Talking Drupal

Talking Drupal is a weekly chat about web design and development by a group a guys with one thing in common, we love Drupal. With hosts Stephen Cross, John Picozzi and Nic Laflin.

Talking Drupal #498 - DOJ Accessibility Ruling 04/21/2025

Talking Drupal #498 - DOJ Accessibility Ruling In this episode of Talking Drupal, we discuss the latest DOJ accessibility ruling and its implications for Drupal with special guest Josh Mitchell. Josh, a seasoned expert who has led teams in digital agencies, governments, and non-profits, sheds light on what the ruling means for state and local governments, the importance of accessibility, and steps to achieve compliance. We also explore the Sa11y module, a powerful tool for enhancing website accessibility, and compare it with the Editorially module. Additionally, we touch on the upcoming MID Camp 2025. Tune in for an insightful discussion on making web content more accessible for all. For show notes visit: Topics Can you give us an overview of the DOJ Accessibility Ruling Does this apply to federal websites When does this go into effect How does this affect current sites Hwo is Drupal positioned against this Does this rule apply to all content such as PDFs Any tips to organizations JS widgets Resources Fact sheet for meeting the requirements of the rule Guests Joshua "Josh" Mitchell - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Kathy Beck - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted your Drupal site to have a built-in accessibility tool that could identify things like potential color contrast issues? There’s a module for that Module name/project name: Brief history It’s worth mentioning that the name is a numeronym, so spelled s-a-1-1-y, which plays off of a common way the word “accessibility” is abbreviated How old: created in Jan 2018 by Bryan Sharpe (b_sharpe) but the namespace was taken over in Jun 2024 by Mark Conroy (markconroy) of LocalGov Drupal, so the current 3.0.1 release, which supports Drupal 10 and 11, is a completely different module than the original 8.x-1.x branch. Maintainership Actively maintained, in fact this module came out of the ongoing work being done on the LocalGov distribution and profile Security coverage Test coverage: no, but the module is effectively just a wrapper for the Sa11y library, which is CMS agnostic and used in the Wordpress and Joomla communities as well The Sa11y library has its own website, which includes documentation Number of open issues: 1 open issues, which isn’t a bug Usage stats: 62 sites Module features and usage We did cover the Editoria11y accessibility checker as MOTW all the way back in episode #350, almost 3 years ago, and Sa11y was mentioned at that time. Both modules have had major releases since then, so I thought this week’s episode would be a chance to do an updated comparison Sa11y does include some checks that Editoria11y does not, such as color contrast checking and a readability score The Editoria11y module, on the other hand, includes site-wide reporting that would be helpful for site admins, as well as a wealth of configuration options including one or more DOM elements to use as the container to check within, a list of elements to exclude, and so on. Recent versions of Editoria11y also include an option for live feedback as you edit, which should work with CKEditor 5, Paragraphs 5 or newer, and Gutenberg At the end of the day, however, both projects are intended to provide your content editors with immediate feedback on the accessibility compliance of what they create. So, it’s worth looking at the feedback each tool provides and deciding which one is more useful for your team in particular /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/36222415

Talking Drupal #497 - Drupal Forge 04/14/2025

Talking Drupal #497 - Drupal Forge Today we are talking about Drupal Forge, how it works, and why it’s changing Drupal with guest Darren Oh. We’ll also cover ECA VBO as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics Elevator pitch for Drupal forge What is Drupal Forge built on What is the pricing model Does Drupal Forge only allow you to install Drupal CMS Drupal Forge and templates, was there an influence on Site Templates Why offer templates for Drupal Forge Camps Is Drupal Forge open source What is on the Roadmap How can people get involved Resources Guests Darren Oh - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Kathy Beck - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted a powerful and flexible way to create views bulk operations without writing code? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in May 2022 by mxh, a prolific maintainer in his own right, and an active member of the group that has made the ECA ecosystem so far-reaching Versions available: 1.1.1 and 2.1.1, the latter of which supports ^10.3 || ^11 Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage Documentation: sort of. The README has step-by-step instructions, and the project page has links to both an example model and a tutorial video Number of open issues: 7 open issues, 1 of which are bugs against the current branch Usage stats: 320 sites Module features and usage With the module installed, your site will have a number of Events available within ECA, specifically for defining models that can perform bulk actions on the selected items in a view. In my own experience the most useful event is VBO: Execute Views bulk operation (one by one) From there, you can define the logic of what needs to happen to the selected items. I’ve used it for fairly simple operations like changing content to a specific moderation state, but you could define complex logic that is conditional on field values, site configuration, or even global factors like the time of day With one or more models defined, you can now add a field to your view for ECA bulk operations and then select which eligible models you want available in that specific view It’s worth adding that the ECA model can also include logic to define who should have access to perform a particular operation, which could be as simple as checking the role of the current user, but can be as complex as you need I came across ECA VBO during some recent work on the Drupal Event Platform, which is already available to try out on Drupal Forge, but there should be a more formal announcement on that front soon /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/36126715

Talking Drupal #496 - Getting Back to Drupal Basics 04/07/2025

Talking Drupal #496 - Getting Back to Drupal Basics Today we are talking about Drupal Basics, Why we got away from them, and what we do to bring them back with guest Mike Anello. We’ll also cover Entity Reference Override as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics Where did this idea come from Why do you feel more basic content is necessary How did Drupal get away from the basics How can we get more basic talks into Drupal events How do we balance basic content with new topics like recipes or Drupal CMS How do we entice speakers to take these talks Could this adversely affect attendance Question from Stephen: How do we address virtual events and that they are preferred by a younger crowd Will Florida Drupal Camp have a track Guests Mike Anello - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Kathy Beck - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to replace a text field on entities you reference in your Drupal site? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Sep 2016 by Jeff Eaton, though recent releases are by Benjamin Melançon (mlncn) of Agaric Versions available: 2.0.0-beta3 which works with Drupal 10.1 or 11 Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage, yes but needs a stable release Test coverage Documentation - user guide Number of open issues: 13 open issues, 2 of which are bugs against the 2.0.x branch Usage stats: 2,004 sites Module features and usage The module defines a new field type, with associated widgets and formatters. Your site editors will see a normal entity reference field (autocomplete or select) with an additional text field. Text provided in that additional field can be used to override a specific field in the referenced entity’s display, or add a class to its rendered markup. This could be handy in use cases like showing people with project-specific roles, or showing related articles with the summary tweaked to be more relevant to the main content being viewed. It’s not a super-common need, but if you need this capability, it can save having to set up a more complicated content architecture with some kind of intermediary entity I thought this module would be interesting because today’s guest, Mike Anello, is listed as one of the maintainers. Mike, what can you tell us about your history with the module and how you’ve used it? /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/36035485

