Drupal Planet

This Pride Month, the Drupal Association invited community members to share their voice, story, and perspective through a short questionnaire, an open-hearted call to celebrate who we are and where we belong.

In a time when many in the queer community may not always feel seen or safe, we want to reaffirm that the Drupal Association is a space rooted in inclusion, care, and visibility. Our goal is to spotlight the strength, joy, and diversity within the LGBTQ+ community around the world. Through shared stories like the one below, we hope to reflect the beauty of our global community and remind each other: you belong here.

This is a space where all identities are respected, celebrated, and uplifted, not just in June, but always. As stated in the Open Web Manifesto, the open web thrives on inclusion: everyone in the world, regardless of background, identity, wealth, or status, has a home on the open web.

Today, we’re honored to share reflections from Fei Lauren, an inspiring human, community-elected at-large board member and a Drupal Diversity & Inclusion initiative lead. Their story explores moments of vulnerability, history, solidarity, and global connection, reminding us of the power in simply being seen.

How is Pride celebrated in your city or country?

West Coast Canada is known as one of the best places in the world to live for the LGBTQIA+ community. But it’s a very common practice here to include ‘2S’ before the other letters. 2S stands for Two-Spirit, and it goes first to acknowledge and honor that Indigenous Peoples were here first.

Otherwise, Pride celebrations in many communities are very family-oriented. Face painting is popular, and I’ve also seen things like bouncy castles. 

Can you share a moment when inclusion really stood out to you, a personal story or memory?

I am genderqueer, and when I was first exploring neutral pronouns, the idea of putting pronouns in our Slack profiles came up at work. I didn’t realize it at first, but one of the managers I really liked and respected also used they/them pronouns.

We talked about it privately, and then they added their pronouns just before I did. I’ll never forget the anxiety I felt, followed by an incredible sense of relief that I wasn’t alone. I always try to be visible now. Sometimes, it just takes one person to shift that sense of vulnerability and make opening up feel safer.

What’s your favorite Pride-related fact, tradition, or symbol?

I recently learned that until the AIDS epidemic, the commonly used acronym was GLBT. Many medical professionals refused to treat patients who were HIV-positive, but the lesbian community stepped up as nurses and caregivers to provide support.

Changing the order of letters in the acronym, and the many variations used since, is done to honor this act of care and solidarity.

Is there a queer voice, an author, creator, or activist who has inspired or supported you?

I love Ivan Coyote. They have a book of letters from fans and their responses. I don’t cry easily, but some of the letters are so raw it’s impossible not to.

Pride celebrations here can sometimes feel like we’ve lost touch with our history and the ongoing struggle for respect, safety, and equality.

It feels important and powerful to tell those stories and make sure we don’t lose sight of how much work there is still to do in this world.

What’s one thing you love about the queer community you’re part of (in or outside Drupal)?

In Drupal, I love that the community is so global. I have learned a lot about what’s happening around the world. It’s easy to only see your own community and the struggles you and your friends face, the violence and heartbreak right in front of you.

But I love getting to celebrate wins and hold space for people globally. I’ve learned so much from the Drupal community. It has changed my relationship with queer activism and reminded me what I have to be grateful for. It also makes me feel like we really aren’t alone, and that gives me an incredible amount of hope.

Thank you, Fei, for your vulnerability, care, and presence in Drupal community. Your voice reminds us why representation matters and how simply showing up as yourself can make space for others to feel safe, seen, and supported.

To LGBTQ+ and queer members of our community, and to everyone reading, if you feel inspired to share your story this Pride Month, we welcome you with open arms. Every contribution helps build a more inclusive and loving web, one story at a time.

Want to share your own story? Submit your response here.

We also invite you to get involved with the Drupal Diversity & Inclusion (DD&I) initiative. Join the #diversity-inclusion channel on Drupal Slack and say hello! Learn more at drupaldiversity.com/get-involved.

Struggling with repetitive code when using Drupal's AI module for chat operations? Discover how the AI Helper module simplifies your development by streamlining common tasks, letting you focus on unique solutions instead of boilerplate.

Having written a couple of Drush scripts that utilise the Chat operation of the Drupal AI module (e.g. see part 1 in this series of Drupal AI articles) it was clear that certain operations were repeated in each task. I wrote a module, AI Helper, to provide a service that would avoid the need for repeated code.

It made sense to me to separate the code into three stages, each of which will be explained below:

1. Pre-processing
2. Processing
3. Post-processing

The first stage consists of converting the input into the format required for the Chat request and obtaining the Provider and Model.

Working back from the parameters of the Chat request to the simplest input to the service, the logic was as follows:

• The chat() call...

Over the last nine years DDEV has grown from a tiny side project to a development environment and ecosystem that serves about 17,000 weekly developer-users and is critical to so many developers' workflows.

We love this amazing open-source world that we're a part of. It's astonishing when communities can work together and of course the fact that we all stand on the shoulders of such giants like Linux, Debian, and hundreds of other projects.

What happens when a great project loses a key maintainer? A couple of years ago Bram Moolenaar, the maintainer of the Vim editor, passed away unexpectedly. Every project faces unexpected transitions, whether a maintainer steps back, changes focus, or, as happened with Bram, passes away. The Vim community did step up successfully, but that's not the only outcome possible for so many small projects.

What can we learn from Vim's experience, and how is DDEV positioned in comparison?

One thing that the Vim community discovered was that Bram's work was truly a full-time job, even with their incredible and active community.

