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15 Jan 2026
Drupal.org aggregator
DDEV Blog: Planning for another great DDEV year in 2026
2026 Plans and Notes
Every year we try to lay out a bit of a plan for the coming year.
One of DDEV's primary strengths is our connection to a wonderful community, so each year turns out a bit different than expected. As we listen to people's actual experience, we try to adjust. And of course as upstream changes bring new features and bugs, we get lots of fun things to work on that we could never have anticipated. The items listed here are notes about what we think we understand at this point, but the year ahead and user experience and requests will affect what really happens.
We look forward to your input as the year goes forward.
Community
Community is core to our strength and growth. We are committed to maintaining the outstanding support that we offer for free and keeping that communication line open. And we want to continue to grow the amazing corps of contributors who offer improvements to the DDEV ecosystem.
Board of Directors
In 2025 we established Board of Directors, but now we have to learn what that means. The Board will have to establish itself, begin helping to determine priorities, and find its way to a strong oversight role. Here are a few issues to toss to the board early:
- Governance strategy and technique. Meetings? Voting?
- Overall Marketing/Fundraising strategy, including Fundraising drive
- Consider spending more on AI (Higher level of Claude Code plans)
- Discuss and create AI strategy, including policy, guidelines, tools, etc.
- How many conferences to attend (and what conferences) and spending priorities
- Should we move toward a Freemium model with "premium" features? What infrastructure and code would be required?
Features and Initiatives
- Consider a general AI strategy for DDEV users. How can we support the community in its use of AI for web development? Many platforms (like Laravel) have explicit MCPs; people want to know how to use them with DDEV.
- Update macOS install blog + Xdebug usage blog (carried forward from 2025)
- AI Sandboxing as key DDEV feature (from issue)
- Consider MCP (for projects) as key DDEV feature
- Consider MCP for DDEV (experimental PR)
- Integration of mkcert CA without use of external
mkcerttool - Start a project without
ddev config, Consider offeringddev config --autoorddev configwhenddev startin a directory without config (issue) - Explore using real certificates instead of mkcert CA
- Subdomains for extra ports/services instead of separate ports. (Prereq for some web-based setups like coder). See the blog on this approach.
- Coder support for subdomains. Could codespaces use some proxy/redirect technique to route subdomains to main item, but have a header that determined how traefik would route it?
- Use a DDEV proxy on the host to allow commands like ddev list and ddev describe and ddev launch to work from inside the web container.
- Explore moving Mutagen completely into container (syncing between volume and bind-mount)
- Improved management of
.ddev/.env*files, marking DDEV-owned lines, etc. - More work on web-based setups like Coder and Codespaces and Dev Containers in general.
- Explore environment adjustments that might let users work "inside the web container" as if they were on a real host (use
composerinstead ofddev composer, etc). People can already do this withddev ssh, but that isn't directly compatible with VS Code or PhpStorm. - Serialize concurrent runs of
ddev startand similar commands. - Move the DDEV IntelliJ/PhpStorm plugin to the DDEV organization.
Procedures
- Randy and Stas have always done timekeeping and timesheet reporting, but will improve their reporting a bit with categories/projects in 2026. discussion.
- Explore additional benefits of being open source and 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We have a number of benefits already, including GitHub nonprofit status, etc. But we can probably get additional benefits from AWS, etc. (JetBrains and Docker also provide us open source benefits.)
2026 Planning Additional Notes
Recognized Risks
We are a very small organization, so we try to pay careful attention to the risks as we go forward. In many ways, these are the same as the 2025 noted risks.
- Key maintainer Stas lives in a very volatile situation in Ukraine, and none of us knows how to predict the future. Physical risks, communication risks, and financial transfer risks are always possible.
- Randy is not young and can always face new risks.
- The financial outlook for discretionary funding from agencies and hosting companies (and perhaps individuals) remains horrible.
- Any of our maintainers can become overworked or discouraged or can burn out. We take the risk of burnout and overwork very seriously and are careful to talk about them and try to prevent them.