Talking Drupal #495 - Live From DrupalCon! 03/31/2025

Talking Drupal #494 - AI in EDU 03/24/2025

Talking Drupal #494 - AI in EDU Today we are talking about AI in EDU, how it can provide efficiencies, and how you might start using it today with guests Brian Piper & Mike Miles . We’ll also cover External Entities as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics How are you using AI with your team at Rochester How are you using AI with your team at MIT What are the AI policies at your institutions On the ingestion side how do you manage consumption Tips and tricks to incorporate AI into your work Can you talk more about using AI to distribute content outside the web Do you have tips for managers How have you seen EDUs using AI other than as assistive technology What are your favorite tools Have you done adversarial testing How does AI in Drupal impact EDU Where do you see AI in EDU in the future Resources Tools Text to video Guests Brian Piper - Mike Miles - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Andrew Berry - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to connect your Drupal website to an external data source, to include their datasets into the presentation of your Drupal-managed content? There’s a module for that Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in May 2015 by attiks, though the most recent release is by Colan Schwartz (colan), a fellow Canadian Versions available: 8.x-2.0-beta1 and 3.0.0-beta4, the latter of which supports Drupal 10 and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained, latest release was less than a month ago Security coverage (though technically needs a stable release Test coverage Documentation: user guide Number of open issues: 77 open issues, 3 of which are bugs against the 3.x branch, though one is marked fixed now Usage stats: 679 sites Module features and usage The External Entities module lets you map fields from external data sources to fields on a “virtual” entity in Drupal. This allows for external data to be used with Drupal’s powerful features like Views, Entity Queries, or Search API as well as use your local Drupal site’s theme to theme data from an external source The module does provide a time-based caching layer for external entities, but you can also implement a more custom cache expiration logic through custom code External entities can also have annotations, essentially Drupal-managed information that will be associated with the external entity, and accessed as a normal field through all Drupal field operations. This could allow you to have Drupal-based comments on information from a different website, for example There is a sizeable ecosystem of companion modules, to help you connect to different kinds of external storage, as to help you aggregate data from multiple sources In my Drupal career I’ve worked on a number of higher ed websites, and the ability to display externally-managed data is a pretty common requirement, either from an HRIS system to show staff and faculty data, or a courseware solution like Banner. I thought this would be an interesting tangent to today’s topic /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/35836805

Talking Drupal #493 - Drupal Developer Survey 03/17/2025

Talking Drupal #493 - Drupal Developer Survey Today we are talking about The Drupal Developer Survey, Last year's results, and How it helps Drupal with guest Mike Richardson. We’ll also cover HTMX as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What is the Drupal Developer Survey How often does it come out How did it come to be What type of information does it collect Do you look at other surveys What were some of the most interesting stats last year Core contributors How do you expect last year to compare to this year Do you think the outlook will be more positive with Drupal CMS Drop off in Drupal 7 Home users DDEV usage AI questions Security questions Resources Guests Mike Richardson - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Andrew Berry - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to replace Drupal’s AJAX capabilities with a lightweight library that has no additional dependencies? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in May 2023 by wouters_f though recent releases are by fathershawn of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Versions available: 1.3.5 and 1.4.0, both of which support Drupal 10.3 and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained, latest release less than a month ago Security coverage Test coverage Documentation included in the repo as well as online Number of open issues: 3 open issues, 1 of which is a bug Usage stats: 92 sites Module features and usage To use HTMX, you need to attach the library to the render array of one or more elements where you want to use it, and then add data attributes to your render array that indicate how you want HTMX to react to user behaviour HTMX can help make your Drupal sites more interactive by dynamically loading or reloading parts of a page, giving it a more “application-like” user experience There is a planning issue to discuss gradually replace Drupal’s current AJAX system with HTMX, and a related Proof Of Concept showing how that could work with an existing Drupal admin form A number of elements in the current AJAX system also rely on jQuery, so adopting HTMX would also help to phase out jQuery in core. HTMX is also significantly more lightweight than JS frameworks like React HTMX is really a developer-oriented project, which is why I thought it would be appropriate for this week’s episode /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/35724015

Talking Drupal #492 - Pantheon Content Publisher 03/10/2025

Talking Drupal #492 - Pantheon Content Publisher Today we are talking about Pantheon Content Publisher, How it brings Google Docs to Drupal, and why you might want to use it with guests Chris Reynolds & John Money. We’ll also cover QR Code Fields as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What is Pantheon Content Publisher Why was Pantheon Content Publisher created How does it work with Google docs How do you handle revisions How do you target environments Can you do structured content How do reference existing content How does this use GraphQL What are some of the use cases you are seeing Who should not use Pantheon Content Publisher Can I develop the SDCs locally with Pantheon Content Publisher What is the ingestion layer like AI layer Talking Drupal workflow Do you have a process for bulk publishing How does startup look Is it PCC or PCP Can Pantheon Content Publisher customers push their own non google content Is Pantheon Content Publisher open source Is there a cost Can you translate content Resources Guests Chris Reynolds - John Money - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Andrew Berry - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted your Drupal site to generate various kinds of QR codes? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Nov 2023 by Sujan Shrestha of Nepal Versions available: 1.1.1 and 2.1.3, the latter of which works with Drupal 10 and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained Number of open issues: 4 open issues, none of which are bugs Usage stats: 134 sites Module features and usage This module defines not just one but 9 new fields for generating QR codes, including for URLs, vCards, MeCards, Events, and more Each field QR accepts inputs based on the associated information that should be exposed. So a URL QR Code field only accepts an input for the URL destination, while an Event QR Code has inputs for a summary, description, location, start, and end. The module also provides a custom block plugin for each type of QR code, to make it easier to display your QR codes wherever you need for your specific use case The QR Code Fields module also defines a service for generating QR code images, which could also be useful for more custom implementations. /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/35577730

