Welcome to the first episode of Talking Drupal Cafe.

Join Martin and Jake as they delve into an insightful conversation exploring the challenges and responsibilities associated with being a module maintainer. Discussing project types, the significance of sandbox modules, the impact of Drupal CMS, and the role of AI tools, they highlight issues around burnout, sustainability, and community support. Discover how the Drupal community can better support maintainers and the importance of continued contributions. This episode also touches on upcoming conferences and the significance of face-to-face interactions in the Drupal community.

Martin Anderson-Clutz

Martin is a highly respected figure in the Drupal community, known for his extensive contributions as a developer, speaker, and advocate for open-source innovation. Based in London, Ontario, Canada, Martin began his career as a graphic designer before transitioning into web development. His journey with Drupal started in late 2005 when he was seeking a robust multilingual CMS solution, leading him to embrace Drupal's capabilities. (mandclu.com)

Martin holds the distinction of being the world's first Triple Drupal Grand Master, certified across Drupal 7, 8, and 9 as a Developer, Front-End Specialist, and Back-End Specialist. (TheDropTimes) He also possesses certifications in various Acquia products and is UX certified by the Nielsen Norman Group. (mandclu.com)

Currently serving as a Senior Solutions Engineer at Acquia, Martin has been instrumental in advancing Drupal's ecosystem. He has developed and maintains several contributed modules, including Smart Date and Search Overrides, and has been actively involved in the Drupal Recipes initiative, particularly focusing on event management solutions. (mandclu.com) His current work on the Event Platform aims to streamline the creation and management of event-based websites within Drupal. (TheDropTimes)

Beyond development, Martin is a prominent speaker and educator, having presented at numerous Drupal events such as DrupalCon Barcelona and EvolveDrupal. He is also a co-host of the "Talking Drupal" podcast, where he leads the "Module of the Week" segment, sharing insights on various Drupal modules. (mandclu.com)
Martin's dedication to the Drupal community is evident through his continuous efforts to mentor, innovate, and promote best practices within the open-source landscape.(TheDropTimes)

Jacob Rockowitz

Jacob is a prominent figure in the Drupal community, best known for developing and maintaining the Webform module—one of the most widely used and feature-rich form-building tools in the Drupal ecosystem. His work has significantly enhanced Drupal's capabilities in form creation, data collection, and user interaction.

Rockowitz began his Drupal journey while working as a consultant for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), where he spent over 18 years. Facing the need for robust form functionality during MSK's early adoption of Drupal 8, he created YAML Form, which later evolved into the Webform module for Drupal 8 . This module has since become integral to many Drupal sites, offering extensive features for form management.(design4drupal.org)

Beyond Webform, Jacob has contributed to other projects like the Schema.org Blueprints module, aiming to improve structured content modeling in Drupal. He is also an advocate for open-source sustainability, often discussing the importance of community involvement and the challenges of maintaining large-scale open-source projects .(talkingdrupal.com, jrockowitz.com)

As an active member of the Drupal community, Rockowitz frequently speaks at events such as DrupalCon and New England Drupal Camp, sharing his insights on module development and community engagement . He maintains a personal blog at jrockowitz.com, where he writes about his experiences and thoughts on Drupal development.(Drupal)

For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/502

Topics

• Introduction to Project Maintenance
• Types of Projects and Their Significance
• Sandbox Modules and Work Projects
• Passion Projects and Inherited Projects
• Challenges in Managing Multiple Modules
• The Role of Recipes in Project Management
• AI and Automation in Project Maintenance
• The Future of Project Maintenance and Contributions
• Evolving Drupal and Community Contributions
• Enterprise Features and the Trash Module
• Marketplace and Site Templates
• AI and the Future of Web Development
• Contribution Credits and Bounties
• Guiding Users and Module Selection
• Drupal Adjacent Solutions
• Sustainability of Contribution
• The Importance of Community Engagement

Hosts

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
Jacob Rockowitz - jrockowitz.com jrockowitz

Join us as we celebrate our 500th episode with Drupal founder Dries Buytaert! Reflecting on 13 years of our podcast and Drupal's 24-year journey, Dries shares his motivations, strategies, and insights into the future of Drupal. From community contributions and AI strategy to the impact of Drupal on organizations worldwide, this episode is packed with exciting updates and heartfelt reflections.

For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/501

Topics

• Reflecting on Milestones
• The Urgency Behind Starshot
• Cobwebs

Guests

Dries Buytaert - dri.es dries

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
Stephen Cross- @stephencross

Join us for an extraordinary celebration of Talking Drupal's 500th episode! In this milestone episode, we dive into a treasure trove of memories, insights, and updates from an array of special guests. From innovative Drupal contributions to the future of open-source technology, this episode is packed with valuable discussions. Don't miss appearances from notable guests like Dries Buytaert, Tim Doyle, Tim Lehnen, Mike Anello, and many more. Celebrate with us as we look forward to 500 more episodes!

