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 #460 - Preconfigured CMS Solutions 07/22/2024

Talking Drupal #460 - Preconfigured CMS Solutions Today we are talking about Preconfigured CMS Solutions, How they can help your business, and The best way to build them in Drupal with guests Baddy Sonja Breidert and Dr. Christoph Breidert. For show notes visit: Topics Spain What is a Preconfigured CMS / Drupal Solution Who is the audience What business objectives can preconfigured solutions solve What are the ingredients How do you manage theming How do you manage customized design What do you do if your client has a need that your preconfigured solution does not solve What about Starshot Did the two of you meet over Drupal How do you manage work life balance Resources Guests Christoph Breidert - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Baddý Sonja Breidert - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to customize the way Google Maps appear on your Drupal site? There's a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Mar 2014 by iampuma, but recent releases are by Artem Dmitriiev (a.dmitriiev) of 1xINTERNET Versions available: 7.x-2.0, 8.x-1.7, and 8.x-2.6 versions available, the last of which works with Drupal 8, 9, 10, and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained, latest release a week ago Security coverage Has a Documentation page and lots of information on the project page Number of open issues: 8 open issues, 1 of which is a bug against the current branch, though it was actually fixed in the latest release Usage stats: 1,764 sites Module features and usage The module provides allows your Drupal to use custom styles, which you can copy and paste from , or create from scratch using a configuration widget on Github that is linked from the project page You will be able to use custom markers by using the System Stream Wrapper module You can also specify popups for the markers, using a field or a view mode If you use the companion styled_google_views module, you can also show multiple locations, and define clustering options Styled Google Map also has integration with Google's Directions service, so visitors can easily get turn-by-turn directions for how to reached their chosen location The module also includes a demo submodule you can use to quickly set up a working example to illustrate all the different options available using Styled Google Map /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/32220622

Talking Drupal #459 - Off The Cuff 8 07/15/2024

Talking Drupal #459 - Off The Cuff 8 Today we are talking about Config Actions, The Panels Favorite Drupal Modules, and Drupal Contribution. We’ll also cover Transform API as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics New Config Action: Place Block Favorite Contrib modules Slack channels Preparing for Drupal 11 Drupal events Resources Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Martin Anderson-Clutz - Baddý Sonja Breidert - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to expose your Drupal site’s data as JSON using view modes, formatters, blocks, and more? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Transform API Brief history How old: created in Sep 2023 by LupusGr3y, aka Martin Giessing of Denmark Versions available: 1.1.0-beta4 and 1.0.2 versions available, both of which work with Drupal 9 and 10 Maintainership Actively maintained, in fact the latest commit was earlier today Security coverage Documentation: in-depth README and a full user guide Number of open issues: 14 open issues, 3 of which are bugs, but none against the current branch Usage stats: 2 sites Module features and usage After installing Transform API, you should be able to get the JSON for any entities on your site by adding “format=json” as a parameter to the URL To get more fields exposed as JSON, you can configure a Transform mode, using a Field UI configuration very similar to view modes You can also add transform blocks to globally include specific data in all transformed URLs, in the same way you would use normal blocks to show information on your entity pages. The output of transform blocks is segmented into regions, Where Drupal’s standard engine produces render arrays that ultimately become HTML, Transform API replaces it with an engine that produces Transform Arrays that will ultimately become JSON Where Drupal’s standard JSON:API supports more or less exposes all information as raw data for the front end to format, Transform API allows for more of the formatting to be managed on the back end, where it will use Drupal’s standard caching mechanisms, permission-based access, and more Transform API also supports lazy transformers, which are callbacks that will be called after caching but before the JSON response is sent You can also use alter hooks to manipulate the transformed data /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/32114857

Talking Drupal #458 - Drupal & Next.js 07/08/2024

Talking Drupal #458 - Drupal & Next.js Today we are talking about Next.js, what it is, and how to integrate it with Drupal with guest John Albin Wilkins. We’ll also cover Next.js Webform as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What is Next.js What kind of server do you need How is it used on the web Does it only work on react based systems Why would someone want to integrate with Drupal When changes are made in the content how do you update the app On the module page there are a lot of references to Preview, is this something Next does well What is server side rendering How does Next work with menus and views Any preference on the api for json api vs graphql Performance Editorial experience Responsive images Will Drupal ever ship with a headless front end Winner of the TPOTM Resources Guests John Albin Wilkins - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Baddý Sonja Breidert - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to build a webform in Drupal and have the corresponding Next.js template automatically created for you? There’s a Next.js library for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Aug 2022 by Lauri Timmanee (lauriii), who listeners may know as the Drupal Core Product Manager, and one of the people leading the Starshot initiative Versions available: 1.1.1 Maintainership Test coverage Documentation - Lengthy README and a tutorial on the Acquia Dev Portal Number of open issues: 17 open issues, 3 of which are bugs Usage stats: 2,246 weekly downloads according to Module features and usage Using this library does require some setup on the Drupal side, including installing the Webform and Webform REST modules. There’s also an extra patch to install if you want to use any autocomplete fields, and some configuration needed for both the REST resources that will be used to exchange data, and the permissions for the account that will be used to retrieve and submit data Out of the box, the library supports over 40 webform components, but you can also provide custom elements if you need something additional. The library also supports conditional logic, so fields can show or hide in the Next.js front end based on conditions defined in your Drupal backend The library also provides front-end validation for email confirmation, date list, and datetime fields, but back end validation is also processed for every submission There is a crowded field of headless CMS competitors, but I thought this library is a good example of the extra power and flexibility you get by using a robust, open source CMS like Drupal as the back end in your headless architecture /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/32023272

