fidzu : cms

Mike Anello and Rod Martin discuss the sharp decline in demand for beginner Drupal training. Drawing on data from their businesses, events, and other training providers, they explore factors including AI-driven self-service learning, Drupal's growing complexity for newcomers, and limited community-wide marketing. They also discuss how initiatives like Drupal AI and broader promotion efforts could help attract and support the next generation of Drupal users.

For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/cafe017

Topics Mike Anello

Mike, widely recognized by his Drupal.org username "ultimike," is a prominent figure in the Drupal community with over 20 years of experience as a developer, educator, and community leader. As the co-founder and vice president of DrupalEasy, a Florida-based training and consulting firm, he has been instrumental in shaping the careers of countless Drupal professionals through comprehensive programs like Drupal Career Online and Professional Module Development. Mike's contributions extend beyond education. He has been deeply involved in the Drupal ecosystem, previously serving as a core contributor to the Migrate module, co-maintaining several contributed modules, and actively participating in issue queues and documentation efforts. His leadership roles include membership in the Drupal Community Working Group and the Conflict Resolution Team, as well as organizing the Florida Drupal Users' Group and Florida DrupalCamp for over a decade. As the host of the long-running DrupalEasy Podcast, MIke provides insights into Drupal development, community news, and interviews with key contributors, fostering a sense of connection and ongoing learning within the community (DrupalEasy). His dedication to mentoring and community building has made him a respected and influential voice in the Drupal world.

Rod Martin

Rod has introduced more than 50,000 people to Drupal through his live and video training since 2011. He owns NavigateTomorrow and runs DrupalHelps - a site for site builders to get information and quick starts to using Drupal in their own businesses or non-profits.

Guests

Mike Anello - DupalEasy ultimike Rod Martin - DrupalHelps.com imrodmartin

Resources

The slow decline of beginner Drupal training The Site Builder Breakthrough - From Confusion to Confidence Drupal AI Initiative Promote Drupal

04 Jun 2026 4:01am GMT

A proposal to introduce "Module Families" on Drupal.org aims to help users compare contributed modules that solve similar problems through structured comparison pages and ecosystem signals. The proposal argues that Drupal's challenge is not excessive choice but insufficient context, an issue that becomes more important as Drupal CMS introduces curated module selections and opinionated workflows.

03 Jun 2026 2:06pm GMT

With the Commerce Recurring module, any Drupal Commerce website can create recurring orders that users can manage directly in Drupal. This is useful for donations, subscriptions, and memberships, especially for selling access to content. We created the module well before payment gateways like Stripe had robust recurring solutions in place with full webhook support.

However, the market has now evolved, partly because of the SaaS explosion. If you're looking for a solution to recurring payments, you have many options to implement them reliably beyond Commerce Recurring.

While before we would always lean toward using a native Drupal solution for recurring billing, now the answer is more nuanced. How should you implement recurring payments in Drupal Commerce?

Start by ruling out what you don't need

Before diving into frameworks and modules, it's worth asking whether you actually need Drupal Commerce at all for your subscription use case.

If your requirements are straightforward, like selling access to a user role that unlocks gated content, you could implement that with nothing more than Stripe Checkout and a webhook listener. A customer hits Stripe's hosted checkout page, subscribes, and your Drupal site receives a webhook notification. You grant the role. When Stripe tells you the subscription was canceled or a payment failed, you revoke it. No shopping cart, no checkout flow, no Commerce module required.

Some use cases genuinely are that simple, and adding unnecessary complexity doesn't serve anyone.

Read more

03 Jun 2026 1:45pm GMT