On 9 December 2025, leaders from across the globe will meet in Paris for the Drupal AI Summit, hosted within the Future of Software Technologies (FOST) conference, the world’s largest federated technology event.
The summit brings together engineers, architects, product leaders, and marketers who are putting AI to use in real systems. It explores what happens when AI meets the open-source values that built Drupal: transparency, community, and long-term thinking.
Within FOST, the Drupal AI track will host twelve focused sessions led by leaders in Drupal AI. These sessions will share lessons from real projects and outline the steps toward making Drupal the most AI-enabled open-source CMS.
Attendees who are part of the Drupal community can access complimentary VIP tickets, each valued at €299, which include entry to 25+ co-located tech conferences at the same venue. The discussions will focus on architecture, governance, and collaboration, showing how to create AI tools that teams can trust and maintain responsibly.
View complete agenda and secure your ticket today!
AI is now part of how organizations work, publish, and communicate. The question is no longer whether to use it but how to use it well.
Through its open-source foundation, Drupal is helping teams improve publishing, accessibility, and content quality with AI. These are not experiments; they are production workflows that make everyday work faster and clearer.
Most AI systems are created quietly in the background, out of view in black boxes. Open source makes this work more transparent. It brings the process out for everyone to see and understand, so teams can see how the system behaves, adjust it with intent, and guide it with clarity.
Progress on Drupal AI has accelerated in the past year, with the Drupal community shaping it as a framework for practical features across content generation, moderation, governance, and automation. Each feature is designed with human oversight in the loop to keep controlled and responsible AI at the core.
The Paris summit brings these efforts into a wider conversation. It is a place for people who want to see AI and open systems work together, as partners in how modern software is built and maintained.
AI will continue to influence how digital experiences are created and maintained. The question is how we build it and who gets to decide.
The Drupal AI Summit is for those who believe progress should stay open and shared. It is a day for collaboration, curiosity, and honest discussion about what responsible and open AI can look like when built together.
Join us in Paris on 9 December 2025 at CNIT Forest, La Défense. Learn how Drupal and its community are shaping the next phase of AI, one that keeps people at the center of every creation.
On 9 December 2025, leaders from across the globe will meet in Paris for the Drupal AI Summit, hosted within the Future of Software Technologies (FOST) conference, the world’s largest federated technology event.
The summit brings together engineers, architects, product leaders, and marketers who are putting AI to use in real systems. It explores what happens when AI meets the open-source values that built Drupal: transparency, community, and long-term thinking.
Within FOST, the Drupal AI track will host twelve focused sessions led by leaders in Drupal AI. These sessions will share lessons from real projects and outline the steps toward making Drupal the most AI-enabled open-source CMS.
Attendees who are part of the Drupal community can access complimentary VIP tickets, each valued at €299, which include entry to 25+ co-located tech conferences at the same venue. The discussions will focus on architecture, governance, and collaboration, showing how to create AI tools that teams can trust and maintain responsibly.
View complete agenda and secure your ticket today!
AI is now part of how organizations work, publish, and communicate. The question is no longer whether to use it but how to use it well.
Through its open-source foundation, Drupal is helping teams improve publishing, accessibility, and content quality with AI. These are not experiments; they are production workflows that make everyday work faster and clearer.
Most AI systems are created quietly in the background, out of view in black boxes. Open source makes this work more transparent. It brings the process out for everyone to see and understand, so teams can see how the system behaves, adjust it with intent, and guide it with clarity.
Progress on Drupal AI has accelerated in the past year, with the Drupal community shaping it as a framework for practical features across content generation, moderation, governance, and automation. Each feature is designed with human oversight in the loop to keep controlled and responsible AI at the core.
The Paris summit brings these efforts into a wider conversation. It is a place for people who want to see AI and open systems work together, as partners in how modern software is built and maintained.
AI will continue to influence how digital experiences are created and maintained. The question is how we build it and who gets to decide.
The Drupal AI Summit is for those who believe progress should stay open and shared. It is a day for collaboration, curiosity, and honest discussion about what responsible and open AI can look like when built together.
Join us in Paris on 9 December 2025 at CNIT Forest, La Défense. Learn how Drupal and its community are shaping the next phase of AI, one that keeps people at the center of every creation.
In this episode, Martin sits down with Adam Boros, a passionate developer who shares his journey in the Drupal community. Adam discusses the importance of automation for small teams and recounts his experiences with Drupal's evolution from version 6 to the recent resurgence of enjoyment with Drupal 10. He introduces his innovative personal calendar builder created for DrupalCon Vienna, explaining its simplicity and the enthusiastic community feedback it received.
For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/cafe011
TopicsAdam was originally studying Architecture but never graduated. He started web development as a self-learner after working a few years in print design and DTP back in 2002. Using Flash5 and ActionScript at first, Adam discovered Drupal around 4.6 while looking for a CMS to replace PHPNuke for a local NGO. It was true love at first sight and after a few years of hobby projects and active involvement with the Drupal community in Budapest he ended up being a full-time drupalist at a university where Adam has worked since then for the past 15+ years as "Drupal Systems Architect".
Martin Anderson-ClutzMartin is a highly respected figure in the Drupal community, known for his extensive contributions as a developer, speaker, and advocate for open-source innovation. Based in London, Ontario, Canada, Martin began his career as a graphic designer before transitioning into web development. His journey with Drupal started in late 2005 when he was seeking a robust multilingual CMS solution, leading him to embrace Drupal's capabilities.
Martin holds the distinction of being the world's first Triple Drupal Grand Master, certified across Drupal 7, 8, and 9 as a Developer, Front-End Specialist, and Back-End Specialist. (TheDropTimes) He also possesses certifications in various Acquia products and is UX certified by the Nielsen Norman Group.
Currently serving as a Senior Solutions Engineer at Acquia, Martin has been instrumental in advancing Drupal's ecosystem. He has developed and maintains several contributed modules, including Smart Date and Search Overrides, and has been actively involved in the Drupal Recipes initiative, particularly focusing on event management solutions. His current work on the Event Platform aims to streamline the creation and management of event-based websites within Drupal.
Beyond development, Martin is a prominent speaker and educator, having presented at numerous Drupal events such as DrupalCon Barcelona and EvolveDrupal. He is also a co-host of the "Talking Drupal" podcast, where he leads the "Module of the Week" segment, sharing insights on various Drupal modules. Martin's dedication to the Drupal community is evident through his continuous efforts to mentor, innovate, and promote best practices within the open-source landscape.
ResourcesCalendar Builder https://aboros.github.io/drupalcon-vienna-2025-calendar-builder/ Calendar Builder repo https://github.com/aboros/drupalcon-vienna-2025-calendar-builder
GuestsAdam Boros - aboros
Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
read more
Get to know Paul Johnson and James Tillotson, leading 1xINTERNET’s UK growth and bringing Drupal, AI, and open-source solutions closer to British clients.
read more
When the Drupal community gathers, something extraordinary happens.
From 14 to 17 October 2025, nearly a thousand people came together at the Austria Center Vienna, Austria to celebrate open source, exchange ideas, and contribute to the future of Drupal.
DrupalCon Vienna 2025 was not only a conference, it was a living example of collaboration, diversity, and innovation in action.
This year’s event welcomed 935 registered participants, with an impressive 96.04% check-in rate.
Interest in DrupalCon Vienna built steadily through the year, with the highest number of registrations coming in June (307) and September (236),
DrupalCon Vienna brought together a remarkable mix of voices and perspectives.
Participants represented over 40 countries, with 85% coming from across Europe, 8% from the United States, and 7% from other regions.
The top ten countries represented were:
From Costa Rica to Kenya, from Armenia to New Zealand, attendees crossed borders, time zones, and languages to connect through one shared passion - Drupal.