Talking Drupal #491 - OpenY 03/03/2025

Talking Drupal #491 - OpenY Today we are talking about OpenY, a distribution for YMCAs, why it was created, and how it’s used today with guests Avi Schwab and Brent Wilker. We’ll also cover AI Media Image as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What is OpenY Why is it important to the YMCA How many Y's use it Is each Y independent technologically Why doesn't the Y create a platform as a service How do you get the message out about OpenY What does a Y pay for and how do they pay What is the governance layer like Any thoughts on recipes How does theming work New features to come How does ImageX support OpenY Resources MOTW YMCA Sandboxes Get in touch with ImageX about Open Y Avi’s sourdough recipe base and flour Guests Brent Wilker - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Avi Schwab - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to use AI to generate images, and save them directly into the Drupal media library once you have the result you want? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Feb 2025 by coffeymachine Versions available: 1.0.0-alpha2 Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage: technically, but needs a stable release Number of open issues: 2 open issues, neither of which are bugs Usage stats: 9 sites Module features and usage We have talked before on the podcast about a couple of ways you could use AI to generate images directly within a Drupal website. One used all the latest OpenAI APIs and the other had media library integration, though it only worked through its own admin form. Both were built to specifically DALL•E, OpenAI’s image generation service. This new module is a big leap forward because it’s based on Drupal’s powerful and rapidly innovating AI module, so it can work with multiple AI image generation services. What’s more, AI Media Image plugs into the Drupal core media system, so you can use the tool to generate images directly within the media library, including when you open it up in a modal to populate an entity reference field. This makes it significantly more intuitive to use this capability as part of a normal content creation flow. There are a couple of things that may not be intuitive when you first start using AI Media Image. For example, by default it uses the prompt you used to create the image as the alt text that will be saved to the media library. That seems unexpected to me, but if the prompt exceeds the max alt text length of 255 characters then it will throw an error and then you can overwrite the value of the prompt field to contain proper alt text before saving the image to the media library. This is one of the open issues mentioned earlier and resolving it would really improving the experience of using this module I got to play around with this module while preparing a demo for a session about AI I delivered with Mike Anello at Florida Drupalcamp on the weekend, so we’ll try to include a link in the notes so you can also watch for that recording and see this module in action /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/35487310

Talking Drupal #490 - Drupal Contrib First 02/24/2025

Talking Drupal #490 - Drupal Contrib First Today we are talking about Drupal Contribution, how you can approach it within your company, and why a Contrib First approach is important with guest Steve Wirt. We’ll also cover Config Importer & Tools as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What is contrib first How does this help the Drupal community Why is it a good idea for companies How do you explain this to non dev folks like CEOs or Presidents What do you say if a client does not buy in How do you monitor and build confidence in other developers How can someone get started Any tools or tips for someone trying to bootstrap this Resources MOTW Link shortners or link shorteners for d.o Guests Steve Wirt - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Avi Schwab - MOTW Correspondent Avi Schwab - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to streamline the management of config changes during your Drupal project deployment - importing individual configuration changes from contrib or custom modules and synchronizing settings across different environments? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in April 2016 by Andrii Podanenko(podarok) Versions available: 3.2.0 version which works with Drupal 9 and 10, D11 fixes are in the queue. Maintainership Actively maintained - although it’s a developer module that’s been mostly stable, so there have not been many recent changes. Security coverage Test coverage - unit tests Documentation - video documenting the process on the module page and instructions in the project overview Number of open issues: 8 open issues, 3 of which are bugs against the current branch Usage stats: 300 sites Maintainer(s): 7 maintainers across a few different agencies in Ukraine Module features and usage This module has no UI, and all of its work is done using it’s config_import services, either importer or param_updater The importer service imports full config files The param_updater service pulls in single parameters from a config file. Both can be used in .install files of contrib modules or on your own site to pull in configuration during database updates, which can be helpful for adding a new feature, modifying existing features, or pushing changes to many sites. There is also a “spiritual successor” to the Confi module called “Upgrade Tool” which has similar functionality with some extra functionality too. /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/35378760

Talking Drupal #489 - IXP Community Initiative 02/17/2025

Talking Drupal #489 - IXP Community Initiative Today we are talking about The IXP Fellowship Initiative, Workplace Developer Training, and making Drupal better for the little guy with guests Carlos Ospina & Mike Anello. We’ll also cover Cloudflare Turnstile as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What is the IXP initiative Why does the community think this is important What is the current status What changed in the last 10 years How do we encourage businesses to do this How can people get involved Resources Alternatives - privacy-focused alternative, still image-based - open, self-hosted option. Seems more basic. Posts referencing Irvine study #ixp-fellowship on the Drupal Slack Workspace Guests Carlos Ospina - Mike Anello - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Avi Schwab - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to use Cloudflare’s Turnstile web service to secure Drupal web forms, as an alternative to more intrusive CAPTCHA widgets that force users to select squares that contain traffic lights, cars, or bicycles? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Sep 2022 by Adam Weiss (greatmatter) Versions available: 1.1.13 which works with Drupal 9.4, 10, and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage Number of open issues: 6 open issues, 3 of which are bugs, with 2 of them postponed Usage stats: 3,981 sites Module features and usage Anyone who maintains a Drupal site is well acquainted with the need to mitigate form spam submissions. Best practices around which tool to use are an ever-changing conversation. Recently Google announced that reCAPTCHA implementations will need to be associated with a Google Cloud account, and will need to enable payment for anything that exceeds the free allowance of 10,000 assessments per month reCAPTCHA v2 widgets are notorious for the challenges they can present to actual users, particularly image challenges. In addition, a 2023 UC Irvine study concluded that “the true purpose of reCAPTCHAv2 is as a tracking cookie farm for profit masquerading as a security service”, so it’s definitely worth considering other solutions Cloudflare developed turnstile as a CAPTCHA alternative, designed to provide security while minimizing the friction for actual users. More importantly, Turnstile never harvests data for ad retargeting. A free Turnstile account can create up to 10 widgets, with unlimited usage. The turnstile module plugs into the existing Drupal CAPTCHA ecosystem, so it can be an easy swap out for anywhere you’re currently using CAPTCHA widgets. /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/35286510