Talking Drupal #457 - Drupal Architecture 07/01/2024

Talking Drupal #457 - Drupal Architecture Today we are talking about Drupal Architecture, Common Site Building questions, and How we solve things with Drupal with guest Alexander Varwijk. We’ll also cover Drupal 10.3 as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics Where do you start when thinking about a new site or feature. Where is the line for extending vs forking Do you have solutions that you default to when building a feature Do you find people come to Drupal with specific third party requirements What do you think about Headless When do you choose to contribute a new module to Drupal Will recipes change your architecture How do you learn about new ways of doing things Where did you get your username, are you the king of the Netherlands Resources Drupal Core Issues to split "Site builder" functionality into more granular chunks A free, unlimited, and flexible open source messaging platform that’s been built mobile-first Guests Alexander Varwijk - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Baddý Sonja Breidert - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you been wanting to use Workspaces, Single Directory Components, Recipes, or the new admin menu in your Drupal site? The new Drupal 10.3 release is better for using all of these and more. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: It was tagged on Jun 20 by catch of Tag1 and Third & Grove Features and usage In this new minor version, Workspaces is now declared stable, and Single Directory Components are now fully integrated into core, instead of being in an experimental module. Drupal 10.3 also includes the new Access Policy API that was funded as part of the Pitchburgh process kicked off at DrupalCon Pittsburgh The “super user” access policy that automatically grants user 1 every permission can now be turned off in services.yml Also, Recipes and the new Navigation menu are available as experimental features The Actions UI, Book, and Statistics modules are deprecated, and contrib projects are available Install profiles can now be uninstalled, and new sites can be installed without any profile at all 10.3 also includes a revision UI for taxonomy terms, and they can also be used with content moderation All core-provided image styles now include WebP conversion The state service now uses a cache collector for performance, which requires opt in within settings.php for existing sites There are other performance improvements, including: POST requests are now render cacheable, duplicate queries during logins are avoided, and big pipe requests now avoid reading session from the database multiple times With 10.3 developer can also make use of a new AJAX command to open a URL in a dialog, and a new DraggableListBuilderTrait, among a host of other changes Of course, there are some additional deprecations, so the Project Update Bot has already been busy creating new MRs /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/31933487

Talking Drupal #456 - DDEV Grows Up 06/24/2024

Talking Drupal #456 - DDEV Grows Up Today we are talking about DDEV, The DDEV Community, and It’s Future Sustainability with guest Randy Fay and Andrew Berry. We’ll also cover DDEV Drupal Contrib as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What is DDEV In March you posted the DDEV Project Plan for 2024, what is the contributor training initiative DDEV has grown rapidly over the past few years, what do you attribute that to You seem to be the face of DDEV, who else is involved How is DDEV funded What happens when you retire Does the DDEV Foundation have employees What is DDEV coded in What is your favorite feature of DDEV What is next How can people get involved Resources Guests Andrew Berry - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Randy Fay - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted a local DDEV environment optimized for working on a Drupal contrib project? There’s a DDEV add-on for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Apr 2023 by Moshe Weitzman, a Drupal core maintainer, and according to his resume the first American to contribute to Drupal Versions available: 1.0.0-rc8 Maintainership Actively maintained Test coverage Documentation - Lengthy README Number of open issues: 2 open issues, 1 of which is a bug Module features and usage The add-on adds two ddev commands to help during setup: ddev poser creates a temporary composer.contrib.json, adding drupal/core-recommended as a dev dependency. It also runs composer install and yarn install so that all dependencies are available The additional ddev symlink-project command adds symlinks from your project files to an expected path within the custom modules directory of the installed version of Drupal Once it’s set up, you can easily run tests locally exactly the way they will be run in GitlabCI. It’s also even easier to apply any of the automatic fixes that are available, for example by running ddev phpcbf or ddev eslint with the –fix flag You can also commit the generated .ddev directory inside your project, to make it easy for other contributors to use the same tools I will note that after running ddev poser I got errors trying to use composer to add any other projects to the local environment, for example to use admin toolbar for manual testing That said, this is another great example of how the set of Drupal developer tools is always improving, and also illustrates to the power of DDEV’s add-ons /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/31841197