One of the most inspiring aspects of the Drupal community is its balance between newcomers and long-time contributors.
In Vienna, 28% of participants attended their first DrupalCon, while 38% had taken part in four or more DrupalCons. This mix of fresh enthusiasm and deep experience keeps the community dynamic and forward-looking.
For the first time, this year’s DrupalCon introduced Drupal in a Day, organized by Hilmar Kári Hallbjörnsson. The training session welcomed 113 learners, aged 18 to 52, highlighting the wide range of people discovering Drupal for the first time.
An impressive 38% of attendees were delegated by their company to attend DrupalCon Vienna.
Attendees were mainly represented by:
In terms of expertise:
The majority of participants (53%) came from digital agencies, design, or development shops.
They represented a variety of industries, with the strongest presence from:
Behind the scenes, the heart of DrupalCon beats thanks to its volunteers.
A huge thank-you goes to the committees, track teams, and on-site volunteers who made the event possible.
This year, 56 on-site volunteers contributed their time and expertise, supporting session reviews, contribution mentoring, information desks, and photography. Their dedication ensured that every attendee could learn, contribute, and feel part of something bigger.
None of this would have been possible without the generous support of our sponsors.
Their continued investment in Drupal helps us deliver high-quality, inclusive, and impactful events that keep the open-source spirit alive.
DrupalCon Vienna 2025 reminded us that open source is more than code. It is community, creativity, and collaboration in action.
Thank you to everyone who joined and contributed to making DrupalCon Vienna 2025 a success.
By generating and tricking a user into visiting a malicious URL, an attacker can perform site defacement.
The defacement is not stored and is only present when the URL has been crafted for that purpose. Only the defacement is present, so no other site content (such as branding) is rendered.
Install the latest version:
Drupal 11.0.x, Drupal 10.3.x, and below are end-of-life and do not receive security coverage. (Drupal 8 and Drupal 9 have both reached end-of-life.)
Drupal core contains a chain of methods that is exploitable when an insecure deserialization vulnerability exists on the site. This so-called "gadget chain" presents no direct threat, but is a vector that can be used to achieve remote code execution if the application deserializes untrusted data due to another vulnerability.
It is not directly exploitable.
This issue is mitigated by the fact that in order for it to be exploitable, a separate vulnerability must be present to allow an attacker to pass unsafe input to unserialize(). There are no such known exploits in Drupal core.
Install the latest version:
Drupal 11.0.x, Drupal 10.3.x, and below are end-of-life and do not receive security coverage. (Drupal 8 and Drupal 9 have both reached end-of-life.)
Drupal Core has a rarely used feature, provided by an underlying library, which allows certain attributes of incoming HTTP requests to be overridden.
This functionality can be abused in a way that may cause Drupal to cache response data that it should not. This can lead to legitimate requests receiving inappropriate cached responses (cache poisoning).
This could be exploited in various ways:
Changes are being made in the underlying library which will mitigate this problem, but in the meantime Drupal core has been hardened to protect against this vulnerability.
Install the latest version:
Drupal 11.0.x, Drupal 10.3.x, and below are end-of-life and do not receive security coverage. (Drupal 8 and Drupal 9 have both reached end-of-life.)
The core system module handles downloads of private and temporary files. Contrib modules can define additional kinds of files (schemes) that may also be handled by the system module.
In some cases, files may be served with the HTTP header Cache-Control: public when they should be uncacheable. This can lead to some users getting cached versions of files with information they should not be able to access. For example, files may be cached by Varnish or a CDN.
This vulnerability is mitigated by the following:
Install the latest version:
Drupal 11.0.x, Drupal 10.3.x, and below are end-of-life and do not receive security coverage. (Drupal 8 and Drupal 9 have both reached end-of-life.)
Planning an enterprise eCommerce implementation is notoriously difficult. There’s no single best way to approach it. Every organization has a different mix of legacy systems, required features, customers, and staff, not to mention the internal politics that can shift requirements like the moon shifts the tides.
But there are some commonalities. Almost every enterprise site we undertake begins with a massive feature list and gap analysis, and organizations often try to understand the scale and complexity of their implementation by classifying features.
They put them in buckets like:
Each one is a different level of effort, and theoretically, these buckets will help with estimation and planning.
The problem? Terms used to describe features are often fuzzy and unclear.
Take “invoicing” as an example. Invoicing can mean 18 different things to 13 different people. It's not a single feature—it's a category of features. There might be an “invoicing” module in the platform you are evaluating, but does that actually satisfy the requirement? It depends on what "invoicing" actually means to your organization.
Read more read moreDrupalCamp Burkina Faso will be hosting its third event from April 24-26, 2026. Previous events have brought entrepreneurs, students, as well as government ministers and national media. This year the Camp is hoping to expand international sponsorship and recruit guest speakers who can help build the skills of the local community.
We want to invite you to participate.
Across the African continent there is an increasingly rapid pace of digital transformation. Through our connections with communities across Africa, we're seeing governments, major industries, and growing business markets rapidly prioritize digital sovereignty and online engagement, and we see them seeking international expertise to launch and up-skill their local markets.
I see an incredible opportunity for Drupal in Africa. We're seeing other open source projects like Typo3 and Wordpress make a concerted effort to lobby government and industry users, but Drupal has a unique advantage of strong communities in several countries across the continent already.
~ Tim Lehnen, CTO - Drupal Association
We hope you see the potential opportunity as well.
If you are interested in sponsorship, contact: seferiba@gmail.com
If you are interested in being a virtual guest speaker, contact: seferiba@gmail.com
DrupalCamp Burkina Faso will be hosting its third event from April 24-26, 2026. Previous events have brought entrepreneurs, students, as well as government ministers and national media. This year the Camp is hoping to expand international sponsorship and recruit guest speakers who can help build the skills of the local community.
We want to invite you to participate.
Across the African continent there is an increasingly rapid pace of digital transformation. Through our connections with communities across Africa, we're seeing governments, major industries, and growing business markets rapidly prioritize digital sovereignty and online engagement, and we see them seeking international expertise to launch and up-skill their local markets.
I see an incredible opportunity for Drupal in Africa. We're seeing other open source projects like Typo3 and Wordpress make a concerted effort to lobby government and industry users, but Drupal has a unique advantage of strong communities in several countries across the continent already.
~ Tim Lehnen, CTO - Drupal Association
We hope you see the potential opportunity as well.
If you are interested in sponsorship, contact: seferiba@gmail.com
If you are interested in being a virtual guest speaker, contact: seferiba@gmail.com
In an era where AI can generate thousands of lines of code in seconds, I found myself asking a fundamental question: What makes me valuable as a developer when artificial intelligence can create everything?
While AI tools multiply our capacity to create, perhaps the real value lies not in generating more, but in choosing better. This is something every developer, designer, and team leader needs to hear.
The concept of "less but better" isn't new. In the 1920s-1930s, architect Mies van der Rohe popularized "Less is More"—a principle that profoundly influenced the Bauhaus school and its core focus on simplicity, rationalism, and functionality that shaped modern design. Designer Dieter Rams later refined it to "less, but better" for the consumer product era.
What strikes me most is how each generation rediscovers this wisdom in their own context. When tools can generate unlimited options instantly, the skill isn't in creating more; it's in knowing what to keep.
From my experience, I've noticed three things that make this principle critical in modern web development. A simple approach is better from a technical, designer, and UX perspective.
Technically, less code means better performance and sustainability. Every unnecessary line of code is technical debt waiting to accumulate. Every extra component is another potential breaking point, another thing to maintain, another load on the user's browser. When we choose simplicity, we're not just making aesthetic decisions—we're making our solutions faster, more reliable, and easier to maintain.
