Salsa Digital: DrupalSouth 2024 day 1 wrap-up
LN Webworks: How To Upgrade From Drupal 7 to 10: Step By Step Guide
Since its debut in 2010, Drupal 7 has provided a stable foundation for innumerable websites. But moving to a newer version—like Drupal 10—becomes crucial to guarantee security, performance, and access to the newest features as Drupal 7 approaches its end of life on January 5, 2025.
Even though this Drupal upgrade has the potential to be revolutionary, it's important to know what features you might face while upgrading from Drupal 7 to 10. This will enable you to plan appropriately and gain a clear understanding of what to anticipate.
LN Webworks: How to Drupal 7 to Drupal 10 Upgrade: Step By Step Guide
Since its debut in 2010, Drupal 7 has provided a stable foundation for innumerable websites. But moving to a newer version—like Drupal 10—becomes crucial to guarantee security, performance, and access to the newest features as Drupal 7 approaches its end of life on January 5, 2025.
Even though this Drupal upgrade has the potential to be revolutionary, it's important to know what features you might face while upgrading from Drupal 7 to 10. This will enable you to plan appropriately and gain a clear understanding of what to anticipate.
Talking Drupal: Skills Upgrade #3
Welcome back to “Skills Upgrade” a Talking Drupal mini-series following the journey of a D7 developer learning D10. This is episode 3.
Topics-
Review Chad's goals for the previous week
- DDEV performance improvements
- Install Drupal 10
- Install drupal/core-dev
- Configure and test phpcs
- Test phpstan
- settings.local.php
- Install Devel module
-
Review Chad's questions
- Rancher Desktop appears to be holding on to port 443 after I installed it. Although I changed the port to something else, do you have any suggestions to update the setup to use ports 443 and 80 instead?
- How are tools like phpcs and PHPStan used by the Drupal community for contrib? Are they a part of drupal.org's testing automation?
- Starting a new D10 website from scratch in DDEV is one thing … How would I typically work with an existing D10 website? Do I start with the community config, then overwrite the code, database, and files? Is there a better approach?
-
Tasks for the upcoming week
-
Install Drush using Composer
-
Examples module
-
routes/controllers/forms
- Review: https://www.drupal.org/docs/drupal-apis/routing-system/introductory-drupal-routes-and-controllers-example
- Go through the "Page example" module from the Examples module.
-
Check back for "docker context use rancher-desktop" stuff.
-
Create a new Git repository for your D10 site with Composer dependencies not committed to the repository.
- .gitignore stuff
- cp web/example.gitignore web/.gitignore
- Create ./.gitignore with:
-
Chad's Drupal 10 Learning Curriclum & Journal Chad's Drupal 10 Learning Notes
The Linux Foundation is offering a discount of 30% off e-learning courses, certifications and bundles with the code, all uppercase DRUPAL24 and that is good until June 5th https://training.linuxfoundation.org/certification-catalog/
HostsAmyJune Hineline - @volkswagenchick
GuestsChad Hester - chadkhester.com @chadkhest Mike Anello - DrupalEasy.com @ultimike
The Drop Times: DrupalSouth Sydney 2024 Celebrates Excellence with the Splash Awards Winners
qtatech.com blog: Drupal Meets Symfony: A Match Made for API Innovation
In the rapidly evolving landscape of web development, the union of Drupal and Symfony represents a pioneering approach towards API innovation. Enter Drupal, known for its robust content management capabilities, and Symfony, renowned for its flexibility and scalability.
Evolving Web: 9 Ways to Make the Most of the EvolveDrupal Summit
Hi there! I’m Jasmin Merchant, a Front-End Developer at Evolving Web. A few years ago I knew very little about the open web. That all changed when I started working here and was plunged into ongoing learning opportunities.
The EvolveDrupal Ottawa summit in 2023 was a big part of my learning curve. Hosted by Evolving Web, the event was a chance to gain new knowledge about development, accessibility, UX, digital strategy, and many other relevant topics.
What’s more, it was a great introduction to networking. This was my first tech summit and I had only moved to Canada one week before, so I was nervous to say the least. But EvolveDrupal was a valuable experience that really built my confidence.
I’ve shared my takeaways in this article to help others who are planning to attend EvolveDrupal (or any tech event). Use these 9 tips to attend with confidence and make the most of it!
