19 Nov 2025

feedDrupal.org aggregator

The Drop Times: Drupal Migration Taxonomy Audit – Part 1: Why Planning Matters More Than QA

In the first part of a new TDT tutorial series, Jeff Greenberg explains why taxonomy audits belong in the planning phase-not post-migration QA. Using real-world insights from Drupal 7 upgrade projects, he shows how proactive analysis reduces friction, errors, and cost during multilingual or complex site migrations.

19 Nov 2025 4:48pm GMT

18 Nov 2025

feedDrupal.org aggregator

Nonprofit Drupal posts: November Drupal for Nonprofits Chat

Join us THURSDAY, November 20 at 1pm ET / 10am PT, for our regularly scheduled call to chat about all things Drupal and nonprofits. (Convert to your local time zone.)

We don't have anything specific on the agenda this month, so we'll have plenty of time to discuss anything that's on our minds at the intersection of Drupal and nonprofits. Got something specific you want to talk about? Feel free to share ahead of time in our collaborative Google document!

All nonprofit Drupal devs and users, regardless of experience level, are always welcome on this call.

This free call is sponsored by NTEN.org and open to everyone.

Information on joining the meeting can be found in our collaborative Google document.

18 Nov 2025 3:43pm GMT

drunomics: drunomics Celebrates Sinduri Winning the Women in Drupal Award

drunomics Celebrates Sinduri Winning the Women in Drupal Award

Sinduri Guntupalli recognized in the Build Category at DrupalCon Vienna 2025 for her dedication to community organizing, advocacy, and open source work.

oliver.berndt

Sinduri Guntupalli recognized in the Build Category at DrupalCon Vienna 2025 for her dedication to community organizing, advocacy, and open source work.

18 Nov 2025 8:50am GMT

Specbee: 8 Ways to fully optimize images in Drupal (and boost your Core Web Vitals!)

Want a faster Drupal site? Start with your images. In this guide, you'll learn the smartest ways to optimize, compress, and deliver images on your site without losing quality.

18 Nov 2025 6:00am GMT

Drupal blog: How Sharp Europe Serves 120,000 Enterprise Customers with Drupal

Nara, Japan - Sharp Europe detailed how it built a digital infrastructure for one of the world's most complex B2B operations on Drupal, managing 120,000 enterprise customers across 48 countries with 17 sites in 19 languages.

The electronics giant generates €13.5 billion in annual revenue, with 40% coming from B2B operations that serve vastly different audiences - from 110,000 small enterprises requiring low-touch transactions to mid-market companies needing sophisticated engagement.

"Big, complex, broad, deep," said Jason Cort, who leads European product management and marketing for Sharp. "That's what our martech stack has to support."

Sharp executives on stage in Nara
Image: Shigeru Kobayashi - COO Executive Officer, Head of B2B, Sharp

The Scale Challenge

Sharp Europe operates 63 offices across 48 countries, supporting 11 currencies and multiple sales channels. The product portfolio spans document solutions, IT services, and professional display systems - all requiring a unified digital presence for 2,500 employees and 120,000 enterprise customers.

Six years ago, the existing martech stack "was past its sell-by date," Cort said. But a complete refresh - including CRM and ecommerce portals - meant significant investment. The business case had to be airtight.

The Right Technology and the Right Partner

The public website became the starting point: "the biggest shop window with a global audience." With 80% of the buying cycle happening online, the digital experience had to work.

Sharp needed three things: the right technology, the right partner, and the right ROI.

Drupal checked the technology boxes: enterprise scale, open source, cloud-ready, secure, with the right APIs. But technology alone wasn't enough.

"Even with the best tech in the world, we need the right partner," Cort said. "If you fail with security, there is a very high price to pay."

Sharp selected 1xINTERNET, a Diamond Drupal Certified Partner.

Results and Cost Reality

The implementation now spans 17 sites in 19 languages. Internal stakeholders are "truly delighted," particularly the marketing teams.

Traffic optimization has improved, directing consumer traffic appropriately while focusing resources on B2B journeys. The platform enables rapid A/B testing and accessibility compliance - critical for operating across European markets.

"The platform gives us the agility and flexibility we need," Cort said. "1xINTERNET is able to deliver quickly for us."

One finding surprised the team: "We've found building custom things for our needs in Drupal is more cost effective than buying an off-the-shelf solution and tailoring it to our needs."