From a design perspective, simple solutions with gradual implementation build trust. Users don't need to see everything we can do in the first interaction. They need to accomplish their immediate goal with confidence. A focused, clear interface tells users we understand what matters to them. Complexity can signal uncertainty—ours, not theirs.
Looking at user experience, I believe people are overwhelmed. They're managing hundreds of tasks, using dozens of tools, drowning in notifications and options. The more we can simplify their interaction with our solutions, the better their experience. This isn't about doing less work—it's about doing the hard work of deciding what truly matters.
When we built Palcera.com using AI tools like Claude and Figma, I discovered how easy it is to drown in possibilities. Ask an AI to generate components, and you'll get dozens of variations. Request copy options, and you'll receive paragraphs upon paragraphs. The tools are powerful, but they lack the one thing that matters most—context about what your users actually need.
This is where the real work happens: selecting and guiding toward the minimum viable solution. Not minimum as in "barely functional," but minimum as in "exactly what's needed, and nothing more." This takes time. It requires understanding your users deeply enough to know which of those AI-generated options actually serves them.
When building editorial experiences and user interfaces, this becomes even more critical. People use these tools daily, often alongside hundreds of other responsibilities. Every unnecessary click, every confusing option, every piece of visual clutter is friction they don't need. The editorial tools we build should fade into the background, supporting their work rather than demanding attention.
AI processes information faster than any human and can be remarkably creative, but it's not ready to handle complex strategic decisions. We need professionals to guide these tools, to add the human touch that understands not just what can be built, but what should be built. That's not going to change anytime soon.
Here's what excites me about this moment: we can approach the AI era as an opportunity to rebuild our mindset and technical approaches. Right now, we can strip away accumulated complexity and ask: if we were starting fresh today, what would we actually build?
This "rebuild from scratch" mindset is available to us at any time. Not literally rebuilding everything—that would be impractical. But approaching each new project, each new feature, each new interface with fresh eyes. Starting with the core problem we're solving, then adding only what serves that purpose.
The principle of "Less is More" has survived over a century because it addresses something fundamental: clarity and focus create better outcomes than complexity and abundance. In an age of infinite AI-generated possibilities, this truth matters more than ever.
The question isn't whether AI will replace us. The question is whether we'll use these powerful tools to create solutions that truly serve people—or just create more noise in an already overwhelming digital landscape.
I choose simplicity. I choose intention. I choose less, but better.
What will you choose?
A note on AI usage: I used AI assitance to create this blog post for research, validating historical facts, organizing my thoughts, and editing. The ideas and perspective areentirely my own.
There’s been a quiet but meaningful shift within the Drupal community—not in what we’re building, but in how we organise and plan for the future. Governance and long-term strategy have moved closer to the centre of conversation. While not entirely new, these topics are now gaining clearer structure and attention.
Earlier this year, a multi-year strategic roadmap for Drupal core (2025–2028) was outlined through community consultation and closed for comments in August 2025. The roadmap prioritises improving contributor experience, refining release management, and sustaining platform stability. The strategy now guides Drupal’s core direction over the next three years.
Alongside this, the Drupal Association and contributors are focusing on project governance. In a governance update published in late 2024, the Drupal Association outlined efforts to clarify working group roles, improve leadership transparency, and ensure that contributors—especially from underrepresented regions—can more easily participate in project decision-making.
These governance efforts are supported by the publicly documented Drupal Governance Overview, which outlines the decision-making process and assigns responsibilities across the project.
These aren’t flashy reforms, but they reflect Drupal’s commitment to stability, community participation, and long-term resilience. For contributors, developers, and agency partners, they represent essential groundwork for how Drupal evolves and who gets to shape its future.
Now, here are some of the major stories we published from the previous week:
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, Bluesky, and Facebook. You can also join us on Drupal Slack at #thedroptimes.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Kazima Abbas,
Sub-editor, The DropTimes.
1xINTERNET expands into the UK with a new North West base, led by Paul Johnson and James Tillotson. The move strengthens partnerships with UK organisations and brings advanced Drupal and AI expertise closer to British clients.
read moreToday we are talking about The United Nations Open Source Week, Digital Public Infrastructure, and Digital sovereignty with guest Tiffany Farriss & Mike Gifford. We'll also cover Local Association (EU Sites Project) as our module of the week.
For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/528
TopicsTiffany Farriss - www.palantir.net farriss Mike Gifford - accessibility.civicactions.com mgifford
HostsNic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Maya Schaeffer - evolvingweb.com mayalena
MOTW CorrespondentMartin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
Drupal CMS V2 alpha1 introduces Drupal Canvas, a modern page builder that changes how you create content and build sites.
In the video above we cover installation, key features, and hands-on use of Drupal Canvas. You'll learn the new interface, site templates, the Mercury theme, visual page building, and how to create code components.
read moreThe Layout Paragraphs module is a great way of combining the flexibility of the layout system with the content component sytem of the Paragraphs module. Using this module you can set up a Paragraph that can understand different layouts and then inject Paragraphs into that layout, all within the confines of a single field.
What this means is that you users can build the layout they want within the edit pages of your Drupal site, without having to guess where Paragraphs will end up in the final site. It makes the site a little easier to edit and means that there should be less previewing of pages before publishing.
When working on a recent project I found that layout Paragraphs was in use, which wasn't a problem. The problem was that the site was quite simple, but had 12 different layouts to pick from. As a consequence, the pages consisted of a variety of different layouts that not only made the site difficult to edit, but also made the end result look a little messy.
The solution was to move some of the existing layouts to a single type and remove those layouts from the selection. This made it easier to edit pages and also easier to predict how the site would look when we made some style changes.
Whilst it is certainly possible to do this by hand, it's not easy to track down every instance of a particular layout and convert them all. I also wanted a more automatic approach to the solution so that I could run a drush command and convert all of one type of Layout Paragraph to another.
In this article we will look at the structure of the Layout Paragraphs module and when how to move a Layout Paragraph from one layout to another using PHP.
read moreActivepieces is an open source workflow automation platform, similar to Zapier or n8n. It connects different systems so they can work together in automated workflows. For example, you might create a workflow where publishing a Drupal article automatically creates a social media post, updates a Google Sheet, and notifies your team in Slack.
There are two main ways to run Activepieces:
Activepieces Cloud: The easiest option for production use or for evaluating Activepieces. The limitation is that it cannot reach Drupal sites running on your localhost.
Run Activepieces locally: Useful when you are developing or testing Drupal integrations. There are two ways to do this:
Docker environment: If you are developing Drupal sites locally with tools like DDEV, the easiest option is to run Activepieces locally using Docker so both can communicate easily. See running Activepieces locally with Docker.
Development environment: If you want to modify the Activepieces codebase or contribute to the Drupal Piece, you will need the full development toolchain. See setting up the Activepieces development environment.
Once you have Activepieces running, you'll want to connect it to your Drupal site. This note explains two ways to do that: a basic integration using Drupal's built-in APIs, and an advanced setup that unlocks deeper automation capabilities.
You can connect Drupal with Activepieces without installing any extra Drupal modules.
Drupal ships with JSON:API support, a REST API that exposes your content and data through HTTP requests. This means Activepieces can query your content, fetch individual nodes, explore field definitions, and follow entity relationships without any custom code.
While JSON:API is part of Drupal Core, it may not be enabled yet. You can enable it with:
drush pm-enable jsonapi -y
Next, set up a dedicated Drupal user account with only the permissions needed for what you want Activepieces to do.
Activepieces can use Basic Authentication to connect to Drupal with the corresponding username and password.
Basic Auth sends credentials with each request, which makes it simple to set up. For production environments, I recommend using a more secure authentication method like OAuth, though I have not tried that yet.