Talking Drupal #488 - Drupal Open University 02/10/2025

Talking Drupal #488 - Drupal Open University Today we are talking about The open university initiative, Drupal in academia, and Fostering Drupal Education with guest Jean-Paul Vosmeer. We’ll also cover Artisan as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What is the Drupal Open University Initiative How did this initiative start Why is it important to get Drupal into Universities and Classrooms What stage is the initiative at Is Drupal currently in any universities Is it better to approach schools or professors directly How is the curriculum being developed What are the main differences between this initiative and resources like , Drupal at your fingertips, or Drupal TB What is next on the roadmap Where does Drupal CMS fit in Where does the initiative need help How can someone get involved Resources OSPO Guests Jean-Paul Vosmeer - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Avi Schwab - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to use the Drupal UI to configure numerous aspects of your Drupal site’s look and feel? There’s a theme for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Sep 2024 by alejandro cabarcos though recent releases are by crzdev, both of metadrop Versions available: 1.3.8, which support Drupal 10 and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained, release in the last week Security coverage Documentation: no, but a lengthy README that includes developer notes Number of open issues: 7 open issues, 5 of which are bugs, but 3 are postponed Usage stats: 170 sites Module features and usage After installing the theme, there is a drush command to generate a subtheme, or you can manually duplicate an included starterkit. You also need to run a couple of npm commands to pull in all the front end libraries, and build the CSS files Once you set the subtheme as your site default, you can customize a variety of ways the site looks, including the fonts and weights to use for heading and default text, the colour and padding of various elements, border weights, border radius, and more. The customizations are grouped into tabs. The base tab includes a colour palette, base font, and link styling. Additional tabs include page layout, header, responsive, and footer, also breadcrumb, headings, display headings, buttons, forms, and components Artisan also provides a toggle to expose extra customization options for dark mode, so if you want your site to give users the option to switch back and forth between normal and dark, this is extremely powerful, but does make for some very long configuration pages You can create and save presets, for easy creation of reusable palettes There is also a companion Artisan Styleguide module that provides a page that previews the theme style applied to an extensive list of elements Last year I was considering making a more configurable subtheme of Olivero for the Event Platform initiative, so I was excited to read about Artisan in a metadrop blog post we’ll include in the show notes /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/35222215

Talking Drupal #487 - Single Directory Components Workflow 02/03/2025

Talking Drupal #487 - Single Directory Components Workflow Today we are talking about Single Directory Components, How best to work with them, and their future with Drupal with guest Brian Perry. We’ll also cover Embedded Content as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What are Single Directory Components (SDC) Why the switch to SDCs What is there in common between decoupled and SDCs Can you give us an overview of your workflow Common pitfalls How should someone get started working with SDCs Does it work with Paragraphs and Blocks? Does it need to be all at once How do you think SDCs will evolve Do you see this leading to more Decoupled front ends What contrib modules make working with SDCs easier Resources Guests Brian Perry - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Scott Weston - MOTW Correspondent Jacob Rockowitz - Brief description: The Embedded Content module allows site builders to select, create, and update content embedded within HTML inside CKEditor. For developers, the EmbeddedContent plugin is like a Block plugin without context. There is a demo on YouTube There is support embedding of single directory component in progress. Conceptually, this is already possible, the same way one would render a single directory component in Block plugin. Brief history The concept and code started as the CKEditor5 Embedded Content module, created in August 2022. In October 2023, CKEditor5 Embedded Content was renamed to Embedded Content. Versions available: 2.0.3 - January 22nd, 2025 Works with Drupal: ^9 ^10 ^11 Maintainership Actively maintained? yes Security coverage? Yes Test coverage? Yes Documentation? Video and an example module Number of open issues: All issues: 6 open, 17 total Bug report: 6 open, 15 total Usage stats: 509 sites report using this module 1,263 sites report using this module (using old version) Maintainer(s): Teun van Veggel (nuez) Module features and usage Insert themed content in Ckeditor5 using Drupal plugins without having to write rich HTML and CSS Render these results directly in the CKEditor Create 'inline' embedded content that sits inline with the text, like footnotes. Provides Embedded Content plugin CKeditor 5 plugin. Ecosystem Embedded Content: Examples for examples of how to build your own plugins. Embedded Content: Entity for embedding content entities Embedded Content: SDC for single directory components (under development) Potential Challenges Example of the embedded content tag. <embedded-content data-plugin-config="{"text":"Some quote","spoken_by_character":"Some one","align":"center"}" data-plugin-id="schemadotorg_quotation" data-button-id="default"> </embedded-content> Translations via TMS (data is serialized via an attribute) /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/35102900

Talking Drupal #486 - GraphQL & Drupal Decoupled 01/27/2025

Talking Drupal #486 - GraphQL & Drupal Decoupled Today we are talking about GraphQL, Drupal Decoupled, and What to do with them with guest Jesus Manuel Olivas. We’ll also cover CORS UI as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What is GraphQL How do you use GraphQL with Drupal Would you use GraphQL without a headless theme Do you need additional server requirements What are some of your favorite GraphQL modules What caused the change from v3 to v4 What is meant by Drupal Decoupled What are the best use cases How do you handle caching and performance How do you handle roles and permissions Do you think AI has made decoupled more interesting Resources Guests Jesus Manuel Olivas - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Scott Weston - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to control your site’s Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (aka CORS) configuration, directly within the Drupal admin UI? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Sep 2016 by Sam Becker (sam152), a prolific module maintainer in his own right, though the most recent release is by Matt Glaman, who has been on this show and will need no introduction for many of our listeners Versions available: 8.x-1.2 which supports Drupal 9, 10, and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage Number of open issues: 2 open issues, 1 of which is a bug, and also has a patch available Usage stats: 274 sites according to Module features and usage By default cross-origin requests to Drupal applications will be denied. Since Drupal 8.2 you can add a section to your site’s services.yml file to enable responses, and specify what headers, methods, and origins should be supported This module provides a form within Drupal to control these values. This could be helpful if, for example, these values need to change on a frequent basis, or for less technical users who are experimenting with a headless architecture. I should note that the bug mentioned earlier throws a fatal error in PHP 8, but is a simple fix. So if you want to try out this module, make sure you apply the patch. /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/34999215

