Talking Drupal

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Talking Drupal is a weekly chat about web design and development by a group of people with one thing in common: We Love Drupal. With hosts John Picozzi, Nic Laflin, and Martin Anderson-Clutz

  1. 1d ago

    Talking Drupal #556 - A Chat with Moshe

    Today we are talking about Drush, Core Contributions, and Drupal's Past with guest Moshe Weitzman. We'll also cover Cache Metrics as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/556 Topics Moshe Updates and Clients Maintaining Drush Long Term Locale Performance Overhaul CLI in Core Initiative Which Commands Make the Cut Roadmap Contrib Commands Moving Commands Technical Hurdles How to Help From AI Initiative DDEV Add-ons for Local CI MySQL Toolkit Database Images Testing With Real Databases Devel Module Status Organic Groups Origins Where Ideas Come From Finding Drupal Early Days Release Cadence And Backward Compatibility Avoiding Maintainer Burnout Maintaining With AI And Xdebug Resources Drush's Final Act Drupal cli issue DDEV addons https://github.com/ddev/ddev-drupal-contrib https://github.com/weitzman/ddev-mtk https://www.drupal.org/project/dtt Guests Moshe Weitzman - weitzman.github.io moshe-weitzman Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Scott Falconer - managing-ai.com scott-falconer MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Have you ever wanted insights into how cache is working on your Drupal site? There's a module for that. Module name/project name: Cache Metrics Brief history How old: created in Oct 2019 by Moshe Weitzman (moshe weitzman), today's guest, a consistent core contributor, a member of the security team, and one of the rare few with a two-digit user id on drupal.org Versions available: 2.0.3, 2.1.0, and 2.2.0, the last of which works with Drupal 8.7.7, 9, 10, and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained Security and test coverage Documentation - in depth README Number of open issues: 2 open issues, 1 of which is a bug, but is marked fixed Usage stats: 37 sites Module features and usage With this module enabled, your Drupal site will log all cache tag invalidations Additionally, cache tag invalidations will be sent to New Relic as custom events, where you can use the rich reporting tools available to mine for further insights. Many Drupal hosting options include New Relic out-of-the-box, and there's a free tier you can use if you're self-hosting, so this a reporting tool lots of Drupal sites can use Cache hits and misses are also sent to New Relic, so you can investigate things like cache misses as a percentage by cache bin Finally, the aforementioned README also includes information about how to use a different analytics provider, in case New Relic doesn't meet your specific needs Drupal sites probably don't need this kind of visibility on a regular basis, but if you're troubleshooting any kind of cache-related issue, this could be really useful

    1h 8m
  2. 6d ago

    TD Cafe #017 - Drupal Beginners with Mike and Rod

    Mike Anello and Rod Martin discuss the sharp decline in demand for beginner Drupal training. Drawing on data from their businesses, events, and other training providers, they explore factors including AI-driven self-service learning, Drupal's growing complexity for newcomers, and limited community-wide marketing. They also discuss how initiatives like Drupal AI and broader promotion efforts could help attract and support the next generation of Drupal users. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/cafe017 Topics Mike Anello Mike, widely recognized by his Drupal.org username "ultimike," is a prominent figure in the Drupal community with over 20 years of experience as a developer, educator, and community leader. As the co-founder and vice president of DrupalEasy, a Florida-based training and consulting firm, he has been instrumental in shaping the careers of countless Drupal professionals through comprehensive programs like Drupal Career Online and Professional Module Development. Mike's contributions extend beyond education. He has been deeply involved in the Drupal ecosystem, previously serving as a core contributor to the Migrate module, co-maintaining several contributed modules, and actively participating in issue queues and documentation efforts. His leadership roles include membership in the Drupal Community Working Group and the Conflict Resolution Team, as well as organizing the Florida Drupal Users' Group and Florida DrupalCamp for over a decade. As the host of the long-running DrupalEasy Podcast, MIke provides insights into Drupal development, community news, and interviews with key contributors, fostering a sense of connection and ongoing learning within the community (DrupalEasy). His dedication to mentoring and community building has made him a respected and influential voice in the Drupal world. Rod Martin Rod has introduced more than 50,000 people to Drupal through his live and video training since 2011. He owns NavigateTomorrow and runs DrupalHelps - a site for site builders to get information and quick starts to using Drupal in their own businesses or non-profits. Guests Mike Anello - DupalEasy ultimike Rod Martin - DrupalHelps.com imrodmartin Resources The slow decline of beginner Drupal training The Site Builder Breakthrough - From Confusion to Confidence Drupal AI Initiative Promote Drupal

