fidzu : Drupal

Overall SummaryOur 34th monthly meeting brought together a smaller-than-usual but engaged group of contributors to review the state of the UI Suite ecosystem. With Drupal's core freeze just six weeks away, we focused on what it takes to get our APIs - Style API, Design Tokens, and Icon API - across the finish line for Drupal 11.1 or 11.4. We also reviewed the rapid cadence of Display Builder beta releases, celebrated impressive adoption numbers for UI Icons, and opened an exciting conversation about AI agent integration with our UI Pattern suite. The session closed with a deep-dive discussion on how Display Builder can eventually work alongside or replace Paragraphs-based workflows for site builders.

08 Apr 2026 12:10am GMT

Drupal's config schema YAML supports dynamic expressions inside square brackets that resolve to values from the surrounding configuration data at runtime. Most developers have seen them - [%parent.type] in field formatter schema is a classic example - but few understand exactly how they work or when to use them.

I found a Todoist task from December 4th, 2024: \Drupal\Core\Config\TypedConfigManager::replaceVariable blog post. (Yeah, you do not want to see my "Overdue" list.) I have no memory of what I was working on that day or why I went deep on this. But past-me clearly thought it was worth documenting, so here we are. If you've ever stared at [%parent.type] in a schema file and just accepted it as magic - this one's for you.

07 Apr 2026 1:00pm GMT

Struggling with taxonomy cleanup in Drupal? Read this blog to learn how the Bulk Term Delete module helps remove multiple taxonomy terms at once and improve admin efficiency.

07 Apr 2026 9:24am GMT

In episode #547, guest JD Flynn joins us to discuss why developers don't choose Drupal, focusing on Drupal adoption, discoverability, and outdated perceptions from Drupal 6/7. JD cites survey data showing low interest among non-Drupal developers, arguing Drupal's biggest problem is invisibility and that developers often pre-filter it due to PHP stigma and friction getting started.

For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/547

Topics

• Welcome to Talking Drupal
• Meet JD Flynn
• Co Hosts Introductions
• Module of the Week: Native Observability
• Production Overhead Debate
• AI Patches and Etiquette
• Live Stream and Topic Setup
• Why Developers Skip Drupal
• Invisibility and Discovery
• Perception and Onboarding Friction
• Composer and Leaving the Island
• Perception Gap and PHP Stigma
• PHP Perception Versus Reality
• Why Developers Avoid Drupal
• Selling Drupal to Clients
• Instant Demos With Drupal Forge
• Discoverability in the AI Era
• Content Strategy Beyond Drupal
• PHP Stigma and Performance
• Community Effort and Live Streaming
• Marketing Drupal Out of the Box
• Wrap Up and Where to Connect

Resources

Why Developers Don't Choose Drupal (And What We Can Do About It) - https://www.fldrupal.camp/session/why-developers-dont-choose-drupal-and-what-we-can-do-about-it JD's stream - http://twitch.tv/jddoesdev Drupal is Great! Its Perception Might Not be. -https://picozzi.com/notebook/2025/jan/drupal-great-its-perception-might-not-be Drupal Forge - https://www.drupalforge.org/

Guests

JD Flynn - Crepdrop dorficus

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Rod Martin - DrupalHelps.com imrodmartin

Module of the Week Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

Native Observability brings real observability into Drupal. Trace requests, inspect execution, analyze performance, and explore runtime behavior - directly inside your application.

No core patches. No external dependencies required to get started. Just install, enable, and start seeing what actually happens inside your system.

06 Apr 2026 6:00pm GMT

DrupalCon Chicago 2026 outlined concrete developments already moving through the current cycle toward DrupalCon Rotterdam. The keynote highlighted progress in Drupal CMS, expanded site templates and marketplace functionality, and ongoing work on artificial intelligence features that are now transitioning from demonstration to implementation.

Drupal CMS 2.1 builds on Drupal Core 11.3 and introduces support for preconfigured site templates. The keynote demonstrated eleven templates available through a basic marketplace, all installable directly from the Drupal CMS installer. This signals that both template distribution and marketplace functionality have moved beyond concept into early rollout.

