03 Mar 2026

feedDrupal.org aggregator

Dries Buytaert: Drupal 25th Anniversary Gala at DrupalCon Chicago

Graphic reading 'Drupal 25th Anniversary Gala' over a purple-lit ballroom with chandeliers and silhouetted guests.

There is a big party happening at DrupalCon Chicago, and I can't wait.

On March 24th, we're celebrating Drupal's 25th Anniversary with a gala from 7-10 pm CT. It's a separate ticketed event, not included in your DrupalCon registration.

Some of Drupal's earliest contributors are coming back for this, including a few who haven't attended DrupalCon in years. That alone makes it special.

If you've been part of Drupal's story, whether for decades or just a few months, I'd love for you to be there. It's shaping up to be a memorable night.

The dress code is "Drupal Fancy". That means anything from gowns and black tie, to your favorite Drupal t-shirt. If you've ever wanted an excuse to dress up for a Drupal event, this is it!

Tickets are $125, with a limited number of $25 tickets underwritten by sponsors so cost isn't a barrier. All tickets must be purchased in advance. They won't be available at the door. Registration closes March 18th, so grab your tickets soon.

Organizations can reserve a table for their team. Even better, invite a few contributors to join you. It's a great way to give back to the people who helped build what your business runs on.

For questions or sponsorship opportunities, please reach out to Tiffany Farriss, who is serving as Gala Chair and part of the team coordinating the celebration.

Know someone who should be there? Share this with them.

What matters most is that you're there. I can't wait to celebrate together in Chicago.

03 Mar 2026 3:55pm GMT

The Drop is Always Moving: A new alpha experimental "Admin" theme just landed in Drupal 12 dev (and 11 dev) which is a merge of the Claro and Gin themes. Gin historically extended Claro which caused complications on both sides. The merged theme allows to iron out things much...

A new alpha experimental "Admin" theme just landed in Drupal 12 dev (and 11 dev) which is a merge of the Claro and Gin themes. Gin historically extended Claro which caused complications on both sides. The merged theme allows to iron out things much faster and more effectively without duplication of efforts in two themes. Going forward the plan is for "Admin" to replace Claro. Until "Admin" becomes stable, Claro will remain the default admin experience. drupal.org/project/drupal/issu

03 Mar 2026 2:56pm GMT

Matt Glaman: drupalorg-cli 0.8.0: GitLab issue fork and merge request commands

The 0.7.0 release was housekeeping - fixing the release notes command and clearing out deprecation warnings. 0.8.0 has two goals: add native GitLab issue fork and merge request commands, and make the CLI useful for developers using AI agents to assist with Drupal.org issues.

03 Mar 2026 2:00pm GMT

The Drop is Always Moving: More good news in Drupal 12 development. Long time in the making, the Navigation module just replaced Toolbar as the default navigation experience in the upcoming Drupal version. Not only more customisable, the new UI is also faster to use even with...

More good news in Drupal 12 development. Long time in the making, the Navigation module just replaced Toolbar as the default navigation experience in the upcoming Drupal version. Not only more customisable, the new UI is also faster to use even with deep administration trees. drupal.org/project/drupal/issu

03 Mar 2026 1:36pm GMT

The Drop is Always Moving: Historic moment in Drupal core! Migrate Drupal and Migrate Drupal UI will not be in Drupal 12 anymore. These are core modules dedicated to migrating Drupal 6 and Drupal 7 sites to core. Drupal 7 was end of life on January 5, 2025 while Drupal 6 EOL was...

Historic moment in Drupal core! Migrate Drupal and Migrate Drupal UI will not be in Drupal 12 anymore. These are core modules dedicated to migrating Drupal 6 and Drupal 7 sites to core. Drupal 7 was end of life on January 5, 2025 while Drupal 6 EOL was February 24th 2016. The modules will still be in Drupal 11 core until its end of line expected at the end of 2028. See drupal.org/node/3466088 for issues around all deprecated modules and themes.

03 Mar 2026 12:43pm GMT

Specbee: Lazy Loading in Drupal - A simple trick that makes your site feel instantly faster

What if your Drupal site could feel faster without big changes? Lazy loading might be the easiest fix you're not using.