Many people may think that DDEV is just a tiny project that could carry on without its maintainers, but that might not be true. Right now support, maintenance, and improvements for DDEV use the full-time and consistent effort of two full-time maintainers. That's why you get the level of support and responsiveness you do. Both maintainers are currently paid, but perhaps not at a salary level that you would accept.

• Distributed controls: DDEV has two main leaders, Randy Fay and Stas Zhuk, who both have full control of the GitHub ddev organization, and a couple of other people also have full administrative privileges. This is good; we're not dependent on one person. Both of us are fully trained and capable on all of the technologies and infrastructures used in DDEV's testing and release environments. (We would like to have more full-trained maintainers, unpaid or paid. If you love DDEV, come and join us and we'll train you.)
• Financial Organization: DDEV has its own fiscal organization, the DDEV Foundation, which is a US 501(c)(3) tax-exempt entity. The organization has its own bank account, and Randy and long-term collaborator Mike Anello are signers on the account, so it's not dependent on a single person.
• Financial Reporting: DDEV does track and provide financial reports at each Advisory Group meeting.
• Control of Communications: Both maintainers have full control of our social media accounts and Discord.
• Passwords and Other Secrets: We use a group 1Password setup to manage all of our secrets, so they're not known to just one maintainer.
• Accounts management: Thanks to great advice from Advisory Group member Andrew Berry and thanks to having a free Google Workspace account (for nonprofits) we are able to use Google Groups for key email addresses, and current maintainers can be added to those groups. That way changes to maintainership don't result in loss of access to key external accounts.

Vim had serious challenges in all these areas, as there was only one "owner" of the GitHub project, and financial setups were very much ad-hoc. Bram was truly the "owner" of the whole project.

We work hard to identify areas that are dependent on a single maintainer, and to resolve those. But it's a perpetual process!

• Governance: From the beginning of DDEV, Randy has been the leader, acting as what's commonly called a "Benevolent Dictator for Life", or "BDFL". While that's a common model in open source, it's not a great model for overall sustainability. The BDFL model means that leadership can be concentrated in one person, preventing the development of community decision-making capabilities. One of our key goals for 2025 is to at least start moving past that model.
• Regulatory: Randy has dealt with Colorado and US regulatory requirements, including getting the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt designation, changing the name of the organization to "DDEV Foundation", filing annual reports.
• Finance and Reporting: Randy does the bimonthly financial reporting, tracks invoices, corresponds with donors, sends thank-you notes to donors, pays maintainers.
• Promotion/Marketing: Randy seems to keep these roles year-in and year-out despite attempts to spread out the work
• Test Runner Maintenance: Although Stas knows everything and has full access to our extensive test runner infrastructure, many of the runners are in Randy's house, and when something has to be done physically to them, it becomes Randy's problem.

• Improved Marketing/Monetization: As discussed above, open-source projects generally have a hard time asking for money because people take them for granted. We do hope to move toward adding premium features and premium support options that will encourage organizations and individuals to step up to the plate and do their fair share of support.
• Financial: More than one person should know how to do (and have power to do) all the financial things, like paying contributors and other bills.
• Governance: Figure out how to move from BDFL to something that lasts beyond one person. A proposal is in progress.
• Write up regulatory and financial tasks: We have a good set of documents and a private repository that explain maintainer tasks. This all needs to be done for governance, regulatory, financial, and marketing tasks.
• You: DDEV is a collaborative open-source project. Are you interested in a role?

As of June, 2025, DDEV's monthly support is at the $7800 USD level. Our goal is $12,000. You can see this at any time on the top of ddev.com, and a full accounting updated daily is in the sponsorship-data repository. Our current bank balance is about $19,000 USD.

Do you have additional ideas, suggestions, or insight into how DDEV's future could be more sustainable? We would sure love to hear from you! Or get active and join our DDEV Advisory Group.

Do you have questions or want to talk (about sponsoring or anything else)? Contact us! or join us in Discord.

Have you signed up for the monthly DDEV Newsletter? We'd love to have you.

AI is reshaping how we build websites. Instead of creating everything from scratch, we're moving toward setting goals where AI helps deliver results.

Today we're launching a coordinated effort to accelerate AI innovation in Drupal:

✓ Clear strategy and shared vision
✓ Funded delivery team with full-time contributors
✓ $120,000 in operational funding
✓ Active work tracks: AI Core, Products, Marketing, and UX

Join us: https://www.drupal.org/ai/
Blog post: https://dri.es/accelerating-ai-innovation-in-drupal

Today we are talking about Automated Testing Kit demo Recipe, Why Automated Testing is important, and How this recipe helps with guest André Angelantoni. We’ll also cover Taxonomy Views Integrator as our module of the week.

For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/506

• What is Automated Testing Kit
• Features and benefits of Automated Testing Kit
• Cypress vs Playwright
• Where should these run
• Automated Testing Kit recipe
• Demo configuration
• Installing and setting up the Kit
• Using this on an existing site
• Managing tests and repositories
• Building and using recipes
• Debugging and troubleshooting tests
• Roadmap

• Automated Testing Kit Demo Recipe
• Automated Testing Kit
• Documentation
  • https://performantlabs.com/automated-testing-kit/automated-testing-kit
  • https://performantlabs.com/testor/introduction
• Thread on nightwatch replacement
• Testor
• Automated Testing Kit Intro Video
• Automated Testing Kit Philosophy
• Recipes list
• Testery
• Testiny
• Code generators
• Drupal forge

