Drupal Decoupled Layout Builder: Milestones Achieved by PreviousNext

PreviousNext, recently wrapped up a crucial phase in the development of a decoupled Layout Builder for Drupal, led by Lee Rowlands. The project, initiated after DrupalCon Pittsburgh, achieved several key milestones, marking a substantial leap forward in enhancing Drupal's functionality. The team successfully addressed various requirements, including the creation of an npm package for developing decoupled components, a registry for React Layout Components, and a persistence layer defined through an OpenAPI spec. Notably, the project's success extends beyond the conclusion of its statement of work, as it serves as a foundation for continued advancements within the Drupal community.

One of the notable achievements in this initiative is the development of an npm package, inspired by @wordpress/scripts, facilitating the building and packaging of decoupled components. The package, now available in the @drupal namespace on npm, includes essential scripts for JS and CSS, supporting project initiation and code generation. The project also tackled the challenge of handling externals in Webpack by utilizing Vite externals and integrating Import maps into Drupal, ensuring a robust configuration. These efforts collectively contribute to the feasibility and efficiency of a decoupled Layout Builder for Drupal. Read more here.