Before the Summit 1. Create your own scheduleMy day at EvolveDrupal Ottawa started with coffee (because obviously!). I hung out in the foyer where I could chat to people as they arrived. I was looking forward to talks on Drupal, design, AI, and much more. Crucially, I had gone through the session list earlier and planned out my day.
Having your own schedule means you can pace yourself, attend the talks you're most interested in, and maximize your networking opportunities. Remember that EvolveDrupal has a wide range of sessions and many of them run in parallel, so it isn’t possible to attend all of them.
I’d recommend making space in your schedule for a bit of down time to recharge. I found this was easy to do at EvolveDrupal—the event was very well organized with little breaks between sessions, helping me to relax and go with the flow.
Evolving Web often organizes a pre-summit dinner the night before EvolveDrupal. As an introvert, I found this was a great way to ease into networking. I got to meet some really interesting, talented people and talk to them on a personal level over a nice meal. It meant that I saw some familiar faces in the crowd full of attendees the next day.
Can’t attend the pre-summit dinner? Don’t worry, you can connect digitally with organizers, speakers and participants before the summit instead. If you’ve registered for the summit, you’ll be invited to the EvolveDrupal Slack channel.
3. Build your visibilityPost on social media to tell your connections that you’ll be at EvolveDrupal. This can help you connect with more people at the event. Remember to tag Evolving Web on LinkedIn so we can help boost your post!
Email specific contacts and invite them to the summit, too. This can be a great way to grow and strengthen existing business relationships.
Want to maximize your visibility? Apply to be a speaker or sponsor. It’s a fantastic way to get in front of an audience—both in-person at the summit and also in Evolving Web’s digital communications.
“I had a blast yesterday talking at the EvolveDrupal conference in Ottawa. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. Based on the number of people in the audience that raised their phone to take pictures of the slides, I guess the content was on point!”
– Gauthier Garnier, Platform.sh (EvolveDrupal Ottawa 2023)
During the Summit 4. Make notesAt each session I attended at EvolveDrupal, I took notes about everything interesting and important that I was learning. Have a think about how you prefer to take notes—can you do it on your phone, or should you bring a tablet or notebook?
It’s best to jot down new knowledge and ideas at the event itself, before you forget. That said, some EvolveDrupal sessions are recorded and published a few weeks later, so you may have a chance to rewatch select talks.
5. Embrace a bit of discomfortWhile the pre-summit dinner put me at greater ease, I was still nervous about networking. But I learned that it’s ok to be outside of my comfort zone. As one of the speakers said: “get comfortable being uncomfortable.” Their talk was on AI, but I think the concept can be applied to a lot more!
I started by introducing myself to people I sat near during the sessions. This felt easier as there was already a clear topic to start the conversation. I met many more people at lunch and kept taking mental notes that I wrote down later. If there’s someone you want to follow up with, ask for their business card or record their name so you can add them on LinkedIn.
It’s also worth engaging with the speakers who interest you. As experts they can offer valuable information, and they’re usually more than happy to expand on their talk if you ask questions.
EvolveDrupal Ottawa finished with a networking reception, but my day didn’t end there! I attended a post-summit dinner and drinks with people who wanted to continue connecting. As it was the end of the night, everyone was relaxed and chatting easily. It was a good chance to speak again with the people I’d met that day and get to know them better. Evolving Web often arranges a post-summit dinner, so leave your evening open if you can.
After the Summit 7. Follow up with your connectionsI added most of the people I met at EvolveDrupal Ottawa on LinkedIn. It’s an easy way to stay connected because you can respond to their posts or share useful things with them. It’s also a good idea to send a personalized message to new contacts who you want to develop a deeper relationship with, such as business prospects and potential employers. Ask for a phone call or face-to-face meeting to discuss opportunities.
8. Organize and apply what you learnedWrite up your notes soon after the summit. If you leave it too long, you may forget them or find they don’t make sense any more! Also, decide how you’re going to integrate your new knowledge into your workflows and projects. Act quickly while you’re still feeling energized from the event.
“It was a treasure trove of UX wisdom… Big thanks to the amazing speakers and organizers for making this experience unforgettable. Can't wait to apply what I've learned. Count me in for the next one!”