03 Mar 2026 4:23am GMT

02 Mar 2026

feedDrupal.org aggregator

Talking Drupal: Talking Drupal #542 - Another AI Show

Today we are talking about The Good and the Bad of AI , How our panel feels about AI , and you guessed it more AI with guest Scott Falconer. We'll also cover Field Widget Actions as our module of the week.

For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/542

Topics

Resources

Guests

Scott Falconer - managing-ai.com scott-falconer

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Catherine Tsiboukas - mindcraftgroup.com bletch

MOTW Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

02 Mar 2026 7:00pm GMT

Centarro: Commerce Core 3.3.0 significantly improves order management

Commerce Core 3.3.0 completely reimagines how merchants interact with orders in the administrative back end. Common order management tasks are accessible from the order view page, and the edit tab will generally no longer be necessary.

This release resolved 102 issues, including bugs and feature requests, and the time was right to tackle longstanding order management requests we've heard from the merchants we support. Roadmap influence is a key benefit of working directly with Centarro on your Drupal Commerce projects. 🤓

Why redesign order management?

Orders in Drupal Commerce have always been collections of data entities of varying types. It's all highly structured and enables complex fulfillment workflows, but managing those various entities was a fragmented experience.

To edit the billing address, you'd head to the order edit form, but you could only view the shipping address there. To change the shipping address, you'd navigate to the shipments tab and edit the relevant shipment(s) there instead. Updating order items meant working through an inline entity form on the order edit page, but the impact on pricing was opaque until submitted. Payment details weren't readily visible.

Each of these tasks used a different form, which meant different administrative contexts for what a CSR really regards as one transaction.

Single-page order management

The new order view page is a dashboard for everything related to the transaction. Adding, editing, and deleting order items, shipments, and billing profiles is now handled through modal dialogs that open directly on the order view page.

Read more

02 Mar 2026 5:55pm GMT

The Drop Times: At the Crossroads of PHP

Across the PHP ecosystem, a hard conversation is beginning to take shape. In a recent opinion piece, Ashraf Abed challenges four major open-source communities-Drupal, Joomla, Magento, and Mautic-to confront a shared reality: slower growth, tighter budgets, and a thinning contributor base. All four are PHP-driven, Composer-based, and built on open-source collaboration. Each has solved complex problems at scale. Yet they now compete not only with proprietary SaaS platforms but also with a broader shift toward consolidation, platform ecosystems, and AI-assisted development that lowers switching costs for engineers.

The argument is not about merging code into a single technical stack. It is about strategic alignment. Fragmentation means four marketing engines, four leadership structures, four roadmaps, and parallel efforts solving overlapping problems. Agencies struggle to hire, contributors stretch across projects, and enterprise buyers hesitate when long-term sustainability feels uncertain. As experienced PHP developers move more easily between frameworks, the historical barriers between communities are no longer purely technical-they are cultural and organisational.

The risks are real. Governance models differ. Brand identity runs deep. Millions of production sites require long-term security and stability. No transition would be simple, and no decision would satisfy everyone. But dismissing the conversation outright may be shortsighted. Open source thrives on bold thinking, especially when the status quo shows signs of strain. If the PHP ecosystem wants to strengthen its talent pipeline and competitive position for the next decade, serious dialogue about collaboration, specialisation, or even partial consolidation deserves attention.

With that context, here are the major stories from last week.

INTERVIEW

EVENT

DISCOVER DRUPAL

PHP

DRUPAL COMMUNITY

SECURITY

BLOG

We acknowledge that there are more stories to share. However, due to selection constraints, we pause here for this issue. For timely updates, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Bluesky, and Facebook. You can also join us on Drupal Slack at #thedroptimes.

Thank you.

Alka Elizabeth
Sub-editor
The DropTimes

02 Mar 2026 6:06am GMT

01 Mar 2026

feedDrupal.org aggregator

MidCamp - Midwest Drupal Camp: Last Chance: MidCamp 2026 Call for Sessions Extended to March 13

We heard you... and we want to hear from more of you!

