Welcome back to “Skills Upgrade” a Talking Drupal mini-series following the journey of a D7 developer learning D10. This is episode 8.

Topics

• Review Chad's questions

  • What is the process of creating a new issue, reviewing automated tests, and creating a merge request for review by the project maintainer?

    • https://www.drupal.org/docs/develop/git/using-gitlab-to-contribute-to-drupal
    • https://www.drupal.org/docs/develop/git/using-gitlab-to-contribute-to-drupal/creating-issue-forks
    • My example issue: https://www.drupal.org/project/smart_date/issues/3432819
    • My example merge request: https://git.drupalcode.org/project/smart_date/-/merge_requests/94

  • If we're not using Composer to pull the contrib module, how do we make sure that all dependencies are handled?

  • How can someone navigate so many complex issues without getting lost or "barking up the wrong tree"?

• Tasks for the upcoming week

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This is part 1 of a series of articles that defines our approach to frontend performance optimization. In this part we get into the details of an effective cache policy.

Imagine a world where installing Drupal instantly launches you into a creative experience, allowing you to build and style pages right out of the box, without any need for additional modules or configuration.

The introduction of Drupal's Layout Builder in 2018 was an important milestone toward this vision, but it was just the first step. Layout Builder provides site builders with a powerful drag-and-drop interface for creating and arranging content within customizable layouts.

Despite its success, there is a clear and pressing need to improve the existing Layout Builder. The numerous community-developed modules enhancing Layout Builder highlight the need for a more comprehensive solution.

That is why at DrupalCon Lille last year, I was excited to announce the "Next Generation Page Builder" initiative, aimed at improving and expanding the Layout Builder to provide a truly intuitive, out-of-the-box page-building experience.

Since announcing the 'Next Generation Page Builder', led by Lauri Eskola (Acquia), a Drupal Core Committer, we've done extensive research and planning.

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At DrupalCon Lille 2023, Dries announced a new strategic initiative to build a Next Generation Page Builder. The goal of the initiative was to improve and expand Layout Builder to provide a truly intuitive out-of-the-box page building experience.

We have started defining what experience would look like by identifying user journeys from beginning to end, from customizing Drupal to match a brand and content strategy to creating and editing pages. We have identified that to provide the desired experience, we need to define a standardized way for builders and creators to transform designs into optimized digital experiences. To realize the Ambitious Site Builder vision announced by Dries in 2022, we are providing visual, browser-based tools that require minimal technical expertise. This will make it easier for users without prior knowledge about Drupal or coding to implement a digital experience with Drupal. Our working name for this is Experience Builder to highlight that the module seamlessly integrates a page builder and a theme builder.

With the Experience Builder, site builders can create fully customized pages and themes using no-code/low-code tools in the browser. It provides site builders, developers, and content creators a single platform to collaborate. Content creators are empowered to create and update content without having to reach out to a developer. Site builders can balance brand consistency and creative freedom by selecting which visual editor controls to expose to the content creator. As a result, anyone in your organization can easily build and update sites, accelerating time to market while remaining brand compliant.

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TDT hired a full-time journalist intern to cover DrupalCon Pittsburgh in 2023. Aidan F. Dean Dunn, just out of college, did a commendable job. Aidan talks about his experiences reporting at the tech conference in this conversation with Varun Baker.

While preparing the recent Markdown Easy 1.0.1 release, I utilized a couple of tools that I hadn't used before in order to help improve code quality as well as the quality of the release notes.

cspell

cspell is a Node.js spell-checker for code that was made available to the default Drupal GitLab templates in February, 2024. There is a new SKIP_CSPELL variable that can be set if you'd like your project to completely ignore cspell (it is enabled by default.) Documentation on using cspell in Drupal GitLab pipelines is available. I'd wager that most Drupal contrib maintainers will have the need for a custom word list (as I did,) so I took a few minutes to learn a bit more about it.

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Drupal 9 to 10 Transition Made Simple: Real Code Insights kanapatrick Tue, 04/23/2024 - 10:31

Have you found yourself gearing up for the transition from Drupal 9 to Drupal 10, only to be met with complexities and uncertainties along the way? You're not alone in this journey. Making the switch between major versions of a CMS can feel like navigating through a maze of code and updates, leaving you puzzled and overwhelmed.

As a content writer, one thing that poses a serious concern for professionals in this field is plagiarism. It refers to the act of using someone else’s work and calling it your own. It can be frustrating and is ethically and legally unacceptable. Duplicate content is no less than plagiarism. In fact, it can cause concerns not only for content professionals but also for website owners and SEO professionals. Surprisingly, 25-30% of the content on the internet today is duplicated without people even realizing it. In this blog, we’ll talk about duplicate content, the significance of this issue in today’s metrics, and how Drupal helps you solve the problem with convenience. What is duplicate content Duplicate content simply means identical content that exists across various URLs on the internet. When identical content shows up on different URLs, search engines typically face confusion in determining which URL to prioritize in their search results. This leads to low-ranking issues for all the URLs that display similar content, while preference slides over to alternative web pages. Why is it a significant problem As mentioned earlier, duplicate content can cause issues for marketers, website owners, and SEO professionals. Let me categorize the types of issues it can bring you: For Search Engines Identification: Search engines struggle to determine which version(s) of content to include or exclude from their indexes. Link Metrics Distribution: They face uncertainty in distributing link metrics like trust, authority, anchor text, and link equity among multiple versions or a single page. Ranking Ambiguity: It becomes unclear which version(s) should rank for specific search queries. For Website Owners Search Engine Optimization: To enhance user experience, search engines tend to display only one version of duplicated content.