– Milan Nayak, UX Designer (EvolveDrupal Toronto 2023)
9. Share your insights and experienceMy time at EvolveDrupal was eye-opening, so I wanted to share my experience in an article to help future participants. You can also share takeaways via an email, team meeting, or internal presentation. Finally, it’s always nice to thank the speakers on social media and tell them what you liked about their session.
I hope this article inspires you to attend EvolveDrupal with confidence and purpose. Sign up for updates to hear about upcoming events. Our next stops are in Atlanta (April 12) and Montreal (June 14)—we look forward to seeing you there!
+ more awesome articles by Evolving WebThe Drop Times: Catch Up with the Drupal Community at DrupalSouth Sydney 2024!
Specbee: Hooks or Events? Choosing the Best Approach for your Drupal Project
Acquia Developer Portal Blog: DevOps: The Gravity of the Modern Web Cosmos
Some of the illustrations in this article are created by: Martin Anderson-Clutz and Thomas Scola.
Talking Drupal: Talking Drupal #442 - Mercury Editor
Today we are talking about Mercury Editor, What it does, and how it could change your editorial life with guest Justin Toupin. We’ll also cover Webform Protected Downloads as our module of the week.
For show notes visit: www.talkingDrupal.com/442
Topics- What is Mercury Editor
- What is powering Mercury Editor
- Do you see any risk building on top of Paragraphs
- Does Mercury Editor cost anything
- Can companies hire Aten to add features
- What are some key features
- What makes Mercury Editor unique
- How stable is the content
- What happens if Paragraphs stops being supported
- How can the community help
- Mercury Editor
- Layout Paragraphs Episode
- Layout Paragraphs
- Paragraphs Library
- Sub-module of Paragraphs
- Style options
- Layout Paragraphs restrictions
Justin Toupin - atendesigngroup.com justin2pin
HostsNic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Anna Mykhailova - kalamuna.com amykhailova
MOTW CorrespondentMartin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu
- Brief description:
- Have you ever wanted to have downloadable content on your website, only available to visitors who have filled out a webform? There’s a module for that.
- Module name/project name:
- Brief history
- How old: created in Sep 2010 by berliner, but the most recent releases are by james.williams of Computer Minds
- Versions available: 7.x-1.1 and 8.x-1.0-alpha2 versions available, the latter of which works with Drupal 9 and 10
- Maintainership
- Actively maintained, the latest release was a week ago
- Security coverage
- Introductory blog linked on the project page
- Number of open issues: 18 open issues, none of which are bugs against the current branch
- Usage stats:
- 804 sites
- Module features and usage
- Having thought leadership content like white papers or reports gated behind a lead capture form is a common pattern for websites, and this module is designed to make that easy to set up
- You use the module by adding a handler to your webform, similar to triggering an email send
- In the configuration for your webform protected download handler you have options for how much verification you want for the download link, whether or not the link should expire after a period of time, and so on, in addition to uploading one or more files that can be downloaded by people who submit the webform
- The module provides tokens for the download URLs, so you can easily include them in a submission confirmation message or email
The Drop Times: MidCamp 2024 Innovates with Unconference Format and Training
The Drop Times: Tracking Drupal's Global Footprint
Dear Readers,
Drupal has seen widespread adoption worldwide, a testament to its flexibility, security, and scalability. Renowned for its modular architecture and strong community support, Drupal empowers developers, businesses, and governments to create and manage diverse digital experiences. From educational institutions and media outlets to non-profit organizations and governmental agencies, the platform's extensive capabilities allow for the customization and integration necessary to meet complex digital needs.
An endeavor to track Drupal's usage across various industry sectors represents a need of the moment for the Drupal community and is put forth by Paul Johnson. The project aims to showcase Drupal's diverse applicability and strengthen its shared knowledge base by gathering detailed resources and data. This concerted effort, aimed at illuminating Drupal's footprint, will offer insights into the platform's impact and success across different domains. It sets the stage for a deeper understanding of the community's achievements and challenges, guiding them toward more strategic, evidence-based decisions within the digital ecosystem.
