Join us THURSDAY, July 17 at 1pm ET / 10am PT, for our regularly scheduled call to chat about all things Drupal and nonprofits. (Convert to your local time zone.)

We don't have anything specific on the agenda this month, so we'll have plenty of time to discuss anything that's on our minds at the intersection of Drupal and nonprofits.  Got something specific you want to talk about? Feel free to share ahead of time in our collaborative Google doc: https://nten.org/drupal/notes!

All nonprofit Drupal devs and users, regardless of experience level, are always welcome on this call.

This free call is sponsored by NTEN.org and open to everyone. 

• Join the call: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81817469653

  • Meeting ID: 818 1746 9653
    Passcode: 551681

  • One tap mobile:
    +16699006833,,81817469653# US (San Jose)
    +13462487799,,81817469653# US (Houston)

  • Dial by your location:
    +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
    +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
    +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
    +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
    +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
    +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

  • Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kpV1o65N

• Follow along on Google Docs: https://nten.org/drupal/notes

View notes of previous months' calls.

Join us THURSDAY, July 17 at 1pm ET / 10am PT, for our regularly scheduled call to chat about all things Drupal and nonprofits. (Convert to your local time zone.)

We don't have anything specific on the agenda this month, so we'll have plenty of time to discuss anything that's on our minds at the intersection of Drupal and nonprofits.  Got something specific you want to talk about? Feel free to share ahead of time in our collaborative Google doc: https://nten.org/drupal/notes!

All nonprofit Drupal devs and users, regardless of experience level, are always welcome on this call.

This free call is sponsored by NTEN.org and open to everyone. 

• Join the call: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81817469653

  • Meeting ID: 818 1746 9653
    Passcode: 551681

  • One tap mobile:
    +16699006833,,81817469653# US (San Jose)
    +13462487799,,81817469653# US (Houston)

  • Dial by your location:
    +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
    +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
    +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
    +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
    +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
    +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

  • Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kpV1o65N

• Follow along on Google Docs: https://nten.org/drupal/notes

View notes of previous months' calls.

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We’re excited to invite training partners to submit proposals for DrupalCon Chicago 2026, taking place 23-26 March at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

DrupalCon is the premier gathering for the global Drupal community, bringing together developers, designers, strategists, and business leaders for a week of collaboration and knowledge sharing. This year, DrupalCon will highlight major innovations in Drupal CMS, including the rollout of Drupal CMS 2.0, and growing momentum around Drupal-powered AI tools and integrations. It’s a pivotal time in the Drupal ecosystem—and your training can help prepare attendees to thrive in this next era.

Training Day Details

• Date: Monday, 23 March 2026
• Format: Full-day trainings, split into two 3-hour sessions with a break for lunch
• Time: 09:00 – 16:00
• Model: Profit-sharing. If selected, you’ll be asked to provide a W9, electronic fund disbursement form, and signed agreement.

How to Submit:

To be considered, please submit a proposal via email to Meghan Harrell, Director of Community Programs at the Drupal Association, at meghan@association.drupal.org. Your proposal should include:

• Title and description of your training
• Level of experience required (beginner, intermediate, advanced)
• Key takeaways: What participants will learn and be able to do after the training

Deadline & Next Steps

• Proposal Deadline: Friday, 1 August 2025 (EOD)
• Review & Notification: Proposals will be reviewed the following week, with all applicants notified of their status by Monday, 11 August 2025.

Our goal is to finalize the training lineup in time for our Early Bird ticket launch on 15 September.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to meghan@association.drupal.org. We look forward to reviewing your proposal and potentially partnering with you at DrupalCon Chicago 2026!

We’re excited to invite training partners to submit proposals for DrupalCon Chicago 2026, taking place 23-26 March at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

DrupalCon is the premier gathering for the global Drupal community, bringing together developers, designers, strategists, and business leaders for a week of collaboration and knowledge sharing. This year, DrupalCon will highlight major innovations in Drupal CMS, including the rollout of Drupal CMS 2.0, and growing momentum around Drupal-powered AI tools and integrations. It’s a pivotal time in the Drupal ecosystem—and your training can help prepare attendees to thrive in this next era.

Training Day Details

• Date: Monday, 23 March 2026
• Format: Full-day trainings, split into two 3-hour sessions with a break for lunch
• Time: 09:00 – 16:00
• Model: Profit-sharing. If selected, you’ll be asked to provide a W9, electronic fund disbursement form, and signed agreement.

How to Submit:

To be considered, please submit a proposal via email to Meghan Harrell, Director of Community Programs at the Drupal Association, at meghan@association.drupal.org. Your proposal should include:

• Title and description of your training
• Level of experience required (beginner, intermediate, advanced)
• Key takeaways: What participants will learn and be able to do after the training

Deadline & Next Steps

• Proposal Deadline: Friday, 1 August 2025 (EOD)
• Review & Notification: Proposals will be reviewed the following week, with all applicants notified of their status by Monday, 11 August 2025.

Our goal is to finalize the training lineup in time for our Early Bird ticket launch on 15 September.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to meghan@association.drupal.org. We look forward to reviewing your proposal and potentially partnering with you at DrupalCon Chicago 2026!

Drupal 10 will be supported until December 2026

From Drupal 10 on, Drupal core has a new major release schedule with a long-term support phase, so that two major versions are supported at a time. We previously announced that Drupal 10 would be supported until mid- to late 2026, depending on when Drupal 12 was released.

We are updating the release schedule and have agreed that Drupal 10 will officially be supported until December 2026, regardless of whether Drupal 12 is released in June, August, or December. This fixed end-of-life date should provide more certainty for the ecosystem and make planning site upgrades easier.

Disruptive deprecations should now be scheduled for removal in Drupal 13.0.0

Drupal core uses a deprecation process to provide backwards compatibility and a continuous upgrade path between major versions. When new APIs are added, the old code is deprecated and scheduled for removal in a later major version. Under the continuous upgrade path, the new major version has the same API as the final minor version of the previous major, but with deprecated code removed.

Drupal 12 is scheduled for release in 2026, and its first possible release window is June 2026. This means that the next major version of core may have a stable version in less than a year, with its beta versions released as early as March. At the same time, the current maintenance minor version of Drupal 10 (10.5.x) will receive security coverage until June 2026.

As a result, contributed projects may add Drupal 12 support while Drupal 10.5 is still supported during early 2026, which means those core versions need to share the same important APIs. Therefore, disruptive deprecations in Drupal 11.3.x and higher should be scheduled for removal in 13.0.0 (rather than 12.0.0). This allows contributed modules to support both the next major release and the currently supported minors. This way, we will not break backwards compatibility with 10.5.x for important APIs.

Help us get ready for Drupal 12!

Core modules are actually not disruptive to deprecate, because we can create an equivalent package in contrib and provide sites a smooth upgrade path for these modules from Drupal 11 core to Drupal 12 contrib. Take a look at the list of modules and other dependencies planned for removal from Drupal 12, and consider helping move these issues forward.