Talking Drupal #455 - Top 5 uses of AI for Drupal 06/17/2024

Talking Drupal #455 - Top 5 uses of AI for Drupal Today we are talking about AI Tips for Drupal Devs, AI Best Practices, and Drupal Droid with guest Mike Miles. We’ll also cover AI interpolator as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics Top 5 tips Idea Generation (Ideation) Code Generation Debugging Content Generation Technical Explanations How do you suggest people use AI for Ideation Is MIT Sloan using AI to help with Drupal Development Does that code get directly inserted into your sites What are some common pitfalls Is your team using AI for debugging Any best practices you have found helping when working with AI Is MIT Sloan using AI for content generation What is an example of how you use AI for technical explanations What is your view ont he future of AI in Drupal, do you think AI will replace Drupal developers Resources AI guidelines Guests Michael Miles - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Randy Fay - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to use AI to help populate entity fields that were left blank by Drupal content authors? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Sep 2023 by Marcus Johansson of FreelyGive Versions available: 1.0.0-rc4 Maintainership Actively maintained, recent release in the past month Security coverage - opted in, needs stable release Test coverage Documentation - User guide Number of open issues: 18 open issues, none of which are a bugs Usage stats: 94 sites Module features and usage In scientific fields, interpolation is the process of using known data to extrapolate or estimate unknown data points. In a similar way this module helps your Drupal site provide values for fields that didn’t receive input, based on the information that was provided. Fundamentally Interpolator AI provides a framework and an API, and then relies on companion modules for processing, either by leveraging third-party services like AI LLMs, or PHP-based scripting. There are existing integrations with a variety of AI services, including OpenAI, Dreamstudio, Hugging Face, and more. You can add retrievers to help extract and normalize the content you’re processing, for example photos from an external site, and other tools to help normalize and optimize content and media, and optimize any prompts you will be using with AI services. You can also extend the workflow capabilities of AI Interpolator, for example using the popular and powerful ECA module that we’ve talked about before on this show. /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/31751712

Talking Drupal #454 - Drupal API Client 06/10/2024

Talking Drupal #454 - Drupal API Client Today we are talking about Drupal’s API Client, What it does, and why you might need it with guest Brian Perry. We’ll also cover Iconify Icons as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics Brian what is new with you! Elevator pitch for Drupal API Client What was Pitchburg like Is this a normalizer for JSON API Why is this JS framework agnostic What is typescript and how does Drupal API Client use it Looking at the quick start guide the second step is to create an instance, where do you do that Who is this module for Will Drupal API Client be added to core What is on the roadmap How does this relate to Chapter Three and Next.js What is the spin up time How will Starshot impact this Resources Guests Brian Perry - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Randy Fay - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to empower your content creators to place icons from a massive, open source library into your Drupal site? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created on May 22 of this year, so less than two weeks ago, by David Galeano (gxleano) of Factorial Versions available: 1.0.0 which supports Drupal 9.3 or newer, right up to Drupal 11 Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage Test coverage Documentation Number of open issues: 2 open issues, neither of which are bugs Usage stats: 1 site Module features and usage Out of the box the module provides both a CKEditor button for placing icons, and a new field type. It even provides a new form element that can be used in custom forms, a render element you can use to programmatically put an icon into something like a custom block, and a Twig extension that can be used to place icons in templates. According to the project page, the Iconify icon library includes more than 200,000 icons, though in my limited experimentation it seems like there are some duplicates between icon sets. Speaking of which, Iconify provides over 150 different icon sets, and in this module’s configuration you can specify which ones you want to be available on your site. Placing an icon is as simple as using an autocomplete to search the names of the icons available, and a preview is shown for each of the matches found. The field widget and the CKEditor button both give content creators options for what size and color to use for the icons. For myself I’d prefer to lock some of those options down (for example, make that part of the field’s display configuration instead), but I’m sure that could be added as part of a different widget. I can think of a few Drupal sites I’ve built where this would have been really handy, so I’m interested to play around with this module some more, and see how it evolves. /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/31655077

Talking Drupal #453 - Urban Institute 06/03/2024

Talking Drupal #453 - Urban Institute Today we are talking about Urban Institute, What they do, and How they use Drupal with guest Josh Miller. We’ll also cover Access Unpublished as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics Tell us how you got started with Drupal What does Urban Institute do What do you do at Urban Institute Number of people on dev team Number of sites How does Urban Institute use Drupal Are you using a custom upstream How many sites on Drupal 7 Are you doing Page builders What kind of front end tools do you use What is the preferred local development tool Why did Urban Institute choose Drupal What is the hardest part of using Drupal at a large non profit What is the most interesting interactive experience you have built for Urban Institute Resources Urban Institute Post-recording Guests Josh Miller - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Randy Fay - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to get feedback on unpublished content from people who aren’t users on your Drupal site? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Feb 2011 by aberg, though recent releases are by Christian Fritsch (chr.fritsch) of Thunder Versions available: 8.x-1.5 Maintainership Security coverage Test coverage Number of open issues: 58 open issues, 17 of which are bugs against the current branch Usage stats: 8,638 sites Module features and usage Once installed, this module adds a new element to your unpublished entity forms, for generating links with a special hash value. When generating the link, you can choose how long the hash value can be used for access. Within that form section, you can copy the access URL for any of your generated tokens, and then paste into an email or some kind of direct message. You will need to set a permission for users to access content using the special access URLs, so if you want anyone with the URL to be allowed access, you’ll need to assign that permission to the Anonymous user role The access lifetime can be anything from 1 day to unlimited (never expires), and you can set the default value in the settings form. That form also allows you to set the URL parameter that will be used for access, gives you options to modify the HTTP headers on the unpublished page, and has a check box you can use to delete all expired tokens. Expired tokens will be deleted on cron run, and when you delete an entity any related tokens are also removed. This use case of allowing review of unpublished content for people who aren’t users in the Drupal site is a request I hear on a regular (if infrequent) basis, so I’ve personally found this module really useful. Necessary Patch: Not to be confused with Preview link is missing the ability to set length of access. /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/31551847

