Talking Drupal #483 - Meet your host: Nic Laflin

Today we are talking about OpenY, a distribution for YMCAs, why it was created, and how it’s used today with guests Avi Schwab and Brent Wilker. We’ll also cover AI Media Image as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/491 Topics What is OpenY Why is it important to the YMCA How many Y's use it Is each Y independent technologically Why doesn't the Y create a platform as a service How do you get the message out about OpenY What does a Y pay for and how do they pay What is the governance layer like Any thoughts on recipes How does theming work New features to come How does ImageX support OpenY Resources MOTW FLDC session: From Chatbots to Content Magic: The AI-Driven Future of Drupal YMCA Website Services (OpenY) Glossary YMCA Sandboxes https://sandboxes.y.org/ https://sandbox-carnation-std.y.org/ Get in touch with ImageX about Open Y Avi’s sourdough recipe base and flour https://tartinebakery.com/stories/country-bread https://www.janiesmill.com/ Guests Brent Wilker - ImageX.co brent.wilker Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Avi Schwab - froboy.org froboy MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Have you ever wanted to use AI to generate images, and save them directly into the Drupal media library once you have the result you want? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: AI Media Image Brief history How old: created in Feb 2025 by coffeymachine Versions available: 1.0.0-alpha2 Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage: technically, but needs a stable release Number of open issues: 2 open issues, neither of which are bugs Usage stats: 9 sites Module features and usage We have talked before on the podcast about a couple of ways you could use AI to generate images directly within a Drupal website. One used all the latest OpenAI APIs and the other had media library integration, though it only worked through its own admin form. Both were built to specifically DALL•E, OpenAI’s image generation service. This new module is a big leap forward because it’s based on Drupal’s powerful and rapidly innovating AI module, so it can work with multiple AI image generation services. What’s more, AI Media Image plugs into the Drupal core media system, so you can use the tool to generate images directly within the media library, including when you open it up in a modal to populate an entity reference field. This makes it significantly more intuitive to use this capability as part of a normal content creation flow. There are a couple of things that may not be intuitive when you first start using AI Media Image. For example, by default it uses the prompt you used to create the image as the alt text that will be saved to the media library. That seems unexpected to me, but if the prompt exceeds the max alt text length of 255 characters then it will throw an error and then you can overwrite the value of the prompt field to contain proper alt text before saving the image to the media library. This is one of the open issues mentioned earlier and resolving it would really improving the experience of using this module I got to play around with this module while preparing a demo for a session about AI I delivered with Mike Anello at Florida Drupalcamp on the weekend, so we’ll try to include a link in the notes so you can also watch for that recording and see this module in action

Today we are talking about Drupal Contribution, how you can approach it within your company, and why a Contrib First approach is important with guest Steve Wirt. We’ll also cover Config Importer & Tools as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/490 Topics What is contrib first How does this help the Drupal community Why is it a good idea for companies How do you explain this to non dev folks like CEOs or Presidents What do you say if a client does not buy in How do you monitor and build confidence in other developers How can someone get started Any tools or tips for someone trying to bootstrap this Resources MOTW https://www.drupal.org/project/confi https://www.drupal.org/project/upgrade_tool Civic Actions Practice Tools - Contrib First Civic Actions Engineering Practice Area - Drupal Contrib First Module Development Codit menu tools Alt text validation - currently being built as Contrib First Bill requiring US agencies to share custom source code with each other becomes law Link shortners http://dgo.re/ or https://dgo.to/ link shorteners for d.o Drupal Contrib Development Contribution to a module Guests Steve Wirt - civicactions.com swirt Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Avi Schwab - froboy.org froboy MOTW Correspondent Avi Schwab - froboy.org froboy Brief description: Have you ever wanted to streamline the management of config changes during your Drupal project deployment - importing individual configuration changes from contrib or custom modules and synchronizing settings across different environments? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Config Importer and Tools Brief history How old: created in April 2016 by Andrii Podanenko(podarok) Versions available: 3.2.0 version which works with Drupal 9 and 10, D11 fixes are in the queue. Maintainership Actively maintained - although it’s a developer module that’s been mostly stable, so there have not been many recent changes. Security coverage Test coverage - unit tests Documentation - video documenting the process on the module page and instructions in the project overview Number of open issues: 8 open issues, 3 of which are bugs against the current branch Usage stats: 300 sites Maintainer(s): 7 maintainers across a few different agencies in Ukraine Module features and usage This module has no UI, and all of its work is done using it’s config_import services, either importer or param_updater The importer service imports full config files The param_updater service pulls in single parameters from a config file. Both can be used in .install files of contrib modules or on your own site to pull in configuration during database updates, which can be helpful for adding a new feature, modifying existing features, or pushing changes to many sites. There is also a “spiritual successor” to the Confi module called “Upgrade Tool” which has similar functionality with some extra functionality too. https://www.drupal.org/project/upgrade_tool