The DropTimes [TDT] has already published a comprehensive study on Drupal's usage in prominent educational institutions worldwide, which can set the right example for this new project. Grzegorz Pietrzak's study on global city website trends analysis further underscores Drupal's influence across diverse sectors, amplifying the platform's prominence within various industry verticals. The full study is published on our website; read it here.
As the community delves into the specifics of these endeavors and their implications, it is crucial to remain connected and informed. With that, welcome to the last week's most important content covered by The DropTimes.
Performance is the cornerstone of user experience and operational efficiency in web development. Learn about the genesis, capabilities, and transformative potential of Gander, the automated performance testing framework for Drupal, as elucidated by Nathaniel Catchpole and Janez Urevc in Elma John's latest article.
We have a new addition to our Spotlights channel, Zoocha, a leading Drupal Development Agency in the UK. The article discusses the intricate world of Zoocha, bringing to light the company's journey, strategies, and outlook with contributions from Will Huggins, the CEO, and the Zoocha team.
Dries Buytaert, the founder of Drupal, visited Japan for the first time in nearly eight years. He presented the latest developments in Drupal and associated web technologies at the Drupal Meetup. Tokyo. Read the article by Kazima Abbas for a comprehensive overview of the Tokyo Meetup and its significance.
Interestingly, the recent Drupal Meetup, organized by Valuebound in collaboration with the Drupal Association, marked a significant event for Drupal enthusiasts and professionals. The event, held at Valuebound's office in Bangalore, featured a special meet-and-greet session with Tim Doyle, the CEO of the Drupal Association. As an after-note, Tim wrote, that "Drupal is alive and well in India", owing to the enthusiastic Drupal Community in India.
The Drupal Community has many events to celebrate this week, but MidCamp 2024 and DrupalSouth Sydney 2024 tops the list. As the Media Partner for both events, The DropTimes is determined to provide its readers timely updates. A complete list of events for the week is available here.
The upcoming DrupalCamp Burkina Faso 2024 is close to reaching its funding target, needing just $2,000 more to facilitate the largest DrupalCamp event in West Africa. DrupalCamp Asheville is now open for speaker submissions, inviting seasoned presenters and newcomers to share their expertise and insights. Also, the last chance to submit proposals for Stanford WebCamp 2024 ends on or before March 25, 2024. The DrupalSouth Splash Awards 2024 shortlist, sponsored by Ironstar, has been announced ahead of the event.
Imre Gmelig Meijling, CEO of React Online Digital Agency in The Netherlands, has been introduced as one of the newest members elected to the Drupal Association Board. Alex Moreno has launched a comprehensive guide to enhance impactful contributions to Drupal and the Drupal Association. The contributor guide lists strategic initiatives, crucial issues, and essential modules, offering contributors an avenue to make significant impacts within the Drupal community.
The Drupal community has recently seen the introduction of a new module, Bill of Lading, created by Jeff Greenberg. This module simplifies site management by generating a comprehensive list of Drupal structures using a new Drush command, 'bol.' QuantCDN co-founder Kristen Pol has announced a major update to their Drupal static site generator, enhancing Drupal 9 and 10 integration with new features, including visibility into Quant metadata directly within the Drupal platform.
We acknowledge that there are more stories to share. However, due to constraints in selection, 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
Alka Elizabeth
Sub-editor, TheDropTimes.
The Drop Times: Drupal Page Builders—Part 1: Paragraph-Based Solutions
Drupal Mountain Camp: Thanks for being a part of Drupal Mountain Camp 2024
Wow, what an event!
We would like to thank you for contributing to the magic of Drupal Mountain Camp 2024 and making it tremendous success!
From the snow-capped peaks of learning to the comfy fireside chats of networking, the event was a one-of-a-kind experience that left a lasting imprint on all of us.
As I look back on the laughter-filled evenings and the insightful discussions that echoed through the venue to the fondue evening, I'm reminded of the incredible sense of community that defines us.
We are immensely grateful for the insightful presentations by our honoured speakers, the generous support from our valuable sponsors, and the dedication and hard work of our volunteers to ensure the event's success.
Together, we explored new ideas, shared knowledge, and forged meaningful connections within the Drupal community.
As we reflect on the success of this year's conference, we're already looking forward to what lies ahead for the next Drupal Mountain Camp.
Feedback
We implore everyone to submit their feedback to each session they attended by going to the schedule and clicking on each session, then giving a quick anonymous feedback.