Talking Drupal #452 - Starshot & Experience Builder 05/27/2024

Talking Drupal #452 - Starshot & Experience Builder Today we are talking about web design and development, from a group of people with one thing in common… We love Drupal. This is episode #452 Starshot & Experience Builder. For show notes visit: Topics What is Starshot What is Experience builder How will Starshot build on Drupal Core Will Experience builder be added to Core Listener thejimbirch: When will people hear about their pledge Listener brook_heaton: Will experience builder be compatible with layout builder Will Experience builder allow people to style content Listener Matthieu Scarset Who is Starshot trying to compete with Listener Andy Blum Does the DA or other major hosting companies plan to set up cheap, easy hosted Drupal Listener Ryan Szarma Who does this initiative serve in the business community How can people get involved Resources Guests Lauri Eskola - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Matthew Grasmick - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to have your modules create content when they’re installed? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Oct 2015 by prolific contributor Lee Rowlands (larowlan) though the most recent releases are by Sascha Grossenbacher (Berdir), also a maintainer of many popular Drupal modules Versions available: 2.0.0-alpha2, which works with Drupal 9 and 10 Maintainership Security coverage: opted in, but needs a stable release Test coverage Documentation Number of open issues: 105 open issues, 29 of which are bugs against the current branch Usage stats: Almost 20,000 sites Module features and usage Provides a way for modules to include default content, in the same way that many modules already include default configuration The module exports content as YAML files, and your module can specify the content that should be exported by listing the UUIDs in the info.yml file It also provides a number of drush commands, to export a single entity, to export an entity and all of its dependencies, or to bulk export all of the content referenced in a module’s .info.yml file There is also a companion project to export default content using an action within a view, which also makes me think it could probably be automated with something like ECA if you needed that Exported content should be kept in a content directory in your module, where it will imported during install on any site that has the default_content module installed I thought this would be a good module to cover today because Drupal core’s recipe system also includes support for default content, so when you install a recipe it will similarly import any YAML-encoded content in the recipe. In fact, I used this module for the first time exporting taxonomy terms I wanted a recipe to create as default values for a taxonomy it creates. Since Recipes will be a big part of Starshot, I expect default_content to be getting a lot of use in the coming months /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/31455717

Talking Drupal #451 - Just Say Drupal 05/20/2024

Talking Drupal #451 - Just Say Drupal Today we are talking about Drupal Marketing with version numbers, what competitors are doing, and Learning to Just Saying Drupal with guest Ivan Stegic. We’ll also cover Trash as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What is the premise of Just Say Drupal Why do you think it is important to drop the version number Where do you suggest we drop verison numbers In sales, if you don't mention version, how do you talk to clients Why could using version numbers be detrimental What do you suggest we call Drupal 7 Have you spoken to the Drupal marketing team At Drupalcon they unveiled a new Brand Guide What do you think of Drupal Starshot Where do we go from here Resources Ten7 Blog - Just Say Drupal Starshot Guests Ivan Stegic - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Matthew Grasmick - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted your Drupal site to have a trash bin for content entities, so they wouldn’t be immediately deleted from the database? There’s a module for that Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Feb 2008 by rötzi, though recent releases are by Andrei Mateescu (mah-teh-sku) (amateescu) of Tag1 Versions available: 3.0.3, compatible with Drupal 9, 10, and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained, release less than two months old Security coverage Test coverage Number of open issues: 7 open issues, 3 of which are bugs against the current branch Usage stats: 1899 sites Module features and usage Once the module is installed, you choose which entity types on your site should use the new trash storage For all the configured entities, deleting a piece of content moves it into the new trash storage, along with a timestamp set for when it went into the trash You can configure whether or not the trash should be automatically purged on a periodic basis, and if so how often that should happen It seems that there are some entities for which the Trash module currently excludes its functionality, such as users, comments, taxonomy terms, and so on. The note in the code indicates that more testing is needed, so any of our listeners who wants to trash entities for any of these types could try out patching the TrashSettingsFormand on a local copy and provide feedback based on how things work The ability to restore deleted content is a request I’ve heard a number of times, so this could be a really useful module for making Drupal work in ways that certain teams expect /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/31356577

