Talking Drupal #509 - A WordPresser @ DrupalCon

Jun 30, 2025

In this discussion with Chris Reynolds, a Developer Advocate at Pantheon and a seasoned WordPress community member, we dive into the exciting world of DrupalCon. Chris shares what a WordPress developer can learn at a Drupal event. They explore the pros and cons of using shortcodes and compare the collaborative spirits of the Drupal and WordPress communities. The conversation also touches on challenges with Composer, responsive image management, and future innovations for both platforms. Expect insights that bridge the best of both worlds!

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ANECDOTE

Shortcodes Caused Migration Nightmares

Chris Reynolds described a personal love-hate relationship with shortcodes, recalling migration nightmares from shortcode-based page builders.
He said nested shortcodes and huge shortcode markup made content migration and standardization a serious nightmare.

INSIGHT

Communities Share Core Values

Chris found DrupalCon similar to flagship WordCamps in spirit and problems, with community being the shared core value.
He emphasized both ecosystems face similar contribution and governance challenges despite different solutions.

ADVICE

Raise Flagship Event Prices Strategically

Consider raising flagship WordCamp ticket prices modestly to increase event professionalism and fund larger community work.
Use extra revenue to sponsor speakers, fund projects, or support broader community initiatives.

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Today we are talking about DrupalCon, Wordpress, and what a wordpress guy can learn at a Drupal Event with guest Chris Reynolds. We’ll also cover Shortcode as our module of the week.

For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/509

Topics

The Pros and Cons of Short Codes
Chris Reynolds' Journey to DrupalCon
Comparing DrupalCon and WordCamp
Funding and Organization of WordPress Events
The Collaborative Spirit of the Drupal Community
Wishlist for WordPress Features
Composer Support in WordPress and Drupal
Backward Compatibility in WordPress
Challenges with Composer in Drupal
Config Management in WordPress vs. Drupal
Responsive Image Management
User Experience in Drupal
Community Collaboration Between WordPress and Drupal

Resources

A Wordpresser Goes To DrupalCon Atlanta 2025
wpcfm
Longhorn PHP Conference Oct 23-25 in Austin, TX
- Call for proposals through July 18
- Join #texas-camp in Drupal Slack if you’re interested in organizing a mini Texas Camp to pair with Longhorn PHP
WP community collective

Guests

Chris Reynolds - jazzsequence.com jazzsequence

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi JD Leonard - jdleonard

MOTW Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

Brief description:
- Have you ever wanted your Drupal site to support WordPress-style shortcodes, macros to be used within content? There’s a module for that.
Module name/project name:
- Shortcode
Brief history
- How old: created in Sep 2010 by Dénes Szabó (denes.szabo) of Tag1
- Versions available: 2.0.3, which supports ^9.3 ^10 ^11
Maintainership
- Security coverage
- Test coverage
- Number of open issues: 30 open issues, 3 of which are bugs against the current branch
Usage stats:
- 13,260 sites (almost 70% are D7 however)
Module features and usage
- For anyone not familiar with WordPress short codes, the documentation describes them as macros, and most often they are used for inserting elements into content such as image galleries, videos, playlists, and more. Shortcodes can also wrap content, however, and it’s possible to nest shortcodes as well.
- Drupal typically solves the problems addressed by shortcodes using custom HTML elements, as implemented in the media ecosystem, or with the Entity Embed module. I think that shortcodes may also be useful in places where Drupal might also rely on tokens, albeit with an additional module like Token Filter.
- Gutenberg includes a Shortcode block that can be used as a flexible way to add a variety of elements into a post’s content.
- I think Shortcodes are an interesting paradigm because they’re really a tool for power users. Instead of providing a UI to browse and choose elements for something like an image gallery, they allow a savvy editor to quickly write a tag that will construct a gallery using numerical ID values.
- I don’t think this is a tool that most Drupal sites will need, but it could be a really good way for experienced WordPress teams to feel more at home when starting to work with Drupal.