Talking Drupal #485 - AI Autonomy 01/20/2025

Talking Drupal #485 - AI Autonomy Today we are talking about AI Autonomy, How it could help Drupal Development, and AI in the future with guest Jay Callicott. We’ll also cover AI Agents as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What got you interested in this topic What is meant by AI Autonomy You suggested in your blog post in the Drop Times that developers will manage AI can you elaborate AI coming for our jobs Drupal X Do decoupled sites have an advantage Is the future going to be all prompts Skill decay What would you say to a CEO thinking about replacing developers with AI Resources Guests Jay Callicott - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Scott Weston - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to leverage AI-powered tools to get information about or change the configuration of your website? There’s a module for that Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Aug 2024 by Marcus Johansson (marcus_johansson) of FreelyGive Versions available: 1.0.1 which supports Drupal 10.3 and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained: that release was in the past week, and was part of the significant effort to get stable releases of the AI modules that are included in Drupal CMS Security coverage Documentation included within the module’s codebase Number of open issues: 30 open issues, 7 of which are bugs against the current branch Usage stats: 119 sites but I suspect that number will increase rapidly once people start using Drupal CMS Module features and usage In AI terminology, an agent is a system able to interact with its environment, collect data, and use the data to perform self-determined tasks The AI Agents module is a framework to provide agents that can perform a variety of functions in your Drupal website It depends on the AI module that we had Jamie Abrahams on the podcast to talk about back in episode The module includes plugins that provide three agents, namely: A Field Type Agent that can create or edit fields using the Field API, or answer questions about the fields your site has defined A Content Type agent that can create, edit, or answer questions about node types Taxonomy Agent that can do the same for your site’s vocabularies Anyone who saw the Driesnote AI demos from DrupalCon Barcelona or Singapore will have seen agents in action, in that example through interaction in a chatbot Technically, the plugins are UI agnostic, however. So theoretically you could trigger an agent in other ways. But today, AI Agents power the AI chatbot that you can use in the AI recipe that is included in the recently released Drupal CMS 1.0 The AI Agents module also includes some submodules. An experimental form integration submodule adds UI elements to the interfaces for managing fields, content types, and vocabularies, an explorer submodule provides debugging tools, and an experimental Extra submodule provides agents for working with webforms and views. I have also seen a demo of some work underway to provide an ECA agent, so you may soon be able to get your Drupal site to build out ECA models based on the business logic you describe to it /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/34896870

Talking Drupal #484 - Drupal CMS 01/13/2025

Talking Drupal #484 - Drupal CMS Topics What is Drupal CMS Are we ready for the release Drupal 7 What can people expect Will there be a launch button If someone uses the one click install how will they know what to do next What new features are there If someone tries the trial how do they get that site on a host When will Experience builder be out Are any vendors going to provide Drupal CMS as a service What is on the roadmap How can people get involved Resources Guests Matthew Grasmick - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Scott Weston - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to have one or more fallbacks within your Drupal tokens? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in May 2018 by Daniel Beeke (danielbeeke) of the Netherlands Versions available: 2.3.0 Maintainership Actively maintained, current release appx 2 mo old Security coverage Test coverage Number of open issues: 8 open issues, 3 of which are bugs against the current branch Usage stats: 2,369 sites Module features and usage After installing this module, your tokens can contain pipe-separated values, including a quote-enclosed literal string, and the token will return the first token or string that is not empty. This allows your tokens to have fallback values. For example you could have a token grab an event’s start date, or show “TBD” if the field is empty. The project page doesn’t explicitly say that a single token can have more than two token reference or string values, but it seems implied. If true, that would mean you could define a token that would grab from one field, look in a different field if the first one is empty, and return a string if neither field has a value. Because Token OR uses pipe characters to delineate between values, the module currently doesn’t support pipe characters within string values. This is one of the open issues, but there is a patch available. Previous guest host Josh Mitchell mentioned that he had never heard of this module until he noticed it is in the codebase for Drupal CMS, so I thought it would be ideal to talk about on this show, as an example of some lesser-known best practices that you’ll get out of the box when you start building sites on Drupal CMS. /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/34806140

Talking Drupal #483 - Meet your host: Nic Laflin 01/06/2025

Talking Drupal #482: Meet your host: John Picozzi 12/30/2024

Talking Drupal #481 - Drupal Marketing & Drupal CMS 12/23/2024

Talking Drupal #481 - Drupal Marketing & Drupal CMS Today we are talking about Drupal Marketing, how it applies to Drupal CMS, and what a Drupal and Drupal CMS Marketing Future look like with guest Suzanne Dergacheva. We’ll also cover Drupal 11.1 as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics Drupal marketing moves New brand Marketing people at the DA Goal of marketing How does this impact Drupal CMS Drupal CMS marketing How will you educate people about the differences between core and CMS Any challenges How do you like the new homepage Next steps to move the brand forward Case studies Why did you volunteer If someone wants to get involved how can they Resources homepage Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Suzanne Dergacheva - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you been wanting a version of Drupal with improvements to the recipes system, the ability to write hooks as classes, and an icon management API? The new Drupal 11.1 release has all of that and more. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created on Dec 16 by catch of Tag1 and Third & Grove Module features and usage We’ve talked a number times on this show about the recipes system, particularly because it’s at the heart of Drupal CMS. In Drupal 11.1 recipes can define whether or not to use strict comparison for provided configuration, and there are a ton of new config actions. These allow your recipe to place blocks, take user input, enable layout builder for content types, clone configuration entities and more. It’s a huge leap forward, and I think you’ll quickly see a number of recipes that require Drupal 11.1 or newer. Hooks have long been a powerful Drupalism that allow for deep customization of how your website functions. These hooks can now be written as classes, thanks to the new Hook attribute on methods. This will bring many of the object-oriented benefits of modern Drupal to the hooks system, and should also make it easier for developers new to Drupal to understand the code to create these customizations. A new Icon Management API allows themes and modules to define icon packs, with unique identifiers for each included icon. Drupal 11.1 also includes PHP 8.4 support. I haven’t been able to find any data on speed improvements compared to PHP 8.3, but there are interesting new features like property hooks, asymmetric visibility, new functions for finding array items, and more There are plans to use Workspaces for content moderation, so the UI for Workspaces is now in a separate module. For new site builds if you want your editors to be able to use Workspaces, you’ll need to remember to enable this new UI module as well New installs of Drupal 11.1 will also see improvements to the initial experience. These include defaulting to admin-created user accounts only, not adding the body field by default when creating new content types, and more. Drupal 11.1 also includes a new views entity reference filter, opt-in render caching for forms, and improved browser and CDN caching for Javascript and CSS, among a host of other improvements. A number of these improvements will also find their way into the upcoming 10.4 release, ensuring, for example, that recipes built to use the new config actions can be used with Long-Term Support (LTS) versions of Drupal, that will be supported until the stable release of Drupal 12 in mid- to late-2026 /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/34557200