For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/500

Topics

Guests include, in order of appearance:

• Jason Pamental
• Dries Buytaert
• Tim Doyle
• Tim Lehnen
• Carlos Ospina
• Mayela Jackson
• Mike Anello
• Jonus Cuyvers
• Jacob Rockowitz
• Antonio Estevez
• Norah Medlin
• Kevin Quillen
• Chris Wells
• Steven Jones
• Jürgen Haas
• Thomas Scola
• Chad Hester
• Matt Glaman
• James Abrahams
• Avi Schwab
• Josh Mitchell
• James Shield

Resources

Road to deprecating .module files

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
Stephen Cross - stephencross

Today we are talking about The Contact Form Initiative, What it is, and how it helped Drupal with guest J. Hogue. We’ll also cover Local Tasks More as our module of the week.

For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/499

Topics

• What is the Contact Form initiative
• What makes up the contact form recipe
• Why did you want to run this initiative
• What are the responsibilities of an initiative lead
• Were there any unexpected speed bumps
• Who was involved
• As a non-backend developer, any hesitation to lead this effort
• What was onboarding like
• What was the timeline
• Any tips for others thinking of leading an initiative

Guests

J. Hogue - oomphinc.com artinruins

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Kathy Beck - kbeck303

MOTW

Correspondent

Jacob Rockowitz - jrockowitz.com jrockowitz

• Brief description:
  • Nodes can have too many local tasks. Only the first few, like View, Edit, Layout, Revisions, and Translate, are used daily. Would you like to hide or reorder less commonly used local tasks, which include Usage, Clone, Devel, and Convert. There is a module for that
• Local Tasks More (local_tasks_more)
• Brief history
  • How old: created on November 6th, 2024
  • Versions available: 1.0.0-beta2 r
• Maintainership
  • Actively maintained
  • No security coverage
  • Has test coverage
  • Does not require much documentation
  • No issues
• Usage stats:
  • 22 sites
• Maintainer(s):
  • jrockowitz (me)
  • Module features and usage
  • Enter the base routes that support the show more/less task link and alterations.
  • Enter the local task id and the altered title and weight. Set the local tasks to FALSE to remove it.
  • Enter the number of links to trigger show more/less tasks link/icon from primary and secondary tasks (aka tabs).

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:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/498

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

• Announcement of the rule
• Full text of the rule - PDF
• Fact sheet for meeting the requirements of the rule
  • https://www.ada.gov/resources/2024-03-08-web-rule/
  • https://www.drupal.org/docs/getting-started/accessibility/how-to-do-an-accessibility-review
• AXE Core
• Core issue to automate accessibility tests with Nightwatch.js
• Keyboard traps
• COTS - Commercial off the shelf software
• VPATS - Voluntary product accessibility template
• Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR)
• Monsido - Acquia optimize - PDF
• Josh’s blog post

Guests

Joshua "Josh" Mitchell - joshuami.com joshuami

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Kathy Beck - kbeck303

MOTW

Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• 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:
  • Sa11y
• 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

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:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/497

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

• Drupal Forge on Drupal.org
• Drupal Forge
• DevPanel

Guests

Darren Oh - drupalforge.org Darren Oh

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Kathy Beck - kbeck303

MOTW

Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• 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:
  • ECA VBO
• 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

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:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/496

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 - drupaleasy.com ultimike

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Kathy Beck - kbeck303

MOTW

Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• 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:
  • Entity Reference Override
• 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?

Today we are talking about Our Favorite things and The Future of Drupal with guest Jared Ponchot & Dave Hansen-Lange.

For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/495

Topics

• What has piqued your interest
• AI creating components
• Any other new features or demos
• What haven't you seen that you hope to
• How do you feel about the future of Drupal

Resources

• Driesnote

Guests

Dave Hansen-Lange - linkedin.com dalin
Jared Ponchot - lullabot.com jponch

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
Andrew Berry - lullabot.com deviantintegral

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:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/494

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

• Crawler rate limit
• Externalizing costs
• AI for U
• MidCamp 2024 session about YaleSites
• Tools
  • Element 451
  • Builder io
  • Deque Axe Devtools
  • Descript
  • Opus clips
  • Kapwing
  • HeyGen
  • Synthesia
  • Text to video
    • Sora
    • Veo

Guests

Brian Piper - brianwpiper.com
Mike Miles - Mike-miles.com mikemiles86

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Andrew Berry - lullabot.com deviantintegral

MOTW

Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• 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:
  • External Entities
• 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

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:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/493

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

• Drupal Developer Survey 2024 Results
• 2025 Drupal Developer Survey
• HTMX Sucks

Guests

Mike Richardson - Ironstar Dev Survey richo_au

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Andrew Berry - lullabot.com deviantintegral

MOTW

Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• 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:
  • HTMX
• 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

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:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/492

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

• Pantheon Content Publisher docs
• Pantheon Content Publisher module
• Pantheon Content Publisher Roadmap

Guests

Chris Reynolds - jazzsequence.com jazzsequence
John Money - john.money

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Andrew Berry - lullabot.com deviantintegral

MOTW

Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• 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:
  • QR Code Fields
• 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.