Drupal Core comes with a Basic Auth module, but you might also need to enable it:
drush pm-enable basic_auth -y
Once both modules are enabled, you can create a connection to Drupal from within Activepieces. In the Activepieces interface, drag a Drupal trigger or action onto the canvas, and you'll be prompted to set up the connection.
For more advanced scenarios, we created the Orchestration module. It's an optional module. Installing this module unlocks deeper integrations that enable external systems to trigger Drupal ECA workflows, use Drupal AI agents, call Drupal Tools, and more.
The module is organized using specialized submodules, each connecting to a different part of Drupal's ecosystem. You can pick and choose the capabilities you want to use.
For starters, here is how to install the Drupal AI and ECA integrations:
composer require drupal/orchestration drupal/ai drupal/ai_agents drupal/tool drupal/eca
drush pm-enable ai ai_agents tool eca orchestration_ai_agents orchestration_ai_function orchestration_tool orchestration_eca -y
Before you can use any of the AI agents, you also need to install and configure one or more AI providers:
composer require drupal/ai_provider_anthropic drupal/ai_provider_openai drupal/ai_provider_ollama
drush pm-enable ai_provider_anthropic ai_provider_openai ai_provider_ollama -y
Clear the cache:
drush cache-rebuild
With these modules installed, you can build much more sophisticated workflows that leverage Drupal's internal automation and AI capabilities.
read moreIf you just want to use Activepieces with Drupal on your local development machine, the easiest option is to follow my guide on running Activepieces locally with Docker. That approach allows you to use Activepieces, but you can't make code changes to it.
If you want to contribute to the Drupal Piece integration or create a new Piece, the Docker setup won't work. To develop or modify Pieces, you'll need to set up a full Activepieces development environment, which this note explains.
First, fork the Activepieces repository on GitHub using the UI. Then clone your fork locally:
git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/activepieces.git
Move into the project directory and install all dependencies:
cd activepieces
npm install
After the installation finishes, start your local development instance:
npm start
Open your web browser and go to http://localhost:4200.
Sign in with the default development account:
dev@ap.com12345678This account is preconfigured so you can start building and testing custom Pieces right away.
The Drupal Piece code lives in ./packages/pieces/community/drupal. When you make changes to the code, they're automatically compiled and hot-reloaded, so you can see your changes immediately without restarting the development server.
To complete your setup, see my guide on connecting Drupal with Activepieces.
I've run into a few issues while working with the Activepieces development environment. Here is what usually fixes them.
Start by deleting all caches:
rm -rf node_modules cache dev
This removes node_modules (all installed dependencies), cache (build and runtime caches), and dev (temporary development files).
Activepieces uses Nx, an open source build system for monorepos. If Nx's cache is out of sync, reset it to start with a clean slate for builds and tests:
npx nx reset
For Drupal developers, Activepieces makes it easy to connect Drupal to other systems. Think of it as an open source alternative to tools like Zapier or n8n, but with an MIT license.
For example, you can create a workflow that runs when new content is published in Drupal and automatically sends it to Slack, Google Sheets, or social media. You can also trigger Drupal actions, such as creating new content or updating user data, when something changes in Salesforce, GitHub, or Airtable.
This guide covers running Activepieces locally using Docker. This setup is ideal if you're developing Drupal sites locally with DDEV and want to build workflows that connect to your local Drupal instance.
When you develop Drupal sites locally, Activepieces Cloud can't reach them. You could use a tunneling service like ngrok to expose your local environment to the internet, but that adds extra complexity.
Instead, we can run an open source copy of Activepieces locally using Docker. This gives you a fully configured Activepieces instance that can communicate directly with your local Drupal site. You can get up and running in just a few minutes with a single command.
In Activepieces, a Piece is an integration that connects to an external application or service. I helped build the original Drupal Piece, which now ships with Activepieces out of the box. It lets you create workflows that move data between Drupal and other applications.
If you want to contribute to the Drupal Piece, this Docker setup is not what you need. The Docker instance runs like a production environment. It's perfect for building and testing workflows in Activepieces, but it doesn't let you modify the Activepieces code or the Drupal Piece itself.
To make changes to Activepieces, including the Drupal Piece, you'll need to set up a full Activepieces development environment instead.
However, if your goal is simply to run Activepieces locally and connect it to your Drupal site, the Docker setup below is all you need.
This one-line command will download and run Activepieces on your computer:
docker run -d -p 8080:80 -v ~/.activepieces:/root/.activepieces -e AP_QUEUE_MODE=MEMORY -e AP_DB_TYPE=SQLITE3 -e AP_FRONTEND_URL="http://localhost:8080" activepieces/activepieces:latest
This pulls the latest Activepieces image from Docker Hub (if it isn't already cached) and starts a container with the following settings:
~/.activepieces to the containerhttp://localhost:8080This might take a couple of minutes to boot up the container and get Activepieces up and running. After a couple of minutes, navigate to http://localhost:8080 (not https) to create an account and log into your local instance.
To start using Activepieces with your Drupal site, you still need to connect them. See my guide on connecting Drupal with Activepieces.
Activepieces regularly releases new versions. The Docker instance on your local machine does not update itself automatically, so you'll want to manually upgrade it from time to time.
First, list your running containers to find the container ID for Activepieces:
docker ps
Next, stop that container by replacing <container-id> with the actual ID you found:
docker stop <container-id>
Finally, pull the latest Activepieces image from Docker Hub:
docker pull activepieces/activepieces:latest
Start a new container using the same docker run command from above. Your flows and settings remain intact because they're stored in the mounted ~/.activepieces directory.
Even as Drupal 7 reached end-of-life support January 2025, thousands of organizations continue to rely on it for mission-critical websites. Tag1’s Drupal 7 Extended Support (D7ES), program helps those teams maintain security and stability.
This month marks an important milestone: our first Drupal 7 core security release will be made available to the public, through the D7ES Announcements Page
This release is more than a patch, it represents Tag1’s continued commitment to the Drupal community and the open-source values that built it.
This update, already available to D7ES customers, introduces two key changes:
A security fix for a vulnerability in JavaScript prototypes that can pollute all objects in an application
PHP 8.4 compatibility updates, ensuring Drupal 7 sites continue running securely on modern infrastructure
“This was our first official Drupal 7 core release under D7ES, a significant milestone that included both a critical security vulnerability fix and coordinated PHP 8.4 compatibility updates. This is important to me because releasing them together, the community only needs to regression test once.”
Lucas Hedding — D7ES Security Lead, Tag1 Consulting
Many organizations depend on Drupal 7 for active production environments. Without extended support, those sites are exposed to:
Publicly known exploits (since vulnerabilities are disclosed on Drupal.org after fixes)
Compliance failures tied to outdated PHP versions
Dependency vulnerabilities from libraries like jQuery BBQ or CKEditor 4 (now end-of-life)
Tag1’s D7ES program bridges that gap by offering:
While D7ES customers receive all security updates first, Tag1 believes in balancing business continuity with open-source stewardship. That’s why we publish D7ES patches publicly one month after customer release, a commitment that reflects our belief in transparency and community responsibility.
“Even though it might be stronger business to keep them private, we think transparency and open collaboration make Drupal stronger overall”
Luke Pekrul — Project Manager, Tag1 Consulting
Tag1 is the only D7ES provider sharing its patches publicly, helping ensure the entire Drupal 7 ecosystem remains more secure, even for those outside our customer base.
You can follow future advisories and announcements here:
Tag1 Consulting is one of the official providers of Drupal 7 Extended Support (D7ES), a select group authorized by the Drupal Association to offer long-term support beyond end of life.
We help organizations:
If your organization still runs Drupal 7, you don’t have to choose between risk and rebuild. Tag1 D7ES keeps your site secure while you plan what’s next.
Learn more about D7ES or contact us today!
read moreWe've overhauled Drupal's industry landing pages to better showcase the real-world impact of Drupal across critical business sectors. These refreshed pages represent a new, more strategic approach to how we position Drupal for enterprise audiences.