    33 min
  3. Jun 1

    Talking Drupal #555 - AI Learners Club

    Today we are talking about AI, How to stay up to date with it, and if it will really take our jobs with guests Angie Byron & Amber Matz. We'll also cover AI Best Practices for Drupal as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/555 Topics What Is AI Learners Club Amber Defines the Club Origin Story and DrupalCon AI Debate and Community Tensions Issue Queue Conduct and Moderation Thread Tone vs Substance AI Adoption Outside Drupal Conflict Mediation Playbook Maintainer Burnout and Flood Safe Space Learners Club How the Club Started Picking Topics and Demos AI Taking Our Jobs Future of Learners Club Resources Context Control Center AI Learners Club Initiative page Event calendar YouTube Playlist Session Recaps Next session (Claude Design) Slack: #ai-learners Most wanted topics What Angie's working on these days Guests Amber Matz - tugboatqa.com amber-himes-matz Angie Byron - ai_best_practices webchick Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Scott Falconer - managing-ai.com scott-falconer MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Do you want to start using AI tools for Drupal development, in the most efficient way possible? There's a composer plugin for that! Module name/project name: AI Best Practices for Drupal Brief history How old: created in Mar 2026 by Angie Byron (webchick), one, of today's guests, a long-time Drupalist, one-time Acquian, and a fellow Canadian Versions available: dev version only, which doesn't seem directly opinionated about what version of Drupal you're using, though it does have minimum versions of PHP and Symfony libraries that suggest Drupal 10 is functionally your minimum Maintainership It is officially seeking co-maintainers Test coverage Documentation - an in-depth README, or you can ask an AI model! (like I did for this segment) 54 open "Work Items" on Gitlab, so lots of active discussion already Module features and usage AI Best Practices for Drupal aims to be the opinionated starter experience for AI-assisted Drupal development You can think of it as a single Composer install that makes any AI coding agent "speak Drupal": following community standards, preferring contrib over custom code, and avoiding framework-naive mistakes. It replaces scattered, tool-specific CLAUDE.md files and Cursor rules that some Drupal developers currently maintain individually, with one canonical, community-governed package that works across Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, and more. With contributions by a variety of Drupal luminaries including Marcus Johansson, Christoph Briedert, and Scott Falconer, it's the Drupal equivalent of Laravel Boost: stop explaining Drupal to your AI every session and just get writing code. After install or update, it will create an AGENTS.md file from a provided template if there isn't one already, or it will update a specifically marked "ai-best-practices" section of an existing file You will also have a directory of provided skills, and guidance for creating new Drupal agent skills Also included is a set of evals, meant to automatically identify when AI models go off course and provide feedback AI Best Practices for Drupal is meant to provide guidance that will be particularly useful for AI agents, so it's ideal for Drupal developers getting started with AI tools, or for AI developers who want to get started with Drupal

    1h 20m
  4. May 25

    Talking Drupal #554 - Hey! Scott Tolinski!