Drupal now sits at the heart of Sharp Europe's entire martech stack, integrating with CRM, analytics, and commerce systems.

DrupalCon organizers and Sharp team on stage in Nara
Image: Members of hte DrupalCon Nara organizing team and Sharp Corporation, including Dries Buytaert, Jason Cort and Shigeru Kobayashi, and Baddy Breidert (1xINTERNET).

Lessons for Enterprise Buyers

Cort and Shigeru Kobayashi, Co-COO Executive Officer and Head of B2B at Sharp, shared three takeaways:

  1. Treat your Drupal partner as an extension of your team. Sharp works closely with 1xINTERNET as an integrated part of operations, not a vendor.
  2. Plan for ongoing investment, not one-time cost. Digital infrastructure requires continuous development and optimization.
  3. Don't compromise on quality, especially security. The consequences of cutting corners are too high.

"Finding the right partner is as important as the right platform," Cort said. "Drupal is absolutely the right choice. Sharp will be on the platform for many years to come."

Why Certified Partners Matter

Sharp's partnership with 1xINTERNET demonstrates the value of the Drupal Certified Partner program. DCPs have demonstrated expertise, committed to best practices, and invested in the Drupal ecosystem - exactly what enterprise buyers need when stakes are high.

For organizations evaluating Drupal, Sharp's six-year journey offers a clear data point: a €13.5 billion global business betting its digital infrastructure on open source, delivered through a certified partner.

The Drupal Association maintains a directory of Drupal Certified Partners at Drupal.org.

DrupalCon Asia continues through November 20 in Nara, Japan.

18 Nov 2025 2:36am GMT

Drupal Association blog: How Sharp Europe Serves 120,000 Enterprise Customers with Drupal

Nara, Japan - Sharp Europe detailed how it built a digital infrastructure for one of the world's most complex B2B operations on Drupal, managing 120,000 enterprise customers across 48 countries with 17 sites in 19 languages.

The electronics giant generates €13.5 billion in annual revenue, with 40% coming from B2B operations that serve vastly different audiences - from 110,000 small enterprises requiring low-touch transactions to mid-market companies needing sophisticated engagement.

"Big, complex, broad, deep," said Jason Cort, who leads European product management and marketing for Sharp. "That's what our martech stack has to support."

Sharp executives on stage in Nara
Image: Shigeru Kobayashi - COO Executive Officer, Head of B2B, Sharp

The Scale Challenge

Sharp Europe operates 63 offices across 48 countries, supporting 11 currencies and multiple sales channels. The product portfolio spans document solutions, IT services, and professional display systems - all requiring a unified digital presence for 2,500 employees and 120,000 enterprise customers.

Six years ago, the existing martech stack "was past its sell-by date," Cort said. But a complete refresh - including CRM and ecommerce portals - meant significant investment. The business case had to be airtight.

The Right Technology and the Right Partner

The public website became the starting point: "the biggest shop window with a global audience." With 80% of the buying cycle happening online, the digital experience had to work.

Sharp needed three things: the right technology, the right partner, and the right ROI.

Drupal checked the technology boxes: enterprise scale, open source, cloud-ready, secure, with the right APIs. But technology alone wasn't enough.

"Even with the best tech in the world, we need the right partner," Cort said. "If you fail with security, there is a very high price to pay."

Sharp selected 1xINTERNET, a Diamond Drupal Certified Partner.

Results and Cost Reality

The implementation now spans 17 sites in 19 languages. Internal stakeholders are "truly delighted," particularly the marketing teams.

Traffic optimization has improved, directing consumer traffic appropriately while focusing resources on B2B journeys. The platform enables rapid A/B testing and accessibility compliance - critical for operating across European markets.

"The platform gives us the agility and flexibility we need," Cort said. "1xINTERNET is able to deliver quickly for us."

One finding surprised the team: "We've found building custom things for our needs in Drupal is more cost effective than buying an off-the-shelf solution and tailoring it to our needs."

Drupal now sits at the heart of Sharp Europe's entire martech stack, integrating with CRM, analytics, and commerce systems.

DrupalCon organizers and Sharp team on stage in Nara
Image: Members of hte DrupalCon Nara organizing team and Sharp Corporation, including Dries Buytaert, Jason Cort and Shigeru Kobayashi, and Baddy Breidert (1xINTERNET).