Talking Drupal #480 - Ripple Makers 12/16/2024

Talking Drupal #480 - Ripple Makers Today we are talking about The Ripple Makers program, How it benefits Drupal Association members, and Why it’s important to Drupal with guest Julia Kranzthor. We’ll also cover Migrate Boost as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What is Ripple Makers Taxes Why did the Drupal Association (DA) membership program need overhauling Are DA individual memberships different than Ripple Makers Do people have to sign up if they are already a DA member Coming up with the benefits Where did the name come from Does this have new benefits What has the impact been Resources Ripple Makers Migrate Boost 'workbench_moderation', 'pathauto', 'xmlsitemap', 'search_api', 'search_api_algolia', Guests Julia Kranzthor - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Suzanne Dergacheva - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to disable hooks to accelerate your Drupal migration? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Sep 2023 by our own Nic Laflin Versions available: 1.0.1, compatible with Drupal 10 and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage Documentation README / project page have instructions Number of open issues: none! Usage stats: 119 sites Module features and usage Having hooks fire during a migration can significantly slow down the process, and what’s worse, it can also cause some significant problems, for example sending email notifications every time a node is created You disable hooks by defining an array in your settings.php file, either an array of specific hooks you want to disable, or an array of modules for which you want to disable all hooks This was a capability available for the Drupal 7 Migrate module, but hasn’t been available in the Migrate API in Drupal core since version 8, so this module can be invaluable if you’re working on a sizable migration Hopefully there are a lot of folks working on migrations ahead of the January 5 EOL for Drupal 7, so I thought this module would be timely /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/34441010

Talking Drupal #479 - Drupal CMS Media Management 12/09/2024

Talking Drupal #479 - Drupal CMS Media Management Today we are talking about Drupal CMS Media Management, How media management has evolved, and Why managing our media is so important with our guest Tony Barker. We’ll also cover URL Embed as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What do we mean by media management in Drupal CMS How is it different from media in Drupal today Why is media management important How are you applying these changes to Drupal What phase are you in Will this be ready for Drupal CMS release in January What types of advanced media will supported Do you see it growing to replace some DAMs Are there future goals How did you get involved How can people get involved Resources Vision for media management Contributed module file upload field for media and these related modules Slack: #starshot-media-management and #starshot Guests Tony Barker - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Suzanne Dergacheva - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted a simple way to insert oEmbed content on your Drupal site? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Sep 2014 by the venerable Dave Reid, though recent releases are by Mark Fullmer of the University of Texas at Austin Versions available: 2.0.0-alpha3 and 3.0.0-beta1, the latter of which works with Drupal 10.1 or 11. That said, it does declare a dependency on the Embed project, which unfortunately doesn’t yet have a Drupal 11-ready release Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage technically, but needs a stable release Test coverage Documentation guide Number of open issues: 63 open issues, 4 of which are bugs against the current branch Usage stats: 7,088 sites Module features and usage A content creator using this module only needs to provide a URL to the content they want to embed, as the name suggests The module provides both a CKEditor plugin and a formatter for link fields. Note that you will also need to enable a provided filter plugin for any text formats where you want users to use the CKEditor button Probably the critical distinction between how this module works and other elements of the media system is that this bypasses the media library, and as such is better suited to “one off” uses of remote content like videos, social media posts, and more It’s also worth mentioning that the module provides a hook to modify the parameters that will be passed to the oEmbed host, for example to set the number of posts to return from Twitter I could definitely see this as a valuable addition to the Event Platform that we’ve talked about previously on the podcast, but the lack of a Drupal 11-ready release for the Embed module is an obvious concern. So, if any of our listeners want to take that on, it would be a valuable contribution to the community /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/34322495

Talking Drupal #478 - WEBAssembly 12/02/2024

Talking Drupal #478 - WEBAssembly Today we are talking about WEBAssembly, How it’s used, and cool things you can use it for with Drupal with guest Matt Glaman. We’ll also cover Darkmode JS as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What is WebAssembly Progressive Web Aoos Open source Does it have a community Browser support How does it work Common use cases How can you use this with Drupal This was an early concept for Drupal trial Challenges Wordpress playground Pieces that do not work for PHP Are there risks Are there resources for people that want to use WebAssembly Do you see it being used with Drupal Resources WordPress Playground Slides from Barcelona: The Web APIs powering the Starshot trial: Guests Matt Glaman - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Suzanne Dergacheva - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted your Drupal site to provide a widget that allows visitors to go over to the dark side of your theme? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in May 2022 by Arthur Baghdasaryan (arthur.baghdasar) of Last Call Media Versions available: 1.0.7 which works with Drupal 9, 10, and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage Number of open issues: 1 open issues which is a bug against the current branch, but is postponed, waiting for more info Usage stats: 89 sites Module features and usage The module is a wrapper for the DarkmodeJS library which gets 1,000 weekly downloads, according to NPM. That library does have its own demo / tutorial site, so if you want to understand the options it exposes, we will add a link in the show notes The module provides options to control where on the page you want the widget to appear, what colors it should use, whether or not to store a user’s choices in cookies, and whether or not to automatically match a visitor’s OS theme setting of light/dark Installing the module currently requires making some changes to your site’s composer.json file, then configuring how you want the widget to appear, and then placing the block in your site theme The module also doesn’t currently include a schema file for its configuration, which can cause challenges particularly for sites that run automated tests /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/34185590

Talking Drupal #477 - Drupal Association CTO Then & Now 11/25/2024

Talking Drupal #477 - Drupal Association CTO Then & Now Today we are talking about being the CTO of the Drupal Association, How the job has changed, and How its impacted Drupal with guests Josh Mitchell & Tim Lehnen. We’ll also cover Automatic Anchors as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics How long ago were you CTO Josh Tim when did you take over DA infrastructure Drupal Credit System Josh's proudest moment Tim's proudest moment Growth Josh if you could do one thing differently Tim if you could make one change Future of the CTO job Resources Guests Tim Lehnen - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Joshua "Josh" Mitchell - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted headings on your Drupal site to have unique id values, so links can be created to take users to specific parts of any page? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Jun 2020 by Chris Komlenic (komlenic) of Penn State Versions available: 2.1.1-beta1, which supports Drupal 8.8, 9, and 10 Maintainership Test coverage Number of open issues: x open issues, y of which are bugs against the current branch Usage stats: 137 sites Module features and usage By default, the module automatically generates ids on <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, and <h6> elements within the page content Even if two headings have the same content, the module will make sure their ids are unique, as well as making sure they are i18n-friendly, use hyphens instead of spaces, and are short enough to be useful The module won’t interfere with or change manually-added or already-existing HTML ids There’s a permission to view helpful links on each heading that the ids obvious and easy to copy Configuration options include the root element it should look within (defaults to the body tag), which elements should get ids, what content to use for the displayed links, and whether or not generate ids on admin pages /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/34111496