Drupal 10 will be supported until December 2026

From Drupal 10 on, Drupal core has a new major release schedule with a long-term support phase, so that two major versions are supported at a time. We previously announced that Drupal 10 would be supported until mid- to late 2026, depending on when Drupal 12 was released.

We are updating the release schedule and have agreed that Drupal 10 will officially be supported until December 2026, regardless of whether Drupal 12 is released in June, August, or December. This fixed end-of-life date should provide more certainty for the ecosystem and make planning site upgrades easier.

Disruptive deprecations should now be scheduled for removal in Drupal 13.0.0

Drupal core uses a deprecation process to provide backwards compatibility and a continuous upgrade path between major versions. When new APIs are added, the old code is deprecated and scheduled for removal in a later major version. Under the continuous upgrade path, the new major version has the same API as the final minor version of the previous major, but with deprecated code removed.

Drupal 12 is scheduled for release in 2026, and its first possible release window is June 2026. This means that the next major version of core may have a stable version in less than a year, with its beta versions released as early as March. At the same time, the current maintenance minor version of Drupal 10 (10.5.x) will receive security coverage until June 2026.

As a result, contributed projects may add Drupal 12 support while Drupal 10.5 is still supported during early 2026, which means those core versions need to share the same important APIs. Therefore, disruptive deprecations in Drupal 11.3.x and higher should be scheduled for removal in 13.0.0 (rather than 12.0.0). This allows contributed modules to support both the next major release and the currently supported minors. This way, we will not break backwards compatibility with 10.5.x for important APIs.

Help us get ready for Drupal 12!

Core modules are actually not disruptive to deprecate, because we can create an equivalent package in contrib and provide sites a smooth upgrade path for these modules from Drupal 11 core to Drupal 12 contrib. Take a look at the list of modules and other dependencies planned for removal from Drupal 12, and consider helping move these issues forward.

On July 11, 2025, the Japanese Drupal community reached a significant milestone with the first-ever Drupal Contribution Day held in Tokyo. This groundbreaking event brought together developers, translators, and Drupal enthusiasts from across Japan for a full day of collaborative contribution to the Drupal project and the broader open web ecosystem.

Setting the Stage for DrupalCon Nara

This contribution day was strategically designed as part of our efforts to strengthen Japan's Drupal contributor base ahead of DrupalCon Nara in November 2025. With DrupalCon Nara featuring a dedicated contribution space for all three event days, we recognised the importance of preparing our rapidly growing Japanese Drupal community to actively participate in global Drupal development.

The event welcomed a diverse range of participants, from experienced developers looking to contribute bug fixes and patches to newcomers interested in translation work and community building. The inclusive atmosphere fostered collaboration between seasoned contributors and first-time participants, creating an ideal environment for knowledge sharing and skill development.

Empowering First-Time Contributors

A highlight of the day was the First Time Contributors Workshop, delivered in Japanese by Jimmy Cann from Ironstar. This workshop proved invaluable in breaking down barriers for new contributors, providing hands-on guidance on navigating Drupal's contribution processes, understanding issue queues, and making meaningful contributions to the project.

The workshop's success was evident in the enthusiastic participation throughout the day, with several attendees making their first contributions to Drupal core and contributed modules. Special thanks go to mradcliffe, ninelivesblackcat, and larowlan for their support.

Tackling Real-World Issues

After Jim's contribution workshop, participants broke off into three groups focused on contribution relevant to the local community and users:

Transliteration: Contributors worked on an issue with transliteration where Japanese text was incorrectly being transliterated as Chinese and were able to get a proof of concept running. This work directly impacts the user experience for Japanese Drupal sites.

Metatag Module Improvements: Contributors focused on testing and raising an MR for this issue where canonical link issues in the Metatag module, particularly problems affecting multilingual sites where canonical links weren't properly referencing the current language page. 

Core Enhancements: These contributors worked on updating core functionality with the removal of deprecated UIEvent.which usage found in this issue.

CKEditor Integration: Tested problems raised in this issue related to image handling and element spacing that affect content editor experiences.

User Guide Translation: The user guide for Japanese has not but updated for many years and has a lot of gaps where no translation exists at all. The team commenced on creating new issues to provide translations for missing pages and updates for existing pages with the goal of eventually having a 100% translation into Japanese.

Community Spirit and Collaboration

Japan is already home to a collection of experienced contributors and we were grateful to have some of them attend and help in the mentoring experience. As with other Drupal communities spread across the world, this was another contribution event where there was a natural emphasis on sharing, collaboration, and inclusiveness. 

Acknowledgments

The success of this inaugural event would not have been possible without the generous support of our sponsors and the dedication of our speakers and participants.

Special thanks to our speakers:

• Kensuke Naoe from Ironstar Japan
• Jimmy Cann from Ironstar Australia

Heartfelt gratitude to our sponsors:

• Genero
• Ironstar Japan
• Previous Next
• Pixel Onion
• Stirling Marketing

Most importantly, very special thanks to all attendees who volunteered their time and energy to make meaningful contributions to Drupal and the open web. Your dedication and enthusiasm made this event a resounding success.

Looking Forward

The inaugural Drupal Contribution Day Tokyo 2025 represents more than just a single successful event—it marks the beginning of a new chapter for Drupal contribution in Japan. As we approach DrupalCon Nara in November, we're excited about the momentum building within the Japanese Drupal community.

One of our central goals for planning DrupalCon Nara has been to ensure that local Japanese-speaking community members had an opportunity to engage in the conference in their own language, even though English is the primary language of the conference. We're excited to have nearly a third of all accepted sessions for Nara be in Japanese, and now to have an experience group of Drupal contributors who can act as Mentors for their local community in their own language.

The Future of Open Source in Japan

The inaugural Drupal Contribution Day Tokyo 2025 proved that when diverse minds come together with a shared commitment to the open web, great things happen. Here's to many more successful contribution days and a thriving Japanese Drupal community!

See you at DrupalCon Nara! 

Mike Richardson, Chair, Drupal Asia Steering Committee

On July 11, 2025, the Japanese Drupal community reached a significant milestone with the first-ever Drupal Contribution Day held in Tokyo. This groundbreaking event brought together developers, translators, and Drupal enthusiasts from across Japan for a full day of collaborative contribution to the Drupal project and the broader open web ecosystem.

Setting the Stage for DrupalCon Nara

This contribution day was strategically designed as part of our efforts to strengthen Japan's Drupal contributor base ahead of DrupalCon Nara in November 2025. With DrupalCon Nara featuring a dedicated contribution space for all three event days, we recognised the importance of preparing our rapidly growing Japanese Drupal community to actively participate in global Drupal development.

The event welcomed a diverse range of participants, from experienced developers looking to contribute bug fixes and patches to newcomers interested in translation work and community building. The inclusive atmosphere fostered collaboration between seasoned contributors and first-time participants, creating an ideal environment for knowledge sharing and skill development.

Empowering First-Time Contributors

A highlight of the day was the First Time Contributors Workshop, delivered in Japanese by Jimmy Cann from Ironstar. This workshop proved invaluable in breaking down barriers for new contributors, providing hands-on guidance on navigating Drupal's contribution processes, understanding issue queues, and making meaningful contributions to the project.