The Context Control Center now appears close to production readiness. The keynote positioned it as a central source of truth for brand voice, target audiences, key messages, product details, and editorial guidelines used by AI agents. In one demonstration, the system generated an on-brand page from a marketing brief, while a second example used Google Analytics data in a proof-of-concept workflow to improve content performance after publication.

Not all demonstrated capabilities are fully mature. Several features remain in alpha or beta stages as development continues toward DrupalCon Rotterdam. At the same time, increased AI-assisted contribution is placing pressure on maintainers, alongside a direct reminder that contributors remain responsible for the code they submit.

With that introduction, let us move to the major stories from last week.

CASE STUDY

• Tulare County Migrates 50 Sites to Drupal Using Acquia Site Factory

EVENT

• DrupalCon Rotterdam 2026 Opens UX, Accessibility and Design Track for Submissions
• International Splash Awards 2026 Submission Deadline Set for 16 June

DISCOVER DRUPAL

• Drupal Recording Initiative Seeks Support to Expand Global Coverage
• Drupal 12 Adopts Argon2id for Default Password Hashing
• Drupal AI Initiative Reports Growth and Product Progress Six Months After Vienna
• Canvas Multilingual Module Adds Translation Support to Drupal Canvas
• Lovable AI and Drupal Canvas Workflow Enables Rapid Page Assembly

ORGANIZATION NEWS

• CKEditor AI Integrates Into Drupal With Premium Features Module 1.8.0

PHP

• PHPantom 0.6.0 Introduces Fast, Low-Memory PHP Language Server Built in Rust

Additional developments from across the Drupal ecosystem were published during the week. Readers may follow The DropTimes on LinkedIn, Twitter, Bluesky, and Facebook for continuing updates. The publication also maintains a presence on Drupal Slack in the #thedroptimes channel.

Thank you.

KAZIMA ABBAS
Sub-editor
The DropTimes

06 Apr 2026 4:42pm GMT

Using AI Without Compromising Our Values mtift April 6, 2026

April 6, 2026

Photo by Curt Rochon, DrupalCon Chicago 2026. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

I went into DrupalCon Chicago suspicious of AI. I almost didn't go. What changed my mind wasn't a demo or a keynote. It was realizing the Drupal community already has what it needs: our Values and Principles. We just did not center them in the AI conversation.

• Read more about Using AI Without Compromising Our Values
• Add new comment

06 Apr 2026 11:56am GMT

02 Apr 2026 7:37pm GMT

Digital success starts with understanding the problem, not selling tech. A discovery-led approach builds tailored, effective, long-lasting solutions.

02 Apr 2026 1:23pm GMT

Inspired by Mark Conroy's blog series, I'm starting a series of blog posts detailing Dripyard's contributions. My hope is that it brings a bit of visibility to 1) inspire y'all to buy our themes, and 2) inspire folks to contribute on their own.

March 2026 was especially busy for us, as 1) we made a bunch of contributions to the Drupal CMS installer, 2) created a badass new module (see below), and 3) did a bunch of work at DrupalCon Chicago.

02 Apr 2026 12:00pm GMT

We're all familiar with cookie consent banners - the popups asking us to agree to "cookies" that track data from our visits. They're everywhere. And honestly, they're a bit annoying.

But here's the thing most organizations get wrong: they treat the banner as the entire conversation. Find a tool, install a popup, check the box. Done.

That's backwards. The banner is just the visible output of a much more important process - understanding what your website actually collects, why it collects it, and whether anyone made a deliberate decision about any of it.

01 Apr 2026 3:04pm GMT

Drupal is evolving so quickly that it's hard to guess what's coming next, until the DrupalCon keynote by Drupal Founder, Dries Buytaert, warmly known as the 'Driesnote' pulls back the curtain. That's the moment when the community leans in, ready to see the newest ideas take shape.

01 Apr 2026 2:46pm GMT

The Call for Papers for DrupalCon Rotterdam is officially open. We have an important update regarding one of our most vital tracks.
This year, we officially expanded the scope of our discussions. What was previously the Open Web track has evolved into the Digital Sovereignty and Open Web track.