    Today we are talking about Web Education, Level up Tutorials, and life after Drupal with guest Scott Tolinski. We'll also cover Views Row SDC as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/554 Topics Scott Origin Story Level Up Tutorials Era Syntax Podcast Beginnings Growing The Audience Web Components Debate Leaving Drupal Behind What Drupal Still Nails Agency Project Highlights Booking Podcast Guests Scott Work Week Setup Running Syntax Team Canvas HTML Experiments Livestream Tools Challenges Funding Via Sentry Project Ideas Process Conference Speaking Journey Speaking Logistics Family Content Focus Passion Drupal Influence Today Mad CSS Tournament AI Coding Workflow What Excites Him Now Resources Scott Tolinski's Website Levelup tutorials 1000th episode Web awesome Talk in Amsterdam - React summit This component could have been a class Sigraph conference site Too fast too furious learning things quickly JSNation Scratch Css tricks MadCss Championship State of ai survey Jazz.tools 0sync Graffiti Guests Scott Tolinski - tolin.ski stolinski Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Bernardo Martinez - bernardm28 MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Have you ever wanted to use a Single Directory Component to format the output of a view on your Drupal website? There's a module for that Module name/project name: Views Row SDC Brief history How old: created in Apr 2026 by James Shields (lostcarpark), a friend of the podcast Versions available: 1.0.0, which works with Drupal 11.3 and 12 Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage Number of open issues: 9 open issues, 3 of which are bugs, though two are marked as fixed in the latest release Usage stats: 4 sites Module features and usage With this module installed, when you select "Show" in the Format modal for any views display, you'll see a new option for "Single Directory Component", in addition to standard options like "Content view mode" or "Fields" You can then select which of the site's available SDCs you want to use to format each result, and then you can map fields defined in the view to the properties and slots defined for the selected component You can also place a view using this format into a Drupal Canvas layout by having a block display SDCs and Canvas are the new hotness in Drupal theming, so this module gives you some additional ways to incorporate theme into your own Drupal site

    1h 12m
  5. May 18

    Talking Drupal #553 - Saving The Open Web

    Today we are talking about The Open Web, What it means, and Why it's important with guest Alex Moreno. We'll also cover AI Schema.org JSON-LD as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/553 Topics Defining the Open Web Drupal in a Bubble Marketing and PR Challenges AI Bias Against Drupal Why AI Won't Recommend Drupal Is Drupal AI Native Marketing Against Giants Local Evangelism Push Funding Outreach Trips Drupal CMS PR Gap Templates Lower Barriers Need a Drupal Onramp Speaking Beyond Drupal Web Summit Lessons Sell Problems Not Drupal Rethinking DrupalCon Camps and New Audiences Marketplace Ecosystem Idea Wrap Up and Contacts Resources Drupalcamp Grenoble 2026 - Bursting the bubble Drupal Iberia keynote Schema dot org Drupal is Great! Its Perception Might Not be TD Cafe - Caching   Guests Alex Moreno - alexmoreno Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Bernardo Martinez - bernardm28 MOTW Correspondent Jacob Rockowitz - jrockowitz.com jrockowitz Brief description: The AI Schema.org JSON-LD module provides a straightforward way to send a prompt — including a webpage's content and data, along with instructions and requirements — to an AI provider and receive a response containing valid Schema.org JSON-LD for saving and embedding in a webpage. It's a "glue module" that combines AI Automators, Field Widget Actions, and JSON Field to create an AI-powered Schema.org JSON-LD field for content entities. Module name/project name: AI Schema.org JSON-LD Brief history How old: Created in April 2026 by jrockowitz (Jacob Rockowitz) of The Big Blue House Versions available: 1.0.0-alpha1 (requires Drupal ^11.3); 1.0.x-dev branch also available Maintainership Actively maintained Yes — updated as recently as April 30, 2026 Security coverage No — not currently covered by Drupal's security advisory policy; use at your own risk Test coverage The module notes that all contributed code must include test coverage, though it is early alpha Documentation Yes — the project page includes setup instructions, implementation guidance, philosophy, and a 2-minute demo video on YouTube Number of open issues: 0 open issues, 0 of which are bugs against the current branch Usage stats: 1 site currently reporting use of this module Module features and usage Adds a native JSON "Schema.org JSON-LD" field to content entities (nodes, media, taxonomy terms) Field is populated via an AI automator triggered by a Field Widget Action, keeping a human in the review loop before saving Stores Schema.org JSON-LD as native JSON data, creating a fully queryable knowledge graph for the site Works with complex nested content structures (paragraphs, components) by having AI parse and generate the structured data Includes an optional sub-module for logging prompts and AI responses for human and AI review and iterative improvement Configurable per entity type/bundle via UI, Drush, or Drupal recipe Philosophy: "Use AI to build a tool that helps AI understand your website while always keeping a human in the loop" Built using AI coding agents (Claude and Codex), with community contributions encouraged — especially around crafting and sharing optimal prompts