These redesigned industry pages create focused spaces where prospects in specific industries can see Drupal solving problems they recognize—at the scale and complexity they need. Instead of generic CMS messaging, decision-makers in retail, healthcare, government, and other sectors now find pages that speak directly to their pain points, featuring case studies from organizations facing similar challenges.
Curated excellence
We are moving away from allowing agencies to book slots, to instead carefully selecting the best projects that demonstrate Drupal's capabilities. This means visitors see the most compelling case studies—recognized brands, innovative solutions, and clear business results that sell Drupal effectively.
Updated design and brand
The pages now reflect Drupal's updated brand and modern website design, presenting a professional, enterprise-grade appearance that matches the quality of the projects we showcase.
Industry-specific messaging
Each page features value propositions tailored to that industry's pain points, rather than generic CMS benefits. Retail pages talk about campaign velocity and Black Friday traffic. Healthcare pages address compliance and patient experiences. The messaging speaks directly to what matters in each sector.
The refreshed pages now cover:
Have ideas for new verticals or feedback on current pages?
Reach out to Ryan directly (ryan.witcombe@association.drupal.org)
To maintain quality and support the partners who support the Drupal project, we follow a clear selection process:
DCP exclusivity
Case studies featured on industry pages come exclusively from Drupal Certified Partners. These agencies support the Drupal project and allow us to maintain Drupal.org, create resources like these pages, and invest in the ecosystem. Featuring DCP work on these pages is one way we deliver value back to our partners.
Quality and credibility
We prioritize case studies that feature:
Diversity and representation
Within each industry vertical, we aim for:
Regular review and updates
We review these pages quarterly to ensure they showcase the best current work. However, if an exceptional case study is posted to Drupal.org between reviews, we may add it immediately. This keeps the pages fresh while ensuring we never miss an opportunity to showcase outstanding work.
The refreshed industry pages are part of a broader commitment to consistently showcasing Drupal excellence. We've also launched a monthly "Best of Drupal" carousels on social media that highlights outstanding projects from across the community.
These monthly campaigns:
Together, the industry pages and monthly social campaigns create a consistent drumbeat of Drupal excellence—making it easier for prospects to discover what's possible and for partners to demonstrate their expertise.
These pages showcase industries where we have strong case studies and proven success. To keep them fresh and expand coverage, we need:
Want your work featured? Maintain your DCP status, submit compelling case studies to Drupal.org with quantifiable results, and send us powerful quotes from your clients about their Drupal experience.
Not yet a Drupal Certified Partner? Becoming a DCP supports the Drupal project, gives you access to benefits like featured placement on these industry pages, and demonstrates your commitment to the Drupal ecosystem. Learn more about becoming a DCP.
Have ideas for new verticals or feedback on current pages?
Reach out to Ryan directly (ryan.witcombe@association.drupal.org)
We've overhauled Drupal's industry landing pages to better showcase the real-world impact of Drupal across critical business sectors. These refreshed pages represent a new, more strategic approach to how we position Drupal for enterprise audiences.
These redesigned industry pages create focused spaces where prospects in specific industries can see Drupal solving problems they recognize—at the scale and complexity they need. Instead of generic CMS messaging, decision-makers in retail, healthcare, government, and other sectors now find pages that speak directly to their pain points, featuring case studies from organizations facing similar challenges.
Curated excellence
We are moving away from allowing agencies to book slots, to instead carefully selecting the best projects that demonstrate Drupal's capabilities. This means visitors see the most compelling case studies—recognized brands, innovative solutions, and clear business results that sell Drupal effectively.
Updated design and brand
The pages now reflect Drupal's updated brand and modern website design, presenting a professional, enterprise-grade appearance that matches the quality of the projects we showcase.
Industry-specific messaging
Each page features value propositions tailored to that industry's pain points, rather than generic CMS benefits. Retail pages talk about campaign velocity and Black Friday traffic. Healthcare pages address compliance and patient experiences. The messaging speaks directly to what matters in each sector.
The refreshed pages now cover:
Have ideas for new verticals or feedback on current pages?
Reach out to Ryan directly (ryan.witcombe@association.drupal.org)
To maintain quality and support the partners who support the Drupal project, we follow a clear selection process:
DCP exclusivity
Case studies featured on industry pages come exclusively from Drupal Certified Partners. These agencies support the Drupal project and allow us to maintain Drupal.org, create resources like these pages, and invest in the ecosystem. Featuring DCP work on these pages is one way we deliver value back to our partners.
Quality and credibility
We prioritize case studies that feature:
Diversity and representation
Within each industry vertical, we aim for:
Regular review and updates
We review these pages quarterly to ensure they showcase the best current work. However, if an exceptional case study is posted to Drupal.org between reviews, we may add it immediately. This keeps the pages fresh while ensuring we never miss an opportunity to showcase outstanding work.
The refreshed industry pages are part of a broader commitment to consistently showcasing Drupal excellence. We've also launched a monthly "Best of Drupal" carousels on social media that highlights outstanding projects from across the community.
These monthly campaigns:
Together, the industry pages and monthly social campaigns create a consistent drumbeat of Drupal excellence—making it easier for prospects to discover what's possible and for partners to demonstrate their expertise.
These pages showcase industries where we have strong case studies and proven success. To keep them fresh and expand coverage, we need:
Want your work featured? Maintain your DCP status, submit compelling case studies to Drupal.org with quantifiable results, and send us powerful quotes from your clients about their Drupal experience.
Not yet a Drupal Certified Partner? Becoming a DCP supports the Drupal project, gives you access to benefits like featured placement on these industry pages, and demonstrates your commitment to the Drupal ecosystem. Learn more about becoming a DCP.
Have ideas for new verticals or feedback on current pages?
Reach out to Ryan directly (ryan.witcombe@association.drupal.org)
At Dripyard we’ve been preparing our premium Drupal themes for Canvas. If you haven’t heard, Drupal Canvas is Drupal’s next-generation page builder built to rival tools like Gutenberg, Webflow, and AEM.
With Canvas, Drupal’s page-building capabilities finally match its powerful content modeling system. It feels fresh, intuitive, and fast compared to previous approaches.
read moreA smart user role setup on your Drupal website delivers multiple benefits in one move. It brings consistency to workflows, reduces human error, and boosts website security through fine-grained access.
read more
A smart user role setup on your Drupal website delivers multiple benefits in one move. It brings consistency to workflows, reduces human error, and boosts website security through fine-grained access.
read more
Drupal has always been about flexibility and control. The amazee.ai AI Provider takes that same spirit and applies it to artificial intelligence. It lets you connect a Drupal site to powerful AI models in less than two minutes. No hidden dependencies and no waiting around for credentials to propagate. All of this is free for the first 30 days so you can experiment and use recipes that require LLMs and VectorDBs, and build!
The provider installs on any Drupal site running 10.2 or higher. Once enabled, it connects you to enterprise-grade AI models and a vector database built directly into the service. There’s no need to configure an external database or manage API tokens across multiple vendors. Everything works inside your existing Drupal environment - no need to change your hosting provider.
It’s also open source and built by the Drupal community in partnership with amazee.ai. That means full transparency, data sovereignty, and no surprises about how your data is handled. You can choose processing regions in Switzerland, Germany, the US, or Australia to meet compliance needs without compromise. If you need a different region, just ask the amazee folks.
Every new install comes with 30 days of unlimited AI tokens. That’s a full month to experiment, automate, and build without worrying about quotas. If you’re a developer contributing to Drupal AI, maintaining modules, or running trainings/workshops, you can request a developer account that gives you ongoing access at no cost.