Why the Change?`
Today, many large companies control our data and our platforms. The Open Web is about more than just code. It is about who has control. Digital Sovereignty means that people, organizations, and countries have the right to control their own digital lives.
By adding this to the name, we show that DrupalCon is the place for these big talks. We want to build a web that is fair, open, and not controlled by just a few large companies.

Who Should Submit?
We are looking for more than just technical sessions. To solve the challenges of the modern web, we need a broad range of perspectives. We want to hear from the following groups.

• Policymakers navigating the GDPR and the AI Act.
• Advocates fighting for digital equity and accessibility.
• Site Builders and Developers implementing privacy first architectures.
• Community Leaders fostering sustainable open source ecosystems.

Image

Potential Topics
If you are wondering whether your idea fits, here are a few topics we would love to see on the stage.

• Accessibility as Sovereignty: Why the web is not truly open if it is not accessible to everyone. We want to hear how universal design gives people the power to use the web independently.
• Local First Apps: How to build tools that work without the internet and keep data with the user. We want to hear about tools that put the user in charge of their own information.
• Public Code: How Drupal helps everyone, from sole traders to national governments, keep their independence. We want to hear how you use open source tools to stay in control of your digital future.
• Privacy by Design: How to make Drupal sites that protect user data from the start. We want to hear how you build Drupal sites that prioritize security and privacy.
• Digital Identity: New ways for users to prove who they are without giving away their privacy. We want to hear about new identity systems that respect the individual.
• Green Coding: How saving energy helps keep the web free and open. We want to hear how digital efficiency supports a sovereign web.
• AI and Ownership: How to use AI without losing control of your work. We want to hear about how Drupal can use AI while keeping data private and models ethical.
• Regulatory and economical control: The European Union is building sovereignty through laws like GDPR, cloud infrastructure, and cybersecurity. We want to hear how these regulations and investments affect the way we build and host the web.

Submit Today
The Open Web does not stay open by accident. It stays open because people share their knowledge and vision. Whether you are seasoned or a first time speaker with a unique perspective, we want to hear from you.

Link to CFP Submission Portal Deadline: https://events.drupal.org/rotterdam2026/submit-your-session-proposal

01 Apr 2026 12:48pm GMT

💬 Talk to Your Drupal Page Builder 🚀 DXPR Builder 2.8 AI Release! Jurriaan Wed, 04/01/2026 - 10:12

This is the biggest DXPR Builder release we have ever shipped.

In a 2023 interview with The DropTimes, I described our ultimate goal: "You will be able to put your granny in front of a computer and let her create a mobile-friendly webpage about her hobby." I talked about the day someone could just describe what they want and get a webpage instantly. Back then, I said the AI was too buggy for production. I said "I don't see this happening in 2023."

It is happening now.

With DXPR Builder 2.8, you can describe what you want and watch AI build it for you: complete pages with sections, columns, images, and cards. All styled by your theme. All ready to publish. DXPR Builder is the first Drupal page builder you can talk to, and it will create and edit complex webpages. If you have never heard of Drupal: it is the open-source CMS behind sites like Tesla.com, the European Commission, and thousands of universities. DXPR Builder is the most popular way to build pages in Drupal without writing code. Thousands of sites rely on it, from Fortune 500 companies to government agencies to solo creators. Now every one of them gets AI superpowers.

This is not a chatbot bolted onto a CMS. This is AI that understands your page and what you want it do do, knows where to place content, and lets you refine anything with plain language. DXPR AI is powered by the same models behind ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Claude. We integrate directly with OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, XAI, and Mistral, giving you access to the best AI models in the world from inside your page builder. If one provider is down, DXPR automatically switches to the next. No single point of failure, no vendor lock-in.

Want to skip the reading and just try it?

Jump into the free demo on try.dxpr.com

Everything AI Can Do in DXPR Builder 2.8.0

Ship Landing Pages in Minutes, Not Hours

Building a landing page used to mean hours of dragging, dropping, writing, and tweaking. Now you tell it "create a landing page for an enterprise Drupal hosting service" and watch it go. AI generates a full layout: hero, features, testimonials, pricing, call to action. It builds section by section so you can guide it, or let it finish the whole page at once. Every element is a real DXPR Builder component you can drag, edit, and restyle.

