Talking Drupal

Talking Drupal Hosts
  • 4.9 (28)
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Talking Drupal is a weekly chat about web design and development by a group a guys with one thing in common, we love Drupal. With hosts Stephen Cross, John Picozzi and Nic Laflin.

  1. 13H AGO

    Talking Drupal #535 - Podcast Recording

    Today we are talking about Recording Podcasts, The tech used, and How Drupal Can help with guest Stephen Cross. We'll also cover Chosen as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/535 Topics Podcasting and Second Signal Media Evolution of Podcasting Tech Essentials for Podcasting The CEO's Video Strategy Transformation Overcoming the Fear of Speaking on Camera The Importance of Consistency in Content Creation Editing vs. Authenticity in Video Content Choosing the Right Environment and Equipment Setting Realistic Goals for Your Podcast Recording Workflow Recommendations Tools and Tips for Improving Audio Quality Resources Basic Editing with Kdenlive Audio clean-up tools Izotope Secret sounds Guests Stephen Cross - stephencross Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Andy Giles - dripyard.com andyg5000 MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Have you ever wanted to give users on your Drupal site a more intuitive alternative to native HTML multiselect widgets? There's a module for that. Module name/project name: Chosen Brief history How old: created in Jul 2011 by shadcn but recent releases are by Bálint Nagy (nagy.balint) of Hungary Versions available: 3.0.6, 4.0.3, and 5.0.3, the last of which works with Drupal 10.2 or 11 Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage Test coverage Number of open issues: 221 open issues, 4 of which are bugs against the 5.x branch Usage stats: Almost 38,000 sites Module features and usage With the module installed, your Drupal site will selectively replace select elements with a more intuitive widget, leveraging the Chosen library. In the module's configuration you can specify how many options should trigger Chosen, and also specify form field selectors to explicitly include or exclude. The three active branches of the module reflect usage of different forks of the Chosen library. Notably, the 5.x versions use a fork that no longer requires jQuery, and allows Chosen to be enabled for mobile devices. In addition to the module configuration, you can also force a custom form's select element to use the Chosen library simply by adding the "chosen-select" class to the form array. Back in episode #409 we talked about Tagify, which in some ways is similar, but is designed specifically to work with entity reference fields. That makes it less "general purpose", though Tagify does also include some additional capabilities, such as being able to include labels or icons on results based on a property of the result. Years ago I used another popular project called Select2 for turning multiselects into listboxes that included a search filter, but that project relied on a library that required jQuery but is incompatible with jQuery 4. So, Select2 has been officially replaced by Tagify, but Chosen could also be useful if your field is not an entity reference. There are a variety similar modules you can also look at, including Choices.js, Selectize, and Selectify, but Chosen is by far the most widely used, even if you're only looking at numbers for the 5.x branch

    55 min

  2. 4D AGO

    TD Cafe #012 - Johanna Bates & Jess Snyder

    Join Johanna and Jess as they dive deep into their experiences and insights working with Drupal in the nonprofit sector. Learn about their early careers, the evolution of Drupal's development, the significance of community in nonprofit tech, and the origins and importance of the Nonprofit Summit at DrupalCon. Discover how their community initiatives foster collaboration and support among nonprofit technologists, and get a glimpse into the upcoming summit details. Perfect for anyone interested in Drupal, open-source technology, and nonprofit organizational challenges. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/cafe012 Johanna Bates Johanna Bates (they/them, hanpersand on drupal.org) is co-founder and co-principal of DevCollaborative, a company that builds accessible and sustainable Drupal and WordPress sites exclusively for nonprofit organizations. Johanna began their formal tech career at WGBH in Boston in 2000 as a front-end developer. They have been building Drupal sites since 2004, and have been co-moderating NTEN's Nonprofit Drupal Community and its monthly chats for over a decade. Johanna was involved in early Nonprofit Summits at NYCcamp starting back in 20-teens 2015, and helped bring the Nonprofit Summit to DrupalCon North America in 2017. Jess Snyder Jess Snyder (jesss on drupal.org and Drupal Slack) is Director of Web Systems for WETA, the flagship public media station for Washington, DC, and has over 20 years of experience in website development. Jess is an organizer for NTEN's Drupal Community of Practice as well as Drupal GovCon. She also co-chaired the triumphant return of the Nonprofit Summit to DrupalCon Portland 2024 and its sequel at DrupalCon Atlanta 2025. When not Drupaling, Jess sits on the Board of Directors for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Topics Meet the Speakers: Johanna and Jess Johanna's Journey in Nonprofit Tech Jess's Path in Public Broadcasting The Importance of Community in Nonprofit Tech Organizing Nonprofit Summits Challenges and Changes in Drupal The Value of Open Source for Nonprofits Comparing Drupal and WordPress Concerns About JavaScript in Content Editing Importance of Accessibility in Content Management Guardrails for Content Editors The Nonprofit Summit: Origins and Evolution Summit Format and Community Building Sponsorship and Event Details Getting Involved in the Nonprofit Drupal Community Conclusion and Final Thoughts Guests Johanna Bates - hanpersand Jess Snyder - jesss