When the trial ends, a regular account costs only $30 per month for a Pro Account, $100 per month for a Growth Account, and if you need more, amazee.ai can tailor an Enterprise account as well. It’s predictable, simple, and keeps you connected to the same infrastructure used for professional Drupal AI development.
In workshops, we’ve had participants install the provider, connect it, and build working AI features before the session break. The setup is fast enough that you spend time building, not troubleshooting. If you’re doing a talk, running a workshop, or conducting a training - reach out and we can explain how to spin up fully operational sites for you and your students in 2-3 minutes with no credit card.
The amazee.ai AI Provider was created to support Drupal’s open ecosystem. It’s maintained in public view, designed for collaboration, and made for people who want control over how AI runs on their sites. It works on any hosting platform, whether you’re using Acquia, Pantheon, Platform.sh, or a self-hosted stack.
It’s the easiest path yet to bring AI into Drupal without giving up data ownership or flexibility.
This summary will cover three weeks instead of the bi-weekly progress report, and it will be a little bit different. Since we were very busy with the Driesnote for DrupalCon, the release of AI and AI Agents 1.2.0 (yay!), we were mostly focusing on stability fixes.
DrupalCon Vienna also happened and personally for me also PHP Longhorn in Austin. DrupalCon gave us an opportunity to meet in person, regroup and plan ahead for the 2.0 release. So we will cover that as well in the progress reports.
For me personally it was a crazy event compared to other DrupalCon’s I have been to. Many people to talk to, and many people I wanted to talk to, but never got the time to do it.
We did prepare the demo for the DriesNote and it's one of the demos that I personally actually have been the most comfortable with sharing. Some of the demos that get recorded are on the level of something we strive for, rather than what is there now., The actual output of the Canvas AI for the examples in the DriesNote was actually over 50% on the reliability where you could almost just use it, and most of the rest created a version that just needed minor tweaking. This is based on a fairly strict criteria on who components should be placed, images should be picked and copies should be written.
Aidan Foster from Foster Interactive, who was one of the main contributors to the demo, did a follow up LinkedIn Post that you should not miss.
And if you do not believe me - you can run the demo yourself.
Well it has been out for some while, but we wanted to introduce it with the DriesNote. The idea is that the AI Context or Context Control Center (name TBD) is the central point for any context your Drupal site will need. Both for AI or via MCP.
Right now it's focusing heavily on agents, but in the future it would also be usable in Automators, translations or anything that needs to have a stricter control on how to generate via AI. This project has been driven by Salsa Digital in general and Ahmed Jabar in particular, who spent weekends to have it ready before the DriesNote. A huge thanks to them!
Try it out and help out in: https://www.drupal.org/project/ai_context
In 1.2.0 we have added a prompt library. The initial implementation was AI Content Suggestions, but right before the release we also added an implementation into the AI Translate submodule.
This means that the translation prompts are now being managed via the prompt library and can be reused in the future for other translation tasks that could be added into for instance AI CKEditor or AI Automators.
One of the things I wanted to demo in Vienna included showing off some kind of new agent and how you could use that agent together with MCP and agent-to-agent communication. Webform was a clear candidate for it. The demo included being able to create webforms from free text or even ugly hand drawn sketches, and then via MCP connect to a VAPI agent and have that agent be able to call someone and have an AI agent survey the webform over voice and then save the submission.
We ended up deciding to put the agent in a module, even if it's still very rough around the edges. You can find it at https://www.drupal.org/project/ai_webform_agent. Nick Opris is putting a lot of effort in moving it into the Tool API and making it more stable.
After testing different providers, we came to the conclusion that there are providers that do not allow the combination of using Tools/Function Calling and asking for a structured output.
Because of that we have added a flag where the providers can update their status to tell that they are able to do this.
For AI Agents we will then be able to figure out if this is possible or not, and add a feature where we can run another call on the finished loop, to structure the output.
A lot of the time was put into planning a way forward to the 2.0.0 release. Some things are already decided or were decided in Vienna.
This includes:
Be sure to keep an eye out here or on LinkedIn to stay up to date with the latest developments. Visit the AI Initiative home page for ways to connect, events and webinars.
At DrupalCon Vienna, we opened the opt-in period for module maintainers to volunteer their modules to be migrated to GitLab issues. You can opt yours in at #3409678: Opt-in GitLab issues.
That means that we will have some projects with issues on Drupal.org and some other projects with their issues on GitLab during this transition period. Due to this, some things will change in our current systems.
The issue cockpit on each project's page will go away. The current issue cockpit that will see in projects reads data from our internal issues, but as projects transition to GitLab issues this block no longer makes sense. We will replace this for a simple "Issues" link that will take you to the right issue queue, whether it is GitLab or Drupal.org.
Parent and related issues will now be connected via a full URL. It used to be connected via entity reference fields, pointing at internal issues. Now that we have two systems for this, these will be links, that once rendered will bring the metadata information, like title and issue status, as we did with internal issues. We will be able to link both Drupal.org and GitLab issues into these new fields, and the old entity reference fields will go away.
We ask project maintainers to help us at the Drupal Association iterate and improve on this process as we migrate more and more projects. We know that change can take time to be adopted, and we are really excited to help project maintainers move their issues into GitLab.
There are almost 200 projects with more than 1000 issues, and around 2000 projects with more than 100.
Drupal "core" has more than 115K issues.
The roadmap will be (in each iteration, we will address feedback, fix bugs...):
We are very excited about this transition, and we truly think it will be an improvement to the contribution experience. We are also thankful to the community for helping us with this.
The Drupal Association has received €201,000 from the Sovereign Tech Fund to enhance Drupal's GitLab infrastructure, with a focus on security, testing efficiency, and design tools. This funding will enable critical improvements including completing the migration of Drupal's security issue management system to GitLab, optimizing CI/CD testing across thousands of repositories, and implementing new tools for UX and design contributors.
This continues the Sovereign Tech Fund’s support of Drupal. In 2023, the Sovereign Tech Fund funded major work to support the move from Drupal.org's homebuilt contribution tools to the GitLab platform.
The self-hosted GitLab instance at git.drupalcode.org is maintained by the Drupal Association and used by contributors all over the globe. In 2024, there were 7,276 unique individuals using git.drupalcode.org to contribute to 69,204 issues. These contributors represent an international community of users who support critical Drupal installations serving the public.
The additional funding will enable the Drupal Association to further enhance our use of GitLab in the following key areas:
The work commissioned by the Sovereign Tech Fund will not only enable us to advance strategically, driving meaningful progress and making a positive impact within the Drupal community but also strengthen the open source platform for users everywhere.
We are grateful to the Sovereign Tech Fund for this collaboration. This funding reflects their continued dedication to open source and their confidence in the Drupal Association and the community's ability to innovate and ensure the future of web development.
This blog has been re-posted and edited with permission from Dries Buytaert's blog.
In my DrupalCon Vienna keynote, I talk about how Drupal is adapting to an AI-driven web through AI-enabled visual editing, site templates, autonomous agents, and workflow orchestration.
The web is changing fast. AI now writes content, builds web pages, and answers questions directly, often bypassing websites entirely.
People often wonder what this means for Drupal, so at DrupalCon Vienna, I tackled this head-on. My message was simple: AI is the storm, but it's also the way through it. Instead of fighting AI, we're leaning into it.
My keynote focused on how Drupal is evolving across four product areas. We're making it easier to get started with Site Templates, enabling visual site building through Drupal Canvas, accelerating development with AI assistance, and exploring complex workflows with new orchestration tools.
If you missed the keynote, you can watch the video below, or download my slides (62 MB).
Vienna felt like a turning point. People could see the pieces coming together. Drupal is finding its footing in the AI era, leading in AI innovation, and ready to help shape what comes next for the web.