Today we are talking about The IXP Fellowship Initiative, Workplace Developer Training, and making Drupal better for the little guy with guests Carlos Ospina & Mike Anello. We’ll also cover Cloudflare Turnstile as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/489 Topics What is the IXP initiative Why does the community think this is important What is the current status What changed in the last 10 years How do we encourage businesses to do this How can people get involved Resources Turnstile Intro blog post from Cloudflare Irvine reCAPTCHA Study Deep dive on Google Scholar Alternatives https://www.drupal.org/project/hcaptcha - privacy-focused alternative, still image-based https://www.drupal.org/project/altcha - open, self-hosted option. Seems more basic. Posts referencing Irvine study https://boingboing.net/2025/02/07/recaptcha-819-million-hours-of-wasted-human-time-and-billions-of-dollars-google-profit.html https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/24/googles_recaptchav2_labor/ https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/a-2023-study-concluded-captchas-are-a-tracking-cookie-farm-for-profit-masquerading-as-a-security-service-that-made-us-spend-819-billion-hours-clicking-on-traffic-lights-to-generate-nearly-usd1-trillion-for-google/ Widgets IXP Fellowship Drupal Couple Talking Drupal 488 - Drupal Open University Get Involved in IXP #ixp-fellowship on the Drupal Slack Workspace Guests Carlos Ospina - adrupalcouple.us camoa Mike Anello - drupaleasy.com ultimike Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Avi Schwab - froboy.org froboy MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Have you ever wanted to use Cloudflare’s Turnstile web service to secure Drupal web forms, as an alternative to more intrusive CAPTCHA widgets that force users to select squares that contain traffic lights, cars, or bicycles? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Cloudflare Turnstile Brief history How old: created in Sep 2022 by Adam Weiss (greatmatter) Versions available: 1.1.13 which works with Drupal 9.4, 10, and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage Number of open issues: 6 open issues, 3 of which are bugs, with 2 of them postponed Usage stats: 3,981 sites Module features and usage Anyone who maintains a Drupal site is well acquainted with the need to mitigate form spam submissions. Best practices around which tool to use are an ever-changing conversation. Recently Google announced that reCAPTCHA implementations will need to be associated with a Google Cloud account, and will need to enable payment for anything that exceeds the free allowance of 10,000 assessments per month reCAPTCHA v2 widgets are notorious for the challenges they can present to actual users, particularly image challenges. In addition, a 2023 UC Irvine study concluded that “the true purpose of reCAPTCHAv2 is as a tracking cookie farm for profit masquerading as a security service”, so it’s definitely worth considering other solutions Cloudflare developed turnstile as a CAPTCHA alternative, designed to provide security while minimizing the friction for actual users. More importantly, Turnstile never harvests data for ad retargeting. A free Turnstile account can create up to 10 widgets, with unlimited usage. The turnstile module plugs into the existing Drupal CAPTCHA ecosystem, so it can be an easy swap out for anywhere you’re currently using CAPTCHA widgets.

