Drupal Showcase

Today we are talking about Drupal Forge, how it works, and why it’s changing Drupal with guest Darren Oh. We’ll also cover ECA VBO as our module of the week.

For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/497

Topics

• Elevator pitch for Drupal forge
• What is Drupal Forge built on
• What is the pricing model
• Does Drupal Forge only allow you to install Drupal CMS
• Drupal Forge and templates, was there an influence on Site Templates
• Why offer templates for Drupal Forge Camps
• Is Drupal Forge open source
• What is on the Roadmap
• How can people get involved

Resources

• Drupal Forge on Drupal.org
• Drupal Forge
• DevPanel

Guests

Darren Oh - drupalforge.org Darren Oh

Hosts

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Kathy Beck - kbeck303

MOTW Correspondent

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• Brief description:
  • Have you ever wanted a powerful and flexible way to create views bulk operations without writing code? There’s a module for that.
• Module name/project name:
  • ECA VBO
• Brief history
  • How old: created in May 2022 by mxh, a prolific maintainer in his own right, and an active member of the group that has made the ECA ecosystem so far-reaching
  • Versions available: 1.1.1 and 2.1.1, the latter of which supports ^10.3 || ^11
• Maintainership
  • Actively maintained
  • Security coverage
  • Documentation: sort of. The README has step-by-step instructions, and the project page has links to both an example model and a tutorial video
• Number of open issues: 7 open issues, 1 of which are bugs against the current branch
• Usage stats:
  • 320 sites
• Module features and usage
  • With the module installed, your site will have a number of Events available within ECA, specifically for defining models that can perform bulk actions on the selected items in a view. In my own experience the most useful event is VBO: Execute Views bulk operation (one by one)
  • From there, you can define the logic of what needs to happen to the selected items. I’ve used it for fairly simple operations like changing content to a specific moderation state, but you could define complex logic that is conditional on field values, site configuration, or even global factors like the time of day
  • With one or more models defined, you can now add a field to your view for ECA bulk operations and then select which eligible models you want available in that specific view
  • It’s worth adding that the ECA model can also include logic to define who should have access to perform a particular operation, which could be as simple as checking the role of the current user, but can be as complex as you need
  • I came across ECA VBO during some recent work on the Drupal Event Platform, which is already available to try out on Drupal Forge, but there should be a more formal announcement on that front soon

The experimental MCP Client module for Drupal, created by Marcus Johansson and co-maintained by James Abrahams, allows Drupal sites to connect with MCP-enabled systems like Slack, Figma, and Google Docs. The module supports MCP version 2 and OAuth authentication and is currently intended for local testing only.

Drupal developer Balint Pekker has implemented Claude AI in GitHub workflows to automate code reviews, offering inline feedback on pull requests and improving development consistency. The setup targets Drupal-specific files while skipping core and contrib code.

Images are the heart of any website’s design — they tell stories, capture attention, and shape the user experience. But to make a real impact, they need to be polished, properly formatted, and optimized for both aesthetics and performance.

 

Say hello to Hyperdrive—a blazing-fast, framework-free Drupal theme built for modern devs. Faster builds, cleaner code, and ready for the future of Drupal!

Seven years ago, I wrote a post about a tiny experiment: publishing my phone's battery status to my website. The updates have quietly kept coming ever since, showing up at https://dri.es/status.

Every 20 minutes or so, my phone sends its battery level and charging state to a REST endpoint on my Drupal site. Timing depends on iOS background scheduling, which has a mind of its own.

For years, this lived quietly at https://dri.es/status. I never linked to it outside the original blog post, so it felt like a forgotten corner of my site. Still working, but mostly invisible.

Even after seven years, people still mention it from time to time. So I decided to bring it out of hiding.

I added a battery icon to my site's header. It's a dynamically generated SVG that reflects my phone's battery level and charging state.

It's a little goofy. But that's the fun of having a personal website–you get to make it yours.

Long live the Indie Web.

Ask Freelock: Do I need a Web Application Firewall? Apr 12, 2025 By John Locke 0

Craig asks,

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I've always been drawn to working with images, and when responsive images came onto the scene, I dove deep into learning everything I could about them.
I've written extensively about Responsive images if you need a refresher, but today, let's focus on modern image formats. In particular, WebP.

WebP

WebP is a modern image format developed by Google that provides superior compression and quality compared to traditional formats like JPEG and PNG. It supports both lossy and lossless compression, transparency, and animation, making it a versatile choice for web images. WebP helps improve website performance by reducing file sizes, which leads to faster loading times and better user experience.

Is WebP widely supported?

Since 2020, all major browsers support WebP. (Check caniuse for details). My site, this site, uses WebP exclusively for most images and although it is not a big site, I still see performance improvements.

Updating Drupal to use WebP

You would think that a big upgrade like this would be a complex task but you'll be surprised to learn that enabling WebP for new and existing images in Drupal is straightforward. Let's quickly go over the steps.

1. Edit each of your image styles and add the Convert effect.
   

   Fig. 1: Selecting the Convert effect for an image style.