The schedule should still be available via the custom domain:
https://event.drupalmountaincamp.ch/drupal-mountain-camp-2024/schedule/
Furthermore, we would greatly appreciate all feedback regarding the conference as a whole to be submitted on the "Closing Session".
Highlights
Here's some of the statistics that we calculated from the event.
- 77 participants
- 350+ coffees consumed
- 63 Fondues eaten at Schatzalp
- 39 People took the sled down Schatzalp
- 0 Injuries
- 11 Sponsors
- 12 Team members
- 6 Volunteers
- 17.65% Diverse Speakers
- 58 Posts in LinkedIn, Instagram Twitter and Mastodon
- 236 Unique Visitors on LinkedIn since Nov 11
- 25 issues worked on #MountainCamp2024
Participants per Country
- 46 Switzerland (CH)
- 6 Belgium (BE)
- 5 United Kingdom (GB)
- 4 Germany (DE)
- 3 Finland (FI)
- 3 France (FR)
- 2 Slovenia (SI)
- 2 United States (US)
- 1 Australia (AU)
- 1 Austria (AT)
- 1 Bulgaria (BG)
- 1 Portugal (PT)
- 1 Spain (ES)
- 1 Suriname (SR)
Media
We're very grateful to have such an awesome media team to capture every single moment.
Official photos by Patrick Itten
https://foto.patrickitten.ch/drupal-mountain-camp-2024
Photos by Josef Kruckenberg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/185226958@N05/albums/72177720315270848/
Relive the recap here by Dan Lemon
https://youtu.be/Z6AX_gexOg0
Extended fondue and sledding with the little happy birthday surprise
https://youtu.be/BgBzHbveSdE
Session Videos
We were able to record all the keynote sessions along with all sessions that took place in the Pischa room.
You can find the session videos on our YouTube Channel, under the playlist title "Sessions - Drupal Mountain Camp 2024"
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6C9y4dEueZhksow0hSYFsPKGIo2c735C
Aaron Winborn Award
This is a reminder that the Aaron Winborn award nominations are open until Friday, March 29, 2024
This annual award recognizes an individual who demonstrates personal integrity, kindness, and above-and-beyond commitment to the Drupal community.
It includes a scholarship and travel stipend for the winner to attend DrupalCon North America and recognition in a plenary session at the event.
https://www.drupal.org/community/cwg/blog/nominations-are-now-open-for-the-2024-aaron-winborn-award
What's Next
Drupal Switzerland Association plans to host further in-person events throughout the year, such as gatherings in Zurich, Bern, and hopefully somewhere in the Swiss Romandie area.
We will post new events to our meetup.com account, as well as cross-posting to our Drupal Switzerland Slack and also to Drupal Groups:
https://www.meetup.com/zurich-drupal-meetup/
https://groups.drupal.org/switzerland
Furthermore, we'd like to highlight these two upcoming events for the Drupal community.
Drupal Dev Days Burgas
Drupal Developer Days is an annual gathering of people loving, learning, and discussing all things relating to Drupal. This year it'll be hosted by Drupal Bulgaria in Burgas, by the seaside.
The event is planned to take place between June 26-28, 2024 at Burgas Free University in Burgas, Bulgaria.
Drupal Dev Days 2024 is going to be a 3-day event full of amazing sessions, workshops and discussions as well as various social events and other surprises.
Find out more on their website
https://ddd2024.drupalcamp.bg/
DrupalCon Barcelona
You may have seen Mercè in Davos, the mascot for DrupalCon Barcelona. Kuoni-Tumlare will calculate out who won the contest for a free ticket to DrupalCon Barcelona 2024.
This year's DrupalCon takes place from September 24-27, 2024 at the stunning Centre de convencions internacional de Barcelona (CCIB).
Barcelona's accessibility ensures that this event is within reach for all Drupal enthusiasts.
https://events.drupal.org/barcelona2024
A Final Thank You
We'd like to extend our deepest gratitude to our valuable sponsors, whose generous support made Drupal Mountain Camp 2024 possible.
To our esteemed speakers, thank you for sharing your expertise and insights, enriching the experience for all attendees.
A heartfelt thank you to our dedicated volunteers, whose hard work and enthusiasm ensured the smooth execution of every detail.
