Talking Drupal

Talking Drupal #521 - Tugboat

Sep 22, 2025
In this engaging chat, James Sansbury, CEO of Tugboat and a seasoned expert in digital platforms, dives into how Tugboat can revolutionize CI/CD processes. He explains its per-merge-preview feature, which enhances testing and QA efficiency. James compares Tugboat to other solutions, emphasizing its speed and support. He shares unique use cases, from demos to sandbox environments, and discusses the importance of standardizing workflows across different hosts. Plus, discover the whimsical origin of Tugboat's mascot!
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ANECDOTE

ShURLy Powers Marketing Redirects

  • Nic shared a client's long-term use of the ShURLy module to append marketing UTM parameters automatically on redirects.
  • The client still runs the site on Drupal 7 and plans a cautious upgrade to Drupal 10/11.
ANECDOTE

Public Shortener Turned Into Abuse Nightmare

  • James described running a public shortener that became overrun with malicious links and required Google Safe Browsing checks.
  • They eventually exported valid redirects to an .htaccess file and shut down the public service.
INSIGHT

Preview Environments Prevent Release Bottlenecks

  • Tugboat provides unlimited, isolated preview environments for every pull request so teams can test changes before merging.
  • This reduces the end-of-sprint bottleneck of testing on a single staging server and lowers rollback risk.
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