2. Select and add the WebP format to the image style.
   

   Fig. 2: Adding the WebP format to an image style.

That's it!

Fun fact!: WebP support was introduced to Drupal core in Drupal 9.2.0, which was released on June 16, 2021. Before this core integration, WebP support in Drupal was only available through contributed modules or custom code. The inclusion in core made the format's benefits available to all Drupal 9.2+ sites without requiring additional modules.

Demo

I did a quick and simple test to show the difference in file size when adding a typical JPEG image to an article, then converting it to WebP using the steps above. The test was done in Drupal 10.x.

First: Using a JPEG image

Using a JPEG image on an article node, shows a file size of 289kb.

Fig. 3: Example shows using a JPEG format.

Then: Using a WebP image

After converting the imag eto Webp by updating the image style of that image, the file size was reduced to 76kb. That's about 60% file size reduction.

Fig. 3: Example shows using a WebP format.

NOTE: This was a pretty basic comparison test. File size reduction will vary depending on original file zize, format, and other preferences on your site.

What about other formats like Avif?

The Avif image format is also a great option with many benefits. The browser support is really good at the time of this post (See caniuse), and it's worth looking into it as an alternative to WebP, or even combining the two depending on your media needs.

In closing

It's all about the small wins. This one is pretty simple but can provide significant performance benefits. Give it a try!

Resources

• Google's page on WebP
• WebP files explained
• Mozilla's Image file type formats guide

Open source, sometimes you keep up with the notifications, and sometimes the notifications keep up with you.

Ahead of Drupal Developer Days 2025 in Leuven, keynote speakers share what their sessions will cover—from AI and CMS usability to PHP, WebAssembly, and developer impact. Here's a look at the conversations shaping this year’s event.

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) introduces new EU-wide rules to ensure digital products and services are accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities. By June 28, 2025, all businesses and organizations that offer digital…

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Drupal cloud development using devcontainers Editor Fri, 04/11/2025 - 13:38

Hi there! What is the best way to improve Drupal development and encourage teamwork among development groups? This question is important for many developers, especially as remote teams and complex projects become more common. Setting up and maintaining traditional Drupal development environments can take a lot of time, often leading to problems and delays. In this article, your Drupal development company will look at how devcontainers can improve your Drupal cloud development process for the better.

TL;DR: DDEV was a huge force multiplier, enabling me to focus on writing a WordPress plugin to export WordPress content for use in Grav CMS. More information on the plugin can be found at the GitHub repository wp2grav_exporter.

Popular content managment systems like WordPress and Drupal store content in databases (MySQL/ PostgreSQL/ etc.). Grav CMS stores content and configuration in local files (Markdown and YAML respectively). Grav's simpler flat-file storage mechanism is one of the things that drew me to start dabbling with it.

Why consider leaving WordPress?

While the recent shenanigans from Automattic's CEO accelerated my work, it wasn't the primary reason I developed this content exporter. I fell in love with Grav development back in 2018 when I first started writing a Drupal 7 exporter, and I wanted to port something similar over to WordPress. I value data portability, empowering the end user to control where their content is used! In the end, it's about giving options.

Why DDEV?

DDEV is a fantastic tool, and it is perfect for my PHP development workflow. It made spinning up two local developlment sites a breeze. I normally relish building and configuring my own automated environments, but DDEV makes it so simple to configure local environments. Additionally, DDEV comes with many "quickstart" configurations, meaning that popular CMS's like Drupal and WordPress work out of the box with nearly all settings ready to go.

Development setup

I made two different directories, one for WordPress and the other for Grav. After running ddev config on each respective directory, ddev start on each starts serving the content.

I installed DemoPress in the WordPress environment to help generate random test content and users to export.

Xdebug

Step debugging is imperative while trying to inspect content in-flight. Xdebug needed to listen on two different ports to avoid collisions between the two sites, and the DDEV docs are informative on how to configure this. I personally use VSCode, but other IDE's should work just as well, too. Step debugging was crucial to finding appropriate data structures and information I needed my converter plugin to use in a Grav site.

Wp2grav_exporter WordPress plugin

The wp2grav_exporter plugin is the resultant labor of love. It automatically exports:

• Users and assigned roles
• Post Types, including custom types
• Posts and associated custom fields, including ACF fields
• File attachments
• Site metadata

Additional screenshots of example content exports can be found at the plugin's GitHub page.

After running the export, content was drag-dropped between my two DDEV directories, and I could immediately test how content looked. The exported post configurations are encompassed in a Grav plugin, so the end user is free to use whatever theme they want!

Final thoughts

DDEV has saved me countless hours with its easy setup and dependability. If you haven't yet taken it for a test spin, I can't recommend it enough!

Find an issue with my exporter? Submissions are welcome at the project's issue queue!

Drupal is more than just a content management system; it’s a gateway to innovation, creativity, and endless possibilities. Before stepping into the Drupal world, I saw CMS platforms as rigid structures with predefined functionalities. But Drupal? It completely changed my perception. It’s not just a tool, it’s a playground for developers, where ideas come to life, solutions evolve, and digital experiences are redefined.