Talking Drupal #476 - Off The Cuff #10 11/18/2024

Talking Drupal #476 - Off The Cuff #10 Today we are talking about some things are on our mind including, The DOJ Accessibility ruling,Drupal CMS Event Recipes and Tooling for core development with our Hosts. We’ll also cover @font-your-face as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics DOJ Accessibility Ruling Drupal CMS Tooling for core development Open University Resources PHPUnit testing Guests Martin Anderson-Clutz - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Martin Anderson-Clutz - Joshua "Josh" Mitchell - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to add and manage web fonts for your Drupal site, directly within the admin interface? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in May 2010 by Scott Reynen, but the most recent release was by Henrique Mendes (hmendes) of CI&T Versions available: 7.x-2.8 and 4.0.0 versions available, the latter of which support Drupal 9.4 and 10. Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage Test coverage Documentation, but looks like it might be ready for a refresh Number of open issues: 48 open issues, 8 of which are bugs against the current branch Usage stats: 32,213 sites Module features and usage The module provides an interface to browse fonts from Google, Adobe, Typekit, and more License restrictions for fonts are clearly indicated When you find a font you want to use, you just click “enable”. You don’t need to write any CSS or define a library, and it’s easy to mix-and-match fonts from different providers. It can even make it easier to include your own local fonts The module includes submodules for the different font providers, so you enable the submodules based on where you want to use fonts from Then you can import the fonts for those providers, though you do need an API key to import fonts from Google The module does also have an API, so you can write your own modules to integrate with other font providers, or access the information about available fonts /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/33981042

Talking Drupal #475 - Workspaces 11/11/2024

Talking Drupal #475 - Workspaces Today we are talking about Workspaces, What They are, and How They Work with guest Scott Weston. We’ll also cover Workspaces Extra as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What are Workspaces in Drupal What's a common use cases for Workspaces Are Workspaces stable Do Workspaces help with content versioning What does the module ecosystem look like for Workspaces Inspiration Workspaces best practices Any interesting ways it is being used Is there a way to access workspace content in twig Navigation integration Workspaces and workflows What aspects of a Workspace are limited to live If someone wants to get involved or get started Resources Guests Scott Weston - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Joshua "Josh" Mitchell - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Do you want to extend the capabilities of the Workspaces system in Drupal core? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Apr 2021 by Andrei Mateescu (amateescu) of tag1, who has also contributed to Workspaces in core, among other many things Versions available: 2.0.0-alpha3 which works with Drupal 10.3 or 11 Maintainership Actively maintained, latest release is less than a week old Security coverage: technically yes, but not really until it has a stable release Test coverage Number of open issues: 20 open issues, 3 of which are bugs against the current branch, though one has already been fixed Usage stats: 89 sites Module features and usage One of the big features in Drupal 10.3 was that Workspaces is now officially stable. That said, not everything works the way some site builders will want it to. That’s where a contrib solution like Workspace Extra can help to fill in the gaps It provides new options like letting you roll back changes from a published workspace, move content between workspaces, discard changes in a workspace, squashing content revisions when a workspace is published, and more Workspaces Extra, or WSE also includes a number of submodules to add even more capabilities. For example, they can allow your workspace to stage an allowlist of configuration changes, deploy workspace content using an import/export system, stage menu changes, and more. For workflow, there’s an option to generate a shareable workspace preview link for external users, and a scheduler to publish your workspace at a specific day and time I will add that the first time I played with workspaces I ran into an issue where I couldn’t create media entities within a workspace. I don’t know for sure that this hasn’t been fixed in core, but the core issue about it is still listed as “Needs work”. That said, the last comment on that issue (link in the show notes) lists WSE as something that helps, so if you encounter the same issue with Workspaces, WSE is worth a try /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/33878967

Talking Drupal #474 - Revolt Event Loop 11/04/2024

Talking Drupal #474 - Revolt Event Loop Today we are talking about the revolt event Loop, what it is, and why it matters with guest Alexander Varwijk. We’ll also cover IEF Complex Widget Dialog as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What is an event loop Why does Drupal need an event loop What will change in core to implement this What problem does this solve Does this make Cron cleaner and long running processes faster What impact will this have on contrib How would contrib use this loop What does this mean for database compatibility What inspired this change Test instability Why Revolt Will this help with Drupal AI Resources Async PHP libraries Guests Alexander Varwijk - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Joshua "Josh" Mitchell - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to use Inline Entity Forms but have the dependent form open in a dialog? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Mar 2020 by dataweb, though recent releases are by Chris Lai (chrisck), a fellow Canadian Versions available: 2.1.1 and 2.2.2, the latter or which is compatible Drupal 8.8 or newer, all the way up to Drupal 11 Maintainership Actively maintained, latest release in the past month Number of open issues: 4 open issues, none of which are bugs against the current version Usage stats: 273 sites Module features and usage When you install the module, your Inline Entity Form widget configuration will have a new checkbox, to “Enable Popup for IEF” Includes specialized handling for different kinds of entities, like nodes, users, taxonomy terms, and users Will handle not just the creation forms, but editing entities, and also duplicating or deleting entities Not something you would always need, but can be very useful if the form you want to use for entity or even parent forms that are complex I should also add that IEF supports form modes, so often I’ll create an “embedded” form mode that exposes fewer elements, for example hiding the fields for URL alias, sticky, and so on. So I would start there, but if the content creation experience still feels complex, then IEF Complex Widget Dialog might be a nice way to help /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/33773982

Talking Drupal #473 - Color in CSS with Sass 10/28/2024

Talking Drupal #473 - Color in CSS with Sass Today we are talking about Color with CSS, Sass, and bringing it all into Drupal with guest Aubrey Sambor . We’ll also cover Navigation Extra Tools as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics A little career background Why Front end Do you prefer JS or CSS How do colors work today in CSS Is this different from the past What is gamut Can color functions help with contrast What color functions make you the most excited Is Sass still a thing Do you use preprocessors with color functions Post CSS in Drupal Any modules you can recommend to help with CSS colros Any benefit for single directory compontents or web components Resources Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Aubrey Sambor - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you been using the new Navigation module in Drupal core, but wanted some of the useful links previously available in the Admin Toolbar Tools submodule? There’s a module for that Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Oct 2024, less than a week ago by friend of the podcast James Shields aka lostcarpark Versions available: 1.0.0-beta3 which works with Drupal 10.3 and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained, already 3 releases Security coverage - too new, but hopefully will have in time Test coverage Number of open issues: 8 “open” issues, 4 of which are bugs, but all but one of which are now marked as fixed with the latest release Usage stats: 12 sites Module features and usage With this module enabled, the new left side Navigation menu available in Drupal core will include links to clear caches (all or a specific cache), run cron, and run database updates It’s a good example of a module that does something very specific and very useful, so I wanted to share it with our listeners as quickly as possible I know these functions are ones I’ve been missing in my own Drupal 11 dev sites, so I’m looking forward to using this module right away /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/33624492