Clone Competitor Layouts Instantly

Found a competitor page you love? Type "clone https://example.com/about-us" and AI grabs the page, analyzes its structure, and rebuilds it using real DXPR Builder components styled by your theme. Not a copy-paste of their code. A proper, editable recreation you can make your own in minutes. For agencies, this changes how you pitch: walk into a prospect meeting with a working first draft built from their competitor's site.

Rewrite Any Content Without Touching the Layout

Every element on your page now has an "Edit with AI" option. Click a section and tell it "add a customer success story" or "make this sound more urgent." The AI rewrites the content in place without touching your layout. You can also select specific text inside any rich text editor and transform just that selection.

Unmatched Precision in AI-Editing

Other AI based site builders let you edit content with AI but won't let you edit with AI! With DXPR Builder, whether your content is decades old or freshly generated, AI will edit it with precision. Our highly optimized platform is calibrated for editing web content with incredible speed and precision.

Generate and Edit Images Without Leaving the Editor

Describe the image you need and AI creates it. "A modern office team collaborating on a laptop." "An abstract illustration of connected data points." No more hunting through stock photo libraries. Already have an image that is close but not quite right? Tell AI what to change and it edits the image in place.

Generate Long-Form Content with Real Depth

Most AI tools top out at a few paragraphs. DXPR Builder 2.8 generates structured content with 1,000+ words, proper headings, and multiple sections. Whether it is a product page, a case study, a knowledge base article, or a blog post, AI researches your topic first, plans the structure, then writes.

AI Researches Your Topic Before It Writes

Mention your company, a competitor, or any topic in your prompt and AI searches the web for current information before writing. It finds facts, figures, and context so you do not have to provide them. Just prompt and go.

Set Your Brand Voice Once, Use It Everywhere

Define your writing style ("Professional and clear" or "Bold and playful") and every AI interaction follows it. Use our Tone of Voice Generator to find the right voice. Set it once in the admin settings and forget about it.

Free AI Credits: How It Works

How much do I get?

Every DXPR account gets 10,000 free AI credits per month. 1 generated word = 1 credit. 1 generaed image = 1,000 credits. Only readable words count, not code or markup. Here is what 10,000 credits looks like in practice:

• One landing page from scratch: prompt, generate, refine two sections (~3,000 credits)
• One product or campaign page: generate, edit a few sections, add images (~3,500 credits)
• Translate a page to another language (~1,500 credits)
• Generate two custom images (~2,000 credits)

That is a solid day of content production. Enough to experience everything DXPR AI can do and ship real work.

What can a team do with more credits?

Marketing teams that use AI daily typically produce 5-10x more content than before. A team with 50,000 credits per month can build new landing pages every week, produce campaign and product pages on demand, translate everything into three languages, and generate custom images for all of it. Top up AI credits anytime from your account dashboard. Credits are separate from your DXPR Builder subscription, so you only pay for what you use.

Our credits are competitively priced at just 50 cents per 1,000 credits! See our pricing page for more information.

What happens when I run out?

AI features pause until your credits reset next month. We are adding usage alerts so you always know where you stand.

How is DXPR Builder different from Drupal Canvas?

DXPR Builder has been rebuilt as an AI-first experience, greatly enhancing editor productivity while prioritizing our product-design for content marketers more than site builders, a refreshing switch from Drupal Canvas, where those roles often feel reversed in the UX. Moreover, by storing all layouts as standard Bootstrap HTML, it ensures your content investment remains portable and vendor-agnostic, empowering you to create well-documented marketing assets that thrive beyond the Drupal ecosystem.

DXPR Builder has commercial support, enterprise-grade security, hundreds of advanced elements and features, all designed for Drupal-bound content teams!

Get Started in Five Minutes

1. Update: composer require 'drupal/dxpr_builder:^2.8'
2. Grab a free product key. No credit card needed, free forever for small sites.
3. Pick your AI provider, set your brand voice, and start prompting

Tell Us What You Think

This is the most ambitious release we have ever done. The granny with the bird photography hobby? She can build her website now. And so can your marketing team, your content editors, and anyone else who has something to say but no time to learn a page builder.