    1h 14m
  6. May 11

    Talking Drupal #552 - MOSA

    Today we are talking about The Midwest Open Source Alliance, What they do, and How they support Drupal with guests April Sides & Tearyne Almendariz. We'll also cover Canvas Field Component as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/552 Topics Congratulations to April as the 2026 Aaron Winborn award! What is MOSA, and what gap in the Drupal ecosystem was it created to fill? How did MOSA get started, and who were the key people behind its formation? MOSA acts as a fiscal sponsor—what does that actually mean in practice for Drupal events and initiatives? What are some of the projects or camps MOSA currently supports? How does MOSA help sustain and grow regional Drupal communities over time? What does membership in MOSA look like, and who should consider getting involved? How does MOSA balance local community focus with broader, national or global Drupal efforts? What are the biggest challenges MOSA faces as a nonprofit supporting open source communities? How has MOSA evolved in recent years, and what's different today compared to when it launched? Looking ahead, what's the long-term vision for MOSA and its role in the Drupal ecosystem? Resources MOSA Website MOSA Drupal Project Aaron Winborn Handbook Moline, Illinois Guests Tearyne Almendariz - nlbcworks.com NineLivesBlackCat April Sides - weekbeforenext Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Have you ever wanted to place Drupal-rendered fields into your Drupal Canvas templates? There's a module for that. Module name/project name: Canvas Field Component Brief history How old: created in Apr 2026 by me! With some help from a couple of AI models Versions available: 1.0.0, which works with Drupal 11.2 or newer Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage Test coverage Documentation - a README, but is designed to be narrow in scope Number of open issues: technically 5 open issues, but all marked as fixed Usage stats: 41 sites Module features and usage By design, when using Drupal Canvas to create templates for content types, the idea is to map field values to properties in the template's components That is a new system, however, so site builders may find there are gaps in terms of available mappings for field types they need to use, or may want to draw on mature formatting options such the responsive image definitions that come with Drupal CMS With the Canvas Field Component module installed, you'll find a new "Field display" option available in your Canvas component library. When you drag that into a Canvas template layout, you can choose which field from the content type you want to display, and the formatter to use That, in turn, will expose all settings for the chosen formatter, as well as any third-party settings available, for example if using Date Augmenters with Smart Date fields Those settings will be reflected in real-time inside the Canvas UI preview, and then on rendered content once the template changes are published This module started as a simple idea, based on my own experience using other UI-based Drupal solutions for laying out content type templates, like Layout Builder or Acquia Site Studio. Over the years, I've come to appreciate the flexibility of being able to place Drupal-rendered fields into templates, so you can mix-and-match existing, robust formatting options with flexible ways of pulling field values into layouts that also include more bespoke elements. Or, just use this as a way to add more layout flexibility to Drupal's default, linear display controls. That's what I do on my own blog, where I use Layout Builder but don't have a single custom layout on the site. It's only used for enhancing the layout of structured content. Full disclosure: I also used the idea for Canvas Field Component as the impetus to venture into vibe coding, inspired by the conversations happening in the AI Learners Club, which listeners will hear more about in an upcoming episode.