    48 min

  3. 12/29/2025

    Talking Drupal #534 - Webhaven.io

    Today we are talking about Webhaven.io, What it is, and How it helps build Drupal faster with guest Fons Vandamme. We'll also cover Metatag Simple Widget as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/534 Topics What is Web Haven Web Haven's Technical Insights and Future Plans Developer's Perspective on Recipe Upgrades Documentation vs. Automatic Updates Module Management Concerns Drupal Canvas Challenges with Drupal Canvas Integration Web Haven's Future with Drupal Canvas Exploring Headless Architecture with Web Haven Business Plan and Roadmap for Web Haven AI Integration in Web Haven Creating and Testing Recipes Resources Webhaven.io Accelerating AI-Powered Chatbots in Drupal Ratatouille Guests Fons Vandamme - webhaven.io f0ns Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Have you ever wanted a simplified widget for managing meta tags in your Drupal content? There's a module for that. Module name/project name: Metatag Simple Widget Brief history How old: created in Jul 2025 by Jim Vomero (njim) of Four Kitchens Versions available: 1.0.0 and 1.1.0, the latter of which works with Drupal core 10 and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage No open issues Usage stats: 1 site Module features and usage With this module installed, in the form configuration for your content types, you'll see a new "Simplified meta tags form" widget for metatag fields It's designed to provide a dramatically streamlined input for metatags, focused on only exposing the most commonly used tags, the title and description As a configuration option, you can have the widget hide default values, which for metatag fields often contain tokens, which could be confusing for Drupal neophytes The module was nominated by Dave Hansen-Lange (dalin), also of Four Kitchens, and a co-maintainer, as well as a fellow Canadian I also wanted to give a shout out to the Drupal.org Infrastructure Working Group. In the lead-up to this recording there was a media server failure that brought down the entire site. They worked as furiously as Santa's elves and were able to quickly get the site back up. It was a reminder for me of how much we all (and this segment in particular) depend on the tireless work they do. In this season of giving please consider supporting the Drupal Association, and if you already do, maybe see if you could give a little more.