Try it, push it, break it, and tell us what you find. Drop feedback on the Drupal.org issue queue or through our support desk.

Try the Live Demo

01 Apr 2026 10:12am GMT

Speed up your PHPUnit Browser tests with this one trick

joachim Wed, 01/04/2026 - 08:14

01 Apr 2026 8:14am GMT

A lightening talk overview of what Capellic has learned about AI bots creating performance problems when aggressively traversing facets.

01 Apr 2026 4:00am GMT

Across the global web ecosystem, Drupal continues to hold a steady position as a platform shaped by long-term reliability and structured flexibility. Its presence in government systems, higher education platforms, and enterprise environments reflects a consistent preference for stability over rapid change. This pattern has allowed Drupal to remain relevant across regions where durability, governance, and scalability are essential.

A recent reflection shared by Josh Koenig on LinkedIn, drawing on Drupal.org usage statistics, argues that Drupal adoption has declined across successive major releases since 2016. He frames this as a broader economic challenge for the ecosystem, pointing to reduced growth and a shift toward maintenance-driven work. While such data includes development environments and does not directly represent deployment scale, it continues to inform discussion about how Drupal's role is evolving.

Within this context, Drupal's role appears increasingly aligned with long-term systems rather than rapid expansion cycles. Much of the work around Drupal today centres on sustained platforms, incremental improvements, and continuity for existing implementations. This reflects how organisations engage with Drupal not as a short-term solution, but as infrastructure that supports complex digital operations over extended periods.

At the same time, Drupal continues to operate within a broader and changing technological landscape. Modern web development increasingly involves multiple layers, including frontend frameworks, composable architectures, and emerging AI-driven tools. In this environment, Drupal often functions as part of a larger system, contributing its strengths in content structuring, security, and extensibility.

The ongoing conversation signals a shift in how Drupal is positioned rather than a change in its foundational value. Its global adoption remains rooted in principles of openness, community-driven development, and support for complex digital experiences. As the web continues to evolve, Drupal remains part of that broader ecosystem.

EVENT

• Dries Buytaert Reframes Drupal's Role as AI Reshapes the CMS Ecosystem
• April Sides Receives 2026 Aaron Winborn Award at DrupalCon
• DrupalCamp Grenoble Keynote to Examine Drupal's Visibility Beyond Its Core Community
• DrupalCon Rotterdam 2026 Opens UX, Accessibility and Design Track for Submissions
• DrupalCamp Tokyo 2026 Opens Website and Call for Session Proposals
• DrupalSouth 2026 Wellington Opens Registration for May Event
• amazee.io Webinar to Cover Dependency-Track, SBOM Monitoring, and CI/CD Policy Gates

DISCOVER DRUPAL

• AI-Assisted Workflow Demonstrates Haven Template Setup Ahead of Stable Release
• Drupal MCP Server Module Stalls as Maintainer Seeks Funding Support
• AVA Module Introduces AI-Assisted Views Creation in Drupal
• Composer Plugin Adds Constraint Overrides for Drupal Module Compatibility
• Debate Grows Around Open Source Funding After Drupal Infrastructure Analysis
• Module Builder Gets Dedicated Documentation Site for Drupal Code Generation

DRUPAL COMMUNITY

• Dries Buytaert Calls for Responsible AI Code Contributions in Drupal

BOOKS

• Matt Glaman Publishes Drupal Caching Guide on Leanpub

FREE SOFTWARE

• Mautic Introduces Developer Certification to Standardise Open Source Expertise
• UN Launches Open Source Portal to Coordinate Collaboration Across Agencies

Additional developments from across the Drupal ecosystem were published during the week. Readers may follow The DropTimes on LinkedIn, Twitter, Bluesky, and Facebook for continuing updates. The publication also maintains a presence on Drupal Slack in the #thedroptimes channel.

Thank you.

KAZIMA ABBAS
Sub-editor
The DropTimes

31 Mar 2026 4:55pm GMT