André Angelantoni - drupal.org/project/automated_testing_kit aangel

Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Norah Medlin - tekNorah

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• Brief description:
  • Have you ever wanted to customize the taxonomy display view for a specific vocabulary, or even a specific taxonomy term? There’s a module for that.
• Module name/project name:
  • Taxonomy Views Integrator
• Brief history
  • How old: created in Sep 2009 by Derek Webb (derekwebb1) though the most recent release was made by Kevin Quillen, who was a guest on the podcast in episodes 406 and 500
  • Versions available: 2.0.0 which works with Drupal 8, 9, 10, and 11
• Maintainership
  • Actively maintained
  • Security coverage
  • Test coverage
  • Documentation
  • Number of open issues: 13 open issues, 4 of which are bugs against the 2.0.x branch
• Usage stats:
  • 24,130 sites
• Module features and usage
  • After enabling this module, when you edit a vocabulary or a taxonomy term, users with the necessary permissions will see an option to specify a view to show tagged content, and you can also choose which display to use
  • You can create a new view from scratch, or clone the taxonomy/term/* view provided by core, or a view defined in code. Obvious it’s critical for the view to have a contextual filter for a taxonomy term
  • Using this module could allow you to customize the presentation on a view page, for example to make the exposed filters more relevant, or even to split out the content, for example if you wanted to list only news in the main display, and have events and blog posts listed separately in attachments
  • I found this module really helpful during some recent work on the Drupal Event Platform, so I thought I would share it with our listeners

Imagine a marketer opening Drupal and with a clear goal in mind: launch a campaign for an upcoming event.

They start by uploading a brand kit to Drupal CMS: logos, fonts, and color palette. They define the campaign's audience as mid-sized business owners interested in digital transformation. Then they create a creative guide that outlines the event's goals, key messages, and tone.

With this in place, AI agents within Drupal step in to assist. Drawing from existing content and media, the agents help generate landing pages, each optimized for a specific audience segment. They suggest headlines, refine copy based on the creative guide, create components based on the brand kit, insert a sign-up form, and assemble everything into cohesive, production-ready pages.

Using Drupal's built-in support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP), the AI agents connect to analytics tools and monitor performance. If a page is not converting well, the system makes overnight updates. It might adjust layout, improve clarity, or refine the calls to action.

Every change is tracked. The marketer can review, approve, revert, or adjust anything. They stay in control, even as the system takes on more of the routine work.

AI is changing how websites are built and managed faster than most people expected. The digital experience space is shifting from manual workflows to outcome-driven orchestration. Instead of building everything from scratch, users will set goals, and AI will help deliver results.

This future is not about replacing people. It is about empowering them. It is about freeing up time for creative and strategic work while AI handles the rest. AI will take care of routine tasks, suggest improvements, and respond to real-time feedback. People will remain in control, but supported by powerful new tools that make their work easier and faster.

The path forward won't be perfect. Change is never easy, and there are still many lessons to learn, but standing still isn't an option. If we want AI to head in the right direction, we have to help steer it. We are excited to move fast, but just as committed to doing it thoughtfully and with purpose.

The question is not whether AI will change how we build websites, but how we as a community will shape that change.

Drupal already has a head start in AI. At DrupalCon Barcelona 2024, I showed how Drupal's AI tools help a site creator market wine tours. Since then, we have seen a growing ecosystem of AI modules, active integrations, and a vibrant community pushing boundaries. Today, about 1,000 people are sharing ideas and collaborating in the #ai channel on Drupal Slack.

At DrupalCon Atlanta in March 2025, I shared our latest AI progress. We also brought together key contributors working on AI in Drupal. Our goal was simple: get organized and accelerate progress. After the event, the group committed to align on a shared vision and move forward together.

Since then, this team has been meeting regularly, almost every day. I've been working with the team to help guide the direction. With a lot of hard work behind us, I'm excited to introduce the Drupal AI Initiative.

The Drupal AI Initiative builds on the momentum in our community by bringing structure and shared direction to the work already in progress. By aligning around a common strategy, we can accelerate innovation.

The Drupal AI Initiative is closely aligned with the broader Drupal CMS strategy, particularly in its focus on making site building both faster and easier. At the same time, this work is not limited to Drupal CMS. It is also intended to benefit people building custom solutions on Drupal Core, as well as those working with alternative distributions of Drupal.

To support this initiative, we are announcing:

• A clear strategy to guide Drupal's AI vision and priorities (PDF mirror).
• A Drupal AI leadership team to drive product direction, fundraising, and collaboration across work tracks.
• A funded delivery team focused on execution, with the equivalent of several full-time roles already committed, including technical leads, UX and project managers, and release coordination.
• Active work tracks covering areas like AI Core, AI Products, AI Marketing, and AI UX.
• USD $100,000 in operational funding, contributed by the initiative's founding companies.

For more details, read the full announcement on the Drupal AI Initiative page on Drupal.org.

Over the past few months, we've invested hundreds of hours shaping our AI strategy, defining structure, and taking first steps.

I want to thank the founding members of the Drupal AI Initiative. These individuals and organizations played a key role in getting things off the ground. The list is ordered alphabetically by last name to recognize all contributors equally:

• Jamie Abrahams (FreelyGive) – Innovation and AI architecture
• Baddý Breidert (1xINTERNET) – Governance, funding, and coordination
• Christoph Breidert (1xINTERNET) – Product direction and roadmap
• Dries Buytaert (Acquia / Drupal) – Strategic oversight and direction
• Dominique De Cooman (Dropsolid) – Fundraising and business alignment
• Marcus Johansson (FreelyGive) – Technical leadership
• Paul Johnson (1xINTERNET) – Marketing and outreach
• Kristen Pol (Salsa Digital) – Cross-team alignment and contributor engagement
• Lauri Timmanee (Acquia) – Experience Builder AI integration
• Frederik Wouters (Dropsolid) – Communications and outreach

These individuals, along with the companies supporting them, have already contributed significant time, energy, and funding. I am grateful for their early commitment.