The workshop's success was evident in the enthusiastic participation throughout the day, with several attendees making their first contributions to Drupal core and contributed modules. Special thanks go to mradcliffe, ninelivesblackcat, and larowlan for their support.

Tackling Real-World Issues

After Jim's contribution workshop, participants broke off into three groups focused on contribution relevant to the local community and users:

Internationalisation and Localisation: The team worked on critical issues affecting Japanese users, including problems with content transliteration where Japanese text was incorrectly being transliterated as Chinese. This work directly impacts the user experience for Japanese Drupal sites and demonstrates the importance of having diverse, international contributors.

Metatag Module Improvements: Contributors focused on resolving canonical link issues in the Metatag module, particularly problems affecting multilingual sites where canonical links weren't properly referencing the current language page. This work has direct implications for SEO and site architecture in multilingual Drupal installations.

Core JavaScript Enhancements: Advanced contributors worked on updating core JavaScript functionality, including the removal of deprecated UIEvent.which usage, ensuring Drupal stays current with evolving web standards.

CKEditor Integration: The team addressed issues with CKEditor 5 integration, working on problems related to image handling and element spacing that affect content editor experiences.

Community Spirit and Collaboration

Japan is already home to a collection of experienced contributors and we were grateful to have some of them attend and help in the mentoring experience. As with other Drupal communities spread across the world, this was another contribution event where there was a natural emphasis on sharing, collaboration, and inclusiveness. 

Acknowledgments

The success of this inaugural event would not have been possible without the generous support of our sponsors and the dedication of our speakers and participants.

Special thanks to our speakers:

• Kensuke Naoe from Ironstar Japan
• Jimmy Cann from Ironstar Australia

Heartfelt gratitude to our sponsors:

• Genero
• Ironstar Japan
• Previous Next
• Pixel Onion
• Stirling Marketing

Most importantly, very special thanks to all attendees who volunteered their time and energy to make meaningful contributions to Drupal and the open web. Your dedication and enthusiasm made this event a resounding success.

Looking Forward

The inaugural Drupal Contribution Day Tokyo 2025 represents more than just a single successful event—it marks the beginning of a new chapter for Drupal contribution in Japan. As we approach DrupalCon Nara in November, we're excited about the momentum building within the Japanese Drupal community.

One of our central goals for planning DrupalCon Nara has been to ensure that local Japanese-speaking community members had an opportunity to engage in the conference in their own language, even though English is the primary language of the conference. We're excited to have nearly a third of all accepted sessions for Nara be in Japanese, and now to have an experience group of Drupal contributors who can act as Mentors for their local community in their own language.

The Future of Open Source in Japan

The inaugural Drupal Contribution Day Tokyo 2025 proved that when diverse minds come together with a shared commitment to the open web, great things happen. Here's to many more successful contribution days and a thriving Japanese Drupal community!

See you at DrupalCon Nara! 

Mike Richardson, Chair, Drupal Asia Steering Committee

DrupalCon has always been a conference by the community, for the community—and as we look ahead to DrupalCon North America 2026 in Chicago, we’re making thoughtful changes to ensure it continues to reflect those values.

After a successful DrupalCon Atlanta, we’ve taken time to reflect, gather feedback, and make updates that prioritize access, sustainability, and community connection.  Each of the changes outlined below is rooted in one or more of these values—whether it's improving affordability, building lasting relationships, or creating a more efficient and inclusive event experience. With guidance from the DrupalCon North America Steering Committee, we’re excited to share a refreshed ticket structure, updated volunteer policies, a reimagined Expo Hall, and a renewed focus on summits, trainings, and collaboration.

What’s New for 2026

Ticket Pricing: More Affordable, More Accessible

We’ve simplified and lowered the cost of general admission tickets to make DrupalCon more accessible—without sacrificing the quality of experience our community expects. These changes were driven by feedback from past DrupalCon attendees, the North American Steering Committee, and the community at large, all of whom expressed a strong desire for more affordable access to the event.

Early Bird registration opens September 15, 2025 and is open for 16 weeks!
Secure your ticket early to lock in the best rate.

Camp & Local Association Ticket Perks

For every 5 tickets purchased from a Drupal camp or local association, that community will receive 1 complimentary ticket to share with a deserving community member, with a max of 10 complimentary tickets per local camp or association. It's our way of reinvesting in local leadership and participation.

Updated Volunteer Ticket Policy

This change reflects our focus on access and sustainability. In our DrupalCon Atlanta recap blog, we highlighted how streamlined operations improved the event experience for attendees and volunteers alike. Building on that momentum, we recognized the need for clearer guidelines to ensure volunteer opportunities are distributed fairly and effectively.

We’ve updated the volunteer ticket structure to make it more equitable and scalable:

• Volunteer under 20 hours → 25% discount
• Volunteer 20+ hours → Complimentary ticket

These tickets are non-transferable and may not be combined with other discounts.

Previously, volunteer ticket codes were sometimes misused or distributed without proper oversight. These updated guidelines help preserve full complimentary tickets for those who contribute a significant amount of time and effort, while also creating new opportunities for others to attend at a reduced rate.

Additionally, we’ve streamlined the on-site registration process with self-check-in, reducing the need for a large number of on-site volunteers and allowing us to focus support where it’s most impactful.

Learn more and sign up to volunteer.

Summits & Trainings: Real Talk, Real Skills

Summits are one of DrupalCon’s most valuable opportunities for industry-specific collaboration and knowledge sharing. Designed to connect attendees working in the same verticals, these events offer focused access to speakers with real-world experience, engaging roundtable discussions with peers in similar roles, and meaningful conversations about shared challenges. Attendees walk away with practical takeaways and lasting connections, while participating sponsors have a chance to introduce themselves to leaders in the space in an organic, relevant way.

Taking place Monday, 23 March 2026.

Industry & Community Summits

Join peers in:

• Healthcare
• Higher Education
• Government
• Nonprofit
• Community

Each summit features two half-day sessions that do not conflict with the main conference program, creating space for meaningful discussion and idea sharing.

Lunch is not included with the Community Summit, but a lunch ticket add-on will be available for purchase during registration.

Trainings

DrupalCon Trainings remain at $500 and offer deep-dive, expert-led learning opportunities on a wide range of Drupal skills.

More Community Updates

You’ll notice more networking spaces, and informal meeting zones—especially in the Expo Hall and hallways. We’re doubling down on meaningful, unstructured connections.

These changes are only possible through thoughtful cost management and the continued support of our sponsors. Their partnership helps us keep ticket prices accessible while delivering the high-quality experience the community expects. We’re grateful to those who invest in DrupalCon and help us create an event that welcomes and supports everyone.

Traveling from Outside the U.S.?

The Drupal Association is happy to issue official invitation letters for those requiring a visa.

Request your visa letter here.

Letters are generated automatically—just complete the form and check your email (including spam folders).

Key Dates

Stay at the Heart of the Action

Hilton Chicago is DrupalCon’s official headquarters hotel—and it's where the magic happens.