Today we are talking about The open university initiative, Drupal in academia, and Fostering Drupal Education with guest Jean-Paul Vosmeer. We’ll also cover Artisan as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/488 Topics What is the Drupal Open University Initiative How did this initiative start Why is it important to get Drupal into Universities and Classrooms What stage is the initiative at Is Drupal currently in any universities Is it better to approach schools or professors directly How is the curriculum being developed What are the main differences between this initiative and resources like Drupalize.me, Drupal at your fingertips, or Drupal TB What is next on the roadmap Where does Drupal CMS fit in Where does the initiative need help How can someone get involved Resources Drupal Open University Initiative Metadrop blog about Artisan Drupal viking Do it with Drupal Drupal at your fingertips Drupal Open University OSPO https://todogroup.org/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Program_Office Content Model & Site Documentation Guests Jean-Paul Vosmeer - reactonline.nl jpvos Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Avi Schwab - froboy.org froboy MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Have you ever wanted to use the Drupal UI to configure numerous aspects of your Drupal site’s look and feel? There’s a theme for that. Module name/project name: Artisan Brief history How old: created in Sep 2024 by alejandro cabarcos though recent releases are by crzdev, both of metadrop Versions available: 1.3.8, which support Drupal 10 and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained, release in the last week Security coverage Documentation: no, but a lengthy README that includes developer notes Number of open issues: 7 open issues, 5 of which are bugs, but 3 are postponed Usage stats: 170 sites Module features and usage After installing the theme, there is a drush command to generate a subtheme, or you can manually duplicate an included starterkit. You also need to run a couple of npm commands to pull in all the front end libraries, and build the CSS files Once you set the subtheme as your site default, you can customize a variety of ways the site looks, including the fonts and weights to use for heading and default text, the colour and padding of various elements, border weights, border radius, and more. The customizations are grouped into tabs. The base tab includes a colour palette, base font, and link styling. Additional tabs include page layout, header, responsive, and footer, also breadcrumb, headings, display headings, buttons, forms, and components Artisan also provides a toggle to expose extra customization options for dark mode, so if you want your site to give users the option to switch back and forth between normal and dark, this is extremely powerful, but does make for some very long configuration pages You can create and save presets, for easy creation of reusable palettes There is also a companion Artisan Styleguide module that provides a page that previews the theme style applied to an extensive list of elements Last year I was considering making a more configurable subtheme of Olivero for the Event Platform initiative, so I was excited to read about Artisan in a metadrop blog post we’ll include in the show notes

Today we are talking about Single Directory Components, How best to work with them, and their future with Drupal with guest Brian Perry. We’ll also cover Embedded Content as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/487 Topics What are Single Directory Components (SDC) Why the switch to SDCs What is there in common between decoupled and SDCs Can you give us an overview of your workflow Common pitfalls How should someone get started working with SDCs Does it work with Paragraphs and Blocks? Does it need to be all at once How do you think SDCs will evolve Do you see this leading to more Decoupled front ends What contrib modules make working with SDCs easier Resources My Single Directory Components Workflow Pico CSS Open Props Twig Tweak No Markup SDC Styleguide Radix Theme SDC Block UI Patterns 2.x Astro TAC Guests Brian Perry - brianperry.dev brianperry Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Scott Weston - scott-weston MOTW Correspondent Jacob Rockowitz - jrockowitz.com jrockowitz Embedded Content Brief description: The Embedded Content module allows site builders to select, create, and update content embedded within HTML inside CKEditor. For developers, the EmbeddedContent plugin is like a Block plugin without context. There is a demo on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxOn-P3Q5Gg There is support embedding of single directory component in progress. Conceptually, this is already possible, the same way one would render a single directory component in Block plugin. Brief history The concept and code started as the CKEditor5 Embedded Content module, created in August 2022. In October 2023, CKEditor5 Embedded Content was renamed to Embedded Content. Versions available: 2.0.3 - January 22nd, 2025 Works with Drupal: ^9 ^10 ^11 Maintainership Actively maintained? yes Security coverage? Yes Test coverage? Yes Documentation? Video and an example module Number of open issues: All issues: 6 open, 17 total Bug report: 6 open, 15 total Usage stats: 509 sites report using this module 1,263 sites report using this module (using old version) Maintainer(s): Teun van Veggel (nuez) https://www.drupal.org/u/nuez Module features and usage Insert themed content in Ckeditor5 using Drupal plugins without having to write rich HTML and CSS Render these results directly in the CKEditor Create 'inline' embedded content that sits inline with the text, like footnotes. Provides Embedded Content plugin CKeditor 5 plugin. Ecosystem Embedded Content: Examples for examples of how to build your own plugins. Embedded Content: Entity for embedding content entities Embedded Content: SDC for single directory components (under development) Potential Challenges Example of the embedded content tag.   Translations via TMS (data is serialized via an attribute)

