Talking Drupal

Today we are talking about The Greater Cleveland RTA, How they use Drupal, and how they built a Drupal team with guests Mike Cermak & Rithya Lath. We’ll also cover Geofield Directions as our module of the week. For show notes visit: www.talkingDrupal.com/465 Topics What does the Greater Cleveland RTA do Is the RTA a state agency What kind of Digital Service do you provide How does the GCRTA use Drupal Whay was Drupal selected Let's talk about the team How long has the team existed and how many people What type of skill makeup doest hte team have Local development and deployment Point and click learning, how do you keep up to speed now Day to day responsibilities Drupal con and Starshot Resources Greater Cleveland RTA Guests Rithya Lath - ral1239 Mike Cermak - riderta.com MikeCermak Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Have you ever wanted to make it easy for visitors to your Drupal site to get directions to a location via Google Maps? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Geofield Directions Brief history How old: created in Feb 2021 by Christopher Martin (ccjjmartin), though recent releases are by Allan Chappell (generalredneck) Versions available: 1.0.1, compatible with Drupal ^8.8 ^9 || ^10 ^11 Maintainership Minimally maintained, Maintenance fixes only Security coverage Test coverage Documentation? Not even a README Number of open issues: 1 open issue, not a bug Usage stats: 26 sites Module features and usage The module provides a new field formatter, so you can install it and then update a view mode to use Geofield Directions. Now your content display will include a link to get directions You can figure the text of the link, whether the link should open in a new tab, the magnification of the destination map, and more The module also includes token support, so you can dynamically include things like the name of the location in the link text I think the only downside I can see is that because this is implemented as a formatter, you have to choose the directions link OR a map, where I could foresee sites wanting to show both

Today we are talking about Producing content with Drupal, How Drupal can help content producers, and ways it could be better with guest Jerry Ta. We’ll also cover Stage File Proxy as our module of the week. For show notes visit: www.talkingDrupal.com/464 Topics Brief overview of Urban Institute using Drupal What are the day to day responsibilities of a content producer Layout Builder or Paragraphs What is your opinion You've been in content production for almost 2 decades, what was your first website editing tool. How long have you been using Drupal What is your number one wish the Drupal community would solve Drupalcon What value do you look for for a content producer What is the hardest part of using Drupal Starshot reaction Predictions for Drupal in 5 years for content producers Resources Modules for replacing files on Drupal - , Media Entity File Replace, etc. File Replace Media Entity File Replace File Field Replace Content Sync Tokens with CKEditor module Shortcode Common Spot Scheduled transitions Experience builder https://drupal.slack.com/archives/C072JMEPUS1 https://www.drupal.org/project/experience_builder Starshot https://drupal.slack.com/archives/C072BF486FN https://www.drupal.org/project/starshot Guests Jerry Ta - joshmiller Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Josh Miller - joshmiller MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Have you ever wanted to work on code or configuration changes to your Drupal site in a non-production environment, without having to copy over all the images and other content files? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Stage File Proxy Brief history How old: created in Jan 2011 by netaustin, by recent releases are by Stephen Mustgrave, who listeners will probably recognize from the Needs Review initiative, among his many other Drupal contributions Versions available: 7.x-1.10, 3.0.0-alpha2, and 3.1.0, the last of which works with Drupal 10.3 and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage Test coverage Documentation - not a lot, but it has been the subject of numerous blog posts over the years Number of open issues: 15 open issues, 2 of which are bugs against the current branch Usage stats: 16,710 sites Module features and usage Once you have Stage File Proxy site up on your non-production site, when the environment gets a request for a content file it doesn’t have like an image, it will query the production site to create a local copy It also has a mode where those requests are served 301 redirects to their location on the production server, so no files are ever copied Once you have the module installed, you can set the origin website URL using the admin UI, using a drush variable-set command, or you can add a line to your settings.php file. Also, if you have simple HTTP authentication set up on the site you want to pull from (for example using the Shield module), you can add URL-encoded versions of the username and password to the origin URL, and the module will still be able to copy down the files. This module was previously covered in this podcast way back in episode #33, but I thought it was worth bring back because it is so useful for working on site locally or across non-production environments

Ivan Stegic, a web development expert at TEN7, discusses the differences between DIY site builders and Drupal. He highlights how DIY platforms like Wix and Shopify can be more accessible and cost-effective for non-technical users. The conversation also dives into the migration process from Drupal to these site builders, revealing the trade-offs in customization versus ease of use. Furthermore, they explore the features of the upcoming Drupal 11, emphasizing its enhancements that could maintain Drupal's competitive edge.