    56 min

  4. 12/22/2025

    Talking Drupal #533 - The At-Large Board Seat

    Today we are talking about The Drupal At-Large Board Seat, What the job entails, and some common misconceptions with guest Fei Lauren. We'll also cover Token Browser as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/533 Topics Understanding the Drupal Association at Large Board Seat Responsibilities and Experiences of a Board Member Challenges and Insights from Serving on the Board Community Representation and Accountability Skills and Qualities for Aspiring Board Members Navigating Board Member Responsibilities Community Perception and Board Care Global Community Engagement Challenges and Impact of Board Decisions Encouraging Non-Technical Contributions Reflections and Future Plans Election Process and Imposter Syndrome Resources Board of directors working groups Board of directors Guests Fei Lauren - feilauren Hosts Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan MOTW Correspondent Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan Brief description: Have you ever wanted an improved token browser that loads quickly and doesn't have a depth limit? There's a module for that. Module name/project name: Token Browser Brief history How old: created in Nov 2025 by Andy Marquis (apmsooner) https://talkingdrupal.com/505 Versions available: 1.0.0 which works with Drupal core 11.3 or newer Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage Test coverage Number of open issues: 2 open issues, 1 of which is a bug Usage stats: 3 sites Module features and usage The Token Browser module provides a rebuilt version of the standard token browser. Notably, it only renders the first level during the initial request, and then requests deeper levels as needed using all the latest HTMX improvements in Drupal core 11.3 It's worth noting that the initial version requires an alternative theme function be attached to form elements where you want to use the new Token Browser, so it doesn't actually replace the standard version Also, there seems to be an issue where the HTMX library doesn't load on cached pages, which is the one open issue. I pinged Andy about it and it sounds like he has a fix in the works. Finally, this module is similar to an older module called Fast Token Browser, but that module was never updated to work with versions of Drupal newer than 7, and relied on jQuery for its AJAX functionality

    1h 8m

  5. 12/15/2025

    Talking Drupal #532 - AI Marketing and Stuff

    Today we are talking about AI Marketing,Marketing Trends, and The caber toss with guest Hayden Baillio. We'll also cover Drupal core 11.3 as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/532 Topics AI in Marketing: Hayden's Insights The Role of AI in Content Creation Challenges and Ethical Considerations of AI AI Training Data and Bias AI in Security Testing AI Replacing Jobs The Future of Marketing with AI Highland Games and Personal Hobbies Resources Drupal core 11.3 release highlights Carsinisation Guests Hayden Baillio - hounder.co hgbaillio Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Fei Lauren - feilauren MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Have you been wanting a version of Drupal core that moves away from the hooks system, has PHP 8.5 support, or has better support for asynchronous queries? The newly released Drupal core 11.3 has all these and more. Module name/project name: Drupal core 11.3 Brief history Created in the last few days (hopefully) by the time this episode is released Changes Performance improvements New MYSQLi database driver. In combination with the PHP Fibers support added in Drupal 10.2, this should allow Drupal sites to run much faster. Not all hosting environments will have PHP configured to work with the new driver, so for now the new driver is in an experimental core module you will need to install to try the new driver Drupal can now lazy load multiple entities at a time using Fibers PHP 8.5 support should also improve performance, as will a number of caching improvements Some early testing in the community indicates some significant improvements for pages loaded from cold cache, anywhere from 30 to 40% fewer queries One of the significant changes in Drupal core 11.2 was the addition of HTMX as the intended successor to Drupal's older AJAX system. Drupal core 11.3 includes some significant steps on the path to replacing all the places that AJAX system in core There's a new HTMX factory object with methods to abstract the specifics of the attributes and headers needed to implement HTMX HTMX is now used for the Form Builder and ConfigSingleExportForm BigPipe no longer uses the older AJAX API, which itself uses jQuery New Workspace Provider concept, will be interesting to see what new possibilities this creates New administer node published status permission, previously required the much broader "administer nodes" permission Drupal core 11.3 also includes some capabilities that previously required contrib modules Links created within CKEditor5 now dynamically link to the entity and when rendered will automatically point to the most recent alias. Previously Drupal sites needed the Linkit module, which has been part of Drupal CMS since its release at the start of the year Drupal CMS is also heavily based on Drupal's recipe system, which includes the ability to automatically import content included within a recipe. Until now you still needed the default_content module to export content as YAML for inclusion in a recipe. With Drupal 11.3 you can export all entities of a particular type, optionally filtered by bundle, and optionally including all dependencies Many of Drupal's remaining hooks, particularly those for themes, now have OOP class replacements, so we're now very close to being able to deprecate .module and .theme files Listeners may remember that the Navigation module was added as an experimental module in Drupal core 10.3. In 11.3, the module is now officially stable, so the rethought admin menu that originally debuted as part of the Gin admin theme is now fully realized in Drupal core SDCs can now be marked to be excluded from the UI, for example if they are meant to only be nested within other components Drupal core 11.3 also introduces some new deprecations: Migrate Drupal and Migrate Drupal UI officially deprecated now that Drupal 7 is EOL Also field_layout, which was ultimately superseded by Layout Builder Promoted and Sticky fields are now hidden by default (an issue created more than 20 years ago! A five digit issue ID) - the user who created it had a drop.org username lol Another issue that sets the "Promoted" default value to FALSE for new content types was also resolved, but only 15 years old. It had a six-digit issue ID - barely! Theme engines have been deprecated! This may be the last feature release of Drupal core before version 12, which could drop as early as June 2026 We'll include a link to the release highlights, but by the time you hear this there should also be an official announcement from Gabor and the DA with additional details