Today we are talking about GraphQL, Drupal Decoupled, and What to do with them with guest Jesus Manuel Olivas. We’ll also cover CORS UI as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/486 Topics What is GraphQL How do you use GraphQL with Drupal Would you use GraphQL without a headless theme Do you need additional server requirements What are some of your favorite GraphQL modules What caused the change from v3 to v4 What is meant by Drupal Decoupled What are the best use cases How do you handle caching and performance How do you handle roles and permissions Do you think AI has made decoupled more interesting Resources GraphQL GraphQL Compose GraphQL Compose Preview GraphQL Compose Webform GraphQL Compose Fragments Swagger UI Custom Field Drupal Decoupled Guests Jesus Manuel Olivas - drupal-decoupled.octahedroid.com jmolivas Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Scott Weston - scott-weston MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Have you ever wanted to control your site’s Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (aka CORS) configuration, directly within the Drupal admin UI? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: CORS UI Brief history How old: created in Sep 2016 by Sam Becker (sam152), a prolific module maintainer in his own right, though the most recent release is by Matt Glaman, who has been on this show and will need no introduction for many of our listeners Versions available: 8.x-1.2 which supports Drupal 9, 10, and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained Security coverage Number of open issues: 2 open issues, 1 of which is a bug, and also has a patch available Usage stats: 274 sites according to drupal.org Module features and usage By default cross-origin requests to Drupal applications will be denied. Since Drupal 8.2 you can add a section to your site’s services.yml file to enable responses, and specify what headers, methods, and origins should be supported This module provides a form within Drupal to control these values. This could be helpful if, for example, these values need to change on a frequent basis, or for less technical users who are experimenting with a headless architecture. I should note that the bug mentioned earlier throws a fatal error in PHP 8, but is a simple fix. So if you want to try out this module, make sure you apply the patch.