From morning coffee chats to late-night strategy sessions in the lobby, this is where the community connects. Staying on-site helps you maximize your time, make spontaneous connections, and be part of the full experience.

Book your room at the Hilton Chicago.

Sponsorship Updates

We’re reimagining our sponsorship offerings to better connect you with the Drupal community—bringing fresh opportunities and updated packages designed for greater visibility, value, and impact.

Want to be the first to know when they go live? Email partnerships@association.drupal.org and we’ll make sure you're on the list.

Let’s Build What’s Next—Together

DrupalCon is more than just a conference—it’s the beating heart of our community. These changes help us keep that heart strong, inclusive, and accessible.

We can’t wait to see you in Chicago, 23-26 March 2026. 

Our work began well before the formal announcement of the AI Initiative. Drupal Developer Days, in April, for example was a focused week of meetings, healthy debate, collaboration and consensus building which laid the foundations for the Initiative. 

Launching marketing efforts

Much has already been achieved in raising awareness of Drupal AI. Thanks to the efforts of James Abrahams, Marcus Johansson, Frederik Wouters and many others, there is already a strong body of material in place — including high-quality presentations, conference talks, and resources such as workflows-of-ai.com — all showcasing the capabilities of Drupal AI.

With the announcement of the Drupal AI Initiative, comes support from The Drupal Association, permission to create pages on Drupal.org in prominent locations, agency to scale marketing efforts. Part of the backing offered by the 6 founding companies of the AI initiative is resources to deliver marketing, both time and money. This is already starting to deliver tangible results.

A growing team

In the beginning the team consisted of Frederik Wouters (Dropsolid) and myself (1xINTERNET). Immediately following Drupal Dev Days we started creating content for the new landing pages, working with Dries on the announcement video, collaborating with designers at 1xINTERNET to produce supporting imagery. In parallel staff from all the initiative founding companies were preparing exhibition stands, printed materials and social media in preparation to exhibit at AI Summit London.

Webinar Series with The European Commission (EC)

In the meantime James Abrahams (FreelyGive) and Dries were preparing for the launch of the Drupal AI webinar series in partnership with the EC. Following the resounding success of the Drupal@Europa Web Platform Hackathon, the European Commission agreed to host a webinar series which will be run by our team, the first recording of which is available to watch on YouTube. Be sure to register for the upcoming webinars in the series.

AI Summit London

Literally the day after the AI Initiative launch, we were heading for London to showcase Drupal AI at AI Summit, a leading business-focused conference on artificial intelligence, held annually as part of London Tech Week. Our exhibiting supports objectives of The Drupal Association to see Drupal's profile raised at major marketing and digital industry events globally.

Together with colleagues from Drop Solid, Freely Give, amazee.io, 1xINTERNET, the Drupal Association and Acquia, we came together with a shared purpose to represent Drupal AI at this event. It brought together stakeholders from government, the public and cultural sectors, and enterprise, all exploring how AI can be meaningfully integrated into their organisations.

We took the opportunity to capture some interviews introducing the AI Initiative and to explain how the focus it brings will see momentum in Drupal taken to another level.

Drupal AI Ask Me Anything

Our aim is to run regular Webinars to help keep the community aware of our progress, educate and raise awareness amongst potential customers and end users of the potential of Drupal AI offers. This month we organised our first webinar, an AMA aimed towards Drupal community members. You can access a recording and read highlights here.

Join our weekly AI Marketing meetings

With the launch announcement completed, we have now established weekly meetings on Monday 17:00 BST to accommodate our growing and global team. We’d love to have you join us. If you would like an invite, please drop us a message on #ai-initiative-marketing Slack, which is our primary collaboration channel.

We are pleased to now have several active contributors to the marketing team including: 

• Matthew Saunders (matthews)
• Kristen Pol (kristen pol)
• Lenny Moskalyk (lenny-moskalyk)
• Jason Lewis (jason-lewis)
• Maggie Schröder
• Alan Botwright
• Jennifer Griffin Smith
• Owen Milbury
• Nick Koger (nkoger)
• Matt Wetmore
• Frederik Wouters (wouters_f)
• myself (pdjohnson)

You can get a sense of the work we have planned in the AI Initiative issue queue. These are particularly well suited to anyone seeking to make non code contributions including content creation, marketing strategy, media outreach, project management, community affairs. There is plenty to do, we are happy to mentor and onboard new contributors. Start your journey today!

Photos: Paul Johnson available on Flickr (AI Summit, Drupal Developer Days)

Our work began well before the formal announcement of the AI Initiative. Drupal Developer Days, in April, for example was a focused week of meetings, healthy debate, collaboration and consensus building which laid the foundations for the Initiative. 

Launching marketing efforts

Much has already been achieved in raising awareness of Drupal AI. Thanks to the efforts of James Abrahams, Marcus Johansson, Frederik Wouters and many others, there is already a strong body of material in place — including high-quality presentations, conference talks, and resources such as workflows-of-ai.com — all showcasing the capabilities of Drupal AI.

With the announcement of the Drupal AI Initiative, comes support from The Drupal Association, permission to create pages on Drupal.org in prominent locations, agency to scale marketing efforts. Part of the backing offered by the 6 founding companies of the AI initiative is resources to deliver marketing, both time and money. This is already starting to deliver tangible results.

A growing team

In the beginning the team consisted of Frederik Wouters (Drop Solid) and myself (1xINTERNET). Immediately following Drupal Dev Days we started creating content for the new landing pages, working with Dries on the announcement video, collaborating with designers at 1xINTERNET to produce supporting imagery. In parallel staff from all the initiative founding companies were preparing exhibition stands, printed materials and social media in preparation to exhibit at AI Summit London.

Webinar Series with The European Commission (EC)

In the meantime James Abrahams (Freely Give) and Dries were preparing for the launch of the Drupal AI webinar series in partnership with the EC. Following the resounding success of the Drupal@Europa Web Platform Hackathon, the European Commission agreed to host a webinar series which will be run by our team, the first recording of which is available to watch on YouTube. Be sure to register for the upcoming webinars in the series.

AI Summit London

Literally the day after the AI Initiative launch, we were heading for London to showcase Drupal AI at AI Summit, a leading business-focused conference on artificial intelligence, held annually as part of London Tech Week. Our exhibiting supports objectives of The Drupal Association to see Drupal's profile raised at major marketing and digital industry events globally.

Together with colleagues from Drop Solid, Freely Give, Amazee.io, 1xINTERNET, the Drupal Association and Acquia, we came together with a shared purpose to represent Drupal AI at this event. It brought together stakeholders from government, the public and cultural sectors, and enterprise, all exploring how AI can be meaningfully integrated into their organisations.

We took the opportunity to capture some interviews introducing the AI Initiative and to explain how the focus it brings will see momentum in Drupal taken to another level.

Drupal AI Ask Me Anything

Our aim is to run regular Webinars to help keep the community aware of our progress, educate and raise awareness amongst potential customers and end users of the potential of Drupal AI offers. This month we organised our first webinar, an AMA aimed towards Drupal community members. You can access a recording and read highlights here.