The MidCamp 2026 Call for Sessions has been extended. The new deadline is March 13, 2026.

If you had a session idea brewing but didn't quite get it across the finish line, now's your window. We extended the deadline because we want a lineup that reflects the full range of people who use, build, and care about Drupal - and we're not there yet without you.

What We're Looking For

MidCamp sessions are open to all skill levels and all corners of the Drupal ecosystem. Whether you're a developer with a deep technical dive, a project manager with hard-won lessons, a designer with a perspective the community needs, or an end user who figured something out the hard way - there is a place for your session at MidCamp.

We're especially interested in talks around:

Not sure if your idea fits? Submit it anyway. We'd rather review more proposals than miss a great talk.

How to Submit

Session submissions are open now through March 13, 2026.

👉 Submit your session here

Need help shaping your proposal? Join the #speakers channel on the MidCamp Slack - there are people there who will help you get it over the finish line.

Slack: https://mid.camp/slack

What Happens Next

After the submission window closes, our review team will evaluate proposals and notify selected speakers by April 9, 2026. Selected speakers will have until April 15 to confirm, and the full schedule will be published April 16.

MidCamp 2026 is May 12-14 in Chicago. We hope to see you on stage.

01 Mar 2026 7:00am GMT

27 Feb 2026

feedDrupal.org aggregator

CodeLift: 2,525 files changed: why random config UUIDs broke our migration pipeline

A single drush cex after enabling one module: 2,525 files changed. None of the diffs meaningful. This is what random config UUIDs do to an iterative Drupal 7-to-10 migration workflow.

27 Feb 2026 7:21pm GMT

Mike Herchel's Blog: Buy your tickets now to the DrupalCon Gala!

Buy your tickets now to the DrupalCon Gala! mherchel

27 Feb 2026 6:55pm GMT

The Drop Times: Dan Frost on Drupal’s AI-Ready Architecture, Controlled AI, and AI-Mode SEO

Dan Frost brings a maintenance-first view to Drupal's evolution and the realities of AI in production environments. In this interview, the Adaptive Managing Director reflects on the Drupal 7 to 8 shift, why structured architecture matters for AI readiness, and how "controlled AI" depends on guardrails and observability. He also discusses headless Drupal as an emerging direction, how charities are adopting conversational interfaces, and why SEO strategy in 2026 increasingly means being present inside AI-driven search surfaces, not only ranking in traditional results.

27 Feb 2026 2:46pm GMT

mark.ie: A new demo theme for LocalGov Drupal

A new demo theme for LocalGov Drupal

This month I gave myself one job to do: redesign the Scarfolk theme.

markconroy

27 Feb 2026 10:34am GMT

26 Feb 2026

feedDrupal.org aggregator

DrupalCon News & Updates: The “Hallway Track” is where it’s going on at DrupalCon!

Do you have a favorite restaurant with a "secret" menu item? Well, DrupalCon has its own secret. And, I'm spilling the beans. If you ask any DrupalCon veteran, what the best thing about the events are, they'll say, "The Hallway Track". Huh?

What is the "Hallway Track"?

The "Hallway Track" is the space around and between official schedule items. This might be in the actual hallway, in the sponsor floor, at the parties, or even in a taxi ride to the airport.

Space like this lets serendipity happen. You might get bored and join a conversation and make new friends. You might hear of a problem, and think of a new business idea. Or…

Stories from the Hallway Track

I reached out to several friends to get hear some stories about their experiences in the hallway track

Nikki Flores tells about how she ran into a colleague at DrupalCon and became fast friends!

I had worked with her for almost 2 years, had seen pictures of her family and her dog and her vacations. We had always been connecting weekly and sometimes twice a week on our teleconferences. I never saw her in person until she called my name from across the hall at DrupalCon. When we saw each other, we were so excited because we recognized each other's faces!

Carlos Ospina tells the story about how he took his son to DrupalCon, and that led to the genesis of the IXP program.

I wanted my son to understand why I love this community so much, so we flew him out to Seattle. I told him I knew a lot of people there, but since it was contribution day, there would not be much time to socialize.