Talking Drupal #450 - Certification & Exam Prep 05/13/2024

Talking Drupal #450 - Certification & Exam Prep Today we are talking about Certification & Exam Prep, Resources for studying, and tips to get a passing grade with guests Chad Hester & Martin Anderson-Clutz. We’ll also cover Quiz Maker as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics Why are exams and certifications important to dev's After going through the Talking Drupal Skills Upgrade mini series do you feel preparted to take an Acquia certification How should someone get ready What are some struggles people may have getting ready What does the plan look like for someone getting ready Does Acquia provide pre tests Did Skills Upgrade prepare you for this type of assessment What happens if you do not pass How do you know you're ready Tips and tricks for taking a test Where do you take the test Questions to someone who has taken the test Special surprise Resources for questions Guests Chad Hester - Martin Anderson-Clutz - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Matthew Grasmick - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to build and deliver interactive quizzes on your Drupal website? Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Apr 2024 (the last couple of weeks) by Roman Chekhaniuk (r_cheh) Versions available: 1.0.5, which works with Drupal 9, 10, and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained Not yet opted into Security coverage, but being so new it’s possible they started the process of getting the project reviewed Number of open issues: 0 Usage stats: Not currently installed on any sites yet, according to Module features and usage The module defines a number of of custom entities to allow your site to define very flexible quizzes, that can include options like the amount of time allowed, pass rate, maximum number of attempts, randomizing the sequence of the questions, and more The module also defines custom plugins for questions, responses, and answers, so you can extend it to handle very custom use cases The Quiz module is very popular in this space but the version you can use with modern versions of Drupal is still in alpha, so it’s great to see another option available, especially for sites that don’t need anything as complex as the Opigno LMS /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/31213167

Talking Drupal #449 - Agile Methodologies 05/06/2024

Talking Drupal #449 - Agile Methodologies Today we are talking about Agile Methodologies, How to pick the best one, and why they matter with guest Chris Wells. We’ll also cover CKEditor Text Transformation / AutoCorrect as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics Drupal FL Camp talk Fundamentals of Agile How do you square long term planning What is Redfin Solutions's preferred methodology What is Crystal Agile Methodology Do other methodologies have web specific versions Would you agree that large companies can use different agile methodologies Have you ever used Scrumban Listener Question: Shivan xamount:: Story points are usually equated to fibonacci numbers. These are not supposed to correlate to hours, what do you think about that? Resources Guests Chris Wells - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Matthew Grasmick - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted CKEditor to autocorrect symbols like the copyright mark, the “not equals” sign, and fractions, from their text equivalents? There’s a module for that Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Mar 2024 by Gedvan Dias of Redfin Solutions Versions available: 1.0.0-alpha1, which works with CKeditor 4 on Drupal 8, and 2.0.0-alpha1, which works with CKEditor 5 on Drupal 9 and 10 Maintainership Actively maintained, was released just a few weeks ago Not much documentation of its own, but the module leverages CKEditor’s Automatic text transformation, which has a fair bit of documentation on Number of open issues: only 1 open issues, which is the Project Update Bot’s automatically-created Drupal 11 compatibility issue Usage stats: 8 sites Module features and usage By default the module enables four categories of transformations: 'symbols', 'mathematical', 'typography', and 'quotes' You can override the module’s plugin if you want a different set enabled, but the module also provides a hook you can use to alter the active sets or define custom transformations, similar to using emojis in Slack, for example /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/31113428

Skills Upgrade #9 05/01/2024

Talking Drupal #448 - D11 Readiness & PHPStan 04/29/2024

Talking Drupal #448 - D11 Readiness & PHPStan Today we are talking about Drupal 11 Readiness, What you need to think about, and PHPStan with guest Matt Glaman. We’ll also cover MRN as our module of the week. For show notes visit: [) Topics What do we mean by Drupal 11 Readiness How will this be different than 9 and 10 Top 5 tips D11 Meeting and slack channel Will this be easier Major issues What is PHPStan How does it play a role How is PHPStan Drupal different than PHPStan Does using PHPStan with drupal reduce the need for tests How do you see it evolving over the next few years Drupal 12 wishlist Resources Change records Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Matt Glaman - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted an easy way to generate detailed release notes for your contrib projects? There’s a web app for that Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Aug 2022 by today’s guest Matt Glaman Maintainership Actively maintained, latest updates were earlier this year Code project at has 13 open issues Usage stats: Currently no usage reporting, but a tool I’ve been using a ton lately as I get modules ready for Drupal 11 Module features and usage It’s very simple to use, you just enter the machine name of your project, and then the numbers of the releases you want it to compare It will generate the structure for your release note, include a spot for you to write a summary at the top, a list of contributors that links to their profiles, and a list of issues Previously part of Matt’s drupalorg CLI project, MRN is now a lambda function on AWS, so there’s nothing to download or install I like that you can choose which tags you want to compare, so if the release is part of a branch that doesn’t yet have a stable release, I’ll put a comparison to the previous release in the branch at the top, and then a comparison to the current stable release below it, so people can see the full list of everything new they’ll get by moving from the stable release It’s worth noting that because this works from the git history, you need to make sure you credit everyone properly before clicking to merge an MR in the UI. You can give credit to other people after the fact using the checkbox and they’ll get contribution credits, but won’t be included in the release notes generated by MRN /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/31030578