One of the most important ways to grow Drupal is to make it easier and faster to build new sites. We began that work with Recipes, a way to quickly add common features to a site. Recipes help people go from idea to a website in hours instead of days.
At DrupalCon Vienna, I talked about the next step in that journey: our first Site Template. Site Templates build on Recipes and also include a complete design with layouts, visual style, and sample content. The result is that you can go from a new Drupal install to a fully working website in minutes. It will be the easiest way yet to get started with Drupal.
Next, we plan to introduce more Site Templates and launch a Site Template Marketplace where anyone can discover, share, and build on templates for different use cases.
At DrupalCon Vienna, the energy around Drupal Canvas was infectious. Some even called it "CanvasCon". Drupal Canvas sessions were often standing room only, just like the Drupal AI sessions.
I first showed an early version of Drupal Canvas at DrupalCon Barcelona in September 2024, when we launched Drupal's Starshot initiative. The progress we've made in just one year is remarkable. My keynote showed parts of Drupal Canvas in action, but for a deeper dive, I recommend watching this breakout session.
Version 1.0 of Drupal Canvas is scheduled for November 2025. Starting in January 2026, it will become the default page builder in Drupal CMS 2.0. After more than 15 months of development and countless contributors working to make Drupal easier for everyone, it's hard to believe we're almost there. This marks the beginning of a new chapter for how people create with Drupal.
What excites me most is what this solves. For years, building pages in Drupal required technical expertise. Drupal Canvas gives end-users a visual page builder that is both more powerful and easy to use. Plus, it supports React, which means front-end developers can contribute using skills they already have.
Every content management system faces defining moments. For Drupal, one came with the release of Drupal 8. We rebuilt Drupal from the ground up, adopting modern design patterns and improving configuration management, versioning, workflows, and more.
The transition was hard, but here is the surprising part: ten years later those decisions gave Drupal an unexpected advantage in today's AI-driven web. The architecture we created is exactly what AI systems need today. When AI modifies content, you need version control to roll back mistakes. When it builds pages, you need structured data, permissions, and workflows. Drupal already has those capabilities.
For years, Drupal prioritized flexibility and robustness while other platforms focused on ease of use. What once felt like extra complexity now makes perfect sense. Drupal has quietly become one of the most AI-ready platforms available.
As I said in my keynote: "Some days AI terrifies me. An hour later it excites me. By the evening, I'm tired of hearing about it.". Still, we can't ignore AI.
I first introduced AI as part of Starshot. Five months ago, it became its own dedicated track with the launch of the Drupal AI initiative. Since then, twenty two agencies have backed it with funding and contributors, together contributing over one million dollars. This is the largest fundraising effort in Drupal's history.
The initiative is already producing impressive results. At DrupalCon Vienna, we released Drupal AI version 1.2, a major step forward for the initiative.
In my keynote, I also demonstrated three new AI capabilities:
Earlier this year, I wrote about the great digital agency unbundling. As AI automates more technical work, agencies need to evolve their business models and find new ways to create value.
One promising direction is orchestration: building systems and workflows that connect AI agents, content platforms, CRMs, and marketing tools into intelligent, automated workflows. I think of it as DXP 2.0.
Most organizations have complex marketing technology stacks. Connecting all the systems in their stack often requires custom code or repetitive manual tasks. This integration work can be time-consuming and hard to maintain.
Modern orchestration tools solve this by automating how information flows between systems. Instead of writing custom code, you can use no-code tools to define workflows that trigger automatically. When someone fills out a form, the system creates a CRM contact, sends a welcome email, and notifies your team without any manual work.
In my keynote, I showed how ECA and ActivePieces can work together. Jürgen Haas, who created ECA, and I collaborated on this integration. ECA lets you define automations inside Drupal using events, conditions, and actions. ActivePieces is an open source automation platform similar to Zapier or n8n.
This approach allows us to build user experiences that are not only better and smarter, but also positions Drupal to benefit from AI innovation happening across the broader ecosystem. The idea resonated in Vienna. People approached me enthusiastically with related projects and demos, including tools like Flowdrop or Drupal's MCP module.
Between now and DrupalCon Chicago, we're inviting the community to explore and expand on this work. Join us in #orchestration on Drupal Slack, test the new Orchestration module, connect more automation platforms, or help improve ECA. If this direction proves valuable, we'll share what we learned at DrupalCon Chicago.
At DrupalCon Vienna, I felt something shift. Sessions were packed. People were excited about Site Templates and the Marketplace. Drupal Canvas drew huge crowds, and even more agencies signed up to join the Drupal AI initiative. During contribution day, more people than usual showed up looking for ways to help.
That energy in Vienna reflected something bigger. AI is changing how people use the web and how we build for it. It can feel threatening, and it can feel full of possibility, but what became clear in Vienna is that Drupal is well positioned at this inflection point, with both momentum and direction.
What makes this moment special is how the community is responding with focus and collaboration. We are approaching it as a much more coordinated effort, while still leaving room for experimentation.
Vienna showed me that the Drupal community is ready to take this on together. We have navigated uncharted territory before, but this time there is a boldness and unity I have not seen in years. That is the way through the storm. I am proud to be part of it.
I want to extend my gratitude to everyone who contributed to making my presentation and demos a success. A special thank you to Adam G-H, Aidan Foster, ASH Sullivan, Bálint Kléri, Cristina Chumillas, Elliott Mower, Emma Horrell, Gábor Hojtsy, Gurwinder Antal, James Abrahams, Jurgen Haas, Kristen Pol, Lauri Eskola, Marcus Johansson, Martin Anderson-Clutz, Pamela Barone, Tiffany Farriss, Tim Lehnen, and Witze Van der Straeten. Many others contributed indirectly to make this possible. If I've inadvertently omitted anyone, please reach out.
What started as an idea among a couple of people has rapidly expanded into something with global interest. There are now educators teaching Drupal at higher education and universities, which is amazing. It means new people are being introduced to our beloved open source project.
“What if we could open source the teaching materials themselves, and teach others how to teach Drupal?”
A lot has happened since then. People from around the world have been collaborating on the teaching materials created by Hilmar Kári Hallbjörnsson, who is now in his fourth year of teaching Drupal at Reykjavík University. But the idea has grown, it’s become an initiative with the goal of reaching, introducing, and welcoming new Drupal enthusiasts into the community.
Drupal itself is thriving. With Drupal CMS and the AI initiative, the platform has more power and potential than ever before. This enthusiasm is growing both within and beyond the Drupal community. In the context of digital sovereignty, AI, privacy, security, and accessibility, a whole new set of opportunities is emerging for Drupal and open source.
The Drupal Open University Initiative is a community-driven effort focused on bringing Drupal into academic and other (higher) education environments. Our mission is to introduce students and aspiring developers to the power of Drupal, and to help cultivate the next generation of contributors. Through comprehensive, open-source-based courses, we aim to equip students, educators, and guest lecturers with the knowledge and tools needed to engage with Drupal—and the broader open source ecosystem. Together, we're shaping a future where Drupal continues to grow through the energy of new talent and an increasingly vibrant community.
Drupal is so much more than just code, it's a thriving ecosystem powered by one of the most dedicated open source communities in the world. But while that community remains strong, its average age is rising, and many young developers never encounter Drupal at all when starting to build their skills. In recent years, we've made significant progress in lowering the barrier to entry: today, it's even possible to build a Drupal site using AI, without writing a single line of code.
“I thought I heard that we won’t need junior devs now that we have generative AI?”
Within the community, there’s a strong desire to teach, guide, and share knowledge. If we can reach students early in their learning journey and spark their interest in Drupal, we have a unique opportunity to foster the next generation of Drupal developers. And by teaching Drupal, we also introduce them to our vibrant and welcoming community, helping them experience the value of contribution from the very beginning.