Join our weekly AI Marketing meetings

With the launch announcement completed, we have now established weekly meetings on Monday 17:00 BST to accommodate our growing and global team. We’d love to have you join us. If you would like an invite, please drop us a message on #ai-initiative-marketing Slack, which is our primary collaboration channel.

We are pleased to now have several active contributors to the marketing team including: 

• Matthew Saunders (matthews)
• Kristen Pol (kristen pol)
• Lenny Moskalyk (lenny-moskalyk)
• Jason Lewis (jason-lewis)
• Maggie Schröder
• Alan Botwright
• Jennifer Griffin Smith
• Owen Milbury
• Nick Koger (nkoger)
• Matt Wetmore
• Frederik Wouters (wouters_f)
• myself (pdjohnson)

You can get a sense of the work we have planned in the AI Initiative issue queue. These are particularly well suited to anyone seeking to make non code contributions including content creation, marketing strategy, media outreach, project management, community affairs. There is plenty to do, we are happy to mentor and onboard new contributors. Start your journey today!

Photos: Paul Johnson available on Flickr (AI Summit, Drupal Developer Days)

"We'll add the tests later". Most of us have said this at some point in our software development career. But then "later" never arrives.

That is because implementing tests is hard. Setting up the test runners, writing the test cases, keeping them running; all of it requires extra effort. Even more effort is needed for end-to-end tests (E2E) since they touch every part of an application. However, this effort always pays off and in this post, I will share how we implemented end-to-end tests (E2E) on one of our Drupal projects so that you can save some of the effort needed to get started. We are very happy with how this approach turned out and we plan to use it on future projects too.

Meet ILO Live

ILO Live is the International Labour Organization (ILO)'s online video streaming platform. It hosts both live streams and recordings of events organized all across the world by the ILO.

Under the hood, ILO Live is powered by Next.js and a headless Drupal CMS. Most pages on the site are statically served by Next.js.

In this post, I will take you through how we implemented E2E tests on ILO Live.

The challenges of implementing E2E tests

A common approach when writing frontend tests is to use mocked API responses. But with ILO Live, we wanted to go a step further and use the actual CMS in the tests. By using the actual CMS in the tests, in addition to verifying whether the site works as intended, we can also verify whether changes to the CMS have not caused any functionality on the site to break. But to do this, we had to solve 2 major problems.

1. How do we orchestrate the CMS into different testing states from the test runner?
2. How do we quickly start the CMS during each test run?

Orchestrating the Drupal CMS using a private JSON-RPC API

The simplest way to orchestrate a Drupal CMS is to have a test runner click on various elements to create new entities and change their state. But this takes a lot of time to run, especially when multiple entities need to be created during each test run.

To solve this problem, we decided to create a private API using the JSON-RPC module. This API would only be enabled on development and testing instances of the CMS and it exposed several operations which the test runner could use to orchestrate the CMS into different states.

For example, the JSON-RPC API exposed a create.event method for creating new events.

{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "create.event",
    "params": {
        "type": "meeting",
        "title": "Aragorn meets Gandalf",
        "start_date": "2021-06-01 8:00:00",
        "end_date": "2021-06-01 17:00:00"
    },
    "id": 1
}

And a clean.content method for resetting the CMS to the initial state with no content set.

{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "clean.content",
    "params": {},
    "id": 1
}

We added similar methods for creating other entities on the site and for admin tasks such as reindexing the search index. ILO Live used AWS AppSync to receive real-time updates about the current state of events so to simulate this in the tests, we set up a testing instance of AppSync and implemented methods like the update.livestream method shown below to change the state of this instance.

{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "update.livestream",
    "params": {
        "event_id": "1",
        "status": "live",
    },
    "id": 1
}

Speeding up the Drupal CMS's startup time using Docker

Now we had to get the Drupal CMS to run while the test runner was running. We were familiar with using Cypress for implementing frontend tests so we decided to use the same for implementing the E2E tests. Since the E2E tests ran assertions on elements on the site / frontend, we decided to store the E2E tests within the frontend repo and use Github Actions to run them since the frontend repo was hosted on Github.

We used GNU Make and Docker Compose during development to run the CMS and its services (i.e. Maria DB and Redis) so initially we tried to clone the CMS and run the commands to start it. Docker is preinstalled by default on the ubuntu-latest runner on GitHub Actions so we were able to easily use it there.

# Simplified Github actions workflow for running the E2E tests
name: Tests
on: push
jobs:
  cypress:
    name: Run Cypress tests
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
      # Clone the CMS into a subfolder
      - name: Clone CMS
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          repository: github-org/ilo-live-cms
          path: ./cms
          # actions/checkout@v2 only has access to the current repo by default
          # A custom token needs to be provided to it for it to access a different repo
          # https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/keeping-your-account-and-data-secure/managing-your-personal-access-tokens
          token: ${{ secrets.CMS_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
          ref: develop
      - name: Start CMS
        run: |
          cd cms
          make
      # More steps to actually run the tests

# Simplified Makefile from the CMS
default: build install

up:
  @echo "Starting up containers for ilo_live..."
 docker compose up -d --remove-orphans

build: up
 @echo "Building ilo_live project development environment."
 docker compose exec -T php bash -c "composer install"

install:
 docker compose exec -T php bash -c "vendor/bin/drush si -y --existing-config --account-pass=\"admin\""
 docker compose exec -T php bash -c "vendor/bin/drush deploy"

# Simplified docker-compose.yml for the CMS and its services
services:
    mariadb:
        image: mariadb-image

    php:
        image: php-image
        volumes:
            - ./:/var/www/html

    redis:
        image: redis-image

This setup worked but it took around 2 - 4 minutes to run. Most of this was due to Composer and the Drupal site install.

This delayed each test run so we started looking into ways to improve it. The solution that we came up with was to create a self-contained Docker image for the Drupal CMS. This way, the test runner only needed to pull and run a single image to start the CMS.

To do this, we set up a Github Actions workflow on the CMS repo to build and push a development Docker image. This image had the JSON-RPC API enabled and it used a SQLite database instead of MariaDB.

# Simplied Dockerfile for building the development docker image
FROM drupal-image

# Replace the site files in the image with our own
RUN rm -rf /opt/drupal/*
COPY ./ /opt/drupal/

# Install SQLite and dependencies required by composer
RUN apt update && apt install -y sqlite3 git zip

WORKDIR /opt/drupal
RUN composer install
# Use custom settings for the development image
RUN cp docker/settings.bundle.php web/sites/default/settings.local.php
RUN vendor/bin/drush site:install -y --existing-config --account-pass=admin
RUN vendor/bin/drush deploy

// Simplified settings.bundle.php for the development image
 'sites/default/files/.ht.sqlite',
        'prefix' => '',
        'driver' => 'sqlite',
        'namespace' => 'Drupal\\sqlite\\Driver\\Database\\sqlite',
        'autoload' => 'core/modules/sqlite/src/Driver/Database/sqlite/',
    );

We used the Configuration Split module by our own Fabian Bircher to ensure that the JSON-RPC module is only enabled during development.