I also want to thank the staff at the Drupal Association and the Drupal CMS leadership team for their support and collaboration.

I'm glad the Drupal AI Initiative is now underway. The Drupal AI strategy is published, the structure is in place, and multiple work tracks are open and moving forward. We'll share more details and updates in the coming weeks.

With every large initiative, we are evolving how we organize, align, and collaborate. The Drupal AI Initiative builds on that progress. As part of that, we are also exploring more ways to recognize and reward meaningful contributions.

We are creating ways for more of you to get involved with Drupal AI. Whether you are a developer, designer, strategist, or sponsor, there is a place for you in this work. If you're part of an agency, we encourage you to step forward and become a Maker. The more agencies that contribute, the more momentum we build.

Update: In addition to the initiative's founding members, Amazee.io already stepped forward with another commitment of USD $20,000 and one full-time contributor. Thank you! This brings the total operating budget to USD $120,000. Please consider joining as well.

AI is changing how websites and digital experiences are built. This is our moment to be part of the change and help define what comes next.

Join us in the #ai-initiative channel on Drupal Slack to get started.

• Open-source leader with 290+ AI modules announces major coordinated initiative
• Transforms organic community innovation into unified product vision with industry backing
• Establishes dedicated AI team drawn from leading agencies to provide coordinated innovation at scale

June 9, 2025 – Portland, Oregon - Drupal today launched the Drupal AI Initiative, a comprehensive effort to democratize intelligent digital experiences for everyone and drive responsible AI innovation. With over 290 AI modules already available and integrations spanning 21 major providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, Azure, and Google Vertex, Drupal, the leading open-source CMS, has built substantial momentum in AI adoption. The new initiative channels this community-driven innovation into a coordinated product vision with dedicated leadership, funding, and strategic direction.

The initiative establishes a dedicated Drupal AI team drawn from top agencies globally, unified by an AI strategy that prioritizes human expertise over technological replacement. While most technology companies build AI systems that replace human decision-making, Drupal's AI approach centers on collaboration—amplifying expertise rather than replacing it.

Drupal already has a head start with our growing ecosystem of AI modules and active community," said Dries Buytaert, Drupal Founder and Project Lead. "What we are doing now is turning that creative energy into a coordinated product vision.”

The Drupal AI Initiative promises to fundamentally change how organizations approach digital experiences. Teams will create engaging, targeted content in days rather than weeks, while AI agents handle routine tasks like performance optimization and audience targeting. Content creators will focus on strategy and creativity as AI manages translation, layout generation, and SEO optimization automatically. The result is faster time-to-market for campaigns, better performance insights, consistent brand voice, and marketing teams freed from manual work to concentrate on strategic innovation.

Most AI solutions force organizations to choose between powerful capabilities and meaningful control. Drupal's strategy is built around four principles:

• AI-Human Partnership: Technology that makes people more capable, not less relevant
• Comprehensive Trust Infrastructure: Advanced governance framework with approval workflows, audit trails, and compliance tools for responsible AI management
• True Freedom of Choice: Use any AI provider without vendor lock-in
• Community-Driven Innovation: Development guided by real-world needs, not corporate roadmaps

"We're not just adding AI features," said Dries Buytaert, Drupal Founder and Project Lead. "We're rethinking what responsible AI leadership looks like. This is about building a foundation that organizations can trust with their most important digital experiences."

The initiative launches with unprecedented support from leading Drupal agencies worldwide, including founding members FreelyGive, Dropsolid, 1xINTERNET, Salsa Digital, and Acquia. This collaboration represents the equivalent of multiple full-time roles committed to development, with dedicated technical leads, UX designers and project managers.

Jamie Abrahams (FreelyGive), Baddý Breidert (1xINTERNET), Christoph Breidert (1xINTERNET), Dominique De Cooman (Dropsolid), and Kristen Pol (Salsa Digital) lead the initiative, representing the founding member agencies and bringing together diverse expertise in innovation, coordination, development, marketing, and community engagement.

Resources

• Strategy Document: drupal.org/ai/strategy
• Drupal AI Landing Page: drupal.org/ai  
• Dries’s Announces the AI Initiative: drupal.org/ai/announcement 

About Drupal Drupal powers over 500,000 websites worldwide, including NASA, the BBC, and government agencies across six continents. Since 2001, this open-source platform has helped organizations create flexible, secure digital experiences while maintaining complete control over their technology. Recognized as a Digital Public Good, Drupal generates an estimated $3.5 billion annually through its global ecosystem of agencies and service providers.

Media Contact 

Ryan Witcombe (Australia)
Director, Product Marketing, Drupal Association
[email protected]
+61 3 431 983 295

Nick Koger (USA)
Manager, Product Marketing, Drupal Association
[email protected]
+1 410 868 6425

The future of Drupal is AI-powered. Discover the groundbreaking initiative driving responsible, innovative AI integration to the Drupal ecosystem.

“In such an emergency as we are right now everyone needs to take more responsibility… and use whatever platform they have… to push in the right direction. I think that is our duty as human beings.”

