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I had been considering a self-nomination for the Drupal Association At-Large Board Seat a few times. This year, I decided to throw my hat into the ring. I've been a bit busy with baseball season kicking off (three kids, three teams 🫠) that I haven't written a blog yet, but I will, explaining why I've considered now the right time. 

Today we are talking about the Custom Field Module, what it does, and why you might want to use it with guest Andy Marquis. We’ll also cover Facet Bot Blocker as our module of the week.

For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/505

• Meet the Guest: Andy Marquee
• Module of the Week: Facet Bot Blocker
• Exploring the Custom Field Module
• Benefits and Use Cases of Custom Field Module
• Custom Field Module vs. Other Solutions
• Advanced Features and Integrations
• Reflecting on Past Projects and Key Value
• Use Cases and Flexibility of Custom Fields
• Advanced Features and Integrations
• Challenges and Limitations
• Future Roadmap and Improvements

Custom Field Module

Andy Marquis - drupal.org/project/custom_field apmsooner

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

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu

• Brief description:
  • Have you been looking for an inexpensive way to mitigate an upsurge of bot traffic on your Drupal site’s faceted search pages? There’s a module for that
• Module name/project name:
  • Facet Bot Blocker
• Brief history
  • How old: created in Mar 2025, so about two months ago, by John Brandenburg (bburg) of Forum One
  • Versions available: 1.0.2 which support Drupal 10 and 11
• Maintainership
  • Actively maintained
  • Security coverage
  • Number of open issues: 4 open issues, one of which is a bug, but it did have a fix merged 4 days ago
• Usage stats:
  • 106 sites
• Module features and usage
  • A number of sites are seeing a huge upswing in bot traffic, and quite often a big part of that bot traffic is on one or more pages with faceted search
  • Crawlers try to request every permutation of every possible combination of facets. If your page has multiple facets, and in particular facets that accept multiple values, the number of permutations becomes huge
  • Facet Bot Blocker works by allowing you to set a maximum number of facet requests to allow, what error to return, and a custom HTML message to return to blocked user agents
  • If you have Memcache or Redis available, it’s recommended to use the appropriate module, and Facet Bot Blocker will automatically store its settings there for reduced database reads
  • The project page is also clear that if you are able to use a true Web Application Firewall (like Cloudflare or Akamai), that would be a better strategy. But if you don’t have one available, Facet Bot Blocker can help to mitigate the surges in bot traffic that are causing problems for many Drupal sites, particularly those hosted on platforms that charge based on usage

Dear Readers,

Drupal isn’t struggling because it’s weak. It’s struggling because it doesn’t know its true strength. Like an elephant nudged around by smaller animals, it forgets that it can knock down walls if it just turns and pushes. We have spent years celebrating flexibility, adaptability, and a proud open-source ethos. But in trying to be everything to everyone, Drupal often ends up being invisible to those who need it most.

As Alejandro Moreno López points out, Drupal’s real power lies in what it enables without custom code. It is a low-code platform that hides in plain sight, quietly powering some of the most complex digital experiences across various industries. However, without sharp, targeted messaging and tools that speak the language of business problems, that power remains locked behind a technical perception. Most people do not explore Drupal because they do not see what it solves. They see a CMS, not a solution.

What if that changed? What if Drupal led with pre-built, industry-specific solutions? What if it made the first five minutes inspiring instead of intimidating? The pieces are already there. The potential is proven. What Drupal needs now is to step into its strength with clarity, coordination, and a message that leaves no room for doubt. When the elephant finally moves with purpose, it will no longer be ignored.

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• Roland Obermair Announces Development of NextCloud WebDAV Client for Drupal

• Looking Beyond the Horizon at DrupalJam 2025
• Barcamp Perpignan 2025 to Host In-Person Drupal Event on June 19–21
• Stanford WebCamp 2025: What We Hosted, Heard, and Learned
• Annertech and Platform.sh Sponsor Networking Reception at LocalGov Drupal Camp 2025 in Westminster
• Get Ready for a Week Full of Drupal: June 2–8, 2025

• Pantheon Launches GitHub Integration, Upgraded Drupal Module, and Trust Center in Spring 2025 Update
   

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 
Alka Elizabeth 
Sub-editor, The DropTimes.