Skills Upgrade #8 04/24/2024

Talking Drupal #447 - Drupal Single Sign On 04/22/2024

Talking Drupal #447 - Drupal Single Sign On Today we are talking about Drupal Single Sign On, The Benefits it brings to the Drupal Community, and A new book called Fog & Fireflies with guest Tim Lehnen. We’ll also cover Username Field as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What is Single Sign On (SSO) Does Drupal already support SSO Why is SSO on important Camps using SSO Other possibilities Gitlab login Cloud IAM Why did the Drupal Association choose Cloud IAM How do you see the collaboration growing Where are we now What are the next steps How far are we from this becoming a reality What does onboarding look like Will third party sites be able to use D.O SSO Can the community help Fog & Fireflies First book Can you buy it now Resources Guests Tim Lehnen - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Matt Glaman - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to have a field on user profiles specifically designed for usernames? There’s a module for that Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in August 2019 by hussainweb AKA Hussain Abbas of Axelerant Versions available: 2.0.0-beta4 Maintainership Actively maintained, that release was made less than 6 months ago Test coverage Number of open issues: 8 open issues, none of which are bugs Usage stats: 1 site Module features and usage The module provides a new field type, along with its own widget and formatter With a simple checkbox, you can get the module to validate that the provided username is registered on What’s really powerful about this module is that it can also pull other information from the profile, such as first and last name, country, bio, and more It does this by leveraging a Guzzle-based API client for that Hussain created as part of a DrupalCon Asia developer contest I believe the intended use of the modules is to use a provided drush command to copy the values from the username field into other fields, where they would be displayed to site visitors Although this module isn’t something that a lot of sites will need, I could see it being really useful for Drupal camp websites, to automatically collect a lot of the information that many such sites ask users to populate manually I think it’s also an interesting use of the API, and could be a useful reference for anyone needing to implement a custom integration /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/30904648

Skills Upgrade #7 04/17/2024

Skills Upgrade #7 Welcome back to “Skills Upgrade” a Talking Drupal mini-series following the journey of a D7 developer learning D10. This is episode 7. Topics Review Chad's goals for the previous week Test Example Set up phpunit.xml Start with FrontPageLinkTest.php Review Chad's questions In the testing_example module, the file "src/Controller/TestingExampleController.php" has a function for simpletestDescription(). Is this an outdated artifact that should have been removed at some point? The module itself doesn't appear to use Simpletest elsewhere and appears to only rely on PHPUnit. What do you recommend for the minimal code structure to include for any given test type? Is the Testing Example module an ideal model or are there other resources I should review? The testing reference from Selwyn was helpful. In the "FrontPageLinkDependenciesTest.php" setUp() function, the createContentType() function is called without specifying the type. Is that set somewhere else? I may have overlooked it. Nevermind—it's set using randomMachineName() in the createContentType() function. Is there anything extra or standard to write in tests for ? Tasks for the upcoming week Smart Date - Martin (maintainer) to review promptly, I've already chatted with him about it. Create a new functional test: "submit a range with an end time before the start and validate that an error is returned" Create an issue in the Smart Date queue and assign to yourself. Create an issue fork. Check out the issue fork locally. Write (and test) the test locally. Commit and push to the issue fork. Mark issue as "Needs review". Ask someone to review - if all looks good, the reviewer will mark as RBTC. Resources 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 Hosts AmyJune Hineline - @volkswagenchick Guests Chad Hester - @chadkhest Mike Anello - @ultimike /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/30844733

Talking Drupal #446 - Test Driven Development 04/15/2024

Talking Drupal #446 - Test Driven Development Today we are talking about Test Driven Development, Why it’s important, and How it improves development with guest Alexey Korepov. We’ll also cover Test Helpers as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What does the term Test Driven Development (TDD) mean Does Drupal make use of TDD What makes TDD different from other methods of Development Do you have to change your way of thinking What are some good resources to learn TDD Do you have any pointers for teams looking to get started Are certain kinds of projects better suited to TDD How have dev teams adapted to TDD Any advice on environment setup Any special tools Resources Guests Alexey Korepov - Hosts Nic Laflin - Martin Anderson-Clutz - Matt Glaman - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted an API that could dramatically simplify the process of writing Drupal unit tests? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Sep 2022 by today’s guest, Alexey Korepov Versions available: 1.3.0 compatible with versions of Drupal 9.4 or newer, right up to Drupal 11 Maintainership Actively maintained, latest release less than 3 months ago Security coverage Test coverage, would be ironic if it didn’t API Documentation is available, linked from the project page Number of open issues: 2 open issues, which are actually feature requests Usage stats: 5 sites officially, but modules or sites can leverage Test Helpers without enabling it, and this usage is recommended, so the number is actually higher Module features and usage Provides a new container that automated tests can leverage to perform common tasks with much less code. For example, you can create a user or a node with a single line of code You can also mock more complex operations like an entityQuery or loadMultiple call, again with a single line of code Traditionally, writing unit tests is more complicated because by design they run without fully bootstrapping Drupal That means that your test needs to mock functions or services in the code you’re testing which can result in units tests being much longer than the code they’re testing Test Helpers also allows your tests to leverage existing mocks and stubs for popular services The project page also links to the recording and slides for a talk Alexey gave about Test Helpers at DrupalCon Pittsburgh last year, if you want to do a deeper dive /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/30800153