Humanity’s greatest strength is our willingness to speak out—to oppose injustice, genocide, and hate—even when neutrality feels easier. Choosing silence often means accepting the unacceptable. As individuals and as a global society, we hold a collective duty to defend human dignity. When we embrace our responsibility to speak up, we help shape communities that uphold justice, empathy, and solidarity.

Drupal embodies this principle. Project leadership and contributors have consistently spoken out against racism, oppression, and violence. In 2020, Drupal founder Dries Buytaert affirmed that “Drupal is a force for good in the world,” renewing the project's commitment to justice and equality. The Drupal Association's official statement against racism encouraged the community to not only speak up but also take informed, intentional action. This includes educating ourselves, actively listening, and building inclusive spaces for all.

This isn’t just philosophy—it’s action. The Drupal Diversity & Inclusion initiative amplifies the voices of underrepresented individuals and supports genuine inclusion through mentorships, speaker training, and community-driven support. Contributors across the globe give their time not only to build software but to shape a culture rooted in empathy and fairness. The Drupal community proves that open source isn’t just about code; it’s about creating a world we want to live in.

Drupal also powers websites for humanitarian organisations like Human Rights Watch, UNICEF, and Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). These aren’t just technical achievements—they’re acts of alignment with values that matter. Supporting truth, justice, and human rights is built into the very fabric of what we create. Because speaking up isn't about making noise—it's about making a difference.

• The Code and Commitment That Carries Drupal: A Conversation with David Bekker
• Building Drupal, Building Community: Avi Schwab Talks

• Inside Drupal Autotesting: Expert Insights from Aliaksandr Shabanau
• Developer Enables 360° VR Video Playback in Drupal Using A-Frame.js
• Bhumika Madan Launches Smart FAQ Chatbot AI Module for Drupal Using Google Gemini

• Drupal Association Announces 2025 At-Large Board Election Candidates: Voting Starts 18 June

• How Drupal Events Like MidCamp 2025 Prioritize Accessibility and Inclusion in Tech Conferences
• DrupalCamp Poland 2025: What to Expect from the June 7 Conference in Warsaw
• Why the London Drupal Engineering Meetup on June 9 Is a Must-Attend for Web Developers in 2025
• DrupalCon Vienna 2025: Selected Session Notifications Sent to Speakers Today
• Splash Awards 2025 to Recognize Top Drupal Projects at DrupalCon Vienna
• Free Drupal AI Webinar Series Backed by Dropsolid, FreelyGive, and EU

• Drupal Association Pledges June Swag Shop Profits to LGBTQ+ Organization

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 and Facebook. You can also join us on Drupal Slack at #thedroptimes.

Thank you,

Sincerely,
Kazima Abbas
Sub-editor, The DropTimes

The Drupal IXP program officially launched a couple of months ago, marking a significant step in our community's effort to build future talent. Modeled after traditional apprenticeship approaches (with the Drupal-y twist of 250 contribution credits,) the program aims to connect newcomers at the beginning of their Drupal journey with organizations willing to hire and mentor them. While the initiative is poised to address a critical talent gap, its launch occurs during a challenging period for the Drupal community, prompting a reflection on the timing and rationale.

The primary challenge is the current landscape where many experienced Drupal developers are suddenly seeking employment. It is not unreasonable to assume that some percentage of these people will find non-Drupal jobs. Combine this potentiality with the fact that the Drupal developer community is getting older and that fewer and fewer new Drupal developers have been joining us suggests a long-term need for new talent. The single goal of the IXP program is to cultivate new Drupal developers so that we can maintain a community hearty enough to carry Drupal Core and Drupal CMS into the future.

Despite the external market conditions, the decision to launch the IXP program now was driven by the significant volunteer effort and organizational support from the Drupal Association. It just didn't make sense to not launch the program with the pending need so great, and while it had momentum. The program has reached a stage where it is ready to provide tangible opportunities for newcomers and benefits for participating organizations.

The IXP program focuses on individuals with less than three months of paid Drupal experience, specifically targeting that crucial transition point between learning and professional practice to bridge the gap between learning Drupal and securing the first professional role. It serves as a structured pathway and a "safe learning environment" to help new developers navigate this complexity and build their skills under the guidance of experienced mentors. By providing paid experience in real-life use cases with structured mentorship (at least one hour of mentorship for every ten hours worked,) the program directly addresses the difficulty newcomers face in gaining practical experience.

IXP developers are expected to have knowledge about Drupal (either gained on their own or via courses like Drupal Career Online or Professional Module Development) - the program isn't asking hiring organizations to provide basic Drupal knowledge.

For businesses, hiring new Drupal developers through the IXP program presents potential advantages including the fact that they are not entering the workforce with the same level of expertise or salary expectations as seasoned developers. The program allows organizations to shape talent according to their specific practices and needs, representing a strategic investment in future talent. IXPs gain paid work experience and build a portfolio, while organizations benefit from fresh perspectives and enthusiasm.

IXPs can also be a low-cost way for organizations to invest in learning about and leveraging new developments in the Drupal community, including Drupal CMS as well as Drupal AI modules and techniques. Other potential tasks that IXPs can perform for hiring organizations include Drupal core and module updates, Drupal site-building, and quality assurance. These tasks can be foundational for various projects, including those potentially for smaller clients.

Yes, launching the Drupal IXP program now comes at a time with challenges. However, we really can’t afford putting off such a sound solution to address the long-term health of the community by creating structured pathways for new talent. Supported by a dedicated community of volunteers as well as the Drupal Association, we reached a point where launching was the necessary step to start building the future talent pipeline, offering paid experience and mentorship to new developers while rewarding organizations for their investment in the ecosystem.