After COVID, he agreed to join us again for Portland in 2022. The Sunday before the event, we met some friends for breakfast. I spotted someone I thought I recognized and mentioned it. My son teased me, saying it was probably just because I think I know everyone at DrupalCon.

We sat down, and in the middle of breakfast Eduardo Telaya walked by our table. I called out to him, and he came over. We hugged, and suddenly we were no longer just five people having breakfast. A couple of other friends stopped by to say hello, and our table grew. My son looked at me and said, "So maybe you really do know everyone at DrupalCon."

I think that moment stuck with him. When we started talking about career options, he agreed to give Drupal a try and came with us to Pittsburgh in 2023 to look for a job. After all, Dad knows everyone, right?

Unfortunately, that was when the hiring slowdown was becoming clear. It was the first time the Drupal Association organized a job fair, and we attended. At one point I had to step away to take a call, and my son did great on his own. He introduced himself, talked to people confidently, and put himself out there. But there were no real opportunities for someone in his position. He had just completed DrupalEasy, had no professional experience, and no background in computer science.

That experience led to conversations with Anilu, and from those conversations the IXP Program was born. It started as a way to help my son get a foothold. He has since moved on from Drupal to explore something different, but the program lives on. We are now approaching 1,750 contribution credits awarded, and six participants have gone through the program.

What began as something personal turned into something that helps others enter the community.

Mike Gifford tells several stories about how he met friends and started his journey to be an Accessibility Maintainer for Drupal Core.

I've had so many great conversations with people who have inspired me, challenged me, and made me laugh in the hallway of DrupalCons. Over coffee, lunch or just while trying to charge a device, leaning against the wall.

The first story that came to mind was trying to find Eriol Fox in DrupalCon Vienna. I am not sure what we were using to message each other, but there was a large delay between sending and receiving messages. Then there is the challenge of actually finding each other in these crazy conference centers. Anyways, we had a good time chatting, but she also pointed me to some folks that she had connected with in Japan. I was going to be going there and wanted to find some open source connections while there.

I think it was in DrupalCon Atlanta that I had great conversations with Stephen Mustgrave & Stephen Musgrave. We were all in slightly different breakout groups. I had confused the two of them only a month or two ago and remembered connecting with them and verifying that they are indeed not the same person.

I can't remember when I ran into Mark Gifford, but it was in some hallway, where we talked about me mostly grabbing the @mgifford in so many new social platforms before he could. I guess he has some right to them.

I actually started contributing to Drupal's accessibility after a hallway chat. It was some time before Drupal 7 was released, and I remember going up to Webchick and complaining about accessibility errors in Drupal. She turned around and suggested I could do something about it. I don't know how many thousands of hours I've spent on fixing accessibility issues in Drupal since she made that suggestion. Thanks Angie.


Mike Anello intentionally avoided the assignment, but tells a great story about the contribution room!

Forget about the hallway - let's talk about the contribution room track.

There's no better way to learn something new and make meaningful personal connections than spending a few hours in a contribution room. There are a few Drupal events each year that I know I won't be wasting any time listening to over-caffeinated Florida-based front-end developers rant at me about the future of front-end development. Instead, I arrive with an agenda to learn something new about some new Drupal thing by spending time in the contribution room helping to test, write documentation, or work on existing issues.

I can credit this method for supercharging my learning of single directory components, ECA, a good portion of the Drupal AI ecosystem, and more Views internals than I ever wanted (thanks, Lendude!)

At my first Drupal Dev Days (Ghent 2023, IIRC) one of my goals was to use my evolving PhpUnit test-writing skills to use in the contribution area. After talking with a few folks, I was introduced to Len Swaneveld, a core maintainer for the Views module. Len pointed me at a few potential issues to work on, and after reviewing a few of them, I settled on one that seemed like it was completable in a reasonable amount of time. What transpired over the next few weeks will be no surprise to anyone who's ever worked on core Views code - nothing is simple.

But, the thing that I remember most about that issue is the time that Len spent with me (both in-person and online) mentoring me on some of the darker areas of the Views code base. It gave me an all-new perspective of the module as well as the challenges of maintaining it.

This process, and similar ones related to other areas of Drupal, I knew that I was improving my skills by learning from leaders in the community - all while I was helping them!