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Join us as we delve into the realm of Dropsolid with Dominique de Cooman. Discover the driving forces behind their innovative integration of Drupal and open-source technology, and gain insights into the evolving landscape of digital experiences. From their founding principles to navigating Drupal's future, Dominique offers a candid exploration of Dropsolid's journey and its impact on the digital realm.

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 Drupal.org Username Field as our module of the week.

For show notes visit: www.talkingDrupal.com/447

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Dear Readers,

At the core of any vibrant community lies the foundational practice of open and effective communication—where growth is nurtured, and innovation is sparked. For The DropTimes, our mission transcends beyond the basic dissemination of information; we actively facilitate a platform for dialogue, connecting the latest technological evolutions with an engaged readership. This integral role embodies our commitment to not only inform but also to catalyze conversation and change, ensuring that every voice can be heard and every insight can be shared, thereby driving Drupal's growth.

The vitality of these discussions within the Drupal community is observable. Whether debating the necessity of new modules for Drupal 10 or discussing the release dates for Drupal 11, each dialogue enriches our collective understanding and propels the platform forward. These conversations, highlighted in our articles and series, testify to the importance of discussing diverse perspectives and disseminating varied opinions. 

By engaging in such dynamic exchanges, the community not only addresses immediate needs and challenges but also shapes the future of the technology. This ongoing dialogue ensures that Drupal remains at the cutting edge, constantly evolving in response to the contributions and concerns of its global user base. With that, let's move on to last week's highlights.

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The efficiency of any website is a must in this fast-paced world of web development. One of the most important tools to maximize the efficiency of your Drupal site is cron jobs. 

Cron jobs are powerful tools that automate any kind of routine tasks of the website which decreases the big load of a developer or site administrator. In this article, I will give you important insights about cron jobs and how we can use them within Drupal, followed by how we customize the tasks by overriding services of the ultimate cron job module.

What is Cron Jobs in Drupal? 

Cron in Drupal works quite well as it coordinates all the backstage tasks. It handles everything from clearing caches to checking for updates of any kind of content and executing scheduled tasks set by your modules.

Discover what lies ahead for Drupal as we delve into insights and predictions from experts Carlos Rincon Sanchez, Oscar Loria, Stella Power, Krishna R P, and Sinduri Guntupalli. Join us as we explore the future of this resilient platform and ask: What is your vision for Drupal in 2024 and beyond?

Discover the latest strategies for a seamless transition to Drupal 10 at the DrupalTO meetup, where experts and enthusiasts converge to share insights and foster community. Dive into discussions that bridge knowledge gaps and strengthen ties within the Drupal community. Explore more in the detailed event recap!

Boosting Productivity in Drupal with Composer 2 Editor Fri, 04/19/2024 - 16:10

Composer 2 is an effective solution for increasing productivity when working with Drupal. Everyone knows the situation when simple operations take a lot of time. Using Composer in Drupal makes developers' lives easier.
To speed up workflows, web developers often use the same code many times in many projects. This code can be written not only by other people; that's not the point. Regarding programming, rewriting code is a concern for many developers. Composer allows you to get rid of this problem. You can save parts of PHP code and use them for other projects.

When you're adding a new feature, like connecting your contact form to Mailchimp, on your Drupal website, you'll want to make sure it works the same way when you move it from one stage to another. Luckily, Drupal has a handy feature called Configuration Synchronization for this. 

This feature helps you easily export and import all the settings and setup between different copies of your Drupal website. In this blog post, we'll take a closer look at how Configuration Synchronization works and some tips for using it effectively. We will also understand the best ways to make sure your Drupal development stays consistent across different environments.

This is how I update my Drupal modules to Drupal 11 with only GitLab and drupal.org in my browser!

Drupal's adoption of GitLab lead to five times faster test runtimes but for this post I will look at how it makes it much easier to update modules to a new major version. It is now possible to fully use the user interface of drupal.org and drupal.org's GitLab features to make modules compatible and even make new releases available. I'll use one of my modules as an example: Upgrade Rector. Let's walk through what I did.

Gábor Hojtsy Fri, 04/19/2024 - 10:35

Tuning Drupalize.Me Search Results with Solr Query Re-Ranking and Search API

During the Drupal 7 era, we created tutorials on a variety of topics such as Views, Drush, Form API, and theming. When Drupal 8 was released, we updated this content for Drupal 8, 9, and 10. The significant changes between Drupal 7 and modern versions necessitated maintaining two versions of each tutorial on our site: one for legacy Drupal and another for modern Drupal.

Today, we still maintain both versions. The use of our legacy Drupal content has steadily decreased, yet it still has a substantial presence in search results. This often leads to confusion, especially when members trying to learn about features in modern Drupal find themselves on a legacy Drupal tutorial.

In this article, Joe Shindelar writes about his coding experiments to tune search results on Drupalize.Me to favor Drupal 10 content, and demote Drupal 7 content.

joe Thu, 04/18/2024 - 15:44

I attended my first DrupalCon in 2010 in San Francisco, and since then have attended six more in the US and two in Europe.  Many elements stay the same, and are a welcome and treasured part of the DrupalCon experience: The DriesNote, the group picture, the keynotes, the BOFs, the sessions and trainings and parties and hallway conversation, on and on.  While you can look forward to more of those this year, here are a few additional features that have been added this year to Drupalcon Portland 2024:

Marketing Track

Recognizing the value that effective marketing brings to Drupal websites, DrupalCon 2024 will feature a substantial amount of content specifically targeted to marketers.  The Marketing Track features a dozen sessions of particular interest to CMOs and other marketing professionals, including presentations about AI, Personalization, Content Strategy, and multi-channel engagement.  Stay tuned for more information about content of particular interest to CMOs.  

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