If you're a hiring organization and want to get involved, start here.

AI was used for the initial outline of this blog post.
 

At DrupalCon Asia in Singapore a few weeks ago, I delivered my traditional State of Drupal keynote. This event marked DrupalCon's return to Asia after an eight-year hiatus, with the last one being DrupalCon Mumbai in 2016.

It was so fun to reconnect with the Drupal community across Asia and feel the passion and enthusiasm for Drupal. The positive energy was so contagious that three weeks later, I still feel inspired by it.

If you missed the keynote, you can watch the video below, or download my slides (196 MB).

I talked about the significant progress we've made on Drupal CMS (code name Drupal Starshot) since DrupalCon Barcelona just a few months ago.

Our vision for Drupal CMS is clear: to set the standard for no-code website building. My updates highlighted how Drupal CMS empowers digital marketers and content creators to design sophisticated digital experiences while preserving Drupal's power and flexibility.

For more background on Drupal CMS, I recommend reading our three-year strategy document. We're about a quarter of the way through, time-wise, and as you'll see from my keynote, we're making very fast progress.

Below are some of the key improvements I showcased in my keynote, highlighted in short video segments. These videos demonstrate just 7 recipes, but we have nearly 20 in development.

Watching these demos, it will become very clear how much time and effort Drupal CMS can save for both beginners and experienced developers. Manually assembling these features would take weeks for a Drupal expert and months for a novice. These recipes pack a wealth of expertise and best practices. What once took a Drupal expert weeks can now be done by a novice in hours.

We're integrating AI agents into Drupal to assist with complex site-building tasks, going far beyond just content creation. Users can choose to have AI complete tasks automatically or provide step-by-step guidance, helping them learn Drupal as they go.

We're including enhanced search functionality that includes autocomplete and faceted search, delivering enterprise-grade functionality out-of-the-box.

With increasing global privacy regulations, marketers need robust compliance solutions, yet very few content management systems offer this out-of-the-box. I demonstrated how Drupal CMS will offer a user-centric approach to privacy and consent management, making compliance easier and more effective.

Our improved media management tools now include features like focal point control and image style presets, enabling editors to handle visual content efficiently while maintaining accessibility standards.

Our accessibility tools provide real-time feedback during content creation, helping identify and resolve potential issues that could affect the user experience for visually-impaired visitors.

Analytics integration streamlines the setup of Google Analytics and Tag Manager, something that 75% of all marketers use.

Drupal's new Experience Builder will bring a massive improvement in visual page building. It combines drag-and-drop simplicity with an enterprise-grade component architecture. It looks fantastic, and I'm really excited for it!

In addition to our progress on Drupal CMS, the product, we've made real strides in other areas, such as marketing, modernizing Drupal.org, and improving documentation. These are all important parts of the Drupal Starshot initiative.

Overall, I'm incredibly proud of the progress we've made. So much so that we've released our first release candidate at DrupalCon Singapore, which you can try today by following my installation instructions for Drupal CMS.

While we still have a lot of work left, we are on track for the official release on January 15, 2025! To mark the occasion, we're inviting the Drupal community to organize release parties around the world. Whether you want to host your own event or join a party near you, you can find all the details and sign-up links for Drupal CMS release parties. I'll be celebrating from Boston and hope to drop in on other parties via Zoom!

Finally, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has contributed to Drupal CMS and DrupalCon Singapore. Your hard work and dedication have made this possible. Thank you!

We did it: Drupal CMS 1.0 is here! 🎉

Eight months ago, I challenged our community to make Drupal easier for marketers, content creators, and site builders. Today, on Drupal's 24th birthday, we're making history with the launch of Drupal CMS 1.0.

With this release, you now have two ways to build with Drupal:

• Drupal Core serves expert users and developers who want complete control over their websites. It provides a blank canvas for building websites and has been the foundation behind millions of websites since Drupal began 24 years ago.
• Drupal CMS is a ready-to-use platform for marketing teams, content creators and site builders built on Drupal 11 core. When you install Drupal CMS, you get a set of out-of-the-box tools such as advanced media management, SEO tools, AI-driven website building, consent management, analytics, search, automatic updates and more.

To celebrate this milestone, more than 60 launch parties are happening around the world today! These celebrations highlight one of Drupal's greatest strengths: a worldwide community that builds and innovates together.

If you want to try Drupal CMS, you can start a free trial today at https://www.drupal.org/drupal-cms/trial.

Drupal CMS targets organizations with ambitious digital goals, particularly in mid-market and enterprise settings. The platform provides a robust foundation that adapts and scales with evolving needs.

Organizations often hit a growth ceiling with non-Drupal CMS platforms. What starts as a simple website becomes a constraint as needs expand. Take privacy and consent management as an example: while these features are now essential due to GDPR, CCPA, and growing privacy concerns, most CMS platforms don't offer them out of the box. This forces organizations to create patchwork solutions.

Drupal CMS addresses this by including privacy and consent management tools by default. This not only simplifies setup but also sets a new standard for CMS platforms, promoting a better Open Web – one that prioritizes user privacy while helping organizations meet regulatory requirements.

The privacy and consent management feature is just one of many 'recipes' available in Drupal CMS. Recipes are pre-configured packages of features, like blogs, events, or case studies, that simplify and speed up site-building. Each recipe automatically installs the necessary modules, sets up content types, and applies configurations, reducing manual setup.