- Mutagen maintenance and future: Mutagen is a critical part of DDEV, and it's in maintenance-only mode since Jacob went to work for Docker. It's outstanding in quality, so should last, and Jacob has been responsive when there are problems. Its future is not clear.
- Scope expansion could be unsustainable. We support so many different environments, and our testing is so enormous. Without the current expertise, we couldn't maintain the existing scope.
Minor Notes
Past Plans and Reviews
Previous plans and reviews have obviously framed this year's plans: 2025 Plans and 2024 review, 2024 plans
In preparing for this, we have been discussing these things in regular advisory group meetings and a specific brainstorming meeting.
We always want to hear from you about your experiences with DDEV as the year goes along!
Want to keep up as the month goes along? Follow us on:
15 Jan 2026 5:49pm GMT
A Drupal Couple: I Wanted to Celebrate Drupal's 25th. So I Built Something for Our Moms.
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Article body
January 15, 2026 marks 25 years since Drupal 1.0.0. Twenty-five years. From a simple message board to powering some of the world's most complex websites. I wanted to do something to celebrate, but not just write a "happy birthday" post. I wanted to test what's actually possible with Drupal today.
Anilu and I had found some recipe PDFs. Two Colombian ones that I had. Five or six Costa Rican ones from her side. We'd also been cooking from the Accademia Italiana della Cucina website for a while. Our moms are both 75+, they love cooking, and these recipes were scattered around... difficult to read, impossible to search.
So we had an idea. What if we built them something? A real site. Multilingual. Searchable. Something they could actually use and we could share with friends. And what if I did it using Claude Code and modern Drupal to see how far things have come in 25 years?
The result is https://laollita.es. It took 3 days.
The Challenge
Let me be honest about what I was facing.
The Spanish PDFs were challenging. Massive amounts of content. The OCR quality was inconsistent. Recipes formatted in ways that made extraction tricky. Getting clean data required multiple passes of reading and confirmation because of the sheer volume of information.
Beyond the content problem, I needed multilingual support with AI-assisted translations. I needed search that actually worked. Facets. Filters by country and region. An interface accessible enough for someone who didn't grow up with computers.
Could Drupal and AI actually handle this without turning into a month-long project?
The AI-Assisted Development Journey
I started with the Umami demo. This is important. Umami gave me a Recipe content type, a structure, a foundation. It functioned exactly like what Drupal Recipes and templates are designed to do... get you started with something real instead of building from zero. The repetitive work was already done, so I could focus on improvements.
From there, Claudito (my Claude AI assistant) became my development partner. Not a magic wand. A helper.
Here's what AI handled well:
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Analyzing PDFs and extracting recipe information
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Initial translation passes and export to JSON
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Creating migrate plugins to import recipes and translations
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A special migration plugin specifically for translations
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Building Views and fixing UX and CSS issues
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Search API integration with autocomplete and facets
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Creating a View to find recipes missing English translations
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Bulk operations for translation (this was 100% Claudito, with me directing it to read the VBO module to understand the approach, and re-reading the AI translate module to use the right plugins)
Here's where I had to step in:
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Redirecting AI to the right module, the right approach
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Making sure AI read the right code or files before doing anything in Drupal
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Guiding AI to follow best practices and modern Drupal development
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Decisions about architecture and information structure
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Changing fields to use more taxonomies to better standardize the recipes
Let me give you some examples. At one point, Claudito wanted to create a module to add CSS classes to a template. I redirected it to change the CSS to add selectors instead. Another time, Claudito started creating a custom module when the code could simply go in the custom theme. These redirections kept the project clean and maintainable.
Claudito let me focus on the decisions that matter. This is the human-in-the-loop approach I've written about before.
For translations, AI did most of the work in the first round. I imported those via the special migration plugin. But we still needed the View for recipes that we identified were missed in the first round, plus an extra PDF we found later. That View now serves as a way to bulk translate in the future when our moms or us add new recipes in Spanish or any other original language.
The Result
https://laollita.es is live.
Our moms can browse recipes in Spanish. Our friends can read them in English. The Italian originals are preserved. You can search by name, filter by country, filter by region. The interface is clean enough that someone who's 75 can use it without calling me for help.