And last but certainly not least, to all our participants, thank you for bringing your passion and energy, making Drupal Mountain Camp a vibrant and unforgettable gathering.
Your contributions have truly made a difference and have left a lasting impact on our community.
Until we meet again, let's continue to collaborate, learn, and grow together in the spirit of Drupal.
On behalf of the Drupal Mountain Camp organisation team,
Dan Lemon
Drupal.org blog: What's next for (Drupal) innovation
Last year the Drupal Association brought me onto the team using a special board vision fund to help kick off our first steps in increasing our focus on innovation.
This phase is coming to an end in May with the end of my contract, and right in time for Drupalcon Portland. I am incredible grateful for this past months, for all the people and friends I've met inside and outside of the Drupal Association, for all the work we've done together, and for all the work that is still to come.
But before I wrap up my work with the team I want to report on the progress we've made so far, what we're still working on until May, and what happens next.
Alex took on a herculean task when he joined us for this special engagement to help determine our strategy for accelerating innovation in Drupal. I'm extremely grateful for what he's accomplished and proud to have had him join our team.
Thanks to his work we've fostered 6 fantastic projects through Pitchburgh grant funding, completed a study of friction points in our new user registration, onboarding and contribution process, identified an action plan to better onboard new contributors, improve open source contribution and set our sights on even higher goals.
I'd love to see Drupal step forward to help us take the next step!
Tim Lehnen CTO
Drupal Association
Lots of work to be proud of
Innovation Working GroupThe Innovation working group is a gathering happening every other week, in which we report progress on ongoing initiatives as well as discuss everything related to innovation, from contributor guidance, to documentation. As part of my role I took the leadership of the working group, and steered the direction of the discussions as well as the topics to be discussed.
Some of the initiatives that started as a seed from that group are the research on the documentation improvements (spearheaded by Mike Herschel), the onboarding analysis (executed by myself), the Drupal Acceleration team proposal (led by Laurii and Cristina Chumillas), a conversation about the relative value of a credit to the contributor wage invested, and many more.
As a personal note, I have to thank the whole group for their passion and commitment to improving Drupal, and especially for their patience with me while I was trying to find my place in this new world that I joined in 2023.
PitchburghPitchburgh was kick-started by Dries during Drupalcon Pittsburgh 2023, and consists of an innovation contest in which participants would propose their innovative ideas for Drupal, and a mix between judges and people at Drupalcon itself would vote the winners.
Acting as the program manager / coordinator of the 6 projects, my role helped on a diverse range of tasks, sometimes outside of my own zone of comfort, like getting contracts ready for sign up, syncing with core committers when needed, communications and relations with the community and a broad range of other tasks.
We're proud to be sharing the success stories of each of these projects at DrupalCon Portland in May.
Contribution Health DashboardsAs part of the feedback from the Innovation Working Group we took care of creating a series of dashboards and Drush scripts with the goal of getting a better understanding of the contribution ecosystem in Drupal, finding what needs improvement and how any changes introduced in the ecosystem would impact the platform.
From these dashboards we can track the impact of our work to improve contributor onboarding.
Onboarding new users/contributorsThe first contact a big portion of our users have with Drupal is our drupal.org registration. Improving that process not only ensures that we are delivering the image and branding that Drupal deserves, but also we maximize the opportunities to convert those users from takers to makers. The start of 2024 was full of research and investigation on the outdated registration flow, a set of recommendations have been put in place, and changes have already started, including a more prominent presence of guidance and help for new want-to-be contributors.
We'll be implementing a new 'persona' field to help us categorize new users and set them on the appropriate journey for their role.
Contribution friction analysisWhen a hindrance obstructs innovation, it often persists for months or even years. The extended duration of the contribution pipeline presents an opportunity to reduce this time to contribution, enhance the velocity of Open Source projects, in this case Drupal, and accelerate Drupal's development process.
During different times we went through the contribution process in Drupal, aiming to identify friction points and other blockers, while I also kept conversations with different members of the community, contributors and core members. I expect to publish this research and my findings and recommendations prior to Drupalcon Portland, and I hope that this will provide valuable insights into the factors impeding contribution and suggesting strategies to optimize efforts.