Here is the Github Actions workflow we used to build and publish the image to the Github Container registry.

# Simplified Github actions workflow for building and publishing the development docker image
name: Build and push development docker image
on:
  push:
    # Usually the E2E tests can use the image built from the develop branch of the repo
    # But to test upcoming changes, we can prefix a branch with docker- to have this workflow build an image for it
    branches: ['develop', 'docker-*']
jobs:
  build-and-push-image:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    # Grant the default `GITHUB_TOKEN` permission to read the current repo and push images to the Github container registry
    permissions:
      contents: read
      packages: write
    steps:
      - name: Log in to the Container registry
        uses: docker/login-action@v3
        with:
          registry: ghcr.io
          username: ${{ github.actor }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
      # This action extracts the tags and labels that should be set on the published image
      # It exposes them as an output which is consumed by the next step through steps.meta
      - name: Extract metadata (tags, labels) for Docker
        id: meta
        uses: docker/metadata-action@v5
        with:
          images: ghcr.io/github-org/ilo-live-cms
      # This action uses the git repo as the build context by default
      - name: Build and push Docker image
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v6
        with:
          push: true
          file: docker/Dockerfile
          tags: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.tags }}
          labels: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.labels }}

This is the updated workflow on the frontend repo for using the development image.

# Simplified Github actions workflow for running the E2E tests using the development docker image
name: Tests
on: push
jobs:
  cypress:
    name: Run Cypress tests
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Log in to the Container registry
        uses: docker/login-action@v3
        with:
          registry: ghcr.io
          username: ${{ github.actor }}
          password: ${{ secrets.ACCESS_TOKEN }}
      - name: Run CMS container
        run: |
          docker run \
          --detach \
          -p 80:80 \
          ghcr.io/github-org/ilo-live-cms:develop

With this setup, the development image is built within 5 minutes each time a pull request is merged into the develop branch of the CMS and the E2E tests workflow can start the CMS in less than a minute.

An added benefit of this approach is that it was much simpler to run the CMS. Previously, the only way to run the CMS was to clone the CMS repo and set up the project locally alongside the database server. Now it just needed a single command.

docker run --detach -p 80:80 ghcr.io/github-org/ilo-live-cms:develop

Putting everything together

To use the JSON-RPC API more conveniently within the Cypress tests, we defined several Custom Commands.

const getRPCPayload = (method, params = {}) => {
  // Get basic authorization header.
  const authorization = Buffer.from(
    [Cypress.env("CMS_USER"), Cypress.env("CMS_PASSWORD")].join(":")
  ).toString("base64");

  return {
    method: "POST",
    url: `${Cypress.env("CMS_URL")}/path/to/jsonrpc`,
    headers: {
      Accept: "application/json",
      Authorization: `Basic ${authorization}`,
    },
    body: {
      jsonrpc: "2.0",
      method,
      params,
      id: Math.floor(Math.random() *1000),
    },
  };
};

Cypress.Commands.add("rpc", (method, params = {}) => {
  cy.request(getRPCPayload(method, params)).then((response) => {
    // Run assertions on the response from the CMS to ensure that the call ran successfully
    expect(response.status).to.eq(200);
    expect(response.body).to.have.property("result");
    return response.body.result;
  });
});

// Cypress commands can call other commands and build on top of each other
// So we created several utility functions to reduce repeated logic
Cypress.Commands.add(
  "createPastEvent",
  ({
    id = 1,
    type = "meeting",
    startDate,
    startHour = 8
  } = {}) => {
    const event = {
      type,
      title: `Past ${type} ${id}`,
      // Not the most robust logic but sufficient for testing
      start_date: `2023-01-${startDate || id} ${startHour}:00:00`,
      end_date: `2023-01-${startDate || id} ${startHour + 1}:00:00`,
    };
    cy.rpc("create.event", event);
  }
);

// Command that should be run before each test run
Cypress.Commands.add("setup", () => {
  // Cypress runs each test in isolation so that they can't interfere with each other
  // To enforce that isolation across the entire system, we use this command to reset CMS to its initial state  
  cy.rpc("clean.content");

  // Enable preview mode on Next.js to make it regenerate pages during each request
  // https://nextjs.org/docs/pages/guides/preview-mode
  cy.request("/path/to/enable-preview");
});

These custom commands made it much easier to orchestrate the CMS as required.

describe("Event page", () => {
  beforeEach(() => {
    cy.setup();
  });

  it("should display past meetings correctly", () => {
    // Call the JSONRPC-API to setup the content
    cy.createPastEvent().then((res) => {
      // Visit the page corresponding to the newly created content
      cy.visit(res.path);

      // Check if the elements on the page are rendered correctly
      cy.get("h1").should("contain", "Past meeting 1");
      cy.contains("1 January 2023");
      cy.contains("08:00 - 09:00 GMT+1");
    });
  });
});

Final results

Ultimately we implemented over 50 end-to-end tests for this project. The final test suite takes between 7 - 8 minutes to run on a standard Github hosted runner. (i.e. Not a large runner) This runtime is acceptable for us for now but it can be improved even further by using Parallelization.

While these tests took us some effort to implement, they definitely paid off in the long term. ILO Live had live event functionality which was mission-critical but very hard to orchestrate manually and with the E2E tests, we were able to ensure that it always worked. These E2E tests gave us the confidence to make big improvements to the codebase since we knew that bugs in key functionality would be instantly revealed and this is the biggest benefit of them all.

Written by Prabashwara Seneviratne, frontend developer at Nuvole and author of Frontend undefined.

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The BIG Idea: Open, Safe AI for Everyone

At its core, the Drupal AI Initiative is about helping organisations adopt AI responsibly. As Paul Johnson put it:

“We’re looking to tell the amazing story of how Drupal AI can help organisations that want to adopt AI that is safe and in a way where freedom remains to make their own choices.” - Paul Johnson

The group shared updates on work happening in AI Core, including modules for agents, logging, testing, and a new Experience Builder that aims to make page creation smarter without compromising on security or trust.

“I’m not a programmer myself. Everything we've done with AI we’ve tried to build in a way that analysts, PMs, even content editors can make use of.” - Jamie Abrahams

Key Points From the Q&A

Attendees asked important questions, and were answered transparently:

• Funding: Smaller agencies raised concerns about staying competitive in a rapidly evolving AI space. The group discussed options like the Makers funding program and collaborative approaches to share costs.

• Safe adoption: Several participants asked how to keep up with AI’s breakneck pace while avoiding dead-ends. The consensus: stick to open standards, contribute upstream, and share what works.

• Contribution paths: For developers and marketers alike, there are plenty of ways to get involved, from writing documentation to building modules to promoting best practices. Join the Drupal AI Marketing Weekly to pitch in.

“Most important, we are here to listen to your feedback.” - Baddy Breidert

How To Get Involved

All the slides from the session are available here. You’ll also find handy links:

• Drupal AI Strategy PDF

• Starshot AI Initiative page

• Developer Docs

• Connect with Dominique or Jamie to get hands-on.

