TD Cafe #016 - Understanding Drupal Caching with Matt and Nic
Release Date: 05/08/2026
TD Cafe #016 - Understanding Drupal Caching with Matt and Nic
Talking Drupal
Nic Laflin and Matt Glaman sit down to discuss Drupal caching and Matt’s new Leanpub book, Understanding Drupal: A Complete Guide to Caching Layers. For show notes visit: Topics New Book on Caching Why Drupal Caching Shines Cache Tags Explained Cache Context Variations What Caching Really Is Invalidation Across the Stack NGINX Layer Pitfalls What Drupal Can Cache Writing Cacheable Render Arrays Debugging Metadata Issues Testing Caching Strategies Researching the Book Variation Cache Deep Dive Access Policy and Performance Permissions Caching and Disk IO Extension Discovery Tangent File...
info_outline
Talking Drupal #551 - Drupal Recording Initiative
Talking Drupal
Kevin Thull, who leads the Drupal Recording Initiative (DRI), joins us to discuss why DRI started, how it scaled from Kevin recording local camps to supporting many events, the hub-and-mentorship model for maintainers, differences between shipping kits vs onsite support, costs compared with traditional AV vendors, and challenges like aging capture hardware, audio/video troubleshooting, and sustainable funding. For show notes visit: Topics Module of the Week TFA Why Recording Matters Early Events and Growing Pains Post Production and Gear Limits Recording DrupalCon vs Camps Costs and Value...
info_outline
Talking Drupal #550 - The Future of Site Builders
Talking Drupal
In episode 550 of Talking Drupal, Rod Martin joins us to discuss how Drupal site builders are defined, how their role has changed across Drupal versions, and what the future may look like with Drupal CMS, Canvas, and Drupal AI. The show’s module of the week is Password Policy, presented by Avi Schwab, covering customizable password constraints and password expiration/reset features, along with supporting modules Password Policy Extras and Password Policy Pwned, which checks passwords against the Have I Been Pwned database. The conversation also explores the challenges site builders face...
info_outline
Talking Drupal #549 - Catching up with the DDEV Team
Talking Drupal
In Episode 549, Randy Fay and Stas Zhuk join us to discuss what DDEV is, recent improvements, and where it’s headed. Module of the week is the DDEV Drupal Contrib add-on. Randy and Stas discuss priorities like reliability, consistent UX, add-ons discoverability, and new features including revamped ddev share with Cloudflare and rootless Podman support. They also cover , a cloud-based DDEV environment built on for easier onboarding and contribution, plus sustainability, community support, and challenges such as AI-driven PR volume and Stas’s development constraints in Ukraine. For show...
info_outline
Talking Drupal #548 - How to build your own CRM
Talking Drupal
In episode 548 we welcome back JD Leonard to discuss what CRMs are, what problems they solve, and which organizations benefit from them. JD explains why Drupal CRM defines CRM as “Contact Relationship Management,” outlines core expectations like contact and relationship tracking and integrations, and describes Drupal CRM’s Drupal-native architecture using dedicated, fieldable entity types for contacts, relationships, and contact methods. The panel compares Drupal CRM to older Drupal CRM efforts and user-based approaches, covers security considerations for PII and plans for field...
info_outline
Talking Drupal #547 - Why Developers Don't Choose Drupal
Talking Drupal
In episode #547, guest JD Flynn joins us to discuss why developers don’t choose Drupal, focusing on Drupal adoption, discoverability, and outdated perceptions from Drupal 6/7. JD cites survey data showing low interest among non-Drupal developers, arguing Drupal’s biggest problem is invisibility and that developers often pre-filter it due to PHP stigma and friction getting started. For show notes visit: Topics Welcome to Talking Drupal Meet JD Flynn Co Hosts Introductions Module of the Week: Native Observability Production Overhead Debate AI Patches and Etiquette Live Stream and Topic...