For more information, join my session, co-presented with Irina Zaks (who has also been researching on this topic) at DrupalCon portland, titled: Innovation and contribution challenges
Bounty programThe Bounty program was a pilot program with the idea to research possible solutions to a few common problems, the most important one, ensure contributions happen where Drupal and the Drupal Association needs them more, which is, for example (but not only), strategic initiatives and innovation projects.
The program was successful as it resuscitated some old, sleeping issues, and even solved one of them (which was open for more than 4 years) in just a few weeks. The program demonstrated the need of soft steering in the right direction, and a phase 2 has already been started with the aim to make an ever wider impact.
Read about the Bounty program here, and the Bounty program extension here.
Contributor (priorities) guideThe Bounty program, together with conversations we’ve been having with companies and partners, also inspired us to create a contributor guide which helps companies and individuals to steer everyone on the right path towards contributions that are more meaningful and have higher impact in the community.
You can read the priority guide contributor announcement here: Maximizing contributions
Innovation landingOne of the realizations during this time collaborating with the Innovation Working Group is that innovation will not come from specific individuals or even necessarily from a group.
Drupal is a highly decentralized community, and innovation will come from that community. We have a huge amount of modules, which is one of our biggest strengths. But that as well means that we need to ensure that we keep our conversations and meetings diverse enough. The community needs to surface those projects that are innovative.
The next big leap is probably hidden, deep in a sea of ideas and projects. Hence, the only way to ensure that we don’t miss the next wave is to ensure that everyone has a voice.
That’s why we agreed early to create an innovation landing page, which could capture the essence of Drupal Innovation, serve as a center of information, and inspire others to do more of the great things that we are used to seeing in our community.
Drupal has always been a do-ocracy- where passionate, motivated contributors with a great idea can roll up their sleeves and get things done. The work above represents some great first steps (and it's hard to believe how fast time flew by!) but as a community we have to come together with a collective commitment to do more.
Innovation does not stop here, my work was just the beginning, setting up the base of what’s next. The Drupal association needs your help, so moving forward we could:
- Creating a dedicated innovation fund that partner organizations and individuals can contribute to, to make specific, targeted investments in innovation
- Grant Fundraising and Sponsorship for dedicated roles within the Drupal Association
- For example - partners could come together to 'endow' a position for a role like mine of Innovation Program manager to be made permanent.
- And/Or for roles like a Contribution Success Manager
- And/Or for direct core contribution engineers
Only together will we be able to scale the pace of innovation in Drupal - and we have so many capable people in our community that our biggest barrier is only finding the resources to make our vision a reality. That is something we can solve together.
On a personal note, while my engagement is coming to a close, this is not a goodbye. I'm more committed than ever to the Drupal community and excited about its future. If you want to support our continued efforts to work with the Drupal Association on these goals, please let us know: alex@association.drupal.org
Golems GABB: Advanced Content Management with the Paragraphs Module in Drupal
Creating user-friendly and stylish web pages can sometimes make you nervous, and maybe you want to turn off your computer - does that sound familiar? Even using popular CMSs, including Drupal, sometimes it is difficult to understand this issue and create a functional, modern website. Drupal can offer several effective solutions, and today, we will look at one of them - the Drupal Paragraphs module.
Creating a home page, or even a regular page on a website, requires much effort and time unless you're a professional web developer. Many people with initial design skills face similar problems and spend much time searching for solutions. Often, everything comes with experience. Through trial and error, reading various articles, and watching videos on YouTube, we are looking for an opportunity to achieve the goal.
LN Webworks: Drupal Community Module Evaluation: A Go-to Guide
It's not only about what a module from the Drupal community can achieve when you consider using it. Along with how long you want your website to remain, you need also to consider who will maintain it after it goes up. These factors influence the level of danger you are willing to accept.
For instance, you might desire modules with an excellent track record and robust community support if you're not too familiar with Drupal.
Every module available on Drupal.org is licensed under the GPLv2 and is open source. This means that while they are free to use, any dangers are your responsibility but every module has a community of users who assist with problems and updates, as well as a team of maintainers for each module. Additionally, partnering with a reputable Drupal web development company can provide further assurance in terms of module selection, ongoing support, and maintenance.
Let's discuss some factors to consider when evaluating a community module.