Lessons for Enterprise Buyers

Cort and Shigeru Kobayashi, Co-COO Executive Officer and Head of B2B at Sharp, shared three takeaways:

  1. Treat your Drupal partner as an extension of your team. Sharp works closely with 1xINTERNET as an integrated part of operations, not a vendor.
  2. Plan for ongoing investment, not one-time cost. Digital infrastructure requires continuous development and optimization.
  3. Don't compromise on quality, especially security. The consequences of cutting corners are too high.

"Finding the right partner is as important as the right platform," Cort said. "Drupal is absolutely the right choice. Sharp will be on the platform for many years to come."

Why Certified Partners Matter

Sharp's partnership with 1xINTERNET demonstrates the value of the Drupal Certified Partner program. DCPs have demonstrated expertise, committed to best practices, and invested in the Drupal ecosystem - exactly what enterprise buyers need when stakes are high.

For organizations evaluating Drupal, Sharp's six-year journey offers a clear data point: a €13.5 billion global business betting its digital infrastructure on open source, delivered through a certified partner.

The Drupal Association maintains a directory of Drupal Certified Partners at Drupal.org.

DrupalCon Asia continues through November 20 in Nara, Japan.

18 Nov 2025 2:36am GMT

DDEV Blog: Fritz!Box Routers and DDEV

Fritz!Box router network settings showing DNS rebinding protection options

DDEV is designed so that most people never have to change the configuration of their local workstation, and that includes not having to edit their hosts file. All the details are in DNS Name Resolution and Wildcards.

However, one particular brand of router, the Fritz!Box, has a different DNS configuration than most other routers, and it includes DNS Rebinding Protection that blocks local development domains.

TL;DR: If you use a Fritz!Box router, add ddev.site to the router's DNS Rebinding Protection exceptions.

The Problem

When you first set up DDEV with a Fritz!Box router, you might encounter a failure to resolve the domain name when trying to access your *.ddev.site project, even though your site is accessible via the 127.0.0.1 direct URL given in ddev describe. This happens because Fritz!Box routers enable DNS Rebinding Protection that suppresses DNS responses pointing to your own network.

What is DNS Rebinding Protection?

DNS Rebinding Protection is a security feature that guards against a sophisticated attack technique. In a DNS rebinding attack, a malicious website tricks your browser into accessing services on your local network (like your computer, router, printer, or other devices) by manipulating DNS responses. Here's how the attack works:

  1. You visit a malicious website that includes JavaScript code
  2. The website's DNS initially resolves to the attacker's server
  3. The attacker then changes the DNS to point to a local IP address like 127.0.0.1 or 192.168.1.1
  4. The JavaScript code in your browser can now access local services, potentially extracting sensitive data or changing settings

Fritz!Box routers protect against this by blocking DNS lookups that resolve to local IP addresses like 127.0.0.1, 192.168.x.x, and other private network ranges. While this security feature protects against real attacks, it also blocks legitimate local development domains (like DDEV's ddev.site).

Why DDEV is Safe

DDEV's use of 127.0.0.1 and the ddev.site domain is intentional and safe-it's not a DNS rebinding attack. Here's why:

The Fritz!Box can't distinguish between a legitimate local development tool like DDEV and a potential DNS rebinding attack-both use domain names that resolve to 127.0.0.1. That's why you need to explicitly allow ddev.site as an exception.

The Solution

Rather than relying on DDEV's hosts file fallback, it's better to solve the underlying DNS problem by configuring your Fritz!Box router to allow the ddev.site domain.

Here's how to fix it:

  1. Access your Fritz!Box router settings - the factory defaults are http://fritz.box and http://192.168.178.1
  2. Navigate to Home Network (Heimnetz) > Network (Netzwerk) > Network Settings (Netzwerkeinstellungen)
  3. Look for the DNS rebinding protection section
  4. Add ddev.site to the exceptions list
  5. Save your settings

Fritz!Box DNS Rebinding Protection Settings with callouts showing where to add exceptions

After making this change, DDEV's DNS resolution will work as expected, and you can access your projects using the standard .ddev.site URLs.

Alternative Solutions

If you prefer not to modify your router settings, or you do not have access to them, you have two other options:

  1. Configure your computer to use a less restrictive DNS provider such as Cloudflare's public DNS (1.1.1.1)
  2. Use DDEV's hosts file fallback (this requires superuser privileges and modifies system files)

The router configuration approach is recommended because it preserves DDEV's design principle of not requiring system file modifications.