info_outline
Talking Drupal #546 - DrupalCon Chicago
Talking Drupal
Live from DrupalCon Chicago, Nic Laflin is joined by Tim Plunkett, Steve Wirt, Martin Anderson-Clutz, and John Picozzi to discuss the event’s tone, Dries Notes and key themes including Drupal Canvas, Drupal AI, and new site templates/marketplace progress and more. For show notes visit: Topics Reconnecting With Community Must See Sessions Vibe And Starshot Attendance And Venue Community Party Returns Dries Note and AI Debate Roadmap And Templates Recipes And Exports AI In Engineering Workflows Keynote Style Takeaways Dries Note Takeaways Canvas Content Templates View Modes Roadmap...
info_outline
Talking Drupal #545 - DKAN
Talking Drupal
Today we are talking about the open data platform DKAN, what it’s used for, and how it applies to Drupal with guests Liz Tupper & Dan Feder. We’ll also cover Modern Drupal Dashboard as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What Is DKAN Who Uses Open Data 20:08 DKAN Origin Story Why Drupal Fits DKAN From Distribution to Module DKAN 2 Rebuild and JSON Shift Async Jobs and API First How Teams Publish Data What a Dataset Really Is Metadata vs Data Access Why DKAN Left Drupal Org Migration Path to DKAN Four Harvesting and Data Store ETL APIs Visualizations and Bots Roadmap...
info_outline
Talking Drupal #544 - World Cancer Day
Talking Drupal
Today we are talking about World Cancer Day, how they use Drupal, and why Drupal was the right choice with our guests Charles Andrew Revkin & Diego Costa. We’ll also cover PDFa11y as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What Is World Cancer Day Why UICC Uses Drupal Diego Joins the Project Multilingual Strategy at Scale Drupal Architecture and AI Tools Vetting AI Moderation and Summaries AI Disclosure and Review Traffic Spikes and Scaling Drupal Stack and React Apps Campaign Theme United by Unique Yearly Content and Three Year Cycle Drupal Community and Open Access...
info_outline
Talking Drupal #543 - Commerce 3.x
Talking Drupal
info_outlineNic Laflin and Matt Glaman sit down to discuss Drupal caching and Matt’s new Leanpub book, Understanding Drupal: A Complete Guide to Caching Layers.
For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/cafe016
Topics
- New Book on Caching
- Why Drupal Caching Shines
- Cache Tags Explained
- Cache Context Variations
- What Caching Really Is
- Invalidation Across the Stack
- NGINX Layer Pitfalls
- What Drupal Can Cache
- Writing Cacheable Render Arrays
- Debugging Metadata Issues
- Testing Caching Strategies
- Researching the Book
- Variation Cache Deep Dive
- Access Policy and Performance
- Permissions Caching and Disk IO
- Extension Discovery Tangent
- File Cache Explained
- Clearing File Cache in Tests
- Updating the Book Over Time
- Leanpub Pricing and Royalties
- Publishing Workflow and Tools
- Writing Process and Editing
Matt Glaman
Matt Glaman is an experienced software engineer and a prominent member of the Drupal community. With over a decade of experience in web development, he has developed a wealth of knowledge and expertise. He is the author of several books, including "Drupal 8 Development Cookbook" and "Drupal 10 Development Cookbook," which provide a comprehensive guide to building and customizing Drupal sites. And recently, the book Understanding Drupal: A Complete Guide to Caching Layers.
Nic Laflin
Nic Laflin is an accomplished Drupal architect and the founder of nLightened Development LLC, a web development and design firm established in 2008 that leverages highly extensible CMS frameworks to solve complex business challenges.
They’ve been working with Drupal since late 2008, delivering creative solutions for a diverse roster of clients—from government agencies and e-commerce platforms to higher-education institutions and HIPAA-compliant medical services. Recently, Nic has focused on Native Web Components for platform-agnostic design, and has deep experience integrating AWS and building mobile application back ends.
A recognized Drupal guru, Nic speaks regularly at regional Drupal camps and co-hosts the Talking Drupal podcast, where they share best practices and innovations with the community.
Outside of technology, Nic enjoys building with LEGO, experimenting in the kitchen, and designing home automation projects. You can learn more at www.nlightened.net.
Resources
Understanding Drupal: A Complete Guide to Caching Layers
https://mglaman.dev/blog/leveraging-list-cache-tag-entity-types
If you’re using a reverse proxy then disable the internal page cache
https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/issues/3414825
Guests
Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
Matt Glaman - mglaman.dev mglaman