I have tried to find everyone actively mentioned on our Drupal.org project or bi-weekly notes, please let me know when you are missing from this list.
André Angelantoni (aangel), Ben Mullins (bnjmnm), Darren oh (darren-oh), Yan Zhang (designfitsu), Hilmar Hallbjörnsson (drupalviking), Esmeralda Tijhoff (esmoves), Fran Wyllie (franwyllie), Gayatri Tandon (gayatritandon), Nico Grienauer (grienauer), Guzman Bellon (guzmanb), Wouter Immerzeel (immoreel), Jean-Paul Vosmeer (jpvos), Karos Abdulqadir, Kwasi Afreh, Lenny Moskalyk (lenny moskalyk), Martin Anderson-Clutz (mandclu), Asim Mehta (metasim), Jordan Thompson (nord102), Rachel Lawson (rachel_norfolk), Salim Lakhani (salimlakhani), Jasper van Schelven (sch11en), Eric Wheeler (sikofitt), Soumya V (soumyavbhat), Norah Medlin (teknorah), Michael Anello (ultimike)
Our first focus is to find, build, open source, and expand the existing Drupal curriculum. This includes everything from introductory courses to fully-fledged academic modules worth 6 ECTS points or more. One of our key goals is to empower Drupal enthusiasts, whether they’re developers or educators, to teach Drupal in a university or high school setting. To do that, we provide resources, templates, and mentorship on both content and delivery.
We explore different angles to make Drupal education relevant across disciplines: from comprehensive Drupal development tracks to specialized topics like AI, headless Drupal with React, or mastering PHP-based web applications using Drupal. In parallel, we’ve also discovered new formats to reach broader audiences, such as Drupal in a Day. Our first official session took place in May at Drupaljam in the Netherlands, gathering valuable feedback. The second is being organized at DrupalCon Vienna with 90+ students attending and a Drupal in a Day for Drupalcon Chicago is in the works.
Theme’s we are working on
Drupal has a long-standing history in the academic world, many universities and schools already use it in their digital infrastructure. So why not teach it, too? We believe Drupal should be among the course options available in IT and digital curricula. Many agencies and Drupal professionals already have connections in educational environments. By leveraging these warm relationships, we can introduce formal Drupal courses in places where there’s already familiarity with the platform.
We’re mapping out which schools and universities are already teaching Drupal, and building case studies to inspire others. We’re also exploring how students experience Drupal, and how we can create dedicated spaces for them within our community, on Drupal.org, at camps and cons, or through student programs. Think internship matchmaking, guest lectures, or introductory presentations hosted by local agencies. The goal: make Drupal education visible, accessible, and desirable in the academic world.
Material worked on
Our community has always excelled at sharing advanced knowledge, especially at camps and conferences. But what if we created more space for beginners at those same events? We believe every camp should include beginner-friendly tracks, clearly designed to welcome newcomers, students, and self-taught developers. We can help camps develop and deliver those tracks, including guidance on how to reach the right audience and what topics to cover.
But it doesn’t stop at camps. How do we find newcomers? How do we make them feel welcome and embed them into user groups and local meetups? Local associations and user groups can play a vital role in bridging the gap between schools, agencies, events, and education. With their support, we can make Drupal easier to access, easier to love, and easier to stay involved in.
Material worked on
For Drupal Open University to succeed, it must align with the broader ambitions of the Drupal community, especially those focused on growth and inclusivity. That means working alongside existing initiatives, supporting our project leadership, and coordinating with other community efforts in education, contribution, and outreach.
We’re actively seeking collaboration with key stakeholders: educators, agency leaders, community organizers, and Drupal Association members. The more we align, the faster we can move. This is not just a curriculum, it’s a movement. A shared opportunity to help Drupal grow by helping others learn.
Material worked on
We’re building a roadmap and inviting the community to get involved in shaping it. Together, we’ll define priorities, timelines, and shared goals. This includes expanding our curriculum, scaling Drupal in a Day events, supporting beginner tracks at camps, and building networks of teachers and universities. The initiative thrives on collaboration, and now is the time to align our efforts.
Our next steps:
We’re also preparing a community presentation to share the current state of the initiative, including a Q&A sessions. This is your chance to get involved, ask questions, and help shape the future of Drupal education.
We are not, and do not aim to be, competitors to the many excellent learning environments, whether open or commercial, within or beyond the Drupal community. On the contrary, we want to foster the next generation of Drupal developers, and we believe that the more resources exist once people are hooked on Drupal, the better. We hope to collaborate broadly and combine strengths wherever possible.
Ultimately, we see this initiative as a contribution to the future of Drupal. As Dries Buytaert outlined in his vision for long-term growth, one key obstacle is: “Make Drupal easy to evaluate and adopt.” We believe Drupal Open University is one way to help remove that obstacle, by meeting new learners where they are and welcoming them into our community with open arms.
If you're inspired, already teaching, or simply curious to contribute, we invite you to join us. You can find our project at drupal.org/project/open_university or connect with us via Slack in the #open-university-initiative channel.
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Guest blog post by Angie Forson, Web and Digital Programme Lead, Southwark Council.
The Web and Digital team at Southwark Council, along with our partners at Chicken, is building an AI-powered PDF importer for the LocalGov Drupal Publication Module. Together, we’re unlocking a faster, more accessible, and more collaborative future for publishing.
Manual PDF conversion can take hours – sometimes days. With our importer, it happens in minutes – often under one minute. Multiply that across thousands of PDFs, and the time savings are game-changing.
I’m excited about the impact this product will have — not just for our users, but also in transforming how we design, build, and create content internally. We’re shaping a future where services start with HTML-first thinking.
Evelyn Francourt, User Experience Lead
We upload a PDF to the module, which will then kick-start the importing process in the background.
The result is the HTML representation of the PDF content, which is then saved into a Drupal Publication. We can then review and publish the Publication.
Each import process is logged so that any errors can be reviewed and fixed.
Each PDF goes through a three-step ETL process, called an “import pipeline” in the module:
We can build as many import pipelines as needed, each with its own custom AI prompt. Useful for things like handling different types of PDF content or layout.
Furthermore, the pipeline uses a plugin architecture, where each step can be swapped out. Councils can use different extractors, AI models, or output to different Drupal content types to suit their needs.
This project is a great example of AI working alongside and empowering content creators, and Drupal as a platform supports this really well.
Farez Rahman, Drupal Developer
We’re delivering this project the way we deliver our best work – agile and user-centred by design.
We have adapted our delivery to meet the challenges of innovation design. Our team has had to continuously refine requirements and acceptance criteria to ensure the tool meets real user needs and delivers meaningful outcomes.
Working on this AI product is an incredible experience — each day comes with new challenges, unexpected turns, and fresh opportunities to innovate. The pace of change made the whole process an absolute adrenaline rush.
Giorgi Bujiashvili, Delivery Manager
As Chicken fast-tracks development, we’ve been testing and refining prompts across a wide range of PDFs to prove what’s possible:
We’ve also cracked the pagination challenge. Early versions mirrored PDFs page-by-page, causing awkward breaks mid-paragraph or mid-list. Now the importer processes the entire document at once and, with the right AI prompt, inserts page breaks at logical user-friendly points such as topic changes or new sections.
This project has been co-designed with content designers, developers, and the LocalGov Drupal community.
Together, we’re shaping a scalable, open-source tool that other councils can adopt, adapt, and improve.
Angie Forson, Web and Digital Programme Lead
The AI PDF Importer isn’t just a tool – it’s a step change in accessible, open-source publishing for local government. Following this release, it will be open and shareable with the LocalGov Drupal community for other councils to adopt and iterate.
If you’re interested in supporting or scaling this project, contact Angie Forson – Angie.Forson@southwark.gov.uk. Let’s change the game together.