    1h 7m

  6. 12/08/2025

    Talking Drupal #531 - Drupal as an Application Framework

    Today we are talking about Drupal for Applications, Types of Applications Drupal can build, and How we change our thinking of Drupal with guests Alexander Varwijk (far-vag) & Jürgen Haas. We'll also cover Drupal Remote Dashboard as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/531 Topics Drupal as an Application Framework Challenges with Drupal for Real-Time Applications Exciting Prospects with AI and Drupal Showcasing Successful Drupal Implementations Batch Processing and Worker Improvements Orchestration and Integration with External Platforms Future of Drupal as an Application Framework Resources Drupal Advent Calendar Proposal: Restructuring Drupal Internals by Alexander Varwijk Introducing Symfony/Runtime in Drupal Maestro Guests Alexander Varwijk - alexandervarwijk.com/ Kingdutch Jürgen Haas - lakedrops.com jurgenhaas Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Fei Lauren - feilauren MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Have you ever wanted to manage and monitor a portfolio of Drupal sites from a single interface? There's a module for that. Module name/project name: Drupal Remote Dashboard (DRD) Brief history How old: created in Jan 2010 by Jürgen Haas (jurgenhaas) of LakeDrops Versions available: 4.1.7 which works with Drupal 10 and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage Full Documentation Guide Number of open issues: 22 open issues, 3 of which are bugs against the current branch Usage stats: 126 sites Module features and usage With the module enabled, for each monitored site you'll be able to review information like the version of core, modules, and themes, as well as the status report. Note that the dashboard and monitored sites do NOT need to be on the same major version of core. You can also collect any block from a remote site to include on your dashboard, or access the error logs to review them in the dashboard You can execute maintenance tasks like taking sites in or out of maintenance mode, running cron or update.php, as well as flushing cache The dashboard will also allow you to rebuild job schedulers, update translations from drupal.org, change user credentials, or execute arbitrary PHP code, so you'll definitely want to be selective about who will have access From the collected status information you can show a status widget for each domain to display grouped traffic light status levels for security, health, tuning, seo and others. You can also create aggregate status widgets, for example to show the composite health of all sites in a multisite installation. Internally DRD is built around a number of entities, and the documentation includes an architecture page with an Entity Relationship Diagram, while the glossary page includes a description for each of the entities and what Drupal site information they map to. Obviously security for this kind of setup is paramount, and there's a documentation page that details the encryption and authentication methods that are supported Sites that you want to monitor will need to have the DRD Agent module installed, which provides a simple wrapper to receive, route, handle and respond to requests from authorised Drupal Remote Dashboards. It's worth pointing out that the RDR Agent module is in use by 3,152 sites according to drupal.org, so there may be a small number of sites acting as dashboards, but on average each of them is monitoring 25 sites.