This streamlined approach makes Drupal more accessible for beginners but also more efficient for experienced developers. Drupal CMS 1.0 launches with nearly 30 recipes included, many of which are applied by default to provide common functionality that most sites require. Recipes not applied by default are available as optional add-ons and can be applied either during setup or later through the new Project Browser. More recipes are already in development, with plans to release new versions of Drupal CMS throughout the year, each adding fresh recipes.

Drupal CMS not only reduces costs and accelerates time to value with recipes but also stands out with innovative features like AI agents designed specifically for site building. While many platforms use AI primarily for content creation, our AI agents go further by enabling advanced tasks such as creating custom content types, configuring taxonomies, and more.

This kind of innovation really connects to Drupal's roots. In its early days, Drupal earned its reputation as a forward-thinking, innovative CMS. We helped pioneer the assembled web (now called 'composable') and contributed to the foundation of Web 2.0, shipping with features like blogging, RSS, and commenting long before the term Web 2.0 existed. Although it happened long ago and many may not remember, Drupal was the first CMS to adopt jQuery. This move played a key role in popularizing jQuery and establishing it as a cornerstone of web development.

Curious about what Drupal CMS' AI agents can do? Watch Ivan Zugec's video for a hands-on demonstration of how these tools simplify site-building tasks – even for expert developers.

We don't know exactly where AI agents will take us, but I'm excited to explore, learn, and grow. It feels like the early days when we experimented and boldly ventured into the unknown.

Drupal has often been seen as complex, but Drupal CMS is designed to change that. Still, we know that simply creating a more user-friendly and easier-to-maintain product isn't enough. After 24 years, many people still hold outdated perceptions shaped by experiences from over a decade ago.

Changing those perceptions takes time and deliberate effort. That is why the Drupal CMS initiative is focused not just on building software but also on repositioning and marketing Drupal in a way that highlights how much it has evolved.

To make this happen, we've refreshed our brand and started reworking Drupal.org with the help of the Drupal Association and our Drupal Certified Partners. The updated brand feels fresher, more modern, and more appealing to a larger audience.

For the first time, the Drupal Association has hired two full-time product marketers to help communicate our message.

Our goal is clear: to help people move past outdated perceptions and see Drupal for what it truly is – a powerful, modern platform for building websites that is becoming more user-friendly, as well as more affordable to use and maintain.

Launching the Drupal CMS initiative was bold and ambitious, requiring extraordinary effort from our community – and they truly stepped up. It was ambitious because this initiative has been about much more than building a second version of Drupal. It's been a focused and comprehensive effort to expand our market, modernize our brand, accelerate innovation, expand our marketing, and reimagine our partner ecosystem.

When I announced Drupal Starshot and Drupal CMS just 8 months ago, I remember turning to the team and asking, How exactly are we going to pull this off?. We had a lot to figure out – from building a team, setting goals, and mapping a path forward. It was a mix of uncertainty, determination, and maybe a touch of What have we gotten ourselves into?.

A key success factor has been fostering closer collaboration among contributors, agency partners, Drupal Core Committers, Drupal Association staff, and the Drupal Association Board of Directors. This stronger alignment didn't happen by chance; it's the result of thoughtfully structured meetings and governance changes that brought everyone closer together.

After just 8 months, the results speak for themselves. Drupal CMS has significantly increased the pace of innovation and the level of contributions to Drupal. It's a testament to what we can achieve when we work together. We've seen a 40% increase in contributor activity since the initiative launch, with over 2,000 commits from more than 300 contributors.

The initiative required me to make a significant time commitment I hadn't anticipated at the start of 2024 – but it's an experience I'm deeply grateful for. The Drupal CMS leadership team met at least twice a week, often more, to tackle challenges head-on. Similarly, I had weekly meetings with the Drupal Association.

Along the way we developed new working principles. One key principle was to solve end-user problems first, focusing on what marketers truly need rather than trying to account for every edge case. Another was prioritizing speed over process, enabling us to innovate and adapt quickly. These principles are still evolving, and now that the release is behind us, I'm eager to refine them further with the team.

The work we did together was intense, energizing, and occasionally filled with uncertainty about meeting our deadlines. We built strong bonds, learned to make quick, effective decisions, and maintained forward momentum. This experience has left me feeling more connected than ever to our shared mission.

As exciting as this achievement is, some might ask if we've accomplished everything we set out to do. The answer is both yes and no. We've exceeded my expectations in collaboration and innovation, making incredible progress. But there is still much to do. In many ways, we're just getting started. We're less than one-third of the way through our three-year product strategy.

With Drupal CMS 1.0 released, 2025 is off to a strong start. Our roadmap for 2025 is clear: we'll launch Experience Builder 1.0, roll out more out-of-the-box recipes for marketers, improve our documentation, roll out our new brand to more parts of Drupal.org, and push forward with innovative experiments.

Each step brings us closer to our goal: modernizing Drupal and making Drupal the go-to platform for marketers and developers who want to build ambitious digital experiences — all while championing the Open Web.

We built Drupal CMS in a truly open source way – collaboratively, transparently, and driven by community contributions – proving once again that open source is the best way to build software.

