Layout for Drupal 8

Drupal 8 is quickly evolving and the remaining tasks are becoming very clear and concrete. The topic 'layout management' and the need for a related sprint has been identified long ago. Therefore, we recently announced this very sprint in the Swiss Drupal User Group.

At MD Systems, 6 people already work full time for Drupal 8 core, contrib and related customer projects. Our experience as architects and expert consultants allows us to identify the missing pieces and design reusable solutions.

What’s missing with Layout in Core?

The original Drupal 8 Layout initiative got stuck and didn't successfully reach its goals for Drupal 8 core. Contrib now needs to fix this.

We need a tool to manage overview and front pages that consist of more than just one single content view. This is a repeating requirement from sites of all sizes, small to big.

Implicit layout configurations by using the block system provided by Drupal core are too limited. The user experience is horrible. It is impossible to have an overview of what is displayed on a specific page and it does not scale well.

An overview page must be an explicit management entity so that it provides a clear overview for that specific page.

While our current page-level layout requirements are very simple, we have the additional need to display flexible widgets that contain multiple content elements. Users should not be confused with too many options, but still be able to change widget positions and do some configuration without risking to break everything.

The status of contrib

Many things have happened since we sent our initial event invite. Tim Plunkett continued with his experimental module “Block Page” that quickly evolved into a Drupal 8 version of the page manager. Other people are working on layout tools and other dependencies to provide a full Panels replacement for Drupal 8.

Sprint goals

• Push Page Manager forward by improving it and fixing remaining problems in Core
• Start a new Widget project that will provide flexible blocks with an inner layout

We have already 19 people signed up! Please signup for the Sprint at groups.drupal.org and join us. We will help you getting started.