Matthew Grasmick, who leads Acquia's CMS strategy and has a rich history with Drupal, dives into the latest advancements in Drupal CMS. He discusses the upcoming launch of new features and user-friendly tools designed to simplify the installation process. The conversation highlights the release of Drupal 7 and the importance of community engagement. Grasmick also introduces the TokenOr module, enhancing token functionality, and shares insights on the innovative Experience Builder aimed at non-technical users, shaping the future of web development.
Drupal CMS enhances site-building for non-technical users through a simplified interface and tailored prepackaged recipes.
TokenOr module revolutionizes token management by enabling configurable fallbacks, significantly reducing the need for custom coding solutions.
Experience Builder introduces a modern environment for front-end developers, facilitating intuitive collaboration and design integration within Drupal.
Deep dives
Overview of Drupal CMS and Its New Features
Drupal CMS is designed to improve the site-building experience for non-technical users by simplifying the process of creating and managing Drupal websites. It introduces a browser-only interface that allows users to set up and configure sites without needing extensive coding knowledge. This new iteration includes prepackaged recipes that ensure users can rapidly deploy production-ready sites with features tailored to specific needs, such as blogs or event management. As part of this evolution, Drupal CMS aims to attract a broader audience, moving beyond traditional Drupal developers.
Introduction to the TokenOr Module
The TokenOr module provides a powerful feature that enables users to define fallbacks within Drupal tokens. By allowing tokens to contain pipe-separated values, this module ensures that if the primary token is empty, it will check subsequent tokens in order. An example use case includes dynamically grabbing an event date or displaying 'TBD' if no date is set. This module, applicable to various areas like meta tags and views, streamlines many time-consuming, custom coding tasks that site builders historically faced.
Experience Builder: Enhancements for Front-End Development
Experience Builder serves as an innovative solution for developers looking to enhance front-end experiences within Drupal. This tool facilitates the creation of components using JavaScript and customizable templates, allowing developers to work in an environment that mirrors modern web development practices. The capability to edit JavaScript directly in the browser without needing back-end access significantly lowers the barrier for front-end developers. By enabling a more intuitive workflow, Experience Builder helps unite design and functionality, fostering collaboration across different teams.
The Impact of Drupal CMS on the Community
The launch of Drupal CMS and its associated tools represents a significant opportunity for growing the Drupal community by lowering entry barriers for new users. By evolving the way users interact with Drupal, it encourages a more diverse group to explore the platform without needing deep technical skills. This strategy is expected to cultivate a new generation of Drupal enthusiasts, who may eventually contribute back to the ecosystem as developers, designers, or content strategists. The focus on user experience aims to create a more welcoming environment that promotes creativity and easy adoption of Drupal.
Future of Drupal and Regular Updates
There are plans to implement a more regular release schedule for Drupal CMS, moving away from the historical model of infrequent updates that accompany major changes. The goal is to achieve a monthly release cadence, enabling users to access and benefit from improvements and new features more frequently. This iterative approach aims to balance stability and innovation, ensuring that the platform remains responsive to user needs. By embracing this new philosophy, the Drupal community can foster continuous development and engagement with its user base.
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.
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