Additional Resources

Contacting Fritz!Box Support to Ask for ddev.site to be added to their exceptions

If you want to request that AVM (the makers of Fritz!Box) consider adding ddev.site to their default DNS Rebinding Protection exceptions, consider contacting their support team. A friend of DDEV has already done this, but more requests may help.

Thanks!

Thanks to Ingo Schmitt for investigating and demonstrating the fix. Thanks to npostnik for already having documented this in a German blog post.

Keep in touch!

We'd love to hear your experience. Join us in Discord or open an issue if you have success (or failure 😀). We're always trying to make DDEV better for you.

Assisted in compilation and editing by Claude Code.

18 Nov 2025 12:00am GMT

17 Nov 2025

feedDrupal.org aggregator

ImageX: One Module, Many Layers of Defense: How to Protect Your Drupal Site with Security Kit

When you manage a website, one of your biggest priorities is keeping it safe. The challenge is that the web is full of tricks that attackers use every day. Cross-site scripting (XSS), clickjacking, and cross-site request forgery (CSRF) are just some examples of the creepy terms you wish you'd never have to hear. This may result in lost data, malicious links, stolen login sessions, the unfortunate list could go on.

17 Nov 2025 7:41pm GMT

Talking Drupal: Talking Drupal #529 - MCP, Automators, and Agents

Today we are talking about MCPs, AI Automators, and AI Agents with guest Marcus Johansson. We'll also cover AI Ecosystem Recipe as our module of the week.

For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/529

Topics

Resources

Guests

Marcus Johansson - workflows-of-ai.com marcus_johansson

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

MOTW Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

17 Nov 2025 7:00pm GMT

Dripyard Premium Drupal Themes: What to look for when evaluating a Drupal theme

Choosing a theme isn't easy. There are a lot of choices including various free starter kits, non-standard page-builder themes, low cost commercial themes, and higher cost premium themes, such as what we sell.

Below we created a checklist you can use for any theme, regardless of vendor. We've included notes on how Dripyard addresses each topic so you can compare objectively.

Features

Does the theme style the normal Drupal user interface items such as pagers, breadcrumbs, the node preview toolbar, etc?

Like most content management systems, Drupal will expose various patterns on the front-end including items like the node preview toolbar, exposed filters, as well as more standard components like pagers, breadcrumbs, etc.

17 Nov 2025 5:46pm GMT

Community Working Group posts: Who Will You Nominate? The 2026 Aaron Winborn Award Opens Today

Every community has unsung heroes-people who show up, lend a hand, mentor newcomers, and make everyone around them better. In the Drupal community, we have a special way of recognizing these exceptional individuals: the Aaron Winborn Award.

Nominations are now open for 2026.

This isn't about code commits or issue credits as this award celebrates the human qualities that make our community truly special: service, integrity, kindness, and that rare willingness to go above and beyond.

Why This Award Matters

Aaron Winborn was more than a talented Drupal contributor - he was the embodiment of community spirit. Even with ALS, Aaron continued contributing, mentoring, and uplifting others until his passing in March 2015. Thanks to Hans Riemenschneider's suggestion and the Drupal Community Working Group's efforts, we've honored Aaron's legacy every year since, shining a spotlight on people who carry forward his spirit of generosity and commitment.

The winner receives more than recognition (though the applause at DrupalCon North America's plenary session is pretty special). They also receive a beautifully crafted physical award as well as free registration to DrupalCon North America.

Most importantly, they receive the knowledge that their work - often done quietly, without fanfare - has been seen and valued.

Who Should You Nominate?

Think about the person who:

  • Welcomed you when you were new to the community and (probably) a bit overwhelmed
  • Consistently makes local meetups happen, month after month
  • Patiently answers simple questions in Slack channels
  • Advocates for accessibility, inclusion, or community health
  • Organizes, teaches, translates, or documents without seeking credit

Their impact might be local or global, technical or social, recent or sustained over years. If they've made the Drupal community better through their character and contributions, we want to hear about them.

The Timeline

Submit your nominations by Friday, January 9, 2026. A selection committee made up of Community Working Group members and past winners will review all nominations and choose this year's honoree.