    1h 13m
  7. May 8

    TD Cafe #016 - Understanding Drupal Caching with Matt and Nic

    Nic Laflin and Matt Glaman sit down to discuss Drupal caching and Matt's new Leanpub book, Understanding Drupal: A Complete Guide to Caching Layers. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/cafe016 Topics New Book on Caching Why Drupal Caching Shines Cache Tags Explained Cache Context Variations What Caching Really Is Invalidation Across the Stack NGINX Layer Pitfalls What Drupal Can Cache Writing Cacheable Render Arrays Debugging Metadata Issues Testing Caching Strategies Researching the Book Variation Cache Deep Dive Access Policy and Performance Permissions Caching and Disk IO Extension Discovery Tangent File Cache Explained Clearing File Cache in Tests Updating the Book Over Time Leanpub Pricing and Royalties Publishing Workflow and Tools Writing Process and Editing Matt Glaman Matt Glaman is an experienced software engineer and a prominent member of the Drupal community. With over a decade of experience in web development, he has developed a wealth of knowledge and expertise. He is the author of several books, including "Drupal 8 Development Cookbook" and "Drupal 10 Development Cookbook," which provide a comprehensive guide to building and customizing Drupal sites. And recently, the book Understanding Drupal: A Complete Guide to Caching Layers. Nic Laflin Nic Laflin is an accomplished Drupal architect and the founder of nLightened Development LLC, a web development and design firm established in 2008 that leverages highly extensible CMS frameworks to solve complex business challenges. They've been working with Drupal since late 2008, delivering creative solutions for a diverse roster of clients—from government agencies and e-commerce platforms to higher-education institutions and HIPAA-compliant medical services. Recently, Nic has focused on Native Web Components for platform-agnostic design, and has deep experience integrating AWS and building mobile application back ends. A recognized Drupal guru, Nic speaks regularly at regional Drupal camps and co-hosts the Talking Drupal podcast, where they share best practices and innovations with the community. Outside of technology, Nic enjoys building with LEGO, experimenting in the kitchen, and designing home automation projects. You can learn more at www.nlightened.net. Resources Understanding Drupal: A Complete Guide to Caching Layers https://mglaman.dev/blog/leveraging-list-cache-tag-entity-types If you're using a reverse proxy then disable the internal page cache https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/issues/3414825 Guests Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan Matt Glaman - mglaman.dev mglaman

    55 min
  8. May 4

    Talking Drupal #551 - Drupal Recording Initiative

    Kevin Thull, who leads the Drupal Recording Initiative (DRI), joins us to discuss why DRI started, how it scaled from Kevin recording local camps to supporting many events, the hub-and-mentorship model for maintainers, differences between shipping kits vs onsite support, costs compared with traditional AV vendors, and challenges like aging capture hardware, audio/video troubleshooting, and sustainable funding. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/551 Topics Module of the Week TFA Why Recording Matters Early Events and Growing Pains Post Production and Gear Limits Recording DrupalCon vs Camps Costs and Value Breakdown Pittsburgh Turning Point Hubs and Mentoring New Recordists Beyond Drupal Events Hands Off Goals Impact and Adoption Workflow Pain Points Content First Recording Maintainers and Volunteers Volunteer Stress Factors Funding and Platforms Drupal TV Origins Roadmap and Growth Wrap Up and Contacts Resources MOTW - Two-factor Authentication (TFA) - https://www.drupal.org/project/tfa TFA Email OTP Plugin - https://www.drupal.org/project/tfa_email_otp National Institute for Standards and Technology's Special Publication 800-63B section 3.1.1.2 "Password Verifiers" - https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-4/sp800-63b.html#passwordver Drupal Recording Initiative - https://www.drupal.org/project/dri DrupalCon Chicago Playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpeDXSh4nHjQpb2cHv9rgQv4lvq1-ZkC3 Guests Kevin Thull - Drupal Recording Initiative kthull Guest Host Bernardo Martinez - bernardm28 Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan Avi Schwab - froboy.org froboy Module of the Week with Avi Schwab- froboy.org froboy Two Factor Authentication - Two-factor authentication for Drupal sites. Drupal provides authentication via something you know – a username and password while TFA module adds a second step of authentication with a check for something you have – such as a code sent to (or generated by) your mobile phone. TFA is a base module for providing two-factor authentication for your Drupal site. As a base module, TFA handles the work of integrating with Drupal, providing flexible and well tested interfaces to enable your choice of various two-factor authentication solutions like Time-based One-Time Passwords (TOTP), SMS-delivered codes, pre-generated codes, or integrations with third-party services like Authy, Duo and others.

    1h 13m
4.9
out of 5
28 Ratings

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Talking Drupal is a weekly chat about web design and development by a group of people with one thing in common: We Love Drupal. With hosts John Picozzi, Nic Laflin, and Martin Anderson-Clutz

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