Talking Drupal #472 - Access Policy API 10/21/2024

Talking Drupal #472 - Access Policy API 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: Topics 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 Resources Guests Kristiaan Van den Eynde - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Aubrey Sambor - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - 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: 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 /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/33525042

Talking Drupal #471 - Off The Cuff #9 10/14/2024

Talking Drupal #471 - Off The Cuff #9 Today we are talking about Freemium Drupal Modules, The WordPress hub-bub, and Drupal, Now with AI with our hosts. We’ll also cover FullCalendar as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics Freemium Drupal Wordpress controversy Drupal CMS and AI Resources Guests Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Aubrey Sambor - Martin Anderson-Clutz - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted an interactive calendar to display your Drupal events with drag-and-drop rescheduling, and without using jQuery? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Sep 2010 by ablondeau, though I’ve been behind the most recent releases Versions available: 7.x-2.0 and 3.0.0-beta2 versions available, the latter of which supports Drupal 10 and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained, latest release was this morning Security coverage, though technically the 3.0.x branch will have it once it’s stable Test coverage, minimal but on the roadmap Documentation - does have a user guide, but created for the D7 version, so newer documentation is needed Number of open issues: 337 open issues, none of which are bugs against the 3.0.x branch Usage stats: 3,388 sites, though the vast majority of those are for the D7 version, since the 3.0.x branch is very new Module features and usage No jQuery! Lots of configurability plus some extras specifically for Drupal Drag-and-drop to alter events Option to require confirmation Can display toast-style notifications when updates are save Double-click on a day or time to create an event at that time Can display events from different content types, even if they use different fields to store dates, and yes, even different kinds of fields, so a mixture of core and Smart Date fields will work You can set default colors and output type (block or the newer, list-item display), and the ability to override color based on content type or a taxonomy reference This module had been essentially dormant for over 4 years, but I decided to work with Jürgen Haas on reviving it after a similar and popular project called Fullcalendar View was not only marked as “Minimally maintained” and “Maintenance fixes only”, but the project page directed users to contact the maintainer to pay for a premium version, in order to use the current version of the Fullcalendar JS library, or to load events via AJAX, which as been an often-requested feature because Fullcalendar View has had common reports of performance problems on sites with lots of event data. Worse, the maintainer has closed as “won’t fix” issues that had community-provided patches, because he only wanted to provide said improvements in the paid, premium version In my work on the Events recipe for Drupal CMS, I knew that having a solid calendar would be important, and I didn’t feel good about relying on a module that seemed to be pushing users more and more towards a paid model. I’m grateful to Jurgen and everyone who worked on FullCalendar before us for creating such a robust and extensible code base /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/33422272

Talking Drupal #470 - Creating Recipes 10/07/2024

Talking Drupal #470 - Creating Recipes Today we are talking about Creating Recipes, What Recipes already exist, and helpful tips and tricks with guest Jim Birch. We’ll also cover Features as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What are recipes How do you recommend someone get started writing recipes Where can people find recipes Can you include sub recipes How should you test recipes Any tools that make writing recipes easier What recipes are needed that do not exist How can people move recipes forward Resources Guests Jim Birch - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Aubrey Sambor - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted an admin UI to manage sets of configuration, to version and share across Drupal sites? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Mar 2009 by yhahn, though recent releases are by Dave Reid Versions available: 7.x-2.15 and 8.x-3.14, the latter of which works with Drupal 9.4 and 10 Maintainership Minimally maintained Security coverage Test coverage Documentation: Has a documentation guide and probably hundreds if not thousands of of tutorials available Number of open issues: 610 open issues, 54 of which are bugs against the 8.x branch Usage stats: Almost 117,000 sites, though the majority are using the D7 version Module features and usage Many listeners will remember Features as the de facto solution for configuration management in Drupal 7 and earlier As the name implies, it was really intended to share common capabilities across different Drupal sites Unlike recipes, Features can have version numbers, because there is a path to sync configuration updates across sites using a Feature, though this is where a lot of teams found Features could be complex to use We did previously cover Features as MOTW all the way back in episode #147, but I thought it was relevant to today’s discussion because of the way it provides a UI for organizing and exporting specific sets of configuration There is an open issue for Features to directly export recipes, because it already does a lot of the time-consuming work of collecting together necessary config files, including dependencies Even its current state, it could be a time saver for anyone wanting to start creating their own recipes /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/33331177

Talking Drupal #469 - Drupal’s Popularity & Dev Experience 09/30/2024

Talking Drupal #469 - Drupal’s Popularity & Dev Experience Today we are talking about Drupal’s Popularity & Dev Experience, what could be better, and things that are great with guest Nathan Dentzau. We’ll also cover Spam Master as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics Drupal's popularity What can Drupal to enhance popularity and enhance dev experience What is missing in Drupal What could use improvement in Drupal What about recent tooling improvements Drupal CMS (Starshot) Resources Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Nate Dentzau - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to defend your Drupal website from webform spam using a constantly updating list of known bad actors? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Mar 2018 by Pedro Alves (pedro-alves) Versions available: 8.x-1.99 and 8.x-2.50, the latter of which support Drupal versions 8 through 11 Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage Documentation on Number of open issues: no open issues Usage stats: 449 sites Module features and usage Spam Master is a website protection technology that was originally created back in 2012, and is used across sites based on a variety of technologies, including Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, and more It uses a variety of techniques to identify and block malicious actors, including “real-time block lists”, honeypot traps, comment analysis, and more By maintaining a list of known bad actors, tracked by IP address and email addresses used, you can also benefit from a “network effect” by being able to identify them based on malicious behavior on any of the thousands of sites using Spam Master The module claims compatibility with a variety of forms, including registration, comments, commerce, and more It includes a variety of reports you can use to understand the amount of spam your site is receiving, and the module can automatically send you an email if it believes your site has reached “Level 3” of spam targeting Spam Master does use licenses on , but free licenses are available /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/33236542

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