Note: Current CWG Conflict Resolution Team members and previous winners are not eligible for the award.

Past winners

Join these distinguished community members who've received the Aaron Winborn Award:

Submit Your Nomination Today

Nominations close on Friday, January 9, 2026.

Your nomination could shine a light on someone who's been making a difference all along. Don't let this opportunity pass - recognize someone extraordinary.

Calling All Creators!

Are you a designer, artist, or craftsperson who'd love to help create a future Aaron Winborn Award? The physical awards themselves are works of art, and we're always looking for talented creators to collaborate with. Reach out to the Drupal Community Working Group - we'd love to hear from you.

Questions? Contact the Drupal Community Working Group.

17 Nov 2025 5:31pm GMT

The Drop Times: Lighting the Ledger for PHP

Composer 2.9 delivered new CLI security improvements this week, but the bigger story for the PHP ecosystem is the work now underway on Packagist.org. With support from the Sovereign Tech Agency, the PHP Foundation, and Private Packagist, the team is building a transparency log aimed at strengthening PHP's supply chain. Given the scale of Packagist today, introducing systematic visibility into package activity has become a practical necessity.

The transparency log will surface security-relevant events through a web interface and an API. That includes changes to package ownership, source URLs, maintainers, version releases or removals, and updates to underlying git tags, along with account security actions such as two-factor authentication status changes and password resets. Making these events publicly accessible gives researchers, companies, and tool builders the data they need to monitor dependency changes, spot suspicious patterns, and investigate incidents more effectively.

Implementation has begun, with features rolling out incrementally. This work aligns with the OpenSSF guidance for secure package repositories and moves the PHP ecosystem closer to stronger, audit-ready supply chain practices. Looking ahead, the team is also preparing a new model for organizational package ownership, set to address long-standing issues with shared accounts and improve security for both companies and open-source projects.

EVENT

ORGANIZATION NEWS

TRAINING

DRUPAL COMMUNITY

TUTORIALS

We acknowledge that there are more stories to share. However, due to selection constraints, we must pause further exploration for now. To get timely updates, follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Bluesky, and Facebook. You can also join us on Drupal Slack at #thedroptimes.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Alka Elizabeth,
Sub-editor,
The DropTimes.

17 Nov 2025 2:56pm GMT

1xINTERNET blog: Key takeaways from DrupalCamp Scotland 2025

Explore the key takeaways from DrupalCamp Scotland 2025, highlighting open-source collaboration, community-driven innovation, and practical insights for digital teams.

17 Nov 2025 12:00pm GMT

Dries Buytaert: The product we should not have killed

A lone astronaut stands on cracked ground as bright green energy sprouts upward, symbolizing a new beginning.

Ten years ago, Acquia shut down Drupal Gardens, a decision that I still regret.

We had launched Drupal Gardens in 2009 as a SaaS platform that let anyone build Drupal websites without touching code. Long-time readers may remember my various blog posts about it.

It was pretty successful. Within a year, 20,000 sites were running on Drupal Gardens. By the time we shut it down, more than 100,000 sites used the platform.

Looking back, shutting down Drupal Gardens feels like one of the biggest business mistakes we made.

At the time, we were a young company with limited resources, and we faced a classic startup dilemma. Drupal Gardens was a true SaaS platform. Sites launched in minutes, and customers never had to think about updates or infrastructure. Enterprise customers loved that simplicity, but they also needed capabilities we hadn't built yet: custom integrations, fleet management, advanced governance, and more.

For a while, we tried to serve both markets. We kept Drupal Gardens running for simple sites while evolving parts of it into what became Acquia Cloud Site Factory for enterprise customers. But with our limited resources, maintaining both paths wasn't sustainable. We had to choose: continue making Drupal easier for simple use cases, or focus on enterprise customers.

We chose enterprise. Seeing stronger traction with larger organizations, we shut down the original Drupal Gardens and doubled down on Site Factory. By traditional business metrics, we made the right decision. Acquia Cloud Site Factory remains a core part of Acquia's business today and is used by hundreds of customers that run large site fleets with advanced governance requirements, deep custom integrations, and close collaboration with development teams.

But that decision also moved us away from the original Drupal Gardens promise: serving the marketer or site owner who didn't want or need a developer team. Acquia Cloud Site Factory requires technical expertise, whereas Drupal Gardens did not.