What Can You Do Next?

• Watch the recording: Welcome to the Drupal AI Initiative

• Join the conversation: Hop into the AI issue queue, Slack channels, or reach out to the working group.

• Stay tuned: More sessions, training, and contribution sprints are on the way, including the Drupal GovCon AI training and hack-a-thon later this year.

This initiative will only succeed if it’s shaped by the whole community. If you care about building a safe, open, and innovative Drupal AI ecosystem. Your input matters.

“Please stay tuned for the upcoming webinars and upcoming news.” - Lenny Moskalyk

And See you next time!

The Drupal Site Template Marketplace MVP proposal is now live for community review through 13 July 2025 in the Innovation Issue Queue.

After hundreds of community voices contributed through surveys, Slack, and Real-Time Collaboration sessions, this MVP reflects what we’ve heard: a trusted, flexible, and contributor-friendly ecosystem is possible—if we design it thoughtfully.

What’s in the MVP?

This Minimum Valuable Product (MVP) is a structured experiment targeted for launch at DrupalCon Chicago 2026. Key features include:

• Up to 15 curated DrupalCMS Site Templates (free and paid), listed on Drupal.org
• Initial participation limited to Drupal Certified Partners (DCPs) to streamline quality and feedback (expansion beyond DCPs may occur post-MVP)
• Makers set their own prices and sell directly to users (off-platform)
• A 10% revenue share from paid template sales and upsell services is directed to the Drupal Association
• Submission fee: $395 per new listing, with a $250 annual review fee
• Baseline standards for all templates include:
  • Accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA)
  • Security and licensing compliance
  • Self-certified GDPR readiness (if applicable)
  • Documentation, maintenance commitments, and user support expectations
  • Regular feedback collection
  • Discoverability features including tags, badges, and demo previews
• Templates must be built for DrupalCMS, using the Recipes schema, demo content, and XB-compatible themes
• Templates will undergo automated and manual reviews, conducted by DA Staff (or contractors), with badges and trust indicators displayed where applicable
• Governance and policy oversight by Drupal Association staff during the MVP; future transitions to community-hybrid models are planned

What the MVP Is Designed to Test

This isn’t just a launch—it’s a test-and-learn cycle designed to validate whether a Site Template Marketplace is desirable, feasible, and sustainable. The MVP will help us understand:

• What types of templates people adopt—and what makes them valuable
• Whether direct sales by makers are viable, and what pricing models emerge
• What kinds of support, trust signals, and governance policies matter most
• Whether the DA can sustainably operate and review templates at scale
• How to balance monetization with fairness, contributor credit, and open source values

We’ll use this data to decide whether to expand, adapt, or stop the Marketplace after a 3-6 month MVP.

Submission Fee and Revenue Model

To help fund reviews and platform operations, the MVP includes:

• $395 USD per new site template listing
• $250 USD for annual review and revalidation

Site Template Makers:

• Set their own pricing for paid templates
• Transact directly with users (outside of Drupal.org infrastructure)
• Report anonymized data quarterly (downloads, revenue, support volumes)
• Keep 90% of revenue, while contributing 10% to the Drupal Association based on completed transactions quarterly

Why This MVP Matters

We’ve heard the same call again and again: make it easier to get started with Drupal—without compromising quality or community values. This MVP is a first attempt to meet that need, grounded in clear standards, shared incentives, and real-world feedback.

Let’s test it together—with care, clarity, and Drupal’s best interests at heart.

What’s Next?

• Public comment period is open through 13 July 2025
• Marketplace Working Group meets 15 July 2025 to review input and finalize its recommendation
• The Drupal Association Board will vote 24 July on whether to move forward with implementation

How You Can Help

Your voice is essential to shaping a Marketplace that works for the community. Here’s how to get involved:

• Read the full MVP proposal
• Give feedback in #drupal-cms-marketplace on Slack, anonymously through the Feedback Form or via the public issue queue
• Share this with your team or clients—especially those who create or use starter templates

Let’s build something that’s good for contributors, great for users, and unmistakably Drupal.

We’re excited to announce that a draft Drupal Site Template MVP Marketplace proposal will be released next week for public comment. This version outlines a clear Minimum Valuable Product (MVP) focused on early value, sustainability, and trust.

But first — here’s a look at what’s been shaping the direction of this proposal.

The Business Model Canvas: A Snapshot

To help align on strategy and priorities for the Site Template Marketplace, the Working Group created a Business Model Canvas—a simple tool that breaks down the core elements of how the Marketplace can deliver value and remain sustainable. The Working Group landed on an MVP  model that centers:

• Primary Users: Low-code/no-code marketers and freelancer agencies
• Key Value: Trusted, flexible site templates that reduce time-to-launch and lower adoption barriers
• Revenue Stream: application and referral fees on sales and upsell opportunities to support Drupal Association infrastructure
• Cost Structure: Low-overhead pilot with both automated and staff-supported review

What We Heard: Shared Priorities Across Surveys and Slack

More than 500 people have shared their perspectives across four surveys—and others have weighed in through Slack discussions, real-time collaboration, and open conversations.

This community and end-user input has been honest, nuanced, and incredibly generous. It has revealed clear patterns, thoughtful tensions, and strong signals of where the community wants to go. So as in advance of the MVP proposal’s release, let’s reflect back what we’ve heard so far.

1. Trust Starts with Quality, Transparency, and Previews

Both in survey responses and in Slack, the message was the same: don’t launch unless people can trust what they’re getting.

Top trust signals:

• A live demo or preview (most consistently requested signal across all channels)
• Clear documentation of dependencies and limitations
• Visible signals of quality (badges, reviews, contributor reputation)

In Slack, people emphasized that even a great theme becomes untrustworthy if it’s hardcoded, inaccessible, or unclear about what it installs.

Show me a demo. Let me see the code. If it’s a mystery box, I won’t touch it.”

2. People Want a Marketplace That Reflects Drupal’s Open Source Values

From contributors and module maintainers to end users and evaluators, we heard a common theme: this effort should feel like Drupal.

• Governance should be fair, transparent, and enforceable—not performative.
• Monetization is okay—but must support the whole ecosystem, not just those selling templates.
• Attribution matters. Contributors want to be credited, not cloned.

If someone else is profiting off my work, I need to at least be recognized.”

Slack also raised the importance of review pathways that aren’t vulnerable to sabotage or bias—suggesting a need for a mix of automation and paid staff to ensure fairness.

3. There’s Real Enthusiasm—for the Right Version of This

End users want this. Freelancers want this. Agencies want this.

• 85% of end-user survey respondents said vetted templates would increase their likelihood of recommending Drupal.
• Agencies see templates as a powerful tool for demos, pre-sales, and fast-start projects.
• Contributors are eager to participate—if it’s worth their time.

Key Tensions: Where We’ll Need to Find Balance

Pricing Expectations Don’t Match (Yet)

• Users: Many want free or low-cost templates, especially smaller orgs and nonprofits.
• Contributors: Cite $300–$1,000 as reasonable price points for a complete, maintained, accessible, and documented product.