Today we are talking about DrupalCon Singapore, What you can expect, and What’s next for Drupal in Asia with guest Mike Richardson & Surabhi Gokte. We’ll also cover Filefield Paths as our module of the week. For show notes visit: www.talkingDrupal.com/462 Topics When is Drupalcon Asia The last one was in 2016, what did it take to reprise How do you handle language barriers What are your roles in the organizing committee Steering committee and Drupal South What can attendees expect Any special programming What kind of diversity is expected from attendees Driving from Mumbai to Singapore is 110 hours Will Dries be there Can we expect future Drupalcon Asia's Planning and logistics regarding coffee Starshot Resources DrupalCon Singapore Droptimes Drupal camp Pune Steering committee for Drupal South Linux Australia Council DrupalCon Singapore Sponsorship Email events@drupalasia.org Park Royal Collection Marina Bay Singapore Wiki Singapore Visa Guests Mike Richardson - Singapore DrupalCon richo_au Surabhi Gokte - surabhi-gokte Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Josh Miller - joshmiller MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Have you ever wanted to use a variety of tokens to customize the directory and file names of your uploaded files? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: File (Field) Paths Brief history How old: created in July 2008 by Stuart Clark (Deciphered), though recent releases are by Oleh Vehera (voleger) of Golems GABB Versions available: 7.x-1.2 and 8.x-1.0-beta7, the latter of which supports Drupal 9.3 or newer, and Drupal 10 Maintainership Seeking co-maintainers Security Coverage Opted in, but no coverage in practice for Drupal 9 or 10 Test coverage Number of open issues: 131 open issues, 50 of which are bugs against the current branch Usage stats: 34,609 sites almost 35,000 sites Module features and usage This module allows you to customize file names and paths by leveraging a variety of entity-based tokens It also integrates with the Pathauto module, giving you options to clean up the tokens for example by removing slashes, filtering out words or punctuation, and so on It can also work with the Transliteration module to convert unicode characters into US-ASCII Filefield Paths has options to rename and move existing files, and can retroactively rename files, effectively bulk updating and moving all your existing files It can also work with the Redirect module to automatically create redirects from the old path and filename to the new location, when renaming I’d also like to give a tip of the cap to Jim Birch of Kanopi for suggesting this module, when I was talking to a customer who was looking to achieve pretty much exactly what this module does

Rajab Natshah, an expert in Drupal distributions, shares insights on their pros and cons, particularly VARbase, a powerful tool for Bootstrap websites. Mohammed Razem delves into the future of distributions, emphasizing modular approaches and the importance of recipes. They discuss how distributions simplify site creation and foster community engagement, while also tackling challenges like dependency management and user feedback. The conversation highlights the value of Google Analytics integration within Drupal, showcasing its practical applications for developers.

Join Baddy Sonja Breidert, a preconfigured CMS solutions expert, and Dr. Christoph Breidert, a Drupal solutions architect, as they dive into the transformative power of preconfigured CMS solutions for businesses. They discuss building effective Drupal systems, overcoming customization challenges, and selling these solutions to clients. The conversation also touches on the importance of work-life balance and community engagement in technology, making it a treasure trove for developers and business leaders alike.

Today we are talking about Config Actions, The Panels Favorite Drupal Modules, and Drupal Contribution. We’ll also cover Transform API as our module of the week. For show notes visit: www.talkingDrupal.com/459 Topics New Config Action: Place Block Favorite Contrib modules Slack channels Preparing for Drupal 11 Drupal events Resources Config Action Place Block Front End Editing Drupal Module Gin Admin Theme Migrate Boost Keysave Navigation Matt Glaman Smart Date Code Blog Post Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Baddý Sonja Breidert - 1xINTERNET baddysonja MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Have you ever wanted to expose your Drupal site’s data as JSON using view modes, formatters, blocks, and more? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: https://www.drupal.org/project/transform_api Transform API Brief history How old: created in Sep 2023 by LupusGr3y, aka Martin Giessing of Denmark Versions available: 1.1.0-beta4 and 1.0.2 versions available, both of which work with Drupal 9 and 10 Maintainership Actively maintained, in fact the latest commit was earlier today Security coverage Documentation: in-depth README and a full user guide Number of open issues: 14 open issues, 3 of which are bugs, but none against the current branch Usage stats: 2 sites Module features and usage After installing Transform API, you should be able to get the JSON for any entities on your site by adding “format=json” as a parameter to the URL To get more fields exposed as JSON, you can configure a Transform mode, using a Field UI configuration very similar to view modes You can also add transform blocks to globally include specific data in all transformed URLs, in the same way you would use normal blocks to show information on your entity pages. The output of transform blocks is segmented into regions, Where Drupal’s standard engine produces render arrays that ultimately become HTML, Transform API replaces it with an engine that produces Transform Arrays that will ultimately become JSON Where Drupal’s standard JSON:API supports more or less exposes all information as raw data for the front end to format, Transform API allows for more of the formatting to be managed on the back end, where it will use Drupal’s standard caching mechanisms, permission-based access, and more Transform API also supports lazy transformers, which are callbacks that will be called after caching but before the JSON response is sent You can also use alter hooks to manipulate the transformed data

Guest John Albin Wilkins discusses integrating Next.js with Drupal, covering topics like server requirements, content updates, server-side rendering, performance, and editorial experiences. The podcast explores challenges in decoupled Drupal, GraphQL usage, evolution of Layout Builder, responsive images, and a humorous anecdote about a trivial patch award in Drupal development.

Join Alexander Varwijk as he discusses Drupal architecture, common site building questions, and solutions with Drupal. Topics include starting a new site or feature, extending vs forking, contributing new modules, and preferences for Headless. Learn about the Revolt event loop, managing update hook differences, module categorization, real-time chat integration, client preferences, and King Dutch's online community contributions.

Randy Fay and Andrew Berry discuss DDEV's rapid growth and sustainability. They cover funding, future plans, and how to get involved. The podcast explores DDEV's features, challenges, and the importance of community participation in maintaining DDEV.