For the next ten years, I watched many organizations struggle with the very challenge Drupal Gardens could have solved. Large organizations often want one platform that can support both simple and complex sites. Without a modern Drupal-based SaaS, many turned to WordPress or other SaaS tools for their smaller sites, and kept Drupal only for their most complex properties.

The problem is that a multi-CMS environment comes with a real cost. Teams must learn different systems, juggle different authoring experiences, manage siloed content, and maintain multiple technology stacks. It can slow them down and make digital operations harder than they need to be. Yet many organizations continue to accept this complexity simply because there has not been a better option.

Over the years, I spoke with many customers who ran a mix of Drupal and non-Drupal sites. They echoed these frustrations in conversation after conversation. Those discussions reminded me of what we had left behind with Drupal Gardens: many organizations want to standardize on a single CMS like Drupal, but the market hadn't offered a solution that made that possible.

So, why start a new Drupal SaaS after all these years? Because the customer need never went away, and we finally have the resources. We are no longer the young company forced to choose.

Jeff Bezos famously advised investing in what was true ten years ago, is true today, and will be true ten years from now. His framework applies to two realities here.

First, organizations will always need websites of different sizes and complexity. A twenty-page campaign site launching tomorrow has little in common with a flagship digital experience under continuous development. Second, running multiple, different technology stacks is rarely efficient. These truths have held for decades, and they're not going away.

This is why we've been building Acquia Source for the past eighteen months. We haven't officially launched it yet, although you may have seen us begin to talk about it more openly. For now, we're testing Acquia Source with select customers through a limited availability program.

Acquia Source is more powerful and more customizable than Drupal Gardens ever was. Drupal has changed significantly in the past ten years, and so has what we can deliver.

As with Drupal Gardens, we are building Acquia Source with open principles in mind. It is easy to export your site, including code, configuration, and content.

Just as important, we are building key parts of Acquia Source in the open. A good example is Drupal Canvas. Drupal Canvas is open source, and we are developing it transparently with the community. Acquia Source will be an opinionated SaaS product, yet it will remain rooted in the open Drupal ecosystem and will contribute back to it.

Acquia Source does not replace Acquia Cloud or Acquia Cloud Site Factory. It complements them. Many organizations will use a combination of these products, and some will use all three. Acquia Source helps teams launch sites fast, without updates or maintenance. Acquia Cloud and Site Factory support deeply integrated applications and large, governed site fleets. The common foundation is Drupal, which allows IT and marketing teams to share skills and code across different environments.

For me, Acquia Source is more than a new product. It finally delivers on a vision we've had for fifteen years: one platform that can support everything from simple sites to the most complex ones.

I am excited about what this means for our customers, and I am equally excited about what it could mean for Drupal. It can strengthen Drupal's position in the market, bring more sites back to Drupal, and create even more opportunities for Acquia to contribute to Drupal.

17 Nov 2025 9:51am GMT

Drupal Association blog: DrupalCon Lands in Japan: Historic Momentum as Drupal Eyes Its Next Chapter

Nara, Japan - Drupal founder Dries Buytaert declared a "historic moment" for the platform at DrupalCon Asia today, pointing to four major initiatives running simultaneously that he says will transform Drupal: Drupal CMS 2.0 (launching early 2026), Drupal Canvas, site templates and marketplace, and the Drupal AI program.

"For 20 years people have been saying Drupal is too hard to build pages with. We are changing that," Dries said during a keynote Q&A with Pamela Barrone, CTO of Technocrat and Product Owner of Drupal CMS.

Each initiative has the potential to transform Drupal individually, Dries argued. Together, "the compounding of these ideas will be transformational."

Dries and Pam on stage in Nara
Dries Buytaert and Pamela Barrone on stage in Nara, Japan.

Drupal Canvas: Solving the 20-Year Problem

Dries said he's heard consistently from organizations large and small: "We need an easier page builder."

Drupal Canvas, the much-hyped new page builder from Acquia and built with contributions from agencies and the broader community, does exactly that.

The State of New York, with 140 Drupal websites and over 300 content creators, is already evaluating how Drupal Canvas will enable them to build pages while maintaining accessibility standards and brand compliance.

The tool balances competing needs: locking down certain elements to maintain brand consistency and accessibility, while providing flexibility for experts who need creative control.

"It actually makes building pages fun," Barrone said during the session.