The success of Drupal CMS 1.0 reflects the work of countless contributors. I'm especially grateful to these key contributors and their organizations (listed alphabetically): Jamie Abrahams (FreelyGive), Gareth Alexander (Zoocha), Martin Anderson-Clutz (Acquia), Tony Barker (Annertech), Pamela Barone (Technocrat), Addison Berry (Drupalize.me), Jim Birch (Kanopi Studios), Baddy Breidert (1xINTERNET), Christoph Breidert (1xINTERNET), Nathaniel Catchpole (Third and Grove / Tag1 Consulting), Cristina Chumillas (Lullabot), Suzanne Dergacheva (Evolving Web), Artem Dmitriiev (1xINTERNET), John Doyle (Digital Polygon), Tim Doyle (Drupal Association), Sascha Eggenberger (Gitlab), Dharizza Espinach (Evolving Web), Tiffany Farriss (Palantir.net), Matthew Grasmick (Acquia), Adam Globus-Hoenich (Acquia), Jürgen Haas (LakeDrops), Mike Herchel (DripYard), J. Hogue (Oomph, Inc), Gábor Hojtsy (Acquia), Emma Horrell (University of Edinburgh), Marcus Johansson (FreelyGive), Nick Koger (Drupal Association), Tim Lehnen (Drupal Association), Pablo López Escobés (Lullabot), Christian López Espínola (Lullabot), Leah Magee (Acquia), Amber Matz (Drupalize.me), Lenny Moskalyk (Drupal Association), Lewis Nyman, Matt Olivera (Lullabot), Shawn Perritt (Acquia), Megh Plunkett (Lullabot), Tim Plunkett (Acquia), Kristen Pol (Salsa Digital), Joe Shindelar (Drupalize.me), Lauri Timmanee (Acquia), Matthew Tift (Lullabot), Laurens Van Damme (Dropsolid), Ryan Witcombe (Drupal Association), Jen Witowski (Lullabot).

I also want to recognize our Marketing Committee, the Core Committers, the Drupal Association Board of Directors, and the Drupal Starshot Advisory Council, whose guidance and strategic input shaped this initiative along the way.

While I've highlighted some contributors here, I know there are hundreds more who shaped Drupal CMS 1.0 through their code, testing, UX work, feedback, advocacy and more. Each contribution, big or small, moved us forward. To everyone who helped build this milestone: THANK YOU!

I'm often asked, Will AI agents replace digital marketers and site builders?. The answer is yes, at least for certain kinds of tasks.

To explore this idea, I prototyped two AI agents to automate marketing tasks on my personal website. They update meta descriptions to improve SEO and optimize tags to improve content discovery.

Watching the AI agents in action is incredible. In the video below, you'll see them effortlessly navigate my Drupal site: logging in, finding posts, and editing content. It's a glimpse into how AI could transform the role of digital marketers.

I built two AI agents to help optimize my blog posts. Here is how they work together:

• Agent 1: Content analysis: This agent finds a blog post, reviews its content, and suggests improved summaries and tags to enhance SEO and increase discoverability.
• Agent 2: Applying updates: After manual approval, this agent logs into the site and updates the summary and tags suggested by the first agent.

All of this could be done in one step, or with a single agent, but keeping a 'human-in-the-loop' is good for quality assurance.

This was achieved with just 120 lines of Python code and a few hours of trial and error. As the video demonstrates, the code is approachable for developers with basic programming skills.

The secret ingredient is the browser_use framework, which acts as a bridge between various LLMs and Playwright, a framework for browser automation and testing.

What makes this exciting is the agent's ability to problem-solve. It's almost human-like.

Watching the AI agents operate my site, I noticed they often face the same UX challenges as humans. It likely means that the more we simplify a CMS like Drupal for human users, the more accessible it becomes for AI agents. I find this link between human and AI usability both striking and thought-provoking.

In the first part of the video, the agent was tasked with finding my DrupalCon Lille 2023 keynote. When scrolling through the blog section failed, it adapted by using Google search instead.

In the second part of the video, it navigated Drupal's more complex UI elements, like auto-complete taxonomy fields, though it required one trial-and-error attempt.

The results are incredible, but not flawless. I ran the agents multiple times, and while they performed well most of the time, they aren't reliable enough for production use. However, this field is evolving quickly, and agents like this could become highly reliable within a year or two.

In my mind, agents can be categorized as "explorer agents" or "native agents". I haven't seen these terms used before, so here is how I define them:

• Explorer agents: These agents operate across multiple websites. For example, an agent might use Google to search for a product, compare prices on different sites, and order the cheapest option.
• Native agents: These agents work within a specific site, directly integrating with the CMS to leverage its APIs and built-in features.

The browser_use framework, in my view, is best suited for explorer agents. While it can be applied to a single website, as shown in my demo, it's not the most efficient approach.

Native agents that directly interact with the CMS's APIs should be more effective. Rather than imitating human behavior to "search" for content, the agent could retrieve it directly through a single API call. It could then programmatically propose changes within a CMS-supported content editing workflow, complete with role-based permissions and moderation states

I can also imagine a future where native agents and explorer agents work together (hybrid agents), combining the strengths of both approaches to unlock even greater opportunities.

A next step for me is to build a similar solution using Drupal's AI agent capabilities. Drupal's native AI agents should make finding and updating content more efficiently.

Of course, other digital marketing use cases might benefit from explorer agents. I'd be happy to explore these possibilities as well. Let me know if you have ideas.

Building an AI assistant to handle digital marketing tasks is no longer science fiction. It's clear that, soon, AI agents will be working alongside digital marketers and site builders.

These tools are advancing rapidly and are surprisingly easy to create, even though they're not yet perfect. Their potential disruption is both exciting and hard to fully understand.

As Drupal, we need to stay ahead by asking questions like: are we fully imagining the disruption AI could bring? The future is ours to shape, but we need to rise to the challenge.