    1 hr

  7. 11/24/2025

    Talking Drupal #530 - Join the Community Working Group

    Today we are talking about the community working group, What they do, and how you can help with guests AmyJune Hineline, Mark Casias, and Matthew Saunders. We'll also cover Drupal CMS Geo Images as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/530 Topics Exploring the Community Working Group (CWG) Roles and Responsibilities within the CWG Conflict Resolution and Community Health Matthew's Journey and Joining the CWG Qualities and Experiences for CWG Members Identifying the Need for Cultural Sensitivity The Importance of Patience and Grace in Conflict Resolution Onboarding and the Role of the Community Health Team Time Commitment and Responsibilities of CWG Members Supporting the CWG Without Formal Membership Maintaining Confidentiality and Promoting Transparency Addressing Credit Abuse and Community Health Parting Words of Wisdom for Aspiring Community Members Resources Recipe application Guests AmyJune Hineline - volkswagenchick Matthew Saunders - jamesmatthewsaunders.ai MatthewS Mark Casias - omibee.com markie Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi MOTW Correspondent Mike Anello - drupaleasy.com ultimike Brief description: Drupal CMS Geo Images - a Drupal CMS recipe that automatically displays uploaded geotagged images on a map. Module name/project name: Drupal CMS Geo Images Brief history How old: created in February 2025 by Italo Mairo (https://www.drupal.org/u/itamair). He is also one of the maintainers of the GeoField module as well as many of the other geo-spatial related contrib modules. Versions available: 1.1.4, released Nov 9 2025. Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage Documentation - yes, on the project page (README is the same) Number of open issues: 1 open issues, 0 of which are bugs against the current branch (2 total issues) Module features and usage Creates new "Geo image" media type Displays image and map Bulk import via Media Library Importer module Includes preconfigured map view (filterable by date) Each mapped photo displayed with image thumbnail on map

    1h 2m

  8. 11/17/2025

    Talking Drupal #529 - MCP, Automators, and Agents

    Today we are talking about MCPs, AI Automators, and AI Agents with guest Marcus Johansson. We'll also cover AI Ecosystem Recipe as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/529 Topics Understanding Model Context Protocol (MCP) AI Automators in Drupal Creating Complex Workflows with Automators Simple and Effective Automator Use Cases AI Image Alt Text and Contextual Understanding AI Tagging and Content Management Introduction to AI Agents in Drupal Challenges and Future of AI Agents Real-World Applications and Future of AI in Drupal Proliferation of Orchestration Tools Resources ai initiative issue queue Recipes from 1xInternet https://www.drupal.org/project/ai_recipe_image_classification https://www.drupal.org/project/ai_recipe_llm_optimized_content https://www.drupal.org/project/ai_recipe_seo_optimizer MCP xkcd Tool API Slack MCP Server Drupal MCP MCP Client JSON API wrapper Tagify Views Agent Context control center Marriage podcast Guests Marcus Johansson - workflows-of-ai.com marcus_johansson Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Have you ever wanted to explore the AI capabilities of Drupal, but didn't know where to start? There's a Drupal recipe for that. Module name/project name: AI Ecosystem Recipe Brief history How old: created in Oct 2024 by Marcus Johansson (marcus_johansson of FreelyGive.io Versions available: 1.0.0-alpha2, which requires Drupal 10.3 or newer Maintainership Actively maintained Number of open issues: 2 open issues, both of which are bugs Module features and usage When you require and apply this recipe to your Drupal site, you'll be able to start working with a variety of LLMs and specialized AI-based services You'll be able to ingest unstructured content and map it to structured fields automatically. Or generate a detailed SEO analysis of your nodes. There are multiple translation tools, crawlers to help work across entire sites, and more. This recipe is likely something you would apply to a sandbox site, to understand the various ways to achieve something specific with AI and Drupal, and then apply whatever is best for your use case to your actual site build. But it's a useful resource for a Drupalist wanting to start exploring some of the growing list of options for working with AI, or someone familiar with AI tools who wants to start using them with Drupal.

    1h 7m
See All (551)

4.9
out of 5
28 Ratings

About

Talking Drupal is a weekly chat about web design and development by a group a guys with one thing in common, we love Drupal. With hosts Stephen Cross, John Picozzi and Nic Laflin.

Information

  • Creator
    Talking Drupal Hosts
  • Years Active
    2013 - 2026
  • Episodes
    551
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © (c) 2013-2020 Talking Drupal
  • Show Website
    Talking Drupal