Skills Upgrade #6 04/10/2024

Talking Drupal #445 - Drupal Bounty Program 04/08/2024

Talking Drupal #445 - Drupal Bounty Program Today we are talking about The Drupal Bounty Program, How it supports innovation, and how you can get involved with guest Alex Moreno. We’ll also cover WebProfiler as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What is the Drupal Bounty program How and when did it start What issues and tasks are included Has the bounty program been successful Why was this program extended Do you see any drawbacks Can anyone participate How are issues for the second round being selected What do you see the future of the bounty program looking like Could this become like other bounty programs with cash Do you think the bounty program will help maintainers get sponsorship Resources Guests Alejandro Moreno - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Matt Glaman - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to get detailed performance data for the pages on your Drupal sites? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Jan 2014 by Luca Lusso of Italy who was a guest on the show in episode #425 Versions available: 10.1.5 which works with Drupal >=10.1.2 Maintainership Actively maintained, latest release on Feb 1 Security coverage Test coverage Not much in the way of documentation, but the module is largely a wrapper for the Symfony WebProfiler bundle, which has its own section in the Symfony documentation Number of open issues: 36 open issues, 13 of which are bugs Usage stats: 477 sites Module features and usage Once installed the module adds a toolbar to the bottom of your site, within which it will show a variety of data for every page: Route and Controller Memory usage Time to load (with some additional setup) Number of AJAX requests Number of queries run and the total query time Number of blocks visible How many forms are on the profile Lots of other detailed information available through links Reports are saved into the database, so you can dig through additional details such as: Request information like access metadata, cookies, session info, and server parameters, in addition to the request and response headers All of the queries that ran, how long each took, and even a quick way to create an EXPLAIN statement to get deeper insight from your database engine You can also view all the services available, and with a single click open the class file in the IDE of your choice A handy alternative to other performance monitoring tools like XHProf (either as Drupal module, or installed directly into your development environment), or commercial tools like Blackfire or New Relic Discussion Luca’s book Modernizing Drupal 10 Theme Development actually provides a great deep dive into this module /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/30723518

Skills Upgrade #5 04/03/2024

Talking Drupal #444 - Design to Development Workflow Optimization 04/01/2024

Talking Drupal #444 - Design to Development Workflow Optimization Today we are talking about design to development hand off, common complications, and ways to optimize your process with guest Crispin Bailey. We’ll also cover Office Hours as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics Primary activities of the team Where does handoff start Handoff artifact Tools for collaboration Figma Evaluating new tools Challenges of developers and designers working together How can we optimize handoff What steps can the dev team take to facilitate smooth handoff Framework recommendation Final quality AI Guests Crispin Bailey - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Anna Mykhailova - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to manage and display the hours of operation for a business on your Drupal site? There’s a module for that Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Jan 2008 by Ozeuss, though recent releases are by John Voskuilen of the Netherlands Versions available: 7.x-1.11 and 8.x-1.17 Maintainership Actively maintained, latest release was 3 weeks ago Security coverage Test coverage Documentation: no user guide, but a pretty extensive README Number of open issues: 15 open issues, only 1 of which are bugs against the current branch, though it’s postponed for more info Usage stats: Almost 20,000 sites Module features and usage Previously covered in episode 113, more than 8 years ago, in the “Drupal 6 end of life” episode The module provides a specialized widget to set the hours for each weekday, with the option to have more than one time slot per day You can define exceptions, for example on stat holidays You can also define seasons, with a start and end date, during which the hours are different The module also offers a variety of options for formatting the output: You can show days as ranges, for example Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, 12-hour or 24-hour clocks, and so on Obviously it will show any exceptions or upcoming seasonal hours too It can also show an “open now” or “closed now” indicator It can create schema.org-compliant markup for openingHours, and has integration with the Metatag module Office Hours does all this with a new field type, so you could add it to Stores in a Drupal Commerce site, a Locations content type in a site for a bricks-and-mortar chain, or if you just need a single set of hours for the site, you should be able to use it with something like the Config Pages module The README file also includes some suggestions on how to use Office Hours with Views, which can give you a lot of flexibility on where and how to show the information /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/30597793

Skills Upgrade #4 03/27/2024

Talking Drupal #443 - Violinist.io 03/25/2024

Talking Drupal #443 - Violinist.io Today we are talking about Violinist.io, Managing Composer Dependencies, and automation with guest Eirik Morland. We’ll also cover Composer Patches as our module of the week. For show notes visit: www.talkingDrupal.com/443 Topics What is Violinist.io How does it work How much technical knowledge do you need Is this a security risk How much does it cost Patron question: Peter: Difference between violinist and dependabot What are the major differences in plans Who is the ideal user Can you self host Can this help with Drupal 11 readiness Complementary tools Notable users Why did you start this What is it like using Drupal for a SAAS Is it open source Pros and cons of open source for a SAAS How can the community support What is on the roadmap Resources Guests Eirik Morland - Hosts Nic Laflin - Martin Anderson-Clutz - Anna Mykhailova - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted a simple way to manage patches to Drupal core and your contrib projects? There’s a composer plugin for that Module name/project name: https://github.com/cweagans/composer-patches Composer Patches Brief history How old:created in Apr 2015 by Cameron Weagans Versions available: 1.7.3 and 2.0.0-beta2 Maintainership Actively maintained, beta2 release was a little over a month ago Test coverage Has a documentation site, as well as a COMMANDS markdown file in the repo to help you get started Number of open issues: 10, 2 of which are bugs Usage stats: It’s been installed over 42 million times and it’s approaching 43 thousand installs per day, according to a recent blog post Module features and usage Using the plugin is simple, you require cweagans/composer-patches the same way you would a Drupal contrib project. The important difference is that composer will ask you if you trust composer-patches to make changes to your codebase. Once you grant that, the plugin is ready to start applying patches You can specify what patches you want applied by adding a patches section to the extra section of your project’s composer.json file, or by adding a patches.json file Each patch can be specified using a URL or a path relative to the JSON file In theory it’s possible to have composer patches pulled directly from the diff in a merge request, but this is a significant security risk and should always be avoided The first beta release for the 2.0 branch actually dropped support for dependency patch resolution, noting that it had become the source of most support requests. In the end the community made it clear that they would resist upgrading without this capability, so the most recent beta2 release adds it back in. Finally, on his website cweagans.net Cameron mentions that he’s currently looking for full-time employment. So if your organization relies heavily on composer in general or composer-patches specifically, consider reaching out to him /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/30502333