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:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/491

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
  • FLDC session: From Chatbots to Content Magic: The AI-Driven Future of Drupal
• YMCA Website Services (OpenY) Glossary
• YMCA Sandboxes
  • https://sandboxes.y.org/
  • https://sandbox-carnation-std.y.org/
• Get in touch with ImageX about Open Y
• Avi’s sourdough recipe base and flour
  • https://tartinebakery.com/stories/country-bread
  • https://www.janiesmill.com/

Guests

Brent Wilker - ImageX.co brent.wilker

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Avi Schwab - froboy.org froboy

MOTW

Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• • 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:
    • AI Media Image
  • 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

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:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/490

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
  • https://www.drupal.org/project/confi
  • https://www.drupal.org/project/upgrade_tool
• Civic Actions Practice Tools - Contrib First
• Civic Actions Engineering Practice Area - Drupal Contrib First Module Development
• Codit menu tools
• Alt text validation - currently being built as Contrib First
• Bill requiring US agencies to share custom source code with each other becomes law
• Link shortners
  • http://dgo.re/ or https://dgo.to/ link shorteners for d.o
• Drupal Contrib Development
• Contribution to a module

Guests

Steve Wirt - civicactions.com swirt

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Avi Schwab - froboy.org froboy

MOTW

Correspondent

Avi Schwab - froboy.org froboy

• 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:
  • Config Importer and Tools
• 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. https://www.drupal.org/project/upgrade_tool

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:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/489

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

• Turnstile
  • Intro blog post from Cloudflare
  • Irvine reCAPTCHA Study
  • Deep dive on Google Scholar
  • Alternatives
    • https://www.drupal.org/project/hcaptcha - privacy-focused alternative, still image-based
    • https://www.drupal.org/project/altcha - open, self-hosted option. Seems more basic.
  • Posts referencing Irvine study
    • https://boingboing.net/2025/02/07/recaptcha-819-million-hours-of-wasted-human-time-and-billions-of-dollars-google-profit.html
    • https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/24/googles_recaptchav2_labor/
    • https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/a-2023-study-concluded-captchas-are-a-tracking-cookie-farm-for-profit-masquerading-as-a-security-service-that-made-us-spend-819-billion-hours-clicking-on-traffic-lights-to-generate-nearly-usd1-trillion-for-google/
• Widgets
• IXP Fellowship
• Drupal Couple
• Talking Drupal 488 - Drupal Open University
• Get Involved in IXP
  • #ixp-fellowship on the Drupal Slack Workspace

Guests

Carlos Ospina - adrupalcouple.us camoa
Mike Anello - drupaleasy.com ultimike

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Avi Schwab - froboy.org froboy

MOTW

Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• 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:
  • Cloudflare Turnstile
• 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.

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:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/488

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 Drupalize.me, 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

• Drupal Open University Initiative
• Metadrop blog about Artisan
• Drupal viking
• Do it with Drupal
• Drupal at your fingertips
• Drupal Open University
• OSPO
  • https://todogroup.org/
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Program_Office
• Content Model & Site Documentation

Guests

Jean-Paul Vosmeer - reactonline.nl jpvos

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Avi Schwab - froboy.org froboy

MOTW

Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• 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:
  • Artisan
• 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

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:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/487

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

• My Single Directory Components Workflow
• Pico CSS
• Open Props
• Twig Tweak
• No Markup
• SDC Styleguide
• Radix Theme
• SDC Block
• UI Patterns 2.x
• Astro
• TAC

Guests

Brian Perry - brianperry.dev brianperry

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Scott Weston - scott-weston

MOTW

Correspondent

Jacob Rockowitz - jrockowitz.com jrockowitz

• Embedded Content
• 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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxOn-P3Q5Gg
  • 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)
  • https://www.drupal.org/u/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)

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:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/486

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

• GraphQL
• GraphQL Compose
• GraphQL Compose Preview
• GraphQL Compose Webform
• GraphQL Compose Fragments
• Swagger UI
• Custom Field
• Drupal Decoupled

Guests

Jesus Manuel Olivas - drupal-decoupled.octahedroid.com jmolivas

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Scott Weston - scott-weston

MOTW

Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• 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:
  • CORS UI
• 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 drupal.org
• 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.

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:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/485

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

• Drupal is Great! Its Perception Might Not Be.
• The AI-Driven Developer: From Assistance to Autonomy in Drupal Development
• DrupalX
• Ethics of AI

Guests

Jay Callicott - drupalninja99

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Scott Weston - scott-weston

MOTW

Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• 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:
  • AI Agents
• 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 #468
  • 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

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

• Starshot initiative

Guests

Matthew Grasmick - grasmash

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Scott Weston - scott-weston

MOTW

Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• 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:
  • Token OR
• 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.

On today's show we are talking with Nic. This is our chance to learn more about our beloved Talking Drupal show host.

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

Topics

• Talking Drupal
• NLightened Development
• Contribution
• Personal Background
• Interests
• Drupal

Guests

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan

Hosts

Stephen Cross-@stephencross