Three languages. Thousands of recipes. Search, autocomplete, facets, AI translations. Three days. One person.
What This Means for Drupal at 25
Here's what surprised me. Not that it was possible. I knew Drupal could handle this technically. What surprised me was how quickly the pieces came together when you combine modern Drupal with systematic AI assistance.
The Umami demo acting as a Recipe/template meant the repetitive groundwork was already done, making modern Drupal more accessible than ever. The Drupal AI module meant translations weren't a separate nightmare. Claudito let me focus on decisions, guidance, and architecture. The ecosystem worked together.
And here's the forward-looking part. I didn't use Drupal CMS. I didn't use Canvas. I didn't use the newer Recipe installation tools. I decided to test it this way because Umami had already given us a solid foundation.
Imagine what this build would look like with those tools added. Drag-and-drop layout building. Even faster site assembly. More accessible for people who aren't command-line comfortable.
Drupal at 25 is not the Drupal I learned a decade ago. The learning curve is flattening as the ecosystem evolves. The AI integration is real and practical. The Recipe/template approach (demonstrated here with Umami) changes how fast you can get to something functional.
If you've been wondering whether Drupal is still "hard"... try building something. Give yourself a few days and a reason that matters to you. Then tell me what you built.
Happy 25th birthday, Drupal. Thanks for letting us build something for our moms.
About
Abstract
For Drupal's 25th anniversary, I built laollita.es-a multilingual recipe site-in 3 days using AI. Here's what modern Drupal can actually do today.
15 Jan 2026 3:27pm GMT
Drupal blog: Drupal Turns 25 Today
Twenty-five years! In the world of technology, hitting a quarter-century milestone while remaining a top-notch powerhouse of the internet is an achievement so rare it's almost unheard of. Today, we're popping the confetti and cutting the cakes around the world to celebrate a colossal journey. This isn't just a birthday for a piece of software; it's a testament to resilience, constant evolution, and the deep-seated belief in doing things the right way. Join us as we look back on 25 years of shared passion, contribution, and the incredible community that has made Drupal so powerful. Happy birthday, Drupal!
Trusted by millions of sites and applications, Drupal has been the secure, flexible backbone for everyone from global governments and prestigious universities to world-renowned NGOs, major media outlets, and countless ambitious startups. Drupal's versatility allowed it to power a wide array of systems far beyond traditional websites, including intranets, booking systems, learning platforms, data hubs, and IoT dashboards.
For a quarter century, Drupal remained true to its technical soul. Its strength remains in structured content, best-in-class workflow features-including moderation, granular permissions, and multilingual support-and delivery to various displays via reusable content and APIs. Under the hood, proven performance, precise caching, and a mature security process ensure scalability. Its core strengths of extendability, customizability, and openness solidify its status as a uniquely flexible and sovereign digital platform.
Not only technically capable itself, Drupal's design and culture inherently promoted sharing and reuse. This encouraged people to build widely capable and powerful general components, and contribute them back, a mindset that fueled the growth of over 50,000 modules.
But beyond the millions of sites, the technical power, and the tens of thousands of modules, Drupal's true magic lies in the people. It's a platform that created careers. For many, Drupal was the first step into the world of content management. For tens of thousands more, it blossomed into a fulfilling career. Developers, architects, designers, editors, trainers, marketers, agency founders-a full spectrum of digital careers have flourished around Drupal.
Drupal's influence stretches far beyond the codebase and business, it is also a world-class social network. It sparked friendships, and yes, even led to a few real life Drupal families. People who would otherwise never have met have become lifelong friends. We have learned together, collaborated on projects, and passionately argued over UIs, policies and APIs, but with the goal of emerging with a stronger connection. This vibrant, global community is the true essence of Drupal: a place where even disagreement comes from a shared passion, and where professional collaboration blossoms into genuine human friendship.
Without the community, Drupal wouldn't be here today. So raise a glass for yourselves! The thinkers, designers, marketers, organizers, testers, developers, maintainers, managers, documenters, trainers, reviewers, bugfixers, funders, accessibility professionals, translators, authors, photographers, videographers and countless others who made Drupal what it is.