Skills Upgrade #3 03/20/2024

Talking Drupal #442 - Mercury Editor 03/18/2024

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: 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 Resources Paragraphs Library Sub-module of Paragraphs Guests Justin Toupin - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Anna Mykhailova - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - 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 /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/30392468

Skills Upgrade #2 03/13/2024

Talking Drupal #441 - CI for Drupal modules 03/11/2024

Talking Drupal #441 - CI for Drupal modules Today we are talking about CI for Drupal modules, How it helps us build Drupal, and the ongoing work and improvements being made with guest Fran Garcia-Linares. We’ll also cover Require on Publish as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What does CI mean How do Drupal modules use CI When we talk about Drupal CI are we talking about the website itself or the CI that supports contributors What tools does Drupal use for CI How do maintainers interact with CI What changes have happened in the last year Speed improvements Drupal CI vs Gitlab CI Process to convert When is Drupal CI being shut down What improvements are coming If someone has an issue where do they get help Resources Gitlab CI getting started WIP: | will generate We are pushing for a basic version to be fully live this week Guests Fran Garcia-Linares - Hosts Nic Laflin - Stephen Cross - Anna Mykhailova - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to have content fields that could be optional until a piece of content is published, or ready to be published? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Apr 2018 by Mike Priscella (mpriscella), though recent releases are by Mark Dorison (markdorison) of Chromatic Versions available: 8.x-1.10 Maintainership Actively maintained, latest release just over a month ago Security coverage Test coverage Number of open issues: 18, 8 of which are bugs Usage stats: 3,001 sites Module features and usage With this module enabled, form to configure fields for you content types will have a new checkbox labeled “Required on Publish” Check this new box instead of the normal “Required field” checkbox to have the field only required if the content is being published or already published Useful for publishing workflows where you want content creators to be able to quickly get started on content, but ensure that fields will be filled in before publishing Useful for fields that will optimize the content for SEO, social sharing, search, and so on /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/30292718

Skills Upgrade #1 03/06/2024

Talking Drupal #440 - The Cost Of Drupal 03/04/2024

Talking Drupal #440 - The Cost Of Drupal Today we are talking about the cost around Drupal, common misconceptions, and how you get what you pay for with guest Jeff Robbins. We’ll also cover Module Instructions as our module of the week. For show notes visit: Topics What is new! How did you get started with Drupal Selling Drupal and the cost How much is the technology vs the complexity of projects that lend themselves to Drupal Value of Drupal What can the Drupal community do to make it more widely attractive Versionless Drupal marketing Resources Guests Jeff Robbins - Hosts Nic Laflin - John Picozzi - Ivan Stegic - MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - Brief description: Have you ever wanted to have easy access to the README, CHANGELOG, and INSTALL files for the contrib modules on your Drupal site? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Brief history How old: created in Apr 2012 by Ales Rebec of Slovenia Versions available: 7.x-1.0 and 2.0.3 versions available, the latter of which works with Drupal 9 and 10 Maintainership Actively maintained? Security coverage Test coverage Number of open issues: 4 open issues, none of which are bugs against the 2.0.x branch Usage stats: 1,238 sites Maintainer(s): Current maintainer of the 2.0.x branch is Viktor Holovachek a.k.a Aston Victor of the Ukraine Drupal Community Module features and usage The usage of the module is pretty straightforward. Once the module is installed, anyone who has access to the Modules page on a Drupal site will see links on that page to any README, CHANGELOG, or INSTALL files that are available for the contrib modules in the codebase It also provides a cron job and drush command to generate the links, stored in the site state, so the application isn’t doing all the work of parsing through all your contrib modules looking for the files every time someone wants to load the Modules page It does override the template for the module page to add those links, so be aware that if you’re doing something very custom and have overridden that template in something like a custom admin theme, you may need to manually add some extra markup to see the links The module does also define new permissions, to manage the settings for these links, or to view them The settings really consist of specifying which of the links you want to appear, if the relevant files are available. By default it will show all three, but you could, for example, only have it show README links /episode/index/show/sacstudio/id/30192563

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