Guest John Doyle, a content management expert, discusses the future of content management and its challenges. They explore the role of Drupal and headless solutions, highlighting the importance of content architecture and composable content. The chapter also covers the concept of access control and policy permissions in Drupal, discussing its flexibility and use cases. The speaker emphasizes the need for planning and using the right tools for web development and content management.
Organizations are recognizing the importance of centralizing content management, driven by privacy regulations and brand consistency.
Headless architecture offers advantages like quick front-end style changes and flexibility in deployment processes.
The future of content management will see a rise in consolidation, with a focus on structured content and design systems for brand consistency and scalability.
Deep dives
Content management in the future: embracing centralization and composable web
Organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of centralizing content management across different channels. This trend is driven by factors such as privacy regulations, the need for brand consistency, and the rapid growth of digital channels. Drupal is a powerful solution for centralizing content management due to its composability and optionality. It allows for the integration of headless architecture, which enables the scaling and flexibility needed for omni-channel delivery. As AI continues to evolve, it will play a significant role in content management, aiding in content variation, chatbots, and self-trained models. Drupal is well-positioned to adapt to these future trends through the integration of AI and APIs, ensuring centralized content scalability across platforms.
The benefits and considerations of headless architecture in content management
Headless architecture offers advantages such as quicker front-end style changes, separation of concerns, and flexibility in deployment processes. However, it requires careful consideration and planning. Headless architecture excels in scenarios that require scalable, multi-channel content delivery. It allows organizations to leverage the skills of JavaScript developers and separate back-end and front-end concerns. With the growth of AI, headless architecture can enhance content management strategies, particularly in areas such as chatbots and AI-driven search. While headless is a powerful solution, it is essential to assess whether it is the right fit based on the specific needs and scale of the project.
Centralization, structured content, and API-first approach in future content management
The future of content management will continue to see a rise in the consolidation of content and the need for structuring it effectively. This is driven by privacy regulations, the need for brand loyalty, and increasing competition. Centralizing content allows for using it across multiple channels, providing a consistent experience. Structured content and design systems play key roles in scaling and maintaining brand consistency. Advances in AI will further impact content management, enabling more efficient content variation and integration in areas such as chatbots and support systems. Drupal's composability, optionality, and flexibility make it an ideal solution for centralizing content management and adapting to future trends.
The role of documentation and data architecture in future content management
As content management systems evolve and content repositories become more long-lived, effective documentation and data architecture become crucial. Accurate and up-to-date documentation helps teams understand the data model and make informed decisions about content changes. In-depth planning and documentation ensure better management of content architecture, migration scripts, and API structures. Organizations need to consider data retention policies, when to delete or move content. Migration tool planning, structured content models, and revision pruning modules aid in managing data architecture effectively. Robust documentation and well-planned data architecture will be vital in handling long-term content management and ensuring scalability.
The future of content management: embracing centralization and composable web
Content management is undergoing a transformation towards centralization and embracing the concept of a composable web. This shift is driven by the increasing need for brand consistency, privacy regulations, and the rise of numerous digital channels. Drupal excels in centralizing content management due to its composability and flexibility. Headless architecture is gaining traction, allowing for scalability and flexibility in delivering content across various channels. The integration of AI holds promise in enhancing content management strategies, enabling more personalized and efficient content delivery. Drupal is well-equipped to adapt to these future trends, integrating AI and APIs to support centralized content scalability and multi-channel delivery.
Today we are talking about The Future of Content Management, What we see for Drupal in the future, and How AI might factor in with guest John Doyle. We’ll also cover Access Policy as our module of the week.
Hey everyone! Our friends at the Linux Foundation are offering Talking Drupal Listeners 25% off on any e-learning course, certification exam or bundle. Good from August 22-Sept 30, 2023. With discount code LFDrupal25 Please note Bootcamps, ILTs and FinOps courses are excluded… Again that code is LFDrupal25 and you can use that at https://training.linuxfoundation.org/ Thank you to the linux foundation!
Does your Drupal site need a flexible way to manage access to content? There’s a module for that!
Brief history
How old: created in Nov 2022
Versions available: 1.0.0-beta1, works with D9 and 10
Maintainership
Actively maintained, most recent release was in the past week
Number of open issues:
4, none of which are bugs
Test coverage
Usage stats:
12 sites
Maintainer(s):
partdigital
Module features and usage
Allows a site builder to define different policies that can be used to manage content access or editing capabilities based on various factors, all within the Drupal UI
Criteria can include field values of the content, field values on the current user’s profile, the time of day, and more
The policy can restrict access, for example view acces to only selected people or people with a certain role or field value on their profile. I
Once defined, policies can be assigned manually, or automatically applied based on configurable selection criteria
The project page describes this as an Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) architecture, which complements Drupal core’s Role Based Access Control that our listeners are probably familiar with
I used it for the first recently, and found that given the power and flexibility the module provides, it’s great that it has in-depth documentation
I filed a couple of issues (technically half of the open issues) and partdigital was very responsive
The module does also provide an API for defining your own policy type, access rules, rule widgets, and more. So if you need a setup even more custom that what Access Policy can provide out of the box, it’s likely you can extend it to meet your individual use case
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