Experience Builder or other upcoming initiatives. In some cases, contrib modules exist to provide a particular feature, but if it is not a high priority for our target user, we have left it out in order to focus our attention on what is. 

So this plan is for the initial release of Drupal CMS, scheduled for 15 January 2025. New features will of course be added to future releases, and we plan to launch new work tracks with this in mind soon.

Current state of the base recipe

If you are not up for parsing the recipe.yml file linked above, here is a summary of what it currently does:

What

Why

Installs a bunch of core modules and applies some core recipes

We are no longer using install profiles, so we have to add the foundational stuff somehow

Adds a redirect on access denied to the login form, and then to the original destination (via ECA)

So users can easily reach their intended destination even if their session has expired

Adds support for logging in with email in addition to username (via Login Email or Username)

So users don't have to remember a separate username. There is also an issue for supporting this in core, and when that lands we will no longer require a contrib module.
#111317: Allow users to login using either their username OR their e-mail address

Adds Gin as the admin theme

Because Gin provides a more modern UI, and as a contrib theme, is able to innovate faster than Drupal core admin themes

Adds Navigation (with a left-side menu) instead of the traditional admin toolbar

So the admin UI feels more modern and aligned with other similar systems. Navigation is an experimental module in core and has a roadmap outlining the path to stable.
#3421969: [PLAN] New Navigation and Top Bar to replace Toolbar Roadmap: Path to Stable

Adds a quick search for the admin menu (via Coffee)

So users can easily search for the admin page they are looking for.

Adds Trash module 

So users can recover deleted content

Adds Linkit support to CKEditor

So users can easily link to site content via search. Note there is an issue for adding a basic version of this in core, and we would prefer to use that. If it lands before 11.1, we will replace Linkit in the initial release.
#3317769: Drastically improve the linking experience in CKEditor 5

Adds a site dashboard (via Dashboard)

So users see a dashboard with relevant content when they first install, and when they log in (replacing /user as the default login page)

Adds focal point cropping to the image media type (via Focal point)

So users can select a focal point for their images to help them display nicely across aspect ratios

Adds Project Browser, Automatic updates, and Upgrade status

So users can add modules and keep their sites up to date from the UI, with no developer tools required

Adds some media management helper tools (Media entity download and Media file delete)

So the default media management experience is more intuitive. This will be extended and updated as part of the Media management track work.

Adds a Basic page content type

So every site has at least one content type available by default. See the full content strategy for more information.

Adds content cloning (via Quick node clone)

So users can duplicate content to easily create similar pages. This feature is a must-have, but the implementation is still up for discussion in #3474608: Evaluate cloning modules and #3477303: Create recipe to clone entities with ECA

Adds foundational SEO functionality: Pathauto, Redirect

Most sites require this functionality and the initial setup can be done generically

Coming soon

Some things that it does not yet include, but most likely will be in the initial release:

What

Why

Better default site search 

Drupal core search is very limited and not what site owners would expect from a modern platform. Drupal CMS will provide a more robust search experience using Search API. This is being done in the Advanced search work track, with the recipe in progress in #3468271: Add recipe for search backend

Autosave on forms (via Autosave Form)

So users don't lose their work. This feature is a must-have, but we wanted to ensure the approach did not conflict with Experience Builder's approach to the same problem.

HTML email sending

So users can send nicely formatted emails without additional configuration. See #3480680: Handle sending email in Drupal CMS

Coming... sometime?

Some things we would like to include, but have some blockers:

What

Why

Better select lists

The default select list experience is suboptimal, however, there is not currently a viable non-jQuery solution for this. We would like to use the Accessible Autocomplete Element/Widget based on the Accessible Autocomplete library but there are technical limitations around managing front-end dependencies.

Sitewide alerts

This is a common feature request, but we don't want to implement something that will conflict with Experience Builder when it comes out, leaving sites with a problem to solve. We also feel it is a nice-to-have for our target person rather than a must-have.

What about [insert feature here]? 

This summary covers the base functionality only. So if there is something extremely obvious that seems like it's missing, it is probably covered in one of the other work tracks! Many of them have not yet completed their work, so there are still lots of exciting things to come. Each of the metas links to their current proposal, if they have one. The final track proposal for the initial release are due by 1 November.

If you've scoured the track proposals and the Drupal CMS issue queue and still feel that we're missing a killer feature that is easily included, and high priority for the marketer types that we are focused on, let us know via Slack, in #starshot, or create an issue in the Drupal CMS project.

Today we are talking about Access Policy API, What it does, and How you can use it with guest Kristiaan Van den Eynde. We’ll also cover Visitors as our module of the week.

For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/472

• What is the Access Policy API
• Why does Drupal need the Access Policy API
• How did Drupal handle access before
• How does the Access Policy API interact with roles
• Does a module exist that shows a UI
• What is the difference between Policy Based Access Control (PBAC), Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) and Role Based Access Control (RBAC)
• How does Access Policy API work with PBAC, ABAC and RBAC
• Can you apply an access policy via a recipe
• Is there a roadmap
• What was it like going through pitchburg
• How can people get involved

• Access Policy API
• Access Policy
• Talking Drupal #226 Group
• Flexible Permissions
• External roles
• Test Super access policy
• Access policy talk at Drupalcon barcelona
• D.o Issue about exception on security issue

Kristiaan Van den Eynde - kristiaanvandeneynde

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Aubrey Sambor - star-shaped.org starshaped

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• Brief description:
  • Have you ever wanted a Drupal-native solution for tracking website visitors and their behavior? There’s a module for that
• Module name/project name:
  • Visitors
• Brief history
  • How old: created in Mar 2009 by gashev, though recent releases are by Steven Ayers (bluegeek9)
  • Versions available: 8.x-2.19, which works with Drupal 10 and 11
• Maintainership
  • Actively maintained
  • Security coverage
  • Test coverage
  • Documentation guide is available
  • Number of open issues: 20 open issues, none of which are bugs against the 8.x branch
• Usage stats:
  • Over 6,000 sites
• Module features and usage
  • A benefit of using a Drupal-native solution is that you retain full ownership over your visitor data. Not sharing that data with third parties can be important for data protection regulations, as well as data privacy concerns.
  • You also have a variety of reports you can access directly within the Drupal UI, including top pages, referrers, and more
  • There is a submodule for geoip lookups using Maxmind, if you also want reporting on what region, country, or city your visitors hail from
  • It provides drush commands to download a geoip database, and then update your data based on geoip lookups using that database
  • It should be mentioned that the downside of using Drupal as your analytics solution is the potential performance impact and also a likely uptick in usage for hosts that charge based on the number of dynamic requests served

Single-Sign On (SSO) is a useful tool for organisations to maintain security, whilst improving the user experience for people who need to log in to multiple tools. In this article, SystemSeed CTO Evgeniy Maslovskiy explains how SSOs work, and how to get the most out of yours.