As I began my journey with Drupal, I quickly realised that it’s more than just a platform, it's an ecosystem. From its modular architecture to a thriving open-source community, Drupal offers something for everyone, whether you’re a beginner like I was or an experienced developer looking to push boundaries. The more I explored, the more I realised that Drupal isn’t just about building websites, it's about creating dynamic, scalable, and future-proof digital experiences.

Drupal’s going big in Europe! A new European Drupal Association is in the works—get the scoop and join the conversation at Drupal Dev Days Leuven.

Laravel for Drupal Developers: Comparing Eloquent and Entity API admin Thu, 04/10/2025 - 16:50

Get CKEditor’s perspective on DrupalCon Atlanta 2025. From the Drupal Experience Builder to new plug-ins—here’s what’s shaping the future of Drupal.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here. The last few months were packed with projects — shipping features, handling migrations, managing infrastructure, and everything in between. Writing fell by the wayside. But recently, something clicked again. Dries’ recent post on coding with Claude sparked a familiar feeling: curiosity, a bit of wonder, and the urge to build and share again.

Exposing a Node.js App Over 80/443 on a Subdomain in DDEV

Have you ever needed to run a separate Node.js application alongside your main site in DDEV, and serve it securely over ports 80 and 443 on a custom subdomain? While DDEV has built-in mechanisms for exposing additional ports, sometimes you need more control, especially if you want to expos it through a domain like frontend.example.ddev.site instead of a port-specific URL. This is where Traefik, bundled with DDEV, becomes incredibly powerful.

In this post, we’ll walk through how to configure DDEV and Traefik to proxy requests from a subdomain directly to your Node.js app on port 3000 within the DDEV web container.

Why Not Just Use web_extra_exposed_ports?

DDEV's' web_extra_exposed_ports feature is great for making your service accessible via a specific port (e.g., (3000)). However, it doesn’t magically set up a subdomain for you to use on standard web ports (80/443). If you want frontend.example.ddev.site to map to your Node.js app over HTTPS, you need a reverse proxy rule. That’s where Traefik comes in.

Step 1: Update Your .ddev/config.yaml

In your project’s .ddev/config.yaml, define the project name and the additional hostname you want to use. For example:

name: example additional_hostnames: - frontend.example

(Optional) You can still use web_extra_exposed_ports to expose the Node.js port if you want:

web_extra_exposed_ports: - name: node-app container_port: 3000 http_port: 3000 https_port: 3001

However, for a subdomain over standard web ports, the critical part is the next step with Traefik.

Step 2: Create a Project-level Traefik Configuration File

In your project's .ddev/traefik/config folder add a file named frontend.yaml. In frontend.yaml, you’ll define two routers—one for HTTP (port 80) and one for HTTPS (port 443)—and a service that points to the Node.js app on port 3000.

http: routers: # Router for HTTP (port 80) example-web-80-http-frontend: entrypoints: - http-80 rule: Host(`frontend.example.ddev.site`) service: "example-web-3000" ruleSyntax: v3 tls: false priority: 100 # Router for HTTPS (port 443) example-web-80-https-frontend: entrypoints: - http-443 rule: Host(`frontend.example.ddev.site`) service: "example-web-3000" ruleSyntax: v3 tls: true priority: 100 services: # The custom service that routes to your Node app example-web-3000: loadbalancer: servers: - url: http://ddev-example-web:3000

Here’s what’s happening:

• Routers: Each router inspects incoming requests. If the hostname matches frontend.example.ddev.site, it passes the request to the example-web-3000 service.
• Service: Defines where to actually send the traffic. In this case, http://ddev-example-web:3000 is the internal address of the web container running on port 3000.

Step 3: Restart DDEV

Run:

ddev restart

DDEV will pick up your new Traefik configuration, and you should now be able to access your Node.js application at:

ddev launch https://frontend.example.ddev.site

No more messing with non-standard port numbers in your URLs!

Wrapping Up

By leveraging Traefik's routing capabilities, you can expose any service running in the web container on standard HTTP/HTTPS ports and map it to a dedicated subdomain. This approach keeps your development environment clean, user-friendly, and closer to production-like URLs.

If you’ve followed these steps, your Node.js application will be served seamlessly over frontend.example.ddev.site.

Further Reading

• DDEV Router Customization and Debugging (Traefik)
• Traefik Proxy Docs

Do You Have a Favorite DDEV Recipe? Contribute It!

We welcome community contributions to the DDEV blog and would love to have yours. The ddev.com repository has full details, and there's even a training session on how to do it. It's all just Markdown and we'll help!

In this in-depth interview with The Drop Times, long-time Drupal contributor and UI Suite founder Pierre Dureau opens up about nearly two decades in the Drupal ecosystem, the philosophy behind UI Patterns 2.0, and the growing complexity of design systems. He shares why Drupal is more than just a CMS, what most teams get wrong about frontend architecture, and drops an exclusive: his team is working on a new Display Builder module that could unify and simplify Drupal’s entire display layer. From SDC to WebAssembly on the server—this conversation goes deep into where Drupal is headed next.