Drupal is here today not because it chased trends. But because people cared and they did the right thing. Happy birthday, Drupal!
Thanks to Gábor Hojtsy, Frederick Wouters, Surabhi Gokte, Nick Vanpraet and Joris Vercammen for their contributions to this post.
15 Jan 2026 12:05pm GMT
14 Jan 2026
W3C - Blog
EPUB and HTML - Survey results and next steps
Mid-2025, the Publishing Maintenance Working Group (PMWG) ran a survey in the publishing community to ask: should we allow HTML in EPUB? The survey results and their discussions were invaluable in helping decide to not add HTML to EPUB 3.4, and to take a new approach on HTML and digital publications.
14 Jan 2026 12:38pm GMT
16 Dec 2025
W3C - Blog
TPAC 2025 Breakouts recap
This post gives highlights about the kind of breakout sessions held at TPAC 2025 and the improvements made this time.
16 Dec 2025 9:53am GMT
12 Dec 2025
W3C - Blog
What happens when you put developers, standards, and sushi in one room
This post gives a summary of the successful TPAC 2025 Hackathon.
12 Dec 2025 12:46pm GMT
11 Aug 2025
Official jQuery Blog
jQuery 4.0.0 Release Candidate 1
It's here! Almost. jQuery 4.0.0-rc.1 is now available. It's our way of saying, "we think this is ready; now poke it with many sticks". If nothing is found that requires a second release candidate, jQuery 4.0.0 final will follow. Please try out this release and let us know if you encounter any issues. A 4.0 … Continue reading
11 Aug 2025 5:35pm GMT
17 Jul 2024
Official jQuery Blog
Second Beta of jQuery 4.0.0
Last February, we released the first beta of jQuery 4.0.0. We're now ready to release a second, and we expect a release candidate to come soon™. This release comes with a major rewrite to jQuery's testing infrastructure, which removed all deprecated or under-supported dependencies. But the main change that warranted a second beta was a … Continue reading
17 Jul 2024 2:03pm GMT
17 Apr 2024
Official jQuery Blog
Upgrading jQuery: Working Towards a Healthy Web
jQuery's influence on the web will always be evident. When it was first introduced in 2006, jQuery became a fundamental tool for web developers almost immediately. It simplified JavaScript programming, making it easier to manipulate HTML documents, handle events, perform animations, and much more. Since then, it has played and continues to play a major … Continue reading
17 Apr 2024 5:00pm GMT
29 May 2023
Smiley Cat: Christian Watson's Web Design Blog
7 Types of Article Headlines: Craft the Perfect Title Every Time
When it comes to crafting an article, the headline is crucial for grabbing the reader's attention and enticing them to read further. In this post, I'll explore the 7 types of article headlines and provide examples for each using the subjects of product management, user experience design, and search engine optimization. 1. The Know-it-All The […]
The post 7 Types of Article Headlines: Craft the Perfect Title Every Time first appeared on Smiley Cat.
29 May 2023 10:20pm GMT
09 Apr 2023
Smiley Cat: Christian Watson's Web Design Blog
5 Product Management Myths You Need to Stop Believing
Product management is one of the most exciting and rewarding careers in the tech world. But it's also one of the most misunderstood and misrepresented. There are many myths and misconceptions that cloud the reality of what product managers do, how they do it, and what skills they need to succeed. In this blog post, […]
The post 5 Product Management Myths You Need to Stop Believing first appeared on Smiley Cat.
09 Apr 2023 5:28pm GMT
11 Dec 2022
Smiley Cat: Christian Watson's Web Design Blog
The Key Strengths of the Best Product Managers
The role of a product manager is crucial to the success of any product. They are responsible for managing the entire product life cycle, from conceptualization to launch and beyond. A product manager must possess a unique blend of skills and qualities to be effective in their role. Strong strategic thinking A product manager must […]
The post The Key Strengths of the Best Product Managers first appeared on Smiley Cat.
11 Dec 2022 4:43pm GMT
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