Today we are talking about AI Autonomy, How it could help Drupal Development, and AI in the future with guest Jay Callicott. We’ll also cover AI Agents as our module of the week. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/485 Topics What got you interested in this topic What is meant by AI Autonomy You suggested in your blog post in the Drop Times that developers will manage AI can you elaborate AI coming for our jobs Drupal X Do decoupled sites have an advantage Is the future going to be all prompts Skill decay What would you say to a CEO thinking about replacing developers with AI Resources Drupal is Great! Its Perception Might Not Be. The AI-Driven Developer: From Assistance to Autonomy in Drupal Development DrupalX Ethics of AI Guests Jay Callicott - drupalninja99 Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Scott Weston - scott-weston MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Have you ever wanted to leverage AI-powered tools to get information about or change the configuration of your website? There’s a module for that Module name/project name: AI Agents Brief history How old: created in Aug 2024 by Marcus Johansson (marcus_johansson) of FreelyGive Versions available: 1.0.1 which supports Drupal 10.3 and 11 Maintainership Actively maintained: that release was in the past week, and was part of the significant effort to get stable releases of the AI modules that are included in Drupal CMS Security coverage Documentation included within the module’s codebase Number of open issues: 30 open issues, 7 of which are bugs against the current branch Usage stats: 119 sites but I suspect that number will increase rapidly once people start using Drupal CMS Module features and usage In AI terminology, an agent is a system able to interact with its environment, collect data, and use the data to perform self-determined tasks The AI Agents module is a framework to provide agents that can perform a variety of functions in your Drupal website It depends on the AI module that we had Jamie Abrahams on the podcast to talk about back in episode #468 The module includes plugins that provide three agents, namely: A Field Type Agent that can create or edit fields using the Field API, or answer questions about the fields your site has defined A Content Type agent that can create, edit, or answer questions about node types Taxonomy Agent that can do the same for your site’s vocabularies Anyone who saw the Driesnote AI demos from DrupalCon Barcelona or Singapore will have seen agents in action, in that example through interaction in a chatbot Technically, the plugins are UI agnostic, however. So theoretically you could trigger an agent in other ways. But today, AI Agents power the AI chatbot that you can use in the AI recipe that is included in the recently released Drupal CMS 1.0 The AI Agents module also includes some submodules. An experimental form integration submodule adds UI elements to the interfaces for managing fields, content types, and vocabularies, an explorer submodule provides debugging tools, and an experimental Extra submodule provides agents for working with webforms and views. I have also seen a demo of some work underway to provide an ECA agent, so you may soon be able to get your Drupal site to build out ECA models based on the business logic you describe to it

Topics What is Drupal CMS Are we ready for the release Drupal 7 What can people expect Will there be a launch button If someone uses the one click install how will they know what to do next What new features are there If someone tries the trial how do they get that site on a host When will Experience builder be out Are any vendors going to provide Drupal CMS as a service What is on the roadmap How can people get involved Resources Starshot initiative Guests Matthew Grasmick - grasmash Hosts Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Scott Weston - scott-weston MOTW Correspondent Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Brief description: Have you ever wanted to have one or more fallbacks within your Drupal tokens? There’s a module for that. Module name/project name: Token OR Brief history How old: created in May 2018 by Daniel Beeke (danielbeeke) of the Netherlands Versions available: 2.3.0 Maintainership Actively maintained, current release appx 2 mo old Security coverage Test coverage Number of open issues: 8 open issues, 3 of which are bugs against the current branch Usage stats: 2,369 sites Module features and usage After installing this module, your tokens can contain pipe-separated values, including a quote-enclosed literal string, and the token will return the first token or string that is not empty. This allows your tokens to have fallback values. For example you could have a token grab an event’s start date, or show “TBD” if the field is empty. The project page doesn’t explicitly say that a single token can have more than two token reference or string values, but it seems implied. If true, that would mean you could define a token that would grab from one field, look in a different field if the first one is empty, and return a string if neither field has a value. Because Token OR uses pipe characters to delineate between values, the module currently doesn’t support pipe characters within string values. This is one of the open issues, but there is a patch available. Previous guest host Josh Mitchell mentioned that he had never heard of this module until he noticed it is in the codebase for Drupal CMS, so I thought it would be ideal to talk about on this show, as an example of some lesser-known best practices that you’ll get out of the box when you start building sites on Drupal CMS.

On today's show we are talking with Nic. This is our chance to learn more about our beloved Talking Drupal show host. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/XXX Topics Talking Drupal NLightened Development Contribution Personal Background Interests Drupal Guests Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan Hosts Stephen Cross-@stephencross

On today's show we are talking with John. This is our chance to learn more about our beloved Talking Drupal show host. For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/482 Topics Talking Drupal Non-Code Contribution Solution Architect Personal Background and Interests Drupal Guests John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi Host Stephen Cross-@stephencross