AI as Competitive Advantage

Dries made a pragmatic case for AI integration, acknowledging mixed feelings in the community while arguing Drupal can't afford to ignore it:

"We can't ignore how it's changing pretty much everything we do - it's changing how people use websites, how they build websites, and how we create content."

His argument centers on fit: Drupal's structured content, versioning capabilities, and workflow management - features that have made it more complex for beginners - are exactly what AI needs to be reliable and reversible.

"Drupal has been relatively hard to use - AI can help fix that. It can help us overcome our weaknesses and elevate our strengths," he said. "Our competitors don't have the same structural strengths, and that makes Drupal uniquely placed."

At DrupalCon Vienna, Dries demonstrated AI generating complete landing pages from single prompts - potentially reducing what might take 300 clicks to around 30.

The Drupal AI initiative now includes 25 partner organizations contributing staff time, with 1,300 people in the Slack channel.

Site Templates to Collapse the Learning Curve

Site templates build on Drupal's recipe system, bundling modules, configuration, Drupal Canvas themes, and demo content into ready-to-use websites.

"Even an expert can take days or weeks to build a Drupal site," Dries explained. "Site templates remove that learning curve."

A marketplace on Drupal.org will let users browse and install templates for specific use cases. An MVP is expected in 2026, with 10-15 partners committed to building initial templates.

The Marketing Gap

Drupal needs to market itself against proprietary platforms with enormous marketing budgets. How this is achieved is a challenge for the open source project.

Despite packed conference sessions, Dries identified a critical challenge: "Outside, the word hasn't got out there. How do we get the message out to the millions of web developers who have an outdated view of Drupal?"

He emphasized this responsibility extends to the whole community: "We need everyone to change the mindset of millions of people around the world."

January 2026 and Beyond

When asked about the decision to start the Drupal CMS project, he acknowledged initial uncertainty: "I was nervous making this announcement 18 months ago - it's not easy to create that momentum."

His three-to-five year vision focuses entirely on growth: "Everything I'm trying to help with is all about growth. Marketing, Canvas, AI - it's all about growing Drupal."

Success metrics include increased installs, more contributors, more people in leadership roles, and sustained innovation across strategic initiatives.

"More people are contributing to Drupal than ever, especially to strategic initiatives," he said. "If we can keep it up, great things will happen."

DrupalCon Asia in Nara, Japan
Caption: DrupalCon Asia in Nara, Japan. Flickr image by: Jakub Piasecki, CC BY-SA 4.0

DrupalCon Asia in Nara

The conference, the first DrupalCon in Japan, reflects Drupal's growing presence in Asia-Pacific. Tim Doyle, CEO of the Drupal Association, noted that the region accounts for 32% of Drupal.org traffic, one-third of project activity, and 24% of top contributors.

Mayor Gen Nakagawa welcomed attendees with a goal to make Nara "the most Drupal friendly city in the world." Half the attendees are from Japan.

DrupalCon Asia continues through November 20.

For the full DrupalCon Asia schedule and session details, visit the official DrupalCon website.

File attachments:
DSC_6106.jpg
54927246924_f65299f0b1_k.jpg

17 Nov 2025 4:00am GMT

DDEV Blog: DDEV November 2025 Newsletter

Autumn Colors in Steamboat Springs, Colorado

💕 A Love Letter to DDEV!

As the year winds down, it's time to get serious about 2026 planning 📋. We'll have a meeting in the next few weeks talking about priorities for the new year. See some WIP proposals and contact us any time with your opinions↗ or to get an invitation to the meeting.

What's New

Community Highlights

Community Video Tutorials

DDEV Training Continues

Join us for upcoming training sessions for contributors and users.

Zoom Join Info: Link: Join Zoom Meeting Passcode: 12345

Events & Community

Governance: We have a Board!

The DDEV Foundation now has a formal board. Join us for our annual extended advisory group and board meeting (public; all are welcome): Watch for a blog post about the new board members! (Or sneak peak by reading the meeting notes.)

Sponsorship Update

As of today, the monthly sponsorship commitment is up to 70% of our goal, at $8,376. Thank you! That's up from 69% and $8,231 last month. → Become a sponsor↗

Stay in the Loop-Follow Us and Join the Conversation

Compiled and edited with assistance from Claude Code and Copilot.

17 Nov 2025 12:00am GMT