Slack conversations added nuance: Some contributors are fine with lower prices if the marketplace generates leads or recognition. Others say without fair compensation, they simply won’t participate.

Certification: Signal or Gate?

• Users want badges that help them sort and trust.
• Contributors fear certification could slow things down or create an unfair playing field.

Slack participants suggested offering optional badges or tiers, not mandatory certification at launch. A common theme: start lightweight, evolve with real usage.

Monetization: Supportive or Distracting?

There’s broad support for monetization—but only if it’s done with intention.

• Contributors want clear, fair revenue splits—and protection against cloned or stripped-down copies.
• Users don’t want to encounter bait-and-switch upsells or gated features.
• Slack conversations reinforced a desire to avoid WordPress-style chaos, emphasizing community moderation, ranking hygiene, and a meaningful DA role.

This has to feel like Drupal, not like a spammy plugin store.”

What’s Next: Your Turn

The Community public comment period will be open from 29 June 2025 through 13 July 2025. The Marketplace Working Group will meet on 15 July 2025 to review feedback and draft its final recommendation to the board for their go/no-go decision on 24 July 2025.

You will be able to share your thoughts by:

• Anonymous feedback form
• Issue queue
• In Drupal Slack in #drupal-cms-marketplace

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who contributed through surveys, Slack, working sessions, and feedback. Your ideas, critiques, hopes, and flags are shaping this from the inside out. All of this feedback has resulted in a proposal that’s practical, community-aligned, and intentionally minimal.

This Marketplace effort is grounded in community—not just as a value, but as a working method. We’re exploring the Marketplace potential together — ideally, to create something not just to reduce friction for new users, but to grow a stronger, more sustainable Drupal ecosystem for all.

Stay tuned.

Filmed at the AI Summit at London Tech Week 2025, this two-minute video captures the passion and purpose behind the newly-launched Drupal AI Strategic Initiative.

Join Baddý and Jamie as they explain why this work is important and why we need the Drupal community to rally behind it.

“In order to get fast innovation in Drupal AI, we need people to work on the project—and we’re doing that by getting funding and full-time contributors from participating companies.”

— Baddý Sonja Breidert

“I’ve never seen something quite like this in the Drupal community… It’s coordinated innovation not for one company, but for the whole open source community.”

— Jamie Abrahams

DrupalCon has always been a conference by the community, for the community—and as we look ahead to DrupalCon North America 2026 in Chicago, we’re making thoughtful changes to ensure it continues to reflect those values.

After a successful DrupalCon Atlanta, we’ve taken time to reflect, gather feedback, and make updates that prioritize access, sustainability, and community connection.  Each of the changes outlined below is rooted in one or more of these values—whether it's improving affordability, building lasting relationships, or creating a more efficient and inclusive event experience. With guidance from the DrupalCon North America Steering Committee, we’re excited to share a refreshed ticket structure, updated volunteer policies, a reimagined Expo Hall, and a renewed focus on summits, trainings, and collaboration.

What’s New for 2026

Ticket Pricing: More Affordable, More Accessible

We’ve simplified and lowered the cost of general admission tickets to make DrupalCon more accessible—without sacrificing the quality of experience our community expects. These changes were driven by feedback from past DrupalCon attendees, the North American Steering Committee, and the community at large, all of whom expressed a strong desire for more affordable access to the event.

Early Bird registration opens September 15, 2025 and is open for 16 weeks!
Secure your ticket early to lock in the best rate.

Camp & Local Association Ticket Perks

For every 5 tickets purchased from a Drupal camp or local association, that community will receive 1 complimentary ticket to share with a deserving community member, with a max of 10 complimentary tickets per local camp or association. It's our way of reinvesting in local leadership and participation.

Updated Volunteer Ticket Policy

This change reflects our focus on access and sustainability. In our DrupalCon Atlanta recap blog, we highlighted how streamlined operations improved the event experience for attendees and volunteers alike. Building on that momentum, we recognized the need for clearer guidelines to ensure volunteer opportunities are distributed fairly and effectively.

We’ve updated the volunteer ticket structure to make it more equitable and scalable:

• Volunteer under 20 hours → 25% discount
• Volunteer 20+ hours → Complimentary ticket

These tickets are non-transferable and may not be combined with other discounts.

Previously, volunteer ticket codes were sometimes misused or distributed without proper oversight. These updated guidelines help preserve full complimentary tickets for those who contribute a significant amount of time and effort, while also creating new opportunities for others to attend at a reduced rate.

Additionally, we’ve streamlined the on-site registration process with self-check-in, reducing the need for a large number of on-site volunteers and allowing us to focus support where it’s most impactful.

Learn more and sign up to volunteer.

Summits & Trainings: Real Talk, Real Skills

Summits are one of DrupalCon’s most valuable opportunities for industry-specific collaboration and knowledge sharing. Designed to connect attendees working in the same verticals, these events offer focused access to speakers with real-world experience, engaging roundtable discussions with peers in similar roles, and meaningful conversations about shared challenges. Attendees walk away with practical takeaways and lasting connections, while participating sponsors have a chance to introduce themselves to leaders in the space in an organic, relevant way.

Taking place Monday, 23 March 2026.

Industry & Community Summits

Join peers in:

• Healthcare
• Higher Education
• Government
• Nonprofit
• Community

Each summit features two half-day sessions that do not conflict with the main conference program, creating space for meaningful discussion and idea sharing.

Lunch is not included with the Community Summit, but a lunch ticket add-on will be available for purchase during registration.

Trainings

DrupalCon Trainings remain at $500 and offer deep-dive, expert-led learning opportunities on a wide range of Drupal skills.

More Community Updates

You’ll notice more networking spaces, and informal meeting zones—especially in the Expo Hall and hallways. We’re doubling down on meaningful, unstructured connections.

These changes are only possible through thoughtful cost management and the continued support of our sponsors. Their partnership helps us keep ticket prices accessible while delivering the high-quality experience the community expects. We’re grateful to those who invest in DrupalCon and help us create an event that welcomes and supports everyone.

Traveling from Outside the U.S.?

The Drupal Association is happy to issue official invitation letters for those requiring a visa.

Request your visa letter here.

Letters are generated automatically—just complete the form and check your email (including spam folders).

Key Dates

Stay at the Heart of the Action

Hilton Chicago is DrupalCon’s official headquarters hotel—and it's where the magic happens.

From morning coffee chats to late-night strategy sessions in the lobby, this is where the community connects. Staying on-site helps you maximize your time, make spontaneous connections, and be part of the full experience.

Book your room at the Hilton Chicago.

Sponsorship Updates

We’re reimagining our sponsorship offerings to better connect you with the Drupal community—bringing fresh opportunities and updated packages designed for greater visibility, value, and impact.

Want to be the first to know when they go live? Email partnerships@association.drupal.org and we’ll make sure you're on the list.

Let’s Build What’s Next—Together

DrupalCon is more than just a conference—it’s the beating heart of our community. These changes help us keep that heart strong, inclusive, and accessible.

We can’t wait to see you in Chicago, 23-26 March 2026.