Perhaps the most rewarding part of it is the fact that after the event, a personal connection now exists - and it doesn't feel forced. It is a perfectly natural thing to reach out to these new connections via email or Slack with a little, "it was great getting to know you a few weeks ago at Dev Days; I have a quick question for you…"

Networking is the reason for Drupal events - not presentations (sorry, presenters!)

Michael Richardson tells us how the hallway track led to the creation of DrupalCon Singapore!

For me it would be when I went to DrupalCon Lille with the wild idea of running something like a "DrupalCamp Asia", which would be focused on trying to get folks from all over the continent (and the Pacific) to connect together and share their Drupal stories, cultures, and experience for the first time in nearly 10 years.

Through the power of the hallway track in Lille, I was able to connect directly with sponsors, Drupal Association leadership, and regional community leaders, and over those few days the idea evolved into a fully fledged DrupalCon Asia with sponsors, organisers, and the support of the DA all aligned. What would have taken months to organise online was all put in place in just 3 days and a year later, DrupalCon Singapore was a massive success. I'm not sure that would have been possible without those first conversations half way across the world in Lille.

BaddĂ˝ Breidert tells us how participating in the DrupalCon prenote led to multiple friendships!

My first DrupalCon was Amsterdam in 2014 and I remember going to that event not knowing anyone. During the Hallway Track I got to know MortenDK that introduced me to a lot of people and from that conference it always became a bit easier to attend DrupalCon. At DrupalCon Dublin 2016, Jam and others from the community invited me to join the pre-note which I gladly accepted. The pre-note always happened before the Driesnote and the purpose of the event was to entertain the keynote attendees and kick-off the conference. The show featured an Irish adventure theme, where the characters attempted to find a "pot of gold" while exploring the concept of "scope" in a humorous, technical, and musical "infotainment" style.

Cristina Chumillas tells how she went outside of the conference to find a magical donut, and brought it back to share!

Soooo on the first DrupalCon in Portland after covid, the day after committing Claro and Olivero, with Lauri, we went for a quick adventure to find a famous doughnut with bacon and maple syrup. At Voodoo Doughnuts.

Anyway, we were at the sprints and were working on Olivero issues, so by the time we left it was about to close. On the way it started raining A LOT and when we arrived they were closing and there were no more doughnuts. But since we were there we took the chance to get inside the shop and asked for it, and they still had one! So we bought it and ended up eating it with 8 people at the sprints.

JD Flynn perfectly wraps up the hallway track in his rendition.

To me, the hallway track is where the magical moments are found. It's where connections are made. It's where friendships begin. Sessions at events are amazing, and should definitely be attended. However, the real inspiration and sparks happen during spontaneous conversations that happen just because you bump into someone and start talking about this idea you've had or this bug you found. Before you know it, you're both sitting with your laptops out and building something together. That doesn't happen while sitting quietly in a session.

The "hallway" track isn't limited to just the hallway of the event's venue either. It carries over to the parties and the after parties where lifetime friendships and memories are formed. It's not an exaggeration to say that most of the people in my life who I consider good friends are good friends because of that spark that happened in the hallway, wherever that hallway might exist. It could be bonding over a drink, shared love of a type of food, randomly bumping into someone who looks familiar outside of the event, or picking the song at karaoke that gets everyone up and dancing. I owe some of the strongest relationships in my life, personally and professionally, to the hallway track.

Make space for the Hallway Track

As JD said, the hallway track is where the magic happens. But how do you find it?

You need to put yourself out there. Sit down at lunch tables where you don't know anyone, and strike up conversations. Go to the event parties and talk to people in the lines at the bar. Join a trivia team with people that you don't know!

You might just end up with some serendipity of your own!

26 Feb 2026 4:13pm GMT

ImageX: Faster than Ever: Drupal’s Latest Performance Boost

Visitors form an impression of a site almost instantly. If those first moments feel smooth, they'll keep exploring. If not, they'll quietly close the tab. That challenge is even greater for content-rich websites, where each request can trigger complex rendering behind the scenes.

26 Feb 2026 2:18am GMT